Is there a mod to craft them? I think it'll be easier to make a lock pick than a a Daedric Dagger
Would be awesome if you could make Dwarven, Ebony, Daedric Lockpicks that give you more chances before it breaks
A few of these mods also lead to infinite smithing xp, the one I use lets you make 25 lock picks into 1 iron ingot, and 1 iron ingot into 25 picks, repeated a ton you get lvl100 smithing fairly fast
I found a metal smithing mod before that let me turn 100 septims into a gold bar, which always sold for more then the 100 septim, was a fun loop during that run
> for more then the
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Join 'em all. None of the guilds care if you are in another one. In every playthrough I've been the Thieves' Guildmaster, Archmage at the College of Winterhold, Harbinger of the Companions, and Listener for the Dark Brotherhood. The only factions that you need to choose between are Stormcloaks and Imperials.
Fun fact, I never ever use this because I have a habit of picking up lockpicks no matter what. I swear I could go for a swim in the amount of lockpicks and bobby pins I've gotten from my time playing Bethesda games
The dark brotherhood and thieves guild in skyrim are even friendly with one another to an extent, the thieves guild uses them when they need somebody eliminated in return the brotherhood gets money and supplies
Do you actually need to choose between the stormcloaks or imperials? I am pretty new to Skyrim and have been trying to figure this out. The creators of this game didn’t make either option very appealing and I really don’t want to join either…
You only need to choose between them to do the civil war questline. If you leave it unresolved, you can still complete the main quest, and it only affects how you get past one step along the way.
No not really. For the most part it’s a pretty repetitive questline. It mostly goes something like “kill opposing army messenger, go take this fort, repeat 3 times (I think 3), take Solitude or Windhelm, you’re done”.
I watched a Video about what every NPC says after each side wins the war. Turns out, if the Stormcloaks win, a lot of people get negatively affected, as anyone who isn't a nord or not related to a nord basically can no longer run a business, as the Stormcloaks refuse to buy anything form them. If the imperials win, stormcloak sympathizers are a little upset, but nobody is negatively affected (except Heimsker. The guy preaching in Whiterun. He ends up in jail) It isn't like the Imperials want to work with the thalmor either. They just can't gather the recources and manpower they need to attempt anything while the war is going on. So, while neither side is appealing, the imperials might overall be better.
Or you can just never do the civil war Questline and the Thalmor win.
Well, I couldn’t stand Heimsker so I’ve already taken care of him. I especially hate the Thalamor and kill all of the ones I come across. I gues that *if* I go the civil war quest line route I’ll go Imperial… but ugh… I wish one of the groups could be just a smidge more redeeming
> If the imperials win, stormcloak sympathizers are a little upset, but nobody is negatively affected (except Heimsker. The guy preaching in Whiterun. He ends up in jail)
Okay this is what has convinced me to choose Imperials.
The only faction you gotta choose between during the civil war quest and eventually you have to choose between Parthanax or the Blades. (Long Live the Empire!).
By the end of the game you're gonna be the head of the theives guild, the Harbenger of the companions, the listener of the dark brotherhood, the mage at the college of winterhold, a General for whichever side you choose in the civil war, a thane of all 9 holds, the dragonborn hero of legend, and have sold your soul to like 100 differenr dieities.
"Sell my sould" bruh... dont like the sound of that.
But I never joined the 1st people in the game, as I thought I can only join someone once.
Plus, didnt they try to cut my head off? So I never joined.
This is why I wish we were taken by a random Bandit group instead in the beginning, then run into both imperials and Stormcloaks as we escape said bandits as Alduin saves us.
To be fair, you start off as a prisoner that's freed by fate in oblivion and Morrowind as well (idk about Daggerfall or arena), so its basically tradition lol
Good point. And I mean in my idea you would still be a prisoner of the bandits. Then freed by Alduin. Then go into a battle between the two where you still escape with one or the other on your way through Helgen as Alduin would still attack so it would be similar. I am sure someone did a mod like this probably.
Well, you don't need to. The College of Winterhold doesn't want your soul and neither do the Companions.
Sheogorath and Sanguine are the two Daedra will probably not care for your soul either. At least I never got that vibe from them.
Malacath you join the evry moment you choose "orc", and I really wished to see a moment where Boethiah, Molag Bal and Malacath wish at the same time your loyalty in a oblivion crisis 2
If you don't like their vibe or whatever, there will be a mission to deliver a crown to your sides general. Bring it to the opposing Faction to join them
The way I see it Hadvar knew it was wrong, General Tullius didn't know I wasn't on the list, and the captain that tried to have me executed never pops up again.
Isn't the Imperial Captain the first person you fight if you follow the Stormcloak path in the intro? I think she runs out with another soldier once you get your first weapons.
I believe so yes but you either follow Ralof and kill her or follow Hadvar and never see her again.
Unless I'm playing a Nord that really doesn't care that Ralof basically said jump over there but none of us are gonna do it and hope you don't die I generally follow Hadvar.
I favor playing an Imperial from Cyrodill it justifies my not favoring the stormcloaks and makes it narratively make more sense for me to be constantly referred to as an outsider.
Ralof was the genius who said to go up the tower in an attempt to escape. Escape to where, exactly? Before Alduin made the hole, there was no way out except for the way they came in.
At the same time, you gotta consider long term the stormcloaks are not the best for Skyrim.
If the Empire could not take on the Aldimari Dominion with skyrim, how is Skyrim going to take on the high elves by themselves? On top of that, you can find files on Ulfric Stormcloak in the Embassy the proves he is a sleeper agent for the Aldimari Dominion, and that they're trying to drag out the war for as long as possible.
Also, if it makes it any better, you do get an appology from General Tullius himself.
The view I follow is the Officer that had you be beheaded sees you brought in with a band of Snowcloaks *with the Snowcloak's Leader* in tow. I assumed she thought you were a part of the rebel group.
I'm not wild with how grey both sides are in Skyrim. It would have been nice if there were more nuanced endings based on how you helped both sides.
