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As usual, there are always a large number of requests for hints and spoilers on how to complete certain quests, join guilds, etc... Here I've tried to compile various hints and spoilers and organize them in some fashion. Feel free to Contact the WebMaster to contribute suggestions, spoilers not included here, or links to sites that include hints. The various topics are sorted according to the date on which they were last updated or added.

Please Note: Many of these hints are based on the personal playing preferences of a wide variety of people and are included only as helpful suggestions. You might also want to check out the Daggerfall Cheats page which may contain those hints which are closer to cheating.

Distorted Towns - 26 October 1998

Here's how to make wilderness terrain consistently affect the towns.

1. Enter a town directly next to a provincial border (includes sea borders).
2. Run out of the town, directly across the border. Run until you have one travel map pixel between you and the border.
3. Turn around and run back to the town.

Saving ScreenShots - 16 May 1998

Every once and while you might say to yourself - 'I wish I could save this screen of me killing a daedra lord at level 1'. To be able to save Daggerfall screenshots, simply:

1. Create a directory PICS in your DAGGERFALL directory,
2. To save a screenshot in the game press the '\' or backslash key.
3. Some say you can only have 10 shots at a time saved in the directory, others say it is unlimited. Probably depends on the version? In version 1.79 you can have more than 10 screenshots saved at a time. Although if you quit the game and restart the image files will be rewritten (it appears)
4. There are only certain parts of the game where this will work, mainly the main game display. I haven't seen it work yet in the character screen unfortunately.

In order to save a screenshot just about anywhere do the following:

1. Push the little Windows button between the control and alt buttons. This should pop you the the Win95 screen. Click anywhere on the screen to turn off the pop-up menu.
2. Right-click on the Daggerfall program box on the task bar.
3. Select "Properties" then the "Screen" tab.
4. "Full Screen" is turned on; select "Window" instead and click "OK."
5. Left-click the Daggerfall program box on the task bar and POP! There is your game!
6. While the game is actually playable to a certain extent at this point, the goal is to grab a screen shot. Expand the DF window to full size (to get rid of the scroll bars) and press "Alt"+"Print Screen," which places the active DF window into the copy buffer.
7. Run your favorite paint program and paste the screen shot. TA-DA!

Weightless Equipment - 16 May 1998

When i go dungeon-hacking, i usually didn't bring armor because it weighed too much and so i would only wear what i found while adventuring. But now, i have found a way to make your "equiped" equipment weigh but nothing.

NOTE: this only works for stuff you can equip, ie. armor, weapons, rings, bracelets, etc.

first, u need a wagon, and a store where you can sell your stuff. Next, put all your equipment your are going to equip into your wagon. Go to the merchant, and click on "sell" when yuo talk to him. click on the wagon tab to bring it up, and then leave. Enter your inventory, and the wagon tab should be the one left-most. Equip all that want to, for 0 weight! Remember- if u unequip any of that stuff, it'll go straight back into your wagon, even if you're in a dungeon, which might not be so good. I haven't tried this with patch 2.00 and up, but i'm pretty sure it will work.

