Making Gold in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. It’s not so fun, though when you can’t do something such as bribing an NPC to make him/her tell you information for a quest or if you’re trying to buy a house because you don’t have enough gold to do it. By far, the best way of making money is through joining the Thieves’ Guild. If you keep working on Thieves’ Guild quests, eventually you will become the Guildmaster (Gray Fox).

There are many opportunities for making money by joining the Thieves’ Guild, but first and foremost, it’s highly recommended that you become level 10 and complete the “Nocturnal” quest. You receive this quest from Nocturnal’s Shrine which is located north of Leyawiin on the road leading out East. Upon completing this quest, you will receive the Skeleton Key from Nocturnal. The Skeleton Key is almost crucial for Thieves’ Guild quests. The Skeleton Key basically assures you can get through a lock. It’s like a lock pick that never breaks. Without the Skeleton Key, you will be going through lock picks in the thousands unless you are some lock-picking prodigy.

After you get the Skeleton Key, complete all of the Thieves’ Guild quests. This is easier said than done, trust me, but that’s not what this guide is about. Once you complete all of the Thieves’ Guild quests, you will receive the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, which basically makes you two entities (one of them being the Gray Fox). What it allows you to do is to commit all of your crimes through it. If you take the cowl off, the guards won’t recognize you as the criminal.

While you can get money from the Thieves’ Guild quest rewards themselves, this is not the most lucrative part. With the use of the Gray Cowl of Nocturnal, you can make as much money as you wish, given you have a strong character with a high sneak level. You can go to any city you want, put on the cowl WHEN NO ONE IS LOOKING and sneak behind a guard or any other NPC and make sure no one sees you. You then slash them with the weapon you’re best with to kill them in one swift blow. Immediately after murdering the NPC, a guard will most likely be running towards you because somehow they can telepathically tell each other things. When this is happening, take the cowl off before the guard gets a chance to speak to you. He will then stop in front of you, ignore you and move towards the deceased body. You can loot the body of the person you murdered and sell it to a fence OR a normal store because for some reason stripping things off of a dead body in Cyrodiil is legal… don’t ask me why… You might be asking yourself, “What happens to the 1,000gp bounty that was supposed to be on my head?” The bounty is on the cowl’s head instead of yours. You can continue to do this for as long as you like in any city you like until you get the amount of gold you want. Be careful of attacking people other than guards, though. If you kill someone who could be useful for a quest for instance, he/she will no longer be available. The best place to use this method of making money is probably the Imperial City because the Imperial guards have armor that’s worth the most.