THE ELDER SCROLLS OF OBLIVION TIPS AND TRICKS

[XGC Brittany]

Easy Imperial Arena
Get a bow or some decent spells. Make sure you have at least 30 in Acrobatics. Immediately after the gate drops, run to your right, to where the right gate meets the fence. Jump onto the stone piece that juts out, then jump again to get on top of the little piece sticking out above it. Once on top, turn and fire on your helpless victims. When you have to fight mages or archers, stay on the ground and strafe behind the four central pillars for easy kills.
Once you are a Champion in the Arena, talk to the Grand Champion about his nobility and how he needs proof of his nobility. He will send you on a quest to Crowhaven and give you a key. Use the fast travel system to get to Anvil. You will then need to travel northwest to get to the Crowhaven ruin. Beware of the skeleton archer and skeleton guardian. The archer is easy, but the guardian is not. Just block and strike and you will eventually kill the guardian. Once you get inside the ruin, watch out for wolves. There will be one to the right as you enter. Just follow the path through the ruin, killing the wolves and skeleton archers. When you get to the gate that needs a key, use the key the Grand Champ gave you to unlock it. Walk through the gate and the only monster will be a half naked man with an Elven dagger. Take your time and block and strike twice. Do not underestimate the little dagger. Once he is dead, find the journal and your quest will be updated. When you go out of the gate that you unlocked with the key, there is a door down to your left. Beware, as there are three vampires and one wolf. The vampires will give you a disease. There is not anything special down here, and is an optional area . Exit the ruin and fast travel back to the Arena. Talk to the Grand Championand he will become extremely depressed and not want to live. Challenge him in the arena. Talk to Ysabela about the challenge. Go up to the Arena. Once the gates drop he will charge at you. However, he will not attack you. He will tell you to kill him to put him out of his misery. Hack away at him. Once he dies you will get an Elven longsword and Dwarven shield (heavy). Bring back his Raiment Of Valor to get your own.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy items
Enter any store, but do not break in. Find a location where it is dark enough so that when you crouch down, the eye becomes transparent. Then, find items laying around the store (weapons and armor shop) and punch them into the dark corner. Crouch down and pick it up undetected. This is usefull for advancing in the Theives Guild.

If you try and kill important people (for example, counts and leaders of guilds), instead of dying they will become unconscious. There is a way to use this to your advantage. Find someone important in the game and try to kill that person in one shot (a power attack with a sword is recommended). When they fall unconscious, immediately go into Sneak mode and keep pressing A while aiming at them to try to steal from them. Eventually it will work. Note: Press A as fast as possible because if you do it while they are getting up you can get caught. You will have no bounty on your head and no one disliking you any more than they did before.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy kills in The Purification quest
While doing the "The Purification" quest for the Dark Brotherhood, use the following trick to easily kill some of the members in the santuary such as Ocheeva and Vincent. First, get your Disposition with them as high as possible, then sneak attack them with a dagger. Before they have a time to retaliate, propose a yeild. You can attack and yeild repetedly until they are killed.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy kills with Nord race
Select the Nord as your race and choose The Lover as you star pattern. Get an enemy down a little bit in health, then use The Lover's star pattern ability to stun them. While they are stunned, hit them with Nordic Frost. This will kill almost all enemies and works well as a finisher.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy lock picking
When picking a lock, do the very first spring manually. Once it is in place, as you press the Analog-stick to go to the next spring, press X a split second afterwards. The arrow should be in between the first and second springs as you press X. If done correctly, the lock should open on the very first try.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy lockpicks and Sneak level
When you are at Imperial Water Front Garden to join the Thieves Guild, you can steal lockpicks from Armand Christope. After you steal all his lockpicks, if you go to diologue and buy lockpicks that he does not have they will still appear in your inventory. Then, go into Sneak mode and steal back your money. Repeat as many times as desired for free lockpicks and to increase your Sneak level.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy lockpick use
While unlocking a door, press Up on a key, then immediately pause the game afterwards. Look at the tab you raised up. If it is mostly up and about to reach the top, resume the game and do it again. If it is mostly half-way or mostly down, resume the game and immediately press A. You should have that tab done. Continue on with the next tab. This might require a few attempts, but after you have done it once it should be easy.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy magic skills
Successfully complete all the Mage Guild Recommendation Quests to gain access to Arcane University. Then, buy the cheapest spell you can find for each of the magic based skills (Illusion, Conjuration, Alteration, Mysticism, Restoration, and Destruction). For Destruction, a Drain Spell is recommended. Go to where you make your own spells and select a spell. Make it so you only use up 1 Magicka and the spell is on "Self". Name the spell and create it. Do this with all the other types of magic based skills then make them all on "Self", including Destruction. If you used a Drain spell, when you use it on yourself it may appear you took damage but you do not, because you drain it from yourself to yourself. Cast the spells all the time when you are walking around or whenever possible. Your skills will increase quickly without having to wait between spellcastings. Note: This trick will only work if the spells are cast on "Self". Spells do not count towards experience unless they have an effect on something.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy skill bonuses
Successfully complete all the Mage Guild Recommendation Quests to gain access to Arcane University. Then, create a Fortify Skill 100 spell that lasts for a few seconds on-self for Mercantile and/or Armorer. With the Mercantile spell, cast it in front of a merchant, activate them, and you will be able to invest 500 gold at their store without being a Master in Mercantile. In addition, you can drive harder bargains. For Armorer, cast the spell and then equip an Armorer's Hammer. Your hammer can be used infinitely without being a Master Armorer. You cannot, however, repair magical items without having legitimately reached the Journeyman Armorer level. Similar spells can be created for other attributes and/or skills: Personality and Speechcraft for raising people's dispositions, Security for picking any lock, etc.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy Sneak skill
An easy way to increase your Sneak skill is to find someone who is sleeping. Find a wall that they are near, then run against the wall while sneaking. As long as no one can see you, your skill will increase until the person wakes. If this happens, wait until night and allow them go back to sleep.

