Thieving training

This page includes many tips and useful strategies to train the Thieving skill.

Worn equipment

 * Gloves of Silence - Requires level 54 Hunter
 * Maple blackjack (o) (only for Pollnivneach villagers, Bandits and Menaphite Thugs).
 * A wielded bow without ammo or a staff (preferably runic staff), unless you are doing Pyramid Plunder/Menaphite thug/Pollnivnian Bandit/Master Farmer/Sorceress's Garden. This helps to prevent accidentally harming your pickpocketing victim.
 * The Ardougne Cloak 3/4 is helpful if you are thieving anywhere in RuneScape; if you only have the Ardougne cloak 1 or Ardougne cloak 2, they are still helpful when thieving in Ardougne. A Completionist cape also provides the boost of the Ardougne cloak 4.
 * Brawling gloves (thieving) will last for about 100,000 experience points before disintegrating.
 * The Expensive spices necklace from the quest Let Them Eat Pie will increase the health restored by food by 50 lifepoints. Combining this with baskets of strawberries can marginally help. The necklace also works when in the inventory should the player prefer not to wear it for any reason.
 * The Full Black Ibis outfit provides a 5% boost to any experience when worn. The suit will not boost experience to any amount over 700 per action.
 * Equipment with life bonuses - increases duration of stay due to more health from the start.

Inventory

 * Astral runes (for casting Dream spell)
 * Body runes (for casting Dream spell)
 * Cosmic runes (for casting Dream spell)
 * Cakes (can steal it from a food stall) or better (Jugs of wine are recommended as they are cheap and restore 700 life points each)
 * Bunyip pouch, void spinner pouch, Moss titan pouch/Fire titan pouch/Ice titan pouch, Unicorn stallion pouch and the corresponding scrolls
 * Vial of stench (a) for selling stolen goods back to stall owners instead of dropping one by one if not banking them
 * Lockpicks

NOTE: These are thought to be the fastest methods, but many players consider them tedious and boring. When you have the appropriate level, Pyramid Plunder and Sorceress's Garden are recommended, as they provide nearly the same amount of experience and are generally considered more interesting and rewarding.

NOTE: Your proximity to a guard while stealing from stalls determines if you are successful or not. The farther away a guard is, the more likely you will be successful at your attempt to steal.

NOTE: The fastest method (although very tedious and boring and lootless) until level 80 is considered coshing volunteers at the Thieves' Guild. It is possible to loot them three times each knock-out and the chance of failure is relatively low. Also, no food is required because they only do 1 damage (1 not 10) each time you fail. This method requires completion of the second Thieving Guild caper.

NOTE: To ease the strain on your arm and/or making it faster while while pickpocketing targets. which require right click. A tip is to activate one-button gameplay under Gameplay settings, this will often ease the process.

Level 50+
Crack the Wall safe in Rogues' Den. Bring food, a stethoscope, and a gem bag for maximum efficiency. Realistically, this method can get you around 20k/h (Estimated around level 60, although, you may get these rates regardless of level). It is unclear if higher levels give much better rates as 99 still fail occasionally.

Level 34+
At level 34, you can start picking both sets of doors in the Thieves Guild. You need one lockpick, and all you do is pick the locks on the doors. To speed up the exp/hr, have friends in multiple worlds, and quickhop to them after you pick the doors in that particular world. Keep hopping and picking the locks, and if the doors dont reset by the time you get back to the original world, then pick the Pickpocketing Trainer pockets until the doors reset. If you're fast enough and have enough friends to hop to, you can earn upwards of 85k exp/hr.

Level 40-45
Pickpocket from guards. Thieving from guards in Ardougne is great because you can steal from the Bakery Stall whenever you run out of food. Using this method can get up to 15k exp/hr.

Another good place is in Varrock Castle. Go to the far north-west corner of the castle and up the stairs, to the small bedroom with four guards. Pickpocket them here, as they are in a tight space and cannot wander far. Also, one guard may walk in between beds; if he does, quickly trap him in by walking in front of him. If you manage to trap a guard, you can get about 18-24k exp an hour. The downside is that you must have your own food, so good multi-click food like chocolate cakes or strawberries (5) are recommended. However, the success rate is an average 1/4.

