BlackSparrow wrote: »

[*] Again, pick your targets. Find NPCs who are off on their own, wandering around the back alleys or fishing off the end of empty docks. Make sure no one else has a line of sight to you, because even if your target doesn't see you rooting through their pockets, anyone nearby will.

I want to emphasize this one: The percentage chance listed for success ONLY accounts for the chances for the target to notice UNASSISTED.

If someone else nearby has line of sight, they can make picking that pocket genuinely impossible regardless of what the percent-chance-to-succeed says. Not even 'succeed but get bounty' but 'cannot pick this pocket, ever, as long as that person is watching'.

Sometimes Blade of Woe helps with the witness problem, if you don't mind violating the principles of the Guild.

Thieving for Fun and Profit:

Find the lorebooks Wolfmare's Guide to Better Thieving and Nobility in Theft. In true Bethesda fashion, the books actually contain tips on how to make good coin thieving if you read between the lines.

DON'T GET CAUGHT. If only it were that easy, but here's how:
1. To level up Legerdemain when you're just starting out, steal food and then fence it. Sure, the skill increase is low when the value of the item is low, but food adds up quickly, and few watch the warehouses.
2. Also, launder food. It is cheap, and laundering provides the same skill gain as fencing does.
3. When you first come to a new city, mark the internal entrance to the Outlaw's Refuge on your map. Make a few dry runs to the Refuge so that you know how to get there. Daggerfall cities are like mazes, and Ebonhart stuffs the entrances in plain sight, where you'd least expect them. Knowing how to get to the refuge quickly will help you get away.
4. The guards follow the same patrol routes and walking behaviors. Over time, you'll learn their patterns in each city and it will save you time when you need to whip up 10k in a pinch.
5. Reduce your detection radius in sneak by investing in the medium armor passives and wearing 7 medium. You aren't pickpocketing in the Imperial City after all.
6. Don't rob a building with guards in it. You can't open the door to get out if you've recently taken damage from them. Sisters of the Sand Inn in Sentinel comes to mind as one such deathtrap.
7. Practice lockpicking every chance you get. It is a game, and you can win. Learn how to release just as the pins wiggle, and learn the different depths to which a pin can go before it catches. In time, you will be able to predict when to release before you actually have to let go. It is exhilarating to do this in the Guild Halls under pressure.
8. If a small barrier, like a little wall, is between you and the mark, but you are undetected and still shown the option to pickpocket, you will be able to steal without clipping through the small barrier. It still requires line of sight, but is helpful for robbing saps that like to lean against fence posts and some trees.
9. Case out your marks, and follow them until they're isolated. Bretons are good for this. They walk on the docks by themselves all the time. If you're caught by them, you still get a bounty, but if you succeed and they're still alone, you can murder them afterwards with impunity (requires Blade of Woe) and loot their corpse for a fourth valuable.
10. It is possible to successfully pickpocket, but be noticed by someone other than the mark. The "Cannot Pickpocket" message only appears if the mark is aware of your presence, but you can still be detected by someone walking by, or if someone is already watching. You can be caught in the act by someone else.


IF YOU ARE CAUGHT:
1. Guards are (mostly) Dragonknights. Their threat comes from their crowd control (Same for the caster guards in Abah's Landing as well. Never been caught by one, so don't know if they're sorcs or templars). Immovable will help with stuns, but cloak for NBs will cause the guards to cease pursuit for a bit, and I've found it to be the most useful when you're sneaking to the refuge with a bounty on your head.
2. Guards can't swim. If you're caught, head to the nearest lake, stream, or river. Watch for slaughterfish. Crowd control doesn't work when you're swimming, and guards will usually stop pursuit when reaching you has become impossible. Beware ranged attacks, or don't, maybe.
3. Hoard Counterfeit Pardon Edicts. You can find them in thieve troves and in the large rewards Kari gives you for the guild dailies. There are also Epic-quality Leniency Edicts and one Legendary Grand Amnesty Edict. You should never use those. Your bounty should never get that high. They should just be trophies to you.
4. Don't assault a mark who caught you.. It will only make your bounty go up . They are not worth it. Come back when the heat is down and kill them then for squealing on you.
5. I don't know for sure, because they don't last long enough, but bounties may follow you across jurisdictions. It may not make sense, but I think you can be accosted by an Auridon guard for a botched effort in Mounhold. Someone else can stick their neck out for that.

MAXIMIZE GAINS, MINIMIZE LOSSES:
1. Don't get in the habit of carrying a lot of stolen goods on you. They take up extra space (stolen goods don't go to the craft bag), and it only takes one unlucky time to lose it all. I usually fence my goods before I leave the city I'm in, if a refuge is nearby.
2. Stolen goods come in varying item quality, as you probably know. When you are maximizing your fence transactions, just trash the white and green, and sell only blue and purple. The only gold stolen items I know of are the ones you collect for the A Cutpurse Above achievement, listed in Kari's Hit List, and you can't fence them or launder them]. You can get better-quality items from lock boxes by investing 75 Champion Points in the Shadow constellation.
3. Rob a mark three times, and then use Blade of Woe to murder them. If no one is around, or your detection radius is low enough, you won't get a bounty, and you can loot their corpse for a fourth valuable sometimes. You'll know right away if you've gotten a bounty for this, because the indicator will appear before the animation ends. The closer you get, the more likely that you will just slice their throat, and that is preferred, since it is faster. Any range or small barrier will throw the blade, and it takes a little longer. Sitting or kneeling marks are great, even if you just pull them down and stab them in the back.
4. Also, for knifing the mark, their cries will cause those nearby to turn around and see you, giving you a bounty, so you can't count on others simply having their backs turned. To get away with it, you have to be isolated enough from onlookers such that you wouldn't be seen by them even if you were standing upright. Again, Bretons are good for this. Harvest them.
5. Have the right tail.

