How to close an Oblivion Gate in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered

Wondering how to close an Oblivion Gate in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered? The fourth Elder Scrolls adventure gets its name from the many gates to the Planes of Oblivion that pop up across Cyrodiil throughout your adventure. These portals take your character on a trip to a terrible realm filled with fire and all manner of hellish beasts, and as you progress through the main quest, more and more random gates emerge throughout the landscape.

You can remove all Oblivion Gates by completing the game's main quest, but that obviously takes a long while. In the meantime, there are a few general guidelines you can follow to quickly shut down gates, and these tips work for both the original Oblivion and Oblivion Remastered! In this guide, we'll explain how to close Oblivion Gates and explain which ones are actually mandatory to beat the game.

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How to close an Oblivion Gate

In order to close an Oblivion Gate, you need to enter it and obtain the Sigil Stone, the orb-like artifact that powers the gate. Obtaining a stone gives you one Fame point, and you can also use them to enchant any unenchanted non-quest item in your inventory.

The layout of the terrain behind each Oblivion Gate is randomly generated, making an exact walkthrough impossible. Nevertheless, there are a few guidelines you can follow to clear a gate as quickly as possible:

• After entering an Oblivion Gate, always move upwards towards the Sigillum Sanguis. The Sigillum Sanguis is the uppermost room of the main tower that exists within each gate. Even if you find yourself temporarily lost, keep taking ramps and upper pathways towards the largest tower you can see. You'll usually pass through one to three hallways before making it to the top.
• Fire and Shock Daedra enemies abound. If you have resistances to Fire and Shock damage, including potions, spells, or enchanted items, use them. Fireballs will go zig-zagging your way within the towers as you climb to the Sigillum Sanguis, and if you want to deliver a nasty attack to any enemies in your way, try using Frost damage. Alchemy, Sneak, and Illusion are all excellent skills to proritise for a successful tower speedrun.
• If you get chased or overwhelmed by foes, ignore them and grab the Sigil Stone as quickly as possible. As soon as you pick up the stone, the gate will speedily shut down and you'll be sent back to whatever spot in Cyrodiil you were meandering around before entering the gate.
• Invisibility and Chameleon are your friends. If you have these spells from the Illusion school, you can efficiently sneak past all enemies in a gate without them noticing you. A common strategy in the original Oblivion game to speedrun gates was to combine enchantments until you obtained 100% Chameleon, letting you be completely unseen. This still works in the remake.
• Alchemy-orientated characters may want to kill Daedra and loot ingredients within a gate. While deliberately exploring each gate and killing enemies may become tedious after the fifth time, it's worth slowing down if one of your major skills is Alchemy. Ingredients that can only be looted in the Planes of Oblivion include Bloodgrass, Clannfear Claws, Daedra Heart, Daedra Silk, Daedra Venin, Daedroth Teeth, Fire Salts, Frost Salts, Harrada, Scamp Skin, Spiddal Stick, and Void Salts.

Mandatory Oblivion Gates

It's worth noting that the vast majority of gates you encounter in Oblivion are of the random variety. In fact, only three Oblivion Gates are mandatory to complete the game's main quest. The rest are all optional, and there is no penalty to not completing them. The three mandatory gates are as follows:

Kvatch Gate: This gate appears outside of Kvatch as soon as your character finishes the tutorial and leaves the sewers.

Bruma Gate: This gate appears east of Bruma after starting the main quest Bruma Gate.

Bruma Great Gate: This gate opens southeast of Bruma, upon starting the main quest Defense of Bruma.

Using console commands to close an Oblivion Gate

The PC version of Oblivion has a console input interface that lets you enter commands to alter gameplay. If you're tired of faffing around with gates, or find yourself stuck in one that you just can't be bothered to complete, press the tilde (~) key to open up the console and type in one of the the following commands:

This command closes a specific gate that you've clicked on. It's best to activate this command while in Cyrodiil and not in the gate itself; doing so while within the gate will force you to leave via obtaining the Sigil Stone or typing in the command below.

This command closes the gate you've entered through, and returns you to Cyrodiil.

Closing an Oblivion Gate with a console command does not give you a Sigil Stone or any of the other rewards you'd acquire by completing a gate normally.

That's a wrap on our deep dive on how to close Oblivion Gates in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered - may these hellish portals plague you a little less on your quest! For more intel on Oblivion, check out our guides on the best birthsign, the best race and the best pre-determined classes in Oblivion. May your trek across the expansive, remastered world of Cyrodiil be fruitful!