Thief

The **Thief** is an NPC and playable character. They are a starting character. They have the unique ability, Sticky Glove, that can steal inventory from unaware NPCs. They wear a stereotypical criminal outfit with black and white stripes.

## Super Special Ability

* Pickpocket without being noticed.
* When starting the game with Super Special Abilities mutator enabled, begins with a Skeleton Key and Safe-Cracking Tool instead of 3 Lockpicks and 3 Safe Busters.

## NPC

As a NPC, Thieves generally spawn in houses, Shelters, and Drug Dens, and are chased out of shops they spawn in because they're Suspicious. They sometimes carry crowbars.

When walking past non-thieves that are not Loyal, Friendly, or Aligned, they may attempt to steal an item from them, running away and becoming hostile towards their victim. They will not leave the level, but will run away indefinitely which may make retrieving their item difficult. Thieves evaded by characters they've attempted to rob remain Neutral and will not necessarily attempt to rob the character again.

In Downtown, they can jump out of Manholes. Once they jump out, they will attempt to steal an item and run away, but are still unable to leave the floor. They will continue to run away from everyone, including the player, for the duration of the level.

Thieves may be hired to open one locked Door or remove one Window for a price.

## Drops

* Money (common)
* Lockpick (uncommon)
* Cardboard Box (rare)
* Body Swapper (Item) (rare)
* Safe Buster (rare)
* Wall Bypasser (rare)
* Window Cutter (rare)

## Quotes

General chat:

* The only prize I've never stolen, is the heart of another. Sigh.
* Know what's really hardcore? Pickpocketing yourself. Super hard.
* When you steal something, at what point does it truly become your own?
* I prefer when people don't catch me stealing, it makes things really awkward.
* Word of advice, never try to pickpocket a naked person.

* *Hello, fellow criminal scum!* (If the player is also a Thief or has Honor Among Thieves)

### At the Homebase:

* *I've been able to 'confiscate' some things for the Resistance...*

## Tips and strategies

### Playable

* **How to fight:** Thieves have average stats and low health so avoid combat - Thieves are designed for stealth. If fighting is necessary, try to ambush and overwhelm combatants with attacks before they can fight back.
* **How to finish missions:** Thief equipment makes retrieval missions very easy, but be sure to consider all options for each mission carefully to conserve equipment. Avoid combat as much as possible. Look for other ways to complete missions besides the "kill everything" approach.
* Thieves are heavily reliant on their starting items. If in need of items, either look for another Thief to buy from using Honor Among Thieves, or buy from a Loadout-O-Matic.
	+ NPC Thieves are most common in the Slums and Industrial zones, non-existent in the Park, and rare in Downtown and Uptown. Make sure to stock up on extra thief equipment early!
* Sticky Glove lets Thieves steal Money and various items from NPCs. It's in your best interest to rob everyone you can.
	+ Cops can often make this difficult. If struggling, Bribing cops at the start of a floor can make this much easier, and provides more profit than is lost on earlier floors.
* The Suspicious trait makes Thieves very limited in what they can buy as well as hindering their ability to get an election victory or rob shops. As such removing or swapping it early on is recommended, especially when going for an election victory.
* Cardboard Box allows you to move through cameras' lines of sight without setting off alarms. Usually you should use them to move around hideouts.
	+ If spotted under a Cardboard Box, take it off as quickly as possible, even if it means being spotted by a camera. If uncovered by NPCs the box is permanently lost.
	+ Although it should be obvious, Sticky Glove robs NPCs of the loot they drop when they die (except for items dropped by Shop drops trait)

* If not careful, thieves wandering the level may steal from you. The items they can steal include unequipped weapons and armor. Should this happen the thief may smack players with the weapon they've just stolen! Avoid being seen by them or neutralize them out of sight.
	+ If a thief is trying to steal from a player (by running towards them), players can attack first to force the thief to run away. Cops will view this as Self-defense and won't become Hostile towards you, as long as the attacked thief was about to steal.
	+ Alternatively players can teleport away, as imminent robbery does not count as "immediate danger".

* If you want to hire a thief without being stolen from, thieves inside buildings such as Apartments and Drug Dens are safe to hire. Thieves freed from Prisons are also safe as they're Loyal towards their savior.
	+ Making them Friendly or Aligned will make them not steal from you. This can be accomplished by using Cologne or using a Hypnotizer on one, or by having the Charismatic trait as the Bartender.

* Thieves seen running away from NPCs who are not business owners have stolen from them, are considered guilty and can be killed for their items and XP without penalty.

* With the Shop Drops trait, thieves will drop tools they normally sell, even without Honor Among Thieves. This can be extremely helpful for stealth.

## Trivia

* Non-player Thieves are unable to bust safes or bypass walls despite starting with, selling, and sometimes spawning with Safe Busters and Wall Bypassers.
* In the early Chinese version of the game, Thieves wore solid black clothes instead of black and white stripes.

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