Oblivion:Glitches/Tech

Oblivion has a massive amount of glitches and tech that have been discovered over the years, but this information has never been thoroughly cataloged in one place. The goal of this page is to compile technical and historical info for every glitch no matter how insignificant or obsolete it is.

This process involves documenting glitches that are common knowledge, finding old videos/info about long-forgotten glitches, and discovering new glitches.

Glitch Hunting

Full Article: Glitch Hunting

We have an ongoing project to discover new glitches through community collaboration. Theorized glitches and potential leads for solving how to perform those glitches are detailed in the full article. This project additionally explores the full potential of glitches that have already been discovered through proposed experiments to try out.

Glitches

Glitches fall under several different categories:

• Duplication: Glitches that result in items being duplicated.
• Door Warping: Glitches that occur when the player interrupts the process of going through a door, allowing them to input additional actions before finishing going through the door.
• Global Flag: Glitches that cause an effect that is universal across all save files while only having to activate it on one file.
• Clipping: Glitches that result in the player moving out of bounds or moving through walls/obstacles.
• Hardware: Glitches that are specific to the hardware of a specific console/operating system.
• Horse Behavior: Glitches related to how horses work.
• Oblivion Gate: Glitches related to Oblivion Gate mechanics.
• Player Stats: Glitches that allow the player to manipulate their level, skills, attributes, etc. This is different from glitches that speed up the manual farming of skills.
• Graphical: Visual glitches.
• Menu Float: Glitches that are built off of the Menu Float glitch.
• Misc.: Glitches that fall under no clear category. This will be used less frequently as we organize the glitches further.