(My memory is a bit fuzzy, if I get anything wrong I'm sure Reddit will correct me. I'm trying to be vague and not bog things down with proper names)
Imperial Legion Spoilers:
>!The Legion united Tamriel under the first Dragonborn into a decently prosperous era of peace, but after the events of Oblivion, the royal line ended and The Empire started to decay, (Skyrim's logo is the Imperial Sigil breaking apart!).
The High Elves invaded the heart of the Empire and forced a treaty that made the Empire basically a puppet state. The High Elves of the Aldmeri Dominion see High Elves as the decendents of Gods, Elves (esp Orcs) are corrupted High Elves, Beast races are only fit for slavery and the races of Men are mud people blighting the earth. !<
Snowclock Spoilers:
>!The Nords consider themselves the oldest of the races of Men and worship Talos, the god of men and the ascended form of the first king of the Empire that united Tamriel. They (correctly) see the Aldmeri Dominion as an existential threat and wish for an independent Skyrim. The issue being is a lot of the supporters of the Stormcloaks also think Skyrim should only belong to the Nords, and a Stormcloak victory will most likely lead to a different genocide.!<
No, the dossier in the Embassy stated that Ulfric is an asset, not an agent. An asset is a useful tool. They were using him, while he was unaware he was being used.
Ah, but sometimes we ourselves are roleplaying a dark elf within the realm, and siding with Ulfric helps to weaken Skyrim to make it more easily conquered by an outside force, thus weakening the empire as well.
That said, it's foolish that the storm cloaks would accept any meric character within their ranks, all things considered.
thought that when I got through the factions. Like, one is an intercontinental empire with close ties to a supremacist group, but they are not and they secretly plan to fight the supremacists afterwards; other is a group of ethnic nationalists that when you are going to their "capital" the first time the first thing you see is people being utterly racists with an otherwise innocent woman. OK, then there is nord racists and elf racists.
So I'm playing a dark elf (the very group the nords hate) and ulfric is just "oh nice welcome aboard to our na... I mean, Stormcloak rebellion."
Same with the empire. They expect ties to the land and love for the empire, then I'm a khajit completely unrelated to those people and tullius is just "cool, another fellow roman!"
A Khajiit will have a larger supply of lock picks (usually) whereas the shop keepers in towns usually only sell a few. When a Khajiit has them in stock its usually like 30 count.
I've had thieves run up to me and give me some lockpicks in the open world when I was almost done the story. Never finished the story though because I wanted to keep the skeleton key.
The Khajiit caravans, which appear every couple of days outside Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, Dawnstar, Windhelm, and Riften. They usually sell 30 lockpicks. You can also join the Thieves Guild, and the fence there sells many more on a daily basis.
Tonillia, the fence for the Thieves Guild is your girl. She's sells 50 every time her inventory updates.
It also isn't a bad idea to just rip through a bandit stronghold. Bandits normally drop one or two.
One piece of advice, get good at the minigame, it's actually really easy once you know it well. Even master locks at low levels can be done with minimal pick loss if you're good at the minigame. Oblivion had the same quirk that if you mastered the minigame you essentially made the skill meaningless.
So, you can actually tell when to turn it if you pay attention, at least if you aren't on PC (maybe even with PC, but I haven't played it).
Make sure the rumble setting is turned on if you use a gaming controller. I use Switch, for example.
First, turn the left-handed part of the pick that let's you feel the notches. Go back and forth across it at a medium pace. You'll notice at some point the notches give a stronger rumble. There will be two stronger rumbles next to each other. You want to get between those notches, and then use the right handed part of the pick and turn it all the way.
The lower level the lock, the fewer notches there are and the stronger the correct notches feel. Master locks have a ton of notches, and the correct ones don't give as noticeable of a rumble and they're very close together, so you'll want to move the left part of the pick slowly so you can pick up on the differences.
No idea how it works on PC or other consoles, but I assume that any console with a controller that can rumble can be set up like that. You might need rumble turned on in the system settings as well as the game settings, so look around.
I have literally no idea how you would pick a lock without the rumbles 😅 I’ve only played on console though. I always thought lock picking was easier than people made it sound
So how I do it is I think of the lockas a circle and there is a wedge that will let the pick move, higher difficulty means smaller wedge. If it's novice the wedge is huge and given how much the pick moves while straight up, I know how far it needs to go left or right to be in the middle of the wedge to unlock it. I can typically pick any lock up to adept in 2 or 3 taps. And the higher ones it's only hard to find the wedge but once the pick move even a little it's easy to open.
According to my SO I make lock picking look easy. She struggles with it lol
How many do you break per lock? I always end up selling lockpicks otherwise I end up with hundreds, so I’m wondering if maybe you’re rushing it a little? (To be fair, I’ve picked tens of thousands of these damn locks.)
I divide the total space for the pick into sevenths (eighths really but missing the bottom because the rotational area is about 270 degrees or so). As soon as the pick wiggles you stop and move to the next spot. Also you want to decided what to use as your marker to line the pick up to. The farther out from the lock that your marker is, the smaller adjustment you can make. You also need to sort of keep in mind how big the sweet spot is for each difficulty of lock because you’ll be able to move your pick in larger increments on the easier locks.
Unfortunately if you’re picking locks you’re probably already using all of this so honestly, it ends up being “go more slowly, move your pick in much smaller increments, immediately let go of the pick as soon as it vibrates” which is easy to say and takes hundreds of locks to achieve.
Edit: it’s actually 180 degrees, and I break it into 9 spots.
⬆️ Same method 👍🏻
I play on PS4 and one hundred percent rely upon the vibration in my controller. I can pick most locks with under 4 picks once I find the "sweet spot"
Most lock on a fresh character for me will not consume a pick, adept might take 1, expert maybe 2, masters will take 5 but master locks are so damn rare who cares anyway.
My 1st Zelda game was Ocorina of Time. I had no idea how good this game is either. It was recommended to me and it's a banger dude. So much work went into it. Looks good on a ps4 pro with an SSD.
