Whether you are digging for buried treasure, looking for semi-rares and refinements in town chests or detecting hidden boxes in Exodus dungeon, once you find your chest, crate or box you will need to be able to open it. For that you will need lockpicking skill – although at low levels the spell ‘magic unlock’ can substitute on shards other than Siege and Mugen.
There are several ways to train, the most convenient way is to create a tinker/carpenter so you can make your own lockboxes. Some shards also have lock picking houses set up by players, use the chat system in game to enquire if one is known on your shard, or ask on message boards. Most lockpick box sets consist of 10 boxes made with 30 tinkering skill, 10 boxes made with 50 tinkering skill, 10 boxes made with 75 tinkering skill, and 10 boxes made with GM tinkering skill. The 30 skill set can be omitted if you pay an npc thief or tinker to train you.
You can also train on chests, crates and barrels found in various locations in towns and dungeons. If you choose this method it is highly recommended that you acquire a crystal ball of knowledge, a quest reward from Ortlem the Mystic, this will allow you to see which containers are the right level for your skill and which too hard, or too easy. Containers in towns spawn in mixed skill level groups, usually only the large, square, crates are locked, small oblong ones are not. They will usually re-lock, or respawn in the case of Vesper Bank, in approximately 20 – 30 minutes. A word of caution: Town and dungeon containers are trapped, up to 3 traps per container, do not open them to look inside unless you are able to deal with these traps. Dungeons contain static chests which only re-lock at server up and spawning chests which re-spawn at 20 – 30 minute intervals. Also worth a visit is Yew Prison, where the locked doors of the prison cells give ‘optimal’ gains at 75-85 skill
Training
0-30 Lock picking –
- Buy the skill from an NPC (except Siege & Mugen)
- Use boxes made with 30 tinkering
- Pick crates or chests in town
30-50 Lock picking –
- use boxes made with 50 tinkering
- pick crates in NPC shops
50-70 Lock picking –
- use boxes made with 70 tinkering.
- Town crates and barrels – while some of these will now be too easy, there are others that will still show a ‘too challenging’ message from the crystal ball. See the ‘mid level’ list below
- Level 1 dungeon chests
- at 56 lock picking, level 1 treasure chests if you have cartography skill
70-95 Lock picking –
- use boxes made with GM tinkering
- Town crates and barrels – see the ‘high level’ list below
- level 2 dungeon chests at 72 lock picking, or level 2 treasure chests if you have cartography.
- Yew prison cell doors at 75 lock picking
- level 3 dungeon chests at 84 lock picking or level 3 treasure chests if you have cartography.
95-GM
- level 4 dungeon chests
- Level 4 treasure chests
- Town crates and barrels – unbelievable? Some crates in the warrior guild can still give you gains even at this level.
- Yew Prison cell doors.
Favorite Picking Locations
Basic level (up to 50)
- Inns – Jhelom and Skara Brae (not all inn chests are locked)
- Provisioners – most towns
- Jhelom Pits and Docks barrels.
While the inns will only give gains for a very short time, you will be able to return to the provisioners and Jhelom for some time until the barrels showing as ‘too challenging’ become ‘too easy’.
Mid level (50 to 70)
- Provisioners
- Jhelom Pits and Docks barrels
- Vesper Bank
- Warrior’s Guild, Britain secret room, see image.
- Despise Dungeon, Trammel level 1 – beware negative karma
Few sources I have read have mentioned the warrior’s guild room, it is not visible until you enter the passage beside the staircase as shown. The varying levels of crate in this room are sufficient to give gains all the way to GM.
Despise Level 1 is ideal for characters who have positive karma, none of the inhabitants on this level will attack. All square crates are locked, though barrels are not.
High level (70 to GM)
- Vesper Bank
- Warrior’s Guild, Britain
- Despise Dungeon Trammel
- Destard Dungeon Level 1
- Yew Crypt
- Yew prison cell doors
- Shame Level 5 Islands
The Mark spell works only in a very few locations in Yew Crypt, the spell appears to work, but recalling on the rune gives a ‘location blocked’ message. You should be prepared to walk to the chests.
The crypt entrance is found at 75.24N x 24.57W
| There are multiple chests on four of the islands at the lowest level in Shame. It is possible to teleport from the shore to the first island, however there is significant unfriendly spawn at this location. It is suggested that a rune be marked on the first island since the islands themselves are almost risk free. |  |
| A rune marked at the far side of the location in Destard shown below also gives relatively risk free access to the chests in the area |  |
Many of the dungeons have containers that can be lockpicked, those listed here are merely the ones consider least dangerous for a character with no stealth – once the suggested runes have been acquired. Many shards have player-made rune libraries that include books marked to aid in lockpick training.