Thief Deadly Shadows Lockpicking

[Marquez Feliciano]

Beinga thief is not easy, but Garrett's been in this business longer than you have so you should probably adhere to the various training messages in the first stage (the really bad training stage) of the game, the break-in at the Blue Heron Inn. If you're starting to have the game, you may be giving up the pretense of playing the game with stealth. Thief has always been - and always will be - about stealth. Few other games in this genre will have a player sit in darkness and watching a set of guards patrol for five minutes looking for the right time to strike.

Unlike the other guards of these subpar stealth action games, Thief's guards employ semi-random and overlayed patrol patterns, meaning an alternate patrol path can be slipped into their schedule once every other cycle of their patrol circuit, or every other two. What does this mean? It means that a guard who seems to disappear behind a corner each time may in fact surprise you by heading down another corridor the second or third time you see him. Spooky? Yes. But this "randomised" patrol circuit does not make your job as tough as it may seem.

Speaking of guards, you should always make yourslef scarce and never stand out. Your light gem will give you an idication of how much of you can be seen by others. The brighter the light gem, the more detectable you are. Note that light is not the only factor that makes Garrett stand out, but also his stance and the amount of noise he is making.

If light is your enemy and darkness your ally, then sound is the fickle mistress who purrs with proper attention but screeches when treated with scorn. While lights play an important role in you remaining undetected, sound can just as easily give you away. Every action you do, be it jumping, running, or using equipment makes sound. You need to be in full control over all your actions to make as little noise as possible to avoid detection. Not doing so will make your life very hard as the City Watch close in and kill you.

Now that you've settled what makes sound, you need to know how to deal with light. Light is Garrett's constant foe, as it will reveal him at the most inopportune time. Light comes from many sources, each more annoying than the last. IGN will list them from the most easily defeated to the ones you need to avoid, along with counter-measures:

Deadly Shadows puts up tips that you occasionally see while loading different maps of the game. We've hacked into the helpfile (you can do that on your PC) and yoinked them all out for your viewing pleasure. IGN also reviewed each tip and added more stuff where it counts. Read up and remember!

Garrett has access to some of the most innovative gear in any stealth game. Regrettably, with the destruction of the Mechanists at Soulforge, much of the gear enjoyed by veteran thieves has since fell out of use. However, new equipment has come into play in recent years, and this is your chance to familiarise yourself with them.

Magic Knife - With the Trickster dead, Constantine's Sword waned in power until Garrett had its remaining strength concentrated into one small package. Although it does a lot less damage than a full length sword, the knife doesn't hinder Garrett's movement so he can still run at the same speed with it in hand. The knife has a inherited powers from its former form - it will not "light up" Garrett if he has it drawn and ready to strike. The knife is best used to backstab someone, but do so only if you have nothing else better to do than to clean up the blood and dispose of the corpse. Best leave murder to assassins and stick to the more profitable trade of thieving.

Blackjack - A cheap thieves' tool used more by footpads to waylay someone in a dark alley. Garret has gone through many of these in his career, and his current one is comprised of a short stout stick with metal studs. The blackjack is designed to be used only against unalerted living humanoid enemies. Later on, you can use the magic blackjack to destroy stone statues, but for the majority of the game, your blackjack is designed for KO'ing humans and other living creatures (like beastmen) and dumping their unconscious body somewhere where it cannot be found. The blackjack is not used for combat; switch to the dagger instead.

Lockpicks - The square-toothed and triangle-toothed lockpicks are now an integral part of Garrett's kit. They have neglible weight and are brought out automatically when you do not have a key to open a locked door. Read the lockpicking section on how to quickly open locked doors.

- Thieving is hard and sometimes you'll get the wounds to show it. Unless you stumble onto a healing fountain, you'll need to recover your life artificially using health potions. Health potions are sold every where so keep a stock of 6-8 potions on hand (the empty space is for the ones you find in a mission). Note that health potions do not refill all of one's lost vitality - only a part of it. You'll need to drink multiple potions to get back to maximum health. A bug: do not drink multiple potions until the previous potion has finished refilling your lifebar, or the next potion used will be deleted but have no effect.

