Legerdemain & Thievery: A Guide

Contents:

Part I: The Legerdemain Path

Part II: Sneaking

Part III: Lock Picking

Part IV: Picking Pockets

Part V: Pilfering Furniture & Containers

Part VI: Ill-Gotten Goods, Fencing, Laundering & Outlaw Refuges

Part VII: Bounties & Heat

Part VIII: Punishment & How To Evade It, Guards & Clemency (In Progress)

Part IX: The Thieves Guild and You, An Overview (Coming Soon!)

Part X: Jobs, Re-acquisitions & Heists (Coming Soon!)

Part XI: Reading The Folio Maps & Planning A Route (Coming Soon!)

Part XII: Tips & Tricks (Coming Soon!)

So, ye wish to unburden the fat purses and clattering strongboxes of Tamriel’s kinlords and kings, do ye, little snipes? And ye say ye wish to do so while keeping yer fingers and head where they belong? Gather round, gather round, trace Satakal ‘pon yon carpet by this old thief’s pillow. Lend me yer eyes and ears and let me teach ye the ways of Legerdemain such that ye may even evade the scolding of mother Morwha. By the time I’ve finished with ye lot yer steps will be lighter than Tava’s farts and yer ways more sidelike than Sep.

Part I: The Legerdemain Path, How to Train & Learning’s Rewards

Ye begin yer training with the first falsity ye commit, be it picking a pocket or picking a lock. Upon success ye’ll know ye’re on the path of legerdemain (The skill can be found in the World tab of your skills page after it is unlocked, a message will display when it has). Ever after, your actions will lead to more experience in the skill and ever more talents will be unlocked. As ye grow in experience yer fingers will be faster, yer marks will notice yer lifting less, fences will parlay with ye more agreeably, and guards may be paid off with lighter coin.

To grow in experience ye must commit the deed, be it by picking locks, pinching pockets, fencing, or laundering goods. Killing won’t do a nonce of good as far as legerdemain goes, what skill is there in beating a man to death? Best leave that to the Brotherhood, the town guards, and the braggart heroes of Cyrodiil. It stands to reason the harder the mark or the more complex a lock the more ye’ll learn. Experience breaks down as such:

Picking Locks:

Simple Locks - 1 point

Intermediate Locks - 2 points

Advanced Locks - 4 points

Master Locks - 8 points

Be it known that any lock will teach ye something, it doesn’t matter if that strongbox is owned or found ownerless in the wild, so long as you pick it. Forcing a lock of any complexity won’t yield ye any knowledge. Master locks are prohibitively expensive for most citizens of Tamriel and as such you’ll, more often than not, find them in banks. More on this in Part III.

Picking Pockets:

Easy Mark - 1 point

Medium Mark - 2 points

Hard Mark - 4 points

Be it known that peasants, drunkards, lollards, beggars and all the destitute are easy to lift off but the rewards are slim. The middle class, bounty hunters, mercenaries and hired guards (not town guards) are of medium difficulty and moderate reward. The rich nobles, statesmen, magisters, and upper class of Tamriel are hard to pick as are, for no known reason, those shiftless tavern bards. This old thief supposes the rich pay more attention to their pockets as they have more to loose and bards, well, they’re shiftless and keen eyed. Town guards are paid a hefty salary and are also hard marks, be very careful if you try yer luck with a guard, They’ll mark ye a fugitive on the spot and come after ye like the Vvardenfell cliff racer. More on this in Part IV.

Fencing and Laundering:

Fencing - 1 point per item

Laundering - 1 point per item

Be it known that it takes the same skill to hawk a rare relic as a silver tablespoon, it’s all in how ye sell it. Selling a full haul may train ye more than ye think, in this case its quantity o’er quality. This thief recommends ye don’t fence items of little value, launder them instead. That way ye’ll make a pretty purse of drakes off the fencing and get a fair amount of experience from the laundering. Weapons and Armor don’t need to be laundered to be broken down, ye can just bring them by an anvil or crafting table and deconstruct them into unrecognizable and untraceable material. In a similar vein recipes and motifs don’t need to be laundered to learn but if ye want to put them up for sale in yer respective guildhalls, ye’ll have to launder them first. More on this in part VI.

The Skills:

It will take a considerable amount of investment to master the path of Legerdemain (There are 20 levels total) and quite a bit of focus (16 skill points to max the tree) but the rewards of yer mastery may be passively felt in all aspects of yer new career, they are as follows:

So now ye know what ye have to gain, aside the dragon’s clutch yer work will soon amass. These skills wont help ye much if your the violent type but ye may be keener in sneaking up on foes if it be yer desire. But what good is dexterous fingers if ye don’t know what to do with them? Allow this old thief to make like the Barons of Move Like This and show ye all the ways ye can put my words to practice.

