Helpful Skyrim Exploit Still Works 13 Years Later

The so-called restoration loop exploit in The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim is still alive and well even as the game is pushing 13. This well-publicized glitch has long allowed players to trivialize Skyrim with ridiculously overpowered items.

There has been no shortage of immensely helpful Skyrim exploits that the fandom has discovered since Bethesda's open-world RPG first released to critical acclaim in 2011. Even so, few have proven to be as reliable and versatile as the restoration loop glitch, which allows players to infinitely boost their equipment enhancement abilities by abusing Fortify Enchantment potions and the Fortify Alchemy enhancement from the Restoration school of Magicka.

Although Bethesda patched some of the game's exploits over the years, the restoration loop glitch still works as of 2024, almost 13 years since Skyrim debuted on PC and seventh-generation consoles. This was most recently verified by Reddit user Calieoop, who employed the battle-tested exploit to enchant a Legendary Dragonplate Insulated Cuirass to a ridiculous degree; following some looping, they ended up with a piece of gear boasting 30,180 armor points while boosting their health pool by 63,858 HP.

Apart from essentially making them unkillable, this Heavy Armor also increased the player's in-game net worth by quite a margin, as its bonkers stats resulted in a valuation of 883,300 Septims. Reflecting on their achievement, Calieoop revealed that they actually had enough resources to push these broken stats even higher. But after deciding to stop, they realized that selling just one of their remaining Fortify Enchantment potions was enough to max out their Speech skill due to the overpowered nature of these items.

Restoration loop applications in Bethesda's 2011 RPG aren't limited to armor buffs. For example, one player has previously successfully utilized this well-documented exploit in order to create a Skyrim version of the One Punch Man protagonist. Likewise, the same glitch can also be