You’ve been there. You’re deep in some Forsworn-infested hole in the Reach, swinging a leveled mace like a pool noodle, and realizing your damage output is absolutely pathetic. It happens to the best of us. Whether you’re trying to build a classic sword-and-board tank or a sneaky dual-dagger assassin, the grind for those early levels in the One-Handed tree is arguably the most tedious part of a new playthrough. You could go find a horse to beat up or spend three hours let’s-playing with a captive Greybeard, but honestly? Just find a Skyrim one handed trainer. It saves time. It saves your sanity. And if you know what you’re doing with the "follower trade" exploit or some well-placed Pickpocketing, it’s basically free.
The thing about Skyrim is that the world doesn’t wait for you to get good. If you're level 20 but your combat skills are lagging because you spent too much time picking flowers and making iron daggers, a Draugr Deathlord is going to ruin your afternoon. One-Handed is the bread and butter of almost every build that isn't a dedicated mage or a two-handed brute. It's about speed. It's about getting those critical hits from the "Bladesman" perk or the bleeding damage from "Hack and Slash." But to get those perks, you need the base level. You need the trainers.
The Early Game Grind: Amren and the Whiterun Shortcut
Most players meet their first Skyrim one handed trainer within twenty minutes of arriving in Whiterun. His name is Amren. He’s usually wandering the wind district or standing near the market, arguing with his wife about a lost family sword.
Amren is a Common-level trainer. This means he can only take you up to level 50. For a starting character, this is gold. If you help him find his sword—usually stashed in a nearby bandit camp like Redoran's Retreat or Silent Moons Camp—he’ll be much friendlier. The trick here is the economy of it. Early on, gold is tight. You’re scraping together septims from urns just to buy a room at the Bannered Mare. If you have the "Thief" stone active, you’ll learn faster, but training costs are fixed. One strategy I’ve used for years involves training with Amren, then immediately pickpocketing the gold back. It levels two skills at once, though you’ll want to save-scum because the Whiterun guards are notoriously nosy.
But maybe you don't want to be a thief. Maybe you're a "noble warrior" type. In that case, you just have to bite the bullet and pay the man. Amren is convenient because he's right there. You don't have to trek to the frozen wastes of Winterhold or the swamps of Morthal to find him. He’s just a guy with a sword and a missing heirloom, waiting to help you stop sucking at combat.
Joining the Companions: Athis and the Perks of Membership
If you’re serious about melee, you’re going to Jorrvaskr eventually. Once you’re inducted into the Companions, you get access to Athis. Now, Athis is a bit of a weird one. He’s a Dunmer in a hall full of Nords, and he’s an Expert-level Skyrim one handed trainer.
He can get you all the way to level 75.
The beauty of Athis isn’t just his skill level; it’s his location. Since he lives in Jorrvaskr, he’s always around. More importantly, if you follow the Companions questline through to the end and he becomes a follower, the game’s economy breaks in your favor. You can ask him to follow you, pay him for training, and then just open his inventory to take your gold back. Is it cheating? Technically, no. It’s "managing resources." Bethesda never patched it, so as far as the Elder Scrolls universe is concerned, it’s a valid pedagogical technique.
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Athis is often overlooked because people focus on Vilkas for Two-Handed or Aela for Archery. Don't make that mistake. Level 75 is where the One-Handed perks really start to matter. You’re looking at "Savage Strike," which gives you that 25% damage bonus to standing power attacks and the chance to decapitate enemies. There is nothing more satisfying in Skyrim than a well-timed decapitation animation in the middle of a chaotic fort raid.
Finding the Master: Burguk in the Orc Strongholds
When you hit that wall at level 75, Athis can't help you anymore. You need a Master. You need Chief Burguk.
Burguk is located in Dushnikh Yal. If you aren't playing an Orc, getting into the stronghold is its own ordeal. You’ll have to find the "Forgemaster's Fingers" or do a favor for an Orc to become "Blood-Kin." It’s a bit of a trek, located in the Reach, south of Markarth. The scenery is depressing—lots of jagged rocks and Forsworn briarhearts trying to poke your eyes out. But Burguk is the real deal. He’s the only Master-level Skyrim one handed trainer who is consistently available without completing a massive, world-altering questline.
Burguk will take you from 75 to 90.
Why only 90? Because in Skyrim, no trainer can take you to 100. That final stretch from 90 to 100 is your "thesis." You have to earn it by actually hitting things. Or, if you’re smart, you save the Oghma Infinium or the Skill Books for those last ten levels.
Essential One-Handed Skill Books
- 2920, Morning Star, v1
- Fire and Darkness
- The Importance of Where
- Mace Etiquette
- Night Falls on Sentinel
Don't read these when you find them! This is a rookie mistake. If you read Mace Etiquette when your skill is 15, you’ve wasted a level that would have cost you 200 gold. If you read it when your skill is 94, you’ve saved yourself about 4,000 gold and three hours of grinding. Stash them in a chest in Breezehome and wait.
