Skyrim talk:Respawning

game breaking bug

I noticed a major game breaking bug involving respawns that isn't mentioned on this page.

If you kill an enemy like a giant then revisit the area 2 to 9 days later you will find the body has disappeared. But the side effect of this is that the respawn timer breaks. And after this no amount of waiting will allow a respawn.

So it appears that if you revisit and area after the bodies have disappeared but before the 10 days are up it not only resets the respawn timer but totally stops it.

There is mention of this bug on the bethsoft forums Falnor 11:30, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

This bug has now been fixed in patch 1.6 Falnor 08:40, 9 June 2012 (UTC)

Halted Streams Camp still has this bug. Where can I fix it? — Unsigned comment by 118.210.169.137 (talk) at 14:53 on 20 November 2013

WTF is a "Courtesy Exit"?!

I'm assuming that by "courtesy exit," you're referring to the fact that some dungeons have an exit at the very end that can then be re-entered from the outside. If that's the case, then the article is incorrect; these exits do NOT always "re-lock" when the area respawns. For example, Forelhost has such an exit that's locked and requires a key. However, I've gone back to that dungeon many times after it respawns (PS3) and that door always remains unlocked.

Because I can't even be sure that this is what the term "courtesy exit" is referring to, and because I can't find any verification as to whether or not these exits re-lock in other areas, I'm removing the statement from the article entirely. If you'd like to re-add it, please do so in a manner that is both clear and accurate. Simply making-up a term and "putting it in quotes," without defining what it means, is unacceptable and does not belong in any Wiki article.

Whoever wrote that, please try to be more professional in the future. I know this Wiki doesn't have very strict standards when compared to the likes of Wikipedia, but you should at very least strive to clearly articulate what you're saying in the article and make sure it's accurate. Those of you who edit and monitor these articles, I would encourage you to be more diligent about verifying these claims when they appear.

216.243.60.171 21:46, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Why are you removing info when you don't understand what it means, simply ask and you will (probably) get an answer. Bypassing the rant and focusing on the question, the answer would be the doors that are "barred" from the other side. While they are not "courtesy exits" they do relock. The Silencer has spoken^Talk 22:09, 20 May 2012 (UTC)

Turn off annoying item respawn?

Is there some way to turn off the respawn of items that are lying about, but without turning off the NPC/creature/container respawn? That would be great! --Nv4dispbluescreen 11:14, 29 June 2012 (UTC)

edit: got the job done by spending hours in the construction set removing them manually. --Nv4dispbluescreen 10:21, 27 August 2012 (UTC)

Waiting out respawn times

are you able to wait out respawn times? For example if a mine takes 30 days to respawn can you mine everything then wait 30 days away from that mine then go back and there will be more ore? — Unsigned comment by 66.87.67.156 (talk) at 15:43 on 8 July 2012

That's the gist of it. You should add another day to make sure of the timing, as in 31 days. There also seems to be a bug that stops some veins respawning though. The Silencer speaks^Talk 14:45, 8 July 2012 (UTC)

Question About Safe Container Areas

Okay, so I've been reading up on "dungeons" that have non-respawning containers because I am considering using one of these as my house, but what I'm wondering is if a dungeon is considered non-respawning, is it just the containers that don't respawn or does everything not respawn (enemies, loose items, weapon racks, etc.) Also, if you drop a loose item in the Skyrim cell will it stay there forever or will it eventually disappear? I looked all over for answers and can't find any. Please help.--ElementalDud 14:35, 14 July 2012

Helgen is noted as one of the non-respawning dungeons but I am sure that bandits can be found there repeatedly so I assume it is only containers but I wouldn't risk it yet. As for dropping items, I dropped a bunch of dragon bones on the ground, to save weight, in the wilderness and a good 20 hours of gameplay later I found them again in the same place. I have also dropped torches outside my houses to provide some light and they have never moved. RIM 19:42, 14 July 2012 (UTC)

Revisiting discovered locations: Will the loot that enemies drop always be at the same level?

"The level of the location is set at the first visit, based on your current level. This means that the level of the enemies and the loot will be the same when you return to that location. When an area is too difficult to complete at the current level, you can return to location later when you have leveled to try again."

