Skyrim fans reminded that fire arrows and paralysis turn bandits into ballistic projectiles

Physics in Bethesda games rarely behaves the way developers intended. But sometimes two harmless elements combine into something that sends an enemy flying past the horizon faster than they can process what just happened.

The trick involves fire arrows paired with a paralysis-enchanted weapon in Skyrim. The setup works like this: the target gets paralyzed, the body switches to ragdoll physics, and the explosive damage from the arrow gives that ragdoll a serious kick. The Havok engine calculates the force and launches the unfortunate bandit into a beautiful arc through the air.

Fire arrows, by the way, aren't original 2011 content. They came from the Arcane Archer Pack add-on for Creation Club, which later got folded into the Anniversary Edition entirely. Along with fire arrows, the pack includes frost, shock, bone, and Nord Hero arrows, all craftable at a blacksmith forge using the appropriate salts and soul gems.

The paralysis enchantment is trickier, which explains why plenty of players have no idea it exists. The effect only shows up on randomly generated weapons at high levels, costs a lot of charge, and drains soul gems at an alarming rate. Once you disenchant a weapon carrying it at the arcane enchanter, though, the effect stays in your arsenal for good. For anyone unlucky with loot drops, there's also the Paralyze spell from the Alteration school, or poison.

The practical value of this combo, honestly, sits at zero. Someone in the comments pointed out that finishing off an enemy in a cramped dungeon becomes a real headache after this trick, since the body tends to fly off into the textures somewhere. Still, watching it happen never really gets old.

Fifteen years of patches, remasters, and re-releases later, and Skyrim physics remain just as ready to turn any random bandit into a catapult projectile.