In my opinion, this guild is the most entertaining, challenging guilds to join. I love the combination of covert and fighting skills, and the monetary rewards of being a thief is most definitely a very very strong incentive :) Once you're a semi-proficient thief, you will NEVER be short of money. Aside from all this, there's a certain image that goes with being a thief - cunning, intelligent, quick, deft, stylish...the list goes on :) The Thieves Guild is one of the easiest guilds to join and advance in, and it's not at all difficult for a newbie to grasp. In the Thieves Guild, you will learn to relieve people of the burden of their belongings. This page covers the basics of being a thief, the rudimentary commands, tips on advancing and helpful information about what you should know as a thief. Any additional information you think I've missed can be mailed to me, or mudmailed to JaZ or JaY. Good luck! :)
The Thieves Guild is located on the Street of Alchemists, or e, e, e, e, e, ne, e, ne, ne, n, w from outside the Drum :) This takes you to the Thieves Guild entrance, which is a popular place for thieves as well as players with covert capabilities (more about this later). This is the place where you join the Guild - type join, and then follow bruno when prompted. Bruno will lead you up to Kordane's room, where you can just type join again, and follow Kordane's instructions. Simple! :)
My own map of the Thieves Guild, hope this'll help you some...:)
This is the most important skill tree in the Thieves Guild. Being a thief, your entire practice revolves around covert skills such as stealing, shoplifting, palming etc. You will not have all these skills as primaries, depending on what you choose to specialise as. When you join the Guild, you are automatically a prowler, but you must choose to specialise as either a cutpurse, mugger, burglar or safecracker before you reach level 30, or you remain a prowler. It's basically up to personal interest as to which one you'd like to specialise as. Each has slightly different primaries, but it's not hugely different, so it doesn't really matter. The Covert skill tree involves the most fundamental aspects of Thief life, so I'll go through the basic and more important ones. For each skill, I've also included a rating depending on how important and useful I think it is and the commands that rely on this skill. I've also included my answers to questions that I have been asked by many people (but I'll just rephrase them slightly because some of them came out a little muddled :)) so this page will probably get updated.
Rating: Commands: sneak
Stealth is an extremely important skill for a thief, because it enables you to steal from places/people without being seen, or to evade unnecessary attention by certain murderous creatures (yetis, bears, wolves) when passing by their territory. The sub-skills of covert.stealth are indoors, outdoors and underwater. This does not mean that you'll have to type "sneak underwater" or "sneak outdoors" - you automatically use the respective skill when, of course, you are indoors, outdoors or underwater. Stealth also depends somewhat on how burdened you are (this can be checked by typing score verbose) - the more burdened, the less efficient you are at sneaking. Can other people see me when I'm sneaking? It depends on their other.perception level, as well as your covert.stealth level. If I say anything while sneaking, will I be noticed? Yes. There is a reason why stealth is defined as "a quiet procedure", you know. Will I be able to sneak indefinitely? No. Sneaking uses up guild points very quickly, and once it runs out, you'll stop sneaking. Not a very useful thing to have happen to you when you're evading yetis, I must say.
Rating: Commands: hide, conceal
Hiding is an extremely important skill to have as a thief, mainly because covert.manipulation bonus(i.e. stealing) depends a lot on hiding while you're relieving everyone of their access baggage. I have an alias for shoplifting - "sl" - which queues the following commands:
hide
shoplift [item]
unhide
If you think about it, it's common sense to hide while shoplifting/stealing/filching :-) Can other people see me when I'm hiding? It depends, again, on the other person's other.perception level, and how good you are at hiding. If I say anything while hiding, will I be noticed? Yes. You can't steal anything while hiding either. Will I be able to hide indefinitely? Yes. Hiding doesn't suck guild points like sneaking does, because you don't actually go anywhere.
Rating: Commands: lockpick, crack
A pretty limited command in terms of how often you can use it. Useful for getting out of jail, and some quests require lockpick skills (but you won't get any details from me, so don't ask), and there's a safe in some house on God(?) street that's been really bugging me because I can't crack it and I'm dying to know what's inside. But that's pretty much it. It really depends on how good you are at it, and I can't say that I've really bothered advancing it much :) But you don't have to be as lazy as me - lockpicking is quite handy, but you have to be really good at it. If you're only planning to get halfway, like me, don't waste the xp. Do you need anything to pick a lock? (I swear someone asked me this) Yes it's called a lockpick, used to pick locks. See the connection? How do I use a lockpick? You have to be holding it to use it. Why does my lockpick keep breaking? Either it's not a good lockpick, or your covert.lockpick skill isn't high enough. I recommend a Deluxe Lockpick, which you can get from the Thieves' Guild shop, or the Assassins' Guild shop (you'll have to ask an assassin to get one for you), but I don't recommend getting a really expensive lockpick unless you've practiced on crap ones, and you're very sure that your covert.lockpick skill is high enough.
