Crafting lockpicks is very cheap and hardly a grind. Nothing like repairing items which was really a chore.

Here is the recipe if you like (there may be other combinations as in the last game):

1 nail + repair hammer (not consumed) = 4 lockpicks

Nails cost 2 gold from the scavenger guy on the beach with the Geo skill books. Each lockpick therefore costs 1/2 a gold piece. As he always starts with 4 you can craft 16 lockpicks which is enough for the whole game.


You still need to put the points in thievery but I've not seen anywhere that requires more than 2.