Part II: Sneaking, Shadows Preserve Ye

The first thing ye must do is mind the silhouette you cut in those dark alleys and shadowed verandas. Perhaps ye’ve noticed it already? If ye try to sneak about upright ye’ll be picked out in a flash by watchful eyes and wary ears. Ye must crouch down low (By pressing the Ctrl button on PC or (R3) on PS4 & XB1) so there’s less of ye to see. Anyone can do this, sneaking knows no race, creed, profession or class. All ye must do is crouch. When ye’ve made yourself stealthy ye must be aware of the situation ye find yerself in- Who is around ye? Are ye Hidden? Detected? Discovered?

(While sneaking your crosshair will become a special Eye shaped reticle. This reticle will appear in two different states: Hidden(Closed eye) and Detected(Opened eye), with a third transitional phase in between the two where the eye slowly opens as you come closer to someones line of sight.)

Ye should only steal when ye know eyes aren’t upon ye. Wait till ye’re shrouded in darkness and well hidden then quickly do yer work out of anyones line of sight. Remember though ye may be hidden now, crouched before a strongbox or behind an especially tantalizing mark, theres always the danger ye’ll be set upon from behind. Many good friends of this old thief now languish in Sentinel’s sand pit prisons. Too concerned they were with a complex lock to hear the footfalls of a patrolling guard.

Part III: Lock Picking, Putting Tools to Trouble

Locks have existed in Tamriel since first man and mer wanted to keep their neighbors at bay (and their goods to themselves) and lock pickers have existed just as long, less a day at most. The simple act of picking flings wide the doors of Tamriel and lays her chests bare to the thief who does ply his trade. Ye snipes would do well to learn the art and learn it well.

So, ye’ve come before a locked door or chest in yer travels and prowlings… Ah, but before ye begin ye must know ye need a pick! Any pick will do, little piece of specifically bent metal it is. Ye can find em all over Nirn; tucked in drawers, tossed in barrels, heaped in dungeon urns. Haps ye’ll find yerself with more picks than treasure some days but, if ye’re the impatient type or the savvy timesaver, ye can also buy picks off merchants who linger in the dark refuges of Tamriel’s underbelly for a modest fee.

Now ye’ve found a clutch of picks ye must set out to find a lock to break. Chests, Doors, and Strongboxes all hide behind the aegis of mans technical ingenuity but ye’re more ingenius, ain’t ye, little snipes? Sneak up to the lock, making sure to take in yer surroundings first. Is there a shopkeep who constantly returns to check on his strongbox or a guard who’s patrol passes the house ye’re on the stoop of? Learn their habits and plan in accordance. When ye’re sure ye’ve an opportunity to begin unnoticed put yer pick in the lock’s keyhole (By pressing [E] on PC, (A) on XB1, or (X) on PS4) and begin yer work. Now picture in yer mind’s eye, if ye will, the inner workings of the lock:

All locks use a tumbler and pin system containing five pins. The trick of it is to push down the pins one by one with yer pick till they jiggle and stick (on PC hover your mouse over the pin you want to depress and hold the Left Mouse Button to push it down, on XB1 and PS4 align the pick over the pins with the Left Thumbstick & hold the Left Trigger to push the pin down). Now, each pin has a specific amount it must be pushed down for it to lock in place in any one of three depths and, here’s the difficulty, each lock has a random sequence of pin depths. Fret not, little snipes, for ye can feel and hear when a pin is about to lock in. Wait till the pin just barely shakes and starts to rattle (On consoles the controller will start to vibrate as well) then quickly ease off the pick. Push down too long and the spring will bounce the pin back up, breaking yer pick and resetting the pin. If ye release too early the pin wont stick and will return to its resting position but ye’ll keep yer pick intact. It’s difficult to master at first but with practice ye’ll be picking locks with calm assuredness. Ye can lock in pins in any order, front to back, back to front, middle out, whatever suits yer fancy This old thief recommends ye keep yer ears keen (and the volume up) while ye pick locks as picking by sight alone is more difficult. Feel free to practice here a nonce before we move on.

