Krazymonkey5's Ultimate Thieving Guide v 1.31
(Semi-incomplete)
Last updated October 21, 2003
Approximate Completion: 87%
DISCLAIMER: This guide and all contents contained within are
copyright RuneScape player Krazymonkey5 2003. You may use the guide
anywhere you see fit, so long as I receive the credit for it. (A
simple "written by Krazymonkey5 is acceptable)
Credits:
Tha Hanzz - For submitting a few errors and oversights.
Awong - For submitting a very nice list of many doors and
the levels to open them. I'll get the experience, don't worry about
it.
isim / Century0 - For sumbitting values for the Hemenster
chest I don't care t do the quest in order to access. Also, thanks
to Century0 For a huge tip regarding Paladins (Again, due to a
quest I am too lazy to do.)
heelflip - For sumbitting and verifying many experience
values and levels for doors.
And of course, everyone who helped with the initial guide before it
was lost.
Table of Contents:
1 - Introduction to Thieving
2 - Pickpocketing
2a - Guide to pickpocketing
2b - List of thievable NPCs
3 - Looting stalls
3a - Guide to looting stalls
3b - List of thievable stalls
4 - Thieving Chests
4a - Guide to thieving chests
4b - List of thievable chests
5 - Picking locks on Doors
5a - Guide to picking locks
5b - List of Doors
6 - Maps (coming in a later edition)
7 - Getting fast Thieving Experience
8 - Getting fast Money
9 - Miscellaneous Information
10 - Things I need to add, comments, etc.
Author's note/disclaimer: All experience and level values with a
? after them are either not fully confirmed, or I am unsure of.
Conformation of/disproving these values will get you a mention in
the Credits and will make my guide that much better. Thanks in
advance.
~Krazymonkey5
So, you've just gotten members, and you aren't sure about what to
try next, huh? You see plenty of new quests, new skills, new lands
to explore... what should you try first? I recommend you try
thieving, one of the most profitable and useful skills in all of
RuneScape. You may even become addicted to the skill's usefulness -
I was, and now I am (as of the time I wrote this) a level 95 thief.
I will be 99 someday... but that's besides the point.
There are 4 major thieving skills:
1 - Pickpocketing. This is the act of walking up to certain NPCs
and selecting to "Pickpocket" them. If successful, you will gain
some item and some experience. If not, you will be attacked by the
NPC.
2 - Chests. There are chests scattered throughout the RuneScape
world. If you can disarm the trap on them, you will gain experience
and an item. Different chests require different levels.
3 - Stalls. There are many stalls in the town of Ardougne, which
could be called the thieving capital of RuneScape. To thieve from a
stall, walk up to one of the derivable stalls in the Ardougne town
center and select to thieve the item, if it is there. You must
avoid certain NPCs watching for potential thieves and also the
keepers of the stalls who don't wish that their goods be
stolen.
4 - Doors. Certain doors in RuneScape require you to pick the lock.
If you are not the required level for a door, you cannot pick the
lock. Some doors require lockpicks, but this I will explain
later.
Thieving is a great skill not just for the money, but also for the
items, too. You can gain items useful in many skills, including
combat (When you are attacked by the NPCs in pickpocketing), magic,
crafting, cooking, smithing... the list goes on.
To begin, at level 1, you have very limited options. You really
cannot do much ... but to begin your thieving career, pickpocket
the NPC "Man". Thus, it makes sense that the first skill I will
describe is pickpocketing NPCs.
Pickpocketing is, in my mind, one of the best experience getters in
all of RuneScape. Although it isn't really very good money until
you reach level 70, The experience you get from it far outweighs
it. In fact, to start, at level 1, the best way to gain experience
is by pickpocketing the Man.
To pickpocket a character, select "pickpocket" from the menu on the
screen. You will need to 2 click this option: one clicking the
monster will cause you to attack it or talk to it. When you select
this option, your character will walk up to the NPC and try to
pickpocket it. One of two things will happen:
1 - You will successfully pickpocket the monster, gaining an item
and some experience in the process, or
2 - You will be caught, and the NPC will attack you.
