Stealing Creation/Strategies

Gathering / Earning Points

 * Processed items are worth twice as much as the raw clay; one of the easiest ways to earn points is to take clay from your base, process it, and deposit it again. Try to bear in mind what items your team needs most - create a couple of staves or bows rather than turning your whole inventory into runes or arrows.
 * There will almost always be some Fragments of class 1 clay near your base. You should start by collecting four and turning them into the four basic tools. Trying to collect barehanded from sources other than Fragments can take a long time.


 * Concentrate on getting clay before converting them or attacking enemies.


 * To save space, making stackable items (arrows, runes) can be a good choice. This is especially notable when using a familiar and Clay Deposit. Stackable items can be stored in a familiar in unlimited quantities, allowing you to gather for longer before depositing.
 * Get a Summoning Pouch and a few scrolls as soon as possible, of the highest class you can. The ability to Clay Deposit when attacked can mean the difference between a 15k score and a 35k score. Even a class 1 familiar can hold one item or (preferentially) stack of items.
 * Despite the higher points given for higher level clay, maximum points are often obtained with Class 4 or even Class 3 clay. They can be gathered much more quickly, so even though they are worth fewer points individually you can easily end up with more at the end of the game.
 * The pattern at the beginning of the game generally involves making a set of Class 1 tools, and gathering any higher level clay that happens to be near your base. As soon as you gather one higher-level clay, turn it into the appropriate tool to maximise further gathering speed. Don't forget to make the rest of the tools too, because sources near your base are very quickly exhausted in large games.

Combat

 * Combat is not recommended until around combat level 100. It's a rare game on an official Stealing Creation world that doesn't feature a few 94+ mages on each side.
 * Magic is the most common attack method in this game; if you're too low-levelled to fight effectively, at least make yourself the best magic armour you can and a few pieces of food, to give you a better chance of making it back to your base.
 * Don't get too complacent about attacking lower-levelled players. Many players train Magic to 94+ well before other combat stats, and many will have high Strength for their level. A class 5 dagger and a high Strength level can often overpower mages (if close enough) simply because it attacks much faster than spells. Similarly, someone of a lower combat level could suddenly pull an Ice Barrage out of the bag.
 * Don't forget that potions exist! Dishing out damage earns points both directly (5 per damage inflicted) and indirectly (killing that enemy player nets you his entire inventory), so quaff one before heading into battle. Even if you don't plan to fight, having a Defence potion and a Magic potion to hand might save your life (boosting Magic reduces the chance of being hit by spells).
 * Unlike in the regular game, ranged and magic armour in this game carries only defensive bonuses. Only the bow and magic staff provide the relevant attack bonuses. This means that you can wear a combination of ranged and magic armour to give yourself reasonable melee defence and good magic defence, while not penalising your attack bonus a great deal.
 * The Mystic in your base can heal you completely in a two-box dialogue. Don't sit around in your base waiting for someone to make food - speak to him and get back out there!


 * Keep an eye on your base's clay table. Many high-level gatherers might not have the skills to productively use their clay (there are many more 80+ woodcutters and fishers than smiths and runecrafters). They will just use Clay Deposit to send raw clay back to base.


 * Ancient Magicks is very effective in this game, provided that the mage doesn't lose his/her runes from a pickpocketer. (A high thieving level helps here.) The ice spells can be VERY useful when being chased by high levels with melee attacks, although it is used more often as a tool to trap warriors or weaker players. The Smoke spells can kill after they've ran away. Shadow spells can help friends by lowering the attack level of enemies. Blood spells can heal you and do it quickly if using Blood Burst or Blood Barrage when multiple enemies are next to each other.
 * Ancient Mages should always open with an ice spell, even if they have access to higher spells (e.g a mage between 71-81 or 86-93). Put your most damaging spell on autocast, and manually make the first ice cast (and subsequent ice casts if the victim lives through the first). The extra few damage during those casts could make all the difference.


 * Lunar Spells can also be effective as you can boost other players stats, transfer run energy, rebound damage, and even heal team mates.


 * The freeze time of all bind/ice spells is much reduced in this game. It's unlikely that you will be able to kill an enemy player within just one binding period unless you have help or he's of a very low level. There are a few seconds after being frozen during which a player cannot be refrozen.