When you have the option to join the Thieves Guild by meeting Armand Christope at the Imperial Water Front garden around 11 p.m., accept his task. He will offer you the option to buy lockpicks, but do not buy any. Go into Sneak mode and get behind him. Not only will you get the lockpicks from him, you can also repeatedly pickpocket him to build up your Sneak skill. He will just tell you to go ahead, and that he does not need it anyway.

After the assassination of Emperor Uriel Septim (during the opening mission), leave the Emperor's body with one of his guards, Baurus. Walk down the newly revealed "secret" passage, then turn around. You should still be able to see Emperor Septim's body and part of Baurus. Walk to the nearest corner (to your left), go into Sneak mode, then walk forward to quickly increase your Sneak level. If you have a wired controller, you can keep the Analog-stick held Forward and allow the game to idle. Check back about every fifteen minutes, as the game will pause as you reach Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, or Master classifications. If done correctly, you should be at 100 Sneak within ninety minutes.

Join the Dark Brotherhood. When you recieve your first quest to kill Rufio, enter his room and go into Sneak mode. Rufio sleeps for 20 hours a day. Walk around in his room, or use a rubber band to hold the Analog-stick so that you are running directly into the wall, to gain very easy Sneak levels.

Successfully complete the Fighting Arena in the Imperial City and become Grand Champion. Once you collect all your money from the Bloodworks person, go outside. There will be a kid that runs up to you and says that he is your biggest fan and ask if he can follow you around. Select "Yes you may follow me around" and he will go wherever you go. Go to any place that is away from guards and people. Go into Sneak mode and select "Pickpocket" on the kid. You will be brought into his inventory. Press B to exit out of his inventory. Do not steal anything. Repeat this by pressing A to pick pocket and B to exit. You will gain Sneak experience very quickly. He does not care if you pickpocket him because he is your "biggest fan".

