Oblivion:Increasing Skills

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Oblivion: How to Level | Skills

Contents

[edit] Overview

All skills in Oblivion increase in level as you use the skill. Each time you use a skill, you gain experience points; the number of points gained depends upon the particular skill and how you use it. Those experience points count towards your next increase in skill level. Once enough experience points have accumulated, your skill level increases. (Note that "experience points" are not visible to the player in-game unless you use the console; you see only your "skill level" values in the Journal.)

The number of experience points that you must accumulate to advance a skill increase with level -- at the start of the game, you will quickly gain skill levels, but later in the game you will need to practice a skill for much longer in order to gain one level.

The number of experience points is also influenced by whether the skill is part of your character's class:

  • Skills that are not part of your class are base skills and require the most experience points to advance.
  • For the seven skills that are associated with your class specialization (Combat, Magic, or Stealth), only 75% of the base experience is needed.
  • For the seven major skills, only 60% of the base experience is needed.
  • For any skills that are both specialization skills and major skills, only 45% of the base experience is needed.

Your character's level advances when any combination of your class' seven major skills have increased 10 skill levels. For example, you can raise a single skill by 10 skill levels, or two skills by 5 skill levels, or five skills by 2 levels... or any other combination that adds up to 10 skill level increases.

[edit] Acquiring Experience Points

The following table specifies which Actions are necessary to gain experience in each skill, and how many experience points are gained each time the action is done (Exp./Action). In general, actions must have a valid target to count for experience: weapon blows must land on a creature or NPC, not an inanimate object (even the training dummies in Fighters Guilds do not count); spells must be cast upon yourself, a creature, or an NPC. See the individual skill pages for more details on these actions.

Under Total Actions the table provides the total number of actions necessary to train a skill from a level of 5 to 100 (assuming the skill is not a major skill or specialization skill). A few skills provide times in hours; in all cases, these are hours of real time. See Total Experience Points for more discussion.

Training Tip provides a single suggestion for how to artificially train this skill. A complete list of tips for each skill is provided on each skill page. The tip shown here is just one technique that is considered to be useful for most characters in most situations.

In all cases, see the individual skill page for more details on the actions necessary to gain experience, and for a more complete list of tips on how to advance the skill.

Skill Att Action Exp./
Action		 Total
Actions
(Base)		 Total
Actions
(Spec)		 Total
Actions
(Major)		 Total
Actions
(S+M)		 Training Tip
(complete tips are provided on skill pages)
Combat Skills
Armorer Armorer End each use of a repair hammer 1.5 6,812 5,109 4,088 3,066 Buy lots of repair hammers and repair every piece of equipment as often as possible.
Athletics Athletics Spd time (secs) spent running 0.03 94.6 hrs 70.5 hrs 56.4 hrs 42.6 hrs Use Water Breathing and auto-swim against an object.
time (secs) spent swimming 0.04 70.9 hrs 53.2 hrs 42.6 hrs 31.9 hrs
Blade Blade Str each hit on a target 0.5 20,435 15,327 12,261 9,196 See General Combat Strategies.
Block Block End each blocked hit 1.25 8,174 6,131 4,905 3,679
Blunt Blunt Str each hit on a target 0.5 20,435 15,327 12,261 9,196
Hand to Hand Hand to Hand Str each hit on a target 0.6 17,030 12,773 10,218 7,664
Heavy Armor Heavy Armor End each hit taken 1.25 8,174 6,131 4,905 3,679
Magic Skills
Alchemy Alchemy Int each potion created 5.0 2,044 1,533 1,227 920 Create Restore Fatigue potions.
each ingredient eaten 0.5 20,435 15,327 12,261 9,196
Alteration Alteration Wil each spell cast 4.0 2,555 1,917 1,533 1,150 Repeatedly cast Protect.
Conjuration Conjuration Int each spell cast 6.0 1,703 1,278 1,022 767 Repeatedly cast Bound Dagger; unequip the weapon to immediately cast it again.
Destruction Destruction Wil each spell cast 1.2 8,514 6,386 5,109 3,832 Create a custom Weakness to Element on self (3%, 1 sec) spell; cast repeatedly.
Illusion Illusion Per each spell cast 3.0 3,406 2,555 2,044 1,533 Repeatedly cast Starlight.
Mysticism Mysticism Int each spell cast 3.0 3,406 2,555 2,044 1,533 Repeatedly cast Minor Life Detection.
Restoration Restoration Wil each spell cast 0.6 17,030 12,773 10,218 7,664 Repeatedly cast Minor Respite.
Stealth Skills
Acrobatics Acrobatics Spd each jump or dodge 0.3 34,059 25,545 20,436 15,327 Stand underneath a low overhang (like a dock) and jump repeatedly.
each point of damage from falling 0.3 34,059 25,545 20,436 15,327
Light Armor Light Armor Spd each hit taken 1.5 6,812 5,109 4,088 3,066 See General Combat Strategies.
Marksman Marksman Agi each shot hitting a target 0.8 12,772 9,579 7,664 5,748
Mercantile Mercantile Per each sales transaction 0.4 25,544 19,158 15,327 11,495 Sell items one by one, not in stacks.
Security Security Agi each tumbler fixed 1.5 6,812 5,109 4,088 3,066 Fix the first three or four tumblers of a hard or very hard lock, then exit the menu; repeat.
Sneak Sneak Agi time (secs) spent undetected while moving in sneak mode 0.75 3.78 hrs 2.84 hrs 2.27 hrs 1.72 hrs Autorun in sneak mode next to a sleeping person
Speechcraft Speechcraft Per each turn (4 wedges) of minigame 2.4 4,258 3,194 2,555 1,917 Play the speechcraft minigame without trying to win