General Game Playing Hints - 13 December 1996

1. SAVE OFTEN - The most important one IMO, and most everyone else too. I save before and after quests, before entering dungeons, frequently while in dungeons, and after something 'big'...like a level raise, big bank deposit, etc... It's also a good idea to have a good structure to saving games. Keep one slot for the often save, like every 15-20 minutes in a dungeon. The other slots are for 'backup' positions, a time when you have no quests and are outside and are saved just every once in a while. It's also a good idea to backup save games in case something really bad happens. The following is a list of good times to save your game.
   1. Before and after receiving a quest.
   2. Before beginning a new dungeon
   3. Before and after resting
   4. Before and after traveling
   5. After leveling
   6. After attaining ANYTHING daedric
   7. After attaining the quest objective
   8. After "training" any skill
   9. Arriving at a new location
2. Travelling...I like to travel cautiously most of the time, resting in inns as this will allow you to get fullly rested before arriving at a dungeon or what not, thus letting me practice spells before I leave. Being a member of a knightly guild allows me free travel in inns. When time is of the essence, travelling recklessly gets me there much faster, although I might have to climb over the city walls if I get to a city at night.
3. Take advantage of the Recall spell. Cast recall just inside the entrance to a dungeon which will allow a quick exit if you find the quest item or simply to load up your wagon. Don't forget to re-cast the anchor.
4. Exploring dungeons can be a hairy experience in Daggerfall, especially if 'dungeon crawling' is not your forte. Being a vetren RPG and CRPG gamer I enjoy dungeon crawling and have a few tips...
   1. Follow the right hand wall method. Start exploring the dungeon by following the right hand wall. I find this method extremely helpful in exploring a great deal of a dungeon. I don't usually enter teleports/shafts/water until later, although I make note of them. I explore doors on either side of hallways, entering rooms, but only following right hand passages.
   2. Following the right hand wall method will still leave many areas unexplored. After exploring as much as I can with this method, I switch and follow the left hand wall. I check my map often now, looking for unexplored areas and secret doors.
   3. This still may leave some shafts, water, and teleporters unaccessed. I do these next, following the similar rules as above.
   4. If you still haven't found what you're looking for, you will have to start at step 1, but check to map often for unexplored passages and secret doors.
   5. Dungeon crawling can be tiring...if frustrated after several hours of exploring, take a break, watch TV...read a book...or check some Daggerfall pages for spoilers.
5. Clothing doesn't appear to affect NPC reactions but can complete the appearance of your character. Often the appearance of armour on the character can be patch worked and can look unpleasant, especially if you don't like the colours (I don't particularly like the red daedric...how the heck are you supposed to hide in that?). Armour can be hidden by wearing robes and cloaks, which can be minorly enchanted with various things (my robe is enchanted with feather weight and 50% weight increase capacity). Note that this has no effect on the game other than for role playing (and looking good).
6. Get a Horse and Wagon as soon as possible...a great asset to have (wagon can carry 1000 kg)

Stat Decreases - Old

Problem - I had my Wisdom drop from 62 to 34. I have no diseases. No "spell Icons" are on my character sheet. If I look at my wisdom score in an editor it shows 62 still.

Answer - I had the same thing happen to me with my personality... I figured it out, I was using a personality ring and saved the game while wearing it. When I loaded my personality was equal to my original unmodified value. When I took off the ring... poof! personality dropped about 20 or 30 points... Had to re-load from the previous save game...(luckily I had one) Or use the edit program to put it back...

Answer - Maybe you have been hit by spell? Try a "Heal Wisdom" custom spell... this option in the spellmaker seems to imply that there is a way to have a "damaged" attribute!

Answer - Early versions of the game had a problem with the poison - disease part. If you were hit by a nightblade you were poisoned. A cure poison spell didn't work and several attributes dived towards 0. After 12-24 hours or so the 'poison' changed to witches pox, a deadly disease. Now a cure disease spell worked. It turns out that casting cure disease when you are poisoned in this case heals you. This is fixed in the v1.79 patch I believe.

Information on Switches - October 1996

One switch I have found yesterday is the torch switch that is on the wall. When you click with the grab Icon readied the switch will slide from left to right. My switch opened a secret wall( there was a corridor with a dead end to the left of it and when I pulled the switch the wall opened). MOST of the time the switches will reveal something near it BUT not always. In the random dungeons a rule I use is always pull every lever, switch you find and sometimes two switches pulles will open those floor doors you have seen. One human skull I have seen that hangs in mid air is a teleporter. Another skull with "fangs that come out the side" is a lever that I was able to pull from top to bottom. I think that most secret levers are on the wall.

