Feeding as a Vampire in Skyrim is Absolutely Worth It
If you‘re considering becoming a vampire in Skyrim, you may be wondering if dealing with the hassle of feeding is really worthwhile. After over 500 hours spent playing different vampire characters across multiple playthroughs, I can confidently say that feeding as a vampire is completely worth the effort for most builds and playstyles. The vampire perks and abilities you gain access to by maintaining your bloodlust far outweigh the relatively minor inconvenience of feeding once a day. Let‘s sink our teeth into all the details!
Keeping Your Bloodlust Sated Has Major Advantages
Consistently feeding as a vampire might sound tedious, but doing so provides significant bonuses that any undead-loving player would be foolish to ignore:
- You stay at stage one vampirism, keeping powers strong and weaknesses like sunlight damage minimal
- The 25% harder to detect while sneaking effect remains active – a godsend for stealthy characters
- Most human NPCs won‘t become hostile or attack you on sight when fed
- Unlocks access to powerful vampire perks for combat and stealth
- Lets you achieve the Necromage perk boost to all spell effectiveness
- Grants usage of the unique Vampire Lord form added by Dawnguard
- Provides greater roleplaying immersion – you get to truly embrace the vampiric lifestyle!
Trust me, once you‘ve experienced what it‘s like having access to night vision, invisibility, vampiric grip, draining life from enemies mid-combat, and more, you won‘t want to give it up. Feeding is a small price to pay for such huge benefits.
Strategies to Make Feeding a Breeze
While feeding does require periodically hunting down NPC victims, there are ways to make the process quick and painless:
- Build a secluded home using Hearthfire – safe feeding without witnesses
- Thrall a follower as a personal 24/7 blood source
- Utilize high Sneak skill and invisibility to feed undetected even in cities
- Focus on feeding exclusively at night when most NPCs are asleep
- Target bandits and criminals – no one will miss a few dead necromancers!
- Always feed after waiting or sleeping to force a routine
- Travel via carriage and feed roadside under darkness
Once you get into a rhythm, finding time to feed won‘t feel like a chore. It becomes a fun part of the vampire fantasy!
Vampire Lord vs Regular Vampirism
The Vampire Lord transformation from Dawnguard offers new abilities, but also has some annoying drawbacks:
| Vampire Lord Pros | Vampire Lord Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| Powers | Unique claw attacks, blood magic, minion summoning, Dead Thrall spell | Forced third person reduces immersion |
| Gameplay | Resists frost, poison, and disease. Grants flight. | Unable to interact normally, limited duration |
| Stealth & Combat | Works well for melee-focused builds | Overall weaker than high Sneak + Illusion vampire for stealthy players |
| Roleplaying | Visually impressive transformation with new perk tree | Dawnguard alliance blocks usage, lacks depth compared to maintaining regular vampirism |
Many experienced vampire players actually avoid the Vampire Lord form due to the limitations it imposes. With the right stealth skills and magic, a regular vampire can be extremely powerful.
Analyzing the Vampire Skill Trees
Let‘s dive into the specific perks unlocked through consistent feeding and analyze how they benefit your gameplay:
Vampirism Perk Tree
| Perk | Effect | Gameplay Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Supernatural Reflexes | +100% movement speed while sneaking | Allows remarkably fast stealth movement for easier feeding, escaping, and positioning |
| Deflect Arrows | Knock back + take no damage from arrows | Major boost to survivability for melee vampires |
| Power of the Grave | +50% Vampiric power attack damage | Significantly increases melee attack strength |
| Detect All Creatures | Night vision effect | Allows sneaking and feeding even in total darkness |
| Mist form | Turn ethereal once per day | Powerful emergency escape or repositioning ability |
| Supernatural Speed | Move faster during combat | Excellent for melee vampires to outmaneuver foes |
| Summon Creatures | Call forth a weak vampire ally | Situationally useful distraction |
| Invisibility | Go invisible after feeding | Lets you escape witnesses easily after feeding |
| Vampiric Drain | Absorb Stamina with hand spell | Helps offset reduced Magicka regeneration of vampirism when combined with Equilibrium for endless power attacks and sprinting |
| Vampiric Seduction | Calms hostile NPCs | Allows easier feeding on normally aggressive targets |
| Night Cloak | Invisibility at night | Combined with high Sneak, makes nighttime feeding nearly impossible to detect |