[edit] Experience Points Needed

The following table shows the specific number of experience points needed to increase any skill from the listed level to the next level. The experience points depend upon whether the skill is a major skill or a skill in your class' specialization (Spec). Any extra experience points will roll over to the next skill level.

For example, if you gain 4 experience points at skill level 5, but you only needed 2.89 to advance the skill level, 1.11 points will 'roll over' to advancement in skill level 6, and only 2.69 more experience points will be needed to reach skill level 7.

The formula for the base experience points required to go up a level is:

 Base_experience = 0.25883 * skill_level^1.5

This formula is controlled by construction set parameters, in particular FSkillUseFactor (default value 0.35), FSkillUseExp (default value 1.5), and FSkillUseMinor (default value 1.25). If using a mod that alters the default parameter values, the formula becomes:

 Base experience = FSkillUseMinor * (FSkillUseFactor * skill_level)^FSkillUseExp

The conversion factors, as used in the table, are:

  • Base to Spec = Multiply by 0.75 (FSkillUseSpecMult)
  • Base to Major = Multiply by 0.6 (FSkillUseMajorMult / FSkillUseMinor)
  • Base to S+M = Multiply by 0.45 (FSkillUseSpecMult × FSkillUseMajorMult / FSkillUseMinor)

(Note that "base" skills are treated by all these equations as if they were "minor" skills, even though no skills in Oblivion are ever described as minor skills).

