How can I break into the vaults in the Great House compounds?
- 1 of 15: NOTE: The Hlaalu vault is entered through the Hlaalu Treasury, which has an entrance in the Hlaalu Waistworks. The Redoran vaults are entered through the Redoran Treasury, which has an entrance in the Redoran Plaza. The Telvanni vault is entered through the Telvanni Tower, which has an entrance in the Telvanni Plaza.
- 2 of 15: You'd have to have a mega-high Security skill in order to have a chance of picking the high-level locks on all the vault doors, but there are much simpler solutions than that.
- 3 of 15: For starters, each vault door has a key.
- 4 of 15: Notice that all but one of those keys is being carried by a person, and that said person is surrounded by lots of other people, including sharp-eyed Ordinator guards. Pickpocketing those keys even with a Sneak skill level of 100 would be very hard.
- 5 of 15: So the first thing to do is go for the one key that's not on a person.
- 6 of 15: Go to Dralor Manor in the Redoran Plaza and find Favela Dralor's room upstairs.
- 7 of 15: If your Sneak skill isn't up to stealing the key undetected, you might just want to grab it and make a run for it (and go to a Thieves Guild Bounty Removal guy if you get a bounty for it).
- 8 of 15: Or you could get the Telekinesis spell from Orrent Geontene in the Ald'ruhn Mages Guild and try using it to steal the key while standing somewhere inside or outside the room to where you can see the drawers but not Mrs. Dralor.
- 9 of 15: Once you have that key, go enter the Redoran Vaults area and open up the lower vault door. Wait around inside the vault until the Ordinator guards all wander outside, then close the door and raid the place at your leisure. Love that loot!
- 10 of 15: For the upper Redoran vault, you could try taunting Beldrose Dralor into fighting you so you could kill him and take his key without getting in trouble, but this won't work for you unless you started the game with a very high Personality attribute and Speechcraft skill (or have built them way up). See the Advanced Taunting Tips if your skills aren't so high and you need alternatives.
- 11 of 15: As for the other vaults, you can use the above-mentioned taunting tips on the key-holding people if you think you can handle the combats, or you can wait until you're at least level 11, then go raid several bandit caves to find some Ekash's Lock Splitter scrolls. You can use them to unlock any lock in the game, including the Great House vault doors.
- 12 of 15: Note, however, that using a scroll to unlock a vault door is seen as a minor crime, and you'll have to pay a tiny little fine for it. The only real catch is that the guards will take all of your stolen goods when you pay the fine. You'll want to go stash them all somewhere safe (or just drop them on the floor next to the vault door) before using an Ekash scroll to unlock the door. If you want to be able to tell ahead of time exactly which items the guards will take, use the PC Cheat Codes' TFH command. Another solution is to let the guards take the items, then go recover them from the evidence chest in Ebonheart later.
- 13 of 15: As for the traps on the gates, all you have to do is stand back and cast Telekinesis, then you can open the gate and trigger its trap from a safe distance. This isn't seen as a crime, so you don't have to pay another fine.
- 14 of 15: NOTE: The Telvanni vault works a little different than the others. When you get past one of the two initial locked doors, you'll be in a room with some Storm Atronachs. Don't kill them, though. Just quickly unlock the locked door in their room and go through it to reach the real vault. If you leave the Atronachs alive, they'll distract the Ordinators, making it easier for you to steal stuff without having to use Sneak mode all the time or taunt-kill the Ordinators. (Due to the vault's construction, you can't just wait for them to wander outside the treasure area like you can with the other vaults.)
- 15 of 15: Each vault is full of gold coins, jewels, and incredibly valuable armor and weapons. Be sure to grab up all the coins and jewels and whatever equipment you can use. As for the equipment you don't want, you could just leave it there (the vaults are basically yours now), or you could try to sell it if you need the money. (Though note that before you sell it, you should get a bunch of armorer's hammers and use them to bang the stolen equipment back into shape -- a lot of it starts out in cruddy condition.)
- Show another hint
- There are no more hints.