Can I Beat Skyrim Legendary Survival Difficulty With ONLY UNARMED?! | Skyrim Legendary Challenge! 

i love the whole idea of Phisten being a Khajiit who is way in over his head! having to step back from quests and being like 'I'LL COME BACK LATER! YOU DIDNT WIN!' such a novel visual to me.

Fun fact: Arngeir never actually takes the horn off you, you can bring it back to the dungeon and get rewarded with a free dragon soul.

The fact that the answer to arachnophobia was bears nearly killed me. Laughed out loud at quarter to 4 in the morning 😂😂😂

I think the reason Kodlak sends the Dragonborn alone to help dispell the wearwolfcurse is because the other companions of the inner circle would disprove of it. He's the only one calling it a curse rather than a gift

For anyone looking to speed up feeding as a werewolf, if you press the shout button to use your howl right after you start feeding, it cancels the feeding animation and lets you move out of the way of incoming attacks. (You still get the health and werewolf perk progress, too.)

A couple of things regarding the start of the thieves guild stuff, you can just fail the initial quest to keep the merchant around. He might not sell anything special, but it's nice to have an extra general goods merchant around for unloading items. Secondly, the shakedown quest can be done completely non-violently, you don't need to brawl with anyone, just talk to people connected to them to learn how to convince them to pay up.

When I was doing a full unarmed playthrough years ago, I learned that the Alteration Tree is your best friend on this game. Later in the game you get enough physical damage protection, but one thing I always had a problem with was fighting anything that used magic, I would die so easy, the Alteration Tree gives you magic resistance, plus putting the right spells on your armor is very important also. Great Challenge, I have yet to play on the Survival difficulty, but it looks brutal, lol.

“Im gonna heal infront of you to assert dominance” *proceeds to get clobbered 😂

Well, Unarmed in FO4 will seem like a breeze in comparison. Sadly, crafted Brawler gauntlets do not have the Fortify Unarmed enchantment. They have to be bought. I don't know what level Deadric or Dragonplate Brawler gauntlets spawn at merchants, but those are as high as you can get without using an alchemy/enchantment loop. And the Ring of the Beast is better than any ring you can make youself. Though, surviving as a Vampire while doing radient quests to get the ring is another matter.

The skeevers owning you that hard remind me of a saying we have on Final Fantasy 11 (the first Final Fantasy MMO): No matter what level you get to and no matter how powerful you get, there will always be a bunny that can kill you.

I have so much respect for this guy making a poll to limit races as if this isn’t alr an insanely hard run

There's an alternate way to survive this challenge, but it's a little differently difficult: Become a Vampire Lord, and you'll have an infinitely usable way to deal massive unarmed damage, and if you side with the vampires in the Dawnguard questline, you'll have access to a ring that boosts your unarmed damage by 25 and stays equipped while you're transformed.

Hey Willow. Been enjoying your video's. Worth a membership when I got time to catch your lives. I did this run with no magic, including enchantments. Orc Heavy with a shield. Berserker was a life saver. Be thankful you never had to go to Winterhold. That was the biggest struggle until I found the smelter to keep warm.

One thing I've noticed during my playtroughs that may actually help someone who is looking for an unarmed build, is that an argonian vampire lord with the special vampire ring you get doing missions after completing the dawnguard questline siding, well, with the vampires, is that the multiplier go nuts and makes you deal more damage than a Khajit in the same scenario would do for some reason I have no idea why, making you able to do massive damage and actually one-hit some NPCs... Not most of them tho lol.

I haven't watched through the whole thing, but you didn't mention the Fists of Randagulf in the intro. They're a pair of unique heavy armor gauntlets added by AE which boost unarmed damage. They would be super useful early on with a run like this, though they are outclassed once you get to the high level brawler gauntlets. I think the quest is started by reading something on the table Adonato Leotelli sits at in Candlehearth Hall in Windhelm.

fun fact metal armour makes u cold faster fur armour keeps u warm walking with a torch gives a little bit of heat too one more tip the steed stone makes heavy armour weigh less and lets u carry more i also recomend getting the Predator's Grace boots they are easy muffle and nice and warm

39:39 If you ever need a good, hard laugh that'll bring you to tears, get yourself a potion of paralysis, or a paralysis spell, and hit poor Wulfgar with it right as he Whirlwind Sprints.

