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Sneaking and Theft

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Infiltration is not a separate profession but a quieter way of solving the same tasks. Sneaking gets you close unseen; theft takes what belongs to somebody else without a fight. The two are tied together: since 0.3.1124 you can only steal while sneaking, and both cost energy.

Entering sneak

You enter sneak by your own will, but not in front of others: while anyone is looking at your character, the game refuses and says so. Step behind a corner, get behind the observer’s back, or wait until they turn away.

Entering costs 10 Stamina. After that the reserve only falls: 1 every five seconds while standing and 1 every second while moving. Stamina recovery is switched off entirely while sneaking — standing or walking alike. When there is nothing left to pay with, the body straightens up by itself and the stance drops.

The conclusion is simple: sneaking is a stretch, not a state for the whole run. Enter it close to your target.

What sneaking gives you

  • The rear arc. A sneaking character cannot be seen from behind an observer’s back — right along the line of the shoulders. At any distance: you can walk up from behind and stand next to them.
  • Cover. Behind an obstacle a sneaking character is hidden whole, even while moving. An ordinary character in a doorway is spotted by their motion; a sneaking one is not.
  • Silence. An obstacle muffles a sneaking character’s sound the same way it hides them.

And the reverse: the moment you are seen, the stance drops. The game tells you that you have been spotted.

Theft: how it starts and what it costs

Theft starts from the action ring, exactly like barter or searching. No special item is needed for it: it is enough to be sneaking. A thief’s glove is not a key but a discount — it cuts the energy cost by 40 percent.

You pay with energy, not with luck:

  • 15 Stamina — to open somebody’s bag;
  • 20 Stamina — for every attempt to take an item.

The price is charged before the roll, so a failure costs energy too. You cannot pull at the same pocket indefinitely.

What decides the outcome

Success is decided by the thief’s skill against the situation, not by chance. The score is shaped by:

  • Where the victim is looking. The further they are turned away, the better: an approach from behind carries no penalty at all, while a direct gaze costs 30 points of score.
  • The size of the batch. The more items at once relative to your skill, the lower the score. Carry them one at a time.
  • Repeats. Every further theft from the same victim lowers the score by 9 percent: robbing one person twice is harder than robbing two once.
  • Player or NPC. Against a live player the score is cut to 60 percent.

There are two thresholds with a band between them: at a score of 15 or above the item is yours; below 8 you are caught in the act; in between, your hand slipped and the owner never understood what was happening. One separate rule: under the owner’s direct gaze a theft never succeeds and is always noticed, whatever the score.

In combat, theft is impossible at all.

What happens when you are noticed

A noticed theft is not merely a message. If an ally of the victim or a faction guard saw it, your reputation with that faction suffers and the guards may raise the alarm. An NPC victim can answer with force.

The thief’s hint

While your character sneaks, the game hints who is worth robbing: a badge appears over such a target. That hint is private — the server computes it and sends it only to you. Other people’s pockets are visible neither to other players nor to a modified client.

What to remember

  • Sneaking is a consumable. Enter it close to the target and don’t linger.
  • Approach from behind: it is both safer and the costliest angle for the victim.
  • Take one item at a time and don’t return to the same victim in a row.
  • The glove is optional, but it stretches your reserve.
  • A failure costs the same as a success — so trying on the off chance is expensive.