Level Base Spec Major S+M Level Base Spec Major S+M Level Base Spec Major S+M Level Base Spec Major S+M
Novice Apprentice Journeyman Expert
25 32.35 24.26 19.41 *** 50 91.51 68.63 54.90 41.16 75 168.1 126.0 100.8 75.64
26 34.31 25.73 20.58 *** 51 94.27 70.70 56.56 42.42 76 171.4 128.6 102.8 77.16
27 36.31 27.23 21.78 *** 52 97.05 72.78 58.23 43.66 77 174.8 131.1 104.9 78.68
28 38.35 28.76 23.01 *** 53 99.87 74.90 59.92 44.94 78 178.3 133.7 106.9 80.22
29 40.42 30.31 24.25 *** 54 102.7 77.03 61.62 46.20 79 181.7 136.3 109.0 81.78
5 2.89 * ** *** 30 42.53 31.89 25.51 19.12 55 105.5 79.17 63.34 47.50 80 185.2 138.9 111.1 83.34
6 3.80 * ** *** 31 44.67 33.50 26.80 20.10 56 108.4 81.35 65.08 48.80 81 188.6 141.5 113.2 84.90
7 4.79 * ** *** 32 46.85 35.13 28.11 21.08 57 111.3 83.53 66.82 50.12 82 192.1 144.1 115.3 86.48
8 5.86 * ** *** 33 49.07 36.80 29.44 22.08 58 114.3 85.74 68.59 51.44 83 195.7 146.7 117.4 88.06
9 6.99 * ** *** 34 51.31 38.48 30.78 23.08 59 117.3 87.97 70.38 52.78 84 199.2 149.4 119.5 89.66
10 8.18 6.13 ** *** 35 53.59 40.19 32.15 24.10 60 120.2 90.21 72.17 54.12 85 202.8 152.1 121.6 91.26
11 9.44 7.08 ** *** 36 55.91 41.93 33.54 25.14 61 123.3 92.48 73.98 55.48 86 206.4 154.8 123.8 92.88
12 10.76 8.07 ** *** 37 58.25 43.68 34.95 26.20 62 126.3 94.77 75.81 56.86 87 210.0 157.5 126.0 94.50
13 12.13 9.09 ** *** 38 60.63 45.47 36.37 27.28 63 129.4 97.07 77.65 58.24 88 213.6 160.2 128.2 96.14
14 13.56 10.17 ** *** 39 63.04 47.28 37.82 28.36 64 132.5 99.39 79.51 59.62 89 217.3 162.9 130.3 97.78
15 15.04 11.28 ** *** 40 65.48 49.11 39.28 29.46 65 135.6 101.7 81.38 61.02 90 220.9 165.7 132.5 99.44
16 16.57 12.42 ** *** 41 67.94 50.95 40.76 30.56 66 138.7 104.0 83.26 62.44 91 224.6 168.5 134.8 101.1
17 18.14 13.60 ** *** 42 70.45 52.83 42.27 31.70 67 141.9 106.4 85.17 63.86 92 228.4 171.3 137.0 102.7
18 19.77 14.82 ** *** 43 72.98 54.73 43.78 32.84 68 145.1 108.8 87.08 65.30 93 232.1 174.0 139.2 104.4
19 21.44 16.08 ** *** 44 75.54 56.65 45.32 33.98 69 148.3 111.2 89.01 66.74 94 235.8 176.9 141.5 106.1
20 23.15 17.36 ** *** 45 78.13 58.59 46.87 35.14 70 151.5 113.6 90.95 68.20 95 239.6 179.7 143.7 107.8
21 24.91 18.68 ** *** 46 80.75 60.56 48.45 36.32 71 154.8 116.1 92.91 69.68 96 243.4 182.5 146.0 109.5
22 26.71 20.03 ** *** 47 83.40 62.55 50.04 37.52 72 158.1 118.5 94.87 71.14 97 247.2 185.4 148.3 111.2
23 28.55 21.41 ** *** 48 86.07 64.55 51.64 38.72 73 161.4 121.0 96.85 72.64 98 251.1 188.3 150.6 112.9
24 30.43 22.82 ** *** 49 88.78 66.58 53.26 39.94 74 164.7 123.5 98.85 74.14 99 254.9 191.2 152.9 114.7

* A value less than 10 is not possible for a skill in the class' specialization.
** A value less than 25 is not possible for a major skill.
*** A value less than 30 is not possible for a major skill that is also in the class' specialization.

