You Can Do It!
This article is my first and is meant to present the many joys, challenges and hilarious outcomes of stealing in Tamriel. Hopefully, all of you readers will theft an amusing way to break up and supplement the other aspects of ESO.
The benefits of a life of (victimless!) crime
- Aside from the generally curious, most readers of this article are probably new to Elder Scrolls Online and one of the initial benefits of theft is quick access to better equipment for low level players. Large cities in each zone have vendors of weapons and armor with samples scaled to your level just lying out in the open! Steal yourself a new set of duds and suit up!
- Theft of weapons and armor will also give you access to crafting materials (wood, metal, cloth, or leather) and style materials (corundum, flint, etc.) Deconstructing stolen goods will often yield these materials, will always give you crafting experience. Additionally, because the original item is broken down, it cannot be repossessed by the law (more on repossession soon). Win-win-win.
- Gold and useful/valuable items! In addition to weapons and armor, you can find gold, provisioning ingredients, recipes, alchemy solvents, or items of various qualities and values which can be fenced in the Outlaw Refuges around Tamriel’s largest cities.
- Picking pockets, fencing items, and opening locks will give you experience in the Legerdemain Skill Line. These skills are explained in detail at the end of the article but generally promote your sneaking, pickpocketing, chance of forcing locks open, lower bounties and increase the amount of items that can be fenced daily.
- There are also many achievements that can only be gained once you begin your crime spree. A list can be found at the end of this article.
How to steal
First, if you think you know how to steal, you probably do and can skip this section.
Picking up an item that belongs to someone else or removing an item from a container that belongs to someone else is stealing and will, if you’re seen, result in a bounty and often a fight between you and any witnesses. Instead of seeing the “[E] Take” command in white when facing the item, you will be given the “[E] Steal” command in red when your character focuses on the item. Press the button and you’ll steal the item.
The first challenge to stealing is not being seen in the act. If there are no NPCs where you are, you do not need to hide when stealing. (Other players cannot report you for stealing.) If you are in a space with NPCs, enter the sneaking crouch and wait to make sure you are “Hidden.” If you are then you can grab that item and nobody will be the wiser! If an NPC is close enough to see you, consider moving around the item or container you are stealing from to block their line-of-sight or wait for them to move away. Once you are out of the NPC’s line-of-sight, your sneaking cursor should gradually close from an open eye to a closed eye at the end of which you will see “Hidden.” Proceed with theft.
Note: If you steal often enough, you will almost certainly be caught. It’s not really a big deal and you can read about your options once you’ve been caught below.
In addition to simply picking up things that don’t belong to you and looting unlocked containers, there are a couple of special stealing scenarios in ESO.
Picking Pockets
In order to pick an NPC’s pocket you will need to approach them in a sneaking crouch, ideally from behind. As you approach most NPCs while sneaking you will see the command “[E] Pickpocket” in red with a difficulty rating and your chance of successfully pulling it off. Difficulties I have seen range from Easy, Medium, Hard, and Aware (knows your there = 0% chance of success). The chance of success shown as a percentage will change from a low probability shown in red to a higher probability in green. If you are caught by the person you’re pickpocketing or observed by another NPC, you’ll likely be attacked by them and have a bounty placed on you. Skills in the Legerdemain skill line will improve your chances of success at this.
Opening Safeboxes
Safeboxes are small silver chests found near merchants shut with locks of varying difficulty levels (Easy, Intermediate, Advanced and Master) just like treasure chests. You have to pick the lock to open them, but it is illegal to do so. Inside the safebox is typically a combination of gold and items you’ll want to fence. As in stealing, hide and avoid witnesses when attempting to open a safebox.
For a how-to guide on picking locks, read my next article: Lockpicking!
Step 1: Steal Erotic Argonian Etchings, Step 2: … Step 3: Profit!
It is not recommended to run around with a lot of stolen goods in your inventory because if you are caught breaking the law, the guards will take all the stolen items in your inventory, and you can never get them back! You know they’re stolen when you open your inventory because there is a little red hand icon by the item.
If you have stolen something that you can deconstruct (weapons/armor/glyphs) or use right away like a recipe, soul gem or a crafting ingredient, use it and its stolen status will go away. For example, if you have a solvent for alchemy that is stolen, use that solvent to make a potion and that potion is 100% yours and not in danger of repossession. Or if you have a stolen empty soul gem, trap a soul in it and that soul gem is now full and no longer marked as stolen property!
But what if you don’t want to use it right away or it is only good for selling? Stolen goods cannot be sold to most NPC merchants, but there are Outlaw Refuges across Tamriel with resources and merchants including a Fence. The fence is the thieves’ safety net, and they can help you out by clearing your bounty, laundering items (clearing the stolen status so you can keep it without fear of repossession) or buying stolen goods from you. It is true you can pay the same bounty to the guards to clear your record, but the guards will take the bounty money and any stolen goods you possess. The fence just takes the money and leaves you with your stolen goods.
In the Ebonheart Pact, there are Outlaw Refuges in the cities of Davon’s Watch, Mournhold, Stormhold, Windhelm and Riften. There is also a Craglorn Outlaws Refuge in Belkarth. The Refuges can be seen on your map inside the cities; their icon looks like a T-rex footprint.
Caught with your hands in strange cookie pots?
As I said, we all get caught eventually. Situational awareness is important in deciding what your next move will be, and there are some factors to take into account.