To start - Let me explain that if you are the exact level required
to thieve an NPC, you will be caught. A lot. Many players get
discouraged at this and give up. This happens a lot on guards,
where people will hit exactly level 40 and give up because they are
caught a lot. DON'T. You will still be getting faster experience
than with other thieving methods.
To prevent yourself from getting caught... for some odd reason,
I've noticed that if you stand on the same square as the NPC you
are thieving, you seem to be caught more frequently. Unfortunately,
this is where the game likes to place your character. If you thieve
once, and back off a bit, and thieve again, the game will not place
you on top of the NPC. Or, if there are more than one NPC to
thieve... alternate between them.
Also, it is important to have a certain "routine" - for some of the
higher leveled NPCs tend to hit rather high amounts and require
food and armor. If you have a banking routine, you can be a bit
more efficient in your thieving. If the NPC is far from a bank
(Like the Paladin, for example) - you may need to make a "bank run"
- so don't forget to fill your inventory with food.
And one last thing. Fight Defensive. A good thieving character is
the exact opposite of a good fighting character - High Defense, low
strength. Also remember to take off your weapon if you don't want
to kill the NPC...
Rubric for information:
(Thieving level required): (Object name) (Combat level for
NPCs)
Location: where you can find them
Recommended Location: Where I recommend you thieve an NPC
Items Obtained: Possible items you can gain.
Experience Obtained: The Experience you gain per pick. To determine
fatigue - Take the (experience per pick)/46.5 - that is the percent
fatigue you'll get.
Money Rating: out of 10, how rich you can get from the object.
Experience Rating: out of 10, how fast you gain experience.
Level 1: Man (level 9)
Location: Just about everywhere
Recommended Spot: In Ghost Town, there are a lot of men in a
building, but there is usually someone training combat there. Try
in Lumbridge or Falador.
Items obtained: 3 gp
Experience Obtained: 8
Money Rating: *
Experience Rating: *
Level 10: Farmer (level 15)
Location: Scattered along the roads of RuneScape
Recommended Spot: There is a farm near Ardougne where there are a
couple farmers. I don't really recommend farmers, though.
Items Obtained: 9 gp
Experience Obtained: 14.5
Money Rating: **
Experience Rating: **
Level 25: Warrior (level 18)
Location: Found in mainly in Ardougne and Al Kharid
Recommended Spot: The castle in Al Kharid is a great spot to
thieve.
Items Obtained: 18 gp
Experience Obtained: 26
Money Rating: **
Experience Rating: *****
Level 32 : Rogue (level 21)
Location: Deep in the Members Wilderness
Recommended Spot: There is a hut in the northeast corner of the
wild. Watch for the PKers though...
Items Obtained: One of the following: 25, 30, or 40 gp, Wine, 8 Air
Runes, Poisoned Iron Dagger, Lockpick
Experience Obtained: 35.5
Money Rating: ***
Experience Rating: ******
Level 40: Guard (level 28)
Location: In most every major town in RuneScape
Recommended Spot: The south gate of Varrock is good for low-leveled
players... The other gates are also good if there is no one
training there. There are also spots in Edgeville and the lower
floor of the Varrock Palace (Thanks to Tha Hanzz)
Items Obtained: 30 gp
Experience Obtained: 46.5
Money Rating: ***
Experience Rating: ********
Level 55: Knight (level 56)
Location: Ardougne is I think the only location.
Recommended Spot: In the Paladin's castle courtyard, there are a
couple Knights to thieve. I don't really like Knights though.
Items Obtained: 50 gp
Experience Obtained: 84.25
Money Rating: ***
Experience Rating: *****
Level 65: Yanille Watchmen (level 33)
Location: In a small building just outside of Yanille. It is hard
to find, and requires level 30 (?) agility to enter. It is used in
the Watchtower Quest.
Recommended Location: There's only the one spot.
