Now you know the answer to the question, and you are bound to keep that information to yourself. The question will change periodically, and so will the location of this file, so be on your toes, just like a Shadowthief must always be!
This area is where the Great Shadowthieves of the past have come to share their secrets, their hints, and their wisdom, to allow all the new Shadowthieves to steal with skill, and keep out of harms way. Listen to these words, and practice them well, and you will live much longer, and be much more profitable.
View information on the areas of:
Daggers
Sneaking
Stealing
Lying
Killing
Helping
General Thief Info
Daggers
Thieves have a special situation with our weapons. Daggers, especially of this sort, are very hard to learn how to use, and simply advancing your skills in the guild is not enough. You have to be experienced in the use of a technical weapon before you can become truly proficient at it. Because of this, there is special way to gain some of your skills as a thief.
All thieves start with the Dagger of Darkness, you can hold two of these, as they are designed to train both your arms in the methods of combat. As you fight with the daggers, you will become better at their use. Every so often, you will notice a message telling you that you have become more proficient with their use. Check your current progress with the command,
dagger_skills
and you will see some information looking like this,You have learned 0 basic techniques for this weapon.
You have learned 0 intermediate techniques for this weapon. You have learned 0 advanced techniques for this weapon.
Each of the 'skill levels' corresponds to a certain weapon. The 'basic techniques' are what you learn with the Dagger of Darkness. As you fight, the number of 'basic techniques' will slowly rise, until it reaches 10, this indicates you have completed your basic dagger training with the Dagger of Darkness.
Now it is time to get the next weapon to train with, the Twisted Blade of The Twilight. The Twisted Blade is a two handed sword. Using it will train you to manipulate one weapon, with both hands. Your progress on the Twisted Blade is represented by the 'intermediate techniques' in the 'dagger_skills' command. Like the Dagger of Darkness, you will continue to fight with the Twisted Blade until you have advanced it 10 times. Once you have completed your training on the Twisted Blade, it is time to seek out the Dagger of Death.
The Dagger of Death is the premier thief weapon. Its fine blade, and careful manufacturing will allow you to puncture, gouge, slice, tear, and otherwise maim your enemies with great efficiency. There is a quest to find the Dagger of Death. Rumor has it that somewhere in the Valeris Mountains, and ancient thief still lives, and he is rumored to possess great power, seek him out, and you may find what you need to know about the Dagger of Death. When (if) you find the Dagger of Death, you are sworn to keep the quest information secret. If you tell anyone, or if anyone tells you, about the quest details, you both shall die. Once you get the Dagger of Death, you will continue to train, again, 10 more times, and your progress is represented by the 'advanced techniques' in the 'dagger_skills' command.
Notes on advancing the daggers: You must train in order, you will gain nothing from training on an advanced weapon, without first understanding the basics of the earlier weapons. Advancement happens automatically, as you are fighting, you don't need to spend experience points, money, or use any command, this is simply practice. Advancement is calculated based on how much damage you do with that weapon. Using spells to kill monsters will not help your advancement go faster, in fact, it will hinder it. So use your backstab, and melee combat, while you are xping, to gain the most from your practice. You can speed the process, by increasing the amount of damage your dagger will do. Casting Dimensional Tentacles on your victim will lower their defense, allowing you to do more damage. Also, getting your daggers enchanted will increase their damage, making you advance faster.
All of these weapons are based off of the skill covert.stealth, so the higher your rating in covert.stealth, the more damage you will do. Often, it is benefical to start your career as a Shadowthief by using a claymore, or the Phantasmal Blade, or another fighting.combat.melee.sharp based weapon, because you will raise sharp before you get to stealth. Once your stealth is over 50 though, you should start your training on the daggers.
Although this seems like a lot of work, the benefits of being highly trained on your weapons are many, and the practiced thief will be able to do much more damage, and have much more effective attacks, don't shirk on your training, no one said being a Shadowthief was easy.
Sneaking
There is an art to sneaking, and you must master it to stay alive. While sneaking, there are a few things you have to keep in mind. Firstly, if you go through a door, people will not see your name, but they will see "South door opens." then "South door closes." alerting them that a sneaking person has entered the room. Also, if someone sends you a soul, such as smile, or grin, or whatnot, while you are hidden, you will remain hidden, but everyone in the room will see that "Soandso smiles at [your name]." and they may search, or just attack you on suspicion.
You can avoid this type of thing by turning off your remote-souls while you are stealing. This can be done by first using the command,
earmuffs remote-soul onto set your earmuffs to block remote-soul events, then,
earmuffs on
to turn the earmuffs on. To allow people to send souls to you again, enter,
earmuffs off
but remember to turn them back on again while you are sneaking about.
