Oblivion Remastered leveling explained—with skill exploits to rank up faster

Looking for the fastest ways to level up your skills in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered? The remastered version of Oblivion keeps most of the original game's structure intact, but there are some new tweaks to skills and leveling that bring things in line with Skyrim and Starfield.

You can still hop around like a madman to level Acrobatics, though, so things aren't that different. Leveling up your skills in Oblivion Remastered will unlock new abilities that let you do crazy things like jump across the surface of water or paralyze targets with arrows. All it takes is a little bit of patience (or a few exploits) to get your skills to the max level in Oblivion Remastered.

How to level up skills in Oblivion

Skills are improved by performing actions associated with them, so practice makes perfect. Swinging swords levels up Blade, running around levels up Athletics, and so on.

Skills are divided into five different ranks in Oblivion Remastered: Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Expert, and Master. As you level up your skills and climb the ranks, you'll unlock new abilities or stat buffs along the way. The game will notify you when you reach the next milestone with a celebratory pop-up message, and you can check out all of the perks in the in-game Help menu.

Oblivion combat Skills

Combat skills refer to anything that deals damage to enemies or protects you from incoming attacks. The more you use certain weapon types, the faster you'll level up those skills.

The best place to improve these skills is the Arena in the Imperial City since it pits you in back to back battles. Just think of your opponents as XP pinatas. That's the legit way to do things, at least. If you want a faster way to level up, you can take advantage of some XP exploits.

Weapon skills exploit

You can level up Blade, Blunt, and Hand-to-Hand at Peryite's Shrine east of Bravil. There are a bunch of robed figures there that don't respond to damage at all, making them the perfect punching bags. Just pick a target and start swinging. Even though they don't take any damage, they'll still give the normal amount of XP for Blade, Blunt, and Hand-to-Hand.

Block, heavy armor, and armorer skills exploit

There's an exploit to level up Block, Armorer, and Heavy Armor, too. Go to Anvil and head to the basement of Arvena Thelas' house. She has a rat problem, but her problem is your leveling solution. Turn the difficulty up to Master and then punch each of the rats once to get their attention. Then, turn the difficulty down to Novice, find a corner where the rats can all attack you at the same time, and then just block everything.

Blocking the rats' attacks will level up Block insanely fast, and wearing Heavy Armor while doing so will increase that skill, too. Make sure to bring some Repair Hammers so you can get some Armorer XP in the process.

Oblivion magic skills

Magic skills are all about casting spells and brewing potions. With the exception of Alchemy, they work the same as combat skills. Just cast a spell on an enemy and you'll get some XP.

Magic skills exploit

The same exploit for leveling up combat skills works for magic skills as well. Remember the nice folks at Peryite's Shrine that don't mind getting punched in the face? Well, they don't mind being lit on fire, either. Just cast spells at them and let the XP roll in.

This exploit works for all schools of magic in Oblivion Remastered, too. Stronger magic awards more XP per cast, so hit up the Mages Guild if you need some new spells.

Alchemy leveling exploit

You can also level up Alchemy super fast as long as you have some gold to burn. Just head to any place that sells ingredients—like The Main Ingredient in the Imperial City Market District—and buy everything they have.

Then, just combine those ingredients two at a time with a mortar and pestle to brew some potions and poisons to sell back to the shopkeeper. The value of potions and poisons is tied to your Alchemy skill level and not the number of ingredients used, so make sure you're only combining two ingredients at a time to get the most bang for your buck.

Oblivion stealth skills

Stealth skills aren't just about sneaking around in Oblivion Remastered. Anything speech related also falls into this category, and bows are included as well—because let's face it, we all fall back to the stealth archer build eventually.

Most of these are fairly straightforward to level up. Just wear Light Armor and get hit to level that skill up, for example (the Heavy Armor exploit described above works for Light Armor too). Speechcraft can be leveled up quickly by just spamming the persuasion minigame on every NPC you see, and you can get Mercantile XP by selling every random item you find on your travels.

Marksman skill exploit

To level up the Marksman skill fast, just pay a visit to the nice folks at Peryite's Shrine once again. They won't mind if you pelt them with arrows. Just make sure you bring enough ammunition.

Sneak skill exploit

The classic Sneak exploit from Oblivion's original release still works in Oblivion Remastered, and there's even a place where you can level Sneak all the way to 100 while AFK. Go to the Imperial City Arena and make your way down to the Bloodworks where everyone's training. Then, find a corner, crouch down, and walk into the wall. Even though it won't look like you're moving, the game still counts that as sneaking around, so you'll get XP.

Acrobatics skill exploit

Acrobatics is leveled up by bunny hopping all over the place, but there's a method to the madness that can get you dozens of Acrobatics levels in just a few minutes. All you need is a well. There's one at the town of Hackdirt south of Chorrol. Place your character's head underneath the corner of the well and then spam the jump button to farm Acrobatics XP.

Security skill exploit

The Security leveling exploit is the weirdest one of all in Oblivion Remastered because you can hit level 100 in about five minutes. Just go to the Imperial City Market District at night and try to lockpick a door to one of the shops.

Some of the tumblers on these locks are already set (darker than the rest), so just move your lockpick underneath those and spam the set tumbler button. You won't see the XP meter until you back out of the lockpicking menu, but you'll hear the level up sound.