Rating: Commands: steal, palm, filch, shoplift, snatch
My favourite and most advanced skill, covert.manipulation involves everything that represents a thief. This should be one of your highest skills, without a doubt, because it is with this skill that the monetary rewards come in :) You should be advancing this skill on a regular basis as well as going out to practice it (see Basic Advancing for details). As an additional note, if you are sneaking while stealing, you tend to get a higher bonus :) What's the difference between stealing and shoplifting? Shoplifting is done in (surprise, surprise) shops. Stealing can be performed on NPCs. Does the person you're stealing from notice if you're stealing from them? They might if you're not good enough at it. It helps to sneak while you're stealing from NPCs, but it's also very useful to consider them before you steal anything from them, in case they notice and start beating you up. Can you steal from non-NPCs? You can't steal from players until you're a PK thief, which will happen once you graduate from the guild (PK=player killer). And then, you can only steal from other PKs. And other PKs can steal from you. I've never actually been PK (I'm far too much of a chicken) but I'd imagine they tend to hide a lot.
Rating: Commands: N/A
I would say that this rates as one of the most important...things to advance. It's not really a skill, because it doesn't involve you doing anything to TM it, but advancing covert.points regularly increases the number of guild points you have, which is VERY VERY IMPORTANT since guild points practically control how often you can use your skills. Once your guild points run out, you're pretty much stuffed in the sense that you can't use any of the commands you've learned from your guild until the points regenerate. You won't be able to sneak - "You cannot concentrate sufficiently to sneak any longer" - or shoplift anything - "You cannot focus enough to shoplift" or do anything else. There is a specific amount of guild points any given skill uses - some skills will use more guild points than others, and some less. Ultimately, however, they are a very important part of any guild, not just the Thieves' Guild, and you should definitely put this as one of your advancing priorities. No one has ever asked me questions about covert.points, which in itself is an indication of how many thieves there are out there who know nothing about them :)
This is the complete fighting skills tree. As a thief, you will not be able to learn all these skills from the Guild, only a select few. The Thieves Guild also does not offer maximum levels on fighting; in fact, you will discover that the levels of fighting that can be learnt from the Guild are very very low. Once you have "maxed" fighting in the Guild, you will have to learn from other players.
The Thieves Guild only trains players in pierce weapons, more specifically, daggers and knives. If you are using any other weapon, you will not be allowed to utilize the combat dummy in the Guild; however, you will of course be allowed to advance the fighting.combat.melee.pierce, which is, of course, applicable to daggers and knives. I started out with a knife and a dagger, which, now that I look back, is not exactly a lethal weapon combination, but it's a start. Daggers and knives are rudimentary weapons and can be purchased in the Newbie Area. When I joined the Guild, I ditched the knife and had two daggers instead. Still quite non-lethal. Then I got a tanto, which is a much better dagger. After a while, I stopped using the Guild dummy, and I got a katana, which is a sword of sort - so I was using a katana and a tanto, and that combo stayed for a long time. Now, of course, I use my favourite weapons combination, what's known as the Dai-Sho combination, or the Long-Short Combination - the katana and the wakizashi. These two weapons are both sharp and pierce-requisite, so I learn fighting.combat.melee.sharp from other players. I'm looking forward to getting the Thieves Daggers, which increase your dexterity stats by one (I think), but that won't be for a while yet. NOTE: Let me stress that this is not a strict guide to what weapons you should use! This is the way I took, and you are under NO obligation to do this. You choose whichever weapons you like, according to your taste, your preference and of course, your budget.
As a general rule, thieves normally use daggers or stilettos, but you will find that most player thieves, like myself, tend to use larger and admittedly more stylish weapons ;P
I would definitely recommend that you max fighting in the Guild as soon as possible, as this will ensure a constant monetary supply. Killing NPCs, as I've specified in the Problems section, is a profitable, lucrative past time if you're semi-good at it. I know you're thinking, "Hang on, I'm a thief, I can steal and not be short of money", well let me tell you that you will not be able to steal many things worth more than A$10 before you hit about level 35-40. Killing is a safeguard against bankruptcy. Think of it that way. And it's also lots of fun :P
The complete other-skills tree. As a thief, and indeed, in any guild there is, you will not get all these skills as primaries, i.e. you cannot advance all of them in the guild. Here are the ones I feel are most important:
Rating: Commands: N/A
I cannot stress how important this "skill" is. Basically it determines the number of health points, or "HP" you have, which in a fight is invaluable. Other.health also depends on the statistic constitution, so the higher you set this stat, the more health points you will get with advancing one level of other.health. The Thieves Guild only offers other.health up to level 25, and after that you have to depend on other players.
