Skyrim Quick One/Two Handed Leveling Guide

One and Two-Handed XP is earned based on the weapon base damage. This means upgrades with enchantments, smithing, or perks will not increase your XP. You will gain less XP because they are dying faster. Certain exploits can be done to advance your weapon skills faster such as attacking Ralof or Hadvar at the beginning of Helgen. Just make sure you loot the key off the dead guard before Ralof or Hadvar can.

Another “late” game option for people who left Helgen is to attack a horse. Primarily shadowmere because of the large health pool but any horse will work. For 2 handed the best weapon to use is the dragon bone battle axe. But if you don’t have the Dawnguard DLC or 100 smithing the other best ones are Daedric Battleaxe, Volendrung, or Wuuthrad. Any battleaxe will work though, these just have the best base damage. But if you have the Anniversary edition and don’t want to complete a Daedric quest, finish the companion's questline, or have 100 smithing the next best thing to do is to make your way to Markarth. Once you’re in Markarth, go to the Understone Keep, take a right to go into Calcemo’s Dwemer Muesuem, and get Stendarr’s Hammer from the corner. It weighs a lot but has the same base damage as a dragon bone warhammer. If that is also not an option just use your best 2 handed weapon.

For one-handed it is the same premise, but the fastest way to do it is with weapons with a high base damage. Such as a dragon bone mace, which does require Dawnguard. But to maximize your damage per second put a dagger in your left hand and a mace in your right hand and TAP the attack buttons. Don’t hold them as power attacks don’t grant bonus XP. Since your dual-wielding swing speed is dictated by what's in your offhand hand always have a dagger in your offhand. Then just continuously attack a never agro target on the highest difficulty to level your one-handed.

In total, it took just under 2 hours to get them both to 100. I would not recommend doing it in Helgen since you don’t get the bonus but do as you want. Just one quick recap. Perks, enchantments, and skills don’t contribute to XP. Battleaxes are the fastest swinging most damage doing two-handed. For quick one-handed swings, have a dagger in your left and a mace in your right for the fastest dps. Hopefully, this can be useful to anyone looking to quickly max out their one and two-handed skills.

Important Timestamps
0:06 How XP is earned
0:30 Best one-handed method
1:20 After Helgen method
1:51 Best two-handed method (Anniversary Edition)
3:06 Quick Recap