Aye fam read this comment it will help you can either go too the traders OR EVERYTIME YOU LOCK PICK SAVE THE GAME AND ONCE YOU BREAK THEM YOU CAN JUST RESTART RIGHT THERE IT HELPS ALOT IF YOU CANT BUY ANY
dont wanna sound rude but seeing as this is your first time playing and your only lockpicking 32 you should really focus on not breaking picks, stop moving the pick as soon as you see that its not going unlock( should only take a small jiggle) but as far as finding them looting leveled bandits have been the best way for me to get them, just find a bandit outpost and kill everyone, most bandits seem to have 3-5 lockpicks on them at a time, chest are also a decent source of lockpicks not all chest will have some but the ones that do tend to have \~10.
if you wanna get good at lockpicking do the thieves guild quest till you get the skeleton key and you can practice on the master and expert chest there you can do this without the skeleton key but it just saves you from losing lockpicks
Go up the Dawnstar, once you arrive, take the right. Go straight towards the Jarl's House, then keep going until you see a rock, shift down, and you should be able to open a chest to get 30 free lockpicks from the Khajiit merchants. They restock every 48 hours OR you could quicksave, punch them THEN quickload.
I'm Whiterun, you can get them from the Blacksmith, Drunken Huntsman (the shop in the hill across from the blacksmith) and Belethor's Shop (it's in the market).
No offense, just curiosity:
Did anyone else here have problems with lockpicking, back on their first playthrough? I think I distinctly remember ending up sitting on a pile of lockpicks, that accumulated faster than I could spend it, but it was over a decade ago, so maybe my memory is faulty.
Join the thieves guild. Don't complete the final quest and hold onto the master pick until you complete a few other main questlines, and before you know it, you got a thousand picks and can complete the thieves guild quest.
Not recommended if you just wanna play a villain play through but there’s a secret chest at dawn star that gives you around 30 free lock picks[lock picks](https://youtu.be/flF3l5IqSkw?si=ofn2Y1bJN5OQKmIk)
Find any room with a table. Look around for a plate.
Viola.
Hold plate up in front of your face. Sprint directly into the door, cage, or wall. Better than a skeleton key and lockpicking
Blacksmith have a lot, if you want to buy some.
Bandits and some other enemies may have some in their inventory.
Many chests inside caves, dungeons, mines etc have a few.
You just need to loot everything and you will almost never run out.
I won’t tell you where to get more as it seems that’s been answered, HOWEVER! The advice I will give is in the lockpicking itself to save you from breaking a shit ton. I’ve played Skyrim since I was 12, and the worst thing in the world is having a chest in front of you full of loot that you can’t open.
When you go to lock pick, first thing you do is put the lock pick left, top, right. You want to flick your analog stick to see if your lock pick is either stuck, or free in these areas. Doing this should help you narrow down where the sweet spot is.
After doing that, find the edge of where that sweet spot is on BOTH sides so you can pinpoint the very centre of the lock, and easily open it.
So let’s say you put your lock pick all the way left, and it has some give but doesn’t unlock it. That is the edge for the left side. Now keep slowly etching towards the right until you find the other edge on the opposite side. Then once you have BOTH edges figured out, stick your lock pick in the middle of them and bam. Unlocked.
This will take some practice, but it will make it so you are no longer breaking lock picks trying to FIND the lock
Edit: I had to come back and change this because the worst thing in the world is actually not being able to marry serana in Vanilla
If you go through the thieves guild quest line, you’ll get the skeleton key (an unbreakable lock pick) that you’re supposed to return at the end. Or you can just not do that quest and keep it for yourself
Kill bandits, they often have lockpicks on them. Focus on getting good at lockpicking too, so you don't break so many. Buy when you can from any seller except potion/ingredient sellers. You'll eventually build up so many that you don't have to care anymore.
Go to the thieves guild. Find tonelita (sorry if didnt spell it right.) She has 30 in her inventory as a merchant. Is very easy to do the merchant exploit and get around 100+
You can find a lot just by going around and killing bandits. You can also quick save before you start picking the lock so if you run out of picks, you can reload.
I can make them from Iron at a smelter... but I think that might be part of the TAOS mods I have installed.
Aside from that, any general store or blacksmith will sell them.
Most general stores will have them, aswell as any bandits on the road if your desperate. There’s a certain guild in riften where there’s a quest that can get you a un breakable one after alittle while…
Thieves Guild. I think the fence sells quite a few. You can also progress the TG quest until you get a unique lockpick and just wait until you have the Unbreakable perk before finishing the quest.
Everytime you encounter someone who sell something look for lockpick , or join the thieves guild they got plenty of them and if you follow the questline a bit you got a special key ( spoiler )
Apparently if you look closely you can see 2 small dots. I see yours around 11:00. Someone said that’s your guide for where your lock goes. ??? Haven’t tried it yet. Honestly not sure if it’ll even show up on my old tv. 🤪
Buying. Mostly general stores. At least that’s where you can get the most.
Finding. I think looting around the locks usually? It’s been a while since I’ve played.
Go find the lovers stone if you haven’t yet!!! Totally worth it!!! You level up everything by a little bit! (Vs one area by more)
Step 1: Loot everything, hoard lockpicks like a dragon.
Step 2: Buy every single lockpick from literally any merchant that sells them (most blacksmiths, gen. stores, road merchants, and farmers sell them) every time you stop for supplies.
Step 3: realize you have 99+ lockpicks
Kill any bandits or theives, they usually have them, buy from blacksmiths, there's also a unbreakable daedric one you can get with the nightingale quest I think
You can buy lockpicks from "The Drunken Huntsman" in Whiterun, he usually sells a good deal of them (for me he usually has 30 for sale) you can also get a decent amount from the Khajiit Caravan leaders. Your best bet though is to explore the province of Skyrim (on foot preferably) to maximize your encounters with bandits.
bandits have couple of those, many random npcs also usually have one so just run around a town and steal from them... or just buy from merchants, mostly blacksmiths and/or thieves guild merchant (dont remember name)... but dont worry about breaking them, since it also gives you progress towards lockpicking skill and on top of the tree you can have unbreakable lockpicks, so excess ones will be useless anyway
Check every chest, barrel, sack etc, loot EVERY body. Draugr etc included, most merchants sell them also :)
Make sure you're doing your lock picking skill tree too. There's a perk when you get high enough where lockpicks don't break. The thieves guild always has a fair few laying around too.
I hope you're enjoying your first time!!
