Common Misconceptions and Best Lockpicking Guide - Oblivion

Short and sweet lockpicking guide and just chatting about some things people get wrong about this game.

Yes I know luck increases your chances to win your arena bets. Many of you will let me know in the comments without reading this, thank you. I appreciate it.

[schuringleon]

This video also contains a misconception: the security skill *also* controls the speed of the tumblers moving up. With skill of 100, all tumblers move with the same rate. At 0, they are very irregular at their speed rate.

[RoryT]

Common misconceptions about the imperial guards.
They don't teleport to a crime scene they just have 1000 security

[Anno_AD]

It's so weird how dedicated they were to gating off higher levels of magic with skill progression (probably a good design decision) but didn't at all do the same for security.

[darkfireslide]

High Security makes it so fewer tumblers fall back down when you break a pick, too, which makes harder locks less frustrating

[KetchPhraz]

You can click when the pin goes up fast, but it's just a much more narrow window where it will successfully stick. I will get used to clicking them fast on harder locks, so counterintuitively I will sometimes struggle with easy locks since the pins move slower.

[claytucker]

To be a bit more clear, you can time the picking of the locks on the pins when they have cycled to the fast and fastest options, it's just hard to time unless you have experience with it. For example, with the fastest pin speed, you actually have to click as soon as you initiate the pin's movement in order to set that pin. As for the others the timing is a bit less ridiculous, as in, not setting the pin Almost before the pin has even moved. I didn't know you would need negative attribute stats in order to remove magicka regeneration and in order to negate player movement. The shield one was spot on, nice tip for 2 handed users to tack on another enchantment.

Anyways, cool video and Great Job!

[CWCvilleCop]

You definitely CAN set a quick tumbler. But it's really really unreliable to try and do that since you basically have to anticipate it being a fast one, and you will fail if your guess is wrong. So it only makes sense to try to set the slow tumblers.

[nsufferabe]

Security is a useless skill once you’ve mastered the lockpicking minigame, which doesn’t take long once you realize that the the sound file played when it’s okay to “lock” each pin in place has a distinct “click-cleek” sound. It’s a lot easier to realize when it’s the right time to click based on audio vs. visual stimuli.

[artcrime]

You can listen to the lockpick minigame, when it slides up slow and you want to click and keep it in place it makes a double click sound. When it will fail and break a lockpick it will make a single click sound. You can do this minigame easier if you close your eyes. The security skill will change the frame timing in which you can click to make it stick.
At very low security you can pick that lock pretty quickly for that 500 gold every new character. At night no one is around to see. The timing window is still pretty low.

[luisostasuc]

Thank you for the explanation! I sort of had the hang of it regardless of level, but it never mentally clicked to me that the *up* speed was the important part.

[gas]

you can actually do the minigame blind
there is an audio cue for when a pin will lock in

[EBailey-fhxt]

It'll probably come into play by your illusion deep dive, but explaining spell effectiveness + mob level offset/caps would be worthwhile. It's enlightening to realize that simply having a major skill armor bumps your spell effectiveness to A-range immediately, in addition to all the passive armor, until you've basically beaten the game at level 25 or so

[Mr._Anderpson]

Best lockpicking minigame. Well, maybe not the best but probably my favorite.

Not sure if Oblivion shares the system with Morrowind as far as speed. I damaged Vivec's speed to the point he was moving in extreme slow motion by using a 100% weakness to magic for 1 second coupled with a damage speed of 20-30 for 5 seconds. It took several applications, but watching him move in a frame-by-frame manner as I zipped around & punched him was a memorable moment.

Its one of those things you do. I figured my speed was fine at 381, but I could damage their speed to increase the gap even more. That way, I could bombard a swarm of cliff racers with a damage speed spell and leave them in the dust instead of taking them on.

[artcrime]

Lets go this is the one I was waiting for

[calinative]

So excited for this one. I love the speech craft minigame too. I might be the only one.

[bgggsht]

First time i played Oblivion i could not be bothered with this minigame, open spell was the way to go until i got the Skeleton Key

[bsd]

Spells and auto attempt spam for me on the lockpick mini game. I cannot for the life of me do it with a mouse. I had no problem on console with a controller, but for some reason my brain goes dumb with a mouse in my hand.

[darkfireslide]

Could you do a guide on general combat tips, while also explaining what causes stagger and if different weapons are more likely to cause stagger or not? I *feel* like two handed hammers cause staggers more but that could be complete placebo

[gascogne]

The shield thing is the same when unarmed too btw

[infinitedeath]

Why are the cheats where you set your attribute to 255 limited there, whereas using a fortify spell or glitched enchanting can make you go beyond 255?