Daggerfall:Exploits and Glitches

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This article documents general exploits and glitches that have been discovered in Daggerfall.

Quest-specific glitches do not belong on this page, but rather on their respective pages.

This is not an exhaustive list of every anomaly that may possibly occur. Rather, this article only documents glitches that other readers are likely to be interested in learning about -- those which can be exploited to the players' advantage, those which have serious consequences, and those which most players are likely to uncover during standard gameplay.

Furthermore, this article focuses on general glitches. Glitches that are only encountered under very specific situations may be documented elsewhere; in Daggerfall's case, this primarily means quest-specific glitches, which will be documented on the individual quest's page.

Exploits[edit]

Exploits are glitches which are beneficial to the player.

Character Creation[edit]

  • When creating a Custom character class, pressing the "U" key on the keyboard will refund any positive or negative points accumulated by modifying attributes, resetting the total to 0. This allows the player to lower all attributes as low as 10 or raise all attributes as high as 75 as desired.
  • It is possible to "underflow" a weakness to disease such that it wraps around and becomes an immunity instead. During class creation, add the disadvantage Critical Weakness to Disease, and once class creation is complete, choose to answer questions to determine the character's background. One of the questions will ask about your character's weaknesses (e.g. "You have the most trouble ___."), for which you should choose the answer relating to diseases (e.g. "Avoiding diseases"). This will cause the character to be immune to disease, as well as lowering the Skill Advancement dagger, granting more points for advantages. ?
  • When creating a Custom character class, claiming multiple disadvantages affecting the same feature is normally disallowed (e.g. taking both Critical Weakness to Disease and Low Tolerance to Disease). However, it is possible to take both Lower Magic Ability in Daylight and Unable to Use Magic in Daylight simultaneously, or alternatively the Darkness variant of these, in order to gain more Skill Advancement leeway to work with.
  • When creating a Custom character class, High Elves may take any disadvantages associated with paralysis and suffer no ill effects, due to their racial immunity. ?
  • When creating a Custom character class, taking the advantage Immunity to Poison will also render the character immune to paralysis attacks from Spiders and Giant Scorpions. ?
  • When creating a Custom character class, taking the advantage Immunity to Magic will also render the character immune to every source of disease, paralysis and poison in the game, since these are always treated as a magical effect. This will allow you to take the disadvantages Critical Weakness to Disease/Paralysis/Poison with no ill effects, resulting in a steep drop from the Skill Advancement dagger and offering ample opportunity to add further advantages.
  • On the final screen of character creation, if you choose the option to restart, all the items received from your previous background choices will remain in the new character's starting inventory. Each repetition of this will add more items, even different types of items if repeated with different classes and background choices.

Gold, Items and Equipment[edit]

  • Most lootable containers, piles and corpses in the game can be "rerolled" to obtain different items from them by saving the game before looting them and reloading if not satisfied. This can be done repeatedly to find more valuable items or higher quality gear, particularly from humanoid enemies.
  • The above exploit does not apply to store shelves, whose contents are determined upon entering the store and persist after exiting and even loitering. Attempting to circumvent this by saving and loading outside the store will usually result in the shelves being empty. However, there is a method to "reroll" store shelves.
  1. Begin by entering the city from a distant location, such as fast travel, a Recall spell, or your ship. Do NOT enter the store; its contents are not established yet.
  2. Save the game inside a nearby building, such as a house across the street from the store.
  3. Exit the building and enter the store. If it does not contain any items you desire, reload the game and try again.
Performing this exploit at a highest-quality shop can make it much easier to find higher tiers of equipment even early in the game.
  • Loitering within a shop until after their hours of operation will remove the Buy option from shelves and allow all items to be taken without paying. (This does not apply to Bookstores, whose shelves always retain the Buy option.)
    • Under rare and unknown circumstances, if all items are taken at once without exiting the screen, the shelf will immediately restock with the same number of items, allowing you to loot it again.
    • If the game was not saved or loaded since first loitering, the shopkeeper will still be present in their shop and will happily purchase any items just taken from their shelves.
  • Shields never lose durability through combat and thus will never require repair. However, enchanted shields will lose durability through magical effects which reduce durability ("when held" etc.). ?
  • Loot piles found naturally inside buildings in towns will always respawn upon reloading. Empty the pile by taking everything until it disappears, save the game and reload, and the pile will reappear to be looted again. This is not necessarily highly profitable, but can be useful in the early stages of the game. Examples of where to find such loot piles include temples, inn attics, and Thieves Guild/Dark Brotherhood guildhalls.
  • Specific types of inns contain lootable footlockers which often hold weapons of Daedric quality, even at the start of the game. This exploit is quite famous and was initially dubbed the "Rusty Ogre Lodge trick" by Mark Stinson in The (In)Famous Beginner's Guide to Daggerfall, after the first location discovered to be exploitable in this manner.
  1. Obtain a wagon and the Recall spell, and be sure you have enough spell points to cast it. Set an anchor point anywhere you like.
  2. Fast travel to the Rusty Ogre Lodge in Daggerfall (or any other inn listed below).
  3. Enter the only inn in town (not actually named the Rusty Ogre Lodge, but the White Goblin).
  4. Walk upstairs to find an open room full of beds with footlockers. Save the game.
  5. Loot one of the footlockers. If it does not contain Daedric weapons, reload the game. If it does, steal them, save the game, and reload again. Repeat this step as many times as you like to obtain many Daedric weapons. Guards will yell "halt!" from the floor below, but are unable to climb the stairs to reach you.
  6. When you cannot carry any more weapons, you may place them directly in your wagon without needing to leave the building, and may continue the process.
  7. When finished, you can safely avoid the guards below by casting Recall to teleport out.
  8. Sell the weapons at a lowest-quality shop in order to earn the highest profit. It is possible to earn millions of gold very easily this way.
Other locations containing inns where it is possible to perform this exploit:

Leveling Skills[edit]

  • Any enemy under the effects of a Soul Trap spell will be unable to die if no receptacle exists for their soul to enter, allowing the player to repeatedly practice any skill against them until the spell expires.
  • Attacking an enemy which is immune to a weapon material (e.g. wielding an iron sword against a Lich) will still train the skill for that weapon. Since weapons only degrade upon a successful hit, they will not even require repair while training this way. Note that this exploit does not apply to Hand-to-Hand, as fists are able to deal damage to any enemy. ?
  • Casting a spell which is "readied" before casting (e.g. a Destruction spell) will grant skill experience before it is officially cast. The player may cancel the spell and have their spell points refunded, and can do this repeatedly to level the skill. ?
  • While the player may only attempt to pickpocket NPCs in town once, enemies within dungeons may be pickpocketed repeatedly and endlessly, as fast as you can click. This can trivialize joining the Thieves Guild, which requires successfully picking pockets 10 times, and will also level the skill quickly.
  • Holding down the jump key while standing within a doorframe or other low ceiling may not visually indicate that the player is jumping, but will still rapidly drain the player's fatigue, signifying that Jumping is being trained repeatedly. This can level the skill quickly.
  • In addition to the "float up" key, holding down the jump key while levitating will also result in gaining altitude. This will rapidly drain the player's fatigue, signifying that Jumping is being trained repeatedly, quickly leveling the skill.
  • While in the wilderness beyond the edge of any town or dungeon, when your rest is interrupted by an enemy, they will always spawn directly in front of you and will be facing north. Therefore, if you face north before resting, they will always spawn with their back to you, allowing you to train Stealth and Backstabbing easily.
  • As a member of the Mages Guild, asking an Odylic Mage to identify an item and clicking "identify" with no item selected will result in a cost of zero gold. Every transaction done this way trains the Mercantile skill without actually needing to buy or sell anything.
  • After a Primary skill has been mastered by reaching 100, normally no other skills are able to be leveled past 95. However, if a skill is temporarily boosted above 100 through the use of an enchanted item with Enhances Skill, it will then be able to be leveled up to 100. For example, a skill at 95 boosted to 110 via an Enhances Skill item will be able to level to 115, at which point the enchanted item can be removed and the skill will remain at 100.

Leveling Up[edit]

  • The bonus health points granted by Endurance are calculated using its current value at the moment of level up. Endurance can be boosted just before leveling to always receive the maximum possible health increase (up to +5 at 100 Endurance). The level up screen will not display Endurance at its boosted value, but it is still factored into health gain. In order to maintain a long-term Endurance buff while also triggering a level up, see the exploit below involving fast travel to the same location under Circumventing Game Mechanics.

Crime[edit]

  • The most recent crime the player has committed is the only crime they will be charged with. Thus, it is possible to murder dozens of civilians, then quickly fail to pickpocket the guards, and the court will charge the player with pickpocketing rather than murder.

