Skyrim: How To Restore the Thieves Guild To Full Glory?

It’s no secret that Thieves Guild in Skyrim is down on its luck and is looking for ways to establish itself as the most reputable criminal organization once again. The whole storyline of the Thieves Guild revolves around you properly identifying and dealing with the source of the Thieves Guild’s bad luck. However, by the end of the main storyline, you will notice that there is still plenty to be done to fix the sorry state in which the Guild has found itself in. There is a way to restore the Thieves Guild to full glory, which is what today’s guide will be about. 

The end of the Thieves Guild questline doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re done with improving the Guild

Mercer Frey has been stopped, the Skeleton Key has been returned to Nocturnal, and the “luck” flows once again freely between Ebonmere and Skyrim, blessing the Nightingales and the Thieves Guild, affecting how successful their jobs will be. 

Despite your great success when it comes to dealing with Daedric factors in regard to Thieves Guild, your headquarters and your Guild, in general, are still a sorry affair, and it turns out you’re still not over. There’s a way to restore the Thieves Guild to full glory, but it involves lots of griding. 

Vex and Delvin have additional jobs that you need to complete

Vex and Delvin are familiar figures from The thieves guild. Both can be found at the Ragged Flagon, drinking their days away and organizing side jobs. Those jobs involve petty thievery, altering business ledgers, placing incriminating evidence, and stealing from shops. 

Delvin has three radiant quests that you can complete. Radiant means that those can be done as much as you want as they will never run out. Delvin offers the following additional jobs: 

1. The Bedlam Job – You need to steal items worth a randomly assigned amount of gold. 
2. The Fishing Job – You will be sent to steal a certain item from the pocket of a random NPC. 
3. The Numbers Job – You will be sent to alter the business ledger of a random store in Skyrim. 

Vex, like Delvin, is a source of additional jobs, and she will offer you four radiant jobs. 

1. The Burglary Job – you need to steal a specific item from a random target “wealthy” home in Skyrim.
2. The Shill Job – You need to place a randomly assigned item as evidence inside a random target “wealthy” home in Skyrim. 
3. The Sweep Job – Sweep Job is basically the same as Burglary Job, the only difference being that you need to steal three items. 
4. The Heist Job – You will be sent to a random store in Skyrim to steal a specific item from the store. 

These additional jobs that Delvin and Vex offer you serve as a nice extra income and opportunity to hone your stealth skills like lockpicking, sneaking, and pickpocketing, and they also allow you to raise your reputation in the following cities: Markarth, Solitude, Windhelm, and Whiterun. Doing five additional jobs in each major city will allow you to gain access to the so-called “special jobs” or “reputation jobs” that will allow you to establish the Thieves Guild presence once again in those respective holds and allow you to return and rebuild the Thieves Guild. 

To restore the Thieves Guild to its former glory you need to: 

1. Do five additional jobs assigned to you by Vex and Delvin in major cities (Windhelm, Whiterun, Solitude, and Markarth.)
2. You need to complete four special jobs in each major city.
3. You need to complete the quest “Under New Management,” which will become available only after special jobs in each city have been completed. 

It’s easy as that. 

Special Jobs are available in each major city after certain prerequisites have been met

Those special jobs we keep mentioning will allow you to connect with certain “influent” individuals in each major hold in Skyrim, and those individuals will help you spread Thieve Guild’s influence if you do a little “illegal” favor for them. It works on the “you scratch my back, I scratch your principle.” The following Special Jobs are unlocked only after you’ve done five additional minor jobs in each previously mentioned city. 

Imitation Amnesty

After completing five additional jobs in Whiterun, you will be sent to talk to Olfrid Battle-Born. He needs you to come up with a new identity for his friend “Arn” that has found himself in hot water after some illegal activities. This quest involves lots of sneaking but is fairly easy to do once you’ve become Thane of Whiterun and you are on friendly terms with the administration of Whiterun. 

After you’ve finished Imitation Amnesty Thief Cache barrels will appear around Whiterun, and you are free to loot them. Besides, Olfrid Battle-Born will work tirelessly to increase the reputation of Thieves Guild in Whiterun Hold. 

The Dainty Sload

Special Job, The Dainty Sload, sends you to Solitude. There, you will meet with Erikur, thane of Solitude, who will send you to frame Captain Wolf of the Dainty Sload by placing a bottle of Balmora Blue (highly illegal alcohol) on his ship. This quest can be completed by either paying for the Balmora Blue, pickpocketing the key to unlock the underwater chest that contains it, or simply by lockpicking the chest. If you chose the latter and your lockpicking skill is not the best, prepare yourself with the appropriate amount of lockpicks. 

Just like with Whiterun Special Job, once you’re done with The Dainty Sload, Thieves Cache will appear around Solitude, and Erikur will use his Thane influence to spread the word about Thieves Guild around this rich, imperial-connected city. 

Summerset Shadows 

The Summerset Shadows Special Jobs sends you to Windhelm, and this one will require you to use your muscles. You will be sent to talk to Torsten Cruel-Sea. His daughter was recently murdered by the criminal faction looking to establish themselves in the Windhelm. They go under the name “Summerset Shadows,” and the faction mostly comprises High Elves.

