Skyrim has finally been ‘defeated’ as player hits level 1,337
It's been 13 years since Skyrim first swung its sword, so there isn't much shock in finding out that players have poured an abhorrent number of hours into the sprawling fantasy masterpiece.
The game has been host to many intense playthroughs, with many choosing to fold back into a brand-new save at the point of self-determined completion with new tactics, classes, and abilities in mind.
Others will put their all into a single playthrough, and that's exactly what one Dragonborn has done, boasting the 'ultimate' save file that blows all others out of the water.
Skyrim player has 'completed' the game
As reported by GamesRadar, one player revealed that he's played over 1,800 hours of Skyrim in total, and because of that, he's reached what may be the highest unmodded character level that the game has ever seen.
Reporting the success in a hugely sped-up YouTube video, player Pawelos has revealed their gigantic save file that contains a 100% level of completion and a character that has reached level 1,337. Every skill has reached level 100 and has achieved legendary status.
If this wasn't impressive enough, every spell, item, and consumable has been retrieved. This may be the first recorded example of someone genuinely completing a Skyrim game without the help of mods or console commands, and it's putting all of the rest of us to shame.
Speaking to GamesRadar about their monumental task, Pawelos explained, "I have 1,800 hours in Skyrim across all versions and that's the game time number, but there was also time spent on research, so the real number to gain enough knowledge and be able to finish it is about 2,000 hours.
"But if you look at the save's time counter – that doesn't count any save reloads, which there were plenty of – it's only 387 hours of pure game time on this character."
How did the Skyrim player reach level 1,337?
Another video shared by Pawelos showcases every agonising minute that led to this incredible success - the player spent a whopping 43 hours grinding their Illusion skill and resetting it by using accessories to reduce the casting cost for Illusion spells to 0 mana and spamming abilities in the category.
In terms of what was the hardest part, Pawelos explained, "Leveling was actually very easy but time consuming. The hardest part was definitely not missing anything and not corrupting or bugging my save.
"I had to constantly check all the wikis before entering any dungeon to make sure I'm not missing any noteworthy or special item while I'm there. I know most of the game quite well at this point but still I had to be sure.
"I played without mods so I had to be super mindful about bugged items, quests or characters and I kept every separate save file on my drive."
As for how you can try to reach the max level with your Skyrim build, Pawelos admits that mods are the easiest way. For vanilla players, they say, "I'd say play a lot and learn about different outcomes to as many quests and world interactions as possible."
It's mighty impressive, not because of the level itself but because of how it reflects the crushing dedication it took to get here. We'd hate to be Pawelos finally asking, "Now what?" as we fear we simply wouldn't have an answer.
