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One of the most well-known and memed upon aspects of Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls franchise is how players can pick up any object in the world and hoard it within their back pockets. Some players take this a step further by attempting to break into every house and chest within the world to steal whatever is inside. Picking locks in Oblivion though requires the player to participate in a small lockpicking minigame which can be very confusing the first time you see it. If you are having trouble opening chests in this game, here is a simple guide on how to pick locks in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.
How to Pick Locks in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
Lockpicking in Oblivion can sound a lot more complicated than it actually is, even the game’s tutorial can make this simple minigame mechanic seem more complex than it truly is. In order to pick a lock, one simply needs to hit the confirm button on their controller (The X button on PlayStation) when the spring of the tumbler reaches the top of the lock.
What this means is that when you press up in your lockpick to push the tumbler up, do not press the button too soon or too late. If you attempt to pick the lock while the tumbler is rising or falling, your pick will snap and you’ll have to use another one.
Patience is the name of the game here, just relax and try to focus on the springs so you don’t get frustrated and break your lockpicks from spamming the button. Sometimes it’s better to just let the tumbler fall then to risk breaking your lockpick when it moves fast.
Those of you who do not want to deal with this lockpicking minigame can of course opt to use the game’s auto-attempt mechanic. When this button is pressed the game will compare the difficulty of the lock to the level of your security skill. Then it will roll an invisible dice to see if you can unlock the chest.
Auto attempting can often have a high failure rate in order to balance it against doing it manually, but if you are a player who struggles a lot with lockpicking it may be your best choice. Just make sure to have plenty of lockpicks on you if you try.
If you are out of lockpicks, you can buy more of them from your current fence as a member of the Thieves Guild. You’ll also be able to buy them from a man named Shady Sam who can be found north of the Chestnut Handy Stables by the Imperial City.