Another good way is unlocking the doors in the Thieves' Guild on the blue side (once available),which gives you 210 exp per door. Switching worlds can easily earn 36k exp/hr.

Level 41-99
Requirements: The Feud, Buyers and Cellars, Lost Her Marbles

Lure Coshing volunteers or the Advanced pickpocketing trainer into the Thieves' Guild general store and blackjack them. With each knockout, you can steal 2-3 times (with practice) giving you varied experience depending on your level. This is more than Menaphite Thugs and you will only take 1 point of damage, but only if you pickpocket them before you've KO'ed the trainer.

The downside is that you do not get money from it. You can also gain Thieving experience from the Hanky Points obtained from every successful loot, but the amount of Hanky points you can receive depends on your Thieving level and resets once a week.

Another downside is that the time between luring them and knocking them out is quick. There may not enough time to loot them three times in the time that they're down. The below math is based on the case that you do it successfully with no mistakes. This activity involves heavy attention.

At level 46 Thieving this method grants approximately 70k XP/H.

At level 60 Thieving this method grants approximately 98k XP/H.

At level 77 Thieving this method grants approximately 90-120k XP/H.

At level 90 Thieving this method grants approximately 110-140k XP/H.

At level 95+ Thieving this method grants approximately 140-160k XP/H.

At level 97+ Thieving this method grants approximately 175k XP/H

Level 45-91
Requirements: The Feud.

Inventory - You should bring a stack of noted food (cakes are good). All you need equipped is a blackjack. Maple (o) has the best chance.

Strategy - Lure a guard into a house, the best one is the house with the cloth and a ladder in it. Close the curtains and make sure there are no other NPCs inside. Knock him out and after the animation, right click again and click pickpocket. Immediately right click again. When you hear the little noise for a successful pickpocket, click pickpocket again. This may take some time to perfect. If you fail during the knock-out, either climb up the ladder and come down, or quickly right click and try to knock him out again. Knocking him out again might not work but it saves time. Picking his pocket immediately after a failed knockout attempt will also cancel combat at the cost of 50 life points, regardless of success. You can also use the bar for buying vodka/brandy/whiskey to use as food. It costs 5, and heals 50, so it is fairly cost-effective. As a side effect, however, your attack level is going to be reduced to 0, but you do not have any reason to keep it high there.

Alternative - Pickpocket the Master Farmer in Draynor or near the windmill north of Ardougne.

Level 45-55
Go to Pollnivneach, and lure and knock out Bearded Pollnivnian Bandits until 55. These are the level 41 ones wielding Blackjacks.

OR from level 45 players can attempt the Autumn area of Sorceress's Garden. This is considered by many players to be a lot more fun, and can give much more XP per hour than blackjacking, depending on the technique and stamina. However, this area can be quite crowded with bots who may interfere with your attempts.

Level 45-55
Pickpocket Fremennik Citizens in Rellekka. It is suggested to pickpocket Lensa or Pontak, both of whom live near the entrance to Rellekka. You must have done the quest The Fremennik Trials.

Level 55-65
Pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne from 55-65 is considered to be a fast way for players to train Thieving. It is best to find a knight in the southwest or southeast corner of Ardougne marketplace, hit him once, run into a nearby building with stairs (west or south of marketplace). Close the door, go upstairs, and come down again. You now have a trapped, non-aggresive knight to pickpocket. If you are low on food, you can always steal from the baker's stall to get cakes and bread. The Knight will most likely respawn however in 10–15 minutes. At level 75 the failure rate drops drastically. Wearing the Ardougne cloak 3/4 and Gloves of silence greatly reduces the chances of being caught. Note: If you trap the knight in a room rather than a corner, as long as he can walk around, he will not respawn.

Another method would be to play the Pyramid Plunder minigame at level 55, or to use the Thieves' Guild Coshing method.

