Oblivion Remastered: How to increase attributes and skills
How to train skills, level up your character, and increase attributes in Oblivion
Want to increase your stats in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered? In Oblivion, character stats include attributes, major skills, and minor skills. As you improve your skills, you will gain the character experience needed to reach a new main level. Whenever that happens, you can increase your attributes by allocating virtue points.
If that sounds a bit vague, here's a detailed guide on how to increase attributes and skills in Oblivion, complete with a full list of all skills available in the game.
How to increase attributes in Oblivion
To increase your attributes, AKA your main stats, you must level up your character. The first page in the 'character' menu will show your current character level. Look at the 'attributes' page to see your current attribute level (such as 'Strength 40' or 'Willpower 62'), and the 'skills' page to see your abilities and their current levels (light armor, marksman, sneak, etc.). At the bottom of the page, you'll find your character's main level and leveling progress - the fuller the experience bar, the closer you are to reaching the next level.
Gaining character experience is straightforward, as it's tied to your skill progression: level up your major and minor skills, and you will also gain a bit of character experience. After leveling a total of 10 skills, your character reaches the next level. For example, once you've leveled 'Marksman' x3, 'Alteration' x1, and 'Acrobatics' x6, your character may go from level 3 to 4.
Beware that you must sleep to complete a character's level-up progress. Once you've gained enough experience to reach a new level, a glowing arrow sign will appear in the top right of your screen. Find any bed and sleep for at least one hour to level up.
Every time you level up, you get to divide 12 Virtue points between your attributes. Every +1 attribute upgrade costs one Virtue point, except 'luck', which requires 4 Virtue points per upgrade. You can boost every attribute up to a maximum of +5, but only improve three different attributes per level. For example, you can pick Willpower +4, Speed +3, and Agility +5, or perhaps Luck +1, Willpower +4, and Endurance +4.
Besides leveling up, there are very few ways to gain attribute bonuses, but you can become a vampire for more strength, speed, and willpower. You can also complete the final Daedric Quest and use the Oghma Infinium to boost two Attributes of your choice permanently.
How to increase skills in Oblivion
In Oblivion Remastered, you will automatically level your skills as you use them. Keep in mind that the major skills you've chosen while selecting your race and class level up faster than your minor skills, but both will contribute to your character's main level.
The following table shows an overview of all skills in Oblivion and how to level them.
| Skill | How to increase |
|---|---|
| Blade | Hit opponents with daggers, shortswords, longswords, or claymores. |
| Blunt | Hit opponents with war axes, maces, battleaxes, or warhammers. |
| Hand-to-hand | Hit opponents with your bare fists. |
| Block | Block your opponents' attacks. |
| Armorer | Repair your weapons and gear using repair hammers. |
| Heavy armor | Get hit while wearing heavy armor gear. |
| Athletics | Run, swim, or sprint great distances. |
| Destruction | Cast destruction spells on a valid target. |
| Restoration | Cast restoration spells on a valid target. |
| Conjuration | Cast conjuration spells on a valid target. |
| Illusion | Cast illusion spells on a valid target. |
| Alteration | Cast alteration spells on a valid target. |
| Mysticism | Cast mysticism spells on a valid target. |
| Alchemy | Eat ingredients or create potions and poisons. |
| Marksman | Hit your opponents with arrows. |
| Sneak | Move around undetected or successfully pick pockets. |
| Light armor | Get hit while wearing light armor gear. |
| Acrobatics | Jump or take damage from falling. |
| Security | Set tumblers while lockpicking. This means pushing the cylinders upward, not necessarily opening the lock. |
| Mercantile | Gain gold by selling items. |
| Speechcraft | Increase or decrease someone's disposition through persuasion. |
When leveling spells, keep in mind that you'll need a target, and casting them randomly may not boost your skills. Shooting fireballs into the air won't boost your destruction magic, for example.
Other ways to level your skills in Oblivion
Using skills isn't the only way to level them up in Oblivion Remastered. You can also read skill books or train skills by paying a Trainer.
There are over 100 skill books in Oblivion, and each of them can increase one particular skill by one level (with excess experience transferring into the next level). Unfortunately, they're difficult to find, especially since there are far more ordinary books that don't increase skills and you can't tell the difference from the outside. If you're lucky enough to find a skill book, you can only use it once - reading this book again (even if it's another copy) won't grant you a second skill upgrade.
Skill Trainers are NPCs who are deemed experts in their field. You will find them all across Cyrodiil, but especially in the Imperial City, Guild Halls, and Chapels. To find out if an NPC is a Trainer, you must open dialogue and look for the 'train' button in the lower left. Training a skill costs gold and, like skill books, will increase that skill by one level. You can use a Trainer up to five times per level, but beware that the Trainer must be skilled enough to match your current skill level. If you're an expert in mysticism, for example, a basic mysticism Trainer won't be able to improve your skills.
- Basic Trainers can advance your skills to level 40.
- Advanced Trainers can advance your skills to level 70.
- Master Trainers can advance your skills above level 70.
Of course, you can also use potions and spells to boost your skills, but this is always temporary and won't contribute to your character's main leveling progression.
And that's how to increase your attributes and skills in Oblivion Remastered. We also have a guide that compares the remaster's new leveling system and the original game, if you're an old Oblivion player from 2006 who's intrigued by all the changes. For more on evolving your character, see our guides on by crafting custom spells and using your improved soul-binding abilities to recharge your weapons!