Thieving

Pick pockets in the Thieves’ Guild, in the far northeast corner of the Gloam. Nothing in there fights back, so you need no combat level, weapon or armor.

The Thieving skill page — every level, every item and the xp, in tables.

On this page: Getting started · The rooms · What they carry · How it works · What the materials make · Going further · Tips

Getting started

The guild is a shed in the dark at the end of a bad road, behind a door that wants a Thieves’ permit. Inside are four rooms of guild members, two kinds of mark to a room, and you pick their pockets. Nothing in there can be attacked.
Buy a permit from Vance the Fence, who stands beside the door, for 50,000 tickets.
Or find one in the Hoodie’s hoard at the end of a Crypt run: about 0.95%, 1.6% or 2.6% of chests, depending on the difficulty. Not past your three paid runs for the day.
A permit is an ordinary item, so it can be bought and sold on the market, usually for less than Vance charges. The door takes it the first time and never asks again, so a permit you've already used can't be sold.

The rooms

Each room is behind a door, and the door and the marks are two different ladders. The first door opens at Thieving 10, but the Grifters behind it can't be picked until 25. That's on purpose, so there's somewhere to walk to and look at while you're still learning.

Room	Door opens	Pick at	xp a pick	Tickets an hour
The Back Room — Apprentice Lifters	—	1	19	~3,400
The Back Room — Cutpurses	—	15	36	~4,500
The Card Room — Grifters	10	25	56	~9,000
The Card Room — The Shills	10	40	95	~14,800
The Store Room — The Fixers	50	50	138	~22,000
The Store Room — Housebreakers	50	62	182	~26,300
The Vault Room — The Quartermaster	75	75	250	~33,000
The Vault Room — The Ringleader	75	90	337	~36,300

What they carry

Mark	Thieving	What	How often	Fence
Apprentice Lifter	1	Brass button	80%	9
Apprentice Lifter	1	Whetgrit	20%	3
Cutpurse	15	Brass button	60%	9
		Whetgrit	30%	3
		Pocket watch	10%	23
Grifter	25	Pocket watch	75%	23
		Quenching salts	20%	6
		Whetgrit	5%	3
The Shill	40	Pocket watch	60%	23
		Quenching salts	25%	6
		Stolen signet	15%	51
The Fixer	50	Stolen signet	72%	51
		Guild seal wax	18%	12
		Quenching salts	10%	6
Housebreaker	62	Stolen signet	60%	51
		Guild seal wax	25%	12
		Black-market ledger	15%	57
The Quartermaster	75	Black-market ledger	70%	57
		Starfall ore	12%	28, but smelt it
		Eclipse ore	9%	45, but smelt it
		Voidglass	6%	35, but smelt it
		Guild seal wax	3%	12
The Moneylender	82	Black-market ledger	62%	57
		Starfall ore	12%	28, but smelt it
		Eclipse ore	12%	45, but smelt it
		Voidglass	8%	35, but smelt it
		Guild seal wax	6%	12
The Ringleader	90	Black-market ledger	62%	57
		Starfall ore	13%	28, but smelt it
		Eclipse ore	10%	45, but smelt it
		Voidglass	8%	35, but smelt it
		Guild seal wax	7%	12
The Grand Larcenist	97	Black-market ledger	55%	57
		Nova ore	15%	65, but smelt it
		Eclipse ore	12%	45, but smelt it
		Voidglass	10%	35, but smelt it
		Guild seal wax	8%	12
The Phantom	99	Black-market ledger	50%	57
		Nova ore	18%	65, but smelt it
		Singularity ore	10%	93, but smelt it
		Voidglass	12%	35, but smelt it
		Guild seal wax	10%	12

Buttons, watches, signets and ledgers are just money: sell them at the Prize Counter. The ores go to a furnace. Whetgrit, quenching salts and seal wax made the old reforging aids; the anvil doesn't reforge any more, so the Prize Counter buys them for a few tickets.

How it works

Click a mark and you keep trying, one attempt every 2.4 seconds, until you stop or you land one.
Against a mark of your own level you land 55%. Every level above that adds 2%, up to a ceiling of 90%. So a room you've just unlocked is the hard one, and the room behind you is nearly free.
Get caught and the mark grabs your wrist: you're held for two to three and a half seconds and one stolen thing falls out of your bag. Only things taken in the guild can be lost this way: never tickets, never your gear, never your permit.
After a successful lift, that mark keeps a hand on their pocket for six seconds. There are three of each in every room, so work the room instead of one pocket.
A clean run pays twice. Lift five in a row without being caught and the fifth one gives two things instead of one. Getting caught resets you to zero, so a stun costs you the run, not just the time.

What the materials make

Temper, Flux and the Master's seal are gone along with the anvil's reforge: a Kindled Diamond at the Gem Bench does the job, safely.

Going further

Things go wrong at the anvil. 10% of attempts fail (a bar, a piece of gear, all of it) at every level, and a failure takes the materials with it. The furnace and anvil panels show the chance on every row, so you're never guessing.
Nova and Singularity never fail. Their weapons already cost a core that drops from about 0.05% of kills, so asking you to gamble that too would be cruel.
The Quartermaster’s room carries starfall ore, eclipse ore and voidglass. Those three are otherwise only found in the Vault, and no monster drops voidglass at all. A thief can supply their own Starfall and Eclipse gear without ever going down there, which is the real reason people want into the last room.
The Ditched set is Thieving's set of work clothes. All four pieces: 10% of pockets are picked twice. Fished up: 0.04% of catches at any fishing spot.
Who to talk to: four guild members wander the rooms and aren't marks, so you can't pick them (they won't mind you trying). Sticky Pete, in the first room, explains how picking works. Marla Nine-Fingers, in the card room, explains what the materials are for. The Quiet Man and Odile the Clerk keep the two back rooms.

Tips

1 to 99 takes about 72 hours if you always work the best room you can reach. That's about the same as Woodcutting, and a good deal quicker than Combat’s 149.
The top room earns about what a middling miner does. That's on purpose: a room where nothing fights back shouldn't also be the best money in the game, and the guild’s real payment is the materials.

More in Skills

Alchemy: sand into potions · Tools: the grade ladder · Fighting · Fishing · Cooking · Smithing