Lacking a Fast Travel system, Morrowind is generally slower to get around than Bethesda’s other 1st person RPG titles. Sure, there is a paid transportation system that will get you around the towns, but that is not of much help when you need to venture to a remote part of Morrowind like the Sheogorad region to complete a particular quest.

But! Thanks to particular features [not exploits, just features] of the eccentric handcrafted experience that is Morrowind, there is one solution to this problem that is both hilarious and effective:

Jumping.

The following guide does contain spoilers about certain parts of the game. If spoilers aren’t your thing, I suggest not reading here.













With that out of the way:

Two spells effects that are exclusive to Morrowind are Jump and Levitate, both of the Alteration school. Think of ‘Jump’ as an Accelerator, and ‘Levitate’ as a Brake.

Custom made items or spells can twist these into tangible means of long distance propulsion. To craft said custom items or spells requires basic Jump and Levitate Spells.

‘Tinur’s Hoptoad’ is the basic Jump spell in Morrowind. It can be sold from various spell merchants including the High Elf Sirionwe in the Vivec Mages Guild.

‘Levitate’ is the basic Levitate spell in Morrowind. It can be sold from various spell merchants including the Dunmer Marayn Dren in the Balmora Mages Guild.

Aside from these spells, here are a list of things that can aid a successful Jumper. It is not essential that the skills mentioned here are major or minor skills, but it certainly helps to have them as such.

1. Enchant OR Alteration Skill

Enchant is probably the most powerful skill in Morrowind. One can cast whichever type of spell they want using enchanted items, with the only limitation being the magnitude an item will allow for. Of course, it is possible to pay enchanters to create items for you, or to Fortify your Enchant Skill for brief seconds to create super powerful items. The main advantage of having Permanent high Enchant skill is that your enchanted items will use a small amount of charge, and so you will not have to make as many or wait for long periods for them to recharge.

That said, Enchant is considered overpowered by a lot of players, so for those who do not wish to dabble in Enchanting: Jump and Levitate are Alteration spells, and custom made spells can achieve basically the same outcome as custom made enchantments. More on that later.

2. Acrobatics Skill

Ergo a character’s ability to jump and take fall damage. Increasing it is simple: Jump and/or fall a lot!

The downside to jumping a lot is that your character will run out of fatigue quickly. This can be countered by having some means by which to Restore Fatigue. My suggestion would be some form of Enchanted Ring, which I talk about in Comment Number 27 of this discussion HERE.

The downside to falling a lot is that you can die, though it is possible to not get hurt if you happen to activate a Levitate Spell before hitting the ground.

3. High Health

Using Levitate as a brake means that a character can potentially avoid fall damage …. But where’s the fun in that.

Fall damage in Morrowind will deal a calculated amount of damage to your character, NOT a percentage of total health. Thus, high health characters can potentially survive some frankly ridiculous falls and not die, if their health is high enough. High endurance and high character level both result in high health. Restore Health Enchanted items are recommend if you wish to fall a lot.

A calculation for health is provided HERE.[www.uesp.net]


4. Low Encumberance

The height at which a character can jump is very much determined by how encumbered they are. Ways to reduce encumbrance include: not carrying around weighty equipment [E.g. Daedric stuff], Boosting Strength, and wearing a Redas Robe of Deeds.

The Robe is found in the Redas Ancestral Tomb south of Molag Mar. It provides constant Effect 50 Points Feather, which is a super high level of Feather Enchantment for Morrowind. Feather ‘removes’ encumbrance, so wearing a Redas Robe can enable certain characters to literally carry 0 lbs of equipment, and thus jump very far.

An example of a 0 lb character can be found here.

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=823877018

Short Distance Travel

The standard Tinur’s Hoptoad spell [30 Jump Points for 10 Seconds], or the enchanted Hoptoad Ring from Enchanting Merchants [20 Jump Points for 10 seconds] are useful for travelling short distances quickly, such as crossing towns or large interiors of buildings. I personally prefer the ring, as it saves magicka.

Long Distance Travel

This requires customised spells or items. The idea is to fortify your Jump Points to a very high level, and then …. Liftoff.

First off, it is advised to have a ‘Air Brake’. A custom-made item or spell with 1pt Levitate for 1 second is sufficient to stop in mid-air. Spells take a couple of seconds to cast, so a ring is strongly advised for this. I like having a 1pt for 2 seconds Air Brake ring, as it can then also be used for short bursts of Levitation for navigating Telvanni Towers.

Jump the Enchant Way:
Create an item with 100 points of Jump that lasts 1 second, either yourself or at an enchanter. To do this: increase the duration of the item to 2 seconds, then move it back to 1 second. Without doing this, the duration of your enchantment will be instant, and it will be very hard to time it effectively.

Expensive/Extravagent/Exquisite Rings work best as items, as they don't weigh very much.

Jumping the Spell Way:
Similar to Enchant: Create a Jump 100 Points for 1 second spell.

If you wish to expand on this further:
You can create items with 100 points Jump for 2 seconds, 100 points for 3 seconds. etc. Or, create spells with 100 points for 3 seconds, 100 points for 5 seconds, etc.

Using quick slots, one can queue up a series of Jump items or spells to achieve maximum launch distance. Spells take a couple of seconds to cast, hence the longer duration required on each spell if you wish to chain up Jump points.

From personal experience, things start to become impractical above 200 Jump Points, but as a proof of concept it’s fun to see how far you can go. :P


Take-off and Landing Procedure

1. Right click to access your inventory. On the top right of the inventory screen is your map. If you click the small rectangle at the top right of the Map, your map will remain visible when you exit your inventory screen and begin moving around again. Click this rectangle. It helps to have your map up whilst on the ground and in flight.

2. Aim your character in the direction you wish to jump, and give yourself a bit of space for a run up. If you have your map up, this should be relatively easy to do.

3. Quickslot your Jump items or spells. Save. =)

4. While running forward, activate them one after the other, using your longer duration ones first.

5. Jump! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…..

6. So unless your game is modified, you’ll find that Morrowind’s view distance is a bit of a limitation to this type of travel. Good thing your map is open! Use WASD to tweak your characters direction in mid air. The higher your Acrobatics skill, the better you will be at doing this.

7. Just before hitting the ground, activate your Air Brake. Or, if your Health is high and you’re not a ponce, take the fall like a boss.

Alternatively, if you overshoot your desired destination [and can see it on your map], activate your air brake, begin your vertical descent, and then activate again before hitting the ground. Or just take the fall like a boss.

Congratulations! You have successfully travelled in the most stylish way possible in any video game.

Who needs Fast Travel. :D