How to Cure Vampirism in Skyrim: 3 Effective Cures & Prevention Tips

A guide to curing vampirism in Skyrim, from the conventional method to lycanthropy

Co-authored by Glenn Carreau

Last Updated: December 24, 2022 References

Rising at Dawn Questline

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Lycanthropy

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Console Commands

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Curing Sanguinare Vampiris

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Video

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Q&A

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Tips

It’s easy to contract vampirism (or its precursor, the disease Sanguinare Vampiris) while wandering the vast wilds of Skyrim. You might encounter a random vampire who infects you, or you could choose to become a vampire at Castle Volkihar in the Dawnguard DLC questline. The question is: how can you get rid of it? Luckily, there are multiple straightforward cures in Skyrim, and we’re here to help you find them. Read on for a complete guide to curing and preventing vampirism in Skyrim.

Things You Should Know

Complete the game’s conventional method for a cure, the “Rising at Dawn” quests. Perform a ritual with a mage named Falion to remove the vampirism.
Become a werewolf by doing the Companions' faction quests to cure your vampirism and become immune to all diseases in the future.
Use console commands to get rid of vampirism and any other negative effects on your character.
Cure Sanguinare Vampiris by drinking a potion, praying at a shrine, or asking a Vigilant of Stendarr for help.

Method 1

Method 1 of 4:

Rising at Dawn Questline

1
Ask an innkeeper about rumors to get the “Rising at Dawn” quest. Find an inn and speak to the innkeeper there, selecting the option “Heard any rumors lately?” when prompted. Any Innkeeper across Skyrim can potentially give you this quest, but their response is semi-random; you might have to ask a few times. They’ll refer you to a mage named Falion in Morthal.^{[1]
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- Inns are located in every hold’s major city and in some smaller towns scattered throughout each hold, including Riverwood, Ivarstead, and Rorikstead.
- If you can’t get an innkeeper to give you the quest, go to another inn or rest for a night. Their answers will reset with time.
- If you’re at stage 4 vampirism (by going too long without feeding), all townsfolk will attack you on sight. Feed or use a blood potion to lower your vampirism level so you can speak to an innkeeper for the quest.
2
Talk to a member of the Dawnguard if you have the DLC installed. There are more ways to contract vampirism (and more ways to get the “Rising at Dawn” quest) with the Dawnguard DLC. Simply travel to Fort Dawnguard in the lower right corner of the map, east of Riften, and talk to any Dawnguard members there. They’ll also instruct you to see Falion.^{[2]
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- This is especially helpful if you’re at stage 4 vampirism but don’t like feeding on people in Skyrim. The Dawnguard won’t attack you on sight as villagers will.
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3
Speak with the mage Falion in Morthal to learn about a ritual. Follow the innkeeper’s instructions and travel to Morthal. You can usually find Falion either wandering around Morthal’s streets or in his house. He’ll tell you about the ritual that cures vampirism and ask for a filled black soul gem as the next part of the quest.^{[3]
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- If you’ve never been to Morthal before, you’ll find it north of Whiterun. If you’ve been there before, you can always fast travel.
- Falion’s house will be labeled on your map once you mark the “Rising at Dawn” quest active. If he’s not there, walk around the town briefly to find him outside.
- You won’t be able to speak with Falion if you’re a stage 4 vampire. Once again, lower the stage of your vampirism by feeding or drinking blood potions.
4
Acquire a black soul gem and fill it with a human soul. Buy an empty black soul gem from Falion, or look for one in the dungeons across Skyrim (or on the body of a necromancer). Then, with the soul gem in your inventory, kill a humanoid using a Soul Trap weapon or by casting the Soul Trap spell. This will absorb the humanoid’s soul into the gem so you and Falion can use it.^{[4]
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- There are many soul gem spawning points across Skyrim, including Fellglow Keep, Shroud Hearth barrow, Broken Fang cave, and the hidden room in Hjerim. You can’t use The Black Star as a substitute!
- Buy the soul trap spellbook from either the court mages at Whiterun and Windhelm or one of the mages at the College of Winterhold.
- Enchant a weapon with Soul Trap if you already disenchanted one with the same property.
- If you can’t find or make a weapon, speak with Tyranus in Markarth. You’ll get the Mace of Molag Bal for completing the “House of Horrors” quest.
5
Bring the soul gem back to Falion and follow his instructions. Speak to Falion with the filled black soul gem in your inventory. He’ll tell you to meet him at a summoning circle outside of town, which is located north of Morthal. Be sure to meet him between 5 and 6 AM in-game time; when you arrive, he’ll begin the ritual.^{[5]
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- Falion won’t perform the ritual without you there, so you don’t need to go to the summoning stones immediately if you’d rather do something else first.
6
Wait for the ritual to conclude and talk to Falion again. Let the ritual play out. Falion will perform it, and once he finishes, there will be another short conversation with them. When that’s over, you’ll be completely cured of vampirism!^{[6]
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- If Falion dies at any point before you complete the quest, simply proceed with either becoming a werewolf or using console commands to cure yourself.
- If you’re having doubts, remember that Falion will do this ritual as often as you want. So, if you go right back out and become a vampire again, just return to him when you’re ready, and he’ll help you.