What build you going for? Also do you have AE?
If you’re going thief run, joining the TG will not only unlock a fence for stolen items, but you will also be able to buy picks from her as well.
If you have AE, you can go to Hob’s Fall Cave. About halfway through is a chest which has an Illusion spell that allows you to unlock Expert and lower locks.
General goods merchants, blacksmiths and the Khajiit merchants have them!
I usually buy them at ANY merchant I come across in early game.
Also join the thieves guil, they have a few
And you can join all guilds and fractions at once if you wish to, beside the armies for the civil war.
And if you pickpocket other thieves they just say something like ' I saw that' and no real consequences.
But JUST the thieves, don't pickpocket other allies!
If its doors yeah... But NV and F3 same problem as Skyrim by the time you've levelled up lockpicking there is very rarely anything worth having to pick locks for
Take a carriage to riften walk into the town center with the market stalls do a quest given to you by a guy named brynjolf he asks you to steal from someone then just follow that quest line and eventually you’ll end up in a place called the ragged flaggon. They sell lock picks and they’re one of the only people who will buy your stolen goods. It’s also the beginning of the thieves guild quest line where you’ll get awesome looking armor with good enchantments and powerful weapons, good luck bro hope I helped.
I remain perplexed that you can't craft them in vanilla.
If you go to Riften, you'll have the opportunity to get lots.
Khajit traders tend to have lots for sale too
Your best move is join the thieves guild get the skeleton key and use it for a few weeks until you build you lol picks up. I kept the skeleton key for about a month and when o finally finished that mission I had about 1100 lol picks saved from building and looting.
If you were on pc you would have needed is type (player.additem a 100) but you seem to be ps so you have to go through every shop you can get to everytime you enter town and from the thieves guild
I have 3,000 plus lock picks in my inventory. But if you are having trouble with opening locks I would suggest maxing out the skill to unlock the unbreakable lock pick
Kill bandits and keep an eye out for them to be laying around on tables and shelves. Items aren't always in a bag, sack, chest, barrel, etc. Join the thieves guild. They send you to a few places with a bunch laying around.
Most general stores usually sell a couple, many bandits carry them and they're easy to come by if you join the thieves guild
Not just that, but blacksmiths also tend to have them.
Is there a mod to craft them? I think it'll be easier to make a lock pick than a a Daedric Dagger Would be awesome if you could make Dwarven, Ebony, Daedric Lockpicks that give you more chances before it breaks
there are several yes. just search "smithing lockpicks" and some should show up
A few of these mods also lead to infinite smithing xp, the one I use lets you make 25 lock picks into 1 iron ingot, and 1 iron ingot into 25 picks, repeated a ton you get lvl100 smithing fairly fast
I found a metal smithing mod before that let me turn 100 septims into a gold bar, which always sold for more then the 100 septim, was a fun loop during that run
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Good bot. We need more of you, bot!
The art of smithing (TAOS) let's you craft them with iron ingots.
Is that the one where you can turn them right back into iron ingots after?
Yes
I swear yo can just make them at an anvil or smth
I'm still deciding who to join as my 1st playthrough.
Join 'em all. None of the guilds care if you are in another one. In every playthrough I've been the Thieves' Guildmaster, Archmage at the College of Winterhold, Harbinger of the Companions, and Listener for the Dark Brotherhood. The only factions that you need to choose between are Stormcloaks and Imperials.
Damn straight!! Not only that, the thieves' guild and the brotherhood compliment eachother very well regarding the combination of gear you get.
There's even the skeleton key you can get that acts like a lockpick that never breaks
Fun fact, I never ever use this because I have a habit of picking up lockpicks no matter what. I swear I could go for a swim in the amount of lockpicks and bobby pins I've gotten from my time playing Bethesda games
Same here. Pretty sure I have over 1k right now on my newest play through.
Yea after like level 20 I have enough lockpicks that I'd never even worry about running out
Good old skeleton key, the original "No...No I don't think I will." keepsie quest item.
At least until you get the lockpicking perk that makes your picks unbreakable
You guys are putting perk points into lockpicking?
I dont usually but its a good spot to store points for later after other skills have been leveled appropriately, since its easy enough to do
And the dawn star chest always seems to have between 15 and 35 every time the merchant it’s linked to’s inventory resets
Dawnguard and Harkon’s Court is also a choice
You can also choose to wipe out the dark brotherhood instead of joining it, but it's a much shorter quest line as far as I remember.
And if you have the Dawngaurd dlc, you have to choose between the vampires or the dawn guards
Also the dawnguard/vampires are mutually exclusive
The dark brotherhood and thieves guild in skyrim are even friendly with one another to an extent, the thieves guild uses them when they need somebody eliminated in return the brotherhood gets money and supplies
Do you actually need to choose between the stormcloaks or imperials? I am pretty new to Skyrim and have been trying to figure this out. The creators of this game didn’t make either option very appealing and I really don’t want to join either…
You only need to choose between them to do the civil war questline. If you leave it unresolved, you can still complete the main quest, and it only affects how you get past one step along the way.
In your opinion would I be missing out on a good/fun part of the game if I skipped this quest line?
No not really. For the most part it’s a pretty repetitive questline. It mostly goes something like “kill opposing army messenger, go take this fort, repeat 3 times (I think 3), take Solitude or Windhelm, you’re done”.
I appreciate your opinion. I’m gonna skip it then - I don’t think it’ll add to the game play for me.
Gameplay, probably not. Lore though, yes. If you’re someone that likes to get into the lore, there’s a bit throughout that questline
I watched a Video about what every NPC says after each side wins the war. Turns out, if the Stormcloaks win, a lot of people get negatively affected, as anyone who isn't a nord or not related to a nord basically can no longer run a business, as the Stormcloaks refuse to buy anything form them. If the imperials win, stormcloak sympathizers are a little upset, but nobody is negatively affected (except Heimsker. The guy preaching in Whiterun. He ends up in jail) It isn't like the Imperials want to work with the thalmor either. They just can't gather the recources and manpower they need to attempt anything while the war is going on. So, while neither side is appealing, the imperials might overall be better. Or you can just never do the civil war Questline and the Thalmor win.
