Thieving training

RS

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. Also, one may pickpocket more than once in a single animation, so spam clicking will maximise experience.

When training with blackjacks, sometimes victims will catch you every time you try to knock them out. When this happens, the victim may be in an alert state. To fix this, go through the Lure dialogue until the victim is successfully lured.

Useful equipment

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. The cloak does not have to be worn for this effect.

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 3,156 each or created at the Fancy Clothes Store in Varrock from 2 dark kebbit furs for a cost of 600. 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 1,033, and thread, costing 8, 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.

Dodgy necklace

Dodgy necklace gives the wearer a 25% chance to not be stunned and damaged when failing to pickpocket an NPC, making it very useful for pickpocketing. The necklace has 10 charges until it crumbles to dust.

Methods

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. Acquiring 5 thieving from pickpocketing men and women takes 49 successful pickpockets.

You may also do the quest Fight Arena for 2,175 experience, which brings you to level 14 if starting from 1

Levels 1-14: Fight Arena

You can also complete the Fight Arena and it will level you to level 14 upon completion. WARNING: Gives Attack experience!

Levels 5-20/25: Cake stalls/Tea stalls

Steal from cake stalls in Ardougne. The cake stall further east has less guard activity, making it easier to steal. Cakes are a good source of food for later training. At level 20, you can steal silk from the nearby silk stall. There is also a cake stall in the Kingdom of Great Kourend behind the Slayer dungeon in the courtyard outside Kourend Castle. This cake stall has a safe spot where you cannot be spotted (unless a guard accidentally walks back there, which doesn't happen often) when stealing from behind it. There are also many other stalls here.

Alternatively, steal tea from the Ye Olde Tea Shoppe in Varrock (located south-east of the eastern bank, near to the small fenced area). Both the cake stalls and tea stall give 16 xp each, however stealing from the tea stall is more efficient, as it offers 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 2 levels, it has poor healing and is of little value.

Levels 20-38: Silk stalls/Warrior women

Finally, you can thieve more things around the RuneScape world. At this point, you can start pickpocketing 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 careful as there could be PKers!). They are good experience, but you should stick with warriors if you're a skiller or have low levels.

Since pickpocket success rates on warriors are low at level 25, a much faster method of training to level 30 is to steal from Silk stalls. The best location for this is the northern silk stall in East Ardougne market. The nearby Knight in the market can be trapped in a house to guarantee a 100% success rate (see Silk Stall page for details). This method grants 15,000 exp/hr.

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. Alternatively you can keep thieving here until you have 15,408 experience, then complete the quest, which will take you to level 38, which gives access to pickpocketing Master Farmers.

Levels 25-38/55: Hosidius fruit stalls

Fruit stall and trapped guard dogs

An alternative method to thieving Silk stalls is thieving from Hosidius Fruit stalls. Hosidius fruit stalls at Great Kourend require 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 as you will never get caught.

The bank is just north-east of the fruit stalls

The closest bank is just north-east from the fruit stalls (see picture), or you can simply drop everything for 30,000 exp/hr.

Alternatively, for a slight drop in experience rates, you can take strawberries, redberries, jangerberries, bananas, pineapples, and papaya fruits to the Tool Leprechaun to the east and note them to bank later. You can use the Strange Fruits received to replenish run energy as well.

Directly east of the fruit stalls is Vannah's Farm Store where you can buy Baskets. Having 20-27 fruit baskets allows you to have a middle-ground between banking some loot and dropping fruits that won't fit into baskets. Fruit baskets can only hold a total of 5 of either strawberries, bananas, or cooking apples.

Levels 38-45: Master farmers

At level 38 you should be stealing from Master Farmers (15k exp/hour) for lots of seeds. At level 40 guards are also an option (20k exp/hour) in Ardougne, Varrock, or Falador. Guards and Master Farmers do catch you more often than you succeed and require you to use food often, but they are both good for your level. You can always steal from the bakery stall for food when needed.

A tactic for pickpocketing 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 method 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.

Also, another way 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.

At level 45, stealing from Fremennik citizens becomes a valid option, granting 50% more experience per pickpocket than Master Farmers (must have completed The Fremennik Trials). The best Fremennik to pickpocket is Pontak, the farmer who lives just north of the gate. Food can be fished in Rellekka and cooked on one of the many fires, making banking unnecessary. You can also steal from one of the fish stalls, to the west of the hall.

