WoW Forever Lockpicking Guide: 1–300 Route for Rogues

Lockpicking is the Rogue's own skill in WoW Forever. It opens lockboxes that drop from enemies, footlockers in the open world and locked doors in dungeons, and no other class can train it. The skill itself works as it did in Classic: you learn Pick Lock at level 16, your cap is five points per character level, and you raise it by opening locks that are hard enough for you.

What changed is the world around it. There are spiders at the Alliance practice spot now, the new zones add places to find lockboxes, and layers make the classic footlocker spots more crowded or emptier than you remember. Below you will find how the skill works, the route from 1 to 300 with a map for each stage, a table of every lockbox and the skill it needs, and how to earn gold with it.

How Lockpicking Works in WoW Forever

These are the rules of the skill in one table.

The colour of the word Locked in a tooltip tells you what to expect. Red means your skill is too low. Orange gives a point every time, yellow most of the time, green rarely, and grey never. Use it to decide when to move on: once a spot is green, the next one is faster.

There are two ways to pick. Right-click a footlocker or a door in the world, or cast Pick Lock and click a lockbox in your bags. For another player's lockbox, they put it into the bottom slot of the trade window, the one that will not be traded, and you cast Pick Lock on it there. You get the skill point, and they keep the box.

The Level 16 Quest and Thieves' Tools

Your trainer sends you on a class quest at level 16 that gives the tools and leads to the first practice spot. You do not have to finish the quest to train there, and both spots work for both factions.

Two details save a walk back. The apparatus in Ratchet gives the tools only if you have already trained Pick Lock, and it gives nothing if you bought the tools from a vendor before. The tools look like a crafting material, so if they seem to be missing, check your bank.

Lockpicking 1–300 Route

The skill numbers below are the lock values of Classic. The Wowhead database for WoW Forever shows a placeholder of 1 for every chest, and players in the live game report the same ranges as before, so we use the Classic values and mark what players have confirmed since launch.

1–80: Practice Lockboxes

Both starter spots take you to the cap of your level in a few minutes. On the pirate ship, the Buccaneer's Strongbox boxes stand on the middle deck at the stern. Players on live report yellow locks up to 65 and a slow climb after that: about 15 tries from 65 to 75 and almost 40 from 75 to 85. The chest on the lowest deck is the quest chest. Opening it calls Polly, a level 50 parrot, so use the E.C.A.C. on her first: it shrinks her to a level 18 enemy. The quest pays 10 Thistle Tea.

Horde: the ship with the Buccaneer's Strongboxes (1) lies on the coast south of Ratchet (2)

At Alther's Mill, four Practice Lockbox boxes stand around the mill. WoW Forever added level 19 to 20 Greater Tarantula spiders here. They respawn fast, their eggs interrupt your cast, and a level 16 Rogue cannot hold them alone. Come with a friend, come at level 20, or do what many Alliance Rogues do and take the boat from Booty Bay to Ratchet for the ship. Foreman Oslow in Lakeshire has a new quest, Alther's Mill, for killing the spiders, so take it along.

Alliance: the Practice Lockboxes at Alther's Mill (1) and the footlockers on the bottom of Lake Everstill (2)

Stay until your skill is 80. At level 20 the poison quest, Klaven's Tower for the Alliance and Mission: Possible But Not Probable for the Horde, has a chest that the game data lists at 70, and players on live opened it at 66 and failed at 55. With 80 you are safe.

70–150: Battered and Waterlogged Footlockers

From here you open footlockers in the world. Four zones share this range, and each has two kinds of box that look the same: one needs 70 and one needs 110. Durnholde Keep in the Hillsbrad Foothills is the usual pick for both factions, with easy boxes in the lower yard and the harder ones on the upper ring. Alliance Rogues can also use the murloc camps in the Wetlands, and Horde Rogues Windshear Crag in the Stonetalon Mountains or Zoram Strand in Ashenvale.

Durnholde Keep (1): 33 footlocker spawns inside the walls

The murloc camps (1) north of Menethil Harbor (2)

Zoram Strand (1): boxes on the beach and in the water

You need level 30 for a cap of 150, so this stage usually runs alongside your leveling in the same zones.

150–225: Badlands, Desolace and the Slag Pit

Angor Fortress in the Badlands covers 150 to 225 in one building: Battered Footlocker boxes on the upper floor, Dented Footlocker boxes below. It is the most popular spot, which means competition. The quiet alternative is Desolace. The Waterlogged Footlocker boxes lie under water off Sar'theris Strand, so bring a water breathing potion, and the Mossy Footlocker boxes are along the north coast.

