The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is easily one of the most iconic games of the current gaming generation if not of all time, and two of its most defining qualities, outside of its vast open world, were the introduction of dragons and the dragon shouts.
Anyone who’s ever played Skyrim will tell you that nothing ever feels quite like the first time you used a “Thu’um”.
Granting players the ability to use their very character’s voice in combat to various effects, Skyrim’s dragon shouts are as meme-worthy as they are powerful.
From shouting enemies down ravines to forcing them to run away for their lives, as well as bringing anything and everything back to life, including dragons, the dragon shouts of Skyrim were definitely something.
Below, we rounded up the 10 shouts from Skyrim that we thought stood out the most, ranking them from worst to best.
10. Whirlwind Sprint
Probably the most conveniently inconvenient way of traversing Tamriel, Whirldwind Spirit allows players to shoot themselves forward at such speed that you’ll be able to avoid triggering traps completely.
Whirlwind Sprint is more than just a substitute for running though.
It’s a literal flash step that allows you to get behind your enemies in a blink of an eye, or get away from dangerous threats so you can attack them from afar, like those pesky giants, or the Dwarven Centurion that you’ll occasionally encounter while looting the many Dwemer ruins scattered all over Skyrim.
As useful as Whirlwind Sprint may be in combat and in terms of practicality — you can use the shout to move fast despite being overweight — avoid using it near a cliff or hill.
Otherwise, you’ll fall to your untimely demise.
9. Dragonrend
You might be the dragonborn in Skyrim, but you’re not exactly a dragon.
This means that, in combat, you’re at the mercy of when the dragon decides to land, unless, of course, you’re handy enough with the bow.
Thankfully, there is a way to literally bring the dragons of Skyrim down.
Using Dragonrend, you can literally shout at dragons to make them come down and land for a while.
We probably don’t have to convince you how useful this can be, but we do have to tell you that it’s pretty awesome seeing your character shout down a dragon into landing.
8. Bend Will
Do you know what’s more awesome than shouting a dragon down and making them land? Literally bending them to your will.
Once you have completed all the three individual words of Bend Will, you’ll be able to use it to control the will of dragons.
The shout also grants you the ability to ride dragons.
7. Soul Tear
Are you sick and tired of having to fight giants all of the time? What would you do if we told you that there was a way to get them on your side?
Yes, we’re not kidding.
By letting the undead dragon, Durnehviir (more on him later on), teach you this dragon shout, you can use
Soul Tear to drain 300 points from your target’s health. If they die after shouting at them, they’ll join your side as one of the undead for an entire minute.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t really apply to dragons.
Nevertheless, Soul Tear still does 300 damage to Skyrim’s biggest baddies, so, at the very least, you can use the shout to push back dragons when necessary, especially at lower levels.
6. Elemental Fury
Apparently, harder, better, faster, and stronger isn’t just a song in Skyrim.
Elemental Fury adds “wind speed” to any non-enchanted melee weapon for 15 seconds, allowing you to attack as much as 100% faster when all three words are completed.
One of the shout’s more intriguing interactions is when you’re dual-wielding daggers.
If you use the Critical Charge and Dual Flurry perks, you can use Elemental Fury to travel extremely fast and speed through pretty much the entirety of Tamriel.
5. Summon Durnehviir
To be honest, this was a toss-up between Summon Durnehviir and Call Dragon. However, we ultimately went with the former because we liked Durnehviir better than Odahviing.
Not to mention, Durnehviir teaches you quite a few things as well and will literally follow you around.
After all, nothing screams dragonborn more than having an undead dragon follow you around.
4. Storm Call
If you would like to relive your greatest Thor fantasies in Skyrim, then Storm Call is perfect for you.
The shout Storm Call allows you to literally call upon a storm that will zap anyone and anything in the vicinity of a set period of time.
Just be careful where you use it.
Because Storm Call is indiscriminate, you might end up massacring an entire city or village by using Storm Call to take care of a small nuisance.
Also, the cooldown is relatively long, so use it wisely.
3. Slow Time
If Storm Call lets you play Thor in Skyrim, then Slow Time allows you to remake Matrix in the game, and then some.
As the name suggests, the shout allows players to slow down time to a crawl for everybody.
Unfortunately, this includes the players, although the degree of which players are slowed down are significantly different from the degree of being slowed down applied to pretty much everything else.
Slow Time is a pretty useful spell with wide applications.
For a good time and for help in a pinch, Slow Time is easily one of the best and most useful shouts in Skyrim.
2. Unrelenting Force
We ranked Unrelenting Force less for how powerful it is — it’s arguably if Unrelenting Force is a powerful dragon shout, but it did start a war, so there’s that — and more on how iconic, as well as meme-worthy it is.
Unrelenting Force is the first shout that players learn in Skyrim.
It’s arguably the only shout (other than Whirlwind Sprint) most would use anyway, and that’s perfectly fine.
Even if you have only learned one of the three words, Unrelenting Force is powerful enough to knock back most enemies. But, if you’ve already completed the shout, then you’ve just turned your voice into a powerful weapon.
1. Dragon Aspect
Dragon Aspect is Skyrim’s in-game equivalent of letting players go Super Saiyan — a famous transformation or power-up that originated from the hit Japanese manga-turned-anime Dragon Ball.
Using the Dragon Aspect gives you improved attributes, including higher armor, health, faster and harder-hitting attacks, among others.
Not to mention, you also get to fight with an Ancient Dragonborn if your health somehow falls below 50% while fighting.
Even though you can only use Dragon Aspect once a day, it’s a shout well worth using, even if only for the aesthetic effect.
Which Shout Do You Like the Most?
If there’s one thing that Skyrim could have improved upon, it’s probably if they made using dragon shouts more necessary.
After all, we’ve seen plenty of players go through the game without ever really needing to use a dragon shout unless absolutely necessary.
Then again, forcing players to use dragon shouts more often would’ve probably taken away from the open-ended nature of the game.
Either way, dragon shouts are an essential part of the complete Skyrim experience.
Even if you have already played through Skyrim in the past, you’d be surprised as to how completely different of a game Skyrim is if you relied more on shouts and approached the gameplay differently.
