Madness Ore Skyrim Guide

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James is a seasoned RPG specialist that will happily spend days upon days exploring vast, open worlds. Whether it's a Bethesda epic, another trip in the Animus to a moment in history, or something a little less mainstream, James takes to it like a duck to water. When not exploring and slaying beasts twice his size, James regularly competes for Jiu-Jitsu comps, and loves hiking and exploring his own reality

Quick Madness Ore Info

The Dragonborn will find out the secrets to Madness Ore smithing from a journal kept on the dead body of Evethra.
To create Madness Ore items, the player must have a smiting skill of level 80 or higher, including the Ebony Smithing perk.
To add Madness ingots to your inventory, use this console command: player.additem xx000BC8(# required) .
Madness Ore can be randomly found throughout the world in chests. However, this is very rare. The best source for the material is the Khajit trader Ri’saad.
To find Evethra, the player must complete the “Balance of Power” and “Restoring Order” quests in the Saints & Seducers add-on.

Finding and Smithing Madness Ore

As this is Skyrim, we are going to have to jump through a couple of hoops before you can smith some Madness Ore for yourself. However, should you be a little impatient, here is a quick run-down of how to get everything going.

Our Khajit Friend

To begin your Madness Ore journey, the player must first find the Khajit Caravan that is headed by the merchant Ri’saad. While this sneaky individual may not have a permanent home, I can point you towards; you should be able to find him somewhere between Markarth and Whitrerun.

Once you finally catch up to Ri’saad, he will give the player a note that will begin the ‘Balance of Power’ quest – a main component of the add-on.

Finding the Seducers

Once you obtain this note, the player will be directed toward the Seducers Bandit Camp northwest of Windhelm. Once you arrive here and take care of the pitiful bandits that inhabit the camp, your journey of mass bandit slaughter will begin.

Along the way, the player will make some new bug friends and come across some of the new content added by the Saints & Seducers expansion. This will include weapons and armor made from the following:

Amber

Weapons and armor made with this resource are easily the most valuable and effective pieces of light armor within the add-on. The Amber Armor alone is worth 1750 gold at base.

Dark Seducer

These pieces are made with quicksilver ingots and require the Daedric Smithing perk. As you might expect, these pieces are finished in glossy black. The Dark Seducer armor set is defined as light armor.

Golden

Golden pieces of armor and weapons sit in the middle of the pack in terms of value and effectiveness. While the Golden Armor sits at a rating of 42, just one behind Amber, this set is classed as heavy armor, thus weighing the player down without the expected buff to damage resistance.

Madness

While you will not find any pieces of Madness smithing in these camps, rest assured, these pieces stand head and shoulder above the rest of the armor and weapons added in this expansion.

Finding Thoron

Eventually, after you kill enough bandits to keep even Sithis amused, you will be instructed to find and kill a man named Thoron.

Once Thoron is dead, you will find your first few pieces of Madness Ore and his unique Madness helmet of recovery. Once Thoron is taken care of, you will gain the quest ‘Amber and Madness Smithing.’

This will point you towards a woman named Evethra, who you must kill and loot to find her journal detailing the secrets of smithing such a unique material.

Acquiring Madness Ore

Later in this article, we are going to talk about where Madness Ore comes from and its Shivering Isles origin. However, we should focus on getting ourselves as much of the ore in Skyrim as possible – without using console commands.

With that being said, Madness Ore, unlike all other craftable ores in Skyrim, cannot be found in the caves and structures of Skyrim as it only grows in the Shivering Isles. Therefore, getting enough of the material to make it worth your while can be difficult and time-consuming.

If you are after that full set of Madness Ore armor, your best bet is to deal with the man who got all of this started, Ri’saad. If you deal with Ri’saad after you complete the ‘Balancing of Power’ and ‘Restoring Order’ quests, the Khajit will have some Madness Ore to trade with you.

However, his supply will be limited, requiring you to wait for him to restock. Outside of Ri’saad, there are no guaranteed supplies of the ore once you complete the Saints & Seducers expansion. So, make sure to keep an eye out when en route to deal with Thorin or Evethra, both of whom will have some lying around.

Getting Some Madness Gear

Before running headfirst into the Skyforge, you should ensure your character has already acquired the prerequisite smithing level to allow the creation of Madness armor and weapons. For this, the player must have a smithing skill of level 80 or higher and have used skill points to unlock the Ebony Smithing perk.

With this acquired, head to any forge with the required materials and get to work. Madness Ore items will be located in the miscellaneous section of the smithing menu.

Now that we have dealt with that let’s take a look at some of the cool armor and weapons you can make with Madness Ore.

