Lanterns

Lanterns are used to upgrade your Master Thief, unlock various units, and buying up to 3 victory points. When you unlock a unit with lanterns, you get one of that unit for free, so you can substitute lanterns for gold in certain situations as well. More valuable early game, with moderate value late on for situational responses.

Gold

Gold fuels your turns and actions. It allows you to buy units to do what ever it may be you need done on your turns, be it upgrading resource income, stopping your opponent, or taking an objective. Without gold your turns and progress can start to stall and give your opponent an advantage or leave you without an answer. Valuable early one, but essential as late game approaches to secure objectives.

Action Points

The resource that allows all of your units to act each turn. All units have a single action on your turns with the exception of the master thief, which starts the game with 2 and caps at 5. Moving a unit on the board does not consume an action (thugs guard to the first tile they're moved to however).

Victory Points

How you win the game. Each map requires a certain number of victory points to end the match, 5 for the smaller maps (Wharf and City) and 6 for the larger ones (Masquerade, The Palace, and The Agency). Objectives to award these include: filling churches, killing contracts, buying bribes, and whatever is the map specific objective if applicable. Only The Palace map requires you to do its specific objective to win, that being steal the riches from the center, but this can be repeated.

Master Thief

These are the three default Master Thieves that can be picked from, each being purely cosmetic. The Master Thief begins each turn at the Thieves Den, and retreats to it after your turn is finished. Because this unit doesn't remain on the board, it's your only investment that your opponent can not directly remove. Thieves will start the game with two action points, zero damage and the ability to scout paths and buildings.

Urchin

Unlock: 1 lantern (Cooking)
Cost: 3 gold
Uses: Fills buildings to gain their bonuses, captures objectives on some maps.
Overview: Basic unit, allows you to generate resources outside of your thief and gang. Can capture VP's on most maps and if you own/upgrade the orphanage, they can evict one urchin as well. Not much else to be said.
Rating: 6/10, resource generation

Thug

Unlock: 2 lanterns (Brewing)
Cost: 3 gold, plus 1 gold per Thug owned on map (doesn't include Thugs that are part of gangs)
Uses: Guards 1 tile for 2 turns or until killed, or joins a gang permanently to boost health by 1, up to 3 times.
Overview: Early game unlock, but mid game costs. Thugs have their uses, but ultimately aren't worth buying often. The tree the unlock sits in benefits only thugs by giving more health, so it's not a required buy for something more valuable. Costing 3 gold plus 1 for each you already have out or bought this turn is a huge expense early game for something with no return. If placed as a guard, the largest benefit you get is eating an action point or forcing playing around it. Monetarily though, you end up with the net loss more times than not. If the opponent kills the thug they get kill credit, meaning their gangs level up, they get gold for the kill, etc. So you're spending 3 gold to eat an action and give them at least 1 gold for that action. The other option of this unit is to buff the health of your current gang. This generally sounds better than it is. Unless that Thug is for sure going to keep your gang alive, you're just throwing away 3 gold that could have been saved to counter your gangs untimely demise.
Rating: 3/10, required on some maps, situational at best otherwise

Gang

Unlock: 1 lantern (Gang), 6 lantern (Second Gang)
Cost: 3 gold
Uses: Attacks units or evicts buildings. Starts with 2 health, 1 damage/gold per kill/urchin evicted, scaling upwards as unit levels up from killing or evicting. Can have health boosted 3 times by thugs, and once by lvl 2 strangefellows (capping at 6).
Overview: The most important unit next to the Master Thief. Maps are very RNG based, sometimes you're dealt both the trading house and bank, others you get all of the estates, either way, the gang allows you to play around what you're dealt. The gang is also one of the hardest units to use efficiently and effectively. Only receiving 1 upgrade a turn, you have to plan ahead with the gang which requires map knowledge and assessing your opponents playstyle. Knowing where and when to strike also plays a huge roll in the early game, not making an action is bad, but dieing for the action you took can be far worse because of how the unit ramps up.
Rating: 8/10, map control, resource generation, counter play

