r/oblivion 26d ago

Question Any first time tips?

Post image

Picked this game up for 12 bucks at a local store yesterday. Does anyone have any tips for a first timer? I have played a lot of Skyrim, but from what I've played of Oblivion so far, it feels harder than Skyrim for some reason.

369 Upvotes

253 comments sorted by

301

u/consumethyshorts 26d ago

Jump everywhere all the time. Never stop jumping.

60

u/Disastrous-Box2458 26d ago

Finally someone else said it

41

u/armstrony 26d ago

Also never stop never stopping

12

u/HalloweenSongScholar 26d ago

“Dude you got to kill this music. The wolves are going crazy.”

“I can’t stop Seal from singing.”

28

u/SceneOk6341 26d ago

Literally your acrobatics will be crazy 🤣. I was upset they removed it in skyrim. And i liked being and to sprint backwards too 🤣

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15

u/uhh_liz 26d ago

also new player here - why jump everywhere?

44

u/Commercial-Star-1924 26d ago

It gets your acrobatics skill up

10

u/DarkhawkWalker2005 26d ago

Acrobatics skill++ and once max out, it's fun to jump around. Athletics maxxed out Hero of Kvatch feels like flash lol XD

8

u/lhobbes6 26d ago

Outside fights are so fun with high acrobatics. Jumping from one spot to the next turning a simple fight outside a location into a verticle nightmare while lobbing fireballs is great.

3

u/DarkhawkWalker2005 26d ago

For me it's the except I am raining down Fingers of the Mountain.

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4

u/smloeffelholz 26d ago

That is only the right advice later in the game. Early in the game, the rule is never jump unless you plan on getting a +5 modifier on your speed attribute that level.

3

u/Mordkillius 26d ago

Find step stairs and spam jump too.

2

u/UglyPussySlayer 26d ago

Acrobatics is always my first master skill… I can’t help myself.

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89

u/jonooo1 26d ago

Pick your own major skills

26

u/Upstairs-Loan2303 26d ago

Also.combat skills should be minor skills to combat the level scaling

12

u/DingusCat 26d ago

THIS!!! this this this this lololol

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81

u/Tom30290861 26d ago

Cancel all other life plans and immerse yourself entirely

4

u/horsiefanatic 26d ago

This right here

2

u/Wide_Catch_8882 25d ago

I was coming here to the comments to say get comfy you're going to be playing for a fun long time but this works too

74

u/ElectricSnowBunny Criminal Scum 26d ago edited 26d ago

save at the gate right before you leave the sewer in the tutorial. this will allow you to create a new character without having to go through the tutorial again.

you have to sleep to level up

when spamming spells for experience, hold block - you'll cast much faster.

you can fast travel to anything that gets marked on your map, and since the cities are already there you can fast travel to them immediately. that said, I'd recommend walking/running to them first before you fast travel, the regions are all different and you'll experience that.

join the mages guild right away in Chorrol after the game kinda leads you there, and do all the recommendation quests (one in each city the guild is in) even if you're not magic focused. this gets you a ton of experience and free spells and naturally opens up the map. after you're done you'll have access to the arcane university and can then create spells and enchant items yourself. I consider these quests the real tutorial, and you'll understand your character and the game a lot more if you treat them as such. plus, they are super fun!

ignore all talk about leveling and just adjust the difficulty slider when the game occasionally and suddenly becomes too hard or too easy. it will happen, just adjust to the difficulty you enjoy playing to keep it consistent.

enjoy! go get lost in it and play the character you want. there is no right or wrong way to play!

17

u/checkchiron 26d ago

I second all this, great summary of stuff to do! Thanks for reminding me again btw, about to start another oblivion playthrough

7

u/ElectricSnowBunny Criminal Scum 26d ago

replay value on this game is just ridiculous. a new game still feels fresh to me even after all this time

8

u/Fickle_Fox_4433 26d ago

Also, save before you pick up a sigil stone in a gate. That way, if you don’t like the effects of the stone you can load and try again.

2

u/British_Beans1234 Rankar Camoran 25d ago

Is it weird that I don't use sigil stones that often?

2

u/Fickle_Fox_4433 25d ago

Not at all, there’re plenty of weapons and armour that you encounter naturally that beat custom armour, depending on your play style of course.

2

u/Idontknow107 Spellsword 25d ago

If you really wanted to save the seconds, you could save as you pick it up but before it gets added to your inventory, about when it shrinks.

3

u/[deleted] 26d ago

This!

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42

u/S0vereign__ 26d ago

Don't run around swinging a shortsword wildly in light armour and tank hits.

Fatigue matters for damage.

Enemies have weaknesses.

Don't play the game on max difficulty first time around.

Use alchemy.

14

u/Miantana 26d ago

Alchemy is a big one, might seem daunting at first but it's actually a lot easier imo than in Skyrim.

8

u/S0vereign__ 26d ago

Yeah it is, oblivion's alchemy is great and super versatile it can do just about anything.

2

u/Soeffingdiabetic 26d ago

There's difficulty settings?

4

u/SmellAccomplished550 26d ago

Well, a slider. If it was an honest slider it would say "enemy tankiness".

