The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or sometimes just Oblivion, is a single player fantasy-themed action-oriented computer role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media and the Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games.

It is the fourth installment in The Elder Scrolls video game series. It was released on March 21, 2006 for Windows PCs and the Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 release was shipped on March 20, 2007 in North America, and April 27, 2007 in Europe. One expansion pack, Shivering Isles, and a number of downloadable minor content releases have followed; However, Shivering Isles will be the last major expansion. The game was well-received by critics, winning numerous awards and scoring an average of 94% in Metacritic’s aggregate. Oblivion sold 1.7 million copies by April 10, 2006, and over 3 million copies by January 18, 2007. A package including both Shivering Isles and the official plug-in Knights of the Nine, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Game of the Year Edition, was announced on July 9, 2007, and released in North America on September 10, 2007 for Windows PCs and the Xbox 360. The PlayStation 3 version of the Game of the Year edition followed on October 16, 2007.

Oblivion’s story focuses on a former prisoner drawn into a Daedric Lord’s plan to invade the mortal realm of Tamriel. Gates to the hellish realm of Oblivion are opened, through which many daedra flow. The game continues the open-ended tradition of previous Elder Scrolls games, allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, including the option to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely. Developers opted for a tighter pacing and greater focus than past titles, a design choice that was well-received in the gaming press.

Gameplay

Oblivion is a fantasy-based role-playing adventure game and an example of open-ended or sandbox gameplay. The main quest may be delayed or completely ignored as the player explores the expansive game worlds, following side quests, interacting with NPCs, and developing a character according to their taste. The player is free to go anywhere inside the land of Cyrodiil at any time while playing the game, and even after completing the main quest storyline the game never ends, allowing the player to build their character in whatever way they want, with no restrictions on skills or equipment. Notably this game is almost fully moddable, and there are hundreds of modifications around from small weapon changes to complete game overhauls. The game contains many enemies for the player to fight, including monsters and animals. Many enemies, quests, and treasures are “leveled”, or become increasingly difficult, as the player gains levels. The player, however, has the option of adjusting the difficulty level.

The fast-travel system found in Arena and Daggerfall, but left out of Morrowind, returned in Oblivion. In Oblivion, if a player visits a location, it appears as an icon on their map. The icon may then be clicked to visit that location, with time elapsing in the interim. However, the player cannot fast travel from certain locations or when enemies are nearby. Oblivion also reintroduced Daggerfall’s ridable horses which were missing from Morrowind, while removing Morrowind’s transportation options, such as Mages’ Guild teleporters, silt striders and teleporting spells. The game also removed all levitation spells and items, as the cities in Oblivion are separate cells from the rest of the world and thus must be entered into, and exited from, the town gate to avoid glitches, though they forgot to encode gravity for the paint brush item, allowing the player to drop paint brushes to make “Steps” to go over walls. Select non-player characters may enter and exit areas at will, and will do so quite often, following the Radiant AI’s commands.

One major focus during Oblivion’s development was rebalancing Morrowind’s stealth, combat and magic skill sets. The skills system is similar to Morrowind’s, though the number of skills is decreased, with the medium armor, unarmored, spear, and enchant skills removed altogether, with the short and long blade skills condensed into a single blade skill, and the blunt and axe skills made into the blunt skill. The game also introduced “mastery levels,” which give skill-specific bonuses when the player reaches a certain level in that skill. The combat system was also revamped, with the addition of “power attacks”, generally given by mastery levels, and the removal of the separate styles of melee attacks present in Morrowind. Ranged attacks were also changed, so that the determination of a hit is based solely on whether the arrow struck the target in-game, rather than the character’s skill level. Spears, throwing weapons, and crossbows were removed as well, while staves no longer counted as weapons, but are only used for casting spells. The choice came from a desire to focus all development efforts in ranged weapons on bows specifically, to “get the feel of those as close to perfect as possible” as the Havok physics engine allowed the team to do. Morrowind’s passive Block skill became an active feature in Oblivion, activated by a button press. When, in the new system, an enemy is successfully blocked, they now recoil, offering an opening for attack. The rebalanced skills were received well: GameSpot commended the strengths of the game in each area, finding the game’s melee combat “faster and smoother” than Morrowind’s, the game’s stealth combat “at least as satisfying” as its melee combat, and was generally impressed at the breadth and ease of use of the game’s spell-casting.

