Thieving is one of the many non-combat skills found in Oldschool Runescape. in this guide we will showcase some of the best and fastest training methods for thieving. Followed by a viable list of alternative methods, so you have all of the different options at your disposal.
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Important Info & Items for Thieving Training
There are numerous benefits and advantageous of obtaining a high thieving level on your account. However, when training towards these levels it is important to consider some of the various Quality of Life perks and unlocks to obtain on your way to 99 thieving in OSRS. One example includes making use of hiding the NPC attack option via the settings tab, this ensures you don’t accidently attack an NPC instead of pickpocketing and also makes the pickpocket a left click option.
Some of the important unlocks and items can be seen noted below:
Rogue Outfit
The Rogue’s Outfit is worn to provide double loot when pickpocketing NPCs in OSRS.
The Set is compromised of five items; boots, gloves, trousers, top and mask. Each individual piece can be obtained by looting the wall safe at the end of the Rogue’s Den Minigame. To do this requires a minimum of 50 thieving.
Dodgy Necklace
When worn, the Dodgy Necklaces provides a 25% chance to not damage or stun the player if caught pickpocketing an NPC. This makes it very useful for increasing hourly thieving experience rates, due to a reduction in unnecessary down-time from being caught by NPCs.
Each Dodgy Necklace has 10 charges before it degrades to dust.
Ardougne Hard Diary
Completion of the Ardougne Hard Diary means the player will receive a 10% increase in pickpocket success rates anywhere in OSRS. With the Medium tier this same increase applies to any NPCs in Ardougne.
Gloves of Silence
When the Gloves of Silence are worn, there is a 5% increase in pickpocket success rates. Although, this becomes obsolete after completing relevant tiers of the Ardougne Diary, as the gloves do not stack with the diary rewards affect.
Fastest Thieving Exp Methods
Below you can find the fastest route from level 1 to 99 thieving in OSRS. Following this will involve the most efficient methods you can use at each of the different brackets.
Questing: Levels 1 – 37
Low level training of any skill can be slow and frustrating, in thieving this can be skipped through the completion of quest. Complete Tribal Totem, Fight Arena, Biohazard, Hazeel Cult and Tower of Life for a total of 7,200 thieving experience and level 24 thieving.
Completion of additional quests such as Death of the Dorgeshuun, Creature of Fenkenstrain, The Giant Dwarf, The Golem, The Queen of Thieves and the Feud will provide another 22,500 thieving experience, boosting you up to level 37 thieving from just quest rewards. Many (or all) of these quests will need to be completed for account progression at a later date anyway, so it makes sense to do them early.
Fruit Stalls: Levels 25/37 – 45
Between level 37 and 45 thieving, fruit stalls in Hosidius offers the best experience. Rates go as high as 43,000 thieving experience per hour if stealing from two stalls. Make sure you are always dropping the fruit and not banking it, as this will decrease hourly experience significantly for little to no benefit.
Additionally, you can start training here as early as 25 thieving if you do not wish to complete all of the quests listed in the previous section.
Blackjacking: Levels 45/65 – 91/99
Blackjacking NPCs in Pollniveach provides the fastest experience rates to level 99. Blackjacking starts at level 45 and as you progress you will gain access to higher tiered NPCs to blackjack. The higher the tier the better the experience rates, so always blackjack the highest tier NPC that you can, these are as follows:
- Bearded Pollnivnian Bandits – from levels 45 to 55.
- Pollnivnian Bandits – from levels 55 to 65.
- Menaphite Thugs – from levels 65 to 99.
Partial completion of the Feud quest and a blackjack of any kind is required for this training method. When you have these requirements you will need to lure a bandit to a quiet corner or building, knock him out and pickpocket twice while he is unconscious. When he wakes back up, knock him out again, pickpocket and repeat. Be sure to check out our full OSRS Blackjack Guide.
Stealing Artefacts: Levels 49-65
The Stealing Artefacts mini-game is slightly faster than blackjacking until you unlock the ability to blackjack Menaphite Thugs at level 65. Many players actually continue to use this method beyond level 65 as it is far less click intensive.
The requirements for this training method include having 75% favour in Piscarilius. You will also need to bring lockpicks for this activity. A bunch of stamina or energy potions, alongside weight-reducing gear such as the Graceful outfit is highly recommended.
