BRITAIN

Probably one of the most populated areas in Britannia on the right day. The people who frequent this place have usually been thoroughly raped by a thief at one point or another and are more experienced with dealing with strategies to hide items and slow you down with a maze of packs. This is the city I started in. Once I reached 60 stealing and joined the guild, I was roaming the streets with a child's glee in a candy store. Running around randomly stealing worthless items and running for my life. That wore off after a few hours, realizing I needed to get my act together to make any sort of real profit. The First Bank is usually the more popular of the two banks, which doesn't necessarily make it the better of the two. The blind spots are easy to figure out if you eye ball the detection radius of the npc's in the area. East bank has a more selective crowd and has a fewer amount of people to worry about.

The best strategy while you're starting out, at either bank, is to roam around the areas surrounding the bank, wandering the streets for the macroers or the occasional person who logged out. Try spots that aren't frequented by a lot of people, check areas you think someone might hide. Look for patterns that begin to develop once you've spent enough time there. Soon you will begin to develop your own pattern of sifting through area by area, making the rounds as efficiently as possible, looking for the next possible victim.

MINOC

Minoc is home to a large community of miners, adventurers, and the occasional player killer in the ghettos surrounding the town. The area directly south of the bank is good for the unsuspecting adventurer who has mistakenly logged out around the trees. The mountains to the east are also full of some possible GM weapons and armor, which are relatively worthless alone. Occasionally you might find the ignorant miner with a magic item, but rarely. Scour the streets for the logged out players or the occasional macroer. The road leading towards Vesper is also a good place to look for the occasional adventurer browsing through the shops. Minoc is not one of my favorite places to case, but it all depends on how lucky you can be.

SERPENT'S HOLD

One of my favorite places to harass. Considering it's an island, there is always the chance of running into someone with a boat key or someone actually on their boat screwing around oblivious to how inviting a target they make. I've had a personal best of four boats it two days here, with an enormous payoff. Despite the UO:R patch removing the instant steal/recall needed to be effective in stealing boats most people are too careless to notice the key is gone until it's too late. The pathway leading to the bank usually has someone who just happened to log out with the occasional magic item. There are plenty of places to run to and wait out the two minutes of gray. This is one of the best spots I've come across and the least amount of competition from other thieves.

VESPER

This was Kage's home town and the usual meeting spot for the guild. Vesper's blind spot is on the north east side near the mage shop. As well as the west side near the bridge out of town. These two areas have very few NPCS. One method that's seems to work for me is to hide and stealth towards a possible victim, double click their pouch and re-hide at the same moment. If you're lucky they'll be too busy sorting through their bank box to notice you appear and disappear. I've also found the roads east of the bank leading directly parallel to the river sometimes have the random adventurer browsing through the shops. Remember, the advantage of surprise will be your greatest ally. I always get paranoid if I see someone standing next to me and either walk away or get ready to hit my "GUARDS" macro. If you come out of nowhere, rip them of whatever it is you want, and run like a bastard they'll either be fumbling around like a dumbass or if you're lucky, not even notice you. At least you'll have a better chance with a strategy that's better than walking around standing next people obviously rifling through their packs, or you could care less and just do what you what, same difference.

COVE

I have no idea what purpose a thief would have being in Cove. The only people I have seen here on my rare journeys to this place are the occasional miner and those people who collect wandering adventurers and kill them outside of town. The only thing of note is the orc fort to the south and it's not the simplest place, geographically speaking, to have to blow out of if you're in a jam. There are a lot of vendor shops around, most of which are over priced. The only reason I even came near Cove was when I was still looting houses, before the lock down patch. Who the hell would want to go here? If anyone has some helpful hints, tips, myths, or even some reason not to go to Cove that I missed, please enlighten me with knowledge of this pointless place.

YEW

Empath Abbey attracts attention from a wide spectrum of adventurers, most of which are the veteran wealthy players. You may think that's a negative, but their cocky attitude and a blatant disregard to those "idiots/scoundrels" as a threat can be used against them. Unfortunately, among those veteran players happens to be a large amount of skilled pks and PvP'ers. My advice is to carry a few trapped pouches to counter that annoying paralyzation. Stealth your way around the warriors, avoid the players that have a high int, they have a tendency to reveal you which ruins the advantage of surprise. Disguises might work if you don't act like those dumb fucks who just walk around obviously stalking everyone and scare away possible opportunities. This may sound like a dumb idea, but try and spark up a conversation with a possible victim, try to click with them to let them put their guard down. It may seem like an obvious ploy but then again not everyone is a manipulative evil bastard. Be on your toes here or you'll have a long walk to the healers.

NUJEL'M

The first time I came here, also the last time, I was extremely impressed with the lavish scenery and thought "definitely 'bound to hit the big one here". I hit the big one alright, or more accurately the big one hit me. "No big deal", I thought, "I'll just go find the healers and get some payback on that prick who stood over my body, laughed at me, and then abused my lifeless corpse". Just one catch, there are no healers in Nujel'm. I don't know whose bright idea it was to make a town without somewhere to get resurrected but I thoroughly enjoyed running around for thirty minutes looking for a wandering healer in a place that seems to have an overpopulation of npcs with robes on. All I can say for this place is if you don't want to get ripped off, come here.

MAGINCIA

It seems that the island cities attract the wealthier players. The bank has a minimal amount of traffic, but good enough. Seems to be a meeting point for a few guilds and treasure hunters. I've managed to get a couple vanqs, a boat, some other magic weps and the "Healer of Magincia" isn't that far from the bank. The beach north of the bank also has some vendor shops that attract some good business. Definitely a good spot to check out.

OCCLO

Another island. The edge of the bank is right near an area outside of the guarded zone and they're are plenty places to run. This is definitely the place to go if you have the skill to back it up. I'd say the chances of pulling out that vanq are pretty good here. At least better than on the mainland.

SKARA BRAE

At some point, banks start looking the same. The only differences are the amount of people and the type of people. Seems to be a meeting point for a few guilds, definitely some wealthy players here with an abundance of items screaming "steal me! steal me!" *looks away distracted*. Any who, the bank is shaped like a P if you didn't notice. The top of the "P" is a nice spot and has some good chances, but then again, I also like the curve of the "P". I've bumped into a few good items on that side, I must admit. Finally, skipping to the base of the "P", there's occasionally some possibilities here as well. Some nights here are slower than others and I would only recommend coming here on the weekends.

MOONGLOW

With fewer and fewer people staying in Felecca, Moonglow still has a good amount of people around. There are a lot of Chaos and Order guilds constantly fighting which can help as a distraction, but if one of them sees you running by grey with nothing better to do, they'll be handing you your head on a silver platter in a few seconds. Try to avoid stealing anything from the Order or Chaos guilds, they travel light and are most likely veterans as far as PvP. Keep a look out for magic weapons, treasure maps, rares, and boat keys. Only down side is the healers is kind of a walk from the bank.