Skyrim is one of the most popular role-playing games of all time. The open-world RPG captivates players with its world, mechanics, and occasionally with its bugs – even today. One of the most well-known tactics to trick the game is accidentally found within it.
What trick is it? In the world of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, you can do almost anything. You can pick a fight with anyone and steal almost any item in the game. However, when it comes to theft, you have to be careful. If you get caught, you end up in jail.
To trick curious guards, you can use a pot, kettle, or bucket. If you place these on the heads of NPCs, they won’t see you pocketing items. This simple but effective trick wasn’t intentionally placed in the game. The developers didn’t know anything about it before the release of their role-playing game.
No one knew this was possible before release
What do the developers say about the bucket tactic? In the FRVR podcast, designer Bruce Nesmith, who worked on Skyrim, talked about the feature
. He revealed that such a thing was not tested beforehand. At about 1 hour and 4 minutes, Nesmith explains:
And by the way, it was an accident. No one had known about it. I don’t think we even tried to put a bucket on someone’s head, and as far as I know, that only came out after the game’s release.
Bruce Nesmith on the trick to steal without being noticed (via Spotify)
Due to the many systems that partially interconnect, it is quite difficult to test everything in a game like Skyrim before release. You never know what players will try and what interactions may arise that you might not have thought about beforehand.
What else has Bruce Nesmith done in his career? He worked as a designer on The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall in 1996. He was also involved in Oblivion as a quest designer. For Skyrim, he took on the role of lead designer. In 2021, he left Bethesda and has since been working as an author.
Skyrim is still extensively played by gamers, thanks to its large mod community, and aspects like the bucket trick certainly contribute to that. However, even though the trick is infamous, it didn’t make it into Starfield in its original form. But there is an alternative trick that will also help you achieve your goal: So yes – buckets turn you into master thieves in Starfield – but a bit differently than in Skyrim
