Thunderbolt

A powerful lightning strike – 60 shock damage to Health, half that to Magicka.

Thunderbolt is the Expert upgrade of Lightning Bolt: 60 shock damage to Health and half that to Magicka, with about 20% more range. It’s expensive to cast, but with the right gear and perks it’s a fearsome dragon-killer.

Spell details

  • School: Destruction (Expert)
  • Effect: A Thunderbolt that does 60 points of shock damage to Health and half that to Magicka.
  • Base Magicka cost: 343
  • Casting: Fire and Forget, aimed
  • Spell tome: Spell Tome: Thunderbolt – value 750 gold, ID 0010F7F5

More Destruction spells

Flames (Novice), Frostbite (Novice), Sparks (Novice), Fire Rune (Apprentice), Firebolt (Apprentice), Frost Rune (Apprentice), Ice Spike (Apprentice), Lightning Bolt (Apprentice), Lightning Rune (Apprentice), Chain Lightning (Adept), Fireball (Adept), Flame Cloak (Adept), Frost Cloak (Adept), Ice Storm (Adept), Lightning Cloak (Adept), Whirlwind Cloak (Adept), Icy Spear (Expert), Incinerate (Expert), Wall of Flames (Expert), Wall of Frost (Expert), Wall of Storms (Expert), Blizzard (Master), Fire Storm (Master), Lightning Storm (Master).

Cost, effect and tome value read from the Skyrim game files (base values before skill, perks and gear).

Effect

A Thunderbolt that does 60 points of shock damage to Health and half that to Magicka.

Where to buy or find the tome

  • Faralda at the College from Destruction 65.
  • Random loot at higher levels, especially boss chests and high-level mages.

Lore notes

Quest reward from

Characters connected to it

Faralda

Faralda is the Altmer mage guarding the bridge to the College of Winterhold – your entrance test, Master Destruction trainer and Destruction spell tome vendor.

Where to find it

More spells from this school

Conjuration

Raise Zombie

Magicka 103
Reanimates a weak corpse to fight for you for 60 seconds.
Destruction

Wall of Flames

Magicka 118 per second
Spray the ground to create a wall of fire – 50 damage per second.
Destruction

Fireball

Magicka 133
An exploding ball of fire – 40 damage in a 15-foot radius.
Destruction

Lightning Rune

Magicka 323
A trap rune that explodes for 50 shock damage when enemies come near.
Restoration

Healing

Magicka 12 per second
The basic heal-over-time spell – 10 Health per second.
Destruction

Flames

Magicka 14 per second
A short-range stream of fire – 8 damage per second, the classic starter spell.
Sources checked: Skyrim game files (Skyrim/Dawnguard/Dragonborn.esm + strings, read 2026-10-11); Elder Scrolls Fandom spell articles (tome locations)

Thunderbolt

School
Level
Casting
Fire and Forget
Magicka cost
343
Magnitude
Duration
Dual-cast
Tome value
750 gold
Tome ID
0010F7F5
Game

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