Honor among thieves: Getting Started in ESO’s Thieves Guild DLC

Word on the street is you’re looking for work. We’ve heard about you, yeah — you got guts. Got spine. Got a good head on your shoulders and you ain’t afraid to get your hands dirty. Good. We’ve been searching for types like you.

I represent a certain collection of persons, an Alliance of Pragmatic Individuals…though most people, if they’ve heard of us at all, call us the Thieves Guild. Now, entrance ain’t free — unless you’re one of those Elder Scrolls Online Plus members, it’ll cost you about 2000 Crowns — but you pay up and we’ll take care of you. Just stick with us and you’re gonna go far, kid.

Psst…over here

Mostly we operate out of Hew’s Bane, a place about as friendly as a back-alley mug. If you’re not sure how to get there, don’t worry about it — we set up your first contact, woman by the name of Quen. You want to start working with us, go find her in any of the Outlaw Refuges you can stumble into.

How is she in so many places at once? We don’t ask, she don’t tell. Look there and you’ll find her, that’s all we can say. You go through the initiation quest, “Partners in Crime”, and you’ll be in Abah’s Landing faster than you can say “Open Says-a-me”. Look around and you’ll find us (or more likely, we’ll find you). If you’re a little green around the ears, don’t worry — we’ll get you up to speed (and battle level) as soon as you show up.

The land of opportunity

Once you’re in, you’ll have some standard access to jobs we can give everyone — look on the Tip Board and Reacquisition Board at the Den to find things that need doing. Once you’ve worked with us a little and played “The Long Game“, you’ll have met Fa’ren-dar, our resident furball and Master of Heists, and you can start going on Heists as well. Do us the favors you find here, and we’ll reward you with some gold, experience, and most importantly Reputation with the Guild. 

Tips

Tips are small-ball jobs that can take you all over Tamriel. Pick a pocket here, unlock a safebox there. Occasionally gather together some items for consignments. Nothing too hard, nothing too dangerous. Usually. You can only follow up on one Tip at a time, but we’ll let you take as many a day as you want. If you’re looking to score a little harder on the job, there’s always bonus items to steal. 

Just talk to Kari, the Nord in the center of the den, to finish up a completed Tip. On top of the normal rewards, she’s sometimes generous and will hand out a Bounty Edict that can reduce or eliminate any Bounty and heat you’ve managed to acquire, or boxes of valuable goods that are fine to sell — though a local “Covetous Countess” might also be interested.

“It’s in there somewhere.” 

Reacquisitions

Reacquisitions, on the other hand, are a little more local — and a lot dicier. See, sometimes very specific items fall out of our hands just as easily and accidentally as they fell into them, and we need you to go get them for us. Usually, they’re somewhere hiding in the overland, but every once in awhile there’s a little Delving into Bahraha’s Gloom or the Shark’s Teeth Grotto. 

Nothing too dangerous in either of those — just a buried alive sect of ancient necromancers in the Gloom, and a resident (totally unaffiliated) gang of bandits called the Shark Teeth Gang in the Grotto. I’d handle it myself, but I’m more of a business man than a fighter.

These are a little more delicate jobs, and we want you to take your time, so we only hand out one Reacquisition a day to any Guild member. Once you’re done, go talk to the Breton Spencer Rye to get your pay, then take a load off. There’ll be more things that need reacquisiting tomorrow. 

Heists

Heists, well, you’ll have to talk to Fa’ren-dar for the specifics, but what I know is this: you (or yourself and some friends) get dropped into a job site. Different every time. Different enemies, different layouts, different treasure locations. Your team has to sneak, lockpick, and generally Thief about the best you can, grab the treasure, and get out.

