Stealth Skills: The Path of Shadow – Sneak

Sneak is the art of moving unseen and unheard. This skill improves when you sneak past someone or perform a successful sneak attack. You don’t get credit for sneaking in an empty hallway or for just standing around—you must be sneaking (crouched) near someone who can detect you. Avoiding detection is also critical: the moment you are spotted, your sneak attempt has failed and you can no longer perform a sneak attack (until you hide again).

• Constellation: Path of Shadow
• Available Perks: 13

Available Sneak Perks

1–5. Stealth (5 ranks) ★

• Rank 1: You are 20% harder to detect when sneaking.
• Requires: None
• Rank 2: You are 25% harder to detect when sneaking.
• Requires: Sneak 20, Stealth 1
• Rank 3: You are 30% harder to detect when sneaking.
• Requires: Sneak 40, Stealth 2
• Rank 4: You are 35% harder to detect when sneaking.
• Requires: Sneak 60, Stealth 3
• Rank 5: You are 40% harder to detect when sneaking.
• Requires: Sneak 80, Stealth 4

This perk makes it dramatically easier to sneak past enemies unnoticed. The first rank in this skill (+20%) is absolutely critical to being able to sneak effectively. Subsequent ranks have diminishing returns but are still a good choice if you’re focused on stealth and find yourself being detected too quickly. Even if Stealth isn’t your focus, it’s worth taking the basic Stealth perk just in case you someday need to sneak out of a dangerous situation.

6. Backstab

• Sneak attacks with one-handed weapons now do six times damage.
• Requires: Sneak 30, Stealth 1

Backstab doubles your sneak attack damage (to 6x normal). If you’re skilled enough to reliably sneak up behind enemies, this can make one-hit kills a real possibility, especially on weaker foes.

7. Muffled Movement

• Noise from armor is reduced by 50%.
• Requires: Sneak 30, Stealth 1

This perk is good at low levels but is much less useful later on, when it’s eclipsed by Silence, Muffle-enchanted equipment, or the Muffle spell (Illusion skill), all of which silence your movement entirely.

8. Deadly Aim ★

• Sneak attacks with bows now do three times damage.
• Requires: Sneak 40, Backstab

Deadly Aim increases the sneak attack damage done by bows (from 2x to 3x). The extra damage is noticeable, though not as dramatic as Backstab’s bonus.

9. Light Foot

• You won’t trigger pressure plates.
• Requires: Sneak 40, Muffled Movement

This perk presents an interesting dilemma. While you’ll no longer have to worry about almost half the traps you encounter, your enemies and your Followers can still set them off, which generally gives you less warning than you might otherwise have had. Also, you can no longer deliberately use traps to kill enemies, which limits your options and takes some of the fun out of them. So think carefully before taking this perk, or just be cautious and avoid pressure plates in the first place.

10. Assassin’s Blade

• Sneak attacks with daggers now do a total of 15 times normal damage.
• Requires: Sneak 50, Deadly Aim

This perk affects only daggers, but it does make them significantly more effective at sneak attacks. With this perk, daggers do about twice the sneak attack damage of a full-sized weapon like a sword or a mace. That’s a solid improvement and a good reason to choose daggers, at least for your first blow.

11. Silent Roll

• Sprinting while sneaking executes a silent forward roll.
• Requires: Sneak 50, Light Foot

Silent Roll allows you to quickly dodge behind cover while sneaking, although the drain on your Stamina prevents you from using it to roll long distances.

12. Silence

• Walking and running does not affect detection.
• Requires: Sneak 70, Silent Roll

This perk gives you a permanent Muffle effect. However, since you can receive the same effect from a spell or piece of enchanted armor, consider whether it’s really worth spending one of your perk selections on.

13. Shadow Warrior

• Crouching stops combat for a moment and forces distant opponents to search for a target.
• Requires: Sneak 100, Silence

Shadow Warrior can give you a chance to recover or make a hasty getaway if your stealth attempt goes terribly wrong. It’s most effective if you can put some distance between yourself and your foes; if you use it right in front of an enemy, they’ll spot you again almost immediately.

Racial Benefits

• +10 Sneak
• Khajiit
• +5 Sneak
• Argonian
• Dark Elf
• Wood Elf

Trainers

• Journeyman: Khayla, Ri’saad’s Khajiit Caravans, outside Markarth or Whiterun.
• Expert: Garvey, the Warrens of Markarth.
• Master: Delvin Mallory, 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: The A Little Light Thievery*.
• Favor: Item Retrieval (Cave)*.