Thievery

Thievery is a modification for Unreal Tournament. Developed by Black Cat Games, it pits a team of guards (AI and human) against some sneaky thieves. Unreal Tournament or UT is a popular first-person shooter computer game. ...

The game

New player? Read this

If you're a new player to Thievery, this section will help you on your way. Here are a few pointers to get you started:

Don't get discouraged, the learning curve is steep.

Play as a Guard online to learn the maps, it's easier than thieving.

Find some other new people if you can and play some Thievery cooperative on the lowest AI difficulty.

Go slowly, keep to the shadows.

Point out to others that you are new, ask for some tips. Of course, don't go overboard in asking. When you die, watch others and try to learn from them. Above all, keep trying you will get better. Practice practice practice.

Gametypes

Thieves VS. Guards

This gametype takes a team of human thieves and pairs them off with a team of AI and humans. 3-9 players works best for this gametype. This gametype tends to favor guards, as thieving has a steep learning curve. This can also be played single player with you being a lone thief against the AI team.

Thievery Cooperative

This gametype is human thieves VS. AI guards, it is a good way for a couple of new players to start getting into the game. However, it eventually becomes almost no challenge.

Thiefmatch

This game is human thieves against each other and the AI in a competition to get the most loot or objectives. Thieves get points for killing each other too.

Interface

Thieves

The line of blood drops on the left shows you hit points. The box in the middle is your light gem; the darker it is the better you are hidden. The compass is located below the light gem. "Loot:" shows how much loot you have collected. Any items you have readied will show up in the bottom right corner. Weapons are in the bottom left, above your health bar.

Guards

The interface for guards is very close except "loot:" refers to how much loot was returned from dead thieves corpses and there is no light gem.

The teams

Thieves

Thieves have 100 health points, move 10% faster than guards, and turn invisible in darkness. They have a variety of tools for completing their objectives and getting past guards.

Guards

Guards have 125 health points, move at standard speed, and can issue orders to AI guards. Guards have traps and several deadly crossbow bolts at their disposal.

Tactics

Thieves

There are two main playstyles of thieves, "DMing" and "Ghosting."

DMing

Summary: This playstyle involves killing or knocking out all or most of the guards. If all guards are eliminated in this manner the thieves win. This playstyle is frowned upon by some of the veteran players.

Tips and tricks: Crack arrows are your friend; they can be used to kill a guard in the open if you follow it up with some broadhead arrows. Coordinate your arrow volleys with your team. Remember knocked out guards will awaken after a short time. (set by the server)

Ghosting

Summary: Considered to be the best playstyle, the goal is to avoid being seen. Non-lethal approaches are taken and in the worst case scenario a guard is knocked out.

Tips and tricks: Learn the maps and study the loot spawns. Practice makes perfect, you'll get a sense of when it's okay to be seen for a bit. Ghosting tends to be harder than DMing, but it has much better results if you can pull it off.

General strategies

1. Moss arrows can cover caltrops.

2. Lock picks are handy for disabling and picking up mines.

3. Learn to hug the walls, shadows are your friends, some area's that look like you should be visible, example Breakout, hugging the walls along the stairs, and along the pillars, before the library area, some spots, your invisible.

4. Don't always put out so many torches, the guards know you have been there, or are still there, again, find those shadows.

5. Learn to work together as a team sometime with other thieves; it comes in handy for tough spots. One can be a diversion, while the other does his/her thing.

6. Also team work comes in handy for knocking out human AI.

7. Catfall potions are fun, ha, comes in handy for getting away, when you have to jump off pool edges, like in Spider, jumping over rails, in Grange, and Breakout. They are cheap to buy, and loads of fun!

8. Try to access the entry points from all angles, if you need something, and they know it, and they are there waiting, you tried one door, go try another, try another way in; there is usually more than one entry point.

9. You can open doors, and sometimes fool them into thinking you are coming in, and when you don't, *scratches head* no one there, (a ruse) sooner or later, you'll be in.

10. Creep and BE QUIET.

11. Use arrows for regular AI if you want them off a spot, if they are facing you, and you need them to move, sort of a noise/footstep arrow, shoot in the direction you want them to go, they'll start their search, and you can black jack them, or sneak on by, choice is yours.

Guards

Some of this information from Garlisk's excellent guard guide.

General Strategies

There are many boxes, and other items spread around many maps. Use them to your advantage. Sometimes a thief can use them to get to areas such as trap door to the attic on Korman. In this case, you may want to move or destroy them.

Be careful with your boxes. If a door opens on them, they are destroyed.