For the method you will need to:
- Talk to Captain Khaled to begin the Stealing Artefacts activity/mini-game.
- Use your Kharedst’s memoirs or Book of the Dead to teleport to Fisher’s Flute. Steal an artefact from one of the drawers in the house you have been assigned by Captain Khaled.
- Bring the stolen artefact back to Captain Khaled without being caught by any of the patrollers.
- Repeat these three steps.
It is better to take your time and ensure you are not caught by the patrollers. As this will result in you losing significant amounts of experience. Experience rates are around 150k thieving exp per hour at level 49, scaling up to 186k at level 65. The full breakdown of exp rates can be found below.
Pyramid Plunder: Levels 91-99
Players can begin the Pyramid Plunder mini-game at levels 21 thieving or higher. However, it is not a viable training method until level 91. At this level it becomes the fastest method of training thieving currently in the game.
For this method you will need to have started the Icthlarin’s Little Helper quest, to gain access to the city of Sophanem. A Pharaohs Sceptre is recommended for easy access to the mini-games entrance via the Jalsavrah teleport. High-healing food, stamina potions and antipoison is also highly recommended when training with this method to maintain the highest experience rates.
The strategy for this method is to quickly progress as fast as you can to the final room in Pyramid Plunder. Once there loot all of the urns in the room and the golden chest, before exiting to repeat. If there is sufficient time, then you can also loot many of the urns in the second to last room for more exp.
While using Pyramid Plunder from levels 91 onwards, players can expect at least 270,000 experience per hour in thieving. If you wish to train here earlier, then you can expect around 125k thieving per hour with levels 71-80. Between 81 and 90 you can expect to achieve 190k thieving exp an hour. Pairing up with other players to train is recommended to increase experience rates, as the correct door leading to the next room is the same for all players.
Alternative Thieving Experience Methods
You don’t always have to follow the meta or the most efficient training methods for 1-99 thieving in OSRS. Luckly there is a huge amount of alternative methods that offer a more AFK-way of training and even some methods that provide low to moderate levels of passive profit. Below you can find a list of alternative thieving training strategies.
Chambers of Xeric: Levels 1-25
Players who have completed Chambers of Xeric, will know that varies areas of the raid has skilling encounters. CoX actually has a puzzle room, named the Thieving Room. Where players steal Cavern Grubs from chests, to feed a Scavenger Beast and progress to the next room.
The Chests found in this room have no thieving level requirement to loot them. They do however, provide relatively competitive experience rates for low levels. Opening these chests can reward players with up to 21,000 thieving exp per hour, with a lockpick. The lockpick is important to bring if you can get one, as it significantly increases the probability of you successfully opening a chest.
Master Farmers: Levels 38-99
This method is particularly popular among the ironman community. As each successful pickpocket of a master farmer will reward the player with random seeds (excluding tree and fruit seeds). These seeds do include a variety of high-level seeds such as torstol, snapdragon and ranarr, which are often very important to ironmen. At maximum efficiency with this method you can expect to get experience rates up to 110,000 per hour. Be sure to check out our master farmers guide here.
Ardougne Knights: Levels 55-99
Pickpocketing Ardougne Knights is one of the most popular alternative training methods for thieving in OSRS. It is extremely afk to do and requires minimal effort, for the most part you can simply point your mouse in one area and click. At level 85 thieving you can get around 165,000 thieving experience per hour. This just significantly at level 95 thieving when players stop failing with the ardougne medium diary complete, they can then expect around 240,000 thieving exp/hour.
The Rogue’s Outfit is also recommended for this method as it will double your profits. Expect around 7.5 million gold for level 55-99 with Ardougne Knights or 15 million with the Rogue’s Outfit worn.
Dorgeshan Rich Chests: Levels 78-99
The underground, goblin city of Dorgesh-Kaan is home to Rich Chests. These can be looted with a picklock at level 78+ thieving. It is a rather niche method as experience rates are below other methods such as Blackjacking, Pyramid Plunder and Stealing Artefacts. However, this method provides consistent loot, usually in the form of gems. With banking players can expect around 190k thieving experience and 300k in loot from this method.
The method is usually more popular with niche accounts, such as Ironmen and low hitpoints accounts (method is 0 damage). For people doing this method, it is highly recommended to bring a gem bag to reduce banking and weight-reducing gear like graceful to maintain run.
