Introduction

This guide aims to give you the information necessary to fight effectively as an unarmed combatant.
Throughout the guide you will be able to look at recommendations on the following:

Races

Skills & Perks

Armor Types

Enchantments

Standing Stones

Dragon Shouts
By the end, you will have hopefully learned enough to start cracking bandit skulls, beating Thalmor
faces and suplexing the elderly of Skyrim with relative ease.
Oh and don't forget to destroy that raving madman in Whiterun that we have to suffer every time we
walk by.

Races
Before you begin your red knuckle adventure you will first need to decide on a race. Often this
choice is a personal one, but for the goal of fighting unarmed, Khajiit are perfect due to their superior
unarmed damage. Argonians are a close second with a smaller bonus to unarmed damage. Orcs
come third as they can deal out high damage for a short while using their greater power.
Whichever race you choose, I recommend levelling Heavy Armor for Fists of Steel which will add
the base defense rating of heavy gauntlets and gloves on to unarmed damage. Another useful skill
isEnchanting as you can enchant equipment with Fortify Unarmed.
The beast races of Skyrim (Khajiit and Argonians) deal more unarmed damage than the man and
mer races. Where the others deal 4 damage, the beast races deal an extra 6. Khajiit have an ability
that boosts their unarmed damage by 12 meaning they deal a total of 22 unarmed damage.
Argonians only deal a total of 10 damage and the other races deal only 4.

Khajiit
Khajiit are the most damaging by far (especially early on) as they have sharp claws on each hand.

Khajiit deal an extra 12 damage with their unarmed attacks due to their Claws ability which can be
seen under your active effects; keep in mind that the value shown in game is wrong and you will deal
only 12 damage rather than 15. It incorrectly states "Khajiit claws do 15 points of damage.".
Khajiit start with the following skill bonuses:

+10 Sneak

+5 Alchemy

+5 Archery

+5 Lockpicking

+5 One-handed

+5 Pickpocket
The large sneak bonus is incredibly helpful if you intend to make a stealthy Khajiit to capitalize on
the bonus damage provided by sneak attacks.

Argonian
Argonians are the second most damaging race as they deal an extra 6 points of unarmed damage
per attack. However, this bonus is one-third of that possessed by the Khajiit. Argonians can be a
good choice as they have a lot of functionality and a useful greater power. Their Histskin ability
allows them to regenerate health at a rapid pace, which can be useful when you're smashing heads
in bare-handed.
Argonians start with the following skill bonuses:

+10 Lockpicking

+5 Alteration

+5 Light Armor

+5 Pickpocket

+5 Restoration

+5 Sneak
Argonians have a decent set of starting bonuses which can greatly help early on in your adventure.

Orc
Like all races except for the Khajiit and the Argonians, Orcs possess no bonus damage for their
unarmed attacks, however Orcs can use their Berserker Rage greater power to deal incredible
damage for a limited time. Out of the remaining races, this makes Orcs the third best choice for
fighting hand to hand.
Orcs start with the following skill bonuses:

+10 Heavy Armor

+5 Block

+5 Enchanting

+5 One-handed

+5 Smithing

+5 Two-handed
Orcs have a reliable set of starting bonuses that can work quite well with an unarmed build,
especially Heavy Armor (Fists of Steel) and Enchanting (Fortify Unarmed).

Other
The remaining races are equal when it comes to fighting unarmed since they all deal the same
amount of damage. The only differences they have are their greater powers and skill bonuses.

Skills & Perks

As there is no hand to hand or unarmed skill in Skyrim you will need to develop your other skills to
allow yourself to grow more powerful. The skills that I would strongly advise focusing on are Heavy
Armor and Enchanting.

