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Thief Complete Walkthrough Chapter 3: Dirty Secrets – How to Remove the Ritual Book

Includes all collectible loot items in Thief Chapter 3 and how to escape the ancient ruins.
This article is over 10 years old and may contain outdated information

Beat Thief and unlock all safes then be sure to unlock the complete Prima Thief digital guide and become a master Thief!

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Thieving Challenges

  • Remain Undetected – 300 G
  • No Kills or Knockouts – 250 G
  • 5 Aerial Takedowns – 200 G
  • Life All Loot Items – 250 G

Before you being this chapter, it’s highly advised that you buy the wire cutter from the Shady Merchant outside The Crippled Burrick. Without it, you can’t get all the collectible loot this chapter has to offer. Additionally, the approach we take requires the wire cutter tool. If you don’t have it, return to The City and grab it before proceeding.

Also, in order to even begin this chapter, you must visit Erin’s Mill Hideout. This can be done after you meet Basso in the Black Alley and accept this mission. After the meeting, follow your objective markers. The City can be tough to navigate, so just keep moving from district to district, always perusing the objective. The medallion is found by touching the painting of Garret after he has his vision.

Objective 1: Find the Entrance to the Brothel

Stay in the shadows and sneak forward. When you can’t go any further, look to your right. There will be two guards, one with his back to you and one facing you. Equip your Bow and a Blunt Arrow, shooting the valve next to the guard facing you. When he falls, sneak up behind the second guard and knock him out.

Look at the pipes above you. If you have the wire cutter tool, you can climb up and hack a control box that will give you access to a room with collectible loot. Drop down and enter the room where you will find some common loot, as well as The Pinned Castinets (2/6) – Jewelwing. If you’re wondering where The Pinned Castinets (1/6) – Oilbox is found, it’s in Fish-Hawker’s Market in The City.

Back out of the room and head down the stairs toward your objective. Look to your left and use the wrench tool to unscrew the vent before heading inside. Walk across the beam and go east until you drop into a side room. Slide down and move forward to complete your objective.

Objective 2: Get into the House of Blossoms

After sliding down the slope, move forward, climb the wall to the northeast and drop down. Climb up on the boxes in the northeast corner and then to the beam. Head to the west and through a cave. Crawl through some debris, climb a wall in front of you and drop down. Move through the curtain, swooping behind the woman in front of you to knock her out. Nobody will notice and you can leave her body in the middle of the floor.

Objective 3: Explore the Brothel for Clues

Claim any loot you want and move carefully into the kitchen in front of you. If there’s a guard, sneak up on him and take him down. Don’t let the woman in the middle of the room catch you. When he’s down (if he’s even there) take the woman out too.

Time for a big short cut that won’t skip any collectible loot, but will make your life much easier. Head east across the south balcony, picking the locked door. Go inside, grab all the loot and drop down to a crawl space. Move through the crawl space and find the control box. If you can’t find it, use Focus and you should have no trouble at all. Hack the control box and go back the way you came. Leave the room and drop down to the main kitchen area (where you knocked out the woman a moment ago). Pull the lever that’s close to the opium cooker. You’ll notice a lot of steam and a bit of screaming. That’s the big short cut; you just gassed everyone. You are now free to move around the brothel without a care in the world.

Move to the northeast corner of the kitchen and go through the curtains. Go through this entire floor (excluding the kitchen and lobby, which you’ve already been through) and steal everything. Look high and low. Don’t even bother to sneak. Everyone is down for the count. Walk around like you own the place.

Both the main floor and second level have loads of loot. Be sure to use Focus in every room, looking both high and low. There are several secret passage ways that lead to valuables. This is especially true for the upper level bedrooms.

If you’re looking for the collectible loot in this part, head to the west stairwell. Move up to the second landing. Climb up to the pipes, enter the crawl space and claim the Serendi Stone Circles (3/7) – Emerald Circle.

Save Madame Xiao-Xiao’s office until the end. Thoroughly loot it and then pick the lock on the door to the east to enter her private chamber.

Objective 4: Access Xiao-Xiao’s Secret Passage

We always like to close doors behind us; it just seems like good practice. Once in her private chamber, go ahead and start looting the room. There are some great valuables here. Be careful of the safe on the east wall; it’s trapped. Use the wire cutters to hack the control box beside it. The safe’s combination is in documents that you previously picked up, but to save time, it’s 5, 7, 3.

When the room is picked clean, approach the painting on the north wall, pressing the two triggers. This will bring you into the secret passage.

Objective 5: Find the Mysterious Podium

Head down the stairs and you will notice some peepholes in the walls. Peer through the first two and then descend further down. When you come to a podium in the middle of the walkway, try to place the medallion on it.

Objective 6: Discover the Remaining Symbols

You need to find four symbols in order to align the medallion and place it on the podium. The first one is on the wall in front of you. Use your Focus to make sure you don’t miss it. Then go back upstairs to look through the two peepholes again. Use Focus each time you look through. The symbols will be on the far walls. Go back downstairs, past the podium and down some more stairs. Peak through two more similar peepholes (using Focus) to discover the remaining symbols.