Level 55-65
Blackjack the non-bearded Pollnivnian Bandits in the same manner as before. These are the level 76 ones wielding steel scimitars.

Level 63-99
Customs evidence files are a great way to train for 70+ combat level players. From these you can obtain sapphires, diamonds, cooked sharks, mithril bars and, best of all, rune scimitars, which sell for coins each.

At approximately 1,250xp per full set of cabinets, you can expect just under 30k per hour.

NOTE: You must have completed the quest Rocking Out.

Level 65-91/99
Go to Pollnivneach, and lure and knock out Menaphite thugs until 99, or play Pyramid Plunder at 91. Bring NOTED food. You can sell them at the general store and buy them back. Be sure to bring some extra money just in case. After completing Contact!, a bank becomes available in Sophanem.

A Maple blackjack (o) is most effective while training on Menaphite thugs. A failed blackjack attempt on them will result in being hit in retaliation of 40 damage, and a failed pickpocket attempt will result in being hit in retaliation of 50 damage. Using Jugs of wine as food can be a very good alternative from other more pricey foods as they heal 700 lp in one drink.

At level 78 Thieving, using a maple blackjack (o), salmon as food, and de-noting at the general store, this method grants approximately 220k xp/hr (assuming very few mistakes are made and being focused) and 85k gp/hr. This method also makes you lose about 3900 LP/h. (Calculated by measuring the time and LP spent earning 50k xp + time and money spent denoting salmons) This is possibly one of the fastest method for training thieving, apart from Pyramid Plunder at level 91 and on Monkey knife fighters at level 70.

Level 70-91/99
After completing Do No Evil, players are able to return to Ape Atoll and pickpocket from Monkey knife fighters. They are located in the building just east of the Monkey Child from Monkey Madness, west of the temple that you can teleport to via the regular magic book. You must be using the Gorilla greegree to use this method. While holding the greegree, right click and punch the fighter; if it is successful, proceed to pickpocket it twice. Pickpocketing for a third or fourth time has its risks of being stunned which will over time slow down your experience gain. Pickpocketing the monkey for a third time has a very rare success chance. A successful punch grants 20 Thieving experience, and each pickpocket after grants 150 experience, for a total possible of 320 experience each. A failed attempt will result in 60 damage and stun. The possible loot includes lobsters (that are commonly pickpocketed), which may make food at higher levels unnecessary. The Dragon scimitar and Rune Scimitar are also possible loot, although rare, adding some earnings to the experience. A player with no flaws theoretically earn rates of maximum 320k experience/hour using this method, as each attempts takes 3.6 seconds to complete.The real experience/hour is much lower, around 150k-230k experience/hour, as it is possible to fail a lot even at 99 thieving. If the player is caught there is a chance that the monkeys will send you to monkey jail, just east of the building. It should also be noted that one may wish to switch to pyramid plunder at 91 to mix it up and get a different training method in, as pyramid plunder yields similar, sometimes even better, experience at level 91 and can be a welcome change to the repetitious nature of looting monkeys.

Go to Ardougne Markets and pickpocket Paladins. There are 2 Baker's Stalls so you won't have to worry about food. It is recommended that a player attacks a paladin briefly, in order to lure him into one of the houses surrounding the market. If a player can get the paladin in the house, they simply need to shut the door and quickly go up and then down the stairs to stop the paladin being aggressive towards them. This prevents the paladin from moving around the market, allowing for easier pickpocketing. However, thieving paladins can prove to be very xp inefficient, because even at very high levels (95+) with Gloves of silence and Ardougne cloak 2/3/4, the failure rate is still relatively high. Thus, it is strongly not advised to thieve paladins to 99 if you are looking for the fastest exp/hr method available.

A fast, but non-profitable means of training at this level is repeatedly pickpocketing the advanced pickpocketing trainer or knocking out the Coshing volunteers in the Thieves' Guild. Each time the trainer is knocked down, the player can quickly pickpocket him three times, allowing for 510xp to be gained in about 10.5 seconds. This equates to a maximum of 175,857xp an hour, a large amount of experience for a player looking to quickly level thieving, as players can also cash in hanky points collected from the trainer on a weekly basis for additional xp.

