Each shop only has one of the four elemental arrows:
South Quarter AKA Well Equiped Thief: Water Arrows.
StoneMarket Proper AKA Marla: Moss Arrows.
Docks AKA The Undercurrent: Fire Arrows.
Old Quarter: Gas Arrows.
Broad-head Arrows
To get free broad-head arrows, go to the tavern in the Stone Market Plaza where there should be 3 guards, one with a bow, upstairs. Dispose of the guard downstairs. After you do that run down and jump behind the bar, the guards upstairs may come after you but they can't get behind the bar. The one with the bow can shoot at you, so crouch down behind the bar and wait for him to ready his arrow, then stand up for a sec and crouch back down, he will fire his arrow into the bar and you can claim it. Repeat this to get full broad head arrows.
Damage Modification
Locate the Default.ini in your \Program Files\Thief - Deadly Shadows\System directory and open it with a text editor.
Be sure you make a backup of this file before you start modifying it.
Locate the following section:
[Difficulty]
; -- THIEF 3
;
; AI visual acuity multiplier - how well AIs can see
Difficulty_AIVisual_Mult_Easy=0.9
Difficulty_AIVisual_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AIVisual_Mult_Hard=1.15
Difficulty_AIVisual_Mult_Expert=1.2
;
; AI auditory acuity multiplier - how well AIs can hear
Difficulty_AIAudio_Mult_Easy=0.8
Difficulty_AIAudio_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AIAudio_Mult_Hard=1.03
Difficulty_AIAudio_Mult_Expert=1.13
;
; AI tactile acuity multiplier - how well AIs can feel
Difficulty_AITactile_Mult_Easy=1.0
Difficulty_AITactile_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AITactile_Mult_Hard=1.0
Difficulty_AITactile_Mult_Expert=1.0
;
; AI hitpoints multiplier - all AI starting hitpoints will be scaled by this
Difficulty_AIHitPoints_Mult_Easy=0.75
Difficulty_AIHitPoints_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AIHitPoints_Mult_Hard=1.2
Difficulty_AIHitPoints_Mult_Expert=1.3
;
; AI combat speed multiplier - all AI combat animations are scaled by this
Difficulty_AICombatSpeed_Mult_Easy=1.0
Difficulty_AICombatSpeed_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AICombatSpeed_Mult_Hard=1.1
Difficulty_AICombatSpeed_Mult_Expert=1.2
;
; AI-to-player damage multiplier - all damage applied to the player by the AI is scaled by this
Difficulty_AIToPlayerDamage_Mult_Easy=0.5
Difficulty_AIToPlayerDamage_Mult_Normal=1.0
Difficulty_AIToPlayerDamage_Mult_Hard=1.25
Difficulty_AIToPlayerDamage_Mult_Expert=1.5
Change the AI damage to player multiplier to 0.0 for almost no damage (note that a base damage still applies) to you; you may want to reduce the hit points of the enemies as well. Just a warning not to reduce the hit point multiplier of the AI to 0.0 or any hit (including a blackjack blow) will kill an enemy instantly.
Defeating Keeper Guards
Use a mine or be extra careful when sniping Keeper Guards. If sniping, you must hit them in the back of the head. If you are stealthy enough, you can try backstabbing them, because the blackjack has no effect on them.
Defeating Zombies
If a Zombie is unaware of you, a single flashbomb will kill it. If it is aware, two are all that is required.
Don't Leave Angry
Since the stages are often divided up into separate maps, you find yourself transitioning from one part to the other. If you are being chased by a guard, never leave the map and come back expecting everything to be normal. The guard chasing you will still be there and alerted to your presence. Always make an effort to hide in the same map you are to avoid forgetting that a guard (or party of guards) are waiting for you on the next map.
The map transitions are a good place to hide (they are almost always completely dark). Simply go into the map transition and decline to go into the next section. Garrett will stay in the murky, smoky portal and almost always out of the way of all patrols.
Easy money
Go to a fence that buys metal and sell all of your loot. Go to your landlord's stash nearby Heartless Perry. Get the purse of coins (worth 50 g), then go around town and pickpocket purses from unsuspecting citizens. Whenever you get a purse it will say it is worth 25 g, but it will actually be worth 50 g. You can only do this once a night. Collect as many purses as you can. Once you sell those purses to a fence, any other purses you collect that night will be worth their regular amount.
Factionalism
By day 3 (after meeting with the Keepers the first time), players may choose to ally with the Hammerites, the Pagans, or both by doing them small favours. Allies are helpful since they will not attack you, and allow you to hide in their turf when you flee the City Watch (who you may never ally with).
Befriend the Hammerites by locating and destroying the large cockroaches that inhabit the city. For each one you destroy, you increase Hammerite friendliness by one point. You also befriend Hammerites by destroying any undead using Holy Water or Fire Arrows. This may take a little while, but the beetles are easy to find. Undead are even easier to find, but you may need to stock up on fire arrows to deal with them adequately.
Befriend the Pagans by locating green stones with the mark of the Trickster or by locating the elemental archway in the Pagan turf and firing a moss arrow into the target. The green stones are harder to find early in the game, so the elemental arch is a much better choice to befriend the Pagans. Simply shoot any one of the four purple nodes on the arch with an elemental arrow. Consider using moss arrows for this purpose; you can fire as many elemental arrows into the Pagans' elemental arch as you can afford to immediately ally them with you when the opportunity arises.
Moss arrows are more plentiful as you pick up many in the city; more if you don't use them. You can save your fire, gas, and water arrows for your missions.
Final Note: Killing, blackjacking, or looting from the Hammerites or Pagans will decrease your standing with that faction.
Free Water Arrows
You can get free water arrows in the training mission (which carries over to your subsequent missions) by waiting by the douse the torch exercise for water crystals to keep respawning. Before you leave the Blue Heron Inn forever, you may want to take your fill of 25 water arrows, which will go a long way in helping you keep shopping costs down.
Getting to the sunken Citadel in the docks
When you first arrive at the docks, go towards the store. Stop immediately after you pass the Quarantine gate. There is a box in front of you. Destroy it. Go down the ladder and follow the stairs.
Item Maximums
Gear and items are bought to be used in Thief 3. Don't go to great lengths to save items if you think they can help you stay alive and undiscovered, but don't waste them on lone guards or civilians who cannot fight back.
On normal, the maximum gear Garrett may carry is:
Health Potion = 10
Broadhead arrows = 30
Noisemakers = 5
Water Arrows = 25
Moss Arrows = 20
Gas Arrows = 5
Fire Arrows = 15
Flash Bombs = 20
Explosive Mine = 5
Gas Bomb = 5
Oil Flask = 5
If Garrett proceeds to pick up another item when he is at maximum capacity, the item is "picked up" but is not added to the inventory. Be sure you have room before you start grabbing items or you're just wasting hard earned loot!
Metal Age Nightvision
Although shadows are important to hide Garrett, sometimes it can too dark to see while hiding. Crank up the Gamma/Brightness correction in your options menu to see the surroundings while remaining hidden.