Thieving training

This is a guide for training the Thieving skill.

This is a very useful tip for pickpocketing: Go to the options menu, go to the game controller at the top right, and select "Hidden" under "NPC 'Attack' options". This will turn the "Pickpocket" option into a left click, rather than a right click.

Ardougne cloak
Different tiers of Ardougne cloak are awarded on completion of the easy, medium, hard and elite sets of the Ardougne diary. Having an Ardougne cloak 2 increases the player's chance of success when pickpocketing by 10% within Ardougne. However, possession of an Ardougne cloak 3 or 4 will work anywhere in Gielinor.

Gloves of silence
Gloves of silence increase players' success rate while pickpocketing by 5% while they are equipped. A Hunter level of at least 54 is needed in order to wear the gloves. Gloves of silence can be bought from the Grand Exchange for each or created at the Fancy Clothes Store in Varrock from 2 dark kebbit furs for a cost of. Gloves of silence are damaged each time that the player is unsuccessful in a pickpocketing attempt and they are destroyed after 62 failures, if counted from when they are new. If a player has multiple gloves of silence then they will all display the same status when their condition is checked. However, if the gloves of silence currently being used do fall apart, then any other pairs that the player owns are reset to the "new" condition. The condition of the gloves is only relevant to the player owning them, and is not a property of the gloves themselves. Players with at least level 64 Crafting can restore their gloves of silence to "new" condition by using 1 dark kebbit fur, costing, and thread, costing , on the gloves.

It should be noted that the gloves of silence 5% success rate do not stack with the ardougne cloaks 10% success rate effect. The effect of the cloak overrides the 5% effect of the gloves and therefore the gloves become obsolete.

Rogue equipment
While wearing components of the rogue equipment, there is a chance of pickpocketing twice the loot from an NPC, with the full set guaranteeing double loot.

The set consists of the rogue mask, rogue top, rogue trousers, rogue gloves and rogue boots. Items from the outfit can be found while looting the safe (1/8 chance) at the end of the Rogues' Den minigame.

Levels 1-5: Men/Women
When first starting Thieving, your only option is to pickpocket men or women around RuneScape. After reaching level 5, head off to Ardougne.

You may also do the quest Fight Arena for 2175 experience.

Levels 5-25: Cake stalls/Tea stalls
Steal from cake stalls in Ardougne. The cake stall further east has less guard activity, making it easier to thieve. Cakes are a good source of food for later training. At level 20, you can steal silk from the nearby silk stall.

Alternatively, steal tea from the tea stall in Varrock (located south-east of the eastern bank, near to the small fenced area). This gives the same amount of experience per steal, except it can offer much higher rates due to the lack of guards to stop the player and because the shopkeeper will never move from his spot to interfere. The downside is the usefulness of the tea itself; although it raises attack by 3 levels, it has poor healing and is of little value.

Levels 25-38: Silk stalls/Warrior women
Finally, you can thieve more things around the RuneScape world. You should start thieving warriors (located in Varrock Palace, East Ardougne, north of East Ardougne, and Al-Kharid Palace) to get your level up, then when you reach level 32, you can try rogues in the Wilderness (but be safe)! They are good experience, but you should stick with warriors if you're a skiller or have low levels.

Another method is to steal from Silk stalls until 27. This method gives 24 experience each successful attempt rather than the 26 experience you get from warriors. The difference is that you are much more likely to successfully steal from a silk stall in East Ardougne than you are to steal from a warrior.

At level 30, you should complete the quest The Feud because it grants the player 15,000 Thieving experience which will bring you to level 37 and access to blackjacks.

