The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion
Training skills
Written by: Sora448
This file is copyright (c)2007 Sora448. All rights reserved

Version 1.00

 First Faq I made, submitted on 8/15/07 and accepted by the next day. Table of
Contents was incomplete

Version 1.01

 Table of Contents completed

Version 1.02

 Minor corrections made to several methods and one note as well as spelling
corrections.

Version 1.03

 Sneak training method updated

Version 1.13

 Updated Light armor, Heavy armor and Alchemy based on e-mails I recieved

Version 1.14
 Added a new technique I recieved in an e-mail named the Everscamp Trick

Version 1.34
 Added many e-mails that contributed to many different methods

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Table of Contents:

   1-----Introduction
   2-----Contact Info
   3-----Skills and Important Notes
   4-----Acrobatics
   5-----Athletics
   6-----Block
   7-----Armorer
   8-----Heavy Armor
   9-----Blunt
   10----Blade
   11----Hand-to-Hand
   12----Destruction
   13----Alteration
   14----Illusion
   15----Conjuration
   16----Mysticism
   17----Restoration
   18----Alchemy
   19----Security
   20----Sneak
   21----Light Armor
   22----Marksman
   23----Mercantile
   24----Speechcraft
   25----Drain Skill Trick
   26----Everscamp Trick
   27----Horse Abuse

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1-Introduction:

This faq is a list of ways to easily level certain skills.  This faq has
nothing to do with the trainers in the game, this is a way to level your
skills without using trainers. Some will be as simple as casting a spell
over and over again, while others will be more entertaining. Again this is
a way to level skills without using trainers and could get boring. For a list
of the trainers and locations see eldin2003's guide.  It is made for the Xbox
360, but the locations and names are the same and good to use for the PS3.

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2-Contact Info:

My e-mail address is [email protected] if you find a mistake, or would like
to suggest a method or report a method that doesn't work please send me an
e-mail about it

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3-Skills and Important notes:

In TES four: Oblivion there are twentyone skills. They are Acrobatics,
Athletics, Block, Armorer, Heavy Armor, Light Armor, Blunt, Blade,
Hand to Hand, Destruction, Alteration, Illusion, Conjuration, Mysticism,
Restoration, Alchemy, Security, Sneak, Marksman, Mercantile,and finally
Speechcraft.

Many people play through this game and tend to neglect some of their lesser
skills because they never use them, but they can often be useful. Examples
of this would be Restoration and Mercantile. Although many people use 
restoration a lot it is still annoying and very time consuming to level up.
These methods can easily get you to master in the most annoying skills in
a fraction of the time it would normally take.

Note: Please do not waste your time making a strong spell in any magic school
because you think it will level that skill quicker, it doesn't. Any cheap
spell from the Imperial City discount spell shop will work just as well as
your custom Instant-death-in-a-one-mile-radius spell that wastes all your
Magicka

Note 2: Please read the entire part about how to train a certain skill. Being
such a huge and massive game TES four: Oblivion has it's share of glitches and
problems. Some methods in this guide can cause your game to crash if you do
not heed the warnings in this guide.

Note 3: There is a way to increase the rate at which you can cast spells and
it is very simple. Just put your shield up and continue to cast the spell, for
some odd reason it makes you cast spells at a quicker rate which can help you
level up quickly.

Note 4: For the magic schools, if you are too low a level to cast the weakest
spells in a school (like a skill of 12 in conjuration with no conjuration
spells in your arsenal) you need a trainer, unless you have access to a
novice level spell that you have/bought then you are fine. Once you hit a
skill level of 25 in the said magic school any methods in this guide will
help you level that skill further.

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4-Acrobatics:

Determines how high you can jump and how much damage you take from falls. 

Ways to train:

Go to a building with low ceilings, The Lonely Suitor Lodge in 
Bravil works good.  Jump onto a table and continue to jump up and down 
repeatedly. Being so close to the ceiling will make you fall faster allowing
you to jump at a quicker rate.  This is a good method and can let you 
increase your skill rather quickly

    Credit for trick goes to Kevindrosario

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5-Athletics:

Determines how fast you can run and swim and determines how fast you 
regenerate your fatigue

Ways to train:

A. Swim around, look for Fin Gleam with a water breathing spell or item.
Swimming is known to increase Athletics by thirtythree percent more than just
running around. Or you can use the drain skill method that will be mentioned
later on in this faq.

     Credit for how much better swimming is than walking goes to Kevindrosario

B. By going to the far west side of the map in the water, one can "swim
forever." By pointing directly west you can prop the controller up like in the
sneak method and swim directly west, never hitting land and "forever swimming"
levelling the skill quickly.

     Credit for this method to Kieran Johnson

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6-Block:

Determines how much damage your shield takes with every hit and how much
damage you take while hit with your shield up.

