The rusted, iron-wrought gate clangs shut behind you. Heaving a sigh of relief, you eagerly anticipate the after-action report charting your achievements of another aced Dishonored mission. Alerts: none. Detections: zip. Enemies killed: one. Bodies fou—wait, one?! You didn't lift your blade at all against the City Watch during that run, and you even ensured a shadowy dumping corner in the sewers for the unconscious. "The sewers," you quickly realize, an teeming with swarms of infested rats hungering for a fleshy meal. Whoops.

Dancing the detection disco in Dishonored often hinges success or failure upon a single decision or mistake rippling with a cascading effect across your Chaos rating and applied lethality. Keeping Corvo's observed presence minimal gives you a shot at the boast-worthy Ghost Achievement—where you complete Dishonored with no alerts—but the effort also ties heavily into the multiple detection and Chaos mechanics lurking beneath the game's steam-stained hood.

Earlier this month, Bethesda laid out details on the specific workings of detection and Chaos to help ambitious assassins attain the perfect balance of subtlety and savagery they prefer. Like a revelatory journal entry, the official forum post reveals all, but we've pasted the important bits below. Have a look:

How does the Chaos system work? How do I raise or lower the Chaos level that is displayed on the end mission stats screen?

Chaos is a value that is adjusted according to the actions of your character during gameplay. This system is a hidden mechanic and you will only see the Chaos rating displayed during the ‘end mission’ Stats screen.
Weepers do count for detection. They do raise the Chaos level if they are killed.
Kills by Rewired traps will contribute to your kill amounts and Chaos; that’s Watchtowers, Arc Pylons, and Wall of Lights.
Rats, Hagfish and River Krust do not raise Chaos if killed. They also do not count towards detection of your character.
Wolfhound kills do not count towards Chaos, but they can detect your character and will count towards that. They can also discover bodies, as well as their corpse will count towards “bodies found”.
Your character’s Chaos level will change the story outcome and lead to other various differences throughout gameplay, such as more enemy characters, more rats, or different scenes/environment items and conversations.
Basic rule is killing less than 20 percent of the characters in a Mission should allow the Low Chaos rating to be sustained.

I’m getting stats for bodies being found or killed when I’ve rendered NPCs unconscious, why?

Not hiding bodies well enough after choking them out or sleep darting them can sometimes lead to other characters finding them.
Unconscious characters won’t survive a fall from a great height, or a slip into the water which will also result in a kill towards your character stats.

Situations that could lead to an NPC being killed inadvertently

Sleep Darting or Choking out an NPC and having them hit an object when falling, causing death
Sleep Darting or Choking out an NPC near a ledge and having them fall to cause death
Sleep Darting or Choking out an NPC and having them fall into water will cause drowning death
Sleep Darting or Choking an NPC and allowing them to fall down a long flight of stairs will sometimes cause them to die (possible with the stairs in the Overseer building)
Placing an unconscious NPC in water, or even near shallow puddles, can cause drowning death
Placing an unconscious body on un-even terrain near water can sometimes lead to the NPC slowly moving and falling into water, which would count as an NPC kill (in Prison Sewers for example)
Rendering an NPC unconscious near a damage source (such as a fireplace or lit grill) may cause the NPC to take damage and die
Leaving an unconscious NPC in the middle of the street or alley, where rats have access to the body, can result in clean-up which will count as a kill for the player
Accidentally casting Devouring Swarm near an unconscious NPC could cause the rats to clean up the body, counting as a NPC kill
Accidentally casting Windblast near an unconscious NPC could cause damage leading to NPC death
Having a Grenade, Springrazor or Whale Oil Battery explode near an unconscious NPC could cause splash damage resulting in NPC death
Throwing an unconscious NPC into a Wall of Light, or near and Arc Pylon would incinerate the NPC and count as a kill
Leaving unconscious NPCs in the area around the large door on which the player places the explosive device in Prison will cause the NPCs to die when the device goes off. This includes in and around the nearby dumpster and behind the consoles and gate switch across from the door on the upper level.
Rendering an enemy unconscious while fighting a nearby Tallboy can cause the Tallboy to stomp at the player, essentially killing the nearby unconscious NPC in the process
Rendering an enemy unconscious and having another enemy throw a projectile (such as fire bottle or grenade) at the player, can kill the nearby unconscious NPC
Leaving an NPC unconscious in the Brothel Steam room may cause “bite” damage due to hagfish in the center pool, killing the NPC


As a bonus, a player posted a short video walkthrough on surmounting a particularly tricky section of the latter portion of Corvo's journey that easily throws a Ghost run into peril due to a friendly NPC turning hostile after a scripted sequence. Check it out, but take heed of the massive spoilers revealed in the process.

We can look forward to three DLC packs for Dishonored during the coming year. Dishonored: Dunwall City Trials is the first. It will contain 10 challenge maps that will "test and track your combat, stealth and mobility skills." A post on the Bethblog says that an "arena battle against waves of enemy AI," a drop assassination challenge and a straightforward race will be among the challenges on offer. It'll cost £3.99 / 4.99 Euro / $4.99.

