Lockpicking (Skyrim)



The art of Lockpicking is used to open locked doors and containers faster and with fewer broken lockpicks.

Lockpicking is a skill in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Lockpicking is one of the 18 skills and falls under The Thief play-style.

The lockpicking mechanic is more similar to Fallout 3's system than the Security skill from Oblivion, except that a player can unlock a lock of any difficulty regardless of their skill level. To open locks you must feel for the correct tumbler position with a lockpick while turning a tension wrench clockwise in the lock. Caution should be used, as the lockpick will break if too much pressure is applied while it is in the wrong position. Gaining additional perks in this skill will widen the correct tumbler position for picks, making locks easier to open.
 * Governing Guardian Stone: The Thief

Skill Books

 * Advances in Lockpicking - found on a table in Bannermist Tower.
 * The Wolf Queen, v1 - found near the end of Duskglow Crevice (which is in the hills west of Fort Dunstad), right after you fight two Chaurus Reaper's. It is up the stairs in that room on a table.
 * Proper Lock Design - found on a table on top tower in Faldar's Tooth.
 * The Locked Room - found in Honeystrand Cave on a bandits body. The cave is just south of Ivarstead.
 * Alternatively found in the lower levels of Alftand Animonculory, inside a locked cage, on a skeleton near a Master-leveled-locked chest.
 * Cronvangr Crave on the table inside the vampire house.
 * Surfeit of Thieves - found in Mistvale Keep Jarl's Chamber and in Volskygge.

The following Miscellaneous Quest increases the Lockpicking Skill:
 * Retrieve Amulet for Shahvee in Windhelm Argonian assemblage (note: also increases light armor)
 * Retreive Finn's Lute for Inge Six Fingers at the Bard's College in Solitude (note: also increases the Alchemy, Sneak, Alchemy, Pickpocket, and Speech skills

Trainers

 * Ma'jhad (Expert): Khajiit Caravans (Wandering)
 * Vex (Master): Thieves Guild in Riften

Perks
The following are the perks that become available to select as the skill is leveled up

Lockpicks
Lockpicks are easily obtained, as almost all merchants carry at least 1 of them. Some of the easier ways are:
 * The Thieves Guild fence Tonilia carries around 30 picks for sale.
 * The Khajiit trader outside Whiterun also carries 30 picks for sale.
 * Babette in the Dark Brotherhood usually sells between 15 and 20 picks.
 * General goods traders such as Belethor often carry 5 to 10 picks.
 * Nearly all merchants, even food vendors will generally carry at least 1 lockpick in the miscellaneous category.
 * Checking chests, bags and other storage units.
 * Killing Bandits or humanoid monsters.
 * The Skeleton Key. This lockpick is unique in that it will never break; the animation for the pick "breaking" will still occur if you put too much pressure while in the wrong position, but the pick itself doesn't break, meaning that you can try an infinite number of times. Here can be seen what it looks like in-game.

Cheats
This only works on the PC
 * Add code for lockpicks is "player.additem 0000000a amount". Note: you can also shorten the code by removing zeros. For example, to add 5 lockpicks, type "player.additem a 5" (without the quotes).
 * Enter the console. Click on the chest/door you want to unlock, and type "unlock". The chest/door will unlock.

Tips

 * Your companions can open any chests you come across, including locked chests with a master lockpick rating.
 * Lockpicks are incredibly common by comparison to older games in the franchise.
 * No matter what level your skill is, any lock may be picked. Essentially, you can never put a skill point into the tree for lock picking and still pick every master lock in the game. At lower lockpicking scores this can be difficult without booster items or perks however.
 * Saving prior to a lockpicking attempt can control the number of lockpicks that are broken.
 * Equipping items which fortify lockpicking will stack for a significant advantage, 100 in the skill and the maximum number of booster items removes all need for any perks in the skill tree as even "Master" locks become easy to open.
 * The Skeleton Key is one of the most beneficial things to a thief in the land of Skyrim, it is a Daedric artifact obtained via the Thieves' Guild, at the end of the quest you are asked to return it to the Twilight Sepulcher, this is required to finish the Thieves' Guild, but it is beneficial to keep it, at least for a while. The Skeleton Key acts as a lockpick that never breaks, but continues to power up your skill in lockpicking.
 * If using the Skeleton Key and looking for locks to pick, wait until night comes (around 9pm) in a city such as Whiterun, then all houses and shops will be locked. Once you have unlocked all the doors in the town, you can wait one full day, and all the locks will be relocked so this process can be repeated.
 * The Heist Job from Vex is also a good tip for leveling lockpicking with the Skeleton Key, or in general. You will be able to pick atleast a often high level lockbox per mission, and with some high level doors between you and the treasure with some luck.
 * Once you discover the Dwemer Museum, you can significantly increase your lockpicking level by lockpicking the holding cases; most of which are Adept and Expert locks.
 * Every time you enter the lockpicking mini game the solution changes. This can be exploited to more easily pick harder locks. To do this enter the mini game then turn the pick slightly. If it resists exit and try again. Keep doing this until the pick moves. Doing this you can avoid spending a lot of time dozens of pick and moving the pick little fracions trying to find a staring point. (PS3 and pc confirmed).
 * Another good place to level up your lockpicking skill is in the training room of the Thieves Guild, there is one chest to each lock difficulty, Apprentice, Novice, Adept, Expert and Master. The locks may relock after a certain time