Is there any way to increase your probability of getting blues/purples with pickpocketing?

bruceleroy98 · April 2020

My Legerdemain and Thieves Guild skills are maxed. Any great spots that I should be hitting up to max out my fencing count with all blues/purples? Do Nobles have the most? Merchants? Who?

kargen27 · April 2020

A couple of years back there was an argument about whether or not 2nd or 3rd attempts provided a better chance at blues and purples. I don't think it was ever settled. I don't know if one NPC is likely to have more blue and purple drops than another NPC but I do know some drops are specific to certain NPC types. There is a good circle in Stormhaven where you can hit Nobles and drunks I was running when I wanted the Skooma pipe motif. Those used to sell for a lot of gold. Not sure what the price is now but the drunks dropped them so it was worth stealing from the drunks while hitting the nobles for throne recipes.

Robo_Hobo · April 2020

Hard targets have a higher chance of greens/blues/purples but even Easy targets can still give them relatively often.
Although Purples are extremely rare no matter who you steal from, you could get a full fence limit of blues without seeing a purple more likely than you will get one. In my luckiest run though I did get two purples in a fence limit but I typically steal in Skywatch and Windhelm which is filled with Easy level targets (with some Hard targets sprinkled about).

I feel the fact that places like Skywatch and Windhelm have so many people you can steal from make up for the fact that they're only easy targets - the time spent between finding your next target is time not spent stealing, after all. Skywatch does have a section where there are a bunch of Mages, though, which are Hard targets.

bruceleroy98 · April 2020

So are we saying it's no point in going for blues or higher, just kind of take what you can get but try to focus on hard targets? I've been doing the 3 strike method - 2 picks, 1 blade of woe. Not much pattern in gaining higher objects but more times than not, I get a blue on a blade of woe. There is a spot in Balmora that I like to hit up. I'm just trying to make the most with the time I have versus picking 140 items of random variety.

Glurin · April 2020

You do on average get better stuff on the third pick, or stab if you're doing the pick-pick-stick method. Other than that, leveling up Legerdemain increases the average quality of stuff you steal last I heard. That could just be a side effect of taking the pickpocketing passive though, which gets you to the third pick more often.

I have had some suspicions that maybe justice related achievements have some influence like how motif related achievements influence master writ drops. But I have no proof of that and if they do it's probably one of those things where you wouldn't even notice unless you went from having no achievements to having all of them.

SeaGtGruff · April 2020

Odd. I've always found that the pickpocketed items tend to decrease in value-- 1st better than 2nd, and 2nd better than 3rd (if there's a 3rd). But I haven't invested any SPs into the Pickpocket skill, so that might be why?

I generally prefer looting containers, partly because there's generally less rusk of getting detected, and partly because you can see what's in the container even if your inventory is full-- in contrast to not being allowed to even see what someone has in their pockets if your inventory us full. That way you can see if there are any high-value items in the container, and destroy any lower-value items so you'll have room to pick up the higher-value items.

bruceleroy98 · April 2020

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Odd. I've always found that the pickpocketed items tend to decrease in value-- 1st better than 2nd, and 2nd better than 3rd (if there's a 3rd). But I haven't invested any SPs into the Pickpocket skill, so that might be why?

I generally prefer looting containers, partly because there's generally less rusk of getting detected, and partly because you can see what's in the container even if your inventory is full-- in contrast to not being allowed to even see what someone has in their pockets if your inventory us full. That way you can see if there are any high-value items in the container, and destroy any lower-value items so you'll have room to pick up the higher-value items.

Definitely level up Legerdemain and thieves guild and dark brotherhood for the most fun with pickpocketing. You're missing out if you are just picking without those skills.

SidraWillowsky · April 2020

I hit Vvardenfell once a day on the handful of characters of mine that are maxed out on Legerdemain (wow, I've been reading that word incorrectly for years). Ninety five percent of the time I get a motifs within probably five pickpockets, then there seems to be a 30-minute cooldown before I can pull another one.

