Dishonored 2
50 Achievements
40-50h
Shadow
Finish the game without being spotted
1.9%
How to unlock the Shadow achievement in Dishonored 2 - Definitive Guide
Here is an easy to follow playlist of all 9 missions with Corvo (can be replicated with emily in ng+) that will unlock you the following:
Walkthrough and Story Specific:
-Clean Hands
-Shadow
-In Good Conscience
-Ghostly
-Alternative Approach
-Gazebo
-Familiarity Breeds Contempt
-Dilapidation
-Flooded Basement
-Under the Table
-Counter Serum
-Stay of Execution
-Morbid Theft
-Freedom of Speech
Miscellaneous:
-Black Market Burglar
-Art Collector
-Souvenirs
-Well funded if you use new game+ and have collected all blueprints previously as they will also give you coins if you pick them up again in ng+.
Things to note:
-This isn't a flesh and steel playthrough
-Songs of Serkanos can't be achieved if you follow the walkthrough to a tee as all black markets are robbed, therefore locking out the last musical duo.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHN5cPeI2sqN9dA7usx31...
Rule number two: Check your stats before you quick-save, it's a lot less time consuming to go back to an earlier quick-save than to restart the entire mission.
I also would not recommend robbing any shops, the consequences later will make it hard to remain stealthy. I edited this from a much longer version on TrueAchievements, but it was not popular for Clean Hands runners. If I missed a killing instruction, let me know. Rats, wolfhounds and bloodflies don't count as killing. Wolfhounds do count as enemies that can see you though.
1. A Long Day in Dunwall
I chose Emily because her powers really help a lot with stealth.
Hop out of the window behind you and in another one. Be careful of the guard in the next room and take him out when he turns his back. The key gets you back into the room you were just in. Go downstairs and knock out the next guard. Be sure to move his body out of the room so your main target does not see it, killing the guard sometimes leaves behind evidence. In the throne room, hide to the right and wait until your target leaves. Simply knock out Ramsey and carry him upstairs. Leave him there for the moment if you want to loot the area. When you are done, lock the door behind you and loot the rooms here. Leave when you are ready and follow the tutorial to a street.
Once you are ready to advance, keep an eye on the guards on the street. Sometimes they stay facing away and sometimes they patrol. You need to get up on the ledge to the right and then down in the gutter under the stairs. Look out for a guard who may come down to step on rats. Keep going until you see stairs up to the right. Don't take down the guard ahead in the alley until he is out of sight of the people or you'll start more trouble than you want. Climb the triangle building to the red roof and keep going up. Break the boards to get into an apartment with an exit onto a balcony. Follow the rooftops to a pipe and drop down onto a cloth covered box after the guard in the area leaves. Go over to the wall where boxes and an AC unit will get you up onto another rooftop, then a balcony. Hop over the railway tracks and then drop down to a pipe. Drop down into the water and swim over to the small boat so you can climb up onto the bigger one.
2. Edge of the World
When you wake up, use the Heart to find a Rune nearby. Keep the Heart on, because the glow helps you find the Rune before you get killed by fish. Make sure you assign your Runes to powers before you leave the ship, so you don't forget later.
Follow the signs to the Black Market. Before you get there, Mindy calls you over. Her mission makes it easier to not be seen at the end of this mission but it also requires making sure there are no witnesses to you carrying a dead body down the street just before that. With New Game Plus, all of the blueprints you found before are available the moment you talk to the shopkeeper. You don't get to keep all of the money from before. That would be too easy. Buy what you can afford from what there is. I suggest upgrading the crossbow's range, accuracy and how many bolts you can hold. Go back out and follow the path for a bit to a house full of bloodflies. Clear out the house until you see a hole in the wall that leads to a piano room and go down the stairs and break the boards. This gets you past the Wall of Light and to a good spot to plan your next move.