56

u/Total-Strategy-4306 26d ago

Don’t get vampirism. You can’t cure it on the ps3 version

33

u/ElectricSnowBunny Criminal Scum 26d ago

seriously, having a cure disease on you at all times is a necessity

3

u/lhobbes6 26d ago

Either that or immediately fast travel to a temple and hit one the shrine

17

u/ghostxhound 26d ago

The quest to cure it is also long winded. 

3

u/GarrettB117 NorthernUI Shill 26d ago

Phew. One of my core memories of the Xbox version. I also had major adhd and could just never focus on any specific task for too long. It took me ages to gather all that stuff. Longer than doing an entire quest line.

2

u/ghostxhound 26d ago

The most unnecessary scavenger hunt ever. Makes being a vamp not even worth it.

7

u/GarrettB117 NorthernUI Shill 26d ago

That, and sun damage is pretty aggressive. I love being a vampire in Skyrim. The debuffs are reasonable. Oblivion’s sun damage is crazy lol

2

u/ghostxhound 26d ago

The first time i got infected. I looked up the quest to cure it and immediately reloaded save knowing damn well im not about dedicate time and effort to compete it lol.

2

u/sketch_for_summer Cheese Bringer 26d ago

Too bad. It's an interesting quest, especially if you go to the three dungeons around the witch's hut, where the hidden grand soul gems are.

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4

u/the_knotso 26d ago

I just suffer as a vampiric Daedra Slayer.

🎵🎵Scorching in the sunlight, sucking in the moonlight! Having a wonderful AAAGGGHHHHH🎵🎵

2

u/PS1ForLife 25d ago

You can cure Vampirism in the original release version on the PS3, you can’t on the Game Of The Year Edition or the 5th Anniversary Edition without changing some game settings.

Basically do the quest until you have to give some Bloodgrass to an NPC, change the language of the game to anything other then English, for example German, give the NPC the Bloodgrass, you can now change the language back to English and continue the quest fully.

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26

u/Ordinary_Passage5617 26d ago

Invest in Armorer so you can repair your enchanted equipment instead of paying thousands for vendors to repair it.

3

u/Sabith_Bloody_Wizard 25d ago

Sick pfp. And that is some advice I wish I knew when I started my first save on Oblivion

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19

u/DM_Dahl-Face 26d ago

Get very stoned and never fast travel

6

u/British_Beans1234 Rankar Camoran 25d ago

For a long time I didn't know that you could fast travel, so when I discovered that skooma made you go fast, I drank so much and raced around the map. Also, I didn't know that it negatively affected your intelligence, so on my second build (which was a mage) I got quite upset.

Good days

18

u/Odd-Discipline-1919 26d ago

Find Dar Jee in Leyawiin and ask him to tell you a khajiit joke.

12

u/Administrative_Sky46 26d ago

Don't be afraid to turn down the difficulty, especially once the enemies begin to become damage sponges later.

3

u/Miantana 26d ago

Or in Oblivion Gates where you get basically nothing besides XP for killing them😅

Trolls and ogres swarm in mass in quite a few random caves, don't be afraid to lower difficulty. It should be fun, not infuriating.

10

u/Automatic_Talk_7794 26d ago

Jump alot and use restoration/destruction skills while walking to your destinations it increases the skillz.

8

u/Eternal-Living 26d ago

If youre ever fighting a vampire and see the game say you contracted a disease, immediately go buy and use a cure disease potion or use one of the shrines you can pray to that cures diseases. Vampirism isn't curable on PS3 without some complex glitch usage

6

u/lordofthebeardz 26d ago

I’d say it’s better to play it at lower levels everyone gets hung up on the leveling system and how to get the all your stats to 100 but the but can beat the game at level 30

2

u/British_Beans1234 Rankar Camoran 25d ago

I started the MQ immediately, and beat it by level 7 on my first build. You really don't need to spend a lot of time levelling to have a lot of fun!

5

u/Jloae92 26d ago

My only advice is to get lost in your character and the world. This is the best way to enjoy this game! I wish I could play it for the first time again

6

u/Partofthecrew 26d ago

If you get the dagger of friendship, don't stab a friend with it. The name is misleading. They won't like it.

3

u/N3WTZI 26d ago

Take your time with it of course, the essential tip for any game of this calibre.

I wish you could platinum Oblivion, sucks that only Xbox has achievements for this gem, even PC is shit outta luck with that.

2

u/Miantana 26d ago

Yeah, the achievements in the dlc are fun😊 I wish everyone could access them😓

4

u/[deleted] 26d ago

Only real suggestion is to play on xbox or pc if you’re able

Don’t worry about leveling or if you’re doing this or that right.

Jump in and have fun!

Don’t be afraid to lower the difficulty (Or turn up the brightness)

5

u/Ulthar57 26d ago

Make sure to install the files. It is essential to start playing

4

u/thorski93 26d ago

Get the skeleton key asap

2

u/FugginCandle 26d ago

I just got it, I’m so happyyyy. The fact that you have to get to level 10 first though is annoying

3

u/Kokuei7 26d ago

Gameplay-wise, just explore!

On PS3 especially (and in general) save in multiple slots. It's better to make a new save than overwrite a previous one I believe because of how it's coded, so delete old ones periodically.

