How do you activate Hearthfire?

[iggy.derek_1313]

Just rebooted Skyrim, after not playing for a while. Bought Hearthfire, and started a new Character. What triggers this?

[v̵̗̿o̶̢̓ĭ̵̱d̶̟͛]

I think once you reach level 9, the Jarl of Falkreath will have a letter sent to you to go see him. Completeing his quests and helping 3 of the townsfolk will allow you to purchase land to build a house on. If you already own a house, like Breezehome, you can adopt kids if you have the childrens' room furnished with beds and storage chests.

[Poobah Gorg]

As with most DLC you get on Steam, I believe you go into your Library on Steam, rightclick on Skyrim and pick View Downloadable Content. This will take you right to the DLC tab of the game's properties window. Make sure that Hearthfire is checked, it probably should be by default (or they'd get a great pile of support requests for DLC).

For the most part, this is a means of excluding DLC from games that you DON'T want to use right now. Say the one for Crusader Kings that can lead to Aztec invasions of Europe, or the one that plays Chrismtas music.

There's easy ways to check for Hearthfire in-game. Does your character have the spell Bless Home? You've got Hearthfire.

Items that only appear if you've got Hearthfire:
Argonian bloodwine
Surilie Brothers wine
straw
glass
goat horns
sawn logs
clay
quarried stone
hinge
iron fittings
lock
nails
wooden sword
child's doll
children's clothing (it exists in the basic game, but can't be bought and can't be looted without setting kids as non-essential)

Head to the nearest general store or blacksmith. If any of this stuff is for sale (or can be made by you at the forge), Hearthfire is activated!

[Clever Monkey]

right click the game in library view. right click-propeties-dlc

make sure it is to be installed.

when first playing make sure it is enabled(checked) in the datafiles window of the opening screen.

[Bomb Bloke]

Originally posted by Poobah Gorg:

There's easy ways to check for Hearthfire in-game. Does your character have the spell Bless Home? You've got Hearthfire.

Er, rather, that'd mean you've got the "hearthfire multiple adoptions" mod.

You're right about the other stuff, though. Just go to any forge, see if you can craft nails.

[Poobah Gorg]

Ah, good point. I forgot that spell was part of that mod. That particular mods is one of the ones that so many people install it really ought to be part of the game. Unless you like seeing little kids begging for coins, sleeping in alleys or living as someone's de facto slave.

[Bomb Bloke]

Indeed, it's kind of a given that the Dragonborn is going to end up with enough cash to buy most - if not all - of the major cities in the world. Only being able to get a couple of kids of the street is a weird limitation.

[iggy.derek_1313]

I know that its connected. My question was how do you get to it in-game? How can I buy the property/house?

[Bomb Bloke]

To build a Hearthfire home, you must speak to one of the three Jarls who sell the land - eg Falkreath's - do whatever quests make them happy, then pay up.

Once you've done that, the plot of land gets a map icon somewhere, and visiting it will allow you to start construction.

Buying any of the three plots of land will not prevent you from buying the others as well. I quite like the one obtained from Dawnstar's Jarl. The third comes from Morthal.