Beginner's Guide to Lock Picking in Oblivion

Picking locks is an art in Oblivion. If people's privacy are stopping you from stealing items, read this short guide to lock picking.

In order to pick locks you first need a lock pick. Lock picks can be found on many monsters and can be bought off several NPC characters. In your journeys, there will be times where a door or container is locked. Using your security skill, you can open these locks to access the contents inside.

When you attempt to pick a lock, a minigame comes up. This minigame shows you your lock pick and the tumblers that you need to pick. Depending on the difficulty of the lock, the number of tumblers required to be picked can range from one to five.

To pick locks, you need to fix all the tumblers so that they all are not obstructing your lock pick. Picking tumblers is very easy once you develop the patience needed. Whenever you tap a tumbler, it can go up slowly or quickly. Most of the time, the tumblers will almost instantly rise, giving you very little time to fix the tumblers. The trick is to wait until it goes up slowly. If the tumbler rises slowly, it gives you much more time to fix the tumbler once it reaches the top. Failing to pick a lock will break your lock pick, as well as lowering some tumblers.

Lock picking is directly related to the security skill. As you pick locks, your security skill increases. The higher your security skill is, the slower the tumblers will rise. After reaching certain levels of security, the tumblers that fall after failing is reduced. For example, a novice of security will drop all tumblers upon failure where as a journeyman of security will keep two up.

After reading this article, you should never need to auto-pick a lock.