The Thief is a utility job and a decent physical-attacking job if the need arises. Stat-wise, it has exceptional Agility and Dexterity, average bulk and middling magical attributes. It’s also excellent with daggers and pretty good with bows too.

The main reason to run a Thief is to conveniently pilfer items from enemies. Plus with Rob Blind, they’ll steal two items for the price of one. Early on, there aren’t that many good items to steal, but it’s nice to have the option. Alternatively, you could use the Thief’s Knife.

Specialty: Rob Blind¶

When the user successfully steals an item, they get two items instead of one.

This applies to all items. So if you steal one Potion, you get two. Or if you steal a Chaos Blade, you get two Chaos Blades. Who doesn’t like to buy one and get one free? Without this, you may as well use the Thief’s Knife.

Level 1: Steal¶

Steal an item from an enemy with a 50% chance of success.

Can be combined with the Thief Gloves for guranteed stealing.

Level 2: Steal Breath¶

Deal 1 times damage to an enemy and recover HP equal to the damage dealt. If used on undead foes, the character loses HP instead.

Against lesser foes, this makes the Thief almost impossible to take down.

Level 3: Mug¶

Deal 1 times damage to an enemy and steal an item with a 50% chance of success.

Now you don’t have to waste turns stealing and not attacking. Win-win!

Level 4: Steal Mind¶

Deal 0.1 times MP damage to an enemy and recover MP equal to the damage dealt. If used on undead foes, the character loses MP instead.

This is a highly versatile way of restoring MP for physical attackers. Remember: the higher your attack, the more MP you recover!

Level 5: Speed 20% Up¶

Increases the user’s Speed by 20%.

You should know by now that Speed is important for deciding the turn order during battles. While Thieves are naturally speedy, you may want to equip this when in slower jobs.

Level 6: Dagger Lore¶

Increases the user’s dagger proficiency to S.

Daggers are fairly weak weapons, so there’s not much benefit to using them outside of the Thief job (or any other job with a natural dagger proficiency of S).

Level 7: Godspeed Strike¶

Deal 5 times damage to an enemy, while ignoring their Physical Defence. Damage scales with Speed rather than Physical Attack.

Thieves are fast, so naturally this attack is going to deal a number to any foe. The fact it also bypasses physical defence is icing on the cake.

Level 8: Big Bad Burglar¶

Increases the user’s Physical Attack by 25% (up to 150%) each time they steal an item or recover HP/MP with Steal Breath or Steal Mind.

This ability works really well with Thieves since they’ll be stealing often. Plus with boosted attack, they’ll recover more HP with Steal Breath (and MP with Steal Mind).

Level 9: Rob Blind¶

When the user successfully steals an item, they get two items instead of one.

If you’re going to be stealing, there’s little reason not to be a Thief. Still, it’s a valid option when facing tough bosses that would otherwise send a Thief into early retirement.

Level 10: Shake Down¶

Steal an item from all enemies with a 50% chance of success.

Ho-ho-ho… Be sure to don a pair of Thief Gloves and have Rob Blind equipped to rob the enemies silly!

Level 11: Prince of Thieves¶

Steal a rare (otherwise unstealable) item from an enemy with a 25% chance of success.

Despite what you might think, there aren’t many rare items worth stealing; most of them are from the Fort-Lune Ba’als, which you can fight at any time. By the way, the steal rate is unaffected by the Thief Gloves and other abilities.