I've had this game for 2 weeks and have had 30+ hours of gameplay. I love the game, but I'm only level 12. I don't usually do many missions but I am quite far into the main story. Skyrim is my first Elder Scrolls game :/
I started playing as a mage and recently changed to an archer, but there's things I don't understand. I've seen videos of people running around with enchanted weapons, I always knew you can enchant but never knew how and never thought I would need to, but now missions are getting harder and it looks like I'm going to need to enchant. I also know you can capture souls for some reason or another, but what does catching souls do and what crystal do you need to do it? Also, what is the best and most fun character to play? Archer, mage, thief, warrior? Can anyone help me out D=

Um...maybe you need the strategy guide or something....

There is an in-game help system inside the "system menu." It will answer all your questions. As far as switching "classes" mid play through, i'd advise against it, unless you are efficient at using your archer skills and magic skills together. Otherwise, you are wasting perks.

See help menu. hit start in game.

To enchant you need a soul gem of a good enough quality to capture your opponents soul. You capture the soul of an opponent by killing them whilst they are under the soul trap effect, available from most court wizards and from the college of winterhold. Without overcomplicating things, the races of man and mer, as well as the 2 beast races (the playable races in other words) have 'black' souls, which require a black soul gem to hold. The vast majority of creatures are considered to have 'white' souls and can be held by any soul gem of a high enough quality.

Pre-filled soul gems are widely available from merchants and will save you the time and effort needed to capture souls.

Soul ranks in order of power, value and use for enchanting, starting from lowest to highest:

Petty
Lesser
Common
Greater
Grand/Black

Once you get used to the system you can persue a certain well known Daedric artifact which functions as a soul gem, and in doing so gain a greater understanding of the system.

TL;DR buy a soulgem from a merchant, use soul trap on a creature and kill it, use an enchanting workbench.

I'll help

I believe Enchanting is one of the most important side jobs you can learn in SKYRIM.

The basics are as follows.

1. Disenchant a item at an Enchanting station. You do this by taking an already existing item that is enchanted to learn that enchantment
2. Now that you have the knowledge of that enchantment you choose an item to enchant from your inventory
3. Select the Enchantment
4. Select a soul gem that is already filled with a soul.

That's the basics. However there are different size soul gems that can hold different size souls. For instance a Lesser soul gem will capture things like Wolf souls and such. There are a couple of ways to capture souls. the one I use is through a spell you can buy through a Mage in Whiterun that is located in the same building as the Jarl. once you learn the spell all you need to do is shoot this spell on the enemy and then kill it within 60 seconds. Depending on your level will dictate whether you can capture that soul along with the appropriate size soul gem.

Hope that helps.

You could always just turn the difficulty down a bit and turn it back up later when you're doing better. Raise your Health a lot too! Even if you're a mage (especially if you're a mage).. it isn't fun getting 1 hit. I also found conjuration to be easy to play/level up, so you could do that too if you're struggling to beat the game. Nothing like having two dremora lords killing stuff for you!

To enchant you need to find one of those round tables with glowing blue runes(?) on it. To get enchantments you need to actually 'disenchant' an item, destroying it, but gaining its enchantment for use on whatever you want (with limits). I'd go into detail, but you're probably better off reading a guide or using a wikia. There's two of um I use and read during loading screens or whenever I take a break: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Main_Page / http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_Wiki

Some weapons will fill sole gems in your inventory automatically for you.

I'd advise against turning the difficulty down. You'll hit less often (since you'll kill faster) and be hit less often (same reason). Each is a condition for advancing weapon/armor skills. You'll level slower on novice than you will at a higher level.

Or fly through a level locked dungeon if you have any (you already been there). Takes almost no effort at all, easy peasy. I find buying filled soul gems too expensive . As assassin with two charged weapons (4 with both my bows) I go through soul gems fast.

You can enchant weapons and armor at an Enchanting Altar, which you can find at your local Jarl, or his mage anyway. To add an enchantment, you need a Soul Gem. Soul Gems range from petty to grand and may or may not contain a soul already. Petty gems are too weak to be useful for enchanting, so I usually just use them to recharge my weapons. To capture a soul in a Soul Gem, you need either a Soul Trap spell or a weapon with a Soul Trap enchantment on it - you may get lucky to find one of these in a dungeon. You also need an empty Soul Gem. If you cast Soul Trap on the monster and it dies while the spell is active, you catch its soul. Not every soul is equal. Some are petty or small, such as skeevers, others are grand, such as... I don't know, Dragon Priests...? A big soul will not fit in a small Soul Gem, but a small soul will fit in a big Soul Gem, although that is a bit of a waste and should be avoided.
Finally you need an enchantment. Unlike previous TES titles, this time around you need to disenchant stuff to learn the enchantment. That can be done at the altar too.
Now, I've found I don't need to cast Soul Trap - there are plenty of filled Soul Gems lying about here and there.

As for "classes", play whatever suits you. I would recommend you don't get a companion and certainly not a horse if you go for a sneaky theif type character. But just try stuff out, save often and be prepared to make mistakes and start over.

Hope it helped.

Okay thanks guys/girls. It helped me =D

uesp.net

The best resource if you need information.