Dead Drop Falls is a cave system that runs deep into the mountains behind Fort Dawnguard in the Rift (Dawnguard). The only way in is through the fort’s training cavern. There are no real enemies to speak of; instead it is a gauntlet of bridges, gates and switches, a sort of obstacle course for crossbow users, with useful loot at the end.
What you’ll find
- A waterfall and a hole you jump down into a small lake, with two half-flooded paths below.
- An ascending spiral path leading to a lever and back up to the entrance, handy as an exit.
- A bridge puzzle: pull the lever, then shoot the target on the pillar behind it to lower both bridges. A third bridge and a pair of alternating gates work the same way with another target.
- A chest at water level in the bridge room.
- A cavern with three floor pressure plates (a book already sits on the left one) and a wall plate above the locked gate, plus a hidden chest on a ledge to the right.
- A timed gate opened by shooting the plate above it, then a room with exploding bolts, a loot chest and a book.
- Dead Drop Mine, with four corundum ore veins, two crossbows and some minor loot, which loops back to the bottom of the falls.
Notable items
- Exploding Steel Bolts of Fire, Ice and Shock.
- Books Confessions of a Khajiit Fur Trader, The Sultry Argonian Bard v1 and The Aetherium Wars.
- Two crossbows and four corundum veins in Dead Drop Mine.
Tips
You need some kind of ranged attack for the targets: a bow, a crossbow, a projectile spell like Firebolt, or even a shout. If you have none, just stay home. For the pressure plates you do not actually need to drop items: each plate stays active for about ten seconds after you step on it, so run across all three and quickly shoot the wall plate. Short on clutter? A barrel in the room holds sacks of flour. The timed gate closes fast, so sprint or use Whirlwind Sprint. Speedrunners can also skip the bridge puzzle by running up the bridges before they finish rising. Followers may get left behind on the wrong side, so do not count on your companion here.
Details checked against community wiki articles and the Skyrim/Dawnguard game files, summarised in our own words.