Abysmally low steal rate and other things that are not my bag

[Doomgaze]

I'm playing though again (hopefully i actually BEAT it this time) and Zidane's rate of stealing is starting to get on my nerves. I have to sit there, defend, heal, and hopefully inflict a few status effects while Zidane fails his steal 20 or so times in a row... It's starting to get really old.

Also, Zidane didn't need to teach Vivi his age-old bonding ritual. Seriously.

[Zifnab]

Once you get Bandit and Master Thief you'll wonder how you did without them. I have Zidane equipping them both, and he's stealing from the Four Chaoses strongest item first, which is nice. About 2-3 failed attempts for the harder to get items too.

[Big D]

I, too, never bother with Steal. I've tried using to boost the amount of damage that Thievery does, but it's so frustrating waiting for that baboon to actually get his greasy mits on something. By the time that Bandit and Master Thief are available, my characters are usually at such high levels that Thievery lacks relevance, and the items I have are better than most of what's availabe by stealing anyway.

At the start of the game, Steal would be pretty handy if it worked more often. As it is, though, I usually only ever bother robbing Baku during the first few hours.

[Doomgaze]

What did Master Thief do again?

And when do you get something that teaches it?

And how many magic stone things does it cost?

And so on.


EDIT: Most bosses have really good equipment, stuff you can't get until a few towns later.

[Zifnab]

One of the Thief items, Thief Hat I think. And only 5 stones.

EDIT: Actually, it might be a weapon... *checks up*

EDIT2: Thief Gloves.

[Big D]

Master Thief lets you steal better items, but I think it only works for regular monsters, not bosses whose inventories are strictly set.

Bandit increases the success rate of Steal.

[Zifnab]

Originally posted by Big D
Master Thief lets you steal better items, but I think it only works for regular monsters, not bosses whose inventories are strictly set.
I think that's just the vague way they termed "increases steal rate". The better items part seems to refer to the fact you can steal the more-difficult items first, which is certainly how it worked for me, including bosses.

[Nova Dragon]

I don't know if this is correct, but for me I have noticed that as the enemies (especially bosses) loose more and more HP Zidane is able to steal more easily from them.

[Kawaii Ryûkishi]

Certain enemies have special resistances to thievery, too. The best and most apparent example of this is the Hill Gigas (Hilgigars); a Phoenix Down and Mithril Fork are simple enough to steal from him, but Zidane has about a one-in-a-million chance of securing the Fairy Flute. I've personally tried to get it for hours on end and have never actually succeeded.

[Ouch!]

Isn't Zidane's thievery success rate also linked to how high his spirit stat is? Messin' with stuff to raise that stat helped me some.

[Cz]

Zidane's thievery deals damage dependant on speed, and the number of sucessful steals. As far as I know, spirit doesn't affect it.

As for the Fairy Flute, I managed to steal it once, through a complete fluke. Since the game doesn't allow you to manipulate your stats with any real efficiency, there isn't much you can do about it. It all comes down to luck, I guess.

[Doomgaze]

Originally posted by Kawaii Ryûkishi
Certain enemies have special resistances to thievery, too. The best and most apparent example of this is the Hill Gigas (Hilgigars); a Phoenix Down and Mithril Fork are simple enough to steal from him, but Zidane has about a one-in-a-million chance of securing the Fairy Flute. I've personally tried to get it for hours on end and have never actually succeeded.



I KNOW, it took me forever to get that from him.

[SpikingZero]

Stealing with Zidane becomes so frustrating, and I grow tired or wasting MP to keep my characters healed so I give up after stealing either the first or second item if he can even get that many.

He is by far the forst thief in Final Fantasy history.

[Vaan]

Hey Doomgaze, the Sig about the chickens is hilarious :smash:

[Daydrius]

It's really weird with me though, because on one game, I had so much luck with stealing, and I got the Fairy flute on my second try, THAT, was a fluke, but now, in the game I started again, Istill have a decently high steal rate, I'm just lucky, I guess, I don't know.

[FinalFantasy_89]

I should think its quite true that as an enemy's HP goes down, the stealing gets easier...And I'm goin nuts trying to get my thievery to do 9999 damage.