Another helpful thing, is a way that you don't have to type 'sneak south' and 'sneak west' all the time. My personal technique is to alias all the directions, in capital letters, as sneaking that direction, soalias S sneak south alias N sneak north
So that whenever I want to sneak, I simply hit the caps-lock key, and I sneak about, I also alias several commonly used commands, likealias L look alias F finger
A few other tricks to keep in mind, is if you know a room is empty, do 'open doors' and this will open all the doors, so that when you visit a little while later, the doors will remain open, letting you sneak freely! Just be careful that they don't shut themselves (which they do after no one has passed through for a while, or that someone hasn't shut them manually (which some paranoid people will do).
Remember, we live in the realm of the shadows, and your victims will be even more unsuspecting if they don't see you in the area. Never leave a room visible, hide, and come back, because people will still suspect your presence. As long as you aren't xping, remain in the shadows.
Stealing
We are thieves, I'm sure you have gathered this by now. Stealing is not just something we do, its a way of life. The area of stealing is really broken into two distinct parts. First, is actually stealing their valuable. Second, and perhaps more important than the first, is not getting caught doing so.
Before I talk about the stealing though, its best to know who not to rob, and how to tell. At this time, the only people under protection are Pirates. Pirates can be identified because they often have sashes, peg legs, or telescopes on them. Sometimes they will have a cracker, for their parrot, or a pair of Basket Hilted Cutlasses on them. And, while they aren't our friends in any way, we should never rob Paladins, because they have a skill that allows them to catch evil thieves, nearly every time. Even a maxxed Shadowthief will be caught by a low level Paladin. So be careful about them too.
So now that that is done, the actual act of robbing.
How do you steal? Well, stealing is really a fairly simple exercise. But in its simplicity, its easy to over look some pretty common mistakes.
For my stealing, I always go equipped with several aliases. I make them as such:alias 1 steal bag from $*$
alias 2 steal backpack from $*$
alias 3 steal pouch from $*$
alias 4 steal potion from $*$ alias 5 steal satchel from $*$
Then, when you come across 'Scrappy' in Hylar, and he has a bag you want, simply,1 scrappyAnd it is the same as typing out 'steal bag from scrappy.' Its faster, and you are much less likely to make a typo.
You can also make aliases for other commonly stolen items, like coins, if you like.
One thing you have to keep in mind, with whatever you are stealing from a person, is what they are carrying, and what they are wearing or holding. Take this situation.
You see Scrubby, the Gnomish Pyromancer.
When you look at him, you see this.Holding : Blazing Mesonite Staff (Storm Bonded). Wearing : a Silver Helm, a Leather Gloves, a Blue Flowing Robe, a Pendant of Eternal Flame and a Pair of Metal Clad Boots. Carrying: Titamite Staff. Dark Robe. Elven Travel Bag. His purse is bulging with coins and gems.
What would be best to steal here? I would go for the bag first. Bags often contain valuables, and even if they don't, they can be very useful for carrying around your other loot, or selling for a good profit. Second, I would go for his coins. Often people don't carry many coins around, but sometimes they will be on their way to get something expensive, or are just not expecting thieves, and will be carrying a lot of cash. Now, the Titamite Staff, and Dark Robe might look tempting, but notice what he is holding and wearing. If you type 'steal robe from scrubby' you are likely that the game will interpret that as the first robe it sees on Scrubby, hence, the Blue Flowing Robe. If you try to steal something that someone is holding or wearing, you will almost certainly get caught. The same goes with the Titamite Staff, since he is holding another staff. Sometimes you can get around this by doing things like 'steal titamite staff from scrubby' and typing out the item's full name, but this doesn't always work, and it is often safer to just get what you can easily, and wait for easier pickings to come around for the other items.
Where do you go to find your marks? Well, pretty much anywhere a mark would go... But a little more specifically, where they go, and go to concentrate on something other than you. A good place I've found, is places where people go to kill for xp. While they are xping on hard monsters, they are often paying more attention to surviving, than who is lurking in the nearby shadows. Also, while xping, they often carry bags full of potions to help them survive, or money to buy healing from taverns in the area. While they are fighting is an excellent time to free them of any extra items they may be carrying in their inventory.
