Introduction
*The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion* remains a beloved RPG for its vast open world, immersive lore, and intricate character progression system. Stepping through the Oblivion gates and battling daedra is a rewarding experience, but it’s the constant journey of strengthening your character that truly defines the game. Leveling up isn’t just about gaining numbers; it’s about unlocking new abilities, mastering skills, and becoming a force to be reckoned with in Cyrodiil. Understanding how to efficiently level up in *Oblivion* is essential to crafting the character you envision and conquering the challenges that await. Without a solid grasp of the mechanics, you might find yourself underpowered against increasingly difficult foes or struggling to maximize your character’s potential. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve deep into the intricacies of leveling up in *Oblivion*, providing you with the knowledge and strategies you need to create a powerful and well-rounded hero.
I remember my first playthrough of *Oblivion*. I chose a class based on what seemed cool at the time and haphazardly increased skills. By level ten, I was getting my posterior handed to me by goblins! That’s when I realized I needed a plan. This guide is born from that experience, so you don’t make the same mistakes.
Understanding the Leveling System
The heart of *Oblivion*’s character progression lies in its system of Attributes, Skills, and Classes. Let’s break down each of these components:
Attributes are the fundamental stats that define your character’s capabilities. These include Strength (affecting carrying capacity and melee damage), Intelligence (affecting magicka and skill learning speed), Willpower (affecting magicka regeneration and resistance to mind control), Agility (affecting speed, sneaking, and archery), Speed (affecting movement speed), Endurance (affecting health and fatigue), Personality (affecting how others react to you), and Luck (a subtle but influential attribute affecting nearly every action). These attributes are the building blocks of your character and dictate many of your character’s abilities.
Skills are the specific proficiencies your character possesses. These skills fall into three categories: Combat (Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand, Armorer, Block, Heavy Armor), Magic (Alteration, Conjuration, Destruction, Illusion, Mysticism, Restoration, Alchemy), and Stealth (Acrobatics, Athletics, Light Armor, Security, Sneak, Mercantile, Speechcraft). Mastering these skills is crucial for performing specific actions effectively, from swinging a sword to casting spells to picking locks. Every skill has a direct correlation to one of the core Attributes, increasing that attribute helps increase the skills.
Classes are templates that define your character’s initial skill set and influence their overall development. You can choose from a variety of premade classes, each specializing in different combinations of combat, magic, and stealth skills. Alternatively, you can create a custom class to tailor your character to your specific playstyle. When selecting a class, it’s essential to consider which skills you want to focus on and how those skills align with your desired character build. Choosing the proper skills to focus on in each class is extremely important to character development.
Major Skills and Leveling
A key element of the leveling system is the distinction between Major and Minor Skills. Major Skills are the skills that directly contribute to your character’s level progression. Whenever you increase your Major Skills a total of ten times, you become eligible to level up. Therefore, choosing the right Major Skills is crucial for controlling your character’s level. Minor Skills, on the other hand, do not directly affect your level. However, they are still important for character development, as they provide additional proficiencies and can be used to influence attribute bonuses (more on this later).
To put it simply, every time you increase a Major Skill, it gets tallied. When you have increased Major Skills a combined total of ten times, you qualify to level up by sleeping in an Inn or in your own bed.
Understanding the Leveling Formula
The leveling formula in *Oblivion* can seem complex at first, but it essentially boils down to tracking your Major Skill increases. Whenever you increase a Major Skill, that increase is counted towards your level progress. Once you reach ten increases in Major Skills, you can level up. It’s important to remember that the game only counts the first ten Major Skill increases towards each level.
A popular leveling strategy is the “five/five/five” optimization, which focuses on maximizing attribute bonuses when leveling up. We’ll delve into this strategy in detail later, but the basic idea is to carefully manage your skill increases to achieve the maximum possible bonus to three different attributes each level.
The Process of Leveling Up
The process of leveling up in *Oblivion* involves several steps: first, you have to achieve ten skill increases in Major Skills. This means using your Major Skills in combat, casting spells, picking locks, or engaging in any activity that improves those skills. Tracking your progress can be a bit tricky, as there’s no in-game indicator. However, you can generally get a sense of how close you are to leveling up by paying attention to how often you’re using your Major Skills.
Once you’ve achieved ten Major Skill increases, you can level up by resting in a bed. This will trigger a screen where you can choose three attributes to increase. The amount you can increase each attribute depends on how many times you’ve increased the corresponding skills during the level. For example, if you increased Strength-related skills (Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand, and Armorer) ten times, you can increase Strength by five points.
Choosing the right attribute bonuses is a crucial part of leveling up. Maximizing your attribute gains will make your character significantly stronger and more capable. This is where the five/five/five strategy comes into play.
Optimizing Attribute Bonuses (The Five/Five/Five Strategy)
Optimizing attribute bonuses is the key to creating a powerful character in *Oblivion*. By maximizing your attribute gains, you can significantly enhance your character’s strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. The five/five/five strategy is a popular method for achieving this optimization.
The reason you want to optimize is that each attribute controls a variety of different combat and other character abilities. Raising your Agility raises your archery and sneaking abilities. Raising your Intelligence raises your magicka and skill learning.
