Jetpack

Lore & Background

In the Cooper crew's workshop, the Jetpack sits alongside the Grappling Hook and Bouncing Ball as one of the three core pieces of thieving hardware. It was designed to let the crew scale the kind of vertical architecture—rooftops, towers, cliff faces—that a simple grapple can't bridge. The fuel cell is intentionally small; the crew's philosophy is that a thief should never linger in the air, and the Jetpack enforces that by cutting out the moment the tank empties.

Across the series the Jetpack has evolved from a simple hold-to-fly gadget into a more nuanced traversal tool, with different characters gaining access to it in later titles and the fuel system being tuned to match each game's level geometry. In some entries the Jetpack also plays a minor role in combat, letting the player pop above a group of guards for a quick takedown before dropping back down.

The Jetpack is never a permanent flight system. Its design philosophy is deliberate: it is a burst tool, not a wingspan. Every level is built around the idea that the player will spend a few seconds in the air, land, and then use their legs for the rest of the route.

In Their Own Story

The warehouse roof sloped down into fog, and the diamond case sat on a ledge three storeys above the loading dock. Sly crouched at the edge, felt the cold November air tugging at his ears, and clicked the Jetpack's ignition. A short, sputtering roar filled his back. He pushed off, angled his body, and rose. The fuel gauge bled from green to amber. He banked left, skimming a row of skylights, and saw the case glinting under a single work lamp. One more second of thrust—his fingers found the latch, the case was in his bag—and then the tank hissed to nothing. He dropped, rolled, and was gone before the first guard turned his head.

Reader's Guide

Activating the Jetpack is simple: hold the designated button and Sly (or the active character) lifts off with a short burst of thrust. Release the button and you fall. The fuel gauge, usually shown near the health bar, drains steadily while the thrusters are lit. Your job is to plan the shortest possible air-time between your starting point and the target ledge, then commit.

In Sly 2 and Sly 3 the Jetpack is primarily a vertical tool—think of it as a one-way elevator you control. In later entries like Thieves in Time the fuel window and thrust response are tuned slightly differently, and the gadget may be available to more than one crew member, which changes how you sequence character swaps around a flight.

Pro tip 1: Don't hold the button the entire way up. Tap it in short pulses to feather your ascent; this stretches the fuel bar and gives you fine control over where you land.

Pro tip 2: Before you ignite, already angle your movement input toward the target. The Jetpack thrusts in the direction you're facing, so a clean pre-aim saves a second of fuel you'd otherwise waste correcting mid-air.

Did You Know?

• The Jetpack's fuel gauge is intentionally short by design; a full tank typically lasts only a few seconds of continuous thrust, making it a burst tool rather than a flight system.
• In Sly 2: Band of Thieves the Jetpack is one of three core gadgets, and its role as the primary vertical-traversal option distinguishes it from the Grappling Hook's horizontal reach.
• The Jetpack can be used in combat to pop above a cluster of guards for a quick takedown, though it is not a dedicated fighting gadget.
• Different characters in the crew gain access to the Jetpack in different entries, which affects how players sequence character swaps around a required flight.