OSRS Thieving Ironman Guide

Thieving is an essential Skill to train in OSRS and luckily, it's not that hard to get to 99 on a regular account. As with all things in OSRS however, training Thieving becomes a lot trickier once you consider playing on an Ironman account. While more complicated, getting Thieving to 99 on an Ironman account is still possible.

On this guide, we're going to teach you how to train Thieving, even when you're on an Ironman account. Although this guide is going to teach you the most efficient method possible, keep in mind that it's still going to be challenging to do as that's what Ironman is all about in the game.

Thieving Ironman Training OSRS

The good news is that regular Thieving training is not that different from training Thieving on a regular account. The difference is that you might want to favor some techniques over others because they yield drops that are going to be useful for an Ironman run. Let's jump right into how you can get to level 99.

Thieving Quests For XP

Before you proceed to the methods below, it's first important to finish a few quests first as these will help give you a huge headstart on your way to level 99. These quests have little to no requirements but provide a hefty amount of Thieving XP right from the get-go. Here are the quests you need to do.

1. Hazeel Cult - 1,500 Thieving XP
2. Fight Arena - 2,175 Thieving XP

3. Tower of Life - 500 Thieving XP (requires level 10 Construction)
4. Biohazard - 1,250 Thieving XP (requires Plague City)
5. The Feud - 15,000 Thieving XP (requires level 30 Thieving)

Most Efficient Ironman Thieving Training Level 1-99

If you don't mind a tedious grind that will see you doing the same things over and over again, then we have an efficient way to get to level 99. This is by far the fastest Ironman Thieving training but it's not the most rewarding, unfortunately.

Levels 1–25: Men, women, cakes, and silk

In Lumbridge, your initial thieving targets at level 1 are men and women, but you might want to explore other options by completing a few quests. Once you reach level 5, a strategic move is to thieve cakes from the bakery stalls in East Ardougne. This can be done from a safespot, minimizing risk for lower-level players or hardcore ironmen. Make sure to bank the stolen cakes, as they prove handy for low-level questing and provide healing benefits at Wintertodt. Additionally, consider banking some loaves of bread, as they are required for certain quests, like Death Plateau which demands 10 loaves.

By the time you hit level 20, you can boost your starting cash by pilfering silk from the silk stall. Later, you can sell them to the silk merchant for a handsome 60 coins each. Be cautious though – the merchant will remember the theft for 30 minutes to an hour, after which you can freely sell entire inventories of silk.

Levels 25–45: Fruit stalls

At level 25, head to the fruit stalls in Hosidius with 15% favor. Thieve strange fruit for a boost in run energy and golovanova fruit tops for crafting botanical pies.

Levels 45–99: Blackjacking

For serious cash-making and Managing Miscellania, blackjacking is a top choice, albeit click-intensive. Hardcore ironmen should consider wearing a ring of life during blackjacking to avoid untimely disconnections after a failed knockout. Equipping rogue gear is highly recommended for efficiency.

Levels 49–99: Stealing artifacts

With 75% favor in Port Piscarilius and stamina potions in tow, you can engage in stealing artifacts. This method allows you to combine thieving with other activities like alching, fletching, and glassblowing, adding versatility to your skill-building.

Levels 55–99: Knights of Ardougne

Knights of Ardougne present a less click-intensive but slower alternative to blackjacking. This becomes a lucrative starting point for cash generation in Managing Miscellania, especially for the latter parts of your Ironman run.

Other Training Methods

If you feel a bit bored with doing the training methods above but are still keen on getting to 99, there are a few alternative methods you can try.

Level 64: Molch Stone Chests

Once you've reached level 64, it's time to turn your attention to the stone chests in the Lizardman Temple under Molch. Use your lockpicking skills to open these chests, earning a cool 280 Thieving experience with each success. They respawn almost instantly, making it an efficient training method. Boost your success rate by bringing a lockpick, and make sure your Farming level is at least 45 to access the nearby Farming Guild bank. In case of failure, there's a 1/8 chance of being teleported to the surface, where you could be attacked and potentially poisoned by lizardmen. Arm yourself with an antipoison just in case. Fortunately, inside the temple, you're safe from lizardmen shamans, who are behind barriers. To manage the risk of repeated teleportation to the surface, consider carrying a graceful set and two super energy(4) potions. Super energy potions are a cost-effective alternative to stamina potions for the short run back. If you have a gem bag, bring it along to maximize inventory space before banking. For swift banking at the farming guild, consider using a skills necklace.

At around level 78 Thieving, using the recommended items, you can expect to gain between 90,000–110,000 Thieving experience per hour. Stone chests are known for dropping valuable items, including the untradable Xeric's Talisman, Xerician fabric, gems, seeds, bolt tips (including onyx bolt tips), and medium clues.

