[back]Oblivion game play hints and tips

What you'll find on this page is information about some of the more unusual locations and quests you'll come across when travelling around Elder Scrolls : Oblivion, various Oblivion game play hints and tips are provided below as well as a few 'cheats' to help you out in those sticky moments. Please note; this page may take a while to load as it contains a number of images.

General game play hints and tips for Oblivion

• Oblivion cheats and usefull commands
• Tips on weapons use
• Oblivion's Magic & Daedric weapons, where are they?
• Tips for early low level skill training
• General Oblivion game play tips
• Levelling up magic, potions and spells
• Poisoning a Weapon [video]
• Creating Potions [video]

Unusual Oblivion quests

• Getting suspended from the Mages Guild
• Some locations Redwort and Dragon's Tongue can be found
• Nirnroot Quest
• Rumare Slaughterfish Scales quest
• Alawen, Master marksman trainer
• Unicorn? What Unicorm? Where is it then?
• 'Doom' (Power) Stones
• Agnar the Unwavering & the Uderfrykte Matron
• Arkved's Tower
• Ayleid Statues
• Veyond Cave & the Argonian Warriors

Oblivion Easter Egg's, Funnies, Cheats, fixes

• Shum gro-Yarug - Skingrad house bug/fix
• Suicide Troll
• Dorian money cheat

Oblivion cheats and useful commands ^

These can only be accessed from the in game console

God mode makes you invincible (including the main plot quests - god mode didn't work the same way in Morrowind). It also allows you to carry an infinite amount of gear. It's the biggest cheat there is for any game, but the funny thing you may find that you still sneak around and fight the same way you normally do, completely forgetting that it's on, tough fights are still tough fights; the only difference is that *you* don't die!

• tgm

This is a cheat in that it allows you to go places you normally wouldn't, but it's actually something you may need to use 'legitimately' once in a while when you get stuck inside or onto objects in the game world, caused by various collision and clipping issues. Just open the console, type 'tcl' and move away from the objects sticking you in place. Be careful not to use when there are enemies present or other NPCs as they'll can pass through the world and into the void which may adversely effect other NPCs and animals - they'll be able to 'see' where the character is but not get to them.

• tcl

One of the more frustrating aspects of Oblivion is picking locks. Unlike the previous system used in Morrowind, picking locks in Oblivion requires genuine skill; you have to be quite deft with your mouse movements, this makes it both frustrating and enjoyable at the same time. Because the lock picks get destroyed each time you fail, you'll soon find yourself running out of them, and whereas with a pick you can potentially unlock a very hard lock, the same can't be said of lockpick spells as each of those requires a certain skill level to use effectively. If you find yourself in this quandary try the following lock pick cheat.

Drop the in game console then click on the object you want to unlock (a chest for example). Once that's done you should see some text appear, when this happens type the following to unlock the object selected;

• unlock

On closing the console you should find the item unlocked and the contents accessible.

Tips on weapons use ^

Stick to a max. of two types of weapons; preferably one 'ranged' (distance) skill - either bow or magic, although some magic spells tends to travel slowly - and a melee/close quarters weapon. The reasoning behind this is that it's quicker to level up your characters skills when using a few main items than it is to use a much wider range; using a short sword and longbow *only* will have you increase skill quicker than using any weapon you can get your hands on; mace, axe, fireballs, shock, etc.

Having said that, you can level up on other 'main' skills quicker by using other weapons; 'strength' for instance isn't weapon specific, in other words, if you use a number of different heavy weapons your strength may increase faster than it would otherwise when using a 'focused' approach. The downside is that your weapon specific skill doesn't increase as fast.

Oblivion's Magic & Daedric weapons, where are they? ^

Unless the weapon or item is associated with a game quest then both Magic weapons and Daedric (Daedra) weapons can only be found once you start to develop a character past a certain skill level; they're not generally items that simply lie around like other items and weapons.

Because most events and items in Elder Scroll : Oblivion are closely linked to your characters development it means that many of these events and items can only be found once you either reach a certain 'global' character level or once your character has leveled a certain skill set; leveling marksmen for instance would mean that you start to find 'higher' level bows or 'marksmen' related items. This can happen before your global level is higher in a generalised way because of the skill set focus.

