Out of 27 total jobs, the Thief is one of the most empowering advanced jobs in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin. Not many moments in the game are as satisfying as utilizing an enemy’s instant ability against itself or one of its buddies.
The guide below provides tips for the Thief, as well as recommended job pairings.
Understanding the Thief
The Thief’s job ability allows you to steal an enemy’s instant ability, which would normally require timing the Soul Shield with the foe’s usage of the ability in question. We recommend setting the Steal ability to at least one combo so you don’t have to be outside of a combo to activate it. By setting it to at least one combo link, you’re afforded the freedom to be more aggressive.
Most instant abilities deal a good chunk of damage to the enemies you stole them from, with elemental magic being the exception. If a creature’s instant ability is some sort of water-infused attack, for example, that same enemy will be resistant to its water damage. There are exceptions, however, such as the Shadow enemy type.
The Thief can use both daggers and knuckles, but your weapon of choice largely comes down to personal preference. They each have their strengths. Knuckles build up your boost level with each successive hit, depleting the break gauge more quickly as well as dealing more normal damage. They’re for people that love an aggressive playstyle.
The daggers require a little more finesse to utilize effectively, but they also have some safety nets. Daggers generally won’t drain the break gauge as easily as knuckles unless you’re using the Duelist job or equipping your Thief with Duelist affinity gear for critical damage. On the plus side, daggers have two combos that allow you to narrowly avoid damage. One combo sees you slipping to either side of an enemy mid-attack whereas the other initiates a backstep attack. Both of these moves cover a decent amount of distance, making them safe in many situations.
Recommended job pairings
Pairing the Thief with the Berserker is extremely risky, especially for boss fights, but high-level players can stomp through regular encounters and even bosses with careful management between the two jobs. The Berserker’s job ability grants additional damage with an increased chance of staggering enemies. Through its job tree, you’ll even be able to acquire Berserk Mastery, which restores health for every defeated enemy while this state is active, which only applies while you are the Berserker.
Unfortunately, you aren’t able to use potions during this Berserker state. Its debilitation, however, applies even when you switch jobs. Because of this, the Thief and Berserker combo can be dangerous during boss fights for less-skilled players. Unless you have a handle on dodging, blocking, and parrying, you might want to put this pairing on the backburner.
For a much safer option, we’d recommend the Duelist. It may be a basic job, but it’s also the only one with its own window of invulnerability that can be further increased through its job tree. Players that have a difficult time memorizing boss and enemy patterns can remain generally safe with a leveled-up Duelist.
If you still want the stopping power of a job like the Berserker that’s capable of staggering enemies without the associated risk, the Marauder is a safe choice. Its Upheaval job ability deals a significant chunk of break gauge damage in addition to inflicting multiple debuffs at once at varying strengths depending on how long you charge the swing. Thieves, especially those using knuckles, will be able to capitalize on these debuffs to finish enemies off.
