Skyrim Console Commands List: How to Actually Use Them Without Breaking Your Save

You're stuck. It happens to everyone in Bethesda games. Maybe a dragon clipped through a mountain, or perhaps that one quest NPC decided to take a permanent nap inside a stone wall. You need the skyrim console commands list not just to cheat, but to survive the beautiful, buggy mess that is the Elder Scrolls V.

Let's be real. Skyrim is a masterpiece, but it’s held together by digital duct tape. I've spent over a decade in this game, from the original 2011 launch to the Anniversary Edition, and I’ve learned that the console is essentially your "God Mode" toolkit for fixing—or breaking—the world of Tamriel.

To open it up, you just hit the tilde key (~). It's right there under the Escape button. If you're on a non-US keyboard, it might be the grave accent (`) or even the section sign (§). Type a command, hit enter, and watch the magic happen. Or watch your game crash.

The Basics You’ll Use Every Single Time

Most people think the skyrim console commands list is just for getting 100,000 gold or turning off clipping. While those are great, there are specific utility commands that actually save you hours of frustration.

Take tgm, for instance. Traditional God Mode. You don’t take damage, and you have infinite magicka and stamina. It’s the ultimate "I just want to get to the top of this mountain without fighting three Frost Trolls" button. But did you know about tim? That stands for Toggle Immortal Mode. You still take damage, your health bar goes to zero, but you just... don't die. It’s actually better for testing combat mods because you can still see how much damage you're taking without the "Game Over" screen interrupting your flow.

Then there’s tcl. Toggle No Clip. It is the single most important command in the game. If you get stuck in a crevice in the Reach (which I do constantly), just type tcl and walk through the air. Pro tip: make sure you aren't targeting anything when you type it, or the command might apply to the rock you're looking at instead of your character.

Moving Fast and Breaking Things

If you're tired of walking from Riften to Solitude, you've got options. coc (Center on Cell) followed by a location ID like whiterunoriginstop or riverwood will teleport you instantly. It bypasses loading screens in a way that fast travel doesn't.

Need to find someone? player.moveto [NPC ID] is your best friend. If Lydia disappears with all your dragon bones, this is how you find her. Conversely, use prid [NPC ID] followed by moveto player to bring her back to you. I can't count how many times I've had to summon Serana from the void because her AI got snagged on a staircase in Dawnguard.

Power Leveling and Character Tweaks

Let's talk about the skyrim console commands list for when you're on your tenth playthrough and just can't be bothered to grind Smithing again. It's tedious. We all know it.

You could use advskill smithing 1000000, which gives you a massive chunk of experience. Note that advskill uses raw experience points, not level numbers. If you want to just set a level, use player.setav smithing 100. But wait—there's a nuance here. setav (set attribute value) is a "soft" set. If you use a potion or gear that boosts the skill, it might recalculate. forceav is the "hard" set. Use it sparingly, as it can occasionally mess with perk requirements.

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The Most Common Character Commands

• player.additem 0000000f 1000 — This gives you 1,000 gold. The "f" is the ID for gold. You don't actually need the leading zeros; player.additem f 1000 works just fine.
• showracemenu — This lets you redesign your character. Be careful here. If you change your race, it can reset your stats and skills. Always save before doing this.
• player.modav carryweight 5000 — Because inventory management is the least fun part of any RPG.
• player.setlevel 50 — Changes your level. Note: this does not grant you the perks or attribute points you would have earned along the way.

Fixing Broken Quests (The Advanced Stuff)

This is where the skyrim console commands list becomes a surgical tool. Skyrim quests break. Often. You'll find yourself standing in front of a door that won't open or talking to a character who won't give you the next dialogue prompt.

The command sqt (Show Quest Targets) is your starting point. It lists the internal names of your active quests. Once you have the quest ID (like MQ101 for the opening quest), you can use getstage [QuestID] to see where you are.

If a quest is stuck, setstage [QuestID] [StageNumber] is the fix. You’ll need to look up the specific stage numbers on a wiki like UESP or the Elder Scrolls Fandom. Usually, stages move in increments of 10 or 20. If a door is supposed to open at stage 40 and it hasn't, manually setting it to 40 or 50 will usually trigger the script.

Resurrecting the Dead

Ever have a dragon attack a town and kill the shopkeeper you needed? It’s annoying. Open the console, click the dead body, and type resurrect.