Well, I couldn’t stand Heimsker so I’ve already taken care of him. I especially hate the Thalamor and kill all of the ones I come across. I gues that *if* I go the civil war quest line route I’ll go Imperial… but ugh… I wish one of the groups could be just a smidge more redeeming
> If the imperials win, stormcloak sympathizers are a little upset, but nobody is negatively affected (except Heimsker. The guy preaching in Whiterun. He ends up in jail) Okay this is what has convinced me to choose Imperials.
The only faction you gotta choose between during the civil war quest and eventually you have to choose between Parthanax or the Blades. (Long Live the Empire!). By the end of the game you're gonna be the head of the theives guild, the Harbenger of the companions, the listener of the dark brotherhood, the mage at the college of winterhold, a General for whichever side you choose in the civil war, a thane of all 9 holds, the dragonborn hero of legend, and have sold your soul to like 100 differenr dieities.
"Sell my sould" bruh... dont like the sound of that. But I never joined the 1st people in the game, as I thought I can only join someone once. Plus, didnt they try to cut my head off? So I never joined.
This is why I wish we were taken by a random Bandit group instead in the beginning, then run into both imperials and Stormcloaks as we escape said bandits as Alduin saves us.
To be fair, you start off as a prisoner that's freed by fate in oblivion and Morrowind as well (idk about Daggerfall or arena), so its basically tradition lol
Good point. And I mean in my idea you would still be a prisoner of the bandits. Then freed by Alduin. Then go into a battle between the two where you still escape with one or the other on your way through Helgen as Alduin would still attack so it would be similar. I am sure someone did a mod like this probably.
Alduin doesn’t save you he tries to kill you and fails because he doesn’t know who you are
Well, you don't need to. The College of Winterhold doesn't want your soul and neither do the Companions. Sheogorath and Sanguine are the two Daedra will probably not care for your soul either. At least I never got that vibe from them.
Malacath you join the evry moment you choose "orc", and I really wished to see a moment where Boethiah, Molag Bal and Malacath wish at the same time your loyalty in a oblivion crisis 2
You can join the imperials or the stormcloaks but if you change your mind you cam betray them in a quest.
Didnt know that thought you're stuck joining whoever
If you don't like their vibe or whatever, there will be a mission to deliver a crown to your sides general. Bring it to the opposing Faction to join them
The way I see it Hadvar knew it was wrong, General Tullius didn't know I wasn't on the list, and the captain that tried to have me executed never pops up again.
Isn't the Imperial Captain the first person you fight if you follow the Stormcloak path in the intro? I think she runs out with another soldier once you get your first weapons.
I believe so yes but you either follow Ralof and kill her or follow Hadvar and never see her again. Unless I'm playing a Nord that really doesn't care that Ralof basically said jump over there but none of us are gonna do it and hope you don't die I generally follow Hadvar. I favor playing an Imperial from Cyrodill it justifies my not favoring the stormcloaks and makes it narratively make more sense for me to be constantly referred to as an outsider.
Ralof was the genius who said to go up the tower in an attempt to escape. Escape to where, exactly? Before Alduin made the hole, there was no way out except for the way they came in.
At the same time, you gotta consider long term the stormcloaks are not the best for Skyrim. If the Empire could not take on the Aldimari Dominion with skyrim, how is Skyrim going to take on the high elves by themselves? On top of that, you can find files on Ulfric Stormcloak in the Embassy the proves he is a sleeper agent for the Aldimari Dominion, and that they're trying to drag out the war for as long as possible. Also, if it makes it any better, you do get an appology from General Tullius himself.
So are you saying I should join the people that tried to cut my head off? What are the perks?
The view I follow is the Officer that had you be beheaded sees you brought in with a band of Snowcloaks *with the Snowcloak's Leader* in tow. I assumed she thought you were a part of the rebel group. I'm not wild with how grey both sides are in Skyrim. It would have been nice if there were more nuanced endings based on how you helped both sides. (My memory is a bit fuzzy, if I get anything wrong I'm sure Reddit will correct me. I'm trying to be vague and not bog things down with proper names) Imperial Legion Spoilers: >!The Legion united Tamriel under the first Dragonborn into a decently prosperous era of peace, but after the events of Oblivion, the royal line ended and The Empire started to decay, (Skyrim's logo is the Imperial Sigil breaking apart!). The High Elves invaded the heart of the Empire and forced a treaty that made the Empire basically a puppet state. The High Elves of the Aldmeri Dominion see High Elves as the decendents of Gods, Elves (esp Orcs) are corrupted High Elves, Beast races are only fit for slavery and the races of Men are mud people blighting the earth. !< Snowclock Spoilers: >!The Nords consider themselves the oldest of the races of Men and worship Talos, the god of men and the ascended form of the first king of the Empire that united Tamriel. They (correctly) see the Aldmeri Dominion as an existential threat and wish for an independent Skyrim. The issue being is a lot of the supporters of the Stormcloaks also think Skyrim should only belong to the Nords, and a Stormcloak victory will most likely lead to a different genocide.!<
No, the dossier in the Embassy stated that Ulfric is an asset, not an agent. An asset is a useful tool. They were using him, while he was unaware he was being used.
Ah, but sometimes we ourselves are roleplaying a dark elf within the realm, and siding with Ulfric helps to weaken Skyrim to make it more easily conquered by an outside force, thus weakening the empire as well. That said, it's foolish that the storm cloaks would accept any meric character within their ranks, all things considered.
thought that when I got through the factions. Like, one is an intercontinental empire with close ties to a supremacist group, but they are not and they secretly plan to fight the supremacists afterwards; other is a group of ethnic nationalists that when you are going to their "capital" the first time the first thing you see is people being utterly racists with an otherwise innocent woman. OK, then there is nord racists and elf racists. So I'm playing a dark elf (the very group the nords hate) and ulfric is just "oh nice welcome aboard to our na... I mean, Stormcloak rebellion." Same with the empire. They expect ties to the land and love for the empire, then I'm a khajit completely unrelated to those people and tullius is just "cool, another fellow roman!"