Now, ye’re working yer way from one pin to the next locking them in but theres more to it than that, my snipes! Ye see, Tamriel’s locks will seize if ye take too long to pick them. A seized lock will drive ye right out, no matter how far along ye are, and ye’ll have to start the whole process over again. The more difficult the lock, the shorter time ye’ll have to pick it successfully. Ye’ll have 25 seconds to pick a simple chest but only 12 seconds to pick a chest of master difficulty. With enough practice ye’ll be picking locks in yer sleep, which is a good thing as sometimes competition is waiting in the wings to have a turn. If yer too slow and are seized out of a lock while a competitor is waiting near ye, they’ll get first priority to try the lock next. It pays to pick a lock in one go!

If ye’re in a hurry and don’t care much for learning from the craftsmanship of a lock, ye can force the lock (By pressing the [R] key on PC, the (X) button on XB1, or the (Square) button on PS4), breaking through it without the hassle of all that hairtrigger fiddling. Forcing a lock teaches ye nothing (You gain no experience or legerdemain experience for forcing any difficulty of lock) and if it fails ye’ll loose a pick and be seized out of the lock just as ye would if ye ran out of time while picking it. This method is a good time saver for those who have mastered legerdemain already, but is a waste of time and good picks to attempt without considerable investment in locksmithing. (At Locksmith rank I: Simple locks have a 15% success rate, Intermediate have a 10% success rate, advanced have a 5% success rate, and master locks have no chance of success. At full investment of the locksmithing passive, simple locks have an 85% chance, Intermediate have an 80% chance, advanced locks have a 75% chance and master locks have a 70% chance. The difference between no investment and full is huge.)

Part IV: Picking Pockets, The Art of Light Fingers

Sometimes burglary won’t pay yer way alone. A good thief must be able to abstract the valuables off man or mer in secret as he makes his way in the bustle of Tamriel’s causeways and thoroughfares. Indeed a townsmer’s most treasured valuables may not be held behind any locked door or his personal strongbox but rather on his person, where he feels them safest under his vigilant eye. Ye must employ deft fingerwork and prudent stalking, keeping keen eyes on yer environs and their dangers, if ye are to claim yer mark’s prized possibles. This old thief has heard tales of such clever subterfuge and slight-of-hand to make ye balk in disbelief. Tales of Argonian rustlers who carve fake wooden hands they hang, most convincingly, from false shirtsleeves while their real claws nick pockets from undercloak. Stories of Bosmer snatchers who enrapture their marks with such wild and charming tales while they pinch purses and snatch bands with naught but a handshake or a prearranged and scripted contretemps. This old thief has even knows a Kahjitti thief, Ten-Paw, who knelt to kiss a well known Breton duke’s ring only to suck the ruby clean out its fastenings, undetected, in full sight of his petitioners and guards no less! Indeed the pickpocket is the subject of many a glorified and oft exaggerated tavern song, sung with an almost-love and with jealousy for the rakish adventure of it. Ye snipes must not dream so big at first, leave the jaunty tales for the tavern and I’ll teach ye the simple practicalities: choosing a mark of worth to nick an article or three and making off.

Picking a pocket is no mugging, mark my words! Leave that to the brigands and highwaymen of the red ring road. The key to a success is stealth by which I mean sneaking behind yer mark (See chapter II on sneaking) and waiting till just the right moment that your chances of success are highest. There will always be a risk in picking a pocket. Even that lollard with a head full of drink may catch ye with yer hands in his pants some of the time. Investing your time in training your picking dexterity (with the Light Fingers passive from the legerdemain line) will, of the ordinary course, help ye be successful more oft than not.

The first thing ye’ll need to do is approach yer mark in stealth (Crouch until Hidden and approach the target to get a new intractable text under their name. This only appears while crouching). But don’t just try to thrust yer hands in yer marks pants before assessing the situation, little snipes! Patience is key with pickpocketing!

First assess what state of awareness the mark is in. Ye’ll be able to tell this just by looking at them. They may be Aware, Unaware, Suspicious, Empty, or Too Far. Ye’ll need to catch yer mark unaware if ye want to have any success with yer planned theft. (This will show in a parentheses next to your targets name while crouching)

Too Far :

The mark is too far away from ye to make a move. Inch closer behind them without letting them see ye.

Unaware:

This is the time to strike! (The word ‘unaware’ will not show on your screen, instead, in the parentheses you’ll see the targets difficulty)

Aware:

The mark sees ye! Ye can’t attempt a theft if the mark is watching ye do it! Get out of the mark’s line of sight.

