Key recommendations
- Decorations in Elder Scrolls: Castles provide passive bonuses such as reducing food consumption or increasing happiness.
- Decoration effects stack, so using multiple decorations with similar bonuses can be extremely beneficial.
- Choose decorations based on your specific needs, such as reducing oil consumption or increasing gold from orders.
Decorations in Elder Scrolls: Castles aren't just for, well, decoration. As well as adding some much-needed flair to what could otherwise be a dreary and dark interior, decorations have passive bonuses that they provide just by being around.
These bonuses vary widely in purpose, with some helping the production of certain materials go faster, others helping in combat, and so on. A little help is better than no help at all, and there is a time and a place for all of that. But some decorations will be a little more useful than others.
Decoration effects stack, so using multiple decorations that provide the same/similar bonus can be extremely beneficial.
8 Garden corner
Reduce food consumption
The Garden Nook is the highest level setting that reduces commoners' food consumption, with each Garden Nook doing so by two percent each. This isn't a huge difference, but the bigger the regular population and the more of them you have, the bigger the effect. There are other decorations that have similar effects on food consumption, so be sure to pick the one that will best serve your case.
This is one of the smaller effects of decorations, but still, if you're having trouble keeping your pantry stocked and have more than a few commoners, this can be somewhat useful. Most of the time, there is something else that will have a better effect. That said, maybe you like how it looks! Your castle should make you happy; if you like it, build it.
7 Lantern Array
Reduce oil consumption by 3%.
Similar to Garden Nook, Lantern Array reduces the consumption of a specific resource, this time reducing how much all stations burn through oil. Without oil, your castle grinds to a halt, and especially without food, everyone will be worse off. If you have trouble keeping up with your oil (which can be a particular problem during the eclipse), then this would be a good choice.
There are other decorations that provide a similar effect, and as always, tailor your decision to your situation. This is certainly the best decoration of its kind, but if you are looking for a specific difference, the Wall Garden reduces the consumption of cooking oil.
6 Sword Banner
Increase the happiness of the commoners
The happier your people are, the better. This decreases the chances of someone getting the idea to commit regicide, which can throw a real stain around the castle, to put it mildly. There are banners that affect the happiness of different sections of people, so plan this for either the largest or the unhappiest population.
When making decisions on the throne, if there's always a certain section of people (or that subject you just don't like) that you're always up against, it might not hurt to have banners to keep them up. spirit more often. than not.
5 The green dragon egg
+3 gold from orders
More gold is actually better than less gold, and you'll consistently get more gold if you place dragon eggs around your castle. For every green dragon egg you place, you'll get three more gold from every order you complete.
These commands are generally very easy to complete, requiring minimal attention to what you are producing and adjusting accordingly. These can add up enormously and really start to fill your coffers.
4 Red Grimoire
Increase the maximum health of nobles by 2
It's a story (almost) as old as games. The more health you have, the harder it is for things to hit you hard enough to knock you down. You'll often be sending adventurers into battle, and keeping them healthy will keep them ready to get back out there and fight again.
Each Red Grimoire increases the maximum health of your nobles. These two points won't make much of a difference, but start stacking more and more of them and they'll become noticeably harder to take down.
3 Purple grimoire
Increase Magicka Of Nobles by 10
The higher a character's Magicka, the more damage spell and elemental attacks do. This will primarily benefit those equipped with a staff, as they are the ones who use magic attacks the most consistently. But it will also increase the elemental aspect of certain weapons, which can include things like battle cannons.
Stack a few of these together and magic wielders in particular will do quite a bit more damage and wipe out waves of enemies much faster. It'll take some of that pressure off your shield bearer and get you through a few more rounds of Sheogorath's Gauntlet.
2 Hanging garden
Increases stamina
Stamina increases the weapon damage your characters take. This will make a noticeable difference for more or less any character you have, but most who use a battle axe, daggers or bows. Shield carriers will still get help from this, but their main focus should be on tanking damage instead of causing it.
Like the Purple Grimoire, this will make a considerable difference in battle and help you wipe out waves of enemies much faster. Combine that with some extra damage from the Purple Grimoire and many enemies won't stand a chance.
1 Steel Armor Stand
Increase the effect of the healing potion by three percent
Sometimes you'll be in a fight and absolutely need to use a healing potion. When this happens, it indicates that a fight is not going very well. But the more help the potion provides, the better your chances of getting through the fight and reaching the top.
Stacking the effect of a few Armor Stands will make that difference and turn a potion from keeping you on your feet to a potion that brings you close to full power. Keep your adventurers on their toes, keep them fighting and you'll go far.
