Complete Tears of the Savior Walkthrough in Oblivion Remastered with Exact Coordinates

If you have spent any time wandering through the freezing whiteouts of the Jerall Mountains in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, you have probably run into one of the most frustrating quests in the entire game: Tears of the Savior. In the original 2006 release, hunting down these tiny, translucent blue crystals was a test of patience. But ever since Bethesda and Virtuous shadow-dropped the remaster on April 22, 2025, the quest has become an absolute nightmare of visual camouflage and erratic physics.

I have personally spent dozens of hours breaking down the game mechanics on the latest Patch 1.2 (which dropped in July 2025 and remains the active version on PC, PS5, and Xbox). In this guide, I am going to walk you through exactly how I conquered this quest, maximized my gold return using a simple mathematical profit model, and found every single tear without losing my sanity to the Unreal Engine 5 physics engine.

The Dark History of Garridan Stalrous and the Skooma Connection

Before you run off into the snow, you need to understand what you are actually looking for. These crystals are not just random rocks; they are the frozen tears of a legendary knight named Garridan Stalrous (sometimes called Garridan Tanika in older localized scripts).

Centuries ago, a brutal drought struck the small farming village of Faral Glenn. Desperate to save his people, Garridan set off to find the Everflow Ewer, an ancient Aedric artifact blessed by Mara that was rumored to hold an infinite supply of pure water. He tracked the Ewer to Frostfire Glade, but was ambushed by a massive Frost Atronach guardian. As the guardian froze him solid, Garridan raised the Ewer to shield himself. The beast smashed the vessel, and the resulting eruption of divine, magical water froze both combatants in an eternal block of ice. Mara blessed the knight’s final sacrifice, transforming his falling tears into brilliant, blue-tinted crystals. At that exact moment, a miraculous blue rain fell over Faral Glenn, saving the crops.

But there is a much shadier side to this story that the public wikis completely miss. Our quest-giver, a male Khajiit alchemist named S’drassa inside the Leyawiin Mages Guild, claims he just wants the tears for his private crystal collection. But if you pick the lock to the wooden chest in S’drassa’s personal quarters, you will find it loaded with illegal Skooma. Modern alchemical lore reveals that Garridan’s Tears possess incredibly potent restorative properties capable of curing Skooma addiction. S’drassa is secretly using your hard work to synthesize a high-value cure.

Interestingly, Garridan also has deep ties to other classic areas of Cyrodiil; he was the very knight who helped Lord Jaren seal the rogue undead entities of Lord Kain and Arielle Jurard inside the secret grotto of Battlehorn Castle.

Starting the Quest and Maximizing Your Investment Return

To get this contract on your journal, make your way down to Leyawiin in the swampy south. Walk into the Leyawiin Mages Guildhall and locate S’drassa.

The Path of the Quest

• Navigate the chat menu and select the dialogue prompt for Garridan’s Tears to formally kick off the quest.
• S’drassa will direct you to talk to his academic colleague, Julienne Fanis, at the Arcane University in the Imperial City.
• Travel to the south side of the Imperial City and enter the Arch-Mage Lobby. Speak with Julienne Fanis to learn the legend of the frozen knight.
• Julienne will tell you to track down a rare historical book. Head north to the Imperial City Market District, enter the First Edition bookstore, and purchase the book Knightfall from Phintias for 50 gold.
• Open your inventory menu (press the character screen button, navigate to the inventory icon, select the books tab, hover over Knightfall, and read it). Reading this book officially updates your world map with the location of Frostfire Cave.
• Return to Julienne Fanis at the Arcane University and buy one portion of Refined Frost Salts (FormID 00022F1A, Weight 0.1, Base Value 40) for roughly 75 gold. This salt acts as the magical key to open the inner glade door.
• Crucial Step: Before leaving the Imperial City, travel back to S’drassa in Leyawiin. Select his dialogue again to receive five Philters of Frostward (FormID 0007BCC9). These potions completely negate frost damage for 45 seconds.

The Economic Return on Investment (ROI) Model

Most players think this quest is just a basic fetch errand, but it is actually one of the most lucrative cash cows in the game if you understand the underlying mathematics. S’drassa’s reward money scales dynamically based on your character level when you hand in the quest. Plus, the five Philters of Frostward he gives you are incredibly valuable; they do not scale with level and can be liquidated to friendly merchants for massive early-game capital.

Let us break down the exact economic math of this quest. Your initial capital expenditure C is a static cost:

C = P_book + P_salts = 50 + 75 = 125 gold

The five Philters of Frostward represent a massive liquid asset. If you do not drink them, you can sell them to a merchant with low mercantile skill (like Ogier or other guild alchemists) for an average of 800 gold per potion. The liquidation asset value A is:

A = 5 x 800 = 4000 gold 

Your net yield Y/L and percentage return on investment ROI/L at character level L are calculated using the formulas:

Y(L) = R(L) + A – C = R(L) + 4000 – 125 = R(L) + 3875 gold

ROI(L) = (Y(L) / C) x 100% = ((R(L) + 3875) / 125) x 100%

• Levels 1 to 4: Base gold reward R/L = 500. Net profit is 4375 gold, yielding a 3500% ROI.
• Levels 5 to 9: Base gold reward R/L = 800. Net profit is 4675 gold, yielding a 3740% ROI.
• Levels 10 to 14: Base gold reward R/L = 1200. Net profit is 5075 gold, yielding a 4060% ROI.
• Levels 15 to 19: Base gold reward R/L = 1600. Net profit is 5475 gold, yielding a 4380% ROI.
• Levels 20 to 24: Base gold reward R/L = 2000. Net profit is 5875 gold, yielding a 4700% ROI.
• Levels 25 and up: Base gold reward R/L = 2500. Net profit is an astounding 6375 gold, yielding a maximum 5100% ROI.

If you love uncovering forgotten legends tucked away in Cyrodiil’s mountain peaks, you should definitely check out  the lifting the vale quest guide to easily solve the mysteries of the ancient Akaviri ruins and find even more hidden treasures.

Surviving the Frostfire Cave and Fighting the Glade Guardian

With your Refined Frost Salts in hand, head northeast of the Imperial City deep into the Jerall Mountains. When you arrive, you will find the entrance to Frostfire Cave.

The cave itself is small and linear. Depending on your character level, you will have to clear out a handful of standard wild animals like rats, timber wolves, mountain lions, or bears. Keep moving forward until you reach the locked stone door at the back of the cave. Walk up and interact with the door; the game will consume your Refined Frost Salts from your inventory to dissolve the barrier and allow you to step into the actual Frostfire Glade clearing.

The moment you enter the clearing, you will spot a massive Frostfire Atronach patrolling the central ice monolith.

• The Pull Strategy: Do not fight this giant near the center ice monolith. Because the remaster uses complex Unreal Engine 5 terrain meshes, physical impacts from your weapons or bumbling movements from the Atronach have a massive risk of kicking the microscopic tears directly through the ground colliders. If a tear falls under the map geometry, the quest is permanently broken unless you reload a save. Immediately draw the Atronach’s aggro using a ranged spell or bow shot, and pull him back into the narrow cave tunnel entrance.
• Combat Strategy: Since this is a frost-type enemy, it is highly susceptible to fire. Hit it with fire-enchanted weapons or basic flare spells to melt its health pool quickly and safely away from the tears.
• The Atronach Magicka Battery Trick: If your character was created with the Atronach birthsign, standing in the freezing misty zone surrounding the central monolith will actually trigger your spell absorption mechanics. Because the environmental frost damage is scripted as constant spell-equivalent hits, your character has a 50% chance on every tick to absorb the damage and convert it into pure magicka. You can stand in the freezing mist to rapidly recharge your entire magicka bar for free!

Pinpointing the Microscopic Tears with Unreal 5 Physics

Once the guardian is dead, you have to find the five tears. This is where the remaster makes things incredibly difficult. In the original game, the tears had a semi-opaque blue-white texture that stood out slightly against the grey snow. In Oblivion Remastered, Virtuous utilized Unreal Engine 5’s high-fidelity shaders to render the tears as mathematically perfect, completely clear, refractive crystals. They act as tiny prisms, refracting the surrounding white snow and blue mist, rendering them virtually invisible to the naked eye.

To locate them, we model the central frozen monolith as the origin point (0, 0, 0) of a three-dimensional cylindrical coordinate system (r, theta, z), where r is the radial distance in meters from the monolith’s edge, theta is the angular bearing in degrees relative to True North (0 degrees), and z is the vertical height offset in meters.

