What are the most valuable potion effects?
In direct answer to your question, the most valuable potion effects (and their values when mixed without perks and a skill total of 100) are:
- Paralysis (285)
- Damage Magicka Regen (265)
- Invisibility (261)
- Slow (247)
- Fortify Carry Weight(208)
I've noticed that Damage Magicka Regen and Slow can be combined by using some relatively exotic reagents for a total value of 512.
For an answer to the underlying question how to best profit from making potions or generate Alchemy experience, consider a potion made from:
- Creep Cluster
- Mora Tapinella
- Scaly Pholiota
You'll notice that these ingredients are remarkably common as compared to other suggestions and they produce a potion with the following 5(!) effects (and values as reported here):
- Fortify Carry Weight (208)
- Fortify Illusion (94)
- Regenerate Samina (177)
- Restore Magicka (25)
- Weakness to Magic (51)
For a total value of 555 when made with no perks and a skill total of 100. That's better than twice the value of Slow (247). Throw in some perks & late game skill totals ( 100 base + 4 Fortify Alchemy enchantments @ up to 25 each if you're not doing your own enchants ) and the value gets very high. Note that the Purity perk will neutralize the Weakness to Magic effect for a far more drinkable potion, but a 10% drop in sales value.
Best of all, if you've got skyrim-hearthfire, these 3 ingredients may be grown in the garden of your rural estate(s). Plant 3 of the Creep Clusters and 5 of each of the mushrooms and you'll be able to harvest enough for 15 potions every few game days. If you've got all 3 estates, that adds up to a pretty profit that will easily absorb the cash flows of every fence in the game. Add in a Green House as the west wing of one or more of your estates and you're being gratuitous for profit purposes; or perhaps you are just grinding out Legendary Alchemy levels at little cost or effort?
Of course, between harvest days, feel free to make whatever potions you like from more exotic/expensive ingredients.
A user has asked a similar question, concerning how to make money efficiently, and the accepted answer is to make potions of invisibility.
According to the Elder Scrolls Wiki, invisibility ingredients include
- Ash Creep Cluster
- Chaurus Eggs
- Crimson Nirnroot
- Ice Wraith Teeth
- Luna Moth Wing
- Nirnroot
- Vampire Dust
That said, purchasing ingredients from the merchants can be a very inefficient way to generate money. Vendors will charge more for the ingredients then the average yield for the potions - especially with higher quality potions that require more expensive reagents.
You might find it more beneficial to create low value potions. Consider how much the ingredients are being purchased for. Higher-value potions may not earn you back as much in comparison to lower-quality potions that require cheaper ingredients. You can generally make more of them at a time, due to availability of ingredients, in turn generating more experience. The best value advice is to harvest your own ingredients, but you appear to be favoring merchant ingredients for working on your speechcraft.
I extracted data from this page into JSON. Afterwards, I wrote three nested loops to generate all possible potions from all the ingredients that exist.
Without DLCs
Provided my algorithm is correct, there is a total of 17 461 potions that you can brew using any valid combination of two or three ingredients. From those, the following ones are the definite winners in the value category:
Effects │ Ingredients │ Value │ Extensions
═════════════════════════╪════════════════════════╪═══════╪═══════════
Damage Magicka │ Glow Dust │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Glowing Mushroom │ │
Fortify Destruction │ Hanging Moss │ 636 │
Fortify Health │ │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Giant's Toe │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │
Slow │ River Betty │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Creep Cluster │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │
Slow │ River Betty │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka Regen │ Bear Claws │ │
Fortify Destruction │ Glow Dust │ 584 │
Fortify Health │ Glowing Mushroom │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka Regen │ Blue Mountain Flower │ │
Fortify Destruction │ Glow Dust │ 584 │
Fortify Health │ Glowing Mushroom │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka Regen │ Glow Dust │ │
Fortify Destruction │ Glowing Mushroom │ 584 │
Fortify Smithing │ Spriggan Sap │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Chaurus Eggs │ │
Fortify Stamina │ Garlic │ 561 │
Invisibility │ Luna Moth Wing │ │
Regenerate Health │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Fortify Carry Weight │ Creep Cluster │ │
Fortify Illusion │ Mora Tapinella │ │
Regenerate Stamina │ Scaly Pholiota │ 555 │
Restore Magicka │ │ │
Weakness to Magic │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Glow Dust │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Glowing Mushroom │ 554 │
Fortify Destruction │ Jarrin Root │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Glow Dust │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Glowing Mushroom │ 554 │
Fortify Destruction │ Human Heart │ │
Resist Shock │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka Regen │ Canis Root │ │
Damage Stamina │ Hanging Moss │ 544 │
Fortify Marksman │ Spider Egg │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka Regen │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Stamina │ Canis Root │ 544 │
Fortify Marksman │ Spider Egg │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Eye of Sabre Cat │ │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ 542 │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
