Skyrim mod adds hidden keys to find for all those locked chests
300 little hidden object hunts for you
Every corner of Skyrim houses a locked chest, but where are all the keys? Only a handful actually have keys to open them. So do the chest's owners lockpick them every time they want an apple or knife? Are these chests merely decorative, their contents deemed inaccessible and long forgotten? A new mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition answers this playfully by adding a load of hidden keys to unlock these chests. Some of the keys look quite well hidden in this object hunt, so you'll need to poke around, rummage, and turn things over.
Modder "JaySerpa" released the mod, named Locked Chests Have Keys, on Monday. It adds keys to open "the majority" of chests in Skyrim (around 300 of them), all hidden nearby in nooks and crannies and under objects and behind trinkets and inside buckets and... they're certainly hidden.
Sadly I only have regular Skyrim, not the Special Edition this requires, so I haven't played the mod myself but the keys I have seen in videos are nice little object hunts. What a pleasingly playful idea!
The mod does still let you lockpick the chests, if you want. But surely if you install this mod, you'd make the effort to hunt for the key first?
But why, JaySerpa's FAQ asks, "not give the keys to the bandits directly?" You can have your pick of answers:
"Lore-friendly explanation: Because bandits know that when living among master pickpockets, you shouldn't sleep with your most precious key around your neck. Actual explanation: It would be messy to deal with inventories and it'd make it too easy to bypass lockpicking altogether. This is a cleaner way and it adds an extra challenge: find the key!"
Hit the Nexus and you'll also find it translated into languages including French, German, Ukrainian, and Brazilian Portuguese. And while JaySerpa says it should be compatible with most other mods, folks modded up to their eyeballs might want some of these compatability mods.
If you're still eternally revitalising Skyrim, do also check out the recent mod which gave Skyrim a Shadow Of Mordor-style Nemesis system.