Thief (2014) – A Guide to Shady Merchant Tools

If you are looking for help with any other issues, please feel free to check out the Thief Guide Master List for more!

Merely playing through the game will arm you with the basic tools and weapons you will need to play through the game… but chances are you want more than just progression, don’t you? You want to explore, you want to outwit silly little traps… and most importantly you want loot!

The following are some of the extra tools, you can pick up from the Shady Merchant to help you steal more and live longer. 

The Shady Merchant and his location.

There are three extra tools that the Shady Merchant (located just outside the door of the Crippled Burrick) can sell to you. None of the other salesmen scattered around the city can sell you tools or upgrades – only resources/consumables.

These are incredibly useful and I highly recommend buying them as quickly as possible! If you do not overbuy arrows and other resources from merchants along the way in Chapters 1 and 2, you should have enough money (even if only casually looting) to buy these handy tools.

Wrench

• Costs 500 G
• Sold by Shady Merchant after Chapter 1
• Used to open grates and gain entrances into rooms you might otherwise be unable to
• Will also unscrew bolted plaques from around the city which are then displayed as collectibles in the Clock Tower

This is also incredibly useful for quick getaways from guards – no guard can follow you through the crawlspace. But be careful! The short cinematic that you see pulling the grate open and crawl through is ample time for them to run up to you and attack you with sword or crossbow bolt if they have already spotted you and are hard on your heels.

Razor

• Costs 250 G
• Sold by Shady Merchant after Chapter 2
• Used to cut out paintings from their frames

This is handy for those who are interested in finding all the collectibles in the game, although not perhaps as much of a necessity as the Wrench and Wirecutter.

Wirecutter

• Costs 225 G
• Sold by Shady Merchant after Chapter 2
• Used to cut the wires in control boxes

These control boxes can help you disable traps and open doors, often leading to new secrets and more loot. It is handy to check around a room with Focus to see anything glowing a conspicuous blue or red, many of the glowing lines that lead away from traps and doors will lead to a control box. 

For walkthroughs, FAQs, bug fixes, and other tips for Thief, please check out the Master List.