I loved watching this challenge run cause when I was a lot younger and had just found Skyrim for the first time, I immediately picked a Khajiit cause I thought they looked neat. The claws ended up carrying me through the entire game, I upgraded my armor and other equipment normally, but never used a sword. Felt like watching myself play for the first time again

Possible lore reason why Khajiit have the highest base damage of unarmed damage is cause in their homeland of Elsweyr they have Khajiit monks who practice what is known as Claw-Dance which has many styles of hand to hand fighting which is a big part of their history and culture which is used for combat but is mainly used as a form of meditation. In short Khajiits are the kung-fu masters in TES lore which makes it a further crime that Skyrim and ESO don’t have dedicated unarmed skills.

in case you do more skyrim videos, there is a set of orcish armour in an orc camp to the west of riften. super easy to get, even easier if you are an orc. By far the best way to get high lvl armour super early, I grab it every run!

The name Physton with the idea of being a tony the tiger rip off has me laughing for a solid minute and a half because of the whole... bandana thing.

I always assumed that Argonains deal more damage with their fists because they have scales, while Khajiti actually make proper use of their claws

the legend of phisten is 10/10, love the guy:3

The Bears really make it Harder, because the Spider woldnt have fit through the Door in the Beginning P.s. Really cool Video. Glad i found your Channel

Good video, though one small note: The ring that you get when you side with harkon (ring of the beast) also works without transforming and it adds +100 health and your unarmed attacks deal a bonus 20 poison damage (this is especially valuable as poison completely ignores armor and resistances) as such it allows unarmed to be rather strong even on legendary if i recall correctly

Just commenting before the gameplay really starts. I KNOW for a fact I couldn't do this, I'm excited to see how you do! Thanks for the upload man!

Fun fact: there is a ring that gives you 20 extra damage with your fist in the dawnguard dlc, just side with the vampires and do some side quest. The ring is called "the ring of the beast."

I recently did my mandatory annual Skyrim play through and did an unarmed build for the first time. I loved it, honestly it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had with Skyrim’s combat. One thing I wish I could’ve changed about it though. My original idea was to do a one-handed build, i.e. only use a shield. My idea was to get that one spiky shield that causes bleed damage, and just punch with my free hand. But you can’t do that effectively because you have to be completely unarmed for most of the good unarmed perks to be usable. That was a bummer for me, but otherwise the unarmed build was super duper fun and if read this and you’re thinking about trying it, DO IT NOW!

This guy is criminally underrated good video man 👍🏻

Fun fact: cats scratch much harder than lizards.

Loving this channel. Keep up the good work!

Hey glad you talked to Keerava instead of beating her up. Even though you tried it... Multiple times 😅 I really like her and her groom and if I do this quest I always make sure to visit them last and to take their quest as an apology (yeah I can't really play bad characters)

Bro your channel is criminally underrated these videos are great your funny and you only have 34k subs wth

Another great Skyrim Challenge video, It has to be said as well, the thing I appreciate the most about these challenge videos so far is that you don't use any Companions/followers outside of quest ones. Really appreciate that.

I would love to see more livestream moments in these challenges!

There’s quite a lot of unarm overhaul mods which add cool martial art combat animations and kill moves plus if you wanna be magic monk there’s mods for that too. Arcane brawlers for one gives your fist elemental damage

Be kitty kat, get gloves from hmoeless man, disenchant gloves, enchant spiky fists. Get heavy armour, get perks mainly one for the fist one, become one of use and turn into a vampy fire, done. Ez pz Some how become stalth archer.