Rating Commands: N/A
Another important skill, especially for thieves. This will enable you to see people who are sneaking or hiding, and basically enhance your all-round perception. For PK thieves and assassins, this skill is invaluable. Again, in the guild, this skill is only offered to level 25.
Other skills are generally pretty important, but they aren't all compulsory and it really depends on what you prioritize, and which guild you want to join.
There's always a bit of variety of thought on what newbie thieves should advance first. This is purely my own opinion, and the way I got to where I am now, so if you disagree with me, go find your own way to do it.
The way to advance within the Thieves Guild is an alternation between advancing your skills, going to Kordane's room and asking him to teach you (by typing "say teach me please"), and going out into the Disc to practise your new commands. Alternatively, you can always practise a few of your skills within the Guild itself, in the classrooms provided. Here is a brief list of the classrooms in the Guild:
I've utilized most of these classrooms, except Stealth and Disguising because frankly I don't know how to use them, and I'd appreciate help from anyone who does :) I advise you to check the syntax of the required command when you're in the classroom, as they can sometimes be different outside the classroom. Bear in mind that you must practise outside the Guild as well as inside, as outside conditions are somewhat different :P
Many newbie thieves I know are under the misconception that in order to advance a skill, you have to go to the respective classroom. This is not true. You can advance your skills anywhere inside the Guild, given that there is someone around to teach you. Most older thieves, myself included, stand around in the Thieves Guild Entrance advancing our skills. For a full list of your primaries, type "info", and for any other skills, type "cost [skill]", for example "cost fighting" or "cost craft".
Advancing your Guild Level, however, is a slightly different matter. If you type score verbose, you can see what level you are in the Guild, and your rating as a thief. To go up a level in the Thieves Guild requires 15 primary levels, i.e. you have to advance a skill from your primaries by 15 levels. Or advance one primary skill by 7 levels and another by 8...well you get the idea. ADVANCING SKILLS THAT ARE NOT PRIMARIES WILL NOT HELP YOU GO UP ONE GUILD LEVEL. For example, if i advanced covert.manipulation by 15 levels, I would go up one guild level, but if i advanced other.perception by 15 levels, my guild level would stay exactly the same, because covert.manipulation IS a thieves primary, and other.perception ISN'T. I hope I made that semi-clear-ish...well if you have any questions, you can ask me if you see me on the Disc, and I will be getting a guestbook up here pretty soon, so you can write it in there.
What should I advance first? Well, I always advise newbie thieves to get their covert level up to about 10-15, or thereabouts, and then concentrate on maxing the fighting skills offered in the Guild. I would also advise you to ONLY advance covert until it has reached level 20-25, before starting to concentrate on the sub-skills such as covert.stealth etc. Once your covert level is up to 20-25, I would then start advancing the sub-skill covert.manipulation, since this is where your thieving revoles around. Try and master manipulation as soon as possible, i.e. get it up to level 50. Along with manipulation, you should also be advancing covert.points as well. Set aside about a quarter to a third of your xp for advancing covert.points. Once your manipulation is mastered, your covert.points level should be around 80-100, possibly mid-70s. Now you can start to concentrate on your other subskills - this will be entirely up to you, though I do advise starting on covert.stealth. Also, don't forget that even after you've maxed fighting, the Guild does offer full levels of fighting.combat.melee.pierce, which is an important fighting primary for thiefy weapons such as daggers, tantos etc. Basically, after you've gotten your covert level to above 30, the ball is in your park, pretty much. You decide what to advance, you decide what's important and what's less important. What I've written here is a very vague guideline that doesn't necessarily have to be followed to the letter, so don't get suicidal if you're not following this exactly. Not that I would hate you dying, but I would hate to be responsible for your death. I hope that doesn't sound as mean as I think it does, but you all know I don't mean it :P
For the basics on advancing in any guild, for a definition of "primaries", for an introduction to TMs, basic advances, bonuses and other such Disc Jargon, go right here, right now.