[edit] Examples

Example 1
A Dunmer (Dark Elf) Mage will start the game with 30 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is both a specialization and a major skill for the standard Mage class. In order to advance to skill level 31, the Mage needs 19.12 experience points in alchemy. Since each potion created gives 5 experience points to Alchemy, creating a mere 4 potions will increase the Mage's alchemy experience by 20 points and raise his level from 30 to 31. This will also earn 1 skill advancement towards level advancement because Alchemy is a major skill for a Mage.
Example 2
A Dunmer Assassin will start the game with 25 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is a major skill (but not a specialization skill) for the standard Assassin class. In order to advance to skill level 26, the Assassin needs 19.41 accumulated experience points. The same 4 potions that the Mage had to make to raise in level from 30 to 31 will only advance the Assassin in level from 25 to 26 (and will also earn a skill advancement towards leveling up) even though the same 20 experience points was earned.
Once the assassin reaches level 30 (after making 21 potions), 25.51 experience points are needed to advance to level 31, 4.03 of which would roll over from the previous level. Therefore, 5 potions must be made (rather than the 4 potions needed for the Mage).
Example 3
A Dunmer Nightblade will start the game with 10 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is a specialization, but not a major, skill for the standard Nightblade class. Since it only takes 6.13 experience points to advance to level 11, creating a single potion will be just short of level 11 (that one potion earns 5 of the 6.13 experience points required). In fact, if the Nightblade created the same number of potions as the Mage and Assassin in the examples above (i.e., 4 thus earning 20 experience points in Alchemy), the Nightblade would have a skill level of 12 in Alchemy and put the Nightblade only 1.28 skill advancement points away from skill level 13.
Once the Nightblade reaches level 30 (after making 69 potions), 31.89 experience points are needed to advance to level 31 (0.33 of which would roll over from level 29). 7 potions need to be made.
Example 4
A Dunmer Thief will start the game with a 5 Alchemy skill. Alchemy is neither a specialization nor a major skill for the standard Thief class. Since it only takes 2.89 experience points to advance to level 6, a single potion puts the Thief at level 6. Furthermore, if the Thief created the same four potions as the Mage and Assassin in the previous examples, the Thief would have a skill level of 9 in Alchemy.
Once the thief reaches level 30 (after making 96 potions), 42.53 experience points are needed to advance to level 31 (4.85 of which would roll over from level 29). 8 potions need to be made.

[edit] Total Experience Points

Another way to interpret the above information is to consider the number of times a skill must be used in order to raise that skill to the maximum value of 100.

  • To increase a Base skill from 5 to 100: 10220 experience points.
  • To increase a Specialization skill from 10 to 100: 7647 experience points.
  • To increase a Major skill from 25 to 100: 5950 experience points.
  • To increase a Specialization and Major skill from 30 to 100: 4381 experience points.

Racial bonuses, that cause skills to start at values larger than the minimum values, will reduce the amount of experience necessary to train a skill to level 100.

10220 experience points is converted into the number of actions necessary to train each skill in the table under Acquiring Experience Points.

[edit] Monitoring Experience in the Console

On the PC, it is possible to use the Console to obtain a summary of your character's current skill usage. Using the commands tdt and sdt 10 displays a screen showing:

  • In the left-hand column, exactly how many experience points have been acquired and how many are needed to advance for each skill.
  • In the middle column, the number of skill advances counting towards each attribute bonus the next time your character levels up. This column contains information on attribute bonuses for multiple levels, if you have not slept since your last level up became available.

See also TESCSWiki.

[edit] Strategies for Increasing Skills

Many players will find that their skills increase naturally from normal gameplay: combat and defense skills will automatically increase each time you encounter a creature in a dungeon, for example. However, as part of more advanced game play strategies, such as Efficient Leveling, more artificial means of increasing skills may be desired, for example to be able to train skills in a controlled environment, or to train one skill independently of other skills.

Note that some attributes and skills are closely linked, and by training one you will most likely also train another (whether you like it or not)! Strength and Endurance/Speed is one example, it requires special dedication to practice close combat without increasing Light/Heavy armor skill (or simply wear no armor at all--if your plan is to avoid getting hit, you don't need armor).

This section provides some general strategies that are applicable to multiple skills. Strategies specific to each skill are detailed on the individual skill pages. Some of these techniques may be considered exploits or bugs.

[edit] General Combat Strategies

The primary strategy for increasing combat skills is to practice on weak and/or summoned creatures. The greatest challenge with increasing combat skills is to only practice one skill at a time: defense skills (Block, Light Armor, or Heavy Armor) and offense skills (Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand, or Marksman) often must be used at the same time; after combat your equipment will need to be repaired, causing Armorer skill to also go up.

Before starting combat practice, it is strongly recommended to remove unnecessary enchantments, such as Reflect Damage that will make your target die more quickly.

Another possible preparation is to change the difficulty slider setting. If you are practicing defensive skills, set the difficulty slider to the easiest value; this makes you receive only 1/6 of normal damage (and you would also deal 6 times normal damage if you engaged a target). If you are practicing offensive skills, set the difficulty slider to the hardest value, so you only deal 1/6 of normal damage, maximizing the lifetime of your target (this generally only works against a target who will not fight back).