Saboteur

Unlock: 3 lanterns (Explosives)
Cost: 3 gold
Uses: Scouts/loots fogged buildings, traps for 2 turns otherwise. Takes 1 gold from opponent and gives it to you if trap is triggered. Traps remove all actions of the unit that hits it, stunning them, Master Thief included. Stunned units can be passed through.
Overview: All game unit and the most versatile unit in your kit. Sitting in the second tier of the Skullduggery skill tree, this unit can be unlocked by turn 3 or 4. On top of the early unlock, the unit only costs 3 gold and in return offers map knowledge as well as 2 gold or 1 lantern back. There's not much in this game that offers that much bang for your buck. That's only half of this units ability, the other allowing you to eat your opponents actions, secure objectives, guarantee evictions. Hitting a well placed trap by your opponent can cost you the game alone. For example: If you take an objective and there's an estate with jewelry in it that your opponent would likely need to take to stop you. Instead of trapping the objective you could trap the estate. Your opponent could clear it with their gang and attempt to take the jewelry first eating all of their thieves action points. Then on your turn, you have the objective and the free gold from the estate.
Rating: 9/10, map control, knowledge, counter play, objective secure

Truant Officer

Unlock: 5 lanterns (Truant Officer)
Cost: 8 gold
Uses: Evicts all urchins in a single building.
Overview: The cost to unlock and buy this unit warrant late game class, but its value as a unit diminishes the longer the game goes on. Thankfully, since it sits towards the bottom of the Sneakery skill tree, its available to buy fairly early depending on the game. If you can get a well timed full evict off, while not spending lanterns you can't afford, it can cripple your opponent by denying them crucial resources. More often than not, this only happens when your opponent doesn't own the bank and is over spending on their turns. As for defensive play, its a good counter to your opponent filling a church before they can confirm a match win.
Rating: 1/10, expensive, niche use, counter play

Assassin

Unlock: 5 lanterns (The Sisters)
Cost: 8 gold
Uses: Deal 6 damage to any single unit, secures VP's and counters thug'ed gangs.
Overview: Mainly a late game unit to secure kills and finish the match. During mid-game however, keeping 5 lanterns on the end of your turns income is useful as well. The knowledge that you have this ready will either keep the opponents leveled up gang away from you, or punish them if they don't.
Rating: 9/10, objective secure, map control, counter play

Thieve's Guild

Starting building: Doesn't offer any resources or bonuses. Marks the starting point for your Master Thief each turn, and where all units spawn from when bought. Clicking on your guild will open your upgrade screen as well. If the spawn tile is blocked, then units will spawn to the left and right of the tile. If all three are blocked, units will spawn on the original tile and overlap. It is possible for your units to path through your guild, but not stand on it.

Trading House

1 Urchin: 1 Lantern per turn.
3 Urchins: 2 Lanterns per turn.
Spawns: 3 (1 spawns revealed to each player) (4 consistent spawns on The Agency)
Overview: The only building to generate lanterns. Essential to get going as quickly as possible to deal with anything your opponent or the game can throw at you. Early game, your main goal should be filling your starter house and looking for the contested house. In mid to late game, depending on what you've gotten from buildings, it might be worth it to fight over the contested trading house or upgrade it to get the extra lantern. If that lantern will get you a crucial upgrade in the next turn or two it can make all the difference. Towards the end of the game, the buildings lose a lot of their value as more upgrades get bought and the only things left are victory points, or situational answers.

Bank

1 Urchin: 1 Gold per turn.
3 Urchins: 3 Gold per turn.
Spawns: 1
Overview: The bank holds the most value for the entirety of the game and is worth contesting over most things, second only to the trading house. At 3 gold per turn for a full set of urchins, the building pays for itself if uncontested after only a couple of turns. After it's paid off, it would a net loss of 0 to put an evicted urchin back in. If it gets fully evicted, you've either used up your opponents truant, baited out their gang, or at worst it effectively becomes a church in terms of relevance for the rest of the match. Late game, as the maps buildings become depleted, it'll help churn out assassins for victory points.

Church

1 Urchin: 1 Gold per turn.
3 Urchins: Victory Point as long as it remains filled.
Spawns: 1-2
Overview: Like the bank, the church generates 1 gold with one urchin. However, the bonus for having 3 urchins is a non-guaranteed victory point, if your urchins get evicted you will lose that victory point. The church is still worth throwing an urchin in for the gold per turn, and a 2nd urchin as you approach the end of the game for last turn victory points

Estate

Masterpiece: 2 Lanterns and 1 Gold when looted by Master Thief.
Jewels: 4 Gold when looted looted by Master Thief.
Spawns: 2-3 (guards spawn the turn after the estates been burgled or when the contents respawn)
Overview: Estates are the RNG building of the game, these being dealt to your side of the board can be a bother, but not necessarily a death sentence. Estates contain gold like a normal house, either jewels or a masterpiece, and a guard that needs cleared for the special contents.The jewels spawning is more favorable than having masterpieces in them, which will be covered in more detail in the upgrades section. If you're currently on the back foot for the game, be wary of traps in resource critical estates, and if you can't afford the safety trap, loot the estate last to avoid loseing actions.

