Thief: Deadly Shadows

General Advice

• As with the previous two games, there is a fan-made fix pack called Sneaky Upgrade which is highly recommended for a smoother experience, fixing various issues and amongst other things removing the mission-internal loading screens.

• There are no autosaves or checkpoints even between missions, so be sure to save regularly.

• Higher difficulties can make for a more interesting stealth experience as the game is overall easier than the previous entries, but there are no bonus objectives tied to them this time.

• A persistent physics glitch can leave you floating in mid-air after trying to jump. You can recover by nocking an arrow and releasing it without firing with the jump button or Esc key.

• Money does carry over between missions, so you can save up and shop as much as you like. Note that not all fences buy all types of loot.

• Guards respawn in the city portions of the game, so don't bother trying to clear them out. Certain bits of loot also respawn between missions.

• The first time you die in the city streets will actually get you arrested rather than killed, leading to a short extra mission where you have to escape from prison.

• Especially on higher difficulties where you need to find most or all the special loot items, pay careful attention to notes as they'll often describe their locations and can spare you from a lot of backtracking.

• It's worth keeping the two factions happy once you unlock the reputation system. The cornerstones you need to fire Moss Arrows at for the Pagans can be hard to spot, but they're small green blocks at the bottom corners of buildings around the city. Hammerites are easy to please as in addition to rust mites being easy to spot, they also love you killing undead which are plentiful in certain sections.

Thieving & Dealing With Enemies

• The "sweet spots" of most of the game's locks are in the four cardinal directions, so you can open them quickly using the arrow keys. Later locks also start using the intercardinals, and a couple are more complex than that.

• The new ability to hide by clinging to a wall makes you practically invisible in low light.

• Most of the city hub areas have hidden passages and other less obvious paths, sometimes higher up. Finding paths that let you get around without having to use the main streets will come in handy.

• Intentionally making a bit of noise to have a moving guard to stop and listen for a moment can make it easier to knock them out. Likewise a stationary guard can be lured to an easier knockout spot by (for example) jumping a couple of times in their vicinity as they'll come investigate without getting alarmed.

• Moss Arrows fired directly at people will stun them for a short while.

• Gas Bombs have a higher knockout radius than Gas Arrows, making them the better choice against groups.

• Flash Bombs can still be used to kill the undead and they blind practically anything, though they don't make guards vulnerable to knockouts like in the previous games.