Having said that you can still find Daedric weapons before you generally would otherwise by finding some of the 'green' power stones dotted around the game world ('red' power stones will add an attribute to your character); they will give to your character, for a short period of time, a 'bound' weapon, usually in the form of a Daedric Blade or Daedric Armour piece.

Tips for early low level skill training ^

Mud crabs : very innocuous and useful creatures, they do pack a punch and that can be used to your advantage for training up certain skill sets; namely 'block' and various 'armour' skills. Simply find one (or a few), equip your armour and shield and let them attack you when your in 'defend' mode (right click for PC version of the game). That's all you need to do, just stand there an then them have at you! They'll actually kill themselves doing this so don't forget to loot them afterwards for gold and other misc. goodies.

On a side note, wait for them to attack you, we don't know yet (as of the time of writing this Oblivion hints and tips) whether a traders best friend, the 'Talking Mudcrab', made it into Oblivion (rumour has it that he has), so you don't want to accidentally kill a crab you could earn a few bob from!

They're also good to test your marksman skills against, esp. because other animals and enemies are pretty tough when you first start out. Just buy (of find) some cheap iron arrows and go crab hunting. As above, don't forget to loot the corpse for goodies, you can eat the meat or use it to level up on spell making (see below).

General Oblivion game play tips ^

If you're not a geek about levelling up a character (believe it or not there is a methodology to gaining the best and fastest levelling possible, and some Oblivionites have worked it out) then the best thing to do would be to join one or two of the factions or guilds and get your character levelled up a few notches *before* attempting the main story; on Oblivion's default game 'difficulty' setting, the NPCs and monsters *are* tough, the two notable being the mountain lion and the Clanferr; mountain lions especially are a real challenge out in the open country because you can't really sneak up on them too easily; 'grass' doesn't block a computer characters awareness of you, so even though you can't see them they can see you. They're also pretty fast movers.

There's a nice little 'sneak skill test' in game that's a real challenge; dear. These animals are so skittish that it's next to impossible to get near one in normal walk/run mode. So here's the sneak tip; find a group of them (one will do, but the more you can find, the better the test of skill will be), go into sneak mode some distance away and simply see how close (or far) you can get to them before they freak and run away.

Levelling up magic, potions and spells ^

A quick way for level magic based characters and skills when just starting out is to buy a mortar and pestle (or 'acquire' one) and 'harvest' every plant or item you come across. There are three reasons for this;

1. You learn about the plants/items (eat them to find out what they do)
2. You can create low level potions from the ingredients (which you can use)
3. You can sell the created potions for cash (as well as the ingredients)

It's an effective and cheap way to gain skills associated with magic, the better the magic equipment the better and more valuable the potion created.

Creating potions and poisons ^

You need a few pieces of hardware for this which can generally be picked up without to much trouble. Once you have at least one of the required items - calcinator, mortar & pestle, alembic and retort - you can create a potion by simply selecting the hardware and then adding ingredients; compatible ingredients are shown as you choose.

Poisoning Weapons ^

Weapons aren't the only thing in the game you can poison but they are the easiest, simply open the inventory (TAB key or F2) and select the potion you want; it'll be applied to whatever weapon is equipped (actively selected in the weapons inventory).

Adding poison to weapons like this is an effective way to 'power boost' the hit points on a target. If combined with the sneak hit multiplier it will allow you to dispatch enemies relatively quickly.

Getting suspended from the Mages Guild ^

If you get suspended from the Mages Guild for whatever reason you'll be asked to find and bring back 20 Dragon's Tongue and 20 Redwort. The problem is you're not told what they look like, nor indeed where you can find them; and they aren't easy to find because both are generally located only in specific areas of Cyrodiil.

Their 'natural' growing environment is in the West Wealds, South of the Cyrodiil land mass; they can be found a bit further up North but thin out in distribution being nigh on impossible to find beyond the Imperial City regions.

Some locations Redwort and Dragon's Tongue can be found ^

You will need to thoroughly search the areas listed below as the plants aren't as numerous as others and can be easily mistaken for different varieties of 'Flax'.

It's worth just picking these up even if you're not in the Mages Guild, they are usable in potions but should you join the Guild and get kicked out you'll have them to hand rather than having to actually go look for them.