I have been playing for several days, and I always 'discover' any caves/ruins ect that I am close to while headed somewhere. But, after reading that the locations enemies and contents will be set to whatever my level was when I first visited, I have stopped discovering new locations, in fear that I will not actually clear them until my level is much higher and thus the loot that I get will be worthless at those higher levels.

The main thing I am concerned about is weapons, and to a point, armor. I went to the "Wreck of the Winter War", and killed a bandit chief- He dropped a battle axe that was better than the one that I am using. But, I reloaded an earlier save from before I discovered the Wreck of the Winter War, because I did not want its contents to be set to the level that I was when I discovered it, so that at higher levels I might would be able to get an even better battle axe there.

So my question is this: If I 'discover' the Wreck of the Winter War, kill the bandit chief and take his weapon and then leave and go about my business, and just say I get up to level 50 before I visit the Wreck of the Winter War again, will the enemies and contents there still be set at level I was when I found it?

I know that the above quoted information is quite clear, but I read elsewhere that the loot will scale with your level even if you revisit a previously discovered location. Has anyone tested this to be completely sure? — Unsigned comment by 98.17.73.39 (talk) at 05:29 on 25 October 2012‎

Enemies do not scale in locations you've been at a lower level... Your example isn't the best because exterior locations do seem to rescale as they're not in their own zone and as such need to keep up with the rest of the world... However if you say visit Embershard Mine at level 2 and go back later all the enemies will still be what a Level 2 PC will see and will be carrying weapons/armor for their level HOWEVER the loot in chests WILL update to your level! Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 05:57, 25 October 2012 (GMT)

2 days respawn?

It appears kicked or blasted items restore their positions in 2 days. — Unsigned comment by 92.255.147.12 (talk) at 07:05 on 23 October 2012

1.8 possibly changed some things

Its seems that as of patch 1.8 on the 360 that dungeons do indeed level with you now in most cases. I've tested this on 3 locations I cleared at low levels, Embershard Mine, Fort Amol and Halted Stream Camp. All 3 of these locations I cleared before I hit level 8, I came back a month later in game at level 20 and found non-boss enemies who were at my level according to leveled lists, specifically a Bandit Highwayman and 2 Bandit Thugs in Embershard Mine. 3 Thugs and a Highwayman in Halted Stream Camp, and a Fire Wizard, 2 Storm Mages and 3 Adept level mages of all types in Fort Amol. Can someone run a check on this since this has NEVER occured before I downloaded 1.8 and started a new file. Lord Eydvar ^{Talk|Contribs} 10:40, 21 November 2012 (GMT)

Skyrim Respawning?

Do the chests in Skyrim (the actual cell, not the game), like the treasure map chests for example, respawn? I know that if you drop things in the Skyrim cell they will stay there forever so it stands to reason that the chests shouldn't respawn either, just wondering if anyone can confirm this and if it should be added to the main page. — Unsigned comment by ‎ ElementalDud (talk • contribs) at 16:38 on 10 December 2012

My experience indicates that the treasure map chests never respawn. I don't know how many chests there are in the Skyrim cell, but I don't think there's enough of them to warrant a note on this page. --Xyzzy ^Talk 16:36, 5 March 2013 (GMT)

Plants respawn glitch

I have a very disturbing bug, in some places (mostly towns), plants just disappear with no reason. Typical scenario is: I fast travel to a town where all the plants have respawned, I enter my house and when I leave it, all the flora just disappeared. This happened too if I fast travel twice in a row to the same location. This bug seems to be prevented by not harvesting plants in the first place, towns where I never picked up any plant do not have this issue... PS: Latest patch installed + all DLCs. — Unsigned comment by Plectrius (talk • contribs) at 06:45 on 8 February 2013

Sounds odd, do you have any third-party mods installed? — ABCface^◥ 06:47, 8 February 2013 (GMT)

I have some mods installed but none of them affects the respawning process at least for one of my characters, besides this also happened during my first playthrough with no mods installed. Plectrius (talk) 15:15, 8 February 2013 (GMT)Plectrius

