General tips and tricks Thief Simulator Guide and Tips

Thief Simulator is a simple production by design - after all, it's all about stealing the property of others. At the same time, however, it is quite demanding, throwing the player at the deep end and not explaining some of the essential mechanics. In this chapter you will learn some tips to help you play Thief Simulator.

• Learn the household's daily schedule
• Avoid the household members and hide
• Sneak
• Plan and be patient
• Take the right equipment
• Get rid of unnecessary items from your inventory
• Don't sell all of your loot immediately at the pawn shop
• If the job goes bad, consider dumping the loot
• Don't leave your car wherever

Learn the household's daily schedule

Houses that you are going to break into will initially be unguarded - just come at the right time, when nobody is inside and take off with everything you can lift. Over time, however, some residents will remain in the house around the clock and you will simply have avoid them. Here's where the character marking mechanic comes in handy - just point the cursor at a character and press the button responsible for marking to find out the daily schedule of the character.

The screen will display a 24-hour long schedule, using two colours - red and blue. Red means that the character will be in the house, blue means that the character is outside. If the character is inside take a moment to get to know his or her habits - that is, simply the paths he or she follows while inside. They are pre-planned and can be easily learned in order to avoid contact with the household members.

Avoid the household members and hide

Once you've learned the schedule, you may find that some of the household members never leave the property and you will have to avoid them in order to get to the loot. This is where all the wardrobes and beds come in handy, as you can hide either inside and / or under them, avoiding detection. All you have to do is sit inside/under the furniture for as long as the character moves to the next room, then get out of hiding and continue plundering.

Sneak

Character's field of view can be seen on the minimap in the lower left corner of the screen.

Sneaking, or simply moving while crouched, slows down the character significantly, but allows him to move silently. This is invaluable when you have to rob a house with some inhabitants remaining inside - sneaking will enable you to remain undetected and loot freely.

Sneaking mode has one more important feature - when crouched, the character has a lower profile. A character with a lower profile can move freely next to a window - because the person walking along the street won't notice them - which in some cases may decide the outcome of the burglary.

Plan and be patient

The two most important things to remember while playing Thief Simulator are planning and patience. The game provides a simple way to learn the habits of the household members, and there are no time limits here (except for the possible return of other household member). It's a good idea to spend some time planning the job - get to know the character's routes, wait until a random witness moves away from the windows or until the area is clear before you decide to break in through the window.

The same applies to escaping from the crime scene - there is nothing worse than stumbling upon a passer-by while carrying a precious painting after having tediously but flawlessly cleaned a house from its valuables. When leaving the house, wait until the escape route is clear, and if coming into contact with a passer-by is inevitable, dump the large object on the ground so that the approaching witness does not see you holding it.

Take the right equipment

To access the right tool, you'll need to develop your character first.

With each subsequent mission in Thief Simulator the number of items that can be used during the job will be increased, clogging your inventory. However, it is worth checking your current equipment before each job. This goes especially for the lockpicks - it's better to have several of them with you, because they like to break from time to time, and without them you won't be able to get through closed doors, which can sometimes spoil the whole job.

Get rid of unnecessary items from your inventory

The same applies to items that you may acquire during the job, but which are not needed at the moment and cannot be sold. By this we mean the keys to houses or rooms. They will very quickly appear in your inventory and they occupy valuable space, which can be put to better use. Unnecessary keys can be stored in a locker in your base or in your car - just remember to take the keys that may be useful during the burglary!

Don't sell all of your loot immediately at the pawn shop

This advice may seem strange, but it is, in fact, well-founded. The pawn shop will buy items, as one can easily guess, for a limited price. Instead of fencing items at the local pawn, it is worth leaving them in a safe in the base and using in one of the two following ways:

1. Selling them on BlackBay (a website available on the PC in your base) - there are regular orders for specific items, for which you will get much bigger cash than in the pawn shop.
2. Completing a mission - some of the side missions (available in the Rent-a-Thug tab from the computer in your base) will require you to steal a specific item or a group of items. For performing these tasks you will receive much more cash than for dumping wares in your local pawn shop.

In addition, it's worth refraining from selling jewellery in the pawn shop until you've acquired rank2 in Appraisal and Jewelry Tools. They allow you to dismantle the jewellery into pieces for which you will receive more money in the pawn shop than for a whole piece of jewelry.

If the job goes bad, consider dumping the loot

It's worth striving for S rating to acquire more experience points.

When on a job, it is equally important to hide effectively as it is to acquire valuable objects. At the end of each robbery you will be scored and the final rating will have a significant impact on the amount of experience points you gain. The S rating (undetected) can give you enough points to jump 2 levels of experience, while e.g. D (when someone sees you once) can reduce it to negligible amounts.

The amount of experience points depends primarily on the loot - you get a certain amount of points for each item, and this amount is multiplied by the final ranking. So if somebody notices you and calls the police, it is worth to leave the valuable loot, fill your backpack with rubbish such as frying pans or glasses, and then get out of Dodge to evade the police, then leave the city to finish the job. The reason is simple - the items in the houses respawn after 24 hours of play, so it is better to complete the job with rubbish items (earning a rubbish rating as well), and then return to the crime scene and rob the house again, this time without any blunders. This will enable you to considerably speed up the acquisition of experience points.

Don't leave your car wherever

A parking spot - the best place to leave your wheels.

Leaving the car in the middle of the sidewalk or in the bushes by the road will alert passers-by, and someone will eventually call the police, who will be looking for you. This can trip a well-planned job, lowering the final score, and thus the number of experience points that you can gain.

The car should be left on the parking lot ("P" icon on the map), or in a place without any random passers-by. It is also worth leaving the car with the left door and trunk open - this will enable you to load large objects faster and get in the car and scram if need be.