Plot

Although it is set after the previous Elder Scrolls games chronologically, the game is not a direct sequel to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind or any other game.

Upon arriving, the player finds that Weynon Priory is being raided by the Mythic Dawn and the Amulet of Kings has been stolen. Recovering from the attack, Jauffre orders the protagonist to escort himself and Martin to Cloud Ruler Temple, the stronghold of the Blades in the Jerall Mountains. At Cloud Ruler Temple, Martin is recognized as the Emperor and is given command of the Blades, and the protagonist is sent off in search of the Amulet. After infiltrating the Mythic Dawn’s headquarters, the protagonist arrives at the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon, a Daedric cult lair run by the Mythic Dawn, believing the Amulet to be held there. The Mythic Dawn’s leader Mankar Camoran (voiced by Terence Stamp) escapes to his Paradise through a portal using a mystical book called the Mysterium Xarxes. The protagonist recovers this book and returns it to Martin, who deduces that the only way to recover the Amulet is to follow Camoran, and create a portal to the paradise as well. A “collect-the-pieces” plot begins, as the player must recover three key items that are necessary to recreate the portal. Martin states that the three things are “The blood of a divine” (Tiber Septim’s armor, found at the fort “Sancre Tor”, guarded by necromancer’s magic and Four undead Blades warriors), the blood of a Daedra Lord (any daedric artifact acquired from the Daedra Shrines throughout the world), and a Great Welkynd Stone (found at the Ayleid ruin “Miscarcand” on the road between the city of Skingrad and Kvatch, and guarded by a Lich). Having acquired all three items, Martin reveals a final item that needs to be used in order to create the portal, a Great Sigil Stone used in a Great Gate to the Planes of Oblivion, similar to the one that devastated Kvatch. Martin and Jauffre hatch a plan that involves allowing Bruma to be attacked by the Daedra so that a Great Gate can be opened. The protagonist then must venture into the gate and obtain the Great Sigil Stone. Arriving on the battlefield of Bruma, Martin gives a moving speech before charging into battle against the Daedra. Many men are lost, but a Great Gate is finally opened. The protagonist enters and recovers the stone.

Upon returning to Cloud Ruler Temple, a portal is created and the protagonist ventures through, arriving at Camoran’s paradise. After fighting through Camoran’s men, the protagonist confronts him in his throne room, and slays him in battle. Upon his death, the protagonist takes the Amulet from Camoran’s neck, and sees Paradise evaporate around him. The protagonist returns the Amulet to Martin, and the Blades travel to the Imperial City intending to re-light the Dragonfires and end the Daedric invasion. However, the Daedra begin a desperate assault of their own and overrun the Imperial City. The protagonist and Martin fight their way to the Temple of the One, in the Imperial City Temple District, to find that a 200-foot tall beast is wreaking havoc in the city, revealed to be the Daedric Prince Mehrunes Dagon himself. Martin fights his way into the Temple, and shatters the Amulet of Kings to merge himself with the spirit of Akatosh, the Dragon-God of Time, becoming his Avatar. He defeats Dagon in one final confrontation, then the Avatar turns to stone. The Amulet of Kings is destroyed, Martin disappears, the gates of Oblivion are shut forever, and the throne of the Empire again lies empty. A final monologue by Martin, describes this in an optimistic light, claiming that the future of Tamriel is now in the protagonist’s hand. After the battle, Lord Chancellor Ocato of the Elder Council proclaims the protagonist Champion of Cyrodiil.

