Skyrim Tips and Tricks » Discussions


Nightingale Armor Shortcut

  • December 29, 2015

    Do you love the Nightingale Armor, but despise the length and style of the Thieves Guild Questline?

    Then you are not alone.

    It's one of the best looking kits in the game, but slogging through the majority of the Thieves Guild line has kept me away many times. I recently stumbled onto a solution. Apologies if this has been previously posted or is considered common knowledge. 

    While putting the finishing touches on my Darth Sentinel build, Doc PGB suggested the Nightingale Armor as a better aesthetic than the black vampire armor I had gone with. I agreed, but Darth running the Thieves Guild? No. However in this play through I already had performed Ponty's backdoor / bucketing trick to snag the word of Disarm in Snow Veil Sanctum. When you bucket out, Karliah "saves" you and the quest "Hard Answers" pops into your catalog. 

    So I went back and followed the quest markers starting with Enthir, and sure enough I had jumped the quest line forward. One thing to note, if you haven't gained access into the Thieves Cistern room, you have to bucket through the secret door to follow Karliah and continue. And you'll be perceived as trespassing and attacked. Still, I managed to get their dialogue to progress enough to move forward, escaped using Become Ethereal and ultimately acquire the Nightingale Armor. 

    My guess is that if you just start the Thieves Guild line until you gain access to the Cistern, then back door Snow Veil Sanctum, you can proceed as normal...skipping a huge chunk of the quest line.

    TL/DR version:
    What: Nightingale Armor Shortcut
    How: Join Thieves Guild until you are first given access to the Cistern room. Backdoor Snow Veil Sanctum. Speak with Karliah and continue her quests. 
    Reward: Nightingale Sword, Armor and Chillrend, while saving a heap load of questing. 

    Anyone have any experience with this?

  • Member
    January 1, 2016
    Hey. Just curious but is it possible that one could use sneak and the invisibility spell to get through the cistern (with karliah). I figure it might because you aren't actually asked anything until after they break open the vault which Brynjolf will automatically speak to you (going around the speech restrictions in combat) and it would be easier than spamming become ethereal with 20 guys on top of you.
  • January 1, 2016
    Yeah Prob. The first time I Bucketed in, I didn't know I was trespassing, so I just followed them watching the dialogue go, but then I escaped once I was attacked. So then I came back and snuck back in undetected and just waited by the door until the end of their dialogue in the vault and then ran to initiate the dialogue. By the time the new quest marker popped up I was being attacked again but as I said escaped again. So...yes prob staying undetected long enough should work. Let me know if you find anything.
  • February 11, 2016

    Another fantastic use for Bucketmancy!