Restore Stamina │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Fortify One-handed │ Canis Root │ │
Fortify Sneak │ Hawk Feathers │ 521 │
Paralysis │ Human Flesh │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hanging Moss │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Jarrin Root │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hanging Moss │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Human Heart │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Butterfly Wing │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Chaurus Eggs │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Daedra Heart │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Glow Dust │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hagraven Feathers │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Hanging Moss │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hanging Moss │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Luna Moth Wing │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hanging Moss │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Namira's Rot │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Bear Claws │ │
Damage Magicka Regen │ Hanging Moss │ 517 │
Fortify Health │ Nordic Barnacle │ │
Fortify One-handed │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Cure Disease │ Hawk Feathers │ │
Fortify Light Armor │ Luna Moth Wing │ 514 │
Invisibility │ Vampire Dust │ │
Regenerate Health │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Fortify Block │ Briar Heart │ │
Paralysis │ Pearl │ 514 │
Resist Shock │ Swamp Fungal Pod │ │
Restore Magicka │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Fortify Stamina │ Chaurus Eggs │ │
Invisibility │ Garlic │ 509 │
Regenerate Health │ Vampire Dust │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Damage Magicka │ Daedra Heart │ │
Damage Stamina Regen │ Juniper Berries │ 508 │
Fear │ Namira's Rot │ │
Regenerate Health │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
Fortify Carry Weight │ Creep Cluster │ │
Slow │ River Betty │ 506 │
Weakness to Magic │ Salt Pile │ │
─────────────────────────┼────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────
With all DLCs
Skyrim extensions add another 11 354 potion possibilities, adding up to total of 28 815 unique potion recipes. These are honorable mentions:
Effects │ Ingredients │ Value │ Extensions
═════════════════════════╪═════════════════════════╪═══════╪═══════════════
Fear │ Gleamblossom │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Netch Jelly │ │
Paralysis │ Wisp Wrappings │ 689 │ [DG] [DB]
Resist Magic │ │ │
Restore Stamina │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Gleamblossom │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Hawk Beak │ 638 │ [DG] [DB]
Paralysis │ Netch Jelly │ │
Restore Stamina │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Magicka │ Daedra Heart │ │
Fear │ Poison Bloom │ 627 │ [DG] [DB]
Fortify Carry Weight │ Trama Root │ │
Slow │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Magicka │ Namira's Rot │ │
Fear │ Poison Bloom │ 627 │ [DG] [DB]
Fortify Carry Weight │ Trama Root │ │
Slow │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Health │ Human Flesh │ │
Fear │ Netch Jelly │ 616 │ [DG] [DB]
Fortify Carry Weight │ Poison Bloom │ │
Paralysis │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Health │ Imp Stool │ │
Fear │ Netch Jelly │ 616 │ [DG] [DB]
Fortify Carry Weight │ Poison Bloom │ │
Paralysis │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Giant's Toe │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │ [DG]
Slow │ Poison Bloom │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Creep Cluster │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │ [DG]
Slow │ Poison Bloom │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Giant's Toe │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │ [DB]
Slow │ Trama Root │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Damage Stamina Regen │ Creep Cluster │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Large Antlers │ 614 │ [DB]
Slow │ Trama Root │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Gleamblossom │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Netch Jelly │ 613 │ [DG] [DB]
Paralysis │ Poison Bloom │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Briar Heart │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Netch Jelly │ 613 │ [DG] [DB]
Paralysis │ Poison Bloom │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Netch Jelly │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Poison Bloom │ 613 │ [DG] [DB]
Paralysis │ Swamp Fungal Pod │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Gleamblossom │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Netch Jelly │ 613 │ [DG] [DB]
Paralysis │ Scaly Pholiota │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fortify Carry Weight │ Hawk Beak │ │
Paralysis │ Netch Jelly │ 604 │ [DB]
Resist Shock │ Swamp Fungal Pod │ │
Restore Stamina │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
Fear │ Large Antlers │ │
Fortify Carry Weight │ Netch Jelly │ 600 │ [DG] [DB]
Restore Stamina │ Poison Bloom │ │
Slow │ │ │
─────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────┼───────────────
DG stands for DawnGuard, DB for Dragonborn.
Source
The script can be seen here: https://darker.github.io/skyrim/potion_value.html
However, it has no UI. For options, search for following comments in code:
Potion filtering- allows you to exclude potions from output based on their typePotion sorting- self explanatoryOutput type- switch between HTML and ASCII output