The Orcish Dagger is a compact, brutal-looking blade from the orcish tier, which sits between Dwemer and ebony in the heavy-material line. It deals 6 base damage, weighs just 3 and strikes fast, which suits sneaky characters who rely on sneak-attack multipliers more than raw numbers.
It is also a dagger you will see in odd hands. Plenty of mages carry one as a backup weapon, so it is a common early-game pickup long before you could forge it. For a matching outfit, look at Orcish Armor.
Stats
| Type | Dagger |
|---|---|
| Skill | One-handed |
| Material | Orcish |
| Damage | 6 |
| Weight | 3 |
| Value | 30 gold |
| Speed | 1.3 |
| Reach | 0.7 |
| Stagger | 0 |
| Critical damage | 3 |
| Add-on | Base game |
| Item ID | 0001398E |
Where to find
- Unenchanted orcish daggers appear from level 6, enchanted ones from level 7.
- Sold by blacksmiths and general goods merchants, and found as random loot.
- Often carried by bandit mages, ordinary mages and Forsworn mages and archers.
- Marcurio in Riften carries one if you are level 10 or lower when you first enter the Bee and Barb.
- One is stabbed into a headless skeleton holding the Wooden Mask in Bromjunaar Sanctuary at Labyrinthian; mind the frost trolls.
Crafting and upgrading
Crafting at a forge: 1 × 
Orichalcum Ingot, 1 × 
Leather Strips, 1 × 
Iron Ingot. Requires the Orcish Smithing Smithing perk.
Improving at a grindstone: 1 × Orichalcum Ingot. The Arcane Blacksmith perk doubles the improvement.
Compared with other daggers
Base stats of all regular (unenchanted) daggers in Skyrim, weakest first:
| Weapon | Damage | Weight | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron Dagger | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| Steel Dagger | 5 | 2.5 | 18 |
| Orcish Dagger | 6 | 3 | 30 |
| Dwarven Dagger | 7 | 3.5 | 55 |
| Elven Dagger | 8 | 4 | 95 |
| Nordic Dagger | 8 | 3.5 | 115 |
| Skyforge Steel Dagger | 8 | 2.5 | 25 |
| Glass Dagger | 9 | 4.5 | 165 |
| Ebony Dagger | 10 | 5 | 290 |
| Stalhrim Dagger | 10 | 4.5 | 395 |
| Daedric Dagger | 11 | 6 | 500 |
| Dragonbone Dagger | 12 | 6.5 | 600 |
Tips and notes
- Forging needs Smithing 50 and Orcish Smithing: one Orichalcum Ingot, one Iron Ingot and one Leather Strip.
- Temper it with an Orichalcum Ingot; Orcish Smithing doubles the gain.
- Being cheap and light, it is a good blank for practising Enchanting.
Stats from the Skyrim LE 1.9 master files (Skyrim.esm, record OrcishDagger). Values are base values before perks, smithing improvements and enchantments.
