Alchemy Beginner's Guide - Elder Scrolls: Morrowind
Alchemy in Morrowind is one of the most powerful skills you can get for your character for a multitude of reasons. You can increase any attribute/skill you want with Alchemy as well as buff your character with nearly every buff available via spells. Water Walking, Levitate, Underwater Breathing, Night Eye, Feather, all of these can be made into Potions instead of having to use spells or enchantments.
With Alchemy you can also make potions that double up different buffs, like a potion that gives you Fortify Intelligence and Fortify Magicka at the same time. Last but not least you can use Alchemy solely as a source of income if you desire, as you make better and better potions the amount you can sell them for will keep going up too.
One of Morrowind's most famous exploits involves Alchemy too. With Alchemy you can easily make Fortify Intelligence potions and stack them indefinitely. As you increase your Intelligence you will also keep making stronger and stronger potions. Eventually you can make insanely powerful potions that sell for a ton of money. To learn more about this check out my How to exploit Alchemy Guide.
For the most part Alchemy Potions only last for a couple of minutes at the most unless you use the Alchemy Exploit to boost your Intelligence into the tens of thousands before making potions. Having proper Alchemy tools will increase the effectiveness of your potions too but not as much as Fortify Intelligence will.
If you don't already know about it, there is a full Master's Alchemy set in Caldera which you can easily steal at any point in the game. This Alchemy set makes a great starter set, the only downside is if you get caught by guards for any crime they'll take this entire set from you since it's owned by someone else.
At minimum you need a Mortar and Pestle to make potions with Alchemy but there are numerous other tools that you can use to increase the potency of the potions you create. Below is a list of all the tools you can find in Morrowind that are used in Alchemy along with what they do.
Alembic: Reduces the strength and duration of negative effects on the potions you make
Calcinator: Increases the strength and duration of both negative and positive effects on the potions you make
Retort: Increases the strength and duration of positive effects on the potions you make
In order to make potions in Morrowind what you need to do is pick ingredients with similar Alchemy Effects on them. If you combine two items with Fortify Intelligence on them your result will be a potion that Fortifies your Intelligence, it's pretty straight forward in this regard. With the right Alchemy reagents it's possible to make potions that have multiple positive effects.
Below you will find a complete list of all the potions I believe are worth creating with Alchemy - keep in mind this is purely my opinion and other people will feel differently.
Alchemy Tips and Tricks
- Download a mod to improve the Alchemy window
- Store extra Alchemy items in an easy to access/memorable location. I like to put them on rooftops in Balmora or in Casius' house in Balmora. If you plan to use a container make sure it is not owned by anyone - if it is any ingredients you have will be stolen by a guard if you ever are caught for a crime.
- Keep extra Fortify Intelligence Potions to save yourself the trouble of having to mass manufacture them again in the future when you need to make more game-breaking potions
Useful Alchemy Potions:
Feather: With high enough Intelligence you can make Feather potions which completely negate your entire encumbrance limit. Probably my favorite potions to make since having to deal with weight in games like this is very tedious in my opinion.
Levitate: Highly useful for anyone who doesn't focus on any magic or Enchanting. You still need a way to Levitate to solve many quests or to reach many areas in this game - potions are a great way to do this.
Water Breathing: Much like with Water Walking and Levitate, if you can't cast these spells with magic and you don't have any 'on use' items that cast the spell for you - you can always use potions.
Water Walking: Same as Levitate and Water Breathing. If you're not a magic user and don't have any on use items that will cast this spell for you potions are your best bet.
Invisibility: If you aren't a caster and you have no 'on use' items that grant you Invisibility then making potions that can do it is a great alternative.
Night Eye: This game is insanely dark - Night Eye potions will help brighten it up for you!
Detect Enchantment: Useful for some quests where the quest items are hard to find, Amulet of Shadows is a great example.
Fortify Willpower: Very useful when you need to cast a spell but don't have sufficient skill level. Like Summon Golden Saint when you want to farm Soul Shards.
Fortify Intelligence: Having super high intelligence is how you do the Alchemy Exploit. It's also very helpful to have high intelligence when Enchanting if you have that.
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