Legerdemain is a skill line you can unlock in ESO that has some handy passives, especially if you like sneaking around and stealing things. 

It’s an easy one to unlock and you may have already unlocked it without noticing. You will find the Legerdemain skill line in the world category. And if it’s not there, then all you need to do is pick a lock or pickpocket someone and it should pop up. 

About Leveling Legerdemain

Now, leveling this skill line isn’t difficult. It’s just not the quickest to do. However, there are a few different things you can do to level the skill line. 

Lockpicking

The first is lockpicking. 

Whether this be chests, houses, lockboxes, all of these contribute. And the higher the difficulty of the lock, the more points you get. Chests that are out and about in the world will cause no problem when lock picking.

However, when you start breaking into houses and stealing from lockboxes, you might start to build up a bounty and get into trouble with the guards. 

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Pickpocketing

The next is pickpocketing.

All you need to do is crouch behind an NPC and press ‘E’ to pickpocket. This is relatively easy to do and the harder the target, the more points you get.

However, if you get caught just like with breaking into houses, you will start to build up a bounty and have trouble with the guards. 

Stealing & The Fence

The final way to level is by stealing items to be sold or laundered at the fence.  

You cannot use this item or sell it to a merchant. You must take this item to a fence to either sell if you don’t want it, or launder if you want to keep it. 

Each item sold or laundered will get you one point per item. You are limited to how much you can sell and launder each day, which is what makes this skill line a slower one to level. 

However, if you put some skill points into the trafficker passive, it will increase the number of fence interactions you can have per day. 

Daily Legedermain Routine

I level the Legerdemain as part of my login routine on each character. I’ll go to the docs in Daggerfall in Glenumbra and loot both of these ships.

If you loot both ships, you’ll get more than enough item to sell on launder. The fence is really close by as well, which is why I like leveling here. You also won’t have to deal with guards, which is why I prefer doing this to breaking into people’s houses.   

Bounties 

The Fence is also where you can go to pay off any bounties you may have. 

Bounties are acquired by committing a crime and are measured in ESO Gold. The size of your bounty depends on the severity of the crime. 

Once you acquire a bounty, the infamy meter will appear in the bottom right corner and whenever you pass a guard, they will approach you to try and get you to pay your bounty. 

If you agree to pay the bounty, then all stolen items will also be removed from your inventory. If you don’t agree to pay the bounty, then the guards will try and kill you as you run away and the sword on the infamy meter will turn red. 

Once it is no longer red, the guards will not attempt to kill you anymore. You can also just wait for the bounty to go away. It slowly goes down over time and is represented by the white bar on the infamy meter. 

Edicts are another way to clear a bounty. You acquire them from certain quests and from daily login rewards. You don’t come across them too often unless you do daily thieves’ guild quests. So, I usually save them for when I’ve accidentally built up a huge bounty that I don’t want to wait to clear. 

Thieves Guild

Speaking of Thieves Guild, it is a good thing to pair Legerdemain with as you can put points into skills like haggling to get more money for items sold at the fence as well as a bunch of other passive skills that are handy for when getting into trouble with guards.

That’s basically all there is to the Legerdemain skill line. You can now go forth and commit all the crimes. Just don’t get caught because I can’t bail you out.