Popular xping places for good aligned people is Hylar, west of Lirath. Occasionally the Encampment south of Lirath, or the Kai-Thaan Palace as well. At higher levels, you may find some juicy tidbits in Kilderah, on Raven's Island. Other times, you can just wander the streets, waiting for someone to come around a corner. Though it is generally unsafe to hide in the bank, waiting for people, because often, people will search upon entering the bank, and if someone has maxxed their searching, they will find you, even with a maxxed hiding. If you are feeling very good, and ready for a challenge, wait until a war is going on, and get into the war zone, and rob. Here, people will be scurrying about like chickens, and often make easy robbing targets of themselves. They also are prone to carrying MANY mana potions, resist potions, and stat potions in bags. Also, they are in a mood to kill, so if you are caught, the consequences will be much harsher than normal.
Lying
Lying is a careful, and delicate art. It is more than just telling something that isn't true, its the ability to weave a fine story, crafting great tales from nothingness.
There are two kinds of thieves. Those who have been caught, and those who will. This you must always remember. No thief, even the great thieves of lore, have gotten away every time. But what distinguishes a lowly thief, from a master thief, in that situation, is how they deal with it.
Lets start with some general rules, though every case must always be treated individually.
Generally, you are considered caught if you recieve a message such as "EEEK! Soandso seems to have noticed your activities!" This means they have recieved a message such as "You catchsoandso groping around in your pockets!" Also, you can be considered, for many circumstances, 'caught' if they see you putting their items into a bag (did you forget to use slip?) or if they search right after you rob them, and they find you. Circumstantial 'evidence' such as, "You are the only Shadowthief on," or "I saw you in the area a little while ago," are NOT acceptable. Usually, the first thing to do if you get caught, is to sneak out, hide, and run like heck to the guild (sneaking all the way), if you have been caught by a wizard, or a sorcerer, or someone with teleport, cast teleport protection on yourself to prevent them from teleporting to you, and killing you. Killing
The first thing you do, is wait for them to tell you something, never be the first to talk. Occasionally, people will realize that accusations often get them killed, and accept what happened as part of the game, other times, people will lose your name in battle spam, and not even notice who they caught. If they send you a tell such as "Hey, give me my stuff back." (as you often will), feigning ignorance is best. Often, just a "What?" will force them to explain what kinds of evidence they got. If they caught you red handed, i.e. got a message that they caught you, lying will not help much, but its worth a try. If they 'caught' you by searching right after they lost some inventory, lying is a great way to get out of it. Often, if they searched and found you, saying something like "Oh yeah, I guess someone did search me out a minute ago.. I was just passin' through.." will disuade them. If they force the issue, as sometimes they do, with threats like, "I know you did it. Now if you don't return my stuff, I'll kill you." you have to try a different strategy. Now, this is where you need to use your personal judgement. This part of the lying is not easy, and depends on all your wits and intelligence as a thief. Take this scenario.
(Note, this really happened like this.) I see Rishto the ninja, he's xping in Hylar. He has a bag I want, so, I track him down, and as he is killing a monster, I snag his bag, sucessfully. Then all of a sudden, he starts searching, and finds me in the room. I quickly hide, and sneak away, back to the guild. In my opinion, he doesn't have much to go on, because it was a main road in Hylar, a fairly high traffic zone, also, even if he got a look at me (I couldn't tell) lots of people have bags, and I could have just been passing through with one. I receive a tell from him to the effect of, "Hey, give me my bag back!" and I reply with a "What?" feigning total ignorance on the situation. "The bag your ripped off me, give it back" he tells me, "Eh? What bag are you talking about?" I answer. Silence. Then, "I just found you in Hylar, you robbed my bag." "Did you catch someone? I guess I was there a while ago, but I was just xping." "Don't tell me that, you stole my bag." "You should be more careful with who you accuse, yelling at innocent passerbys often gets people killed." "Ok, sorry, but if you find them, tell me, ok?" "Ok, good luck." I got the impression early on that he wasn't totally confident in his 'catch' and I played on that to get him to believe that I was not only innocent, but on his side.
Things you have to take into account when you are caught, is, how confident are they, some people are rock solid, and are very sure of themselves. Other people are just shooting in the dark, hoping that the person they accuse will cave in out of fear. Other things you need to consider, how high of traffic is the area? Did they see me with their item? If so, was it a very common item? Or a fairly rare one?
If it seems you can't weasel out of this situation, the next best thing is to pay them off. If you have been stealing a bit at a time over a good length of time, you can often get away with only giving back the things you most recently stole.
Though, unfortunatly, if they have caught you red handed, or the evidence is very good on their side, they will kill you. And in those situations, there isn't much we can do. However, a person who caught you is only 'warranted' one kill, and they can't loot your corpse. If they do, this is grounds for us hunting them down. Though, this outcome, the death of a thief, is rarely what ends up happening, in probably 50-60% of the cases, just lying to them works, in another 30-40%, the thief has to pay back all or part of the robbed items. Then in the remaining few percent, a thief dies. So not to worry, you will probably escape your few unlucky encounters unscathed.
