When its time to release the pins they will shake and chatter so watch and listen. Lockpicks are common all over the world, look in containers like dressers, chests, desks, cabinets, backpacks, ect while questing, check all urns in dungeons/Coldharbour.

ESO lock picking system is partially based on Oblivion lock picking, just be thankful they didn't lift the lock picking from Oblivion 100% intact. I hated Oblivion lock picking with a passion, like to the point that I gave myself 5000 lick picks and auto spammed it until the lock opened. Thankfully lock picking in ESO is much easier once you get the hang of it.

Since you're on XBox One, there's something you need to know: because of the wireless latency, releasing the locks isn't as simple as listening for the sound.

Here is my advice:
-When starting out, immediately move your pick to the right (last) tumbler. Do not start in the middle, as intermediate and advanced chests have shorter timers, and you want every precious millisecond you can get.

-Start pushing the tumbler down and WATCH IT while listening. The second it shimmies, release it. If the tumbler stays in place, move on and repeat. If it doesn't catch, try it again. This time, release just slightly before you saw it shimmy. This is important as it takes the latency into consideration and will result in a locked tumbler.

Practicing is important, so what you need to do:
-As others have said, buy lockpicks from merchants (9 gold each) or look around for them.

-When practicing, do NOT try to unlock the chest. Instead, practice the pick with 4 of the 5 tumblers. Let the timer run out, and keep trying it until you have it nailed down. I recommend at least 20 lockpicks as every time the timer goes to 0, you lose a lockpick.

Hope this helps!

Pyro117 wrote: »

The biggest help I can say - is make sure rumble is on. On the PS4, the controller starts to rumble when you need to release the pin - no sound/visual effort necessary. Just pay attention to the strenght of the rumble in the controller.

Works everytime. I do master/advanced with just the rumble alone.

Yeah the rumble is gg, i can do advanced ones without even looking nowdays, just hold r2 until controlling just starts to shake.

It also helps a bit that there is only three right spots on a tumbler.

qpviper1qp wrote: »

Too bad i'm not at home. I would give you a couple hundred to practice with. I'm on xb1 ep.

That's very kind of you. No worries though, real life bites into my ESO time also.

Took me a while to figure out that you need to push the left button down....NOT try to drag the pin down.

Clamath wrote: »

It also helps a bit that there is only three right spots on a tumbler.

THIS!
However you like to think of it, high - med - low or 1 - 2 - 3, this is the trick that helps me the most.
Try to get good at not breaking picks... & ignore the timer, its job is to get you flustered.


good luck!

This is probably something that's actually easier on console (or at least with a controller that vibrates). I used to have some trouble picking locks but it became easier when I did it without looking and going by sound and feel alone.

Heres one of the simulators:
https://openprocessing.org/sketch/134007

Or try this addon: esoui.com/downloads/info909-FCOLockpicker.html Didnt try myself, so cant confirm if its cool.

Long live the necrodancer!

I still do it the idiot way, press down until reset, redo, on to next pin.
Benefit is that it require no skill and works well enough,
Easier locks always, Even expert locks works mostly but might fail if you have all pins close to but not at bottom and breaks pick.
Master locks opens around half the time on first try, a bit touchy on how far you have to push down pins.

Yup, try to follow the lockpicking advice people are giving you, and if you're still having trouble and/or don't want to deal with the hassle, you can just force locks.

It really helps to raise your Legerdemain skill to 19 so that you can put all four points into Locksmith. You'll be able to just repeat forcing locks, and with the increased chances, you'll waste a lot less lockpicks. (I didn't mind lockpicking, but I only force locks now, and have 1064 lockpicks...well, you probably won't need the points, but since failing a lockpick force still gives you a cooldown period, having the points can save time.
If you need some help with legerdemain, there's a guide here, that I think is still pretty relevant.

Essentially, to level it up without picking locks, you'll want to pickpocket (preferrably, since you get Legerdemain experience for it), and/or kill livestock, and/or steal items from chests and the world (and thieves troves) and sell/launder all your stolen items to a fence.

vamp_emily wrote: »

Elektrakosh wrote: »

No matter how hard I try, any locks I come across are just too hard for me and the simple one in Ebonheart is preventing me from completing my quest. Also I can't find lockpicks. Time is too short and don't understand what's going on, tried reading the guides but they just generalise. I'm stuck and can't finish this quest.



I wish it was more like Skyrim I could feel how the lock is doing much better than this system. It sucks.

One thing you could do is buy a few extra lockpicks and then take the chance of forcing it open.

Each time you go and open a chest you will see something like (R)Force Lock(15%) at the bottom of your screen. Which means if you press R you have a 15% chance of opening it. Try that a few times and you should be able to open it.

Also:
if you go to Daggerfalls, in front of the wood crafting station, there is a merchant that sells lockpicks. I'm sure there are plenty of locations that sell them.

Force lock is serious useful in white gold tower dungeon there you is put in an cage with damage over time.
If you do thief guild lockerbox quest I also guess its nice as its faster so less danger of getting discovered while opening.