Oblivion:Glitches

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These articles document the common and notorious glitches that you are likely to encounter when playing Oblivion.

This is not an exhaustive list of every anomaly that may possibly occur. There are numerous minor animation oddities and graphical surprises that you can uncover if you try to trigger them; if you choose to do a bizarre and unpredictable set of actions, it is likely that the game's response will also be bizarre and unpredictable. Rather, these articles only document glitches that other readers are likely to be interested in learning about: i.e., those that have serious consequences; those that can be exploited to your advantage; those that most players are likely to uncover during standard gameplay.

Furthermore, these articles focus on general glitches. Glitches that are only encountered under very specific situations are documented on other articles: problems during a quest will be documented on that quest's article, problems that only occur in a given location will be described on that place's article, etc. If you are looking for information on a problem that you've encountered, you should start by searching the same way as non-problem-related information by looking at the wiki article on that topic. This article is the place to look if there is an inexplicable problem whose source is not obvious, or for problems that don't fit into one of the site's other articles.

Guidelines for Adding Glitches

The following are guidelines for adding glitches. Please adhere to these before submitting.

• Entries must describe a glitch, i.e., some type of game malfunction that results from normal play.
  • Therefore, any potential glitch must meet all of the following criteria:
    • It must be a mistake in the game mechanics. Any event that is a logical consequence of an intended game feature (no matter how extreme) is not a glitch.
    • It must not be triggered by using the console, cheating, or another glitch. The source of the problem in such a situation is the console command, or the original glitch; the developers cannot be held responsible for the consequences of events that they clearly did not add into gameplay.
    • It must not be caused by third-party mods. Such glitches should be reported to the mod creator, and not here.
    • It must be reproducible. If the problem does not recur after reloading a save game, then the problem is not a reproducible glitch. If the problem is specific to a single save game, and does not happen to anyone else, it is not a reproducible glitch. If there is any chance the problem is caused by a bad sector on your hard drive, defective computer memory, or a power surge then it is not a glitch.
  • In addition, all glitches must meet at least one of the following criteria:
    • Crash the game, or somehow make it impossible to continue playing (unavoidable death, frozen in a cutscene, game enters an infinite loop, etc.)
    • Make it impossible to complete a quest. However, such glitches generally do not belong here (see "Entries must belong on the main Glitches series of articles" below).
    • Cause a permanent change to game data. For example, glitches that reproduce items, provide unlimited amounts of gold, or permanently change your character's attributes.
    • Be a common problem. For any minor game anomalies to belong here, they must be problems that most players encounter while playing the game, and must be anomalies that most players will recognize as a mistake in the game.
  • Examples of problems that do not qualify as glitches are:
    • Items that are reproduced as a consequence of standard game features. For example, the Skull of Corruption is a standard game feature that reproduces a character and all of his/her belongings. Therefore obtaining duplicate items using the Skull is not a glitch. Similarly, other exploits that are based on standard game features, and not mistakes in the game engine, do not belong here.
    • Unexpected animation or physics that only occur if a player does a specific sequence of unusual actions; such anomalies will not be encountered by players as part of regular gameplay.
    • Minor problems that have been fixed by an official patch do not belong on the article. Since most players have installed the official patches, any pre-patch problems are by definition no longer common problems. Furthermore, any non-minor problems that are significant enough to still be documented on the article must clearly state that the problem has been fixed by a patch (for example, by using an appropriate template).
• Entries must belong on the main Glitches series of articles. This series is only supposed to provide information on general glitches: i.e., ones where the source of the glitch is not clear, or that can be encountered under a variety of conditions.
  • In particular, glitches specific to a single quest belong on the quest page. The only quest-specific glitches that belong here are ones which make it impossible to continue the game (i.e., players need forewarning about a serious problem) or glitches which are not obviously attributable to a quest (i.e., players are more likely to look for information here than on the quest article). Even in such cases, the main glitch description (causes, workarounds, fixes) belongs on the quest page. Only a brief summary and link to the quest page belong here.
  • Similarly, glitches specific to a single location or a single NPC belong on the appropriate location page or NPC page.

• Entries must be useful for other readers. The entire purpose of UESPWiki is to help other readers; all entries must address the site's audience and take into account the needs and interests of other people who use the site.
  • The entry must try to describe what causes the glitch. For example, just saying "The game crashed." is not enough. Some attempt must be made to explain what caused it or how the glitch can be reproduced. Adding solutions or workarounds (other than "Reload an earlier save.") will further provide constructive information that will help players. Entries that just tell a story about what happened to you are not relevant to other readers and do not belong on the site.
  • The topic of the entry must identify the glitch at a glance. Titles of sections should be concise yet clearly identify the topic of the glitch. "Goof or a sign?" or "Raindrops keep falling on my head" are examples of poor titles.
  • Entries should use good grammar and proper spelling. Readers should not have to struggle to decode illegible sentences, and should not have to guess at the intended meaning. If the site's patrollers can't understand an entry, it will be deleted.
  • Both console and PC glitches belong on this page. There is no need to document the platform on which the glitch occurred, because almost all glitches are common to all platforms. The fact that you're on a PC, Xbox 360, or PS3 is only relevant if there is clear evidence that the glitch is platform-specific. However, possible remedies may need to be separated into console and PC sections.

If you want to [submit a glitch], please do so on the talk page. Since this is a heavily edited article, it helps direct glitches to the right place.

Exploitable Glitches

These are glitches that can result in a player advantage of some form. It does not include various ways to take advantage of intentional game features, because such exploits are not glitches.

Problematic Glitches

Significant problems that can prevent further gameplay but not result in a player advantage.

Minor Glitches

Minor problems that do not affect gameplay a great deal.

Patched Glitches

These glitches have been fixed by official patches and may no longer work as described, or at all.

Unresolved Minor Issues

Issues that do not rise to the level of being glitches - that is, issues that are not likely to cause problems for most players, or even be noticed by most players, and at any rate are not addressed by patches.