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Lockpicking

Lockpicking opens locked doors, boxes and treasure chests without a key. On UO Sagas it is a core treasure-hunting skill: dungeon chests and treasure map chests are locked behind a pin-picking mini-game, and the best loot sits behind the hardest locks. Lockpicking trains to 120 via Skill Scrolls — and level 6 dungeon chests require all 120 points.

Lockpicks ↑ top

You need lockpicks to use the skill. They are sold by NPCs and crafted by tinkers (25 ingots). Crafting them from colored ingots makes them genuinely better:

Metal Skill bonus Uses
Iron +0 50
Shadow Iron +5 75
Copper +10 100
Bronze +15 125
Verite +20 150
Valorite +25 175

Exceptional quality adds +25 uses. The skill bonus applies to your effective Lockpicking on every pick attempt — valorite picks let a 95-skill picker work 120-level locks. Each pick attempt (success or fail) consumes one use.

Simple locks ↑ top

Doors and ordinary locked containers use a single skill check: target the lock, wait a moment, and it either yields or it doesn't. Magically locked doors and locks above your skill cannot be picked.

The chest mini-game ↑ top

Dungeon chests, treasure map chests and paragon chests open through a lockpicking window: the lock has 2–5 pins that must each be picked in the right order.

  • Each pin attempt is a skill check (the window shows your exact success chance with the currently selected lockpicks) and costs one lockpick use.
  • Set a pin out of order and all pins reset — part of the game is discovering the combination.
  • Failing a pin attempt has a 10% chance to set off the chest's trap (which also re-arms and reveals you).
  • If you are working hidden, a failed attempt can also make you slip and reveal yourself (10% base chance) — Luck reduces that risk linearly, down to zero at the Luck cap of 100.
  • While you are picking a chest, it is reserved for you: other players cannot butt in for 90 seconds after your last attempt.
  • Once the last pin is set the chest opens — and arms a final trap. Have a defuse kit ready: see Remove Trap.

Full chest-by-chest requirements, traps and loot rules are in Dungeon Chests and Treasure Maps.

See it in action ↑ top

The mini-game is easier to understand watching it than reading about it — pins being set, the order resetting, and the trap at the end:

Training 0 → 120 ↑ top

Train on the chest ladder — each chest level gains until its 100% point:

  1. 0–40: buy points from a thief trainer, then pick level 1 (iron) dungeon chests in the newbie dungeon or shallow dungeon areas.
  2. 40–100: move up the chest levels (shadow 40+, copper 60+, bronze 80+) as your skill allows. Treasure map chests follow the same ladder.
  3. 100–120: verite (100+) and valorite (120) chests in deep dungeon areas. Colored lockpicks let you start a chest tier early — but attempts only gain skill while the chest is still challenging for you.

See Skills Overview for gain modifiers.