Dishonored M09: Death to the Empress - Dunwall Streets, Dunwall Tower

Dishonored 2 draws to a conclusion with one last infiltration and elimination. Death to the Empress!

Key items and objectives

• Eliminate Deliliah Copperspoon
• Captain’s Quarters (special action)
• Avenging Jessamine (special action)
• Black Market Heist (special action)
• In the Coven’s Wake (special action)
• Heart of the Tower (special action)
• World As It Should Be (special action)
• Saving Your Father/Saving Your Daughter (special action)
• Your Daughter Is Safe/Your Father Is Safe (special action)
• Painting: Luca, His Eyes Upon Me
• Blueprint: Dual-layered Galvani Weave
• Blueprint: Counter-blast Inversion
• Bonecharm x 9
• Rune x 5
• Outsider shrine x 1

General layout and tips

This mission takes place over five different areas (six if you include the Dreadful Wale), but they're all quite small and I'm very tired so we're doing it on one page.

We kick off at the far end of Dunwall Streets - the same map as in the first mission - and progresses through the Dunwall Tower Surrounds to the Dunwall Tower Interior, Tower Rooftop and finally Delilah's Painting. Note that you can move freely between all areas right up until the final elimination is completed.

The main objective is to eliminate Delilah Copperspoon, self-styled Empress Delilah Kaldwin. The path is largely linear, but inside the tower there's a secondary, mandatory objective to power an elevator, and the option to prepare a non-lethal elimination.

Special actions Captain's Quarters and Avenging Jessamime must be completed while aboard the Dreadful Wale.

Black Market Heist is completed in Dunwall Streets; collect and use the final blueprints before you tackle it. I wasn't able to find In the Coven’s Wake but I suspect it's somewhere in Dunwall Streets also. Heart of the Tower is completed in Dunwall Tower Interior. The World As It Should Be is awarded for the non-lethal elimination.

There are four special actions related to your ending that are character dependent and mutually exclusive: Saving Your Father/Saving Your Daughter is awarded if you unfreeze the other character, while Your Daughter Is Safe/Your Father Is Safe occurs if you faff everything up.

There are two blueprints and one painting to collect. You'll find nine bonecharms, five runes and an Outsider shrine across all areas. Note that two of the bonecharms and one blueprint in this mission are found on the Dreadful Wale.

Walkthrough

Make your usual tour of the Dreadful Wale. There are coins and ammo around the place, and upstairs you’ll find Document: Letter to Billie Lurk. Go out on deck and pickpocket Meagan, then return to the briefing room to take two bonecharms from her locked cabin and read Book: Meagan Foster’s Notebook and Audiograph: Daud on Delilah. These items give you the final piece of the puzzle that is Meagan.

In the workroom behind the briefing room collect the Umberwood Bloodfly Statue and Blueprint: Dual-layered Galvani Weave. Fire up Audiograph: Life on the Sea. Speak to Sokolov for his briefing, then return to deck to speak to Meagan for hers. You make a dialogue choice in Meagan’s briefing. Both of your allies have extra dialogue afterwards, if you fancy a chat.

When you’re ready to start the final mission, interact with the skiff. You’re on your own this time.

Dunwall Streets

Dunwall’s in a state, innit. There’s barbed wire everywhere, which makes navigation tricky.

Stay high as you make your initial exploration - there are two hounds in the street. Kill them to save trouble. Head down to the docks behind the pub and search the boat for two pieces of raw whalebone, Document: Dunwall Tower, Document: Grim Tidings from the Capital of the Empire! and loads of minor loot items.

Sneak into the pub the back way, collecting Document: Citizens Report Troubling Events in the beer garden. Upstairs you’ll find The Black Pony is now a Black Market Shop. As usual, buy upgrades only - we’ll steal the rest just before we leave this area.

A haunting song rings out as you move into the street. Hug the right wall as you leave the pub to open the gate and reach a higher area. Clear out some minor loot, then climb up on the pipes to reach the nearby balcony. Move onto the second balcony and go inside: what you see here depends on whether you saved the journalist in the first mission and you chaos rating. I was able to speak to the journalist (no alert this time) and collect Document: Empress and Royal Protector Exonerated! Victims of Clever Conspiracies!, and heaps of minor loot including gold ingots in a cabinet.