Suspicious:

The mark knows ye’re up to know good and is closely guarding their valuables. Ye can’t attempt a theft when a mark is suspicious. (Targets will become suspicious after every pickpocket attempt regardless of success or failure. With a success the suspicion state ends faster than with a failure.)

Empty:

The mark has nothing left of value on them, seek another target. (Marks only ever carry three items on them. These items will respawn after a while but it would be a waste of time to wait for them to do so.)

Now that ye know what state of awareness yer mark is in its time to gauge the difficulty they’ll give ye. Take a look at the mark while they’re unaware to see the sort of trouble ye’re in for. (Once the mark is in the unaware state the text in the parentheses will reflect their difficulty). They’ll be either Easy, Medium, or Hard.

Easy:

These be yer peasants, drunkards, beggars, broken veterans of Cyrodiil, and all the other myriad forms of destitution. They’re the easiest to lift off but also offer the least reward. And anyway, little snipes, what kind of man or mer knocks off a beggar. Even we thieves must have some morals!

(The chance of success stealing off an easy mark is 60% to start with subsequent chances degrading by 5% with each successful theft. So, 60%->55%->50%. With the Legerdemain passive ‘Light Fingers’ maxed all three chances of stealing are 100% or more. So, 110%->105%->100%. Easy marks yield 1 Legerdemain Exp and 0 Regular Exp. They yield white colored loot with a very rare chance at green colored loot)

Medium:

These be yer working and middle class citizenry as well as some hired mercenaries and private guards (not town guards). They’re a nonce tougher to lift off but offer better reward.

(The chance of success stealing off a medium mark is 50% to start with subsequent chances degrading by 10% with each successful theft. So, 50%->40%->30%. With the Legerdemain passive ‘Light Fingers’ maxed all the first theft will be 100% successful. So, 100%->90%->80%. Medium marks yield 2 Legerdemain Exp and 0 Regular Exp. They yield white and green colored loot with a very very rare chance at blue colored loot.)

Hard:



These be the most difficult marks ye’ll come across. They guard their treasures close. These be yer nobles, gentry, aristocrats, magisters, councilors, some priests and magi, and the town guard. Be aware if ye try to pickpocket a town guard and they catch ye, they will immediately accost ye (More on this in part VIII) and ye’ll have to either pay or flee. Steal from the town guards at your own risk! Tis only for the most daring!

(The chance of success stealing off a hard mark is 40% to start with subsequent chances degrading by 10% with each successful theft. So, 40%->30%->20%. With the Legerdemain passive ‘Light Fingers’ maxed all the first theft will be 90% successful. So, 90%->80%->70%. Hard marks yield 4 Legerdemain Exp and 0 Regular Exp. They yield green colored loot with a rare chance at blue colored loot and an almost impossibly rare chance at purple loot.)

Now ye know what state of awareness yer mark is in and ye know how much trouble the mark will give ye. Good, ye’re almost there! But wait, little snipes, theres more! Remember when this old thief told ye patience is key? Well, here’s the rub, little snipes. Ye may have noticed it already when sitting behind her mark and assessing them. That fleeting perfect moment when yer chances of success are the highest! Yes, this is the moment ye must wait for to have the best chances of success. (When behind a mark you will eventually hear a chime and the text will briefly change from white to green with a higher % of success. This represents the ideal time to steal. This heightened % only lasts a few seconds at most before the % drops back down to normal. If you miss the chance just be patient and it will eventually rise again. All the % values above in the difficulty section above are represented off this ideal chance.)

So, yer well hid, ye’ve assesed the mark and found them unaware, ye know the difficulty it will give and ye know yer chances of success… Well, little snipes, there’s only one thing left to do. Take the plunge and thrust for that purse! (Press [E] on PC,(X) on PS4 or (A) on XB1 to steal when the text next to the targets name turns green).

If ye’re caught, well, ye’ll accrue a bounty on the spot. Also yer mark may become enraged and begin attacking ye! This all comes down to the personality of the mark. Be aware that even though they’re the ones assaulting ye, its still a crime to kill them and yer bounty will only go up! If they don’t outright attack ye, yer mark will become suspicious and ye’ll have to wait for that suspicion to subside before ye attempt another theft.

Part V: Pilfering Furniture & Containers

Maybe all that picking of lock and pocket isn’t yer style. Maybe ye’re a thief with places to go and things to do. Maybe ye’re hungry and just need to steal some comestibles. Maybe yer on the hunt for a rare recipie or motif. If this applies to ye, little snipes, then turn yer ears to this old thief while he educates ye on pilfering from everyday containers and furniture.

