I am thinking not? I found a chest at master difficulty tucked away under a rock on the upper cliffs in the bloated man's grotto. I'm at novice level and used 40 lockpicks, progressively dialing it across the entire circumference of the lock, and never once getting any significant play to pick it. I wanna get at that chest, but it'll seemingly take awhile for my stats to level up so I can do so!

Thanks for any input.

It's insanely difficult, but yeah, it's possible.

i believe the bigger the difference between the level of the lock and your lockpicking skill, the harder it is yes. does that mean it's impossible? no. just much more difficult as the sweet spot is going to be much much smaller...

its luck really. and you dont seem to be able to save and reload if you run out of picks - the sweet spot is different every time. it is definitely possible though.

Yes, a character with a novice lockpick skill can successfully pick a Master lock. It is tough and you should save before trying to pick it. That way if you are not close within a few broken picks, you can reload and try again; just keep in mind the correct pick spot may change.

You have to move the pick in very, very small increments, though. The Master locks are even tough for higher level players as my skill is around 70 and I still break a ton of picks on Master and Expert locks.

It is, indeed, possible and it should bump you up a couple of lock-pick levels if you're below 30. I found the most usefull tool for picking locks is using the various marks on the lock graphic to line up my pick. Once you get the lock to move, it's only a matter of figuring out which way and how far to go.

This

i get in every single container, you just need lots of picks cause even if you're good at lockpicking, it takes a few picks to find the sweet spot and you might break 20 of em for a master lock at a low level but its worth it, it raises your lockpick skill...so just make sure you have lots of picks but i never get shut of a container unless i'm a super low level and just don't have enough picks to spare...but when i'm that low on picks...i utilize saves before i try to pick hard locks. but yeah you can pick a master lock at a low skill level...its not easy though.

Thanks. Anyone know where I can buy/find a skeleton key or unbreakable lockpick?

you get the skeleton key during the thieves guild. however, in order to complete the thieves guild you have to return it.

another alternative is perks. put your perks into lockpicking and you eventually get one where your regular lockpicks don't break.

The worst part isn;t the fact that the sweet spot is so small but the fact that on a master lock the pick breaks with just one try. You can go through a ton of picks doing it.



This is exactly the way I do it. Did the same thing in Fallout

Excellent advice, especially if you're playing on an HD set. By making careful note of the subtle variances in the texture map around the lock, and using them as a reference for the "o'clock" position of your pick, you can really save yourself a lot of breakages. If you break a pick, you can use a new one, and start very close to the correct position.

Other tips (I'm playing on a console, so PC players may have a different experience):

1) Move VERY slowly. It's not a race.
2) Use a light touch on the right thumb stick. The anolog sticks are very sensitive, and you can move them with extreme care.
3) The moment you start to feel resistance, don't "walk" the stick back to the neutral position. Immediately let it go. It will return "home" on its own. This will save a lot of accidental breakage.
4) Always buy/loot available picks. You always seem to run out at crucial moments, otherwise.
5) Thoroughly search downed NPC's. A fairly good deal of the time, they'll be carrying keys that will open chests or doors in the area, thereby preserving your picks.
6) Keep your eyes on the triangle-shaped hashmarks on the left of the lock graphic as the butt of your dagger moves upward. These are very handy de facto gradient markers, and help immensely to gauge whether you're moving closer, or farther from the sweet spot, letting you adjust accordingly. You'll always feel/hear the lock disengage just as the dagger-butt eclipses the inward-pointing corner on the second marker from the top.
7) Unless you're desperately low on picks, always take the time to at least try high-level locks. Nothing bumps your lockpick level faster than having a relatively low skill, but successfully picking an Expert or Master-level lock. It can be EXTREMELY tough, but in a very technical sense, any lock is pickable by any level character (except, of course for those that expressly state that a key is needed). You just have to take your time, and be extremely careful. Even if you fail, you still get a slight bump just for trying it. Practice makes perfect!

Good luck!

This reminded me of a Master lock I faced just last night. My lockpicking skill was right around 30 and I hadn't invested any perks into it.

But I had a plethora of lock picks and decided to try it.

I found a spot on it where the lock turned a good 95% of the way...but the pick broke at the end. A few tries later, I found that exact spot again and this time, bumped the mouse juuuuuuuuuuust down a little bit...the smallest increment I could humanly manage. This time, the lock only went about halfway and the pick broke.

