How to Make Black Soul Gems in Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion just got a remaster, and it comes with all of the obtuse mechanics that the original had, at least for the most part. One of the things that a lot of new players cannot seem to figure out is how to create black soul gems from scratch, which are incredibly potent and allow you to capture the souls of humanoids in the game. In this guide, we will try to help you with that!

How to Make Black Soul Gems in Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered

If you have joined the Mages Guild, you actually learn how to do this during one of the quests in its storyline. However, not everybody has joined the organization or plan on ever doing so. If you are among the latter, then continue on below.

Basically, you will need an empty soul gem and a way to cast soul trap, which is simply done with the spell of the same name that is fairly easy to acquire. If you have somehow managed to get this far without knowing how, here is a guide on where to buy the soul trap spell, which shows you one of many ways to get it.

Now, with the prerequisites met, you will need to search for certain altars all around the region. One example is here at the Dark Fissure, just to the southeast of the city of Cheydinhal.

Now, the complicated part about this process is that you need to come here at a certain day when a trail of red light is shining above the altar. On top of that, you have to be there at exactly midnight, and this phenomenon only lasts until the next midnight.

This occurs every eight days, and since we have no idea where your current time is at, our best advice is probably to just wait around and keep skipping 24 hour period at midnight until the red beam of light appears above you.

The light may not be easy to spot during the day, so make sure to do your time skipping at night so that you can confirm it quite easily. Here is an example of what the beam of light above the altar will look like:

Once you have gotten there at the correct day and time, approach the altar and insert your empty grand soul gems. Finally, you just need to cast soul trap on the altar itself. This will turn one of the gems into a black soul gem.

To confirm, simply open the altar and check. Do note that each cast of soul trap will only convert a single gem. If you are trying to convert a large number of them, be ready to cast it a lot.

Ideally, you should bring ways to regenerate your mana. The problem with using the wait function while doing a bulk conversion is that you are eventually going to reach the next midnight if you have a huge number of gems to change. Once the day has passed, you have to wait another eight.

That is pretty much everything you need to know in order to make your very own supply of black soul gems. While you are here, if you are interested in continuing the Mages Guild questline and encountering the quest that leads you to learn about this process, check out our guide on how to get the Bruma recommendation in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.