Sneak levels far too quickly. You have to be careful about over-using it or you may find yourself at a level where you maybe able to hide but you can't kill anything in combat. I have played two sneaky type characters now where I completely ruined them by over-sneaking. If I try it again... Don't get the thief stone.

Hopefully the CK will be out soon so I can slow down skill progression GREATLY all around. Grows wearisome already being level 20 and I havent really explored much outside of whiterun area.

also as soon as you can, go kill the dragon on ,i think its called north east mountain or something. its the mountain by riften. you learn a shout that is very helpful for a theif.

Leveling sneak is extremely easy. I was just messing around with the controls, and accidentally gained two levels of sneak in the intro scene "hiding" from the dragon flying around the tower you take shelter in right at the very start of the game.

If you want to purposefully level sneak, don't kill an enemy, just stay out at long range, and move back and forth while sneaking (but still close enough for it to "count" as being near detectable range and still get exp), and you'll alarmingly quickly work up your skill. You don't have to pay it much attention - I think you can actually just keep walking into a corner while doing something else and still gain points.

EDIT: You also only need to be NEAR an enemy: you can gain points for "hiding" from an enemy on the other side of a locked door.

wow....I've been playing for 50 hours and had no clue about the stones.

Sneaking may be the easiest skill to level in the game. Enter Whiterun and turn right. Move along the wall to go to the second guard barracks. Go inside and proceed to the back room. There should be guards sleeping on the beds back there and two more that do some kind of patrolling from time to time. Just crouch and start moving around. You can level up like that every five minutes or so. :ninja:

You can also level sneak by standing still, now.

Fire an arrow over the wall, or at the wall if there is a roof over the enemy. As long as you make enough noise that they go into search mode ("Huh?" "Is anyone there?" etc...) but they can't immediately find your position, your sneak will level up and you don't even have to move much at all. No idea the rate of skill increase. But it is even better if there are several enemies instead of just one. Found a house in the far Northwest that had a few bandits inside, and an open roof. Beware of snow bears nearby, though.

Basically, as long you're in sneak mode and not detected, you'll increase in Sneak skill.

If anything, I recommend just dungeon diving and sneaking your way through them, using the bow for ranged sneak crits. After a few dungeons, you'll level up a bit and have some cash to make on top of that from what you find and gather.

Just sneak whenever you can and it will level up. That's what I've been doing and it is almost level 50 now.

Sneaking around boost it.

There is the method of using undying NPCs mentioned earlier.

I also had illusion so I got A LOT of sneak attacks after casting calm on people for my early raise in sneak and I made my sneak easier with muffle.

People who can't get as close as I did can rocket up their sneak attacks using a bow since bows let them sneak attack from long ranges where they are easier to see.

Without illusions or bows expect the initial raising of sneak to be very slow unless you use the immortal NPCs for backstab practice. Just sneak everywhere you can all the time at that point cause it's the best you can do.

Just find an NPC that doesn't move far, face the wall then toggle on auto-walk.

That is the first thing I did, drop the thief stone bonus. Sneaking in caves levels you fast enough.

The sneak skill levels up only when you're in sneak mode and there's someone around - enemy, animal, etc., that can see you. If you clean out a dungeon and make a run to dump stuff at the trader, sneaking through the cleaned-out areas doesn't do anything to increase your level.

But, if you stay within those guidelines, it levels up pretty fast. Basically, when you see someone/something, start sneaking till they're gone.

sometimes i cant really understand the problems or questions here even without the thief stone as a thief, sneak is BY FAR the easiest skill to level up simply sneak in dungeons up on targets and sneak kill them up close...and dont tell me thats not possible im doing that since i startet with sneak 15 havent used my bow once for sneak kills even with 5 people in the same room!! it is possible and not really hard to pull off and sneak pretty much gains levels faster as anything else...no help or tricks needed

The easiest way to Level Sneak is to Sneak in every dungeon that you go into. After a few of them, you will be quite skilled in Sneaking.

Sneaking is one of the things it is very easy to cheat in, simply walking around everywhere in sneak mode, including towns and the wilderness increased it greatly. The best cheat is to find a sleeping npc in any town then sneak around their bed, the fact they are sleeping menas they don't detect you and will level sneaking pretty quick. Perhaps Bethesda can fix this next time. they have fixed conjuration skill abuse this time around but that is about it.

Who are some NPCs that wont die that you can do this with?

Or if you have the patience, when he prompts you in the tutorial to sneak past the bear find a nice corner away from said bear and begin your sneaking. You can level it up in a hurry. If you have the patience I'd imagine all the way to 100. I got mine up to an acceptable level and then just snuck everywhere else I could to top it off.

Here's a basic truth about this game: Power-leveling leads to misery.

Don't ask "How do I level up in sneak". Rather, ask "How do I a better job at sneaking?" Answering the second question and playing organically makes the first question moot, because the skill level takes care of itself. To that end, there have been a couple of good posts on the subject.

1. Approach targets slowly. Until you get the appropriate Muffle spell/effect/perk, the faster you move, the more likely you are to be discovered. For example, try sneaking up on a Hagraven or humanoid bosses at anything other than an absolute crawl (even at mid-range sneak levels) and you'll be eating fireballs and or hateful weapony death.

2. Take off some of your armor if you're sneaking around in an area where you can be easily detected. More armor = easier to detect.

3. Partial detection is not the same thing as full detection. If you hit something with a bow at distance (let's say you kill it), a nearby foe might become suspicious and come investigate the location where you took the shot. Move out of that place, even moving forward and to the side and hold still, and you'll find foes walk right past you to search the spot where you were crouched a few seconds earlier.

4. Mix some potions that make you better at sneaking in the short term (or that make you invisible). While you're at it, make a poison or two.

5. Darkness and dark spots in the dungeon are your friend. Bright spots, torches, light spells, and whatnot, are terribad for successful sneaking.

The only one I know by name is the guy who escorts you out of the dungeon. But I know there are others for sure.

Power leveling doesn't lead to misery if you're doing for the sake of role-play.

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. Start this before bed, and wake up with 100 Sneak...

Unless they patch/ed this of course

Power leveling leads to misery if you get to level 6 or 7 on nothing but sneaking alone, and you lack the ability to win most fights because your sneak skill is godly and nothing else is.

Just because I tend to start out in sneaking mode going anywhere, as I like to get the drop on my enemy rather than the other way around, and play it cautiously, when starting a new game, I was already level 2 based entirely off of gaining ranks in sneak by the time I got to that little hamlet right outside the tutorial section. I did my combat with bows, but I didn't get a single rank before level 2 because sneak kept flying up in skill so fast.

I'd say power leveling a skill that can't help you in combat would be dangerous like speech or enchanting could be dangerous but sometimes I go through a dungeon and for 90% of it all I use is sneak and sneak attacks from behind with a throat slit motion.

When the guard or the rebel, depending on who you followed at the begining of the game hands you the bow to shoot the bear just go into sneak mode and get behind them and hit him.....all my characters leave the cave with 100 Sneak....no problem. Also depending on your attack preference that skill will be pretty high as well. And you can level Destruction fairly high as well......just burn him up. They may fall over a few times but they never die.