 * If you're a mage, don't carry any more than 200-400 runes of each type, less if possible; instead, carry around some spare clay in case your runes get stolen. The other way is get a clay summoned beast and a deposit scroll and store runes in it, as the runes cannot be stolen from the beast and the scroll is good for banking everything if you get stacked by enemies. You can always use Take BoB to grab some more runes if you run out in a battle.
 * If the enemy team sets up a barrier near your base, everyone on your team should try and take it down immediately. Not only do barriers provide a safe location for the enemy team to momentarily eat and quaff potions, but enemy players you defeat will appear there, instantly ready to rejoin the fight.

Damage limitation

 * Normally, when killed, all of your items will drop to the ground for the killer to pick up. If you think you can make it back to where you died within a minute, drop as many items as you can. Dropped items still undergo the one-minute timeout before appearing to everyone, even if you die.
 * Be wary of players on the opposing team who say "no pking" or similar when you find yourselves both gathering from the same spot. There's nothing to stop them suddenly equipping a high level dagger or some mage gear.


 * If high levelled Player Killers come to your base, then everyone on your side of the team should attempt to defeat them as quickly as possible, or drive them away. Otherwise, by staying near your base, they can pick off low level players one by one and cause a lot of damage. It is possible to pickpocket mages and steal their runes, preventing them from casting. This means that they will be easier to kill and will gain the pickpocketer points from the runes that they have stolen. All of one type of rune will be stolen at a time. As soon as you get the runes, drop them as you will be most probably killed due to pile jumpers. Once you respawn in the base again, quickly run and get the runes and get back to base and deposit them. If you get attacked, drop the runes again. This way opponents cannot get the items back.


 * If you see someone turn to you but they do not attack, they are pickpocketing. To avoid losing items, attack them (Pickpocketing isn't allowed during combat) or run to a barrier or Fog. Note that many players like to hide in barriers, in the base, or in Fog then pop out when you pass by to pickpocket you.


 * Hold extra clay when you are finished and ready to go kill the other team's players. If you do this, you can be protected by creation kilns if you get in a bad situation.
 * If you're ranging and spot a warrior heading for you, you need to start running well in advance. Once they reach melee range, they will stay in melee range until they run out of run energy. In Stealing Creation this is almost always enough time to kill you. Mages don't suffer this problem with Rangers as there's still a reasonable chance that a bind/ice spell will hit.


 * Rangers and mages should carry the highest level dagger they can use with them. Rangers will need it when a meleer attacks them and the ranger cannot escape, while mages will find it useful when they get their runes stolen. Mages should carry several for this purpose.


 * Be careful when using the protection prayer. Although it's useful for protecting items such as class five daggers, class five food is calculated as being more valuable. As a result, the other item will be dropped on death.


 * If you are trying to kill players deep in enemy territory, bring 4 barriers to build a safe area if you need to escape.


 * If you are being attacked by a mage casting ice spells (or multiple mages, as is often the case), you will usually die unless you are either a intermediate-high level ranger or an extremely high level mage, with good equipment and food either way, or if you are assisted by others on your team. Since they are using ice spells, activating the protect item prayer is suggested if none of those requirements are filled. This can also be seen with the counterpart binding spells in the modern spellbook, but these usually don't spell death because they don't do damage and those that use them are usually of lower levels.
 * It's wise to have Protect from Magic on if you are running back to your base to heal and resupply. You never know what might be waiting in a fog bank, and you really do not want to get stopped in your tracks.


 * If you die and have a familiar summoned, the items that were in the familiar appear on the ground, invisible to other players for 1 minute. It is a good strategy to put an extra dagger (and/or runes, armour, tools, whatever you need) into your familiar so that when you die, and lose everything in your inventory, you don't have to start over from scratch. You can just run back to where you died, pick up what your familiar left, and get back to pking or gathering.

Teamwork

 * Teamwork is an extremely important factor in this game. If someone requests an item, and it is something that you can make quickly, then it would be in your best interest to do so. If your team wins, you get a 10% boost in your score, allowing you to purchase more rewards. For example, high level processors can help their team by creating weapons and armour early in the game, allowing player killers to start killing earlier and thus weakening the other team. High level runecrafters can help by giving runes to mages, high level smiths can help by giving weapons to warriors, and so on. Remember that it is important to have a solid defence team. If a skiller dies because he wasn't being protected, then the entire team loses points. As such, it is important to not only work together to attack the enemy, but also to protect your team's skillers. It is common for players to form a "buddy" system with similar levelled players; as the entire arena is multi-combat, this system works extremely well against uncoordinated enemy teams, allowing players to quickly score kills while having somebody watch their back, and possibly cover for them if a high level player attacks. It is not uncommon for a few medium levelled players to kill a high levelled player through a coordinated effort. The important thing to remember is that you are all on the same team, so try to contribute any way that you can!