Look down and take out a guard then Far Reach up to another balcony. Far Reach across the street to a doctor's office and avoid or fight the bloodflies. Far Reach across to another balcony and drop take down a patroller over there. There is also an Overseer watching a speech below. Take him out so you can Far Reach to another balcony higher up. If you are treasure hunting, the table behind the speaker has several great opportunities to use the grab upgrade to your Far Reach. If you are on New Game Plus, you will discover soon that blueprints that you already have are now worth 200 gold, nice. Take out the Overseers on this floor to get the safe code from documents around the area. Go upstairs to take out a couple more Overseers and get the key for the room with Mindy's friend in it. Head back down to the third floor and out onto the balcony where you can get back down to the second floor balcony. Stick to the right side when you hit ground level and take the body down to Mindy. You can climb the rocks at the end of the track or follow the street a bit to some stairs that will take you up to the tracks. Follow them down an incline and carefully make your way back up and into the carriage (on a different set of tracks) to activate it. If you want to be very sure nobody sees you, climb up next to a tree and snipe sleep dart the two guards in this area.
3. The Good Doctor
Go up the left stairs, the right ones will get you spotted right away. Far Reach onto a glass platform and wait for some guards in a nearby room to split up. Take them out and then carefully snipe a guard in the next room, actually the front entrance to Addermire. Far Reach up to a chandelier and wait for two guards to stop talking to a civilian. One of them walks away and the other one comes right under you for the perfect drop take down opportunity. Now Far Reach up to the second floor and take out the whale oil for the Wall of Light. In the next area, a guard rides the elevator down. Go up the stairs and take out the sleeping elite before you Far Reach to a bookshelf to snipe two guards on the landing. You might want to be careful if you are not wanting to kill them, they may fall onto the lantern and burn up. Enter the Salon and take care of the guard fixing something. Far Reach grab the Rune on the wall downstairs from the balcony. Now head up to the fourth floor and wait for two guards to stop speaking then go take them out. Dr. Hypatia's office is right past the elite. Investigate in there and then go up the stairs and disarm a tripwire for later. Down on the second floor, the key you just got unlocks a door to an area you will need very soon. There is one guard in there, so be careful. Go talk to Hamilton and get his key so you can get more pistol ammo. Now head to Recuperation and take out the bloodflies as you go. Either talk to the doctor or listen to an audiograph to complete one goal. Talk to Vasco in the next area and he will tell you how to solve this stealthily. After she leaves, go back to the second floor, following all of the waypoints, and make the antidote. Now go back and sneak up on her, use the knockout button to inject her. The goal marker helpfully shows her location.
Now the fun part begins. Taking out the watchtower without being seen by it or guards is a bit of a challenge. The most direct route is through the dining room, but you don't want to go directly through there. Instead, go back out the front door and turn right. Follow some rocks along the wall until you find a round hole. Hurry through the kitchen and note the door in the next hallway. Carefully take out the guards on that balcony and then the watchtower. There is a guard below, take him out however you wish. It's fun to drop take down on his head. Board the skiff and you are done.
4. The Clockwork Mansion
This one is where it gets harder, the clockworks can see forward and behind. That is why I suggested you get Doppelganger, because them seeing one of them is not the same as them seeing you. I suggest you follow the steps for Silence to make easier to begin with, I'll remind you of what those are when we get there. The fewer switches you activate, the fewer threats you face.
As you get to the top of the stairs, Far Reach to the wall and then up to the balcony above. Go around the corner to a lower balcony and then Far Reach as close to the red building on the other side of the street as you can when the guards are not looking. Go around the building to a big alley and head down the stairs right before the narrow alley. Hide under the table near the columns when the shopkeeper warns you. Buy supplies after the Howlers leave, especially a rewire tool, and then make sure not to enter the narrow alley you noticed before. Avoid any guards that are still left and rewire the Wall of Light. If you bought the key to the booth, it's just ahead. Now head up the stairs and quickly make your way to the other end. Far Reach onto a bookshelf to ambush the guards that arrive by carriage shortly. Hop in and ride it when they are down.
Welcome to Upper Aventa. The only thing keeping you from the mansion is that gate. To get done with this area quickly, just come back here and put the gate code in as soon as you get it. The building just ahead is where you need to go. On the first floor, Far Reach past the desk and open the door. Take down the guy in the back room first and then the typist. On the second floor, keyhole peek through the records door until the guards separate and then carefully take them down. Don't pull out the whale oil, it's easier to just go around this Wall of Light. The brown door on the third floor leads to a sleeping guard. Don't miss the key and the gate code before you leave the room. Now that you have the code, you can leave. Now enter the code for the gate. I suggest you ride back down to the Lower Aventa and restock at the Black Market (you should also upgrade your Stun Mines as far as you can) then ride the carriage all of the way to the mansion.
