How alchemy actually works
Daggerfall's alchemy system looks like a crafting menu and behaves like a shopping list. You never unlock the craft. You never grind a skill. You acquire ingredients, then hand them to a cauldron in a temple and hope the game agrees with you. Everything else people tell you about alchemy in this game is a misremembering of another Elder Scrolls title.
Three facts carry the whole system. First, ingredients are the currency and the recipe is the price list. Second, the potion maker only ever makes single-effect potions, so there is no stacked damage-and-invisibility masterwork to chase. Third, the game's ingredient economy is split: cheap filler is available in town, while the ingredients that actually make interesting potions have to be pulled off something that was trying to kill you.
Because effects stack nowhere, a potion is a solved problem rather than a tuning problem. If you need to breathe underwater in a deep Khajiit burial barrow, you buy the water breathing recipe once and use it forever. You are not comparing magnitudes, you are deciding which six problems you are carrying potions for. Decide those six before you set foot in a dungeon and alchemy stops being a chore.
Buy potion recipes the moment you unlock a temple rank, not later. Recipes are reusable forever, cost nothing to hold, and cannot be sold, so there is no downside to banking every recipe the game offers you.
Where things are sold
The single most common beginner error in Daggerfall alchemy is standing in front of an alchemist expecting potions. Alchemists open 07:00 to 22:00 and they do two things: they buy ingredients off you, and they sell ingredients, including ordinary gems and the rarer magical gems. Very rarely an alchemist will also sell you a potion recipe. That is the whole inventory.
Ready-made potions are sold by Temples and by the Dark Brotherhood. Temples are open to any character and are the only dependable early potion supply. If you are broke at level one in Sentinel, walk to the temple, not to the alchemist.
- Alchemist
- Buys and sells ingredients, gems and magical gems. Very rarely sells potion recipes. Never sells potions.
- Temple
- Sells ready-made potions to any character, plus the potion maker once your rank is high enough.
- Dark Brotherhood
- Sells potions to members, hosts the poison cauldron from rank 3, and offers a stronger recipe set.
- Metals
- Iron, copper, silver, gold, platinum, lead, tin and brass can be bought only from alchemists. No other vendor stocks them.
- Re-selling
- Potions cannot be sold back to any vendor. Ingredients can be. Recipes cannot be sold at all.
Who carries ingredients
Not everything holds a pocket full of herbs. Cheapest ingredients come off the weakest things and the most valuable ones come off the toughest, which means your farming target changes constantly as you level.
Enemies that never carry ingredients
Animals, atronachs, daedra, dragonlings, gargoyles, ghosts, orcs, skeletons, warrior-class NPCs, wraiths and werewolves are empty-handed. If you were planning to farm werewolves for werewolf's blood, stop: that particular blood comes from other sources entirely.
Cheap ingredients off weak enemies
Green leaves and root tendrils are worth two gold each. Twigs and lead are two and five. Clover, tin and palm sit in the same bracket. These are the reagents that pad out a three-ingredient recipe and they are everywhere once you leave Shornhelm.
Expensive ingredients off tough enemies
Then the numbers jump. Lich dust at 350 gold, dragon scales at 375, holy relic at 400. Sapphires sit at 375, rubies at 250, fairy dragon's scales at 90 but two kilograms apiece. Emerald is 425 and diamond and daedra's heart are 500 apiece. You will not buy these; you will take them off the thing that was carrying them.
Do not plan a potion budget around the listed values. Those numbers tell you how rare an ingredient is, not how much it costs. Lich dust is worth 350 gold to a shopkeeper; on the open market you will happily trade a saint's hair or a unicorn horn for one.
The complete ingredient list
Seventy-seven ingredients, split here into three alphabetical tables. Value is the shop price in gold, weight is kilograms per unit, and the effect column tells you what that ingredient does when a spell uses it. Several ingredients have no effect at all and exist purely as recipe filler, which is worth knowing before you waste gold on them.
