Fast Travel Not Working – Is This a Todd Howard Curse?

[Aure]

I don’t get it, seriously. My fast travel isn’t working at all. I’ve explored almost 95% of the map, and from what I see online, people can easily teleport from one discovered location to another. Just open the map, point the cursor, press "yes," and boom... instant travel.

But for some reason, that doesn’t apply to my game.

I’ve checked everything: I’m not over-encumbered, there are no enemies nearby, I’m not in combat, and I don’t have a bounty. I’m standing in a safe place, patiently waiting for fast travel to work its magic, but nothing happens. And what’s even weirder? This is Skyrim vanilla. I’m not using any mods. So there’s literally no reason for fast travel to be stuck.

Has anyone experienced this before? Or is this some kind of special curse Todd Howard decided to give me?

[Doggy Friend]

Are you playing in survival mode?
If you do, fast travel is disabled.

[Aure]

Originally posted by Doggy Friend:

Are you playing in survival mode?
If you do, fast travel is disabled.

Survival mode? Nah, I’m not that skilled.

[Skumboni]

If you have any mods installed that will be the problem as it is not a problem in the basic game, unless survival is active.

[Skarmo]

Just an idea: Try turning survival on and off in the gameplay settings. You can do it mid-game. Close the menu after activating survival for the setting to save and then re-open the menue and turn it off again.

[Aure]

Originally posted by Skumboni:

If you have any mods installed that will be the problem as it is not a problem in the basic game, unless survival is active.

I play without mods, and I’m not in survival mode either. From the start, I was completely clueless that this game even had fast travel. So yeah, every time I needed to go somewhere, I just walked, rode a horse, or hitched a ride on a cart like a hardworking NPC.

Then one day, my brain finally lit up... “Wait, can I fast travel?” When I tried it, all I got was a message saying “current place unavailable” or something like that... I didn’t catch it properly because it disappeared too fast.

[Fear2288]

Are you certain that survival mode isn’t on?

The option pops up very quickly once you exit the cave at Helgen. If you’re not expecting it, it’s easy to reactively press enter when the window appears - thus activating it. If survival mode is on it should be noticeable as you need to eat, sleep, hydrate, and stay warm. If you have to do these things in your game then SM is on and fast travel is disabled.

Otherwise, fast travel is blocked in the vanilla game due to being over-encumbered, in combat, during scripted scenes, or when there are enemies nearby.

Additionally, you cannot fast travel from interiors - you must be outside. For example, you cannot fast travel from inside Dragonsreach, you must exit the palace and be outside in the city to do so.

Lastly, you can only travel to discovered locations - icons on the map that are grey, not black. You cannot fast travel to just any area you desire on the map, you must click the discovered location’s icon and it should prompt you with the option to fast travel to it.

If you have done all of these things…I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve never heard of fast travel just straight up not working on a vanilla game, without SM, and it being done correctly.

[Aure]

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Are you certain that survival mode isn’t on?

The option pops up very quickly once you exit the cave at Helgen. If you’re not expecting it, it’s easy to reactively press enter when the window appears - thus activating it. If survival mode is on it should be noticeable as you need to eat, sleep, hydrate, and stay warm. If you have to do these things in your game then SM is on and fast travel is disabled.

Otherwise, fast travel is blocked in the vanilla game due to being over-encumbered, in combat, during scripted scenes, or when there are enemies nearby.

Additionally, you cannot fast travel from interiors - you must be outside. For example, you cannot fast travel from inside Dragonsreach, you must exit the palace and be outside in the city to do so.

Lastly, you can only travel to discovered locations - icons on the map that are grey, not black. You cannot fast travel to just any area you desire on the map, you must click the discovered location’s icon and it should prompt you with the option to fast travel to it.

If you have done all of these things…I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve never heard of fast travel just straight up not working on a vanilla game, without SM, and it being done correctly.

I'm pretty sure I'm not playing in survival mode because every time I open the settings, the difficulty is always set to 'Adept.'