Another benefit of this training method is that the advanced pickpocketing trainer never deals any damage when a knock out attempt fails, removing the need for any form of food, making training very straight-forward.

Level 65-99
The Summer garden of the Sorceress's Garden minigame is now accessible and, with a proper strategy, can be one-clicked, allowing for decent experience rates. It should also be noted that this grants a fair amount of Farming experience as well. After a while, when you get used to the movement of the Summer Elementals, you can do it in about 45 seconds, which is 80 runs an hour and 120k exp an hour.

Level 91-99
At 91 Thieving, Pyramid Plunder provides about the same experience per hour as Menaphite Thugs. Players who have chosen to thieve Menaphite Thugs often switch to Pyramid Plunder at 91 as it usually perceived as less monotonous. Pyramid Plunder provides approximately 200K experience per hour at 91, assuming you bank every 11 trips. Void Spinners (Least recommended), Bunyips, Titans and Unicorn stallions can greatly increase xp rates. There's a possibility that the player may find a Pharaoh's Sceptre while training, which sell for coins, when charged.

Level 95-99
In order to make a decent profit and moderate experience while Thieving, you may return to a Master Farmer at level 95. At this level, while equipped with an Ardougne cloak 3 and Gloves of Silence, failing will become so rare, that you can get approximately 70k-100k experience, while making about 500k-700k gp an hour. Trapping the Master farmer near East Ardougne can significantly raise your exp/hour.

It is a good idea to pre-buy the more expensive seeds while thieving so you won't have to bank or drop the less expensive ones.

Level 97-99
Pickpocketing dwarf traders can yield between 160,000 and 180,000 thieving exp after you lure trade floor guards into northwest room and southeast room respectively, it can be done easily after Evolution of Combat since you can lure 4 trade floor guards at the same time. It helps greatly because you do not need to bribe the guards and bring bars for bribery. (It is highly advised not to start training at level 90 as you tend to fail most of the time even with Ardougne cloak 3 and gloves of silence You end up wasting your time and food.) An Ardougne cloak 3 and gloves of silence are highly recommended for this, otherwise experience rates will not be as high. Besides, equipping a Greater five-finger discount aura or higher can further lower the fail rate, it is possible to get upwards of 340,000 experience per hour with Supreme five-finger discount active. This requires less attention than Pyramid Plunder or Menaphites, as traders can be pickpocketed with a simple left click, and are highly profitable after farming update on 20th May 2013.

At level 97 you will no longer fail when pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne while wearing gloves of silence and an Ardougne Cloak 3. The knights can be lured into buildings surrounding the Ardougne market if the player attacks them. Once inside a building close the door, go upstairs and then come back down. The knight will no longer be aggressive at this point. It is fairly easy to get upwards of 180,000 experience per hour this way, and since knights yield coins when pickpocketed you will not need to bank. Equiping a bow/crossbow and not carrying ammunition will prevent you from attacking the knight by accident, though if you forget this you can go up and down the stairs to end combat.

Tips

 * If you have Thieving Brawling gloves, use them in the Rogues' Castle, located in the Wilderness, to access the 4x bonus experience, or use them in the final chamber of Pyramid Plunder.
 * Using Pyramid Plunder is still efficient, but has been surpassed in experience per hour by blackjacking in the Thieves' Guild. However, you can make money doing Pyramid Plunder.
 * It is generally understood that Pyramid Plunder at level 91 provides the fastest exp/hr at around 200-250k exp/hr, however, Menaphite Thugs and Monkey knife fighters might be on par with it, albeit being a lot more click intensive.
 * When thieving NPCs apart from those that can be blackjacked, it is strongly advisable to bring Gloves of silence. On top of that, it would be good to have at least an Ardougne cloak 3 for lower failure rates.
 * You can get approximately 10,000xp from the weekly Thieving event in Balthazar Beauregard's Big Top Bonanza.