Thief Side Mission: Shark Bait

Once you're inside Eddy Levack's office, use focus. You'll notice that there are two pressure plates on the floor, and no switch in sight. The idea is to crotch, HUG THE LEFT WALL, and swoop. Unfortunately, I had started the mission, made it past the plate unharmed, and realized that I forgot to turn on the recorder. The second time around, I forgot to hug the wall, and you can see in the video what happened.

Inside the bureau is a vase. If you look closely, you can see that something is behind it. Smash the vase, and use the switch. This opens the door that leads to the electrical box. Once the wire is cut, the office is totally safe for you to crack the safe, and grab everything in the office.

Thief Side Mission: The Disappearing Poet

This is not a hard mission, just mildly annoying. For instance, one of the pieces of paper that you're looking for is under a bag of food. If you're at full health, and have a full inventory, you can't pick the food up.

All of the pieces are shown in the video that accompanies this post. The three that you're most likely to miss are the one under the food, the one on top of the bureau, and one hidden behind the lid of an open chest.

If you're stuck, just use focus to highlight anything that you can interact with in the area. 

Thief Side Mission: Saving Face

Wait for the two men patrolling the street to pass. Pick the lock on the door, and close it behind you. Head downstairs, and use focus. Unscrew the plate, and press the off button for the trap. The bust is straight to your left, on a smell shelf. Grab it and you're done.

Thief Side Mission: Fit For A Queen

You will need a few rope arrows in this area. There is a secret room to your right as you head down the stairs. Activating the button on the wall opens a trap door above your head. Shot a rope arrow at the beam to access the secret area.

After you've finished in the room, leave and use focus, There are two beams that you will need rope arrows for. One is just outside the window that you want to enter. If you haven't upgraded your bow, you might not be able to hit it until you're closer.

Near the bottom of the stairs that you used to reach this area is another beam. Shot it, and climb up to the platform, and hop across the gap to the brightly lit balcony. Climb over the railing, and turn left. Enter the window, and turn right. Exit through the window, and climb over the short wall. Turn right immediately, and you'll find a locked door on your right. Pick the lock, and head inside.

Cut through the apartment and look out the window. If you haven't already done so, use a rope arrow on the beam. Grab the rope, and head down to the next level. Inside is Little Lucy, and a note about the necklace. Head back to the rope, through the upper apartment, and enter the dark apartment you were in earlier. This time, go through the other window, and turn right.

Take the next right, and walk until you need to hop down to the ground. Climb the wall on the other side of the street, and turn right yet again. Climb the wall, and jump across the gap to the next window. Inside is a woman crying over a dead body. She will ignore you, so just take what you can, grab the item, and leave.

Thief Side Mission: Casing The Cargo

There's a lot of light in the area, and three guards that move around a lot. If you take one out, the others will know right away. There is also a caged dog in the area. Besides a lot of patience, you will also need a rope arrow and two water arrows to get this mission done.

First off, use focus to highlight the beam for the rope arrow. Wait for the guard to approach. After a few seconds, he turns and walks back to where he came from. This is your chance to shot the beam and climb up. Follow the ledge to where you can jump across.

The windows are barred, so use your focus. You'll notice that the wire box is down below the window that a guard likes to stand near. Shot out the flames, to give yourself some darkness. There won't be a lot, but it will help.

Time the guard that walks along the wall. There is a cart between him and the wall that you can use for cover. Hop down, and snip the wires. The other guards in the area can still see you when they pace, so be careful. If you're spotted, do the best that you can against them.

If you are having trouble with all three, you can thin the crowd a little. Instead of going straight for the wires, stay on the ledge where you climbed up the rope. Wait for the guard to pass by, and do an aerial take down. Run back to the roof that you dropped down from to get to the area, and wait for the other two to leave.

Once the wires are cut, you need to climb back up the rope, and get to the windows. Next to the safe on your left is a painting that has two hidden switches. Pulling the switches reveals a button that opens a hidden area in the floor boards. Open the safe, grab everything in the room, and leave.

Thief Side Mission: Writing Wrongs

In order to enter the shop, you have to squeeze through a few crates. Once inside, there's a lot of stuff to grab. Don't miss the cash register as you loot. Just hop over the counter to get it. Afterwards, examine the books on the shelf. Find the hidden switch, and a trap door opens. Hop back over the counter, and head down.