To be honest, I don’t really know the fundamental difference between regular mode and survival, aside from the fact that one is obviously more punishing. But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo.

I’ve tried everything to make fast travel work... dropping excess weight, finding a safe spot, standing under the sun like I’m solar-powered, even avoiding fortresses. The result? Still nothing.

And yeah, I really hope I’m not colorblind, because the locations I’m trying to fast travel to are gray, not black. I’m sure I’ve explored 95-100% of the map, clicked the icons, and all I get is a message saying “something something unavailable” I couldn’t even read it properly because I was already too frustrated.

Honestly, I just hope there’s something I’ve overlooked so I don’t have to keep struggling. I’ll take any suggestions and try them out as soon as I get back in the game.

[Doggy Friend]

Originally posted by "Bukan, ini Patrick":

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Are you certain that survival mode isn’t on?

The option pops up very quickly once you exit the cave at Helgen. If you’re not expecting it, it’s easy to reactively press enter when the window appears - thus activating it. If survival mode is on it should be noticeable as you need to eat, sleep, hydrate, and stay warm. If you have to do these things in your game then SM is on and fast travel is disabled.

Otherwise, fast travel is blocked in the vanilla game due to being over-encumbered, in combat, during scripted scenes, or when there are enemies nearby.

Additionally, you cannot fast travel from interiors - you must be outside. For example, you cannot fast travel from inside Dragonsreach, you must exit the palace and be outside in the city to do so.

Lastly, you can only travel to discovered locations - icons on the map that are grey, not black. You cannot fast travel to just any area you desire on the map, you must click the discovered location’s icon and it should prompt you with the option to fast travel to it.

If you have done all of these things…I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve never heard of fast travel just straight up not working on a vanilla game, without SM, and it being done correctly.

I'm pretty sure I'm not playing in survival mode because every time I open the settings, the difficulty is always set to 'Adept.'

To be honest, I don’t really know the fundamental difference between regular mode and survival, aside from the fact that one is obviously more punishing. But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo.

I’ve tried everything to make fast travel work... dropping excess weight, finding a safe spot, standing under the sun like I’m solar-powered, even avoiding fortresses. The result? Still nothing.

And yeah, I really hope I’m not colorblind, because the locations I’m trying to fast travel to are gray, not black. I’m sure I’ve explored 95-100% of the map, clicked the icons, and all I get is a message saying “something something unavailable” I couldn’t even read it properly because I was already too frustrated.

Honestly, I just hope there’s something I’ve overlooked so I don’t have to keep struggling. I’ll take any suggestions and try them out as soon as I get back in the game.

If you have to eat, sleep, drink etc, you ARE playing survival mode. It's an option independent from game difficulty (Adept in your case). Try having another look at the available settings.

[PeaceMaker]

Originally posted by "Bukan, ini Patrick":

I don’t get it...

Fast Travel was the curse.

Start walking.

Or buy a horse.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by "Bukan, ini Patrick":

Originally posted by Fear2288:

Are you certain that survival mode isn’t on?

The option pops up very quickly once you exit the cave at Helgen. If you’re not expecting it, it’s easy to reactively press enter when the window appears - thus activating it. If survival mode is on it should be noticeable as you need to eat, sleep, hydrate, and stay warm. If you have to do these things in your game then SM is on and fast travel is disabled.

Otherwise, fast travel is blocked in the vanilla game due to being over-encumbered, in combat, during scripted scenes, or when there are enemies nearby.

Additionally, you cannot fast travel from interiors - you must be outside. For example, you cannot fast travel from inside Dragonsreach, you must exit the palace and be outside in the city to do so.

Lastly, you can only travel to discovered locations - icons on the map that are grey, not black. You cannot fast travel to just any area you desire on the map, you must click the discovered location’s icon and it should prompt you with the option to fast travel to it.

If you have done all of these things…I’m not sure what to tell you. I’ve never heard of fast travel just straight up not working on a vanilla game, without SM, and it being done correctly.