I've suffered from the same problem for a long time. Finally, I've got a solution and some possible reasons for this problem. Wait in another place for 10+ days, fast-travel to the city with this problem. The plants should be all right now. Do not enter any doors and creat a save. (not quicksave!) For now, everything would be ok. Follow these steps with other cities to fix them all. Don't delete the save afterward! Here is a possible explanation. The game won't keep everything in memory space, such as the states of plants. If you enter a house and the game will lose these states. If you return to the cities, it will try to find the nearest save to re-generate these states. If the previous save is bad (plants disappear), you will suffer from it continously. Hope it would be of any help~ Dreamshadow (talk) 15:14, 3 April 2013 (GMT)

It seems that it's not a perfect solution. Quit the game to desktop, restart the game and the plants will disappear again, even if you create the save right next to them. Sorry for my ignorance. I have to ask someone for help now. I want to clarify that the "disappear" just means these plants become "harvested". Any ideas? Dreamshadow (talk) 14:41, 7 April 2013 (GMT)

Here's what I have encountered that appears to be part of the same issue. If you enter a location (Cell? - Only really tested in dungeons but I will watch towns now too) the plants are re-spawned as with everything else. However, if you leave the dungeon for any reason, including dying and being resurrected at the last auto-save (entering dungeon), exiting the game and restarting, etc. the plants and a few other items (such as coin purses) are no longer spawned. This can easily be tested using Embershard Mine which has many plants, 3 coin purses, 1 Tattered Journal and lots of ore and verified as global on Halted Stream Camp (for the 2 coin purses). If, due to the ore glitch, you enter, leave, enter to enable the ore such as is common in all mine locations, the ingredients and coin purses are no longer available. (PS3 - no mods installed - no DLC's installed - Latest patch)

Dreamshadow - Answer is "Harvested". The ingredient (as harvested) graphics are there. If you wait the re-spawn time they are all available again. Philbert (talk) 23:34, 29 August 2013 (GMT)

Forgot to add, this also occurs on outside cell transitions. Picked ingredients on road from Whiterun to Rorikstead, waited 30 days, traveled the same road but picked no ingredients, turned around and traveled back and they were all picked. Philbert (talk) 23:52, 29 August 2013 (GMT)

The behavior is: plants that have never been harvested, will never show up as unharvested. However, once you harvest them, there is a bug that will effect that particular plant for the rest of the game. If you travel to a cell and it resets, previously-harvested stuff will come back and everything will appear to be fine, however if you save your game and then reload that save they will appear unharvested again. Effectively, the game has 'forgotten' that the plant was supposed to be unharvested. You will have to wait for the next cell reset to harvest that plant again. There is a plugin which resolves this issue (full disclosure: I am the author of this plugin) called Flora Respawn Fix Bluedanieru (talk) 10:28, 13 March 2014 (GMT)

(←) Since TES is down right now and I can't download it myself to look, I'm curious: what are the mechanics of the problem/fix? – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 19:34, 13 March 2014 (GMT)

Respawn problems

I'm afraid that I have to bother you once again.I have some questions about respawning.

1.It seems that weapons and shields dropped by many generic enemies will never disappear on the ground.If the whole place has respawned,they may be picked up by newly-respawned nearby enemies.When I loot their bodies,I can find two sets of weapons/shields.Is these all right?

2.I'm not quite sure if it is a commom bug.Some outdoor places may have "incomplete respawn".The chests/plants there can respawn normally,but occupants/items will never respawn.For myself,two locations have this problem,Ruins of Rkund and Greenspring Hollow(They do have normal respawn time).Another one is Four Skull Lookout,as is shown in its discussion page.Do you have any ideas about this?

ThanksDreamshadow (talk) 09:12, 5 March 2013 (GMT)

Now, you don't bother anyone. These are questions that need answers! For your first point, I can say that it happened to me and that it happens often when I'm revisiting a dungeon, or even in town. With one of my characters, there are a sword and shield in Windhelm that I believe belonged to a thug and never disappeared. I don't know the cause of it, or why it happens in some places and not others, but it's relatively harmless. If you want to make sure they'll disappear, put them on a body or in a respawning container.

