12 (Magic)
25 (Magic)
They're very sneaky, preferring to move in, attack, and then run away. Their intelligence is quite a bit higher than most enemies, close to the level of Shy Guys.
As a matter of fact, it is rumoured that Crooks (and their cousins, Sackits) were rejected by the 8-bits club because they refused to wear masks (not that they'd need to, with those dark faces). They then formed their own group, which is constantly competing with the 8-bits club, although it is not as large.
"You can't run away! Ha!" - SMRPG
"Sob, sob...Just you wait, we'll get you for this. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday..."
Attack Pattern: They like to hide in bushes andambush unsuspecting adventurers on the map screen. During battle, they are more or less equally likely to use a regular attack, a dagger toss, or run away.
Basic Strategies: Contrary to what they say when you use Psychopath on them, you can easily run away from Crooks. But you don't want to, because they'll give you 10 experience points and coins, which is quite good at this point in the game.
They should be your first targets. A single timed-hit from Mario should take one out. Mallow may not be so lucky, and so you might want to have him concentrate on wearing down tougher enemies.
Advanced Strategies: They teleport next to the character they're going to atack, and then do sort of a slashing motion. It's quite easy to block this by just pressing A at the end of the slash.
