Lockpicking

Lockpicking

The art of defeating locks through patience, finesse, and a steady supply of picks.

Skill Overview
Skill Type	Rogue
Difficulty	Moderate
Primary Stat	Dexterity
Complementary Skills	Tinkering, Detecting Hidden, Remove Trap

How Lockpicking Works

Lockpicking allows you to open locked containers and doors without a key. To pick a lock, simply double-click a lockpick from your backpack and target the locked object.

Every lockable object has three hidden values that determine how hard it is to pick:

Property	Description
Required Skill	The minimum Lockpicking skill needed to even attempt the lock. If your skill is below this value, you'll receive the message: "You don't see how that lock can be manipulated." — and no skill check is made.
Lock Level	The lower bound of the skill check. This, combined with Max Lock Level, defines the difficulty window for the attempt.
Max Lock Level	The upper bound of the skill check. You will gain skill from a lock as long as your Lockpicking is somewhere between the Lock Level and Max Lock Level.

In other words: You need at least the Required Skill to try. Once you can attempt it, your chance of success depends on where your skill falls between the Lock Level and Max Lock Level. You stop gaining skill from a lock once your Lockpicking exceeds the Max Lock Level.

Success and Failure

When you attempt to pick a lock, one of the following happens:

Success
"The lock quickly yields to your skill." — The lock opens and you may gain skill if the lock is within your training range.

Failure
"You are unable to pick the lock." — The lock remains closed. There is a 25% chance your lockpick will break on each failed attempt. You'll hear a snap and see the message: "You broke the lockpick."

Cannot Pick
Some locks cannot be picked at all. A Lock Level of 0 means the lock is unpickable by design, and a Lock Level of -255 means it has been magically locked (via the Magic Lock spell). Both will display: "This lock cannot be picked by normal means."

Skeleton Keys

Skeleton Keys are special lockpicks that provide a skill bonus when picking locks. This bonus is subtracted from both the Lock Level and Max Lock Level of the target, effectively making the lock easier to pick. This means a skeleton key can let you open locks that would otherwise be beyond your ability.

A Master Skeleton Key bypasses the skill check entirely — any lock that is normally pickable will open automatically.

Note: Neither skeleton keys nor master skeleton keys can open magically locked or unpickable locks (Lock Level 0 or -255).

Treasure Map Chests

Treasure map chests follow the same lockpicking rules, with a few special considerations:

• You must defeat all guardians before you can attempt to pick the lock. If guardians remain, you will see: "You must destroy all the guardians before you can unlock the chest."

• On a failed pick attempt, there is a 25% chance that a random item inside the chest will be destroyed by a trap. You'll hear a hiss and receive the message: "The sound of gas escaping is heard from the chest."

This makes high-level treasure chests risky — repeated failures can eat into your loot before you ever open the lid.

Training Lockpicking

Skill Range	What To Do
0 – 75	Britain Library / Craft Training Books
75 – 120	Pick progressively harder locked chests

Training with Crafted Chests

The most efficient way to train Lockpicking from 75 onward is with tinker-crafted lockable chests. Have a tinker character (or a friend) craft wooden or metal chests — the lock difficulty scales directly with the tinker's Tinkering skill at the time of crafting.

Once crafted, you can pick it, relock it, and pick it again indefinitely. There's no need to craft a new chest each time, making this an extremely efficient training method. These chests are also sometimes sold by players.

To use a crafted chest for training, your Lockpicking must be at or above the chest's Required Skill value, and you'll continue to gain skill until you exceed the Max Lock Level. Work your way up through progressively harder chests to reach GM and beyond.

Tip: The tinkering check to make a chest lockable only requires 15.0 Tinkering to guarantee success — but the quality of the lock is what scales with skill. A tinker at 20 skill makes a very easy lock; a tinker at 120 makes an extremely hard one.

Crafted Chest Lock Difficulty Reference

The formulas used when a tinker crafts a lockable chest:

Base Level = (int)(Tinkering Skill × 0.8)
Required Skill = Base Level − 4
Lock Level = Base Level − 14   (set to −1 if result is 0)
Max Lock Level = Base Level + 35

Tinkering Skill	Lock Level	Required Skill	Max Lock Level	Suggested Lockpicking Range
0	-14	-4	35	0 – 35
10	-6	4	43	4 – 43
20	2	12	51	12 – 51
30	10	20	59	20 – 59
40	18	28	67	28 – 67
50	26	36	75	36 – 75
60	34	44	83	44 – 83
70	42	52	91	52 – 91
80	50	60	99	60 – 99
90	58	68	107	68 – 107
100	66	76	115	76 – 115
110	74	84	123	84 – 120
120	82	92	131	92 – 120

Note: On Banes World, the vanilla lock level caps of 95 have been removed, allowing locks to scale all the way up with GM+ tinkering. The "Suggested Lockpicking Range" column shows the effective training window — your skill must be at or above the Required Skill to attempt the lock, and you'll gain skill until you exceed the Max Lock Level (or hit the 120 skill cap).

Recommended Training Progression

A practical path to GM+ Lockpicking using crafted chests:

Your Lockpicking	Use Chest Made With Tinkering
0 – 75	Britain Library / Craft Training Books
75 – 83	100 Tinkering (Required: 76, Max: 115)
83 – 91	110 Tinkering (Required: 84, Max: 123)
91 – 120	120 Tinkering (Required: 92, Max: 131)

Tip: Stock up on lockpicks before training — at difficult locks, the 25% break chance on failures means you'll go through them quickly. A tinker can craft lockpicks cheaply, so make a few hundred before you start a training session.

Quick Reference

Lockpick Break Chance	25% on each failed attempt
Magic Locked	Cannot be picked by normal means
Skeleton Key	Reduces lock difficulty by its bonus value
Master Skeleton Key	Opens any pickable lock automatically
Treasure Chests	Must kill guardians first; failed picks can destroy loot
Tinkering Check	15.0 Tinkering guarantees making a chest lockable
Lock Level Caps	Removed on Banes World (vanilla caps were 95)