How to Kill a Giant in Skyrim
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Dragons? Pish tush. While the scaly monsters dominate most of the media around The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (and that little thing called a plot,) those already playing the game know that Giants are the first truly terrifying opponent you will encounter in Skyrim. In fact, they appear to be stronger than dragons.
Giants camp on the slopes of mountains, with large fires, painted rocks, and huge skulls signalling their presence. You will also see a symbol on your radar when you are close enough to their camp. Consider it a challenge or a warning, depending on what kind of gamer you are. Giants tend to travel with mammoths, who can be a dangerous foe in their own right. Both Giants and their mammoths are passive until you approach too closely or initiate an attack. What happens then?
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Low level characters don't stand a chance against the mighty, vertigo-inducing club of the Giants! Well, unless you get a bit creative. The key to killing Giants in Skyrim is that they are slow and rather dumb. If you must attack one, start with either magic or arrows at a good distance, and then use whatever your current environment is to your advantage.
Rocks
The most likely option will be to find a spot on a nearby mountainside, building, or rocky outcropping that the Giants and mammoths cannot climb up. You will want to be in your safe spot before you fire the first shot, as some unexpected clumsiness might give the monsters enough time to smash you. Keep pelting it with attacks as it walks toward you. This is going to take a very long time, so make sure it can't get to you. You may have to kill more than one, as well, so be prepared.
The only difficult part with this method is that the Giants and mammoths tend to run off once they realize they can't hit you. You will need to leave your safe-spot and lure them back, or hit them from a distance to infuriate them once again. Companions can either help or hinder you in this regard, as they tend to die, rejoin you, and then head off into the fray once again. This means they can lure the Giant back to you, or they can distract it from heading back into range.
Water
If you're lucky enough to be near a body of water, taking down a Giant can be easy.Giants are afraid of water and will not follow you even into the shallows.Just hit the giant, get to the water, and start shooting. If he tries to flee, leave the water for a moment and he will come charging right back.
Note that this does NOT work with mammoths. It's recommended that you take out the mammoths first from a rock and then focus on the Giants, if you plan to kill from the water. Also: Giants WILL smash you with their clubs if you are in range or the water is very shallow. Brooks will not work for this.
Basically, you're so puny you need to exploit their relatively poor AI to make the kill. But whatever, you're Yogsmash Giant-Killer, now! The Giants are just one of many great little touches to Skyrim, showing off the immense depth and subtlety to the game. If you can speak Giantish, you can persuade them not to attack you and hold rudimentary conversations with them. It makes me feel a little bad killing them, knowing they're essentially just dumb shepherds defending their belongings from the little people, but hey, nothing beats killing a creature that can send you into low-Earth orbit!
Feel free to leave your own tips in the comments!
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Yeah, they're a pain to kill, but now that I have a method it's just shooting and luring them back in. It's all about avoiding that club!
all my respect from Italy! damn right now I was thrown in the sky! lol
THX for your advice, i'll try it soon ;)
If you go to the camp near whiterun which is on the left as you leave whiterun , shoot a giant or mammoth with a bow and arrow until it starts to run towards you , then run to the western watchtower which you killed your first dragon in and then hide in there and the giant/mammoth will go there but they cant come inside and just bow and arrow them till they die , good luck
yupppppp im right there! lol i'll follow your tip! before i just was trying to attract them to the castle for ask guard's support, but i dont think is a good idea! anyway i'll try with your solution, thank u man!
Thanks for the input, guys! :)
I just figured out a very quick and effortless method to killing giants near the sides of mountains. I ran up the nearest, climable, cliff face and lured the giants in with arrows. Once they were close enough I used the fully charged unrelenting force shout and simply blew them down the hill for them to die falling. I don't know if this works with the mammoths (there weren't any nearby).
Before I figured that out I was standing on a ledge and running in to slash the giants face, then running away as they swung their clubs to avoid being hit.
Haha, I'll have to try that once exams are over. I'm getting a Skyrim craving like mad.
I didnt kill a giant i tricked it to climb a mountain with me and i ran back and tool all his belongings includint blessing from his gods and steel armour and sword i felt awesome
Lol, I love all the creative comments this is getting. :)
Found a dragon and a giant in a fight...score! watched them duke it out and then finished em both
I actually documented such an occurrence here:
http://gofygure.hubpages.com/hub/Skyrim-Giant-Kill
Honestly, it's so common for me that I get a little pouty when a dragon kill-steals me yet AGAIN.
lol i killed a giant in less than a minute in melee combat with full ebony armor, shield and mace, none upgraded.
Well, once you're at a certain level, giants certainly become easier. :)
If you want to kill a mammoth, then just find a tree and go on dodging it behind the tree while you shoot it with arrows or our ranged magic attack.
I found it easy to kill giants, just need some running room. Find one or two of the giants you want, then hit them long range with arrows. Run them back to Fort Greymoor. They will run up the stairs..hide in the tower. They cannot make it into the opening and stand there defenseless. Pound them with whatever you want to increase the level with. Whether that be arrows or spells. Just remain behind the opening, they do swing their clubs down at the ground. Dont be worried though, as long as you remain on the rock floor you wont be hurt.
