The Elder Scrolls IV ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______ ______ _ _________ _________ _______ _ ( ___ )( ___ \ ( \ \__ __/|\ /|\__ __/( ___ )( ( /| | ( ) || ( ) )| ( ) ( | ) ( | ) ( | ( ) || \ ( | | | | || (__/ / | | | | | | | | | | | | | || \ | | | | | || __ ( | | | | ( ( ) ) | | | | | || (\ \) | | | | || ( \ \ | | | | \ \_/ / | | | | | || | \ | | (___) || )___) )| (____/\___) (___ \ / ___) (___| (___) || ) \ | (_______)|/ \___/ (_______/\_______/ \_/ \_______/(_______)|/ )_) #################################### ##################################### ################################## ############## ########### ########### ########## ########## ######### ########### ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### ######### # ######## ######## ###### ######## ######## ######## ######## ######## ####### ####### ####### ##### ####### ###### ## ####### ####### ####### ###### ####### ###### ####### ##### ###### ##### ###### ##### ###### #### ###### #### ##### ### ##### ## #### ### ## FAQ/Walkthrough (for PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3) V4.00 2006-02-17 Copyright 2006, 2007 Barry Scott "PapaGamer" Will A premium version of this Walkthrough is available. It includes maps, screenshots, hyperlinked cross-references and more. See http://www.papagamer.com/content/view/28/39/ This FAQ/Walkthrough does not include a Character Guide. You can find my Character Build Guide at: http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt The Character Build Guide includes a complete rundown of all the skills, races, attributes and birthsigns in Oblivion, as well as many class templates for your amusement. **Bethesda has released the v1.1.511 patch for both PC and Xbox 360. You should download and install this patch as it fixes a number of quest-related bugs. Xbox 360 users can download the patch via Xbox Live. PC users can download the patch here: http://elderscrolls.com/downloads/updates_patches.htm The PS3 version of the game should already be at patch level 1.1.511. KNIGHTS OF THE NINE BOXED SET ------------------------------- The KoN boxed set includes all the official mods released independently by Bethesda during the course of 2006. Most of the mods were previously covered in this guide, and that coverage has not changed with the release of KoN. The official mods included in KoN are: Horse Armor (DLC1) Orrery (DLC2) Wizard's Tower (DLC3) Thieves' Den (DLC7) Mehrunes' Razor (DLC9) The Vile Lair (DLC5) Spell Tomes (DLC4) Knights of the Nine (DLC8) Knights of the Nine has its own major section in this guide. Mehrunes' Razor and Repairing the Orrery are listed under Side Quests. The other mods are covered in Expanding Your Game, under Official Mods. **SPOILER WARNING** This guide contains plot spoilers. You have been warned. ~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONTACT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~ To contact me about the guide, send email to: barry@papagamer.com Please include "Oblivion FAQ" in your subject line so I don't auto-discard the message. Also, please read the FAQ carefully prior to asking for help on any part of the game. If you send me additional suggestions or hints for the game and I find them useful, you will be acknowledged in the Credits. If you found this guide useful and would like to contribute a small token for my efforts, you may send money through PayPal by using the Donate link found on my Web site: http://www.papagamer.com/ Thank you, and enjoy the guide! ~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~ Front Matter Contact Information Table of Contents How to Use This Guide Gameplay.....................................................GP00 Controls & Icons..........................................GP01 Game Mechanics............................................GP02 Radiant AI.............................................GP02-A The Leveled System.....................................GP02-B Time, Waiting & Resting................................GP02-C Travel, Horses & Quest Markers.........................GP02-D Mini-games: Lockpicking & Persuasion...................GP02-E Enchanting, Spellmaking & Soul Gems....................GP02-F Combat....................................................GP03 Heavy Melee............................................GP03-A Light Melee............................................GP03-B Archer.................................................GP03-C Magic..................................................GP03-D Magicka Effects...........................................GP04 Frequently Asked Questions................................GP05 Main Story...................................................MS00 Tutorial..................................................MS01 Deliver the Amulet........................................MS02 Find the Heir.............................................MS03 Breaking the Siege of Kvatch..............................MS04 Weynon Priory.............................................MS05 The Path of Dawn..........................................MS06 Dagon Shrine..............................................MS07 Spies.....................................................MS08 Blood of the Daedra.......................................MS09 Blood of the Divines......................................MS10 Miscarcand................................................MS11 Bruma Gate................................................MS12 Allies for Bruma..........................................MS13 The Wayward Knight (Cheydinhal)........................MS13-A Bravil.................................................MS13-B Anvil..................................................MS13-C Chorrol................................................MS13-D The Battle for Castle Kvatch...........................MS13-E Leyawiin...............................................MS13-F Skingrad...............................................MS13-G Defense of Bruma..........................................MS14 Great Gate................................................MS15 Paradise..................................................MS16 Light the Dragonfires.....................................MS17 Imperial Dragon Armor.....................................MS18 Fighters Guild...............................................FG00 A Rat Problem.............................................FG01 The Unfortunate Shopkeeper................................FG02 The Desolate Mine.........................................FG03 Unfinished Business.......................................FG04 Drunk and Disorderly......................................FG05 Den of Thieves............................................FG06 Amelion's Debt............................................FG07 The Master's Son..........................................FG08 More Unfinished Business..................................FG09 Azani Blackheart..........................................FG10 The Wandering Scholar.....................................FG11 The Fugitives.............................................FG12 Trolls of Forsaken Mine...................................FG13 The Stone of St. Alessia..................................FG14 The Noble's Daughter......................................FG15 Mystery at Harlun's Watch.................................FG16 Information Gathering.....................................FG17 Infiltration..............................................FG18 The Hist..................................................FG19 Expelled From the Fighters Guild..........................FG20 Mages Guild..................................................MG00 Anvil Recommendation......................................MG01 Bravil Recommendation.....................................MG02 Bruma Recommendation......................................MG03 Cheydinhal Recommendation.................................MG04 Chorrol Recommendation....................................MG05 Fingers of the Mountain................................MG05-A Fingers of the Mountain, Part II.......................MG05-B Leyawiin Recommendation...................................MG06 Skingrad Recommendation...................................MG07 A Mage's Staff............................................MG08 Ulterior Motives..........................................MG09 Vahtacen's Secret.........................................MG10 Necromancer's Moon........................................MG11 Liberation or Apprehension?...............................MG12 Information at a Price....................................MG13 A Plot Revealed...........................................MG14 The Bloodworm Helm........................................MG15 The Necromancer's Amulet..................................MG16 Ambush....................................................MG17 Confront the King.........................................MG18 Mages Guild Suspension....................................MG19 Thieves Guild................................................TG00 May the Best Thief Win....................................TG01 Independent Thievery......................................TG02 Untaxing the Poor.........................................TG03 The Elven Maiden..........................................TG04 Ahdarji's Heirloom........................................TG05 Misdirection..............................................TG06 Lost Histories............................................TG07 Taking Care of Lex........................................TG08 Turning a Blind Eye.......................................TG09 Arrow of Extrication......................................TG10 Boots of Springheel Jak...................................TG11 The Ultimate Heist........................................TG12 Cast Out of the Thieves Guild.............................TG13 Dark Brotherhood.............................................DB00 A Knife in the Dark.......................................DB01 A Watery Grave............................................DB02 Accidents Happen..........................................DB03 Scheduled for Execution...................................DB04 The Renegade Shadowscale..................................DB05 The Assassinated Man......................................DB06 The Lonely Wanderer.......................................DB07 Bad Medicine..............................................DB08 Whodunit?.................................................DB09 Permanent Retirement......................................DB10 Of Secret and Shadow......................................DB11 The Purification..........................................DB12 Affairs of a Wizard.......................................DB13 Next of Kin...............................................DB14 Broken Vows...............................................DB15 Final Justice.............................................DB16 A Matter of Honor.........................................DB17 The Coldest Sleep.........................................DB18 A Kiss Before Dying.......................................DB19 Following a Lead..........................................DB20 Honor Thy Mother..........................................DB21 Whispers of Death.........................................DB22 Dark Exile................................................DB23 Knights of the Nine..........................................KN00 Pilgrimage................................................KN01 The Shrine of the Crusader................................KN02 Priory of the Nine........................................KN03 Nature's Fury.............................................KN04 The Path of the Righteous.................................KN05 Stendarr's Mercy..........................................KN06 Wisdom of the Ages........................................KN07 The Faithful Squire.......................................KN08 The Sword of the Crusader.................................KN09 The Blessing of Talos.....................................KN10 Umaril the Unfeathered....................................KN11 Epilogue..................................................KN12 Side Quests..................................................SQ00 Quest Index..................................................QL00 Alphabetical Index........................................QL01 City/Region Index.........................................QL02 Miscellaneous Adventures.....................................MA00 Home Ownership............................................MA01 Skill Training............................................MA02 Vampirism.................................................MA03 Alchemy...................................................MA04 Expanding Your Game..........................................XP00 PC Optimization...........................................XP01 PC Console Commands.......................................XP02 Mods......................................................XP03 Version History & Credits....................................VH00 Legal........................................................LG00 To quickly jump to a section, copy the section code, press CTRL-F and paste the section code in the search box. ~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~ Oblivion is a huge game, and very much free-form. You can spend 100 hours playing the game and never touch the main quest. You can play through the main quest a half-dozen times and never do the same side quests twice. In addition, some dungeons and quests are randomly generated. There's no way to write a typical linear walkthrough for this game. So here's how the walkthroughs are organized: * Main Story: First up is a step-by-step walkthrough of the main story quests. The main story does advance in a fairly linear manner, so each step along the journey will be laid out. Of course, you do not have to complete the main story in any sort of time limit and you can take your time and do lots of side quests during the main story. However, the Main Story walkthrough will concern itself only with the quests that are directly connected to the main story. * Guild Quests: There are four guilds in Oblivion--Fighters, Mages, Thieves and the Dark Brotherhood (assassins). Each guild has numerous quests associated with it, and each has its own section in this part of the guide. * Knights of the Nine: This mini-expansion to Oblivion includes previously released material through Bethesda's official mods store (both for PC and X360). The main KoN quest is described after the guild quests; other KoN content is scattered through the Side Quests and Expanding Your Game sections. * Side Quests: Everything that doesn't fit into the previous categories is organized here in alphabetical order by quest name. Before all the walkthroughs is a rundown