Restoration alchemy loop is basically cheating and I can't stop using it

[DragonbornVet]

I'm on my 5th playthrough and finally decided to actually commit to the alchemy grind instead of just making poisons. Turns out if you stack Fortify Restoration potions with gear that boosts alchemy, then drink them while wearing that same gear, the loop gets genuinely absurd. You can make potions so powerful that a single healing draught restores like 300+ health.

The thing is, once you know about it, you can't unknow it. Every other playthrough I try to just ignore it and play "normally" but by level 20 I'm always like "okay fine, 15 minutes of alchemy crafting and now I'm functionally unkillable."

Has anyone else just accepted this as part of their playthrough at this point, or do you actually have the willpower to skip it? Because I'm genuinely curious if people are just using it or if there's some mod that caps it that I should know about. I'm on AE vanilla right now so nothing's stopping me from breaking the game if I want to.

 

[WhiterunModder]

Yeah, the loop is absolutely broken and honestly once you see it work the first time it's hard to unsee. I get why you keep falling back into it.

That said, I'd push back a little on the "can't unknow it" thing. You actually can break the habit if you just commit to a self-imposed rule from the start - like "no Fortify Restoration at all" or "alchemy caps at X skill level." I've done full playthroughs where I just... didn't craft it, and by like level 30 I'd stopped thinking about it. The temptation dies faster than you'd think if you never start.

If you want a mod solution, Ordinator (PC only obviously) completely reworks the alchemy tree and removes the loop entirely by changing how the perks scale. There's also mods that just flat-cap potion effectiveness, though I can't remember the exact names off the top of my head. But honestly? If you're on AE vanilla, the easiest fix is just setting a house rule. "No restoration loop" is way less friction than installing a whole mod if you're not modding anyway.

The other option is just leaning into it and playing on Legendary difficulty. Makes the broken potions feel less like cheating and more like... you earned the right to be ridiculous. I've done that too and it's actually kind of fun when everything still hits hard enough to matter.