Do the Oghma Infinium Glitch in Skyrim

The Oghma Infinium Glitch is a known error in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim that allows players to instantly gain XP points. This bug can be abused to easily increase the level of the main character without having to roam around the entire Skyrim world. Being able to do this glitch that you complete a certain quest, but it’s pretty easy to accomplish.

Steps

Retrieving the Oghma Infinium

  1. Start the “Discerning the Transmundane” quest. This quest is part of the main storyline, which can be obtained from a non-playable character named Septimus Signus, who resides inside his outpost—an ice cave north of Winterhold.
    • The best way to easily reach Septimus Signus is by playing through the main storyline of the game. Right after you’ve talked to Paarthurnax (one of the main dragons in the game), you’ll eventually get the opportunity to talk with Septimus and receive this quest.
  2. Do the quest. The first objective of the quest is to collect 5 blood samples namely from: Orc, Falmer, Dark Elf, Wood Elf, and High Elf. To harvest bloods, kill or approach the carcasses of each of these five races and search it.
    • If you’ve already activated the quest, a menu should appear asking you if you’d like to “Harvest Blood” or “Search.” You can do both on a single carcass.
    • Alive and dead bodies of these 5 races can be found all over Skyrim, especially inside dungeons or wide fields, so keep a close look out.
  3. Reach level 15. Although the “Discerning the Transmundane” quest can be started at any level, Septimus will only give you the Oghma Infinium book if you’re level 15 or above. Roam around the Skyrim world and kill a few enemies to get that much-needed level.
    • If you’ve played through the game normally or have harvested the blood samples without any cheating, then you should only be around one level behind 15.
  4. Complete the quest. Go back to Septimus Signus and talk to him to give him the blood samples you’ve gathered. Once you’ve handed it to him, he’ll go up the large circle door and open it.
  5. Get the Oghma Infinium. Once Septimus opens the circle door, follow him down, and inside you’ll see a book rested upon a stand; this is the Oghma Infinium. Septimus will approach it first but will instantly burst into ashes the moment he reads it.
    • Once he’s dead, approach the book and put it inside your bag.

Doing the Oghma Infinium Glitch

  1. Find a house with an empty bookshelf. Fast travel to any town or places where there’ll be a house with an empty bookshelf inside. Choose one that doesn’t have any other books stored inside, or find one and take out all the books first before using it.
    • It doesn’t matter whether you own the house or not, but the best house to do it would be the one you have in Whiterun.
  2. Activate the bookshelf. Approach the bookshelf and press the interaction button on your controller to activate it. A menu will open on the left side of your screen showing both the books on the bookshelf and the ones in your inventory.
  3. Read the book. Using the bookshelf menu, scroll down to the list of books in your inventory and select the “Oghma Infinium”; press the “Read” button to read it. Now, Oghma Infinium has three sections that you can read, each sections adds five points to six of your skill traits:
    • Path of Might — Heavy Armor, One-Handed, Smithing, Two-Handed Weapon Handling, Archery, and Block
    • Path of Shadow — Light Armor, Speech, Pickpocket, Alchemy, Sneak, and Lockpicking
    • Path of Magic — Destruction, Restoration, Conjuration, Illusion, Alteration, and Enchanting
  4. Place the book back to the bookshelf. After reading the Oghma Infinium, press the “Store” button on your controller and the book will be placed inside the bookshelf. You’ll see that the Oghma Infinium has been stored there.
  5. Take the book. Without exiting the bookshelf menu, press the “Read” button again to read the Oghma Infinium, now on the bookshelf, once more, but DO NOT activate any of the three sections.
    • Once the book is open in view, press the “Take” button to add it back to your bag.
  6. Activate the bookshelf again. Press the “Activate” button once more to open the bookshelf menu, just like what you did in Step 2.
  7. Read the book again. Using the bookshelf menu, read the Oghma Infinium again and select one of the three sections. You should still be able to gain more experience points.
  8. Repeat these steps. You can continue using the bookshelf and reading the book up until you reach the maximum level for all your skills.

Tips

  • Make sure that you only read the Oghma Infinium from the bookshelf menu and that you do not exit this menu while you’re doing the glitch. The Oghma Infinium, once read, will immediately be removed from your possession if you access it directly from your bag.

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Sources and Citations