Gothic Remake lockpicking is a sliding-plate puzzle, not the left-right guessing of the 2001 original. Every lock is a stack of 4 to 7 plates, each with seven holes and a pin, and it opens when every pin sits in the middle hole at the same time. Plates are linked, so moving one can drag others with it or against it. That’s the whole puzzle.
The good news: the layouts are fixed. Each chest has its own lock, defined in the official script files Alkimia Interactive published with the Modkit on October 29, 2026, so a sequence that works for one player works for everyone. Below is how the system works, what training changes, how to solve a lock by hand or with a solver, and which locked chests are worth your picks. Facts checked November 3, 2026 against Gothic 1 Remake on PC after Feature Update #1.
Table of Contents
Quick answer
- Goal: move every plate until its pin is in the center hole (hole 4 of 7). A centered pin pops up.
- Links: moving a plate can also shift other plates one hole in the same or the opposite direction. Test each plate once before you commit.
- Strain: pushing a plate (or a plate linked to it) past the edge strains the pick. Untrained, 2 strains break it and the lock resets.
- Training: Fingers (Old Camp) or Wedge (New Camp). Trained = 4 strains and no reset (10 LP, 100 ore). Master = 6 strains, and a break removes a link (20 LP, 200 ore).
- Combinations are fixed, not random: same lock, same solution, every playthrough.
- Scatty’s chest (A Ring for Fingers) is solved in 9 moves; the full sequence is below.
Many of the colony's locked chests sit in prisoners' huts like these, and the owners don't like visitors. Image: THQ Nordic / Alkimia Interactive
How lockpicking works in Gothic Remake
Alkimia calls it “the new lockpicking system” in the Patch 1.0.1 notes, and guides that played the remake describe it the same way. PC Gamer, PC Games and AllThingsHow agree on these rules:
- You need a lockpick in your inventory, and you can try any lock from the start. No training is required.
- Select a plate with up/down and slide it left/right. Each plate has seven holes. The pin pops up when it reaches the center.
- Some plates move alone. Others move one or more linked plates by one hole each, either the same way or the opposite way. Every lock is wired differently.
- If a move would push the active plate, or any plate linked to it, past the edge, the plate rattles and doesn’t move. That counts as a strain on the pick. Into Indie Games points out that a blocked linked plate counts too, which is what catches most players out.
- You can reset the lock at any time (R on PC, per PC Gamer). But PC Gamer warns that leaving the minigame with a strained pick breaks it.
- The game doesn’t pause. A guard who sees you lockpicking treats it as a crime, so check who’s around first.
Patch 1.0.1 (June 12) added a lock difficulty indicator after Alkimia saw that “some players found the new lockpicking system too challenging or not intuitive enough”. In its launch-week post, the studio wrote that it “cannot stress enough how much easier this gets when you start adding skill points into it”.
Are lock combinations fixed or random?
Fixed. Space4Games says every lock “follows a fixed pattern” with “no random combinations”, and FinalBoss says the same. The official G1R Modkit scripts back this up. Each lock is a named layout with a set starting hole for every plate and a fixed list of links. The scripts even include an optional random-lock system that would swap each chest’s lock for another of the same tier, but it ships switched off (bRandomLocksEnabled = false). Reloading a save won’t reroll a lock, and a sequence from a guide stays valid as long as you count the plates the same way.
Plate numbering: guides number plates differently. PC Gamer counts “front to back” and Space4Games counts “bottom to top”, and both give the same order. Plate 1 is the one nearest you, at the bottom of the stack.
Lockpicking skill levels, cost and trainers
| Level | Strains per pick | When a pick breaks | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Untrained | 2 | Lock resets to its starting layout | Free (starting level) |
| Trained | 4 | Lock keeps its current state | 10 LP + 100 ore |
| Master | 6 | One link inside the lock is removed, so the puzzle gets simpler | 20 LP + 200 ore |
Costs and effects are from PC Games, AllThingsHow and Whisper of the House. The strain counts match the official player script, which gives the pick a durability of 2, 4 and 6 for the three levels. Fingers teaches it in the Old Camp, in the nook between Scatty’s hut and the castle wall near the arena. Diego points you to him during Casting Shadows. Wedge teaches it in the New Camp.