Circumventing Game Mechanics[edit]

  • An Open spell created at the Spell Maker with the lowest possible magnitude of 1-1 + 1-1 per 1 levels will always unlock every door in towns. (Note that this does not apply to doors in dungeons, which exhibit expected behavior.)
  • It is possible to make all of your equipped gear considered weightless so that it no longer counts against your encumbrance.
  1. Purchase a wagon.
  2. Unequip all of your gear and place it in the wagon.
  3. Visit any shop. Talk to the shopkeeper and choose to sell.
  4. Click on the Wagon button to view the contents of your wagon, then exit the sell menu.
  5. Open your inventory. The wagon's contents should still be visible in the left inventory pane, and you can equip your gear directly from the wagon. All gear equipped this way is still considered to be inside the wagon, and will therefore be weightless to your character.
Alternatively, this exploit can be triggered by casting a spell with the Identify effect, clicking the Wagon button, and exiting. This method has the additional benefit of being able to access the wagon anywhere within dungeons.
Note that unequipping any of your "weightless" gear will result in it being sent directly back to the wagon, which could be problematic when deep in a dungeon. To avoid this issue, change to Remove mode, and your gear will be dropped on the floor instead.
  • Bodies of water can be bounced across on their surface by walking or running while holding down the jump button.
  • A technique known as buffer jumping can be used to travel faster outdoors.
  1. Look upward -- the higher the better.
  2. Enter the Transport menu.
  3. Hold down the forward key, run key, and jump key.
  4. Click exit.
You will launch forward a great distance very quickly. The distance covered depends on the character's speed, running, and jumping skills.
  • It is possible to fly straight upward without being under the effects of Levitate.
  1. Equip a weapon and ready it for use.
  2. Hold down the jump key.
  3. While still holding the jump key, attack as quickly as possible. The character should gain altitude with every attack.
  4. When enough height has been gained, press a directional movement key to fall in that direction and ideally land on a higher surface.
This method of flying is more effective the higher the character's Speed is, since attacks can be performed more quickly.
  • The top spell in the spell list can be cast repeatedly at an incredibly fast rate by holding down the key to open the spell menu and Enter at the same time. A good use of this glitch is to cast "training" spells repeatedly before resting.
  • When deep within any dungeon, the entrance can be teleported to without the use of Recall. Simply save the game, reload that save, and without moving, press Alt+F11. This command was added by the developers to help return lost players to solid ground, but since the newly-reloaded game lacks any data on the last valid surface, the player is teleported to the exit instead.
  • Enemies are frozen while the inventory, character sheet, or map is open, but timed effects continue to pass. This can be used to wait out harmful spell effects like debuffs or paralysis until they expire. This can also be used to equip different weapons mid-combat without the normal lag that occurs to simulate the time it would take to pull out a new weapon.
  • Fast traveling "cautiously" to the same location the player is already in takes no time at all and refills health, fatigue and spell points. Combined with the fact that spell durations stack together, this can be used to cast buffs repeatedly until they last weeks or months. This can also be used to freely exercise fatigue and magicka-based skills without needing to rest or pass the time.
  • When using an enchanted item to cast a spell which is "readied" before casting (e.g. a Destruction spell), the player is able to cancel the spell and receive as many spell points as the most recent spell they cast. Any such item can be used to refill spell points this way, at the cost of the item's durability.
  1. Use a Soul Trap spell or Azura's Star to capture a soul with an added effect in a soul gem.
  2. With sufficient Mages Guild rank, visit a Crafter.
  3. Choose an item to enchant and add 9 different powers of any type. This will likely cost more points than are available in the item, but you will be allowed to add them anyway.
  4. Add a side effect, and choose soul bound with the soul you've captured. Because this effect takes up one entry in the list and items may not have more than 10 effects, you will receive the message "No room in item..." and the soul's extra effects will not be able to be added. This provides its extra enchantment points with none of the downsides.
  5. Remove the 9 powers you added initially and choose whatever powers you would like to add before finally enchanting the item.
  • Spells granted by vampirism cost 1/4th the spell points they normally would, but grant the full amount of spell points they would normally cost to cast when absorbed via spell absorption (most easily accomplished by Sorcerers). The only vampire bloodline that grants a spell which can be absorbed is the Haarvenu, who learn Ice Storm. Haarvenu Sorcerers are able to refill their spell points at will by casting this spell at their feet, though caution must be used to avoid exceeding their maximum spell points and taking damage. ?
  • Naming a spell with a dollar sign at the beginning (e.g. $Fireball) reduces its casting cost to 1/4th of its normal value. Naming a spell with an exclamation point at the beginning (e.g. !Shock) results in the spell being free to cast, but it can only be cast once every 24 hours of in-game time.