Ways to train:

One good way to get block up very early on is to turn the difficulty all the
down. Yes make the game as easy as possible and find a crab(s) or rat(s) and
put up your shield and let them attack away. Your block skill will increase
normally and you will take the minimum amount of damage. Just remember to
heal up when neeeded and you can be a master blocker quickly.

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7-Armorer:

Determines how quickly your repair hammers are broken, and to what degree you
can repair your items (100-125%) to keep them to deal or protect from damage

Ways to train:

A. Just looting caves and getting involved in fighting with weapons and not
magic should damage your armor and weapons enough to increase your skill by
just playing this game normally. 

B. Another tactic you can use is to create a spell in the Arcane University 
(if you have access to it) and create a spell that will damage (disintegrate)
your armor and weapons. Just cast the spell and repair your items until you
feel happy with your level.

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8-Heavy Armor:

Determines how much damage you take in heavy armor and how encumbered you are
by it.

Ways to train:

A. Very similar to the method to training block. Just do not put up your shield
and allow the the rats or crabs to beat on you while set to the easiest
difficulty. Again remember to heal and you can be master in a very short
amount of time.

B. If you don't mind murdering a town or possibly losing some NPC's you can
also try this method. Just turn down the difficulty and commit a crime or
attack someone. Get all the guards to follow you around and then allow them to
beat on you which will raise your skill quickly.

     Credit for this method goes to Jai Pannu

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9-Blunt:

Determines the base amount of damage (attack number listed with weapons)
dealt with clubs, truncheons, axes, maces, and warhammers.

Ways to train:

A. Attacking things with blunt weapons like crazy as you play through the game
will help to increase this skill over time.

B. If you have any conjuration spells, summon the creature and beat on it. For
a while it will not fight back allowing you to get in a lot of good swings.

C. Or you can level this skill quickly by going to Peryite's deadric shrine
and (if you have not done his quest yet) attack his followers. Since their
souls are missing they will only go unconcious when they run out of health,
then regain some health and stand up again.

NOTE: There is a problem with this method. If it is overabused your game can
crash because of unreported assaults. The only way to avoid this is to
immeadiately walk (NO FAST TRAVEL, SAVING, or WAITING) to the nearest town.
While there steal something like a quill, since the bounty for stealing is the
price of the item you stole your bounty will be really small and you will be
ok and not have to worry about the game crashing after paying off the bounty.

     Credit for the warning thanks to Kevindrosario

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10-Blade:

Determines the base damage you can do with any blade weapons, like daggers,
swords, claymores, short swords, and long swords.

Ways to train:

A. An easy way to train blade is to use the same method as used to train blunt.
Head over to peryite's shrine and beat on his followers, just take note of the
warning already posted under the ways to train blunt. If you do not take note
of this warning your game can crash and lead to an upset and frustrated gamer
possibly throwing the contoller at the screen. Just steal a cheap item after
levelling up your character and pay the bounty and you will be fine.

B. You can summon another creature and beat on it to increase blade if you
want to avoid the possibilities of glitches in your game.

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11-Hand-to-Hand:

Determines how much damage you can deal with your bare fists. Useful for when
a dremora happens to disarm you in an oblivion gate.

Ways to train:

A. Again peryite's shrine is your best bet, just heed the warning mentioned now
in both blade and blunt and when you are done and you will be the onwer of an
awesome character.

B. A summoned creature is a great punchingbag as well as any controlled/
reanimated npc or enemy

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12-Destruction:

Determines what level destruction spell you can use as well as the strength of
those spells. These spells include fire ball, snowball, shocking touch and
many others.

Ways to train:

One can go about this in more than one way, but a note any spell you cast MUST
hit a target to gain you experience for it. 

A. The first has no warnings nor does it cause crashes or glitches with the
game. If you have access to the Arcane University simply create a spell that
creates either a fire damage 1 pt on self if you are really a low level in
destruction, or, if you can create a spell that creates a weakness to fire
damage on self for 1 second. Now just stand in place and cast over and over
again, healing when needed.

B. Again the next method is peryite's shrine, just heed the warning mentioned
in the skills, and blunt section and enjoy going on mass killing sprees!
Or you can use your power for good, if you are into that type of thing...

C. A summoned creature can be a good test subject for new spells or weak flare
spells to help you increase your skill in destruction as well.

D. Another method is to use a disentegrate armor and weapon on self spell and
repair your items, increasing armorer and destruction.

     Credit to this trick goes to Kevindrosario

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13-Alteration:

Determines what level of alteration spells you can use as well as the
magnitude of these spells. Alteration spells include water-walking, feather,
shield, and open easy lock.

Ways to train:

A. The easiest way is to get a feather spell and go dungeon diving. Pick up all
the equipment you can find and make sure you feather yourself. For the best
results walk back to the nearest town and keep casting feather. This way you
can make some money and level alteration. 