Sometimes, turn the other way, just for a second, when a thief is spotted, and you're about to attack, you will usually get a flash bomb in the face. Turning away for a split second, the effects of the flash bomb are less.

When you are about to nab a thief, and are blinded, get your mace or sword out, and start swinging!

Load up on as many flares as you can, some missions are darker than others, and when someone is spotted, you can throw it their way, they light up, then choice is yours, arrows, mace or sword.

Learn to place guards around corner, off to the side, when a thief comes in, and they don't see the guard right away, can be nabbed.

When you’re the last guard left, don't stand still, when a thief needs something, evidence, a jewel, you're an easy target for an arrow, move around to protect whatever it is you need to guard.

Traps

Guards also get items such as Caltrops, mines, and whistlers. These are valuable tools.

Caltrops: Many people place these either too close, inside, or too far out of a door. When you want to get someone in your caltrops try to place them so that if the thief tries to jump...he hits his head on the door jam and has to come down on the caltrops. This can be hard to do. It helps to be able to place a couple lines of caltrops in a row so if a thief does jump over one, he will likely come down on the other.

Mines: Many people misuse these also. They throw them pretty much all over. This is bad, because they can be lock picked and used against you. Try to place these in areas the thief wont see them. Hidden around a corner, under a window...not in the open...especially next to a shadow.

Whistlers: These are very interesting tools. You can place them in doorways to make travel through said door hard. You can put them next to walls where a thief may pass, and it will detect through a wall. Try to put these, like mines; in areas thieves won't see them. It also protects them from being destroyed by water arrows. Also, very important, don't place Whistlers next to mines! If the mine goes off, the whistler goes boom!

Items

This is a list of the various items in Thievery. The prices are in brackets. (ex. [250]) A [N/A] means this item is in the free starting equipment.

Thieves

Starting load out

1 Blackjack 1 Bow 5 Broadhead arrows 4 Water arrows 2 Vine arrows

Blackjack: This is the default thief weapon, and is simply a small stub of wood. This can be used to knock out a guard, but only if the guard is facing away form the thief. A helmet can protect a guard from a quick blow, but not from a fully charged one. [N/A]

Bow: These are short bows which are only useable by thieves. [N/A]

Thief Sword: A weak sword commonly used only to kill guards, but is extremely hard to sneak around with. [250]

Water Arrows: These arrows are ineffective combat wise, but they have many other uses. These include putting out torches (by shooting the flame), washing blood off an area (by shooting an arrow at the area), extinguishing flames on yourself (by shooting the ground below you), and putting out flares (by shooting the item). [30]

Broad head Arrows: These are the only combat effect ranged items, and while they do less damage than a sword blow, they are cheaper and easier to use. [50]

Vine Arrows: These arrows are another very useful item, allowing the user to shoot many surfaces and drop a rope down. The surfaces that these arrows don’t work on are stone and metal. It is often suggested that you take a test shot with a broad head arrow before loosing any vine arrows into a surface. After you climb and jump off the rope, you can retrieve the vine arrow by frobbing it. [50]

Moss Arrows: These projectiles make a small patch of moss on the floor. This allows you to safely get over caltrops laid on the ground, and also creates a soft carpet on the floor so that thieves are not heard while walking on it. [50]

Crack Arrows: This ingenious device creates a green fog cloud and causes anyone in it to start coughing and temporarily lose control of their movement. This is relatively ineffective against AI, but against humans, these arrows are useful when attempting to get a guard to move from his position. Be careful though, because these work on thieves too! [50]

Decoy Arrows: This is perhaps the most interesting item in the game, because it creates an illusory replica of a thief. How they do it…I don’t think we’ll ever know. These can be used to great effect against AI, but not so much against human minds. An interesting use of these though is, when seen by a human guard, you can attempt to act as a decoy arrow! This sometimes works too. [30]

Flare Arrows: These arrows light up an area like a tag bolt, and burn for 15 seconds. They are only available in the Thief match gametype. [50]

Invisibility Potion: This renders the user invisible for 10 seconds. However, the thief can still be heard. Also, if the thief attacks someone, the effect is instantly dispelled. [100]

Catfall Potions: This potion makes the thief’s footsteps inaudible, as well as allowing him to drop from any height and not take damage. These potions are very useful for getting past AI without detection because they don't turn around. The effect lasts 20 seconds. [30]

Lock picks: Many maps have loot and objectives in locked rooms or safes, so these are a must. Different locks take different times to unlock. While guards can also use these, they suffer a limited success rate. [100]