Items Obtained: 60 gp, bread
Experience Obtained: 137.5
Money Rating: ****
Experience Rating: **********
Level 70: Paladin (level 71)
Location: In a few places in Ardougne
Recommended Location: In the second floor of the Paladin's Castle,
there is a room with 4 Paladin spawns. If you want to see all the
high leveled thieves in RuneScape (including me), this is where you
need to go. If you've done the Underground Pass quest, the
Underground Pass is a great place to thieve a few Paladins. There
is hardly anyone here. (Thanks to Century0 for this
hint)
Items Obtained: 80 gp and 1 Chaos rune
Experience Obtained: 151.75
Money Rating: **********
Experience Rating: *********
Level 75: Gnomes (level 3 or 9)
Location: Gnome Stronghold
Recommended Location: Don't bother with Gnomes. Trust me.
Items Obtained: One of the following: 300 gp, Swamp Toad, King
Worm, gold nugget, fire orb, 1 Earth Rune
Experience Obtained: 198.25
Money Rating: **
Experience Rating: *****
Level 80: Hero (level 83)
Location: In Ardougne Market
Recommended Location: There is only one spawn in all of
RuneScape.
Items Obtained: One of the following (deep breath): 200 or 300 gp,
fire orb, wine, 2 death runes, 1 blood rune, gold nugget, cut
diamond (!)
Experience Obtained: 273.5
Money Rating: ******
Experience Rating: *******
Stalls are another way to gain items from thieving. However, with
the exception of the cake stall at early levels, stalls are
terrible, terrible experience. The cake stall is the worst: I think
you can gain maybe 300 experience an hour there. If you want
experience, pickpocket. If you need items... stalls are not a bad
idea.
In the town of Ardougne (The thieving capital of the world, mind
you), there is a market area (you can't miss it) with many stalls.
These stalls have many things to loot - from simple cakes to gems.
Some of these things are more useful than others. To steal from a
stall, walk next to the stall you wish to steal from and select
"Steal from (stall)" on the menu. If there is an item there (with
the other players trying to steal the item, there may not be), your
character will try to thieve it. If you are not caught, you will
gain an item and some experience. If either the stall owner or a
guard catches you, you will be either scolded if the owner catches
you, or attacked if a guard catches you. Be careful.
Now, if you may have noticed, there are two things that may prevent
you from getting the item in the stall - the other players and the
guards and stall owners. The latter is rather easy to avoid, if you
know how... the former requires a bit more cunning, so I'll start
there.
First of all, each stall has a certain "spawn rate" - the lower
level the stall, the faster the spawn. Many of the better thieving
players have learned these times, and will get the items better.
Level has nothing to do with how well you thieve... timing is the
key to getting the item before everyone else. Trust me, LEARN THE
SPAWN RATES! This is really the only way to beat the other players.
If there is a player who is just too good for you, admit defeat and
switch servers.
As for the other factor preventing you from getting the items,
watch the NPCs carefully. To start, there are 4 NPCs that will
attack if they catch you thieving: Guards, Knights, Paladins, and
that lone Hero. The higher level NPCs will only attack on higher
level stalls, as shown here:
Guards attack on every stall.
Knights won't attack until the Silk stall, or any higher leveled
stall.
Paladins will not attack until the Silver stall or higher.
The Hero will only attack on the Spices and Gems.
Thus, if you are thieving cakes, don't worry about the Hero. Watch
the guards. As for the stall owners, make sure you follow my guide
to thieving stalls list to see where the best spot to stand is to
avoid the owner.
Plus... If you try to thieve from a stall - whether or not you are
successful, the stall owner will not sell you anything, instead
calling a guard. This doesn't include the cake stall - only the
other stalls. If you do not thieve from the stall for a time -
about a week I believe, you will be able to buy from the stall
again... or sell what you've stolen...
Rubric for information:
(Level required): Item to thieve
Recommended standing spot: Where to stand in order to avoid getting
caught.
Item Gained: What you get it you steal successfully.
Experience Gained: Self Explanatory.
Money Rating: out of 10, how worthwhile a stall is.