B. If you are really impatient (Much like me) get a cheap shield spell and
constantly cast it on yourself as you walk around Cyrodiil.

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14-Illusion:

Determines what level of illusion spells you can cast as well as the magnitude
of said spells. Illusion spells include charm, silence, command, and my two
favorite's frenzy and rally.

Ways to train:

Stand in front of someone and cast a weak charm spell. That's it just keep
doing that. The person's disposition does not need to be lowered constantly
as long as the spell is hitting the person you will get the exp. for casting
the spell and can raise you 10 levels in about a half hour for lower levelled
characters.

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15-Conjuration:

Determines the strength of the creatures you can summon. Obviously the higher
your level the stronger the creature. They range from scamps to Dremora lords.

Ways to train:

Just keep summoning the creature. That's really the only way you can do it. If
you want to level other skills fight your creature in any way you see fit. If
not just keep summoning the creature. You do not have to wait for the creature
to disappear, just keep casting the spell.

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16-Mysticism:

Determines the strength of mysticism spells you can cast. These spells include
soul trap, detect life, and dispel.

Ways to train:

Keep casting a weak detect life spell. Most likely it has a low magicka cost
and can be easily used to increase your skill fast. Like all magic the only
way to level in that area is to continue using spells from that college, which
is really annoying, but worth it once you hit master in the different colleges

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17-Restoration:

Determines the level of restoration spell you can cast as well as the strength
of those spells.

Ways to Train:

A. By far one of the most annoying skills to level even though you will use it
a lot, even as a warrior. To get experience for this skill you must actually
gain health. By just casting a spell over and over again you will be wasting
your time. Your best bet is to jump on top of fire and heal yourself as you
are being burned. Just make sure you use a strong enough spell so you don't
die is all.

     Credit for Correction goes to Chris Wicks

B. Or just play through the game from fighting you will use these spells a
lot and they will increase over a long time.

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18-Alchemy:

Allows you to make powerful potions and poisons which can be used for a
variety of things to heal or strengthen you or poison and weaken your enemy.

Ways to Train:

A. Buy up a lot of cheap alchemy ingredients and just go to town creating a lot
of potions. After you cannot make anymore, one has two options. You can sell
the potions/poisons for gold back to the alchemist, or keep them for your own
uses. This is by far one of the most useful skills in the game. By abusing
this early on, one can become very wealthy and increase their alchemy skill
quickly.

     Credit to this method goes to Kevindrosario

B. After buying the house in Skingrad (Rosethorn Hall) go to the Colovian
Traders and talk to all the women in the house. One of them (not sure of the
name, if someone can give me the name please e-mail me) will offer to be your
maid for 150 gold. To get her you must also have bought the maid's quarters
upgrade for your house. After she moves in you can ask her for food. Every
time you do you will get a free shepherd's pie which you can use to make
potions/poisons.

     Credit to this method goes to Jai Pannu

C. If you do not want to drop the money for the house and upgrades or don't
have the extra cash for the ingredients in the shops just find a farm
in this massive world, one that has been brought to my attention is one that
was found to be NE of Kvatch. This one has more than enough ingredients to get
your level up and if you manage to find other farms you can just fast travel
between them and get all the ingredients your heart desires. This is best done
with all of the alchemical equipment.

     Credit to this method goes to Nzambi

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19-Security:

Allows you to keep tumblers from falling when you are picking locks, depending
on your skill level.

Ways to train:

The most effective way to level this skill is to get the skeleton key by
completing the Nocturnal's shrine quest. The skeleton key is a lock pick that
never breaks. After attaining this special, awesome item, go to a very hard
lock and start to pick it, when you are close to opening it, mess up on
purpose. Some tumblers will fall (One, two, or three depending on your level)
and you can begin to pick the lock again. Everytime a tumbler sticks you get
exp. in security, so continue to pick the same lock and eventually you can be
a master in security.

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20-Sneak:

Allows you to pick others pockets and move in the shadows without being
detected.

Ways to train:

A. Get the Adoring Fan and bring him to your house or a secluded area, then
enter sneak mode and continue to pickpocket him. Since the Adoring Fan, well
adores you he won't care that you are stealing stuff from him and let you get
away with it.

     Credit for this method to Kevindrosario

B. Whenever you enter a cave, fort, whatever, enter sneak mode. Try to sneak
up on or past every enemy you encounter. For warriors this isn't too bad
because they tend to be tanks in terms of taking damage anyway. For mages,
this method is a little more tricky and requires that you have a strong or
instant kill spell in your spell book.

C. Another easy way to get sneak up rather quickly would be to go into a town,
enter an inn, walk into a dark corner then sneak into the wall. By moving into
the wall you will not have problems of being seen and can be safe knowing you
didn't wander into an area where something can kill you. Now attach a rubber-
band to your controller so that it has you walking into the wall without you
having to do it yourself. Come back every 20 minutes or so to press [x] for
the skill increase and you'll be master in about an hour

     Credit for this trick to Andrew who sent me an e-mail, Thanks

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21-Light Armor:

Determines the amount of damage you will take while wearing light armor.