While in jail, go into Sneak mode. Move around for awhile to increase your sneak level.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy Speech skill
Find a person whom you do not care about them liking you (preferably a guard). Go into Persuade mode and rapidly rotate the Left Analog-stick and tap A. It does not matter what you pick; just rotate and tap. You can go over level 40 Speech in about five minutes.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Easy stealing
Get the Gray Fox's mask and put it on. Steal something and wait for the guards to tell you, "Oh, you are the Gray Fox. I'm going to kill you" (or something similar). Select "Resist Arrest". Then, go to your inventory and take off the mask. Exit the menu, then yield to the guard by holding Block and pressing A to talk to him at the same time. He should walk away. You will not have a bounty, and you will still have the stolen item.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Enemy and item levels
All enemies outside the cities and some inside will level as you level. For example, if you are at level 10 and are fighting Boars outside the city, when you reach level 15 you will be fighting a Troll. The same goes for missions such as the Forlorn Watchman. If you do the quest at level 10, you will fight Ghosts on the ship. If you do it at level 20, you will fight Wraiths. Do not waste time trying to level up just to beat one opponent in a quest because they could be set to always be three levels above you. This same style of progression also works with armor and weapons:

Armor

• 
  Fur/Iron: Level 1
  Leather/Steel: Level 13
  Chain/Dwarven: Level 16
  Mithril/Orchish: Level 110
  Elven/Ebony: Level 115
  Glass/Daedric: Level 120

Weapons

• 
  Iron: Level 11
  Steel: Level 12
  Silver: Level 14
  Dwarven: Level 16
  Elven: Level 19
  Glass: Level 112
  Ebony: Level 116
  Daedric: Level 120

• Note: The armor and weapons usually do not appear at traders until you are two levels above them, sometimes longer. Also, any "secret" weapons such as the Umbra and the NPCs with them or wearing the "secret" armor are level locked. They will not get any more difficult because usually their levels are already about 22 to 30. However, as you become better with a blade (in the Umbra's case), the better the attack will be.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Feeding as a vampire
If you have a good Sneak skill you can feed from a sleeping person without waking them.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Floating paintbrushes
There are paintbrushes stored in random containers at various locations. If you take one out and drop it, it will not fall. It will just float in the location you were looking at when you dropped it. You can drop them in sets of two or more and use them as steps to reach high places. You can also use them as barriers between you and enemies.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Get behind Arena gate
Go into third person view in the Arena. Go left when the gate drops and jump on the ledge where the other locked gate is. While pointing toward the gap, look left and right a few times to wiggle through the gap to get behind the gate. You cannot get hit and can just conjure skeletons to do all the work. Do the same thing to get out.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Getting desired Sigil Stones
While in Sigillum Sanguis (the Sigil Keep at the top of an Oblivion Citadel), save the game while standing in front of the Sigil Stone, before grabbing it. If you do not get the desired effects from the stone, load from the point before you grabbed it and try again. The Sigil Stone you get is chosen at random upon removing it.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Glass and enchanted weapons and armor in Border Watch
There is a city called Border Watch, northwest of Leyawiin. Everyone there has nice Glass weapons, some of which are enchanted. You cannot steal them while they are sleeping, but can steal their armor (mithril). Go to the Sheregoth Shrine to do a quest. The Daedric will ask you to fulfill a prophesy. Do the quest, which includes three tasks. After this, go to one of the people's houses. You should be about level 15. Have a good sword ready, then go into Sneak mode and hit the person with a Sneak Attack x6. Do not stop and they will appear dazed. Once they are dead you can get their items, which are worth a lot of gold. Do this repeatedly to any house desired. Do not do it to the Shaman unless you are at a higher level. Some houses have two people inside. You can sometimes kill one person without the other waking up, then kill the other person.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Glass weapons and armor in Rockmilk Cave
It is recommended that you are at level 15 or higher before attempting this, as there will be better armor and weapons inside. Travel on the west road from Leyawiin and keep walking on the trail until you get to Waters Edge (a small town). From Waters Edge, walk northwest until you reach Rockmilk Cave. This cave is very close to Waters Edge. Go inside and follow the trails. You will encounter some thieves inside the cave. If they do not notice you they will fight each other. You can let them fight or join in. They are not difficult to defeat if you are leveled up. Go through the cave and you will find at least fifteen people inside. Each of them has their own set of Glass, Orcish, Daedric, or Elven armor and weapons. You can fill up with items and sell them for a good profit.

 

[XGC Brittany]

Good armor
At the beginning of the game after the King's convoy is attacked, quickly take the dead guard's katana and armor. This will make defeating the rats and trolls much easier.