Can Lydia Die or Disappear? Yes, But You Can Get Her Back

Lydia is one of the most well-known followers in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, but she can also be the most difficult to keep track of. She intentionally takes a longer, but less complicated, route to follow you, making it hard for you to know where she is at any given time. Luckily, whether she is lost or dead, you can find and bring back your housecarl with several methods! Note that console commands only work on PC, so you cannot revive her if you’re not using a PC.

Ways to Bring Back Lydia in Skyrim

Retrace your steps to see if Lydia got stuck on something while following you.
Revive Lydia by opening the console, clicking on her, and typing "resurrect."
Make Lydia essential (or unable to die) by running the console command "setessential 000A2C8E 1."
Make sure Lydia isn't affected by a bug that's keeping her from moving.

Section 1 of 4:

Finding Lydia When Lost

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1
Look back to where you last saw her. Sometimes, NPCs may get stuck in particularly rough terrain while following you. Or, she might have been killed (Lydia’s body does not disappear from the place where she died). She might have also been preoccupied with hostile NPCs or enemies, which she may have attacked.
- Try to go back on the same route that you took. She might just be slow while running after you, so you might even bump into her when going back to find her!
- She will keep fighting even if you run away from enemies.
If you tell her to stay in a certain spot, she will stay in that same spot for a few in-game days and won’t move for that time period. It’s easy to forget if you told a follower to stay, so check if you did this.

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3
Look in Whiterun’s Dragonsreach or Breezehome. If you wait for more than a few in-game days after telling Lydia to stay in the same spot, she will walk back to Whiterun. She will usually hang around where you found her, or she may be near Breezehome, so check those places.
- Make sure she follows you once you meet up with her. If there is a dialogue option of “Follow me. I need your help," then click on that. Otherwise, she won’t follow you.
4
Use the Detect Life spell. This Adept spell comes from the Alteration school of magic and can help distinguish and pinpoint enemies and friends if they are nearby. It even works through walls and rooms. Although the spell does not identify specifically what creature/NPC is nearby, blue dots indicate friends and red dots indicate foes. Use this spell to check if Lydia is around you (she will be indicated by a blue dot).
- You can get the spell tome as random loot in the first chamber of the Labyrinthian, from Stalleo after completing the quest “Infiltration”.
- You can also purchase it from Tolfdir in the College of Winterhold or Wylandriah at the Mistveil Keep.
5
Try moving her to you with a console command. On your keyboard, press the Tilde key ~, which shares a key with the ` symbol. This will open the console.
- Type in this exact code: a2c94.moveto player
- Press the Enter key.
- Type in this exact code: resurrect
- Close the console by pressing the ~ key that you used to open it, and see if she appears right next to you.
- If she doesn’t appear, she is dead. You will have to revive her before moving her to you.
- This command does not change her inventory.
6
Try alternate console commands. Unfortunately, these commands will reset her inventory and armor, so if you gave her items in the past, make sure you won’t mind the losses. Here is a list of alternate commands (make sure to type them in exactly as they are, spaces and everything):
- a2c94.disable
- a2c94.enable
- a2c94.moveto player
- You have to close the console each time after you put in a command, so don’t put them in all at once.
- If she still doesn’t appear after the commands, she is dead, and you'll have to revive her first.

Section 2 of 4:

