Pickpocketing Help

[500KG]

Hey Guys,

When I pick pocket, two bars come up with no explanation, sometimes I get caught, sometimes I don't? I really don't get it. Any tips? At the moment, I stole from one girl on a beach and the whole village attacked me.

Also, what is the tension meter? The little triangle that never changes?
What does it do any how do I read it? So confused by these mechanics.

[Scottx125]

You will ALWAYS get caught pickpocketing eventually. The trick is to steal something and then get out of there asap.

[Marcos_DS]

Originally posted by Pixel47:

When I pick pocket, two bars come up with no explanation, sometimes I get caught, sometimes I don't? I really don't get it.

The one bar is for maximum weight, the other bar is for maximum price. If you get one bar full (steal too much), you will be caught automatically. Both max weight and max price depend on level and thievery skill, so it can make sense to wait for higher levels / skill before you pickpocket someone unless you can steal everything anyway.

Any tips? At the moment, I stole from one girl on a beach and the whole village attacked me.

talk to the target you want to pickpocket with one group member, then use your thief to steal things (without turning weight/price bars full), then run two screens away with your thief. Stop talking with the other party member, and make the thief group leader -> everyone runs to the thief so you are far away before the target even notices anything.

Also, what is the tension meter? The little triangle that never changes?

I think its green in safe areas, yellow in contested areas and red in fights. Don't really pay attention to it myself.

[Zara]

Okay so if you mouse over your pickpocketing skill itself in your charcter menu, it says you can steal up to X kg or Y gold value. While pickpocketing, the top bar is fills as you steal based on weight, while the bottom fills based on gold value. If either bar hits max you automatically get caught, and more often than not that causes a fight, and anyone in range who isallied with that npc will fight you as well.

The easiest way to pickpocket someone is to do so when they are in a more secluded area, then you have another member of your party talk to them, then switch to your pickpocketer, steal what you want, then run 1-2 screen lengths away. Then exit the conversation with the other character, and have them walk away too. If you did it right, the npc will be all like "What? I've been robbed!" they'll like around for like 30 seconds or so, and then go about their life, and you're free to interact with them again. Of course if the pick pocketer didn't walk far enough away they may ask to look through your bags and then a fight generally ensues. If they ask someone else in the party, there is no consequences as they didn't steal anything :)

As for the tension meter, I'm not really sure, I just ignore it really.

[Dino [NG]]

Not sure if you it bugs for you but you can hover the 2 bars and it explains how it works.
The top bar if the weight limit, not sure on the number buy you can only steal a total of 3 kg of items at skill level 1, going up when you raise the skill.
The bottom bar is the value limit, you can only steal items for a total value of 300 gold (at level 1), also going up when you level up the skill.
As long as you stay below these 2 values, stealing an item has a 0% chance of failure.

When you hover over an item in your victim's inventory, the bars will display a preview showing how filled up they would get if you try to steal this item. If it's over 100% (the bar will be red), then trying to steal this item will 100% fail.

Only tricky thing to keep in mind is that for stacked item, the preview only show the effect of stealing 1 item from the stack. So if you hover over a stack of 1000 gold, it will only show the bottom bar going up 1 gold, but if you try to steal the 1000 gold at once it will definitely fail (at level 1 anyway).

[phenir]

Just watch out for greyed out items, trying to steal those will get you caught as they will take you over the limit. For stacked item, the pop up for how many you steal will automatically be set to the highest amount you can safely steal. Gold doesn't weigh anything so it's a good filler. If there's nothing else you want, just steal as much gold as you can.

[RPGmodsFan]

Marcos_DS gave Good and well versed explainations on Pickpocketing.

Originally posted by Marcos_DS:

Originally posted by Pixel47:

When I pick pocket, two bars come up with no explanation, sometimes I get caught, sometimes I don't? I really don't get it.

The one bar is for maximum weight, the other bar is for maximum price. If you get one bar full (steal too much), you will be caught automatically. Both max weight and max price depend on level and thievery skill, so it can make sense to wait for higher levels / skill before you pickpocket someone unless you can steal everything anyway.

Any tips? At the moment, I stole from one girl on a beach and the whole village attacked me.

talk to the target you want to pickpocket with one group member, then use your thief to steal things (without turning weight/price bars full), then run two screens away with your thief. Stop talking with the other party member, and make the thief group leader -> everyone runs to the thief so you are far away before the target even notices anything.

Each of your Companions can pickpocket each NPC in the game only once, which limits the number of times each NPC can be pickpocketed.
Yet I discovered a little known exploit to this.

Once you are on the Lady Vengence, you can:
1) Hire a Henchman from Sergeant Zrilla.
2) Go to ReSpec Mirror, and maximize the Henchman's Thievery Ability.
3) Equip Henchman with gear that boosts Thievery.
4) Go to your Pickpocket Target...
...

There are 14 Henchmen that can be hired, hence can potentially pickpocket the same NPC at least 14 times...

Below is a YouTube Video I put together explaining this exploit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUN6kODtoqM

[Stabbey]

The tension meter usually turns yellow to indicate that you are trespassing in an area and if seen it may trigger combat (depending on the NPC). A prime example of this is on the ramparts of Fort Joy, If you use the ladder behind Mona's tent to go up, wandering a little turns the tension meter yellow, warning you to use Sneak in the area.