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The two ways to open locks in Baldur’s Gate 3 are to either have a key or to have the Thieves' Tools item which unlocks the lockpicking feature. There are many locked doors and chests in the game which makes lockpicking an incredibly useful tool for players to have as it accelerates your progress and improves your loot. Players will also come across locked doors in the main and side quests which will require this skill.
Read on to find out where you can get the Theives’ Tools and unlock lockpicking in Baldur’s Gate 3.
How to get the Thieves’ Tools Item in Baldur’s Gate 3
The Thieves' Tools can be acquired from vendors or found in the world as loot alongside the plethora of other drops in the game. In Druid Grove, Mattis and Arron are the two Vendors from whom you can get the Thieves' Tools. Mattis gives you a discount on the lockpicks and is the recommended vendor if you are looking to stockpile the item for future use
Players that like to thoroughly explore will have noticed that the game also gives you access to the Thieves’ Tool right at the very beginning of the game. The moment you wake up after the shipwreck at the start if you head to the beaches towards the Overgrown Ruins teleport point, you’ll notice there are some wooden boxes alongside the coast, inside one of them you should find the Thieves’ Tools item.
But just acquiring the Thieves’ Tools does not immediately allow you to pick any lock in the game as lockpicking in Baldur’s Gate 3, as you might expect, requires a particular skill.
How to pick locks in Baldur’s Gate 3
Giving the tools to a character who is skilled at lockpicking is critical, as an unsuccessful effort to crack a lock will result in the Thieves' Tools disappearing from the inventory. However, if your lockpicking attempt was successful, the tools will not vanish and you will be able to use them again in the future.
The efficiency of Thieves' Tools is determined by the Sleight of Hand skill which players can unlock as a part of the Dexterity stat’s skill tree. As a result, it is preferable to give the tools to a character who is proficient with the Sleight of Hand skill. Astarion the Rogue, for example, should have this skill. He can join the team in the area you explore after finishing the game's prologue.
These requirements aside, the process of lockpicking itself is very easy and requires the following steps.
Find Thieves’ Tools in your inventory and use the Add to Hotbar option.
Then just click on the short key icon and the game will do a dex roll where you’ll need to get the Sleight of Hand roll(hence why its recommended to use a proficient character).
Because lockpicking is somewhat luck-based, it is best to save frequently before using the Thieves' Tools. If you failed to open the lock and lost your tools, you can restart the game and try again. You won't have to give up on opening a certain door or plundering a chest this way. You won't have to seek any more Thieves' Tools either.
