Overview:
- Estimated achievement difficulty: 5/10 [Achievement Difficulty Rating]
- Offline: 50 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate amount of time to 1000: 35-40 Hours [Estimated Time to 100%]
- Minimum number of playthroughs needed: 2
- Missable achievements: 12 - "Counter-serum," "Place of Three Deaths," "Familiarity Breeds Contempt," "Occulant Carver," "Circle of Life," "Souviners," "Well Funded," "Art Collector," "In Good Conscience," "Empire in Chaos," "Songs of Serkanos," & "Royal Spymaster"
- Does difficulty affect achievements: No
- Unobtainable/glitched achievements:None
- Extra equipment needed: None
Introduction:
Fifteen years have passed since the assassination of Empress Jessamine Kaldwin and conspiracies of a coup are on the rise in Dunwall. When Delilah Copperspoon, a long-forgotten, mystic figure, appears at Jessamine's ceremonial anniversary, the action immediately unfolds; it is here, inside the throne room of Dunwall Tower, where you are given a unique choice to play the game as Empress Emily Kaldwin, or the Royal Protector Corvo Attano. Dishonored 2 is a single-player stealth-action title that boasts a twelve to fourteen hour narrative (depending on playstyle) that spans nine missions. The game also offers fifty achievements that cover varying degrees of lethality-based tasks, smaller mission-specific feats, and the obtainment of four different collectible sets. There are eight story-related achievements, and then one game-completion achievement based on the character you choose during the opening of the first mission. Thereon, there are twelve missable achievements, while the rest of the tasks can mopped up via Mission Select if you miss them your first or second time around. Two full playthroughs of differing playstyles and thirty-five or more hours will see everything Dishonored 2 has to offer complete.
Playthrough #1 - Emily, Low Chaos (No Powers + No Kills + No Alerts):
The first playthrough of the game should aim to stack all of the non-lethal achievements, thus making it a longer, more involved experience. It may sound difficult, but it's very rewarding and manageable, and it's only logical they all be done at once. So, during the opening of the game, choose to play as Emily Kaldwin. There are eight story-related achievements you will unlock naturally as you progress through the narrative, and a ninth, "The Empress," for completing the game as Emily. After completing the first mission of the game and awaking aboard the Dreadful Wale, make a manual save and refer below to the "Note of Importance" section of the roadmap; after reverting back to your save file, continue on until you meet The Outsider and choose to refuse his mark/gift. Completing the game with no supernatural powers will prove challenging, but it will yield "Flesh and Steel" in the long run. Playing stealthily, you will want to remain completely undetected from mission to mission and refrain from killing anyone including key targets. There is no chapter select/replay feature, so save often in case you mess up! Completing a single mission without getting spotted and without any kills yields "Ghostly" and "Alternative Approach" respectively, while completing the entire game in this fashion unlocks "Shadow" and "Clean Hands." By game's end, you will also unlock "In Good Conscience," which is earned for completing the game in Low Chaos.
While this playthrough will not involve itself too much with mission-specific tasks that conflict with a non-lethal playstyle, there are still a few additional achievements worth hunting down. These are "Freedom of Speech" in Mission 1, "Counter-serum" in Mission 3, "Howlers 'til the End" and "Eureka" in Mission 6, "Under the Table" and "Flooded Basement" and "Dilapidation" in Mission 7, "Gazebo" in Mission 9, and "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" in Mission 1 and Mission 9. In addition to this batch of achievements, there are three neutral miscellaneous tasks worth going for; one task is for robbing a Black Market shop, which unlocks "Black Market Burglar;" the second task requires you to find all three musical duos around the city for "Songs of Serkanos;" the third, "Years Ago, Another Time," can be obtained by speaking with Meagan Foster aboard the Dreadful Wale before returning to Dunwall for Mission 9.
Note of Importance for Playthrough #1:
It's important to note why this roadmap recommends "Flesh and Steel" with Emily as opposed to Corvo. Firstly, each character has a power-related achievement; Corvo has "Circle of Life" and Emily has "The Lovers." The earliest you can obtain Corvo's achievement is on Mission 5 and you will need thirteen Runes to unlock the necessary skill upgrades. On the other hand, Emily's can be done on the first group of enemies on Mission 2 and only requires four Runes. This means that when you awake aboard the Dreadful Wale after Mission 1, make a manual save. Now carry on through the Void and accept The Outsider's mark. Continue onward to Mission 2, work on "The Lovers," and then reload your save so you can carry on with the playthrough, rejecting The Outsider's mark for "Flesh and Steel." If a "No Powers" run was done with Corvo instead, you would need to complete half of a third playthrough, which is wasted time and effort.
Playthrough #2 - Corvo, High Chaos (Miscellaneous Mop Up + Collectibles):
With a bulk of the game's stealth-related achievements done, this second playthrough can focus on a lethal approach while playing as Corvo. With that said, choose to play as Corvo during the opening of the game. So long as you are completing your mission objectives lethally and receiving High Chaos ratings for each mission, you will unlock "Empire in Chaos" upon finishing the narrative. Naturally, you will also earn "The Royal Protector" for completing the game as Corvo Attano. There a number of mission-specific achievements to mop-up on this playthrough, too. These are "Morbid Theft" and "Stay of Execution" in Mission 2, "Fearless Fall" in Mission 3, "Silence" and "Clockwork Collector" in Mission 4, "Place of Three Deaths" in Mission 4 and Mission 6, "Oracular Echoes" in Mission 5, and "Faithful to the Abbey" in Mission 6.
At this point, all that remains are nine miscellaneous tasks and the four collectible-based achievements. For the former, you will need to craft ten Bonecharms for "Occult Carver," kill six enemies in under a second and a half for "Heartbeat Ripper," kill an enemy with their own bullet for "Fatal Redirection," and use a single cast of Possession to chain between five different hosts for "Circle of Life." There are also achievements for using the Heart to listen to forty people's secrets, destroying three Clockwork Soldiers and collecting their plates, eliminating twenty unaware enemies, performing ten Drop Assassinations, and obtaining a headshot while sliding. As far as the collectibles go, all four sets are highly missable. This includes collecting all ten souvenir items for "Souvenir," obtaining at least 18,000 coin over the course of your playthrough for "Well Funded," finding all twenty-seven paintings for "Art Collector," and grabbing every journal and audiograph during each visit back to the Dreadful Wale for "Royal Spymaster."
Conclusion:
Dishonored 2 excels in many departments, chiefly its world design, gameplay mechanics, and creative achievement list. It's a game that is sure to suck you in for hours, begging you to explore its atmospheric locales around Karnaca, the jewel city of the south. With two playable protagonists, you will want to undergo a minimum of two playthroughs in order to experience the different endings depending on chaos level and unlock all fifty achievements in the game. Despite a slightly weak narrative compared to its predecessor, Dishonored 2 is one title worth your attention this year.
[XBA would like to thank BiggD for this Roadmap]