Love this. Someone else might've already stated this previously, but whilst in werewolf form and eating a body to heal-you can roar as soon as available and get back to the good good fight

33:08 To explain on the lore, the basic companions don't know about the curse and aside from one, the rest of the circle are all happy with being werewolves and wouldn't want to break the curse.

Ah yes an unarmed run i did one of these once just to see how far id get but survival wasnt a thing back then so this added bit of difficulty is awesome

This video made me do some research and I stumbled upon The Ring Of The Beast from the dawn guard dlc. Probably would have helped with this.

Honestly such a W that you’re not afraid to say you have arachnophobia, good on you, king!!

The way Skyrim balance works, I think you can allow yourself to use Blacksmith-Alchemy exploit cycle at least once. Buff will be noticeable, but not gamebreaking like when you use it several times to snowball the effect.

Yes please do insert more VOD clips to these videos, GOLD

Actually i believe there is a glitch, that makes it so that if you pick an argonian, get the necromage perk, and become a vampire, it well actually boost your unarmed damage way beyond that of a Khajiit, even with the same process. I don't remeber exactly how to do it or what the order is but i definitely remember watching a video of someone making that build.

That fucking suplex was crazy

40:30 I have played Skyrim on Legendary twice and will say that the spiders are some of the most hardest to deal with because of the poison they inflict. Unlike on lower difficulties the poison is super fast so turning the spiders into bears was probably a smart thing to do. Since you have arachnaphobia, you would not like Grounded the game.

I love your vids man

Another good character name would have been Ken, because it means "fist" in Japanese. Although if you do that, you also have to make him a human with spiky hair and a sleeveless leather jacket.

Phenomenal. Well done.

Love your avatar tbh, it’s really cool !

The Silver Hand do more damage to you in werewolf form because they use silver weapons, which specifically do more damage to werewolves.

funny that not many people know that the thief guilds quest with the innkeepers can be veeeery easy, because u can intimidate them for example with smashing pots or sth at that one guy and so on. if im right u can intimidate two of them and the last will give the money without doing sth

Just FYI: You don't need to brawl for the Thieves Guild Intro-Quest. If you had talked with Brynjolf again after he gave you the Quest he would've told you: 1.) Helga can be blackmailed by stealing her Dibella-Statue. She'll pay her debt in exchange for the Statue. 2.) Keerava can be blackmailed by talking to her Fiancé, aquiring knowledge about her Family and then threaten her Family during her dialogue. 3.) Bersi can be blackmailed by thrashing his Dwemer-Urn in his Shop. No matter the Order, the 3rd one will always pay immediately. [4.) If you've failed to collect the money through dialogue, instead of brawling, you could go back to Brynjolf and pay the 300 G out of your own pocket.] I put the last one in brackets because I'm not 100% sure if this Option is Part of the Base-Game, the USSEP or the Cutting Room Floor. P.S.: Phisten is a great Punch-Cat Name. =D Mine was Je'an Clawed van Helgen. xD

Moral of this run: it sure would be nice if heavy armor wasn't made out of paper mache.

Finally a new willow video

Btw you dont have to wait for beast form to wear off you can just open the favorites menu (whatever button you have bound for favorites or the default on controller the( up button on dpad) and you can and then press revert form when you press the shout button you revert.

Honestly Insects begone even without arcanophobia seems pretty fun

I'm not gonna lie, that Clear Skies thing still baffles me, how the heck have we all gone this long without noticing that before? Great job with the run, willow! This is such a fun run, congrats on the victory!

32:25 fun fact, you can use the howl ability to skip the feeding animation so you aren't defenseless

26:14 derp bear has blessed this video and your future challenge runs

Every time spiders would show up “BEAR FIGHT! BEAR HANDED! BEAR NAKED?!?! OH YES PLEASE!”

If you get one of the hearth fire homes, you can get a carriage driver that can take you to Ivarstead. The one near falkreath is the most convenient.

