Some tips and hints - No spoilers!
If you give your companion a torch they will use it at night
If you want to keep sprinting don't let your stamina run out fully as it takes a few seconds to starts regenerating
If you see oil on the ground there is usually a lamp you can knock on the ground to set the oil on fire
You can dismount a horse in the water and then mount it again to have regular speed
You can equip a pickaxe and "hit" the ore vein to start mining, likewise you can dualweild them to mine faster
Waiting will fill up your Magika/Health/Stamina bar instantly
Try reading every book you see, the bigger the value of it, the more likely it has a free skill up or a quest inside waiting for you
Sometimes if a dragon is not landing for a long time try moving to more clear surroundings
You can take torches off the wall to make the room more dark if you are trying to sneak
When attacking with bow from far away press the sneak button to do double damage, even if you are not a sneaky character
Most items that you put inside your home will stay there, so you can safely decorate it however you like
Using Unrelenting force will stop any enemy casting/channeling
Every major city stables has a wagon which you can use to fastravel to other cities you've never been to
In most major holds there is a map with little flags on it that you can use to mark new places on your map
You can buy a dog form a breeder outside Markath for a small price
Your horse can climb up mountains that you couldn't on foot.
You can take keys from your companions to have access to their house
If the NPCs are asking you about your health ("feeling sick?" or "You feeling alright?") that means you have a disease, use a shrine to cleanse it, or craft a disease curing potion and drink it
Don't sell all of your magical weapons since you can disenchant them and level up your enchanting skill that way
You can place baskets on peoples head and then steal their stuff without them noticing
Fire does the most raw damage,Frost and Shock do the same amount of damage, but ice drains stamina and slows the enemy, and Lightning drains magicka.
You can revive every living creature except dragons with the Reanimate spells in the Conjuration tree
Making Iron daggers and Leather Bracers is a quick way to level up early smithing, use them for enchanting skill ups or sell them to a vendor for speech skill ups
When you increase your stamina you also increase your maximum carry capacity by 5
By holding the "Use" key you can move items around.
When you trade armor to your companions they automatically equip it if its better then what they currently have.
Resting in a bed will give you rested status, allowing for bonus XP gain, resting in your own bed (inside your house or one you purchased at the inn) will give you a well rested status allowing for even more bonus XP
By wearing Amulet of Mara (which you can buy in Riften for 200g) you have an option to marry people, marriage provides all sorts of benefits for you.
To see locations of quests on your map select them in your journal
To discover new dragon shout words talk to the Argenier the Greybeard leader in the High Hrothgar and he will give you a small side quest and direct you to a new world wall one a time.
You can fast travel while over encumbered with a horse
If you are completely outmatched against a mage (as in, an enemy that uses ONLY magic), try to get behind cover. If you can stay behind cover long enough while the enemy is shooting at you, their magicka will eventually drain, and you can then use a weapon/spell that drains magicka to finish them off while they sit there, helpless
If you are a mage or archer who is outmatched by a melee-only enemy, you can use the terrain to your advantage. If you see a cliff, jump on top of it and your enemy usually won't be able to follow you, giving you precious time to deal damage while avoiding the enemy.
If you are playing a mage character, make sure you check out the Mage College in Winterhold. Just be ready for a very challenging quest chain.
If you are playing a stealthy character, ask your nearest innkeeper about rumors..
Best way to skill up Sneak is preforming sneak attacks
Summoned creatures ( through spells or scrolls) are very powerful and can be a great help in some of the tough boss fights, dragon priests come to mind.
Saving enchanted weapons and disenchanting them will let you level enchanting extremely fast and make good profit out of it since enchanted items are worth more
You can hotkey spells and equipment on the Xbox by favoriting an item/spell, then holding left or right on the d-pad in the favorites menu with the item/spell you want to hotkey selected. After you close the favorites menu, you will then be able to switch to whatever you hotkeyed by hitting left or right
Atronachs are completely immune to spells of their own type, so if you are mainly a fire spell user, the best atronach to use is the fire one, as you can use your spells without needing to worry about damaging your minion.
Your companion can carry an unlimited number and weight of stuff, but only if you tell them to pick them up in command mode.
Guardian Stones! There are 13 of them across Skyrim. You can have 1 active at a time, but you can change them at will.
The Warrior Stone - Combat skills increase 20% faster.
The Thief Stone - Stealth skills increase 20% faster.
The Mage Stone - Magic skills improve 20% faster.
The Lover Stone - All skills improve 15% faster.
The Apprentice Stone - Recover Magicka twice as fast; twice as vulnerable to magic.
The Atronach Stone - 50 extra points of Magicka, 50% Absorb spells, -50% Magicka regen.
The Lady Stone - Regenerate Health and Stamina 25% Faster.
The Lord Stone - 50 points of damage resistance, 25% magic resistance.
The Ritual Stone - Raises all the dead around you to fight for you once per day.
The Serpent Stone - Paralyze the target for 5 seconds, and do 25 points of damage once per day.
The Shadow Stone - Invisibility for 60 seconds once per day.
The Steed Stone - Carry weight +100, no movement penalty from armor.
The Tower Stone - Unlock any expert level lock (or lower) once per day.
Grelka appears in Riften after joining the thieves guild. She has over 3300 gold and will buy everything you want to sell
instead of stealing things directly and risk getting caught, pick them up and move them to a secluded room. Then steal the item, hidden from sight.
a good way to level up alteration and rake in some gold coin is by buying/mining iron ore and using the transmute spell to silver and then gold, smelting into bars crafting into jewelry and selling them to vendors
If you make a trainer your companion you can train from them and then take all of your gold right back
Shooting a fireball directly at a mage with a active ward will render the fireball harmless, but a fireball to the ground close to the mage ignores the ward and does full damage.
If you are being attacked by the guards you can yield by sheathing your weapon and they will stop attacking and try to arrest you instead
After serving time in jail/paying off the bounty you can go back in side the jail and retrieve your stolen items. They are usually in chests some where, marked as Prisoner Evidence.
If enemy preforms a summon while fighting you killing the summoner 1st will automatically kill off the summoned creature
Swords swing faster then axes and axes swing faster then maces.
Eating an ingredient will only unlock its first effect, to discover more effects you need to start crafting potions
You can pickpocket the gold back after you spent it on training
Giving gold to a beggar will put a blessing on you that increases your speech skill by 10
When you break a pick or turn the lock when it's in the wrong position, the pick will "flick" towards the correct position. Paying attention to that should save a lot of picks.
The experience towards speechcraft you gain from trading with merchants is based on the value. However, you only gain experience for that one unit.
Dragon claws, have the code to open doors on the back of the item look at it in your inventory by zooming in.