Vampire vs Werewolf in Skyrim: Which Is Better?

The Skyrim vampire vs werewolf debate comes down to playstyle: vampirism (especially with the Dawnguard Vampire Lord) rewards stealthy mages and night owls, while lycanthropy turns melee characters into a once-a-day wrecking ball with no daylight drawbacks. Neither is strictly better, and you can’t have both at once, so this guide breaks down how to get each curse, what it really does, how to cure it, and which one fits your character.

Quick Verdict

• Pick vampirism if you play a sneaky character, an Illusion or Conjuration mage, or simply want a powerful transformation you can use as often as you like (Vampire Lord, Dawnguard).
• Pick lycanthropy if you play a warrior, hate managing a hunger meter, want full disease immunity and never want to think about sunlight again.
• Pick neither if you rely heavily on well-rested bonuses (werewolves lose them) or play a fire-weak race that already struggles against dragons (vampires get weaker to fire).

How to Become a Vampire

There are two roads into the night: catching the disease the slow way, or being bitten by Volkihar royalty.

Sanguinare Vampiris (the classic route)

• Get hit by a vampire, either by melee attacks or their Vampiric Drain spell. Each Vampiric Drain hit has roughly a 10% chance to infect you.
• Do not cure the disease. After three in-game days, Sanguinare Vampiris turns into full vampirism.
• With Dawnguard you can also drink from the Bloodspring in Redwater Den to contract the disease on purpose.
• Good places to find vampires include Movarth’s Lair, Bloodlet Throne and Dimhollow Crypt.

Argonians and Bosmer are naturally 50% less likely to catch it thanks to their disease resistance, so expect to take a few extra bites. A werewolf can’t catch it at all (more on that below).

The Gift from Harkon or Serana (Dawnguard)

Being bitten by Harkon or Serana skips the disease stage entirely and also grants the Vampire Lord power. Harkon offers it during Bloodline, when you choose between him and the Dawnguard. Siding with Isran does not lock you out: Serana can offer the gift during Chasing Echoes and again after Kindred Judgment, and after that last quest you can ask her repeatedly if you get cured.

How to Become a Werewolf

Permanent lycanthropy only comes from one source: the Companions of Jorrvaskr in Whiterun.

1. Join the Companions and work through their early jobs until Skjor invites you into the Circle.
2. In the quest The Silver Hand, meet Skjor at night in The Underforge and drink Aela the Huntress‘s blood.
3. Your first transformation happens automatically. When you wake up (naked, as tradition demands), help Aela clear the Silver Hand from Gallows Rock.

With Dawnguard installed, Aela can give you her blood again later if you were cured or turned into a Vampire Lord, which also wipes out vampirism.

What About Hircine’s Ring?

During the Daedric quest Ill Met by Moonlight, Sinding hands you a cursed version of the ring that forces random transformations until you hunt down the White Stag. This is temporary and does not give you lycanthropy. If you spare Sinding and help him at Bloated Man’s Grotto, Hircine rewards you with the proper Ring of Hircine, which lets a werewolf transform again after Beast Form has been used for the day (re-equip the ring to recharge the extra transformation). Killing and skinning Sinding instead earns the Savior’s Hide, and with some care you can walk away with both.

Vampirism Stages: Pros and Cons

A vampire moves up one stage roughly every 24 hours without feeding, and feeding always resets you to stage one. Without Dawnguard, the weakness and resistance numbers are harsher (25% per stage, up to 100%) and people attack you on sight at stage four. Dawnguard softens both, and townsfolk no longer care how pale you look unless you’re in Vampire Lord form.

Stage	Resist Frost / Weakness to Fire (Dawnguard)	Sunlight penalty	Vampiric Strength	New spell
1	20% / 20%	-15	5 pts	Vampiric Drain, Vampire’s Servant, Vampire’s Sight
2	30% / 30%	-30	10 pts	Vampire’s Seduction
3	40% / 40%	-45	15 pts	None
4	50% / 50%	-60	20 pts	Embrace of Shadows

Perks at every stage:

• 100% resistance to disease and poison.
• Nightstalker’s Footsteps: 25% harder to detect while sneaking, which pairs nicely with the Sneak tree.
• Champion of the Night: Illusion spells are 25% more powerful, so Pacify and friends hit higher-level targets.
• Embrace of Shadows at stage four gives 180 seconds of invisibility plus night vision once per day.
• Vampires count as undead, so the Necromage perk in Restoration boosts most of your beneficial effects by 25%.

The downsides:

• Weakness to Sunlight: between 5 am and 7 pm outdoors, health, magicka and stamina stop regenerating and are reduced. Regeneration from gear, perks or the Lady Stone still works.
• Weakness to fire that grows each stage. Dunmer cancel much of it with their natural fire resistance, while Nords stack the frost resistance on top of their own.
• Feeding on a sleeping person and getting caught gives a 40 gold bounty that can’t be paid off with gold or jail time.

Many vampire players hover around stage two or three: you keep Vampire’s Seduction for daytime feeding without suffering the worst sun and fire penalties.