Madness Armor

Item Weight	52
Item Value	4100
Item Rating	52

Madness Boots

Item Weight	11
Item Value	850
Item Rating	19

Madness Gauntlets

Item Weight	8
Item Value	850
Item Rating	19

Madness Helmet

Item Weight	17
Item Value	1900
Item Rating	24

Madness Sword

Item Weight	20
Item Value	250
Item Rating	16

Madness Bow

Item Weight	21
Item Value	3050
Item Rating	21

While all Madness Ore items are beautiful and very powerful, the supply of the ore is very limited. Therefore, think carefully before crafting anything with the material – ensure you will get good use out of each piece of ore.

For this reason, I would not recommend crafting Warhammers or Daggers with the ore. This next section will explain how to get your hands on a Madness-made version of each weapon to save you precious resources.

Special Madness Ore Weapons

Nerveshatter

This special Warhammer is comprised of equal parts Madness Ore and Amber. It is obtainable via the Nerveshatter quest, which you will receive throughout your Saints & Seducers quest line.

The weapon is found at the bottom of Crystaldrift Cave, a short walk away from Snow-Shod farm near Riften. This weapon is a shock type that provides 30 points of shock damage to its target per crushing blow. Alongside this, the hammer does a standard 29 points of damage and weighs in at a staggering 29.

Fang of Haynekhtnamet

This dagger was added to Skyrim via the Fishing Creation Club pack. This dagger has the same damage stats as an ordinary Madness dagger, 13, but weighs 0.5 points less, making it the strongest dagger in the game.

Much like the Nerveshatter Warhammer, this dagger also comes with a shock enchantment, dealing 25 points of shock damage, and half as much Magicka damage per hit.

Going Back to The Source

As discussed throughout this article, the Madness Ore itself is something one can only acquire from the Shivering Isles, the home of one of the best DLCs ever made for an Elder Scrolls game.

According to Cutter, a resident and blacksmith of the Shivering Isles, Madness Ore is made of the souls of dead heroes and can be found only be found on grummites or in ore deposits that are scattered around the isle.

Even on the Shivering Isles, this ore is incredibly rare, with only 9 different locations on the entire isle having deposits of the stuff. The Shivering Isles DLC added Amber ore deposits into TES lore.

If you do wish to return to the Shivering Isles and get your hands on some Madness ore in TES 4: Oblivion, you will need to head to Cutter’s Weapons in Crucible, a location in the southern section of New Sheoth. Here, you can craft some Madness weapons and armor with the help of Cutter.

There are no official records concerning how the material came to be and why it can only be found on the Shivering Isles, but considering that the location is the home of the Daedric’ Prince of Madness’ and is also referred to as the ‘Realm of Madness,’ one can only assume that it is a byproduct of Sheogorath’s reign over the area.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: What Can You Do with Madness Ore in Skyrim?

Answer: Once the player downloads the Saints & Seducers add-on, you will be able to find and craft weapons or armor with the ore. This ore creates very effective pieces of equipment that can stand head and shoulders above base materials in the game.
A complete set of heavy Madness Armor will grant the player 114 points of damage resistance. On top of this, the weapons you can craft with this material are often the strongest at a base level in the game.

Question: How Can I Quickly Improve My Smithing Skill in Skyrim?

Answer: When trying to improve a skill quickly in Skyrim, your best bet is to ensure that you sleep in your own bed the night before. This grants the player a 10% experience bonus for up to 8 hours afterward.
Once this is done, ensure you get the benefits of the Warrior Guardian Stone, which grants the player a further 20% boost to the smithing skill increase.
Once the best bonuses have been earned, you should start your smithing career with iron daggers. This used to be the default method of quickly ranking up in Skyrim, but a recent patch made it nearly useless after a certain level.
Therefore, once you reach the level of crafting gold jewelry, switch to making gold rings; their value will help boost your smithing skill quickly.

Question: Should I Buy the Anniversary Edition of Skyrim?

Answer: If you already own the game’s Special Edition, the anniversary release can be a tough sell. However, this new version of the game does come with some added features.
As you would expect, you get all of the official DLCs, the new Creation Club, and some other minor tweaks to the overall game that help to boost your overall experience.

Conclusion

Skyrim is not going anywhere anytime soon. TES 6 may be on the horizon, but it feels like we are all on a plane heading the opposite way, with Bethesda releasing next to no updates or news about its development process.

Therefore, I think add-ons like this one are vital to keeping TES fans like us entertained in the meantime.

While I am not a fan of buying another copy of Skyrim to get my hands on the Saints & Seducers content, I understand why so many avid fans would happily part with their money for some extra, Bethesda-made content.

For me, the add-on inclusion of Madness Ore makes this particular expansion worthwhile. As someone who was a real fan of the Shivering Isles DLC (you can check out my write-up of this DLC here), this one is a must, and I recommend it for any long-time Elder Scrolls fans. I hope you enjoyed this guide and you will come back soon.

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