Reviving Lydia

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1
Find her body, if you can. This will make it easier for you to remove needed items from her inventory if you gave her any (her inventory might reset after resurrection), and make it easier to bring her back to life. This way, you won’t have to worry about console commands that will bring her to you (as explained in the previous part of this article).
- When dead, her body will not disappear or move, so go to where you last saw her alive. You cannot use console commands to bring her body to you, unfortunately.
2
Revive her using a console command. Open the console and click on her body. A code will appear. Simply type “resurrect” into the console, press enter, and close the console. She will be resurrected.
- This method also works to resurrect other NPCs/characters.
3
Revive her using a different console command if you cannot find her body. Open the console and type in this exact code: a2c94.resurrect
- This also works for other followers; just replace “a2c94” with their respective Ref IDs (you don’t have to put the “000” right before every ID). You can find the Ref IDs of NPCs here.
4
Check if you have actually revived her if you can't see her body. If you are successful, after pressing enter, the console will show a string of code that says “Lydia is NOT bleeding out”. Close the console, and she will be alive!
- Use console commands (as described in the first part of this article) to bring her to you afterward.
5
Clone her regardless of whether or not you can find her body. This will create a new Lydia and remove the old Lydia. To do this, type in this exact command: player.placeatme a2c8e
- Since it’s a new Lydia, her inventory will reset. If you can, take all the items you need from her before doing this.
- The new Lydia will automatically be placed next to you.
- This can work on other followers, too. Replace "a2c8e" with the applicable NPC's Base ID. You can find NPCs' Base and Ref IDs here/Characters).

Section 3 of 4:

Making Lydia Essential

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1
Open the console. Normally, Lydia is a protected NPC, which means she can't die unless the player ends up killing her.^{[1]
X
Research source} However, anecdotally, some characters have witnessed Lydia dying at the hands of other NPCs. To keep Lydia from dying at all, you can change her to an essential NPC.^{[2]
X
Research source}
2
Type setessential 000A2C8E 1. The setessential command will change Lydia to an essential NPC. The next number is Lydia's character ID. The final number (the "1") is just to signify that this command should be turned on when you run it.
3
Press ↵ Enter. This will send the command, and Lydia will be made essential. This will keep her from dying, so you hopefully don't have to worry about reviving her again.
- If you're playing on a console version of the game, check the in-game mod loader for an "Essential Lydia" or "Invincible Lydia" mod. One mod that some users have used is called "Invulnderable Lydia," which is misspelled, so it may be easy to miss.

Section 4 of 4:

Bugs That Affect Lydia's Location

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Some bugs will affect where Lydia can be found. If you're having a hard time finding Lydia, one of these bugs may be to blame:^{[3]
X
Research source}
- Lydia can get stuck in a sitting and standing loop in Breezehome. To fix this, sit in the chair that she's bugged on, or ask her to follow you when she stands up. You can also fix this issue with the Unofficial Skyrim Patch.
- If you dismiss Lydia after completing the "Battle for Whiterun" quest for the Stormcloaks, she won't return to Dragonsreach. You can avoid this by asking the new Jarl to become a thane before going to your house after the quest.
- If Lydia is your follower and wife, and you relocate your house, dismissing her in Breezehome will cause her to freeze in that location. You can fix this by asking her to follow you, then by dismissing her outside of Breezehome.
- If you have Dawnguard and ask to part ways with Lydia, she may not return to Breezehome and may stay stuck in that area.
- Lydia may disappear if you leave her behind and don't tell her to wait. This can happen in quests when you are assigned a partner who replaces your follower.

Community Q&A

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Question

I play on Xbox and can't use commands so do I just use raise zombie?

Danielle

Community Answer

Raise zombie will temporarily bring a follower or NPC back to life, usually for about a minute. Afterwards, they will turn into a pile of ash and so there is no way to permanently bring them back.

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What do I do if I'm playing on console (PS3, Xbox 360, etc)?

Danielle

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Unfortunately, console commands don't work on consoles. If you save your game frequently and lose a follower, you'll be able to load a previous save where they are still alive. That way you won't have to make a new save file.

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Tips

Give her better armor/weapons (she works well with heavy armor) by selecting the dialogue option to trade with her. If you give her items, she will equip the one with the most damage or armor rating.

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Always save before using console commands, just in case something goes wrong.

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If you killed her yourself, she will not be hostile toward you upon resurrection. Just make sure you ask her to follow you again.

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Warnings

Don't rely on console commands all the time to find or revive her. If, for some reason, console commands aren't working, you'll be stuck without Lydia.

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Try not to use console commands to bring her to you or revive her when you are on highly sloped or uneven terrain. This might disrupt her body's orientation. Drag her body to a smoother area. As always, save before using any commands!

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