There is also a whole different side to being accused. Once in a while, you will get accused when the person had almost no proof, or no proof what so ever. This is where we show our viciousness. If the person threatens you, in any way, make sure to tell another thief, and if people deem it necessary, a hunt will be called on the fool who accused you. Usually, we just kill them once, to teach them how to behave around thieves, but if they start killing Shadowthieves, or are a constant problem, we continue to kill them until they have learned who the masters of the shadows are.
Shadowthieves, while not the most offensive of guilds, has a few tricks up our sleeves, for killing of troublemakers. There are many aliases possible for PKing (Player Killing) as a Shadowthief, and other aliases for killing hard npcs, or even just xping in dangerous areas.
When your target is visible, and without images, is when they are most vulnerable. In situations like that (this is often the case if we are killing some person who accused the wrong person, and they are just wandering around, not expecting to do battle), I use an alias containing a combination of bleeding pores, dimensional tentacles, backstab, and an attempt to remove their weapon from their hands.
This is my alias for that sort of attempt.cast ghostly terror $1$;cast dimensional tentacles $1$;hide;backstab $1$;hide;steal weapon from $1$
To use this alias, just type '[name of alias] [name of person]'. The sequence of events with this alias is timed so that you get the hide bonus on both the steal attempt, and the backstab attempt, and you aren't officially in combat when you attempt the steal, and start the backstab, so you can still execute both at full power. Also, this alias leaves them trapped in one room, and bleeding from the pores, making them an easy target for someone else if your backstab doesn't finish them off.
Sometimes, if I'm just killing npcs, or xping, or whatnot, I will use either,
cast ghostly terror $*$;hide;backstab $*$or
cast dimensional tentacles $*$;hide;backstab $*$In general, its best for Shadowthieves to avoid duels, because it is often hard for us to kill an enemy who is expecting us. It is better to wait until the time is right for you, and take them out by surprise. Also, Shadow ID can be a useful implement while killing, though I haven't tested it for players yet. If you've had experiences with it, please mud-mail me about it.
Helping
Helping you ask? When does a thief HELP anyone? Why, when it serves our evil needs, of course! Don't help someone because you are a good person, but because you expect something in return, this is what we have learned from Kirgi, as he has helped us, expecting a payback later.
Many items you will come across as a thief can be used to get goods and services we can't normally attain. Here are some items to watch out for.
The Unlimited Spell Component Bag -- You may find this on magic users. So logically magic users might pay well for one, or you can trade it for Alchemist potions or what-not.
The Endless Spell Component Bag -- Also found on magic users, this one is less valuable than the USC, but can often be traded for money or services.
Titamight Staff -- This is a good weapon for many magic users, and sometimes they will pay well for one.
Demon Carcasses -- People who have been hunting in the Abyss often have these. These are very useful for Occultists, as they can dissect the corpses, and gain valuable spell components.
Moonstone -- This is a component required for Sorcerers to do their weapon's enchant.
Often, if you have some valuable item, you can get weapon enchantments, potions, or just a lot of money.
General
If anyone has any specific questions about the ways of Shadowthieves, I will add more information here.
What kind of enchantments can you get on a weapon? There are 3 kind of enchantments. True 'Enchants,' addants, and the gnomish enchant. You are allowed to get only one of each. Enchants, are things like Bless, Unholy Enchant (Demonic), and Blaze. Bless is not worth it in every way, because it is both the enchant from goodie goodie worthless priests, and it is a very weak enchant. Unholy Enchant comes from our friends the Occultists. This makes it very easy and cheap for us to get. But, though it is stronger than bless, it is not the strongest of enchants. Blaze, the Flaming enchant, is probably tied with the strongest weapon enchantment. It comes from pyros, and we often have to trade or buy the enchants, sometimes at a steep price. The only worth while addant, is Arial Possesion, that adds the (Storm Bonded) to the end of your weapon. Arial Possesion comes from Sorcerers, and it can be hard to find an evil Sorcerer to cast the spells. The gnomish enchant comes from, not just gnomes, but gnomes who are part of the Society of Innovation. They often require large donations of money or gems for their services.
My personal favorite scheme of enchants, is a gnomish enchant, Blaze, and Arial Possesion. Before you can get the Blaze on the Dagger of Death however, you have to get the dagger disenchanted, a Drow Mage, or surfacer Wizard can do this spell. Once you have it disenchanted, you must get the other enchant (Unholy or Blaze) before you hold the weapon, or log out, otherwise you will have to get the weapon disenchanted again. But after the enchant is on, you don't have to do anything else.
