Let’s see… you’ve been fighting vampires in Skyrim for a while, and you’re noticing a few changes in yourself. Your eyes are a deep shade of red. Your skin is paler, and it burns when you walk outside. You have strange dreams when you sleep, and you’re restless. You hunger for blood.
It’s official, you’ve turned into a Skyrim vampire! It’s fun, at least in the beginning. Sneaking around, sucking the blood of mortals, raising the dead. It gets old very quickly. You’ll soon realize that you’re significantly weak to fire as a vampire. Also, you get paler the longer you go without blood. People are noticing… The town guards might even start chasing you down since you’re a monster. What if you wanted to stop being a vampire?
The good news is that there’s a cure. There are two stages to becoming a vampire in Skyrim, and the cure depends on which stage you are in. I will be covering each stage and every method of restoring yourself from vampirism.
Table of Contents
Steps on How to Cure Vampirism in Skyrim
Stage 1: Sanguinare Vampiris
Vampirism in Skyrim works in stages. You first need to contract a disease called Sanguinare Vampiris to become a vampire. You get exposed to this disease by fighting vampires and getting hit by vampiric spells. There’s a handy prompt on the top left of your screen that tells you when you have the Vampiris infection.
Getting rid of vampirism at this stage is simple. Any way of curing diseases will save you the trouble of turning into a bloodsucking monster. Common cures are:
Method 1: Drinking a Potion of Cure Disease
Cure Disease potions are rare, but they cure any disease immediately. You can purchase one from alchemists, loot one off a Silver Hand, or find one out in the wild. You can also brew them in any alchemy stand using a combination of Charred Skeever Hide, Felsaad Tern Feather, Hawk Feathers, Mudcrab Chitin, or Vampire Dust. Drink one, and your Sanguinare Vampiris will be gone.
Method 2: Praying at a Shrine of the Nine Divines
Praying at the altars of any of the Nine Divines will also cure you of any diseases you might have, in addition to the blessings they already provide. The most accessible shrine is the one pictured here. This Shrine of Talos is placed behind an NPC called Heimskr in Whiterun. He’s the dude who keeps screaming about Talos in the town square, very hard to miss. Still, any shrine for any divine will do. Here is a list of all the shrine locations if you want to find the nearest one.
Method 3: Asking a Vigilant of Stendarr to cure you
You can find Vigilants of Stendarr roaming all over the map. They’re easily accessible at their headquarters at the Hall of Vigilant. The Hall is to the south of Dawnstar, and you can ask any of the Vigilants to cure your diseases for you, for free.
Method 4: Eating Garlic Bread (Hearthfire DLC)
If you have the Hearthfire DLC, cooking and eating garlic bread also cures you of all diseases. Garlic bread can be baked in an oven by combining garlic, butter, and bread. This will produce two loaves of garlic bread. So if you already have a Hearthfire house and an oven, this is a cheap way of curing diseases on the go.
Stage 2: Full Vampirism
You will transform into a full vampire after 3 days of living with uncured Sanguinare Vampiris. None of the above cures work on a player with full vampirism. If you have the Dawnguard DLC and decide to become a Vampire Lord, you immediately skip to this stage. You can find out your stage of vampirism if you feel your skin burning in the sun (as shown by another handy prompt). Boiling blood means you are now in Stage 2.
These are the methods to cure yourself of Stage 2 full vampirism.
Method 1: Rising at Dawn
- Start the quest “Rising at Dawn”
This is the conventional way of getting rid of vampirism in Skyrim. To start the quest, talk to innkeepers around Skyrim and ask them about rumors. Eventually, they will mention a particular wizard, Falion, who’s interested in vampires.
- Talk to Falion
Go to Morthal and find the wizard Falion. If he is not in his shop, he will be outside the hold in the “summoning circle.” Ask him about vampires. He will tell you that he can cure your vampirism with the help of a black soul gem. - Get a Black Soul Gem
You can get a Black Soul gem by buying one from Falion or finding one as regular loot. - Get the Soul Trap spell
The soul gem is useless to Falion when it is empty, so we have to find a way to fill it. You need the Soul Trap spell to do this. You can buy this spell from Falion too if he is in the shop. If not, court wizards frequently sell it, or you can also get one from random loot. - Fill the Black Soul Gem
Now, you need to kill someone when they are under the effect of Soul Trap. It has to be a person; animals and beasts don’t count. The easiest thing to do is to cast Soul Trap on a bandit and kill them. This will fill up your Black Soul Gem automatically. - Give Falion the Black Soul Gem and conduct the ritual
Find Falion from 4 AM to 6 AM in the summoning circle and give him the filled Black Soul Gem. He will then conduct the ceremony, thus completing the quest and curing your vampirism.
Method 2: Lycanthropy
Vampirism can also be cured by following the Companions questline. Once you join their inner circle, Aela the Huntress will offer you a ‘gift’ of Lycanthropy. Take up the offer, and you will start transforming into a werewolf instead of a vampire. You’re trading pale skin for fur, so it’s a fair deal.
You are entirely immune to Sanguinare Vampiris when you are a werewolf. You can now fight as many vampires as you want without any risk of contracting the disease.
This questline can be accessed by traveling to Whiterun and joining the Companions in Jorrvaskr.
Method 3: Cheating
PC PLAYERS ONLY. Why go through all this nonsense of Black Soul Gems and Companionship when you can just cheat? The simplest way of curing vampirism is using the console.
- Press the “~” key, and a console should pop up.
- Type “setstage 000EAFD5 10”. Press Enter.
- Now type “showracemenu “to change your race.
Viola! Instant cure for lazy people.
I don’t recommend playing with cheats as it takes away the fun of the game. I have only included this method since Skyrim is a glitchy mess. Having the console handy is always essential since you never know when you’re forced to use it.
Good hunting, adventurer!