Summerset Shadows stole a locket that belonged to Torsten’s daughter, and he wants the locket back. Torsten further clarifies that if you accept this task, you both benefit from it. The Thieves Guild will be allowed to operate in the Windhelm without competition, and he will get revenge for the death of his daughter. It’s a win-win situation for both of you. 

After completing Summerset Shadows Special Jobs, Thieves Cache will appear around Windhelm, but this quest has a minor downside. There’s a chance that you will be attacked by a rogue Summerset Shadow in the future as a part of a radiant system of encounters while you are exploring Skyrim.  

Silver Lining

Silver Lining is a Special Job that you need to complete in Markarth, and appropriately, it’s related to silver, an ore for which this stone-bound city is famous. Like Summerset Shadows, Silver Lining involves quite a bit of action, so prepare yourself accordingly. 

You will be sent to speak with Endon, a silversmith from Markarth, and he will complain that his silver mold was never delivered to him due to the shipment being ambushed while in transit and stolen by bandits that have holed themselves up at Pinewatch. Stealing the mold is a guaranteed way to gain influence in Markarth as Endon, being a silversmith, is rich and has the ears of the right gentlemen who rule the city of silver. Just like with the previous Special Jobs, Silver Lining unlocks lootable Thieve Caches around Markarth. 

Completing all 4 Special Jobs will lead to a bowyer, fletcher, apothecary, two blacksmiths, and two thieves guild recruits to move into the Ragge Flagon and set up shops there. Depending on the number of special jobs you’ve done for Delvin and Vex, certain decorations will appear, like Jeweled Candlestick, Golden Urn, and Jeweled Flagon. After you’ve completed 125 jobs for Delvin Vex safe will appear brimming with gold.  

It’s important to note, however, that it’s unnecessary to complete 125 jobs for Delvin and Vex to restore the Thieves Guild to its former glory, as the items added to the shelves are cosmetic. Once you’ve completed Special Jobs in each city, a quest “Under New Management.” will become available, and it’s the only quest that counts when it comes to “restoring Thieves Guild.”

Under New Management marks the end of the long road to restoring Thieves Guild 

For each special job you complete, you will notice improvements to Ragged Flagon and Ragged Flagon Cistern. You will notice that all fences likewise have more gold at their disposal and that extra recruits are wandering your “guildhall.” The formal part of restoring the Thieves Guild, however, ends when you complete the quest “Under New Management” and officially become the new Thieves Guild guild master. The reward for this quest is a tribute chest key that unlocks the chest where your portion of the Thieves Guild haul will be placed regularly. The amount of gold and the items are leveled in nature and will increase with your character’s level.

You will also get an Amulet of Articulation, a special enchanted amulet that raises your speech skill and, in turn, makes almost all your persuasive checks in dialogue successful. 

How to speed up getting the Special Jobs for each city 

The problem with Special Jobs is that you need five additional jobs completed in each city to get them. This can be tiresome for some players as Vex and Delvin’s jobs are randomly generated, and you cannot choose which city you will be sent to. 

The whole process is further made worse for players who don’t need additional gold, and the quests themselves are highly repetitive, adding to particular enjoyment once you’ve done all of them at least once. There is a way to get assigned to the city you need that counts toward the Special Job, and it can either be done by exploiting the quicksave option or console commands. We’re going to analyze both approaches. 

Speeding up Special Jobs by using the quicksave function in-game 

This option is better suited for players that want to avoid using console commands. You can follow these steps to always get the city you need when it comes to Delvin and Vex’s additional jobs. 

1. Interact with either Delvin or Vex and select the additional jobs that you want. 
2. Quicksave immediately after the dialogue ends and before the quest is displayed on the screen. 
3. Quickload until the save until you get the city that you need that will count toward the “Special Jobs” total count you need. 

Activating Special Jobs quests with console commands 

If you don’t feel like glitching through the grind or have no qualms about cheating, you can always use console commands to activate Special Jobs. Use the following codes. 

1. To activate Silver Lining Special Job go to the console and type “player.setstage TGTQ01 10″ doing this will activate the quest in your journal, and the map marker will point to Endon. From there, you can complete the quest as normal. 
2. To activate The Dainty Sload Special Job go to the console and type “player.setstage TGTQ02 10″ take note that even though the quest will be active in your journal, the map marker might not point to Erikur, and you will be forced to find him on your own. He can frequently be found in the Blue Palace in the Solitude holding court with Elisif the Fair during the day. Except for this small detail, the rest of the quest will go as intended. 
3. To activate Imitation Amnesty Special Job go to the console and type “player.setstage TGTQ03 10” the map marker will point toward Olfrid Battle-Born, and you will be able to complete the quest as normally. 
4. To activate Summerset Shadows Special Job go to the console and type “player.setstage TGTQ04 10” As it’s the case with Erikur, the map marker might not point toward Torsten. In that case, you will be forced to find him on your own. Torsten is frequently found wandering Windhelm during the day, or he can be found working on his farm outside of Windhelm. 

Completing the Special Jobs this way will not increase your “additional jobs” counter, and you will miss out on the cosmetic rewards that can be found in Thieves Guild, like jeweled urns, golden horns.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!