As for your second point, it seems that those three locations are simply bugged. I remember having trouble getting the "Cleared" status for the Ruins of Rkund, and I noticed recently that the body of the hunter at Greenspring Hollow disappeared and none of the pelts around him respawned. I never had any problem with Four Skull Lookout myself, but it seems many had trouble with it concerning radiant quests. I noticed that these locations all have a "10 or 30 days" respawn time, maybe it's 10 for plants/containers/etc and 30 for occupants? I'll test this tomorrow. Elakyn (talk) 18:20, 5 March 2013 (GMT)

Okay, back from the tests and infortunately nothing new; Greenspring Hollows, the Ruins of Rkund and Four Skull Lookout are just bugged. For the last two, all containers and plants respawn but enemies are nowhere to be found. For Greenspring Hollow, the wild beast respawns but nothing else. I tried waiting about 40 days, just to be sure, but nothing. Elakyn (talk) 18:39, 6 March 2013 (GMT)

Thank you very much. Sorry for being late to give you a reply, I just forgot to add this page into my watchlist...I've found that if you put the same equipment into a chest in large amount(>=5?), they won't disappear and prevent this chest from respawning. By the way, you may have to wait for some time to get the "Cleared" status for some places(especially outdoor locations).Dreamshadow (talk) 14:17, 9 March 2013 (GMT)

There are several cases of things not being reset during a cell respawn:

1. Items dropped by dead NPCs after a battle. These are never cleaned up despite what some of the official patch notes indicate. The USKP set a workaround variable to prevent this from becoming a problem since it bloats the save otherwise.

2. Arrows fired into the world that aren't retrieved. Go back to any battle site where lots of arrows got fired. You'll find them all sticking straight up out of the ground. This issue remains unfixed despite claims in the official patch notes. There is no user side solution to this.

3. Nirnroot glows, ash piles, and other various generated items stack up and cause save bloat. Bethesda has only ever partially addressed the nirnroot and ash pile issues, but plenty of other cases remain that the USKP has kept in check since last year.

4. Various flora objects in the world will simply never respawn their contents, leading to a permanently despawned world of plants and an eventual shortage on alchemy ingredients. There's a mod out there that fixes this, but the solution is rather drastic and invasive and not something I'd recommend using.

Fourskull Lookout - The enemies are not intended to respawn. They're based on templates of actors who don't. Greenspring Hollow - The items there are all tied to an XMarker which I'm presuming gets disabled at some point. The CK isn't telling me which script it is, so it's probably a dynamic alias somewhere. Ruins of Rkund - Same as Fourskull. The enemies are not set to respawn here.

Respawns at specific places vary widely. Sometimes because of the encounter zone they're in. Sometimes because individual parts are not set to respawn. The 10/30 day cycle is just a general rule.Arthmoor (talk) 06:37, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

Great! Your answer will be of much help to everyone. Many players have suffered from these problems. Minor maybe, sometimes they are really annoying. Thanks again for your help! Dreamshadow (talk) 08:08, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

My guess is that the referencing script is the one on the XMarker itself. It's got the defaultDisableOnResetIfLocWasCleared script attached to it, which seems to indicate that it's deliberately not respawning. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 20:23, 9 April 2013 (GMT)

Stores, shop shelves and strongboxes

There is nothing in the article about if or when will respawn stores and houses that have been "cleared". For a thief character this is important to know. Shelves in shops seem to respawn all right, but I'm not sure about chests or houses where we broke in, and strongboxes somehow never seem to respawn at all (tested in the Winking Skeever, an easy place to steal from). Also, for respawning purposes it's said not to enter the cell or the time will reset, but what's exactly a cell? The shop/house, the city...? Some insight here, please. --Iconoclasta (talk) 11:10, 9 March 2013 (GMT)

A Cell is any explorable area so for example Whiterun city is one cell dragons reach is another 2.99.240.167 09:47, 20 August 2013 (GMT)

Containers respawning, but not shelves?

After clearing out a store of all its wares illegally, I waited 10 days and returned. The containers I found to be refilled, but the shelves of the store were bare. Is this normal? Daniel Steel-Frost (talk) 03:37, 27 July 2013 (GMT)

Glover Mallory's House Basement not respawning?