Oblivion begins with the arrival of Emperor Uriel Septim VII (voiced by Patrick Stewart), accompanied by a troupe of Blades bodyguards, at the Imperial City prison, seeking to flee from a group of assassins—later revealed to be members of the Mythic Dawn—through a secret underground exit in the city sewers. By chance, the exit is located in the cell occupied by the protagonist. The Emperor frees the player as he believes that he saw the character in his dreams, and sets off into the catacombs as the protagonist follows. At the end of the catacombs, the group is ambushed, and quickly overwhelmed by assassins, which results in the protagonist taking on the task of guarding the Emperor while the surviving bodyguards engage the enemy. While awaiting the result, Uriel entrusts the protagonist with the Amulet of Kings, a special amulet that can only be worn by those of the Septim bloodline. He orders the player to take it to a man named Jauffre. Immediately afterwards, an assassin ambushes and kills the emperor before he is, in turn, defeated. The sole surviving guard, Baurus, questions the protagonist, and explains that Jauffre is the Grandmaster of the Blades, and can be found at Weynon Priory. The character then has to face sewers and some minor opponents before proceeding to the open world of Cyrodiil.

As the game progresses, it is revealed that the prolonged lack of an Emperor has broken an old covenant, allowing multiple gates to Oblivion to open, and a Daedric invasion is to begin as a result. The only way to close down the gates permanently is to find someone of the Septim bloodline to retake the throne and re-light the Dragonfires in the Imperial City. Fortunately, it is also revealed that there is indeed still an heir to the Septim throne: an illegitimate son named Martin Septim (voiced by Sean Bean), who resides in Kvatch. However, the Daedra have Kvatch under siege and the protagonist has to venture into the Planes of Oblivion and close down the gate. After having closed the gate, the protagonist arrives at the Kvatch chapel and persuades Martin to join him/her to travel back to Weynon Priory.

Development

The development of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion began in 2002, immediately after Morrowind’s publication. Rumors of a sequel to The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind began circulating June 2004; the sequel’s title was identified on September 10, 2004, the date of Oblivion’s official announcement.[23][24][22] Oblivion was developed by Bethesda Softworks, and the initial Xbox 360 and personal computer (PC) releases were co-published by Bethesda and Take-Two Interactive subsidiary 2K Games. According to interviews with Bethesda staff, the publisher-developer relationship—one of the few independent relations in the industry—worked well, and Bethesda was not subject to excessive corporate guidance. Originally scheduled for a November 22, 2005 release, in tandem with the Xbox 360’s launch, Oblivion was delayed to a March 21, 2006 release for Windows PCs and the Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version of Oblivion was released on March 20, 2007 in North America, and April 27, 2007 in Europe, following delays similar to those for the Xbox 360 release. The PlayStation 3 release was touted for its improvement over the graphics of the PC and Xbox 360 versions, although some of the improved shader routines optimized for the PlayStation 3 release were set to be ported over to the other releases through patches.

Developers working on Oblivion focused on providing a tighter storyline, with fewer filler quests and more developed characters. The developers sought to make information in the game world more accessible to players, making the game easier to pick up and play. Oblivion features improved AI (courtesy of Bethesda’s proprietary Radiant AI), improved physics (courtesy of the Havok physics engine), and impressive graphics, taking advantage of advanced lighting and shader routines like high dynamic range rendering (HDR) and specular mapping. Bethesda developed and implemented procedural content creation tools in the creation of Oblivion’s terrain, leading to landscapes that are more complex and realistic than those of past titles, with less of a drain on Bethesda’s staff.

Audio

Oblivion features the voices of Patrick Stewart, Lynda Carter, Sean Bean, Terence Stamp, Ralph Cosham and Wes Johnson. The voice acting received mixed reviews in the game press. While many publications characterize its voice acting as excellent, others found fault with its repetitiveness, even while commending its general quality. The issue has been blamed on both the small number of voice actors and the blandness of the written dialogue itself. Lead Designer Ken Rolston found the plan to fully voice the game “less flexible, less apt for user projection of his own tone, more constrained for branching, and more trouble for production and disk real estate” than Morrowind’s partially recorded dialogue. Rolston tempered his criticism with the suggestion that voice acting “can be a powerful expressive tool”, and can contribute significantly to the charm and ambience of the game. Ultimately, his opinions were superseded. “I prefer Morrowind’s partially recorded dialogue, for many reasons. But I’m told that fully-voiced dialogue is what the kids want.”

