OSRS Thieving offers very different training experiences: short stall sessions, repeated pickpockets, timed burglary, active blackjacking and Pyramid Plunder. The right route depends on your level, unlocks and how much attention you want to spend.
This 1–99 Thieving guide gives you an accessible progression and explains the faster alternatives. Separate experience from loot when comparing methods. A reward outfit, a rare drop or a profitable hour does not automatically mean faster levels.
Choose your route by attention and goal
Method | Entry point | Best reason to choose it |
|---|---|---|
Quest rewards and stalls | Early levels | Skip slow opening levels while developing the account |
Aldarin villa chests | 36 Thieving and Varlamore access | Strong early experience with a lockpick and run recovery |
Blackjacking | 45 and partial The Feud | Fast active training if you can maintain the rhythm |
Stealing artefacts | 49 | Route-based training with room for actions while moving |
Varlamore valuables | 50 and Children of the Sun | Longer automatic interactions between decisions |
Ardougne Knights | 55 | Straightforward pickpocketing that improves greatly with levels |
Pyramid Plunder | 21 entry; stronger at 71/81/91 | Active room progression, especially strong at 91+ |
A new player can use quests and stalls, try Varlamore at 50, then compare Knights with an active method. You do not need to commit to one method until 99. If a method's clicks become tiring, changing to a sustainable alternative can produce more progress over the whole session.
Early levels: quests, men and stalls
Biohazard, Hazeel Cult, Fight Arena, Tower of Life and Tribal Totem provide 7,200 combined Thieving experience, enough to reach level 24 from level 1. Check each quest's requirements and combat before treating this as a fixed sequence; prerequisite work can overlap with other account goals.
If training directly, 49 successful pickpockets of men or women take level 1 to 5. Bring food and watch Hitpoints. From level 5, bakery stalls in East Ardougne offer a simple route toward 25. Stand in a position that avoids the guards' view; being repeatedly caught is a sign to fix your position before continuing.
At 25, Hosidius fruit stalls are a familiar option. The two stalls in the eastern house near the beach avoid the market's patrolling dogs and allow alternating steals. Dropping unwanted fruit supports faster experience; banking useful fruit creates a different, slower session. Do not add an obsolete Hosidius favour requirement.
Fruit stalls can reach roughly 34,000 experience per hour at one stall or around 43,000 when alternating efficiently. Those are active rates, not an expectation while banking every inventory. Strange fruit can help replenish run energy when moving between stalls.
Level 36: try Aldarin villa chests
Aldarin villa chests give 200 experience per successful unlock from level 36. Bring a lockpick and run-energy recovery. Failed attempts can teleport you outside, so your return route matters; the western villa has a shorter return from the failure location.
A reasonable early comparison is roughly 40,000–50,000 experience per hour with preparation, rather than assuming the highest possible rate immediately. Without a lockpick or adequate run recovery, the repeated run back reduces performance. Uncut gems, seeds, clues and bone shards are additional rewards, not a guarantee of fixed profit.
Use a short session here to reach your next unlock or decide whether you enjoy chest training. There is no requirement to continue to 45 if quest rewards or another useful activity already take you beyond it.
Prepare pickpocketing upgrades in the right order
Upgrade | Effect | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|
Medium Ardougne Diary | 10% pickpocket-success improvement within Ardougne | No cloak needs to be worn or carried |
Hard Ardougne Diary | Extends that success benefit across Gielinor | Does not stack with gloves of silence |
Full Rogue outfit | Guaranteed double eligible pickpocket loot | No extra experience; does not double Varlamore house valuables |
Dodgy necklace | 25% chance to avoid a failed pickpocket's stun and damage | Ten protective activations before crumbling |
Shadow Veil | 15% chance to avoid stun and damage while active | Requires its spell unlock and supplies; benefits diminish when failures become rare |
Dodgy necklaces and Shadow Veil combine multiplicatively for a 36.25% chance to avoid the stun and damage from a failed pickpocket, not 40%. That is a failure-protection effect, not a flat 36.25% increase in successful thefts.
Gloves of silence require 54 Hunter and offer their own 5% success improvement while equipped. The relevant Ardougne Diary perk overrides them. They also occupy the glove slot needed for the full Rogue set, so do not price a setup as if all those benefits stack at once.
The Rogues' Den maze requires unboosted 50 Agility and 50 Thieving. Speak to Brian O'Richard to begin, enter with an empty setup as required and work toward all five Rogue pieces. The level-80 Thieving shortcut speeds later runs, but is not necessary to obtain the outfit.
For ordinary pickpocketing, set NPC Attack options appropriately to reduce accidental attacks and use a comfortable menu arrangement. Bring food, keep a bank route available and inspect the target before assuming a single click selects Pickpocket.
Coin pouches: plan the interruption
When your coin-pouch stack reaches its cap, open it before continuing. The limit is 28 without a diary improvement, 56 with medium Ardougne Diary, 84 with hard and 140 with elite. The easy tier does not raise the starting cap.
Place the pouches somewhere easy to reach, then return to the target after opening them. Include those clicks and any healing in your measured experience rate. A trapped target reduces mouse travel but does not make the activity fully automatic.
Level 45+: blackjacking for active experience
Blackjacking requires 45 Thieving, partial completion of The Feud and a blackjack. Lure the appropriate target into a suitable house, knock them out, then pickpocket twice while they are unconscious. The basic sequence stays the same, but the eligible target changes:
45–55: bearded, blackjack-wielding Pollnivnian bandits.
55–65: non-bearded, scimitar-wielding Pollnivnian bandits.
65+: Menaphite Thugs.