Which level should you buy? Trained gives the biggest jump. It doubles your strains and, more importantly, a broken pick no longer throws away your progress. Master is a late purchase that pays off on the 6- and 7-plate locks.
Where to get lockpicks
- Mordrag (Old Camp market, east side): 13 ore each, according to PC Gamer and Whisper of the House. He’s the cheapest early seller.
- Dexter and Fisk (Old Camp market): about 15 ore each, per AllThingsHow and Whisper of the House.
- Loot: chests, prisoner huts and corpses. Aaron’s chest in the Old Mine holds 7 lockpicks, according to the Modkit’s chest list.
Save before every lock you care about. The game lets you save anytime, so a reload costs nothing, while a broken pick costs 13-15 ore.
Pick locks when nobody is watching: the game doesn't pause, and guards treat lockpicking as a crime. Image: THQ Nordic / Alkimia Interactive
How to solve any lock by hand
- Save, then look before you touch. Note which plates already sit at the far left or far right. Those are the ones that will strain the pick.
- Pull edge plates in first. Move them one hole toward the center so linked moves can’t push them out (PC Games’ main tip).
- Map the links with single moves. Move each plate once and watch what else moves. Write it down: “3 moves 1 opposite, 4 same”. One test per plate is enough, because a push to the right mirrors a push to the left.
- Solve the calm plates first, the busiest plate last. A plate that moves only itself is your fine-tuning tool, so center everything else, then fix the rest with the free plates. FinalBoss calls it solving “from the calm sliders to the reactive one”.
- One input at a time. Most strains come from mashing a direction while a linked plate is already at the edge.
Using a Gothic Remake lockpicking solver
“Gothic remake lockpicking solver” is the top suggestion when you search for this. The solvers are fan-made browser pages that treat the lock as a logic puzzle, not game mods. AllThingsHow describes the inputs most of them need:
- the number of plates (4-7), counted from the bottom;
- each pin’s current hole, as 1-7 (center 4) or -3 to +3 (center 0);
- the links: for each plate, which other plates move when you push it, and whether they move the same way or the opposite way.
The solver then returns a move list such as “Plate 2 right x3”. If it fails, a link direction is usually entered wrong. Because the lock layouts are fixed, you only have to map a lock once.
How hard locks get: plates and links by tier
The Modkit’s lock pool sorts every chest lock into seven difficulty tiers. We counted the plates and links in each tier’s lock layouts (350 lock layouts in the published scripts):
| Tier (script name) | Locks in pool | Plates | Most common | Links (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Novice | 33 | 4-6 | 4 plates | 6 |
| 2 Apprentice | 50 | 4-6 | 5 plates | 8 |
| 3 Journeyman | 68 | 4-7 | 5 plates | 8 |
| 4 Adept | 71 | 4-7 | 6 plates | 8 |
| 5 Expert | 38 | 4-7 | 6 plates | 8 |
| 6 Master | 25 | 5-7 | 6 plates | 8 |
| 7 Grandmaster | 22 | 5-6 | 6 plates | 9 |
The takeaway: plate count alone doesn’t tell you the difficulty. Links do. A 5-plate Grandmaster lock with 9 links is harder than a 6-plate Apprentice lock. That’s why Master training, which deletes a link when a pick breaks, helps most on the top tiers.
