The Ultimate Skyrim Carry Weight Guide: From Basic Survival to Infinite Capacity

Understanding Skyrim's Carry Weight Mechanics

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, managing your inventory is a core part of the gameplay loop. Your capacity is primarily determined by your base value of 300 plus your character's Stamina.

Key Stat Relationships

• Carry weight is the total weight your character can hold.
• Allocating 10 points into Stamina when leveling up permanently increases your carry weight by 5 units (or 0.5 carry weight per single Stamina point).
• This creates a direct link between combat efficacy and looting capacity, encouraging players to balance their stat investments.

Effects That Boost Carry Weight

Several effects can significantly boost this limit. These effects are cumulative, allowing for strategic stacking.

• The Steed Stone provides a flat +100 to carry weight and makes all equipped armor weightless.
• The Pickpocket skill tree offers the Extra Pockets perk, which adds a further +100 carry weight.

Survival Mode Changes

The introduction of Survival Mode drastically alters this dynamic.

• It reduces the base carry weight from 300 to 150, but does not remove the Stamina investment bonus to carry weight.
• This slashes your base capacity and makes every item feel substantially heavier.
• In this mode, the Steed Stone's benefits become almost essential for lengthy expeditions.

Advanced Crafting: Enchantments and Potions

In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, carry weight solutions are highly valuable. Two primary methods exist: permanent enchantments on gear and temporary potions.

Enchantments

Enchantments provide a reliable, passive boost. The base effect, Fortify Carry Weight, adds a permanent +15 to capacity per piece of enchanted apparel.

• This increase is modest per item, but it stacks across multiple pieces.
• Powerful pre-enchanted gear can be found, such as the Steel Boots of Hauling.
• To maximize this method, players use Fortify Enchanting potions to craft superior gear.

Key Fortify Enchanting Recipe

The key recipe—Snowberries and Blue Butterfly Wing—creates a potion that temporarily boosts the Enchanting skill. This allows for stronger carry weight enchantments on created gear.

Potions

Potions offer a substantial but temporary capacity increase. These are ideal for looting dungeons or transporting large hauls.

• They can grant +20, +30, or even higher capacity boosts for 300 seconds.
• This far exceeds what a single enchantment provides.

Key Potion Ingredients

Potions of Fortify Carry Weight are crafted using various ingredient combinations. Key pairs include:

• Coda Flower + Kagouti Hide (from Dragonborn DLC)
• Coda Flower + Marshmerrow (Dragonborn DLC)
• Creeper Cluster + Giant's Toe + Hawk Beak
• Scaly Pholiota + Worm's Head Cap (Dragonborn DLC)

Follower Management and Inventory Solutions

Managing Follower Carry Weight

A core function of any Skyrim follower is to act as a mobile storage unit. You can command a follower to pick up or take items, vastly increasing your collective carrying capacity.

The Hidden Inventory Bug

This system is notoriously fragile. A common issue is the hidden inventory bug.

• Followers retain "ghost" items that continue to count against their carry weight.
• These items are often quest-related and are not visible in their inventory menu.
• This can render a follower unable to carry anything new.

Fixes and Solutions

For a quick fix, players on PC can use console commands. Select the follower in the console and use showinventory to identify hidden items. You can then remove them with the removeitem <BaseID> <Quantity> command.

Modern modding solutions offer more robust fixes.

• Nether's Follower Framework (NFF) is a comprehensive overhaul that includes options to manage follower carry weight and reset their inventory.
• Mods like Shared Burdens introduce a carry weight pooling system. This creates a shared inventory among all current followers.

Console Commands for Ultimate Control

Managing Your Inventory with Console Commands

The console offers direct solutions for carry weight. Three primary commands handle this, each with distinct effects.

Set Carry Weight

The player.setav carryweight [value] command sets your base carry weight to a new value. However, this change is often temporary and can be overwritten by game events.

Modify Carry Weight

For a reliable, permanent increase, the player.modav carryweight [value] command is ideal.

• This command modifies the current base value by adding your specified number.
• This change is integrated into your character's base stats and persists through saves.
• It is the recommended method for a lasting solution.

Force Carry Weight

The player.forceav carryweight [value] command forces the attribute to a specific value and locks it there.

• While powerful, it can permanently break natural stat progression.
• It is generally not advised for casual use.

God Mode

The ToggleGodMode (tgm) command allows you to ignore the speed penalty from being over-encumbered and enables fast-travel while over-encumbered, but does not actually increase your carry weight stat. Importantly, using tgm does NOT disable achievements. For a permanent carry-weight increase, use player.modav carryweight <value>, which also does not affect achievements.

Best Practices

• Always create a backup save before using console commands.
• Start with reasonable values (e.g., player.modav carryweight 100) to maintain game balance.
• For alternative methods, the community has developed numerous quality-of-life mods.

Conclusion: Mastering Skyrim's Inventory System

Managing carry weight is essential for enjoying Skyrim's rich looting and crafting systems. The most effective approach combines multiple strategies.

Recommended Strategies

• Invest in stamina during level-ups.
• Utilize the Steed Stone's powerful benefits.
• Craft temporary potions for major hauling expeditions.
• Properly manage follower inventories.

Customization and Balance

For players who find the vanilla limitations too restrictive, console commands and mods offer flexible solutions. Remember that balance is key. While unlimited carry weight might seem appealing, it can remove an important strategic element from the game. The best approach is one that enhances your enjoyment while maintaining the challenge that makes Skyrim's exploration rewarding.