“Assassin’s Legacy: A Skyrim Player’s Epic Journey from Stealthy Bandit Slayer to Emperor Conqueror”

We have all likely mastered the art of stealth archery in Skyrim at some point – or even several times – but have you ever eliminated 999 individuals before turning your weapon on the Emperor for kill #1,000? This player has.

Reddit user Peterlerock shared a screenshot of their statistics page, revealing that they had dispatched 999 individuals and no others. Not a single animal, creature, Daedra, undead, or machine. Through Skyrim’s transparent menu, we can see the Emperor standing just a few feet away from their dagger, ready to attack.

Peterlerock mentioned that they achieved these stats by playing as an illusion assassin. “I never engaged in any vampire/dwemer/draugr quests, and I pacified all animals,” they explained. “I believe I cleared every single bandit/forsworn/black mage camp in the game at least once. I had to spare Hagravens and random vampires (like Hern for the Dark Brotherhood).”

Kill No. 1000 from r/skyrim

They don’t seem to be taking the easy route, either, choosing to play on expert difficulty with a “heavily modded” game. “To establish an illusion assassin, spam Muffle until you can acquire higher tiers of Calm. After that, it’s kind of easy mode,” they said. “Avoid using other skills (speech, lockpicking, etc.) initially to keep the enemy level artificially low.”

I’ve experimented with a nightblade build myself and enjoyed it. I didn’t implement it as strictly as Peterlerock, but it would be interesting to try this on my next adventure in Tamriel. I have utilized the Muffle trick before, as it’s by far the most efficient way to quickly boost your illusion skill. There are various methods to enhance your abilities, but be cautious as these can disrupt your game.

If you want to attempt this yourself on legendary difficulty, Peterlerock has a strategy for that, too. “On legendary, you need to separate bandits from one another and then sneak double-power attack them with two daggers, followed by Calm,” they explained. “It shouldn’t take more than two cycles per bandit.”