Okay, I'm not sure this is a bug, but it's odd, if not annoying. I've noticed that almost every strong box(the small black chests made entirely of metal) I've ever found has been empty, even when locked. Has anyone else noticed a significant number of strong boxes being empty as well?

Yes, that was the case for me too during my run-through. I thought it was weird as well. Such a secure container should contain lots of valuables, methinks..

Hi,

I've noticed it too... not game-breaking but it seems quite odd. ATM i'm always (not 90%) finding them empty.

It's 100% for me. I have yet to find anything inside those little metal boxes.

Also, I think values/rarity of treasures should be scaled to lock difficulty. It's really annoying to find only 30 gold coins inside a master-locked treasure box.

That does sound like a horrible bug. I've only found them empty twice I think, otherwise I always find them filled with stuff.
However I have an obession with unlocking everything, so maybe with my really high lock picking skills, it ensures they are always full.

So maybe it's one of those little quirks that after a while, they stop filling them with items if you don't have a high lockpicking for your level, since the game will assume you don't act like a theif and thus don't want you to feel like you missing out.
So you might get more drops elsewhere, rather than being relying on the loot being inside locked boxes and chests, to compensate you a little, maybe?

Possible spoilers!!!!!!!








I too have encountered this, but it might be because the strong boxes are tied to thieves guild radiant quests. You can get the same basic quest of going in and robbing a stores strong box(over and over and over at each store/inn etc). The game might just not activate/put gold inside them until the quest is activated and that strong box is called upon to be the target. I also remember the few that I opened that had something inside where ones I found in a dungeon etc. not sure if any were in a merchants place.

stronboxes in dungeons/ruins are pretty much always empty for me aswell, I remember one box that had stuff in it... Currently my lockpicking skill is in the 80s, char lvl in the 50s.

Everything that has been locked I've picked.

This.

i noticed this too.... i've yet to pop a strong box that has anything in it.. and my lockpicking has recently hit 100 so that rules out lockpicking be any form of factor.

Have you checked the strongboxes when the building's occupant is asleep? Perhaps they put their valuables (that are normally on their person) in the stongbox when they go to bed. Perhaps this was their intended purpose.

I was wondering why there was nothing but air in strongboxes.

It *kind of* makes sense that they're tried to thief quests. Would be nice if that were more obvious, I thought it was a bug, too.

I noticed that too. All Strongboxes I found in Dungeons are empty.
That's not the only empty container btw. ALL Coffins I ever found where empty as well.

My current character is at level 43, lock-picking is around 80 but without any lock-picking perks. Needed the points for other things.

I did a quest in riften related to a horse, Frost, which had the optional objective of checking out the strongbox. That strongbox was full. So I suspect that the OPs observation is not a bug: strongboxes are filled when they are activated through a quest.

that strong box is in a manor house, so it is possible. But there are other boxes in ruins/dungeons inhabited by monsters or the average no-name bandits, and I doubt all of them would have quests assosiated with them...

I've noticed this as well. Strongboxes in dungeons never have anything in them, the ones in shops do occasionally (although rarely) and the ones related to TG quests do.