Sabertooth Costume

Sly in his Sabertooth Costume

The Sabertooth Tiger Skin is a costume in Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, obtained in "Clan of the Cave Raccoon." Sly acquires the costume in a room after stealing a key from Grizz, who needed it in order to save Bob Cooper.

Description

Created by a shaman at the dawn of history, this Sabre-toothed Tiger outfit looks as ferocious as it is powerful. Enhancing one's primal abilities, it grants the wearer the stealthiness and hunting prowess of a cat, including a killer feral pounce!
― In-game description

Being much more simplistic than his other costumes, this costume simpily consists of the pelt of a Sabertooth tiger worn over Sly's back, with the head of the deceased carnivore worn as a "hood" and the arms of the tiger worn over his own similarly to sleeves and gloves.

Abilities

• Cyclone Pounce: The costume's primary technique. By pressing , Sly would crouch and lie on his stomach. Once a target is in range (either a guard or a stuffed elephant dummy), a blue targeting arrow will appear. When is pressed, Sly will leap up while emitting a ferocious roar then slams down on the target. The Cyclone Pounce is used to cross gaps too wide for his paraglider to carry him across. It is very powerful, instantly defeating rooftop guards in one hit, though flashlight guards require two hits. Sly would use this technique during the job "Unexpected Ties" to free Bob Cooper by taking out the guards operating the wheels used to restrain Bob in a net. He would use it again during "Operation: Jurassic Thievery" to cross wide gaps and eliminate the guard operating the security control panel. Using the Cyclone Pounce consumes a full bar of the Gadget Meter, requiring it to be recharged in order to use it again.
• Play dead: Sly can mimic a corpse when is pressed. Any guards that see him will not pay attention to him, even when moving. Guards will attack him, however, if enemies are already alerted to Sly's presence beforehand.

Weaknesses and limitations

Due to the bulkiness of the Sabertooth Costume, Sly cannot run while wearing the costume, nor can he perform any of his acrobatic moves. His only method of attack while fighting enemies is the Cyclone Pounce, which drains the Gadget Meter completely; since the Gadget Meter requires time to recharge, Sly will be temporarily rendered vulnerable without any way of fighting back. Despite the costume possessing sharp claws, Sly cannot use them to attack in any way.

Gallery

Sabertooth Costume Thief Meter

Sabertooth Costume in a safe house

Trivia

• The tiger skin, along with the Samurai Armor, are the only costumes that Sly is shown wearing his standard outfit underneath the costume.
• This is the only costume that does not have any attack assigned to .
  • It is also the only costume that does not have a standard melee attack.
  • Since the costume's only method attack, the Cyclone Pounce, could only be used when targets are in range, the Sabertooth Costume is the only costume that cannot freely attack breakable objects.
  • This is also the only costume that is not required in a boss fight during the episode in which it is obtained due to the fact that Grizz is fought by Murray rather than Sly.
• Out of all the costumes in-game, the Sabertooth Costume has the least amount of appearances in cutscenes, with its only cutscene appearance being its introduction scene.
• While wearing this costume, Sly's idle animation while standing upright has him lift the "hood" from his head and look around.
• This costume's skin is the same as that of a Sabertooth tiger guard.
  • In an in-game cutscene with a pair of flashlight guards, they mention another guard named Joe getting Grizz so mad that he turned him into a coat for Le Paradox. It is possible that this coat is Joe's.
• The Cyclone Pounce is similar to Leaping Dragon Technique developed by Rioichi Cooper, with the only difference being that the former can be used on solid ground and as an attack.
• While playing dead, Sly sticks his tongue out and crosses his eyes.