Overview
(For the new Skyrim Players) A detailed guide on becoming a Child of the Moon as well as what abilities lycanthropy grants your character.
Becoming a Werewolf
For those who don’t want ot be spoiled for the Companions questline keep going through the questline, the game will show you how to become one when you get to a point.
The other way of turning into a Werewolf is after the Companions Questline is completed and asking Alea the Huntress to turn you into one.
Powers and Abilities in Human Form
Even though the Werewolf Form is the bigger part of being a Werewolf, there are small changes to your character in Human Form.
When you’re a Werewolf your character (if Male) will appear a little bit hairier on the chest, arms, and legs as well as guards of any hold will have a random chance to say to either gender “you smell like a wet dog” as a greeting to your character.
Werewolves in their Human form have a 100% resistence to diseases, including Sanguinare Vampiris (Vampirism). Werewolves also cannot get the “Well Rested” sleeping bonus nor the “Lovers Comfort” or “Father’s/Mother’s Comfort” sleeping bonuses.
And finally in Human form werewolves gain the power of “Beast Form” in which once a day (unless you have the Ring of Hircine) you can transform into a Werewolf. Note: Transforming into a Werewolf in front of people will grant you a 1000 gold bounty even after transforming back so you must transform somewhere hidden.
The Ring of Hircine is a ring with the gift of transforming the wearer into a werewolf, under it’s cursed form it transforms even non-werewolves into werewolves.
It is aquired through the quest “i’ll Met By Moonlight”, which can be started by speaking to Sinding within the Falkreath Jail in the Falkreath Barracks. During the quest the player automatically equips the cursed ring of hircine forcing a transformation into a werewolf at any random time, completing the quest Hircine himself will lift the curse on the ring and so the ring will be normal.
This ring is unique as it can grant you an extra transformation a day (unlimited if you re-equip it).
The Skyrim Special Edition comes with the Dragonborn DLC already installed and this adds a pack of werewolves on the island of Solstheim, to non-werewolves they will tell them to go away but if the character is a werewolf they will greet you with open arms.
This pack contains four people as they are the last werewolf pack on Solstheim, speaking with the leader Majni will allow him to sell the character the four rings. The Ring of Bloodlust, The Ring of Instinct, The Ring of the Hunt, and The Ring of the Moon.
(See details in Powers and Abilities in Werewolf Form)
Powers and Abilities in Werewolf Form
All werewolf powers and abilities can be enhanced and improved by the Werewolf Skill Tree, which is only accessed within werewolf form.
Werewolves under their true form can only be transformed for a temporary time, and to stay in werewolf form longer you must feed your bloodlust. After transforming you will have roughly 2 minutes worth of being a werewolf, feeding from the corpses of humans will give an extra 30 seconds to the time limit (15 if feeding on animals with the Savage Feeding perk).
The more you feed to longer you will stay in werewolf form, if you feed on alot of bodies and want to turn back simply wait an hour or few in-game.
When not in combat in Werewolf Form, the character has their health increases by 50 and their stamina by 100. Stamina regenerates at a 20% rate from the base 5% regeneration rate, carry weight is enormously largened so you can sprint across the land even if you are overencumbered.
A downside is you cannot regenerate health unless you feed on a body of a human (or animal if you have the Savage Feeding perk)
While in Werewolf Form, the character has very powerful attacks with their claws at a base 150 unarmed damage, there is a 20% of every swipe of the claw will send enemies into a ragdoll and get knocked back. A Sprint and Claw attack is an almost insta-kill dealing massive damage and knockback.
Like dual wielding the werewolf can swipe it’s left or right claw as well as do a dual attack swiping both claws to deal massive damage.
Another major feature of a Werewolf is their ability to howl in which has a supernatural effect on the world.
The default initial howling Werewolves start out with is the Howl of Terror, whenever a Werewolf howls people passive or hostile will flee from the werewolf for 60 seconds unless they are above a certain level, and nearby wolves will aid you,
After completeing the Companions Questline there is a quest given by Alea the Huntress to send to character out to retrieve three totems: Totem of Brotherhood, Totem of The Hunt, and the Totem of Terror, in which all three change the default howl to do a different effect. The Totem powers can also be upgraded in the Werewolf Skill Tree.
- Totem of Brotherhood – Summon two red pack members for 60 seconds to aid you in battle
- Totem of the Hunt – Detect the life of all beings in the area
- Totem of Terror – default howl now works on higher level enemies
Majni, the leader of the Frostmoon Pack on Solstheim, can sell the character four rings that can give the character abilities in werewolf form by wearing them just before transformation.
- Ring of Bloodlust – Attacks do 50% more damage, but also take 50% more damage
- Ring of the Hunt – Health regenerates overtime
- Ring of Instinct – Slow time for 20 seconds during transformation
- Ring of the Moon – increase duration of howls by 20%
Werewolf Skill Tree
With the Dawnguard DLC Werewolves have their own Skill Tree which is accessed by pressing the button you binded to Character Menu, then you will open up a single unique skill set which upgrades your werewolf abilities.
List of Perks:
- Bestial Strength – Do more damage as a werewolf, this perk has four ranks. (Rank 1) 25% more damage, (Rank 2) 50% more damage, (Rank 3) 75% more damage, and the final (Rank 4) 100% more damage.
- Animal Vigor – 100 point bonus to health and stamina in beast form (Requires Bestial Strength)
- Gorging – Feeding heals twice as much (Requires Animal Vigor)
- Savage Feeding– Able to feed of most dead creatures, Feeding off creatures instead of people only provides half the extended time (Requires Gorging)
- Totem of Ice Brothers – Totem of Brotherhood ability now calls two ice wolves to aid you in battle (Requires Bestial Strength)
- Totem of the Moon – replaces the Totem of Ice Brothers perk, Totem of Brotherhood howl now summons two red ghost werewolves that will aid you in battle. They also have the same abilities as your characters werewolf does i.e: 20% ragdoll enemies (Requires Bestial Strength)
- Totem of the Predator – Totem of Hunt howl has extended range, and shows whether the targets are not in combat, searching or actively in combat (Requires Bestial Strength)
- Totem of Terror – Howl of Terror now affects even more higher leveled beings (Requires Bestial Strength)
To get perk points the character in werewolf form must feed on a freshly dead corpse. 5 feedings for 1st perk, 6 feedings for 2nd, 9 feedings for 3rd, 11 feedings for 4th, 13 feedings for 5th, 15 for feedings 6th, 17 for feedings 7th, 19 for feedings 8th, 21 for feedings 9th, 23 for feedings 10th, and 25 for feedings 11th.
Curing Lycanthropy
There are two ways to cure lycanthropy (three if on PC).
The Simplest way to cure your lycanthropy is to become a Vampire Lord, if you do not know how check out my other guide “Vampirism in Skyrim“
Another way to cure your lycanthropy it is quite a tough trek. You will have needed to complete the Companions Questline so those who have not completed it come back to this after you have done.
After you completed the final quest “Glory of the Dead” of Companions Questline, and cured Kodlak of his Lycanthropy you can get another Glenmoril Witch head and put the head into the fire within Ysgramor’s Tomb and defeat the wolf spirit, then your character will be cured.
If you’re on PC you can use the Console Commands by pressing the tilde ” ` ” key left of the number 1 on your keyboard, and entering “player.removespell 00092C48”, or “showracemenu” and cycling through the races and back to your characters original race to select, as well as the “changesex” command cures your lycanthropy.