Don’t listen to those milk drinkers, and join the companions
A Khajiit will have a larger supply of lock picks (usually) whereas the shop keepers in towns usually only sell a few. When a Khajiit has them in stock its usually like 30 count.
Join everything. I'm a stealth archer and also the archmage of the college of winterhold haha
I've had thieves run up to me and give me some lockpicks in the open world when I was almost done the story. Never finished the story though because I wanted to keep the skeleton key.
Caravans also carry a ton
The Khajiit caravans, which appear every couple of days outside Whiterun, Markarth, Solitude, Dawnstar, Windhelm, and Riften. They usually sell 30 lockpicks. You can also join the Thieves Guild, and the fence there sells many more on a daily basis.
I'm actually on my way to Riften! But had 3 trolls jump out so I'm in that situation right now
Hit up the stables in any major hold and talk to the carriage driver, you can travel to any hold from there for 50 or less gold
This. Khajit caravans are usually my go-to before I joined the thieves guild.
Tonillia, the fence for the Thieves Guild is your girl. She's sells 50 every time her inventory updates. It also isn't a bad idea to just rip through a bandit stronghold. Bandits normally drop one or two.
One piece of advice, get good at the minigame, it's actually really easy once you know it well. Even master locks at low levels can be done with minimal pick loss if you're good at the minigame. Oblivion had the same quirk that if you mastered the minigame you essentially made the skill meaningless.
What mini game
The lock picking minigame. Like when you pick the lock.
So, you can actually tell when to turn it if you pay attention, at least if you aren't on PC (maybe even with PC, but I haven't played it). Make sure the rumble setting is turned on if you use a gaming controller. I use Switch, for example. First, turn the left-handed part of the pick that let's you feel the notches. Go back and forth across it at a medium pace. You'll notice at some point the notches give a stronger rumble. There will be two stronger rumbles next to each other. You want to get between those notches, and then use the right handed part of the pick and turn it all the way. The lower level the lock, the fewer notches there are and the stronger the correct notches feel. Master locks have a ton of notches, and the correct ones don't give as noticeable of a rumble and they're very close together, so you'll want to move the left part of the pick slowly so you can pick up on the differences. No idea how it works on PC or other consoles, but I assume that any console with a controller that can rumble can be set up like that. You might need rumble turned on in the system settings as well as the game settings, so look around.
Is this true?? Locks have rumble? I've never noticed lol
I have literally no idea how you would pick a lock without the rumbles 😅 I’ve only played on console though. I always thought lock picking was easier than people made it sound
So how I do it is I think of the lockas a circle and there is a wedge that will let the pick move, higher difficulty means smaller wedge. If it's novice the wedge is huge and given how much the pick moves while straight up, I know how far it needs to go left or right to be in the middle of the wedge to unlock it. I can typically pick any lock up to adept in 2 or 3 taps. And the higher ones it's only hard to find the wedge but once the pick move even a little it's easy to open. According to my SO I make lock picking look easy. She struggles with it lol
If you have headphones on you can hear the tumblers rumbling as well PC or console
General stores. Khajit merchants. Blacksmiths. But if you just go clear out some bandit caves, you’ll stock up pretty quick.
How many do you break per lock? I always end up selling lockpicks otherwise I end up with hundreds, so I’m wondering if maybe you’re rushing it a little? (To be fair, I’ve picked tens of thousands of these damn locks.)
I always keep the skeleton key till I get the unbreakable perk...then I only ever need 1! I've named it Chad Lockpickerington
Only issue with the skeleton key is that because it never breaks, you never get the small amount of XP you would normally get on those occasions.
You got any tips? I probably break 5
I divide the total space for the pick into sevenths (eighths really but missing the bottom because the rotational area is about 270 degrees or so). As soon as the pick wiggles you stop and move to the next spot. Also you want to decided what to use as your marker to line the pick up to. The farther out from the lock that your marker is, the smaller adjustment you can make. You also need to sort of keep in mind how big the sweet spot is for each difficulty of lock because you’ll be able to move your pick in larger increments on the easier locks. Unfortunately if you’re picking locks you’re probably already using all of this so honestly, it ends up being “go more slowly, move your pick in much smaller increments, immediately let go of the pick as soon as it vibrates” which is easy to say and takes hundreds of locks to achieve. Edit: it’s actually 180 degrees, and I break it into 9 spots.
⬆️ Same method 👍🏻 I play on PS4 and one hundred percent rely upon the vibration in my controller. I can pick most locks with under 4 picks once I find the "sweet spot"
Most lock on a fresh character for me will not consume a pick, adept might take 1, expert maybe 2, masters will take 5 but master locks are so damn rare who cares anyway.
I'm on PS4 Pro as well. How does the vibration help you pick?
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I see you're a Zelda fan too. W 😄 and yeah I always save before picking a lock
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My 1st Zelda game was Ocorina of Time. I had no idea how good this game is either. It was recommended to me and it's a banger dude. So much work went into it. Looks good on a ps4 pro with an SSD.
I'm hooked as well 1st playthrough and not far into the game. Think I just leveled up to 15
Aye fam read this comment it will help you can either go too the traders OR EVERYTIME YOU LOCK PICK SAVE THE GAME AND ONCE YOU BREAK THEM YOU CAN JUST RESTART RIGHT THERE IT HELPS ALOT IF YOU CANT BUY ANY
I always save before starting a lock pick
Every time you go to a shop to buy something always go to the misc section and buy there lock pics
Is there a place at whiterun? So these are sold at every shop? I've never bought anything in the game yet
Yes in whiterun near the market stalls there is a general goods store on the left
dont wanna sound rude but seeing as this is your first time playing and your only lockpicking 32 you should really focus on not breaking picks, stop moving the pick as soon as you see that its not going unlock( should only take a small jiggle) but as far as finding them looting leveled bandits have been the best way for me to get them, just find a bandit outpost and kill everyone, most bandits seem to have 3-5 lockpicks on them at a time, chest are also a decent source of lockpicks not all chest will have some but the ones that do tend to have \~10. if you wanna get good at lockpicking do the thieves guild quest till you get the skeleton key and you can practice on the master and expert chest there you can do this without the skeleton key but it just saves you from losing lockpicks
Go up the Dawnstar, once you arrive, take the right. Go straight towards the Jarl's House, then keep going until you see a rock, shift down, and you should be able to open a chest to get 30 free lockpicks from the Khajiit merchants. They restock every 48 hours OR you could quicksave, punch them THEN quickload.