Levels 81/91–99: Pyramid Plunder

Now that you have access to Sophanem, consider delving into Pyramid Plunder. It's advisable to focus on this activity enough to obtain 1-2 pharaoh's sceptres. One scepter is needed for a master clue step, and the other is required to build either an occult or ancient altar.

Levels 94–99: Master farmers

For those looking to collect herb seeds for Herblore and hop seeds for birdhouses, master farmers are your go-to targets. Equip yourself with rogue equipment for optimal results. Ensure you've completed the hard Ardougne Diary, and with a Thieving level of 94 or higher, you won't face any failures.

Post-99: TzHaar-Hur

If you plan to continue training Thieving beyond level 99, pickpocketing gems from the TzHaar-Hur in Mor Ul Rek is a top-notch method. This yields up to 250,000 experience per hour and provides up to 60,000 banked Crafting experience per hour. To embark on this method, complete the hard Ardougne Diary and don the Thieving cape for maximum efficiency.

Useful Thieving Items And Equipment

You can make Thieving training a lot easier with the help of a few items. Particularly, look for these items.

Additional Tips For Thieving Ironman Training

1. Rogue Equipment

Your first priority should be obtaining rogue equipment. Head over to the Rogues' Den minigame as soon as you have Thieving 50 and Agility 50. It'll take approximately 90 minutes to secure the full set. While waiting for your run energy to restore at the bank, consider multitasking with activities like cooking fish or blowing molten glass. Alternatively, you can use energy potions or strange fruit (obtained from fruit stalls) for more efficient runs.

2. H.A.M. Store Rooms

Once you've completed Death to the Dorgeshuun, turn your attention to the H.A.M. Store rooms. Pickpocket H.A.M. Guards for H.A.M. keys and unlock chests in the store rooms. These chests are loaded with coins, gems, and jewelry. It's a great way to score an amulet of strength or an amulet of power without the Crafting requirement, making it a decent moneymaking option, especially for lower-level players. Wearing a full set of H.A.M. robes won't decrease the chance of failure when pickpocketing guards, but it does double the loot from keys if you have the full rogue equipment.

3. Early Money Making

For quick cash, consider blackjacking bandits in Pollnivneach. It has minimal requirements and stands as one of the best methods to kickstart your funds for Managing Miscellania. If you prefer a slightly slower but easier alternative at higher levels, pickpocketing Knights of Ardougne is a viable option. This method yields a bit more profit than blackjacking but requires completing the medium tasks in the Ardougne Diary, which, in turn, necessitates having a mithril grapple.

4. Get The Gloves of Silence

The Gloves of Silence serve as a valuable asset, boosting a player's success rate by 5% when pickpocketing, contingent upon having level 54 Hunter. These gloves can be acquired through the Grand Exchange at a cost of 2,927 coins each or crafted at the Fancy Clothes Store in Varrock, necessitating 2 dark kebbit furs, with a total cost of 600 coins.

However, it's crucial to note that the perks granted by the Ardougne Diary override the 5% success rate bonus from the Gloves of Silence. Consequently, these gloves become redundant within Ardougne after completing the medium Ardougne Diary or entirely obsolete after completing the hard Ardougne Diary.

The Gloves of Silence are subject to wear and tear, sustaining damage with each unsuccessful pickpocketing attempt. They face destruction after 62 failures, counted from their new state. In the event of multiple pairs, all gloves reflect the same status upon inspection. If the currently used pair deteriorates, any other pairs in the player's possession reset to a "new" condition. Importantly, the condition is a player-specific attribute and not inherent to the gloves. Players with at least level 64 Crafting have the option to restore their Gloves of Silence to a "new" state by using 1 dark kebbit fur (costing 929 coins) and thread (costing 9 coins) on the gloves.

Money Making With Thieving On Ironman

Since you're already here, we might as well teach you a few profitable methods to use when you want to make money using Thieving on your Ironman playthrough. The methods aren't as plenty as in a regular playthrough but these still reward you with a lot of money nonetheless.

What Are OSRS Ironman Restrictions?

The Ironman mode comes with a lot of restrictions but not all of them will affect your Thieving Skill of course. In most cases, your Thieving Skill is affected because of the lack of access to resources in the game. To help you understand an Ironman playthrough, here's every restriction there is on the game mode.

Standard Ironman

1. You cannot trade with other players. There are exceptions for certain quest items from quests like Shield of Arrav and Heroes' Quest. You are also allowed to receive bonds.
2. You cannot use the Grand Exchange for any kind of transaction except for bonds. For bonds, you can only purchase these but you cannot sell them.
3. You cannot pick up any loot from the PVE and PVP kills of other players. If you want to loot from other players or monsters, you have to kill the monster yourself. If the player or monster was damaged by another player during the process of being killed, you won't get killed.
4. You cannot gain any XP from PVP encounters. However, the base Magic XP from casting spells during PVP is retained.
5. You cannot use the Accept Aid feature.
6. You cannot enter another player's owned house.
7. You cannot buy items from other players by way of overstocked shops. Simply put, you cannot take advantage of higher sell prices from any understocked shops.
8. You cannot receive items from balloons in the Party Room in Falador.
9. You cannot join group activities in the Nightmare Zone. You also cannot get any resource rewards from the reward chest, with the exemption of the scroll of redirection.