The core of the five/five/five strategy lies in understanding attribute multipliers. Whenever you level up, you can increase three attributes by a certain amount. The maximum amount you can increase an attribute is five points. To achieve this maximum bonus, you need to increase the skills associated with that attribute by a certain amount during the level. Typically, for every level, you will attempt to increase *three* attributes by *five points*. It is called the five/five/five strategy for that reason.
To get +five in three attributes each level, you need to carefully manage your skill increases. This involves strategically using skills to reach the desired attribute bonuses without leveling up too quickly. Let’s look at an example: if you want to increase Strength, Intelligence, and Endurance by five points each, you would need to increase Strength-related skills (Blade, Blunt, Hand to Hand, and Armorer), Intelligence-related skills (Alchemy, Conjuration, Mysticism), and Endurance-related skills (Heavy Armor, Block) enough times during the level.
Skill Leveling Techniques to Maximize Attributes
Here are some specific skill leveling techniques to help you maximize your attribute gains:
- Endurance: Increasing Armorer and Block is easy to do by getting hit by monsters. Simply blocking hits will increase your block skill, and wearing heavy armor and taking damage will increase your armorer skill.
- Strength: Blade/Blunt and Athletics skills are raised relatively easily by hitting enemies with weapons or just by running everywhere.
- Intelligence: Alchemy, Conjuration, and Mysticism can be trained easily. Alchemy can be increased simply by combining ingredients to make potions. Conjuration can be increased by summoning creatures. Mysticism can be increased by using soul gems on dead bodies of animals.
- Willpower: Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration can be more tedious to level. The easiest of these is Destruction, which can be increased by casting offensive spells. Alteration is tedious to raise because it requires casting shield spells on yourself. Restoration can be easily raised by healing yourself.
- Agility: Marksman, Security, and Sneak can also be tedious to level. Marksman can be leveled by shooting a bow at a target. Security can be leveled by repeatedly picking locks. Sneak can be leveled by repeatedly sneaking around in a town or city with a high chance of being caught.
- Speed: Acrobatics and Light Armor are easy to level early on. Acrobatics can be leveled by jumping around constantly. Light Armor is leveled by wearing light armor and getting hit.
- Personality: Illusion, Mercantile, and Speechcraft can be tedious. Illusion can be raised by casting charm spells on people. Mercantile can be raised by buying and selling things to merchants. Speechcraft is raised by participating in the Speechcraft mini game.
Common Leveling Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Many players make common mistakes when leveling up in *Oblivion*. Let’s look at some of these mistakes and how to avoid them:
Focusing too much on Minor Skills can lead to inefficient leveling. While Minor Skills are important, they don’t directly contribute to your level progress. It’s important to prioritize Major Skills to ensure that you’re leveling up at a reasonable pace. The danger of overdeveloping Minor Skills early on is that you might end up with a character who is skilled in certain areas but unable to progress to higher levels.
Not planning your leveling strategy can also be detrimental. Going into *Oblivion* without a clear idea of how you want to develop your character can lead to wasted skill increases and inefficient attribute bonuses. It’s important to consider your desired build and plan your leveling strategy accordingly.
Leveling up too quickly is another common mistake. Rushing through levels without properly optimizing your attribute bonuses can result in a weaker character overall. While it’s tempting to level up as quickly as possible, it’s often better to slow down and focus on maximizing your attribute gains.
Ignoring efficient training methods can also hinder your progress. Wasting time on inefficient skill grinding can be frustrating and time-consuming. It’s important to research and utilize efficient training methods to level up your skills more quickly.
Advanced Leveling Tips and Tricks
To take your leveling game to the next level, consider these advanced tips and tricks:
Utilize skill trainers to quickly level up skills. Skill trainers can be found throughout *Oblivion*. The higher you level up the trainers associated skills, the more money it will cost to level.
Utilize specific quests for skill or attribute boosts. Some quests in *Oblivion* offer permanent bonuses to your skills or attributes. Completing these quests can be a great way to enhance your character’s abilities.
Efficient leveling vs. roleplaying is another consideration. Balancing optimal leveling with enjoying the game’s roleplaying aspects can be a challenge. While it’s important to maximize your attribute gains, it’s also important to have fun and immerse yourself in the world of *Oblivion*.
Leveling and Enemy Scaling
It is important to know that the world of Oblivion scales with your level. As you level up, the enemies get harder, and the armor they wear gets stronger.
Because of the enemy scaling, you need to remember to upgrade your own gear to offset the increased difficulty. The items you receive will be influenced by your own level. It is important to complete dungeons and other quests at the higher levels, as they will award better gear.
Conclusion
Leveling up in *Oblivion* is a complex but rewarding process. By understanding the intricacies of the leveling system, optimizing your attribute bonuses, and avoiding common leveling mistakes, you can create a powerful and well-rounded character. Remember to plan your leveling strategy, utilize efficient training methods, and balance optimal leveling with enjoying the game’s roleplaying aspects. *Oblivion* offers a vast and immersive world to explore, and mastering the leveling system will allow you to experience it to its fullest. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different builds and strategies to find what works best for your individual playstyle. Ultimately, the key to success in *Oblivion* is to embrace the journey of character progression and enjoy the challenge of becoming a true hero.