Miscellaneous[edit]

  • Though casting Levitate will cause the player to automatically dismount their horse or wagon, it is possible to simply change travel methods and mount them again. Riding a horse while levitating can provide much faster movement than merely "walking" through the air.
  • Holding down the jump key while traveling up a diagonal surface such as the roof of a house often results in jumps that are much higher than normally possible. In rare circumstances it is possible to be launched quite high.
  • The exterior of the Mantellan Crux on a tiny island at sea. The compass in the corner also shows the approximate direction to reach this island from a player ship.
    It is possible to reach the entrance to Daggerfall's final main quest dungeon, the Mantellan Crux, by traveling northwest from the player's ship.
It is quite a long distance away, and it is recommended to use a speed cheat when attempting to explore this exploit. From anywhere on either size ship, attempt to aim as closely to perfect northwest as possible -- in the full screen mode which hides most of the UI, the N and W on the compass should each be split in half, with more of the W visible than the N. The journey is shorter from the smaller player ship; when traveling from the larger ship, players may first discover the small ship on their trip northwest, and will need to continue on from there. Proximity to the dungeon is announced by messages such as Harpy feathers are everywhere or The scent of carrion hangs in the air, due to the fact that the dungeon is internally classified as a Harpy Nest.
It is impossible to leave this dungeon after entering without a Recall spell or being teleported out by Nulfaga upon successful completion of the dungeon.
  • This exploit remains in Daggerfall Unity, and is in fact easier to perform due to greatly increased draw distance, which renders the Mantellan Crux visible on the distant horizon.

Glitches[edit]

  • This is likely not a glitch, but is listed here to aid players who may struggle with this mechanic: when underwater in a dungeon, the "float up" and "float down" keys (typically Page Up and Page Down) may cease to function properly. This is due to being weighed down by too many items and gear. To fix this, you may drop some of your items to decrease your weight, cast Levitate to "fly" through the water, or cast Recall to return to your last anchor point.

Character Creation[edit]

  • When creating a Custom class during character creation, it is possible to choose multiple Increased Magery advantages at once, which will confer no extra advantages, as only the last one added to the list will be applied. ?
  • The advantage Expertise in Hand-to-Hand is never actually applied during gameplay and does nothing.[1] ?
  • During character creation, there are many minor errors and inconsistencies among the benefits granted by background questions. For example, one question grants Mages +6 in Orcish rather than Jumping as expected. These inconsistencies are detailed in the Background article.
  • Toward the end of character creation, the player is asked to select a reflex level to determine how quickly the enemies will act, which is inversely related to the rate of skill advancement. In reality, the reflex level will increase or decrease your character's rate of skill advancement, but enemy speed is not affected and always runs at the fastest level.[2] ?

Crime[edit]

  • While actively wanted by the guards after committing a crime in any town, the game will assume any damage you take must have been caused by the guards and will ask whether you surrender or not. As an example, taking fall damage after jumping from a rooftop will trigger this message, as will taking damage from sunlight as a vampire.
  • When in the interior of the player ship, attacking the door leading back to the upper deck will cause guards to spawn to arrest the player on their own ship.
  • Attacking any door within civilized areas and being caught by the guards results in regional reputation being set to -100, "hated" in the eyes of the law. Surrendering for the crime while outdoors will sometimes send the player to court; other times, health will immediately be set to 1, and since the player is in the process of being hit by a guard, this usually results in death. This second result always occurs when surrendering for this crime indoors. Since the player is always "hated" for committing this crime, the court's punishment will always be banishment.

Lycanthropy and Vampirism[edit]

  • Normally, when the player experiences the vampirism dream and allows the disease to progress over three days, they will re-awaken as a vampire in a crypt. However, if the player uses fast travel to pass the three days, the text announcing their re-awakening as a vampire will appear over the travel map in green, and the rest of the trip will continue uninterrupted, bypassing the crypt.
  • If the player passes the three days necessary to re-awaken as a vampire while riding a horse or cart, they will awaken in a crypt while still mounted. Travel mode cannot be changed indoors, so this can cause the player to become stuck. Doors can be opened, but the increase in height means it is not possible to ride through them. If the dungeon exit can be reached, it can be used as normal to escape.