Heavy Armor
Heavy Armor is a great skill to choose as it will allow you to mitigate more damage than light armor.
While using only your fists, you will have to get closer to your enemies than if you were using a
melee weapon, bow or magic. This means you are likely to take additional damage from enemies as
you are easier to reach.
Fists of Steel
This perk increases unarmed damage by the armor rating of equipped heavy gauntlets or gloves. It
requires a level of 30 and the first rank of Juggernaut (20% increased heavy armor rating) and thus
takes a minimum of 2 perk points to unlock. The extra damage is only determined by the base armor

rating of the gloves and ignores any changes made by player perks, skill level or smithing
improvements. This perk greatly increases your unarmed damage output.
Gauntlets

Armor Rating/Damage

Weight

Value

Iron

10

25

Steel Imperial

12

55

Steel Nordic

12

55

Dwarven

13

85

Steel Plate

14

125

Orcish

15

200

Ebony

16

275

Dragonplate

17

425

Daedric

18

625

With these gauntlets and Fists of Steel you can deal an extra 10 to 18 damage while unarmed.
Conditioning
This perk requires you to have level 70 Heavy Armor and Juggernaut, Fists of
Steel andCushioned. It will make any heavy armor that you wear weigh nothing and have no impact
on your movement speed, allowing you to dodge more easily. This effect is similar to that provided
by The Steed Stone.

Enchanting
Enchanting can be of great benefit to an unarmed warrior as it will allow you to boost your health,
magicka, stamina, skills, resistances and more. The best enchantment however, is Fortify
Unarmed. This will allow you to deal increased damage with your fists. With mastery of enchanting
you will be able to deal a large amount of extra damage thanks to your equipment. You can only
enchant handwear and rings with Fortify Unarmed however, so you can only boost it twice.
Enchanter
This perk has 5 ranks and increases the strength of your new enchantments by 20% per rank. The
first rank has no level requirement, but rank 2, 3, 4 and 5 require level 20, 40, 60 and 80
respectively. This is useful for boosting the power of your Fortify Unarmed enchantments.
Extra Effect
An extra effect on an item can make all the difference, especially when you're using only your fists.
This will not allow you to make a single item with two Fortify Unarmed enchantments on however,
as the enchantments on an item cannot be of the same type. You could use this for something else
such as health regeneration.

Sneak

Sneak attacks will allow you to deal more damage than otherwise possible with your bare hands due
to the damage multiplier. Combined with heavy gauntlets with Fists of Steel and Fortify
Unarmedenchantments, sneak attacks will allow you to dispatch some enemies in a single strike.
However, you cannot use the Backstab perk while unarmed as your fists do not count as onehanded weapons. You must wield an actual weapon to make use of this perk and unfortunately, this
is not what this guide is intended for.
Muffled Movement
Obtaining this perk can help reduce the extra noise made by your armor, especially if you're
sneaking in a full set of heavy armor or even just the heavy gauntlets. It will reduce the noise you
produce by 50%.

Armor Types
Before deciding on the equipment you will use, you should first consider how you will be playing as
an unarmed specialist. Will you use Sneak? Will you use the Fists of Steel perk? These two
choices will have an impact on the type of equipment you will use. You have a choice between
using Light Armor and Heavy Armor.

Options for Sneak users

If you decide to use Sneak, you will have to decide whether to use the Fists of Steel perk. It will
provide some extra damage as your gauntlets will add their defense rating to your damage but will
require you to wear heavy gauntlets or gloves, which will make more noise and attract more
attention when sneaking than wearing light or no gloves would. If you decide to use Fists of
Steel you can help reduce your noise level in a few ways:

Wear no armor except for the heavy gloves

Wear light armor except for the heavy gloves

Wear heavy armor but use spells and enchantments to apply the Muffle effect

Use the Muffled Movement perk (30 Sneak and first rank of Stealth required) to reduce
armor noise by 50%

Options for non-Sneak users

If you are not going to use Sneak, you can more freely choose which armor type you will wear. It's
highly recommended that you choose heavy armor for the Fists of Steel perk as well as the other
perks that will increase your defense rating. Such perks are unavailable to lightly armored brawlers
who intend to use heavy gauntlets as they will be wearing a piece of heavy and light armor at the
same time, eliminating any bonuses for wearing all light or heavy armor. Using heavy armor will
allow you to take advantage of Fists of Steel and obtain the various perks for wearing all heavy
armor.

