Skyrim Build Planner & Perk Calculator
Choose your race and standing stone, then click perks to add them to your build. The planner checks perk prerequisites and skill requirements, counts your perk points and tells you the minimum character level the build needs.
Character
Click a perk to add a rank (click again on its last rank to remove it). Locked perks need one of the perks listed under them first.
Attributes
Build summary
| Skill | Start | Needed | Perk points | Perks |
|---|
How the build planner works
Every perk in Skyrim has two costs: one perk point, and a minimum level in its skill. The planner tracks both. When you click a perk it checks that you already own a perk that leads into it, adds one perk point, and raises that skill's requirement to the level the perk (or perk rank) needs. From those requirements it works out two numbers:
- Levels from perk points. You get one perk point per character level after level 1, so a build with 40 perks needs at least level 41.
- Levels from skill experience. Raising a skill to a target level gives character experience equal to each new skill level along the way. Add that up for every skill and you get the level the skill requirements alone will push you to.
The minimum level shown in the bar is the higher of those two. If the skill levels come first, you will have spare perk points to spend elsewhere, and the planner tells you how many.
How to plan a build
- Pick your race. Its +10 and +5 skill bonuses change your starting skills, which slightly lowers the experience a build needs in those skills.
- Use the tabs to show warrior, mage or thief skills, then click perks to add them. Perks with several ranks fill one pip per click; clicking the last rank removes the perk.
- Locked perks are faded and list the perk you need first. Removing a perk also removes anything that depended on it.
- Set how you will spend your level-ups on health, magicka and stamina. The split buttons give a quick starting point.
- Press Share result to get a link to your build, or just come back later: the planner remembers your last build in this browser.
Worked example: a stealth archer
Take a Khajiit, who starts with Sneak at 25 and Archery at 20. A classic stealth archer takes all five ranks of Overdraw, the three ranks of Critical Shot and Eagle Eye in Archery, plus five ranks of Stealth and Muffled Movement in Sneak. That is 15 perk points, so perk points alone would only need level 16.
But the last ranks of Overdraw need Archery 90 and the last rank of Stealth needs Sneak 80. Raising Archery from 20 to 90 is worth 3,885 character experience, and Sneak from 25 to 80 adds 2,915 more. That total of 6,800 experience reaches level 21, which leaves five spare perk points for something like Light Armor or Alchemy.
Perk points and the level cap
Without making skills Legendary, the highest level you can reach is 81, which gives 80 perk points. Skyrim has 251 perk ranks across 18 skills, so no single character can take everything without the Legendary system. Making a skill Legendary resets it to 15 and refunds its perks, and the experience from leveling it again keeps your character level climbing past 81.
The Dragonborn add-on adds a way to reset the perks of a skill by spending a dragon soul. Like the Legendary option, that only refunds points you already spent; it does not add new ones. So a sensible plan stays within 80 perk points.
Attributes: health, magicka and stamina
Each level-up gives +10 to one attribute of your choice. Choosing stamina also adds +5 carry weight. Every race starts with 100 health, 100 magicka and 100 stamina, except the High Elf, who starts with 150 magicka. Carry weight starts at 300.
| Playstyle | Common split | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Warrior | About half health, half stamina | Health keeps you alive in melee; stamina fuels power attacks and sprinting. |
| Mage | Mostly magicka, some health | Magicka pays for higher-level spells, but you still need health to survive hits. |
| Thief | Mostly stamina, some health | Stamina drives bow zoom and carry weight for loot. |
Tips for a good build
- Plan for level 50 to 60 first. Most players finish the main quest well before level 81. A build that only works at level 70 may never come together.
- Crafting skills level you fast. Smithing, Enchanting and Alchemy add character levels without making you stronger in combat unless you use what you craft. Check your level from skills to avoid leveling past your gear.
- Read each perk tree. The perk tree pages list every perk, rank and requirement in one table.