The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Hints

Useful Glitches

• 1 of 13: NOTE: All of the following glitches were confirmed as working in the initial release (version 1.0.228) of the PC version of the game. Those that have been fixed will have an annotation at the end that says what patch version fixed them.
• 2 of 13: It's legal to open any lock with a magic Open spell no matter how many people see you do it. (See the Lockpicking Tips.)
• 3 of 13: No merchant's gold supply will ever go down when you sell him something or up when you buy something from him. Due to this, there's never any need to wait for a merchant to get more gold before you sell him more stuff. On the other hand, there's no way to build up his gold supply by buying stuff so that you can sell him something he normally couldn't give you full value for.
• 4 of 13: If you barter with Batul gra-Sharob at location 13 on the Gold Coast map while on horseback, you can get unlimited gold by trying to sell her your equipped weapon over and over. Equip your most valuable weapon so you can make money faster!  [Fixed in 1.1.511]
• 5 of 13: Another way to glitch up some cash is to go to Dorian's house in the Imperial City's Talos Plaza District and kill him after giving him some gold (via bribes). He runs very fast, so you'll have to stand in a doorway to block his retreat. After he's dead, search his body and keep clicking on the gold in his inventory to get more and more. Don't choose "take all," or that'll ruin the gimmick. Get all the gold you'll ever want, since the body will eventually vanish. (Note that to make sure he has a lot of gold on him when he dies, you can bribe him a bit, then play the disposition mini-game and purposely lower his disposition, then bribe him some more, etc.)  [Fixed in 1.1.511]
• 6 of 13: A third way is to duplicate some items to sell. You'll need a bow and at least a couple of dozen of any type of arrow. Equip the bow and arrows, then go into fight mode and pull back on an arrow and hold it. While holding it, press the Menu Mode key and go to the weapons inventory screen. Double-click on the arrows you have equipped a couple of times, then choose to drop the item you want to duplicate (that requires a SHIFT-click on the PC). When you close the menus, the item you dropped should be duplicated about as many times as you have equipped arrows. You'll know it worked if a pack of duplicated items appears in front of you and falls all over the floor.  [Fixed in 1.2.0201]
• 7 of 13: Another way to duplicate items is to use magic scrolls. Click on a magic scroll in inventory that you have more than one of, then drop the item that you want to duplicate. You must have fewer of that item than of the selected scrolls, and you need to drop it right after you select the scrolls and before you do anything else. This doesn't always work, and there are some items that will never duplicate with this method (especially magic weapons), but at least it hasn't been patched yet.
• 8 of 13: Black soul gems can be duplicated endlessly during their creation process as well as with the above methods.
  • What are black soul gems for and how can I get them?
• 9 of 13: Another way to get unlimited gold is to become a vampire and then do the cure quest. You can keep talking to Count Hassildor about "Reward" over and over to keep getting it. You can also come back later and talk about "Reward" to get even more.  [Fixed in 1.1.511]
• 10 of 13: In the tradition of Morrowind's permanent bound items glitch, you can create permanent bound weapons and armor in Oblivion. (See the Spellmaking Tips.)
• 11 of 13: The worthless paint brush items that you can find in a lot of cheap item containers can be used to make weird, glitchy "staircases." Whenever you drop one from inventory while not having a container open, it'll just hover in the air, making a kind of "step" that you can jump up on and stand on. If you then drop another one, you can go up another "step." It's hard to make a long staircase out of paint brushes without ever falling off, but it can be done. However, it's more useful to use one or two paint brushes to help you get over something that's just a little too high for you to jump over normally. (Another use would be to "fence in" a tough opponent with paint brushes in order to limit his movement, though you'd have to do it sneakily or before he became hostile.)
• 12 of 13: When you get the Boots of Springheel Jak on one of the advanced Thieves Guild quests, there's a glitchy way to get its Acrobatics +50 effect put on you permanently. That is, if you haven't already done both Sanguine's Daedric Shrine Quest and Bravil's "Through a Nightmare, Darkly" misc. quest. Put the boots on, then do either one of those quests. When the quest is over, you'll have the effect of the boots without wearing the boots. (And, in fact, you *can't* wear the boots ever again.)
• 13 of 13: You can do something similar with non-quest items that have constant effects on them. You'll need at least two of an item, so duplicate it using one of the item duplication methods given above if you need to. Equip one of the duplicates, then click on a magic scroll that you have more of than the item, then drop the unequipped copy of your item. All copies of it should get dropped, including the one you were wearing, which will make that item's effect permanent even though you're not wearing it anymore. (Note that you won't want to make effects like Chameleon, Light, Night-Eye, and Detect Life permanent unless you're very sure you'll want them on all the time.)
  • Sigil Stone Tip
  • Non-Duplicable Items Tip

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