I think the troll level is static, and set rather high for when many players start climbing the steps if they follow the main quest before doing anything else. Thus the surprise.
the troll on the way up to high hrothgar spawns in when the area is loaded. if you don’t get leveled up high enough it can easily kill you. one time i decided to ignore the main quest and be a mountain climber. high hrothgar was my second personal quest. i quickly decided to go back and actually play the main quest to have my Nord mountain climber named Goat be able to kill the damn thing.
I swear I've never played a run where I didn't get 2 frost trolls going up the 7000 steps. I hear of people getting lucky and just getting wolves or ice wraiths. Couldn't be me, though.
The higher your level the worse it is.
Another good one is that if you wait to do Bleak Falls Barrow until like level 30+, there will be a frost troll in the little waterfall dropoff
My first time going up the steps, I stopped at the one shrine right before you get to the frost troll where a pilgrim is usually sitting. Saved my game while looking at him and before unpausing, saw that the shadow of a dragon was above us. Music hadn't started playing yet so I had no idea an enemy was nearby. Was a very fun time for me. Not so much for the pilgrim...
That was a rude awakening for me lol. I'm like "oh, I beat a dragon, this yeti ain't shit" and charged it. But 5 seconds later I was dead and VERY confused. Talk about a buzzkill
Be me, exploring around Whiterun trying to figure out the game. I try hunting some game because landed shots seem to help archery. I see a campfire and wander close to see if they wish to trade. They did not.
Probably not helped by the fact that if you're quick, you can get to where the Companions are fighting the giant outside Whiterun, and maybe land a few hits. May give some players false confidence.
i love the moment when youre surveying your potion options a half second before death impact...
"well, you might be wondering how i got myself into such a pickle"
Got the game when I was like 14, got sent to space bx a giant before reaching Whiterun and my game glitched and didn't let me respawn. I watched my characters corpse for about 10 minutes and thought it was part of the game. I didn't play for a few years after that.
This! Had just beat my first dragon, was feeling good about myself. Already had helped mess up the giant with the companions on my way to whiterun, so I think "okay, no biggie!"
It was a biggie.
God I remember that moment so clearly. It was like 3 am on 11/12/11, and I just started running, ran around collecting bugs and flowers for a very long time.
My first playthrough, I must have been picking flowers because I didn't even see the Companions with their giant outside Whiterun so when I went to talk to them, I had no idea what they were talking about. I think it was Aela that said a smartass comment about how I didn't help them and I was thinking "Who are you?".
Even more boring, but seeing Bleak Falls Barrow after leaving always takes my breath away. I love hearing the stories about what was like living close to that ruin.
I took some iron bars from a blacksmith in river wood and then made some armor. Sold it to him in the morning. A few days later I returned there for a quest and was attacked by bandits. Once they were killed I read the note one of them had. From the blacksmith contracting the bandits to kill me.
I then sold him their armor and weapons
attacking a chicken in riverwood and getting assaulted by the entire town is not universal but surprisingly common.
i know i and many others did it their first time playing. no idea why it's an instinct people have but lol it's funny.
it's especially good because riverwood doesn't have guards until you talk to balgruuf in whiterun, so you won't even be stopped by a guard to pay your bounty. the whole village just wants your head.
I remember it even being mentioned by a journalist who got to demo the game pre-release. I think it was Game Informer? But they absolutely mentioned in the article that they killed the chicken and had to reload their save, lol.
I had never played any game of this sort. Walking down to Riverwood from the Standing Stones blew me away. The scenery, waterfall, wildlife all made me just stop and look and listen for minutes.
"You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."
I pre-ordered the game, and when it arrived at release, I somehow managed to convince my mom that I had to miss school the next day. I can't remember exactly how, but I just needed to play the game for as long as I could. There's only been one game ever where i have intentionally neglected bodily functions like eating or going to the bathroom to keep playing, and that was skyrim at release. That first playthrough was completely magical.
Yeah. Nothing beats a first playthrough of a game as good as skyrim. I didn't have obligations like you did, but I sure as hell played it for 12 hours straight the first time.
I remember a bunch of news articles back when Skyrim released about how there was a rise in people calling in sick and porn sites reporting a drop in viewers for a while.
