The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion has more RPG mechanics built into it than Skyrim or most Bethesda games after Oblivion, for that matter. Skyrim streamlined some of the intricate busywork that fans have enjoyed dabbling in (and breaking the game with) since Daggerfall and Morrowind. Perhaps most obvious is the complete omission of an NPC persuasion minigame in Skyrim. The Oblivion Remaster brings back the old persuasion minigame wheel and all of the other cool stuff the original had. Here are some beginner tips to help make the journey through the radiant woodlands of Cyrodill that much more enjoyable.
Don’t Grind Out Individual Skills Early On
Since enemies still scale to your overall level in the remaster, it’s best to avoid grinding out skills that won’t help much in combat (like acrobatics). Every 10 skill ups grants you a level up, so choose what to train wisely or enemies will outperform you in the scaling ‘arms race’. The remaster lets players choose any attribute to level up regardless of class, so it’s possible to out-power enemies just by boosting Strength and Endurance. You can also just avoid leveling entirely by becoming an eternal insomniac. No really, just don’t rest and level scaling will never be an issue. Of course, avoiding leveling up forfeits your ability to progress your attributes like Strength and Endurance, so maybe that’s not the best option.
Raise Five Combat Skills Every Level
Another more commonsense tactic to make sure enemies don’t overpower you through scaling is to increase five combat skills every level. Doing this will scale your fighting skill rank (the Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Master ranks) in parallel with enemy soul class ranks. The specific skills that are useful in this situation are Blade, Blunt, Hand-To-Hand, Armorer, Block, and Heavy Armor. But you don’t need to constantly fight stuff to level these fighting skills; money can do the trick with the right trainers. There’s a Heavy Armor trainer smack dab in the Imperial City. Head to the City Market District and talk to Varnado at The Best Defense store to get started on your road to heavy armor mastery, if that’s a combat skill you want to focus on.
Always Keep Repair Hammers on You
Even if you’re not focused about raising Armorer skill, keeping a batch of repair hammers with you is smart. This is because, unlike Skyrim, armor and weapons degrade with use and break completely after a while. Consistent weapon and armor repair is crucial in Oblivion.
Go Anywhere
Now that you have some repair hammers with you, it’s time to choose a direction and explore! In Oblivion, it’s perfectly safe just to set off in any direction without the threat of level 100 dragons or the like. Since every enemy scales to the your overall level, there aren’t any super high level areas that kick you in the teeth (until you activate oblivion gates).
Oblivion Gates
Speaking of oblivion gates, this game has a soft ‘point of no return’ of sorts. Once the ‘Dagon Quest’ is initiated, those pesky oblivion gates open up all over Cyrodill, causing quite the blemish on the lush, and slightly more desaturated, landscape. These gates will persist until the main quest is finished, so it’s best to hold off on the Dagon Quest until you’re well equipped and ready to deal with their ubiquitous presence.
Customize Your Class for the Best Optimization
If you want to avoid running into the level scaling problem early, it’s best to make your own custom class. Standard classes are built to level fast before receiving the full bonuses to your targeted attributes. While there’s a wide array of options that can yield effective results, raising Endurance early on is especially useful as it multiplies HP increase every level up. You want to ever level up to health as much as possible, so targeting skills tied to Endurance is the best way to get that.
Join a Guild for Free Bed, Trainers, and Various Cheap Vendors
There are five main guilds available to join and rank up throughout Cyrodill. Being a member of any of these guilds supplies you with a free bed, cheaper vendors, and in most cases, a lot of supplies and adventuring experience. The Thieves Guild can be found when investigating the Gray Fox within the Waterfront District of the Imperial City. The Dark Brotherhood is perhaps the easiest one to get into….if you’re a murderer, that is. And the Fighters and Mages guilds have to be entered through other cities such as Chorral. The next point covers the fifth guild.
Do the Arena Questline for Some of the Best Early Money in the Game
The Arena is located right in the heart of the Imperial City. Just head on in and start taking on bouts to get some great early money and combat experience. This faction is especially recommended early on because the rewards don’t scale with the overall player level like other quest lines. Oh, and if you’re not a fighter, don’t worry. You can join, freely take weapons and armor from the racks, sell them in the city and never look back again to get some free cash without swinging a sword.
Join the Mages Guild To Create Weapons and Spells for Good Early Game Money
The Mages Guild has loads of free equipment lying around for apprentices to take. Finding alchemy equipment such as a mortar and pestle is easy once you’ve joined a guild hall. Furthermore, every guild hall houses many spell merchants, some which sell some of the best spells in the game.
Use the Mages Guild to Triple Enchant Weapons for High Damage Hits
Enchanting becomes available once you unlock the Arcane University within the Mages Guild quest chain. It’s a very open-ended method of adding special effects and spells to your armor and weapons. Enchanting your weapon with fire, frost, and shock each with lower points, is more powerful over time than enchanting a weapon with just one effect with very high points. For armor, it’s highly recommended you use the resist magic enchantment so that the particularly difficult daedra within the oblivion gates don’t pose too much of a threat.
Summon Monsters for Easy Combat Experience
Whether you’re a mage who wants to get some quick and easy strength skills up to par or a fighter seeking a risk-free method of training, Conjuration magic is a great option. Any new player can grab a basic Summon Scamp spell in a shop in the Imperial City Market District. Just head to Edgar’s Discount Spells shops and train your combat prowess against your summoned scamp for easy and quick experience. If you pick a Dark Elf race for your character, you get a built-in “Summon Ancestor” spell from the get-go, though you can only use it once a day.
Buy the Dremora Lord Spell Before It’s Too Late
The Dremora Lord conjuration spell disappears after the “A Plot Revealed” quest in the mages guild questline; buy it from Volanaro in the Bruma Mages Guild before then. For those particular interested going down the route of Conjuration, there’s a missable Dremora Lord spell within the Mages Guild questline. Volanaro sells this powerful spell in the Bruma mages guild branch. You must buy it before the “A Plot Revealed” quest or it, and Volanaro, will be gone forever.
There’s much more to explore and min-max within the wide world that is Cyrodill, but these 12 are ones that helped us early on in our own adventures.