Enchantments

Enchanting will give you more possibilities in your hand to hand adventures. Should you decide to
use enchanting, this section will provide you with recommendations for what to enchant on each
piece of equipment.

Fortify Unarmed
As mentioned previously, Fortify Unarmed is an incredibly useful enchantment for hand to hand
combatants to take advantage of. This enchantment is extremely rare however as it is only found on
a single item in the entire game. The item is a pair of light gloves called the Gloves of the
Pugilistthat boost unarmed damage by 10 points (see below to find them). If you wish, you can
disenchant these gloves and learn the Fortify Unarmed effect which you can apply to another pair
of gloves and a ring. This is useful if you have Fists of Steel as you can deal even more damage by
applying the enchantment to your heavy gloves. Even if you decide to use light armor and
ignore Fists of Steel you can still enchant another pair of higher quality light gloves with a stronger
magnitude ofFortify Unarmed to help increase your power.
With 100 Enchanting and 5 ranks in Enchanter (20% stronger enchantments per rank) it is possible
to create Fortify Unarmed enchantments with a magnitude of 12. If you also drink a potion
of Fortify Enchanting you can increase the magnitude further. At 124 Enchanting the magnitude is
14. You can reach this by drinking the strongest, non-player-made potion that fortifies Enchanting:
the Enchanter's Elixir. At level 99 this will allow you to reach level 124 temporarily while you enchant
your equipment.

You can raise the magnitude of the enchantment even further if you abuse the EnchantingAlchemy loop.

Finding the Gloves of the Pugilist

The gloves can only be found in one place: the sewers in Riften known as The Ratway. Simply walk,
fast travel or take a carriage to Riften and enter the city. The Ratway is located on the southern side
of Riften, directly below the blacksmith and can be accessed by the southmost stairway that leads
down to the water.

Once inside you will be in a long corridor with two aggressive enemies at the end. Simply navigate
through The Ratway while carefully avoiding traps. After dropping off a high ledge into a larger room,
go through the western passageway and keep going until you arrive at the location identified below:

At this point you will be attacked by Gian the Fist who will be wearing the Gloves of the Pugilist.
Watch out for his attacks as they are enhanced by the enchantment of the gloves and can deal a lot
of damage to unprepared players.

Once you have killed him, you can then take the gloves from his corpse and then either wear or
disenchant them as you wish.

Standing Stones
Some of the Standing Stones around the world can be of great use to an unarmed fighter. Firstly,
we'll consider those that are designed to enhance the development of your skills.

Skill Development Stones

These Standing Stones increase the rate at which you gain experience with certain skills.
The Lover Stone
This allows you to learn all skills 15% faster but will prevent you from obtaining other skill
development bonuses such as Rested and Well Rested. It's useful if you wish to quickly raise skills
in different groups such as Sneak, Heavy Armor and Enchanting.
The Mage Stone
This stone isn't too useful for unarmed characters as it provides no faster experience gain with any
armor type however, it does allow Enchanting to be increased at a faster rate.
The Thief Stone
This isn't a bad choice for an unarmed build that aims to use Sneak to sneak attack enemies.
However, levelling your Speech and Lockpicking at too fast a rate can leave your survival skills
relatively low, which can cause you some trouble.
The Warrior Stone
This is a solid choice for an unarmed build as it allows you to gain experience faster in heavy armor,
which you will likely be using for the Fists of Steel perk. If you choose to use Block as well, you will
level that faster too. Smithing also gains an increase with this Standing Stone so you will be able to
earn more experience for improving your armor.

Passive Effect Stones

These are the stones that will give you a permanent effect that provides you with some resistances,
utility or other such beneficial effect.