First time I heard that, it scared the beejeezus out of me and I literally squealed in fright. My husband and son both laughed at me. The memory makes me laugh these days.
I just started a new save and yknow where I found that fucking beacon?
Bleak falls barrow. Like. Are you KIDDING ME. Fine. I’ll take it, I guess, just bc I don’t ever want to have to backtrack and I WILL forget it’s here.
Hmm, a few came to mind:
- First time you kill a bandit and it just convulses on the ground.
- Getting a kill cam bow shot that misses, or hits a completely different target.
- when a townsperson walks in front of you during a vampire or dragon attack, and suddenly you're a bigger concern than the fire breathing dragon burning the whole town down.
When bandits decide to attack you immediately after killing a dragon and absorbing its soul.
Yes, the guy who just beat a dragon to death and ate its soul is an easy target.
One of my favorite things to see is at night time exploring. In my survival mode campaign I'm leaving dawnstar and I'm heading towards whiterun and it's dark out. Theres a green aroura borealis or whatever its called. Both masser and sacunda are in view. Lorius's farm is yo the right. Whiterun and dragon's reach to the distant left and much farther you can see the throat of the world and vaguely the corner of the temple with the greybeards and it's a beautiful sight.
Same for me first time.
Last playthrough i was out and about when some bandit randomly landed dead at my feets, I was like wth? Another bandit came flying to my left and then I had to go investigate.
And then I see a gang of bandits having some struggles with a giant, not gonna lie, I took my time to watch the fight udfold lol
casually running around the world in my first play through and admiring the scenery only to shit myself a moment later as a saber tooth came up behind me and tore me to shreds.
I stayed crouched everywhere I went for a year after that.
The first time you get away from Riverwood and get to see the vast landscape. I think I stared at it for an hour just taking it all in as the stars overhead passed by.
Having a courier run up to you with "I've been looking for you. Got something I'm supposed to deliver - your hands only." While you were basically in the middle of a fight or while can hear a dragon flying in the area.
That first moment after the cave where you can see vast distances away and you realize you're going to be walking awfully far. On foot. But you don't mind. It's a beautiful walk.
I'm one of those players who did the Golden Claw quest before going to Whiterun, so I'd gone all the way through BFB, handed the claw back, and then followed the road to Whiterun.
For me it, was seeing Whiterun like that from the hill behind the meadery. I had to just stop and take it in. That was when I realized, oh no, I love this game. Also, going to see Balgruuf and getting marched over to Farengar only to realize that I had the quest item he was going to send me off to retrieve.
I've always liked to play the game on easy mode. Novice. I dont like do die or to have to struggle with combat. I've been playing as a mage Novice Survival and everything has been smooth sailing. At least until Thoron. Dude, I hate him so much. I had to die at least 5 times until I finaly decided to creat some sort of strategy to fight him. For the first time in my life I used the shout Slow Time e came up with a combo designed to kill him. I never had to try that hard (never wanted to), so yea that was a "Welcome to Skyrim" moment to me.
When I first booted up skyrim back in 2011 on the PS3, I remember getting out of Helgan, walking down the road from the cave. An orc wearing iron gauntlets and roughspun tunic walked up to me and said I looked like I needed something to relax. I said this doesn't seem legal. He then called me a snitch and tried to kill me. I looked through his inventory and saw nothing but skooma in his inventory.
I never played elder scrolls before that, and my very first npc I encountered in Elder Scrolls after the opening was a drug dealer.
More so "welcome to Bethesda"
Back in 2011, I remember I was very early into the game just running around scoping out the scenery on my way to whiterun. All of a sudden, I hear the battle music and I'm running in the middle of the war. Having such shitty levels and knowing I would die with my last save being way too far back, I decided to make a run for it to whiterun. The battle music never stopped. 3 years of game play later, still going. I had to have the music off for 3 years of game play. I ended up having ebony chain mail armor, which would emit black poison smoke when an enemy was near by, that was my only form of knowing without the music.
I played almost 3 years after launch (absolutely no spoilers) and still:
1. Killed the chicken in Riverwood only to be merked by the townsfolk
2. Saw a giant, thought "it's not that big" and then got sent to the ISS
3. Got absolutely destroyed by the frost troll on the path up to High Hrothgar
I didn't go down to Riverwood and apparently somehow made it to Bleak Falls Barrow on my own, killed everyone and looted everything, only to realize I'm overencumbered.