The first thing to remember inside the mansion is don't touch the switches. In the second room, the one with the round rug, look up and shoot out one of the windows with a crossbow bolt. Far Reach up there and keep going until you can drop down. You'll see a little platform with another switch. Just keep going and turn left at the Dining Lounge sign. When you see a pool table, climb into the ceiling. Keep going past a skylight with rich people and carefully open a window. There are two guards and an inactive clockwork in that room. Sleep dart the guard who stands on the left through the right window and then close it. Open the left window and crouch while you wait for the other guard to patrol through. You should be able to get behind him. Go through the next door and to the right end of the balcony past the next room. Far Reach to an AC unit and then to a nearby balcony. Open the hatch and go inside, don't miss the two sticky grenades that may come in useful. Ride the elevator to the top floor and wait for the clockwork to walk away from the door. Far Reach left and then up to a shelf that spans most of the room. Jindosh can be taken down from here with a sleep dart. The best thing to do once he is down is sticky grenade the clockwork so it loses its head and then explore freely. You could blow the inactive one first and watch them all fight among themselves, but be sure to retreat to the far end of the shelf away from Jindosh after you stick the grenade if you do that.
The most direct route to the end is to go down to the Assessment Chamber and get Sokolov and leave the way you came in. That, unfortunately, is easier said than done. I suggest you make a permanent save before you go down the elevator to that area, assuming you have not been spotted yet. Once you are down there, either rewire or remove the whale oil from the Wall of Light. Head down the hallway toward the room divider. There are two more guards on this level, and breaking the divider might bring one to you. If not, he will probably come this way in a moment. The pipes that are above an electrical box make a good place to wait and the other one will be along shortly. Take them both out to make your escape easier. Go downstairs and pull the lever, then watch through the windows. Wait for the clockwork to walk right and forward a bit, equip your Stun Mines, then step on the square ahead. Step off forward before the wall comes all the way down and set a mine on the ground. Just wait a moment for the resulting explosion and then go get Sokolov, leave the house however you wish.
But wait, there's more. Now you have to get across the Lower Aventa District without anyone seeing you, and there are now witches. Go out the back door and Far Reach to the rooftop directly to your left. Far Reach across to the high balcony and then back across to a higher rooftop. You can toss a Doppelganger or two down at the witches or just use the flat parts of a few light poles to cross over the street to the wall by the gate down to your escape.
5. The Royal Conservatory
Climb a set of stairs and then move to another set of stairs when the guard is not looking so you can get behind him when he comes near the stairs. Take out a guard near a train car too, before you proceed. Don't worry about the elites by the Wall of Light, they are facing away from you. Go left toward the Black Market, but Far Reach up to a small rooftop and then up again to some wooden planks. Just wait a moment and then take out the surviving Howlers before you go to the Black Market. You should really consider the shopkeeper's mission, it's worth it. Go back up the stairs to where the Howlers were and enter the building. Head out the first door, not the one in the room, to get the drop on some guards. Drop down into a skylight to relieve an Overseer of his consciousness before you listen to a nearby audiograph. The door to his apartment, look for a tripwire, will get you back out to the stairs. On the roof, take the vine covered path across the street and then Far Reach up to the area above the banner. From the other end of that, Far Reach to a balcony and then climb up to the roof. Follow the pipes on the left around and watch an elite and her friend. Take the guard down when she passes by. If you bought the safe combination, the building with bloodflies is where you will find the safe and a Nestkeeper. Across from the balcony where the servant was is a big balcony. Far Reach over there and take care of the bloodflies. The other balcony on that building gives you access to the watchtower, if you can aim a Far Reach over there. The easiest way is if you have the Far Reach upgrade that slows time when you fall, but a well timed jump can make it. Rewire it or just turn it off, depending on your preference. Either Far Reach jump to the bloodfly building or clear the streets and then Far Reach down to the street. Be careful of two guards near the end of the street and enter the building there through the double doors. This is your shopkeeper mission goal. Climb partway up the stairs and notice a break in the barricade that you can climb into. Disarm the trap on the stairs and then the one at the top of the stairs. Get all of the information from the desk and then go out the balcony and follow the path on the right to the second floor of the Conservatory. Enter the open window with the boiling pot.