If you're just wanting to pickpocket for the hell of it, the Illumination Academy in Summerset is the best I've found. Almost everyone there is a scholar, student, or mage and they follow the 100-90-80% chance with maxed pickpocket skills. There are four or five buildings and a handful of easy targets outside, and just going around in a circle will let you farm continuously since there are enough NPCs there that they respawn as you go. Aaaaand the beat part- no guards in there! There's one watching the entrance to the academy, but once inside you don't have to worry.

This is probably just confirmation bias, but if I'm doing a lot of pickpocketing around the Academy and have been at it for a while, have full bags, and start trashing white and green items, I swear I start to get more blue ones. Purple seems random, but either I've gotten extraordinarily lucky in that I get a lot of blues the more I pickpocket within a given "session", or you do in fact start to get more blues as you go. Who knows though. All I can say for certain is that pickpocketing at the Illumination Academy is a lot of fun. And that might regret sharing that :P

bruceleroy98 · April 2020

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

I hit Vvardenfell once a day on the handful of characters of mine that are maxed out on Legerdemain (wow, I've been reading that word incorrectly for years). Ninety five percent of the time I get a motifs within probably five pickpockets, then there seems to be a 30-minute cooldown before I can pull another one.

If you're just wanting to pickpocket for the hell of it, the Illumination Academy in Summerset is the best I've found. Almost everyone there is a scholar, student, or mage and they follow the 100-90-80% chance with maxed pickpocket skills. There are four or five buildings and a handful of easy targets outside, and just going around in a circle will let you farm continuously since there are enough NPCs there that they respawn as you go. Aaaaand the beat part- no guards in there! There's one watching the entrance to the academy, but once inside you don't have to worry.

This is probably just confirmation bias, but if I'm doing a lot of pickpocketing around the Academy and have been at it for a while, have full bags, and start trashing white and green items, I swear I start to get more blue ones. Purple seems random, but either I've gotten extraordinarily lucky in that I get a lot of blues the more I pickpocket within a given "session", or you do in fact start to get more blues as you go. Who knows though. All I can say for certain is that pickpocketing at the Illumination Academy is a lot of fun. And that might regret sharing that :P

Might be on to something.

bruceleroy98 · April 2020

SidraWillowsky wrote: »

I hit Vvardenfell once a day on the handful of characters of mine that are maxed out on Legerdemain (wow, I've been reading that word incorrectly for years). Ninety five percent of the time I get a motifs within probably five pickpockets, then there seems to be a 30-minute cooldown before I can pull another one.

If you're just wanting to pickpocket for the hell of it, the Illumination Academy in Summerset is the best I've found. Almost everyone there is a scholar, student, or mage and they follow the 100-90-80% chance with maxed pickpocket skills. There are four or five buildings and a handful of easy targets outside, and just going around in a circle will let you farm continuously since there are enough NPCs there that they respawn as you go. Aaaaand the beat part- no guards in there! There's one watching the entrance to the academy, but once inside you don't have to worry.

This is probably just confirmation bias, but if I'm doing a lot of pickpocketing around the Academy and have been at it for a while, have full bags, and start trashing white and green items, I swear I start to get more blue ones. Purple seems random, but either I've gotten extraordinarily lucky in that I get a lot of blues the more I pickpocket within a given "session", or you do in fact start to get more blues as you go. Who knows though. All I can say for certain is that pickpocketing at the Illumination Academy is a lot of fun. And that might regret sharing that :P

Might be on to something.

Nestor · April 2020

Originally, the 4th and 5th Zones were better for Greens and Blues. It seems to follow the same now with One Tamriel, as far as containers go.As far as NPCs, the higher the Rank, the better the chance for Greens and better. Of course, not all that sure what the ranks are, other than Nobles who are hyper sensitive to picking pockets.

Purples are just rare, and you can't really game them.