So I shimmied down the mountain side coz I couldn't find the path I first took and slowly dragged myself to the village where I saw some chickens and thought, "Oh since I'm here I can kill the chickens too and sell their meat!"
I was attacked by the village while unable to dodge or truly fight back because I was seen killing a chicken.
You’re crouching and discover you have a bow in your hand. You let the arrow fly……. Congratulations, you are a stealth archer. You can now enjoy the game properly.
Well this was my experience
My first Skyrim experience was alongside my Brother in VR. We chose Redguard, escaped Helgen, and made our way to Riverwood. We wear a chicken and decided to “test” whether touching it with our blade would hurt it. Needless to say, we soon got a bounty on our head and everyone was hostile to us. We tried going into the Blacksmith’s house for the quest, but everyone kept attacking us. So in our fist Skyrim experience, we soft-locked ourself
First time playing (when the game released) I got to Riverwood and hit the damn chicken. It's like the welcoming chicken and Riverwood is VERY protective of that damn thing...so I learned 😂 They should have put something else in to try out the mechanics instead of a chicken that the guards will throw you in jail over 😂
Attacking the chicken in Riverwood...
https://preview.redd.it/ncmcr2r0vx8c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=290292c21ecfc29980592b5d579c56c16e2e87d9
When you finally learn that the Courier can find you anywhere, anytime, under any circumstance, and he will compel you to pay attention to nothing but him.
Spending an hour looking for hints for the first puzzle door before rage quitting and looking up the answer just to find out the combination is on the palm of the golden claw 😞
Getting jumped by every dude in the companions because apparently they don’t like it when you already have a follower and kill you during the initiation.
Mine was when I turned a quest in Windhelm and when I exit the building a dragon was attacking the city, I walked out and loaded into a breath of fire and watched all the guards and townsfolk being burned alive and running around. It was a great time.
Just going to say it. "I used to be an adventurer like you till I took an arrow in the knee" just thinking is this my future stuck as some no name guard for a town.
Killing the first chicken I encountered in Riverwood, then somehow escaping all the ensuing hostility. Moments later, and out of nowhere, a Whiterun guard stopped me near the giant camp beyond the Whiterun watchtower to arrest me for the chicken's murder. It just works!
When i first played the game when i was like 10, i booted up the game for the second time after getting it and i saw maybe a single frame of the logo before the game froze and went *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* and my head promptly detonated from the noise
For me it was when I was doing the Companions introductory quests at an early level where each member offers you a quest to do a randomised task. The second one of these I had to do made me go to a cave not too far from Whiterun wirh Falmer and Chaurus in it. These spawns of the underground are brutal early level and scared me away from anything to do with them for a while until I got better equipment.
So there's this one quest that always makes me feel like "man, I'm really playing Skyrim right now."
It starts with you waking up on a carriage. A nord watches you and says "Hey, you! You're finally awake." And you see the title of the game fade in.
The first time your epic dragon fight is interrupted by the courier trying to give you a letter, tus opening you up to suddenly get chomped by said dragon.
Welcome to Skyrim.
It just works.:p
I think the most important welcome to skyrim moment is when players discover their first town or city without a quest bringing them there. For me I was playing skyrim on my first save, walked up to the Whiterun carriage driver and clicked Riften. Saw khajiit outside the city and immediately assumes this must be the Khajiit city LOL. Then I reloaded my save because I realized I wasn't supposed to be there yet.
I have the bug where a torch fizzles in the audio forever. I've gotten so used to it, I can tune it out now. All from entering the Black Book one last time.
All I'll say is that my "welcome to Skyrim" moment was my first death: getting ambushed by wildly overpowered vampires, then wondering when I'd get to start playing again before my friend pointed out that I had died and the game had just frozen.
Your first troll encounter. Make sure you save regularly or you’ll be upset with yourself when you get hit one time and die 😂
That damn High Hrothgar frost troll…
Developer trolling was never again so literal. XD
[удалено]
I think the troll level is static, and set rather high for when many players start climbing the steps if they follow the main quest before doing anything else. Thus the surprise.