Oblivion’s soundtrack was created by Jeremy Soule, a video game composer whose past scores had earned him a BAFTA award in the “Game Music Category” and two nominations for an AIAS award for “Original Music Composition”. Soule had worked with Bethesda and Howard back during the creation of Morrowind, and, in a press release announcing his return to composing for the series, Soule repeated the words he had said during Morrowind’s press release: “The stunning, epic quality of The Elder Scrolls series is particularly compatible with the grand, orchestral style of music I enjoy composing the most.” As in his compositions for Morrowind, Soule chose to create a soft and minimalist score so as not to wear out users’ ears. Soule has stated that, while composing the music, he did not imagine any specific characters or events; rather, he wanted it “to comment on the human condition and the beauty of life.” In a 2006 interview, he related that this desire came as a result of an unfortunate car accident that had occurred during his composition of the score. “I ended up rolling in my car several times on an interstate while flying headlong into oncoming traffic,” he relates. “…I felt no fear…. I simply just acknowledged to myself that I’ve had a good life and I would soon have to say goodbye to all of it in a matter of seconds.” Soule managed to leave the accident with only minor injuries, but the feeling he felt in those moments before the crash ended—”that life is indeed precious”—remained with him throughout the rest of the composition.

Reception

The reaction of reviewers to the English version of Oblivion was almost entirely positive. At Game Rankings, Oblivion holds an average review score of 94% for the Xbox 360, 93% for the PC, and 93% for the PlayStation 3 version. In general, most reviewers praised the game for its immersiveness and scope, winning the game awards from various outlets. The television program X-Play, citing similar reasons, awarded the game a 5/5, with Eurogamer stating that the game “successfully unites some of the best elements of RPG, adventure and action games and fuses them into a relentlessly immersive and intoxicating whole”. In Japan, game magazine Famitsu awarding it a 38/40, giving it their “Platinum award”. GameSpot called the game “simply one of the best role-playing games ever”.

PC Gamer UK did, however, criticize the repetitive and occasionally absurd nature of conversations between in-game NPCs, saying that it broke suspension of disbelief. OXM also said that the Xbox 360 version of the game suffered from occasional frame rate drops, though they were not as frequent as the Windows version, as well as slightly longer loading times on a Core system which lacks a hard drive. Although the Xbox 360 version is slightly more favored by critics, many noted that when tested on a high-end system, graphics and performance on the PC were slightly better than those of that console’s version. Reviewers have also criticized the leveling system of Oblivion. The criticisms aimed towards this aspect include its clumsiness and the non-sensical major and minor skill leveling. Some reviewers also criticized the scaled leveling of the game. They have stated a lack of satisfaction because everything around the player is always as strong as the player is, giving the player a feeling that he or she does not get stronger.

However, despite these flaws, IGN stated that “none of those criticisms hold back Oblivion from being a thoroughly enjoyable, user-friendly, gorgeous experience with enough content to keep you returning time and time again”, awarding it a score of 9.3.

In addition to numerous awards won by the game itself, Patrick Stewart’s voice role as the Emperor won an award at the Spike TV awards, and the musical score by composer Jeremy Soule won the inaugural MTV Video Music Award for “Best Original Score” through an international popular vote. The game was nominated for five BAFTAs (the British equivalent of Academy Awards).

