In this section of the Alchemy Guide you will learn how to discover all the traits of the reagents. At the start all your available reagents will have unknown effects. To discover the first effect you can eat each reagent once if you want. However, you can also follow the method below to unlock all the effects without wasting extra ingredients.
There are two achievements that you can unlock if you do trait discovery. This is not mandatory but it will make it easier for you to find the proper effects when you want to craft a potion or poison. Once you've obtained the achievement Toxicologist and Botanist, you will also get two dyes, Viridian Venom and Nirnroot Gray.
Alchemy Discovery Method
Here is the list that you should follow, assuming you have no traits discovered yet. After crafting those combinations, you will know all the traits of the reagents for the achievements.
Craft the potion once, then move on to the next combination and so on till you are through the whole list. You can use potion or poison solvents to get through this list.
- Beetle Scutle & Mudcrab Chitin
- Beetle Scutle & Butterfly Wing
- Beetle Scutle & Violet Coprinus
- Blessed Thistle & Namira’s Rot
- Blue Entoloma & White Cap
- Blue Entoloma & Butterfly Wing
- Blue Entoloma & Nirnroot
- Bugloss & White Cap
- Columbine & Bugloss
- Columbine & Wormwood
- Columbine & Blessed Thistle
- Corn Flower & White Cap
- Corn Flower & Blessed Thistle
- Dragonthorn & Stinkhorn
- Dragonthorn & Blessed Thistle
- Dragonthorn & Water Hyacinth
- Emetic Russula & Water Hyacinth
- Emetic Russula & Violet Coprinus
- Emetic Russula & Luminous Russula
- Fleshfly Larva & Torchbug Thorax
- Fleshfly Larva & Scrib Jelly
- Fleshfly Larva & Imp Stool
- Fleshfly Larva & Nightshade
- Imp Stool & Mountain Flower
- Imp Stool & Nirnroot
- Lady’s Smock & Violet Coprinus
- Lady’s Smock & Corn Flower
- Lady’s Smock & Water Hyacinth
- Luminous Russula & Mountain Flower
- Luminous Russula & Spider Egg
- Mountain Flower & Blessed Thistle
- Mudcrab Chitin & Nightshade
- Mudcrab Chitin & White Cap
- Namira’s Rot & Wormwood
- Namira’s Rot & Water Hyacinth
- Nightshade & Nirnroot
- Nirnroot & Butterfly Wing
- Scrib Jelly & Spider Egg
- Scrib Jelly & Blessed Thistle
- Scrib Jelly & White Cap
- Wormwood & Spider Egg
- Spider Egg & Mudcrab
- Chitin Stinkhorn & Emetic Russula
- Torchbug Thorax & Wormwood
- Torchbug Thorax & Nirnroot
- Torchbug Thorax & Stinkhorn
- Water Hyacinth & Luminous Russula
- Wormwood & Water Hyacinth
- Butterfly Wing & Spider Egg
- Namira’s Rot & Nirnroot
- Spider Egg & Nirnroot
Sometimes an update (New DLC) can introduce new ingredients. Here we have 4 new ones:
- Powdered Mother of Pearl
- Clam Gall
- Dragon’s Bile
- Dragon’s Blood
If you want to discover the traits too you can follow this list:
- Clam Gall+ Fleshfly Larva
- Clam Gall + Spider Egg + Dragon’s Blood
- Clam Gall + White Cap
- Powdered Mother of Pearl + Scrib Jelly
- Powdered Mother of Pearl + Beetle Scuttle
- Dragon’s Bile, Dragon’s Blood + Spider Egg
- Blessed Thistle + Dragon’s Blood + Mudcrab Chitin
- Dragon’s Bile + Scrib Jelly + Dragon Rheum
- Imp Stool + Lady’s Smock + Dragon Rheum
You can easily prepare for the trait discovery, just get the amount of reagents needed that are listed below and then you are ready.
- 4 Beetle Scuttle
- 6 Blessed Thistle
- 3 Blue Entoloma
- 2 Bugloss
- 3 Butterfly Wing
- 3 Columbine
- 3 Corn Flower
- 3 Dragonthorn
- 4 Emetic Russula
- 5 Fleshfly Larva
- 3 Imp Stool
- 3 Lady’s Smock
- 4 Luminous Russula
- 3 Mountain Flower
- 5 Mudcrab Chitin
- 4 Namira’s Rot
- 2 Nightshade
- 7 Nirnroot
- 6 Scrib Jelly
- 7 Spider Egg
- 3 Stinkhorn
- 3 Torchbug Thorax
- 3 Violet Coprinus
- 5 Water Hyacinth
- 5 White Cap
- 4 Wormwood
- 3 Clam Gall
- 2 Powdered Mother of Pearl
- 2 Dragon’s Bile
- 2 Dragon’s Blood
- 2 Dragon Rheum
Further New Ingredients
The ingredients below here are new and not yet implemented in the discovery list.
- Chaurus Egg
- Crimson Nirnroot
- Vile Coagulant
Conclusion
Trait discovery makes sense when you have a dedicated crafter character to know what effects each reagent has, that way you won't get confused and you won't have to look up ingredients online when you want to try something new. It is also good if you want to get the achievements that are tied to trait discovery. However, other than that the trait discovery has no real use case, most players memorize the most important potions or poisons that they usually craft and that is usually enough.