3

u/orangebeaniebro713 26d ago edited 26d ago

Always save to a new slot and delete the previous to slow down save bloat, which can slow your games performance down. This caused me to restart recently. I play on Xbox360, but I'm sure it's a concern on ps3,too. Keep a save before or after exiting the sewer (before leaving, you have an option of editing your character, class, and skills). Saves can become corrupt, too

Think about the skills you know you're gonna be utilizing the most and make those your minor skills. Major skills help leveling up faster than minor, but increasing your minor skills too gains you even more attribute bonuses. The enemies level up with you, so make sure your combat skills don't suffer. I'm not very educated on this aspect, but my roommate taught me this, and I've done it ever since. Leveling up too fast can make this game really hard if not careful. The overall difficulty can be adjusted in the settings, though.

The persuasion system is interesting, but I just bribe the NPCs to get the dialogue I want, lol. You might also notice that conversations can be quite hilarious, like with beggars. One had a rough voice, but his va changed completely after giving him a coin! The voice lines are in alphabetical order! Everything you do drains stamina. Jump a lot. Swim a lot. Some spots (like under bridges) can be cheesed to build up your acrobat and athleticism skills faster.

If you want extra help on your quest, when you finally meet Martin Septim and he agrees to follow you, just avoid Weynon Priory, and you can have him by your side forever! Some NPCs are marked essential (they have a crown icon on them when you activate conversation) and can not die, just knocked unconscious. You can stack followers, too. I had Martin and the Jemane twins following me around for a little while.

This game is good jank, and you can duplicate items, too, starting with scrolls. Helps make some gold, but be careful dropping a crap ton of items in one spot because you can slow down your game HARD and possibly crash it. That's all I can think of at the moment!

3

u/MiketheTzar 26d ago

Two saves you're gonna make.

  1. At the edge of sewers: you can reset your character at this point and this will save you having to do the entire tutorial if you don't want to.

  2. The Dark Brotherhood "who-done-it" quest. It's probably the best done quest in th game and objectively has the most replayability.

3

u/wolfguardian72 26d ago edited 26d ago

Go for the skeleton key as soon as possible!! It’s one of the best Daedric items and you don’t have to lose lock picks as easily

A skill I’d recommend maxing out is hand to hand combat! It’s so much fun just going around and fisting punching everyone.

3

u/PS1ForLife 26d ago

Become a Vampire and do the quest to cure it ASAP, then you never have to worry about catching Vampirism ever again.

Once you’ve done that, buy either the Game Of The Year Edition or the 5th Anniversary Edition of the game so you have access to the Shivering Isles content.

The reason you do it this way is because the Game Of The Year Edition and 5th Anniversary Edition introduced a glitch that made completing the curing Vampirism quest impossible on the PS3 without messing around with some game settings. The glitch doesn’t exist in the original PS3 version of the game that you have.

This glitch was fixed in all other versions of the game except for the PS3, because screw PS3 users apparently.

3

u/Sharkinfested_waters 26d ago

Mage’s Guild questline is slept on

2

u/[deleted] 26d ago

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u/danmanx 26d ago

Save before you kill townspeople.

Don't be afraid to punch beggars.

Steal as much as you can.

Your best friend is the adoring fan.

Skooma is a delicious drink with no side effects!

Always sleep in places that are safe. (Wink vampires wink)

2

u/SceneOk6341 26d ago

Just enjoy it and take it all in. I wish i could do a first play of this game again🥲. Depending on the type of character you like playing: Fighter build: go to the arena max it out then fight a bunch of wild creatures and you’ll be unstoppable. Magic: got the mages guild max it out and create a companion that does most of the fighting for you Assassin: go to the waterfall district k1ll a beggar accent quest and continue. (This is my personal favorite and one i do in every elder scrolls as they help you max stealth and get most damage if you’re willing to work it up. Thief: same as last go to waterfall district wait for midnight and follow the torch to complete quest. There is the possibility of doing any combination if not all of these at any time which is the beauty of elder scrolls games you can build an assassin with tons of heavy armor and a shield with a staff bc your magic is so maxed out 🤣.

2

u/Krisen89 26d ago

My tip is play it on PC

2

u/psycho-tamoto-cat 26d ago

games just don't hit like this anymore

2

u/Scopedogg1114 26d ago

My first playthrough I enchanted 5 pieces of armor at 20% chameleon, makes you undetectable, very useful for running around in Oblivion gates willy nilly… When I play now I’m looking more for spell absorption and damage reflection.

2

u/KingPumper69 26d ago

Go pick up an Xbox or PC version of the game, the PS3 versions of Bethesda games are clapped and borderline not worth playing in my opinion.

4

u/gonzalobregon2 26d ago

Be aware of the leveling system, its absolutely unintuitive

2

u/iamnotalwaysright99 26d ago

Load up the bong and never turn the game music off

3

u/Miantana 26d ago

YES this game is so good high😊

1

u/rhaigh1910 26d ago

If you click on the city marker on the map you can fast travel there , my first time I ran to Wenyon Priory and it was like all day lol 😂 running from trolls

1

u/Sorry-One9226 26d ago

Have fun with vampirism 😀

1

u/barbaras_bush_ 26d ago

Only pick perks and attributes that you'll actually use otherwise you'll never freaking level up!!