| Nightstalker‘s Footsteps | Silent movement in darkness | Another stealth boost for stealthy nighttime feeding |
| Poison Talons | Dangerous clinging poison spell | Alternative attack option, especially useful against melee enemies |
| Unearthly Will | Night powers remain in sunlight | Removes sun drawbacks of vampirism while keeping benefits – best possible perk! |
Vampire Lord Perk Tree
| Perk | Effect | Gameplay Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Detect Dead | Can sense corpses in area | Helps you find freshly dead bodies to feed on |
| Mistify | Turn into cloud and reform a distance away | Allows escaping from tight spots |
| Supernatural Reflexes | Move faster for a short time | Lets you chase down prey more easily when hunting and feeding |
| Summon Gargoyle | Summon gargoyle ally | Gargoyles make decent distractions while you feed undetected |
| Corpse Curse | Paralyze enemy when power attacking | Immobilizes enemies, allowing you to safely feed mid-combat |
| Unearthly Will | Night powers active during day | Removes sun disadvantages so you can feed, travel, and fight freely |
| Vampiric Grip | Choke and pull target to you | Yank unsuspecting NPCs right to you for easy ambush feeding |
| Blood Healing | Absorb health when Drain Life used | Makes you tougher to kill while feeding on dangerous enemies like bandit chiefs |
| Poison Talons | Lethal poison claws | Increases your close quarters combat lethality |
| Soul Detainment | Capture soul when Drain Life kills | Helps build up stockpile of filled soul gems by slaying humanoid enemies you feed on |
| Night Cloak | Invisibility at night | As with regular vampirism, makes night feeding nearly impossible to spot |
| Amulet of Bats | Summon cloud of bats to attack | Drains health from multiple foes – useful when outnumbered while feeding carelessly |
| Undead Bane | Kills reanimated undead instantly | Counters enemies using necromancy against you |
| Impaling Grasp | May paralyze humanoids on hit | Stuns prey after yanking them close with Vampiric Grip, setting up easy kills |
| Soul Cairn Affinity | Summon undead from Soul Cairn | Calls backup forces to even the odds if caught feeding by large groups |
| Pack Leader | Summoned gargoyles grow stronger | Strengthens your ally distractions |
| Levitation | Brief hovering flight | Lets you reach unexpected angles to snatch unsuspecting victims below |
As you can see, both vampire perk trees offer incredibly powerful combat, stealth, and utility abilities that enhance all playstyles if you put in the time to feed consistently. The gameplay impact is well worth dealing with a bit of extra bloodlust management.
Additional Thoughts from 500+ Hours as a Vampire
In all my time playing vampire characters in Skyrim, I‘ve learned a few additional useful tidbits worth mentioning:
- Quickly transitioning in and out of vampire lord form mid-combat is extremely powerful for melee builds
- The Necromage perk from Restoration makes ALL spells 25% stronger against undead, including you! This applies to all standing stone effects and gear enchantments. It‘s ludicrously overpowered.
- Bow or destruction magic is highly recommended to deal with dragons while playing as a vampire, since melee combat exposes you to their breath attacks
- Once you obtain the Ring of Erudite from the Volkihar Clan questline and combine it with Equilibrium, you‘ll have limitless magicka as a vampire
- The ability to turn invisible after feeding has gotten me out of many sticky situations where a witness caught me feeding!
- Feeding on sleeping victims in the middle of the night when you have high sneak and Nightstalker‘s Footsteps is hilariously easy
And most importantly – truly committing to the vampiric lifestyle and roleplaying your character provides endless fun. Ignore anyone who says it isn‘t worth it!
The Verdict: Embrace the Gift of Vampirism!
In my opinion, if you are on the fence about becoming a vampire in Skyrim, I wholeheartedly think you should choose to embrace the gift and start feeding!
Very few gameplay downsides exist, while the benefits you receive from vampiric powers and perks are incredibly enticing across all styles of play. While occasionally tedious, feeding only takes a few moments and some smart strategies make it effortless.
Roleplaying a powerful undead vampire overlord exerting your will upon the living brings Skyrim to life in amazing new ways. You‘ll grow to love the hunt for fresh blood and thrill of each new ability you unlock.
Trust me when I say that maintaining your vampirism is extremely worthwhile. Now get out there, use your seductive powers, sneak through the night wreathed in magic, and sink your teeth into every foolish mortal that crosses your path!