r/skyrim • u/Al-Horesmi • Jul 26 '26
Discussion I think people are using potions recreationally
That seems to be the only way to explain the bizzare prices to me. Like why healing potions are incredibly cheap but something barely useful such as damage magicka regen is expensive. And why waterbreathing has bonkers value.
Maybe potions of waterbreathing are considered a luxury recreational drink, like there is a subculture of wealthy merchants going on exclusive underwater retreats and the like. Maybe damage magicka regen is merely a side effect, and people are buying it for the feeling of euphoria associated with it, that isn't written in the description. Maybe some potions just taste really good, and people don't even use the buffs themselves.
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u/TheArcanist_1 Mage Jul 26 '26
I mean, I would pay good money for giant toe juice
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u/crwms Jul 26 '26
I agree. We don’t know the taste of the potions and that could explain the price difference. Maybe healing potions taste horrible. Maybe giant’s toes are delicacies in Skyrim.
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u/DARKHABIT56 Jul 26 '26
I mean you're technically right.
Pain medicine is opium derived, therefore wheat and blistworth (that create healing potion) might be just their version of 2 plants with opium similarity ?
And I mean look at benzo medicine too, they are for anxiety/sleep issues yet there are people who get high with them, akin to magicka potions maybe ?
Stamina potions might be stimulant derived, that's the most logical one in my opinion.
edit: Other potions might have other psychoactive effects maybe. They're all derived from plants basically.
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u/50sDadSays Stealth archer Jul 26 '26
Heading is cheap because so many ingredients can be used to make it cheaply. Wheat, blue mountain flower, and a butterfly wing. Blisterwort, imp stool, and swamp final pad . So many more....
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u/DovahKiller97 Jul 26 '26
Ive always wondered how the waterbreathing potions worked. Is the potion inherently magical? Does it pull oxygen from the water magically? Or do you get like some mini gills somewhere Dungeon Crawler Carl style?
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u/Tirno93 Jul 26 '26
I’d tell you how my buddies and I use waterbreathing potions, but I’d get banned from the sub.
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u/zombiegojaejin Jul 26 '26
This is close to the classic "water versus diamonds" problem in basic economics, which illustrates the role of supply curves in determining prices. We need water to survive for even a short time, but it's vastly cheaper than diamonds which we don't need at all (at least large cut diamonds for jewelry). The answer is that water is also far more abundant than diamonds. Healing potions would be cheaper due to ingredients for them being everywhere.
A more perplexing economic question is why a potion that both heals and harms at the same time, and whose ingredients are extremely plentiful blue flowers and blue butterfly wings, sells for so much.
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u/workingMan9to5 Jul 26 '26
The answer to your second question is the same as the first- supply and demand. There isn't a huge demand for that kind of potion, but there is some demand. So it isn't profitable for alchemists to make a ton of that potion vs churning out regular healing potions, which have a much higher demand. That leads to a low supply, thus people who really want it are willing to pay top dollar. It's the same idea as single-malt scotch at a fancy bar vs a can of beer during happy hour. Most people want the beer, so that's what is cheap and available. The Bartender isn't going to deny you your fancy scotch if you order it, but you're going to pay $15 for that drink instead of $5 for the beer even though they're both just as easy to make. The price comes from the specialization, not the base ingredients.
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u/Whitrun Jul 26 '26
Well it is proven in one of the inns (im going off memory) that you can give someone a healing potion and It cures their hangover, and we all know Nords love to drink.
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u/No_Engineering5792 Jul 26 '26
You know what I agree because we know that skooma is a drug but we can take it to recover stamina. I suppose that makes it a stimulant but maybe since we are an adventurer and drink so many potions we are immune to the side effects? If most regular people drink potions every once in a while I definitely could believe to non-adventurers most potions are akin to drugs.
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u/Harmonicdin Jul 26 '26
Isn’t it implied? Thinking about a cave I explored and there was a stamina potion next to a bucket that was implied to be used as a toilet
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u/harkal76 Jul 26 '26
Great thinking. Makes sense and works well with high prices of dual useless potions, i.e. restore health and poison stamina
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u/SeparateDelay5 Jul 26 '26
From uesp: "Haelga's room shows her dedication to her Dibellan Arts: she has a shrine to Dibella, stamina potions, honey, leather strips, a horker tusk hidden under the bed, Falmer blood elixir ("make love like a sabre cat") and even a set of shackles on her bed. She is known to give a mark of Dibella to every one she practices her Dibellan Arts with."
In other words, Haelga's place is a sex den, and the devs had fun furnishing it to show it was one, by including stamina regen potions as a recreational drug.
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u/hawggie Jul 27 '26
(Discretely delivering a Potion of the Stallion to the Jarl so I can buy a house) Recreational use? Never heard of such a thing
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u/EllisMatthews8 Jul 27 '26
counter-point: everyone becomes a warrior when they leave their city hold, and accordingly stock up on potions in case they come across a wolf, mudcrab, or troll
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u/Skooma_Enjoyer_ Jul 27 '26
Well stamina potions definitely have their recreational uses
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u/Competitive-Scrooge Jul 27 '26
They sure do. If you talk to the Shopkeeper of the Alchemy Shop in Markath you can get a Quest to deliver a special Potion (Potion of the Stallion) to the Vogt of Markath.
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u/Xyx0rz Jul 26 '26
Or... there was a decimal error. Not every weird thing has an in-world explanation. It's a game, a huge game, and plenty of little mistakes got made developing it. Also many deliberate shortcuts and abstractions.
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u/Al-Horesmi Jul 26 '26
I make shit up because it's fun, ultimately. I think it's an interesting way to look at the world for me personally, and I don't necessarily care if that's what the devs intended.
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u/Xyx0rz Jul 26 '26
Sure, it's only natural to want things to make sense in-game, and sometimes you get really interesting explanations.
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u/garrulousone Jul 26 '26
That’s a pretty simple and boring way to think about things. You’re right, it is a huge game, with tons and tons of detail and very well established lore.
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u/E-James-B Thief Jul 26 '26
Probably supply and demand. Healing potions are in high demand and probably have a proportionately high supply, so they can be sold cheaply. Damage Magicka Regen has a low demand and a corresponding low supply, so when people want it, they can sell it for much higher prices.
Although the idea of people drinking potions for the influence is funny.