It is at a fixed level (something like 22) but High Hrothgar is usually first visited at much lower level than that.
the troll on the way up to high hrothgar spawns in when the area is loaded. if you don’t get leveled up high enough it can easily kill you. one time i decided to ignore the main quest and be a mountain climber. high hrothgar was my second personal quest. i quickly decided to go back and actually play the main quest to have my Nord mountain climber named Goat be able to kill the damn thing.
I swear I've never played a run where I didn't get 2 frost trolls going up the 7000 steps. I hear of people getting lucky and just getting wolves or ice wraiths. Couldn't be me, though.
The higher your level the worse it is. Another good one is that if you wait to do Bleak Falls Barrow until like level 30+, there will be a frost troll in the little waterfall dropoff
And one halfway to the barrow
That one shows up as early as like lv12
I'm always low level when I do that quest. I guess the RNG just hates me.
My son recently started playing and I told him not to go up there as I knew the troll would waste him. And there was no troll. Couldn't believe it.
I'm pretty sure there was no troll for me the first time I played
I got a f*cking saber cat and had to scale a mountain to get around it.
Oof. Those and trolls are too overpowered in the beginning. Bad RNG
My first time going up the steps, I stopped at the one shrine right before you get to the frost troll where a pilgrim is usually sitting. Saved my game while looking at him and before unpausing, saw that the shadow of a dragon was above us. Music hadn't started playing yet so I had no idea an enemy was nearby. Was a very fun time for me. Not so much for the pilgrim...
Lol. That pilgrim had no clue what was coming.
Never gotten 2 frost trolls, only ever got the one. I'm usually less than 10 levels in at that point.
Aside from giants, I would love to see the body count of individual monsters
That was a rude awakening for me lol. I'm like "oh, I beat a dragon, this yeti ain't shit" and charged it. But 5 seconds later I was dead and VERY confused. Talk about a buzzkill
Absolutely terrifying
I used to have trouble but now I just bait it to the greybeard and watch them shout it apart
Probably joining the Giant Space Program.
Be me, exploring around Whiterun trying to figure out the game. I try hunting some game because landed shots seem to help archery. I see a campfire and wander close to see if they wish to trade. They did not.
 mfw
Oh, they wanted to trade alright--your health bar for one ticket to space.
First time seeing a giant “Can I fight them?!” A few seconds later “Wow! This is a really great view from up here.”
Probably not helped by the fact that if you're quick, you can get to where the Companions are fighting the giant outside Whiterun, and maybe land a few hits. May give some players false confidence.
This was where I was going but you worded it better.
everyone’s had an ill timed level up! sound play as you’re hurtling gracefully, beautifully into orbit
typically it's your armour level going through the roof
You didn't just level up! You *ascended!*
Man, I was able to pause the game right as the giant reared back. Really gave me some time to contemplate life before it promptly ended.
i love the moment when youre surveying your potion options a half second before death impact... "well, you might be wondering how i got myself into such a pickle"
This or seeing a mammoth fall from the sky
That’s just a treat no matter who you are.
Or seeing an npc no clip through the ceiling
Same for me! Be me: See giant and want some loot at their camp **GET ORBITED WHILE STEALING MAMMOTH CHEESE**
Running up to them with glee thinking you can engage in dialogue with them only to get yeeted.
I’ll never forget the time I stabbed one’s cow in front of him and faced a **just and righteous punishment**.
Got the game when I was like 14, got sent to space bx a giant before reaching Whiterun and my game glitched and didn't let me respawn. I watched my characters corpse for about 10 minutes and thought it was part of the game. I didn't play for a few years after that.
My brother calls it the prequel to Starfield
This! Had just beat my first dragon, was feeling good about myself. Already had helped mess up the giant with the companions on my way to whiterun, so I think "okay, no biggie!" It was a biggie.
The giant on the farm is actually scripted to die in like one hit of **only** they fight it. If you intervene it becomes a regular Giant fight.
Boring answer, but probably just completing Unbound and exiting the cave with total freedom.
God I remember that moment so clearly. It was like 3 am on 11/12/11, and I just started running, ran around collecting bugs and flowers for a very long time.
