How to level up in Oblivion was a bit of an enigma wrapped in an obnoxious set of rules, but Oblivion Remastered leveling is much more straightforward. The basics are roughly the same, in that you use a skill to increase your proficiency with it. However, the relationship between major skills, minor skills, and your numerical level is much less difficult to deal with.
Our Oblivion Remastered leveling guide explains how it works and what you should do to level up quickly.
Oblivion Remastered leveling explained
In the original Oblivion, you had to raise your minor skill proficiency – things such as athletics or alchemy – enough times to raise a major skill level. Then, after raising your major skills enough times, you could level up and apply attribute points. Oblivion Remastered counts progress in minor skills and major skills toward your eventual level-up. Major skills still have more weight. For example, you’ll level up faster by increasing Willpower than you will by just focusing on Restoration.
Once you do level up, you’ll get an on-screen notice and then see a brown arrow in the screen’s upper right corner reminding you to go sleep somewhere. The level-up screen appears once you rest in a bed or a bedroll, and you get 12 points to stuff into any three major attributes each time you level up. You can pick any three, though bear in mind that the luck stat works differently, as it requires four points for each level increase.
Oblivion Remastered leveling tips
The most important thing to remember about leveling up in Oblivion Remastered is that combat does not reward you with XP. You’ll gain progress toward whatever damage type you’re dealing – Marksmanship for using a bow, for example – but that’s it. Finding and defeating enemies isn’t
Acrobatics, athletics, heavy armor, and light armor are skills you can level up just by jumping, running, and wearing heavy or light armor in combat. That means one of your best bets for leveling up quickly is traveling around, which is useful for unlocking fast travel around the map anyway. Getting a horse is fine, but don’t ride it all the time. Another method is fighting in the arena. Arena fights aren’t exactly speedy, but they are an easy, controlled way to improve your armor skills and get a decent amount of money for your trouble.
Speechcraft is another easy one, as you can just do the persuasion mini-game repeatedly with NPCs to raise its level. Just make sure it’s someone you don’t mind having a low opinion of you, if it fails – so, definitely not a merchant who’s going to charge you a hatred tax.
For combat skills, the original game’s exploit at Peryite’s Shrine, east of Bravil on the Silverfish River, is still one of the best ways to raise any melee or magic skill. The NPCs there don’t fight back, become hostile, or alert the local authorities – there aren’t any to begin with – about your heinous actions. They also don’t die, so you’re free to cast lightning, slash them, fire arrows until you run out, or whatever other combination of combat skills you want to use, entirely without fear of repercussions.
It’s probably best not to get too wild with leveling up early, though. Enemies will increase in number and power as you level up, so if you do plan to grind early, make sure you’re keeping up with your equipment and prioritizing your attribute points in the skills that govern your combat power.
Bethesda kept Oblivion’s scaling for weapons and armor in the remaster. If you find a rare, named item, it’ll be at your current level and can’t be changed for the rest of the game. That’s true for the best weapons in Oblivion and any other common piece you find. Weapons and armor gain new, better attributes at intervals of five – level five, level 10, and so on – so plan your quest completion around that. If you’re at level 14 and about to complete a quest with a weapon or armor reward, it’s worth waiting until you reach level 15 to finish the quest, so you get the reward’s stronger version.
For more help, check out our guide for finding a house in Oblivion and where to look for Daedric Artifacts once you’re at that point.