of basic gameplay in Oblivion, including the controls, how the Radiant AI works, combat hints and frequently asked questions. At the end of the walkthroughs is an index of every quest in the game, with the section number where you can find the mini-walkthrough for that quest. The index is organized both alphabetically and by city/region. A complete breakdown of the character system in Oblivion, including all the skills, races, birthsigns, etc. is in a separate document, located at: http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt After the quest walkthroughs is Miscellaneous Adventures, which covers buying and furnishing houses, vampirism and training your skills (including the Master Training quests). The guide wraps up with Expanding Your Game, which covers optimizing your PC to run Oblivion well, using console commands (on the PC) for that extra edge and mods (mostly for PC, but some for X360 as well). The main point of Oblivion is to explore, have fun and immerse yourself in the world. The game simply cannot be adequately covered in words; you have to experience it for yourself. But, if you get stuck, feel like you're in over your head, or just can't figure out how to do that one little thing...then this guide is here for you. [GP00] ~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ GAMEPLAY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~ *SAVE EARLY* *SAVE OFTEN* *KEEP LOTS OF SAVES* Oblivion, like any major, western-style RPG, has its share of glitches and ways things can go wrong. Frequently, the only solution is to go to an earlier save. You should make a new save at least every 15 or 30 minutes and keep at least 15 to 20 savegames. The number of savegames is limited only by your hard drive capacity and many people keep hundreds of saves. (That's probably a little over-board; but, still...) It's easy to find that a decision you made three or four hours ago, playing time, was a bad one and you will want to go back and fix it. On the other hand, you don't want to go back to a several- hour-old savegame if all you need to do is get around a glitch that just happened. *SAVE EARLY* *SAVE OFTEN* *KEEP LOTS OF SAVES* It can't be repeated too often. [GP01] <~~~~~~ CONTROLS & ICONS ~~~~~~> These are the default controls for the game: +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | ACTION | PC (keyboard/mouse)+ | XBOX 360* | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Movement | W, A, S, D | Left stick | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Camera | Move mouse | Right stick | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Activate | SPACE | A button | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Jump | E | Y button | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Run | Left SHIFT | Movement speed is | |------------------------+------------------------| controlled by the | | Always Run (toggle) | CAPS LOCK | force on the left stick| |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Ready/Sheath Weapon | F | X button | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Attack | Left mouse button | R trigger | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Power Attack | Hold left mouse button | Hold R trigger + | | | + movement key | move left stick | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Shoot Arrow | Hold left mouse button | Hold R trigger to aim, | | | to aim, release to fire| release to fire | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Block/Bow Zoom | Right mouse button | L trigger | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Cast Spell | C | R button | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Grab | Z press-and-hold | L button press-and-hold| |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Sneak | Left CTRL | Press left stick | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Journal | TAB; You can also open | B button | | | a journal tab directly | | | | F1 - Stats | | | | F2 - Inventory | | | | F3 - Spells | | | | F4 - Map/Quests | | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Hotkeys | 1 - 8 | D-pad | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Assign Hotkeys | Press-and-hold 1 - 8 | Press-and-hold D-pad | | w/Inventory Open | and click item | and select item (A) | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Game Menu | ESC | Start | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Wait | T | Back | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Switch View (1st/3rd) | R | Press right stick | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Vanity Mode | Press-and-hold R | Press-and-hold rt stick| |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Quicksave | F5 | | |------------------------+------------------------+------------------------| | Quickload | F9 | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+ * Xbox 360 Controls list courtesy of Styck and GOSFreak from GameFAQs. + The PC version does support gamepads; however, there are some problems with the default control setup. Find your Oblivion.ini file (typically in My Documents\My Games\Oblivion) and open this file in a *text* editor such as Notepad. (Don't use Word or WordPad or other word processing program. Stick with a simple, plain text editor.) Find these lines in the section headed [Controls]: fMouseSensitivity=0.0020 ;X = 1, Y = 2, Z = 3, XRot = 4, YRot = 5, ZRot = 6 iJoystickMoveFrontBack=2 iJoystickMoveLeftRight=1 fJoystickMoveFBMult=1.0000 fJoystickMoveLRMult=1.0000 iJoystickLookUpDown=6 iJoystickLookLeftRight=3 fJoystickLookUDMult=0.0020 fJoystickLookLRMult=0.0020 These are the default movement (left analog stick) and camera (right analog stick) controls. Specifically, the Look (i.e. camera) controls may not be set properly for your joystick. If moving the right analog stick has no effect on the camera, change these two lines: fJoystickLookUDMult=0.0020 fJoystickLookLRMult=0.0020 Increase the value of 0.0020 to something significantly larger, such as 0.5000. If the camera still does not respond or is sluggish, increase to 1.0000 and so on until the camera responds to the right joystick in a way that works for you. Additionally, you may find the camera movement does not correspond correctly to the joystick movement: i.e. the camera moves up and down as you move the stick left and right. In that case, switch these values: iJoystickLookUpDown=6 iJoystickLookLeftRight=3 so that you have: iJoystickLookUpDown=3 iJoystickLookLeftRight=6 You may also need to change some of these values completely depending on your controller and your controller's drivers. You can set the buttons within the Controls Options of the game. | Icons +------- When in first-person perspective, the center of the screen is occupied by a crosshair. When you mouse over a target, the crosshair changes depending on the target. * Face: NPC, Activate the NPC to talk to him or her * Crown: plot critical NPC, Activate the NPC to talk to him or her * Open hand: a loose item, press Activate to take the item * Closed fist: something that can be manipulated (such as a door or switch), press Activate to...well...activate the item * Pottery jar: container, press Activate to open the container * Door: a door, Activating may open the door or take you to another area depending on the door * Lock: this icon appears in the lower right corner of the screen when a door or container is locked. * Moon and stars: a bed, Activate to sleep in the bed * Book: a book or note, Activate it to read the item * Stool: a chair, bench, etc., Activate it to sit down, press Activate again while not targeting anything to stand up * Horseshoe: a horse, press Activate to mount the horse, press Activate again while not targeting anything to dismount * Bat: NPC, Activate the NPC to feed on him or her (can only be used when you are a vampire) * Eye: indicates you are in Sneak mode Sometimes icons display in red. When you see a red icon, don't touch the item or you'll be accused of a crime. Unless, of course, you're trying to commit a crime, then go ahead and touch away... [GP02] <~~~~~~ GAME MECHANICS ~~~~~~> Most of the basic gameplay elements are dealt with during the tutorial. How to pick things up, how to drop them, how to equip weapons and spells, how to Sneak, etc. But, there are a lot of things going on under the hood that the tutorial never mentions. This section covers all those extra game mechanics. | Radiant AI [GP02-A] +--------------------- Radiant AI is Bethesda's name for its NPC scripts. NPCs in Oblivion are supposed to "act like real people". At first, this really seems to be the case. After a few hours invested in a city, you'll see it's just another bunch of scripts strung together with some pseudo-random events to give the feel of actual intelligence. Here are some of the things the Radiant AI does: * NPCs keep a schedule. Their schedule is occasionally randomized, but, for the most part, these characters move around eating, working, sleeping and other activities at different times of the day on a regular schedule. * NPCs react to crimes. Enter one's house uninvited and they'll call for the gendarmes. Hit someone and they'll scream, "Assault!" Etc. * NPCs talk to one another as they pass on the street. After spending a couple hours in a city, you'll have heard every variation on conversation there is. (Since everything in Oblivion is voice acted, the number of conversations is quite limited.) Sometimes, hearing these conversations opens up a new topic for you, often leading to a quest. Here are some things the Radiant AI does not do: * Force you to keep a schedule. For the most part, if someone tells you to meet them at midnight tonight or else, you can show up at midnight three weeks later and they'll be there waiting patiently for you. There are very, very few quests in Oblivion that actually require you to act within time constraints. * React to assaults on allies. The vision/hearing of every NPC in Oblivion must be impaired. If you have two enemy mages on opposite sides of a large room, you can blow one of them to smithereens while the other wonders aloud about the rats. This does help with combat since you don't want lots of bad guys swarming you, but it is kind of ridiculous. Example: right after killing the captain of a ship, two sailors barged into the cabin. The PC was hidden in the back room. Seeing the captain dead on the floor, the sailors proceeded to engage in a random conversation. The PC steps out of the back room and fires a spell at one of the sailors. That sailor charges and is dispatched. The other sailor, still behind the partition at the front of the cabin, complains about the loud noises made by the rats. That's the Radiant AI for you! * Care much about the world around them. There are scripted instances where you can't get help from someone because of an Oblivion gate nearby, but, for the most part, while the big, bad demonic invasion is happening, most NPCs still just want you to kill (or protect, depending on the situation) the rats in their basement. So, don't get your hopes up too high over the Radiant AI. The NPCs in Oblivion pretty much act like the NPCs in every other RPG, except they don't just stand around waiting for you to show up (unless you're in the middle of a quest requiring they just stand around until you show up--in which case they'll wait for months). And, even if a quest-target NPC is moving around, the convenient objective marker on your map will always show you where he or she is. | The Leveled System [GP02-B] +----------------------------- Oblivion uses a system that matches enemy levels to your PC's level. It does this in two ways: * Changes the type or number of creatures you face. For example, at low level, the daedra you fight inside Oblivion are mostly scamps and the occasional clannfear runt. At higher levels, you'll start seeing dremora, adult clannfear, atronachs, etc. * Increases the level of the enemy. This is mostly used on boss creatures. For example, the opponents you face in the Arena are always the same, but their level, skills and equipment increase in power as you increase in power. The leveled system means you never get in over your head. Whatever challenge you face is always scaled to your level, so you can do anything at the beginning of the game. This is also a drawback, as being able to complete any quest even at level 1 is somewhat unrealistic. The leveled system also means you never overpower your opponents. There are never any "easy" fights against overwhelmed opponents. When you encounter bandits at level 1, they are clad in fur and wield rusty daggers. If you encounter them at level 20, they are clad in mithril and wield enchanted glass short swords. Treasure and store inventories are likewise leveled. At level one, you can fight for your life through a three-level ruin, dispatching dozens of undead and come away with a grand total of 32 gold, a flawed jewel and some day-old bread. Going through the same ruin at level 10 can yield a couple hundred gold, some soul gems and an enchanted weapon. The leveled system also affects quest rewards. Finish Fingers of the Mountain at level 3 and the spell you get is, to say the least, underwhelming. Finish it at level 25 and you get one of the most powerful spells in the game (assuming you have the Magicka to cast it). A sigil stone collected at level 5 is a lot less powerful than a sigil stone collected at level 15. (*NOTE*: PC users can download a mod that corrects this problem.) The leveled system does present some problems, especially in the main story. There are a few quests where you have to defeat hordes of enemies, and you are given help; or, you have to protect someone from enemies. In these cases, having a higher level PC works against you since your allies do not similarly increase in power. The last thing you want is a dozen dremora overwhelming the guards around you, then turning all their attention on you. No matter how uber you think your gear, you're not going to survive that. There are some ways to work around this system: 1) Increase your class levels slowly. If you work mostly with minor skills, and only increase your major skills (and, thus, your class level) when you've locked in +5 modifiers for your attributes, then you'll run far ahead of the NPCs of similar level. For more info on the skill/class system, see the PapaGamer Character Build Guide at: http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt 2) Play at a lower difficulty level. If a quest is just too hard, turn the difficulty down until you complete the quest. 3) Use a modded leveling system (see the Mods section near the end of the guide). This will allow you to level more reasonably without having to pay a lot of attention to the math. There are also mods that affect enemy leveling, which makes the game much more interesting. 