Best Poison in Skyrim: Our Top 10 Picks

Poisons are items that can be applied to weapons in Skyrim in order to add additional effects to them.

These effects tend to be extremely negative (for your enemies) and are aimed at causing a lot of damage to foes.

Please, refrain from drinking any of these poisons. Yes, you can do it!

No, it’s not a good decision.

Now I’ve created a list here of the 10 best poisons that you can find and purchase in Skyrim, so you can decide which of these to get in order to make your weapons deadlier.

I do recommend using certain types of poisons for specific situations, though. For example, a poison that causes enemies to become vulnerable to fire might be better used by a battlemage skilled in flame destruction spells.

In any case, most of these poisons prove to be quite effective in many scenarios. Use them wisely and wield your poisoned weapons carefully – the effects don’t last forever and your allies are vulnerable to them too. Swing with confidence, but aim your strikes!

Pro tip: Try to reach level 40 in pickpocketing and learn the Poisoned perk. This will allow you to poison enemies directly by pickpocketing them and placing the poison in their inventories. That way you don’t have to worry about missing – especially if you’re accustomed to poising your bows!

Pro tip 2: All of the poisons listed here are the best in the game because they are the strongest versions of each kind of poison that exists. However, all of the following poisons also have weaker variants which are easier to obtain, cheaper to purchase, and far simpler to craft.

10. Malign Vigor Poison

The Malign Vigor Poison is absolutely deadly when fighting a powerful foe that relies on their stamina.

This poison makes it so the enemy is incapable of regenerating any stamina for 60 seconds, so be sure to use it once they seem tired enough.

You will be able to relentlessly attack and their tiredness will make the foe almost useless.

Remember that you need to apply poison to the weapons while they’re equipped – it doesn’t matter which type of weapon it is. Also if you apply poison to a bow, the effect will only be active for one arrow.

9. Deadly Fear Poison

Now this poison is the most lethal fear-inducer in the game, and it’s by far one of the best types of poisons that you can have if you’re not a wizard.

Lacking the ability to scare your foes with spells can be troublesome depending on the situation that you’re in. But the deadly fear poison will make all of your nearby foes run for their god-forsaken lives for 30 seconds.

Watch out, though – this poison only works for foes that are level 23 or under! Stronger foes are not as easily scared.

8. Deadly Frenzy Poison

Send your foes on a wild rampage by poisoning one of your weapons with the Deadly Frenzy Poison.

This powerful concoction will make any foe level 23 or below go on a rampage and attack anything in sight –doesn’t matter if the target is a friend or a foe.

It’s a great poison to carry around, but use it only when you encounter a group of enemies that are giving you trouble.

7. Deadly Aversion to Magic Poison

Ah yes, the Deadly Aversion to Magic Poison, otherwise known as the best poison that a battlemage can carry in their arsenal.

This amazing poison makes your foes weaker to magic damage by a factor of 100%.

Apply it to any of your weapons, strike a foe, and then turn to ashes with your destruction spells. Like taking candy from a baby.

6. Deadly Paralysis Poison

There’s nothing deadlier than freezing in place for 30 seconds after being hit with a massive battle axe.

And that’s exactly what the Deadly Paralysis Poison does to your unfortunate foes (providing that you apply it to a battle axe, of course).

If you’re going to use this poison on a bow then be sure to aim as if your life depends on it – paralysis poisons are hard to come by!

5. Unceasing Magicka Poison

If you think taking someone’s stamina is bad enough, imagine making a wizard lose 3 points of magicka every second after hitting him with a poisoned weapon.

This is an amazing poison to use against wizards, spellcasters, and battle mages – especially if you’re not too keen on dealing with all of their magical shenanigans in battle.

Screw their conjuration spells bringing atronachs into battle, right?!

4. Deadly Lingering Poison

Ah, finally, traditional poison.

The Deadly Lingering Poison slowly kills enemies by inflicting 3 points of damage to their health every second.

It’s deadly, and it’s a great way to kill anyone(beast or otherwise!) slowly while still having enough time to run away before the crime is fully committed.

Surely this poison is an assassin’s best friend, and one of the Dark Brotherhood’s favorites.

3. Deadly Stamina Poison

One strike of a weapon poisoned with the Deadly Stamina Poison will drain 130 points of stamina from the unfortunate foe one the receiving end of the strike.

That’s as simple as it gets with this poison.

Stop your foes from striking (or even running) with this trusty poison. Tough to find but certainly worth the effort.

2. Deadly Magicka Poison

This is another one of those poisons that you’ll want to keep around if you’re struggling to beat wizards.

It drains 130 magicka points with a single strike, making it one of the most efficient ways to deal with an annoying spellcaster in the game.

You’ll love this even if you’re a spellcaster yourself. Sure, it might be a dirty way to fight against your own kin, but all is fair in love and war.

1. Deadly Poison

This is a bad MF’er and a true showstopper.

One sip of the Deadly Poison will cause 65 points of poison damage to whoever has the misfortune of drinking it.

This is one of the best poisons that you can keep around if you’ve already reached level 40 in pickpocketing and if you’ve unlocked the Poisoned perk.

Two of these babies will make the bodies hit the floor.