• Nisin Cave (Due East of Skingrad)
• Redwork Abbey, near Morahame in the Nibenay Vallery
• Humpback stone bridge over the panther river - along edge of road
• Greyland hut - Leyawiin
• Silorn (NE of Ayleid ruin along hillside) - Skingrad
• Wayshrine of Arkey (S of Silorn [unmarked]) - SE of Skingrad
• Wayshrine of Akatosh (E of Silorn [unmarked]) - SE of Skingrad
• Collerbone Camp (NE of Silorn) - EES of Skingrad
• East of Fort Blackboot (Ayleid Well)
• Marsh-Punk Camp - Panther River region
• Bloodrun Cave - Panther River region
• Fort Redwater - Panther River up stream, N & E fork

If you don't fancy searching for them - it takes a fair while to find enough of both plants - then you can use the following cheat to add them via the in game console to your inventory;

• player.additem 00025039 20
• player.additem 0002503A 20

See this topic on the official forums for more information.

Nirnroot Quest ^

Another hide and seek quest, this time you at least know what one looks like otherwise you wouldn't necessarily know about the quest; picking one of these initiates the quest.

The plant grows near water but in sheltered places; you'll find it most likely with it's back against a rock or wall rather than standing out in the open. To do the complete quest you need to find a lot of these plants and as with the Mages Guild suspension quest, they don't grow in clumps but instead in isolation which means a lot of searching.

As with the Mages Guild suspension quest above, it's worth just picking these up as you find them as you're more likely to come across them when you're not specifically looking for them!

The plant 'sings' by the way, unless you've got headphones on or a good set of speakers you might not hear the metalic ringing sound it makes when you get near them.

• Charcoal Cave pond & waterfall
• Shadrock village pond
• 'Leafrot Cave' Panther river inland North tip
• Nenalata
• Morahame
• 'Mouth of the Panther' river, near shipwreak
• Fort Teleman
• Banks of pond near Oblivion gate - Blackwood
• Water front - Tidewater cave - Topal Bay
• Both island South of Blackwood and shore mainland side
• Pond bank, North-Eest Leyawiin Town
• Leyawiin - North East gate, pond banks
• Veyond, behind North-East corner of ruins on water shore line, Blackwood
• Fort Doublecross, Blackwood, along water shore SW of ruins
• Fort Doublecross, NE corner behind entrance wall (outer side)
• Amelion Tomb, Leyawiin
• North Wall shore line - Leyawiin
• White Stallion Lodge, wooden docks - Leyawiin
• West side of the shore line before the bridge to Blackwood islands
• Fort Roebeck - river bank N of ruin
• Fort Roebeck - inside
• Fort Irony (sand banks of lake)
• Bawn (sand banks submerged ruin)
• 'Lighthouse' S of Fort Irony - Bravil
• Side of wooden bridge - Cheydinhal
• Bloodrun Cave - Panther River (shore line)

Alawen, Master marksman trainer ^

This is a bit of an unusual 'quest' in that you may come across this character a number of times before you actually need to use her services. She's the only 'master' trainer for Marksmen and will only train you once you have reached 'Expert' level or above with an appropriate weapon (usually a Bow). If you find her before that no mention of training is made when you talk to the character, and she'll usually be at Troll Candle Camp (which is a little overgrown so you may miss it), or she can be found chasing after Dear.

In order to actually use her services you must be in the possession of an Elven Bow, she refuses to train you otherwise. And here in lies the 'tricky' part about this quest; if you don't have one on you and hop back to somewhere you've got one stashed, on your return you more than likely will find her dead (you'll receive a message to the effect of that). So, always carry one with you once you get into the 'Expert' level for Marksman if you want to become a master by training.

Rumare Slaughterfish Scales quest ^

You'll most likely come across this quest early on in the game if you wander around the villages dotted about the outskirts of the Imperial City. The quest consists of you catching "some fish" for Aelwin Merowald, an old sailor in the village of Weye (just before you cross over the bridge to get to the entrance of the Imperial City).

If you look at the map after you've accepted the quest you'll see a green position marker arrow present not too far from where you're given the quest; that marker indicates the location of the first fish you have to find and kill. Once you've dispatched the first fish, looking at the map again will reveal the marker has moved to indicate the next fish on the menu and so on until you have caught, killed and descaled all the required number of fish.

