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(Image credit: Bethesda / Reddit, winwinwiintrr)
Nearly 13 years later,Skyrimplayers are still somehow surprised to discover that if you pickpocket an NPC’s heart, they’ll probably die.
In a recent post on Reddit, one user asked the community if they were “slow” for only recently having discovered that “when you pickpocket a Briarheart’s heart they instantly die.” While in an RPG as sprawling as Skyrim there are plenty of things that players tend to discover at their own pace, this one does seem pretty obvious.
The Briar Hearts are placed in the Forsworn’s chest cavities, although they’re not particularly secure. To get around that obvious danger, the Forsworn Briarhearts are especially good at detecting approaching players, and can even detect them through spells like Invisibility and Muffle. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to get the drop on them, however, and particularly light-footed Dovahkiin should be able to pickpocket a Briar Heart right out of the Forsworn’s bodies.
Doing so, of course, will immediately kill them Forsworn. That feels like it shouldn’t come as a surprise - it’s been known about for several years, for one thing, but it’s also just medical fact. What would happen to you if someone removed your heart from your chest?
Nevertheless, this is exactly the kind of detail that Skyrim is great at presenting to players even if they have hundreds of hours of playtime or years of history with the game. It’s a biological given, but it’s also something that the game actively fights against - Forsworn Briarhearts are foes not to be messed with for many players, and their senses give them an active counter to exactly this strategy. Perhaps it’s no surprise that this interaction can take a long time to discover, even if its existence in the game shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
There are two impossibly massive Skyrim mods remaking classic Elder Scrolls RPGs, and both had some extensive, gorgeous gameplay to share recently.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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Nightbitch review: “Amy Adams' disappointing dark comedy is all bark and no bite”
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2Doctor Who 2024 Christmas special review: “Ncuti Gatwa is as magnetic as ever in this delightful festive treat”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”