You do it quick enough, we’ll even throw in a bonus from our unique Thieves Guild item sets, and you get a much bigger boost to your Reputation with us. Try to keep it quick and clean, if you can, since you can only run one Heist a day. Now, if your friend has his own Heist to run, and you want to tag along and quest share, that’s a different story… 

Be careful, though — we’re hiring professionals, not bandits or strongarms. Every time you get spotted or caught, your timeframe shrinks, and the bonus gets harder to get. We’ll always pay as long as you bring us the goods, sure… but more is always better, no? 

“Look, I get that we’re a team — but were uniforms really necessary?”

Tools of the Trade (Skill Tree)

Now now, don’t look at me all confused like — we know you were only dabbling in the Thievery game before this. To try and help you out, we’ve opened up a whole new Skill Tree specific to our guild, and given you six new ways to up your pickpocket game for as long as you’re a member.

You’ll never forget what you learned if you stop being a Plus member, of course, but advancement in these techniques requires current membership in the Guild, whether its from Plus or Crowns. I’ll tell you all about them below, and I’ll try to keep it simple. 

• Finder’s Keepers – There are Thieves’ Troves all over Tamriel, you’ll know when you’ve found one by the distinct blue glow. You find it, you keep it — as long as you have this passive Skill. 

• Swiftly Forgotten – We’re professionals, and we know how to disappear in a hurry. This Skill will decrease your Bounty and heat after only three seconds, after which you’re just another face in the crowd.

• Haggling – Like I said, we’re business people, and we’ll teach you how to business too — netting up to 10% more when you’re selling acquired merchandise to a fence. Remember this is for sales only, though. Laundering is a whole different story. 

• Clemency – No one knows how to say sorry like a member of the Guild — and once a day, you can say it so well that a Guard hot on your trail might actually believe you, letting you walk with all your gold and goods intact. You even get about a minute of free reign to extract yourself…as long as you don’t go for another less than legal opportunity, anyway. 

• Timely Escape – We take care of our own, when we can. Any time you have Heat and you’re in combat in a place where there’s an Outlaw’s Refuge, there’s a chance one of our members will help a friend in need. Interact with the Footpad, if one shows, and they’ll have you back to the Refuge in no time. 

• Veil of Shadows – People can’t catch what they can’t see, and we’re pretty good about not being seen. Stick with us long enough to pick up the Veil of Shadows, and both guards and witnesses will have their detection range reduced by 10%. That means less chance anyone will see you commit a crime at all. And even if they do, the local Watch will have a much harder time tracking you down to challenge you. 

Business Partners

“Look, let me call in my friend. He’s an expert on this kind of stuff.”

Look, I know – you’re a busy Thief. We all are. Between Tips to follow up on, Heists and Reacquisitions, Delves, a new Trial – there’s a lot to fit into a day, and we don’t always have time to run back and forth all over the place to move our goods or buy supplies. 

I got you covered – for a fee, anyway. Nothing’s free, friend, but if you complete a few objectives for us, or fork over some Crowns, we can help you out with some Assistants. Some are bankers, some are merchants, some are fences. Some only do business with you, others will take the opportunity with anyone around. There’s plenty to choose from, but if you’ve got the coin we’ve got the connections to keep you moving. 

A few words of warning, though – Assistants aren’t much for fighting (though they’ll usually stick around until you’ve done your own wetwork), and for some reason they’re all scared to death of Cyrodiil. Won’t go near the place. 

I know it’s a lot to take in, and we haven’t even covered everything yet – there’s still the lamia Syvarra of the Deep, Captain Virindi Slave-taker, and some rumors about the Temple of the Seven Riddles being taken over by a bunch of weird ghosts and possessed monks. Renamed the place the “Maw of Lorkhaj”, whatever that means. 

You did fine for your first day, though. Now if you’ll excuse me, I hear there’s some independent operator north of here. Calls himself Al Adding or something, thinks he’s hot stuff because he has a genie. I need to go have a kind word with him about operating outside of the Guild.

In the mean time rest up, get a feel for the place, and do any work for us that you feel like. I have a feeling you’re going to like it here.

Partner.