Summary
- Players can choose when to close Oblivion Gates in Oblivion Remastered.
- Kvatch’s Oblivion Gate becomes harder after level 10 due to leveled enemies.
- Level 17+ yields the best Sigil Stones; Gates are finite & tied to the world state.
Closing Oblivion Gates is a core activity in The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, central to the overarching storyline and the main mission. However, thanks to the longstanding tradition of Elder Scrolls games giving fans complete freedom in where they want to go and what they want to do, the exact time and level at which players attempt Oblivion Gates is entirely up to them. Ignoring the main story in Oblivion Remastered in favor of exploration and side quests is not only possible, but somewhat expected.
That said, there are downsides to ignoring the Oblivion Gates for too long or closing them too early, something that Oblivion Remastered doesn’t come out and say. While technically, there is nothing preventing players from playing at their own pace, there is an optimal and a sub-optimal way of doing things, and this includes Gates.
Related
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered – Interactive Cyrodiil Map
Our interactive map for Cyrodiil in Oblivion Remastered. All the locations, quests, items, and more found in the game.
Kvatch’s Oblivion Gate is a Unique Case
After Level 10, Kvatch’s Oblivion Gate Becomes Extremely Difficult
“Find the Heir” is an early-game mission that doubles as a tutorial on how to close Oblivion Gates. After players deliver the Amulet of Kings to Jauffre, they are tasked with finding Martin, Uriel Septim’s last living heir, who has become a priest in Weynon Priory near Kvatch, where the first Oblivion Gate spawns. While it is possible to delay this mission indefinitely, it’s best to complete “Find the Heir” and the subsequent mission “The Siege of Kvatch” as early as possible.
The reason behind it is simple—enemies in Oblivion Remastered are leveled, which means the higher the level of a character, the stronger the enemies they face. In the case of Kvatch’s Oblivion Gate, if a character is level 1-4, they will face extremely weak Daedra that are easy to handle. However, at level 10+, these weak Daedra are replaced by high-level variants like Flame Atronachs, Dremora Lords, and Daedroths.
The problem with this is that if the player used tricks or glitches to level their character in Oblivion Remastered, like power-leveling a non-combat skill to 100 using exploits, their level does not represent their actual combat strength. In the “Siege of Kvatch,” this issue is further amplified because the number of Daedra that need to be defeated is balanced around a small army of humans facing off against them. However, at level 10+, these Daedra can easily 1-shot almost all human followers, skewing the difficulty.
Sigil Stones From Oblivion Gates are Leveled
Level 17+ Oblivion Gates Yield the Best Rewards
Closing an Oblivion Gate involves climbing to the top of a tower and closing the “eye” of Oblivion. The reward for doing so is a Sigil Stone, a unique material that can be used to enchant weapons and armor in Oblivion Remastered. Like enemies, Sigil Stones are also leveled; the higher the level of a character closing the eye of Oblivion, the better the Sigil Stone will be.
There are five tiers of Sigil Stones: Descendent, Subjacent, Latent, Ascendant, and Transcendent, with Transcendent being the highest. Any Oblivion Gate that is closed by a character who is level 17 or above will drop a Transcendent Sigil Stone. If the same Gate is closed by a Level 16 character, it will be an Ascendant Sigil Stone instead. For maximum gain, it’s advisable that players wait until they are level 17 before seriously clearing all Oblivion Gates scattered across the map.
Oblivion Gates Spawns are Tied to the World State
The number of Oblivion Gates in the world is finite—a maximum of 60, and once all of them are closed, they will not reopen. Additionally, the world state dictates how many of the 60 possible Gates are present. The easy solution is to progress the story until Martin asks for a Daedric Artifact, during the main quest “Blood of the Daedra.” Then, scour the map for all Oblivion Gates in the wilderness and close them. There are 80 possible locations where an Oblivion Gate can spawn, which means quite a bit of exploration is required to find all of them.
After the final quest of Oblivion Remastered is completed and the main story is finished, all Oblivion Gates on the map will automatically close, locking all progress. If this happens, other than reloading an earlier save, there is no way to respawn the closed Oblivion Gates or obtain any rewards from them.