On the table in the back is a manuscript. This is the item that you need. Grab it, and everything else you see, and leave once you see the mission complete prompt.To leave, just go back upstairs, and squeeze past the crates.

Thief Side Mission: Slick Willy

When you enter Willy's townhouse, you're on the upper level. There's not much to loot here, but there is more downstairs. Before heading down, examine the picture of the naked woman on the wall. Find the hidden switches, and a secrete panel opens. A dead Willy falls from the ceiling, and has an item to grab on him.

Head downstairs, and loot everything. Climb up the ladder inside the secret area, and head up. Open the chest, and grab the watch (as well as the coins). When you see the mission complete prompt, you're done.

Thief Side Mission: Taking A Fence

For this mission, you will need four arrows. Two rope, and one blunt. As always, follow the cursor until it points to a window that you can't climb to. Use focus to reveal a beam that you can shoot a rope arrow at. It may be out of range, so don't shoot yet. Instead, walk down the street to another beam. You will know you're headed the right way if there are two windows on your right, neither of which you can reach yet.

Shoot a rope arrow up to the second beam, and climb up. Open the first window, and enter the apartment. There's loot galore in there, so grab everything that you can. And no, the deer head doesn't come off the wall. Exit through the second window, and look up for a pulley. Shoot it with a blunt arrow, then shoot the beam with the second rope arrow.

Climb up the rope, and jump off at the next level. Walk to the end of the ledge, and jump across the gap to the window that you want to enter. Use focus again, and you will see a push switch on the far wall. Shoot it with your second blunt arrow, and the bars to the window open. You can now loot away. After you have everything, you get the mission complete prompt.

Thief chapter 5: Meet Basso At The Siren's Rest

This is pretty straight forward. Just follow the cursor through the town, until you reach the docks (the area where you have to keep taking out the guard that shoots you if you enter the lit window). Instead of hopping over the railing, this time sneak across the dock, and enter the building.

Inside, you get a cut scene that fills you in on the next part of the story. Afterwards, you can either:

a) start the next objective - Get to the Boat

b) get a new job from Basso

Since Basso has so many to offer, I personally decided to accept all of them (instead of going back and forth when I finish one), and did them in no particular order. Actually, I wanted to do them in the order they were listed by Basso, but when you take them all at once, they don't appear in your objectives in the same order.

Quite a few of them just involved grabbing items that you missed (or didn't come across) in the game play. I recognized at least one of them from earlier in the game, before I had the razor. I am not going to include these in this guide, because all you have to do is follow the cursor, and collect the item.

I will, however, include the jobs that have a puzzle, or just a badly designed entrance to the area. Areas that you have to squeeze through crates, for instance. Please remember that I am playing these for the first time. I don't play the game, write notes, and then re-play for this guide. As such, there will be some areas where I pause to think things out. I do attempt to edit them out, however. No reason for a five hour video for a mission that only takes 10 minutes.

Thief Side Mission: Silence Is Golden

This is the last warning that I will give you. If you do NOT have the wire cutters, DO NOT START THIS MISSION. You cannot finish the mission without them, and there is no turning back once you start this mission. You have been warned.

The first thing that you need to do is find your way back to the South Quarter. Just use the route that you took earlier. Once you pass through the gate, take a hard right, and head towards Glimmer Lane. This guard is a real nuisance, so take him out. Trust me. If you don't, you'll have to deal with him more than once, so just sneak up and knock hm out.

There is also a citizen walking about that you may have to deal with, if he sees you knock out the guard. For the most part, you can ignore him once he starts screaming. He's just really annoying. Either way, jump over the railing, but make sure you have a spot that isn't too high up. If you jump off at the wrong spot (as you can see I did), you will plummet to your death.

Follow the narrow walkway to the far corner, and hop down to the next walkway. Grab the rope, and climb to the top. Jump off, and head towards the window with the bright light. This is what the guard was really watching. If you don't take him out, he will shoot you at some point. The exit is right across from the window, so even if you crotch, he has a very good chance of hurting, if not killing you.

You are now back at Skinmarket. Make your way back to the ladder that you shot down previously, and head up. Shoot the beam that's in front of the window to your right with a rope arrow.  Drop back down to the ground, and climb up the rope. This is another of the game's silly "leave an area to cross the street" points. You need to enter through the window, loot everything you can find, walk into the next room, and exit through the next window. Repetition is so much fun!