At first it was really hard to kill giants, but once you know how it's easy. I killed 2 giants, with both attacking me (not baiting one at a time) by standing in a pool of water and shooting until they run away, stepping on land so they run back, getting in the water when they get too close.... I did this at level 7 with normal difficulty and it took about 20 arrows per giant. The mammoths wound up killing me because they will enter bodies of water, unlike giants :/
Yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I said in the article...Mammoths WILL come after you in the water and should be shot from a rock or other inaccessible place.
Sorry but i tried the aftrad of water method but my giant just went swimming with me!! That was a little unwanted present.
I was standing in water that was too shallow (ankle depth,) and the giant followed me in. How deep was the water?
I can kill giants with one hit! I have assassins blade and a sweet glass dagger, just gotta be sneaky and watch out for the mammoth!
oh ya, and having gloves that give you 2x to backstab giving your assassins blade a total of 30x doesnt hurt ;)
use the animal allegiance shout. the mammoths will start attacking the giants and each other.
Haha, wow, my character has a full set of legendary daedric armor, with an armor rating of 500 something, so I can continually get hit by them and not even get scratched on medium. I'm playing on master for a challenge, and I can still take a hit or two without dying.
Haha, yes. The other day I had to go kill one for a quest and I found I could just stand there and whale on it at the standard difficulty. I kind of miss the days where I would snipe one just to get smashed into the atmosphere. :)
I killed one of the giants near Whiterrun only with my two-handed sword. I fought him between the camp and Whiterrun, but, for some reason, he only attacked me twice. The second giant killed me T_T
I got followed into a shallow lake by 2 giants :S
By my general observation, you're safe in knee-height water, and not safe in ankle-height. Maybe I will play around with the exact depth sometime to clarify the article.
To ed really it took you that long it took me 2 mins to kill two giants and three mammoths without gettimg hit once just so u know im not bragging.
except you plainly are
I finished the companions quest and became a werewolf it made killing gints relatively easy I just atack them they get mocked back fall down and then I just tear them apart
Best way I've found is to simple spam magic. Using the staff of Magnus and the sparks spell meant I only had to dodge one attack and killed it in around.. 20 seconds.
If you run out of arrows, or for some other reason need to get away from the fight, giants are easy to outrun. Withdraw your weapon and just keep heading in the same direction in a flat area. Beware of mammoths though, they are just as fast as you, and very hard to loose in a footrace ;-)
I don't use bows or magic, so to kill a giant in melee, I do a simple maneuver. I use Unrelenting shout to get the giant apart from me long enough to equip a weapon. When he charges, I run right at him and then pass him. When the giant swings down he pauses, that's when I turn around and give him a good slice. A couple of charges, a couple of backside slashes, and boom.
I just killed my first giant.. It was pretty easy somehow. Just used a bow with iron arrows and it died pretty quick. Only thing I did was move around the rocks so it couldn't attack me.
Hey found a really easy way to kill them. It works 80% of the time. fist be a wolf ant then do a charging power attack and they will ragdoll and flop on the floor. just to warn u sometimes it will not work but will take a lot of health from them, on some game it will not work at all, sometimes the will sink into the ground or shoot off. If they shoot of they will kill anything that they hit (usualy goes away from u as never actualy fired backwards) and you may have a long walk to find it but if it goes up it can either kill u when it lands or push u through the floor. But it acts like an insta kil and works on almost all human shaped things!
I wondered how feasible taking on a giant as a werewolf would be...
Can't wait to try this when I fall out of the sky eventually.
While I was doing a contract for companions I had To take a bOw from a giant, it turns out i read the quest txt wrong I killed the TWO wrOng giants. It took me half hour to kill the both so after a few minutes of killing my self I went back and got some pretty good loot
You can kill the giants at Seduna's kiss by climbing up the mountain next to seduna's kiss, you then lure the Giant/Giants up the mountain you then put the giant between the mountain edge and you. Then you use unrelenting force (The full FUS RO DAH)and the giant falls off the mountain and it should die
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_KH6UwW7o&feature
This dude killed a giant and the mammoths.. He wasn't that smart but it worked... You need alot of health potions and stamina potions
I found it extremely easy to kill them :)
Just get 100 sneak and archery, a bow with like 100 dmg and some good arrows (ebony or up), and snipe em out. I killed an entire camp with 5 arrows
I'm a thief, and found quite useful to sneak them. I'm level 12, If you were wondering. The trick here is, if you are a thief or other sneaky character, is to have points in sneak for the extra bonus damage. Shrouded gloves help a great deal, but not necessary. I used a pair of plain steel daggers, and paired with my 6x bonus and Shroud gloves, I killed that giant in 3 hits! (The last one was a non-sneak hit)
Everybody knows that there are gaints close to Western Watchtower. An easy way to kill them is to get them to follow you them making sure they keep following you get to the tower and enter the main building through the small doorway it is to small for the gaints to fit through but being as stupid as they are they will keep trying to get to you then you have fun killing them with any RANGED ATTACK you want if you try to attack the with a sword they will still bash you into the air
I watched a giant one hit kill a dragon it was insane I couldn't get close enough to the dragon to collect its soul tho.