Hints on Thieving - 15 January 1999

If you want to get rich fast, thieving would be the way to go. The easiest way to make some quick money is to create a custom 'Open' spell with the lowest possible chance (i.e., 1 + 1/1lvl). Use this spell to open any store after closing to gain entrance. It seems that simply casting the open spell in front of a store door opens it...without fail, no matter what chance the open spell has..bug? Unfortunately, this doesn't work the same in dungeons or inside.

The best stores to rob are good quality pawn and general stores (especially if you are a low level), or at higher levels, armour and weapon smiths as dwarven, mithril, etc... weapons/armour get you a lot of cash (ebony claymore I had sold for close to 50,000 gp...:). Book stores are useless to break into as you still have to attempt to steal the books once inside, wierd. Note, that using this open spell method to get inside stores doesn't attract guards or affect your repuation...unless you try to open the 'private property' items inside the store. Another interesting tip on thieving is that if you completely empty a shelf and select it again, it will have restocked. Also, don't steal more than one horse or cart as you cannot get rid of them and may crash the game. Another good tip...go to a shop and loiter in there till the time says 00:01 or alittle later. Now save the game, reload the game and pooof! the shop keepers gone and its all free! you can take the horse and wagon over and over a great way to get money if you can't steal.

To join the Thieves Guild, you need to pick, or attempt to pick, at least 10 pockets. The easiest way to do this is to pick monster's pockets in dungeons as you don't have to worry about the city guards which appear to know everything you do (picking monster's pockets in dungeons is also a great way to practice the skill!). After picking 10 pockets, the thieves guild will contact you. After joining the thieves guild, the location of one in town, if any, will appear on your automap (it simply is a normal house). Don't try to pick pockets of any monster's in town as this attract the guards as well.

Similarily to join the Dark Brotherhood, you must enough kill innocents (worth 5) or city guards (worth 1) to reach a total of 15 points. i.e., 3 innocents or 15 guards or combination of both. Innocents are defined as any of those NPC's walking around town.

If you belong to the thieves guild engage the spymaster in regular conversation, he will still be all knowing and never clam up like he usually is! If you have low lock picking skills try to get a quest from the fighters guild where you have to rid a building of monsters, if that building is a shop you will be able to enter it after it closes! Then feel free to steal away!

Several Bugs to Avoid - October 1996

1. The soul gem bug most definitely causes crashes. These are manifested upon scene changes (like entering cities, ships, buildings). I had to backtrack several days worth of playing because I made some "super items" with this bug. Before I made the items, there were no problems. After, I was lucky to go 5 minutes without a crash.
2. The repair bug - it is triggered by any item enchanted with repair, causing error 2 upon entering a ship or error 117 when an item repair event occurs (about every 2 minutes). It doesn't happen all the time, so there's probably some other factor involved. (Fixed in early patch)
3. The $spellname cheat seems stable, but the !spellname cheat no longer works. Be aware that editing the STR or END statistics seems to cause problems with stamina "rolling over" when you sleep (goes to zero).
4. Falling through elevators can be avoided by continually jumping while on them. Don't access your inventory/character sheet while riding one as this will also cause you to fall.
5. Many have experienced the bug known as the 'void'. This occurs when you 'fall' through the floor/walls in a dungeon. You can move around in the void by casting levitate (I think) and can actually kill monsters with spells and arrows with impunity. To return, casting recall is supposed to get you back to your recall anchor (assuming you have one). Several people have used this to circumvent various 'puzzles' in main quest dungeons.

Improving Game Speed - 19 April 1997

I am running Daggerfall on exactly the minimum requirements, 486/DX2 66, 8MB RAM, 2xCD-ROM, and am finding it rather slow in places. Here are some things I do to help improve it slightly.