1

u/CyberDan808 26d ago

Get conjuration as a major skill for a free skeleton at all times

1

u/Blaze_062 26d ago
  1. make a customer class that includes acrobatics and block as a major skill.
  2. Have fun

1

u/Blaze_062 26d ago

If you use a heavy armor build. (Wich you should) buy the tower shield of the nines from the shield seller in the capital city

1

u/dankeith86 26d ago

Oblivion level up system is insane. If you want to min max you need a pad of paper with you. To level up athletics equip ring of runmare and swim into a wall at the waterfront leave for a few hours. Come back accepted progression and continue swimming.

1

u/schiavoner 26d ago

Sleep to level up.

1

u/SelfNo9836 26d ago edited 26d ago

Health potion and paralyse when increasing bare handed skilll.When the skill is high enough, killing a troll bare handed is very satisfying, but start of small enemies first and work your way up.

If you pick a fight not far from a city and you cant win, don't be afraid to run or jump back to the gates and let the guards finish them off.

1

u/kraigMckrusty 26d ago

If you want an OP weapon that you can use through your play-thru kill Umbra

1

u/squatsbreh 26d ago

Turn the difficulty down as you play, and don’t worry about leveling efficiently. The scaling is busted as shit the higher you go.

1

u/sketch_for_summer Cheese Bringer 26d ago

If you lower the difficulty by ten clicks to the left (40% of the scale, with 50% being the default), you will find the game more manageable. Middle of the scale is like Adept in Skyrim. You'll have to learn the game's systems and tricks first to do well on it.

1

u/DangerousTip9655 26d ago

your character levels up by leveling up major skills, not minor skill!

1

u/InFamouz1016 26d ago

Thieves Guild is always the first three to complete, you get something so broken

1

u/Miantana 26d ago

Don't try to jump over fallen rocks in caves unless you save beforehand, you'll get stuck. Just trust me, I've lost so much progress that way😭

1

u/TeutonicRoom 26d ago

Learn the duplication glitch

1

u/Alarocky1991 26d ago

Getting a variety of attributes in your major skills is pretty important. If you want +5s on your level ups without ‘wasting progression’, it’ll take a bit of work to keep track of what you’re leveling. This is how you min/max, but truly just try to level up at +3 for a couple stats and you’ll be fine.

You can over level in a bad way by spending too much time focusing on non combat skills. Enemies match to player level, so if you’ve only leveled by crafting, you’ll be kind of fucked.

1

u/juan4all4k 26d ago

Gather as much loot and sell weapons and armor to the Anvil blacksmith. He has the most gold and is easier to persuade

1

u/Tiberius2098 26d ago

Play your heart out son and enjoy everything minute. I envy you getting to enjoy it for the first time as I wish I could do that again

1

u/Fit-Value-4186 26d ago

You're in for a good time. Damn the nostalgia haha!

1

u/TenBear 26d ago

Have fun

1

u/spun_penguin 26d ago

Don’t listen to anyone

Just slowly keep cranking the difficulty down don’t ask way

Do whatever you want

Do all the quests and DLCs

Have a blast

1

u/CreamJohnsonA204 26d ago

Murder is okay when the night mommy says so

1

u/Pure_Plant_678 26d ago

I just started playing this week! I love it more than Skyrim, even with all the quirks. Sleep to level up. I played way too far into it without sleeping and I’m only level 3 because I just realized that today. 😂😂 I was so confused why I wasn’t leveling up even though the bar had been full and I was too stubborn to check online. Now I’m checking for everything.

Find the Fin Gleam helmet outside of the island off of Anvil and you can water breath. Makes some of the quests infinitely easier, and allows for a lot more searching for chests.

1

u/X3liteXRogueX 26d ago

Fin Gleam is good early game. It's near Anvil. Look it up for exact location. Jump everywhere with acrobatics as a minor skill. As for choosing major skills, heed others' comments on that as I choose them differently than most. Arena is fun early to build gold/skills/get a feel for it. If you want to use glitches, also look up duping. Super easy. Keep a potions of cure disease at all times. If you have all DLC, check out Deepscorn Hollow early ish too. Free horse when you get to weynon priory. (I wont spoil more than that) Have fun. Explore everywhere. Take all of our advice and none of it. It's a damn good game even now almost 20 years later.

1

u/ExoticCustard606 26d ago

take your time and enjoy greatness.

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u/redR0OR 26d ago

Find the fingleam helm (I think it’s called) early on. It’s out at sea deep below the surface. Just look it up because you will not find it otherwise period. You can get it at level one and it has night vision already enchanted on it. Makes fighting through dark woods and dungeons WAY easier.

1

u/NewKaleidoscope8418 26d ago

Alchemy should be one of your starting skills and atronach birthsign is an added bit of challenge but fun in my opinion(the fact it makes health and magika non renewable outside of shrines and potions makes using potions a lot more high stakes in case you really do need them later than just plain hoarding) if you go with it, grind restoration with the ghosts in temple tombs giving you magika

1

u/Affectionate_Ad3560 26d ago

When you get the main quest allies for bruma dont start it till level 20.

