Master Criminal

Master Criminal

Master Criminal is an achievement/trophy in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, for which a bounty of 1000 must be earned in all of the nine Holds at the same time.

This achievement is easily unlocked at a high level, as the Dragonborn can take more hits. Killing a guard in front of witnesses will give an automatic 1000 bounty. The easiest strategy here is to kill a guard, flee and fast travel to another hold. One could also steal a horse at the stables to facilitate the escape. Repeat for all nine holds. Those who want to keep a good reputation could do this achievement on another save file, and reload their "good" game once it has been unlocked.

	Master Criminal Bounty of 1000 gold in all nine holds
Points	20
Trophy

The Holds of Skyrim

• Eastmarch
• Falkreath Hold
• Haafingar
• Hjaalmarch
• The Pale
• The Reach
• The Rift
• Winterhold Hold
• Whiterun Hold

General information

• Killing all witnesses will remove the bounty accumulated. Some NPCs should be left alive to tell the tale in order to keep the bounty high.
• It's easy to unlock this achievement if the Dragonborn has been infected with lycanthropy. Simply turning into a werewolf in front of someone will cause a 1000 bounty from transforming. Just leave and repeat in the next hold. This trick also works with the Vampire Lord transformation.
• The current bounties in each hold are available from the pause menu. Click on 'General Stats' and choose the crime option.
• If the Dragonborn is the Thane of a hold, they will not technically have a bounty if the Thane's privilege hasn't been used recently. If this achievement won't pop, even if all bounties are 1000+ in the menu, then the Dragonborn can return to the holds where they are Thane. Demand that any bounty be wiped clean as Thane, then commit the crime of choice again.
• Performing this as a werewolf allows faster escape to fast travel to another hold. Having the Ring of Hircine allows for multiple transformations a day.

Bugs

This section contains bugs related to Master Criminal. Before adding a bug to this list, consider the following: Please reload an old save to confirm if the bug is still happening. If the bug is still occurring, please post the bug report with the appropriate system template  360  /  XB1  ,  PS3  /  PS4  ,  PC  /  MAC  ,  NX  /  PS5  ,  XS  , depending on which platform(s) the bug has been encountered on. Be descriptive when listing the bug and fixes, but avoid having conversations in the description and/or using first-person anecdotes: such discussions belong on the appropriate forum board.

• Unlocking this achievement is impossible for non-English versions of the game as the bounties earned are not calculated by holds. Fixed in version 1.4.
• If the title of thane is lost after overthrowing the hold's jarl in the civil war questline and a bounty is incurred in that hold before thane-status can be regained, the bounty will not count towards the achievement. No known fixes for this bug.