Levels 45-55/91: Blackjacking

From level 45 to 55, blackjack Bearded Pollnivnian bandits located in northern part of Pollnivneach. It is possible to achieve around 50,000 - 80,000 experience per hour depending on your Thieving level and clicking speed. You should expect to achieve somewhere around 80,000 experience per hour once closer to level 55 and with a reasonably fast clicking speed.

At level 55, you can start blackjacking bandits located in Pollnivneach after completion of The Feud quest. For blackjacking, you need a small cash stack, noted food (such as jugs of wine) and a blackjack of any type.

The basic method of blackjacking is to knock out the bandit, and pickpocket them twice while they are unconscious. You can pickpocket them three times if you are fast enough. If you are caught while trying to knock out the bandit, they will hit you for 4 hp. When this happens, keep trying to knock them out again them and you will eventually succeed. 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. If you aren't quick enough, they might continue to attack you. If this happens, run to a nearby safespot and wait until your health bar disappears, then immediately knock them out again. You may also use a nearby staircase to escape until they're no longer aggressive.

You can also switch weapons (other than blackjack) and click Knock-Out to make them no longer aggressive.

After failing to Knock-Out your target, successfully pickpocketting the target moments after failing will also cause them to no longer be aggressive. Failing to pickpocket in that short span will also break aggression, though you will still take damage for failing.

A good house to trap a bandit in is Ali the Dyer's house. Its very small and with quick access to ladders. So long as Ali the Dyer wanders outside and you can lock her out. Her house is located just one house north of where the Banknote Exchange Merchant stands next to the stall and has a big multicoloured star cloth on the western wall.

When you run out of food, use your noted food on the Banknote Exchange Merchant located in northern part of Pollnivneach 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. Ali the barman also stocks 13 wines for 1 gp each. Each wine heals 11 hp and decreases your attack. The bar is on the south end of Pollnivneach.

From level 55 to 65, blackjack Pollnivnian bandits. It is possible to achieve around 75,000 -150,000 experience per hour depending on your Thieving level and clicking speed.

From level 65 to 91, blackjack Menaphite Thugs located in the southern part of Pollnivneach. Even at just level 65 Thieving, you can expect to get somewhere around 100,000 - 202,000 experience per hour. 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. Blackjacking Menaphite Thugs offers the fastest experience up to 91 Thieving, but it is very repetitive.

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

Levels 55-95/99: Knights of Ardougne

At level 55, you can pickpocket Knights of Ardougne. Having completed medium tasks of the Ardougne Diary is strongly recommended, as this increases the success rate of pickpocketing in Ardougne by 10%. Assuming that the diary has been completed and the player uses dodgy necklaces, it is possible to gain around 60,000 experience per hour at level 55 Thieving, 105,000 experience per hour at level 70, 150,000 experience per hour at level 80 and 250,000 experience per hour at level 95 using this method. You stop failing pickpocketing knights at level 95 with the diary perk. Compared to blackjacking, this method offers slightly slower experience rates at higher levels but more profit and it is significantly more AFK.

Attack a knight located south-eastern part of the Ardougne marketplace and lure him towards the building to the north of the marketplace. Go stand in the doorway of that building so that the knight is standing south next to you. Run two squares west so the knight should stand east of you. Then run into the square south of the doorway so the knight will stand on the doorway. Now use the dragon spear's special attack on the knight. Quickly run inside and close the door before the knight is able to walk back outside. After waiting a while, the knight will move to most southern squares of the house and he will only be able to move between those two squares. If he is able to move elsewhere, you have lured a wrong knight and you will have to do this once again.

You can also simply hop worlds until you find a world where the knight has already been lured. World 378 is the unofficial world.

After the knight has been lured correctly, go stand north of him. Turn your camera west and all the way down, and zoom in. This way you are able to spam-click the same spot (around the chest) to pickpocket. It is important that you don't stand any of the squares he is able to walk on, as he will get stuck and will despawn after 5 minutes of stationary activity.

An alternative method is to bring a splashing account and lure a knight to a spot where the splasher is able to safespot the knight, such as in the south-eastern bank of Ardougne where it is possible to use the fences as blockades. As long as the knight is aggressive towards the splasher, the knight will not despawn.

Players can also bring a stack of law runes and a staff giving unlimited water runes instead of food to make the process more simple. After death two law runes and the staff will be kept, enabling the player to quickly teleport back to the Ardougne marketplace. Pick up your coins and stack of law runes off the ground and continue pickpocketing. Enabling Rapid Heal can help extend trips longer.

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 Fremenniks 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 to 99 in Pyramid Plunder.

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