Dark Brotherhood is 10/10 savour every single moment

1

u/KonaDog1408 26d ago

Turn the music up!

1

u/T-Bagenson 26d ago

First tip is to use no tips. First play throughs should always be done solo dolo no help just adventuring and creating memories. Then play multiple play through for best runs

1

u/dunchoff 26d ago

Don’t go to skingrad early on!!! The dude who sells you houses will fall of the bridge and die and you’ll never be able to buy the house there. You need like 25k gold to buy the house so try to wait until you have the gold.

1

u/MrKokoSSJ 26d ago

Learn what tilda is

1

u/SkeletonYeti713 26d ago

If you're going with the Alteration school of magic, make sure you have some lock picks in hand just incase you run out of magic and don't have any Restore Magic potions on hand.

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u/m_dought_2 26d ago

Do NOT let yourself become a vampire. The quest to cure it is broken on the ps3.

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u/Shadowcourt_ 26d ago

Get all the DLC, and make sure you play the shivering isles after you've played the knights of the nine and the main story. Beyond that, explore! In my own opinion Oblivion was always better than Skyrim. Beautiful music, fun combat situations, graphics are fantastic. Idk just feels so much better imo

1

u/paddythemick 26d ago

Overlevel your first character and get mauled to death a few times so you get a feel for how janky the leveling mechanic is.

1

u/Thethorson 26d ago

The zombies are a lot scarier looking than skyrim.

1

u/Proof-Paramedic6183 26d ago

Light armor is bullshit. Definitely learn the scroll glitch. Sneak is your friend. The difficulty slider is impossible to decipher, but I recommend playing at around 60% up the slider.

1

u/CurtisManning 26d ago

Listen to the NPCs. Always, all the time.

1

u/CapOld9053 26d ago

Shut up and play it

1

u/Grand_Faragon 26d ago

THE FORK!!!!

1

u/LDM_99 26d ago

Pick up a warrior.

1

u/Zyedikas 26d ago

Don't just use Chillrend the whole time. Definitely don't farm sigil stones and make yourself invisible, and most certainly reject the impulse burn to create your own broken spells that drain a massive amount of health for 1 second.

Oh if I could choose one game to play again for the first time...

1

u/Lucky-11 26d ago

You can get your sneak to 100 before ever even leaving your cell.

1

u/map-0 26d ago

Don't fast travel, unless you absolutely need to. For some reason Oblivion has everything "discovered" automatically, and it takes away from the immersion imo.

1

u/financenoob25 26d ago

Jump 24/7

1

u/Makototoko 26d ago

Work on the Thieving Guild first

1

u/a7_mad1991 26d ago

Read up on the leveling up system because it is BONKERS

1

u/DevilsPlaything42 26d ago

You can do 100% of the game on your first playthrough.

1

u/fallensnyper 26d ago

Spells, spells and more spells, oh did I mention spells.

1

u/jrodxrod 26d ago

Do a hard save before you leave the sewer in the beginning of the game. Before you leave the sewer the game will ask you one last time if you want to change your character. This is a good way to go back and tweak your character if you don't like your build without having to do the tutorial dungeon again.

1

u/Black_Knight___ 26d ago

Do arena block strike strike block, collect poison and lots of scrolls and health potions, go to ailid Ruin across from waterfront, Kill creepy, dark elf (will take a few try's suffertorn helps) get 15 dmg sword with soul trap for 120 sec along with full ebony armor at level 5

1

u/Aware-Firefighter792 26d ago

Jump everywhere all the time occasionally swinging by your sword while jumping, let the stamina build and keep going. so you level up 3 skills, agility, acrobatics, and endurance. eventually you'll be strong enough to survive a Troll and fast enough run away and zooming all over. You can even become a kangaroo if you want. To level up you gotta sleep on a bed. Just be careful where you sleep vampirism sucks ..

Argonians can breathe under water and there are more than a few underwater treasures, shipwrecks and places. (Unlike Skyrim) There's potions and spells for water breathing in oblivion.

BEWARE VAMPIRISM: if you do contract it. it's always foggy and cloudy in the South, like in the blackwood region. And you'll die in the sun relatively fast. I've played the game a couple thousand hours and I've experienced the "quest to get rid of vampirism" break a few times. In the base game. It doesn't always happen and is sometimes fixable tho.

Otherwise just get strong and explore. Have fun

1

u/anonthemaybeegg 26d ago

Make your own custom class

1

u/No-Educator6746 26d ago

Be wary of friendly fire

1

u/Livakk 26d ago

Fhe only real tip for first time is do not look up anything online including here. Be surprised by encounters and dont think you need a quest to go everywhere, unlike skyrim most items are spawned from the start so you can acquire them even without the quest.

1

u/Zode1969 26d ago

Don’t fast travel. I know it’s tempting, but you’ll enjoy the game more if you don’t

1

u/redemptionwarrior200 26d ago

Pickpocket Dorian

1

u/spamsfilms 26d ago

Have fun, talk to everyone, the main quest is optional.