Holy Water - Hammerite only - Limit 5 - Holy water is offered only by the Hammerites and can be found as loot in their territory or in other missions. Start saving up, as the more Holy Water you have the fewer fire arrows you need to kill undead. Holy water is instantly lethal to undead - just don't miss your mark.

Oil Flask - $175 - Limit 5 - Unprocessed oil and used animal fat fill this breakable container. Ingenius thieves use it as a nonlethal trap to slow down pursuers or as a part of a more wicked trap; if a fire arrow explodes on a puddle of spilled oil, it will ignite it and cause burn damage to anyone caught within it. Oil, if spread on a high flight of stairs, can knock out a living creature when it slips and falls down the stairs. You can use this to knock out guards who are out of reach of your blackjack or if you want to conserve other equipment. Oil flasks have no other uses apart from this, but using it will alert a guard if he slips on the puddle but doesn't get knocked out.

Flash Bomb - $100 - Limit 20 - Flash Bombs are ping-pong ball sized devices that emit a very bright but brief light when thrown. Naturally, they are considered disposable by Garrett, who uses them to escape pursuing City Watchmen. While flash bombs can be used to make escapes, you can probably do that on your own by simply running. Save your flash bombs if you can for later missions; undead can be killed by several flash bombs since they emit so much light.

Land Mine - $275 - Limit 5 - Mines are used as a last resort. They make a helluva lot of noise and alert sentinels and guards like no tomorrow. They do decent damage and can kill the unwary guard in one blast, but alerted enemies typically take two or more to destroy. Mines are passive devices, so you need to set them in the path of a patrol to have them work. If you set them on hard surfaces, enemies may hear the mine being set and wander towards you to investigate. Note once you set a mine, you cannot "undo" it as you could before in The Metal Age. Watch out where you place the mine, you may have to fire a broadhead at it to explode it. Lastly, mines work by detecting bodies; if a body is near it (even if it's a corpse) the mine will detonate, so be sure to clear the area of fallen bodies before you lay down another mine.

Gas Bomb - $375 - Limit 5 - These babies are what makes Deadly Shadows one of the easier games by far. Like it predecessor the Gas Mine, these devices KO any living creature in its noxious cloud of knockout gas. It has a shorter range than the Gas Arrow, but the Gas bombs can be bought from any store so long as you have the money to do so even though they are $50 more expensive. Always keep five of these on hand and use them any time you are facing a large group of living creatures who rush you; they are more suitable for the careless thief than flash bombs, but you have fewer to work with. When you have the option of using a Gas Arrow or Gas Bomb, use the bombs first. Gas bombs make a larger amount of smoke as well, so it can hit three, four, maybe five people in a cluster.

Climbing Gloves - $2000 - Docks only - Limit 1 - A pair of magical gloves and leggings enchanted with an earth elemental. This allows the wearer to climb sheer vertical surfaces made of hard masonary like stone or brick. It doesn't react with wood, metal, or textures that look like stone (like plaster). Be careful where you climb, as Garrett often can fall off a wall surface but find that he cannot reach another suitable surface to apply his grip. Some walls are built over deep water, which will kill Garrett instantly if he falls in. Once Garrett reaches a ledge (like a window) where he may mantle, press jump or push forward while looking up to mantle successfully onto the platform.

Game mechanics for Thief 3 aside, for me it was one of the most enjoyable Thiefs. But then I personally ignore game mechanics, wonky textures, broken whatever, in favor of a good story and I really liked the Thief 3 story and how it evolved. I'm aware that many didn't like the story; it just appealed to me.

The mechanics you speak of I either just avoid or adapt to and accept them as "the way it is" because, well... that's just the way it is, and I wanted to flesh out the story and see what happened in the story.

I agree with Lux. While no one can deny that TDS has plenty of flaws, what it lacked in some areas it excelled in others and that been the story. I was able to immerse myself in the brilliant story and atmosphere of TDS to the point that I was almost oblivious to the gameplay bugs.

Considering a major reason for TDM's genesis was responding to perceived shortcomings in TDS, it's interesting to match them side by side and see what TDM actually did differently in its design. Granted the engine worked with us more I think than the nightmare the TDS engine was supposed to be IIRC.

3a8082e126