The Thieves Guild is one of the major factions you can join in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion — and it’s one of the most lucrative. Like everything in Oblivion, you can technically start it right away with very little experience, and if you’re looking to boost your stealth and stealing techniques, this is the best storyline to start early in the game. It’s also a good place to start if you want lots of cold, hard cash because the Thieves Guild unlocks extremely lucrative methods for earning money.
There are three ways to discover (and join) the Thieves Guild, and all those methods are identical to the original version of the game. The Remastered version of Oblivion keeps all the content intact and untouched, so if you’ve played the original game on old hardware, the quest path is exactly the same here. For newcomers and anyone else that never touched the original game, we’ll explain how to join the Thieves Guild in the full guide below.
How To Join the Thieves Guild
There are three methods for discovering the Thieves Guild.
- Wanted Posters: In the Imperial City, look for wanted posters of a masked man. Reading a poster will add “Gray Fox” to your list of conversation subjects. Talk to the homeless in the Waterfront District of the city to discover the meeting place.
- Bounty: Increase your bounty by being caught performing crimes. If you’re sent to prison, shortly after leaving you’ll be confronted by a Thieves Guild recruiter.
- City-Swimmer: Talk to an Argonian named City-Swimmer in Bravil. Ask about the “Thieves Guild” when it appears in the conversation options — select “The Gray Fox” after that to learn the meeting place.
All three methods lead to the same location. Hearing “The Gray Fox” as a conversation topic from City-Swimmer or reading a bounty poster is enough.
- The Thieves Guild Meeting: No matter what method you choose, you’ll be sent to the Waterfront District for a secret meeting.
- The meeting takes place as 12 Midnight in the Waterfront District of the Imperial City. You’ll find the Thieves Guild at the Garden of Dareloth behind Methredhel’s House in the area.
You only need to know the subject “The Gray Fox” (through conversation or seeing the poster) to make the meeting spawn and join the Thieves Guild. Talk to the Thieves Guild at the secret meeting and you’ll be able to join — you’ll learn stealth tactics and lockpicking at the guild, as well as be sent on random missions to steal valuables.
To progress the story of the Thieves Guild, you’ll need to steal increasingly valuable items and fence them. The more gold you’ve earned for the guild, the more quests will unlock on the main Thieves Guild story path.