Who saw the crime? If you were caught by an NPC they will either report your crime (raising your bounty but not attacking you) or they will report your crime and also attack you (bounty raised and now you’re getting punched in the face to boot.) If everyone is still going about their business without attacking you despite your bounty, you’ll be able to do the same until you run into a city guard. If you have an NPC attacking you, you may either run away, kill them, or let them kill you. Know that the “He hit me first!”-defense will not hold up; your bounty will go up when you start hitting/killing law-abiding NPCs. But if you decide to kill everyone, make sure you stop afterward and take whatever you were trying to steal in the first place.
If a guard catches you while you have a bounty, they will react in one of two ways. You may be stopped and given the options to pay the bounty or flee, or the guards will simply begin attacking on you on sight. The reaction of the guards is determined by how recent and severe your crimes were. When you have a bounty, you will see the amount of your bounty on your screen surrounded by a circle with sections in white and occasionally red. When the circle has red portions, expect the guards to attack you on sight. If the circle is only white portions then the guards will stop you and demand the bounty, giving you the chance to flee.
The bounty and circle showing severity of your crimes will count down with time. If you are running free with a bounty because a guard hasn’t caught you or you’ve successfully fled from the guards, you have the option of waiting for the bounty to run itself out. The countdown will continue even if you’re logged off, but a bounty will persist even after you are killed unless you are killed by one of the city guards. I believe they take your gold and stolen items after killing you.
Instead of waiting for the timer to run out, you can pay your bounty to a guard if they’re not trying to kill you (losing any stolen items in your possession at the time) or you can avoid/flee the guards and get to the nearest Outlaw Refuge to pay the Fence and clear your record. As mentioned, paying the fence will cost the same amount of gold but does not result in having your stolen items confiscated.
Thank you for reading this LONG article! Go out and steal something!
Please feel free to post any comments here or send messages to me in-game to my main character (Rhymnoceros).
What follows are two lists for those interested. They show the Legerdemain Skill Line and a list of ESO Achievements related to stealing.
The Legerdemain Skill Line (All Passive Skills)
- Improved Hiding (Rank 1/2/3/4) – Reduces Stamina cost of sneaking by 10%/20%/30%/40%.
- Light Fingers (Rank 1/2/3/4) – Increases the chance of successfully Pickpocketing by 10%/20%/35%/50%.
- Trafficker (Rank1/2/3/4) – Increases the number of daily fence interactions to 110/120/130/140).
- Locksmith (Rank1/2/3/4) – Improves your chance of forcing locks by 10%/25%/45%/70%.
- Kickback (Rank1/2/3/4) – Reduces bounties willingly paid to guards/fences by 10%/20%/30%/40%.
Achievements
- Your Mother Would Be Proud: The achievements which require some degree of thievery.
- Discerning Pilferer – Steal a fine (green) quality item.
- Discriminating Pilferer – Steal a superior (blue) quality item.
- Grand Larcenist – Steal an epic (purple) quality item.
- Ill-Gotten Gains – Earn 1,000 gold by selling stolen goods to a fence.
- Illicit Entrepreneur – Earn 100,000 gold by selling stolen goods to a fence.
- Black Market Mogul – Earn 1,000,000 gold by selling stolen goods to a fence.
- Safebox Pilferer – Break into and loot the contents of a safebox.
- Safebox Looter – Break into and loot the contents of 10 safeboxes.
- Safebox Cracker – Break into and loot the contents of 100 safeboxes.
- Cut and Run – Successfully escape a guard after choosing the “Flee” option when caught with a bounty.
- Escape Artist – Successfully escape the guards 100 times after choosing the “Flee” option.
- Felonious Recompense – Pay a total of 100,000 gold to the guards or fences to clear your record.
- Make Amends – Pay 1,000 gold or more at one time to a guard or fence to clear your record.
- Loot Cleaner – Spend 100 gold to launder stolen goods through a fence.
- Loot Sanitizer – Spend 1,000 gold to launder stolen goods through a fence.
- Illustrious Launderer – Spend 10,000 gold to launder stolen goods through a fence.
- Pocket Pilferer – Successfully pickpocket a citizen of Tamriel.
- Purse Snatcher – Successfully pickpocket 100 citizens of Tamriel.
- Sneak Thief Extraordinaire – Successfully pickpocket 1,000 citizens of Tamriel.
- Disrobed Discipline – Have a stolen item of clothing you are wearing repossessed.
- Indecent Exposure – Have stolen items in every armor slot and have them repossessed by a guard.
Excellent, easy to understand article!
I’ve seen loot from portraits going for 100g, does anything exist worth more than that?
Good question! The loot that can be obtained from safeboxes, picking pockets or simple theft from barrels, crates and furniture follows the game’s differing levels of quality as shown by the color of the item’s name. White items are common and sell to fences for 30 gold. Green items are worth more and less common, selling for 100 gold. I have also found blue items which sell for 250 gold, if I remember correctly. Though I have not found them personally, I imagine it is possible to steal items of the remaining two quality levels: purple and gold. Presumably those… Read more »
I love your article after a couple of bourbons I was laughing my guts out remembering my first attempts at thievery (not very successful ) quite a bit better now , and yes 250g is not uncommon , I can’t recall a higher amount though , all in all bdanbury a good article. Keep up the high larceny !!
There are indeed 3 levels of items, green-100g, blue 250g, and my favorite class of items the purple ones at 750g :)
Are the blues and purples found at specific areas based on levels? Or is it completely by chance?
I tend to find blue quality items more often in safeboxes, but I also don’t spend as much time searching crates and dressers as I did starting out. I’ve never found purple quality loot from stealing, but I would guess that higher quality level items will become more common at higher level zones and veteran areas.