Your channel is growing so fast and this game is almost 12 years old! Speaks volumes about your videos 😮‍💨

6:05 ok I'm trying this because that was wonderfully brutal. Spiked headfirst into the concrete from a good 6 feet in the air and at an angle that ensures a broken neck just in case the head trauma doesn't quite do it.

For anyone trying unarmed only. I dont recommend the bears mod for a start, haha, but i get it. For the brawl issue he had, if you start attacking before the brawl actually starts, thats assault, and you'll get done in by guards. Anything involving dwarven ruins is beyond hard. Dont attempt till you're almost max damage. You can do it without wolf form, but i recommend a follower at bare minimum. You cant block, you are short range, you need something. Every benefit helps. The ebony armour from boethia is amazing. Shouts are amazing. Enchanting is pretty good too. You'll want to set up a crop farm early. Get enough crops to level up alchemy to max (but dont use it early) then get enough crops to make health potions. You dont wanna do this too early, as everything will outlevel you, but you can save the resources till later. With enchanting, fortify health as well, not just unarmed.

The best idea i have about unarmed whitout shapeshifting is becoming a heavy armor vampire lord whit the necromage perk and ring of the dlc (i think it boost unarmed) damage) + enchanted pugilist heavy gauntlets + armor boosting transmutation spells

just found your channel and am already loving it

If I was trying this challenge, I would get 100 on alchemy, smithing, enchanting, and alteration first things first... even without the restoration loop, you can make potions to make better enchantings and smithings... and you can make a potion of better enchants to make an armor of better smithing too... you can make a full set of ebony, which is good enough... upgrade them with smith them in a way that even legendary dragons only TICKLE you do to defense alone... (all without a glitch) use enchantment to fortify unarmed as you did, with full 100% enchant + 100% alchemy it's probably higher than 8 on each...... and you can put a SECONDARY enchant on the same item! the full enchant set I would either go for a lot of extra health and health regen... or, smartly, a 100% discount to restoration mixed with a ton of health boost... maybe a ton of stamina boost on the parts I can't have health, for more power attacks! the 100 on alteration means you can get a 30% resistance to all magic... and a 30% absorb ON TOP of that... and you can boost even more your defense with spells... add that with the Atronach stone to a 80% magicka absorption! making you tanky as hell against any mage! you can also do the quest "The Book of Love" to get 15% permanent magic resistance, and enchant the rings/pendant with it to easily get a 85% cap of magic resist... the quest "Unfathomable Depths" is bugged and gives 25% armor rating to all armors except dwarven, the opposite of what it should do... which also would help (it may be fixed on anniversary, idk)

They should have given an unarmed skill tree in this game.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but vampire lord is actually the best for unarmed builds WITHOUT needing to actually be transformed. At level 46 you get a 50 unarmed bonus plus you can get another 20 poison from a vampire lord perk that works whole untransformed as well. Plus you get access to a ring with the VL route that gives 100 hp and 20 unarmed. Finally theirs a gauntlet in the Anniversary edition that gives 20 unarmed plus another 15 with the heavy armor perk for unarmed damage. If my math is right you can hit 137 unarmed as a Kajhit Vampire Lord which can be bumped to 151 with the necromage perk. A lot of work but it can make you pretty strong. Necromage gets even crazier with the magic defense from the alteration tree and lord stone, bumping up your magic def from 55% to almost 69%.

I wonder if you'd have been able to take a different track here. Like, obviously you needed to deal damage, but could you potentially have managed without werewolf form by going for a tankier build? I think the Alteration school spells like Oakflesh and Stoneflesh still boost you even when wearing armor, and there's a variety of extra health enchantments and potions and stuff I think you can get. It still might not have been enough overall, but it might be a different track if you ever re-visit this challenge?

49:29 No Fast travel Is quite a pain but there is a easy way to go straight to the top by using a horse at a stormclock camp near whiterun. You can go straight up and get there in a few minutes.

