Goblin_Grease on 3/2/2023 at 19:09

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A few techniques and some tips that taffers might not know about:

Crouch before walking off a ledge to drop silently on the floor (still there are people that don't know about this :eek: ).

Again a beginner tip.Lean into doors before opening them , this way you'll hear what is in the next room.

When on a ledge walk slowly off it until Garrett hangs from (it will seem as you are glued to the side of the ledge) then drop down.This will allow you to fall from slightly higher without taking damage.

A broadhead arrow shot into a stone surface will alert guards to that spot in a smallish radius , shot into metal it is louder.Noisemaker is the loudest.

Rope arrows are broadheads with extras.They deal the same damage to enemies as their cheaper brothers.

Flares act as flame (duh they are flares after all)- using a lit flare you can relight torches silently and blow up red barrels (if they are set up to explode , depends on the mission).In fms they can be substitutes for fire arrows when solving puzzles.

Using a flash mine or bomb on bots or cameras before they spot you will blind them allowing you to sneak past.Using bombs on cameras that are yellow is a coin toss if they sound the alarm or not.

You can lean backstab from the front :weird: - equip sword and charge it up for overhand swing , release and THEN lean forward.If there is a dark enough pool of shadows you can front stab a haunt/zombie and since they are not alerted this counts as a backstab (3x damage).

Expanding on the previous tip - after you've swung your black jack or sword you can freely change stances.For example you can stand on a ledge and swing then crouch mid swing and hit an enemy below you.For extra style points stand above the patrol path of a guard with your blackjack raised , as the guard passes below you drop down and release the swing mid fall to KO the guard while in flight.The game even tracks this as KOs while airborne on the mission end screen.

Gas arrows can extinguish torches and disable bots.Combat bots need 2 water arrow directly in the boiler , but only 1 gas arrow.The arrow has to hit the boiler (the arrow hit is what disables the bot not the aoe gas) , for torches the aoe gas extinguishes them.

Moss arrows cover larger area than the few mound of moss on the ground.As someone earlier on in the thread mentioned you can shoot them at the ceiling and moss will fall covering the area below (the radius of coverage will be the same , you can't cover more ground that way).When fighting custom AI (mainly skeletons in some fms) that fall apart on death and make a racket ,fire a moss arrow , wait for the enemy to walk over it and then kill them.The moss will silence the clatter of bones on the ground.

By now most people should know this but for the taffers that don't - running(swimming) diagonally is faster (in thief 1 you are so fast you can outrun ALL enemies , in thief 2 you are on par with a haunt , but a tree beast is faster).To run so press forward and one strafe key , use the mouse to steer (example : W+D means you need to look to the left to run forward).Jumping while strafe running will allow you to jump a longer distance.Drinking a speed potion and strafe jumping allows you to make insane leaps.On first attempt strafe jumping might not work some keyboards do not have a N-Key Rollover feature (pressing certain groups of keys together does not register.)I for example can only strafe jump to the right.

Mantling resets Garrett's falling speed.You can jump from a great height and if you mantle before hitting the ground you'll survive.To do this you need to be falling in a direction not straight down.You can release the jump button as soon as you hear Garrett inhale loudly (start of mantle).

Falling on a angled surface reduces and if the angle is steep enough , negates fall damage.

Here is something with very limited use (mainly for fms) - some missions have guards standing in one spot turning to face different directions.While a guard is rotating they are blind (this is for a period of half a second to a second).

Melee guards always carry their weapon with their right hand.Archers (mechanist crossbowmen are the exception) always carry their weapon with their left hand.With this knowledge you can at a glance know if a guard in the distance is facing you or away from you.Sword on the left on the guard - they are facing you , sword on the right - away from you.

Rarely useful but still should be mentioned - you can mantle and climb up ladders/ropes very slowly with a charged up melee weapon or arrow.

Climbing is a lot faster that swimming.If there is a ladder or rope grab it to exit bodies of water a lot faster.

You can KO with black jack or gas arrow ALL non undead or elemental enemies.

Use your body to adjust how much a door opens.If the door opens towards you stand a close distance from it and open it.When the door reaches you it stops.Now the door is not fully opened but just a crack. Adjusting how much a door is opened will greatly help you.

MANTLE EVERYTHING.Things that can be mantled vary from game to game.(Torches and lamps can't be mantled in Thief 1 ,but can in 2.Small trees can be mantled in 1 but not in 2 etc)

Quick saving and immediately quick loading multiple times may fix AI pathfinding bugs or loops (guards walking in circles trying to find their intended path).


When health is at max the health bar is invisible , how to : (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151790)

How to bind keys to fully disable UI to take sweet screenshots: (https://www.ttlg.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=145263)

vfig on 3/2/2023 at 20:37

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slowfall potions often seem almost pointless, since if you drink them, then drop down, you still gain speed quickly enough to hurt yourself from only a moderately greater height.

but a few weeks ago, i learned that drinking the slowfall potion immediately kills half your velocity: so dont drink it before dropping; drink it during the fall, a little before you reach the ground. then you can fall much greater heights without any damage. drink two in a row and you can do ridiculous heights.

edit: lol HitDeity, sneaking in to post that while i was typing!

Hit Deity on 4/2/2023 at 19:07

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Here's another one:

Don't want to lose that rope arrow in a beam, but you also don't like to just take a bit of fall damage too? Along similar lines of how Garrett can crouch and walk off an edge and get a few more units of height that he can drop quietly and not take damage, you can also look up toward the arrow and start climbing down (moving backward while still looking at the arrow). Just before you're out of range of being able to frob the arrow (it's still hilighted) grab it just before the hilight goes away (this takes practice, but any regular Thief player should be able to judge the visual distance) and snag it.

Just like the crouch-walk-off trick, this nets you a few more units of drop that you can safely grab the arrow and fall and not take damage.

Hit Deity on 5/2/2023 at 04:00

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I was just about to post those but gamophyte beat me to it:

It does help to turn around and scoot backwards, crouched, off and onto rope arrows or ladders, because Garrett has a rounded butt or something. He generates a lot more lateral motion going forward than reversed.

Auto-sticking to ladders helps, yes.

Other tips:

If there's a wood beam somewhere close to the ground and you're very high up, shoot the rope arrow into the beam and then jump off into space so that you connect with the rope at some point before the ground of course. No matter how far Garrett falls, he'll still snag the rope and stop his fall safely. Most people probably know that one already though.

But what about: shoot a moss arrow onto a surface below you and you will gain a few more height units that you can drop. Much more than the thickness of the moss carpet would suggest. It's not a whole lot, but it is enough to sometimes prevent fall damage.

Hit Deity on 5/2/2023 at 15:38

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True, true.. I guess I just don't regularly fall far enough to encounter that often, but yes, I have seen it happen. Thanks for reminding me.

But I love Garrett's Arms O' Steel™!! Fall forever and yoink, I'll stop right here in an instant!! I usually mumble something like, John McClane, eat your heart out! because I always think of that scene in the huge air duct system when the strap on the submachine gun comes untied and he falls about 20 feet and then grabs the ledge! :laff: