Sneaking, pickpocketing and locks The Technomancer Guide
Last update: 29 June 2016
Silent takedowns
Sneaking is one of the attributes that can be developed up to the third level. It's available without spending a single attribute for it, but increasing the level of it allow you to perform pickpocketing and silent takedowns. Unfortunately, this mechanic doesn't work well in the game. Unless you develop the ability to the maximum, most of the enemies you sneak up on from behind won't be killed - instead, they will be dealt a lot of damage, but at the cost of Power. Even if you manage to kill the enemy with it, he will fall to the ground and alert nearby guards.
The maximum level of the ability allows you to kill enemies with a single strike and without making any noise, but remaining hidden and sneaking up from behind an enemy is not an easy task. This is rather addressed for players that love to sneak and those that are playing on the highest difficulty level, where every killed enemy has a meaning.
Pickpocketing
Pickpocketing, unfortunately, isn't all that good either. You can sneak up on and steal from any character belonging to a faction, such as Vory and soldiers. You won't be able to steal from citizens. You just have to sneak up on the enemy from behind and use the interact button. Unfortunately, during the pickpocketing you will be able to get only a few "pieces" of Serum, making this method a very unprofitable one.
Opening locks
The ability to open locks can be quite useful if you want to become rich, as collecting items is the best method of earning money in the game. From the beginning of the game you will stumble upon locks of highest - third - difficulty level. You will only need lockpicks to open locks - everything comes down to the level of Locks your character has. Unfortunately, unlike many similar games, here you won't find any unique items in those containers. Also, the contents of chests of 1sth and 3rd level do not differ that much. In most cases you will find crafting materials hidden inside of those chests - those don't have a high value and you can purchase them from traders.
However, it's still worth to spend one or two points into that talent. It will sometimes allow you to use shortcuts when completing quests, to get to inaccessible places (sometimes with unique contents) and sometimes it's required to be able to complete a quest in an alternative way. A good example is the Merchant rumors quest.