How to Spawn NPCs in Skyrim (placeatme)

Skyrim's console lets you conjure followers, merchants, dragons, or a small army of bandits anywhere you stand. Spawning works off an actor's Base ID — the 8-digit form ID for the underlying actor template — which you can copy from any of our Skyrim NPC pages.

How to spawn an NPC

1. Open the console with the tilde key (~). New to it? See our guide to opening the console.
2. Type player.placeatme <BaseID> <Count> and press Enter. A fresh copy of that actor appears in front of you.
3. Omit the count for a single spawn — player.placeatme 0001A693 places one copy.

Teleporting an existing NPC to you

To move someone who already exists in the world rather than cloning them, you need their selected reference:

1. With the console open, click directly on the NPC — their Reference ID appears at the top of the screen — then type moveto player to warp them to you.
2. If you can't see them, select them by ID instead with prid <BaseID>, then moveto player.

Removing spawns

• disable — hides the selected actor (it stays in the save).
• enable — brings a disabled actor back.
• markfordelete — flags the actor for permanent removal; combine with disable to clean up clutter you spawned.

Notes & tips

• Spawning many actors at once (a large Count) can stack them on top of each other and tank your framerate — start small.
• A placeatme copy is a brand-new reference, so it won't share quest state with the original. To handle a specific story NPC, click the real one or use its Reference ID.
• To revive a spawned enemy you killed, click it and use resurrect. To make a spawn follow you, see our companion commands on the relevant NPC list.

Frequently asked questions