Sprinting in Skyrim is a short burst of quick movement that is much faster than running or walking. It helps you close in on your enemy to finish them off or back off from combat to strategize your next move.
Sprinting is as simple as tapping a button. We’ve listed sprint buttons for all the platforms down below.
On PC
While your character is running, press the Alt button to start sprinting.
On PlayStation
Press the L1 button if you’re on PS4/PS5. Press the L2 button if you’re on PS3.
On Xbox
Tap the Left Bumper (LB) button to sprint
On Nintendo Switch
Hit the L button to use your sprint.
Unlike running, you cannot sprint indefinitely. Sprinting uses up your stamina gauge, and you won’t be able to use it after it finishes. It also gets refilled slowly.
But there are many items, spells, and consumables that can increase your stamina gauge and keep it full for the most time.
How to Get the Most Out of Sprinting?
Now there aren’t any gears or enchantment spells that can natively increase your sprinting speed, but we can increase your stamina points and stamina recovery rate to use our sprint for longer. We’ll also go over how armor can affect your sprinting speed.
By Increasing Stamina Points
The most basic way to increase your stamina point is by leveling up your character. After you’ve leveled up, head to the skills menu and choose stamina to increase it by 10 points permanently.
The second way to increase your stamina points is by equipping enchanted gears or special items. We’ve compiled them in the table below:
| Items | Increase in Stamina points |
| Amulet of Kynareth | +10 points |
| The Gauldur Amulet | +30 points |
| Ring of Namira | +50 points |
| Locket of Saint Jiub | +50 points |
| Rahgot | +70 points |
| Nightingale Armor Set | +20 to +40 (since it’s a leveled gear, the bonus will depend on the level when you acquire this armor set). We recommend getting this set after leveling over 32 for maximum bonus. |
| Items Enchanted With Fortify Stamina | +20 to +70 points (depending on the level of enchantment) |
Note: The Blessing of Kynareth will also give you an additional 25 points to your stamina bar for 8 hours.
By Increasing Stamina Recovery Rate
In addition to having a huge stamina gauge, we can also increase the rate of stamina recovery by using enchanted gear or consumables.
The most convenient way to boost your stamina regeneration is by using items enchanted with Fortify Stamina Regen.
Depending on the level of enchantment, an enchanted gear can boost the regen rate from 20% all the way up to 50%.
Another reliable way of regenerating stamina is by using potions and food items.
Simply combine any two ingredients having the Stamina Regen effect to brew a Regenerate Stamina potion. The regen rate will depend on your Alchemy level.
Making vegetable soups is a more approachable way to make a stamina-regen consumable. You’ll need to gather a single unit of Cabbage, Tomato, Potato, and Leek.
Consuming the vegetable soup will regenerate your stamina by 1 point per second, lasting for 750 seconds. You can consume multiple soups to stack the bonus point and have a high regen rate.
If you’re a light armor user, you can acquire the Wind Walker perk from the skills tree to further boost the stamina regen rate by 50%.
By Removing Armor Penalty
Your sprinting speed depends on the type of armor that you’ve equipped. In general, heavy armor tends to slow you down compared to light armor or clothes.
However, you can easily negate this speed penalty by acquiring armor perks from the skills tree or by getting blessings from the standing stones.
If you’re using heavy armor, then get the Conditioning perk.
Light armor users should focus on getting the Unhindered perk.
If you prefer using the standing stone, get the blessing from the Steed Stone. Activating this stone will negate the movement penalty that you get while equipping armor.
Console Command
An unconventional way to increase your character’s movement speed is by using cheats, also known as console commands. You can only use this feature on a PC.
To get started, press the tilde key {~} on the keyboard.
- Type in
player.setav speedmult num. Replace the number with the desired sprinting speed. For example, you can typeplayer.setav speedmult 200to double your sprinting speed.
- If you want to return to the original sprinting speed, simply assign 100 to the speed multiplier, as it’s the default sprinting speed.
