Thief

This article is about the class. For the staff from the SNES games and New Mystery of the Emblem, see Thief (staff). For the class from Fire Emblem Fates known as Thief in the Japanese version, see Outlaw. For the class from Gaiden and its remake known as Thief in the Japanese version, see Brigand.

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Thief Artwork of the Thief from the TCG. A shadowy figure who fares better picking locks than fights.

Weapon(s) Sword (most games) Knife (Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn) Skill(s) Steal (Genealogy of the Holy War-Radiant Dawn) Knife (Path of Radiance) Shove (Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn) Locktouch, Movement +1 (Awakening)

The Thief (Japanese: 盗賊 Thief) is a basic class which was introduced in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Thieves act as a supporting class whose abilities lie primarily in the domain of stealing and obtaining items or gold from the enemy. Thieves are present in every game in the Fire Emblem series except Fire Emblem Gaiden, Fire Emblem Fates, and Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia; in Fates, are replaced by the bow-wielding Outlaw class.

Thieves possess exceptional speed and good skill, but can seldom put these to use in combat as they typically have poor to mediocre strength and are rendered extremely frail by their low defensive stats. In emergencies they can wield swords, or knives in Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, to defend themselves, but their primary role is avoiding combat entirely to focus on their supporting roles: stealing from enemy units and unlocking doors, treasure chests and bridges. Their ability to unlock chests and doors depends on the game: some games require they use a lockpick item, others that they possess a skill, and some instead have it as an innate ability.

The Thief's class change options have varied considerably throughout the series. In Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden, Mystery of the Emblem, The Binding Blade, Shadow Dragon, and New Mystery of the Emblem, Thieves cannot change class at all; to compensate, the latter two Nintendo DS remakes designate it as a special class with the ability to reach a maximum level of 30. Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776 were the first games to give the Thief a promoted class, the Thief Fighter. The majority of games since then from Fire Emblem onward have Thieves promote to Assassins. The Sacred Stones gives them the alternative option of promoting to the Rogue class, which also acts their only hypothetical promoted class in Radiant Dawn. Awakening introduced another class change option for Thieves as an alternative to Assassins: the Trickster.

Stats

Base stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weight	Weapon Level
Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light	16	3	--	1	9	0	2	0	7	--	--	Sword: 2
Mystery of the Emblem	16	2	--	1	7	1	1	0	7	--	--	Sword: 7
Genealogy of the Holy War	26	3	0	3	7	0	1	0	6	6	--	C
Thracia 776	16/14	1/0	0	1	6/7	0	0	--	7	5/3	--	E
The Binding Blade	16	3/1	--	1	9/7	0	2/1	0/1	6	6/5	--	E
Fire Emblem	16/15	3/2	--	1/3	9/8	0	2/1	0/2	6	6/5	--	E
The Sacred Stones	16	3	--	1	9	0	2	0	6	6	--	E
Path of Radiance	16	3	0	2	9	0	2	0	7	9	9	-- (+Knives)
Radiant Dawn	16	5	0	6	10	0	3	0	7	9	9	E
Shadow Dragon	16	2	0	1	7	0	1	0	7	--	--	E
New Mystery of the Emblem	16	2	0	1	7	0	1	0	7	--	--	E
Awakening	16	3	0	6	8	0	2	0	5	--	--	E

Max stats

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Movement	Constitution	Weapon Level
Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light	52	20	--	20	20	20	20	20	20	--	Sword: 20
Mystery of the Emblem	52	20	--	20	20	20	20	20	20	--	Sword: 20
Genealogy of the Holy War	80	18	15	18	22	30	16	15	?	20	C
Thracia 776	80	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	20	A
The Binding Blade	60	20	--	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	A
Fire Emblem	60	20	--	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	A
The Sacred Stones	20	20	--	20	20	30	20	20	15	20	A
Path of Radiance	40	20	15	20	20	40	20	20	??	??	-- (+Knives)
Radiant Dawn	30	15	10	20	20	40	15	10	32	--	A
Shadow Dragon	60	20	20	25	30	30	25	20	32	--	A
New Mystery of the Emblem	60	20	20	25	30	30	25	20	9	--	A
Awakening	60	22	20	30	28	30	21	20	7	--	A

Class growth rates

Game	HP	Strength	Magic	Skill	Speed	Luck	Defense	Resistance	Constitution*	Movement*
Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light	?	?	--	?	?	0%	?	0%	--	--
Mystery of the Emblem	60%	30%	--	40%	50%	0%	30%	0%	--	--
Genealogy of the Holy War	100%	30%	10%	30%	30%	0%	30%	10%	--	--
Thracia 776	70%	20%	0%	15%	15%	10%	10%	--	20%	0%
The Binding Blade	50/45%	5%	--	45%	40%	40%	5%	20%	--	--
Fire Emblem	50/45%	5%	--	45%	40%	40%	5%	20/25%	--	--
The Sacred Stones	50%	5%	--	45%	40%	40%	5%	20%	--	--
Path of Radiance	70%	45%	15%	60%	60%	40%	30%	20%	--	--
Radiant Dawn	55%	40%	10%	55%	45%	70%	40%	30%	--	--
Shadow Dragon	30/60%	10/20%	-20/0%	30/40%	40/50%	0/0%	5/30%	-10/0%	--	--
New Mystery of the Emblem	30/60%	10/20%	-20/0%	30/40%	40/50%	0/0%	5/30%	-10/0%	--	--
Awakening	35%	15%	5%	25%	25%	0%	5%	5%	--	--

Click here for more details on the mechanics of class growths in each game.