4) Use the Quest Reward Leveling mod (see the Mods section near the end of the guide). This mod levels up quest rewards with your class level, so you'll always have a use for those special gifts. | Time, Waiting & Resting [GP02-C] +---------------------------------- Time in Oblivion passes at the rate of 30 minutes for every one real minute spent playing the game (not in Pause). So a 24-hour day takes 48 minutes of real time to play through. NPCs operate on schedules during the game day. Normal operating hours for merchants are 8am to 8pm every day. In the cities, most of the rulers hold court from 8am to 6pm every day. You can find a lot of NPCs at dinner in the local tavern or castle dining hall around 8pm to 11pm most days. Etc. If you're looking for someone and you don't have a quest marker for that person, you can assume that person will be at home, sleeping, during the night. Etc. The calendar is just like the Gregorian calendar, albeit with different names: Gregorian - Oblivion Gregorian - Oblivion --------- ------------ --------- ------------ January - Morning Star July - Sun's Height February - Sun's Dawn August - Last Seed March - First Seed September - Heartfire April - Rain's Hand October - Frost Fall May - Second Seed November - Sun's Dusk June - Mid-Year December - Evening Star Gregorian - Oblivion --------- -------- Sunday - Sundas Monday - Morndas Tuesday - Tirdas Wednesday - Middas Thursday - Turdas Friday - Fredas Saturday - Loredas The months have the same number of days as the Gregorian calendar, thus Last Seed has 31 days, Heartfire has only 30, etc. The game begins the 27th of Last Seed, Third Empire, year 433 (7/27/433--The in-game calendar displayed with the debug console counts the months from 0 to 11, so August/Last Seed is month 7, not 8). You can see the current date by turning on the debug console (tdt) and choosing page 0 (sdt 0). What does all this mean? Well, not much, unless you need to figure out an NPC's schedule. If a character does activity X on weekdays, you know that means Morndas, Tirdas, Middas, Turdas and Fredas. If it's currently Loredas, you've got to Wait two days to catch the NPC. And so on and so forth. At any time there are no enemies nearby and you are not trespassing you can use the Wait command (default PC key 'T', Xbox 360 button 'Back'). You can Wait in one hour increments up to 24 hours (one full day). Waiting any period of time, even just one hour, fully restores your Health, Magicka and Fatigue. This is a kind of cheap way to heal yourself up while spelunking--clear out enough enemies and you can just Wait one hour. You can also sleep, if you have a bed handy. The only times you have to sleep are: 1) To increase your class level. Unless you're using a mod, or have turned on instant leveling in your INI file, you must sleep in a bed to level up. 2) Certain quests require you to sleep in a bed; e.g. "Where Spirits Have Lease" or during Dark Brotherhood quests. An easy way to have access to cheap (i.e. free) beds is to join either the Fighters Guild or Mages Guild. Just asking to join gives you a key to all the guild halls, all of which have beds to sleep in. You don't even have to perform any quests. Every city except Kvatch and Imperial City have halls for both the Fighters Guild and Mages Guild. | Travel, Horses & Quest Markers [GP02-D] +----------------------------------------- There are three ways to travel in Cyrodiil: 1) On foot, either walking or running. 2) By horse. Horse travel is faster than running (unless you have a very high Speed attribute), but somewhat unreliable. You cannot fight while you're on a horse, they're difficult to steer and they sometimes wander away while you're dungeon delving. There are seven horses or types of horses available (the Speed attributes in these lists are somewhat misleading, as horses can move a lot faster than humans, so only compare the Speed of a horse against other horses, not humanoids): * Paint: Speed 23, Combat 40, Attack Damage 10, Health 300 Paint horses are available in Bruma, Leyawiin and from Prior Maborel as part of the "Find the Heir" main quest. Paint horses are the slowest, least combat- worthy horses in the game. However, they are sturdy (300 Health), cheap and you can get one free two minutes after you leave the tutorial dungeon. * Bay: Speed 26, Combat 30, Attack Damage 10, Health 250 Bay horses are sold at the stables outside Bravil and Skingrad. They are not as sturdy as Paint horses, but are faster. * Chestnut: Speed 29, Combat 20, Attack Damage 10, Health 200 Chestnuts horses are faster; but, not as hardy as the Bay. They are sold in Chorrol. * White: Speed 29, Combat 50, Attack Damage 12, Health 400 The white horses of Anvil are the sturdiest regular horses available. They're also pretty fast. * Black: Speed 33, Combat 60, Attack Damage 15, Health 325 Cheydinhal's black horses are good combat companions and the fastest regular horses in the game. * Shadowmere: Speed 33, Combat 50, Attack Damage 20, Health 500 You obtain Shadowmere during the Dark Brotherhood quests. He is as fast as the black horses of Cheydinhal and a better fighter, plus, he can never be killed! (He just falls unconscious.) * Unicorn: Speed 29, Combat 70, Attack Damage 45, Health 350 The unicorn is the target of a hunt instigated by the daedric lord Hircine. While a fearsome combatant, he's not particularly suited to be your regular mount. He doesn't like drawn weapons and will attack even you if you show steel in his presence. 3) Fast Travel: while outdoors, open your World Map, choose a location and click its icon. As long as there are no enemies nearby, you'll be asked if you want to Travel there. Choose yes, and hey! There you are. Some caveats about Fast Travel: * Except for the city markers and a few quest-related locations (Weynon Priory, Cloud Ruler Temple and a couple of others) you must have actually visited the location to Fast Travel there. Even though someone marks the location on your map, you must still get there by foot or horse first. Once you have "discovered" a place, you can Fast Travel there as much as you want. * If you own a horse, the horse Fast Travels with you (and is used to calculate time passed, see below) even if you aren't mounted on the horse. When Fast Traveling to a city, your horse is automatically stabled outside the walls. There's no fee for stabling your horse. * Time does pass when you Fast Travel, based on whether you're on foot or on horse. It's not a large amount of time. Traveling from Cheydinhal in the east to Anvil in the west takes only 11 hours on foot or 5 hours on a black horse. * If you use the console to turn on all map markers (tmm 1), you can Fast Travel to every marker. QUEST MARKERS --------------- Of course, all these travel options don't mean jack if you don't know where to go. That's where the quest or objective marker comes in. On local maps, world maps and your HUD compass, you'll see either a green or red arrow marker-- provided you have an active quest. This marker shows you the location or direction in which your current objective is located. This is why, many times in this walkthrough, you are told to go through certain steps. You could, conceivably, skip some of the interrogations and move straight to the target; however, without questioning people, you won't get the quest marker on your maps and you'll be trying to find a marble in oatmeal. A red quest marker indicates the target is *not* in the same area as you. A green quest marker indicates the target *is* in the same area as you. "Area" in this sense does not mean the small "areas" loaded by the game as you travel. You are in the same "area" if you are in the same world-space. This means a target that is in the world-at-large is in the same area as you if you are both outside cities and outside any building/dungeon--even if you are on opposite sides of the map. Multiple arrows mean there are multiple targets-- i.e. more than one enemy you must kill or more than one location you must visit. Your quest journal has three tabs: active quest, open quests and completed quests. Quest markers only show for the active quest, and there can be only one active quest at a time. To change active quests, select an open quest and click it. The open quest you selected becomes the new active quest and quest markers change to reflect the new quest. If you have no active quest, and you get a new quest, it automatically becomes active. If you have an active quest, and you get a new quest, you are asked if you want to Continue or Make This My Active Quest. Continuing adds the new quest to open quests, but does not make it active. The second option, obviously, marks the quest as active. | Mini-games [GP02-E] +--------------------- LOCKPICKING ------------- Whenever you Activate a locked door or container, the lockpicking mini-game starts. You'll see a stylized rendition of the internal workings of a lock. Through the middle runs a hollow bolt into which your pick is inserted. This bolt is held in place by from one (very easy locks) to five (very hard locks) tumblers. You may attempt to automatically open the lock using the Auto Attempt button, or you may pick the lock manually. Move the pick under a tumbler and push up (move your mouse up or press up on the control pad) to push the tumbler out of the bolt. The tumblers are spring-loaded and will pop back down either immediately or after a one- or two-second delay. While the tumbler is still seated in the up position, LEFT-CLICK or press the right trigger to set the tumbler. If you click at the wrong time, the tumbler falls back into place and breaks your pick. Depending on your Security skill, other tumblers you have already set will also fall and you'll have to set them all over again. Security controls the lockpicking mini-game in three ways: * Higher Security provides a more likely chance of success if you use the Auto Attempt button to try to pick the lock. * Higher Security keeps set tumblers in place when you break a pick by failing to properly set a tumbler. Novice: all set tumblers fall Apprentice: up to three set tumblers fall Journeyman: up to two set tumblers fall Expert: only one other set tumbler will fall Master: no other tumblers fall.) * Higher Security causes tumblers to drop back down more slowly. You can figure out when to set a tumbler into place in one of two ways: * Keep pushing it up and letting it fall and watch the pattern. On more complex locks the tumbler's pattern can be quite long. For example, an easy lock might have a tumbler with a pattern of short-long-short-short. A more complex lock might have patterns like short-long-long-short-short-short-long- short-long. Once you've got the pattern, click to set on a long segment of the pattern. * Listen to the sound of the tumbler moving up. There is an extra, very quiet click when the tumbler is going to stay seated for a second or two. That's when you can set the tumbler. Once you learn how to recognize that little extra click, you can pick locks very easily. There are two ways to get around this mini-game: 1) Work on your Alteration skill and use Open Lock spells. 2) Perform Nocturnal's quest (as soon as you reach level 10) and get the Skeleton Key. This unbreakable lockpick allows you to pick any lock just by clicking Auto-Attempt until the lock opens. PERSUASION ------------ Each NPC has a Disposition score that indicates how likely they are to give you important information or Haggle with you (if a merchant). You can increase an NPC's Disposition using a Persuasion mini-game. In some cases, getting or continuing a quest requires you to get a high Disposition score with the target. *NOTE* You can also increase Disposition by using Charm spells, the Imperial ability, "Voice of the Emperor", or the vampire ability, "Vampire's Seduction". To play the Persuasion mini-game, click the Persuade button (face icon on the left of the conversation menu) during conversation. A segmented wheel opens next to the NPC. There are four segments: Admire, Boast, Joke and Coerce. During each round of play, you must perform each action once. To perform an action, select it and LEFT-CLICK or Right Trigger. Of the four actions, the NPC will love one, like one, dislike one and hate one. You can tell the NPC's reaction by examining his or her face when you select the action. Inside each action's segment of the wheel is a wedge. After each selection, the wedges "rotate", changing their position. There are four wedges: 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. They always rotate clockwise and their order will differ from round to round. The actions the NPC loves, likes, dislikes and hates will always be the same, so you only need to test them at the beginning of the mini-game. Basic gameplay involves choosing liked or loved responses when they are filled with a medium or large wedge and choosing disliked and hated actions when they have only a small wedge in them. All the while you're deciding which action to pick, the NPC's Disposition is falling. First, get a blank sheet of paper and sketch four large X's on it: \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \/ \/ \/ \/ /\ /\ /\ /\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ Start the Persuasion mini-game and quickly examine the NPC's reactions to each action. Pause the game and note these reactions in the appropriate section of your diagrams. In this example, the NPC (a city guard) loves Admire, likes Boast, dislikes Joke and hates Coerce: LV LV LV LV \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / LK \/ D LK \/ D LK \/ D LK \/ D /\ /\ /\ /\ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ H H H H Next, quickly examine the current position of the wedges, pause the game and note these in your first X: LV \ 25 / \ / LK \/ D 75 /\ 50 / \ /100 \ H You can now extrapolate where each wedge will be for each selection: LV LV LV LV \ 25 / \ 75 / \100 / \ 50 / \ / \ / \ / \ / LK \/ D LK \/ D LK \/ D LK \/ D 75 /\ 50 100 /\ 25 50 /\ 75 25 /\100 / \ / \ / \ / \ /100 \ / 50 \ / 25 \ / 75 \ H H H H The strategy is simple: First determine in which turn you get the 25% wedge in Hate and take that--in this example, it is the third turn. Then you want the 100% wedge in Love, or, if that's unavailable (because it occurs in the same turn as 25% in Hate), then take 75% in Love (second turn in this example). Then Dislike when it is lower--of the remaining turns (first and fourth), Dislike is lower in the first. So, the correct strategy for this round is: Dislike (50%), Love (75%), Hate (25%), Like (25%). You then start the next round and your opening looks like this: LV \100 / \ / LK \/ D 25 /\ 75 / \ / 50 \ H Planning ahead yields: Love (100%), Like (50%), Dislike (25%), Hate (25%). You'll get a greater increase in Disposition this round than the previous