How To Lower Your Bounty In Skyrim

So you were a little naughty. You did crime in the world of Skyrim, and now you're wondering how to get rid of the bounty that's following you and forcing guards to give you a hard time. We get it! Fortunately, there are a few paths you can take to lower your bounty in Skyrim.

First, you can simply pay the thing off. Do you have gold? Talk to a guard, hand over some of that sweet loot, and you're free to go as you please. Just make sure you aren't carrying anything stolen on you when you pay the bounty, because the guards will take it from you. And let's be honest: you probably stole some really nice stuff.

Are you a Thane? Perfect. That's another way you can get out of a bounty. There's often a different set of rules for the rich and powerful, and in Skyrim, things are no different. If a guard happens to approach you about your bounty, simply choose the dialogue option and let him know you're a Thane and he's hassling the wrong person. He'll bug off in no time. Note that this only works once, so if you plan on doing some serious crime later on, you might want to keep that one in your pocket.

Is jail that bad in Skyrim, really? Ask yourself that question. If you simply serve your sentence, you'll lose a little bit of progress — and the stuff you stole — but it's not like they're going to put your head on the chopping block. You spend some time in prison and then you get tossed back out on the street without a bounty. It's an option.

Finally, there's the murderous path. You only get hit with a bounty in Skyrim if a person or — believe it or not — a pet sees what you did. Want to nip that in the bud? Kill the witness. Of course, this could go terribly wrong. You could kill a witness in front of someone else, creating another witness. You could try to off that witness, too, only to have yet another person see what you did. You could very well massacre an entire town trying to clean up after yourself, and sure, that might wipe your bounty away. But what about your soul, Dovahkiin?

Anyway, now you know how to lower your bounty in Skyrim. Use this information responsibly.