Here’s a practical, beginner‑friendly roadmap for Oblivion Remastered – what to do first after the tutorial, plus how people on forums are approaching their first few hours.

1. Right at the sewer exit

Before you even step fully into Cyrodiil, treat the sewer exit as your “control point.”

  1. Make a permanent “template” save at the sewer exit
    • After finishing the tutorial and stepping up to the final exit, create a manual save and never overwrite it.
 * This lets you remake characters quickly and test different races, classes, and birthsigns without re‑running the prison escape every time.
  1. Adjust difficulty immediately
    • Open the options menu and slide the difficulty to where fights feel tough but not miserable.
 * Use the first rats, goblins, and bandits you meet after the sewers as a test; tweak as needed so you’re not two‑shotting everything or being one‑shot constantly.

Think of that sewer save as your “character lab” and difficulty slider as your “fun dial.”

2. Secure a safe place to sleep and stash loot

Your early game gets much smoother once you have a bed and a safe chest.

  • Grab an early free/cheap bed
    • Guides strongly recommend getting a room in one of the first city inns or using early safe locations so you can rest, level, and store items without stealing a house right away.
  • Use it as your first “home base”
    • Sleep to level up, drop heavy gear you don’t need, and treat this place as where you always return after dungeon runs.

Many beginners in 2025–2026 are prioritizing “find a safe stash and bed” in their first hour because encumbrance and constant trips to merchants get old fast.

3. Join key guilds early

Most modern guides say: don’t wait on factions.

  1. Mages Guild (even if you’re not a mage)
    • Easy early gold from selling found gear to guild mages and good access to spells and alchemy ingredients.
 * Joining in multiple cities unlocks recommendations that lead to powerful progression later.
  1. Fighters Guild
    • Straightforward combat contracts, good practice, and reliable coin for low‑level characters.
  1. Thieves Guild
    • Lets you sell stolen goods to fences, which is huge if you like swiping items from rich houses and guild halls.
  1. Dark Brotherhood (optional and darker)
    • Joining requires killing an innocent and then sleeping; in exchange, you get a secret sanctuary with beds, gear, and some of the game’s most memorable quests.

Many “best things to do first” lists basically boil down to: get into guilds ASAP, because they multiply your options and income immediately.

4. Get early money, gear, and a horse

You’ll feel the remaster’s smoother pacing most if you set up an economy and mobility early.

Early gold

  • Loot dungeons and sell everything usable
    • Early Ayleid ruins and caves near the Imperial City are commonly recommended first stops; easy enemies, decent loot, and simple layouts.
  • Steal smart, then fence stolen goods
    • Modern guides specifically point at Mages Guild halls as stuffed with valuable, poorly guarded items at night.
* Once you’ve joined the Thieves Guild and met your first fence, stolen loot turns into a big gold source.

Early gear and tools

  • Pick up and keep:
    • A solid melee weapon in your preferred type.
    • A bow and some arrows for cheap ranged options.
    • A few Restore Health potions and cure disease/poison if you can find them.

Early horse

  • Several starter guides emphasize getting a horse quickly so fast travel, exploration, and escaping bad fights are easier.
  • You can:
    • Complete simple early quests that reward a horse.
    • Or buy a cheap one once your early gold engine is running.

5. Hit a few recommended starter quests

A lot of current content creators and wiki writers now suggest a loose early quest route instead of diving straight into everything. Common early quest types and examples:

  • Intro combat quests near cities
    • Early faction contracts (Fighters Guild, city arena matches) are tuned for low levels and teach you how fights flow in the remaster.
  • Short “farm/goblin” or bandit quests
    • Guides point to farm‑defense and simple cave/ruin clears as good warm‑up quests with low travel overhead and clear objectives.

These quests serve as a safe testing ground for your build, difficulty setting, and preferred playstyle before you commit to big story chains.

6. Decide how fast to advance the main quest

The big modern debate is when to push the main story.

Early push: Kvatch first

  • Many recent guides recommend going to Kvatch fairly early.
* At low level, the enemies around the city and the first Oblivion Gate are a bit less brutal.

* Clearing Kvatch and closing the gate gives you a Sigil Stone and kicks off Oblivion Gate activity across Cyrodiil, which opens up lucrative loot runs.

Slow burn: explore first

  • Others suggest wandering, discovering towns, ruins, and guilds before advancing the main quest too far.
* Reason: enemies scale with level, and it’s fun to get geared, comfortable with systems, and well‑connected before Oblivion Gates start popping everywhere.

Balanced approach many players use now:

  • Deliver the Amulet and unlock early main‑quest steps,
  • Do Kvatch relatively early ,
  • Then back off and explore, join guilds, and do side quests while occasionally returning to the main story.

7. Learn the “Oblivion systems” early (so they don’t annoy you later)

The remaster keeps core mechanics but polishes how they feel, and guides stress getting comfortable with them in your first sessions. Key systems to practice:

  • Lockpicking
    • Learn the timing and “feel” of manual lockpicking; you’ll see a lot of locked chests and doors, and practice now saves broken picks later.
  • Persuasion / Speechcraft
    • The conversation mini‑game can be repetitive, but it’s worth learning how facial cues match each wedge so you can raise disposition quickly and get better prices and more rumors.
  • Alchemy
    • Pick flowers, mushrooms, and ingredients as you travel and experiment with simple potions like Restore Health or Fortify Fatigue.
* Cheap, reliable potions are a huge quality‑of‑life boost and turn random plants into money.
  • Exploration and fast travel
    • Many “things to do first” lists say: roam around a bit and touch lots of map markers so you can fast travel later without long walks.

8. How forums and players say they’ll spend their first hours

Recent Reddit and community threads around the remaster show a few common “first session” plans:

  • “Tutorial → sewer template save → adjust difficulty → beeline to favorite guild (often Mages or Thieves) → claim a bed/‘home’ → start hoarding loot.”
  • A nostalgia crowd wants to repeat their original 2006 route : main quest start, then get distracted by guilds and random caves almost immediately.
  • Min‑max players focus on:
    • Optimizing race, birthsign, and major skills.
    • Doing early quests that give strong permanent rewards (like access to merchant hubs, guild ranks, or key items).

Overall trend: newer players lean on structured “10 things to do first” style guides, while veterans treat the early hours more like a playground, but almost everyone agrees on the sewer save, early guilds, and a safe place to sleep.

9. Simple step‑by‑step starter checklist

If you want a clean checklist for “Oblivion Remastered what to do first,” here’s a streamlined version:

  1. Finish tutorial, then make a permanent save at the sewer exit.
  1. Adjust difficulty to a fun level.
  1. Head to the Imperial City or nearest big city, get a cheap bed / safe stash.
  1. Join Mages Guild and Fighters Guild right away; consider Thieves Guild next.
  1. Run a couple of easy nearby dungeons for loot and XP.
  1. Start building gold: sell found gear, optionally steal high‑value items and fence them once you can.
  1. Get an early horse to speed up exploration.
  1. Do a handful of starter quests around your first city to test your build.
  1. Move the main quest forward enough to reach Kvatch and decide whether to clear it early or wander more first.
  1. As you go, practice lockpicking, persuasion, and alchemy , and start exploring the map to unlock fast travel points.

Meta description (for SEO):
Wondering “Oblivion Remastered what to do first”? Here’s a modern step‑by‑step early‑game guide: sewer save, difficulty tuning, guilds, gold, horse, starter quests, and when to tackle Kvatch, based on recent guides and forum discussion.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.