Class skills

Game	Skill	Learning conditions
Genealogy of the Holy War Thracia 776 The Binding Blade Fire Emblem The Sacred Stones Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	Steal	Innate.
Path of Radiance	Knife	Innate.
Path of Radiance Radiant Dawn	Shove	Innate; hidden in Path of Radiance.
Awakening	Locktouch	Learned at level 1.
Awakening	Movement +1	Learned at level 10.

Class change

Shadow Dragon NES, Mystery of the Emblem, The Binding Blade, Shadow Dragon DS, New Mystery of the Emblem

Base class
Thief

Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776

Base class	Promotion method	Advanced class
Thief	Choosing the "Class change" option in a home castle after reaching level 20.* / Using a Knight Proof after reaching level 10.*	Thief Fighter

Thracia 776 (Lara only)

Base class	Promotion method	Advanced class
Thief	Using a Knight Proof after reaching level 10. Talk to Pirn in Chapter 12x.	Thief Fighter or Dancer
Promotion choice criteria: Lara can promote to Thief Fighter at any time through normal use of a Knight Proof, but promoting to Dancer is only available in Chapter 12x.

Fire Emblem, Path of Radiance

Base class	Promotion method	Advanced class
Thief	Using a Fell Contract after reaching Level 10.* / Event at the end of Chapter 19, if the player chooses to hire Volke.*	Assassin

The Sacred Stones

Base class	Promotion method	Advanced class
Thief	Using a Ocean Seal after reaching Level 10.	Rogue or Assassin
Promotion choice criteria: The player can freely choose.

Awakening

Base class	Promotion method	Advanced class
Thief	Using a Master Seal after reaching Level 10.	Trickster or Assassin
Promotion choice criteria: The player can freely choose

Playable Thieves

Playable Characters
Name	Game
Julian	Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Mystery of the Emblem, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem
Rickard	Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Mystery of the Emblem, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery of the Emblem
Dew	Genealogy of the Holy War First Generation
Patty	Genealogy of the Holy War Second Generation
Daisy	Genealogy of the Holy War Second Generation
Lifis	Thracia 776
Lara	Thracia 776
Chad	The Binding Blade
Astore	The Binding Blade
Cath	The Binding Blade
Matthew	Fire Emblem, Awakening
Legault	Fire Emblem
Colm	The Sacred Stones
Volke	Path of Radiance
Sothe	Path of Radiance
Gaius	Awakening
Playable Thief units in the Fire Emblem series.

Notable enemy Thieves

Enemy Units
Name	Game
Vaam	BS Fire Emblem: Archanea War Chronicles, New Mystery of the Emblem
Dahl	Mystery of the Emblem, New Mystery of the Emblem
Enemy Thief units in the Fire Emblem series.

Notable NPC Thieves

Other Units
Name	Game
Leila	Fire Emblem
Neutral Thief units in the Fire Emblem series.

Gallery

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  Artwork of the Thief from the TCG.

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  The generic Thief portrait in Mystery of the Emblem.

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  The generic Thief portrait in Thracia 776.

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  The generic Thief portrait in the Game Boy Advance games.

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  The generic Thief portrait in Shadow Dragon.

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  The generic Thief portrait in New Mystery of the Emblem.

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  The generic Thief portrait in Awakening.

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  The generic Risen Thief portrait in Awakening.

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  An enemy Thief in Path of Radiance.

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  An enemy Thief in Radiant Dawn.

Etymology & other languages

Names, etymology and in other regions
Language	Name	Definition, etymology and notes
English	Thief	--
Japanese	• 盗賊 • シーフ • 盗人シーフ	• Officially romanized as Thief. This kanji name (previously spelled in hiragana as とうぞく in Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem) is used in every game except Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, Path of Radiance, and Radiant Dawn. • Thief; this katakana name is used only in Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, and Path of Radiance. • Officially romanized as Thief. This kanji name is used only in Radiant Dawn, where all Japanese class names are spelled primarily in kanji (i.e. 盗人), with a foreign-language name in katakana applied as furigana (i.e. シーフ) and used as the basis for the romanized name in the class roll. Unusually in Radiant Dawn, the Thief's usual kanji name, 盗賊, is the name of the Rogue class instead.
Spanish	Ladrón	Thief
French	Voleur	Thief
German	Dieb	Thief
Italian	Ladro	Thief

See also

• Outlaw

This article is part of Project Classes, a project focused in writing articles for every class present in the Fire Emblem series.