Orphanage

1 Urchin: 1 less gold per urchin bought.
3 Urchins: Your urchins gain the ability to evict 1 urchin from opponent buildings.
Spawns: 1
Overview: A useful, but ultimately situational building. The value of this building varies greatly on what the map deals you. If you have mostly estates and churches on your side, it's probably not worth rushing. If you've got the bank and both trading houses, maybe take it quickly. The second effect is only useful to you if you can maintain the cost yourself, or your opponent is keeping your gang in-check, and you need that eviction.

Strangefellow Club

1 Urchin: 1 less gold per thug bought.
3 Urchins: Thugs and gangs gain 1 more health as long as it remains filled.
Spawns: 1
Overview: Purely situational building that, unless you plan to pay for 4 or more thugs in the match, this building is only a detriment, while also slowing down your resource ramp.

*Ship*

Spawns: The Wharf map, south-east, starting on turn 2.
Functions: Filled with 2 urchins, providing 2 gold or 1 lantern for that turn its filled, and a victory point if it remains filled on the players next turn.
Overview: At 2 urchins to fill, which return 2 gold or a lantern that same turn, this is one of the cheapest possible victory points in the game. While being one of the easiest to take, it's also one of the easiest to deny, only requiring 1 eviction to stop the victory point. The victory point is permanent as soon as the boat leaves, which can force the opponent to decide to stop an important play you made elsewhere or stopping the boat from leaving.

*Masquerade*

Spawns: Masquerade map, north-east.
Mechanics: Masks spawn in non-unique buildings, and move between turns. Urchins and Thugs can then be sent into the Masquerade using these masks, awarding a victory point once filled.
Overview: The Masquerades victory point is the most expensive point you can go for between all the maps. At face value it costs 4-7 gold for the first point from urchin/thug cost. However, to send in those units, they require masks which spawn randomly. When looting these masks you're guaranteed to only get 1 gold and the mask, meaning for that action point you're throwing away a possible lantern or 1 more gold you could have gotten otherwise. This brings up the minimum cost to 8 (1 urchin and 1 thug without owning the buildings), that's the cost of assassinating a target, that you don't even have to worry about traps for. For each subsequent heirloom, the cost increases by 4-5 gold. The value of this victory point comes in mid to late game when most buildings have been burgled and you're only going to be getting 1 gold anyways. Map knowledge is the true value this map has to offer you. As mentioned earlier, the masks only spawn in generic buildings, never main ones. With this knowledge, you can narrow down which buildings in which blocks aren't main ones. How to utilize this the most will be gone over in individual strategies, but this map has more to offer than its face value would like you to believe.

*Guard Tower*

Spawns: The Palace map, 4 towers, 1 in each corner.
Mechanics: Controlling all active towers with thugs allows you to steal the riches in the palace. 1 tower on each player's side of the map will start active. After the first riches are stolen, 2 random towers will activate. Each theft after that will activate 1 additional tower than the last, up to all 4.
Overview: There isn't a whole lot to talk about for the guard towers, just be wary of traps, and that thugs still only last for 2 turns when placed inside.

*Palace*

Spawns: The Palace map, center.
Mechanics:Contains 2 (required to win) victory points that are claimed by burgling the building with the master thief whilst controlling all active towers. Always awards 2 action points, even on subsequent thefts.
Overview: The cheapest, and most valuable objective of the map, requiring a minimum of 2 lanterns and 3-4 gold in the form of unlocking and buying a second guard. The real cost of this objective comes from trying to secure the points. At 2 towers and the palace itself, there are many ways to prevent it from being taken. One could trap the buildings, fill the towers with their own buffed guards, block paths, etc. You are required to take this objective at least once, putting it off as the match progresses will make it increasingly easier to be stopped. Because of this, its crucial to take this as soon as possible but safely, so ideal pathing, accounting for npcs possibly blocking your path on your turn, and staying aware of your opponents resources are all key to winning this map.