Levels 25-38/55: Hosidius fruit stalls
This method requires a fairly decent combat level to obtain the Xeric's talisman from level 53 - 73 lizardmen. It is an alternative way to thieving silk stalls and that is thieving from Hosidius fruit stalls. Hosidius fruit stalls at Great Kourend requires you to have 15% Hosidius House Favour and level 25 thieving. Stealing from these fruit stalls give 28.5 experience per fruit. There are 2 guard dogs defending these stalls but they can easily be avoided as long as you trap them in the store adjacent to the stalls by attacking them and closing the door once you have lured them inside (see picture on right). This removes any disturbances and allows a 100% success rate making thieving less of a pain seeing as you will never get caught. The closest bank is quite far away (although the Leprechaun to the East can be used to note some items), this is bypassed through the use of Xeric's talisman, gained from lizardmen (teleport to Xeric's glade which is 10 steps away from the fruit stall) and a Ring of Dueling to bank at castle wars. The drop chance for the Xeric's talisman is 1/250 which is large but as a bonus, it's a quick and cheap way around the island Zeah so it is worth getting.

Expect to consume 36 charges of the Ring of dueling as well as Xeric's talisman per hour. The fruit re-spawn is on par with that of the Ardougne Baker's Stall yielding around 26k exp/hour and 100-150k gold/hour (most of the money is gained from selling the cooking apples you get) depending on your luck and Grand Exchange prices of the fruits you obtain. This method is very afk, gives a great amount of exp for the early levels and even earns you a little pocket money.

Alternatively, you can simply drop everything for 30k exp/hr.

Levels 38-55: Master farmers
At level 38 you should be stealing from Master Farmers (30k exp per hour) for lots of seeds. At level 40 guards are also an option (20k exp per hour) in Ardougne, Varrock, or Falador. Guards and Master Farmers do catch you a lot and require you to use food often, but they are both good for your level. You can always steal from the Bakers Stall for food when needed.

At level 45, stealing from Fremenniks becomes a valid option, granting 50% more experience per pickpocket than Master Farmers (must have completed The Fremennik Trials). (50k exp / hr) Food can be fished in Rellekka and cooked on one of the many fires, making banking unnecessary. You can also bring noted food and trade it with the merchant at the stalls or simply steal from one of the fish stalls, to the west of the hall.

Another tactic for thieving guards is to get a staff of air, a fire rune, and a law rune and to only have those items and head to west Varrock to steal from the guards. After you die from failing to thieve, you will keep the runes and the staff, but drop your stack of money. Simply teleport back to Varrock, grab more runes, and pick up your stack of money. No food needed.

Another tactic that doesn't require any items or money to be spent, is after finishing the Recruitment Drive quest, you can change your spawn point to Falador. After you die, you will spawn in the Falador Castle, where you can cross the bridge and resume pickpocketing.

Another tactic that doesn't require food or money is to thieve guards in Ardougne. One can be trapped in the building to the north of the market for minimal hassle, and you can easily steal more food from the bakery stall in the market once you run out.

Levels 45-55: Bearded Pollnivnian bandits
At level 45 you can start blackjacking Bearded Pollnivnian bandits. Using this method it is possible to obtain around 15k-55k xp per hour depending on your level (Level 45 receiving the lowest etc). You should expect to obtain somewhere around 45k xp per hour once closer to level 55.

The items you will need are a small cash stack (5k), noted food (around 500 or so), and a full inventory of unnoted food, and a maple blackjack equipped (It does not matter which one). Once you have these, you can make your way to Pollnivneach. Please note that you will need to complete The Feud quest before you can begin this training method (It rewards you with 15k thieving xp, so it is a good idea to complete).

Once here, you can start by luring one of the bearded bandits into a tent (Preferably the one with the ladder) and close the curtain so that no one can enter. The basic method of blackjacking is to knock out the bandit, and pickpocket them while they are asleep. You can pickpocket them twice if you are fast enough (Mouse keys are extremely useful here, but it is still possible without them). If you are caught while trying to knock out the bandit, they will hit you for 4 hp. When this happens, you can quickly try to pickpocket or knock them out again them and it will interrupt their aggression. It does not matter if you succeed or fail this pickpocket, though if you fail they will hit you for 5 hp. If you aren't quick enough, they will continue to attack you, so simply climb the ladder and come back down and they won't be aggressive anymore. It is better to try and knock them out again, as failing a pickpocket will result in you not being able to attempt a knock out for a few moments.

When you run out of food, use your noted food on the Banknote Exchange Merchant to the south and he will unnote some of your food for a price. You will be able to make more money pickpocketing than you spend unnoting your food, so don't worry about bringing a huge amount of gold.