Duplicated from from Dragonborn talk:Glover_Mallory%27s_House after being moved from Dragonborn talk:Paid in Full:

anyone else having this issue? i think the rest of the house has been doing so, but the basement is still bare :/ xbox 360, latest patches,30/7/13 — Unsigned comment by 91.125.180.123 (talk) at 00:18 on 30 July 2013

Me again, so I worked it out, heard people referring to cells and returning to them resets the re-spawn counter. So after failing to get his house to re-spawn after waiting outside of his house for 12 in game days I tried fast travelling to Ramshackle Trading Post waited another 10+ days and returned to find glovers house fully re-spawned. I'm no noob, but I'm not on PC. I don't think the dynamics of waiting/re-spawning are talked about enough or explained thoroughly enough on this site anywhere that I have seen. I think a note of entering the cell resetting the re-spawn timer should be added to the schedule section of this page, with a definition of what a cell is. How big is a cell? Is Raven Rock the cell? Or is it bigger/smaller??? :S — Unsigned comment by 84.93.182.163 (talk) at 11:16 on 30 July 2013‎

You can usually tell a cell by whether or not you have to go through a loading screen to get to it. USUALLY loading screens define cell transitions, if that makes any sense. Daniel Steel-Frost (talk) 18:03, 31 July 2013 (GMT)

Except outside areas. On the PS3 there is usually a slight graphics delay when your leaving one outside cell for another as the game system loads the next cell. Philbert (talk) 23:45, 29 August 2013 (GMT)

Non-Visited Locations

I had an issue with a game disc, and because of it, it seems that Silent Moons Camp is bugged. I have never been there on the file, and when I approach it, the game freezes. I think if it respawns, it might work again, but since I can't approach it, it might never respawn. Am I correct in assuming it won't?

Another explanation might be that I have to kill a master vampire there, from the Dawnguard Add-on. But I still don't think that is causing the problem.

The only solution I can think of is to delete dawnguard, then see if Silent Moons Camp works again. The location works on all other files, just the one doesn't work. --153.90.106.136 19:09, 9 September 2013 (GMT)

So you are saying that you have installed the game from a corrupted disc, and would like to get a solution to that? What about going back to the shop where you bought the game and change it for a new one, and then re-install from the uncorrupted one? —MortenOSlash (talk) 05:30, 10 September 2013 (GMT)

I have bought another disc. Unfortunately, only the data on the file is corrupted, and it seems I can't get the game to fix it. I was also having issues re-downloading game data, but the new disc fixed that. The new disc was definitely along the lines of a solution, but it seems the damage has been done, and I don't have any previous saves. I figured a respawn would overwrite the corrupted data, but it seems respawns can only happen if it spawns in the first place, which is what it is having trouble with it seems. Thanks for trying, if anyone can think of anything else I'd appreciate it, but I'll probably just avoid Silent Moons Camp indefinitely now. 69.144.126.122 05:44, 31 October 2013 (GMT)

Are you on a PC? If so, can you e-mail me your saved game? If the problem stems from a corrupt disk, there's little I can do about it, but it might be interesting to see if it works on someone else's machine, and if by chance it's something quest-related or location related, I can try a few console commands and see if they fix the issue. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 07:58, 31 October 2013 (GMT)

Ore Veins

"Ore veins (all types) sometimes do not respawn normally. See Mining (Bugs) and elsewhere on that article and its talk page." This doesn't tell viewers when ore veins do normally respawn just that sometimes they don't. The mining page doesn't say either. Could someone find how long it takes and add it to the page? --ZinnLav (talk) 06:46, 16 September 2013 (GMT)

You're right, but unfortunately, it seems that my attempts to find out failed. I used the Iron Ore vein just outside of Lakeview Manor, and it didn't respawn after more than 10 days, but by 29 days, it had already respawned. That doesn't fit with the 2/10/30 day respawn cycles. Plus, indoor locations may be different from outdoor locations. This will need a lot of testing. If anyone wants to do some more in-game testing, I'll take the other side and see if I can track down anything in the CK. I'm not sure if respawning is at the level of the CK, though, or the level of the game engine itself, so I may not be able to find anything. – Robin Hood  ^(talk) 19:41, 16 September 2013 (GMT)