The Apprentice Stone

Unless you'll be casting many supportive magic spells during your unarmed adventures, I
recommend giving this Standing Stone a miss. It allows your magicka to regenerate 100% faster but
it gives you a 100% weakness to hostile magic meaning mages and spellswords will quickly kill you.
The Atronach Stone
Despite being intended for mages, this Standing Stone can be of great benefit to you if you are going
to be casting very little or no supportive magic spells. It provides an extra 50 points of magicka for
you to use when casting expensive spells as well as absorbing 50% of hostile spells that hit you.
Simply put: 50% of the spells that hit you will have no effect. This is a great benefit for any type of
unarmed character as mages will have a hard time killing you with spells. However, it has the
downside of making you regenerate magicka 50% slower, which is of little consequence if you won't
be casting a lot of spells.
The Lady Stone
This stone simply regenerates your stamina and health 25% faster. These are helpful effects for a
hand to hand warrior as you will simply be more efficient when fighting. Your health regeneration will
allow you to heal up quickly while you avoid enemy attacks and the stamina regeneration will help
with sprinting and performing power attacks.
The Lord Stone
The Lord Stone bolsters your defenses against all kinds of enemies. Warriors, rangers and mages
will all deal less damage to you as you will have an extra 50 points of armor rating and resist 25% of
spells. Dragon breath counts as magic damage so this will especially help against dragons.
The Steed Stone
This Standing Stone is a great mixture of combat effectiveness and general utility. It completely
reduces the negative impact armor has on your movement speed allowing you to wear the heaviest
armor and still dodge in and out of your enemies reach unhindered. It also allows you to carry more
by providing you with an extra carrying capacity of 100 points and making equipped armor weigh
nothing.

Greater Power Standing Stones

These Standing Stones will grant you a greater power that you may cast once per day. Some of
them are useful in combat whereas others are more focused on utility.
The Ritual Stone
This Stone will grant you the greater power of reanimating the dead. Nearby corpses will be brought
back to life to help you fight. There is no limit to how many you can bring to life at once and they will
follow you for about a minute.
The Serpent Stone

The ability to paralyze a target once per day can be of great benefit when fighting unarmed. This
greater power will allow you to paralyze a target for five seconds and damage their health for 25
points. While paralyzed you have a good opportunity to begin beating them with your fists.
The Shadow Stone
By providing a full minute of invisibility, this greater power can help stealthy characters get into
position easier or it can help non-stealth characters avoid fights that would be very difficult to win. It
can also be useful to instantly vanish from combat when there is sufficient distance between yourself
and enemies.
The Tower Stone
Although this Standing Stone only gives you the greater power of unlocking expert or lower locks
instantly once per day, it can be useful to keep your Lockpicking skill from increasing your character
level too quickly and making your other skills relatively weak.

Dragon Shouts
Should you decide to continue on with the main quest and begin unlocking Dragon Shouts, this
section will explain which will be of particular use for unarmed combat. These shouts will be useful
when fighting and will allow you to damage, weaken or overpower your enemies. The Elemental
Fury shout does not affect unarmed combat, so unfortunately it doesn't make the list.
Disarm
You don't use weapons, so why should your opponents? This shout can greatly swing a fight in your
favor by levelling the playing field. Disarming an opponent will help nullify any extra reach
advantages that they have over you, whether it's a long sword or a bow. This will force rangers to get
closer to you where you can easily rearrange their face.
Dragonrend
Since you're likely going to fight dragons from time to time, it's important that you can land as many
hits as possible on them with your bare hands. Dragonrend will make this easier as you can force a
dragon to land, allowing you to beat it senseless.
Drain Vitality
This shout can be useful for attacking almost any opponent, but especially mages, anything that can
damage their magicka is a good thing and as an unarmed fighter, you won't be using poisons or
magic to accomplish this. This shout requires the Dawnguard plug-in.
Fire Breath
Another useful shout that deals direct damage in the form of fire to your enemies. It can be of some
utility too as it sometimes staggers opponents. If you have the Dragonborn plug-in you can upgrade
this shout to summon a Fire Wyrm if you kill an enemy while shouting. The wyrm will fight for you
and explode dealing some area effect damage.