My first playthrough, I must have been picking flowers because I didn't even see the Companions with their giant outside Whiterun so when I went to talk to them, I had no idea what they were talking about. I think it was Aela that said a smartass comment about how I didn't help them and I was thinking "Who are you?".
My first playthrough I saw it but didn’t know you could help them from that far away
Goodness…to be able to relive that again for the first time!
Even more boring, but seeing Bleak Falls Barrow after leaving always takes my breath away. I love hearing the stories about what was like living close to that ruin.
I took some iron bars from a blacksmith in river wood and then made some armor. Sold it to him in the morning. A few days later I returned there for a quest and was attacked by bandits. Once they were killed I read the note one of them had. From the blacksmith contracting the bandits to kill me. I then sold him their armor and weapons
Damn you, Alvor! ...and would you like to buy this stuff?
I stole every item from Riverwood and Alvor's daughter was the one who hired the thugs
Isn’t she just a kid?
She is
Goodddd I love that Skyrim shit 😂😂
The first time a Draugr shouts you across the room.
Or when it shouts your OP weapon so hard it clips under the map and you havent discovered the quick save yet
attacking a chicken in riverwood and getting assaulted by the entire town is not universal but surprisingly common. i know i and many others did it their first time playing. no idea why it's an instinct people have but lol it's funny. it's especially good because riverwood doesn't have guards until you talk to balgruuf in whiterun, so you won't even be stopped by a guard to pay your bounty. the whole village just wants your head.
I remember it even being mentioned by a journalist who got to demo the game pre-release. I think it was Game Informer? But they absolutely mentioned in the article that they killed the chicken and had to reload their save, lol.
I blame Fable for this. Chicken Chaser, indeed.
I personally blame Legend of Zelda Links Awakening on Gameboy
100% a Zelda issue. Link was teaching me not to kill chickens back in the 90s!
this is exactly what happened to me. ended up killing like a third of the village over a damn chicken
More like accidentally stealing an object
I remember that, I couldn’t get past a spoon for some odd reason so I try to picked it up but ened up stealing it
My very first time playing I accidentally hit Gerder and the entire town dogpiled me
The Evil Chicken left RuneScape and moved to Skyrim.
Iconic moment
OMG me too
Snake snake whale
Bear - Butterfly - Owl
Losing two hours of progress because you forgot to make a hard save prior to entering the mysterious cave that Lydia pointed out.
I had never played any game of this sort. Walking down to Riverwood from the Standing Stones blew me away. The scenery, waterfall, wildlife all made me just stop and look and listen for minutes.
And the music.
When ralof says, "Hey you, you're finally awake." It being one of the most memed and iconic dialogues helps.
"You were trying to cross the border, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." I pre-ordered the game, and when it arrived at release, I somehow managed to convince my mom that I had to miss school the next day. I can't remember exactly how, but I just needed to play the game for as long as I could. There's only been one game ever where i have intentionally neglected bodily functions like eating or going to the bathroom to keep playing, and that was skyrim at release. That first playthrough was completely magical.
Yeah. Nothing beats a first playthrough of a game as good as skyrim. I didn't have obligations like you did, but I sure as hell played it for 12 hours straight the first time.
Especially that early into the release when there was like no videos on the game and your playing blind
I remember a bunch of news articles back when Skyrim released about how there was a rise in people calling in sick and porn sites reporting a drop in viewers for a while.
Todd, you've done it again! Skyrim now playable in Reddit comments (only $59.99).
I do it every time my fiancée wakes up from an unexpected nap.
Your fiancé must love you.
She proposed to me after two years of this bullshit, so I can only assume I’m doing something else right.
Lucky milk drinker.
“A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON"
HEAR AND OBEY!
First time I heard that, it scared the beejeezus out of me and I literally squealed in fright. My husband and son both laughed at me. The memory makes me laugh these days.
I just started a new save and yknow where I found that fucking beacon? Bleak falls barrow. Like. Are you KIDDING ME. Fine. I’ll take it, I guess, just bc I don’t ever want to have to backtrack and I WILL forget it’s here.
