Enchanting loop cheese is ruining my playthroughs and I need to stop

[DragonbornVet]

I keep telling myself I'm not going to do the soul gem + petty soul loop this run. And then I hit level 15 and suddenly I'm drowning in gold and enchanted gear that makes everything trivial by level 20. It's not even fun anymore, it's just... done.

The problem is the loop works so well that skipping it feels like handicapping yourself. You actually get punished for not exploiting it because vendors have garbage gear and crafting without the loop takes forever. So either I cheese my way to overpowered or I spend three hours grinding for materials that should take thirty minutes.

Anyone else get stuck in this? Like, do you just force yourself to not touch the enchanting bench for a while, or do you deliberately gimp your enchanted gear to make it matter? I'm thinking about trying a run where I only enchant one or two pieces of gear max, just to see if that makes the midgame actually challenging.

 

[TamrielTactician]

Yeah, I feel this hard. The loop is so efficient that it genuinely breaks the game's economy - once you realize you can pump out enchanted gear faster than vendors can stock it, everything else feels slow by comparison.

I think the one or two pieces limit is actually a solid approach, though I'd maybe tweak it slightly. Instead of a hard cap, what if you just... don't farm the loop at all, and only enchant stuff you actually find or craft naturally? Like, enchant your current weapon when you get it, maybe boots for movement, but don't sit down and systematically kit yourself out in full enchanted armor at level 16. That way you're not arbitrarily gimping yourself - you're just playing within the game's intended pacing.

The real issue isn't enchanting itself, it's that the loop trivializes the whole progression curve. Vendors DO have garbage gear, you're right about that. But if you're not using the loop to turbocharge your smithing and enchanting, vendor gear and found loot actually stays relevant longer. I ran a playthrough where I just... didn't optimize, and suddenly finding a random enchanted sword felt like something, because I wasn't drowning in better alternatives I'd crafted myself.

Also ngl, forcing yourself to skip the bench entirely for like 10-15 levels is rough. The loop is there, it's tempting. The one or two pieces rule gives you permission to use enchanting without letting it spiral into full cheese mode. You still get to feel the satisfaction of improving your gear without breaking the game's difficulty curve before you even hit Bleak Falls Barrow.