1. Don't keep much in your ship, house, wagon, inventory. All these things are kept in the game memory and as such reduce the little memory I have and slow down the game. I'd love to keep a collection of armour, ingrediants etc... but would rather have a faster game which crashes less often.
2. Detail levels. I usually use a detail level of about 1/2 in dungeons and outside in the wilderness to allow me to see things. In the town however, I set the detail levels to minimum as I find towns very slow. I've found that I even have to keep my head down to increase speed. This prevents loading of sunrises/sunsets which can halt my progress for 10 seconds or more.
3. Install the largest possible game size on your computer. More game on your hard disk means less CD-ROM accesses which will improve speed. I installed the large game size (213 MB) and find only a few accesses every now and then.
4. The *.ATF files in the each save directory are the town maps. If you're familiar with some towns and store locations you can delete these. You can also back-up them up and copy them back into any save game if you wish.
5. The *.AMF files are the dungeon maps. If you aren't in a dungeon you can delete all of these as well. Deleting all the map files greatly speeds up the loading of a game. If you do delete a dungeon map while in a dungeon your automap will be blank when you load the game.

Furniture Stores - 7 February 1999

Some people have asked questions about what exactly a furniture store is, and what it does (supposedly you can buy furniture for your house???) In Ripwych, Daggerfall, check the "General" questions (in converstation mode) and it lists a "furniture emporium" of some sort. I went there, but the guy wouldn't talk to (he "hated" my "kind", appearantly). I figure this to be either a racial slur against my elvish ancestry (ear envy, one would suppose) or because I'm not a home owner (not enough cash yet).

In any event, check the "general" menu to scout out furniture stores. The sign out front looks a little (o.k., exactly) like the "Pawn Shop" sign (those bottles and stuff).

Performing a quest for the fighters guild, I was sent to Tuntower in Daggerfall province that contained "The Champion Carpentry". Of course since I am not a homeowner they would not *talk to my kind*. I entered the store right at opening time, and there were already six people standing around in it! It reminded me of a used car lot!

The furniture stores are "fronts." In Merdale in Daenia, a small country just west of Daggerfall, you can find a furniture store, The Duchess's Furniture Shop, in which resides one of the game's unique characters: the Crow, a high-ranking member of the Thieves' Guild. This would imply that the other unique characters in the reputation editor would be able to be found somewhere in Tamriel. Of course, I don't think there's anything to do with these people once you find them. Like the large gorge somewhere to the east of Lysandus' Tomb (trust me on that one - just start running, straight east, you'll fall in a gorge eventually), the Crow and the Furniture Stores are basically just there for "flavor."

If you are a membor of the dark brotherhood/thieves guild people at the furniture stores give you quests. kewl ones to. Like a guy there asks you to kill someone because the dark brotherhood you are a membor to wouldn't do it for him!

Original Text Written By	Sam Krosney - samkros@concentric.net
	Matthew O. Avent - moa1@cornell.edu
	Thomas Mulligan - mulligat@hqamc.safb.af.mil

Starting Dungeon Spoilers - October 1996

I read something about people having a difficult time getting through small places (and getting hurled into that wierd "auto-map oughta-be" trans-dimentional universe at the slightest mis-step.)

In the starter dungeon, in the room with the book-cases and the candle-encircled Imp, (here's the "spoiler if you can call it that) you can fiddle with something (i.e., "click-on") the podium/music-stand/secret-switch to the book-case thing) in front of the where the Imp is, and one of the book-cases swing open.

I had a real hard time getting through the gap (i.e., it was impossible) until I ducked, and then just slid my way through, turning a little bit every time I started to "rise up"(climbing mode), to avoid what must be representive of little protrusions and possibly books on Argonian Poetry (is ANYONE playing with this race?).

So, if you can't fit through standing, I guess the secret is to crawl.

Diseases - November 1996

The following list of diseases was taken from the TEXT.RSC file in the ARENA2 directory.