Great vid

I’m not sure if it’s a new RU-vid feature or just something you can do but when you asked for the like button to be pressed around 14:25 the like button literally lit up and I think that’s pretty dope!

Another reason Kodlak sent you instead of the other companions that i havent seen in this comment section is, he knows your future before you do, he knows that you can save him, and he knows that your destiny is to prevent Alduin from bringing back all the ancient dragons.

I LOVE THE LIVE STREAM CLIPS!!!😊

also if if you didnt know already, you can sheath/holster your claws in beast form to cancel the animation for feasting

For future reference, in the Dawnguard DLC, if you're a vampire, you can pick up a couple of special rings off a radiant quest. one of which, the ring of the beast, adds 100 points to both health and unarmed damage.

I have been playing my first unarmed playthrough. It makes it tough.

Ya know the dude that got executed first probably woulda survived if he didn't get impatient

1) Yes, the bear mod made this a LOT harder. Bears START tanky, and the more you level, the more tanky they get. 2) You'd have made it easier on yourself by taking a few hours to build enchanting and smithing. Even without using the restoration loop, high smithing makes good armor, and getting (or making) a set of enchanting-boosting gear and enchanting a set of gauntlets that adds fifty or seventy points to your punches is not impossible to do, just tedious. Down-side: Leveling up this way would have meant fewer amusing death montages. ;-)

18:40 - Fun fact: no matter who it is, your last mark will always surrender without a fight. Presumably because they heard about you "dealing" with the other two so they know that putting up a fight is not worth it.

was waiting for you to say 'making my way downtown...walking'

werewolves become a lot more powerful if you use the fear roar often, in addition to knocking them down. that said, i think unarmed enchanting is fine to do--as long as you don't use the restoration loop. so then, enchanted gloves, gauntlets, and ring, heavy armor, magic resist from quests, some alteration-based defenses, and maybe a fortify archery potion to increase damage.

The riften guard attacked you because you hit the dude earlier 😂😂😂 but after you died by that guard it was kind of funny 🤣🤣

I like this run since you made some mistakes that seem rather obvious to someome who played this game for way too many hours. Firstly, *don't* wear any light armor when going for this since you'll need level-ups in heavy armor for the Fists of Steel-perk anyway and any over-leveling (aka leveling the wrong stuff) really hurts you. Secondly, you can easily do the Thieves' Guild introduction without beating any of the traders up by exploring different options. But, like I said, I actually like watching less optimized runs, it's something different - keep up the great work !

Did anyone else catch the glitch at 44:09 😅😅😅 I though I had lost my mind for a sec. Great video BTW!!

i actually enjoy the beginning break downs

oh FUCK YEAH WILLOW ASCENDS TO MR FISTER!!!!

Beautiful video, the transition effect when you explained the run at the beginning make me feel like I'm having a seizure though, 9.5/10

Since you have arrachnophobia, if you still want spiders and their drops instead of bears, there’s a mod out there that (is not at all canon or lore friendly) turns all spiders into weird, warped spidermen (the hero). So while it’s not lore friendly like bears it still allows you to have spiders and their loot.

Spiders into bears spell earned the like, but I’ll never forgive Bethesda for removing unarmed.

I feel like armour rating enchants along with ebony flesh alteration would really have had made it easier also getting good health regeneration and maybe a reflect melee damage enchant.

Possibly 2nd

Challenge idea, works like the child of atom playthrough, but as a member one of the factions, brotherhood of steel, institute, railroad or minutemen

That was a pretty funny livestream moment where you died taunting the ghost.

33:30 tbf you’re the Dragonborn and are currently killing every single enemy with nothing but you’re fists so either way if you fail or succeed they can try it by themselves

Skyrim is not a continent. It's a province.

I think if anything, you replacing the spiders with bears makes the game harder because I've died to bears way more times than the weak spiders. Oh, I realized you say the same thing I just said in this video, I feel like I'm commenting on a different video you did with the mod lol. Oh well, nice to know we agree you made the game harder lol