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. ''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

Lockpicking 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
 * 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.
 * Surfeit of Thieves - found in Mistvale Keep Jarl's Chamber and in Volskygge.
 * Guide to Better Thieving - found in Goldenglow Estate sewers.

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

Lockpicking
If the player has any familiarity with Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, the lockpicking system in Skyrim will feel instantly familiar, however few adjustments have been made. The player will be able to pick any lock regardless of lockpicking rank, however the margin for error is significantly smaller the lower the skill of the player is.

No perk in lockpicking is required for opening locks, though it makes the process a lot easier.

Lockpicks
Lockpicks can be difficult to obtain but some easy ways are:

The thieves guild fence Tonilia carries around 30 picks for sale.

The kajit trader outside Whiterun also carries 30 picks for sale.

Babette in the Dark Brotherhood usually sells between 15 and 20 picks.

Checking chests, bags and other storage units (Raiding houses helps with this)

Killing Bandits or humanoid monsters (Dungeon mobs like Goblins)

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 amount of times.

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.
 * 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. However, master locks without perks are very difficult and you can easily destroy all your lockpicks when trying to open one.
 * A nice little trick is to use external references to aid you in picking a high level lock. On a master lock for instance, when you find the "sweet" spot that lets you move the key slot, go back to the start position and note where your lock pic is. A bolt, or etching, or decoration on the lock can serve as a point of refernce, but you can also use enviromental markers as well. Then if your pic breaks, you can go right back to that point and slightly modify it so you break fewer pics. This comes in handy as you can go through 40 or more pics on a master lock without much difficulty.