Glitch	Category	Description
Arrow Duping	Duplication	Items are duplicated by manipulating a stack of arrows.
Scroll Duping	Duplication	Items are duplicated by manipulating a stack of scrolls.
Pickpocket Duping	Duplication	Zero-weight items are duped by attempting to reverse-pickpocket weighted items onto an NPC.
Skull of Corruption Duping	Duplication	Items are duplicated by killing a clone of an NPC using the Skull of Corruption.
Negative Inventory Duping	Duplication	NPCs that are programmed to have a negative amount of an item by mistake will generate that item infinitely when pickpocketed.
Stolen Arrow Duping	Duplication	A stack of stolen arrows can be duped infinitely by equipping/unequipping it.
Load Warping	Door Warping	A different save file is loaded as you go through a door, placing that character on the other side of the door instead of the original one.
Saddling	Door Warping	A different save file of a character sitting down is loaded as you go through a door, placing that character on the other side of the door at the coordinates of the location it was sitting at.
Ragdoll Warping	Door Warping	A different save file that is ragdolled is loaded as you go through a door, placing that character on the other side of the door and then immediately moving the player towards the ragdolled coordinates.
Nude Warping	Door Warping	An outdoor save file is loaded as you go through a door into a new interior area, making all NPCs in the loaded room have all of their items unequipped in their inventory.
Time Warping	Door Warping	A fast travel is executed as you go through a door, advancing time by the calculated fast travel time while still placing the player on the other side of the door.
Perma Key	Global Flag	Another save file is loaded before closing the popup confirming a door was opened using a key, resulting in all players on all save files being able to open key doors without needing the key.
Perma Un-Key	Global Flag	Another save file is loaded before closing the popup confirming a container was opened using a key, resulting in all players on all save files being unable to open any locked containers even if they have the key.
Orc Drain Attribute Glitch	Global Flag	Starting on an Orc save file and then loading a save file of a diseased player results in that player having access to the Drain Attribute effect for spellmaking/enchanting.
Save Clipping	Clipping	Loading a save file of a character that was running forward results in clipping through the wall.
Void Warping	Clipping	Hitting an invisible plane while falling out of bounds results in the player being teleported back in bounds.
TCL Glitch	Clipping	Fainting a horse while trying to mount it results in the player being able to clip through all world objects as if the TCL console command is active.
Matumbro Clipping	Clipping	Reloading a save file again after a save clip has failed results in the player loading in out of bounds.
PonderItem	Misc.	Delphine Jend has a mysterious glitched item in her inventory.
Floating Paint Brush	Misc.	Paint brushes float when dropped and can be used as platforms.
Crack Horse	Horse Behavior	A horse that is hit with a Wayshrine buff will always be granted a speed boost regardless of the intended effect. Horses buffed with speed moved extremely fast.
Class Reset	Player Stats	By load warping past the sewer exit/Baurus during the tutorial, the player can change their class/birthsign/race/gender later, resulting in all skill scaling up based on character level.
Water Levitation	Misc.	Exiting water while jumping can cause the player to be stuck in a falling animation while gliding around on land.
Shrine Interruption	Misc.	Some Daedric Shrines can be interrupted between making an offering and starting the first cutscene, allowing the player to fast travel away, drop the offered items without losing them, and more.
Boost Jump	Misc.	The player can jump significantly higher than intended when jumping off certain surfaces at high speeds.
QSQL De-Aggro	Misc.	Quicksaving/quickloading outside of a dungeon has a chance to despawn enemies in the dungeon, allowing you to fast travel away without fighting first.
Yield Glitch	Misc.	By yielding to a guard and then exiting the room (or fast traveling instantly) before they talk to you, you can eliminate guard aggro without going to jail or paying the fine despite still having a bounty.
Perma Enchanting	Player Stats	By unequipping an enchanted item via a scripted event or by duping a copy of the equipped item, the player can keep the enchantment of the item while no longer wearing it.
Potion Stacking	Misc.	You can drink more than the intended amount of potions by making potions with specific effects, and by drinking potions in a specific order from the hotkey and inventory screen.
Infinite Level-Up Glitch	Player Stats	You can force any character to level up by loading a save file while sleeping on another save file that is about to level up.
Perma Arena Gate Lowering Glitch	Misc.	You can keep the Arena gate lowered between fights via a very specific set of actions.
Paint Brush Jar Physics	Misc.	Paint Brush Jars have no physics limiting their rotation, allowing for infinitely tilting jars.
Ayleid Crown of Lindai Glitch	Misc.	The broken Ayleid Crown of Lindai can be infinitely repaired.
Phantom Quest Items	Misc.	In situations where your inventory is removed via a script, such as going to jail, hotkeyed quest items can still be used.
Perma Bound Items	Misc.	Bound items can be unequipped and dropped, making them permanent items that can be used after the conjuration effect wears off.
Skill Underflowing	Player Stats	Skills can be reduced to a negative value using the Class Reset Glitch, allowing for underflowing those skills to the maximum value of 255.
Corrupted Nirnroot	Misc.	Nirnroot duped with the Skull of Corruption has a different item ID than "organic" Nirnroot, allowing both to be used as separate ingredients in alchemy.
Audio Source Glitch	Hardware	On some PCs running Windows, you can skip/shorten most dialog and cutscenes by disabling the audio source the game is outputting to.