(Note, except the cake stall, the experience ratings for all stalls
are rubbish.)
Level 5: Cakes Stall
Standing Spot: Between the stall and the building next to the
stall.
Item Gained: Cake
Experience Gained: 16
Money Rating: **
Level 20: Silk Stall
Standing Spot: Between the Mansion and the Stall
Item Gained: Silk (Duh!)
Experience Gained: 24
Money Rating: ***
Level 35: Fur Stall
Standing Spot: Between the Gate and the Stall
Item Gained: White Wolf Fur. Sell to Baraek in Varrock for 120 gp
per.
Experience Gained: 36
Money Rating: ****
Level 50: Silver Stall
Standing Spot: Between the Gate and the Stall
Item Gained: One Silver ore.
Experience Gained: 54
Money Rating: *** - Mine your
silver instead.
Level 65: Spice Stall
Standing Spot: Just about anywhere. It's hard to get caught
here.
Item Gained: Spice. Use it to make curry. That is more a cooking
thing though.
Experience Gained: 81
Money Rating: ***
level 75: Gems Stall
Standing Spot: Between the Plate mail top store and the Stall
Item Gained: One random uncut gem. 80-90% of the time, it is a
sapphire, and I've yet to get a diamond in over 200 attempts. What
a rip... You're more likely to get diamonds from the Hero.
Experience Gained: 16. Yes, only 16. It's a typo, I presume...
Money Rating: **
The third type of thieving in RuneScape is looting a chest. To loot
a chest, Select Search for traps on the drop down menu.
DO NOT SELECT OPEN!! This will cause you to take damage from
a trap. If you are a high enough level, and there is an item in the
chest... (There usually isn't) - You will loot the chest, gaining
some item and some experience. If there is no item, you will get a
message saying so.
Chests are very good for getting certain rare items, such as nature
runes, blood runes, even raw sharks. The experience is also not
very good for the time you spend. The main reason for the chest is
to, indeed, get the rare items.
Although it may not seem that difficult ... the science behind
thieving chests is a lot more complicated than you think. The main
reason for this is because there are oftentimes other players
(sometimes 2 or 3) trying to get the exact same item as you. There
is only one solution: LEARN THE SPAWN TIMES!! (Sound
familiar?) For example... the nature rune chest. This is possibly
the single most popular chest in all of RuneScape. At as low a
level as 28, thieves can gain a lot of money. The secret here is
that the spawn time is about 12 seconds. The more players on a
server, the faster the spawn rate, but the average is about 12
seconds.
There is not a whole lot more to it. Beating the other players is
the sole difficulty in thieving chests. If you beat them enough,
you MAY chase them away, giving you an even easier time on the
chests. Again, if there is someone good there (like me... :) Seriously, I've chased off many a player) - admit
defeat and swap servers. I guess it really isn't that complicated.
Bah.
Rubric for Information:
(Level of chest)
Location: Need I explain?
Items Obtained: Errrrr, see above.
Experience Obtained: :-)
Money Rating: Out of 10, how much blingage you can obtain from
looting the chest
(Again, no Exp. rating.)
Level 1 Chest:
Location: Ardougne, Members Wilderness
Items Obtained: 10 gp
Experience Obtained: 7.5
Money Rating: *
Level 28 Chest:
Location: Ardougne, Member's Wilderness
Items Obtained: 3 gp, 1 Nature Rune
Experience Obtained: 25
Money Rating: *********
Level 43 Chest:
Location: Ardougne, Member's Wilderness
Items Obtained: 50 gp
Experience Obtained: 125
Money Rating: **
Level 59 Chest:
Location: Chaos Tower, just north of the Paladin's Castle
Items Obtained: 2 Blood Runes, 500 gp
Experience Obtained: 250
Money Rating: *****
Note: This chest will teleport you outside of the tower, plus, it
is guarded by aggressive level 58 Ogres.