If you are training a skill by attacking non-stop, the game may not register the attacks or notify you of any skill increases until you stop attacking. Other than the delayed notification, this does not affect the amount of experience that you obtain.

Weak creatures provide good ways to practice defensive skills. They will automatically attack you, but they do so little damage that you can survive multiple hits. If you don't mind simultaneously training Restoration, you can periodically cast healing spells. Or you can kill the creature and then rest to restore your health without training restoration.

  • The Imperial City sewers are a good place to encounter rats and mudcrabs for just this purpose. You can even find a bedroll or two to sleep on while you're down there to restore your health if desired.
  • Shores of any body of water are a good place to find mudcrabs. Walk around Lake Rumare for example (and simultaneously look for nirnroot to kill two birds with one stone).
  • Go into a city's barracks and pick up a worthless item (the bounty should only be one gold). Resist arrest, and the guards will start attacking you. When you have had enough, yield and pay the bounty. Be careful about doing this outside of the barracks, as citizens may come to your defense, causing important quest-related people to be killed.
  • Go to an area with many archers, like Rockmilk Cave, and get close to them so that they use daggers (daggers are the fastest weapons, and 4 at once goes very fast).
  • Go to the basement of Arvena Thelas' house in Anvil and get the four rats there to attack you (e.g., cast a Frenzy spell on them). This is one of the best ways to train because the four rats attack quickly and deal minor damage. Once you've had enough, simply exit the room and the four rats will become calm once more.
  • Fort Carmala has an area with 5 rats locked in a room, which work equally as well as the previous method.
  • On the Weynon Priory grounds, in an area across from the stables, there are two sheep. The female (without horns) will not attack you and will hardly move even when being bashed around. Use a poor quality weapon and heal the sheep as needed.

Summoned creatures can be used for offensive practice. After three hits they will turn on you, allowing them to also be used for defensive practice if desired. If you wish to use this technique a lot, you may want to create a custom Summon Skeleton spell (the cheapest summon effect) with an extra-long duration. This minimizes the number of times you need to cast the summon spell, and reduces the extent to which you will simultaneously increase your Conjuration skill.

Besides standard Summon spells, other ways to obtain practice targets include:

  • Obtain the Staff of Everscamp from the Whom Gods Annoy quest. The four scamps respawn continuously. Even after you have finished the quest, you can return to Darkfathom Cave to find the scamps and continue using them as a never-ending supply of weaklings.
  • With the Vile Lair official plugin you can obtain an unkillable sleeping prisoner (in the Cattle Pen upgrade), who can be used for perpetual target practice.
  • With the Thieves Den official plugin you can obtain Bacon the warthog (with the Fence upgrade), who is also unkillable and can be used for perpetual target practice.
    • Be wary, however, for Bacon hits back. Although he will usually just walk off after going unconscious two or three times, it will be more difficult to get him to stop attacking after enough hits.
  • In Fort Roebeck go to the room on the first level with the drawbridge. Jump across, or lower the bridge then raise it and cross before it raises. Continue forward until a Conjurer spots you and starts to chase. Run back to the drawbridge room and jump in the water. The Conjurer will get stuck at the bridge and endlessly summon creatures that are dropped into the water if you position yourself southeast of the center. The creature summoned depends on your level, but some of them such as scamps can't swim and will not fight back while you practice your offensive skills on them. Having the Fin Gleam helmet is helpful but not necessary.
  • Before starting Peryite's Daedric quest, go the shrine and attack the frozen worshipers. If you use this exploit too often, your game may become unstable because you have committed too many "unreported" (but zero bounty) crimes. To fix the problem, commit an assault against a normal NPC and then pay the fine; this clears the entire stack of unreported crimes. It is probably safest to do this periodically instead of waiting for your game to become unstable, because once your game starts to crash it may be too late to recover.
  • Use your horse for target practice. If you have obtained Shadowmere, she is unkillable. Otherwise, be sure to do minimal damage and only attack until your horse's health is low, then let your horse heal for an hour.
    • This must be done in a safe and remote location as mutilating your horse is illegal and you will get arrested.
    • Your game can become unstable if you use this exploit too often. As with Peryite's worshipers, the problem is that you have accrued too many "unreported" crimes because attacking your horse is considered theft by the game. Legally resolving a crime clears out all the "unreported" crimes which are overloading the engine. Simply stealing an item, getting caught, and paying the fine will fix the issue. (source: readme file for the Unofficial Patch)
    • Another problem with this approach is that damaging your own horse will get you kicked out of ALL guilds that you are a member of: Fighters Guild, Mages Guild, Thieves Guild, AND the Dark Brotherhood. It seems that once you are a member of a guild, every horse that you own or buy also becomes a member of that guild. This means that striking your own horse either on purpose or by accident gets you kicked out of the guilds. The only strange thing about this is that you are not kicked out for assaulting another guild-mate, you are kicked out for stealing from them. Odd results but the same no less.
  • Once you have completed the Dark Brotherhood questline, your speaker will remain in the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary. She is an essential character, and you may attack her as often as you wish. You will never get a bounty for this, the others in the sanctuary will never come to the aid of one or the other and when knocked unconscious she will shortly recover without any effect on her disposition towards you. She will fight back, however will always accept your yield if you have had enough.