Final Cutscene Skip	Hardware	Depending on your operating system/hardware, you can skip the final cutscene after finishing the Main Quest by pressing Alt + Tab.
Natural Clipping	Clipping	Any situation where a wall can be clipped through because the game developers forgot to put an actual collision surface. This page contains a list of all known locations.
Recursive Shadowmere Potions	Horse Behavior	Shadowmere can be knocked unconscious and given potions, which she will drink under certain circumstances. This can be manipulated to make Shadowmere recursively drink an entire stack of potions.
Bleeding Silver Pitcher	Misc.	A specific version of the Silver Pitcher bleeds when attacked with any weapon except for fists and bows.
Early Arcane University Access	Misc.	Finishing the Main Quest will inexplicably unlock the Praxographical Center, Mystic Archives, and Chironasium at the Arcane University even if you are not in the Mages Guild.
Cutscene Overlapping	Misc.	By load warping between certain cutscenes, you can regain the ability to control the character during them.
Punch Clipping	Clipping	The momentum of a charged attack is used to execute a Save Clip.
Dodge Clipping	Clipping	The momentum of an Acrobatics dodge is used to execute a wall clip.
Easy Pickpocketing	Misc.	An NPC can be pickpocketing successfully every time by paralyzing them just before attempting to pickpocket. Alternatively, essential NPCs can be knocked unconscious and pickpocketed upon waking up for the same effect.
Gate Decoupling	Oblivion Gate	An Oblivion Realm is disconnected from its original Oblivion Gate.
Gate Relinking	Oblivion Gate	A decoupled Oblivion Realm is relinked to a new gate.
Malkoviching	Oblivion Gate	A decoupled Oblivion Realm is closed via the Sigil Stone, resulting in the player being teleported to the center of the overworld map.
Instant Gate Closing	Oblivion Gate	Load warping into an already closed Sigil Room results in the current Oblivion Realm closing.
Item Launching	Misc.	Items can be dropped below the player in a small space, forcing the objects to shoot out and boost the player a large distance.
Animation Cancelling	Misc.	Holding block with certain weapons while casting/attacking will cancel the end of the animation, allowing the action to be performed faster than normal.
Camera Behind Face	Graphical	Zooming into first person while getting out of a chair makes the camera be inside the player's head, allowing you to see the inside of your face.
Popup Overlapping	Misc.	By opening the pause menu while a popup is open, you can go into the various options menus and select their yes/no options, resulting in that choice being applied to the original popup as well.
Early Dialog	Misc.	During the zoom in animation on an NPC, you can use the arrows and enter to select/advance dialog options, including exiting dialog or entering the Speechcraft minigame. If skipped fast enough, the zoom out animation is skipped entirely.
Schrödinger's Ogre	Misc.	Using Wabbajack on your horse to turn it into an Ogre and then going through a door right as it is transforming back can cause the Ogre to remain along with the original horse. Killing the Ogre teleports the horse to its coordinates.
Paradise Seizure Screen	Graphical	Saddling into Paradise and then loading the resulting Autosave file causes a seizure-inducing graphical effect.
Wait Timer Clicking	Misc.	Clicking on the slider while the Wait Timer is counting down allows you to move the timer position and value. This appears to have no effect on the wait timer's functionality, as the timer moves back to the correct position each time it updates.
Stack Refresh	Duplication	Hotkeying a stack of multiple copies of an item and then unequipping the weapon/armor that is damaged/out of charge will merge it back into the main stack, resulting in it being restored to match the other items in the stack.
Stolen Flag	Misc.	An item that is not stolen can be made to have the stolen flag by manipulating a stolen container in a specific way.
Menu Float	Menu Float	Fast traveling and hitting a function key to bring up another menu just before the loading screen makes that menu float above the gameplay.
Player Superposition	Menu Float/Door Warping	Activating a sigil stone in a floated inventory screen results in the first and third person character getting desynced, effectively allowing the player to be in two places at once.
Chair Clipping	Menu Float/Clipping	Using Player Superposition with a moving third-person camera and then sitting the first-person body in a chair results in the player avoiding all collision and moving in a constant direction until the glitch is deactivated.
Negative Stats	Player Stats	Fortifying a stat and draining it at the same time with spells will result in the stat being negative if the fortify effect wears off before the drain effect.
Infinite Sigil Stone Fame	Oblivion Gate	A glitched sigil room can be accessed that allows the player to repeatedly grab the stone without exiting the room, rewarding infinite Fame.
Infinite Gate Closing	Oblivion Gate	An Oblivion Gate that has already been closed can be repeatedly Load Warped back into to close it infinite times.
Jailtime Followers	Misc.	By casting a Command Humanoid/Creature spell on an NPC and then going to jail or paying a fine, that NPC will appear outside the prison when you are released.
Horse Mode	Horse Behavior	Strange behavior by stemming from both riding a horse and not sitting on it.
Menu Float Dupe	Duplication	A subglitch of the Menu Float glitch. Items are duplicated by manipulating the inventory and a container simultaneously.
Self-Resurrection	Misc.	Casting the Staff of Worms on an NPC with 100% Spell Reflection and then dying before the projectile hits them will cause the player to reanimate (and soft-lock) themselves.
Main Menu Escaping	Misc.	Starting a new game from the main menu and then immediately cancelling it by selecting Options/Credits has several strange effects.