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ESO Thieving, Lockpicking and Pickpocketing Guide

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This is a guide aimed at beginners to ESO who want to learn how thieving works in the game. The guide will go over stealing items, pickpocketing, what happens if you get caught, and how to use or sell your stolen items. 

Basics of Thieving in ESO

While many items in ESO can be freely looted, there are some items that are marked as not belonging to you, and taking these is classed as stealing, which is of course a crime. 

There are two ways to identify if taking something will be considered stealing - when you are about to loot a container, the game will display a red “Steal from” prompt instead of the usual “Search” prompt. 

When you are looting a container, an item that does not belong to you will be shown in red text too. 

Stealing from a container in ESO
Stealing from a container in ESO
Before stealing something with any method, you should make sure you are crouched and make sure that the game is displaying the “Hidden” message with a closed eye, and not the “Detected” message with an open eye. If you steal while you are detected then you will get a bounty, and might also get attacked by a nearby NPC or guard. 

Where to Steal in ESO

Most built up areas that aren't populated by enemies will have a lot of places that you can steal from. There are some containers outdoors that you can steal from, especially near traders and market stalls. 

The most valuable items are usually stashed indoors though - you can break into houses by lockpicking the door, but be careful when doing this - if you are caught lockpicking you will get a bounty, and sometimes the occupants of the house will be at home. In this case you will have a few seconds to leave before they call a guard, which will give you a bounty. 

Sometimes a house's occupants will be at home
Sometimes a house's occupants will be at home
There are normally containers in homes that can be looted, but to increase your chances of finding valuable items, look for locked chests and strongboxes. 

Most banks also have a locked strongbox or safe with a Master level lock, containing valuable items. Looting these is difficult as there are normally NPCs patrolling nearby. 

A bank strongbox in ESO
A bank strongbox in ESO

How to Lockpick in ESO

There are a lot of locked containers and doors in ESO, and you will need to get good at lockpicking to be a successful thief. You will need at least one lockpick in your inventory before you can pick any locks.

When you attempt to open a locked door or container, you will see the lockpicking screen. You will have a time limit to finish picking the lock. To open the lock, you need to press down on each tumbler in the lock until it starts to vibrate, then release it and it should lock into place. Do this for all five tumblers before the time expires, and the lock will open. If you push down too hard on a tumbler then it will bounce back up. Doing this too many times may break your lockpick. You can also attempt to force the lock, but this will have a low chance of success until you have leveled up your Legerdemain  skill line by quite a lot. 

Lockpicking in ESO
Lockpicking in ESO

How to Pickpocket in ESO

First of all, note that not all NPCs in the game can be pickpocketed. Any NPC that is “important” (i.e. is a vendor or is involved in a quest) is immune to pickpocketing and also cannot be attacked. 

To pickpocket an NPC, crouch and approach them from behind. You will see a prompt which tells you what your current chance of success is. The chance is very low if you are detected. If you are hidden the chance will increase, and there will also be period moments when the NPC is not concentrating which will briefly increase your chance - this is indicated by the success chance turning green - the game will also make a “ping” sound when this happens. If you are successful, an item will be stolen from the NPC. If you are caught, you will get a bounty immediately and the NPC might also attack you. 

Pickpocketing in ESO
Stay hidden and wait for the green number when pickpocketing in ESO
There are also different social classes of NPCs which are marked in brackets on the pickpocket prompt - if you are just trying to level up your Legerdemain  skill then this doesn't matter too much, but if you are actually trying to make money or find rare items then it is more important - a noble is far more likely to have good stuff on them than a beggar, for example. 

What to do with stolen items in ESO?

You can use stolen weapons, armor recipes and motifs as soon as you have obtained them. But if it's a weapon or armor item, or you want to trade the item with another player, then you will need to launder the item first. Laundering basically converts the item from a stolen item to a normal item, and can be done at any Outlaw's Refuge. Most major cities in the game have an Outlaw's Refuge hidden beneath them. 

How to find an Outlaws Refuge on the map in ESO
How to find an Outlaws Refuge on the map in ESO
Outlaw's Refuges contain a special vendor called a Fence. You can either sell stolen items to the fence immediately for a gold return, or launder them to make them suitable for use or trade with other players. 

There is a daily limit on how many items each character can launder or sell to a fence, but this can be increased by investing in the Trafficker passive in the Legerdemain  skill line. 

How to deal with Guards in ESO

When you are caught committing a crime, you will receive a bounty. If the crime you commited was severe, such as murder or attacking a guard, then you will be considered Notorious, which means that guards won't attempt to arrest you and will just attack on sight. This will also happen if you resist arrest. 

After a few minutes of staying out of trouble, Notorious will decay to Disreputable, meaning guards will first attempt to accost you before attacking. They will demand you pay your bounty, and if you refuse then they will attack. If a guard kills you, they will take the bounty from your body. Upon paying your bounty, you will become Upstanding. Your bounty also gradually decays over time, so you can just avoid cities or play on a different character if you don't want to pay it. 

If you are carrying stolen items though, you definitely don't want to be caught by a guard at all, as they will take all of your stolen items when they take the bounty from you. If you have a bounty and are carrying stolen goods, then the best thing you can do is rush straight to the nearest Outlaws Refuge. If you need to check the map to find it, then first rush to a place where there are no guards (outside the city for example), then plan a route to the refuge on the map. 

Fence in ESO
Go to a Fence to sell or launder stolen items if you have a bounty

If a guard is attacking you, do not try to fight them as they are immortal. The damage that guard's attacks do will gradually increase over time and their attacks will eventually one shot you. If you manage to survive by just avoiding all of their attacks, they will eventually fire a crossbow that does a massive amount of damage and cannot be blocked or dodged. But you can outrun them quite easily so it shouldn't get to that point. They do have a chain attack which will pull you back to them, but this can be blocked or dodged. Once you are far enough away from their patrol area they will stop following you. 

Additional tips and tricks for thieving in ESO

If you want to do a lot of thieving in the Elder Scrolls Online, then you might want a build available for your character that allows you to sneak around faster and get out of trouble more easily. You can make use of sets like Vesture of Darloc Brae, Jailbreaker, Darkstride, or Night's Silence to improve your ability to sneak around quickly without getting caught. Also you can check out this gold farming build which will help you to move around quickly and is also a good fit for Thieving. 

Now you know the basics of thieving, lockpicking and pickpocketing in ESO (Elder Scrolls Online). ESO is a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) developed by Zenimax Online Studios.


Foire aux questions

How can I level up my Legerdemain skill line in ESO?

Completing actions related to thieving will improve this skill - that includes lockpicking, pickpocketing and fence interactions. 

Do I need to be in the Thieves' Guild to access the Fence in ESO?

No! Anyone can start thieving and using the Fence right away. Being in the Thieves Guild can slightly improve some aspects of thieving though, for example making your bounty decay faster and increasing the gold you get when selling items at a Fence. 
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