Terrain[edit]

  • A glitched town, where some buildings may appear half-buried, and others will float in the air
    While all towns and other named locations are designed to lie on a perfectly flat section of ground, it is possible to disrupt this process and cause strange visual effects. Travel to any town near a regional border, then run or ride a horse across the border. Travel far enough that there is one map pixel between you and the border, which can take several minutes. Then turn directly around and travel back to town, and you will discover that its ground surface is as jagged and varied as wilderness usually is, which will result in some buildings floating above the ground.
  • An unnatural ravine
    A terrain generation glitch that seems to occur near covens can create deep ravines in the ground. Two locations where this can be reliably triggered are Coven on the Bluff in Daggerfall and The Dunyanak Excavation in Menevia. In both cases, fast travel to the location, then without leaving immediately fast travel to it again, and then walk directly east for a minute or two to find the ravine. The one in Menevia is deep enough that it is possible to set a Recall anchor at the bottom, fast travel elsewhere, then teleport back to end up below the ground (provided the game does not crash).

Crashes[edit]

  • The glitched region of the Wrothgarian Mountains, highlighted in red
    Entering a specific part of the map in the Wrothgarian Mountains will always cause the game to crash, as the engine fails to load data for the region. The easiest way to experience this crash is by fast traveling to Vandale and riding a horse west-northwest for several minutes. This glitch even manifests in Daggerfall Unity if data from the Steam release is used.
  • If the player casts a spell, deletes it from their spellbook, and then presses the key to re-cast the spell, the game will crash.
  • If the most recent spell the player has cast is Lycanthropy, pressing the key to re-cast the most recent spell will crash the game.

Miscellaneous[edit]

  • Under certain circumstances it is possible to pass through building or dungeon geometry and fall into a "void" of nothingness. This most commonly happens at angled surfaces, such as when jumping or levitating against curved ceilings, jagged cavern slopes, or door frames. It is possible to cast Levitate to fly while in the void and explore the map from outside its boundaries. To help alleviate this glitch, version 1.07.212 of the Official Daggerfall Patch added the keyboard shortcut Alt+F11 which attempts to return the player to the last solid ground they stood on. (Modification of the Z.CFG file is not necessary to enable this command; it is active for all players who have patched their game.)
  • Setting a Recall anchor inside Castle Daggerfall and teleporting there from another location may result in getting stuck inside. The entrance to the throne room is a magically-held lock which only opens when the player agrees to the door guard's terms, and it cannot otherwise be picked or bashed open. Only Open spells can unlock the door, or else the player could attempt to intentionally trigger the void glitch above and Levitate their way to the exit.
  • Asking a Travelers League mage for teleportation services and then canceling without teleporting will cause any current outdoor weather effects to take place inside the Mages Guild, including fog, rain, snow etc. This is because the player is not allowed to fast travel indoors, so the game temporarily moves the player outdoors to teleport, but forgets to end the outdoor weather effects when the teleportation is canceled.
  • Interacting with a bookshelf and then opening other menus while the list of books is still open will leave the list overlaid on screen, causing various strange effects. Opening the character sheet will glitch the appearance of the book menu. Opening and closing the spell menu will maintain access to the book menu every time the spell menu is opened again, allowing the player to travel elsewhere, open the spell menu, and still select a book from the shelf to read.
  • Entering almost any other menu while riding a horse (e.g., holding down the forward movement key and then opening the character sheet) will continue playing the hoofbeat sound effect, which may become stuck repeating until entering a new zone like a building or dungeon.
  • When the player dies while resting yet does not finish their rest (e.g. resting for 24 hours and dying from sun exposure as a vampire), if the game is immediately reloaded, the remaining hours of the rest will continue ticking down from where they left off. This happens even if the save file is from a different character or in a location where rest is not allowed such as in town.
  • A very expensive trip
    Under certain circumstances, when the player owns a ship and chooses to fast travel by stopping for the night at inns, the cost of the trip may appear to be an outrageous sum in the billions. After completing this trip, any letters of credit the player is carrying will have been exchanged for gold pieces, potentially causing extreme over-encumbrance.
  • When an elevator or other moving dungeon element is in motion, it will continue to move while the player is in menus, meaning if the player is riding the object they are likely to resume the game with nothing underneath them and fall.
  • Under certain circumstances, when the player equips magic items that boost attributes, it may be possible for the attributes to revert to their original un-boosted values, causing points to be permanently lost when unequipping the item. ?

References[edit]

  1. ^ Code comment in Daggerfall Unity's sources
  2. ^ Code comment in Daggerfall Unity's sources
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