Bosses

Skyrim's hardest fights are mostly quest bosses, and our pages file them with their quests: Harkon at the end of the Dawnguard line, Karstaag behind a skull on a throne, Miraak in Apocrypha. One enemy stands outside every questline and exists only to be fought, and that is why this bucket holds a single page. The Ebony Warrior has no dungeon, no story and no marker until you have earned him, and what he drops is a full set of enchanted ebony that nothing else in the game hands over in one place.

The gate: level 81 and the Dragonborn add-on

The Ebony Warrior does not spawn in a place; he spawns on a number. Once your character reaches the old level cap of 81, and only if Dragonborn is installed, a Redguard in black armor walks up to you, explains that he has done everything a warrior can do except die well, and asks to be met at the Last Vigil. Talking to him starts the quest. At the vigil he stands with his sword out and waits, and he will not swing until you do. How the game reaches level 81 in the first place, and what the perk and skill budget looks like on the way there, is covered in the skills guide.

Why the page calls him the toughest character in the game

• Every element is covered twice, by resistance perks and by the enchantments on his gear: fire suppression on the shield, frost on the boots, shock on the necklace.
• His Ebony Armor of Regeneration heals him unusually fast, and the page notes that outside of poison and fall damage most physical damage barely registers.
• Two of his pieces stack one-handed damage: gauntlets at 35 percent and a ring at 40 percent, feeding a sword that absorbs 25 health a strike.
• His spell list runs to Ironflesh and Frost Cloak for defense, Close Wounds to heal, and Command Daedra plus a storm atronach to summon, and he shouts Unrelenting Force and Disarm, which is rare for anyone who is not a Nord.

What works

Bring the best gear you own, because the page is blunt that anything less is not enough. From there the fight has four handles. Range is the first: a strong bow and distance let you chip at him before the sword is a factor. Dragon Aspect is the second, and the page insists on all three words of the shout, since it buffs both your damage and your defenses and makes every other shout hit harder. A nearby dragon is the third; if one is flying when you arrive, bending it to your will turns the duel into an execution. The fourth is the terrain. Falling is one of the two damage types he does not resist, so shove him off a ledge and hit him while he is down; even a fall he survives costs him health on the way up. Because he never attacks first, a dagger from behind with Assassin's Blade is also on the table.

The loot table

Beneath the gear he carries potions of vigorous healing, a Human Heart, a Daedra Heart, a Black Soul Gem, ebony arrows and one flawless gem of each kind: sapphire, garnet, ruby, emerald, diamond and amethyst. The armor pieces are ebony, so the smithing ladder in the armor guide tells you what it takes to improve them, and the sword joins the absorb-health family that the weapons guide ranks.

Boss questions

Is Karstaag harder?

Our Karstaag page thinks so, on size alone: the frost giant is immune to frost, poison, disease and every form of paralysis, and only fire hurts him more than usual. He is filed under quests because a skull and a throne start him, and the quests guide covers the three-use summon he leaves behind.

Can I fight the Ebony Warrior below level 81?

No. He does not exist in the world until the level is reached, and the meeting is what creates the quest. Everything else about the game, from that level's perk count to the Dragon Aspect shout, is indexed on the Skyrim hub.