Stealth Skills: The Path of Shadow – Lockpicking

Lockpicking allows you to open locked doors and containers faster, more easily, and with fewer broken lockpicks. This skill increases when you pick the lock on a door, container, or trap trigger hinge, based on the lock’s difficulty. It also increases slightly if you break a pick, so if you try picking a difficult lock and fail, it isn’t a total loss.

The Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, and Master Locks perks decrease the difficulty of picking locks of the corresponding level. This helps save on lockpicks (and frustration), but depending on your Lockpicking skill and your own personal prowess at lockpicking, you may not find them necessary.

Note that the fabled Skeleton Key gives you the high-end Unbreakable perk while you possess it, though you must surrender the Skeleton Key as a part of the Thieves Guild questline. While you have it, take the opportunity to unlock any Expert or Master locks you wish and quickly level your Lockpicking skill.

• Constellation: Path of Shadow
• Available Perks: 11

Available Lockpicking Perks

1. Novice Locks

• Novice locks are much easier to pick.
• Requires: None

2. Apprentice Locks

• Apprentice locks are much easier to pick.
• Requires: Lockpicking 25, Novice Locks

3. Quick Hands

• Able to pick locks without being noticed.
• Requires: Lockpicking 40, Apprentice Locks

Quick Hands allows you to pick locks without a crime being detected. This is sometimes useful for breaking into homes and containers without attracting too much attention, although trespass and theft will still be noticed.

4. Wax Key

• Automatically gives you a copy of a picked lock’s key if it has one.
• Requires: Lockpicking 50, Quick Hands

In essence, this perk allows you to automatically reopen most doors you’ve picked in the past. This may be useful if you find a couple of wealthy houses you can rob repeatedly (after their treasures have been replaced), or if you find yourself back in a dungeon you’ve been to before.

5. Adept Locks

• Adept locks are much easier to pick.
• Requires: Lockpicking 50, Apprentice Locks

6. Golden Touch ★

• Find more gold in chests.
• Requires: Lockpicking 60, Adept Locks

Golden Touch adds a fair amount of gold to most chests (up to +100 gold pieces per chest). This stacks with the Imperial Luck racial ability, though it’s significantly better.

7. Treasure Hunter ★

• You have a 50% greater chance of finding special treasure.
• Requires: Lockpicking 70, Golden Touch

This perk significantly increases your chance of finding special loot in some chests, especially large ones. What kind of loot? It could be anything, from an Iron Sword to a Dragonplate Cuirass. This is always a gamble, but it occasionally gives you something that’s far better than anything you can get through any normal means. Are you feeling lucky?

8. Expert Locks

• Expert locks are much easier to pick.
• Requires: Lockpicking 75, Adept Locks

9. Locksmith

• Pick starts close to the lock opening position.
• Requires: Lockpicking 80, Expert Locks

10. Unbreakable

• Lockpicks never break.
• Requires: Lockpicking 100, Locksmith

With this perk and enough patience, you can eventually pick the lock on any chest with a single pick. Take this, and you won’t need the Master Locks perk.

11. Master Locks

• Master Locks are much easier to pick.
• Requires: Lockpicking 100, Expert Locks

Racial Benefits

• +10 Lockpicking
• Argonian
• +5 Lockpicking
• Khajiit
• Wood Elf

Trainers

• Expert: Ma’jhad, of Ma’dran’s Khajiit Caravans, outside Solitude or Windhelm.
• Master: Vex, the Thieves Guild, The Ragged Flagon, in Riften.

Other Resources

• The following quests can also increase this skill:
• Other Factions Quest: Finn’s Lute.
• Daedric Quest: Discerning the Transmundane.
• Favor: Item Retrieval (Bandit Camp)*.