Once you are on the second floor, carefully take out the two witches in this area. One walks around a bit and stops just outside the room to the right and the other one stays on her bed. Either exit will get you out into the main area. Move to a place where you can Far Reach up to the third floor, and then to a ledge above and take down all of the witches you can see on the second and third floors. Go back down to the second floor now and read the note on the post near the machine. Far Reach up to the third floor and then up to the ledge above again. Climb in the window and follow the waypoint to the lenses. Sleep dart the two on the chandelier if you have not already, they will not fall far and it's cushioned. Go back down and install the lenses and turn on the machine. Now you can loot the place until your heart's content with no enemies in sight. You might avoid the stairs inside the room you came in from, and some breakable cases are trapped. The machine will have knocked out all of the other witches and removed any magical creatures from the area. Follow the waypoint to the Roseburrow Prototype before you leave. You could still rewire the security alarm, you are being stealthy after all. Just go back out the way you came in, from the second floor. Also, there are more guards now to take care of. Get back on top of the red building and cross over the guards' heads as you did before. Head back to the shopkeeper for a nice reward. The blueprints for Emily are hard to choose between, but the spyglass one seemed a good one to me. If you picked Corvo, the multiple crossbow bolt one is awesome.
6. Dust District
As you come to the top of the stairs, there are guards. The fastest way through is to rewire the Wall of Light, but if you don't want to do that, follow the red wire up onto a rooftop with two guards. One is facing away from the alley, but the other will come to find out what happened to his friend if you take the first one out from behind. If you get up on the wooden roof, you can take them both out easily to turn off the windmill. Either way, go meet Meagan. I'm about to skip the rest of the area for ease. Follow the below diagram and you can enter the Jindosh Lock door by solving it yourself.
Lady 1 and Heirloom 1 mean the first one mentioned in the riddle. It helps to use a piece of paper and use this chart for notes there.
Lady 1 - Heirloom 3
Lady 2 - Heirloom 4
Lady 3 - Heirloom 2
Lady 4 - Heirloom 1
Lady 5 - Heirloom 5
7. Crack In The Slab
You start with pretty much the ammo and items you had left at the end of the last mission, some will be refilled when you grab the timepiece. The good news is that, with the timepiece, there are very few enemies you need items for. Make sure use the pop-up function to check out the area before transitioning into the past and you should not be seen. Do this right away to see that the bed springs are on the other side of a door that you should look into the keyhole of. The first thing, after getting out of the piano room, is to get the Master Key from the dining room.
Take care of the guards, including the elite upstairs, without alarming the civilians and head through the upstairs door that will take you to the dining room balcony. Go to the present and then down into the dining room via the chandelier and then hide under the table near the third table leg before you transition again. Get the key off of the chair and transition back. Go past the table to a hallway and head right into a broken vault and then transition back to loot the place and open a shortcut out of the dining room area into another area in the present by breaking a statue. Go through there and find a pile of junk. Transition to get under a desk in that area and then take care of the dead wolfhound to get rid of the bloodflies in the present. It also allows you to open the safe in the past by noting the combination on the door lying on the floor in the present. The door to this room should also be missing which allows you to break the board to get back where you were a moment ago. Go back up the chandelier in the dining room and back near to where you started then through the kitchen. You have the key you need to open the door into the next area. Transition to be able to snipe wolfhounds from this window and then head to the next area where there is a big pile of dirt. There may be another wolfhound in this area and there is one Nestkeeper upstairs that you will need to take care of. There are several nests near the door you need. Incendiary Bolts work well, even better with the Combustion upgrade.
Once you are done with that hop over the windowsill onto the sand filled stairs and stand next to the goal marked door. So much can go wrong from here on out, check your stats for no detection and then make another save slot. Now head back in time and take cover to the right for a bit until the patroller leaves. Now take care of the guard in front of you, and the patroller when he comes to investigate, to make things easier later. Go back to the present and hide in the alcove near the next door you are going to need. There are two guards there in the past, sleep dart one and then hide again so you can sleep dart the other one when he walks past. Now open the first door.