I'm level 33, and it took me under a minute to kill two giants.
I recommend that you max out your Armor and your weapon ad get a companion if fighting giants but I can fight them my self takes like 3 minutes.
I killed a giant and it was easy. My archery is 42 and when I sneak and shoot them the basically lose half health on one shot.
It all depends on your determination, I find it easy. Im lvl 12 orc and have made giant hunting my business. I do my hunting with fur armor an orc two handed mace and hunting bow. I just find a stragler so the mammoths wont help him and pelt him with several sneak attack arrows till he notice's me. then ensues the dance of death, when he charges run by his side, i prefer going under the club arm for safety. If he swung turn and hammer his back and sprint away immediately, turn to face him and repeat. I've killed 11 or 12 at this point, the key is finding a flat spot for the dance, and not hesitating to swing, and run after. If you hesitate he will give you a one way ticket to Valhalla.
I kinda thought a good way to kill a giant is to freeze it with the thu'um and then power attack it with a great sword but I haven't tried it yet so if anyone tries it before me please post the results
if you're an orc level 15, use full armor + berserker rage + potion of strength, defeating giant could be easy
i have full daedric armor and weapons, lvl 36, I found that once you get at least steel plate, you can just go in and pummell them. I also found hitting with an arrow, then fus ro dah as they run at you, then sprint over and hack them up makes for a quick battle. Happy hunting!
i found another way to kill giants very easy and....this may help you later in the game.
All you have to do is start off being and orc and using beserk rage.
beserk rage can be used once every 24 hours in game play.
you take half damage and you do 2.0 damage! lasts 60 seconds
I killed a dragon in 10 seconds at lvl 5!!!!
Just get under its waistline and knife the hell out of them it's easy! No magic or running just get as close as possible and keep slashing it works. They can't hit you if you get real close :) I killed one before I even had a hunting bow just a cheap imperial sword and imperial soldier charactor,lol.. Not hard to kill, at all. Now I'm rank 33 and have legondary daedric armour and weapons so problem solved after 4-5 shots ;)
first time playing, level 2, killed the ones near whiterun. just used the fire and arrows. the area is something's kiss.
HmRick: Exactly. Find some rocks, just keep luring them around the rocks. If you can fund a set of rocks where you can jump down without getting hurt. The giant should then go around all the way giving you time to shoot more arrows while you are heading back into that same spot. Note: I have only tried this on Mammoths, but being whacked more then enough by giants I do know how they work.
If you jump and move backwards you can avoid their club. then you just run to a nearby village and kill them from there.
I killed one, I'm a level 4 dark elf
Just dual wield flames and circle around the just out of range of their club and when they attack,jump out of the way
All you need to do is spam the giant with arrows and magic
and if all else fails, use......THE WABBAJACK! works every
time.
i've gotten it to the point where i don't think the giants spawn anymore, i'm sure i've killed them all, anyways another good trick is to sneak up and hit them with poisoned arrows or paralyze, theres nothing more satisifying then watching a giant fall to the ground like an idiot for 10 seconds
another easy way to kill giants is to shout them at close range then run around them before the club hits you. unfourtunatly this doesnt work for mamoths
LOL! Thanks for the great tips. The first time i encountered a mad giant, he hit my character with his club once and knocked my character flying, killing him instantly.
I use a greatsword to kill giants
i like to have a companion with me, hailing arrows as i move around with a shield and fist, if i keep moving and don't get caught on something the giant usually can hit me.. usually..
i killed a giant at lvl 3. dual firebolt plus nordic bow and iron arrows. if you cant kill him. hit him then bring him to the western tower hell get distracted by those guards and you can kill him quick. same for mammoths. boo yah. AD ftw
i just hid in some rocks and sniped him out, when u rescue the goat
just jump around and use the ebony blade works every time
I essentially used the same tactic as you in the early levels.now i'm level 11,twin scimitar wielding beast,i blast one over with kevel 3 dragon shout(unrelenting force,obviously)then bum rush him before he gets up. This works great you just have to watch out for the other one until you can shout again!and yes i feel bad!
I just led him into whiterun let the guards distract him and when his health was low I started shooting him In the head with a hunting bow and I'm just level 1
im a kahjiit and i have a full set of dwarven armour ( too expensive) and use my elven mace and flames works every time i try lol i cant forget being sent to orbit by giants
I kill a giant in a few minutes
I find it very easy to stand near a small cliff face, only small and easy enough for you to get up on both sides. bow and arrow them then once they get close drop down keep shooting them and run around the cliff face, to the top. once there repeat. and if they get too close you can always shout them down (even better to shout them off the cliff). just how i kill giants with a small bit of danger involved. keeps it fun... not tried it with mammoths yet, will probably report back when i have.
I'm at the level where I just walk up and use my swords to kill him in 5 seconds plus I can survive 4 hits but before I used a bow and used the slow time when you zoom in perk so I never missed
Ed 6 months ago
Its really hard to kill Giants OMG it took me about 30 mins.
If you can try to find a low entry barn that the Giant can not go under, then just keep attacking with Magic or Bow. Thats the way i have killed giants.