Vampire Lord Form and Perk Tree (Dawnguard)

The Vampire Lord is the real reason most players choose fangs. You sprout wings, grow taller, hover over water, carry much more and, unlike a werewolf, you can switch in and out of the form as many times a day as you like. It has two combat modes:

• Blood Magic mode: you float and cast Drain Life (an area projectile that absorbs health) with Raise Dead, which can reanimate almost any creature for 120 seconds.
• Melee mode: claw attacks and a power attack bite that kills humanoids at low health with a dramatic wing-wrapping animation.

Default night powers include Bats (a short dash as a swarm of bats) and Vampire Sight. Perk points come from killing with Drain Life or the bite. The tree has 11 perks and needs 156 feedings in total:

Perk	Effect	Requires
Power of the Grave	+50 health, magicka and stamina as a Vampire Lord	None
Detect All Creatures	Night power that reveals all creatures, even dwarven automatons	Power of the Grave
Mist Form	Become invulnerable mist for 23 seconds while stats regenerate	Detect All Creatures
Supernatural Reflexes	Time slows for 23 seconds while you move faster	Mist Form
Blood Healing	Killing a person with a power attack bite restores all health	Power of the Grave
Unearthly Will	Night Powers and Blood Magic cost 33% less	Power of the Grave
Poison Talons	Melee attacks deal 20 poison damage	Unearthly Will or Blood Healing
Night Cloak	Bats feed on enemies in melee range during combat	Poison Talons
Vampiric Grip	Pull a creature to you and choke it	Power of the Grave
Summon Gargoyle	Conjure a gargoyle for 120 seconds	Vampiric Grip
Corpse Curse	Paralyze a target for 10 seconds	Summon Gargoyle

Two practical warnings. First, kills by Night Cloak don’t count toward perks, so many players save it for last. Second, being seen transforming carries a 1,000 gold bounty and turns most people hostile, so pick your moment. Your normal equipment bonuses don’t apply in this form, apart from a few Dawnguard rings and amulets from Feran Sadri’s side quests.

Werewolf Form: Beast Form Explained

Lycanthropy gives you the Beast Form power, usable once per day, anywhere, at any hour. You’re vulnerable for a few seconds while transforming, then you’re a huge, fast predator for about 2.5 minutes of real time.

• +100 health and stamina, much faster sprinting and quicker stamina regeneration.
• Base claw damage scales with your level, from 20 up to 80 at level 45.
• A sprinting power attack hits for triple damage and knocks enemies down, which is famously effective against giants.
• A howl power that scatters groups of enemies, swappable for totem powers (see below).
• 100% disease immunity in human form, permanently, as long as you stay a werewolf.

Feeding (Bloodlust): activate a corpse to eat it. Each humanoid fed on restores 50 health and adds 30 seconds to Beast Form. This is your only healing while transformed, since spells and natural health regeneration are disabled.

The trade-offs: you’re locked in third person, can’t open menus, the map or your inventory, can’t pick locks or open chests, and gain no skill experience while clawing things apart. Guards attack you on sight near towns. Your armor value is fine early on but falls behind badly in the late game, especially on higher difficulties, and there’s no ranged attack. Outside Beast Form, the big penalty is that werewolves can never get a resting bonus or Lover’s Comfort from sleeping.

Totems of Hircine

Once you become Harbinger of the Companions (or marry Aela), Aela offers the Totems of Hircine quests. Each one sends you to a random animal den, warlock lair or vampire lair to recover a totem, which you bring back to the Underforge. Praying at a totem swaps your howl for:

• Totem of the Hunt: a Detect Life howl.
• Totem of Brotherhood: summons two wolf spirits.
• Totem of Fear: your howl causes fear in enemies.

These are lesser powers, so you can use them multiple times per transformation.

Werewolf Perk Tree (Dawnguard)

Dawnguard also adds a werewolf perk tree, earned by feeding on corpses in Beast Form. Without Savage Feeding you can only feed on humanoids (not undead), so that perk speeds things up a lot. Filling the whole tree takes 164 feedings.

Perk	Effect	Requires
Bestial Strength (4 ranks)	25% / 50% / 75% / 100% more damage as a werewolf	None, then previous rank
Totem of Ice Brothers	Brotherhood howl calls ice wolves	Bestial Strength
Totem of the Moon	Brotherhood howl calls werewolves	Totem of Ice Brothers
Totem of the Predator	Hunt howl has longer range and shows targets’ combat status	Bestial Strength
Totem of Terror	Fear howl affects higher-level creatures	Bestial Strength
Animal Vigor	+100 health and stamina in Beast Form	Bestial Strength
Gorging	Feeding heals twice as much	Animal Vigor
Savage Feeding	Feed on most dead creatures (half the extra time)	Gorging

The three totem perks only work once you’ve completed the Totems of Hircine quests. On Solstheim (Dragonborn DLC), werewolves can also buy four Beast Form rings from Majni of the Frostmoon Pack at Frostmoon Crag.