Master assassin, Daud, will "be the focus" of the second chunk of DLC, due out Spring next year. The DLC will contain new parts of Dunwall and let us experiment with Daud's weapons, powers and gadgets, which does rather suggest we'll might get to play as him.

The third DLC pack remains shrouded in masked mystery. More details are due to be announced "closer to launch next year." A single screenshot of an elevated room adorns the Bethblog post. Looks like a good tall starting point for that drop assassination challenge Bethesda mentioned.

Taking on Dishonored's High Overseer without leaving a trace is actually fairly straightforward. The mission directly supports it, and you can see how that approach plays out in the original 'Three Extreme Approaches' video that led to this diary series. So, in the name of finding a better way I've decided to forgo the road most traveled and find a creative new way of toppling Dunwall's most senior religious authority. Using man-eating rats.

As you'll see, it took a bit of experimentation in order to figure the most effective means of ushering a man to his furry, plague-ridden demise. Along the way, there were accidents. There were regrets. There were casualties. Innocents will die. Rats will frolic. No-one will care about a dog.



Check out the prologue to No Trace for more, and check back on Friday when I'll be tracking down the Pendleton twins. You can also listen to our Dishonored podcast special to find out what Graham, Tom Francis and I thought about the game.

The more players entreat Corvo's ruthlessness in Dishonored, the more tempted I become to sully my second full-stealth playthrough with a few slit throats and holed heads. Luckily enough, Dunwall's supernatural assassins enjoy sharing their exceptional moments of glory through recorded snippets of chaos. The murder spree shown here, executed by appropriately named player "Flakked," shows off some clever spring razor usage paired with the still-in-style powerslide. Take a look above.

I took my first playthrough of Dishonored very seriously. I stealthed my way through slowly, investigating every nook and soaking up as much of Dunwall's atmosphere as I could. That reverence ended the moment the final cut scene concluded. I've enjoyed the experience the developers intended, now it's time to break it apart and have more fun.

This is what trainers are for. Dishonored hasn't been out long, but there are already programs out there that you can run alongside Dishonored, giving Corvo unlimited health, super speed, high level powers, unlimited money and more. Watch these cheats in action as I blast through the first assassination mission, with some help from a rapid fire pistol and dozens of crossbow bolts, in exactly five minutes flat.

I would link to the trainer used, but it exists on a list alongside keygen software and other naughtiness that doesn't deserve promotion. Suffice to say a Google search will lead you to one, but be wary of bad files, as always. Also, SPOILERS for the first mission. On your marks. Get set. GO, CORVO, GO.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry. In my first video in the 'No Trace' Dishonored diary series - in which I'm going to try to make each of Corvo's assassinations look like a terrible accident - I claimed that we'd get the first proper episode up today. However, we've fallen victim to some terrible accidents of our own. Accidents that involve framerates, and audio syncing, and several much longer words, and which can only be solved through many hours of video conversion and heartfelt penitence.

My best laid schemes, I'm sad to say, gang aft agley. In the meantime, I wanted to do a short video to explain the situation and, while I've got the time, address some concerns raised in the comments threads for my previous entry.



Pipes. I've climbed them.

Join us next week when people who know what they are doing will be in charge.

I guess we should have seen this coming, but it kind of snuck up on us. Following on from this amazing Far Cry 3 Minecraft mod, someone has only gone and made a Dishonored one, which adds Corvo's iconic weapons and equipment to the all-consuming crafting game.

You can download the set here, which includes Corvo's outfit, his sword, a wheellock pistol, the Blink rune (featuring working teleportation), whalebone charms, Sokolov's Elixir and - everybody's favourite - whale oil, which explodes when thrown. If you have the relevant materials, you can even craft these items yourself.

To test them out, we suggest using the Imperial City map, which could easily pass for part of Dunwall - and it will have to, until some mad, wonderful fool decides to recreate every inch of the city in Minecraft. It's only a matter of time. Blink to the following video to see the Dishonored mod in action.

It's rare that you get a glance inside an art director's sketchbook, which makes the concept art that Bethesda sent over a bit of a treat. Each of the ten images comes with a few words from Dishonored art director, Sebastien Mitton, offering a bit of insight into the lengthy pre-production phase that locked down Dunwall's grimy aesthetic. There's even mention of a cut level set in an insane asylum. Let's take a look.



Sebastien Mitton: This is the very first pencil drawing we did when the game was set in London, in 1666. I’m a bit nostalgic when it comes to this one, but in a positive way. This is the piece of art that triggered lots of excellent work in terms of architecture - all the landmarks…there were more than 80 cathedrals in the skyline by that time. There is this very specific skeleton aspect to the facades, there is a canyon feeling in the streets, there are strong shadows.



Sebastien Mitton: The plague plays an important role in our game. After many hours of research exploring narratives from the Black Plague period, we used some testimonies as a starting point for visual expression. The purpose of this exploration was to give the player a great visual impact by increasing this dystopia feeling in the city. The inspiration from this specific example (cut for gameplay consistency) came from the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, who mixed with the lime wash used in mass graves.



