Carry weight is a useful stat in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim no matter what kind of build players want to try out. A few basic weapons and apparel items don't weigh that much, especially since equipped items don't count against the carry weight. Instead, this stat mostly decides how much loot players can bring back from any given dungeon or monster lair.
The best way to make money in Skyrim is to sell valuable loot at shops, and so every player has a good reason to boost their carry weight as high as it will go. Fortunately, there are a few simple ways to manage this, and there are a few potions, items, and exploits that can help players bypass their normal limits.
How To Permanently Boost Carry Weight
Each time players reach a new level, they get a perk point and a chance to boost Magicka, Health, or Stamina by 10. Magicka and Health are very valuable in obvious ways, but Stamina has less of an impact. Stamina drains when sprinting and when using power attacks, but it doesn't drain when players run or attack normally.
However, in exchange for being less useful in combat, Stamina has a direct impact on carry weight. Each time players boost Stamina by 10 by leveling up, their carry weight goes up by 5. However, other effects that raise or lower Stamina, including potions, diseases, and equipment, have no effect on carry weight. In addition, the player's current Stamina value doesn't impact carry weight, and so players are free to spend Stamina no matter how close to their carry limit they are.
The other big way to boost carry weight is with the perk Extra Pockets in the Pickpocket perk tree. To get this perk, players need 1 rank of Light Fingers, Night Thief, and 50 skill points in Pickpocket. The best items to steal to improve Pickpocket are rings and necklaces since they have a low weight (high success chance) and high value (more Pickpocket experience).
Temporary Boosts And Exploits
- The Steed Standing Stone's blessing adds +100 to carry weight and removes any movement penalty from worn armor. The Steed Stone is on the frozen ridge northwest of Solitude, but the best way to reach it is to find Fort Hraggstad and head east.
- Entering Beast Form as a werewolf raises carry weight by 2000, and entering Vampire Lord Form (available with the Dawnguard DLC) allows for levitation no matter how much weight the Dragonborn is carrying. However, neither form is welcome in towns.
- Potions and Elixirs of Strength improve carry capacity for a few minutes each. This can last long enough to get to a dungeon's exit and fast travel to a town, but a potion will wear off once players arrive. Player-crafted potions call this ability Fortify Carry Weight.
- Players can randomly find magic boots with Fortify Carry Weight. These apparel items can add a random amount to the Dragonborn's carry weight, or players can disenchant them to learn how to add the enchantment to regular boots. This also means players can use the Fortify Enchantment exploit to create boots that raise the Dragonborn's carry weight to an unreachable number.
- Players aren't allowed to run or dash while overencumbered, but they can still mount horses, and horses can run and dash even when their rider is carrying too much. In fact, players can fast travel on horseback even when overencumbered.
- Players who have the Ranger perk from the Archery tree and who draw an arrow can move slightly faster than they can while walking normally.
- The Whirlwind Sprint shout works the same whether players are overencumbered or not.
- Players can't move or drag most containers, but they can move and drag corpses. Players can unload their excess items in a small corpse like a skeever or a skeleton bone and drag it with them at full speed to the nearest town. However, keep in mind that corpses can't travel between zones and will eventually despawn.
- Followers have their own carry limit, which is around 300 (the same as a starting player-character). Players can exceed this limit by loading a chest or other container with items and ordering the follower to "take all" from the container.
The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is available now on PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.