Skyrim features an incredible variety of enemy types. Many players are more than familiar with the many bandits and vampires that dot Skyrim's landscape, but the variety of foes players can fight is shockingly large. Some of the best variety can be found in Daedra, enemies that originate from the planes of Oblivion.
Atronachs, Golden Saints, and Dremora soldiers are just a few examples of the types of Daedra players face on their adventure. Nearly every Daedra enemy has something up their sleeve that makes them enjoyable to fight, even if most of them are a rather rare sight. From Atronachs to Lurkers, here are all of Skyrim's Daedric enemies ranked from easiest to hardest.
9 Fire Atronach
Atronachs are all considered Daedra in The Elder Scrolls universe. The most common atronach players will fight is the Flame atronach, which acts as a pyromancer that pelts Firebolts towards players. They can be deadly at earlier levels if players aren't paying attention, but these enemies go down rather quickly with their low health pools and lack of damage resistance.
8 Dark Seducers
Dark Seducers were introduced in the "Saints & Seducers" Creation and serve as melee fighters. They have a solid health pool for their level while dealing solid damage by having gear comparable to Glass in terms of quality. Players that have solid armor and can keep their distance should have no trouble fighting the melee variants. When they use arrows, rush them and strafe to throw their aim off.
7 Golden Saints
Golden Saints are effectively the same as Dark Seducers statistically, having the same health pool and comparable gear. Their differences are in appearance alone, having more ornate gear compared to the harsher appearance of the Dark Seducers' armor. As with Dark Seducers, dodging their attacks while frequently damaging them works best.
6 Storm Atronach
Storm atronachs are much rarer than the flame and frost counterparts, and for good reason. This type of atronach has more health than the flame atronach but less than the frost variant, and it also has a wide range of spells. This single foe can use Lightning Bolt, Storm Cloak, Chain Lightning, and can even slowly regenerate its health when it's a higher level.
If players don't invest in any resistances or bring a wide range of weapons, these enemies can kill them and their companions in a hurry. When summoned, they serve as fantastic damage-dealers against groups of foes as well. Rushing this enemy type is a must.
5 Ash Guardian
Introduced in the Dragonborn DLC, Ash Guardians share the appearance of the Storm atronachs but have a few new abilities. They are a hybrid between the frost and storm variants, using a mix of melee attacks and ash spells to take down targets. They deal considerable damage and require heart stones in order to be non-hostile when summoned. If they weren't such a rare sight, they would be much higher on this list.
4 Frost Atronach
Frost atronachs are tanky foes that deal tons of damage with their melee attacks. Instead of using spells to take down opponents, Frost atronachs deal constant damage with their Frost Cloak while stabbing the player with their ice pick arm. They also have an incredible amount of health considering their level. Players that charge them will face stamina issues quickly if they can't kill them. Using fire damage is a must on higher difficulties against frost atronachs.
3 Dremora
Even with the inclusion of Golden Saints and Dark Seducers, nothing can match the strength of the base game's Dremora. These enemies come in a few types with each focusing on melee, magic, or archery. Melee characters have massive health pools for their level and a plethora of perks that increase their lethality. Warlocks, in particular, are adept at virtually every school of magic including Destruction and Restoration. There's a reason these enemies are so rare.
2 Seekers
Dragonborn put much more focus on fighting Daedra, pitting the player against Hermaeus Mora's minions in his plane of Oblivion. The most common enemy type in Apocrypha would be the Seekers, strange mages that focus on absorbing the player's stats. The damage output on these enemies might not be the highest, but they can damage players even when they aren't detected.
Seekers also have the ability to summon lesser versions of themselves during a fight. When multiple Seekers swarm a player, their health will begin to drop rapidly due to how many absorption effects are occurring.
1 Lurkers
It seems that someone at Bethesda set out to create one of the most frustrating enemies in Skyrim when they designed the Lurker. They succeeded. Lurkers are effectively Daedra giants that use acid and tentacles to damage the player.
These enemies tend to shoot toxic ground effects from their mouths when provoked. Should the player get close, they will begin to stomp and stagger the player repeatedly. To make matters worse, Lurkers have incredibly high health pools for their level and also have damage resistance against most damage types. On higher difficulties, the best way of killing them is to paralyze them with poisons or spells. Without those, these enemies put up the toughest fight out of every Daedric enemy in Skyrim.