OSRS Thieving 1–99 Guide

Levels 1–5: Men and women

You only need 49 successes for level 5. Stay near food instead of travelling across the map for a special target.

1. Choose Pickpocket and repeat after each successful action.
2. When caught, wait for the stun to finish. Eat before another failed attempt can kill you.

Keep your food close to your pickpocketing clicks so you can heal quickly between attempts.

Pickpocket men or women until level 5; you need 49 successful steals from zero XP. Then move to a bakery stall in Ardougne, where you can eat the food you steal.

Levels 5–25: Ardougne bakery stall

An uncomplicated early route that also supplies its own food.

1. Stand on the baker’s tile so the guards cannot see the steal from their usual positions.
2. Steal again when the stall restocks. If a guard attacks, break combat and return to the safe position.

Tea and silk stalls look similar, but their slower restocks make them weaker XP choices for this stretch.

Steal cakes until 25, then move to fruit stalls in Hosidius. Stand where the stall blocks the guards’ view and keep a few cakes for healing.

Levels 25–45: Hosidius fruit stalls

Keep the routine simple with one stall, or alternate two for faster XP.

1. Steal from one stall as it respawns, or move between both and drop fruit while running.
2. Eat strange fruit for run energy. On an Iron, keep golovanova fruit tops for botanical pies if you still need Herblore boosts.

Banking every ordinary fruit slows the method. Decide which useful items you want before filling baskets.

Use fruit stalls to 45 if you want to start blackjacking. Stay to 50 for house valuables or 55 for Ardougne knights if you prefer those routines.

Levels 45–99: Blackjacking bandits and thugs

A worthwhile active method. The rhythm is knock out, pickpocket, pickpocket—not an uncontrolled stream of clicks.

1. Lure one target into a room away from others. Use bearded level-41 bandits at 45, unbearded level-56 bandits at 55, and Menaphite thugs at 65.
2. Knock out, then take two pickpockets while the target is down. Use the sound and XP drops to learn when each click is accepted.
3. After a failed knockout, immediately try again or use a full-inventory pickpocket to interrupt the aggression. If combat begins, unequip the blackjack or switch to another weapon, then choose Knock-out without the blackjack to stop the fight. Wait a few seconds, re-equip it and restart.
4. Top up food without leaving empty inventory slots. Keeping this routine stable is more valuable than squeezing in an unreliable third click.

Knocking out a bandit gives XP but no coins. Your earnings come from the successful pickpockets, doubled by full Rogue equipment. Bank for food when you need it.

Start with bearded bandits at 45, change to unbearded bandits at 55, then Menaphite thugs at 65. The knockout-and-two-pickpockets rhythm stays the same. You can continue to 99, or try rogues’ chests at 84 and Pyramid Plunder’s last room at 91.

Levels 49–65: Stealing artefacts

A movement-based alternative to blackjacking, especially useful from 49 to 65. Learn the patrols before trying to add other skills between runs.

1. Get an assignment from Khaled, then teleport toward the houses and find the assigned drawers.
2. Steal the artefact and return to Khaled on foot, avoiding the guards. Teleporting or logging out destroys the artefact. Hand it in before using Fisher’s Flute for the next trip.
3. For the short return routes, carry a stolen artefact before luring a guard. At the east bridge, run underneath the guard from two tiles away and immediately use Fisher’s Flute. This sacrifices the artefact: get a new assignment after setting up the lure. Return to the house south of the southeastern bridge and climb its ladder to finish breaking pursuit. The east guard should face south.
4. For the southeastern guard, run underneath from the opposite side of the pillar, then run back inside the southeastern house and climb the ladder. This leaves the guard facing west. Keep at least a one-tile gap when passing either lured guard.
5. Check the guard positions on the map below before repeating the short crossings. While learning, use the longer northern escape past the bank and back to the Foodhall. Recharge the teleport book at the Old Memorial when needed.

This method does not need old Kourend favour. Getting caught costs more time than waiting a moment for a clean crossing.

Stealing artefacts is especially useful from 49 to 65, when blackjacking Menaphite thugs becomes available. You can keep delivering artefacts after 65 if you prefer movement and guard timing to repeated pickpocketing.

Levels 91–99: Pyramid Plunder

Strong late-game XP without Wilderness risk. The last room is where most of the useful urn XP comes from.

1. Speak to the guardian mummy and start the five-minute run. Move through early rooms, searching for the correct door.
2. Loot golden chests on the way, then spend most of the timer on urns in your highest room. Add urns in the previous room only when you have spare time.
3. Finish or leave before the timer catches you in a poor spot, restore supplies and teleport back to the mummy.

Looting every urn in an early room wastes the time you could spend on level-91 urns. A sceptre drop is a bonus, not guaranteed hourly income.

At 91 you can loot the eighth and final room, which makes this a strong route to 99. You can play from 21, with another room every ten levels, but the late-game rate below depends on reaching that last room.

Levels 84–99: Rogues’ Castle chests

Very fast XP with valuable loot and a serious chance of interruption.

1. Use Search for traps on a chest; opening it without checking hurts you.
2. Keep protection active against the nearby rogues. Loot the northern chests and bank regularly rather than holding an ever-growing stack.
3. Watch for players and know your route out. A clean hour and an interrupted hour can have very different outcomes.

An escape trick is not a guarantee. Do not value the full loot table as banked profit before you have actually banked it.

From 84, these chests offer very fast XP if you accept Wilderness risk. At 91, Pyramid Plunder becomes a strong alternative without player killers; staying here is still worthwhile when you can complete uninterrupted trips.