• Tear 1 (The Southeastern Monolith Base): Located at cylindrical coordinates C(1.5m, 135 degrees, 0.0m). You will find this crystal resting out in the open on the flat, snowy ground directly at the southeastern base of the central monolith.
• Tear 2 (The Southwest Fallen Log): Located at cylindrical coordinates C(3.2m, 225 degrees, -0.1m). This one is tucked directly underneath the fallen tree trunk log that spans the gap on the southwestern side of the ice clearing.
• Tear 3 (The Northeastern Base): Located at cylindrical coordinates C(2.1m, 45 degrees, 0.0m). This gem lies flat in the open snow at the northeastern base of the main central rock.
• Tear 4 (The South Foliage Clump): Located at cylindrical coordinates C(1.8m, 180 degrees, 0.0m). This is a tricky one because the remaster uses randomized procedural grass clumps. It sits on the ground on the south side of the rock, completely buried inside a green foliage and grass patch.
• Tear 5 (The Northwest Ice Shelf): Located at cylindrical coordinates C(1.1 m, 315 degrees, 1.8m). This is the legendary hidden tear that most players spend hours looking for. It is not on the ground; it sits high up on a flat, elevated rock shelf hosting the ice sculpture on the opposite side from the log-bridge.

Pro Meta Strategies and Engine Exploits to Spot the Gems

Because the tears are so visually camouflaged, I highly recommend using a few classic engine exploits to make them pop out of the landscape :

• The Telekinesis Crosshair Trick: This is hands-down the best trick in the book. Equip any basic Telekinesis spell (FormID 00025B33 or similar) but do not cast it. Simply holding the spell ready causes the game engine to expand your physical crosshair interaction range. As you sweep your crosshair over the snowy ground from yards away, the name Garridan’s Tear and the UI outline indicator will flash on your screen, revealing the exact location of the clear crystal.
• Top-Down Sneak Camera Alignment: Your character’s physical collision capsule can kick the tears into rock crevices if you run over them. Switch to third-person view (default camera toggle button), tilt your camera straight down to look directly at your character’s head, and toggle Sneak mode. Walking in Sneak mode dramatically alters your feet physics and slows your movement, preventing you from accidentally kicking a tear out of bounds.
• Shadow Mapping with Light Sources: Unreal Engine 5’s global illumination can make the clear crystal blend into the snow. Cast a localized Light spell with a radius of 20 feet or light a standard torch. This forces the game engine to calculate direct light vectors, casting a sharp, dark shadow silhouette underneath the clear crystal that stands out brilliantly against the bright white snow.

Navigating Remaster Bugs and Beyond Skyrim Mod Quirks

Even a year after launch, Oblivion Remastered has a couple of glaring bugs that you need to watch out for:

• The Non-Spawning Atronach Glitch: In some playthroughs on Patch 1.2, players report entering the glade only to find that the Frostfire Atronach never spawned and the environmental frost damage script failed to initialize. While this makes the search safer, do not get careless; the tears can still clip into the high-poly rock meshes if you walk over them.
• The Beyond Skyrim Bruma Divergence: If you have the popular mod Beyond Skyrim: Bruma installed, the quest mechanics change completely. In the mod version, Julienne Fanis does not sell the Refined Frost Salts. Instead, you must kill a Flame Atronach in the side caverns to get Fire Salts, collect Frost Salts from the local cave Atronachs, and combine them at the campsite cooking pot outside the glade door to craft the Refined Frost Salts yourself.

The Post Quest Stealing Exploit

Once you have gathered all five tears, return to S’drassa in Leyawiin to turn in the quest and collect your massive gold payout. This is more significant than the sanguine quest.

But the fun does not end there. S’drassa will take your hard-earned tears and lock them inside a tilted glass display case in the back alchemy laboratory of the Mages Guildhall, right next to the locked Welkynd Stone display.

• The Pickpocket / Lockpick Phase: The display case is locked with a Very Hard difficulty lock. Wait until midnight when S’drassa and Alves Uvenim leave the room, enter Sneak mode until your eye reticle shows you are completely undetected, and pick the lock.
• The Ownership Flag Glitch: Due to a hilarious scripting oversight preserved in the remaster’s engine, once the display case is open, the red stolen flag completely disappears from the tears inside. You can pick them right out of the display case with zero bounty, zero guild infamy, and complete immunity. This lets you keep the massive gold reward and place the rare, beautiful crystals on the shelves of your own private manor!