Be warned, accept the quest so it's on your job sheet but don't try to do it too early in the game.

The reason is that these Rumare Slaughterfish are not the same as your common garden varietySlaughterfish; to put it another way, the Rumare fish are probably one of the toughest 'enemies' to fight in the early stages of the game when you're sub level 10 or there about's, and that includes enemies like Skeleton Guardians and Goblin Den lords.

As well as being tough, they're in water, so a marksman's bow and arrow are all but ineffective unless you're pretty much on top of the beast when in the drink; casting spells obviously don't work under/in water either so you can't use those. The only really effective weapon seems to be a 'blade' (possibly blunt and axes work just as well) in close quarters, so make sure you have at least a few notches under the belt with one of those.

This is one of those quests that highlights how unbalanced the game can sometimes be in favour of weapon based combat, spells aren't nearly as effective on the lower skill levels than a good old fashion blade.

Tactics : One thing you might be able to do to give you a fighting chance of some kind is to get into the water, draw them into a fight and then retreat to the shoreline. They'll follow as close as they can and reveal their backs above the water; if you're a bowman and have already shot a few arrows into their backs you can use those as better position markers because they stick up above the waters surface further than the creatures own back allowing you to get a fix on where the Ramare Slaughterfish are.

Watch out for the tail as it packs quite a punch when it's whipped at you, keep one eye on your health.

Unicorn? What Unicorn? Where is it then? ^

You'll most likely find the Unicorn in one of two ways, either you'll stumble upon it (most likely), or you'll find it as part of the Hircine (Hunter) deadric shrine quest (see below).

In either case, if you want to specifically find the Unicorn with or without doing the Hircine Shrine quest then you need to find the 'Inn of Ill Omen' (it's a destintion for the intial test quest for the Dark Brotherhood) along the road from Bravil to the Imperial City. Once you've found the Inn you need to head off in a North Easterly direction from the Inn untill you find 'Mingo Cave', or just head East from the Inn and find 'Harcane Grove' where the Unicorn actually is - the chances are that you may find the Unicorn before you find the cave, if not, use the cave as a 'marker' and search the area.

There are a couple (3, see above) of heavy weight Minotaurs (Minotaur of the Grove) in the area so watch out for these guys. IMPORTANT : if you want to interact with the animal and claim it as your own, approach the Unicorn itself with weapons sheathed (un mounted) otherwise it'll attack you; do not, I repeat, do not approach the unicorn with any form of weapon in your hand or in 'attack' posture - if that happens you'll pretty much have to kill it because it behaves the same way as other 'beasts' do in not accepting a 'yeld' from you (block whilst hitting Space bar to interact with character).

Hircine's Shrine quest

Hircine's Shrine quest is associated with the Unicorn (see above); should you undertake the task he sets you, you will need to kill the beast. Try and avoid this shrine if you'd like the Unicorn as a ridable mount like other horses in Oblivion.

Power Stones ^

Power stones are ancient daedric 'shrines' that you can find dotted around the landscape; there are two types; a 'red' and 'blue' marked stone. The 'blue' stones will give you various immediate power ups, usually in the form of bound daedric weapons, daggers, armour, etc. The 'red' stones can only be activated at night (when the stars are out) and once done they will permanently add a 'spell' to your list of skills that can be used once every 24 hours (similar to star sign abilities). Both the red and blue power stones can only be activated once per 24 hours.

• Steed Stone - nr (N of..) Nagastani Ruin
• Jode Stone - nr. (EES of..) Troll Candle Camp, (E) Anvil
• Jone Stone - nr. (SW of..) Elenglynn Ruin, (due N of) Skingrad
• Fort Redman
• Shezarr Stone - Telepe
• Warrior Stone - Silorn
• Aetherius Stone - nr. (S of..) Bleak Flats cave, (NNW) Skingrad

Agnar the Unwavering & the Uderfrykte Matron ^

There's a point in the game where the name 'Agnar the Unwavering' is spoken; the problem is, no mention is made of where he is or if he can be found; it turns out he can but in a very remote area of the Valus Mountains (see map shot below).