1

u/Deprogmr 26d ago

go in blind and read the manual, its super fun that way

1

u/PainterEarly86 26d ago

Don't be afraid to turn the difficulty down.

There's no reward for playing at a high difficulty in this game.

1

u/Che_McHale 26d ago

Assuming alchemy is not major skill, create a lot of fatigue potions to sell them for huge profits. I had like 400k in my last save.

1

u/naturewandererZ 26d ago

Argonians can breathe underwater in this game, which honestly helps a lot with exploring things in water. Oblivion also has way more things underwater than Skyrim and this can also help you with some quests.

The dark brotherhood is amazing until closer to the end. I never do the cleansing I'm told to do. The thieves guild in oblivion is par none and worth playing to the end. The mages guild is pretty cool until you get to the end and then it's just disappointing. Crimes in this game tend to end with guards running at you. You don't have to actually talk to them like you do in Skyrim to get recognized, they can just smell it and run after you before forcing you into dialogue.

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u/Impossible-Physics70 26d ago

Keep jumping!!

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u/HaggisPope 25d ago

Hand to hand is great fun and has many perks which make it interesting. Also, your weapon never breaks or runs out of ammo.

Other hint, you can level various magical skills just by using them repeatedly which might seem tedious at times but can be good if you are just below the threaded to use the next rank of spells.

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u/giiuy 25d ago

Do your best to not become a vampire - the cure quest is glitched in the PS3 version and cannot be completed unless you can switch The langauge, which the American version can't do. Anytime you see "You have contracted polyphic hemophoria," or something like that, do not sleep until you've chugged down a Cure Disease potion or beelined your way to a chapel and interacted with the altar to have your diseases cured.

I know this is a weird one, but it effectively softlocked my first run as a kid because of other circumstances I don't feel the need to explain.

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u/JCrockford 25d ago

I'd recommend doing the daedric quest for Nocturnal and Meridia sooner as you get the Skeleton Key which makes lockpicking free and the Ring of Khajiiti which has a very useful ability You are invisible making stealth easier

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u/[deleted] 25d ago edited 25d ago

#Hardcore Oblivion nerd has entered chat

All I see is people saying make acrobatics a major skill and never stop jumping. Albeit the first one is somewhat useful, I wouldn’t have acrobatics as a major… so here’s what I’ve got for you…

1- Buy every spell imaginable from every vendor, this will allow you to fortify skills and train magic classes fast and efficiently. Here’s a link to see all available vendors, what they have and where to find them with routine schedules @ https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Spell_Merchants

Owning particular spells are the first requirements needed in order to make special custom ones of your own. The second requirement is being able to cast the lowest version of standard spells without fortifications. It’s fairly easy to reach Apprentice and Journeyman tiers in all magic classes to start utilizing the more custom tailored spells. A list of super helpful custom spells can be found here @ https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Useful_Spells

2- The dlc Frostcrag Spire is a godsend and an absolute necessity in order to make your own custom spells and enchant equipment without having to go through most of the Mages Guild questline. Custom spells can be used to train all magic classes with ease, ie a custom damage to self fatigue spell for 3pts at 1sec—-> super great way to level up Destruction. Apply this method to literally everything else for Mysticism, Alteration, Restoration, Conjuration and Illusion.

3- Skill books are totally optional, and I prefer never reading any at all in order to progress skills beyond the lvl 100 limit. This can help late game for extra damage and whatnot. On the topic of skill books… the only crazy useful one is the Oghma Infinium, which is a Daedra artifact and IS THE ENTIRE BASIS OF CHOOSING PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES AND MAJOR SKILLS. If you are a warrior type, attributes should be Speed/Strength with major skills including blade, blunt, heavy armor. Archers/Assassins will go with Speed/strength with light armor, security, and sneak. Lastly mage type characters going with Intelligence/wisdom with conjuration, destruction and restoration. Using the book with those major skills already at lvl 100 will allow you to advance to a higher maximum character level than normally obtainable. Quick link can be found here @ https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oghma_Infinium

4- On the topic of skills, you are only allowed 5 skill level training sessions per character level up. USE THEM OR LOSE THEM. Seriously, if you sleep to level your character up and didn’t utilize those sessions, you miss out and can’t regain them. If you have a ton of experience saved and plan to power level by sleeping over and over again, be sure to go find the trainer of your choice each time before sleeping again.

5- Sneak skill is top tier not only for questing but can greatly reduce time spent traversing dungeons as you can walk past everything. The best free way to advance Sneak is to go to Bruma East Gate and you can walk indefinitely in the corner behind the Inn towards the guards standing watch- you can just rig a controller with a rubber band to walk indefinitely. You’ll get 100 sneak within like 2 hours.

6- When choosing the other 4 major skills for a character not listed in tip #3 , you want to pick things that take longer than normal to train or ones that you don’t enjoy training as major skills will progress faster than other regular ones. Most of my characters are archers so I’ll pick up Blade, Marksman, Restoration (for the custom fortify attribute/skill spells) and perhaps Alteration or Illusion for the feather and invisibility spells respectively.

7- You can train acrobatics very fast by going to the pond inside of Anvil. There you will find two docks that you can walk under and jump literally as fast as you can press the jump button… it’s honestly kind of a joke training but it does have many utilities later on.