Rating change

While most rating companies around the world have kept the rating the same for Oblivion, on May 3, 2006, the Entertainment Software Rating Board changed Oblivion’s rating from T (Teen 13+) to M (Mature 17+), citing game content not considered in the ESRB review, including “more detailed depictions of blood and gore” than had been previously considered and in the M rated version more blood and gore was added. Also, “the presence in the PC version of the game of a locked-out art file that, if accessed by using an apparently unauthorized third party tool, allows the user to play the game with topless versions of female characters. In response to the new content, the ESRB conducted a new review of Oblivion, showing to its reviewers the content originally submitted by Bethesda along with the newly disclosed content. The new review resulted in an M rating. The ESRB reported that Bethesda Softworks, the game’s developer and publisher, would promptly notify all retailers of the change, issue stickers for retailers and distributors to affix on the product, display the new rating in all following product shipments and marketing, and create a downloadable patch rendering the topless skin inaccessible. Bethesda complied with the request, but disagreed with the ESRB’s rationale. Although certain retailers began to check for ID before selling Oblivion as a result, and one California Assemblyman used the event to criticize the ESRB for failing once again, the events passed by with little notice from either the public at large or gaming journalists in particular.

Additional content

From April 2006 onwards, Bethesda began releasing small packages of additional content for download from their website and over the Xbox Live Marketplace for prices equivalent to between US$1 and US$3. The first package, a set of horse armor for Oblivion’s steeds, was released on April 3, 2006, costing 200 Microsoft Points, equivalent to US$2.50 or GBP1.50; the corresponding PC release cost was US$1.99. Although gamers generally displayed some enthusiasm for the concept of micropayments for downloadable in-game content, Oblivion’s horse armor release caused significant discord on the forums of the Internet, as gamers disputed whether the item was worth its cost. On April 4, 2006, the day after the first content release, Bethesda representatives made a variety of broadly similar responses to inquiries regarding the content pack. Regarding the cost of the add-on, Hines stated that Bethesda aimed for a price point that “fit”. Hines assured the press that Bethesda wasn’t going to respond rashly to customer criticism, while other Bethesda representatives were stating that future micropayment plans remained uncertain.

April 4, 2006 also saw the announcement of two new downloadable content packs for the coming weeks: an “Orrery” quest that would see gamers setting out to repair a Dwarven Orrery; and a “Wizard’s Tower” that would offer a new home for player characters, complete with the capacity to grow herbs, summon atronachs, and make spells. 1UP.com predicted that, given Bethesda’s response to customer criticism, those releases would be somewhat more substantial than the “Horse Armor” release was. On April 7, 2006, Bethesda priced the “Orrery”. Offering what GameSpot called “more bang for less buck”, Bethesda set the PC release price at US$1.89, and the Xbox 360 release price at 150 Microsoft Points, equivalent to US$1.88. New releases continued into late 2006, finding better reception in the gaming press. Oblivion’s final content pack was released October 15, 2007.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Knights of the Nine is a plugin for Oblivion. Announced on October 17, 2006 for release on November 21, 2006, the plugin was developed, published, and released in North America by Bethesda Softworks; in Europe, the game was co-published with Ubisoft. The Windows version is available either as a download from the company website or as part of the retail-released Oblivion Downloadable Content Collection CD — a release that also includes all official downloadable content available for Oblivion. The Xbox 360 version is available via Xbox Live Marketplace, and the PlayStation 3 version of Oblivion includes Knights of the Nine in its packaged release.

Knights of the Nine, a large and well designed plugin, centers on a faction of the same name, devoted to locating and preserving a set of “Crusaders’ Relics”. Once found, these relics must be used to defeat the sorcerer-king Umaril, who seeks revenge on the Nine Divines. Knights of the Nine was generally well-received in the gaming press. Although it made little change to the basic mechanics of Oblivion, it was praised by some reviewers as a brief and polished addition to the game’s main plot.

In addition to commercial plug-ins from Bethesda, there are many free third-party modifications, also known as mods, available for the Windows version. These mods change many aspects of the game, such as adjusting the visuals, gameplay, user interface, and adding original content such as new races, explorable game areas, armor, and weapons. These modifications are made with the The Elder Scrolls Construction Set.