Levels 55-65/71/81/91/99: Knights of Ardougne
At level 55 you can pickpocket Knights of Ardougne, and using the following strategy with Ardougne medium diaries or better it is possible to gain 65,000-250,000 exp/hour using this method.

First attack the knight near the Ardougne marketplace. Lure him inside the building to the north of the marketplace. Shut the door to keep him inside, then run upstairs to stop his attacks. Come back down, turn NPC attack to hidden (see the top of this page) and spam click to pickpocket. Trap the knight behind the table on the west side of the building for fastest exp. Eventually, the knight will get moved after a period of stationary activity. Then just repeat the method.

Knights despawn after 5 minutes of being unable to move, so if you trap it within a corner, make sure to move within 5 minutes. You stop failing pickpocketing knights at 95 with the Ardougne Cloak 2. When not failing and consistently pickpocketing, your hourly experience will reach 250,000 experience.

Levels 65-91: Menaphite thugs
If you have started The Feud, you can thieve Menaphites, provided you have access to a blackjack. A 30 min test run, at 87 thieving, provided 232.6k exp/hour (and 100k gold/hour). This test run was done in optimal circumstances and with very high concentration. A more realistic exp/hour at 87 thieving would be 200k exp/hour, which is still extremely high. Menaphite Thugs are the fastest exp up to 91, but it is very repetitive. You can thieve menaphite thugs by knocking them out with a blackjack and then pickpocketing two times. Sometimes the knocking out can fail, and the Menaphite Thug will start attacking you. You can stop this attack with correct timing, by pickpocketing (or, again attempting to knock out again) them at any time between their first and second attack (exactly 2.4 seconds between attacks).

Menaphite Thugs are noticeably easier at level 77, even compared to level 76.

You can reach the Menaphite Thugs by using the carpet near the Shantay Pass and traveling to Pollnivneach. Once you have arrived in Pollnivneach, run south to find the Menaphite Thugs. You can knock out Menaphite Thugs, as long as another Menaphite can not see you do it. So it's best to lure the thug in a house.

Important note: You should bring noted food with you (as well as some un-noted food) when black-jacking at Pollnivneach and un-note them using the Banknote Exchange Merchant right next to the general store, which is much cheaper than selling to the store and buying them back.

Ali the barman stocks 13 wines for 1 gp each. Each wine heals 11 hp and decreases your attack. The bar is on the south end of Polliniveach.

Levels 71/81/91-99: Pyramid Plunder
Players may wish to begin training at Pyramid Plunder at level 71 as an alternative method to ardougne knights or menaphite thugs. At 71-81 Thieving, approximately 125,000 experience can be gained in an hour. Thieving at levels 81-91 approximately yields around 190,000 experience per hour.

It is recommended to start doing Pyramid Plunder from level 91 as it is the fastest thieving experience in the game at this level, yielding around 255,000 exp per hour, with up to 270,000 exp per hour at higher concentrations.

Before level 91 it can be an optional method to train as it gives decent gold per hour (it should be noted that it is not as good experience per hour as pickpocketing Fremennik's until at least level 55 and not as good experience per hour as blackjacking Menaphite Thugs until level 91).

You need to have started the quest Icthlarin's Little Helper to be able to enter Sophanem. Completing Contact! is also highly recommended for a bank near the pyramid, otherwise you will have to travel back to the bank in Nardah every time you need food or anti-poison potions.

You could keep all the loot from the urns and sell them to Simon Templeton at the Agility Pyramid; However, it's recommended to leave them, since the required banking will lower your experience per hour. It should be noted that you can possibly loot a Pharaoh's sceptre from the golden chests or sarcophagi, which can then be sold to other players, or kept for yourself, in order to significantly shorten bank trips, as it can not just teleport you to Pyramid Plunder but to the Guardian mummy directly, along with several other destinations, making this minigame's profit potential much higher.

It takes approximately 335 games to get from 91-99 in Pyramid Plunder.

Refer to the page of Pyramid Plunder for a proper strategy guide.