The two perks in Lockpicking that will be most useful are the one that reduces noise of breaking a pick, and the one that doubles durability of picks. Step 6: DO NOT let your pick break, until you learn a certain perk it makes a loud noise and you’ll get arrested for your crimes because you are too poor to pay the fine. But in Skalitz you’ll get bored before you reach level 14 I think… I left town with lockpick level 11 so I missed two of the very hard chests. I recommend being a solid 2 levels above the base requirement for the lock you are trying to open, to give you an easier time of it. For very hard locks (the inventory chests for both the tavern and the general store) you need to hit skill level 12 just to try it. To unlock Hard locks (trader inventory chests, and the locks on the doors at the tavern and general store), you need to hit skill level 6 I think. The sweet spot will move since it is attached to the main lock. Step 4: SIMULTANEOUSLY hold the “rotate lock” key (I set it as “D”) to spin the main lock, AND carefully move your mouse in the same direction that the lock spins so that the gold dot stays on the sweet spot. It gets bigger (but still grey) as you get closer, it gets smaller if you get farther away. Step 3: move your mouse around until you see the little icon turn GOLD.