Expansions

The first and only expansion pack for Oblivion, entitled The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, was released on March 27, 2007 for Windows and Xbox 360. The expansion offers 30-plus hours of new adventuring, features new quests, monsters, expanded freeform gameplay and a new land “that you can watch change according to your vital life-or-death decisions.” A PlayStation 3 version was confirmed and released in 2007. Shivering Isles takes place in the realm of madness ruled over by the daedric prince Sheogorath. The player is tasked by Sheogorath to save the realm from an approaching cataclysm known as the Greymarch.

At E3 2007, it was announced that a Game of the Year Edition for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion would be released in September 2007. The Game of the Year Edition includes the original game as well as the Shivering Isles and Knights of The Nine content packs. The game was released in North American markets on September 10, 2007 for the Xbox 360 and PC, and October 16, 2007 for the PS3. The game was released in European markets for the Xbox 360 and PC on September 21, 2007, and in Australian markets for the Xbox 360 and PC on September 28, 2007. The PS3 version was released in European countries on December 14, 2007.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Unlockables

Achievements

Complete each achievement to get the allotted gamerscore.
Unlockable How to Unlock
Journeyman, Mages Guild (10) Reached Journeyman rank in the Mages Guild.
Evoker, Mages Guild (10) Reached Evoker rank in the Mages Guild.
Conjurer, Mages Guild (10) Reached Conjurer rank in the Mages Guild.
Magician, Mages Guild (10) Reached Magician rank in the Mages Guild.
Warlock, Mages Guild (10) Reached Warlock rank in the Mages Guild.
Wizard, Mages Guild (10) Reached Wizard rank in the Mages Guild.
Master-Wizard, Mages Guild (10) Reached Master-Wizard rank in the Mages Guild.
Arch-Mage, Mages Guild (50) Completed the Mages Guild Questline.
Journeyman, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Journeyman rank in the Fighters Guild.
Swordsman, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Swordsman rank in the Fighters Guild.
Protector, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Protector rank in the Fighters Guild.
Defender, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Defender rank in the Fighters Guild.
Warder, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Warder rank in the Fighters Guild.
Guardian, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Guardian rank in the Fighters Guild.
Champion, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Champion rank in the Fighters Guild.
Master, Fighters Guild (50) Completed the Fighters Guild Questline.
Apprentice, Fighters Guild (10) Reached Apprentice rank in the Fighters Guild.
Associate, Fighters Guild (10) Joined the Fighters Guild.
Apprentice, Mages Guild (10) Reached Apprentice rank in the Mages Guild.
Slayer, Dark Brotherhood (10) Reached Slayer rank in the Dark Brotherhood.
Eliminator, Dark Brotherhood (10) Reached Eliminator rank in the Dark Brotherhood.
Assassin, Dark Brotherhood (10) Reached Assassin rank in the Dark Brotherhood.
Silencer, Dark Brotherhood (10) Reached Silencer rank in the Dark Brotherhood.
Speaker, Dark Brotherhood (10) Reached Speaker rank in the Dark Brotherhood.
Listener, Dark Brotherhood (50) Completed the Dark Brotherhood Questline.
Associate, Mages Guild (10) Joined the Mages Guild.
Guildmaster, Thieves Guild (50) Completed the Thieves Guild Questline.
Master Thief, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Master Thief rank in the Thieves Guild.
Shadowfoot, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Shadowfoot rank in the Thieves Guild.
Cat Burglar, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Cat Burglar rank in the Thieves Guild.
Prowler, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Prowler rank in the Thieves Guild.
Bandit, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Bandit rank in the Thieves Guild.
Footpad, Thieves Guild (10) Reached Footpad rank in the Thieves Guild.
Pickpocket, Thieves Guild (10) Joined the Thieves Guild.
Grand Champion, Arena (50) Completed the Arena Questline.
Champion, Arena (10) Reached Champion rank in the Arena.
Hero, Arena (10) Reached Hero rank in the Arena.
Gladiator, Arena (10) Reached Gladiator rank in the Arena.
Warrior, Arena (10) Reached Warrior rank in the Arena.
Myrmidon, Arena (10) Reached Myrmidon rank in the Arena.
Bloodletter, Arena (10) Reached Bloodletter rank in the Arena.
Brawler, Arena (10) Reached Brawler rank in the Arena.
Pit Dog, Arena (10) Joined the Arena in the Imperial City.
Murderer, Dark Brotherhood (10) Join the Dark Brotherhood.
Champion of Cyrodiil (110) Completed the Main Questline.
Destroyed the Great Gate (50) Destroyed the Great Gate, Main Quest.
Delivered Daedric Artifact (50) Delivered Daedric Artifact, Main Quest.
Located the Shrine of Dagon (50) Located the Shrine of Dagon, Main Quest.
Closed an Oblivion Gate (50) Closed an Oblivion Gate, Main Quest.
Escaped the Imperial Sewers (50) Escaped the Imperial Sewers, Main Quest Beginning.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Secrets