Ash piles and Windstad manor

I've just got Windstand manor and it was recently subject to a bandit attack. I was present during the attack, and bein a shock mage, continued to disintegrate them with Lightning Storm. They were nothing but steaming ash piles by the end of it, and this is the problem.It's been over 10 days and the unsightly remains are still there. I'm wondering if they will ever disappear. I'm playing on PS3. — Unsigned comment by Farenthor (talk • contribs) at 15:16 on 12 October 2013 (GMT)

For some reason ash piles seems to remain for a far longer time than bodies. Usually leaving the place without entering the cell at all for quite some time seems to help. —MortenOSlash (talk) 12:12, 13 October 2013 (GMT)

Thanks a lot, they were really beginning to bug me. — Unsigned comment by Farenthor (talk • contribs) at 13:05 on 13 October 2013 (GMT)

Happy to be of any help. By the way, please sign your contributions by typing four tildes (that is ~~~~) at the end of your message, and add one more : than last contributor at the start of your next contribution in order to make it easier to follow the discussion. —MortenOSlash (talk) 13:15, 13 October 2013 (GMT)

Chests with essential items

Do these chests respawn? I mean if I fount a chest with Finn's Lute will it disappear later on? I think this information should be added. 198.168.48.223 23:47, 11 December 2013 (GMT)

Force insects to respawn in Hearthfire home?

I have a Hearthfire home. I harvested all the insects and now they won't respawn! I waited over 2 months and they didn't come back. Likewise they haven't turned up again in the Archmage residence. Is there a way to force their return with the console? Thanks. — Unsigned comment by Irrevenant (talk • contribs) at 08:33 on 28 July 2014‎

Repawning food items on houses?

It seems like the Sweetroll in Breezehome doesn't respawn but some Apple Dumplings in BYOH do. I have also heart rumours about certain items or food sacks in purchased properties could respawn but there are only rumours. -Joshua.yathin.yu (talk) 18:37, 19 January 2017 (UTC)

add "Punch merchant and quick-load to reset their inventory" exploit as a reset?

is this more of an exploit or does it count as a respawn to be mentioned here? Kavukamari (talk) 13:01, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

It's a clear exploit of the mechanics of the game, which is why this and more complicated versions are listed as bugs on the merchants page and the exploits page. Silence is Golden^{Break the Silence} 14:04, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

Actors respawn when their corpse's cell respawns and can be lost in the process?

So, yea, I was fooling around with Dead Thrall spell, dragging NPCs all around the world... And noticed some of the NPCs ceased to respawn for me (e.g. Valtheim Towers Chief and Extortion-Bandit (the Bandit who talks to the Player).

And I remembered I "took" them away and left them in Breezehome. And subsequently they disappeared. And Valtheim Towers respawned, respawned and respawned, but without Chief or that Bandit...

And then I took Unlucky Wood Elves into Whiterun (Near Pale Hearthfire Home they lie dead, and one of them has a Treasure map). And their corpses persisted in Whiterun Worldspace for months, and Adrianne was forced to look at them all day... And then I took them into Isolda's house, and some time after - they respawned where they should have been.

And then I took one of the dead Treasure Hunters from near Tel Mythrin into Ulen Ancestral Tomb... And she got lost forever, "prid refID" says she does not exist! But her comrade, whom I left lying near the chest in a pool of blood - he is there still, as he, probably, should be.

And then I took a couple of (initially alive) animals from a cave, waited a day, "resetinterior"-ed the cave - only animals left in the cave respawned.

Bah, I think, actors only respawn when their current cell respawns, not when their original cell does, and IF they are not in their original cell, they can be just deleted forever (although not always, circumstances leading to deletion unknown).

Any takes on this from anyone?

Sergio Morozov (talk) 18:06, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

Okay, so I fooled around with this a bit more.

Was unable to reproduce "deletion" so far (although I have some ideas ;} ).

But Actors respawning when their current (not original) cell respawns is like 100% true.