round. Continue until you've maximized the NPC's Disposition. Your Speechcraft skill can help with the Persuasion mini-game in several ways: * At Apprentice rank, you can get a free rotation of the wheel during the mini-game. * At Journeyman rank, the NPC's Disposition falls more slowly while you're making your decisions. * At Expert rank, there is less reduction in Disposition from the hated response. Once you get good at this mini-game, you won't need to sketch out your moves; you'll be able to do it in your head, which dramatically decreases the time it takes to sweet-talk NPCs. | Enchanting, Spellmaking & Soul Gems [GP02-F] +---------------------------------------------- Sooner, rather than later, you're going to be depending on enchanted weapons and/or armor for survival. You may also find that you want a specific type of spell that you can't find anywhere from a spell merchant--perhaps you want a stronger healing spell, but the only stronger ones sold are too high in level for you to use. Regardless, you're going to be interested in three things: * Enchanting your own items (armor, clothing, weapons and jewelry) * Recharging enchanted weapons * Making your own spells SPELLMAKING ------------- To make your own spells requires access to an Altar of Spellmaking. In the base game, Altars of Spellmaking are only available in Arcane University to Apprentices (and higher) of the Mages Guild. That means you have to complete the seven Recommendation quests. You can get an Altar of Spellmaking in Frostcrag Spire if you buy the Wizard's Tower official plug-in -- no guild membership necessary. Activate an Altar of Spellmaking and you'll be presented with a simple menu. At the top is a box where you enter your spell's name. On the left is a list of effects from spells currently in your spellbook. You can only create new spells using effects you already know--magnitude isn't relevant. So, if you want to create a spell that does 50 points of fire damage and you still have Flare (5 points fire damage) in your spellbook (the spell you're given in the starter dungeon), you can create your 50-point fire damage spell. When you choose an effect, you get a new window with four controls: * Range: one of Self, Touch or Target * Magnitude: strength of the spell * Area: how large of an area will be affected by the spell (if you select Self as the Range, this option disappears) * Duration: how long the spell lasts (Some of the sliders may not show depending on the effect. For example, Detect Life only shows Magnitude and Duration. Other effects may show additional controls, for example an Attribute control for picking an Attribute to Fortify or Drain.) Along the bottom of this window you will see the current number of Magicka points required to cast the spell based on your skill rank in the appropriate spell school (next to the lightning bolt icon), the cost to create the spell (next to the gold coin icon with the arrow) and the total gold you currently possess (next to the right-most coin icon). You can manipulate these sliders to get similar effects at different costs. For example, a spell causing 50 points of fire damage on Target costs 33 Magicka to cast and 99 gold to create. A spell causing 10 points of fire damage for 5 seconds (total 50 points) costs only 21 Magicka to cast and 63 gold to create. Add a 10-foot explosion to that spell, and it still only costs 32 Magicka to cast and 96 gold to create. (Magicka costs based on Destruction rank of 100.) You can combine effects, even effects from different spell schools in a single spell. The spell school under which the spell falls is determined by the first listed effect. The skill rank needed to cast the spell is determined by the spell cost. ENCHANTING ------------ In addition to finding a lot of enchanted equipment in the world, you can make your own. To do so, you need to use an Altar of Enchanting or a sigil stone (the ones you collect when you close an Oblivion gate). The only Altars of Enchanting in Cyrodiil are in Arcane University--so you'll have to complete the Mages Guild Recommendation quests to get in there. (Alternately, you can buy the Wizard's Tower official plug-in and get your own Altar of Enchanting without joining the Mages Guild.) To enchant an item with a sigil stone, simple select the sigil stone in your inventory. Each sigil stone shows two effects: one defensive/buffing effect and one offensive effect. For example, a stone may show the effects of Fire Resist and Fire Damage. When you select the stone and click it (or press the A button), you get a menu showing your available weapons and worn items that have no enchantments. Select a weapon to get the offensive effect added to that weapon. Select an item of wear to get the defensive effect added to that item. You can also name your item. No altars or soul gems are needed to enchant the item. You will still need soul gems or varla stones to recharge the item. In order to enchant an item without using a sigil stone, you must have a soul gem with a captured soul. Souls and soul gems come in five sizes: petty, lesser, common, greater and grand. The enchantment ability is determined by the size of the soul, not the size of the gem. When you Activate an Altar of Enchanting, you get a menu showing a box across the top for the name of your item. On the left you can Add Item--you can enchant any weapon or item you can wear (clothing, armor, rings or amulets). On the right you can Add Soul Gem, selecting the filled gem you want to use from your inventory. After you've selected an item, a list of effects--governed by the effects you know how to cast (i.e. have similar spells in your spell book)--shows in the left-hand box. Effects you have added to your item show in the right-hand box as you add them. ENCHANTING WEAPONS -------------------- Weapons can have multiple enchantments, but you must add all enchantments at one time. Once an enchanted weapon has been made, you cannot add enchantments to it. The size of the soul you use to enchant the weapon determines how many total charges the weapon will have: Petty: 150 charges Lesser: 300 charges Common: 800 charges Greater: 1200 charges Grand: 1600 charges When you choose an effect to add to the weapon, you get a window with three controls: Magnitude: strength of the effect Area: how large of an area will be affected by the weapon Duration: how long the effect will last (Some effects, such as Drain Skill, will show an additional control.) Below you can see (from right to left): the number of charges used per hit with the weapon, the number of uses you'll get before the weapon needs to be recharged (this is the total charges from the soul divided by the number of charges used per hit), the cost to create the weapon and the total gold you have in your pockets. As you manipulate the sliders to create the effect, the number of charges per hit will go up (or down) with corresponding dips or increases in the number of uses. To recharge any enchanted weapon: * Use a filled soul gem from your inventory, the number of charges restored from the soul is the same as the number of charges that size soul provides when enchanting (i.e. 150, 300, 800, 1200 or 1600) * Use a varla stone in your inventory. Varla stones fully recharge every enchanted weapon in your inventory. * Pay a recharger. Various merchants (most in the Mages Guild halls) will recharge your weapons. They charge one gold per charge restored. ENCHANTING ARMOR, CLOTHING AND JEWELRY ---------------------------------------- Items you wear can only have one enchantment placed on them. You select the item, the soul gem and the effect. The magnitude of the effect is determined by the size of the soul in the gem. The range is always self and the duration is always constant. Enchanted wear items do not have charges associated with them. SOUL GEMS ----------- For purposes of enchanting and recharging, soul gems are highly useful. Of course, they must first be filled with a soul. You capture souls using a Soul Trap spell. Cast Soul Trap on an enemy and kill that enemy before the Trap spell wears off. The enemy's soul will go into the smallest empty gem in your inventory that is still big enough to hold the soul. For example, you have an empty lesser and an empty greater soul gem. If you capture a petty or lesser soul, it will go into the lesser gem. If you capture a common or greater soul, it will go into the greater gem. If you capture a grand soul, it will be wasted because you don't have an empty grand soul gem available. If you capture a lesser soul, then a petty soul, the lesser will go to the lesser gem and the petty will end up in the greater gem. You can only capture the souls of creatures that are not one of the ten player races (Argonian, Breton, Dark Elf, High Elf, Imperial, Khajiit, Nord, Orc, Redguard or Wood Elf). Using Soul Trap on a "sentient" race is a waste of the spell. The exception is the black soul gem. Black soul gems are grand soul gems that can be used to capture "human" souls. There are a few black soul gems that are found as treasure. You can also make your own black soul gems using a necromancer altar. To make a black soul gem, you need an empty grand soul gem and a Soul Trap spell (any level spell will do). Find a necromancer altar (there's one in front of Dark Fissure in eastern Cyrodiil). Wait until midnight. Look for a bright cone of light shining down around the altar. (It's easier to see this cone if you look up into the sky, rather than looking at the altar.) If there's no bright light, Wait 24 hours and try again. Sometime during the week, a bright cone of light will shine down on the altar; when you see the light, put your empty grand soul gem in the altar and cast Soul Trap on the altar. Remove your shiny new black soul gem. AZURA'S STAR -------------- Azura's Star is your reward for completing Azura's quest (one of the Daedric quests). Azura's Star is a refillable grand soul gem. Normal soul gems disappear when you use them to make or recharge an item. Azura's Star does not disappear. You can use it over and over again, as many times as you like. You cannot convert Azura's Star into a refillable black soul gem. Azura's Star is a very useful item, especially for fighters relying on enchanted weapons. If you enchant your own weapons, add a short Soul Trap effect to each weapon, this way you will always capture the soul of whatever you kill. You can then instantly recharge your weapon before attacking the next creature. If you do not enchant your own weapons, be sure to use as long a duration Soul Trap spell as you can cast on each creature you fight. Always make sure to recharge your weapon as soon as you've killed a creature, so you don't waste any souls (i.e. charges). SOULS ------- Here is a short list of soul sizes for commonly encountered creatures. These sizes are for the base creatures. Leveled creatures will have larger souls. * Petty: Deer, Dog, Goblin, Mud Crab, Rat, Sheep, Skeleton, Slaughterfish, Stunted Scamp, Wolf * Lesser: Boar, Clannfear Runt, Deranged Zombie, Ghost, Goblin Skirmisher, Horse, Imp, Timber Wolf, Troll, Zombie * Common: Ancient Ghost, Black Bear, Clannfear, Faded Wraith, Flame Atronach, Goblin Berserker, Goblin Shaman, Goblin Warlord, Headless Zombie, Minotaur, Mountain Lion, Ogre, Scamp, Skeleton Hero, Spriggan, Will-o-the-Wisp * Greater: Brown Bear, Daedroth, Dread Zombie, Frost Atronach, Land Dreugh, Nether Lich, Skeleton Champion, Spider Daedra, Storm Atronach, Wraith * Grand: Gloom Wraith, Lich, Minotaur Lord, Xivilai [GP03] <~~~~~~ COMBAT ~~~~~~> As would be the case in any adventure/RPG style game, there is plenty of combat in Oblivion. There are four basic types of combat in Oblivion: heavy melee (tank), light melee (scout), archer and magic. There are two basic rules that apply to all four types of combat... | Divide and Conquer +-------------------- The combat in Oblivion is real-time and based on simple physics: if you swing at the right time and in the right place, you hit. If you aim your arrow properly, you hit. If you don't do these things right, you miss. There are no dice rolls going on "in the background". Nobody stands around "waiting their turn". If you get surrounded by three or more enemies, you're dead. Fortunately, the developers, for the most part, spaced enemies out so you don't typically walk in on a horde that's just sat down for lunch. Most rooms have only one or two mobs in them. Larger rooms may have three or four, but widely spaced out. You need to learn to draw enemies to you one (or, at worst, two) at a time. Use arrows, ranged spells or jump up-and-down to attract the attention of the closest to you, then turn and run back a ways so your foe will foolishly charge after you, not waiting for his/her/its compatriots. Once you learn how to deal with enemies in *very small* numbers, combat becomes a lot easier. | Everyone Uses Magic +--------------------- Regardless of your play style or character type, you need magic. All characters can use buffs, regardless of class type. Melee fighters will want to enchant their own weapons, which means having spells with the right effects in your spellbook. Melee fighters will also benefit from paralyzing-type spells used against archer and mages so they can close in without taking a lot of damage. Archers and light melee fighters sometimes need a summoned creature to help with mobs. And, of course, there are the always useful Restoration spells to restore health or damage abilities. So, don't neglect your inner Breton. Learn some useful spells and keep scrolls handy. Keep welkynd stones and Magicka-restoring potions in your pockets in case you suffer a sudden loss of Magicka. Learn to use magic as part of your tactics and you'll be much more successful. | The Numbers Game +------------------ Some numbers you need to know before you go about fitting out your character: * Armor Your armor rating is the *percentage* of *physical* damage deducted from hits on you. The max is 85: 85% of physical damage is deducted from any hits on you (i.e. you only take 15% damage from physical attacks). Armor doesn't affect elemental damage--fire, frost and shock. Both Light Armor and Heavy Armor can be maxed out, though it will take longer with Light Armor (you'll need Elven or glass and Master Light Armor skill). * Weapon damage The higher your weapon skill, the more damage you do with that type of weapon. Blades tend to be more powerful than blunts, and more plentiful as well. Strength also affects melee weapon damage. Agility affects bow weapon damage. * Spells The potency of your spells is not changed by your skill level in that spell school, your Intelligence or your Willpower. When you increase in a spell skill, you have the opportunity to buy or make stronger spells. Higher ranks in a spell skill also decrease the Magicka