Skyrim:Lockpicking - The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages (UESP)

Skill: Lockpicking
Specialization:Stealth

Lockpicking is a skill that allows you to access most locked rooms and containers, or to disarm certain traps, without their corresponding keys. The Lockpicking skill tree has a total of 11 perks, requiring a total of 11 perk points to fill.

In-game Description: The art of lockpicking is used to open locked doors and containers faster and with fewer broken lockpicks.

Contents

• 1 Skill Perks
• 2 Skill Usage
• 3 Skill Increases
  • 3.1 Character Creation
  • 3.2 Trainers
  • 3.3 Skill Books
  • 3.4 Free Skill Boosts
• 4 Achievements
• 5 Notes
• 6 Bugs

Skill Perks[edit]

Novice Locks Apprentice Locks Adept Locks Expert Locks Locksmith Unbreakable Master Locks Golden Touch Treasure Hunter Quick Hands Wax Key Lockpicking Perk Tree

Perk	Description	ID	Skill Req.	Perk Req.
Novice Locks	Novice locks are much easier to pick.	000f392a
Apprentice Locks	Apprentice locks are much easier to pick.	000be125	25 Lockpicking	Novice Locks
Quick Hands	Able to pick locks without being noticed.	00106259	40 Lockpicking	Apprentice Locks
Wax Key	Automatically gives you a copy of a picked lock's key if it has one.	00107830	50 Lockpicking	Quick Hands
Adept Locks	Adept locks are much easier to pick.	000c3680	50 Lockpicking	Apprentice Locks
Expert Locks	Expert locks are much easier to pick.	000c3681	75 Lockpicking	Adept Locks
Golden Touch	Find more gold in chests.†	0005820a	60 Lockpicking	Adept Locks
Treasure Hunter	50% greater chance of finding special treasure.‡	00105f26	70 Lockpicking	Golden Touch
Locksmith	Pick starts close to the lock opening position.	00058208	80 Lockpicking	Expert Locks
Unbreakable	Lockpicks never break.	00058209	100 Lockpicking	Locksmith
Master Locks	Master locks are much easier to pick.	000c3682	100 Lockpicking	Expert Locks

†Golden Touch adds 20-100 gold to generic dungeon chests and 2-10 gold to many types of dead bodies (old or new), urns, and various other containers. ‡Treasure Hunter increases the chance of finding 1 extra weapon or armor item (possibly enchanted) in many generic dungeon chests from 10% to 15%.

Skill Usage[edit]

When you target a lock/trap that you don't have the key for, but that can be picked, a tooltip bubble ("Unlock (object or location)") will indicate its difficulty level on a scale from "Novice" to "Master". If you have at least one lockpick in your inventory, activating the lock will bring up the lockpicking minigame.

The lockpicking interface utilizes a probe for turning the lock, and breakable lockpicks for disarming the tumblers (only lockpicks are required--the probe is not an obtainable item). Your objective is to rotate the lockpick in the correct position in a 180 degree arc. As the lockpick gets closer to the correct spot, the lock will turn more and more, until it can be fully opened. When the lockpick is in the wrong spot, it will jiggle and eventually break. The more force you exert on the lock when the pick is not in the correct position (i.e., the longer you press the key to turn it), the more easily it will break. For higher level locks, picks may break almost instantly.

Picking the lock successfully requires a certain degree of trial and error. Successful strategies to reduce the number of lockpicks broken include:

• Begin with light taps in any direction to test the lock. For low level locks, you can cover a wide range with your test clicks (left, right, and center). As the difficulty increases, you will need to be more precise with zeroing in on the position.
• When you see the lock start to turn, slowly push the probe until it shakes again. Make small adjustments until the probe fully pushes the lock open.
• Make a note of the lockpick position before you start turning the lock, as when the lockpick breaks, the new one will (normally, see perks) be inserted at the initial vertical position. Use irregularities in the texture of the lock as a reference point to help keep your place.
• Beyond the visible shaking effect when you strain the lock, a light ticking noise will be heard for stuck lockpicks. Conversely, when the pick is closer to the correct position, you will hear the sound of metal as the lock slides open.
• The Nintendo Switch version of the game implements the HD Rumble feature to highlight the exact position when using a compatible controller.

The size of the tolerance zone is determined by your Lockpicking skill. With higher skill and/or any active bonuses, the size of the zone increases. It is decreased by the difficulty rating of the lock. It is possible to open any lock--even Master--at any skill level, provided you have patience and enough lockpicks. Higher difficulty locks break the picks more easily, so a Master lock may require dozens of lockpicks at a low level.

Skill Increases[edit]

Experience is given when you successfully pick a lock for the first time and when you break a lockpick. If you break a lockpick, a small amount of experience is given, enhanced by the Thief Stone and other XP bonus. If you successfully pick the lock, the experience gained is based on the difficulty of the lock (harder locks give more XP) and whether you have the Thief Stone activated.

Leveling lockpicking "on the go" is perfectly viable. If you wish to speed up your advancement in lockpicking at the expense of a little time, you can refrain from looting/pickpocketing most keys and pick their locks instead, with little to no impact on the rest of the game.