Cooking: Unlocks urchins unit
Cost: 1 lantern
Prerequisite: None
Overview: Should always be bought turn 1 to start lantern gen and get other upgrades rolling

Brewing: Unlocks thug unit
Cost: 2 lanterns
Prerequisite: Cooking
Overview: Only useful if you're planning to go with a thug centric plan, or the map requires thugs, such as the palace. Save lanterns for the unlock to get a free unit if needed for objectives.

Fine Ale: Increases thug life cap by 1 heart
Cost: 3 lanterns
Prerequisite: Brewing
Overview: Rarely should be bought. The extra heart to thugs do not benifit the gang if added to. At a cost of 3 lanterns you'd get more value by owning the strangefellows club at 3 urchins as it would buff your gang too instead.

The Hard Stuff: Increases thug life cap by 1 heart
Cost: 4 lanterns
Prerequisite: Fine Ale
Overview: Same as Fine Ale, but 1 more lantern in cost.

Explosives: Unlocks the saboteur
Cost: 2 lanterns
Prerequisite: Cooking
Overview: One of the best upgrades as it unlocks one of the best units. Should be bought between turns 3-5, unless you have the worst possible start.

Jewelry: Allows master thief to steal jewels from estates for 4 gold
Cost: 3 lanterns
Prerequisite: Explosives
Overview: Incredibly useful if estates happen to spawn jewelry at the start of the game. Also sits behind the sisters upgrade which has some of the highest value

The Sisters: Unlocks the assassins unit
Cost: 5 lanterns
Prerequisite: Jewelry
Overview: The best upgrade in the game to secure victory points and deal with snowballed gangs. If there's any upgrade you should count lanterns for turns in advance, it would be this one. Allows you to halt your opponents actions if they rely on their gang for income and kill contracts every turn putting the game on a clock for your opponent till you win.

Scout: Gives your master thief an extra action point per turn, (up to 3)
Cost: 1 lantern
Prerequisite: None
Overview: Buy by turn 2, generally after you have urchins and gangs unlocked

Lamp Lighter: Gives you 1 free lantern per turn
Cost: 2 lanterns
Prerequisite: Scout
Overview: Sits in the same row as Art Critic for lantern generation. Lamp Lighter is the superior option to Art Critic, as it will pay for itself regardless of what you do. Should ideally be bought after urchins/gangs/scouts done.

Art Critic: Allows master thief to steal masterpieces for 2 lanterns and 1 gold per
Cost: 2 lanterns
Prerequisite: Scout
Overview: One of the worst buys out of any of the tree, and only finds real usefulness when you just want to rotate the estates contents or deny your opponents the lanterns they might desperately need. At a cost of 2 and a return of 2 lanterns + 1 gold, you have to fully commit (usually) 2 action points to scout and steal the estate as well as using your gang to take the guard out. If you're considering this option for quick lanterns, consider charity that turn instead which just gives you 2 lanterns upfront.

Expert Scout Gives your master thief an extra action point per turn, (up to 4)
Cost: 3 lanterns
Prerequisite: Lamp Lighter OR Art Critic
Overview: Can be a particularly useful upgrade when you have the spare lanterns to purchase it. Everything after this upgrade is situational, so keep that in mind. Combos well with the Safecracker upgrade in the Stabbery tree.

Truant Officer: Unlocks truant officer unit
Cost: 5 lanterns
Prerequisite: Expert Scout
Overview: Situational upgrade that's good to have ready to buy when the need arises, but the upgrade itself shouldn't be rushed outside of excessive early leads, and even then its questionable at best.

Master Scout Gives your master thief an extra action point per turn, (up to 5)
Cost: 6 lanterns
Prerequisite: Truant Officer
Overview: Usually should never be bought. If you find yourself at a point in the game where you can afford this and and don't need something else, chances are that games so far progressed that the buildings are starting to run out of contents. Once the buildings run out of contents, the only thing left is using your one action point for combat and scouting tiles for the contracts. At that point, the extra point is going to waste when the lanterns could have been spent on securing victory points in bribes or assassins.

Gang: Unlocks gang unit
Cost: 1 lantern
Prerequisite: None
Overview: Should be bought after urchins, as soon as possible (assuming it has a hitable target to start leveling up).


Dagger: Allows master thief to attack for 1 damage at the cost of action point, once per turn
Cost: 2 lanterns
Prerequisite: Gang
Overview: A useful upgrade that has many uses, but shouldnt be prioritized over resource generation in most cases. The extra attack can be used to help kill off a pesky gang or guard, kill a contract that moved to a favorable location for you.