Using the horse, Shadowmere, as movable storage.

Shadowmere is a hero character, meaning that you can not kill him. Since he is an animal you can loot him when he is knocked unconscious. You can also stock up items on him and they will stay on him throughout the game until you knock him out and remove them.
The steps to do this are as follows:
1. Get Shadowmere (Fort Farrgut) and knock him unconscious (kill him).
2. When he is laying on the ground you can open his body like any normal corpse.
3. Place any items you wish to transport into his corpse’s inventory.
4. Let him get up and then go and take him wherever you want.
5. To get the items back you can knock him out and take them out. They never disappear.
You can have items in him for as long as you want. Even if he respawns back at the Fort Farrgut he will still have your items on him.

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Glitches

Horse Shop Gold Glitch (Prepatch)

To do this you need a horse and the more expensive the weapon you wield the better.So get your most expensive weapon and wield it. Get on your horse and fast travel to either Kvatch to speak to the orc merchant, or to Silver Road in Cyrodill and speak to a merchant in green clothing. 

Once you enter the barter screen, sell your equipped weapon. It will not vanish, allowing it to be sold over and over again for gold.

This no longer works after a recent June patch to the game.

Unlimited Gold (Prepatch)

First you have to complete the Cure for Vampirism mission, and talk to The Count, Janus Hassidor. When you talk to him, ask him about the “Reward” conversation option, but don’t leave the conversation, and keep asking him about it. Everytime you ask him about it you receive 1000 gold (or more depending on your level). Do this as many times as desired for unlimited gold. Note that a recent June patch has fixed this glitch.

Easy Gold (Prepatch)

Any time after you have finished the tutorial in the imperial sewers at the start of the game, you can kill a specific person and loot unlimited amounts of gold from them. Here’s how you do it:In the Imperial City, Talos district, find a house owned by a person named Dorian, it will be called “Dorian’s House”. Try to get him angry enough with you via threatening him. Once he has a low enough disposition (lower than 20) with him, he will ask you to leave. At this point kill him and go to loot his body. He should have around 40 gold and some other misc items. LOOT ALL THE ITEMS FIRST leaving the gold, DO NOT LOOT ALL. When you go to take the gold, it will glitch and keep allowing you to take the gold off him. Make sure he doesn’t leave or alerts any of the guards and save before attempting this. After about an hour of hitting the same button, I had 150k gold. Note: You can bribe him before doing this glitch and you’ll make more gold. This no longer works after a recent June patch to the game.

Item Dupe (Prepatch)

1)Equip ANY set of arrows.2)Draw your bow back,while its drawn back press B to go to your inventory screen. 

3)Click on the arrows you have equipped with A and then on any other set of arrows you own and press A twice.

4)Now find an item you wish to clone and drop it. This doesn’t work with every item.

Note that a recent June patch fixed this glitch.

