How to Cure Disease in Skyrim

Diseases in Skyrim — Rockjoint, Ataxia, Witbane and the rest — are contracted from animal bites, traps and undead, and they sap your skills until you cure them. You have three easy options: brew a Cure Disease potion, pray at a shrine, or use the console. Here's how each works.

Option 1: brew a Cure Disease potion

1. Gather two ingredients that both carry the Cure Disease effect. The full set is Charred Skeever Hide, Hawk Feathers, Mudcrab Chitin and Vampire Dust (Solstheim adds Felsaad Tern Feathers).
2. A common pair is Mudcrab Chitin + Charred Skeever Hide — both are picked up routinely from mudcrabs and skeevers.
3. Combine the two at any alchemy lab to brew the potion.
4. Drink it to instantly clear all (non-vampiric) diseases.

Use our alchemy recipe finder to see every valid Cure Disease combination at a glance.

Option 2: pray at a shrine (free)

Activating a shrine of any Divine instantly cures every non-vampiric disease at no cost. Shrines are found in temples, at roadside altars, and at Vigilant of Stendarr outposts — and you can place one in your own home. This is the fastest fix if you're near a hold city.

Option 3: the console

Open the console with the tilde key (~) — see the opening the console guide — then:

• player.removespell <SpellID> — strips the disease's underlying effect from you.
• player.additem <PotionID> 1 then drink — spawn a Cure Disease potion and use it. Note that console item-spawning disables achievements for that session.

Notes & tips

• Early vampirism is just a disease. If you catch Sanguinare Vampiris and haven't fully turned yet, a shrine or Cure Disease potion removes it. Once you're a full vampire it takes the Falion cure ritual in Morthal instead.
• Carry one or two Cure Disease potions on long dungeon runs — draugr and animal attacks are the most common sources of infection.
• Vampire Dust is also a Cure Disease ingredient, so the dust dropped by a slain vampire can itself be brewed into the cure.

Frequently asked questions