Get Rid of a Bounty in Skyrim

Just like the real world, crimes in the land of Skyrim do not go unpunished. It works off of a bounty system, with said bounty rising in price for each offense you commit. Even if you manage to escape from the guards, they will remember your face and demand that you hand yourself over whenever you re-enter the Hold your bounty is in. Getting rid of a bounty is difficult, encouraging players to be stealthier in their crimes or to stay on the side of the law.

Steps

Killing the Witness(es)

  1. Ensure that are truly alone when committing a crime. If you plan to kill a witness, make sure that no one else is around. Otherwise, you will have to kill them too. If you don’t kill all witnesses, the bounty remains.
    • Horses, farm animals, and bandits can count as witnesses to crimes, so ensure that you are truly alone.
  2. Approach the witness immediately after the crime was committed. This technique only works immediately after you have incurred a bounty because once you leave the area of the crime, killing the witness will not get rid of your bounty.
  3. Kill the witness(es). Because the witness has already spotted you, using stealth attacks will not work. Stick to either melee attacks or powerful magical spells. Press the R1+L1 buttons (PS3), RB+LB buttons (Xbox 360), or Right and Left click (PC) to attack the witness. Continue doing so until their health bar at the top of the screen is completely depleted. The quicker the fight the better, so use your strongest attacks to finish them off quickly.
    • Do not attempt to do this inside a town, as the commotion will attract the guards and raise your bounty by at least 1,000 gold.
    • If you have successfully disposed of all the witnesses, a notification in the top right corner of your screen will appear, saying that your bounty has been lifted.

Paying the Bounty

  1. Store away any stolen goods. When you pay a bounty, all of your stolen items will be confiscated. To avoid the hassle of stealing them back, store all the stolen items in your inventory inside a chest at home. Stolen items have “Stolen” in front of their name, making them easy to identify.
  2. Enter the Hold in which you have a bounty over your head. If you’re unsure of which Hold, you can check your bounty by pressing the Start button (PS3 and Xbox 360) or ESC key (PC), scrolling to the left under ****, and checking your bounty amount in each Hold.
  3. Talk to a guard. Perhaps the easiest and most straightforward way to get rid of your bounty is just paying it off. Upon entering the hold, any guard you pass by will confront you. You will have the option to pay off your bounty, go to jail, or refuse arrest. The latter will lead to a fight with the guards and a higher bounty
  4. Select the option to pay off your bounty. If your bounty is over 10 gold, you will be transported to the outside of the closest town jail, with all of the stolen items in your inventory seized by the guards. If your bounty is lower than 10 gold, you will not be transported to the jail. All of your stolen items will still be confiscated though. After this, you will have successfully cleared your bounty.

Going to Jail

  1. Enter the Hold in which you have a bounty over your head. You can check which Hold you’re in by pressing the Start button (PS3 and Xbox 360) or ESC key (PC) and scrolling to the left under ****. Here, check your bounty amount in each Hold.
  2. Talk to a guard. When you enter the Hold, you will be confronted by any guard you pass. He will give you the option to pay off your bounty, go to jail, or refuse arrest.
    • If you do not have enough gold to pay off your bounty, or simply do not want to pay it off, then you will have to serve time in prison.
  3. Select the “Hand yourself over” option. You will be transported to the nearest jail. All of your items save a single lockpick will be taken from you. You can use this lockpick to escape jail; however, this will only raise your bounty.
  4. Serve your sentence. To serve the duration of your sentence, sleep in your cell bed. Approach the bed, and press the X button (PS3), A button (Xbox 360), or E Key (PC) to sleep. When your character awakens, their sentence will be over just like that. Your character will automatically wake, so just wait a few minutes.
    • After your character awakens, you will be brought to the front of the prison, and given back all of your items (except the stolen ones), and you will be free to go. Your bounty will be cleared.
    • Serving your sentence causes your character to lose progress towards skill level advancements. The longer your sentence is, the more skills that are negatively affected. Any sentence more than a week long causes your character to lose advancement towards every skill.

Declaring Thaneship

  1. Enter the Hold in which you have a bounty over your head. Press the Start button (PS3 and Xbox 360) or ESC key (PC), scroll to the left under ****, and check your bounty amount in each Hold so you’ll know which Hold you have to enter.
  2. Talk to a guard. You will be confronted by any guard you pass when you enter a Hold. He will talk to you and give you some options.
  3. Declare Thaneship. If you are the thane, you’ll have the dialogue option, “I’m the Jarl’s Thane. I demand you let me go at once.” Select this option to have your bounty cleared without any negative consequences.
    • Be careful, as declaring Thaneship is a one-time deal, and only works with bounties less than 3,000 Gold.


Related Articles

Retrieved from "https://kipkis.com/index.php?title=Get_Rid_of_a_Bounty_in_Skyrim&oldid=292253"