Level 72 Chest:
Location: Paladin's Tower, 3rd floor
Items Obtained: 1,000 gp, adamantite ore, raw shark, uncut
sapphire
Experience Obtained: 500
Money Rating: ******
Note: This chest will teleport you outside of Ardougne. It is a
good way to go to the bank after you run out of food thieving
Paladins...
Hemenster Chest: (Level 45-46?)
Location: Near the Fishing Contest Quest
Items Obtained: 5 steel arrowheads, Some quantity of gp (20?)
Experience Obtained: 137.5-150 (?)
Money Rating: ***
There is a fourth way to gain experience in thieving - picking open
doors. Now, doors give a very limited amount of experience, plus,
there are no items to be had. The main purpose of picking a door is
to access areas inaccessible by players with inadequate thieving
levels.
To pick a door, merely select "Pick Lock" from the menu. If you are
a high enough level, your character will attempt to pick the lock.
If successful, you will enter the door. If not, you will have to
try again. There will be a message if you are too low to pick a
door.
There's not much to picking doors. Either you are successful or you
aren't. Some doors require a lockpick to open, though. There will
be a message if you try to open one without this item. They can be
obtained by pickpocketing Rogues... or on a spawn pile in Yanille
that requires 57 agility or 83 thieving to get to.
Oh yes - The door on the second floor of the Paladin's castle is
level 61. You don't know how often I get asked that. You
really don't. And it attacks you if you fail to open it, too.
1 Story House: level 1
Experience: 7.5
Doors to all two story houses in Ardougne: level 16
Experience: 15
Door (Handelmort Mansion in Ardougne): level 21
Experience: 15
Mining Rocks Door (Ardougne Sewers): level 31-32 (?)
Experience: 25
Pirates Bar Door (Wilderness - requires a lockpick): level 39
Experience: ??? (25?)
Door (Blood Rune Chest - Chaos Druid's Tower): level 46
Experience: 37.5
Iban's Cave Jail Doors - level 50 (?)
Experience: 40 (?) - I haven't done this quest. I didn't even know
this door existed...
Door (Paladin Building - WARNING: may attack you if you fail to
pick it): level 61
Experience: 50
Door (Yanille Agility Dungeon): level 84
Experience: 50
Thanks to Awong for all these values. Experience values would be
appreciated, if anyone can find them...
Another list I don't have yet. I will put these up someday.
These are pictures I will draw that show where everything in this
guide is. The Paladin's Castle I alluded to is just west of Ardougne.
First of all, at level 1, the best experience are with Men. Of
course, you only have 2 choices... but... Of those, it is the
better. Now, you must pickpocket these Men until you hit
level 5. Once you hit level 5, make the trek to Ardougne and go to
the cakes stall. This will be the best experience for you from
level 5 up until... about level 25, actually. Farmers are no better
experience.
At level 25, you'll want to pickpocket Warriors. You may get caught
a lot, but they are the best experience at the level. You will want
to thieve the warriors until level 40 if you want to level as
quickly as possible - this part of the guide is for experience
gaining. If you want money, go to Chapter VIII.
Now, once you are at level 40, go to the integral part in your
thieving journey - guards. At level 40, guards are very fast
levels. In fact, if you want to go as fast as possible, you will
thieve on guards until level 65 or 70! Knights, in my mind, catch
you too much to be faster experience than guards.
If you are level 30 or higher agility and can enter the room, head
straight for the Yanille Watchmen at level 65 thieving. This is, in
fact, the fastest experience in the game at any level. If you are
intent on getting to level 99 as quickly as possible, this is where
you will camp out until level 99! If not, then I recommend you get
to level 70 for...
Paladins! If you weren't able to get to the Watchmen, train on
guards until 70. If you head to the Paladin's castle, make sure you
bring food. Paladins are almost as good experience as watchmen, but
they are the best money in thieving. Once you run out of food,
merely run to the bank, deposit your runes, and go back with more
food.
This is about all you need to know for high experience. Gems are
terrible experience, Heros are decent but not nearly as good as
Paladins or Watchmen. Of course, once you hit 70 or 80 thieving,
you will likely not care about thieving experience... you will be
ready to make big money! And that is what the next chapter is about
- the best ways to make money via thieving.