I'm pretty sure I'm not playing in survival mode because every time I open the settings, the difficulty is always set to 'Adept.'

To be honest, I don’t really know the fundamental difference between regular mode and survival, aside from the fact that one is obviously more punishing. But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo.

That's SURVIVAL MODE, when you start a new character you are asked (when you leave the Caves at Helgen) if you want to disable it, you should have chosen to disable it.

[alexander_dougherty]

Originally posted by PeaceMaker:

Originally posted by "Bukan, ini Patrick":

I don’t get it...

Fast Travel was the curse.

I do, mainly because fast travelling increases the number of dragons you encounter, but sometime travelling for a week just to hand in a quest item is not ideal....

[Death Approaches]

"But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo."

are you trolling us? doesn't even show you own the game on Steam, and of the 11 games you do own, many are at-times free and all have 0 achievements and incredibly low play times; most never even started up once.

if not, turn off survival mode. if so, take your boredom elsewhere, subhuman. minima troglodytam.

[Aure]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

"But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo."

are you trolling us? doesn't even show you own the game on Steam, and of the 11 games you do own, many are at-times free and all have 0 achievements and incredibly low play times; most never even started up once.

if not, turn off survival mode. if so, take your boredom elsewhere, subhuman. minima troglodytam.

I've already explained in the description why I don't have many games or much playtime. I'm just asking about something I might have misunderstood, not writing a long rant with no purpose.

I mean, if I weren’t serious about finding a solution, why would I bother typing all this and explaining my situation? The details I provided are so people don’t have to repeat the same info or give generic answers that don’t help.

When I get back to the game, I’ll check some of the things we've discussed here. But if someone doesn’t like this or thinks it’s not important, wouldn’t it be easier to just skip it?

[Fear2288]

Buddy, if you have to eat/sleep/hydrate/stay warm in your game - SURVIVAL MODE IS ON.

There is no debate, no maybe - it is.

SM is not a difficulty setting, it’s an optional gameplay feature that adds additional mechanics and challenges to playing the game. You were prompted with a window about it when you exited the cave at Helgen with either Ralof or Hadvar.

Fast travel is disabled in SM.

If you want to be able to fast travel, you need to turn off SM in the in-game settings menu.

Just note two things:

First, you will no longer have to eat/drink/sleep/stay warm. If you like the fact that you have to do these things, you’ll need to decide if you like it enough to continue not being able to fast travel.

Second, once you turn SM off you cannot turn it back on. So once you make the choice to toggle it off, that choice is final - there is no going back on that playthrough.


In the future, if you want the mechanics of SM but still want to fast travel, you can look at mods like iNeed, Frostfall, and Sunhelm. There may even be a mod or two out there that re-enable fast travel for SM or allow various SM features to be toggled on and off.

[cbiocca]

Originally posted by "Bukan, ini Patrick":

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

"But… wait, why do I still have to eat, sleep, drink, and regulate my body temperature? Isn’t that just a basic mechanic in all modes? From the start of the game until now, I’ve been forced to survive like a virtual hobo."

are you trolling us? doesn't even show you own the game on Steam, and of the 11 games you do own, many are at-times free and all have 0 achievements and incredibly low play times; most never even started up once.

if not, turn off survival mode. if so, take your boredom elsewhere, subhuman. minima troglodytam.

I've already explained in the description why I don't have many games or much playtime. I'm just asking about something I might have misunderstood, not writing a long rant with no purpose.

I mean, if I weren’t serious about finding a solution, why would I bother typing all this and explaining my situation? The details I provided are so people don’t have to repeat the same info or give generic answers that don’t help.

When I get back to the game, I’ll check some of the things we've discussed here. But if someone doesn’t like this or thinks it’s not important, wouldn’t it be easier to just skip it?

The best way to tell if Survival Mode is enabled is to look at the compass at the top of the screen. If SM is enabled, there will either be a Sun or a Snowflake next to the compass. Another way to check is your arrows and lockpicks, as SM adds weight to these items.