Thief And Lockpicks

Has there been any studies that have been done in regards to the differences between the three types of lock picks? I remember there was some that was done years back in, looking into the differences of the picks being connected to level of the area and the thief. Anything else been researched on these? I know most instance of picking are more in Odyssey and most of the guides call a mix of Living and Skeleton, just trying to get a better grasp of the math behind it.

There was a post on the OF speaking to the actual difference in key use (though this doesn't answer your question directly) that each type of key is level based.

The specific level spread escapes me at the moment but Theif's Tools are the lowest, Living Keys are higher, and Skeleton Keys are considered the highest.

The devs answered the post on the JP side of the forums without actually touching on the effectiveness of each key. Just stating that each was considered for certain level chests/dungeons.

JP wiki confirms what I have experienced in Odyssey (and Brahmsz said):

Thief's Tools suck
Living Keys are medium open
Skeleton Keys are expensive/best keys

I have no idea if the keys are tied to the level of the monsters in the area of Odyssey, or if SE made their success tied to the box type (chest, coffer, aurum). I strongly feel like it's the latter, but not directly related to mimic pop rate. I have spent over 2 dozen Thief's Tools picking an Aurum (successfully) where I wanted a Mimic instead, but have never spend that many Thief's Tools on individual Chests or Coffers. Same results with Living Keys. I have seen a much higher Aurum opening rate with Skeleton keys within the first few keys vs the other types, but not necessarily a higher mimic rate between all 3. Thief's Tools simply fail more than the other two, but I have yet to see a noticeable difference in Mimic pop rate with these vs other keys. JP wiki says it's a low success/high mimic sliding scale between the three keys, but I disagree with the mimic portion of that point from my own observation.

I have killed Mimics in a certain Sheol for large boxes, and I have never gotten more than 5 Mimics through an entire run, even when trying to with inferior tools. Out of dozens of runs. I just ended up spending more money on weak tools that didn't produce higher Mimics rates. When I switched to Living Keys, my mimic rate neither went up or down, but my keys' used dropped significantly. I am sure someone will say they've gotten 10 mimics in one run using Thief's Tools, but that has been my experience. Theif's Tools are a waste of money IMO (but good for easy picking like Lamian Fang Key replacement)