To become the best thief you can be, you must advance properly. Proper advancing will allow your spells to become stronger, and your attacks more vicious.

All races are allowed into our ranks, but keep in mind that racial ties to good are still ties to good, and if you do not sever them, we will.

The first thing you will want to do, is rearrange. rearranging allows you to choose stats for yourself, so you can become more powerful.

While Rearranging, aim for these stats.

Dexterity -- 19 (With an 19 dexterity, you will be able to reach the stat maximum of 25 with just stat items and Shadow Cloak by the time you max.

Intelligence -- 17 (The higher your intelligence, the better your spells will be, so get as high as you can on this one.)

Strength -- 16 (This should let you carry all your loot about quite effectivly, but a higher strength might be useful if you can get it.)

Constituion -- Minimum of 14 (This controls how much HP you get, and while that isn't incredibly important for Shadowthieves, the higher you get it, the better.)

Wisdom -- Doesn't matter, wisdom has no effect on Shadowthieves.

After rearranging successfully (it may take many rolls), seek out the Newbie guild. There is one south of Lirath, and one in each racial homeland. There, advance,

• fighting to 5
• occult to 5
• covert to 5
• general to 5

Once you have completed your training in the Newbie guild, seek you the taverns of Lesser Treeth, where the Shadowthieves' make their home. Don't be decieved by the location of our home, for it is lavish, and comfortable. As a Shadowthief, the only skills that affect your level are occult, and covert. This you will take advantage of, so that you may stay low level, so as to get more xp from your kills, and yet get more and more powerful. This advancement plan is approximate, there are a few things you can skip over, and finish later, but doing it this way is the most ideal pattern. If anyone has a good modification to this plan, please mud-mail Phidauex, and tell him.

• fighting.points to 50
• fighting to 50 (these two are to gain as much HP as possible.)
• covert.stealth to 40 (this will give you Backstab, making you xp more effectivly.)
• occult.spells.summoning to 150
• occult.spells.enchanting to 150
• occult.spells.cursing to 150
• occult.spells to 150
• occult to 150
• covert.stealth to 300 (this is where you begin to show your true thief power. Try to find the Dagger of Death once your stealth is around 150-200.)
• covert to 300 (this will overmax your stealth to great heights, giving you an Invincible Backstab, and reducing your chance of getting caught stealing to almost nothing. Don't start robbing players until this has pushed your covert subskills all over 150.)
• fighting.combat.dodging.melee to 300
• fighting.combat.dodging to 300 (these two overmax your melee dodging, making you harder to hit, you can save overmaxing these till later, but get a good start on it early on though.)
• fighting.combat.range.thrown to 150
• fighting.combat.range to 150 (these make your black shards much stronger, however, they aren't very useful at low levels, and it might be worth it to save doing these until later.)
• finish any leftover subskills of occult
• covert.hiding to 300
• covert.thieving.pickpocket to 300
• covert.thieving to 300
• finish any leftover covert subskills, and you are done! Nothing else will move you up in level!

If you have maxxed correctly, you should reach somewhere around level 410-420..

Eventually, you will probably end up maxxing all of your subskills in every area, but a few that are of particular use are general.searching, because its always nice to know if someone is around, general.movement.sailing (raiseable to around 150 at the fishing village near Iapage) if you want to have a boat, and general.movement.climbing for the few places in the game you have to climb. General.charisma can be useful for lowering repair costs on your boat.