Ingredients A to E
| Ingredient | Value (gold) | Weight (kg) | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aloe | 9 | 0.25 | Heal Health |
| Amber | 100 | 0.25 | Resist Fire |
| Bamboo | 6 | 0.5 | Heal Stamina |
| Basilisk's eye | 26 | 0.5 | Cure Paralysis |
| Big tooth | 8 | 0.5 | Spell Resistance (broken) |
| Black poppy | 12 | 0.25 | Damage Spell Points |
| Black rose | 10 | 0.25 | Silence |
| Brass | 8 | 0.5 | Jumping |
| Cactus | 8 | 0.5 | Resist Magicka |
| Clover | 5 | 0.25 | Increase Luck |
| Copper | 15 | 0.5 | Detect Magic |
| Daedra's heart | 500 | 1 | Increase Willpower |
| Diamond | 500 | 0.25 | Spell Resistance |
| Dragon scales | 375 | 3 | Spell Absorption |
| Ectoplasm | 60 | 0.25 | Etherealness |
| Elixir vitae | 30 | 0.25 | (no effect) |
| Emerald | 425 | 0.25 | Chameleon Normal |
Ingredients F to P
| Ingredient | Value (gold) | Weight (kg) | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fairy dragon's scales | 90 | 2 | Spell Reflection |
| Fig | 8 | 0.25 | Resist Fire |
| Ghoul's tongue | 30 | 0.25 | Tongues |
| Giant scorpion stinger | 25 | 1.5 | Damage Health |
| Giant's blood | 25 | 0.25 | Diminution |
| Gingko leaves | 12 | 0.25 | Cure Disease |
| Gold | 20 | 0.5 | Charm Mortal |
| Golden poppy | 10 | 0.25 | Charm Mortal |
| Gorgon snake | 120 | 0.5 | Climbing |
| Green berries | 4 | 0.5 | Damage Health |
| Green leaves | 2 | 0.25 | Jumping |
| Gryphon's feather | 40 | 0.25 | Slowfall |
| Holy relic | 400 | 0.5 | Dispel Magic |
| Ichor | 20 | 0.25 | (no effect) |
| Iron | 6 | 0.5 | Slowfall |
| Ivory | 13 | 0.5 | Resist Cold |
| Jade | 10 | 0.25 | Water Breathing |
| Lead | 5 | 0.5 | Slowfall |
| Lich dust | 350 | 0.25 | Increase Intelligence |
| Lodestone | 15 | 0.5 | Jumping |
| Malachite | 25 | 0.25 | Silence |
| Mercury | 16 | 0.25 | Increase Speed |
| Mummy wrappings | 40 | 0.5 | Detect Treasure |
| Nectar | 15 | 0.25 | (no effect) |
| Nymph hair | 100 | 0.25 | Increase Personality |
| Orc's blood | 20 | 0.25 | Increase Strength |
| Palm | 4 | 0.5 | Levitate |
| Pearl | 150 | 0.25 | Water Breathing |
| Pine branch | 4 | 1 | Spell Resistance |
| Platinum | 30 | 0.5 | Invisibility Normal |
Ingredients Q to Y
| Ingredient | Value (gold) | Weight (kg) | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pure water | 25 | 0.25 | (no effect) |
| Rain water | 10 | 0.25 | (no effect) |
| Red berries | 4 | 0.5 | Resist Fire |
| Red flowers | 4 | 0.25 | Damage Stamina |
| Red poppy | 8 | 0.25 | Drain Strength |
| Red rose | 8 | 0.25 | Detect Magic |
| Root bulb | 4 | 0.25 | Regenerate Health |
| Root tendrils | 2 | 0.25 | Diminution |
| Ruby | 250 | 0.25 | Spell Absorption |
| Saint's hair | 200 | 0.25 | Cure Disease |
| Sapphire | 375 | 0.25 | Spell Reflection |
| Silver | 12 | 0.5 | Cure Magic |
| Small scorpion stinger | 12 | 0.25 | Damage Health |
| Small tooth | 12 | 0.25 | Spell Resistance (broken) |
| Snake venom | 10 | 0.25 | Spell Resistance (broken) |
| Spider's venom | 22 | 0.25 | Paralysis |
| Sulphur | 10 | 0.25 | Resist Fire |
| Tin | 4 | 0.5 | Free Action |
| Troll's blood | 20 | 0.25 | Regenerate Health |
| Turquoise | 50 | 0.25 | Water Walking |
| Twigs | 2 | 0.5 | Slowfall |
| Unicorn horn | 200 | 1.5 | Detect Enemy |
| Wereboar's tusk | 28 | 1 | Increase Strength |
| Werewolf's blood | 25 | 0.25 | Cure Magic |
| White poppy | 8 | 0.25 | Drain Intelligence |
| White rose | 8 | 0.25 | Increase Intelligence |
| Wraith essence | 80 | 0.25 | Drain Willpower |
| Yellow berries | 4 | 0.5 | Increase Speed |
| Yellow flowers | 4 | 0.25 | Chameleon Normal |
| Yellow rose | 8 | 0.25 | Lycanthropy |
Big tooth, small tooth and snake venom all list as Spell Resistance, but that effect is broken in the retail game. Never spend dungeon time farming them expecting a working spell point wall.