Easy Money and Experience Method - 28 January 1997

Here is a really cool way to get treasure and experience. First go to a city or town or whatever. Then run for about 2 minutes. Then choose to rest for awhile. Pick 24 hours. You WILL get attacked by some human monster. Very rarely is it a real monster. The humans (assasins, thieves, spellswords, ect.) usually care VERY valuable treasure and a good deal of gold. Like daedric weapons. I advise that you don't do this unless you are at a high level or are a mage. If you are a mage you can cast detect enemies and easily find your prey. If you are at a low level you will become the prey. The monster will probably sneak up behind you. But if you are a high enough level to survive the backstab the you should be ok. There's plenty of room to move around and run if needed. Some people have mentioned that the patch version 200 creates more random encounters in the wilderness (unconfirmed).

The Loaded Tavern - 7 March 1997

By pure luck, an old character of mine was robbing the Rusty Ogre Lodge (inns seem to be great place to burgle as they can carry a huge variety of different stuff) of Daggerfall, and much to his suprise, when he opened the first chest, there inside was a brand new Daedric Wakazashi, and a Daedric Staff. Searching the other chests, he found a mulititude of Daedric weaponary, including a Dai-Katana! After selling most of the stuff for a HUGE profit. I went back and tried again, no luck. They were full of mostly rubish. Then I reloaded and tried again, and this time they were full of Daedric stuff again. This is the fastet money making scheme I have found (slightly rep damaging if your caught though, which is a shame), as my character has amassed a considerable amount of money, 5,000,000+!!! I have also tried it with the latest patch and it still works! Top.

Levitating Tricks - 26 October 1998

Horse Tricks

If you are riding a horse and cast Levitate, the horse flies, and you can go much quicker than if you were levitating without the horse

Jumping Tricks

If you jump while levitating you can float upwards about twice as fast as normally. You also increase your jumping skill like you wouldn't believe.

Flying Without Levitation

I was playing Daggerfall v2.13 two nights ago and i found a useful bug. It lets you fly UP ONLY without spells or maigc items etc. It may be fun or useful only for those without the Levitate spell or if you run out of magic.

1. Hold JUMP button for duration of fly time
2. Equip your Weapon (some work better than others)
3. Attack the air as quickly as possibly.
4. You should now float upwards one jump height at a time. I think you can go up forever but i dont know as my hand gets tired after about 24 'steps'.

A Secret Dungeon - 26 July 1999

If you go to your ship (I own a cheap one) and proceed to the middle of the deck, switch to full screen. Position yourself as to be facing North West (the N should be on the right and the W should not be visable). Turn on the speed cheat, and hop off. Use the "running on water" cheat from this site. After a while, you should see a dungeon message appear on the screen (harpy feathers everywhere, etc.) I'm not sure what you do now, but set an anchor or save your game. I think you go west. You should eventually approach an island when you go the right way. There will be a stone placed on it. Look for a door. Inside is the Mantellan Crux dungeon! I'm not lying, and I'll put a save game of mine to the side to prove it! This could be very unbalancing to the main quest!

The direction to travel is NorthWast, with the W positioned as the N is. Also, use the cheapest ship and position yourself to the side of the stairs going down before taking off to the Northwest. NOTE! Going straight north will not help, as the distances travelled are different with each direction.

Immune to Disease Bug - 29 November 1998

In Daggerfall I have found an easy way to be immune to diseases without choosing 'immune to disease'. It must be a negative-math bug. What you do is create a custom character with critical weakness to disease. Then you choose to answer the 12 questions and 'as a child you were-' less resistant to disease. I have never been infected with any disease when I choose both of these options conjuntively. This is also a big advantage in dropping the leveling dagger in your character creation. As an added bonus, this INCREASES the chance of being infected with lycanthrope/vampirism.

1. Make a mage-type character with the 2 above options.
2. Get to a sufficient level that you encounter vamps/werebeasts
3. Make yourself a good regenerate health spell and a cheap heal spell
4. Find a vamp or werebeast
5. Cast regeneration
6. Keep heal ready just in case health gets too low.
7. Sit back and get pounded by werewolves and/or vampires.

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