Frost Breath
Similar to Fire breath, you can use this shout to inflict extra damage on your enemies.
Ice Form
A handy shout when you're outnumbered or if you want to stop a target in their tracks while you
warm up a power attack or regain your health and stamina. You can freeze distant targets to close
the gap before you start pummeling them into submission.
Marked for Death
Anything that can reduce the advantage an enemy has is worthwhile, especially when you only have
your fists to pound on them with. This can greatly reduce their armor and will deal some small
damage to their health over time.
Slow Time
This is a great shout to use when unarmed, it allows you to land many more hits than the opponent
can in the same amount of time. You are slowed a small amount while others are slowed by a great
amount. This can give you the time you need in a fight to avoid large threats and land key hits on
important targets.
Soul Tear
This shout can be very handy to deal some high spike damage when you need it. The resurrection
effect can also help you turn the tide of a fight as it will give you an ally for a minute. This shout
requires the Dawnguard plug-in.
Storm Call
The sheer destructive power of this shout allows you to deal a huge amount of damage in a huge
area. This shout should certainly be considered as it can allow you to fight battles that would be
incredibly difficult with just your fists.
Unrelenting Force
This shout is very helpful for crowd control at any level. Using just the first or second word you can
stagger enemies and land a few hits. Against more powerful enemies you should use the full shout
to knock them over giving you vital seconds to land as many punches as you can. Against
particularly strong enemies you can also knock them off high ledges to their deaths.

Guide 2:
So you think it's impossible to kill a dragon with your bare hands huh? To beat a giant to death or
take down an armored behemoth with your own two hands just because there's no skill tree.
Well guess what, you never will. You're a quitter and quitters have no place amongst the honorable
ranks of the unarmed elite.

You need only four things to be an effective hand to hand duelist:

Kahjiit: Start off with a passive +15 to unarmed attacks, this is what makes the unarmed warrior the
most powerful threat early game.
Heavy Armor: I take the full tree since you are going to be right up in the enemy's face at all times,
but you only need 30 points to get the Fist of Steel perk that will make any gauntlet's armor rating
your attack damage.
Smithing: Armor is your weapon. Improve your fucking armor.
Enchantment: This is what will make you truly deadly. Once you get the power to enchat you will be
able to add Unarmed bonuses to all your god damn armor and become a wrecking machine.
First you must make a new character, Kahjiit. This is not fucking negiotable unless you want to have
horrendous early game damage output unless use weapons but then you're a fucking pussy. The
first thing you'll need to do is kill an Imperial guard and take his armor, not the light shit the REAL
FUCKING ARMOR. Equip it and start swinging, take a few hits when you can because you're gonna
want to get those Heavy Armor levels in as soon as possibly. After completing the intro make a
beeline for Whiterun. This is not required but it is the fastest way to do this shit so just fucking do it.
Once there go immedaitely to the Hall of the Dead and accept the quest for finding the priest's
pendant. Go into the catacombs and immediately one shot two skeletons because you're so fucking
manly. Now let the other one hit you while you run around and heal yourself with the Healing spell.
This is the most efficent way to level it to 30 early game because you won't have any random bull
shit happening to you the skeleton doesn't hit hard enough to really cause any threat to you. You
should then have enough experience from both Restoration and Heavy Armor at that point to buy the
Fists of Steel perk and start plowing through fuckers.
Now that you are truly a god among men, do whatever the fuck you want to do in Whiterun and then
immediately head for Riften. Do what you need to to get into town and find Brynjolf who will ask you
to do some ill ass shit. Do it, fuck moral principles DO IT. He will give you a quest to find him in some
shitty bar but fuck that that isn't why we are here. Follow the quest marker to the Ratwys where you'll
immediately be attacked by some dudes. Kill them, all of them. Eventually you'll find a man named
something the Fist. I don't remember his name, the important thing is he has a pair of iron gauntlets
that give you +10 to unarmed attacks. RIP THOSE OFF HIS BLOODY CORPSE. Now get your
Enchanting up and then burn those suckers so you can bind it onto every fucking single piece of
armor you have. Think it just goes on gauntlets? Nope. Rings, Necklaces, fucking everything. Put it
on fucking everything.
After that you're pretty much set, take whatever other perks and level whatever skills you think best
suit your stlye of play. I personally perfer Alteration for the added armor and Restoration for the
healing, but hell maybe you want to raise zombies or shoot lightning. Go ahead, just remember if
you use weapons ever you are a fucking coward.

Now go punch a dragon square in its smug fucking face.