The potion maker
The potion maker is the cauldron inside a temple, and it is a temple perk rather than a universal service. You get it free from a certain rank in the temple you follow, and two temples never offer it at all.
Temple ranks that grant the potion maker
- Dark Brotherhood: rank 3
- Arkay: rank 4
- Akatosh, Dibella, Mara, Stendarr: rank 5
- Zenithar: rank 6
The potion maker is not available in Julianos or Kynareth temples, at any rank. If you have poured ranks into one of those two, buy your potions in town instead.
How a brew actually happens
Drag ingredients into the cauldron yourself, or select a recipe you have already saved. The search covers both your inventory and your wagon, so the pile you left in the wagon counts. Once the recipe is created it is reusable for the rest of the game, it takes between three and nine ingredients, and because only single-effect potions can be produced, no combination of ingredients ever creates a hybrid brew.
Recipes cannot be sold to anyone, and finished potions cannot be sold back to any vendor. A potion is a consumable that leaves your gold for good the moment you brew it. That is fine, because a working recipe produces the same result every single time and the ingredients are cheap.
Verified recipes
These are the recipes the retail game actually supports. Every one of them is single-effect, and every one is worth learning. Prices are the temple and vendor prices of the finished potion.
| Potion | Ingredients | Price | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cure Disease | Elixir Vitae + Fig + Big Tooth | 100g | 1% chance, +10% per level |
| Cure Disease (Purification) | Stronger variant of the same | 500g | Disease cure, expensive tier |
| Stamina | Pure Water + Aloe + Gingko Leaves | 25g | Magnitude 5, +4 per level |
| Orc Strength | Orc's Blood + Iron + Rain Water | 50g | Magnitude 1, +14 per level |
| Levitation | Pure Water + Nectar + Ectoplasm | 125g | Levitate |
| Slow Falling | Pure Water + White Poppy + Black Poppy | 100g | Slowfall |
| Free Action | Ichor + Spider's Venom + Twigs + Bamboo | 125g | Free Action |
| Water Breathing | Rain Water + Elixir Vitae + Ivory | 100g | Water Breathing |
| Invisibility | Rain Water + Nectar + Ectoplasm + Diamond | 250g | Invisibility |
| Chameleon | Rain Water + Nectar + Green Leaves + Yellow Flowers + Green or Red Berries | 200g | Chameleon Normal |
| Water Walking | Pure Water + Palm + Yellow Rose + Sulphur | See vendor | Water Walking |
The one everybody actually wants
There is no potion in Daggerfall called "Restore Fatigue". The stamina potion above is what you want. Pure Water, Aloe and Gingko Leaves for twenty-five gold, and the magnitude scales from five up by four per level. It is the cheapest meaningful combat potion in the game and the reason stamina potions are the first thing veterans brew.
Water breathing and levitation share a base. Water Breathing is Rain Water plus Elixir Vitae plus Ivory; Levitation swaps to Pure Water, Nectar and Ectoplasm. If you are deep-diving flooded crypts regularly, levitation solves the same problem more thoroughly.
Potions that do not exist
Here is the part that costs new players days. Several ingredient effects sound like they should produce a potion. None of them do. In the retail game there is no Jumping potion, no Silence potion, no Paralysis potion, no Detect Treasure potion and no Lycanthropy potion. There is no verified recipe for any of them.