Sometimes, the body has already de-spawned. That's a nightmare. You have to find the NPC's RefID, then use prid [RefID], then enable, then resurrect, then moveto player. It’s a lot of work to get Belethor back behind his counter, but sometimes you just need to sell your junk.

World Manipulation and Aesthetics

If you're into Skyrim photography or just want a better atmosphere, the console is a goldmine. tm (Toggle Menus) hides the HUD. It’s perfect for screenshots. Just remember that it also hides the console itself, so you'll be typing blind when you want to turn the HUD back on.

tfc (Toggle Free Camera) lets you fly around the map while your character stays put. Use tfc 1 to also freeze time. This is how people get those incredible action shots of a sword mid-swing.

Want to change the weather? sw [WeatherID] (Set Weather) or fw [WeatherID] (Force Weather). If you want that iconic Sovngarde sky in the middle of a tundra, fw 00045c82 is your ticket.

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Interaction Commands

• unlock — Point at a locked chest or door, click it, type this. Boom. No more lockpicking mini-games.
• kill — Instantly kills the targeted creature. Cheap? Yes. Satisfying when a Slaughterfish is keeping you in combat for no reason? Absolutely.
• setscale [number] — Make yourself a giant or make a chicken the size of a house. setscale 0.5 makes you tiny, while setscale 2 makes you a behemoth.
• killall — Deletes every hostile entity in the immediate vicinity. Use with caution in cities.

The Risks: Why You Should Save Often

I can't emphasize this enough: the console is a developer tool, not a gameplay feature. It can corrupt your save if you aren't careful. If you complete a quest via the console, you might skip a script that was supposed to trigger a later quest. Suddenly, the main storyline is dead, and you can't progress.

Always create a manual save (not a quicksave) before messing with quest stages or global variables like set timescale to [number]. Default timescale is 20. If you set it to 1, time moves at a real-world pace. If you set it to 0, you might break the game's calendar and NPC schedules forever.

Also, be wary of the disable command. It hides an object from the game world. If you click the wrong thing—like the floor of a dungeon—and type disable, it's gone. If you don't immediately type enable, you're going to have a hard time selecting that invisible floor again to bring it back.

Essential Cheat Sheet for Quick Reference

Since looking up IDs is the hardest part, here are the ones you'll use most frequently when browsing a skyrim console commands list.

• Gold: 0000000f
• Lockpick: 0000000a
• Daedric Heart: 0003ad5b
• Black Soul Gem (Grand): 0002e504
• Dragon Shouts: player.teachword [WordID] then player.unlockword [WordID]

For those of you trying to furnish a house without hunting for materials, player.additem 0003ada4 50 gives you fifty Iron Ingots. It’s much faster than visiting every blacksmith in the province.

Modern Context: 2026 and Modding

In 2026, many of us are playing heavily modded versions of the game via Wabbajack lists or Nexus Collections. Interestingly, some mods actually disable the console or change how it interacts with the game engine. If your console isn't opening, check your Skyrim.ini file or your mod manager settings.

Some modern "Fix-it" mods like Engine Fixes actually resolve the bugs that used to require console commands. However, having a solid grasp of the skyrim console commands list remains the "Old Guard" way of ensuring your 200-hour save file doesn't end up in the digital trash bin because a script failed to fire.

Honestly, the console is as much a part of the Skyrim experience as the music or the shouts. It’s the ultimate "What If" machine. What if I fought 50 dragons at once? player.placeatme 0001633d 50. It will probably melt your GPU, but that's the beauty of it.

Actionable Next Steps

If you’re ready to start tweaking your game, here is how you should approach it to keep your save safe:

1. Backup Your Save: Before trying a new command, go to the pause menu and hit "Save." Do not rely on autosaves.
2. Test in Small Doses: Don't try to change your race, level, and quest stage all at once. Do one, check the game, then do the next.
3. Use the Help Command: If you don't know an ID, type help "Item Name" 4. For example, help "Ebony Sword" 4 will list every ID associated with that string.
4. Targeting Verification: When you click an object in the console, a hex code appears (e.g., "(00013475)). Always double-check that this code matches what you think you're looking at before typing kill or disable.

The skyrim console commands list is a power trip, but use it to enhance your story, not replace it. Skyrim is about the journey, even if that journey occasionally requires flying through a wall to find a missing follower.

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