How To Level Your Thief Skills Fast In The Elder Scrolls Online

Follow this method to level your thief skills fast in The Elder Scrolls Online.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article outlining five essential tips to follow to become the best thief ever in The Elder Scrolls Online (in case you missed the post you can read it here). To summarize, aspiring ESO thieves need to:

1. Advance their Legerdemain Skill line,
2. Be aware of outstanding bounties,
3. Know their escape routes,
4. Sell or launder stolen goods with caution,
5. Concentrate thieving efforts in the capital cities where the action is.

But what if you simply want to level your thief skills as fast as possible? Is there a way to gain crazy amounts of Legerdemain quickly without a lot of fuss?

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Level Your Thief Skills Fast

There is a way to level your thief skills fast in The Elder Scrolls Online, but I should caution that the play style isn’t for everyone. This leveling “trick” is basically a method to grind Legerdemain, and with grinding comes repetition and weariness. Still, if you want to level Legerdemain to 20 as fast as possible, this is the way:

1. Find Yourself Some Goats Yes, I’m being completely serious. You can level your thief skills fast, but you’re going to need some livestock. Most regions in the game have farmsteads or plantations with goats, etc. The trick is to find a location with lots of goats — the more the better. Veteran level players can find a great little farm right outside Craglorn’s Dragonstar Wayshrine for example.

2. Kill The Goats Players could always kill goats in The Elder Scrolls Online, but with the release of the Justice System, slaughtering goats is now a crime. This is actually great news if you want to level your thief skills fast.

3. Harvest The Goats Once you clandestinely kill the goats, you can harvest their bodies for Game, Guts, and Hide. Like any crime, just be careful not to be caught in the act! If an NPC witnesses your poaching efforts, you’ll rack up a bounty, so be sure to go into stealth mode.

4. Rinse And Repeat Because killing goats in now a crime, each item (Game, Guts, Hide) is considered “stolen,” and stolen items can be sold or laundered to a fence for valuable Legerdemain experience. Each slaughtered goat usually gives up a generous 3-4 items, and you can level your thief skill fast by simply killing an entire herd, looting their bodies, and waiting for the goats to respawn. In a relatively short period of time, you can fill your bag space with stolen goods at a much faster pace than skulking around town looting barrels and picking pockets.

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5. Added Bonus Not only can you level your thief skills fast, but you can profit monetarily from this grind as well. At the time of writing, the average Guild Store price for Game is 39 gold and Guts is 8 gold — it may not sound like a lot, but when sold in stacks you can make some decent money while leveling. And this doesn’t even include the Hide you can sell or refine at Crafting Stations. Level your thief skills fast AND make money? Sounds like a win-win to me.

Final Thoughts

Do you have any tricks to level your thief skills fast in The Elder Scrolls Online? If so, please share your thoughts and experience in the Speak Your Mind section below. Until next time fellow travelers!