Talk:Sneak (Skyrim)

It looks like it is possible to level the sneak skill all the way to 100 early in the game. In the last part of the cave leaving Helgen in the unbound quest, You can sneak walk into the rocks to the right of the bear, just make sure the bear is visible to your character. If the bear wakes up and starts to move, just back up behind the rock to break the line of sight until it lays back down. This does take a quite long time.

Forgot to add Signature
Above added by AnonSoul

Not-Quite-Hidden Theft
is it possible that an NPc hires a Dark Brotherhood assasin if you are a member of them?

I don't think merchants/NPC's will hire an assassin for theft but rather for murder. 84.194.5.244 13:07, November 15, 2011 (UTC)Magmahunter

A small Sneak pumping trick
Just north of Helgen there's a ruined tower called South Skybound Watch. The tower itself has some minor loot, hovewer it is guarded by a Wispmother. The trick is to sprint past her into the tower, then as soon as you're in the tower start sneaking and go all the way to the top and hide in a corner near the treasure chest. Wispmother and her escort will start looking around the tower in search of you but will not go all the way to the top; meanwhile the fact that you're hiding from four (relatively)high level enemies will make your Sneak tick like crazy - I went in there with Sneak 16 at level 1 and after several minutes I had 28 Sneak and was level 3, all from just sitting still. Theoretically you could stay there until you have 100 Sneak(if so, consider moving to the small alcove on the eastern side, you can reach it by walking on the broken wall), but I wouldn't recommend it because of the level scaling shenanigans.

Interestingly, in both cases when I did this, the Wispmother eventually started completely ignoring me; she was looking directly at me and dodging arrows when I was shooting her, but did not attack at all except for summoning Shades when low on health - hovewer these are easily dealt with even with a low level character. So when you're satisfied with your Sneak level, you can just kill Wisps and Wispmother. Or if your game is less buggy than mine, just sprint away from the tower/go down the cliff so the Wispmother won't be able to follow you.

Murder while sneaking makes guards hostile?
I'm doing a mission for the Dark Brotherhood, the first one given by Astrid, and I completed the optional objective (Kill Nilsine Shatter-Shield) without being detected. However, the guards in the area are still hostile to me even though it didn't add to my bounty. What gives? -99.64.245.49 18:06, November 17, 2011 (UTC)

Muffled Movement
I would like to know if the Muffled Movement perk stacks with the Muffled enchantment and spell. Anyone? DanTheHitman (talk) 22:28, November 23, 2011 (UTC)


 * From what I understand, the spell is the better option. If you use the spell, do not take the muffled movement perk as the spell would override it. GrandMoffVixen (talk) 22:32, November 23, 2011 (UTC)

I can verify at least one parameter that spawns Hired Thugs.
It has to do with how much of an NPC's owned wealth you've taken. That is, if you've taken a large percentage of their total monetary value in terms of whatever items they're set as owning, then there's a strong chance Hired Thugs will spawn in that NPCs name.

You'll note that in several of the listed occurences, it features NPCs who don't actually own many items, and since what was stolen was likely a high-value item, that immediately comprised the majority of that NPC's wealth being taken.

You can test this on an NPC like Anise. I have done this myself already. She owns very little in her little shack, you won't have to take much.

Forengar owns very little, so taking his soul gems and a few other things in his workshop represented most of his owned monetary wealth (evidently his store items *do not* count as personally owned items). The elven bow stolen from Hrongar was only one item, but vastly more expensive than anything else he owned, and so met the condition. The Hunter mentioned is, of course, very poor and owns very little, so he was another easy one to meet the condition.

The occurence listed with Arcadia is tricker to explain, but I think I can. If you do Forengar's side-quest for Arcadia (it's an errand of some sort in which you drop something off for him, I forget what), her dispositon becomes high enough that most of the ingredients (even the rare ones) and potions physically laying around the shop can be taken for free (not stealing). I suspect the player who listed his occurence with Arcadia had already done this pryor to stealing the book. After he he had (quite legally) taken all her free ingredients and potions, she subsequently had very little owned monetary wealth left, and so all it took was just a little stealing to meet the condition.