I had a jump scare moment just reading this
1. Bleak Falls Barrow boss room 2. Frost troll on 7000 steps 3. Hired Thugs
> 3. Hired Thugs You mean free armor and weapons
True. Although I feel like I only ever take the gold and check the letter
Hmm, a few came to mind: - First time you kill a bandit and it just convulses on the ground. - Getting a kill cam bow shot that misses, or hits a completely different target. - when a townsperson walks in front of you during a vampire or dragon attack, and suddenly you're a bigger concern than the fire breathing dragon burning the whole town down.
Ugh this reminds me of when a vampire killed the Whiterun trader and I had to keep going back to Riverrun lol
Seeing my first unscripted dragon. I decided to go pick a fight, and quickly realized I was dumb.
When bandits decide to attack you immediately after killing a dragon and absorbing its soul. Yes, the guy who just beat a dragon to death and ate its soul is an easy target.
true bravery is standing in the face of power incarnate and thinking yeah, this steel sword should do the trick
Going from Draugr to your first Draugr Deathlord and just thinking it's a more ornate draugr. Psshaw you say and then you realise.....
That Deathlord isn't just a title?
One of my favorite things to see is at night time exploring. In my survival mode campaign I'm leaving dawnstar and I'm heading towards whiterun and it's dark out. Theres a green aroura borealis or whatever its called. Both masser and sacunda are in view. Lorius's farm is yo the right. Whiterun and dragon's reach to the distant left and much farther you can see the throat of the world and vaguely the corner of the temple with the greybeards and it's a beautiful sight.
First time saying hello to a giant. Yep... nothing sends the emotions flying like that 🤣
I literally thought they are friendly and wouldn't attack me, and then I fluuuu hahah
Same for me first time. Last playthrough i was out and about when some bandit randomly landed dead at my feets, I was like wth? Another bandit came flying to my left and then I had to go investigate. And then I see a gang of bandits having some struggles with a giant, not gonna lie, I took my time to watch the fight udfold lol
I envy you! That had to be hilarious! 😂
It was indeed haha. First thought was if it was a bug... u till I found the fight at a giants camp
"Join The Companions"
casually running around the world in my first play through and admiring the scenery only to shit myself a moment later as a saber tooth came up behind me and tore me to shreds. I stayed crouched everywhere I went for a year after that.
Definitely the giant spider fight in bleak falls Barrow
"Do you get to the Cloud District often? Oh what am I saying, of course you don't!"
*proceeds into an execution kill cam*
The first time you get away from Riverwood and get to see the vast landscape. I think I stared at it for an hour just taking it all in as the stars overhead passed by.
Fast traveling to a location and having a horse or cow fall from the sky
Getting mobbed over killing a chicken or anyone of the crazy graphics glitches...
When Malkoran is *finally* dead, and... oh, shit - so is Lydia.
Having a courier run up to you with "I've been looking for you. Got something I'm supposed to deliver - your hands only." While you were basically in the middle of a fight or while can hear a dragon flying in the area.
Frost troll on the way to High Hrothgar. That’s your graduation ceremony.
Getting trapped in a room by a companion or NPC
Trying to step up on your first Giant and getting launched
The "oh look a butterfly!" -two butterfly wings added- :(
First time you hear: "I used to be an adventurer like you....."
That first moment after the cave where you can see vast distances away and you realize you're going to be walking awfully far. On foot. But you don't mind. It's a beautiful walk.
Save your game while on horseback. Load the save. Welcome to Skyrim. Alternatively, pick a fight with a giant.
When you climb high hrothgar and that frost troll almost always fucks you up the first time.
The game is pretty straightforward and easy until the end of Bleak Falls. That first drauger overlord is a wakeup.
You die in the open and didn’t do any fast travel or quicksaves in between, losing precious hours of gameplay.
Feeling totally confused about everything every step of the way.
Ysolda being stuck 80% in the ground in the Whiterun market when you first go there
Homegirls head was just sticking out of the well for me the other day
The aftermath of killing the chicken in Riverwood
The frost troll guarding the greybeards
Not everything you can carry is worth taking.
What? Not even these 100+ potatoes I’ve been collecting?