Cross the beam to get across the street, turn, and cross the beam to get across the street, turn, and cross the beam to get across the street. See what I mean? Repetition is fun! Now that you crossed the beams, you're at another well lit window. Hop inside, and you'll see the entry point for the Silence Is Golden mission. YOU WERE WARNED! If Eidos Montreal can be repetitious, then so can I.

Now you're in an interesting area. You can try to sneak around, but there are two very alert dogs downstairs in the open, well lit area. It's possible to kill the dogs, but you don't have to. Personally, I like to use a blunt arrow on the suspended crate. This not only seems to make the guard pay less attention to the dogs, but it also smashes a new way in or out of the building.

After you deal with the guard, enter the building any way that you want to. There's a ton of stuff to grab, so don't rush. It's easy to sneak up on most of the guards, as well as the sleeping voice box thief. He also likes to sneak up behind you after you grab the voice box, so take him out as soon as you see him.

Use focus to find the fuse box. Disable it, and loot the place. There's some good stuff in the basement, as well as the office. Once you're done looting, head back to where you came in, and leave. Now all you have to do is get back to Ector, and you're done.

Please note that you do have to travel back to the pawn shop. I took the long way back, grabbed some more ammo, and then went back. I decided to spare you the long, pointless video of me doing this, so I edited all of that out, and just went straight to the final cut scene for you.

Thief Side Mission: Hand Tailored

You can do this side mission without any extra tools. HOWEVER, if you do NOT have the wire cutter, do not do the second side quest from Ector. The game will not let you abort the mission, or leave the area until the mission is complete. Unfortunately, there is no way to complete the mission without the cutters.

To start this mission, follow the cursor to Ector's Emporium (a.k.a., the pawn Shop). This will not be as easy as it sounds, since you have to climb through a window to get from one part of the map to another. You will then have to find several crates to squeeze past. And of course, the crates look just like every other crate in the game. Bad game designers. BAD!

Once you pass the crates, slide down the ladder, and enter the shop. Inside, approach Ector for your mission. After you accept the mission, rob him blind, and head out the door. You now have to back track through the crates, and follow the cursor to the tailor shop.

Enter inside, and sneak or snipe as you see fit. There's a lot of loot scattered around, so be sure to grab everything that you can. Once you're done, head down to the basement, and pick the lock on the safe. Open it, take out the hand, and head back to Ector. It's really that simple.

Thief Chapter 4 Part 3: Find Jacob

The first thing that you have to do is enter the Architect's house. This won't be easy, since it's heavily guarded. There are also two dogs caged in the area. The dogs are very alert, and not only do the guards patrol, but some carry torches. There are two small buildings nearby. A greenhouse to the left, and what I believe is a shed to the right.

As you can see in the video, I made a few attempts to just sneak in, and I kept getting killed. Garrett really isn't made to do a lot of fighting. Eventually, I got as close to the greenhouse dog as I could, and shot it. I let the two guards for that area come by, and took them out. I was then able to swoop to the door, and open it. I also closed it as soon as I got in.

The clips over lap here. This clip shows part of my exploration to the house. My apologizes for not editing the clips. I am trying to show the game play in as natural a way as possible. This is my first play through of the game. The whole idea of this blog is to give you an idea of what the game play feels like, as well as provide solutions. I don't finish the game, then replay it with all of the answers ready for me as I capture game play.

Next up, exploring the house, in order to find Jacob.

Thief Chapter 3: The Forgotten Ruins

This last part of chapter 3 isn't as hard as it seems. The only problem is a minor "puzzle" that involves more back-and-forth interaction than thought.

To start off, crotch down grab the treasure, and move on. The passage way is very limited in scope, so you can't get lost. There is a narrow space at the end to look for, Hit "X" to enter, and start tapping "X" again when you need to lift the debris out of your way. At the end, there's another small opening that you need to crotch through.

Use focus to reveal a trap here. The button isn't far away. Just follow the red wires to find it. Open the door, and enter "The Forgotten Ruins." There shouldn't be any guards until after you get the book that you came here for, so just relax and enjoy the game for now.

Go down the stairs, and look around a little. You'll see that there is a single, small treasure on the ground next to a wall. Use focus to reveal a switch close to the treasure. Press it, then move on. It doesn't matter if you grab the loot before or after pressing the switch.

 The chest in the next room has some rotting books in it. Just go through the broken window to your right, and move on. Even though there aren't any guards (YET), familiarize yourself with the general area. You will be heading back through parts of it, and you'll want to know the best hiding places, regardless of whether you want to snipe or sneak past the upcoming guards.