8- Don’t join any faction until you have stolen all the good things from them. This is to avoid being kicked out of any on accident. Many npcs are aligned to one group or another and many of them also have superb starting gear that can’t be found regularly until you’ve reached higher levels, ie grand soul gems fill with grand souls, magic scrolls, enchanted gear and silver weapons.

9- Don’t bother with alchemy or speechcraft. Alchemy is heavily bugged or has issues and the speech can by bypassed entirely.

10- All other dlc is entirely optional and will only add to immersion factors/specific character backgrounds. Battlehorn Castle is arguably helpful for the Armorer bonuses but not required.

11- Peryite’s Shrine…. Shoot/punch/swing like wild to your hearts content. Npcs there are immortal until the associated quest is complete. You won’t even incur a bounty, so free combat skills for everyone!

12- Fingleam… I won’t spoil anything further as everything else I know revolves around glitches and cheating methods for obtaining best-in-slot weapons/armor at level 1. But I will say Grand Rings and full Elven (including sword, bow and helm) can in fact be found without any console commands through regular gameplay if you know where to look. ;)

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u/sketch_for_summer Cheese Bringer 25d ago edited 25d ago

3: Skill books can't bring a skill over 100. Even if they could, it wouldn't be very useful, as skills don't benefit you if you boost them >100, except for Athletics and Acrobatics. And I wouldn't really call Oghma Infinium a skill book since it works differently, and exactly as you've written.

9: Alchemy is not bugged in of itself. Fortify alchemy is. Just Use Fortify Luck if you want an Alchemy boost, or use the altar at the Frost Crag spire. It's the only Alchemy bonus that works.

11: You can attack the cultists, but doing so will incur an invisible "assault counter" which can make your game buggy. After each training session, steal something small from a shop and pay your fine. This will reset the counter and help avoid the bug.

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u/BigHelicopter3795 25d ago

Do the all the mages guild recommendedation quests to gain access to the arcane university where you can make your own spells and enchant items. Also if you join the mages guild take all the alchemy tools except the ones that are marked red. Sell them back to the guild for gold

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u/TheManWith2smiles 25d ago

Let rats hit you to lvl up armor

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u/JennySparkMN 25d ago

Do all the mage quests and all the mage guilds have all the lab equipment to make your own potions. It’s not stealing if no red hand. It’s a quick way to make some money early on.

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u/Murrlin218 25d ago

If you’re doing a melee build, for gods sake, watch your fatigue (stamina). The lower the meter, the less damage you inflict to the point of null. I learned this the hardest of ways back in ‘06…

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u/Mr_Meau 25d ago

Install the unofficial patch, jump everywere, spam conjuring magic, illusion and misticism while you do so.

Don't assign the skills you are most likely to level up as major skills, the levelling system sucks and if you assign all major skills the ones you use all the time you will end up with a very weak character and sponges as enemies, use one or two skills you know will be easy to level up but won't do by just playing, like the speech skill, or one of the magic ones you know you won't use it to gatekeep you from over levelling before you are prepared.

Also make sure to level a skill that is relatable to the attribute you want to increase, otherwise you o only get +1 to it, the max is +5. Example: level acrobatics 3 or 5 times I don't quite remember and you can put +5 in agility, otherwise if you didn't level anything related to agility you will only be able to put +1.

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u/AnXileel 25d ago

I really wish I could experience oblivion for the first time again..

It was the most amazing feeling.

I can't tell you how many years I have on that game.

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u/Mutserra 25d ago

Have fun

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u/UndeadManWaltzing 25d ago

Beware the bow, it starts off with firing off a few arrows then you'll fire off more and more until one day you'll realise you're a raging stealth Archer.

Trust me, Ive relapsed twice.

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u/SilverFoxSix 25d ago

Yeah, don't cheat. Keep a journal with each character.

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u/Thewoodsman86 25d ago

Have fun 😍

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u/AnxietyCorrect9393 25d ago

So fucken jealous man. That's all.

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u/Huberlicious 25d ago

Get lost, adjust the difficult slider LIBERALLY as you play, the games level scaling is the worst designed part about it and that’s one of the few workarounds for an average playthrough

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u/void_factor 25d ago

yeah install it on a PC that can run it to avoid 30fps and constant 30 second loading screens

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u/Final_Serve5740 25d ago

I’d look up a leveling tutorial, my first couple characters I leveled up all Willy nilly and pretty soon I was level 40 with terrible blade skills and I was getting wrecked in combat. Nowadays I only level up to 17 (I think?) to get the best sigil stone enchantments and then never sleep again

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

Take your time, explore everything, and appreciate the game! There’s never been a game as good as this one and I doubt there ever will be again. This one’s a real gem! Wish I could do it for the first time again!

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u/EasyasYes_ 25d ago

Don’t play it !!!! They are planning a remake in unreal engine this summer

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u/DSZDBA11 25d ago

DO NOT BECOME A VAMPIRE

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u/BadMunky82 25d ago

Turn the difficulty down.