Objective 7: Place the Medallion on the Podium

Go back to the podium and inspect it. This will allow you to properly align the symbols. They should be lit up and form a line at the top of the medallion. Place it in the podium to complete the objective.

Objective 8: Explore the Ancient Ruins

Walk through the now open passage in front of you and jump down. Grab whatever loot happens to be laying around and squeeze through the debris. Go the only direction you can and press the loose brick on the right side of the wall to avoid the trap. Go through the only door you can and down the stairs. Explore the open room but don’t go down the narrow hallway yet. Pick the lock in the large room and go inside. Head down another set of stairs and through a narrow hallway.

Another podium awaits you. The four symbols you need to find are found in the four alcoves off to the side of the narrow passage, before you reach the podium. Use Focus to get them all, then approach the podium and interact with it. Once again, align the symbols and place it in the podium.

Snag Unique Loot (4/9) – Ancient Figurine from the statue in front of you. Inspect the statue where you just claimed the Unique Loot and use your Focus to observe another symbol. Return to the podium and interact with it. Align a fifth symbol and re-insert the medallion. Grab the rest of the loot in the room and head back out the way you came in.

Head through the door and use your Focus to look at the wall on the right. There’s a loose brick that you can press to disable the trap. Now head down the west hallway toward your objective. Go through the smashed out window and descend some stairs. If you’re feeling like a daredevil, you can climb down the ropes instead, it doesn’t make any difference.

When you reach the bottom, go inside the tower and do some plundering. Head through the tower’s smashed out window and straight ahead to a side passage beside the stairs. Follow it, climbing up the south wall to complete your objective.

Objective 9: Search the Abandoned Library for the Book

Drop to the bottom floor. There’s nothing in the circular room, so head south toward your objective. Peak through the peephole on the east wall… if you dare. Keep moving toward your objective until you enter a large room. There’s two books in the room that when triggered, will open up to secret passages. Before you do any of that, pick the room clean of loot.

First trigger the book in the northwest corner of the room. Stare at the glowing symbol on the wall to earn a new Focus point. Open your journal, choose Focus Upgrades and spend your point. Grab the Memories of the Dead (2/6) – Stonemason’s Memory from the little fountain and head back out of the room. Go to the southeast corner of the room and trigger the next book to complete your objective.

Objective 10: Enter the Central Tower

This gets a bit tricky. Head down the stairs to the left and into the small, round room. Go through the smashed window on the left and move along the walkway. There’s a wheel in front of you. Turn it so you can access the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs, turn left and walk southeast across the wooden walkway, turning east to go up another set of stairs. Go into the tower, drop down to the ground level and grab the poppy. Exit the tower through a west door and turn the wheel just outside.  Go back in the tower, climb up and go down the stairs you entered on. Walk to the central tower and take your first right, heading east to a the third wheel. Turn the wheel to adjust another set of stairs. Walk up the stairs directly in front of you and walk clockwise around the tower. Jump off the south side to a walkway below and head up yet another set of stairs. Follow the stairs as far as you can go, pass through the room and up more stairs. Jump across the gap, falling to the floor and directly in front of another podium.

Objective 11: Remove the Ritual Book

Use your Focus to find three trigger books around the room. Pull each book, causing the statues to turn. Collect the loot from two inside the room. The loot from the third statue is outside on the walkway. Just move counterclockwise around the walkway to snag it and then return to the interior of the tower.

Approach the podium and use Focus to identify four symbols that you need. Align the symbols and place the medallion in its center to collect Client Loot (5/8) – Ritual Book. If you’re missing Client Loot (2/8) – The Mechanical Hand, it can be found in the Client Job – Hand Tailored. Client Loot (4/8) – The Talking Skull can be found in the Client Job – Happy Medium.

Objective 12: Escape the Ancient Ruins

If you’ve been following our instructions, you snagged all five collectible loot items in this chapter. It’s about time to get out of here. Climb on the table where you took the book and grab the rope. Ascend to the top and swing to the west, landing on a wooden walkway. Head northwest to another tower, jump to a rope and descend to the ground level. Follow your objective markers to a peephole. Look inside to see two guards. Go to your left (south) and climb the wall in the southwest corner of the map. This will put you on top of the rafters where the two guards are patrolling. Just to be safe, stay on your perch and take them out with headshots from Broadhead Arrows.

Move across the beams to your objective, passing through the smashed out window. At this point, you are simply retracing your steps, only there happen to be guards along the path. When you come to the smashed out window, wait for the guard to pass, then sneak behind him and knock him out. Two more will come down the stairs. We just waited for them and took them out with headshots, but you can go at it however you’d like. Keep heading for the objective, eventually coming across one more guard. Take him out with a headshot from a distance and move into the room he occupied. Climb on some crates and ascend the ropes. Follow the objective marker, navigating some pipes and climbing up one last wall to complete the chapter.

By completing this chapter, players will unlock the Dirty Secrets trophy or achievement, depending on what platform you play the game on.


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