Feeding Compared

• Vampires feed on sleeping people (inns, guild dormitories, your spouse, a housecarl or a follower you’ve asked to sleep) or, with Dawnguard, on anyone under Vampire’s Seduction. A Potion of Blood counts as feeding. Feeding is about managing your stage, not survival.
• Werewolves feed on corpses mid-fight to heal and stay transformed. There’s no hunger meter outside Beast Form, which many players find more relaxing.
• Vampire Lords “feed” through Drain Life and bite kills, which also level the tree.

How to Cure Each Curse

Curing Vampirism: Rising at Dawn

1. Ask any innkeeper for rumors to start Rising at Dawn.
2. Visit Falion in Morthal after 6 pm. He needs a filled Black Soul Gem. He sells one, or you can loot them from the necromancers at Fort Snowhawk.
3. Fill it by casting Soul Trap on a humanoid and killing it.
4. Feed first so you’re not blood-starved, then meet Falion at the Summoning Stones north of town at dawn (4 to 6 am).

The quest is repeatable. Becoming a werewolf also cures vampirism instantly.

Curing Lycanthropy: Glenmoril Witch Heads

1. During Blood’s Honor, Kodlak sends you to Glenmoril Coven near Falkreath. Keep spare witch heads, since the witches don’t respawn.
2. After Purity of Revenge at Driftshade Refuge, the final quest Glory of the Dead takes you to Ysgramor’s Tomb.
3. After cleansing Kodlak, drop another head into the Flame of the Harbinger and defeat your own wolf spirit.

The radiant quest Purity lets you cure Farkas or Vilkas the same way (Aela refuses). The wiki notes that a cure this way was meant to be final, while with Dawnguard Aela can still make you a werewolf again, so treat it as a big decision. Choosing to become a Vampire Lord also strips lycanthropy.

Good news for indecisive players: perks you spend in either tree stay with you after a cure, and are still there if you take the curse back.

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	Vampire (Dawnguard)	Werewolf
How to get it	Sanguinare Vampiris, Bloodspring, or Harkon/Serana’s bite	Companions quest The Silver Hand
Transformations	Vampire Lord, unlimited per day	Beast Form, once per day (more with Ring of Hircine)
Form duration	As long as you like	About 2.5 minutes, +30 seconds per feeding
Perk tree	11 perks, 156 feedings	11 ranks (8 perks), 164 feedings
Passive bonuses	Disease and poison immunity, stealth and Illusion boost, frost resistance	Disease immunity
Passive drawbacks	Sunlight penalty, fire weakness up to 50%	No resting or Lover’s Comfort bonus
Ranged options	Drain Life, Vampiric Grip, Corpse Curse	None
Healing in form	Drain Life, Blood Healing, Mist Form	Feeding only
Gear in form	Ignored (except some Dawnguard jewelry)	Ignored (Frostmoon rings excepted)
Bounty if seen transforming	1,000 gold	Guards attack you near towns
Cure	Rising at Dawn (Falion), repeatable	Glenmoril Witch Head at Ysgramor’s Tomb

Which Suits Your Playstyle?

• Stealth archer or assassin: vampire. Nightstalker’s Footsteps, Embrace of Shadows and night vision all feed a sneaky build, and you’ll be indoors or out at night anyway.
• Illusion or Conjuration mage: vampire. Champion of the Night boosts Illusion, and the Vampire Lord’s Raise Dead and gargoyles feel like a necromancer’s dream.
• Two-handed or dual-wield warrior: werewolf. You don’t lose much by putting your weapons away for a burst of claw damage, and the knockdown sprint attack shines against giants and big groups.
• Casual explorer: werewolf, if you’d rather not track feeding stages or hide from the sun. Just accept the missing rested bonus.
• Role-players: pick the story you like. Siding with Harkon in Dawnguard or rising through the Companions both offer a satisfying arc.

If you’re truly torn, the Vampire Lord is usually considered the stronger and more flexible form, mostly because you can transform whenever you want and it has real ranged attacks. The werewolf wins on simplicity and on a lack of passive drawbacks.

Can You Be Both a Vampire and a Werewolf?

No, not in normal play. Lycanthropy gives 100% disease resistance, so a werewolf can never catch Sanguinare Vampiris. Going the other way, Aela’s blood cures vampirism, and accepting the Vampire Lord gift from Harkon or Serana removes Beast Form from your powers. The game always swaps one curse for the other. The only ways around this rely on console commands or bugs, which we don’t recommend. You can switch back and forth as often as you like, though, and since perks are kept, a dedicated player can max out both trees over time.

FAQ

Is vampire or werewolf better in Skyrim?

With Dawnguard, the Vampire Lord is generally the more powerful and flexible option. Werewolves are better for melee builds that want no sunlight or fire weakness.

Do I need to side with Harkon to become a Vampire Lord?

No. Even if you side with the Dawnguard, Serana can offer the gift during Chasing Echoes and again after Kindred Judgment.

Do I lose my perks if I get cured?

No. Perks in both the Vampire Lord and werewolf trees stay when you’re cured and are ready again if you take the curse back.

How many times per day can I transform?

Werewolves get one Beast Form per day, plus extra uses with the Ring of Hircine. Vampire Lords can transform as often as they like.

Checked against the Skyrim game files and community wiki articles, written in our own words.