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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

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

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

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

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

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.