Flash bombs: These projectiles are used to temporarily blind a guard. Emitting a bright flash, these are more effective the closer they are to the target. However, they also work on thieves, so don’t accidentally throw them at a wall next to you. [100]

Flares: Functions like a guard flare. Waste of money. [50]

Scouting Orb: Thieves can use these to look into areas without going there. You simply throw the orb where you want to observe from, and control the view yourself. Once you exit the viewing screen, you can pick up the orb by frobbing it. [10]

Telescope Lets you see things far away, and the crosshairs are lined up with where your weapons will hit. [20]

Guards

Starting load out

1 Crossbow 5 Standard Bolts

Flares These emit a light which can reveal a hiding thief. A human guard can replenish his stock by a visit to the supply chest. These can also be used to light torches. The light lasts for 16 seconds. [50]

Fire Bolts These bolts cause an explosion which not only hurt the thief, but lights him on fire. These can also be used to blow up mines. [100]

Tag Bolts The light on this bolt lights up an area around it for a bit. If you can hit a thief with it, the light will keep them from hiding for a while. [30]

Bolt Cheap and effective, buy them. Using the supply chest gives you up to how many you started with. Example: You bought 10 bolts, and you use the supply chest when you have 3. You will get 7 bolts, giving you a total of 10. [50 for 5]

Crossbow All guards get this by default. While not especially great at damage, these beat having to chase a thief with a mace or sword. [N/A]

Mace The Guards favorite! Smash those taffers with the most damaging weapon in the game. The mace slows you down when it is equipped, making it better for ambushes than chases. [300]

Mine These explosives can only be guards, but thieves can disable them with lock picks and reset them to blow up the guards. Three of these will kill a thief, not to mention the possibility of a fire bolt triggering these nasty traps. [50]

Whistlers The whistler emits a loud howling sound if a thief moves nearby. These can be disabled by a water arrow, or destroyed by a fully charged black jack hit. Be careful, mines will destroy these too. A guard can repair a disabled one with a repair tool. Whistlers can detect thieves through walls and doors. [120]

Repair Tool While not required, these handy tools allow a guard to fix a broken supply chest or disabled whistler. [40]

Supply Chest Carried by one human guard, these boxes hold an unlimited supply of bolts and flares. However, a thief can destroy it with any weapon. [N/A]

Helmet This headgear protects a guard from instant knockout form any black jack strike that isn’t fully charged. 2 uncharged hits shatter the helmet. [60]

Guard Sword Less damage than a mace, but it doesn’t slow you down when you have it. [250]

Caltrops These little nasty iron spikes do a hefty amount of damage to a thief waking over them. They also paralyze a thief for one second/caltrop stepped on. You get three per purchase. Guards are, luckily for them, immune to these items, due to their iron boots. [30 for 3]

Paralyzing Bolts These bolts not only do damage, but cause a thief to temporarily turn and move very slow for 4 seconds. [50]

Guilds, Clans, and organizations

The [RLF]/(Wraith)s

The [RLF], or Rodent Liberation Front, is the only guarding guild. This makes them a nasty opponent in guild matches as the other guilds tend to be mainly thieving. It is led by the charismatic, firebolt obsessed rodent, Mad_Gerbil.

The (Wraith)s is the thieving sub-division of the [RLF], and dedicated to ghosting. The sub-division is led by WildBill, master of dirty tricks and getting where others don't want him.

The [RLF]/(Wraith)s currently has a private server running for the guild and other guests.

Their forums (with public and private sections) are located at http://rodent.13.forumer.com/

-=:Tears of Blood:=-

Tears of Blood is the oldest thievery guild still in existence. At the moment -=:ToB:=- is the largest and most active thievery guild.

-=:ToB:=- was founded by DarkProject in August of 2002. -=:ToB:=-'s playstyle is to be as unpredictable as possible. We guard, thief, deathmatch, kill and knock-out guards, ghost, do objectives, or just have some fun. The guild is mostly a casual gaming guild with some competitive members and we all play for fun.

Sneaky runs the -=:ToB:=- public server which is running most of the time. We have our website and forums at: http://www.endarkend.net/

Maps and strategies

This list contains only official Thievery maps, user created maps were left out to save space.

Airship This map takes place on a zeppelin high over a town. Thieves need to not only acquire quite a bit of loot, but also a parachute. There a large concentration of loot throughout the level, but the downside is that those areas are often well lit. Guards should patrol mostly upstairs, especially in the dining room. Remember thieves, you can get on the room of the zeppelin for easy access to some high loot areas. Oh, and don’t jump without your parachute.