You arrive in a T intersection and there is a guard to your left who will see you if you are not behind the big red plant. Peek around it and wait for him to look out over the balcony before you go get him. This area is now clear, and great for sniping. Now you have a decision to make. You can try to sneak over to the gazebo and take the combination to the next door while Stilton is awake or you can knock Stilton out with a dart. If you sleep dart him, he is not crazy in the future and the surrounding area is a lot nicer (this change takes effect immediately, so if you need something from the house and you plan to save him you must go back inside now). If you do nothing, he stays as he is now. Needless to say, it's hard to get through the area with him conscious (he does run away if you start taking out guards). If you save him, go back to the present and head back inside via the front door and all you have to do is move past the staff so they don't panic. You can climb up on the other end of where you came down if you did not dart him and you will still be in the past. Either way, be careful of the guards on the other end of the balcony to make sure they don't catch you at the door and enter the code to advance. Afterward, it takes a bit of time to get back outside of the house.
8. The Grand Palace
Head forward from where you start and turn right at the checkpoint sign. Get up on a wooden platform and then up on a pipe to get into a small room with a lot of bloodflies. Head down to the safe shop across the street when it is safe and wait for a guard above to leave before you look for a couple of documents.
One of these is the code to the nearby gate that allows you to find out how to get the password to access the Black Market back door, but you probably don't want t rob it.
The other item you should have received from the safe shop is the key you need at the end of the area. You can go in the front door of the Black Market if the watchtower is down. Make sure that you buy the tool that turns off the electricity to the railway, this level does not load when you hop into a carriage like some of them did before. The door on the ground level near the place where the track dead ends leads up to an apartment and a stealthier way into the next area.
Now, just stay next to the wall as you climb the stairs and make your way to the tracks and walk over to the Duke's Palace. Get up onto the big U shaped roof when you first arrive to avoid the enemies you see, but listen to them, then use the lights and things to advance up high to get across the courtyard. You'll get waypoints helping you find the Duke and his double shortly after you get onto the wooden rooftops. Follow them around to some beams and then to some ledges that will get you to a balcony with an alarm (you should rewire it if the Duke or double is in the next room). A door there will get you inside, but if the Duke or his double is in there he will have guards. You can draw them out one at a time to the balcony. If you talk to the Duke by accident he will summon more guards. If you don't plan to kill him, and you do find him, you still need to find the double to complete the goals stealthily. The only problem is that the double is afraid of you and can cause you to be seen.
Your next goal is getting into the vault. You can do this from the inside, with guards and clockworks, or the outside with the same enemies and an arc pylon. It's easier to go to the marked waypoint for the passage in the kitchen and take out those two guards. There is still the clockwork in the vault to be careful of. You can easily disable it with a sticky grenade or stun mine. Also, it seems if you get to the soul thing while the clockwork is on the other side of the room the clockwork will be destroyed when you get the soul. Now you can just go up the stairs and push the red button. Immediately go right and take out the whale oil, exit the little building you are in through the opening on the right, swim to the dock and then swim to meet Meagan to end the mission.
9. Death To The Empress
The city is pretty empty except for wolfhounds, a few gang members and some witches. There are six wolfhounds in the first part of the area. They can be anywhere between where you come up and the other end of the street near the entry gate. If you don't see them before you get to the broken gate, Far Reach up to the right and then get on top of the gate itself. If you cannot see them from there, five walking and one sleeping, get on top of the railway car and then the track. The track breaks at one point, but there are glass platforms above doorways that should allow you to get close enough to Far Reach to the other half. There is a Black Market in this area, found by following your heart to the Rune, that could be useful. You need the key to the armory to advance as stealthily as you can. Loot whatever you want, but we careful of Howlers in some places and witches in others. Be careful of crossbow bolts in the building that houses the lab if you robbed him before. The armory has weapons and food and a door that allows another route into the next area.
Swim fast to not get bitten too much by the fish. Climb and Far Reach up to the top of the wall and go right. Far Reach over to the pipes and enter the building, stay to the right as you avoid the witches. There is another one outside the door, so be careful. Once you take care of her, go to the left and hug the building. Climb the wall just before it inclines down and take out a gravehound skull before you drop down behind the bushes. Carefully go across to the stairs and then climb the wall. Blink down to a rampart and across to some grass. Climb over a bush to remain in cover. You should be able to Far Reach from here to the gazebo above. Now stay to the left and head toward the tower. Beware the witch on the ramps and go up to the little step just below the wall. Watch the walking witch on the path carefully, and take out a painting witch when the walking one is not looking. You can take the walking one out when she passes where her friend was, the one at the gate is facing away.