Go down the stairs to the bottom floor and exit into the alley. Just on your right as you come out is a shelf with a lamp. Move the bottles to grab the Common Key. Go through the barricade and speak to the civilian for some intel. Clear the minor loot around him.

Return to the docks side of the checkpoint via the Dunwall Courer building and cross over the checkpoint to the high area on the other side, by Boyle’s. Two Hatters are having a chat; get above their barricade and wait for them to split up, then off them. Climb on the red structure against one wall and then up the pipes to a window - beware the three Hatters inside. One Hatter staring straight out. Another Hatter is asleep on the bed, and one more Hatter is busy in the room beyond. The first Hatter will eventually patrol away giving you a great Domino opportunity if that’s your jam. Loot the room for some raw whalebone.

Sneak around back of Boyle’s and up the stairs. Open the door and go ambush the Hatter with his back to you while two hatters chat downstairs. Clear the upper floor of minor loot including a gold ingot. In the stairwell you can find Document: Letter from Boyle Accounting Service and some more minor loot. Keep moving and clearing items; you shouldn’t meet anybody until the Hatter in the safe room. Exit the back rooms and activate the grandfather clock on your left, then zip over the counter to lurk on the stairs as the Hatter downstairs comes to investigate. Punish her curiosity suitably.

Go out onto the street and get high as you move along looking for the one hound who is alive, as opposed to the multiple corpses. Once found, change his situation. Continue up the street. Looks like the overseers set up base in the robbed apartment on your left, but there’s only some minor loot left in their wake. Dr Galvani’s, the apartment on the other side, is a different story. Stand to one side as you open the door - a trap inside fires two incendiary bolts. Grab Blueprint: Counter-blast Inversion from the table in the lab, take some minor loot, and open the safe with the same combination as last time - it’s still written in the painting frame. Read Book: Dr Galvani’s Journal inside.

That’s it for ground level - now we take to the rooftops. Climb up into the collapsed apartment building frontage and make your way up, being very stealthy - a couple of floors up, a witch is waiting. Get behind her by zipping up from one floor down for an ambush. You can’t seem to get any higher in this building so cross the beams to the other side. Drop onto the balcony; there are two hatters in here you’ll need to deal with before you can take up their search. Read Book: Last Entry in a Sailor’s Diary, then check out the suspiciously blank wall. Twiddle the barometer on it to open a path to the Outsider shrine with two runes beyond. Don’t miss the silver ingots as you loot the area.

Oh no, we’re not done. Go out on the balcony and go right, as if you wanted to cross back to the other house via the beams, but go around the corner instead. Climb the vents, pipes and rooftops to the safe room door. There’s a witch up here but, puzzlingly, she burnt to death opening a door as I approached. Your mileage may vary. Go inside the secret passage to grab the black bonecharm from a nest up high, Document: Block the Secret Passage and some minor loot.

Black Market Heist

Armed with all the money and blueprints we can get, let’s go visit the Black Market Shop one last time, then rob it. Buy the last few upgrades and exit out the back door. Go downstairs and unlock the warehouse, loot it, then climb up through a hole in the ceiling above. Knock out the shopkeeper and help yourself to whatever you fancy - the City Watch Armory Key and the rune, obviously.

Head back to the gate to Dunwall Tower but don’t go through - unlock the armory nearby for Document: Gate Defense Orders, some raw whalebone, and a stack of ammo.

Now you have two choices to enter Dunwall Tower. You can stride merrily in the front door as indicated by the waypoint, or you can take the door to Coldridge Canal. It's much of a muchness to be honest, but the canal is cooler 'cause it's like you're being really sneaky.

Coldridge Canal

Make your way forward to the first weir, and climb up the obvious path on the right. Follow the ledges around and up until you reach the walls of Dunwall Tower. Pop over and hang a right, away from the gravehounds and witches on the left.

Look for a little opening part way up the wall here, near some pipes. Sneak up to it to see four witches making paint for Delilah. There’s a bonecharm in this room if you can get past them; they stay busy, repeating their charm non-stop, so you can just walk over and take it - but it’s a great place for Slow Time or Domino, isn’t it.

Go back out the window you used to get in and climb onto the greenhouse roof. Survey the scene below until you see a single wolfhound skull. Snipe it and, with any luck, nobody will notice - the large groups of enemies on either side seem to be too far away. Head in the same direction as the gravehound skull was until you reach the wall. Hop over it and land just on the other side, then hug it and follow it along until you reach some stairs, which lead up to the gazebo. Enter and inspect the memorial.