As you can see, there are huge limitations in even the standard version of Ironman. Just the fact that you cannot trade with other players and use the Grand Exchange will already provide you with a ton of challenges. Now, let's move on to the Hardcore Ironman restrictions.

Hardcore Ironman

Now, in Hardcore Ironman ALL of the restrictions from the standard Ironman will carry over. However, what's different this time is that you only have one life. If you die during your Hardcore Ironman run, you'll be brought back to a Standard Ironman account. Additionally, all of your XP and levels on the Hi Scores table will be locked in.

There are a few activities from which deaths are considered safe. Dying from these minigames and activities below won't revert you back to Standard Ironman.

• Barbarian Assault
• Camelot training room
• Castle Wars
• Chambers of Xeric
• Clan Wars
• Dream World but only during Lunar Diplomacy
• Emir's Arena
• Fishing Trawler
• The Fremennik Trials but only 4th phase of the duel with Koschei the Deathless
• Inferno
• Last Man Standing
• Magic Training Arena
• Nightmare Zone
• Pest Control
• Death within a player-owned house
• PvM Arena
• Soul Wars
• TzHaar Fight Cave
• TzHaar Fight Pit
• Random Event
• Rogues' Den (maze)
• Zulrah - Resurrection reward from Elite Western Provinces Diary only

Hardcore Group Ironman

You don't need to tackle Ironman alone. In fact, players do it in a group as it's more fun to try and survive the perils of OSRS Ironman with a few friends. There are a few restrictions that are exclusive to Hardcore Group Ironman but the main limitations from the Standard Ironman and Hardcore Ironman apply here.

1. Each player in a Hardcore Group Ironman is given only one safe PVM death per player. All players will share a pooled number of lives which everyone will need to be mindful of. If there are three players in a Hardcore Group, then they all have three lives to use. Lives can be used by any player and a single player can use up multiple lives from the group. Once this is depleted, players will lose their Hardcore status.
2. In Hardcore Group Ironman, the safe deaths listed above are no longer considered as safe. That means dying from the minigames above will result in a lost life. The only exception here is the Fremennik Trials fight with Koschei the Deathless. With that in mind, Hardcore Group Ironman players need to be very mindful of their moves in minigames.
3. PVP minigames such as Castle Wars, Last Man Standing, and Clan Wars are considered as safe deaths for those in a Hardcore Group Ironman.
4. Lastly, Hardcore Group Ironmen cannot challenge members of the Nex outside their group. This is regardless of what Group Prestige you are in.

Ultimate Ironman

This is, of course, the penultimate challenge of OSRS. For starters, keep in mind that all of the restrictions you have in Hardcore and Standard Ironman modes apply here. Additionally, there are a lot of other restrictions to consider.

1. You cannot deposit, withdraw, or note items inside a bank. Banks are also not allowed to unnote any items.
2. You cannot create any item sets using the Grand Exchange.
3. You cannot receive any resources from Managing Miscellania or Bert who gives buckets of sand daily.
4. You cannot send items to banks using the following methods of transport: Coal Trucks, Dwarven Boatman, and Daeyalt essence.
5. You cannot send your Servant to any banks or the Sawmill.
6. You cannot put anything inside your seed vault.
7. You cannot store any duplicate items inside your POH Costume Room.
8. You cannot withdraw items before first depositing an entire set from which the item belongs to.
9. You cannot use the looting bag's mechanics on a PVP server that's outside of the Wilderness.
10. You cannot protect or safekeep your three most valuable items upon dying.
11. You cannot take advantage of the Protect Item ability in the Prayer skill line.
12. You cannot use graves. Items will drop directly to the ground instead.
13. Inside the God Wars Dungeon and Instances, items are still going to be inside graves and supplies are going to be on the floor.
14. All item retrieval services are the same except for the one at Zulrah.
15. Those in this difficulty can always get their items from Zul-Gwenwynig for free. They also don't have to use an interface to get their items from. This is as opposed to being given the item directly on a standard account.
16. Items that cannot be traded will be dropped upon the death of the player. In the Wilderness, most of the items you have will be turned into coins and given to the player who was able to kill you.

Start Thieving Training On Ironman Now!

Ironman is one of the toughest challenges in OSRS. It's good that there isn't a lot of difference between Thieving training on a regular account and with an Ironman account. Thieving is a great source of money in OSRS so make sure to train it ASAP!