If you’re all about dungeon diving and exploring ruins, you’ll know how important lockpicks really are.
Dungeons and Dwemer ruins are filled with treasure chests containing high-level loot, which makes it more likely you’ll run out of lockpicks while prying open a master or expert-level chest.
It’s not difficult to scavenge lockpicks. In fact, they’re common miscellaneous items that you can find easily in the game while exploring and looting.
But if you want to stack up on lockpicks, you can buy them in bulk from most vendors in the game. Let’s Discuss !
Buy Lockpicks From Merchants
You can buy lockpicks from most merchants in the game, including Khajit Caravans, Blacksmiths, General Goods vendors, Innkeepers, etc.
We’ve listed some merchants along with the locations from where you can always buy the lockpicks.
| Merchants | Location |
| Tonilia | Thieves Guild in Riften |
| Ri’saad | Ri’saad’s Caravan |
| Ahkari | Ahkari’s Caravan |
| Ma’dran | Ma’dran’s Caravan |
| Babette | Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary |
| Belethor | Belethor’s General Goods |
| Lucan Valerius | Riverwood Traders |
Add Lockpicks Via Console Command
PC players can easily add any number of lockpicks to their inventory via the console command.
- Press the tilde key {~} on your keyboard.
- Type in
player.additem Afollowed by the number of lockpicks that you need. For example, if you need a hundred lockpicks, type inplayer.additem A 100 - Press the Enter key and exit the console command by pressing the tilde key again.
Find Lockpicks by Exploring
Besides buying lockpicks from merchants or using console command, you can also find them in the wilderness.
Most treasure chests have a chance to have at least one lockpick in them. Similarly, you can also gather lockpicks by pickpocketing or looting NPCs.
You can also refer to our video guide below.
Can You Open Chests Without a Lockpick?
Well, no, you’ll still need a lockpick to open locked doors or treasure chests. However, there are a few ways to ensure that you won’t need to buy or look for additional lockpicks again.
You can either use the quick saving method, get the Unbreakable perk from the lockpicking skill tree, or get the Skeleton key.
Use the Quicksave Method
The quicksaving method doesn’t require any item. You just need to make a quicksave before picking a lock. If you run out of lockpicks or fail multiple times, simply load the quicksave.
Get the Unbreakable Perk
The lockpicking skill tree has many useful perks that you can use to make lockpicking easier. The Unbreakable perk is the most useful one, which makes lockpicks unbreakable.
However, you can only get this perk after reaching level 100 in Lockpicking.
Get the Skeleton Key
The Skeleton key is a unique item that functions similarly to the Unbreakable perk. The skeleton key is a lockpick that does not break on lockpicking failures.
You’ll get this item during the Blindsighted questline from the thieves guild.
However, the skeleton key does come with a catch. After getting the key, you’ll need to leave it behind at the end of the quest line in order to complete it.
To keep the Skeleton key for yourself, simply abandon the quest line after getting the item.
Note: This will also prevent you from getting further quests from the thieves guild.
