Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Stealing

You can take held items by your enemy through stealing. If a member of the Thief class attempts to steal, they can also steal small amounts of stats. Enemy characters will never attempt to steal items or stats.

Basics of Stealing
To steal, position one of your characters nearby one of the enemy units. Use the Item Command and select a Hand-type item, then move the cursor onto the designated enemy. For each of their items (and a stat, if you're using a Thief), a percentage of success will appear. Simple enough, choose one of the items and take the according risk. However, to increase your chances of success, knowledge of how the stealing formula would be useful.

Stealing with Thieves
For thieves, the item-stealing formula works exactly like this:

S = Lv(F + 2(V/100)) + 25 + H - E - (Rank * 3) - Rarity


 * S = Steal Success percentage
 * Lv = Level of the Thief used to steal
 * F = Facing; Like attacking, stealing is also effected by which side of the enemy your character is facing. Facing the front is 1.0, facing the side is 1.1, and facing their back is 1.2.
 * V = Amount of Lovers the Thief has in her items (25 total is the maximum).
 * H = Hand Hit; Hand used with higher HIT stats have greater success rates. Marksman item specialists increase HIT, and you can level up Hands in the Item World.
 * E = Enemy's level
 * Rank = Rank of the item you're trying to steal; every item is given a rank from 1 to 40. For information on individual item ranks, you can check the Items section of this guide.
 * Rarity = Refers to the rarity of the item. A common item is 10, a rare item is 20, a legendary item is 30, and a legendary item with a rarity of 0 is 100.

To have the best chances of stealing items with a Thief, follow the guidelines listed below.
 * Higher leveled Thieves have better chances.
 * Face the enemy's back when stealing, or the side when the back isn't a practical possibility.
 * Give your Thief's equipped items as many Lovers as possible.
 * Use the best possible Hand items available.

Less valuable items are easier to steal, while more valuable items are harder to steal.

Stealing Stats
Thieves have the unique ability to steal the stats of enemies, and adding them onto their own, permanently. The amount stolen is typically very low, but every little bit helps. Thieves are given slightly lower stats than most humanoid characters in areas other than HIT and SPD, seemingly to make up for this special ability. Stats gained in this way are reset through reincarnation. One enemy will only offer one stat available to steal, chosen at random, and it can only be stolen once. The amount of stats stolen seems to depend on the enemy's level.

Stat-stealing success formula:

S = (Lv x 2) + H - E


 * S = Stealing Success percentage
 * Lv = Thief's current level
 * H = Hand Hit; Hand used with higher HIT stats have greater success rates.
 * E = Enemy's level

Stealing stats success percentage is usually around the same level as stealing a normal item around rank 20. The only things to worry about with stat-stealing are increasing your Thief's level and using the best Hand items available.

Stealing with Other Classes
For all characters besides Thieves, this stealing formula will be used:

S = (Lv x F) + H/2 - E - (Rank x 3) - Rarity


 * S = Steal Success percentage. This amount can never exceed 50, despite what the formula may suggest.
 * Lv = Level of the character used to steal
 * F = Facing; Like attacking, stealing is also effected by which side of the enemy your character is facing. Facing the front is 1.0, facing the side is 1.1, and facing their back is 1.2.
 * H = Hand Hit; Hand used with higher HIT stats have greater success rates. Marksman item specialists increase HIT, and you can level up Hands in the Item World.
 * E = Enemy's level
 * Rank = Rank of the item you're trying to steal; every item is given a rank from 1 to 40. For information on individual item ranks, you can check the Items section of this guide.
 * Rarity = Refers to the rarity of the item. A common item is 10, a rare item is 20, a legendary item is 30, and a legendary item with a rarity of 0 is 100.

Compared to Thieves, other classes depend more on level and less on Hand items. But no matter how you look at it, Thieves have better potential to steal items, especially more valuable items. If you wish to steal with a regular character, it would be best to focus on the following, listed in terms of priority:
 * 1) Higher leveled characters have greater chances of success.
 * 2) Face the enemy's back when stealing, or the side when the back isn't a practical possibility.
 * 3) Use the best possible Hand items available.

Hand Items
While each hand has different HIT values, each also has different stealing ranges. A Stealing Hand can only be used on adjacent enemies, but a Plunder Hand can be used on enemies up to two panels away, etc.

Stealing Strategies
When items have a low chance of success, it could be beneficial to put the enemy holding the desired item to sleep. While several special moves can induce sleep, a Thief's Steal Consciousness or a Kunoichi's "MinMinMin" seem to have the greatest chance of inflicting the status. Stealing won't wake up enemies, and sleeping foes won't be able to counterattack your vulnerable Thieves.

Obtain Thief Lovers as soon as possible, having 25 makes a surprisingly large difference.