Paintbrush Glitch

Paintbrushes have no physics applied to them. By none, I mean none. When you drop them out of your inventory, they stay in thin air. They cannot be moved or blown away by spells/arrows.Well, paintbrushes can be walked on.
You can jump onto a paintbrush (there is a small sphere of invisible walkable surface area). Drop another paintbrush infront of you, and you have a second step.
You can make a staircase of paintbrushes and, ideally, reach any point of the game. The catch? It’s not easy to pull off.
If you jump too far, you’ll be on the steep side of the walking area and won’t be able to jump to the next paintbrush. Also, the walkable area is very small. 

This glitch can get you high places like the top of a castle, high in the air randomly, or even on top of the Imperial Palace (watch out, the roof isn’t solid, you need to stand on one of the things that stand up out of it).

Item Duplication(Pre Patch)

1. Pull out any weapon(including fists)
2. Attack(Pull right Trigger)
3. Switch to inventory before attack ends(B button/red)
4. Equip any set of arrows and press A until a message, “You cannot change weapons while attacking” appears.
5. Drop Item you wish to Dupe
6. Exit Inventory and collect Duplications.Note:
~The following cannot be duplicated; Stolen goods, one-of-a-kind items(Normally named something), Nirnroot, & Quest Items.
~The number of arrows in the set you equip will be how many the item becomes(at least)

Infinite Arrows

Equip any set of arrows, go into any area of the game (preferably an enclosed area, like a fighter’s guild basement), take out any bow, and hold R to keep an arrow in your bow. Now, you have to be a journeyman(?) of acrobatics, but if you can combat roll, that’s what you need to do this trick. Hold L, press Y, and move in any direction to roll. You will hear the arrow fly, but it will not decrease in your inventory. Go forth and pick up your dupe arrow. Repeat as many times as you like.

Repeairing/recharging items without the use of gems, hammers, or merchants

This glitch allows you to easily repair and/or recharge items (armor, weapons, and staves) without having to carry around hundreds of pounds of hammers and soul gems, or having to visit a merchant in town all the time.
STEPS:
1: Have any item
2: Duplicate the item so you have two of them (or just buy an exact duplicate, but rare items have to purchasable duplicates)
3: While the items are UNequipped, go to the menu and hotkey them (there should be 2 of them) to any one of the hotkeys.
4: Use item to your heart’s content (damage the item in some way)
5: Unequip the item using the hotkey button again. Then press the hotkey button one more time to re-equip it.The item has been repaired and recharged. Go to your item menu to check it out for yourself. This works unlimited times, and as long as the item can be duplicated (or you can buy an exact duplicate) it should work.

Duplication AFTER Shivering Isles Patch

Ok, everyones been trying to figure out ways to do this, and this one happens to work. You may use a sword or your bare hands, it does not matter which. You MUST have more scrolls than the number of items you want to dupe for this to work. *Example* If you have 5 Strong Healing Potions, you MUST have at least six or more scrolls to dupe them.1. Pull out a sword, swing it, then go to your menu in mid-swing. 

2. Go to your scrolls section, and choose a scroll that you have multiples of, then click on them TWICE. You will NOT get a message like the other duping messages.

3. Drop the item you wish to dupe, and have fun!

Keeping Boots of Springheel Jack.

During the last mission for the thieves guild, right before taking the drop, stop and head back down the tower the way you came. When you get to the original way you got into the tower (the fireplace in the Imperial Guardsmans sleeping quarters), activate the fireplace. It should give you the next part of the quest without dropping you into the hole. On this level of the tower, without going any higher, find an Imperial Guardsman and attack him, or be spotted by him. This should trigger the regular “Go to Jail, Resist Arrest, Pay Fines” dialog. Just pay your fines, and get teleported back out of the tower and in front of the castle. Both the Elder Scroll and the Boots should be in your inventory, and you should still be on the next part of the quest to head back to Gray Cowl. In my opinion, it’s easier than trying to survive the fall.

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