Look over the edge, away from where you’ve been, to spot three gravehound skulls far below. Snipe them, then drop down to that level to collect Painting: Luca, His Eyes Upon Me. Peek over the wall right by the painting to spot some pipes. Climb on and sneak all the way around the large building till the pipes stop, then use dark vision (or your ears) to find an opening in the patrol of the two witches above. Knock them out and loot them for Document: The Waterlock. Then grab the bonecharm in the bucket nearby.

Return to the gazebo. If you like, take a side trip to sneak down closer to the many witches between you and the waterlock (the building we just visited) to grab some raw whalebone from some shelves. Otherwise or afterwards, continue to skirt the exterior wall, heading clockwise. You’ll come to a witch on some wooden ramps; take her out. Open the door carefully and eavesdrop on two witches - you can zip up to the pipes on the left wall to watch for an ambush opening. Climb up onto the walkway and search along the wall for an opening by some vertical pipes where you can drop below it. Collect Book: Sewer and Pump Room Inspection and also the rune.

That’s everything of note in this area. You can keep searching around for minor loot but there are loads of witches and gravehounds; it’s not a good time. Why don’t we just leg it for the tower? Drop out the window of the pump room into a little creek, then sneak or far reach to the nearby door to Dunwall Tower Interior.

Dunwall Tower Interior

Go into stealth immediately, then move slightly left to eavesdrop on two witches who give you a useful clue. They’re pretty oblivious once they stop talking, but I'd take them out anyway; it's gets nasty down here later. Head in the other direction and grab some raw whalebone and elixirs, should you need them, then take Document: Note from Delilah from the elevator door. Return to the first room and climb the debris to the overseer’s chapel beyond.

Snipe the gravehound skull then take two bonecharms from the strung-up body of the high overseer. Take a little side trip by zipping up the light fixtures to enter the room overlooking the chapel - the Royal Protector’s Chambers. You can collect the Pandyssian Coast loot item here, but there’s no other reason to visit except to see one of Emily’s childhood paintings and unlock the special action Heart of the Tower.

Return to the overseer's chapel ground level and make your way past the statue of Delilah in back. Don’t talk to it - it alerts her to your presence, which makes your final confrontation much harder. Just walk past and climb the debris behind it to get to the next room.

Turn right and open the scullery door, being careful of the two witches inside - one is looking almost directly at the door. You can zip up to the pipes above her while the two chat; they then separate after a few moments, making them easy to ambush. Use the plank across the dumbwaiter shaft to cross into the kitchen.

In the corridor beyond the kitchen two witches are discussing a clockwork soldier. Dealing with this trio is tricky, because the clanker will spot the bodies of the two witches, who always hang out together. It’s best to move a little further along the kitchen area into a workroom and stun mine the clockwork soldier first. The witches don’t aggro, so you can just ignore them if you like, but again, to make life easier later I recommend knocking 'em down. Keep going on down the corridor the clanker was patrolling and turn right. Follow this path all the way to the security room.

Use the whale oil tank dispenser to get an empty tank and place it in the fueling station. Pull the lever, then place the tank in the empty slow to power the lift. This will bring two witches in to have a look, so zip up onto the pipes where you can grab a rune and watch them. They’re not very bright, and my top tip is to zip back up to the pipes with the first body so if the second one does wander over, she won’t see it.

Leave the security room and hang a right. Open the first door on your left to find a bathroom. Loot Document: Invitation From Her Majesty Delilah Kaldwin from the body. Open the next door, at the end of the corridor, and proceed through the next area to enter the chapel. Close the doors behind you, just in case. Activate Audiograph: Successful Prototype! (oh oh) and collect Document: Delilah on Rune Harmony. This allows you to pick up some vital items from the room - dried algae, pigment and human bone. Place all three on the altar and then collect the corrupt rune item they transpose into.

Exit the chapel and turn left so you end up behind some stairs. Zip up to the landing, then turn around to zip up again behind you to the next level. A witch to your right (the leafy end) will almost certainly spot you, so drop down one level before she becomes hostile, then zip back up when she gives up and goes away to ambush her from behind. Sneak around to the leafy end of the corridor and dispatch the two gravehounds beyond - shoot them once to drop them, then shoot the skulls to kill them for good. Enter the room at this corner and dispatch the witch to take a bonecharm and read Book: Marykate’s Diary. In the other small room on this side, you can collect Audiograph: On Audiograph Recorders.