Either take the path, or enter the top of the next room, and slide down the rope. As long as you get to the bottom floor, it doesn't matter. Loot what you can, leave, and look for another small opening to crotch through. Follow the ledge to a climbing wall and hop over. I didn't find a reason to shoot the rope holding up the chandelier, so I left it alone. There is a creature in the area, but I didn't have to deal with it.

You are now in the Scriptorium. Drop down to the bottom level, and look for a bookcase. There's a section of books that's hiding a hidden switch. Feel around for it, and go through the door. Turn to your left, and use focus. Stare at the symbol on the wall, and you get a new focus point. Turn off focus, and head back out, by using the hidden switch.

Go around the larger room that you were in before finding the focus point, and climb up the wall with the white markings. Turn right, and climb up. Face the wall, and climb back into the building. Look for the window that has the cross beams outside it. Hop onto the beams, and follow them to the end. Drop down, and grab the treasure.

Search the bookcase for another hidden switch. Use it, and head through the hidden door. Welcome to the Library Towers. When you see the green beacon light, Garrett tells you that it's time to head toward the Central Tower. As you move on, there's a peep hole to your left. Turn right, get a running start, and jump the gap in the road. You are now in what I like to call, the Land of the Pointless Stairs. Yes, the puzzle that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Go through the next room, exit through the broken window, and heads towards your first wheel. Press "X" to access it, then move the left analog controller (joystick to us older folks), and turn it. If it doesn't move, turn it the other way. You will now see a very large, double sided stair case move towards you. Once it's in place, cross over to the next area.

At the bottom of the stairs, head right, crotch, and get the item from the top of the barrel. Head back out, and ignore the wheel that's on the other side of a planked walkway.  You have to come back this way, so save it for later.

Head up to the top of the new building/room, enter through the doorway, and hop down the center. Grab the poppy, and head out the door. Use the wheel, and you get a small cut scene involving the creature that I mentioned earlier. He can't reach you right now, so relax, and enjoy the scene.

Head back through the room, climb up to the next floor, and head back to the wheel I told you to ignore earlier. NOW go turn the wheel, and head up those stairs.  Follow the pathway to an opening in the railings, then jump to the stairs across the gap. Trust me, you'l make it.

Maybe.

Keep heading up until you reach a room with a chest in it. There's more rotting books in it. I honestly thought I made it back to the first chest somehow when this happened to me the first time (I played the game through chapter 3 before. After this chapter, I', in new territory, due to a glitch in chapter 4).

Head out the next doorway, and you see the green light. Go up the stairs, and jump across. Save first if it makes you feel better. I did. Of course, a cut scene starts as soon as you jump, so I doubt you can slip and fall, even if you try.

Now it's time to gt the book. Use focus, and reveal some books that can be used as a switch. Grab all of the loot from the statues. The one statue that doesn't rotate can be reached from outside of the room. Just exit, follow the path, and grab the treasure. Then double back to return. There are a few jumps involved. I think I slipped the first time around, so saving can save you some replay time.

Now face the table, and look for some carvings. Yep. The same kinds of symbols that are on your "key." Use focus, then align the rings on your dial and insert it into the podium. The book is all yours! Now, all you have to do is escape with it. Remember, there's a strange, ferocious creature in the ruins!

Climb onto the table, grab the rope, and head up. Head outside, cross to the next tower, and head down the center. There's a rope to grab if you need it. Head out, and jump the gap (I hate jumping in FPS games, by the way). Check out the peephole from before. And yes, it's the same one from before. You're almost out. Almost.

Now it's time to deal with the guards I mentioned near the beginning of the post. Use the bookcase to exit, and sneak up, or past, the first guard. There's some treasure to be found, so grab what you can. We still need to buy the wire cutting tool at some point, and the other supplies cost money, too.

Keep working your way back to where you entered the ruins, until you find a very well lit area. There's some more guards, so be careful. The light make it hard to sneak around, and some of them have a torch as well.  There's one walking around in the first lit area.

After him, there's a staircase with two more guards that stick fairly close together. You can hide, and sneak attack the first one, but the second will most likely attack you before you can drop the body. I don't know why, but I can't get Garrett to drop a body as soon as he's attacked. The guard always has to get one or two good hits in before I'm allowed to drop him.

