Thief

"We are with you, friend, only lead the way."

- Thieves' greeting to Ezio

The Thieves are one of the three factions in Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood helping the main character Ezio (the other two being the Courtesans and the Mercenaries).

Led by Antonio, their main hideout is located in the commercial district of Venice. The guild is more of an organization similar to the Mafia, rather than just a bunch of robbers. They don't target innocent citizens, and instead defy the local, corrupted, nobility. In Florence and Rome, the thieves are led by La Volpe.

Application
The thieves can help Ezio by distracting the guards, and luring them away; however, this ability can be only used once for a single group of thieves. Once you use it they are no longer in your service. On rooftops the lure command is replaced with the fight command, directing the thieves to fight the guards instead of stealing from them. Otherwise, at any time, engaging in a fight while a group of thieves is following you will automatically prompt them to assist you. You can also hire a second group to help at this point, though only one group will follow you around when the fight is over.

Be careful when free running, however, for the thieves can easily fall into water and die (as they can't swim). Thus, if you have thieves following you, avoid jumping across canals from the roof, particularly in Venice. Also, remember that thieves can be just as easily killed by falling while performing normal acrobatics (sometimes they can be killed by other thieves if they are in the way).

In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, hired thieves act much as they did in the previous game. However, once the player reaches rank 5 in the Thieves Guild Challenges, they will begin to pickpocket money for Ezio as they follow him through the streets of Rome. In order to aid Ezio, La Volpe based the local Thieves Guild in an inn called La Volpe Addormentata ("The Sleeping Fox"). The inn acted as both a hideout for the thieves, as well as a place where civilians and guards could gamble, though the thieves made sure that the guards never won. At the back of the bar lay La Volpe's office, which contained a board where he listed the top five thieves based on their actions. Ezio later decided to join this competition, and was thus given the Thieves Guild Challenges. There Ezio can talk with La Volpe to obtain several Thief Missions across Rome. Doing these missions will help the thieves to beat their rivals, the Cento Occhi.

Combat
Thieves are lightly armed, carrying only a short blade, and wearing very light armor. This allows them to follow Ezio in many of his acrobatic moves. They only use swords in some quests throughout the games. They will not, however, follow him up very high towers (such as view points) or make far leaps, if they are able to find another route, no matter how lengthy it may be. They are surprisingly effective in combat, easily dodging or blocking enemy blows, and returning them. A group of four thieves can take on eight Medici Guardsmen and suffer very little damage. Their only vulnerability in combat are Brutes and Seekers.

Florence/Rome

 * La Volpe
 * Claudio - A thief who worked in The Sleeping Fox who Ezio saved from several guards.

Venice

 * Antonio de Magianis
 * Ugo
 * Rosa
 * Franco

Achievement
The achievement/trophy "Steal Home" can be awarded by winning a race against any thief.

Trivia

 * During the mission "Cleaning House," Ezio has to hunt down and kill three traitor thieves in Venice. Strangely, unlike the other thieves, the three use swords instead of daggers.
 * Like guards, thieves are generally better equipped in Venice than they are in Florence.
 * You can kill thieves by using your sword or dagger to throw them from rooftops.
 * Like the Mercenaries, the Thieves in Brotherhood are a lot more powerful than in Assassin's Creed II.
 * In Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, one of the thieves working for La Volpe is a traitor that gives information about the Assassins to the Borgia family. He is the only unique Thief, wearing an eyepatch.
 * During one of Machiavelli's missions in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the thief that was assigned to intercept the letter from a Borgia Courier uses a sword instead of a dagger.
 * The boy in the mission "Human Cargo" is dressed like a thief.
 * The mission "Everything Must Go" is the only time you can kill thieves, but only the ones on rooftops.
 * In Assassin's Creed II the thief AI is not that smart, sometimes making a thief push another one of a building into sea, only to follow Ezio.
 * In "Assassins Creed:Brotherhood" sometimes theives will run away from ezio and attack a random civilian with their fists.