Furniture and containers are never locked, but they’re often owned so the general rules still apply when ye ply yer craft. Keep hidden, crouch low, avoid the line of sight of any upstanding citizenry or guards. I’ll also cover stealing objects lying around out and about in the world.

There’s certain objects people lock up (Justice System Loot) and theres certain objects they don’t (All other loot) and ye’d do well to know what is found where. (When stealing from lockboxes and off people you’ll only ever find ‘Justice Loot’ for items, named fluff clutter with no use except selling to a fence.While this is the best way to make money with the justice system sometimes you’ll want to hunt for a motif or stock up on ingredients and lockboxes and pickpocketing wont help with that. If you want to find anything else, ingredients, ore, recipes or motifs, clothing etc, you’ll have to steal from containers)

Furniture:

By furniture I mean: Trunks, Dressers, Nightstands, Cabinets, Desks, and Cupboards. In furniture ye’ll find some useless but valuable clutter (justice loot), clothing items (Non-Armor), recipes, motifs, racial style materials, the odd weapon and armor piece, jewelry, etc. In general if ye’re hunting for a rare style motif or recipe, furniture is where ye should search. Ye’ll also find a considerable amount of lock picks in furniture.

Barrels, Crates, & Sacks:

By containers I mean: Barrels, Sacks, Crates, Urns, etc. These containers may still yield up a rare recipe or motif as well but mostly ye’ll find provisioning ingredients by the wagonload. If ye want to stock up yer larder (or if you want to find hundreds of items to launder for fast Legerdemain Exp) these are the places to check. Sometimes crates and barrels will also offer up weapons or armor but never anything of note as far as quality goes (you’ll also find justice loot in barrels crates and sacks but with less regularity than furniture). Be aware that some barrels, kegs, are full of drink rather than goods. Ye can drain them of said drink but it still counts as stealing! There are also crates filled with specific ingredients such as apple crates, sacks or saltrice, or bins of lettuce. In this case, what ye see is what ye get. Don’t expect to find a Daedra Heart in a box of melons, ye’ll only leave disappointed… And sticky.

Backpacks:

Backpacks contain the widest array of items in this old thief’s experience. Anything from crafting materials to provisioning goods, recipes, motifs. Ye could find anything, or nothing, in a backpack.

Items Out in the World:



As ye make yer way through Tamriel’s versicolored cities and towns ye’ll notice many shopkeeps just leave their wares out on display in racks or on counters. For a well sneaky snipe such as ye, these items are fair game. Weapons of all sorts, clothing, armor, drinks, cooked food, raw ingredients, stacks of coin, anything not nailed down is yers for the taking. Industrious snipes know that an armful of stolen swords, while not exactly valuable in this war-driven and flooded market, can be smelted down at a forge to untraceable ingots and repurposed without a trip to the fence to clean them. Ye can steal and break down these weapons to yer heart’s content but know that they don’t yield as much usable material as unowned weapons found in the wild since ye have to toss out the distinguishing proprietary parts I suppose. (Weapons and armor stolen will either represent the level of the Zone or, in the case of a zone that scales to the player, to your character’s level)

(As an addendum, The further along you are in a faction the better the loot will be in terms of quality. By quality I mean the color of loot, both justice loot and regular. This extends to veteran zones as well. So in 1-50 zones, the 5th zone will yield better loot than the 1st. The first veteran zone you come to yields better loot than the 5th 1-50 zone BUT the 5th veteran zone yields better loot than the 6th veteran zone, though worse than the 7th-10th zones with Craglorn giving better quality loot than the 10th veteran zone. Orsinium loot scales in quality based on level and I suspect future zones, and indeed every zone when Vet ranks are removed, will follow this model. Regardless of zone you will always find normal materials at the same rates, this only applies to rare items like motifs, Legerdemain loot, and rarely weapons)

Part VI: Ill-Gotten Goods and How to Clean Them, Fencing, Laundering & Outlaw Refuges

Now that ye know the multitude ways of how to acquire yer left-handed loot, yer pack must be getting fat, eh little snipes? Do ye take your new goods to a merchant or post them with your above-ground guilds? Of course not, that would raise far too much suspicion! Woe to us if the merchants we’ve rubbed ever find us trying to sell them back the gear we just stole. Why, they’d call the guards right quick, little snipes, right quick.

We call this contraband and it can’t be sold by regular avenues. (Contraband is represented with this icon in your inventory and may only be fenced or laundered)

So whats a thief to do? Visit yer friendly local fence, that’s what!

