The Tower Stone
Primary Location Guide
The Tower Stone is one of the 13 Standing Stones spread out in the lands of Skyrim which each provide a specific, unique bonus through the form of a blessing granted upon using said stone. This stone in particular grants a special ability that allows a character to instantly lockpick any lock which is at Expert skill or lower, basically just excluding Master locks. In addition, The Tower Stone is also a primary location, marked on the map and capable of being fast traveled to. Remember, you can only have one Standing Stone blessing at any time as choosing a new one will remove the previous blessing you had.
Nearby Enemies:
- Cave Bear x1
- Snow Bear x1
Nearby Items:
- Clam (Clam Meat) – several
- Nordic Barnacle Clusters – several
- Spiky Grass (Grass Pod) – few
- Quicksilver Ore Vein
How to Find The Tower Stone
The Tower Stone is situated atop of a large peninsula that is situated almost an equal distance between the capital city of Dawnstar and Winterhold. To find the general location, you can see the peninsula and the land mass it is situated on along with the nearby capital cities and their relation to the Tower Stone in terms of distance by checking out the maps below.
In order to reach the stone’s actual location, you will have to approach from the main landmass of the peninsula from the west. Travel east and find the paths that lead around the large glacier that is situated southwest of the stone and follow them up to the smaller glacier the stone itself sits upon. From there you will need to walk up a small stairway that hangs over the ledge to come into contact with the stone itself. Be careful not to fall of this precarious piece of land, as it is a long way down.
The two closest primary locations to the Tower Stone are Hob’s Fall Cave to the south and Pilgrim’s Trench to the northeast.
The Tower Stone’s Blessing
The Tower Stone is among the 4 of 13 Standing Stones currently in Skyrim which grant a blessing that allows the use of a special, once per day ability, the other three being the Shadow Stone (invisibility), Ritual Stone (AoE Raise Undead), and Serpent Stone (paralyze).
Unlike the other three ability stones, the Tower Stone does not grant an ability that one can actually cast, yet it brings up a new prompt when attempting to lockpick any Expert or lower ranked lock. This new prompt either allows you to lockpick the target in the normal method, or rather choose to use the Tower Stone blessing to instantly unlock the target without ever having to break out your lockpicks. Remember, this can only be used once a day and does not work on master locks, so try to save it for an Expert lock, lest you potentially waste the best benefits of its use.
Overall, the Tower Stone’s blessing is purely for utility purposes and is diminished by its lack of effect on Master locks, serving useful to those who find themselves having a difficult time mastering the art of lockpicking. Since the act of picking locks is mostly human-skill based, you are better off teaching yourself to get better at the touch and feel art breaking and entering in Skyrim versus trying to rely on the blessing granted by this stone.
PC owners will likely be the highest percentage of players who find the stone useful, since the lack of rumble force feedback on keyboards makes lockpicking far more difficult. Alternatively, you can hook up a wired Xbox 360 controller to your computer to get your rumble on and have an easier time or choosing the less real-world expensive option and unlocking the perks in the lockpicking skill tree which grants you more leeway.
In the end, I would only recommend choosing the Tower Stone blessing if you have encountered a specific lock you have found yourself having a hard time with. You can backtrack out of whatever location you are in, fast travel to the stone for its blessing, pick the lock and head back out again to swap your blessing out again once more before progressing further, where a more generally beneficial blessing can do you far more good in the end. Lastly, you can always purchase or pickpocket more lockpicks from various vendors or characters since practically every humanoid in the game carries a couple of them.
Nearby Threats
There are few enemies to speak of in the area of the Tower Stone. Pretty much the only threats that you will potentially run into are a couple bears, one Cave Bear, and one Snow Bear, which are separated and on the outskirts of the nearby area. Unless you’re at a particularly low level, these should pose little danger to you.
Nearby Items
Item wise, there are a few objects worth searching for and picking up while at the Tower Stone. For starters, and as can be seen in the pictures above, there is a Quicksilver Ore Vein directly west of the stone itself on top of the glacier the location is situated on.
Besides that, you can find some various ingredients around the edges of the bottom of the glacier, particularly by the water that is directly underneath the actual stone and the ledge it sits atop of. Search around to find some Spiky Grass and the Grass Pods that can be harvested from them in addition to Clams, which you can harvest Clam Meat from. In the water itself, you can find several Nordic Barnacle Clusters.
Video Guide
Last Updated on October 4, 2020 by Standard of Entertainment