The Weird Alternative: Sibbi Black-Briar
There is one more "expert" trainer people always forget. Sibbi Black-Briar. He’s currently cooling his heels in the Riften Jail. If you can get past the guards or talk your way into the cell block, he can train you up to level 75.
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Honestly, dealing with Sibbi is a pain. He’s arrogant, he’s a Black-Briar, and he’s stuck behind bars. Most players find it easier to just stick with Athis or head to the Orcs. But if you’re doing the Thieves Guild questline and find yourself in Riften often, Sibbi is a viable Skyrim one handed trainer to keep in your back pocket. Just don't expect him to be nice about it.
Maximizing Your Training Sessions
You only get five skill training sessions per character level. This is the "hard cap" that prevents you from becoming a god before you even leave Whiterun.
To make the most of your time with a Skyrim one handed trainer, you need to stack your buffs. Always sleep in a bed you own (or with a spouse) to get the "Well Rested" or "Lover's Comfort" bonus. This gives you a 10% to 15% boost to all skill gains. If you have the Lover Stone active (located near Markarth), that’s another 15%. While these don't reduce the cost of training, they make the manual grinding you do between training sessions much faster.
One nuance people miss: the cost of training scales exponentially.
- Levels 1-25 are cheap.
- Levels 26-50 are moderate.
- Levels 51-75 are where you start feeling the pinch.
- Levels 76-90 are prohibitively expensive for most early-game characters.
If you’re playing on Legendary difficulty, you cannot afford to have a low offensive skill. The enemies have too much health. You’ll be swinging a sword for twenty minutes just to kill a Snowy Sabre Cat. By utilizing a Skyrim one handed trainer, you ensure your damage keeps pace with the enemy scaling.
The "Free" Training Method (The Follower Loophole)
I mentioned this briefly with Athis, but it's worth explaining properly because it's the most powerful tool in your kit. In the base game (non-patched/unmodded), if a trainer is also your follower, the gold you pay them goes directly into their inventory.
- Hire/Recruit the trainer (Athis is the best candidate for One-Handed).
- Ask them to train you.
- Pay the gold.
- Select "I need to trade some things with you."
- Take your gold back.
This effectively allows you to hit level 75 in One-Handed for zero septims. If you are using the Unofficial Skyrim Patch (USSEP), this has been "fixed." The gold will no longer appear in their inventory. If you're on a vanilla console run or playing without that specific patch, it still works. If you are using the patch, you’ll have to rely on Pickpocketing to get that money back, which is much riskier but arguably more "lore-friendly" for a rogue character.
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Why One-Handed Matters More Than You Think
A lot of players get distracted by the flashiness of Destruction magic or the raw power of Two-Handed warhammers. But One-Handed is the most versatile tree in the game.
Think about the gear. You have the Nightingale Blade, Chillrend (which has the highest base damage of almost any one-handed weapon if found at level 46+), and Dawnbreaker. These weapons have unique enchantments that only work if you're actually hitting things. If your One-Handed skill is low, the enchantments are carrying you, but your base physical damage is trash.
By hitting the trainers early, you unlock "Fighting Stance," which reduces the stamina cost of power attacks by 25%. That is a game-changer. It means the difference between being able to stun-lock a Giant and running out of breath while he prepares to launch you into the stratosphere.
Actionable Steps for Your Playthrough
If you’re starting a new save today, here is exactly how you should handle your One-Handed progression:
- Levels 1-20: Just play the game. Hit wolves, bandits, and the occasional Draugr. Use the Thief Stone.
- Levels 20-50: Go to Whiterun. Find Amren. Complete his short quest to find his family sword. Use your 5 training sessions every time you level up until you hit 50.
- Levels 50-75: Join the Companions. Work through the "Proving Honor" quest so Athis will talk to you. Train with him. If you aren't using the Unofficial Patch, make him a follower and get your gold back.
- Levels 75-90: Head to Dushnikh Yal in the Reach. Become Blood-Kin to the Orcs. Pay Chief Burguk for the Master-level training. This will be expensive—expect to drop 20,000+ gold here.
- Levels 90-100: This is where you pull those skill books out of your chest. Read all five books to jump to 95. If you have the Oghma Infinium from the "Discerning the Transmundane" quest, use the Path of Might to hit 100.
Following this path ensures you never feel underpowered. You won't be that guy struggling against a group of bandits at level 30 because you forgot to level your primary combat skill.
Don't ignore the trainers. Skyrim is a huge game, and while grinding skills manually is part of the charm, sometimes you just want to get to the part where you're a whirlwind of steel and death. Athis, Amren, and Burguk are there to make sure that happens sooner rather than later. Get your gold ready—or your pickpocketing fingers—and go find them.