needed to cast spells in that school. Your Intelligence directly affects your total Magicka. Your Willpower determines how fast your Magicka regenerates. * Damage Over Time If something is listed as "5 points fire damage for 5 seconds", it means you'll get a total of 25 points fire damage from the effect (5 damage each second x 5 seconds = 25 damage). Damage over time spells are cheaper to make and cheaper to cast. * Spell Effectiveness Wearing armor decreases the effectiveness of your spells. As your armor skill increases, so does the effectiveness of your spells. The highest effectiveness rate of spells while wearing armor is 95%. E.g. a spell that is listed as "20 fire damage" only does 19 damage at 95% effective, 16 damage at 80% effective, etc. All fractions are dropped (i.e. rounded down), so 80% of 5 is 4 and 95% of 5 is 4. If you want 100% effectiveness from your spells, you can't wear any armor--not even gloves or boots. | Heavy Melee [GP03-A] +---------------------- First, give up on two-handed weapons. There is little additional benefit and a couple of negatives to fighting that way. You give up speed, so you make fewer attacks; and, you give up a shield, so you can't block as effectively. In return, you get a minor increase in damage. For example, a steel long sword has a base attack rating of 12; a steel claymore or battle axe has a base attack rating of 14. The steel war hammer gives a base attack of 16. This spread (2 extra points for the claymore or battle axe, 4 points for the war hammer) carries through the different weapon types (i.e. a daedric war hammer does 4 points more damage than a daedric long sword). Once you layer on enchantments, power attacks, poisons, etc., the small difference in base attack is not worth losing your shield and not being able to swing as fast. As a tank, your focus is on absorbing damage. You want the best heavy armor you can obtain, and you want to make sure you level up your Block, Heavy Armor and Armorer skills. Focus on boosting your Strength (for damage and carrying capacity), Endurance (for health) and Agility (to avoid being staggered). FIGHTING TACTICS ------------------ Against other melee fighters: Step in and trade blows. Block when the other guy starts to swing, then smash him with power attacks when he pauses. Nothing could be simpler. Against archers: You have to run them down, which can be tricky in large areas. Having a paralyze spell or poison for an arrow of your own will stop them long enough for you to close in and smash them. Many archers make things easier by pulling a sword when you get close, much to their detriment. When charging an archer, keep your shield up to avoid being staggered by their arrows, and try weaving a bit to throw off their aim. Against mages: This is tricky. If you get hit with a burden spell, you'll likely be easy pickins'. A weapon with Silence is deadly against mages-- especially a bow. Sneak up on them and hit them with a Silence arrow and you can then bull-rush them and take them out easily. Another good tactic, since mages tend to be weaklings, is to use Sneak Attacks with a powerful weapon. You can often drop them in one hit. EQUIPMENT ----------- Heavy armor enchanted against elemental damage and with spell reflection or absorption to help against mages. You don't need Shield effects as your armor rating is going to get maxed out anyway. You'll want a silver, daedric or enchanted one-handed weapon, preferably a blade. There are better and more numerous blades than blunts available in the game. As you increase in level, you should fill out your arsenal with at least one weapon enchanted with each elemental damage type (fire, frost and shock). If you enchant your own weapons, you can add a small (1-2 second duration) Soul Trap spell to the weapon when you add the elemental damage. Get Azura's Star as soon as you can and you can instantly recharge your weapon after each fight. Rings and amulets with Feather or Fortify Strength bonuses. You're going to be carrying a lot of weight just in the equipment you use regularly, so you'll want the ability to increase your max encumbrance or decrease your current encumbrance so you can properly loot dungeons. | Light Melee [GP03-B] +---------------------- While you can, eventually, get as high an armor rating with light armor as you can with heavy armor, it is going to take a lot longer. Your fighting style is going to depend more on giving damage without taking much in return. You will rely more on Stealth for Sneak Attacks; and, when in melee, use your Speed to dance in and out of range, dishing out short, quick strikes before running away. You want to focus on your Speed, Agility and Strength attributes and your Stealth and weapon skills. You won't block as much (the idea is to avoid being hit, not blocking some of the damage) and you'll probably use spells a bit more, so you want to pick a school and level it up. A Magicka-enhancing birthsign wouldn't hurt as well as increasing your Intelligence and/or Willpower. FIGHTING TACTICS ------------------ Against other melee fighters: You want to stay out of range of the other character's weapon. This will be most difficult against some of the beast and melee creatures (clannfear, mountain lions, etc.) as they can move very fast. Leading with a paralyze, burden or Drain Strength spell can help a lot-- especially against the heavy tanks. Start with either a Sneak Attack from Stealth mode, or by firing arrows or spells until the enemy rushes you; the more damage you can do before the fighting starts, the better off you will be. Against archers and mages: The basic tactic here is the same--avoid getting into a long-range battle with these types of characters. You're not built to absorb damage the way a heavy tank is, so your best friend is a Stealth attack, preferably a melee attack to get the extra bonus damage. If you put some type of poison on your blade (Silence against mages, paralyze or Drain Marksman skill for archers), so much the better. EQUIPMENT ----------- Light armor with Shield enchantments early. Later, as you get better armor and your Light Armor skill increases, you can trade in Shield enchantments for Reflection and Absorption enhancements. Wearable items that Fortify your Speed attribute and your Sneak skill. Boosting Strength wouldn't hurt either; but, your focus should be effective Sneak Attacks rather than raw damage. A Feather effect will help with looting. A good bow and some enchanted arrows. While you won't be dependent on ranged attacks, you will lead with them--especially from Sneak mode. Of course, you'll want an array of enchanted melee weapons--preferably light, fast blades; and, Azura's Star for quick recharging between fights. | Archer [GP03-C] +----------------- Early in the game, Oblivion is much more suited for melee fighters than for ranged fighters--either archers or mages. Once you work through a few levels and increase your Marksman skill--not to mention pick up enchanted bows and arrows--archery is very effective. Make no mistake about it, being a good archer means careful race, class and birthsign selection, lots of hard work and smart battle tactics. It is also extremely satisfying, especially when you're able to start killing enemies before they even have a chance to reach you. The biggest downside to archery is you need room to maneuver. There's lots of dungeon delving in Oblivion, and the tight spaces underground are not suitable for ranged attacks. You will need to be a good melee fighter as well. FIGHTING TACTICS ------------------ Sneak attacks + poisoned arrows. That's pretty much it. You can one-shot kill common mobs with a Sneak attack even early in the game. Your biggest fear playing as an archer is getting mobbed. You want to pick your enemies off from a distance, so the more you can kill quickly, while staying hidden, the better. You'll want to work hard on your Alchemy so you can brew your own poisons. The more pain you can dish out per shot, the better. Chameleon and Summoning spells are your friends. Chameleon gives some of the benefits of invisibility; but, maintains the effect even when you attack. (Which is why 100% Chameleon breaks the game--you can attack with impunity and enemies can never see you to return the favor.) When things get tight, you whip out a daedra or undead to do the dirty in-fighting for you while you stay back and snipe. You'll want to improve your Marksman skill as quickly as possible. The quicker you can get the "scope" effect (the ability to zoom in on a target) at Journeyman level, the more effective you will be at picking off your enemies before they can close with you. Once you reach Expert Marksman, you can stagger enemies, which makes you more-or-less unstoppable. EQUIPMENT ----------- Throughout all stages of your character development, you will be especially vulnerable to spellcasters and other archers. Since you have to stand still, aim and shoot, ranged mobs have an advantage against you. Furthermore, any time you end up in a hand-to-hand scuffle, you'll be at a disadvantage. So, you want to have decent armor. While most people think of archers as light-armored fighters, a heavy armor archer is not out of the question. The more protection you can layer on yourself, the more you can stand in and take physical punishment--whether from arrows or melee weapons. You also need to have spell absorption, spell reflection or magic-resistant equipment. Don't forget to find or enchant some items with permanent Chameleon effects to improve your chances of making Sneak attacks. (But, don't layer on so much Chameleon you break the game. It's really no fun.) Since you won't be carting around as many heavy melee weapons as the hand-to-hand fighters, Feather spells and Strength-boosting effects are not as beneficial. (Though, in the long run, all adventurers benefit from higher encumbrance.) | Magic [GP03-D] +---------------- There are lots of different mage "classes" in Oblivion. However, you can boil them down to three distinct types: * Battlemage: "Battlemage" is really just a term applied to a melee fighter or archer that uses a bit more magic than is typical. A battlemage isn't really a mage so much as a magic-using fighter. Use the tactics and equipment lists for the type of fighter you'll be; but, you may want to use a race and birthsign that emphasize Magicka. * Summoner: Summoners concentrate on hanging back, out of range of attacks, calling forth a daedric or undead minion and using a few ranged offensive spells against the enemy; or, using buffing spells on the summoned creature. Within Oblivion, summoners are usually called Necromancers because many of the best summoned creatures are undead. Tactics for summoning are fairly simple: train up your Conjuration skill (which is the easiest magic skill to train) and have Restoration spells ready to heal and buff your summons. Try to stay out of the fight and let your summons do the work for you. Since your Conjuration skill will be high, you'll want a high-level Bound weapon spell available for when the action gets too close (mainly for blocking, since you're an ineffectual fighter). * Sorcerer: This is the offensive mage archetype. Sorcerers are all about raining death and destruction on their enemies using only magic. A sorcerer disdains mundane weapons, using them only when required (and frequently falling back on Bound Daedric weapons conjured up when necessary rather than carting around a sword). Both the Summoner and Sorcerer style of playing will be covered in this section. SPELL-CHAINING ---------------- Spell-chaining is the tactic of chaining weakness spells with damage spells to increase the overall damage of the spell. For example, if you first hit your target with Weakness to Shock 100; then, while the Weakness to Shock spell is still in effect, you hit with a Shock 10 spell, the Shock 10 spell actually does 20 points of damage (10 + 100% or 10 + 10). The idea behind spell- chaining is to radically increase damage at a minimal cost in Magicka. Three notes about spell-chaining: 1) You have to make your own spells. You won't find the right types of spells for chaining in the wild or in stores. So, you must reach Apprentice level in the Mages Guild or buy the Wizard's Tower official plug-in. 2) Spell-chaining uses short duration spells (thus minimizing the Magicka cost of the spells). Each spell only needs a long enough duration in order for you to hit with the next spell in the chain. Thus, you need to tailor the duration of the spells to your ability to switch and cast a spell--typically five or six seconds will be enough; less once you have become experienced. You also should use touch spells rather than ranged spells, as this allows you to avoid the duration of the spell traveling over distance and makes hitting with each spell in the chain more of a sure thing. 3) Use damage-over-time spells as they are cheaper to make and to cast. A 5 Fire Damage for 5 Seconds and a 25 Fire Damage both do the same total amount of damage (25 points); but, the 5x5 spell will use less Magicka. Example --------- Spell 1: Weakness to Magicka 100 for 5 seconds -> Start by increasing the target's vulnerability to all spells by 100%; this doubles the effect of the next spell that hits Spell 2: Weakness to Magicka 100 for 5 seconds, Weakness to Shock 100 for 5 seconds -> The next spell that hits increases the target's vulnerability to all Spells by 200% (100% doubled by the first spell = 200%) and to Shock Damage by 200% Spell 3: Shock 5 Damage for 10 seconds -> By now, the first spell has worn off; but, that's OK. The second spell is still in effect. First, the Shock damage is increased by 200%, or tripled. 5x10 becomes 15x10. This is then run through the Weakness to Magicka 200 effect, which triples it again. 15x10 becomes 45x10. You've just increased the magnitude of your spell by 800%: from 50 total damage to 450 total damage. At a total cost of Magicka, you can cast this chain pretty much constantly (not that you'll need to, dishing out 450 damage every ten seconds. Spell-chaining is not an original idea; it's been around at least since Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Just Google oblivion spell-chaining and you'll find a number of treatises on the subject. FIGHTING TACTICS ------------------ If you don't want to do spell-chaining, as described above, then your tactics are going to be similar to an archer. You want to stay back, out of range, and let loose targeted Destruction spells at your enemies. You should also work on your Conjuration so you can call for help when things get sticky. You should always carry a weapon and use it to block when attackers get too close. Have some powerful touch spells ready (touch spells do more damage per Magicka spent than ranged spells) to use when an opponent closes up. Some other things you can do: * Burden your enemies to keep them from moving (works especially well on heavy-armor tanks). * Lower your enemy's resistances and then follow up with a spell that exploits that weakness (similar to spell-chaining, but you'll need longer-lasting Weakness spells and more powerful Destruction spells). * Buff yourself into a melee monster (Shield, Fortify Strength) and use Bound weapons to whale on an unsuspecting foe. * Use Sneak Attacks (preferably with a bow) before opening with magic. You don't get any Sneak bonus when using magic, but you do when shooting an arrow. EQUIPMENT ----------- As a spellcaster, one of your biggest problems is spell reflection--i.e. enemies with lots of spell reflection. If you've built yourself into a powerhouse, you don't really want your spells coming back to bite you in the rear. Therefore, you want to load up on items, potions and spells that provide magic resistance. If you can ameliorate the damage being reflected back to you (not to mention the spells of enemy casters), so much the better. You'll also want plenty of Feather spells or potions so you can properly loot all the dungeons you clean out. And, you'll need plenty of Shielding unless you decide you can get by wearing light armor and taking the hit in spell effectiveness. If you want full power from your spells, then you'll have to replace normal armor with Shield spells. Finally, the best equipment any mage can have is an Altar of Spellmaking. You can get one of these by purchasing the Wizard's Tower official plug-in and buying the necessary equipment in-game. You could also join the Mages Guild and complete the seven Recommendation quests--this gives you access to spellmaking at Arcane University. [GP04] <~~~~~~ MAGICKA EFFECTS ~~~~~~> This is a brief rundown of the different types of effects in the game and how to deal with them. *NOTE 1* You can get rid of most harmful effects by praying at the altar (Activate the altar) in a Great Chapel in one of the major cities. In order for you to receive restoration, your Fame must be higher than your Infamy and you cannot have any outstanding bounty. *NOTE 2* Most effects are temporary unless you enchant them into an item. If you wear an enchanted item, the effects are permanent until you remove the item. * Absorb Attribute/Skill Temporarily transfers some attribute or skill points from the affected character to the affecting character. For example, if you have Absorb Magicka on your weapon, any creature you hit with that weapon will lose some Magicka and you will gain the same amount. * Burden Increase the encumbrance value of all items in your Inventory. If the total encumbrance value of all items is more than your maximum encumbrance you are over-encumbered and cannot move (though you can still use a weapon or cast a spell). Using Burden spells/poisons on characters in heavy armor might just root them in place, allowing you to pick them off from a distance. * Chameleon You will blend in with your environment, making it more difficult for enemies to see you and increasing your Sneak effectiveness. Chameleon, unlike Invisibility, is not canceled when you attack someone; thus, 100% Chameleon essentially breaks the game by making it impossible for enemies to attack you or react when you attack them. (And 100% Chameleon is not hard to get either.) * Damage Attribute/Skill Take a few points off the named attribute or skill. Damaged attributes and skills do not restore themselves. You must use a Restore spell/potion or pray at the altar in one of the Great Chapels in a city. * Detect Life You can see all animate creatures in the radius of the spell. This includes undead. (So, why is it called Detect "Life" when it can detect non-life? Who knows?) Animate creatures will be highlighted in a purple glow. The spell works through walls, allowing you to see enemies in the next room (or even down through the floor or up through the ceiling in multi-level areas). * Disease There are a number of different diseases in the game. You will typically be affected when hit by certain creatures. Use a Cure Disease spell or potion, or pray at the altar in one of the Great Chapels in a city. * Dispel You can rid yourself or the target of Magicka effects, harmful or beneficial. Useful if you've been hit with Drain, Burden, Paralyze, etc. and need to get rid of the effect fast. It can also be used to cancel your enemy's buffs. * Drain Attribute/Skill Similar to Damage Attribute/Skill, but the effects are temporary. * Feather Decrease the encumbrance value of all items in your Inventory. This will show as an increase in your maximum encumbrance value, but that's not actually what is happening. For example, if you are carrying 30 pounds of equipment, and you use a Feather 50 spell, you only get the effect of Feather 30, since there aren't 50 pounds of equipment to reduce. To avoid problems, make sure you only use a Feather effect that is less than your current encumbrance. * Fire Damage Cause an additional amount of damage of type "fire". This is elemental damage and not reduced by armor; however, it is affected by Fire Resistance, Spell Absorption and Reflection. * Fortify Attribute/Skill Increase the number of points in an attribute or skill. * Frost Damage Cause an additional amount of damage of type "frost". This is elemental damage and not reduced by armor; however, it is affected by Fire Resistance, Spell Absorption and Reflection. * Invisibility You become invisible and impossible to detect. Attacking another character cancels the invisibility. * Light Gives light in a radius around the target. * Night-Eye Essentially, this is ultraviolet vision. Lets you see in the dark, but everything is bluish-gray in color. * Open Lock Allows you to open locks. Each spell is rated for the maximum difficulty lock it will open. Using Open Lock on a "red" door is not considered a crime (unlike lockpicking). Open Lock spells increase your Alteration skill and do not affect your Security skill. * Paralyze Binds the target and knocks it to the ground where you can have your way with it. * Poison Poisons are another way of causing the various different effects listed here. You can instantly recover from a poison by using a Cure Poison spell or potion. You can also pray at the altar in one of the Great Chapels in a city. * Reflect Damage Reflect a certain amount of damage done to you back on the character doing the damage. * Resist Damage You will shrug off some of a specific type of damage. E.g. Resist Fire 10% gets rid of the first 10% of fire damage that hits you. Resist Normal Weapons 50% deducts half the damage from normal (non-silver, non-daedric, non- enchanted) weapons. * Restore Attribute/Skill Heal a damaged, drained or absorbed attribute or skill. * Shield Increase your armor rating; e.g. Shield 20 increases your armor rating by 20 points. You can also have a Fire/Frost/Shock Shield, which increases your armor rating and gives you resistance to the named elemental damage type. E.g. Shock Shield 20 increases your armor rating by 20 points and provides 20 points of Shock resistance. * Shock Damage Cause an additional amount of damage of type "shock". This is elemental damage and not reduced by armor; however, it is affected by Fire Resistance, Spell Absorption and Reflection. * Spell Absorption Nullify a percentage of a spell's effect. * Spell Reflection Reflect a percentage of a spell's effect back on the caster. * Weakness to Damage Make the target more vulnerable to a specific type of damage. For example, Weakness to Frost 50 means frost effects cause 50% more damage to the weak character. HOW TO GET 100% CHAMELEON --------------------------- *WARNING* 100% Chameleon breaks the game. If you do this, you won't have any fun--unless you like playing in god mode. You need a Chameleon spell (any level) in your spellbook (i.e. not a scroll); five grand soul gems, each with a grand soul; about 8,000 gold; five pieces of un-enchanted wearable equipment (e.g. two rings, an amulet, gloves and boots) and the ability to enchant items (Apprentice in the Mages Guild or owner of the Wizard's Tower official plug-in). Use the soul gems to enchant each piece of equipment with 20% Chameleon for a total of 100% Chameleon. Alternately, you can get 100% Chameleon (well, actually 120%) by waiting until you are high level (over 16) before getting into the main quest. Then go around closing Oblivion Gates and collecting the Sigil Stones. Save right before taking the stone; if it doesn't offer the Chameleon effect, reload and take it again. When you have four Transcendent Sigil Stones with Chameleon (30%), enchant four items and get your 120% Chameleon. Put on your equipment. You are now completely invisible all the time and can do whatever you want whenever you want. Have fun. [GP05] <~~~~~~ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ~~~~~~> Q. Where's my horse? A. Horses are, overall, far more trouble than they are worth. You can't fight while you're on a horse (unless you download a mod for the PC version of the game). Horses frequently wander off while you're spelunking. And Fast Traveling while you're on a horse sometimes causes a glitch where either your horse disappears from the game entirely or ends up in the city with you. If you're having a lot of trouble keeping track of your horse, just work on training your Speed and do without the four-legged beasts. Q. OK, but where's Shadowmere? A. Shadowmere, as a plot NPC, can't be killed and doesn't generally wander off or glitch out of the game. If Shadowmere can't be found where you left him, go back to Fort Farragut (Lucien Lachance's headquarters). Shadowmere generally returns there whenever the game loses track of him. Q. What's the best Daedric artifact to give to Martin? (Blood of the Daedra quest) A. Wabbajack, the staff you get from Sheogorath's quest. Sheogorath's quest is easy (no combat), can be done at level 2 and Wabbajack is a fun item, but not one you're actually going to want to use in any serious way. Q. How do I build the best character? A. There's lots of different answers to that quest. Hopefully I've provided most of them in my Character Build FAQ: http://www.papagamer.com/faqs/oblivion_character.txt Q. I can't find the body in the well! (Cheydinhal Mages Guild Recommendation quest) A. This is a known glitch. There's no solution other than loading up an earlier savegame. Q. Can I give the Honorblade of Chorrol to the Countess and then steal it back? A. Yes. The solution comes from Karkianman: "I have a high stealth rating, and was wearing the Gray Cowl as well as some Chameleon enchantments, and found it impossible to pickpocket the sword from the countess. However, lo and behold, you can knock her unconscious, and at some point during her forced slumber you can take items off of her body, including the weightless sword. Wearing the Gray Cowl during this leaves you innocent. Do note that she has to be asleep already before you knock her out for this to work. During the day she equips the sword, and so even though she’s knocked out, it can’t be taken. I have no idea if a similar thing can be accomplished by giving the sword to Fathis Ules instead." Q. The priests in the Elder Scrolls Library (Thieves Guild Ultimate Heist quest) won't talk to me or are hostile. How do I complete the quest? A. Back up to an earlier savegame and try again. Make sure you Sneak around to open the door (you're a thief, right?) and be extra careful you don't talk to (Activate) any NPC in the area. Q. There's a chest in Pale Pass (Lifting the Vale side quest) that has a key? What does that key fit? A. There's an undocumented side quest in Pale Pass involving four chests. The first chest is right next to the fort, and the key in that chest fits the next chest and that chest has a key and so on. Unfortunately, I have not yet fully documented that side quest. If you search around on GameFAQs or other FAQ- related sources, you may find someone who has fully explained that little quest. Q. I'm trying to do the Fighters Guild quest Mystery at Harlun's Watch, but there are no villager bodies in the cave! How do I complete the quest. A. This bug is caused if you clear out Swampy Cave before you start this quest. The bug is fixed by the v1.1.511 patch. Install the patch, then back up to an earlier save from before starting that quest. Q. Where can I get the best gear? A. All loot and store merchandise in Oblivion is leveled. As you increase in level, so does the material you find in chests and the gear you buy from stores. All merchants have one "special" item that they always offer for sale (until you buy it, that is). In the long run, the best gear is enchanted stuff you make for yourself. Q. What are the best enchantments? A. Every adventurer needs Feather so you can haul your bounty out of the dungeons you explore, and Resist effects to ameliorate damage from elemental and magic attacks. Melee fighters need Strength for increasing damage. Mages can use boosts to their Magicka total and regeneration rate. Archers will want boosts to their Stealth and Agility, and a bow that does extra damage. Q. How do I get black soul gems? A. You can generally find them in necromancer dungeons. You can also make your own. Details on making black soul gems is in the Enchanting, Spellmaking & Soul Gems section above. Q. My skills or attributes have been damaged. What can I do? A. If your Infamy is lower than your Fame and you have no Bounty, you can pray at an altar in any Temple in the large cities. This will fully restore all your damaged attributes. If your Infamy is larger than your Fame, then you'll need to use Restore spells or potions; or, purchase the Vile Lair and activate the Altar of Sithis. It works just like Temple altars, but for "evil" characters. If your Infamy is low, but you have a Bounty, find the nearest guard and pay off your bounty, then pray at a Temple. Q. I'm doing the quest, Where Spirits Have Lease. I've tracked Velwyn Benirus in Imperial City, but he refuses to talk to me about the house? A. This is a known glitch and the only solution is to back up to an earlier save. Q. Can I save attribute bonuses between levels? A. No, unless you delay leveling up. As long as you don't level up, your attribute bonuses accumulate and you'll be able to get them all the next time you sleep, as you'll level up two or more times. Once you do level up, all your attribute bonuses are reset. Q. Do I get to be emperor when I finish the main quest? A. No. You become the Champion of Cyrodiil and get to wear the emperor's armor, but you're not large and in charge. Q. I'm trying to close an Oblivion gate, but Activating the Sigil Stone has no effect! What can I do? A. Back up to an earlier save? This glitch has hit many people, but I've seen no solution. Q. What