Fences are a tricky sort to find, those bargainers of the illicit, those barterers to burglars. A fence will buy any sort of illegally acquired goods or, for a small fee, render them fit for sale above ground. So, where to find them ye ask? Every major city of Tamriel has a septic underbelly of sorts, an ‘Outlaw’s Refuge’.

Oft guild sanctioned and requiring secret handshakes and codes to enter (not really you can just walk in) these refuges harbor all manner of folk just like ye. Look on yer map for the symbol of the guild, it looks like a nightingale’s foot or a trident. This is the mark of safe passage to the refuge. Be on the look out for cellar doors, sewer grates, even large slabs of innocuous seeming rock oft give way with the right rap of the knuckles. There are always two entrances to Outlaw Refuges in cities. One is usually just outside the city walls or near an outer gate while the second is somewhere inside the city proper. Just keep yer eyes wide for the three pronged symbol of the guild, it won’t lead ye astray.

Once inside ye’ll find all manner of dubious dealings. There’s moneylenders who’ll store gold and items for ye (Though no bankers will hold stolen goods, even those in the outlaw refuges), there’s merchants who sell potions, bait, kits to repair broken armor and lockpicks, and then there’s the fences.

Fences preform three services for men and women of our trade. They clear bounties, for a fee, they fence goods, and they launder goods for resale elsewhere. Fences are the most sought after practitioners of the undermarkets, mark my words.

Paying Off Bounties:

If ye’ve racked up a pretty drake or two while engaging topside ye may begin to feel the weight of the law pressing in on ye (Bounties covered in detail in Part VII). But yer only recourse isn’t dealing with the guards. A good thief never has cause to deal with the guards, even if he’s caught in the act. Fences can pay off bounties for you, wiping your slate clean. They wont do it for free, of course, ye’ll still have to pay, but ye can assuage some of yer debt if ye learn yerself in the ways of the kickback (A passive in the Legerdemain tree. Maxed, Kickback will lower the amount of bounty you must pay back to either guards or fences by 40%).

Fencing:

If ye want to sell your stolen goods for cold gold, then a fence is your must have middleman. They buy any stolen object off ye without question, though they also have the luxury of setting their prices. Every item ye sell to a fence will teach ye something about their ways (You gain 1 Legerdemain Exp for each item you fence, no matter the quality. Fencing stacks counts each item individually), so sell regularly and sell plenty. Now, fences set limits on how much contraband they’ll take off any one thief, as a way of keeping the market steady. To begin with ye can only sell a paltry 50 items per day. However, if ye know enough about how to parlay with a fence, they’ll cook the numbers a little and allow you to sell more (The Legerdemain passive ‘Trafficker’ will allow you to sell 110 items at rank 1, 120 at rank 2, 130 items at rank 3, and 140 items per day at rank 4).

The value of goods ye can sell breaks down as such:

1 Gold for Racial Style Materials and Provisioning Ingredients

9 Gold for Green Quality Recipes

10 Gold for Blue Quality Recipes and Motifs

13 Gold for Purple Recipes and Motifs

30 Gold for White Quality Justice System Loot

100 Gold for Green Quality Justice System Loot

250 Gold for Blue Quality Justice System Loot

750 Gold for Purple Quality Justice System Loot

As ye can see, ye’ll get the most money out of yer thieving by focusing on rare and superiorly crafted items (Focus on Green and Blue items for fencing, especially Blue. All green & Blue items stack. Blue Items stack to 25. The most value for a full days stealing comes from selling off 140 blue items which comes to 35,000 Gold. White is of too little value to be worth it to fence, Green is questionable but makes reaching your daily limit MUCH faster. Purple items are so rare that you shouldnt expect to accumulate a lot of them. Dont bother fencing anything worth less than 100 gold.)

Laundering:

Laundering on the other hand means the Fence will wipe the item in question of its illegal status. He will however charge for it. The cost to launder an item is the same as what a fence would pay for the item so the above table applies for fencing too. Items like Motifs and recipes can be used without laundering but they can’t be stored in banks or traded to other citizens, they also can’t be sold by guilds. By laundering these items they lose their contraband status and may be stored, sold, traded, or posted at will. They also won’t be taken if ye’re caught by a guard, tidy! Like fencing, Laundering provides ye some knowledge about how fencing and thieving in general works (You also gain 1 Legerdemain Exp for each item you launder, stacked items are counted individually). Just like Fencing, Laundering has a Fence imposed limit on how many items ye can Launder a day. This Laundering limit is a separate tally from yer Fencing limit (So at Trafficker Rank 4 you can Fence 140 items AND Launder 140 items. Because of this its recommended you max your laundering every day as well as fencing if you’re trying to level Legerdemain fast, even if you don’t have any items you want to keep. Launder only 1 Gold valued goods like provisioning ingredients for maximum Legerdemain exp with the least cost.).