Start by learning the knockout-and-two-pickpockets rhythm. When a knockout fails, recover before continuing the normal sequence. If you enter combat, reset the situation instead of repeatedly attempting unavailable actions. A nearby ladder or an appropriate weapon-switch reset can help, depending on your position.
Inventory-blocking food, such as pies or wines that leave an item behind, helps maintain a full inventory. This can prevent accidental ordinary pickpockets of a conscious target and support recovery after a failed knockout. Keep healing supplies ready and understand the inventory behaviour before copying a fast demonstration.
Practised rates can exceed 200,000 experience per hour from Menaphite Thugs, with high-level efficient sessions reaching roughly 260,000. Early targets are slower, and learning will be lower. Choose a 20-minute test that includes resupplying rather than assuming maximum late-game performance at level 45.
Level 49+: stealing artefacts
Captain Khaled in Port Piscarilius assigns a house containing an artefact. Bring a lockpick, steal from the assigned drawers, avoid the guards and return the artefact for the reward. The Fisher's Flute teleport through Kharedst's memoirs or the Book of the Dead supports the route when unlocked and charged.
Good guard positioning and route knowledge make a large difference. Wait for a safe opening while learning rather than repeatedly being caught. Guard lures and reliable run recovery support the high rates often quoted for this method; a first visit without those preparations is a different benchmark.
With preparation, level-49 rates can be around 150,000 experience per hour, improving with level and execution. This is a strong active alternative between other milestones. Optional alchemy or fletching while travelling should be added only after the basic route is consistent.
Level 50+: Varlamore valuables for a calmer routine
After Children of the Sun and 50 Thieving, pickpocket wealthy citizens in Civitas illa Fortis for house keys. When a street urchin distracts a citizen, successful pickpockets become automatic for a short period. Full Rogue equipment doubles eligible keys from the pickpocketing stage.
Use keys to enter a burgled house while its owner is away. Steal from furniture, watch for the flashing-arrow bonus opportunity and respond to the warning that the owner is returning. Leave through the open window before being caught; staying too long can cost much of that house's stolen valuables.
Ordinary furniture stealing continues automatically for about a minute between decisions, making this less demanding than blackjacking. The house cycle still needs attention. A flashing bonus appears briefly, and the owner's return is not a signal to keep collecting indefinitely.
Deliver valuables to Oriana for payment. Rogue equipment does not double the valuables taken from household furniture. Its benefit to key gathering should not be confused with doubling the entire burglary reward.
Most importantly, combine key-gathering time and burglary time when measuring the method. If you spend 20 minutes preparing keys and 40 minutes in houses, that is a one-hour session. A burglary-only rate quoted without the preparation time overstates your complete routine.
Level 55+: Ardougne Knights as a straightforward default
Knights become available at 55 Thieving. A well-positioned knight reduces movement, but leave the NPC able to move as required rather than standing on its movement tiles and disrupting the setup. If using a shared training world, inspect the arrangement before interacting.
The medium Ardougne Diary is strongly recommended. Combined with dodgy necklaces, benchmark rates are roughly 86,000 experience per hour at 55, 141,000 at 75 and 209,000 at 90, including some mistakes and pouch opening. Your healing, clicks and setup affect those results.
At 95 Thieving with the medium diary perk, Knights no longer fail. That changes the value of failure-protection supplies. Do not continue buying necklaces for a target you cannot fail simply because they were useful earlier. Full Rogue remains relevant for the loot.
Pyramid Plunder: aim for the useful upper rooms
Pyramid Plunder starts at unboosted 21 Thieving, with another room unlocked every ten levels through 91. It is usually a more compelling training alternative at 71 or 81, and becomes especially strong at 91. Being able to enter the first room does not make it the fastest low-level route.
Arrange access to Sophanem, food, run recovery and antipoison. Starting Icthlarin's Little Helper provides ordinary city access, while a charged pharaoh's sceptre offers a direct Jalsavrah lobby teleport. Contact! unlocks the nearby bank and is helpful when resupplying without a sceptre.
Each game lasts five minutes. For experience, work toward your highest available room, loot its urns and use spare time for suitable earlier urns. Golden chests along the way provide experience and a chance at a sceptre, but unnecessary detours can consume time needed for the final room.
Prepared solo benchmarks are approximately 125,000 experience per hour at 71–80, 190,000 at 81–90 and 270,000 at 91+. Those assume an efficient route and sceptre transport. Include banking and recharging when comparing your own session; do not count a rare sceptre as assured income.
Profit targets and Wilderness alternatives
Vyres at 82 and elves at 85 offer valuable rare-drop targets after their relevant access requirements. They can fail often at entry levels, so success upgrades, food and full Rogue equipment matter. Compare ordinary loot, supply cost and the rare-drop contribution separately rather than describing a lucky hour as the guaranteed rate.
Rogues' Castle chests at 84 offer high experience in deep, multi-combat Wilderness. The location creates a real risk of player attacks and losing carried items. Bring only a deliberate risk budget, prepare the chest-trap and nearby-NPC mechanics and count escapes, deaths and travel in the result. This is an optional route, not the default recommendation for every account.
Check your session before buying more supplies
Choose a level or unlock target and select a method you can comfortably sustain.
Verify access, target type, food, inventory space and return transport.
Apply the diary and equipment effects that actually stack for that target.
Train for 20–30 minutes, including healing, pouch opening and resupplying.
Compare total experience and net rewards before extending the session.
For example, 30,000 experience over a complete 20-minute test projects to 90,000 per hour at the same pace. Removing the minutes spent gathering keys or travelling creates a different number that cannot fairly be compared with an all-in session.
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