Ways to train:

A. Just like the Heavy Armor, set the game to the easiest difficulty find a
mudcrab or rat and let them beat on you. This will increase your skill rather
quickly.

B. Another way to increase this skill rather quickly is to use a variation of
method A. First lower the difficulty now go to the Imperial City. Attack a
guard and purposely resist arrest. Now run around town getting as many guards
as you can to follow you. When you are satisfied with the group following you
stop and allow all of them to beat on you. Then just keep healing up and your
skill will skyrocket very quickly.

     Credit for this method goes to Jai Pannu

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22-Marksman:

Determines the amount of damage dealt with arrows.

Ways to train:

A. Peryite's shrine is your friend, go there and fire all your arrows at his
frozen followers. If any go unconscious, be sure to walk back to the nearest
city without fast travelling, saving or waiting and get caught stealing
something cheap. Pay the bounty and then you are good to go. This will stop
your game from crashing from thousands of unreported assualt charges going
unreported from Peryite's followers.

     Again credit for the unreported assualts problem goes to Kevindrosario

B. Get a bow and two arrows, stand in front of a wall and shoot the arrow
at the wall. You can "catch" the arrow as it bounces off the wall and reuse
it. This also degrades the bow's health by one which can increase armorer.

     Credit for this method to Sig 1134

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23-Mercantile:

Allows you to sell items for more gold or buy them for less.

Ways to train:

A. Mercantile is easily trained by gathering all of the arrows you own and
selling them one by one to anyone that will buy them. Each individual arrow
will increase your mercantile and increase your skill level.

B. Mercantile is another annoying skill to level up, and being so you can use
the drain skill method that will be mentioned soon.

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24-Speechcraft:

Determines how much people like you and how quickly you can raise their
disposition.

Ways to train:

Unfortunately there aren't many ways to train this. The only way that is
obvious is to play the speechcraft game, a lot. The disposition of the person
you are presauding does not need to increase to gain you exp for this skill.
Just mash the [x] button in the game and you will increase your skill very
fast.

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25-Drain Skill trick

Kevindrosario has found a trick which is very helpful when trying to level up
the more annoying skills like restoration and mercantile. Once you have access
to the Arcane University make a spell that drains the selected skill to 0. Yes
purposely drain that skill. Now go to the lower level trainers and cast this
spell. Since you have a skill of 0 in that area they will offer to train you
again for very little gold. Once the spell wears off your skill will return to
normal and will be increased by the amount of times you trained. For example
if you wanted to train restoration and had a skill of 80 in it, then you cast
a spell that drains restoration 100 pts on self went to a trainer and trained
5 times. When the spell's effects wear off you will have a restoration skill
of 85. A note to, well, take note of: just because your skill is at 80 doesn't
mean that it will level up slower than a skill at level 0 with this method.
In the above example it means that you will reach level 81 in restoration as
fast as you would reach level 1 when employing this method. This can be done
with any skill and is very easy to do.

Thanks to Kevindrosario for pointing this out to those on the Oblivion PS3
board.

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26-Everscamp Trick

Someone named John Keller who e-mailed me as well as Boxzorz who has told me
of another useful and practical way to level up many of your skills. If you
have not yet done the "Whom the Gods Annoy" quest go start the quest at
Rosentia Gallenus' house and get the staff. while in your inventory four
scamps will follow you around. Just lower the difficulty and go crazy on them.
Blunt, Blade Light Armor, Heavy Armor, Marksmanship, Destruction, Hand to
Hand, Armorer, and Block are all fair game for levelling with this method.
Just remember the scamps will fight back if you hit them enough.

Someone else, Andrew, also contirbuted to this method which is an easy way to
level restoration while using the scamps. By using absorb health as a main
offense spell one can heal themselves and obliterate the Everscamps. This is
an infinite source of enemies that can be used to  level restoration. 

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27-Horse Abuse

Another all around method contributed from an e-mail. Weelittlerockfan has
sent me a method dealing with horses. By taking your own horse (Shadowmare 
works as far as I know as well as Prior Maborel's horse, and others) out into
the wild you can level up any offensive skill. Just crank up the difficulty
and have fun levelling up Blunt, Blade, Hand-to-Hand, Marksman, Destruction,
as well as target spells in Illusion, Restorastion, and Alteration. Sneak can
also be leveled up by facing your horse towards a wall and then sneaking
behind it. With offensive skills if your horse is dying just wait an hour and
your horse will be back to perfect shape.

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Once again please send me information on other methods and any mistakes you
may see. And please ask me permission before using any of this material else
where. Thanks for reading my first Faq!