No matter how you deal with the guards, you have to get up the stairs. There's a room at the top, that happens to have a guard with a torch. He's blocking your exit, so deal with him however you can. You now have to climb the crates, grab a rope, climb up, do a Tarzan jump to the next rope, and climb a bit higher. Now hop onto the platform, and you're almost home free.

Run out the door, go up the stairs, and jump across the gap to a wall with hand holds. Shimmy across the wall, jumping from one hand hold to another as needed. Finally, you reach a small climbing wall. Go up, and you reached your cut scene.

And remember that creature? I have no idea what that was about at this point. You never have to deal with it.

Thief Chapter 3: The Podium Puzzle

This is more of a run-a-round than it is a puzzle. Go down the stairs, and place the key into the podium. Garrett makes a comment about the symbols on the dial. You automatically take it back out, so you can hunt the symbols down.

All you have to do is check out the peep holes, as well as the wall with three white stripes on it, in front of the podium. Use focus on the wall, and the three peep holes that don't have a cut scene. Go back to the podium, and place the key back in its slot.

Before you set it down, you use get the message that you can rotate the rings on the key with the D-Pad (the up, down, right, left, button under the left analog stick). Just rotate the rings until the highlighted symbols are all aligned, from top to bottom. 

When you're done aligning the symbols, place the key in the slot, and the secret door (the wall with the white stripes) opens. You're now on your way to the hidden library.

Thief Chapter 3: Finding the Secret Passage

Head back up the stairs, and finish looting everything that you can. Loot everything, and leave the room. If you are looting the floor for the first time, do NOT climb over the chest of drawers at the end of the left passageway. You will fall to your death, since there is not a floor on the other side of the chest.

Return to the area where you took out the last guard, and grab the List of Constellations from the table. Open the door just past the table, and go on in. There aren't any guards inside. Grab everything that you find, and snuff the candles if you want. And be sure to grab the journal entry on the table, net to the bust.

Pick the lock on the next door, and head on in. Again, there are no guards around, so just relax, grab everything, and then look for the secret passage. Just be sure that you're 100% satisfied with your search, because the door will close behind you. There's also a chest that you can lock pick, which has some goodies inside for you.

Head to the painting, and feel around for the switches. Once you trigger all of them, the wall will moe, and you step into the passage.

To be continued....

Thief Chapter 3: Reaching the House of Blossoms

Now that you have reached the brothel, you need to find your way in. The place is very exclusive, so don't expect to just bribe a doorman (especially since there isn't one). The first thing you should do is grab the plaque in front of you as you enter the area. It won't help you get in, but it's worth some money.

Follow your locator cursor until you hear the sound of people talking. This will lead you to the brothel. Of course, there's no way to swim across the moat like sewage channel, so you need to find the lever, which is conveniently placed next to the gap you need to cross. Don't forget to push the button on the nearby wall. Just use focus if you don't see either of them. Walk across, and press "X" to start the next part of the chapter.

The voices you hear now are that of the person you are trying to trail, and some guards. As always, sneak or snipe. It's up to you. I didn't have the patience, so I sniped the best I could. And remember, IF you have something equipped, like a throwing item, put it away before trying a silent take down. That's something I tend to forget about until I'm getting beat up.

Climb up to the large pipes, and use them to travel overhead. There's some treasure up there, so don't rush to complete the mission. then head back to the stairs, and slowly go down. If you have the wrench, open the gate and head to the overhead beams. If not, you'll have a slower journey. When it's time to drop down, watch out for glass on the ground. If you step on it, the guards will hear.

This can be used as a trap for the guards. After you step on the glass, run back to the grate, and hide inside. Go the beams, and you can do a silent drop on at least one of them. Grab the item that's on top of the barrel, and then put out some of the lights. As you can see in my clip, the gas lights can be broken, but it makes a lot of noise. If you don't want to use (or don't have) a water arrow, this will still help you. Remember, light and noise are your two biggest enemies in the game.

And as you can see, I didn't really need to put out the two lights that I did. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES! I don't edit them out, and I am (mostly) playing this game for the first time. As such, you get to learn what NOT to do, as well as what to do.

Swoop past the guards and the politician that are just outside of the door. You can try to use a water arrow, but it's a waste of an arrow. The light will be re-lit right away. Instead, just swoop past them, head to the climbing spot, and over the wall. Just walk the beam in front of you, and hop down to the the door. You're in!