Anyway, just wanna clear this up, since it's not mentioned on the main-page. Hired Thugs may still get spawned for other actions (I see another guy claims they spawned just for repeated trespassing), I don't know about that, but I'm pretty sure this clears up the stealing condition.NinotoreS (talk) 09:04, November 24, 2011 (UTC)
 * This makes sense. Can we edit the main page a little?  I think hired thug anecdotes comprise a majority of the article now; it's a little lengthy... Tyrasis (talk) 07:17, December 4, 2011 (UTC)

Hired Thugs are Tough at Low Level
On master difficulty I can't really fight these guys as my hits only do like 5% damage so I suggest running away and leading them out of town and sneaking back to where you want to be. They are quite tough but if you were good at sneaking to steal you should be ok to sneak away from the thugs right? Hmmm apparently some of your friends will fight thugs with you despite if you stole from them too. I lead one into Hod and Gerdur's and all 3 of them, Hod, Gerdur and Ralof were beating up the thug with me. --an0my(talk) 21:00, November 26, 2011 (UTC)

Shadow Warrior
Does the Shadow Warrior Perk have any advantege over Shadowcloak Of Nocturnal? Or is Shadowcloak just a better version? I know they conflict, Shadow Warrior only activate during combat; and its discription "Crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a targe." Hints at it being able to loose enemy's attention with much more ease. I just been wondering if it would be a waste to have the two. Zkooma (talk) 18:02, November 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Shadowcloak can be used out of combat, such as if you need to sneak about and open doors, chests, etc. Shadow Warrior, on the other hand, doesn't need to be "cast" and isn't limited to once per day.  I'd say they fill very different niches and thus would have minimal overlap, unless you're using Shadowcloak to avoid combat and get caught. Tyrasis (talk) 07:20, December 4, 2011 (UTC)

noticed something odd
if you sneak with your weapon drawn you move faster than you would if you weren't sneaking and running normally (without sprinting). test it out to see for yourself, although it may depend on the weight of your equipment as i'm not sure if this was meant to be implemented or its just a bug.

H4ck0r1 (talk) 21:59, December 1, 2011 (UTC)

Hired Thugs - Grelka?
Grelka sent the Hired Thugs after me even though I HAVE NEVER STOLEN ANYTHING from her, or her stand. wtf?

I did steal a lot of stuff from Madesi, but never from Grelka... I just bartered with her.

Perhaps it has something to do with Helga's Bunkhouse? I "stole" the Dibella Statue from there (as part of the Debt collecting Thieves Guild quest) and I hear Grelka is technically a member of that "faction" (she sleeps there every night).

178.41.97.16 01:17, December 3, 2011 (UTC)

Sneak Nerf?
I noticed lately that sneaking has suddenly become much, much harder. I'm not sure if the last patch bugged it, or if my level has reached a point where the NPC's and enemies have better sight, but my character, who has 100 Sneak, all Sneak perks, the Dark Brotherhood muffled Shrouded Boots, and some sneak fortifying gear, can't even sneak past a bandit anymore.

It's getting frustrating because I'm being forced to fight tough, tanky enemies in heavy armor sets, sometimes 1v1, and other times alone versus a group. I used to be able to drop into a moment of stealth with Shadow Warrior, but that doesn't even work nowadays, they continue to attack as if I didn't even do it.

If Shadow Warrior isn't working on PC, try the console command to remove it, then add it again:

player.removeperk 00058214

player.addperk 00058214

My shadow Warrior never worked, even before the patch. I just thought it was absurdly difficult to use until I saw a video of it working properly. Since I did this yesterday, though, it's worked better than it ever has before (as in, at all).

Hope it helps.

24.82.170.227 09:01, December 4, 2011 (UTC)