1) Finish the main quest as quickly as possible. You certainly don’t have to do this — you have the freedom to do whatever you want in Cyrodiil, after all — but if you don’t, those pesky Oblivion gates will keep popping open around the game world, spewing forth demonic nasties and inhibiting your travels.

2) Don’t try to make a jack-of-all-trades character. Sure, you can dabble in a number of skills, but pick a couple that you’ll focus on most and stick with them. If you get going and fi nd that more than a few skills really interest you, it’s best to create a whole new character and play the game an entirely different way.

3) Our best tip of all time: liberal use of the “Wait” function. Any time you’ve been wounded in battle, just press the Back button after retreating to a safe location. A quick one-hour wait will completely refi ll your health and mana, meaning you won’t have to burn precious potions to restore these attributes.