Angor Fortress (1): upper floor for 150, lower floor for 175

Sar'theris Strand (1) for 150 and the north coast (2) for 175

From 200, move to the Slag Pit in the Searing Gorge. The boxes on the lower levels need 200 and the ones on the upper levels 225, and the Dark Iron dwarves around them can be pickpocketed for junkboxes on the way.

The Slag Pit (1): lower levels for 200, upper levels for 225

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250–300: Junkboxes, Tyr's Hand and Blackrock Depths

The last 50 points are the slowest. The Scarlet Footlocker boxes in Tyr's Hand need 250 and stay useful to 300, but the town is full of elites. Most Rogues mix two safer sources: Heavy Junkbox boxes from Pick Pocket on enemies of level 51 to 60, and the doors of Blackrock Depths.

For the doors, enter Blackrock Depths, open the gate on the left, then the next two doors, and leave. Each door gives a point from 280. Reset the dungeon and repeat, up to five times an hour. If you own the Shadowforge Key, cast Pick Lock on the doors: a right-click uses the key and gives no skill. Fahrad in Ravenholdt also takes five Heavy Junkboxes for the quest Junkboxes Needed and pays a Dusksteel Throwing Knife.

Lockboxes and Junkboxes by Skill

Lockboxes drop from enemies for every class, and junkboxes come only from a Rogue's Pick Pocket. Both give skill points while they are not grey for you.

WoW Forever adds new sources. Enemies in the Riverglades, the new zone for levels 36 to 44, drop Strong Iron and Steel Lockboxes and carry Worn and Sturdy Junkboxes, and the new dungeons drop lockboxes of their level. One change to remember: players report that the Scarlet Monastery graveyard now gives Battered Junkboxes where it used to give Worn ones.

Locked Doors and Chests in Dungeons

A Rogue with enough skill replaces a key. The door values below come from Classic and from current guides. The WoW Forever database does not list them, so treat them as a guide and not as a promise.

Dungeons also hold locked chests: Large Iron Bound Chests in the low dungeons from skill 25, and Large Mithril Bound Chests from 175 in Uldaman and 250 to 275 in Blackrock Spire, Dire Maul and Stratholme. Which keys the other classes need is in our attunements and dungeon keys guide.

Opening Locks Without a Rogue

Two professions can open locks too, at the price of one item per lock.

Skeleton keys work on boxes and doors, seaforium charges on doors and chests. Both are in our Blacksmithing and Engineering guides.

Making Gold With Lockpicking

Lockpicking earns in two ways: from what is inside the boxes you find, and from tips for opening other players' boxes.

• Pickpocket as you level. Every humanoid you Pick Pocket can carry a junkbox with coins, potions and sometimes a green item. Enemies refill their pockets after a few minutes.
• Open boxes in a city. Lockboxes are not bound, so other classes bring them to a Rogue. Stand near the bank or the Auction House and offer it in the trade channel. Players usually tip more for boxes from higher levels.
• Use the bottom trade slot. The other player puts the box into the slot that will not be traded. You pick it, and they loot it themselves, so nobody has to trust anybody.
• Wear lockpicking gear early. Dark Leather Gloves, made by leatherworkers, raise the skill a little, which lets you open a box a few points before you could otherwise.
• Sell the boxes you cannot open yet. A lockbox above your skill still sells on the Auction House to players who want the gamble.

This macro picks the pocket and opens the fight with one button, so you never forget it:

#showtooltip Cheap Shot
/cast Pick Pocket
/cast Cheap Shot

For the rest of the class, see our WoW Forever Rogue leveling guide. And if you would rather skip the levels, our WoW Forever power leveling takes the character to 60 for you.

Lockpicking Tips

• Check your cap before you travel. A footlocker for 150 is no use at level 28. Divide the skill you need by five to get the level.
• Grey can be a display bug. In the beta, some footlockers showed grey and still gave points. If a box that should be yellow looks grey, try it once.
• Find a box you can cast on without moving. At the practice spots, stand where you can reach two boxes, and you lose no time between casts.
• Expect other Rogues. All players of a ruleset share one world, so the starter spots are busy. A group of Rogues can keep the spiders at Alther's Mill under control together.
• Bring water breathing. Lake Everstill, Zoram Strand, Sar'theris Strand, the Pool of Tears and the Bay of Storms all have boxes under water.
• Turn down ground clutter. Footlockers are small, and grass and seaweed hide them.
• Spots can be emptier than in Classic. The boxes are in the game data of WoW Forever, but the number of spawn points changed in some zones, so move on if a spot is bare.
• Keep the tools in your bags. Without Thieves' Tools the spell does nothing.

WoW Forever Lockpicking FAQ

These are the questions Rogues ask most often about Lockpicking.