Brass, green leaves and lodestone give Jumping. Black rose and malachite give Silence. Spider's venom gives Paralysis. Mummy wrappings give Detect Treasure. Yellow rose gives Lycanthropy. Every one of those is a spell effect only. You can find the ingredient, you can put it in a spell, and no amount of cauldron time will turn it into a bottle.
Community lists, character build planners and forum threads often include jumping and silence potions. They are wrong. If your build depends on drinking a jump potion, rebuild it around the spell instead, using our spellmaking guide, because those ingredients are spell components and nothing else.
On poisons: the only in-game source is the Dark Brotherhood cauldron, which appears at rank 3. There is no documented poison recipe list, so treat every specific poison formula you read online as unverified. It is also worth reading up on the guild side of things before you commit to that route, since the Dark Brotherhood has its own costs.
Your carry run
Six potions, chosen for the way Iliac Bay actually plays. You will drink levitation over everything else, but the other five earn their weight.
The six to always carry
- Stamina (25g) - the cheapest combat potion, and the one you will drink most.
- Levitation (125g) - skip floors, traps and half the world's geometry.
- Cure Disease (100g) - cheap insurance against dungeon rot.
- Free Action (125g) - armour-penalty relief when a fight turns ugly.
- Water Breathing (100g) - for flooded sections and sunken vaults.
- Slow Falling (100g) - the poor man's levitation when you run out.
Bench the rest by encounter rather than by list. Invisibility and Chameleon are theft and avoidance tools, valuable when you are raiding rather than clearing. Water Walking is a convenience, not a survival item. Orc Strength is for specific fights, not for drinking in a corridor. Gold is a poor alchemy budget compared to the potions you could buy with it, which is the point our shopping guide makes.
Two habits finish the job. Carry ingredients rather than finished potions whenever you can, because ingredients resell and potions do not. And keep a full wagon: the cauldron searches both, so the recipe you saved last month still brews from a bag you left in a dungeon three towns ago.
The remake caveat
Everything above describes the 1996 retail game. If you are playing a modern remake such as Daggerfall Unity, expect different numbers. Those versions implement roughly nineteen potions rather than the full spread above, and they force every potion's effect to a 100% chance instead of rolling against the chance and magnitude values listed in the recipe table.
That last change matters mechanically. In the original, a Cure Disease potion is a 1% roll plus ten percent per level, which is why experienced players consider it unreliable and buy several. In a remake that always succeeds, one bottle is enough. Before you stock up for a long run, confirm which version you are on.
Alchemy questions
Do alchemists sell potions in Daggerfall?+
No. Alchemists buy and sell ingredients, including gems and magical gems, and very rarely sell potion recipes. They do not sell potions at all. Ready-made potions come from Temples and the Dark Brotherhood. Metals such as iron, copper, silver, gold, platinum, lead, tin and brass can only be bought from alchemists.
Why can't I find a Jumping, Silence or Paralysis potion?+
Because those potions do not exist in the retail game. Jumping, Silence, Paralysis, Detect Treasure and Lycanthropy are ingredient effects that only work through spells. No verified recipe creates them. Players spend hours hunting for recipes that were never implemented, so plan your spell list around them instead.
How many ingredients does a potion recipe need, and can I sell recipes?+
A recipe takes between three and nine ingredients and only single-effect potions can be created. Recipes are reusable, so you can brew from the same saved recipe repeatedly, but you cannot sell a recipe to any vendor, and you cannot sell the finished potion either.
Where do expensive ingredients like lich dust and dragon scales come from?+
You loot them. Lich dust is 350 gold, dragon scales 375, holy relic 400, and sapphires, rubies and fairy dragon scales are all above shop stock. Weak enemies drop cheap ingredients such as green berries or twigs, tough enemies drop the valuable ones. Animals, atronachs, daedra, dragonlings, gargoyles, ghosts, orcs, skeletons, wraiths and werewolves never carry any ingredient at all.
New to the Bay? Start with our character creation guide before you sink gold into a wrong-stat build, then read our dungeon guide so you know which floors actually reward a levitation potion.
Brew your first potion tonight
Daggerfall is free to play in your browser, no download and no install. Load a save, open the temple in Sentinel, and put a stamina potion in your pack before you go anywhere near a barrow.