are runestones, doomstones, Ayleid wells and wayshrines? A. These artifacts of an earlier age are scattered around Cyrodiil. Each one gives you some type of boost when you Activate (use) it. They are never marked on your map in game. Maps are available on GameFAQs.com. Wayshrines are essential in the Knights of the Nine quest. Q. How can I get more money at the merchants? What's the maximum amount of money that any merchant has? A. In the base game, the most any normal merchant has is 1200 gold. I.e. you make any sale over 1200 gold. The Wizard's Tower official plug-in adds a merchant with 2000 gold. Fences have up to 1500 gold, but are only available to Thieves Guild members, or owners of the Thieves Den official plug-in. You can add more barter gold to any merchant by increasing your Mercantile skill. At Expert Mercantile, you can give (invest) 500 gold to any merchant. At Master Mercantile, all merchants have 500 more barter gold. Thus, with Wizard's Tower + investing in the 2000 gold merchant + Master Mercantile, the most you can get for any item is 3000 gold. Or, if you're on the PC, you can install a mod that gives all merchants more money. Q. I exploited the item cloning/bound weapon/whatever glitch and now my game keeps crashing. What do I do. A. Back up to an earlier save and don't use exploits. Most exploits in these games are very risky and can lead to unintended consequences. Q. I'm trying to get out of Dagon Shrine, but the exit door is locked and says it needs a key! A. Wrong door. When you're escaping from the cave, it's easy to think the highly visible door just across from you is the exit. It's not. As you come out of the secret exit from the Living Quarters, the cave exit is to your right, at the end of a twisting tunnel. It's easily recognizable during the day because sunlight will be streaming through it. Q. How do I get rid of spells I don't use any more? A. The only way to take spells out of your spellbook is to use a console command: player.removespell hhhhhhhh where hhhhhhhh is the hex code for the spell. Details are in the PC Console Commands section of this guide. If you're playing on X360 or PS3...Sorry, you're out of luck. Q. I've finished all the quests. Is there anything else I can do? A. There are at least a couple dozen dungeons that aren't connected to any quest. You can explore those. PC users can download fan-made mods that add additional quests. Otherwise, you have to wait until the expansion set, Shivering Isles, is released in Spring 2007. [MS00] ~~The Elder Scrolls IV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MAIN STORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~OBLIVION~~ [MS01] <~~~~~~ TUTORIAL ~~~~~~> This starter dungeon is your tutorial for the game. It covers most of the basics. You start by choosing your race. Later you'll choose your birthsign and class. You'll be given the opportunity to change all of these at the end of the tutorial. | Imperial Prison +----------------- Wander around your cell, playing with the chains and listening to the Dark Elf across the way taunt you. Soon, Uriel Septim himself, accompanied by some of his Blades, will show up and give you a way out. Follow them down into the escape tunnel. You'll soon reach a place where the Emperor is attacked and Renault is killed--stay out of this fight, as you don't have a weapon or armor and you can't change the outcome anyway. Loot Renault's corpse for her sword and a torch and search the assassin bodies for miscellaneous stuff (mostly potions). From this point, you can't follow the Emperor's party, but a convenient hole in the wall to the southeast soon opens and a couple of rats run through. Kill the rats, jump through the hole and watch out for more rats. Thoroughly search this large cavern. A skeleton near the entrance has a bow and some arrows, so you can start working on your Marksman skill. There are a number of corpses--one has several lockpicks and another has a key to the exit door. The exit is to the southeast; the lock can be picked if you haven't found the key. (The body with the key is near the door.) | Imperial Substructure +----------------------- There's a zombie at the bottom of the slope leading out of the first room. This will be the strongest foe you've faced thus far. Other than that bit of excitement, you're mostly just fighting rats and collecting loot. Near the exit is a goblin early-warning system consisting of skulls hanging from the ceiling. | Natural Caverns +----------------- Soon after entering the caverns, you'll get your first lesson in sneaking. You can just sneak past the goblin; but, might as well sneak up to him and give him the business end of your weapon. Around the next corner is a tripwire. You can jump the tripwire and then fight the goblin beyond it; or, try to run through the tripwire and speed past the goblin, who will then take the brunt of the swinging maces. Don't try this unless you have a Speed rating of 40 or higher. Not far past the swinging mace trap, you'll come upon a pile of logs at the top of a slope. Activate the logs to take out the two goblins at the bottom of the slope. Advance slowly down the slope to a very large cavern. There will be three or four goblins in here, one of which is a witch with a lightning staff. Use a bow or ranged spell to draw the weaker goblins to you, then bull-rush the witch. The tunnel exit from this room eventually leads into the Imperial Subteranne. | Imperial Subteranne +--------------------- You come out on a high ledge looking over Uriel Septim and his bodyguards. Jump down into the room and Septim invites you to join the party. During the conversation you'll select a birthsign. Don't worry too much about your selection; you'll get to change it later. Follow the emperor and guards, helping with the assassins as they attack. You'll eventually reach... | The Sanctum +------------- Soon after entering the Sanctum, Baurus and the other guard go to scout ahead, leaving you to guard the Emperor in a side room. Uriel Septim initiates another conversation with you, this time charging you to take his Amulet of Kings to Jauffre, who will know where to find the last remaining son of the Emperor. As soon as you have the amulet, a Mythic Dawn assassin jumps through a secret door and kills Septim. [MS02] <~~~~~~ DELIVER THE AMULET ~~~~~~> | Sewers +-------- Baurus and the other guard return in time to help you deal with the assassin. You can then talk to Baurus about Jauffre. Jauffre is the Grandmaster of the Blades--the Emperor's personal guard--and he bides his time at Weynon Priory outside Chorrol. Baurus also initiates your first chance to choose a class. Don't spend too much time on it now; you can change it later (along with your race and birthsign). He'll then point you through the door the assassin came through, saying it leads to the sewers and freedom. Follow the hall to the sewer entrance, then advance through the sewers. Soon after entering, you'll come to a large room divided by water. There are two exits. The left--north--exit leads to some loot guarded by goblins. The right- -southeast--exit eventually leads to the long tunnel out of the sewers. About halfway down the tunnel you'll come to a gate. When you Activate the gate, you'll get a menu allowing you to change your race, birthsign, class or exit the sewers. *SAVE YOUR GAME* You may even want to use the console command SaveGame to create a specially- named save. Never delete this savegame. Whenever you want to start the game over with a "new" character, just load this savegame and change your race, birthsign and class, then exit the sewers. You never have to go through the starter dungeon again. (Well, unless you go through the Dark Brotherhood quests, but that's different.) When you're happy with your choice of character, exit the sewers. You find yourself looking out over a river toward some ruins. Behind you rises the Imperial Prison and, beyond that, Imperial City itself. | Imperial City +--------------- You can, if you like, immediately Fast Travel to Weynon Priory; however, you will probably want to stop in Imperial City and sell off any useless items you collected in the starter dungeon. The main story beckons, but so does the entire land of Cyrodiil. To quest, or not to quest, that is the question. There are several reasons for starting the main story right away and leaving everything else until later: 1) Several times during the main story you will be required either to protect an NPC or fight a pitched battle against hordes of daedra with the help of other NPCs. If you wait until you are higher level, the daedra you fight will also be higher level. Alas, the NPCs around you will not. Once you get into the late teens in level, the daedra you fight will have your allies for lunch and come looking for you as dessert. Fighting a mob of mid-level daedra isn't healthy. Not at all. You could wait until your power rivals the Nine (around 35th or 40th level), at which point the daedra you face simply can't keep up and you'll mow them down with ease. That doesn't necessarily help in the "protect the NPC" quests, though. At low levels, the daedra that spew forth from Oblivion are also low-level and your allies can pitch in and actually do more than contribute to some demon's indigestion. In this case, the leveled system works as intended and keeps the tasks challenging, but not impossible. 2) If you do a little bit of the main story, up to taking Martin back to Weynon Priory, you'll start the part of the game where random Oblivion gates pop up around Cyrodiil. If you get up to that point in the main story, then go side questing for a while, your way will eventually be impeded by all the daedra roaming the countryside. Better to get to the end of the main story and clear all that up. 3) When you finish the main story, you are proclaimed the Champion of Cyrodiil and everyone loves you. Literally. You get a big Disposition increase with all the NPCs, which makes all the side quests (many of which require a high Disposition score with an NPC somewhere along the way) much easier. No mucking about with the Disposition mini-game, or Charm spells or any thing like that. Just chat with the people and they'll do whatever you want or tell you anything you want to know. Makes the side quests a breeze. 4) A lot of the rewards for side quests are special enchanted items that are keyed to your level--the higher your level, the more powerful the item. If you collect all this junk at low levels, that's exactly what they will be...junk. (PC users can download a mod that fixes this problem. See the Mods section at the end of this guide.) Better to do all these side quests later and get the uber leet gear instead of the fancy baubles. Of course, you can ignore the voice of reason and go off side questing, in which case, just skip on down to the section you want to see. For those of you with a bit more wisdom, Fast Travel to... | Weynon Priory +--------------- Weynon Priory is located southeast of Chorrol. You can Fast Travel there from the beginning of the game. Jauffre is typically found upstairs in the main priory house, usually sitting at his desk. Talk to him for a history of the kings, the Dragonfires and Oblivion. He'll also point you to Septim's lone surviving heir, Martin, who serves as a priest of Akatosh in Kvatch. Jauffre will take the amulet and charge you with finding Martin and bringing him to Weynon Priory. After, ask Jauffre about assistance. He'll open his chest and you can loot it for better armor, weapons and other things. Downstairs, talk to Prior Maborel, who will offer the loan of his horse. Accept, with thanks. You now have some decent equipment and a horse, the world is yours! Or you can get on with your mission to Kvatch. Now that you have a horse, you might want to go overland to Kvatch rather than Fast Travel. You'll discover a lot of locations that will be important for later quests. [MS03] <~~~~~~ FIND THE HEIR ~~~~~~> | Outskirts of Kvatch +--------------------- When you reach the outskirts of Kvatch, you find the city in flames. To the south is a refugee camp, where you get the full story of daedra spewing forth from an Oblivion gate. Questions about Martin lead you to Savlian Matius, captain of the Kvatch guard, who is holding the line against the demons at the entrance to Kvatch. Wind your way up the hill and find Matius and a few troops fighting daedra. (The specific type of daedra depend on your class level.) Pitch in, if you wish. When the fighting is over, talk to Matius, who tells you Martin is holed up inside the chapel in the city. Your only hope is to find out how to close the Oblivion gate, so the soldiers can retake the city. [MS04] <~~~~~~ BREAKING THE SIEGE OF KVATCH ~~~~~~> | Oblivion: Kvatch Gate +----------------------- Welcome to your primary task in the main story of Oblivion. You will soon grow to hate Oblivion gates. Ah well, no better time than the present. Step up to the glowing portal and Activate it and go to hell. Literally. Fire resistance is a good thing. Fire spells--not so good. Almost everything you encounter in Oblivion is resistant to fire, but weak against shock damage. Load up on shocking spells, or shock-enchanted weapons. (Funny--you would think the weakness would be to frost. Anyway...) If you start encountering Flame Atronachs, you can use frost against them. (Similarly, use fire against Frost Atronachs. Against Storm Atronachs, use anything other than shock.) As you enter Oblivion, you'll find a Kvatch guard under attack by daedra. If the guard survives--his name is Ilend Vonius--talk to him and either send him back to Matius, or ask him to come along and watch your back. Ahead of you (north) is a bridge blocked by a gate. To the east is a dead end. Your path lies to the west. First note about Oblivion: these areas are all very linear. If you get lost, just look at your map. There's usually only one way you can go. Wind your way around the west side of this island, until you reach the northwest section. Then you head back south--and a little east--eventually reaching the large round tower in the center of the north sector of the island. This is a Sigil Keep. You'll get to know these well. This particular keep is called Blood Feast. Lovely, isn't it? All Oblivion towers follow the same basic layout: * The tower is hollow in its center, with a Sigillum Sanguis at the top. To reach the Sanguis, you have to climb through one to three side areas. * Most Sigil Keeps have two side areas: Rending Halls and Corridors of Dark Salvation. These areas are relatively small and feature a few daedra and traps. * In between the side areas, you'll climb some ramps around the central hollow core of the tower. First up in Blood Feast, as in most Sigil Keeps, is the Rending Halls. Enter and climb the ramp, which