Just curious...how much slower does the game level you, once you hit the magical 50? I know the hard cap is 80 and that's cool, but how much slower does it take to level compared to before you hit the cap?

Bumpy because I'd like to know as well. Is there an actual mathematical curve to the progression rate, or is it just a theoretical curve because you have to start leveling minor skills at this point?

I think it's because you usually have to level your lower skills at that point, and those don't provide much xp each.

If it slows down in a significant way, I hope there'll be a mod that allows you to 'tweak' the progression rate. That would be really cool and would make the game more enjoyable and less tedious in my opinion.

It does not magically get super slow. It's really not much different than going from 48>49. 50 is the cap where monsters stop leveling with you not when you suddenly start getting slow.

the term "soft cap" is misleading. it has more to do with mob stop scaling after 50

Sounds to me that there is no inherent difference between leveling from sub 50, to post 50, other than theoretically, leveling up your "main" skills should roughly take you to 50.

But since everyone "focuses" on a different number of skills, everyone's "soft cap" is going to be slightly different.

Leveling past 50 doesn't inherently get "slower", but because at that point you're looking at leveling skills that you haven't been using all game, then leveling is going to take a turn towards "slow" because you have to start leveling up the little skills.

Which means once I hit that point, I will probably start buying my levels by training those "minor" skills that still somewhat fit my character so I can get the remaining perks that I'm looking for.

I assume you just keep leveling until all your skills are maxed out.

& then u can go to jail, lose skills and lvl up more.

There's no soft cap on anything like that

Each skill increased contributes to an invisible pool of experience points that the game keeps track of. The amount of XP points given by each skill increase is equal to the new level reached (ie increasing a skill from 40 to 41 nets 41 XP points). A new level is reached once the accumulated XP points reach a predefined threshold.

This threshold is calculated via iteration using the formula:

(Current Level - 1) * 25 +100 + summation of past thresholds

That means that 100 XP points are needed to advance to level 2, 225 for level three, 375 for level four, etc...

As the level increases, more and more XP points are needed. To reach level 50, 34300 XP points are needed, equal to about 7 skills maxed out. The maximum theoretical level that can be reached is 81 with all 18 skills maxed out.

The formula is really simple and you can predict your build which level it will reach using a simple xls worksheet.

leveling doest go to a snails pass in an instance lower level skills compared to your average level of skills will not add as much to your leveling but thats as far as it goes

level 45-50 is just where enemys cap in terms of scaling after this point only guards will still scale

You actually require more skills to level up after 50. I've had to progress 12 or 13 skills to level up as opposed to 10. I am level 55 now, so I've been keeping close track on the skill levels. That's why it slows down. I would assume that as you get higher more are required? I am not sure.


EDIT: Contrary to what some people have been saying, at least in my own personal experience, the skill level has nothing to do with the contribution to levelling. A skill going from 20 to 21 contributes just as much as one going from 90 to 91. Another reason that levelling slows after 50 is because by that point you will probably have a lot of skills that are higher level. Meaning that you need to cast more spells and shoot more arrows to level those skills up some more, therefore slowing down the rate that your overall level goes up.

Yes past lvl 50 it does sem like you need more skillups to get a lvl. I have a 55 too and it seems to take so much longer. Most people by lvl 50 will also have their skills they want maxxed allready. So to continue lvling you need to change your playstyle and start working skills you never used. So if your heavy armor skill is 100 start using light armor because the heavy armor will no contribute to you getting skillups for exp. I think Elys made a mod that took this away though so you can still get skillups even if you are capped at 100. The oblivion version worked well so I imagine the version she made for this would work just as good.

very very VERY interesting and fascinating replies and explanations guys! Thanks!

I actually am not worried about skills that I have that are really high, I was actually worried about whether or not I will be able to level at the same rate so that I can continue to put perks into skills I HAVEN'T placed them in yet, such as Enchantment, Sneak, and Speech. It's the fact that I am already level 48, and have not put ONE single perk into Enchantment, DESPITE my enchantment skill being lvl 60. How long will it be until I can put at least 5 perks into enchantment at this point?

whoah......link pretty please!

I hit 50 and noticed the slow down, I'd guess because my skills weren't really leveling up anymore. I started training and managed to hit 73 pretty quickly. I was a pure warrior so I went and leveled up Alternation, Illusion, Conjuration, Restoration, Light Armor, to level 100, all from about 20-25 with exception to Conjuration which was at 60. All except Restoration and Light Armor were very quick, I managed to do them all in about 40 minutes or so. Light Armor and Restoration I did at the same time, they took a while longer although I got the former before the latter. (I used -100% spell cost gear for the spells.)

I was also working on 2 handed weapons, destruction, alchemy, sneak, lock picking, etc. as well as every other skill. Heavy armor, 1 handed weapons, pickpocketing, enchanting, smithing, etc., were all maxed already.

I still didn't have as many perks as I wanted although I was getting close.

If you use the formulas I provided you can calculate how many more levels you can advance with the skills you use.

Going from level 48 to level 50 takes 2575 XP points. To put things into prospective, this amount of XP can be obtained by rising a single skill from 70 to 100.

Look in the mod section of the forum. she has post for it.

I didn't notice much of a slowdown until about level 71. Probably because I decided to drop my heavy armor and one hander for light armor and two hander to level those to 100 for giggles.

Now (level 75.5) everything is on 100 except speech (96), most magical skills (between 50-92) and alchemy (43) and its only hard to level further because I can't be bothered to level the magical talents with no investment in magicka (i.e. can barely cast a few spells) and alchemy is pretty impossible to level when you know the properties of just about every ingredient already and you need to make 100 potions that you know all properties of to get 1 level in the skill.

IMO alchemy in Skyrim is broken. Just too hard to level compared to other skills and you really need to (remember to) pay a trainer on every level to max that.

I don't know if I'll ever try to get to far past 50 anyways.

I made "gods" in Morrowind and Oblivion and that's was cool but I'm sorta over it.

I think I'd rather just make a super rad character and stick with what they are.

I got from level 50 to 56 quite fast, about 10 hours.

Once I hit 50, that's when I'm going to jack up smithing, enchanting and alchemy. Up until then, I don't really want to jack things too much.

And I'll start using my meager Destruction skill to fry mudcrabs, wolves, billygoats, etc.

I actually haven't cast a single spell yet with my character. I just use potions/natural regen to heal. Potions are everywhere.

I don't think that works anymore, they've fixed the jail system so you lose progress in your skills, not skills, so your skills won't de-level, you'll just be back to 0% of the skill level you're on.

Hmm enemies do not level past 50? Doesn't that mean that the game becomes really easy (and maybe boring) after that level?

Difficulty sliders