Can you dual-wield in Oblivion Remastered?

A lot of returning Elder Scrolls fans might be excited about the prospect of dual-wielding in Oblivion Remastered. However, the reality is that you simply can't dual-wield in this title, just like in the original. The best you can do is use a one-hander with off-hand armaments, which is limited to just the Torch and Light/Heavy Shields.

However, there are a few things to note here that sort of count as pseudo-dual wielding.

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What's the closest you get to dual-wielding in Oblivion Remastered?

You can only use shields and torches in the off-hand (Image via Sportskeeda || Bethesda Softworks)

Due to how the Spell equipment system works in Oblivion Remastered, players can technically wield spells and any armament concurrently. For those coming to this game from Skyrim, here's how it's different.

In Skyrim, if you're playing a spellsword or battlemage or any other combat-magic multiclass, you'd typically take a one-hander in your right hand, and a spell in your left. However, in Oblivion Remastered, the spells are bound to a separate key altogether.

This means you have instant access to spells on top of whatever you are brandishing — be it a sword-and-board, a two-hander, or a staff.

Other than that, here are the rules for equipment limitation:

• You can't put one-handers in the off-hand in Oblivion Remastered. One-handed weapons include daggers, axes, and maces, and you can only have torches and shields in the off-hand.
• Two-handed weapons cannot be held alongside a shield. This includes two-handed variants of all blades and blunt weaponry, as well as all staves. That's right, staves are two-handed in Oblivion Remastered.
• Unlike in Skyrim, you also cannot dual-cast spells.

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Why isn't there dual-wielding in Oblivion Remastered?

Just one hand at a time now (Image via Bethesda Softworks)

The answer is simple: for balance reasons. Oblivion's gearing system was balanced around the idea of not being able to dual-wield one-handed weapons, which would effectively double your DPS.

Not that the original game was a stickler for balance, looking at how absurdly roided-out the enemy scaling used to be. Regardless, Oblivion Remastered takes great care to preserve the vision and concept of the original, so they haven't reworked this equipment system.

In fact, this aspect is the biggest departure Skyrim made from the original Oblivion. Now, for those who really like the class fantasy of dual-wielding, or just want to do it for cool points, the next stop is Skyblivion. It's being made in Skyrim's engine, so dual-wielding will definitely be easily moddable. Which brings us to another question.

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Can you mod dual-wielding into Oblivion?

At the time of writing, you cannot. Given that the backend of Oblivion is running on the original Gamebryo (proto-CE) code, it's certainly possible in the future.

However, a big caveat here is the balance factor. For the original Oblivion, a few dual-wielding mods exist, but all of them either introduce some unavoidable bugs at worst and disrupt the game balance quite a bit at best.

That being said, legacy Oblivion's modding scene is not the biggest. Depending on how much it proliferates in Oblivion Remastered (which already has 80+ mods and a collection one day-one), a prim and proper dual-wielding implementation may not be a pipe dream.

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Check out our other guides on the game:

• Oblivion Remastered: Minor and Major Skills, explained
• Oblivion Remastered: What are the best Attributes to increase?
• Best Races to pick for Melee, Magic, and Ranged classes in Oblivion Remastered
• Best Birthsigns to take in Oblivion Remastered