Part VII: Bounties & Heat

Ack, ye’ve been spotted by a civilian! Maybe ye were picking a lock and ye were spied by a passing merchant. Maybe a noble caught ye with yer hand on his purse. Maybe ye openly assaulted a guard. Hell, little snipe, maybe ye just healed a fellow criminal while they were fleeing from the guards. All these actions and more award ye with a price on yer head, a bounty, and a certain level of infamy in the community.

A bounty is a value in gold placed on yer head and commensurate to yer crimes.

Infamy is yer noteriety at large. Tales of yer wicked deeds spread in taverns and on the streets and guards learn to watch for yer face. Infamy is proportional to the bounty ye owe. Pay off yer bounty with either a fence or a guard and yer infamy will be wiped blank.

If ye arent wittnessed, neither yer infamy or yer bounty will increase. However, if ye’re caught commiting a crime both will be applied and ye’ll either have to evade notice of the guards or pay it off. If your infamy gets too high, little snipes, some bankers, merchants, guild traders, and even stablemasters will refuse to parlay with ye.

First lets talk about the degrees of crime ye can commit, Petty or Major:

(Bounty Prices not listed because they scale with level and crime. As a rule Petty crimes award less bounty than Major, but they all increase with level. A crime commited at lvl 5 might only be 20 gold, but at max lvl it could be 200 or more)

Petty Crimes:

Theft: If anyone catches ye taking anything from containers or in the world

Pickpocketing: If ye fail a pickpocketing attempt

Breaking and Entering: If ye’re spied picking a lock on either a strongbox or door

Trespassing: (There’s currently no bounty for trespassing, if you aren’t caught picking a lock to an owned house you can walk around in it without incurring a bounty, even if seen by the house owner. They will respond to you with threats but no actual bounty will be posted. This may be addressed in the upcoming Thieves Guild DLC)

Killing Livestock: If ye kill a pig, goat, sheep, cow, etc. that is owned by a farmer or if ye harvest its remains.

Major Crimes:

Assault: If ye attack non-hostile citizenry or guards. (As represented by a white glow around the NPC as opposed to the red glow that normally surrounds enemies. These are the same NPCs you can pickpocket. Some NPCs like merchants and Bankers can’t be targeted and some NPCs like town guards can be targeted but can not be killed. You can turn off the option of attacking innocents in your game settings under the gameplay menu)

Murder: If ye kill said citizenry, even if they attacked you first because they caught you committing a crime and attacked you. (Same as above)

Pickpocketing A Town Guard: Different from normal failed pickpocketing. (Failing to pickpocket a guard will lead directly to the accost screen. Granted pickpocketing a guard is still counted as a minor crime and incurs a minor bounty but the fact that if you’re caught you automatically must either pay on the spot and loose all your contraband or you must flee which counts as resisting arrest, I’ve decided to include it with major crimes)

Resisting Arrest: Any time you flee from a guard (Either choosing the flee option in the accost screen, talked about next chapter, or if you are already kill on sight and a guard sees you and attacks)

Now that ye know what crimes are which its time to talk about what happens when you are caught committing them, the Infamy they cause.

(If you’re caught committing a crime a meter shows up in the lower right corner of the screen. This meter shows your current bounty, how infamous you are, what your heat is, and wether you are kill on sight or not. Because the Justice system does not apply in Cyrodiil, Coldharbor, or in Outlaw Refuges the meter will not apply in those areas even if you have a bounty. You can also see your current bounty any time on the character sheet)

Infamy & Heat:

There are three levels of Infamy as represented by your heat (The red and white ring in the lower right part of the screen) and one neutral level of non-infamy. They are Upstanding, Disreputable, Notorious, Fugitive From Justice.

