The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim has 3 DLCs, and its smallest expansion pack is the Hearthfire DLC. This expansion added 3 different plots of land for building a custom house. It also added the ability to adopt children throughout Skyrim and allowed them to live in one of your homes.
There are tons of unique mechanics that were added into the game to accompany the Hearthfire DLC; however, it is easy to miss a lot of them because they are rare occurrences or they aren’t explained very well inside of Skyrim.
10 Certain Types Of Enemies Can Attack Your Hearthfire House
There are a few different types of enemies that can attack your Hearthfire home once it is fully built. These enemies mostly consist of bandits, and you will often find a bandit leader accompanying the group of attackers.
Although these attacks usually aren’t much of a threat for the mighty Dragonborn, it is possible that these bandits could kill your housecarl. As such, be careful of any type of enemy that is near your house after building your home.
9 Your Children Can Adopt A Pet
There are tons of different pets that your children can adopt in the Hearthfire DLC. These pets include the typical dog; however, they can also adopt pets, including wild animals such as skeevers and mudcrabs.
Although wild animal pets are rare occurrences, you can easily adopt a dog by bringing one to your Hearthfire home and showing them to your children. Your children will then take an interest in the animal and ask if they can keep it.
8 The Personal Carriage Can Take The Player To Small Settlements
The personal carriage is one of the many amenities that the player can buy from their Steward in the Hearthfire DLC. However, what you may not know is that this carriage doesn’t only take you to larger cities such as Markarth and Whiterun.
Instead, this carriage is unique in that it can travel to small settlements such as Rorikstead and Ivarstead. This is a very useful feature if you want to travel to every settlement in the game, but you don’t know where to find some of them.
7 Each House Has 1 Unique Feature
Every house in the Hearthfire DLC has 1 unique feature that is completely exclusive to the respective plot of land. All of these features include something to do with crafting materials, which is useful if you enjoy crafting your own potions or cooking meals.
Heljarchen Hall has a mill, Windstead Manor has a fish hatchery, and Lakeview Manner has a beehive. Choosing which one of these amenities you would like is a big part in choosing the perfect Hearthfire house, but unfortunately, it is easy to miss that these unique features even exist.
6 Quarried Stone And Clay Deposits Can Be Found All Over Skyrim
Although it may seem as though quarried stone and clay deposits are only found near the plot of lands added into the game with the Hearthfire DLC, they are actually found all throughout Skyrim in various locations.
You can find both of these features while exploring the landscape of Skyrim, and although they are largely useless outside of the Hearthfire DLC, it is still interesting that Bethesda decided to add them throughout the map.
5 Your Spouse Will Make A Comment On The Terrain Your House Is Located On
Depending on which house you choose to purchase in the Hearthfire DLC, your spouse will make a unique comment about the area surrounding the plot of land.
Unfortunately, these comments won’t be favorable and will instead be insulting the player’s taste in location. For example, if you choose Windstead manner, then your spouse will remark about how uncomfortable the swampy location is. Children also make unique remarks about each individual plot of land.
4 You Can Give Your Child A Weapon And They Will Practice Using It
If you give your child a wooden sword and you happen to have a practice dummy on your property, then your child will start practicing with the sword. This feature is very unique; however, it is easy to miss it because most players don’t think about giving their children a sword as a gift.
Although the children in Skyrim don’t have very many important functions, the way that they interact with the world and the Dragonborn makes them one of the most interesting mechanics in Skyrim.
3 The Hearthfire DLC Was Released 5 Months Late For The PS3
The Hearthfire DLC was originally released in September of 2012; however, it was only released in this month for the Xbox 360. PS3 players had to wait an extra 5 months to get their hands on this small DLC pack because Bethesda had an exclusivity deal with Microsoft at the time.
A lot of Xbox 360 players and players that didn’t start playing Skyrim until years after it was released don’t realize how long PS3 owners had to wait to build their dream house in Skyrim.
2 You Can Plant Alchemy Ingredients In Your Garden
One of the mechanics that Hearthfire homes have is the ability to build a garden and plant alchemy ingredients in it. Similar to the fish hatchery and beehive, this is a great way to farm alchemy ingredients over a period of time, especially for rare types of ingredients.
Blisterwort, bleeding crowns, and deathbells are just a few of the different types of ingredients that you can plant in your garden in the Hearthfire DLC. This garden should be utilized even if you aren’t an alchemist because the ingredients can be sold to a merchant for a profit.
1 Your Spouse Can Be Kidnapped
One of the rarest mechanics in the Hearthfire DLC is the ability for your Skyrim spouse to be captured from your Hearthfire home. This mechanic allows for your spouse to be kidnapped by a group of bandits and held at one of various bandit camp locations throughout Skyrim.
You will have to rescue your spouse from this location by fighting bandits and eventually freeing them from their clutches. This Skyrim side quest is an incredible experience, and every player should complete it at least once. However, this scenario doesn’t occur often.
NEXT: Skyrim: 10 Things Most Players Might Have Missed In Solitude