Be careful around this area though as there is a 'giant' troll called the Uderfrykte Matron guarding his corpse/patrolling the immediate vercinity around his body; presumably she killed him and is watching over her trophy. She is a tough enemy so don't expect to win this one (with ease) unless you're at least a level 10 or above. Loot her body to find some odd items (associated quest needs to be checked).

Arkved's Tower ^

If you come across this one whilst wandering around (most likely how you will come across it), then it may cause a bit of confusion as you can't get inside the tower as you can with others; although the tower is marked on the map there are no doors anywhere to be found to allow access to the inner areas. The reason for this is that it's the destination for Vaermina's shrine quest; the Daedric Goddess has had her 'Orb' stolen by Arkved and want's you to get it back. The only way into the tower is via this quest. There are a few minor items lying around the tower so it's worth investigating if you happen across the ruin before doing the quest.

Ayleid Statues ^

Ayleid Status are one of the more unusual items you may come across during your explorations; they don't seem to have much purpose other than as items to collect and sell - no quests appear to involve them - you can't 'do' anything with them as they don't appear to be magical either. The following is a list of locations where they can be found;

• Fanacas
• Ninendava

Veyond Cave & the Argonian Warriors ^

Although you may have heard about this place "it's where there's loads of Argonians", this is a location of note rather than as an unusual 'quest' destination. It's unusual for two reasons; it's home to a large group of very tough (male and female) Argonian Warriors, alongside their chieftain and a couple of Shaman; and it's home to it's fair share of magic items - mainly clothing based.

The trouble is however, most of the caves and subsequent battles are dark and under water with no breathing wholes of any kind, so make sure you have the appropriate potions or spells for underwater breathing before attempting this cave complex - it's best to leave this quest until you have found, bought or made a constant effect water breathing item - the rewards are hard fought but worth it. NOTE : keep in mind that magic items and enemy toughness are relative to your characters skill set so expect easy/medium/difficult fights and item cache to differ as your skill increases.

Oblivion Easter Egg's, Funnies, Cheats, fixes

Please note that the following bugs or 'cheats' listed here may have been fixed in update patches post release.

Shum gro-Yarug - Skingrad house bug/fix ^

There's a bug in Skingrad that doesn't appear to happen until you've progressed some way into the game. If you want to buy the house in Skingrad you'll need to talk to the Orc 'Shum gro-Yarug' who usually hangs out in the Counts Castle. Now if you talk to him on your first visit to Skingrad and buy the house there and then, you shouldn't have any problems. However, if you say "no thanks" and don't come back to Skingrad for some time, on your return you may find that he's either nowhere to be found - the green marker will pin point his supposed position, but when you find it there's nothing to be found, or that he's dead - usually from apparently jumping from the Castles bridge.

The former is a bug and the latter is just happenstance (circumstances beyond our control) due to the way the AI works. In eother case, if you want to 'fix' or spawn Shum gro-Yarug back into the game type the following command at the console and he'll spawn directly infront of you;

• player.placeatme 00028FB6

You should then be able to continue the house 'quest'.

Suicide Troll ^

Floating in the water directly under the bridge over the Silverfish river (or Panther River). Read the note once you've looted the body; trolls have feelings you know!

The hidden faces of the Frost Atronach ^

Did Morrowind's Frost Atronach have this? Once you've killed one of these beasts take a look at his feet which reveals the ghostly spectral impression of his victims faces embedded into his the souls of his feet!

Dorian money cheat. ^

It looks like this 'cheat' is going to be fixed with Oblivion's 1.1 update patch so get in there whilst you can!

Enter house the house. Bribe or persuade the NPC to increase his disposition as high as it will go; if you have the money bribe the character to 100%.

Go upstairs and enter upper room, there's a door on the other side of this that leads to his bedroom, this door needs to be opened and then left open.

Go back downstairs, attack but do not kill Dorian; this is basically to initialise the character to attack and then follow you where ever you go. Once this happens, run upstairs, he should follow, all the way into the room whose door you previously left opened.

When Dorian enters, close the door and stand with you r back to it blocking his exit from the room. Block a few of his attacks and then kill him. When you loot the body you should find that you can keep repeatedly take his gold ad infinitum.