Scatty’s chest: lockpicking solution (A Ring for Fingers)
Fingers asks you to steal Scatty’s ring from the chest in Scatty’s hut, right next to Fingers’ nook. Scatty leaves for the arena in the morning, so go then. It’s a Journeyman-tier lock with 5 plates and 6 links. This is PC Gamer’s sequence (untrained, plates numbered front to back). PixelNitro lists the same moves. We also stepped it through the chest’s lock layout in the official Modkit scripts, and it centers all five pins without a single strain.
| Step | Plate (1 = front/bottom) | Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | Left x5 |
| 2 | 5 | Left x5 |
| 3 | 4 | Left x4 |
| 4 | 5 | Left x4 |
| 5 | 2 | Right x4 |
| 6 | 5 | Left x4 |
| 7 | 1 | Right x2 |
| 8 | 3 | Left x2 |
| 9 | 4 | Left x1 |
Other sequences for this chest circulate online. Some of them don’t fit the chest’s lock layout in the official scripts, so if one fails for you, use the table above from a fresh lock (press reset first). Inside you’ll find Scatty’s Ring, 16 ore and a pickaxe, plus food and junk. Giving the ring to Fingers earns 100 XP and his support for joining the Old Camp, per PC Gamer.
Not every quest chest is hard: Cor Kalom's recipe chest in the Swamp Camp uses a 4-plate Novice lock. Image: THQ Nordic / Alkimia Interactive
Which locked chests matter
| Chest | Lock (official scripts) | Why open it |
|---|---|---|
| Scatty’s chest, Old Camp | Journeyman, 5 plates | Quest item for A Ring for Fingers, 16 ore, a pickaxe for the Old Mine |
| Cor Kalom’s lab chest, Swamp Camp | Novice, 4 plates | Kalom’s recipe for Dexter’s The Cult’s Recipe, a step toward the Old Camp. Space4Games has a 15-move walkthrough |
| Upper lab chest, Swamp Camp | Harder (Space4Games: “considerably more complex”) | Ring of Purification and a Pyrokinesis scroll, per Space4Games |
| Aaron’s chest, Old Mine | Grandmaster, 6 plates | 7 lockpicks and a heal scroll. A key also opens it, and it’s tied to the quest Alkimia lists as “Aaron Chest” |
| Gomez’s chest, castle | Grandmaster, 5 plates, 9 links | Amulet and potions. Also opens with Gomez’s key, which Patch 1.0.1 made unlootable before Chapter 5 |
| Mud’s chest, Old Camp | Novice | Not worth a pick: bread, a mug, a plate and 3 ore in the script’s item list |
Rule of thumb: spend picks on quest chests and trainer-related storage first. Leave Grandmaster locks until you’re Trained, or skip them when a key exists.
FAQ
Is lockpicking in Gothic Remake worth it?
Yes, for quest chests. You can open any lock untrained if you save first. Buy Trained once you have 10 LP to spare and plan to clear houses and camps. On Steam, 44.8% of players have the “Master Garrett” achievement for opening 20 locks (Steam global stats, checked November 3).
Why is Gothic Remake lockpicking so hard?
Because the links are hidden until you test them, and a blocked linked plate strains the pick even when the plate you moved had room. Map the links first and pull edge plates inward.
Does the lock change after I reload?
No. Each chest uses a fixed layout from the game scripts. Only the progress on your current pick resets.
Can I skip lockpicking?
Feature Update #1 (October 29, PC) brought back Marvin Mode, the official cheat mode, which Alkimia says can open “that one annoying lock you couldn’t pick”. This guide sticks to solving locks yourself.
Is Gothic 1 Remake on PS5 and Xbox?
Yes. It launched June 5, 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. On Steam it’s $37.49 (25% off $49.99) in the Gothic Franchise Sale until November 5.
If you like puzzle-lock guides, see our Resident Evil Requiem safe codes and Modern Warfare 4 keypad and toolbox codes. For other single-player RPGs, there’s the Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 console commands list and Oblivion Remastered console commands.
Sources: Alkimia Interactive / THQ Nordic Steam posts (launch, launch-week concerns, Patch 1.0.1, Feature Update #1, Modkit beta); official G1R Modkit scripts (lock layouts, lock pool, chest lists, player lockpick durability); Steam store page; PC Gamer (lockpicking guide, Scatty’s chest); PC Games; AllThingsHow; Whisper of the House; FinalBoss; Space4Games; Into Indie Games; PixelNitro.
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