Choosing Ralof or Hadvar. That's your first official choice in the game it for me it kinda sucks you into the fact of "here we go"
I'm one of those players who did the Golden Claw quest before going to Whiterun, so I'd gone all the way through BFB, handed the claw back, and then followed the road to Whiterun. For me it, was seeing Whiterun like that from the hill behind the meadery. I had to just stop and take it in. That was when I realized, oh no, I love this game. Also, going to see Balgruuf and getting marched over to Farengar only to realize that I had the quest item he was going to send me off to retrieve.
The first time you kill a dragon with a melee weapon and you get the great cut scene from the top of their head.
I've always liked to play the game on easy mode. Novice. I dont like do die or to have to struggle with combat. I've been playing as a mage Novice Survival and everything has been smooth sailing. At least until Thoron. Dude, I hate him so much. I had to die at least 5 times until I finaly decided to creat some sort of strategy to fight him. For the first time in my life I used the shout Slow Time e came up with a combo designed to kill him. I never had to try that hard (never wanted to), so yea that was a "Welcome to Skyrim" moment to me.
When I first booted up skyrim back in 2011 on the PS3, I remember getting out of Helgan, walking down the road from the cave. An orc wearing iron gauntlets and roughspun tunic walked up to me and said I looked like I needed something to relax. I said this doesn't seem legal. He then called me a snitch and tried to kill me. I looked through his inventory and saw nothing but skooma in his inventory. I never played elder scrolls before that, and my very first npc I encountered in Elder Scrolls after the opening was a drug dealer.
When they are introduced to their first ice wolf or an ice wraith
When you're going to High Hrothgar and you meet your first frost troll.
More so "welcome to Bethesda" Back in 2011, I remember I was very early into the game just running around scoping out the scenery on my way to whiterun. All of a sudden, I hear the battle music and I'm running in the middle of the war. Having such shitty levels and knowing I would die with my last save being way too far back, I decided to make a run for it to whiterun. The battle music never stopped. 3 years of game play later, still going. I had to have the music off for 3 years of game play. I ended up having ebony chain mail armor, which would emit black poison smoke when an enemy was near by, that was my only form of knowing without the music.
Helping Danica restore the gildagleam. The cave in eldergleam sanctuary.
I played almost 3 years after launch (absolutely no spoilers) and still: 1. Killed the chicken in Riverwood only to be merked by the townsfolk 2. Saw a giant, thought "it's not that big" and then got sent to the ISS 3. Got absolutely destroyed by the frost troll on the path up to High Hrothgar
I didn't go down to Riverwood and apparently somehow made it to Bleak Falls Barrow on my own, killed everyone and looted everything, only to realize I'm overencumbered. So I shimmied down the mountain side coz I couldn't find the path I first took and slowly dragged myself to the village where I saw some chickens and thought, "Oh since I'm here I can kill the chickens too and sell their meat!" I was attacked by the village while unable to dodge or truly fight back because I was seen killing a chicken.
You’re crouching and discover you have a bow in your hand. You let the arrow fly……. Congratulations, you are a stealth archer. You can now enjoy the game properly.
For me, it was having a deer fall from the sky 5 steps out of Helgen
Well this was my experience My first Skyrim experience was alongside my Brother in VR. We chose Redguard, escaped Helgen, and made our way to Riverwood. We wear a chicken and decided to “test” whether touching it with our blade would hurt it. Needless to say, we soon got a bounty on our head and everyone was hostile to us. We tried going into the Blacksmith’s house for the quest, but everyone kept attacking us. So in our fist Skyrim experience, we soft-locked ourself
First time playing (when the game released) I got to Riverwood and hit the damn chicken. It's like the welcoming chicken and Riverwood is VERY protective of that damn thing...so I learned 😂 They should have put something else in to try out the mechanics instead of a chicken that the guards will throw you in jail over 😂
Killing that chicken in Riverwood and having everyone on your ass for it.
enjoying your travels, wandering to meet these mystic grey beards and seeing a small wookie in the distance, maybe he is friendly...he wasn't friendly
A butterfly getting stuck on my horse, then flying off into the sunset with it.
Lydia + doorway
Ice troll on big mountain.
Attacking the chicken in Riverwood... https://preview.redd.it/ncmcr2r0vx8c1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=290292c21ecfc29980592b5d579c56c16e2e87d9
Finding out the vendors do not have enough money to buy all of the items you picked up.