BlackSparrow wrote: »

I don't know any guides, but here's what I know through experience:

A basic How-To:

• Get behind target
• Crouch
• See whether they can be pickpocketed (If so, a prompt will show up. If not, move on to the next target).
• If the target is "Aware", move around until they're not.
• Read the pickpocket chance and decide whether it's worth the risk
• If it's worth the risk, press button to pick the pocket
• Repeat until you are a rich, famous, and handsome/beautiful master thief!

Some tips:

• Get your Legerdemain up. At first, you will utterly stink at pickpocketing. Most NPCs will have a 50% or better chance of noticing you. However, the Legerdemain skill line has a passive that increases your chance of succeeding at a pickpocket attempt. Get that. Legerdemain rises by doing thiefy things (picking locks, fencing loot, and yep, picking pockets), so keep doing those to raise it.
• Until you have that passive leveled, pick your targets. Some NPCs will have higher pickpocket chances than others. Nobles will usually notice you, for example, but Beggars and Laborers are much easier, if lower quality, pickings.
• Again, pick your targets. Find NPCs who are off on their own, wandering around the back alleys or fishing off the end of empty docks. Make sure no one else has a line of sight to you, because even if your target doesn't see you rooting through their pockets, anyone nearby will.
• Know where the guards are. Even if a guard can't directly see you, there might be one just around the corner who will come running if the NPC notices you and gives a shout. Be mindful of the ones who patrol near your position, and keep an eye on whether or not there's a brief window where they can see you.
• Some NPCs can't be pickpocketed. If you sneak up behind someone and no pickpocket prompt appears, they can't be pickpocketed. Quest related NPCs usually can't be pickpocketed, for example. There's no harm in checking... but don't expect to be able to root through Queen Ayrenn's valuables.
• Take your time. When you pickpocket, there will be a white base chance to pick the pocket, but it will occasionally rise 20% to a green chance. Wait behind someone until you have that green chance, and you'll have a much smaller chance of being spotted
• You can pick a single pocket up to three times. But your succeed chance will go down each time, so weigh your odds. Also, some NPCs might spawn with fewer or even no items in their pocket. You'll know when they're out because they'll make a remark about it and your pickpocket prompt will change to "Pick Pocket (Empty)"
• Have an escape route. You will be caught: plan for that. Abah's Landing is great because it has all those levels you can jump off to lose the guards. Docks are great for this, too... if you get caught, jump off and swim for the nearest Refuge. Are you an NB? If so, have cloak on your bar for when you slip up for an easy escape.
• Visiting a Refuge resets the NPCs' pockets. This is true of any good thief route: if you hit a loading screen, containers and pickpocketable NPCs reset. So, once you find a good route with a good number of good pickpocket targets, you can keep circling through it over and over again, visiting the refuge to reset it on each pass.

Hope that helps!

This is EXCELLENT advice. Follow this and you can't go wrong. I'll add that you should steal your limit every day. The more you fence, the faster you advance legerdemain. Seriously consider increasing the limit with passives. You can also increase your lockpicking passive so that you can usually force a lock in a fraction of a second. This makes it much easier to steal from chests without getting a bounty. I also recommend leveling both TG and DB skills. I always max out Haggling passive for an extra 10% of gold. I also max the passives that reduce heat and lower bounty quicker.....no matter how good you are, you are likely to get caught at some point. You can get so good at stealing, your arrogance will get you caught . Once you have legerdemain pretty high, you can maximize profit by fencing only green or better quality and laundering white items. I rarely reach my launder limit before I reach my fence limit, and that puts more money in my pocket. Or you could fence blue or better and launder the rest, but it will take more time. Khajiit and Wood Elves are the best thieves since they have passives that support this. Equipment should be the best combo for you of Night Terror, Night Mothers Embrace, NIght's Silence or Shadow Dancer. Full set of the last two will allow you to move at full speed while stealthed. That makes it much easier for TG Heists and the DB assassin missions, not to mention out-thieving other thieves

BlackSparrow wrote: »

[*] Visiting a Refuge resets the NPCs' pockets. This is true of any good thief route: if you hit a loading screen, containers and pickpocketable NPCs reset. So, once you find a good route with a good number of good pickpocket targets, you can keep circling through it over and over again, visiting the refuge to reset it on each pass.
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Great place for this is in Skywatch by the Monastery, picking off the priests. theres a wayshrine right there, and a Refuge in your path so you can empty your pockets and reset the Marks.

Great place to do DB Spree missions too

Launder a whole lot of stolen items, make sure you level up your legerdermain as it progresses and find areas full of beggars, laborers or fishermen and pickpocket them.

This is some great advice, excellent post!

I do have a question; what is the benefit of laundering the white items? Is it just to get your legerdemain skill up or do they sell for more to regular vendors afterwards?

NetViperX wrote: »

This is some great advice, excellent post!

I do have a question; what is the benefit of laundering the white items? Is it just to get your legerdemain skill up or do they sell for more to regular vendors afterwards?

There's no benefit beyond XP gain. They should sell for what you paid for them.

As you accumulate points in the Haggling passive, you'll just want to fence them if you can, since you'll get a monetary bonus for fencing that does not apply to laundering.

Other people covered it in greater detail than I will, but ...

I wanted to mention that I read that pickpocketing at night helps raise your chances of success a lot.