Thief

***"These pesky little creatures only have eyes for one thing: LOOT! They are faster than a Punch, and their hunger for resources is limitless."***

* **Summary**
	+ The Thief is the fourth troop unlocked in the Barracks.
	+ The Thief is the fastest ground unit in the game.
	+ The Thief's first target is Resource Buildings, making them the ideal troop to deploy if your primary concern from a raid is collecting resources. In fact, there is a whole strategy involved around their use, named milking.
	+ The Thief deals double damage to Resource Buildings, Strongholds and Clan Halls, Sawmills, Farms, Oil Rigs and storages for each). This means that he deals more than twice as much damage as Warriors and three times as much as Rangers to these types of buildings. The trade-off is his relatively low health, which is higher than an Ranger's but lower than a Warrior's.
	+ Because the nature of the character is to attack Resource Buildings first (ignoring all defenses) they can be vulnerable to attack and should not be deployed without another type of troop (such as the Huge or Warriors) as a meat shield.

* **Offensive Strategy**
	+ Thiefs are great for stealing resources. First, use Wall Breakers to clear a route to Storages and  Sawmill/ Farm. Then, use Warriors, Huges or any other higher-health units to distract Mortars and Magic Towers while the Thiefs deplete the resources. Or you can simply destroy the splash-damage defenses first.
		- An alternative to Wall Breakers is the Jump Spell, which helps guide Thiefs over the walls and directly into the riches inside, however this is much more expensive.
	+ Like Rangers, the Thief's greatest weakness is splash-damaging structures (i.e. Magic Towers, Mortars). Most Magic Towers and Mortars can kill Thiefs in one shot. To combat this, send in Thiefs in waves rather than spawning them all at once. Alternatively, you could send in Huges and Warriors and let them serve as distractions while the Thiefs get the resources.
	+ Another good strategy is to place a couple of Thiefs after the defenses are destroyed to help clean up any remaining buildings before time runs out. Since they are fast, they can speed over to buildings far away from each other. And if there are resources in the center, the Thiefs will go right to it and ignore the other buildings.
	+ You can also spawn Thief hordes, for their attack speed and power can destroy many buildings. When all resource buildings have been destroyed, they will attack anything.
	+ Thiefs can trigger Punchs without dying unless they stop on top of the Punch.
	+ Thiefs are usually not viewed as a good troop for getting Trophies, however they can be useful in small amounts.
		- For example, if you are doing a revenge and you think your units might go to the sides instead of into the middle because of resource buildings outside the Walls, you can use 5 Thiefs per resource building to clear the way for your troops so they go in the middle.
		- Also, Thiefs can be useful at the end of attacks. If you didn't get to 50% and all your other troops died you may be able to use Thiefs to destroy a few  Sawmill and collectors to get you over 50%.
		- If your main attack missed the Stronghold but destroyed most of the defenses nearby then Thiefs are perfect for picking up another star for the attack.
	+ Thiefs are a great choice as clean up Troops for War attacks for Stronghold 8-9 players since majority of the leftover buildings are Resource Buildings which makes Thiefs extremely effective to prevent time shortage.
	+ Because Thiefs also target the Stronghold, they can be useful for destroying the Stronghold while defenses are distracted by other units to obtain a star.

* **Defensive Strategy**
	+ Although generally not viewed as the best defensive troop, Thiefs are still useful as Clan Hall troops. As there are no resources to target, Thiefs will attack the enemy very quickly compared to the other troops.
	+ Thiefs have the highest damage of any of the low health troops and can engage the enemy units quickly due to their fast movement speed. They are particularly proficient at taking out small numbers of Huges on defense.
	+ When designing your base to defend against Thiefs, it is useful to place your defenses strategically to cover all resource buildings. Most importantly, make sure your Magic Towers and Mortars are within range, as otherwise Thiefs will make short work of your Resources.

* **Upgrade Differences**
	+ The Thief undergoes a significant change at level 5.
		- Upon first receiving the Thief his appearance is that of a small, green creature with large pointy ears, red eyes with green pupils and a red-tipped nose. The Thief wears brown pants and shoes. He also has a large sack, ostensibly for carrying resources stolen from your enemy.
		- At level 3 & 4, the Thief’s bag receives light brown stripes on the sides of it.
		- At level 5, the Thief’s bag turns all light brown and he gains a red mohawk.
		- At level 6, the Thiefs gain a red leather cape and a golden necklace.

* **Trivia**
	+ Thiefs are the main antagonist in the Single Player Campaign, despite the fact that you can train them as part of your army. Your own Thiefs seem to have no compunction about attacking their NPC brethren.
	+ Oddly, the two CPU Thiefs spawned during the tutorial ignore your Sawmill and go straight to the Cannon.
	+ When you tap on the Military Camp the Thiefs stationed there all turn and look to their left for a brief moment.
	+ Thiefs and Fire Bats are the fastest moving units.
	+ Thiefs have the highest damage-per-second of any troop on a per-housing space basis (52 DPS at level 7, slightly higher than the level 7 Wizard).
	+ The Thiefs from the Single Player Campaign look the same as the Thief troop; however, they don't attack and immediately retreat into the Stronghold, in a similar fashion to the Villagers and Workers in players' bases.
	+ They are the only ground unit known to be faster than a Punch. This does **not** mean they are not *affected* by the Punch. For example, if there is a large group of Thiefs running over the Punch, the front Thiefs will release the Punch, run quickly over it, thus causing the Thiefs in the back to be sprung by the Punch.
	+ Although Worker's Huts are considered as resource buildings, Thiefs do not treat them as such and will ignore them until all other resource buildings are destroyed.
	+ Thiefs go for treasures, but they never keep it, so it remains unseen why they like treasure.