I swear, early game stealing makes Cloud seem like an amateur thief

[Cloudane]

Tell you one time it's definitely for masochists...

Stealing the Fairy Flute from Hilgigars in FFIX.
Last time took me a few hours...
I'm not even exaggerating for drama, it literally took hours of trying.

[Jinx]

Tell you one time it's definitely for masochists...

Stealing the Fairy Flute from Hilgigars in FFIX.
Last time took me a few hours...
I'm not even exaggerating for drama, it literally took hours of trying.

Your theivery skill probably wasn't high enough. You have to consistently steal from normal enemies throughout the game for Zidane's steal to be any use later.

[VeloZer0]

That doesn't have anything to do with it.

Short story the success rate of steal is based on: Your level, targets level, Zidane's spirit (not speed interestingly enough.) After that the chance of what you get is equal to how rare it is.

So if you are looking for the Fairy Flute it should take you on average like 400 tries.

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[6.0] STEAL
===============================================================================
Steal allows you to steal up to four items from an enemy. There are a total of
3 steps to Steal:

======
Step 1
======
Steal has to successfully hit the target.

Atk = Rnd MOD (Lvl + Spr)
Def = Rnd MOD (Enemy Lvl)

If Atk is equal or greater than Def, Steal is a success and moves to Step 2.
This step can be ignored if Bandit is equipped: Bandit causes any Steal to
have a 100% success rate.


======
Step 2
======
Checks to see if you get an item, they're 4 possible slots to choose from.

Rare : 1/256
Semi-Rare: 16/256
Uncommon : 64/256
Common : 256/256

Slots are checked from Rare to Common. If you fail to get the item in the
Rare slot it moves down to Semi-Rare, fail to get the item in the Semi-Rare
slot it moves down to Uncommon, fail to get the item in Uncommon slot and
you'll get what ever item is in the Common slot.

If you get a slot that has no item or you already stole it, Steal will fail.

If you equip Master Thief, the Rare and Semi-Rare slots are changed from 1/256
and 16/256 to 32/256. Steal will also now ignore empty slots.

If you succeed in getting an item, Steal moves to Step 3.


======
Step 3
======
This Step deals with Mug and Steal Gil.

Mug Damage = Rnd MOD [Zidane's Lvl * Target Lvl / 2]

Stolen Gil = Rnd MOD [Zidane's Lvl * Target Lvl / 4] + 1

[Formalhaut]

Steal seems to be more convulted in IX than it does in VII!

[VeloZer0]

Actually it is simpler. It's just that the steps involving the rarity of the items and mug/steal gil were omitted from what was posted into the FF7 thread.

[Formalhaut]

I think FFX stealing was far simpler and easier than it is in other FFs.