Oblivion Remastered: Complete Lockpicking Guide | Elder Scrolls IV

It can be tough to properly complete the lockpicking minigame in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered.

As you explore Cyrodiil, you’ll often end up against a locked gate or container. With some dexterity, you can pick their locks and open them up. This lets you get to places you couldn’t before or find some extra loot. Basically, learning to lockpick gives you more freedom and rewards!

Read on and we’ll tell you everything you need to master the art of picking locks in Oblivion Remastered.

Complete Lockpicking Guide | The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

The first thing you’ll need for lockpicking is going to be the Lockpicks themselves. These Miscellaneous items are most commonly obtained by looting Goblins and Bandits, which are plentiful all over Cyrodiil. There’s also a decent chance of them appearing as random loot in any container.

Alternatively, you can buy them from Shady Sam on the outskirts of the Imperial City. They’re also sold by the Thieves Guild’s Fences and the Dark Brotherhood’s Merchants.

With Lockpicks in your possession, you just need to approach any locked gate or container and interact with it. This will automatically initiate the Lockpicking minigame. You can see a lock’s difficulty rating when looking at it. Also, we recommend making a save before lockpicking in case you run out of lockpicks!

Lockpicking Minigame Rundown and Tricks

Now, how this works is that you need to use the Lockpick to push each tumbler upward. Once you’re 100% sure that it’s pushed all the way in, press A (Xbox), X (PlayStation), or Space Bar (PC) to set the tumbler in place.

Repeat the process for all of the tumblers and the lock will open up! Just note that higher-difficulty locks will have more tumblers. Failing the timing to set a tumbler will break the lockpick and cause tumblers you’ve already set to fall. How many fall depends on your Security Skill.

One thing to keep in mind is that every tumbler has a pattern. They will fall down faster and slower each time you push them. Generally speaking, the pattern is that they will always fall slowly after they fall at their fastest possible speed. Setting the tumblers at the top is much easier when they fall slowly, as you might imagine!

As a bonus tip, you should also hear a “clink” sound when you push a tumbler up. It can be hard to discern, but it can help you with the timing once you notice it.

A good trick to use is that you can just repeatedly push the tumbler up. It will keep dropping at the same speed as long as you keep pushing it. If you do this when it’s falling at its slowest, it should be fairly easy to set it at the right time once you get used to this trick.

Auto Attempt and the Security Skill | Oblivion Remastered Complete Lockpicking Guide

Lastly, you can use the Auto Attempt feature by pressing X (Xbox), Square (PlayStation), or the R key (PC). Using it will randomly open the lock if successful or break the lockpick if it fails.

Your success chance when using Auto Attempt is entirely dependent on your Security Skill level. More difficult locks will require higher Security to open when using Auto Attempt. That does mean that Auto Attempt can also basically guarantee that you open low-difficulty locks instantly if you have a high Security level.

However, it’s worth noting that Auto Attempt is still random, aside from your Security level increasing chances of success. You might just get lucky and succeed when using it, even with a low Security level! Also, using Auto Attempt can level up Security even when an attempt fails.

Aside from affecting your Auto Attempt chances, the Security Skill also benefits you when you lockpick manually. Every 25 Security levels will make it so that 1 less tumbler falls when you fail a manual attempt. It can definitely make things a tad less annoying!

That’s the end of our complete Lockpicking guide for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered. It can be a pretty tricky minigame until you get the hang of it, but we hope to have helped ease things out a bit.

You’re certainly gonna be bathing in loot now, thanks to your lockpicking prowess! As such, we highly recommend checking out our guide on how to increase your carry weight limit. Leave no loot behind!