Upstanding:(No Flag)

This is non-infamy. If all yer bounties are payed and ye haven’t committed a crime, or haven’t been caught committing a crime, ye’ll be known as an upstanding citizen. When ye’re upstanding ye don’t have to worry about guards at all, ye can talk to them even with a pack full of contraband. As long as ye’re upstanding they wont be suspicious of ye a nonce. (You can pass right passed guards with a pack full of stolen loot, even talk to them, so long as you have 0 bounty and no heat or infamy)

Disreputable:(Criminal Flag)

Ye’ve committed a minor crime or two. Maybe ye accidentally killed a town goat or ye happened to accidentally grab an item off the counter when ye just wanted to talk to a merchant. It happens to the best of us. Guards will still try to arrest ye if ye get too close to them, they will run over to ye and accost ye on rare occasions too. Best to stay away from guards regardless of how much bounty ye have. Merchants and the like will still do business with a disreputable man or mer. Commit two petty crimes in a row and ye’ll become disreputable.

Notorious: (Vendors Won’t Do Business, Guards Actively Pursue to accost within 12 meters)

Guards will now actively seek to bring ye to justice. Ye can still evade them but don’t get to close (according to ESO support the range of guards when you are notorious is 12 meters, you can get closer if you’re crouching and behind them but be careful) They won’t yet attack ye on sight but they will come after ye like a Vvardenfell cliff racer, mark my words, little snipes. when ye’re notorious merchants and their ilk will refuse to do business with ye, ye’ll have to do your business underground in Outlaw Refuges or enlist in one of the warring faction’s armies to do business in Cyrodiil. They’ll take all sorts on the war front, regardless of notoriety in the homeland. Some crazy souls might even sign up for the latest suicide mission this old thief has recently learned of, seems some fools are following a “Vestige” to Molag Bal’s Coldharbor! Can ye believe it?! Coldharbor? I’d rather be stuck in Winterhold’s Chill or be back in Sentinels Sand Pits over Coldharbor! Rumors say, though, that theres a city out there free of Bal’s influence. Criminals are not acknowledged there and can parlay with bankers and merchants and stablemasters free of hassle. But why, dear snipes, would ye ever go to such a dreadful place? (Regardless of bounty or heat you can find reprieve in Cyrodiil, the Hollow City, or any Outlaw refuge. Also free of the justice system are Eyveya from the Mages Guild quest line and the Earth Forge from the Fighters Guild quest line. There are no guards in these places and merchants will all do business with you)

Fugitive From Justice:(Kill on Sight Flag. Guards will actively try to kill you if you come within 12 meters, no accost screen)

Now ye’ve gone an done it. You become a Fugitive of justice immediately if you commit any of the Major Crimes such as murder assault or fleeing from a guard. Once ye become a fugitive from justice getting too close to a guard and having them see ye will result in them openly attacking ye until ye’ve either gotten away or ye’re dead. (If you’re killed by a guard you loose all your contraband and your current bounty is forcibly taken out of your inventory. If you don’t have enough to cover the whole bounty then the remaining bounty persists as does the associated heat. More on this next chapter) As with being notorious, the above applies with regards to Cyrodiil, Outlaw Refuges, Eyeveya, and Cold Harbor. All three of these places are safe to do business, even as a Fugitive.

So now ye know how ye can become infamous and how ye can get a bounty posted to yer head. But how do ye remove said bounty? How do ye improve yer reputation in the community.

There’s only two ways, little snipes, time and money. Time and money.

Bounties and Heat both degrade with time as people slowly forget abbout yer sprees. The higher the bounty, the longer it will take to degrade. Heat degrades faster than bounties but if yer bounty is high enough ye will be a fugitive for as long as the bounty is that high.

(A portion of your bounties will decay every real-time 3 minutes. The amount of bounty you loose every 3 mins scales up with your level. A bounty of a few million gold can take as much as a year to degrade or more. A REAL TIME YEAR! I know, sadly, from experience. The rate at which bounties degrade isn’t exactly know but its something like this

Online, Level 1-50: 3 Gold per 3 Minutes,

Offline, Level 1-50: 7 Gold per 3 Minutes,

Online, Veteran Rank 1-14: ~22 Gold per 3 Minutes,

Offline, Veteran Rank 1-14: ~66 Gold per 3 Minutes.

It’s theorized that bounty decay is .4 of your current level. This happens both online AND offline and some users report that bounty decay is slightly faster offline. So if you don’t want to pay a bounty you can go out questing, fight in Cyrodiil, run dungeons, play another character or just log off and wait)

Otherwise, if ye don’t want to wait it out ye’ll have to pay off your bounty with either a guard or a fence. As I said before, little snipes, ye’ll want to train up yer knowledge isn kickbacks to pay a percentage less to guards and fences (The Legerdemain passive ‘Kickback’ can lessen bounty payments by up to 40%).

Part VIII: Guards, Punishment & How to Evade It (Coming Soon!)