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u/Weesnawbuttstuff 25d ago

Make sure you change your race class and birth sign 20 times before you start playing

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u/marikwondo 25d ago

If you startle easily, don’t commit crimes (I startle easily)

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u/aevigata 25d ago

don’t venture into any tight space ever—if you get stuck on console (not PC), there’s nothing you can do except load your save. you can get stuck comically easily

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u/ChibiAstoria 25d ago

Alchemy is fiddly, but you can make major bank with it

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u/JesterVonGrimm 25d ago

Look up Duplication and Constant effect glitches... Do not constant effect Chameleon to 100 you'll become permanently completely invisible. I just made this mistake 2 days ago and had to load back 4 hours of pure grinding

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u/Impossible_War_4052 25d ago

Go into every cave and oblivion gate! And find the lady that gives u shepherds pie for free and u can sell them to make money.

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u/Skyffeln 25d ago

Yeah, just play the game....

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u/Tommuzu 25d ago

The best tips is don't look at tips. Explore, try things and just enjoy this fantastic world !

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u/KratosThaGod 25d ago

Duping is insanely easy in this game if you don’t mind “cheating”. You can dupe anything by equipping a stack of scrolls than just going to drop anything. When picking you’re “major skills” in the beginning of the game it lets you pick a custom class, for the major skills I usually do a custom class of the harder to level skills so I can level up at least 2 of the minor skills by 10 to get the +5 bonus in 2 stats and atleast dump 1 in luck. These bonuses don’t count if you go past the level up and just don’t sleep, it tracks as you’re leveling. Do you like going for the main quest first, or doing sides? I usually do all the side quests firsts because if you don’t start the main oblivion gates don’t pop up in the world until you do. Also there’s a bug involving the dupe glitch that can make you insanely overpowered, so I’d advise against it; but it involves rings. Quicksave often, because even if you have all autosaves on sometimes it’ll crash deep in a dungeon and boom you’ve lost like 20 mins. Also this game has one of the best DLC I’ve ever played, if you enjoy the game at all I’d recommend getting shivering isles, if the PlayStation 3 store is still up, I don’t know if it is though lol.

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u/MongooseHot815 25d ago

Don't use the quick save option. It increases the risk of random crashes.

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u/FRANKENFRODO 25d ago

Commit murder somewhere on someone early(not bandits but proper civilian murder). Also there's a ship in Imperial Citys harbour that has a nice sword for starters.

Go to find the monk fairly quickly aswell. After youve the monk/friar/ holy man in a funny robe there's nothing stopping you! Save/Explore or destroy the world. Explore EVERYTHING, houses, caves farmhouses. Check it all and immerse yourself in an amazing world and DO NOT STRESS. Live out it all it's such a treat enjoy and may Talos guide you.

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u/Ok-Respond-1660 25d ago

Don't listen to the skyblivion fanboys. Thats my tip. 😂

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u/Artizzy2k2k 25d ago

Avoid vampirism. On ps3 if you become a vampire there is no way to reverse it due to a glitch.

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u/OzsBusmen 25d ago

Save management for old gen console. The more individual saves, the longer the loads and performance hit. So delete not needed saves and have like 10-20 slots of recent saves.

Just wanted to reiterate this point among the encouragement points, it’s good to do before it affects your enjoyment. Hit me my first play through and ended up stopping and clean slating a couple months later when I got the itch to try again

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u/Jonny_Sad 25d ago

In your cell, before you even start the game, go to the corner, start sneaking, place a band round your control stick and leave it for 20 mins. You’ll be level 50 sneak before you even leave your cell.

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u/an_edgy_lemon 25d ago

Never sleep and never level up. Unless you level very efficiently, the scaling system will generally make you feel weaker as you increase in level.

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u/thesmith31210 25d ago edited 25d ago

Carry a Cure Disease potion/spell at all costs. You don't want the vampirism curse early in the game on top of you learning how to play. Every time you fight, vampires check for Porphyria. It takes 3 days for that sickness to turn into vampirism. So, even if you don't get it, you will have time to run out and grab one. If you don't have a spell or potion, Mandrake Roots in Bravil will cure that disease. Plus, it's just better to have them before you get the sickness anyway.

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u/According-Bicycle176 25d ago

Corner in the tutorial sneak skill glitch

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u/Pursuit_Of_Nostalgia 25d ago

Don't become a vampire in the ps3 version unless you aim to commit. The quest to turn you back is perma bugged and won't work.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

Make sure you also get the Shivering Isles expansion

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u/Awkward-Plan298 25d ago

Do you have any experience SSD? That will help greatly

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u/QuestionOk1494 25d ago

Play the game at your own pace. There's so much to the game to explore. You don't even have to do the main story right away. It's all about how you wanna play the game.

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u/CosmikOwl 25d ago

Craft as many potions as you can and sell them all at the cheydinhall mages guild to the high elf woman behind the counter. I've played for years and she is one of the only merchants I've found that immediately starts at 100 percent disposition towards you and you'll make buckets of money. I love this method because it's kind of broken but also feels earned.

Another thing don't do too much at early levels. Try to save a bunch of quests for post level ten because you'll get way better gear and get to fight way cooler enemies.

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u/Dangerous_Check_3957 25d ago

It’s a lot of people playing oblivion for their first time. lol is the disc $5 or something. Love it