Ok, I figure, i'll just go up next time....well, I get back to that same spot where the lock will go about 95% of the way and move it up juuuuuuuuust a little bit...the smallest increment I could manage. Again the lock only went about 50% of the way and the pick broke.

It simply wasn't possible to do with that one. So...I got pissy and used the console to unlock it all for the 40 gold and a potion in the container...

It's pretty hard but it can be done.

I can pick a master with no problem. It's all because of fallout 3. Give me a master lock and it will take about 8 picks. Once you did the sweet spot its pretty easy. You can hear it most of the time.

I agree that maybe its from Fallout 3. I see a lot of complaining about how difficult lockpicking is but i am not have much of an issueat all. And i did play A LOT of FO3. The lockpicking system is identical

You'll need 10-15 (average, sometimes you're lucky, sometimes you're not) of them to open it.

It can be done but if you are on PC good luck because of how hyper sensitive turning the damn lock is.
I would recommend saving before you try though because its possible to go through 50+ picks on a masters lock with low skill in minutes.

I've only had one master lock give me trouble and broke about 25 picks before I got it, otherwise every other master lock I've come across has only broke 3 to 6 picks. I've never (intentionally) leveled my lock picking yet on any character and I've never put a single perk into lock picking either.

Personally, I thought lock picking in oblivion was harder. Not much, but I broke more picks on average in oblivion than I have in skyrim.

there is a sweet spot, you break picks looking for it, but a master lock is worth it for whats inside plus exerience in the skill...so just make sure you have picks..always make a save on hard locks or master locks and you can but a ring etc of lockpicking for hard locks and it makes the sweet spot a little bigger. but once you're leveled up a bit you should be able to get in anything if you're determined enough.

Extremely hard? Yes. Impossible? No. I was actually just playing around with one and just moved pick left and right and just then just pick a random spot and it worked I picked it.

You've just got to be extremely light with the keys (PC) - hold for the briefest instant to test a position, and slowly divide the semicircle into smaller sectors where the sweet spot may be.
You get three or so attempts until a pick breaks if you're very light with your keys.

It should only take a handful (5 or so, maybe 10 at most if it's unlucky) to determine the rough location of the sweet spot on a master lock, and then several more to find it exactly. But like others have said, it really helps to tap and let go immediately on hitting any resistance.

Edit: of course on the odd occasion you can be really unlucky and use dozens of picks without success. I just end up breaking more out of frustration. Usually I either get it pretty quickly, or waste them stupidly.

takes me 6-8 but I no longer open any locked chests... not needed.

Absolutely, you can do it. Picking locks is much more a function of player skill than character skill.

During my first playthrough it took a while to get the hang of it, but you can jiggle the pick to find the sweet spot without breaking it, even with a master lock.

I'm now playing a warrior with absolutely no lockpicking skill or perks and I tried opening a master lock just to see if I could do it and it only took about 7 or 8 lockpicks.

The lockpicking skill tree is totally useless. I have a great idea to make it worth putting points in it. For someone like me who can pick a lock of any difficulty in less than 10 seconds flat the tree is really really useless. So I thought if they made the loot in the chests less valuable each time you break a pick maybe then you would want to throw a few points in the lockpicking tree. So basically if you have a master lock after the first try you will lose the really nice weapons or items. So then each time you try it keeps getting worse and worse. For example you come up to a master lock, you don't pick it on the first try, the chest had a really nice ebony bow with some really nice enchantment it also had 330 gold. So now you try again, you failed, and the ebony bow downgrades to no enchantments and the gold is now 200. You try again and the ebony bow turns into a hunting bow and the gold turns into 30 pieces. It just keeps going until you finally open it and see that there is nothing worth it in the chest. The golf thing would be that this wouldn't happen all the time so you wouldn't just give up after the 3rd or 4th try because you know the loot isn't going to be good. Sometime you'd end up with the good loot. This way you would be more likely to invest in the tree.

This is just and idea to make the lockpicking tree worth more to someone.
Another good idea is having the ability to see what is in the chest just by hovering the crosshairs over it. Even better it would be cool to be able change the loot one time if you decide you don't like it. So you open a chest and see something that is not the great, you close it and there you go it's new loot. It may be worse it may be better. I know this could be done because of that spell that changed any sliver ore or ignot into a gold ignot. I'm not sure exactly what the spell does but it is along those lines.

Thes are just ideas. Do you have any?