Sebastien Mitton: As a visual designer, it is a fun experience and a great challenge to align visual appeal, engineering and functionality, nice animations, and a sense of power with a handcrafted weapon that you can upgrade in different ways!



Sebastien Mitton: I really love this ship, with its moving nose that can trap whales when harpooned. The story of its inception started one day when I was visiting our office in Austin.

I noticed a guy on stilts cleaning the building façade and told Harvey (co-creative director) we could put stilts on our town crier (loud speakers replaced this guy). He agreed, and the guy instantly became a Tallboy. Then slowly, game designers modified his original purpose, and the Tallboy became a guard, armed with its bow.

I then proposed to place a canister on his back, full of phosphorus, to get nice visual effects when he shoots arrows. Harvey preferred to use whale oil. Ok, but now we need Whales right? Hard to see Whales if you don’t swim in the middle of the ocean, so it was time to design a whaling ship. Here’s the result!

I then realized that the game universe was autonomous, no need to add anything from our real world. This world had its own needs and its own solutions as its own universe.



Sebastien Mitton: This one is a close-up. It’s the “Regent” painting done by the artist Sergey Kolesov, who is one of the most talented painter/illustrators worldwide in my opinion. This painting won the 2012 into the pixel at E3. It has everything I love in paintings. It has that second layer of visual storytelling when you look at the bodyguard. It’s not in your face at first sight, but it’s there when you take the time to really look at it. It is the role of a bodyguard to stay discreet, you’d say!



Sebastien Mitton: It is always sad when you have to cut features, ideas, concepts. But that’s the nature of our role in this industry. As an artist you have to stay really agile and react positively for the sake of the project.

In this case, we had to cut a mental institution which was haunted by some locals called Lunatics. I really liked the mechanics of those non-fighting guys who are really sensitive to sounds, and who drive the player into a corner, hooting when they’ve detected you.



Sebastien Mitton: After a long phase of gathering really good references from museums and libraries, it’s time to throw ideas on paper, and align them with the bullet points and visual filters we’ve decided upon.

I like this board because it shows how crazy we go sometimes during our concept session.
Jean-Luc, my assistant, not only takes notes during our brainstorms, he draws pages and pages.



Sebastien Mitton: One of my main goals during the creation of Dishonored was to bring iconic characters to life. This girl is the result of intense research during photo trips to London and Edinburgh, analysis of mug-shots and studies of typical English traits we found in books and pulp illustration. By drawing on those known characteristics, your characters convey emotion before they talk or move. This is visual storytelling.



Sebastien Mitton: This screenshot shows, if not the first, at least one of the early integrations of one of our characters in game. This is a moment of joy, when you feel everything is in place. You’re heading in the right direction, and you suddenly don’t care about the hard days ahead.



Sebastien Mitton: I talked previously about visual storytelling. Here’s a perfect example of what we love at Arkane: creating a dense and visceral universe!

For more on Dishonored, listen to our Dishonored podcast special, read our Dishonored review and watch Chris' video diary in which he tries to navigate Dunwall without leaving a trace.

Yesterday we asked you which of my three daft approaches to Dishonored you wanted to see blown out into a full video diary series. Each take on the game had its supporters, but the clear winner in both the comments thread and the Facebook poll was 'oh dear, what a terrible accident'.

The idea is to complete every mission in the game without leaving a trace of Corvo's involvement - hence the name of this series. That doesn't mean that there can't be evidence, but that evidence needs to point to other people: essentially, there needs to be an explanation for events that's simpler and more believable than "a teleporting, man-possessing, rat-summoning magic ninja did it."

In the game's linear tutorial prison break sequence, that's easier said than done. It's a part of the game with very little freedom - but I wanted to take it on anyway, and see if there's a way of explosively escaping from jail while still making it look like someone else's fault. Was I successful? Decide for yourself by watching the video below. Needless to say, expect to have the game's opening somewhat spoiled.



New episodes of No Trace are planned for Fridays and Tuesdays until I finish the game. Let us know what you think in the comments, and subscribe to our YouTube channel to have future installments slipped discretely into your internets.

Earlier in the week we recorded a podcast special where we discuss all of Dishonored - including major plot points - in some detail. Check it out here.

One of Dishonored's most oh-so-satisfying accomplishments is a Ghost and Clean Hands run, which rewards two Achievements for evading detection and performing non-lethal takedowns for the entirety of your time in Dunwall. The video here shows the complete opposite of that scuffed coin with the circular elimination of six guards in but a few seconds. And it looks simply amazing.

Using a combination of bent time, rat swarms, teleportation, and plenty of deadly sword swings, player "kekkoSoNicSyNdIcAtE" (whoa) successfully infused the majesty of Inigo Montoya in full berserk mode with cinematography seemingly directed by the Wachowski brothers. Two Tallboys and four City Watchmen crumple beneath Corvo's kinetically balletic attacks, a sequence of brutality underscored by the first-person view.

You, too, can shove sharp pieces of metal into people's necks as well. (Dis)Honestly. Read our review for more info.