There are witches to your left, so stay low and head to the elevator to avoid them seeing you. You can actually climb behind the elevator and skip most of this area, but it takes a lot of exact Far Reaching and is not easy. Read the note and then carefully head back to the couch and Far Reach over the blockade ahead. Go upstairs and past a statue, it won't see you if you don't talk to it. After entering the double doors, head right and wait for the witches in that room to separate. The one by the windows walks around a lot, so you'll need to Far Reach up to the pipes above her head. You may have to take her out quickly if she thinks she sees you and comes out the door, it's really easy to be seen but a chandelier helps avoid that. Her partner is easier, as long as you hug the wall when you enter her room.
Now crawl across the boards to another room. The first door is watched over by witches and the second one has a clockwork nearby. You need to get to the stairs ahead and right of the second door. Just wait for it to walk away from you, it stops just outside of the door you are next to. Fill a tank and put it in the spot and then quickly Far Reach up to the pipes. Take care of the curious witches and head back upstairs. The room you need is straight ahead but you still have the clockwork to worry about. There is a vent that goes down another hallway that is above its level, so Far Reach to that after it turns back down the other hallway. You need to go back out the way you came in, but now the big room is full of witches. Go through the blue door and the broken door ahead and Far Reach to a beam on your left to get above the dining room. Follow the ledge then Far Reach across the room to get to the doors out. This takes you back to the area with the Delilah statue and a lot of witches, however note the brown trim along the walls. It runs near the ceiling along the entire level and gives you a great place to take down witches from. Once you have taken down all of them that might see you, Far Reach across the room and climb back over the blockage. Be prepared to take out a shadowhound the moment the elevator doors open, or let him come out and then shoot him. There should not be any witches left to hear its death cries.
Now ride up and finish this. Get kind of close to her and use the heart on her.
If you want to do this non-lethally, see below.
Go inside and immediately make your way up the black stone ledges to get on the platform with Delilah. You may or may not be able to knock her out before she summons reinforcements, but there is another way.
After much experimentation, this is the order I finally figured out to take down the statues stealthily. Directions are with the entry portal to your back.
Right balcony
left balcony
right at ground level
right on a black spike accessible by a staircase
left on ground level (however, you need to shoot this one from the left balcony with a sleep dart and then avoid her when she comes up there. Choke her as she turns away.)
lastly, the one on the throne. You have to get right next to her and then hop up behind her. Even then she will walk away and you have to get behind her to choke her.
Hide on the right side.
Delilah comes out now in a big dust storm, and she should be facing away from you. Carefully choke her.
Go fix your father and end the game.
This achievement is missable and will naturally be paired with a Low Chaos playthrough.
Completing an entire playthrough without ever being spotted is one of the harder achievements in the game. The enemy AI in the game is very perceptive even on the lower difficulties. As mentioned in the roadmap, though, this is best stacked during a playthrough where you're going for the "Clean Hands" achievement. This works best since you will be bypassing enemy encounters stealthily, thereby reducing the chances of ever being seen. If you do happen to get spotted, you can reload your latest save and carry on.
When an enemy is suspicious of your presence or by a noise you may have caused, there will be a visible white lightening bolt icon above their head. This is the alertness meter and all enemy types have it - Howlers, Grand Guard, Overseers, Witches, Clockwork Soldiers, and hounds. Please note that it's entirely fine if the lightening bolt turns white and even a little red, causing enemies to enter a "search" state. For the purposes of this achievement, you cannot allow that icon to turn fully red. If you do get spotted during your playthrough, the "Tutorial: Combat" prompt will appear on the left-hand side of the screen.
It would make sense then that you should never see this prompt appear, and in the chance that it does, you will have to reload your latest save file. Overall, pay close attention to the post-mission stat board where it will display three stats for lethality and stealth. For this achievement, you will want to make sure the "Ghostly - Never Detected" stat is checked off. It's okay if bodies have been found; so long as that stat is checked off at the end of all nine missions, you will unlock this achievement when the final cutscene begins to play.