Should you wish to power-level lockpicking (e.g., to quickly gain access to specific perks in its skill tree), you can intentionally and repeatedly break your lockpick in a lock. For this tactic, a lock that does not open on the default, vertical position is preferred, and requires a large amount of lockpicks in your inventory. As a note, be sure to be well-rested and have the Thief Stone activated.

The Dwarven Museum in Markarth has a large number of locked cases which allow levelling, and you can also find quite a few containers in various Jarl residences on which you can practice lockpicking.

Character Creation[edit]

The following races have an initial skill bonus to Lockpicking:

• +10 bonus: Argonian
• +5 bonus: Bosmer, Khajiit

Trainers[edit]

• Ma'jhad with the Khajiit Caravans (Expert)
• Vex of the Thieves Guild in Riften (Master)

Skill Books[edit]

• Advances in Lockpicking
• Proper Lock Design
• Surfeit of Thieves
• The Locked Room
• The Wolf Queen, v1

Free Skill Boosts[edit]

• +1 Lockpicking reward (as well as +1 Light Armor) from Shahvee (Windhelm) for completing the quest Find Shahvee's Amulet of Zenithar inside <Dungeon>.
• +1 Lockpicking reward (as well as +1 to all other stealth skills) from Inge Six Fingers (Bards College) for completing the quest Finn's Lute.
• +5 Lockpicking reward (as well as +5 to all other stealth skills) by selecting "The Path of Shadow" from the Oghma Infinium after completing the quest Discerning the Transmundane.

Achievements[edit]

One achievement is related to Lockpicking:

• Thief (30 points/Silver) — Pick 50 locks and 50 pockets

Notes[edit]

• Alternative ways to open locks:
  • You can ask a follower to open a lock for you, which they will always succeed at if they're willing to try, even if the 'lock difficulty' is extremely high. If they are detected, the crime will be attributed to you.
  • Some locks have keys that can be pickpocketed or looted off related NPCs (bosses, shopowners, etc.).
  • The Tower Stone confers the ability to open any pickable lock (except master-level locks), once per day.
• You can save before attempting to pick a particularly challenging lock to limit your loss of lockpicks; however note that you will have to start over again on reload as the opening position will be randomized anew.
• Opening up the lockpicking interface and attempting to pick a lock are not crimes, just as activating the pickpocket command without taking anything is not a crime. Successfully lockpicking a door or chest owned by someone else does constitute a crime, so if you do so and it is witnessed, you will incur a bounty (unless you have the Quick Hands perk). If you're trying to pick a lock unnoticed, you can get into sneak position so you can determine if anyone can see you. If you activate an owned lock while detected, and then break a lockpick, the lockpicking window will close, you will acquire a 5 gold bounty, the lock will reset, and you will have to try again.
• In the Thieves Guild Headquarters, you can find a training room that contains a series of locked chests of different difficulty level. While all but the novice-level one will reset, your Lockpicking skill will not increase by re-picking.
• Pressing both the left and right hand attack buttons simultaneously will result in the lock rotating faster. This is useful if the player is confident in picking the current lock, or if the player has obtained the Unbreakable perk.
• All the locks more difficult than Novice have a 4% chance of being 10% easier. Then, each tier is 2x as difficult as the last, whereas Master Locks have a 1.875° spot as their base sweetspot. Your Lockpicking skill multiplies that by 1+0.6% per point, while the perks like "Master Lockpicking" triple this, multiplicatively. Then, additively to each other, some potion effects and enchantments, though Seeker of ShadowsDB is likely multiplicative again.
• As it is currently understood, the formula for determining the size of the lock's sweetspot can be expressed like this:

60/2^ROUNDUP(([LOCKDIFFICULTY]+25)/25;0)*((MOD([LOCKDIFFICULTY];25)=0)*0,1+1)/180*NOT([LOCKDIFFICULTY]>100)*([HASMATCHINGPERK]*2+1)*(1+[ENCHANTMENTBONUSES]+[POTIONBONUS])

• Some players consider the Master Locks perk poorly placed on the tree as you can get the Unbreakable perk without having the Master Locks perk, thus making opening master locks rather easy without the Master Locks perk.
• Every lock in the game will only yield its corresponding experience once. Due to developer oversight or bug, this can permanently lock you of renewed progression in the lockpicking skill. It is not advisable to legendary the lockpicking skill on a non-modded game. No official patches to address this issue exist at the moment.

Bugs[edit]

• Raising your Lockpicking skill above 100% using potions and equipped armor with the Fortify Lockpicking effect will make it impossible to pick any lock.
  • The Official Skyrim Patch, version 1.3, fixes this bug.

• Locked Falmer chests may not open automatically like other containers after being unlocked, even though the prompt to unlock them is still there.
  • Press your activate key again, and you should now be able to search the chest properly.

• The effects of the Golden Touch and Treasure Hunter perk on the leveled list are permanent even if the perks are lost by making the skill legendary. ?

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