There are three witches and a clockwork soldier between you and your next goal, but you can easily avoid them all. Getting up high is your best friend - those light fixtures are perfect. Make your way around to the corridor where the clockwork soldier is patrolling and the light fixture near the small connecting passage the two corridors on this side of the stairwell. Search along the ceiling of this passage to spot a little ledge. Zip over and enter the hidden room on your right. Chat with the civilian inside and grab the bonecharm and a stack of minor loot. Then just zip up and drop out the other side of the ledge, near the statue of Delilah - again, don’t talk to it.

The easiest way back to the elevator is to zip down the stairs and take the corridor right around past the security room entrance to the scullery. Go down into the cellar and follow the watery path to a door leading back to the overseer’s chapel. Many more witches will have come into the area in response to the elevator humming back into life, but you can just wait till the one at ground level patrols away, then zip over and climb the debris to be back in the starting corridor, where you’re safe.

When you’re ready, call the elevator and then immediately zip up to the ledge above the door - there’s a gravehound in the elevator! Just make your way up the elevator shaft by climbing the platforms and leave him to it, hey. You can hop out at level two and three for a breather but there’s nothing in these sad, sealed rooms. At level four, climb out, take a deep breath, and open the tower rooftop door.

Dunwall Tower Rooftop

There are two witches on the towertop, gazing off the exterior walls on either side of the starting area, but both will totally ignore you if you’re quiet. Approach the building ahead and bash the boards to open a path into the throne room, where you see Delilah in one of two states:

• If you spoke to any of Delilah’s statues in this mission she’s alert and has two gravehounds with her. You’ll have to snipe them out then try to use the heart on Delilah before she can beat you up.
• If you stayed quiet, Delilah’s so busy painting you can sneak right up and smack her with the heart before she knows what’s what.

If Delilah is oblivious to you, or after you've used the heart on her, you can go explore the rest of the tower. There are three gravehounds up here, in Emily’s study, bedroom and bathroom - easily dealt with by zipping onto the light fixtures before sniping. If you go into the safe room you can grab a bunch of loot and Book: Ramsey’s Improvised Diary (assuming you didn’t just murder him in the first mission).

Anyway, after using the heart on Delilah and exploring a bit, place your corrupt rune on the throne and collect Book: Delilah’s Diary from right beside the painting. Approach and interact with the painting to enter it.

Delilah's Painting: Eliminate Delilah Copperspoon

Delilah seems pretty oblivious to you, but her confidence is due to sentries posted around the arena. You need to find and deal with these duplicate Delilahs before you can approach her safely; otherwise it becomes a bit of a fracas in here. From your starting position between groups of statues facing inwards, look around to locate groups of statues facing Delilah; you must sneak up behind each group in turn and take out the Delilah duplicate in each one.

Start by zipping to the balcony on the right to grab the first duplicate. Then move around the structure right by that first target to find the second duplicate on on a peak of void rock. Return to the starting position and zip up to the left balcony for the third duplicate.

The next two duplicates are really hard to get without being spotted, and unfortunately neither sleep dart nor Domino work on them. Stand somewhere out of the throne’s line of sight and ping them with a crossbow, then run away. The duplicate will come search precisely where you shot from (they’re not as stupid as most AI). Note that they can find each other's bodies. The fourth duplicate is at ground level between the third duplicate's position and the throne, and the fifth duplicate is in a similar position but on the other side.

The sixth duplicate is the one on the throne. I couldn’t find any way to get her off the throne, or choke her on the throne, without an alert - but you can still do yourself a favour and ping her from a distance then zip away so she loses you, which makes it very easy to get in behind her and hit her with a choke.

As soon as the last duplicate is down, zip away and hide. The real Delilah appears in the centre of the arena, summoning dust wind and briarwoods, but in a non-alert state as long as she doesn’t see you as she teleports in. This makes it easy to get around her for a choke, but if combat does kick off, shoot her once with your pistol then quickly approach for a lethal or non-lethal finishing move when she falls down.

If you’re chasing the non-lethal ending, grab her unconscious body and sneak past the briarwoods to exit the painting with it. Place her on the throne in the real world to seal her fate.

That's it! The game is over. Well done you.