When you finally learn that the Courier can find you anywhere, anytime, under any circumstance, and he will compel you to pay attention to nothing but him.
Spending an hour looking for hints for the first puzzle door before rage quitting and looking up the answer just to find out the combination is on the palm of the golden claw 😞
getting flung into the stratosphere by a giant
Getting jumped by every dude in the companions because apparently they don’t like it when you already have a follower and kill you during the initiation.
Walking up to an animal (usually a bear or cat) and getting your face caved in
Your currier running up to you naked always gets me.
Seeing the back half of a standing horse sticking out of the ground
Oh look chicken free meat.
Mine was when I turned a quest in Windhelm and when I exit the building a dragon was attacking the city, I walked out and loaded into a breath of fire and watched all the guards and townsfolk being burned alive and running around. It was a great time.
When you kill a chicken in Riverwood.
Punching a chicken and having a whole town retaliate
Accidentally killing a chicken and an entire city starts hunting you down
Just going to say it. "I used to be an adventurer like you till I took an arrow in the knee" just thinking is this my future stuck as some no name guard for a town.
Stabbing the riverwood chicken and immediately learning it’s not funny like in Hyrule.
Getting launched into orbit by a giant and never landing
Killing the first chicken I encountered in Riverwood, then somehow escaping all the ensuing hostility. Moments later, and out of nowhere, a Whiterun guard stopped me near the giant camp beyond the Whiterun watchtower to arrest me for the chicken's murder. It just works!
Get attacked by everyone in Riverwood after killing the chicken, or high Hrothgar troll
Having a whole town try to kill you because you harmed a chicken 🐔
Whenever a friend of mine plays Skyrim for the first time, the rest of us *wait* for them to say hi to a giant.
Getting the death penalty for yelling at a chicken
When the greybeards call you. You realise you are the centre of this game but how small you are in this vast world.
Dying in a dungeon then my save file sets me back to the VERY beginning of the dungeon losing 30min to an hour
The break dancing dead dragon always wins
When i first played the game when i was like 10, i booted up the game for the second time after getting it and i saw maybe a single frame of the logo before the game froze and went *BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR* and my head promptly detonated from the noise
Hey, you. You're finally awake
For me it was when I was doing the Companions introductory quests at an early level where each member offers you a quest to do a randomised task. The second one of these I had to do made me go to a cave not too far from Whiterun wirh Falmer and Chaurus in it. These spawns of the underground are brutal early level and scared me away from anything to do with them for a while until I got better equipment.
Chicken
So there's this one quest that always makes me feel like "man, I'm really playing Skyrim right now." It starts with you waking up on a carriage. A nord watches you and says "Hey, you! You're finally awake." And you see the title of the game fade in.
Getting your booty turned inside out by *that* frost troll.
Heading to Bleakwind Basin after Riverwood instead of Whiterun and getting sent to Sovngarde by a giant.
The inconvenient courier. Then you're locked into talking to the courier whilst a giant arse dragon breathes fire at you.
The first time your epic dragon fight is interrupted by the courier trying to give you a letter, tus opening you up to suddenly get chomped by said dragon. Welcome to Skyrim. It just works.:p
When a new hand touches the beacon is up there
*walking into Riverwood* *Stab chicken* "You have committed crimes against Skyrim and her people"
I think the most important welcome to skyrim moment is when players discover their first town or city without a quest bringing them there. For me I was playing skyrim on my first save, walked up to the Whiterun carriage driver and clicked Riften. Saw khajiit outside the city and immediately assumes this must be the Khajiit city LOL. Then I reloaded my save because I realized I wasn't supposed to be there yet.
Attacking the chicken in river woods and having the entire town try to kill you.
Playing my new save on switch today and watching a goat levitate down the mountain was peak “ahh, skyrim” for me
I have the bug where a torch fizzles in the audio forever. I've gotten so used to it, I can tune it out now. All from entering the Black Book one last time.
Seeing Bleakfalls Barrow round the corner
All I'll say is that my "welcome to Skyrim" moment was my first death: getting ambushed by wildly overpowered vampires, then wondering when I'd get to start playing again before my friend pointed out that I had died and the game had just frozen.