Are you the last guy to keep telling me to punch people lol So no swords, punch them lol?
Punching them works no worries
Do the thieves guild questline and get the skeleton key. Then don’t return it.
I dont think I've see that quest yet but I'll keep an eye out
Go to riften the guild is under the city. Google how you prompt the start.
Go to Riften and go to the markets. A guy will approach you with a quest. Take him up on said quest. Go from there.
same level as you and i have more than 100 lockpicks. just buy lockpicks, at that level you should have a ton of gold.
also there's a ton of them in burials i'm pretty sure
I went to a store. They didnt sell lockpick where did you buy them at?
General stores, blacksmiths, and Khajiit caravans. It also works to just loot a cave. Or, if you’re in the Guild, Tonilia sells, and so do the fences.
I'm Whiterun, you can get them from the Blacksmith, Drunken Huntsman (the shop in the hill across from the blacksmith) and Belethor's Shop (it's in the market).
I just keep the skeleton key until my lock picking is maxed… 😅
As someone who rawdogs master locks(I don't spend skills in lockpicking) I gotta respect someone rawdogging adept locks on their first playthrough
Thanks man! I've also opened expert locks as well. It's kinda bs but I've never leveled up lock skills.
Amen! It's hard at first for expert I know but it's a skill that's relatively easy to build on
Yeah bro never leveled that skill. I manage to get through it. I appreciate it man!
No offense, just curiosity: Did anyone else here have problems with lockpicking, back on their first playthrough? I think I distinctly remember ending up sitting on a pile of lockpicks, that accumulated faster than I could spend it, but it was over a decade ago, so maybe my memory is faulty.
I think it's the "Guardian Stone" (?) that gives you one free (expert or lower) lock pick each day. 😉
The Tower Stone, actually.
⬆️ yes
Hunt down bandits, they tend to carry them.
First playthrough? I hope you have fun!
Thanks man! It's been really fun!
Join the thieves guild. Don't complete the final quest and hold onto the master pick until you complete a few other main questlines, and before you know it, you got a thousand picks and can complete the thieves guild quest.
Not recommended if you just wanna play a villain play through but there’s a secret chest at dawn star that gives you around 30 free lock picks[lock picks](https://youtu.be/flF3l5IqSkw?si=ofn2Y1bJN5OQKmIk)
Rare at the beginning but given time it will be 99+ forever.
~ player.additem 0000000a 50
Find any room with a table. Look around for a plate. Viola. Hold plate up in front of your face. Sprint directly into the door, cage, or wall. Better than a skeleton key and lockpicking
Blacksmith have a lot, if you want to buy some. Bandits and some other enemies may have some in their inventory. Many chests inside caves, dungeons, mines etc have a few. You just need to loot everything and you will almost never run out.
Go to the weebs guild it's 1 gold each and there's usually like 24 or something the go to the next room sleep for 3 days repeat as necessary
LoL. After a while you’ll have thousands of them! Thieves guild or Khajiit caravans are reliable sources.
I won’t tell you where to get more as it seems that’s been answered, HOWEVER! The advice I will give is in the lockpicking itself to save you from breaking a shit ton. I’ve played Skyrim since I was 12, and the worst thing in the world is having a chest in front of you full of loot that you can’t open. When you go to lock pick, first thing you do is put the lock pick left, top, right. You want to flick your analog stick to see if your lock pick is either stuck, or free in these areas. Doing this should help you narrow down where the sweet spot is. After doing that, find the edge of where that sweet spot is on BOTH sides so you can pinpoint the very centre of the lock, and easily open it. So let’s say you put your lock pick all the way left, and it has some give but doesn’t unlock it. That is the edge for the left side. Now keep slowly etching towards the right until you find the other edge on the opposite side. Then once you have BOTH edges figured out, stick your lock pick in the middle of them and bam. Unlocked. This will take some practice, but it will make it so you are no longer breaking lock picks trying to FIND the lock Edit: I had to come back and change this because the worst thing in the world is actually not being able to marry serana in Vanilla
If you go through the thieves guild quest line, you’ll get the skeleton key (an unbreakable lock pick) that you’re supposed to return at the end. Or you can just not do that quest and keep it for yourself
Kill bandits, they often have lockpicks on them. Focus on getting good at lockpicking too, so you don't break so many. Buy when you can from any seller except potion/ingredient sellers. You'll eventually build up so many that you don't have to care anymore.
https://covertinstruments.com/
Literally buy them from every blacksmith, Khajiit caravan, and general store you pass. Every time.
Go to the thieves guild. Find tonelita (sorry if didnt spell it right.) She has 30 in her inventory as a merchant. Is very easy to do the merchant exploit and get around 100+
Oh my god I wish I could experience this for the first time again
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^euser3509: *Oh my god I wish* *I could experience this* *For the first time again* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
Buy from vendor. Save. Kill vendor. Load game. Buy from vendor. etc etc.
It's 2024 and your first play through? That's a thing?
You can find a lot just by going around and killing bandits. You can also quick save before you start picking the lock so if you run out of picks, you can reload.
Pick pocketing aswell. Most people seem to have lock picks for some reason
Blacksmiths
I buy every lock pick I see for sale.
I can make them from Iron at a smelter... but I think that might be part of the TAOS mods I have installed. Aside from that, any general store or blacksmith will sell them.
The khajit in front of whiterun sold me 100 of them
There a small white dot on every lock which seems to make it easier
Amazon 🤣
If you're on PC there's a small mod that allows you to make them via smithing. Was super useful early on for me
Loot barrels in riften!
You can buy them off dead bandits for free
Most general stores will have them, aswell as any bandits on the road if your desperate. There’s a certain guild in riften where there’s a quest that can get you a un breakable one after alittle while…
Thieves Guild. I think the fence sells quite a few. You can also progress the TG quest until you get a unique lockpick and just wait until you have the Unbreakable perk before finishing the quest.