To avoid simultaneously training Armorer skills, you can use junk equipment for training. Take any equipment that you have obtained in loot and were planning to sell, and use the equipment until it is completely broken. You can then sell the damaged item; as long as your Mercantile skill is 25 or higher, you will receive the same amount of money. Or stash the damaged items at your home base until a later time when you want to train armorer skill. Or, alternatively, enchant armor with anything and you will still be able to wear it when it is broken while still earning experience. Or if you're training offense and not defense, just don't wear armor at all. Your weapon, of course, will still need repairs. (Unless it's a Bound weapon, which would be training your Conjuration skill instead.) Or if you have the funds, you can always just trek into town and have your local blacksmith do the repairs for you.

Some more unusual techniques for training offensive skills include:

  • Blade and blunt skill can be trained using Shagrol gro-Uzug's weapons if you have the Fighter's Stronghold official mod. Shagrol has three special training weapons (an axe, a warhammer, and a dagger) which do no damage. If you pickpocket one of the weapons from him, you can use the weapon to attack anybody for as long as you like without inflicting any damage. The attack still counts as a hostile act, however, so attacking friendly NPCs will result in a bounty.
  • Using 100% Chameleon allows you to attack anyone you like at will without any hostile retaliation. Good targets for training when using 100% Chameleon are ones with the ability to heal themselves (Dread Zombies, Spider Daedra, Spriggans, Trolls, Umbra, etc.) because you can train indefinitely.

[edit] General Magic Strategies

To increase any magic skill, all that you need to do is find a cheap spell and cast it over and over again. In order to have a guaranteed target for the spell, it is best to use "on self" spells as practice spells. These practice spells can be cast continuously: as you walk through town to get to the store, as you explore the countryside, as you walk back out of a dungeon that you have finished exploring. In most cases, you do not have to wait for the previous spell to expire; you can recast the spell as soon as the casting animation is done. To cast spells even more rapidly, hold the Block key down while spellcasting. Also, the spell does not have to be "needed" for the spellcasting to be effective at providing experience. For example, a Restore Health spell can be cast on yourself even if your health is at 100%; it won't increase your health, but it will increase your Restoration experience.

The Spells page provides a complete list of the standard spells that are available for sale in the game. Identify the cheapest novice-level "on self" spell for each magical school, then track down the NPC who sells that spell and purchase it. That spell provides a good starter spell for practicing your skill.

Even more effective practice spells can be custom-made at the spellmaking altar. Create a custom 1 second, 3 point, on self spell using the cheapest spell effect available in the school. A practice spell that only costs 1 magicka to cast is ideal, and can be cast repeatedly without depleting your magicka reserves.

On the PC, magic skills can be auto-trained by placing a weight on the "cast" button on your keyboard. To increase casting speed, you can additionally draw a weapon and tape down the right mouse button in order to be blocking while casting. This is not possible on Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 (holding down the cast control does not cause a spell to be cast repeatedly).

[edit] See also

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