takes a 90-degree turn. At the top, kill the daedra and use the Blood Fountain for some health regeneration. Re-enter the tower core through one of the two doors to the south. Climb a ramp around the tower core to reach an entrance to the Corridors of Dark Salvation. Wind your way up the ramp to a large room and dispose of the daedra. The only unlocked exit from this room (besides the hall you just came through) is to the west. This leads to a bridge over to a smaller tower. In the small tower (Reapers Sprawl), climb the ramp and kill the Sigil Keeper. Take a key from his body. Inside a cage is another Kvatch guard--still alive! Talk to him to learn what you must do: enter the Sigillum Sanguis at the top of the tower and remove the sigil stone. That will close the gate. Go back to Blood Feast. You can now leave this room through either the north or southwest door. The southwest door eventually leads back to the tower core, but on a dead-end balcony. There is some loot here (in bloody hunks of meat called "The Punished"). The north door leads to a ramp that curves to the east. At the top of the ramp, you'll see another ramp going down to the east and a door to the south. The door goes to your objective. The ramp going down eventually leads to another small tower, with some minor loot. Leave through the south door at the top of the ramp, re-entering the core of Blood Feast. Wind your way up the ramps to what looks like a dead end. Find the round platform surrounded by spikes. It's a teleporter (only a few of the Sigil Keeps have these). Step on it, Activate one of the spikes and you'll reach the level where you can enter the Sigillum Sanguis. All the Sanguis you enter are round rooms with three levels--you always enter at the bottom of the room and the sigil stone is always at the top. Of course. Fight your way up the stairs, and then up a ramp. When you reach the sigil stone at the top, simply Activate it. Things blow up. Lots of flashing. You're back in front of Kvatch with only a burned out relic to remind you of the lovely Oblivion gate. Find and talk to Matius. He wants you to come with them as they fight through to the survivors in the chapel. | Kvatch +-------- *NOTE*: The only way to get Martin out of the chapel is to let Matius and his men go in, going with them, and kill all the daedra inside the gates. If you try to go it alone, the daedra keep respawning and you can't get the survivors (including Martin) out of the church. Charge into Kvatch with Matius and his men and kill daedra (about four or five). Once you get a message that all the daedra are dead, enter the Temple of Akatosh. Matius will get a report from one of his guards inside the temple, and the survivors will head out to the refugee camp--Martin among them. You have a couple of choices: * Buttonhole Martin now and convince him to go with you to Weynon Priory. You then leave Matius and company to their own devices (which is to stand around and do nothing). * Let Martin go on down to the refugee camp. You can find him there later, perfectly safe, and have your heart-to-heart with him then. This frees you up to do the "Battle for Castle Kvatch" sub-quest. Regardless of what you decide to do, you must talk to Matius to officially end Breaking the Siege of Kvatch. Matius will ask for your help re-taking the Castle of Kvatch and finding the count. This is an optional sub-quest that relates to the optional "Allies for Bruma" quest that comes later on. This quest is covered under "Allies for Bruma", so if you want to do it now, skip down a few sections and get the low-down on your tasks. *NOTE* It is possible to do everything in Kvatch before ever visiting Jauffre at Weynon Priory. But, if you do that, you won't be able to recognize Brother Martin (he'll be labeled as a generic priest) and you won't be able to talk to him about being the heir to the throne. If you do break the siege before talking to Jauffre, you'll have to go talk to him, return to the refugee camp, and there you will find Martin wandering about. [MS05] <~~~~~~ WEYNON PRIORY ~~~~~~> When you're ready to get on with the main quest, talk to Martin and then Fast Travel to Weynon Priory. (You do not want to walk all that way when leading someone. They never run and it will take a long, long time.) You arrive in the middle of an attack. The Priory's shepherd runs up, with a Mythic Dawn assassin on his heels, and fills you in. Maborel is dead. (Yay! His horse is, ipso facto, yours now!) Jauffre is holed up in the chapel. Kill the assassins outside (with Martin's help, Brother Piner will join in as well), then enter the chapel and kill the assassins inside. You must keep Martin and Jauffre alive, else it's reload time. Once the assassins are dead, Jauffre thinks of the Amulet of Kings. Follow him to his loft room so you can be there to witness the look of shock on his face when he finds the Amulet is gone. Yeah. Never saw that coming. Jauffre decides the safest place for Martin is the headquarters of the Blades: Cloud Ruler Temple. The temple will be marked for you on your map and you can even Fast Travel there. (Hooray!) When you arrive, Martin is introduced as the Emperor, gives a little speech and heads off to settle in. Jauffre offers you membership in the Blades. Go ahead and accept--especially if you are a heavy armor fighter. There's a full set of kit (helm, gauntlets, cuirass, greaves, boots, shield and katana) for every Blade. This equipment is the equivalent of steel armor, so it's pretty good if you're still low level. <~~~~~~ RANDOM OBLIVION GATES ~~~~~~> This isn't really a quest. You get no journal entry, and there are no rewards (beyond any normal loot you may collect). You don't even have to worry about this at all; however... Once you go to Weynon Priory, the main story advances to the point where Oblivion gates begin popping up in random spots around Cyrodiil. The further you are in the main story, the higher the chance a gate will open in whatever region you are in. These gates not only open in random places, they point to random Oblivion worlds. All Oblivion worlds are roughly the same, but there's no way to predict the exact layout you'll get when going through a gate. Enter at your own risk. You can: * Ignore them. When you finish the main story, they will close automatically. You'll still have whatever daedra came out of them to deal with, but that's just a nuisance. (Especially since the first daedra to come out will be commensurate with your level at the time the gate opened--not your level when you come back through to sweep the area clean.) * Close them. They don't stay closed. But if you want the extra experience and/or loot and/or alchemical ingredients found only in Oblivion, then you can go in and close them (temporarily). [MS06] <~~~~~~ THE PATH OF DAWN ~~~~~~> Once you've settled in, talk to Jauffre. He wants you to track down the Mythic Dawn and find the Amulet. He points you to an old friend, Baurus (the guy who failed to properly guard Uriel Septim), who is hanging out at Luther Broad's Boarding House in Imperial City. Luther Broad's is in the Elven Gardens district. You can Fast Travel there, or walk/run/ride. Your choice. During normal hours, Baurus is sitting at the bar in Luther's place, having a pint (or two or three). Check out the guy sitting over in the corner, name of Astav Wirich. This will be your target. Have a seat next to Baurus (target the stool and Activate it) and have a little chat. Baurus has been intelligence-gathering and now he's being followed. He wants you to help him pin his shadow. Baurus will get up and leave, heading down to Luther's basement. Wirich will get up and follow him. You do the same. Once down in the basement, Wirich transforms himself into a Mythic Dawn assassin. Help Baurus dispose of him. Frisk the body to find a book: Mankar Camoran's Commentaries on the Mysterium Xarxes, Book 1. (This is a skill book, and will increase your Conjuration skill by 1 when you read it.). Talk to Baurus about the book. He suggests taking it to Tar-Meena, at the Arcane University. Go to college. If you're a member in good standing of the Mages Guild (i.e. you've completed enough of their tasks to have access to the University), you'll find Tar-Meena in the library. If not, she'll be hanging around in the lobby, just in case a visitor with a strange book happens to drop in and need help. Show her the book and she'll tell you this is the first of four Commentaries. She supposes having all four commentaries will reveal the location of the Mythic Dawn's headquarters. She just happens to have Book 2 (skill, Destruction +1) and suggests the bookstore First Edition in Imperial City for the other two. Go to the Market District of Imperial City. First Edition is located on the main SW to NE street near the gate to Green Emperor Way. Talk to Phintias, the merchant about the Books. Yes, he just so happens to have Book 3, but another customer, Gwinas, has already reserved the book and Phintias is holding it for Gwinas. Gwinas is the key to both Book 3 and Book 4. He's coming to buy Book 3 and he has a note setting up a meeting at which he'll receive Book 4. You have several options: 1) (Preferred): Wait in First Edition (you won't have to wait long), for Gwinas to show up. As soon as Gwinas has bought the book, corner him and reveal to him the Mythic Dawn is the group that killed the Emperor. Gwinas will re-think his idea of joining the cult, give you Book 3 (skill, Illusion +1) and the note about the meeting. 2) Get Phintias' Disposition north of 70 and he'll sell you Book 3 without waiting for Gwinas to come get it. You'll still have to get the note from Gwinas, which you can do by confronting him as in option #1. Since Gwinas will give you Book 3 free, but Phintias won't, option #1 is better. 3) Follow Gwinas back to his hotel, and either pick-pocket Book 3 and the note from him, or kill him and take them from his corpse. *HINT* Visit Edgar's Discount Spells in the Market District and pick up a Convalescence spell. (Convalescence allows you to heal a target.) Very useful for keeping NPCs alive during the tasks ahead. Once you have Book 3 and the note, return to Baurus. He'll tell you he knows exactly where this meeting is to take place. Follow him to the Elven Gardens district and a sewer entrance. Baurus leads you on a winding path through the sewers, impeded by the occasional rat, mud crab or goblin. Finally, he'll stop and tell you the meeting is to take place just beyond a door. He suggests you go up some stairs to the left and spy on the proceedings from above. You can either acquiesce or demand to be the one who has the meeting and Baurus can be the cover. Either way works. The meeting is with Raven Camoran, Mankar's son. Not long into the meeting, a couple of assassins find whoever is handling backup duty on the upper floor and your cover is blown. It's a 3-on-2 fight, unless you let Baurus get killed, then you're in trouble. Once all the assassins are dead, loot Raven's corpse for Book 4 (skill, Mysticism +1) and a key to another exit from the sewers. Talk to Baurus (if he's still alive). He's going to Cloud Ruler Temple to take up his duties under Martin. You need to get out of the sewers. Use the key you took from Raven to go out the way he came in and loot their hideout. If you keep heading north, you'll reach the Talos Plaza sewers, which is a slightly shorter way out; but, hasn't been cleared of enemies (and you're on your own now). You can also go back the way you came in--if you can remember which turns to take. Once out of the sewers, return to Tar-Meena at Arcane University. She'll say she has to study the books in order to find the hidden message. It takes her three days to figure out the hidden message, which is "Green Emperor Way Where Tower Touches Midday Sun". (Read the first letter of each paragraph of each book.) You don't have to wait for Tar-Meena. Go to Green Emperor Way (middle section of Imperial City, where the palace is located). The palace is surrounded by a cemetery and you're looking for the tomb of Prince Camarril. His tomb is located in the southwest portion of the district. It's not marked on your map; look for a large, domed tomb and target the door to find out if it's his. Once you've found the tomb, Wait until the 11:00am hour and then sit and wait for the light show to begin. When you see a glowing map appear on the door of the tomb, step up close enough to get the message you've found the headquarters of the Mythic Dawn. Mission accomplished. [MS07] <~~~~~~ DAGON SHRINE ~~~~~~> Your next step is obvious: invade HQ and get the Amulet of Kings back. You can return to Cloud Ruler Temple if you wish, but Jauffre and Martin aren't going to tell you any different. The Lake Arrius Caverns now marked for you on your map are northwest of Cheydinhal, so Fast Travel to the city and then hoof it north. The caverns are on the north shore of Lake Arrius. When you enter, you'll meet a non-hostile Mythic Dawn member. He'll give you a pass code and you give him the reply. He then instructs you to proceed through the door and see Harrow. Now, before you actually go any further, you need to know some things. If you play this undercover, you'll be stripped of all your non-quest items such as armor, weapons, potions--*everything*. Or, you can try to bull your way through, which means fights with a *lot* of Mythic Dawn assassins. Here's the rundown for each method: 1) You're going to play it "safe", so you decide to continue the deception. This is a good choice for a very low level character. Before continuing, Fast Travel back to Cheydinhal and stow your gear. You can join the Fighter or Mages Guilds just by asking and get a free place to stash your wares--but on the floor, not in a chest (the chests reset every few days). You can't drop gold, so use it to buy potions and other good stuff, because you don't want to just give it to Harrow. Alternately, you can drop everything on the floor of the entrance room of the caverns, but it will be hard to pick it back up when you come flying through later with a dozen assassins on your tail. Fast Travel back to the caverns and go through the door to your meeting with Harrow. Harrow will lead you to the main shrine and you'll hear Mankar Camoran himself give a little speech before disappearing into his own little "Paradise". He takes the Amulet of Kings with him (you didn't think it was going to be that easy did you?), but leaves behind the Mysterium Xarxes, which could prove useful. Harrow will lead you down and tell Remora Camoran (Mankar's daughter) that you've come to be initiated. She'll invite you up to the dais and offer to let you kill the Argonian tied to the altar. Regardless of what you do with the Argonian, you're going to end up in a fight. The wisest course of action is