Now, if you are like most players in RuneScape, you'll thieve only
for the money. I mean, seriously, training for experience is
boring! If you really want money, like any skill, you have to get
up to ridiculously high levels... right?
Right?
Nope! At as low a level as level 28, you can be rolling in money
from thieving! Of course, before then... At level 20, you can steal
silk. If you steal the silk, and then wait until the dealer doesn't
recognize you as a thief, sell his wares back to him. I believe you
can get 60 gp a silk! That's not too shabby for level 20... Or, for
a variation, buy silk in Al Kharid, sell in Ardougne. That's not
really thieving, though.
Back to level 28. At level 28, you might want to, if you really
want to make fast money and you don't care about going quickly to
the top, make a good deal of money on the nature rune chest.
Remember - learn the spawn times. There are a lot of thieves at
level 28+ who need natures. But, if you are good at thieving
natures, you can (assuming you get every one) get 300 natures an
hour. You can get over 500 per, and that is 150k an hour!!! Of
course... you won't get that many - I know it. Too many other
players. Let's press on.
At level 35... you can steal fur and sell it. This isn't nearly as
profitable as natures. Neither is almost everything up until level
70... Although if you really want to, you can, at level 59... try
to get blood runes form the chest. When I was level 59 thieving,
very few people were that high, and there weren't too many people
competing for the chest. Now, there are many, many more players
with 59+ thieving, and many, many more players who want the chest.
it is VERY hard to get blood runes now.
So, at level 40, plug away as the guards until level 70 so you can
thieve the Paladins. Paladins are the best money in all of
thieving!! At my level, I can get about 400 picks an hour, and I
can get 500 a rune... that's 200k an hour! That can be huge! Need I
say more? Or... you can use those chaos for your magic level. If I
didn't sell my runes, I could easily be level 85+ magic.
As for the other things... The gems stall, probably one of the
reasons you embarked on a quest for high leveled thieving... is a
total flop, money wise. It is terrible - all the sapphires! And
Heros, as I said before, are better for diamonds! As for the heros,
there are good for the rare items, like Death runes, diamonds,
blood runes, or Fire Orbs... but they often attacked by "macho"
40-50 combat players curios to see if they can kill the character.
It becomes a mere novelty after a while.
Summary:
Nature Chest - Great Money for a low level.
Guards - Good Experience
Watchmen - Amazing Experience
Paladins - Amazing Money, Great experience. Best thieving character
in RuneScape.
Gems Stall - Utter Waste of your Time.
This section still has some work left. It is not complete right
now.
There are a couple thieving bugs in the game. The first is a bug
that is illegal according to
Jagex. Do not try it unless you wish to get banned.
Anyways, if you range a NPC to the limit of its range and thieve
it, you will not be attacked. I don't know the rest, as I haven't
tried it. IT IS ILLEGAL.
There is also something that requires you to drink a cocktail until
your attack and strength are both 0. This way, if an NPC attacks
you, you won't hit it, so it will not be killed. I hear this
doesn't work anymore, any conformation would be nice.
As for thieving bonuses, there is one item in the game that I know
of that can give you a thieving bonus. It is called a "Poison
Chalice", and you can get it at the coal mine near Ardougne (The
one with the coal cart). There is a man named "Stankers" there -
select the option "Hello Mr. Stankers" and he will offer a Poison
Chalice. This item has many effects; It might lower your hits, or
your combat... It might raise your combat stats too. Very rarely,
it'll raise your thieving by 1 temporarily. So, if you are level 74
and want to steal a gem, drink the chalices until you get that
level, and the thieve it before the level wears away.
To start, I am missing a lot of values and information. However,
don't PM me about them for a couple days. You may comment on what I
have now... but do not send information until I am finished putting
all the information I need in. Just the basic information on
Version 1.0 took over 3 hours to type! Once again, I apologize for
the incompleteness of this version of the guide.
Source: RSDemon Online,
RSDemon Community