I have made a save in front of Ulen Ancestral Tombs in which I left xx04036627, Tomb is about to respawn, refID is prid-able, I did not revisit the Tomb after leaving corpse there, so it had technically not "disappeared".

Tel Mithryn exterior is also about to respawn, it is that reference's original cell and is also original cell for xx0403662c, who is not prid-able (probably I did visit Tel Mithryn after it first spawned, so it had "disappeared").

If I go to Tel Mithryn, -2c is respawned near the Deathbrand chest (yes, he was not prid-able, and now he is!), but -27's spot is empty. If I then go to Ulen Tomb, then revisit Tel Mithryn, -27 is respawned at her place (although her outfit is NOT equipped).

If I go to the Tomb, then to Tel Mithryn - both Treasure Hunters are in their (death)places, -2c is clothed, -27 is naked (outfit in inventory, but not equipped).

From this I can boldly assume, that indeed, Actors, whose refIDs are present, respawn when the cell housing them respawns, not when the cell that initially spawned them respawns.

Now, next experiment should be checking how actors who are left dead not in their original cell and revisited (so that they disappear) behave. I suspect there may be a bug where they are lost forever.

Hope to report later.

Sergio Morozov (talk) 20:34, 26 July 2022 (UTC)

So, conducted further experiments with Strident Squall Reavers. Took Reaver xx01cd5b, Reaver Lord xx01cd5c (and, accidentally Reaver xx01cd5a also participated).

Anyway, took -b and -c with me as Dead Thralls, dropped -b into Ulen Tomb, waited (outside, after saving, quitting and reloading) 3 days for him to "disappear", visited Tomb again. At this point he becomes [D] and non-prID-able after reloading savegame.

Dropped -c into the Tomb, waited (outside, after saving, quitting and reloading) 11 days more. Note, that Strident Squall is "cleared", so it supposedly has respawn period of 30 days, but 14 days passed since I was there.

IF I go straight to Strident Squall - Reaver xx01cd5a has respawned, but not others (there are more than three reavers there). My take is that -a reaver died outside of Strident Squall cells, and got respawned with regular Solstheim cell.

IF I go to the Tomb, then to Strident Squall, -a, -b, -c have respawned, but not others.

Now, indeed, my conclusion is, that corpse's cell is what respawns an NPC, not original cell, AND even if reference is deleted/non-prID-able, there is still some data linking it to the cell it has died (see, -b did not respawn at Strident Squall until I visited the Tomb!)

Although, come to think of that, I should wait 30 days and see if he does...

Hope to report soon!

Sergio Morozov (talk) 12:24, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Okay, waited in excess of 30 days so that Strident Squall gets respawned. And it goes as I've forseen:

IF I go straight to Strident Squall - Reavers whose corpses were left at Strident Squall: xx01cd5a , -d and -e respawn, but not -b or -c who were taken to the Tomb.

IF I go to the Tomb after that and revisit Strident Squall: -b and -c respawn too.

IF I go to the Tomb, then to Strident Squall, all of them -a, -b, -c, -d, -e respawn.

So, yea, this leads to bad things:

• NPCs left in non-origin cells do not respawn until the cell they were left in respawns and is visited.
• NPCs left in non-respawning cells are lost forever, if their corpse disappears.

Now I wonder, what if NPC is flagged as respawnable, but lives in a non-respawning cell, and its corpse is taken to a respawning cell... Will it respawn? =D

Also someone needs to edit these peculiarities into the article itself. It can be me, but I feel like fooling around and thinking a bit more...

Sergio Morozov (talk) 12:58, 27 July 2022 (UTC)

Ahhh, got totally burnt out on testing how to make Bounties "permanent", so decided to do the final test on respawning:

If NPC is flagged as respawnable, but lives in a non-respawning cell, and its corpse is taken to a respawning cell it will respawn when his corpse's cell respawns.

Tested on mind-controlled Bandits in White Ridge Barrow Sanctum - took their bodies outside (via Dead Thrall, but they will, probably, pursue the Player when alive),

took my time adventuring out on the mainland, returned - poor fellas reincarnated in their holding room in the sanctum.

Sergio Morozov (talk) 17:02, 7 August 2022 (UTC)