Lockpicking is one of the very first skills you’ll need to learn and master early on in Oblivion Remastered. You’ll first encounter locked chests in the underground caverns beneath the prison, and then in nearly every dungeon thereafter. It’s a core component of the game. It’s also one of the most cumbersome to some players. But mastering the mini-game and leveling up essential skills will quickly turn your fortunes around. Eventually you’ll be putting the Gray Fox himself to shame.
Skills that affect lockpicking
If you think you’ll spend a lot of time lockpicking as a stealthy character, like one of the many members of the Thieves’ Guild, then you’ll want to increase your Security.
Like all other skills in the game, there are five levels to Security:
- Novice (0): Up to four tumblers will fall when you fail and break a lockpick.
- Apprentice (25): Up to three tumblers will fall when you fail and break a lockpick.
- Journeyman (50): Up to two tumblers will fall when you fail and break a lockpick.
- Expert (75): Only one tumbler will fall when you fail and break a lockpick.
- Master (100): No tumblers will fall when you fail and break a lockpick.
You can level the skill by attempting lockpicks and speaking with the occasional thief or beggar to train your abilities higher in exchange for gold.
How to lockpick successfully
Before you attempt to break into a treasure chest filled with junk that you’ll likely toss aside to satisfy your weight limit, you must have lockpicks in your inventory. You can find them all over, in any sack, box, or open chest in the game. You can also buy them at merchants, too, if you’d rather spend a little gold on the local economy.
Read More: Five Tips Kick Off The Ultimate Oblivion Remastered Adventure
With a lockpick at the ready, attempt to open the chest in question to begin the lockpicking minigame. It’s the usual tumbler and lockpick setup, as is common in most video game lock picking minigames, at first glance.
Your goal is to push each tumbler up with the pick until it reaches the very top of the lock mechanism. Once the tumbler connects with the top, click your interact button to set the tumbler in place. If you’re successful, it will lock open and turn grey, allowing you to move on to the next tumbler in the sequence. Repeat the process.
Depending on how hard the lock is, the number of tumblers necessary to unlock the box ranges from one to five. You must work through each one in turn, unlocking and opening them in sequence, and if you fail, you’ll reset the lock.
Oblivion Remastered is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PCs, and Game Pass.
