How to Get Rid of Bounties in Skyrim

Prepare to handle bonuses

You need to understand what constitutes a bonus. When you commit a crime no matter how small in front of at least one person or household pet, the bounty for your capture will be added. If the territory guards (Hold) at the crime scene encounter you, they will try to detain you. At this point, you will likely give up, try talking your way out, or resist arrest.

Opposition is unwise as a large number of guards will attack you, leading to increased casualties and bonuses.

Kill every witness if possible. If you have just received a bounty, kill all witnesses to the incident (including animals, bandits, and townspeople).

If you have left the territory where you have a bounty, you will not be able to kill the witness to escape the bounty.

Be careful not to cause a battlefield. If you kill a witness in front of others, you can cause a snowball effect and cause the bounty to increase as the bodies pile up.

Prevent the guard's reaction to the crime you just committed. If you have committed a crime in front of the guards, they will begin to attack. You can make them stop attacking by putting away their weapons.

This method is not always effective. Sometimes you need to leave the city and return at another time if the act of putting away your weapons does not prevent the guards from attacking.

Check the territory where you have a bounty. You can view the list of territories and corresponding bonus amounts by:

On consoles — Press the Start button (Xbox) or Options (PlayStation), scroll to the GENERAL STATS tab , scroll down to CRIME , and view the territory bounties.

On PC — Open the menu, scroll to the GENERAL STATS tab , scroll down to CRIME and see the list of bonuses for the territories.

Check the bonus amount. To the right of each territory name is the amount of gold rewarded for your capture.

If the number here is 0, it means you do not receive a bonus in that territory.

Pay bonus

You need to make sure you have enough gold to pay the bonus. If you choose the bonus payment option, you need to make sure you have at least that amount of gold in your inventory.

If you want to use the Thieves Guild member's ability to bribe guards, you will need more gold.

Storing stolen goods. When you pay the bounty, all stolen goods will be confiscated. To avoid getting in trouble for stealing them again, put all the stolen goods in your warehouse in a trunk and leave it at home.

The name of the stolen goods is red and has the word "Stolen" in front, so it is easy to distinguish.

Go to the territory. Go to the city where you have a bounty.

Find and talk to the guard. After entering the city, go to the guard (or wait for the guard to approach you).

In some cases, you just need to enter the city and the guards will immediately approach.

Indicate that you want to pay the bonus. Select You caught me. I'll pay off my bounty in the dialogue window.

If you are a member of the Thieves Guild and have completed at least one guild job in the territory where the bounty is being offered, there will be an additional Bribe option . You will need to bribe more gold than the reward payment, but in return the stolen goods will not be confiscated.

Allow the guards to search you. If the bounty is more than 10 gold, you will be escorted to the local prison, and all unsecured goods will be confiscated by the guards. You will also be deducted gold equal to the bonus value.

If you bribe the guards, the stolen goods will not be lost.

Go to jail

You need to understand when to go to jail. Prison is the alternative if you don't want to pay a bounty to get away with a crime. Unfortunately, serving time will reduce the progress you have made towards skill leveling.

Storing stolen goods. When you pay the reward, all stolen goods will be confiscated. To avoid the trouble of stealing these goods again, you need to take them out of storage and store them in a trunk at home.

Stolen goods have the word 'Stolen' in front of the name so they are easy to distinguish.

Go to the territory. Go to the city where you have a bounty.

Find and talk to the guard. After entering the city, go to the guard (or wait for the guard to approach you).

In some cases, you just need to enter the city and the guards will immediately approach.

Indicate that you want to serve your sentence. Select answer I submit. Take me to prison. (I surrender. Take me to jail) when prompted.

If you go to jail, you won't lose any gold, but your progress in developing some skills will be reduced.

Serve your sentence or escape. To serve your prison sentence, sleep on the portable bed by approaching and pressing the button that appears. When the character wakes up, the sentence ends.

If you want to escape from prison, you need to open the lock to escape. The stolen goods will be in an "evidence chest" somewhere in the prison; Unlock this chest to get your goods back.

After the character wakes up, you will be taken to the front of the prison, receive all items back (except stolen goods), be released and no longer have a bounty.

If you successfully escape from prison, you will not lose any of your skill acquisition progress.

Declare your lordship

Check to make sure you are the lord of the territory for which you have a bounty. If you have not completed the Thaneship quest line in this territory, you are not a lord and the previous method cannot be applied.

People in this domain will casually call you "Thane" if you are already a lord.

Check to make sure you can use Thane's immunity. You will be exonerated once as a lord when you meet the following conditions:

Bonus value is less than 3000 gold.

You have never used the Thane perk before.

Go to the territory. Go to the main city where you have a bounty.

Wait for the guards to approach you. Most of the time this will happen instantly, but you can speed up the process by approaching one of the patrols yourself.

Select the answer "Thane". When the guards accuse you of the bounty, choose I'm the Jarl's Thane. I demand you let me go at once. (I am the lord of the Jarl. I order you to release me this time) in the dialogue box.

You need to understand that this is a one-time privilege. In the future if you are caught by a guard for a bounty in this same realm, the immunity option for Thane will no longer be available.