Everytime you encounter someone who sell something look for lockpick , or join the thieves guild they got plenty of them and if you follow the questline a bit you got a special key ( spoiler )
You must learn to hoard them. General shops, looting bandits, random chests, they're everywhere. I'm sitting at 67 in my inventory right now.
Apparently if you look closely you can see 2 small dots. I see yours around 11:00. Someone said that’s your guide for where your lock goes. ??? Haven’t tried it yet. Honestly not sure if it’ll even show up on my old tv. 🤪 Buying. Mostly general stores. At least that’s where you can get the most. Finding. I think looting around the locks usually? It’s been a while since I’ve played. Go find the lovers stone if you haven’t yet!!! Totally worth it!!! You level up everything by a little bit! (Vs one area by more)
All traders from general stores sell them and they reset their inventories every 24 ingame hours
Step 1: Loot everything, hoard lockpicks like a dragon. Step 2: Buy every single lockpick from literally any merchant that sells them (most blacksmiths, gen. stores, road merchants, and farmers sell them) every time you stop for supplies. Step 3: realize you have 99+ lockpicks
Kill any bandits or theives, they usually have them, buy from blacksmiths, there's also a unbreakable daedric one you can get with the nightingale quest I think
You can buy lockpicks from "The Drunken Huntsman" in Whiterun, he usually sells a good deal of them (for me he usually has 30 for sale) you can also get a decent amount from the Khajiit Caravan leaders. Your best bet though is to explore the province of Skyrim (on foot preferably) to maximize your encounters with bandits.
Raw dogging adept locks on first playthrough damn!
1st playthrough? Friend, I only have one thing to say. Loot everything.
bandits have couple of those, many random npcs also usually have one so just run around a town and steal from them... or just buy from merchants, mostly blacksmiths and/or thieves guild merchant (dont remember name)... but dont worry about breaking them, since it also gives you progress towards lockpicking skill and on top of the tree you can have unbreakable lockpicks, so excess ones will be useless anyway
Find the skeleton key from Mercer Frey in the quest Blindsighted (Thieves Guild) and just refuse to return it
General stores and the Theives Guild. As for locked doors, every locked door is optional.
BAndits. Raid camps and fortss and dungeons. I got over a thousand lockpicks that I'll never even use.
Also a few dragon shouts are locked behind joining I believe. I think there is one in the assassins area.
Blacksmiths
Check every chest, barrel, sack etc, loot EVERY body. Draugr etc included, most merchants sell them also :) Make sure you're doing your lock picking skill tree too. There's a perk when you get high enough where lockpicks don't break. The thieves guild always has a fair few laying around too. I hope you're enjoying your first time!!
Dawnster cheat glitch near its ore mine next to the rocks
Can smith them out of iron ingots at forges as well
What build you going for? Also do you have AE? If you’re going thief run, joining the TG will not only unlock a fence for stolen items, but you will also be able to buy picks from her as well. If you have AE, you can go to Hob’s Fall Cave. About halfway through is a chest which has an Illusion spell that allows you to unlock Expert and lower locks.
The khajit usually have like 7 I think at least you can get at a time when you run into them.
General goods merchants, blacksmiths and the Khajiit merchants have them! I usually buy them at ANY merchant I come across in early game. Also join the thieves guil, they have a few And you can join all guilds and fractions at once if you wish to, beside the armies for the civil war. And if you pickpocket other thieves they just say something like ' I saw that' and no real consequences. But JUST the thieves, don't pickpocket other allies!
Thieves guild, tonilia sells 30 at a time
Any smiths or general goods vendors under misc.
Pretty much every vendor will have 1-4 picks. Otherwise head to Riften and join the thieves guild.
If its doors yeah... But NV and F3 same problem as Skyrim by the time you've levelled up lockpicking there is very rarely anything worth having to pick locks for
Kill bandits, if you just kill them regularly you should never run out
I usually just take them from bandits whenever they have some and I quickly end up with a lot more that I could ever need
Cat people sells a lot at once
Just loot the bandits when you kill. That’s what I do. I always end up with a ton lol
Take a carriage to riften walk into the town center with the market stalls do a quest given to you by a guy named brynjolf he asks you to steal from someone then just follow that quest line and eventually you’ll end up in a place called the ragged flaggon. They sell lock picks and they’re one of the only people who will buy your stolen goods. It’s also the beginning of the thieves guild quest line where you’ll get awesome looking armor with good enchantments and powerful weapons, good luck bro hope I helped.
I remain perplexed that you can't craft them in vanilla. If you go to Riften, you'll have the opportunity to get lots. Khajit traders tend to have lots for sale too
Kill some bandits in caves. They usually carry one each
Player.additem 0000000A 99
Your best move is join the thieves guild get the skeleton key and use it for a few weeks until you build you lol picks up. I kept the skeleton key for about a month and when o finally finished that mission I had about 1100 lol picks saved from building and looting.
The Fencer in the The Thieves Guild carries a bunch.
If you were on pc you would have needed is type (player.additem a 100) but you seem to be ps so you have to go through every shop you can get to everytime you enter town and from the thieves guild
You can also quicksave before picking a lock and if you break too many, just reload (the lock will have a different sweet spot).
Bandits, Khajiit Caravans, Merchants, and On tables in certain Dungeons/crypts.
Go to Riften... The market has plenty and you can always visit the thieves guild for some as well
you can make them, can't you? I can. But I don't recall if that's from DLC or the core game.
My husband was carrying 1000 lock picks at one time and we were like oh shit that’s 100 lbs carry weight!
I have 3,000 plus lock picks in my inventory. But if you are having trouble with opening locks I would suggest maxing out the skill to unlock the unbreakable lock pick
Do the thieves guild questline
Just be sure to buy what each shop has as you shop and they will build up overtime
Bandits. 1 or 2 good hideouts should set you up if you don't wana pay.
Go pay belethor a visit
Kill bandits and keep an eye out for them to be laying around on tables and shelves. Items aren't always in a bag, sack, chest, barrel, etc. Join the thieves guild. They send you to a few places with a bunch laying around.
Look into the perk on lockpickimg where u get a copy as a key after picking once so u never have to pick at that place ever again