Method 2

Method 2 of 4:

Lycanthropy

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Find and join the Companions in Jorrvaskr. Travel to Whiterun (the first major city you come to in Skyrim) and find the Companion’s hall, a large building called Jorrvaskr within the city. Head to the lower level and speak to the Companion’s leader, Kodlak Whitemane. During the conversation, he’ll allow you to join the Companions, and the faction quests will begin.^{[7]
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- You can also have your first interaction with the Companions on the Pelagia farm outside of Whiterun. If you talk to Aela there, she’ll invite you to see Kodlak about joining the faction.
2
Complete the Companions questline through “The Silver Hand.” The Companions faction features several quests, including repeatable radiant missions. Finish all the quests the Companions give you until you get “The Silver Hand” added to your journal. Ask Farkas for a job, and he’ll tell you to speak to Skjor. Follow Skjor’s directions and meet him at night near the Underforge.^{[8]
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- The Underforge is right outside Jorrvaskr, and Skjor will have a quest marker on him once you mark “The Silver Hand” active.
3
Allow Aela to perform the blood ritual and turn you into a werewolf. After reaching the Underforge, simply continue with the quest as directed and answer “I’m ready” when Skjor asks you to join the Circle. After Aela prompts you, interact with the Underforge Fountain to contract lycanthropy and become a fully-fledged werewolf.^{[9]
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- This is a viable cure for vampirism (both Sanguinare Vampiris and full vampirism) because being a werewolf makes you immune to all diseases. It cancels out the vampirism and makes you a lycanthrope only.
- If you don’t want to stay a werewolf, don’t worry! Just finish the Companion’s questline; the choice to cure your lycanthropy will be given naturally in the final quest, “Glory of the Dead.”

Method 3

Method 3 of 4:

Console Commands

1
Open up the console while playing Skyrim. If you can’t make any natural in-game methods work, you can always use a console command to cure your vampirism. Press the “~” key on your keyboard in-game to activate the console. It’ll pause the game automatically, and a command line will appear with a flashing icon in the bottom left of your screen.^{[10]
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- Gamers usually consider this tactic a last resort, since you’re technically using cheat codes to fix the problem. Nonetheless, you’re free to use console commands whenever you need them!
- Note that this cure works on computers only. You won’t have access to console commands on an Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch.
2
Enter the “showracemenu” command into the console. Type “showracemenu” into the command line to pull up the Character Creation menu in-game. Then, simply unpause the game and exit the menu. While the main purpose of this cheat is to allow you to change your race and appearance at any time, it also restores your character’s status to default and removes all diseases—including vampirism.^{[11]
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- This handy line of code also removes poisons and any other permanent debuffs affecting your character too!
3
Type “setstage 000EAFD5 10” if you have Sanguinare Vampiris. Another line of code can cure vampirism, but only Sanguinare Vampiris—it can’t fix a full vampire. Enter “setstage 000EAFD5 10” into the command console, and you’re all set! This simple cheat code will automatically get rid of the Sanguinare Vampiris disease.^{[12]
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- Since Skyrim (like many Bethesda games) is notorious for glitches, use the code “setstage 0005C625 200” if you can’t get the “Rising at Dawn” quest to start.

Method 4

Method 4 of 4:

Curing Sanguinare Vampiris

1
Look for a message that you’ve contracted Sanguinare Vampiris. The only way to contract Sanguinare Vampiris is by fighting vampires and getting infected by their attacks. If you get the disease, you’ll see a message in the lower corner of your screen. However, even if you get the disease, you aren’t a vampire yet. There’s a 3-day window between contracting the disease and fully turning.^{[13]
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- During this 3-day window, you can use any of the following cures to get rid of the disease. Once you’re a full vampire, they won’t work; you’ll need to see Falion or become a werewolf.
- If you begin to see messages that you hunger for blood or your skin burns in the light, it means you’ve become a full vampire.
- If you fight a vampire and aren’t sure whether you got the disease or not, it never hurts to use one of these basic cures to be safe!
2
Take a potion of cure disease. These can be found commonly throughout Skyrim as loot, purchased in alchemist shops, or crafted yourself at an alchemy station. Silver Hands and Vigilants of Stendarr also frequently drop these potions when killed.^{[14]
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- Find the recipe for the cure disease potion by buying Honeyside, the Riften player home, or buy it from an alchemist. To craft the potion, you’ll need mudcrab chitin and vampire dust.
- Shop supplies are semi-random and will not always have cure disease potions in stock. Check stores like Arcadia’s Cauldron (Whiterun), Angeline’s Aromatics (Solitude), and The Hag’s Cure (Markarth).
3
Pray at any shrine throughout Skyrim to receive a god’s blessing. Visiting a shrine and choosing to pray at it will automatically cure all diseases currently afflicting you. Shrines are scattered all across Skyrim, but it’s easiest to find them in the temples of major cities.^{[15]
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- For example, there’s the Temple of Mara (Riften), the Temple of Dibella (Markarth), the Temple of Kynareth (Whiterun), and the Temple of the Divines (Solitude).
4
Ask a Vigilant of Stendarr to cure you of disease. Vigilants of Stendarr roam across Skyrim and can be found randomly in the world, fighting Daedra and other monsters. They also have a base south of Dawnstar called the Hall of the Vigilant and gather in the Rift at Stendarr’s Beacon as well.^{[16]
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- Note that once you begin the Dawnguard questline, the Hall of the Vigilant will be destroyed, and you won’t be able to find Vigilants there regularly.

Community Q&A

Question

What if Falion attacks me in his house?

wikiHow Staff Editor
Staff Answer
This answer was written by one of our trained team of researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

wikiHow Staff Editor

Staff Answer

If Falion attacks you, it's likely because you're at stage 4 of vampirism. He'll be hostile until you either feed on someone or drink a blood potion. Also, he may attack or call for the guards if you trespass by breaking into his house when it's locked; only enter when it's open.
Question

What do I do if Falion is dead?

Community Answer

If Falion is dead, try becoming a werewolf and then curing yourself of being one. That should override the vampirism.
Question

Can you get it if you are werewolf? Game says I am 100% immune to disease, because I'm a werewolf. Am I still safe?

Community Answer

You cannot contract vampirism as a werewolf; you are immune. In the game, you can be a vampire or werewolf, but not both at the same time. You can also choose to be neither.