Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition: Prima Collector's Guide Hardcover – Special Edition, October 28, 2016

This is the PERFECT companion to your Skyrim adventure. It covers everything you could possibly want to know about the game, and now includes all of the expansions! It starts off with the basics of character creation and the strengths of every race and their abilities. It goes through each of the skills and how they're leveled (you have to actually hit something with that fireball spell to level your destruction; casting it into space doesn't work). It covers every quest in the game, and I bet you'll flip through it and find a quest you've never known existed, even though you've played 300 hours over the course of the PS4 and PS3 versions of the game (and soon to be PSVR, which this will work for too). I know I personally did.One thing I didn't know I'd learn from this book is at the end- the achievements. There is an achievement for getting all 15 Daedric artifacts, and there is one Daedric quest reward that I thought was a Daedric artifact that counted toward the total, but it's not! It turns out the Rueful Axe from Clavicus Vile is only one way to complete the quest, and it doesn't count toward the achievement. I would have never known that without looking at the achievements guide in this book. And yes, it does cover the achievements for the expansions to the game.The bookmark is a nice touch. I want to laminate mine so that I can keep it forever. The included map is huge. It is too big to actually use unless you frame it in a light, two-sided poster frame. I use the maps in the book instead. And there are a lot of them, all annotated and easy to read.If you're one of the thousands of people who love Skyrim and can't get enough of it, even if you think you've seen everything the game has to offer, this book is for you. You'll likely find things you never knew existed, and even if you don't, it's a fun read to review quests you've already done to remember your adventures. This is an absolute must-buy for any Skyrim fan. "Why, when I can find anything online these days?" Because you don't have to filter through all of the FAQ's and search through the internet hatred to find the information you need. You get it straight from the people who know it, and it's information you can trust. All you have to do is look in the table of contents or better yet, the easy-to-use index. Plus, it deserves a spot on your bookshelf next to your other collector's items.

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All in all, this guide is worth it. It currently is priced at $30 which is an absolute steal especially to those who got Skyrim on the Xbox Black Friday Sale for $30 (I'm not sure if there were Steam/PS4 sales as well). $60 for the game, DLC, and a hardcover guide is really hard to beat. Oblivion went backwards compatible shortly after. I decided to buy it and pull out my old paperback Prima guide from 10 years ago deep from the abyss of my closet and gave the main quest a quick playthrough for old times sake. It was tons of fun, and in some aspects, I found the guide more helpful than GameFaqs, ElderScrollsWiki, or YouTube. I still pretty much used all four, but for the maps, keys, hidden switches, the guide always was more convenient. It's necessary. The case remains the same for Skyrim. Especially for all those puzzles. You don't neeeeed it, but it really does help and save a lot of time and frustration. Get it. It's really well made, the $30 price is great. The other hardcover Skyrim guide still goes for around $80. My 10-year-old paperback Oblivion Prima had the first few pages falling out after light use, so I shot straight for the hardcover because I know I'll be giving this game another playthrough in my retirement home.

I ordered this version less then 15 hours ago, along with the witcher wild hunt and just like that, it has arrived! Talk about fast shipping time! No scratches on the cover,and all the pages are intact, ie. nothing torn, bent or missing. The pages are okay not the best or the worst but not flimsy like some recent guide releases. It will hold up after much use, in my opinion. The layout is much better than the one I have from the 360 version. That version was a paperback and is just as large as this one, not as thick (by much) and was in black and white where this one is in color, This one is complete meaning it covers the dlc. My old version only covered two of the three add-ons. Considering how much I paid for that version it should have been the complete version.It has a two sided map that lays inside or just behind the front cover. That means I don't have to tear it out of the book like before. As for the map, the front side is of Skyrim, like before except this one has all the add-on locations. The back side has the map of Solstheim, Soul Cairn and the Forgotten Vale. As for the cover, it has a very nice feel to it, the top two corners are nice and flat whereas the bottom two feels like they are kind of pushed in (most likely from shipping). Speaking of shipping, both books came shrinked wrapped in a box that had no bubble wrap. So, your version may or may not have bent corners, just letting you know that little fact. It all depends on how far the book has to go to be delivered. Last thing, it comes with a free eguide code and a Skyrim themed book marker. Thanks.

This is the comprehensive Skyrim Game Guide you want! (As opposed to the Skyrim Atlas -- also by Prima -- which is a complete train wreck.) At more than 1000 pages long, it covers every conceivable quest with maps galore as well as all key topics related to gameplay. Information on all game topics is relatively easy to find via its detailed table of contents and its two indices: a short one regarding quests and a long, detailed one covering characters, spells, and everything else.If there's one thing that's missing, it's an overview of the lore behind The Elder Scrolls game series. Skyrim is the only game in the series I've played so far, so naturally, there are some references in the game that go over my head though reading the various little books one finds in Skyrim certainly helps. (Perhaps they figured that most players of Skyrim were veterans of the earlier games?) This one minor issue aside, I can't recommend this guide enough.