Aquatone A classic, this map is underwater, so all of it takes place indoors. The hallways that connect each room have lights that can be turned off, but even so thieves would be better off going from room ton room through the vent system. The library is a dark place all the time, so that’s a good place to hide out if needed. Guards should focus on guarding the objectives, which is a lot harder to find for the thieves than the loot.

Asylum This is a very fun level with no loot requirement, but three very different objectives. Thieves must retrieve a body, kill a mad scientist, and acquire three vaccinations form his labs for Cholera. As for guards, a good course of action is to guard all entrance into where the body lies. While you may think the scientist is priority number one, he is too easily dispatched for you to obsess over his safety.

Breakout You’ve been imprisoned and somehow have gathered a bunch of items to breakout with. Be sure to not rush yourself, and make sure you get the keys needed to get out of the various doors. Guards should focus on the locked doors. Note: This map is not a popular one, as it is full of bugs and glitches.

Bourgeois Rent is coming, and the thieves need to get 500 loot to pay for it. The large house is the main target for thieves to raid and guards to guard.

Darkened Enlightenment Loki has acquired the magical artifact, the book of enlightenment. The thieves need to get it, and 900 loot on the way. Guards should guard the Master's house and the guest house, if the loot objective is reached, guard the book. Thieves, you're in trouble. This place is nasty, the master’s house is a death trap.

Flats One of the best known classics, this is a map that is easy for thieves to win on. Consisting of a vast neighborhood, one may get onto and travel the entire level on the rooftops. Guards, you should patrol the ground in front of the vault and many of the buildings, including the large platform in the middle of the map. That flat roof is often a place thieves must go at least once in the game, so hang out there too.

Folly The flame ruby is located in this snowed in fortress. The thieves need to take it and get 400 loot for traveling expenses. The ruby can be in 2 different places and has a cage that can be raised by 1 of 2 levers. Guards should guard the ruby or the barracks.

Gerome A good old mansion map, this one has more than one entrance. Thieves can go in through the right or the left, or they can run the gauntlet in the walled courtyard. There is a lot of good loot to be had in the upstairs room and in the barracks. Guards should focus on guarding the loot and the objective. There’s only one objective item on the map, so it should be carefully monitored.

Grange Lord Alfonso has a large manor and a bit too much money. The thieves have decided to help him lighten his wallet. Guards should concentrate on the main house, it only has 3 entrances. Thieves can get a fair bit of loot on the outskirts and, with a good distraction, can grab the rest from the house and get out.

Korman The 2 eyes of fire should fetch a good price, but get some spare change for your troubles. Guards should guard the gate keys as there are only 2, and the thieves need them to get out.

Mensch The guards have been hired to protect a mining operation, the thieves need to steal some evidence and a map. Guards should focus on the objectives, thieves should coordinate to approach from multiple angles.

Nostalgia The guards need to protect a museum from the thieves. Thieves need to get 1500 loot and escape. There is a valuable lyre that is worth 1000 loot, guards should concentrate on guarding that and have a few guards roaming the map and the main gallery.

Theatre The theatre is built on a ancient crypt, the thieves need to get 3 relics and some loot to pad their pockets. Guards should concentrate on the entrance points and the relics. Thieves will mostly need to, again cooperate and hit from multiple directions.

Souls Harbor This level had thieves taking on the undead for their obvious right to the loot contained in a ruined cathedral. The catch in this map is that the undead are resistance to most damage, but some items (such as the water arrows, now dubbed “holy water arrows”) can get the job done. Human guards get the luxury of being undead, and should guard the objective, a heart.

Spider Also known as the level with spiders in it, this level takes place in a large mansion with some pet spiders. The thieves need to get an apartment key from 1 of 2 places to get into the rich apartments and steal everything. Guards should gaurd the apartment keys, and if one is taken fall back to the apartment doors.

Stronghold This keep is surrounded by guards and novice thieves can find it hard to get in without a scratch. With few lights and fires that can’t be turned out, this is a map which favors thieves. Guards should focus on guarding the 3 safe keys, and thieves need to get those keys before checking every safe to find the battle plans and enough loot.

Warehouse Giles' warehouse is full, and the thieves have decided to do him a service by "removing" some of the root of all evil, 900 of it. There are 2 warehouses, A and B. The guards should guard either the two warehouses or warehouse B and Giles' house. There is a large vault in warehouse B that holds a lot of loot and a valuable cup in the same warehouse, both of these combined is around 500-600 loot.