Oblivion Hardest Difficulty Strategy Guide
First and foremost, before you create your character you must put the difficulty bar all the way to the right. This bar should not be lowered at any point throughout the game, hence beating the game on hardest difficulty.
Important Skills – A list of the most needed skills while playing Oblivion on the hardest difficulty.
Illusion: Illusion is by far the most important skill in the game. Each spell has different qualities.
Calm: An enemy at the highest difficulty can kill you in a single hit, so block will only let you see one more hit before you are killed. If you are facing multiple enemies you might as well not even block. Calm is a spell that will force enemies to stop attacking you and just stand there. If you have access to the Arcane University you can create a ranged spell that will calm enemies in X amount of feet around you (you decide how far X is).
Command: When you cast a command spell the enemie that was hit by it will fight for you, sort of like a conjured creature.
Demorilize: Demorilize spells will make almost any enemy run from you. Very effective with multiple enemies, especially when your on the verge of death.
Frenzy: This spell will make enemies fight each other instead of you. Hey, why not? I need you guys dead, so I’ll have you kill each other. Only problem is that it doesn’t wotk on creatures.
Invisibility: Using Invisibility spells on your-self will make Oblivion on the hardest difficulty seem like child’s play. No one can see you and you can easily summon allies to fight and your enemies won’t even know what hit them.
Silence: Casting Silence at an opponent will not allow them to use magic for a certain period of time, depending on the power of the spell. Perfect for use against spell casters
Paralyze: Paralyze is costly, but effective. It temporarily freezes an opponent, allowing you to get a few more spells or hits in. Be aware though, some enemies are immune.
Night-Eye: Allowing you to see in the dark, Night-Eye is mostly effective in dungeons. Good for spotting chests that may contain good loot. Also, it is essential for spotting enemies in the dark.
Alchemy: Now, you may think “wow mixing ingredients, that’s pointless”. No. Alchemy will probably be your lifeline while playing on hardest difficulty. Why? Well, if you need gold you can buy ingredients, make potions, then sell the potions back for a profit depending on your skill. Level 50 and higher will make you a good amount.
Conjuration: Conjuration will allow you to summon a creature to aid you…Essential for playing on the hardest difficulty.
Summon: If you could fight 1on 1 or 2 on 1 if it meant fighting to stay alive, which would you choose? Summoned creatures do not attack you, and are good training dummies.
Mysticism: Mysticism is important for one reason, Detect life. Knowing where the enemy is before it attacks you, or before you attack it.
Blade: The skill of Blade is not effective at all during the hardest difficulty. But, it is advised you keep a shortsword equipped at all times, just incase. Hey it can’t hurt right?
Speed: If you’re in a tight jam it’s important to get out of harms way to cast spells, conjure creatures, or restore your health with a good restoration spell.
Character Creation and Tutorial – If you are planning to be a warrior or a barbarian type character you might as well lie down in front of your enemy and give up, because you will not stand a chance. Mage is pretty much the only way to go. The best race to choose in the beginning is Breton, because you have higher magicka and a 50% resistance to it. Accept your character and listen to the Dark Elf then speak to the emperor. Follow him and his guards until the first assassins attack. Immediately loot Captain Renaults body and take the steel shortsword and the torch, leave her katana behind because it has no value and weighs 18 pounds. As soon as the guards and emperor leave go up the stairs and jump on the ledge in the middle of them, then jump to the ledge to the left. Two rats will come out, fire flares at them until they die. Jump down and take only one rat meat from either rat, do not pick up any more rat meats throughout the tutorial (they weigh you down). When going through the tutorial keep the shortsword equipped in case a rat gets to close, and keep your torch out and lit. Also, it is pretty wise not to wear any armor during the tutorial because it will diminish your spell power. Now, go through the tutorial until you reach the part where there is a zombie, kill the zombie and take the mort flesh from its body. Kill the rats next to the zombie even if they don’t attack you, it will raise your destruction. Continue through the tutorial until you have to sneak up on the Goblin, sneak attack with your shortsword. After you hit the goblin immediately back up and use flares, if the goblin gets a two good hits on you your as good as done. Take the ingredients, the poison, and the Mortal and Prestal. Create a “Restore Fatigue” potion, this will get your Alchemy skill up to 10, allowing you to create a stronger “Damage Health” potion. Continue until you reach the final cave. Lure each goblin out one by one. Once they are taken care of sneak around behind the Goblin Skirmisher. Before you hit her poison your sword with the “Poison of Sickness”. Sneak attack her then immediately back away. You should only need about two or three flares to finish her off. Do not let her shock spells hit you, avoid them by keeping a dirt pillar in between you and her and pop out with flares. Loot her body and the chest next to her and the chest behind her cauldron. Go meet the emperor and choose your birthsign. Go with either the Mage or Atronach. Atronach is the best route o go because there is an absorb spell bonus with the birthsign, as well as many enchantments that can restore your magicka, so don’t worry about not being able to regenerate magicka. Follow the Emperor until he gets killed. Buarus will now ask you your class. Create one and choose Magic as specialization, then choose strength and endurance as your attributes (Strength and Endurance will help bring the Bretons Heath and Carrying limit up to about an Imperials level. Also, since you are mage your intelligence will increase quickly). Next, choose all seven of the Magical Skills, Destruction, Conjuration etc. After you name your class continue out of the sewers to Imperial City Isle.
What to do First – Sell your loot and go see Jaufree. Loot his chest when he says you can take anything from it. Go to Chorrol and sell that stuff, then join the Fighters and Mages Guilds. Loot everything in each guild hall, clothes, weapons, cloth, books and apparatuses. Before you sell ingredients make them into potions then sell them. Do this in each fighters and Mages guild in each city. I would set a goal for each city your in. For me the goal was level once in each city, by simply casting detect life and summon skeleton spells everywhere I went. Be sure to level each skill evenly, Illusion, Alteration etc. Also, there are easy quests that don’t involve combat, do them. Like in Chorrol there is a quest were you must investigate for the Countess, or in Cheydinhal wear you must find evidence on Ulrich Lenand. When you are completed you should be around level 10 – 11 and have about 20,000 gold. Next, go get ingredients from farms or buy it from stores and create potions and sell them back until your Alchemy skill is 75 (I went to 100). When you are done with that you will have around 40,000 gold and all your magic skills should be at least 50 (cast spells that cost very low magicka constantly).
