Black soul gems are an incredibly rare enchanting item in Oblivion, though their rarity is matched by their power, so you'll want to get your hands on as many as you can. Plus, if you're completing all the Daedric questlines, you'll also need a black soul gem to start Vaermina's quest.
The good news is that you don't need to rely entirely on luck to get black soul gems. There's actually a unique process you can do to upgrade grand soul gems into black soul gems, which is easy enough to do once you know the trick. So, here's what you've got to do to make your own black soul gems.
How to get black soul gems in Oblivion
Black soul gems can be found randomly on necromancer enemies or can be created by upgrading grand soul gems at specific altars. Given how rare it is for necromancers to drop black soul gems, creating your own is by far the best option.
To create your own black soul gems, you need to:
- Get an empty grand soul gem
- Head to one of the altars at Fort Istrirus, Fort Linchal, Dark Fissure, or Wendelbek
- Skip time until the next Revenant Shade day (every eight days from the start of the game, between 12 am to 12 pm)
- Place the empty grand soul gem on the altar and cast the Soul Trap spell to transform it into a black soul gem
To get grand soul gems, your best bet is to go to an alchemical and magic merchant, such as Alves Uvenim in the Leyawiin Mages Guild, where you can buy them for around 350 gold.
Importantly, you can also buy the Soul Trap spell from these magic merchants for about 420 gold, depending on your reputation with the vendor. With these in hand, you'll have all the items you need to make a black soul gem.
As for the altars, they're just small stone slabs with red heraldry draped over them. There's one just outside of Fort Istrirus, Fort Linchal, Dark Fissure, and Wendelbek. Conveniently, each of these locations is also a necromancer stronghold, so there's a chance (albeit a very low chance) you can find a black soul gem when clearing them. Ironically, you could also give them a taste of their own medicine and fill an empty black soul gem by casting the Soul Trap spell on a necromancer.
Here are all the altar locations you can visit to create a black soul gem:
The final piece of the puzzle is to make use of the Revenant Shade days. Chances are, you didn't even know these were a thing until now, but they're crucial to getting black soul gems. Every eight in-game days from the start of the game, between 12 am and 12 pm, a red pillar of light appears above each of the altar locations. Only when these are active can you perform the steps above.
These are the Shade of the Revenant days, so you can skip time to the right point on the Imperial calendar:
- Last Seed 27
- Heartfire 4
- Heartfire 12
- Heartfire 20
- Heartfire 28
- Frostfall 6
- Frostfall 14
- Frostfall 22
- Frostfall 30
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