Reinforced Steel: Increases master thiefs damange to 2
Cost: 3 lanterns
Prerequisite: Dagger
Overview: Not a requiered pruchase in most games, but finds usefulness in locking down opponents gangs if you manage an early kill or they dont invest in thugs as they spawn with 2.


Poison Blade: Increases master thiefs damage to 3
Cost: 5 lanterns
Prerequisite: Reinforced Steel
Overview: Usually overkill on master thiefs damage since no npc except the contracts spawn with more than 2 health.


Safecracker: Gives all burgles from master thief 1 more gold in loot (does not apply if burgling and already empty building)
Cost: 4 lanterns
Prerequisite: Dagger
Overview: Very useful upgrade to horde gold to fund assassins later on as well as countering games that turn into wars of attrition.


Second Gang:
Cost: 6 lanterns
Prerequisite: Safecracker
Overview: A great next buy if you've bought Safecracker already and dont need the lanterns for something more crucial. The second gang will help fight that war of attrition too as well as help tackle objectives while keeping opponent in check. Make sure the turn you're buying this upgrade, that you already own a gang on the board, otherwise the 2nd will cost you 1 more gold than necissary.

Bribes can be bought in the upgrade screen, awarding 1 victory point each and costing more than the prvious. 3 bribes exist in each match, or in the case of The Agency, 5. Agency bribes must be delivered to the center building to earn the VP.







Charity may be taken once every turn, and if taken you may not buy any upgrades or bribes that turn. This also includes prior to taking the charity. You can pick between 2 lanterns or 4 gold when taking charity.

Lantern Charity
Cost: 2 lanterns

Gold Charity
Cost: 4 gold

*favored starts are based entirely on the maps base layout and does not account for any buildings contents or hidden blocks layouts*

Big City

Unique Features: Non-symmetrical board, many small and corner blocks, guilds are relatively close with only one path having an npc as a safety barrier. Contains 1 more block than normal, usually filled by an estate.
Favored start: First (south-west side)
Notes: The first person to get a gang up can choose to kill the barrier, or keep to their side. killing the barrier would allow you to play aggressive early. First turn player also has the benefit of spawning and naturally scouting tiles that gives access to 2-3 blocks without going out of their way. The corner blocks have a good chance to be the back corner and inaccessible without excessive scouting giving them generally less value over the middle and side blocks. These corners and proximity to the other player, shift focus to gang placements and being efficient with your scouted paths.

Masquerade

Unique Features: Masquerade for VP's, large secluded halves of the map with thugs guarding the contended buildings. Masks spawn for the masquerade in non unique buildings, and move every turn.
Favored start: Second (north-west side)
Notes: Keep in mind when scouting that every mask's location is a non unique building in that block if you're aiming to hit useful buildings as quick as possible, or to learn where your opponents buildings are located. When you scout a building with a mask in it, you get the mask and 1 gold while the building remains with any burgles it had before. Because of this, you generally should avoid masks until you're going for the win as every resource counts, and the masks end up as gold sinks.

The Wharf

Unique Features: Boats! Each player starts with access to 2 blocks and a thug on their side. Most buildings are contested, more so on the boats side as it's an active victory point to be taken while also generating resources. A third thug divides the players in the center.
Favored start: Second (north-east side)
Notes: The middle thug should only be killed when opening that path for your opponent isn't worth as much as it would be for you. The boat being one of the most economical VP's available, is also one of the easiest to stop. Use the turn you fill the boat to accomplish another vital goal or taking something from your opponent so that you force them to chose giving you a VP or stopping you on the board.

The Palace

Unique Features: Only map to offer an objective that awards 2 VP's. Requires guards be unlocked to fill towers that unlock the palace. Similar to the masquerade, Both sides of the map are largely secluded from each other with major points of contest in the palace and towers.
Favored start: Either
Notes:

The Agency

Unique Features: spawns 4 trading houses in fixed locations. has 5 bribes to be bought instead of 3, and they must be turned in at the center of the map to claim them as VP's. Spawns a thug with 2 health blocking the extra houses from the front.
Favored start:
Notes:

There are seceret codes to get avatars that look similair to certin people heres the known list.
Jesse Cox: i love cox
Biscuit: all fanboys must die

Many thanks go out to the developer of Antihero, Tim Conkling, for making such a wonderful game and knocking out bugs as quickly as they're found. To the staff at Versus Evil for answering community questions and being generally awesome. And finally to LordKosc for playing a great many games over the beta-test which allowed me to come up with most of what's in this guide.