Some of the most in-depth and fascinating quests within The Elder Scrolls fall down to the Thieves’ Guild. The questlines are packed full of sneaky missions and espionage, brilliant characters, and interesting solutions to their problems.
Thieves aren’t killers, so the quests focus on other methods which inevitably give the player the skills needed to make themselves rich without also needing a ton of healing in the process. An entire file could be dedicated solely to this faction and there would still be plenty of game to keep players entertained for a long time.
10 Oblivion: May The Best Thief Win
Oblivion doesn’t make it easy for the player to join the guild. In fact, they make it so that there is a small competition to enter their ranks by setting up a challenge for the three potential new recruits.
The Gray Fox needs a diary and apparently decides that it’s low enough priority that he was going to use it as a way to decide who he was going to keep an eye on in order to solve his personal issues. It does make it fun though, knowing that there are others out there in the world who are also trying to get the same things that the player wants.
9 Skyrim: Loud And Clear
One of the most interesting quests within Skyrim is set early on in the Thieves’ Guild. In Loud and Clear, Aringoth has refused to cooperate with Maven Black-Briar or the guild, and therefore must be dealt with. The plan is to send him into financial ruin by clearing out his safe and burning down his apiaries.
Don’t get too happy with the fires or kill any of the guards, otherwise Brynjolf will have some extra, disappointed commentary about it.
8 Elder Scrolls Online: Forever Hold Your Peace
The Elder Scrolls Online is not exempt from Thieves’ Guild quests, much to the satisfaction of the players who insisted upon it in the first place. This is a fun espionage mission in which the player has to attend a wedding with a forged invitation.
This type of quest happens pretty regularly within the franchise, but this one has the player going to sneak into talk to Magnifica Falorah, exiting their room, and then attending the wedding with a date. It gives the player a moment to let them dress up and do a little sneaking about and gathering information which is always a pleasant thing.
7 Morrowind: Loot The Mages Guild
The first quest given by Aengoth the Jeweler is Loot the Mages Guild and it’s exactly how it sounds. With an appropriately high sneak score, the player can make their way in undetected but otherwise will have to kill Manis Virmaulese in order to get inside.
The point is to loot a particular box, but there is plenty of other goodies within the guild that the player can snap up. It’s not often that Morrowind allows players into different guilds, so might as well have fun with it.
6 Skyrim: No Stone Unturned
Skyrim is full of all sorts of little bits and bobs to collect. One such collection is the twenty-four Stones of Barenziah. Hidden all throughout Skyrimare these tiny stones that are used to restore the Crown of Barenziah and increase the reputation of the Guild.
Finding them all is like a little treasure hunt in and of itself, and gives a passive quest to go about doing when playing other parts of the game. If one is found and the player is not part of the guild, it just holds up space and giving a quest to set in the log. Be that a warning to anyone wanting to pick up shiny rocks that a guild of thieves has their eyes on.
5 Oblivion: Boots Of Springheel Jak
Now this mission is a fun one. After doing some digging, the Gray Fox and the player find out that there is a descendant of the legendary Springheel Jak within the Imperial City. The player is then tasked to go convince this descendant to…relinquish the boots to the guild.
The player can do this in multiple ways, but either way ends with a fight with Springheel Jak himself, who was merely playing the part of his own descendant in order to keep his identity a secret. If the player lets him do the first attack, they won’t accrue a bounty, so keep that in mind.
4 Oblivion: The Ultimate Heist
The Ultimate Heist hidden at the very end of the Thieves’ Guild quests in Oblivion is a long one. The Gray Fox has deemed that the player must use pretty much everything that they have delivered to him in order to complete the ultimate heist. Sounds like such a great honor, until there are troves of undead, a ridiculous key that needs shot into place, and the major reveal that the Fox is none other than the missing count who has been cursed with the Cowl of Nocturnal.
At least he has the curse broken before he hands off the thing and the guild to the player to pretend he never saw them before for the rest of his days. Just consider performing the glitch or having some really good Acrobatics before those sweet Springheel Jak boots get busted up.
3 Skyrim: Trinity Restored
One thing that Skyrim does that the other games do not is to bring in the Daedric Prince Nocturnal front and center into the Thieves’ Guild quests. They have been the patron Daedra of the guilds across all incarnations, so it’s great that they finally make an appearance in a way that puts this Dark Brotherhood to shame.
The player is given a sweet new set of armor and some amazing puzzles to solve in this one, and is treated with the company of both Karliah and Brynjolf…one of which is way more interested in being there than the other.
2 Oblivion: Ahdarji’s Heirloom
This one is a doozy of a quest. It starts out with the player gaining information from beggars that the Khajiit Ahdarji had her heirloom stolen and wants it back. Of course, simply talking to Amusei won’t work, so the player has to bribe their way in, sneak past a bunch of guards, steal a key from her as she sleeps, find their way through secret rooms into a literal torture chamber, and make their way back all without getting caught.
It’s almost an unsettling quest, digging up a noble’s skeletons. Ahdarji makes it worth it though if the player informs them that Amusei was planning on selling by paying them double.
1 Skyrim: Blindsided By Mercer Frey
Thieves may not be killers, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t willing to get exceptionally dirty. After going through nine other quests to suss out the traitor to the guild, finally the player gets to go toe-to-toe with Mercer Frey. The jerk already stole all of the funds from the guild, exiled Karliah, and tried to kill the player once. He even leaves taunting messages in invisible ink for the player to find.
The chamber that he is in for the final showdown is multi-tiered, with Mercer himself going invisible for plenty of stealthy attacks. One well-timed Unrelenting Shout off of the top makes short work of the thief who might otherwise be a pain. The best part is if the Dark Brotherhood had already been completed by this point in the game, it makes it all the more fun to imagine that the rest of the guild let their pet assassin finally off their leash.
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