Oblivion:Skill Underflowing
Category: Player Stats
Also Known As: Underflowing
| v1.0 | v1.1.511 | v1.20214 | v1.2.0416 |
|---|---|---|---|
| ? | ? | ? | ✔ |
Required DLC Images will go here.
| Found By: | MeemawHustlin |
|---|---|
| Date Found: | 9/23/2021 |
| Archaeologist: | N/A |
| Date Recovered: | N/A |
| Original Source: | Link |
Skill Underflowing is a glitch that allows the player to reduce a skill's base value below zero, resulting in the integer value underflowing back to the maximum integer value of 255.
Instructions
There are two currently known ways to underflow skills, either by using the Class Reset glitch, or by using the Molag Bal Glitch.
Class Reset Method
- Acquire some combination of the Underflowable Boosts listed below.
- Perform the Class Reset glitch, making sure that any skills you desire to underflow are reset to values less than the total boosts you have acquired in step 1.
- Remove the acquired boosts using the appropriate means, either dropping the Skeleton Key or drinking the Cure for Vampirism potion.
Molag Bal Method
- Acquire some combination of the Underflowable Boosts listed below.
Mechanics
Underflowable Boosts
There are several free skill boosts in the game that are incorrectly programmed to give the player boosts to a skill's base stats rather than fortifying it as a magic effect. These types of boosts are what makes underflowing possible:
Underflowable with Class Reset:
- Skeleton Key (from Nocturnal)
- +40 to Security
- Vampirism
- +5 to +20 Acrobatics, Athletics, Destruction, Hand to Hand, Illusion, Mysticism, and Sneak
Underflowable with Molag Bal Glitch:
- Night Mother's Blessing (from Whodunit?)
- +2 to Acrobatics, Blade, Marksman, Security, and Sneak
- Gray Prince's Training (from Origin of the Gray Prince)
- +3 to Athletics, Blade, and Block
Class Reset Mechanics
When a Class Reset is performed, it resets the player's stats based on their current level among many other factors. Since the base stats are altered by these skill boosts, Class Reset effectively ignores them when calculating the new skill values, but keeps their effects active on the player. For example, the Skeleton Key gives +40 Security, so if the player Class Resets and picks Security as a minor skill, Security could for example be reset to 39 (it is based on player level and will not always be this value.) However, since the base stat is now 39, and the Skeleton Key is still on the player, the player currently has a +40 Security boost for a total of 39 Security, meaning that if the player then drops the key, they will lose 40 Security, resulting in a final total of -1. Skills are unsigned 8-bit integers, which means that they can only be a positive value from 0-255, so a value of -1 is interpreted as rolling backwards from 0 to 255. This is what results in the final desired effect of skills underflowing to a very high value.