The Dreadful Wale

After your encounter with the Outsider, you'll wake up in your bed on board the Dreadful Wale where you'll pick up your crossbow. Before you talk to Meagan, check every room, deck and quarters you can find. There are goodies in most of them and plenty of lore to pick up. The next section is an optional objective, so feel free to skip it if you're not interested.

Unblocking the Storage Room

Outside of your quarters, you'll find a note that offers you an optional objective. The optional objective is, of course, optional, but you'll pick up a few extra items and money on your trip, so it's arguably worth it.

Port and starboard

For the next couple sections, we're going to use port and starboard to refer to the left and right sides of the ship — mostly because they sound cooler and make us feel a little like pirates.

Here's the translation: When you face the bow/front/pointy bit of the ship, the port side is on your left ("port" has four letters, so does "left") and the starboard side is to your right (right has five letters and … we don't know, stars have five points? Does that help? BRB, Googling the origin of starboard).

Head above decks, and to the starboard side of the ship. Hop up onto the handrail, but not into the water. Turn toward the back/aft/butt of the ship and look along the side. You'll see an open hatch. Drop down and through that open hatch.

You'll find a hoard of boxes inside that you can crawl around on. Grab the rolls of copper wire — they're worth 15 coins each — and the Addermire solution. To the left of the door, there are a few incendiary bolts on a shelf. When you're done, smash the plank blocking the door and open it to complete the objective.

Briefing and trip to Karnaca

Talk to Meagan in the main room and then head to the deck and talk to her again to head into Karnaca. Before you leave the ship, make sure you grab the rune off the port side — detailed in our collectibles guide here.

Karnaca

Karnaca Docks

Meagan will deposit you on the docks of Karnaca. There are several collectibles right around here and several more spread throughout the level, so maybe just keep our collectibles guide open in another tab.

In your first real level of the game, you've got a lot of options for how to proceed. Finding the black market is optional, but, frankly, you'd be silly not to go and stock up on supplies. Your first real mission task is to get past the wall of light blocking access to the city — either by circumventing it by going through the infested building, or by turning it off. Your final task is to figure out how to get through Addermire Station — again, either by circumventing it, or by turning off the light wall inside and going through. The path you take to get there is up to you. And you have a lot of choices. We're going to lay them all out here, but the most direct path that still allows for stealth is to go through the infested building and then over Addermire Station. This path, though, completely ignores collectibles (have we mentioned the collectibles guide?) and the various optional objectives you'll find along the way. We're going to lay out all the major locations and leave it to you to string them together your way.

Black Market

From the dock where you start, head all the way to the left. Watch for the black market graffiti and head inside.

If you explore the first floor a bit before heading upstairs up to the market, you'll find an beggar. Give him a few coins and he'll tell you about a nearby bloodfly-infested building that people have been using to sneak past the wall of light.

Mindy Blanchard

You'll find the stairs up to the second floor on the righthand side of the building. When you get to the top — right before you get to the market itself — someone will call to you from outside. Climb out through the window and talk to Mindy Blanchard. She'll give you an optional objective — retrieving a body from the Overseer's building — that will allow you to go around Addermire Station at the end of the level.

Visiting the Black Market

Supporting your local independent small business owner can be a rewarding experience — also, you complete the optional objective just by showing up. Black markets are where you go to cash in on those blueprints you've found (or will be finding if you follow our collectibles guide) and to stock up on anything you don't find enough of while exploring the world. Some black markets, like this one, sell runes. Others, also like this one, sell maps to nearby locations. In other levels, black markets will sell keys to locked doors that will make your life (or your looting) much easier.

You also have the option to rob every black market you come across — and will get the creatively named Black Market Robber achievement for doing so the first time. This takes a lot more work than just buying the stuff, so you're really paying for the convenience — which is how we justify our GrubHub budget every month. The next section details how to rob this particular market. Before you rob a black market, though, make sure you purchase any upgrades you want — you can't steal those.

For our purposes in this early level, focus on buying the first upgrade to your bonecharms, increasing the number you can equip from five to seven. If you've got the money, buy the second upgrade as well, maxing out your bonecharms at ten. You only have two bonecharms at the moment, but you're going to end up with more than you know what to do with sooner rather than later. Collectible guide.

On the items side, we recommend buying the rune, the sunken treasure map (or you can just skip down to the sunken treasure section instead) and stocking up on sleep darts for your crossbow — but consider visiting the sunken treasure before you do to save yourself some coins. Sleep darts are the brute force approach to stealth and low chaos, so they come in very helpful when your options are limited. Dump any leftover money into Addermire or health elixirs.

Robbing the Black Market

To rob the black market, you'll need the aptly named Black Market Key. This can be retrieved from the top floor of the infested building nearby (see the Infested Building section below). Use this key to unlock the back door to the market and sneak in. Grab anything you want from the shelves in the back. After that, you can either very carefully rob the place from behind the shopkeeper's back or knock him out and loot without concern.

Sunken Treasure

One of the items you can buy (for 250 coins) or steal (for free) from this black market is a treasure map, complete with a red 'x' marking the spot. The "treasure" is relatively close, but don't expect to get money rich from it, just weapons rich.

Head back to the waterfront and out along the pier where the whale is being butchered. Turn to your right a little, then swim out toward the buoy near the carriage rail support. Dive down right next to the buoy to pick up a bunch of crossbow bolts, sleep darts and grenades.

Where to go next

From the black market, you have two choices. You can head to the wall of light to disable it, or you can pass through the Infested Building to avoid the wall of light.

Infested building

Exit the black market through the door to the right and head back outside. The bloodfly-infested building everyone's talking about is the one with the giant 'SEiZED' and 'CONDEMNED DUE TO iNFESTATION' banners. To get inside, head up the stairs then through the window with the body halfway out.

Let's take a moment to talk about bloodflies. In the various notes and books you've been finding — including the note on that guy that didn't quite make it out of the infested building — there's lots of information on how to deal with bloodflies. Here's the CliffsNotes: move slow, destroy the nest, fire helps.

Bloodflies are a deadly nuisance, but they're manageable. Whenever possible, you should try to take them out from a distance with fire. You can use your incendiary bolts to do this or any bottles you find that are labelled as 'flammable' (going to a bar must be a death-defying experience in Karnaca).

Explore and loot the rooms throughout the building as you work your way up. You'll go up two floors before you find the exit. Duck through the hole in the wall into the next building to find the exit to the Canal Square.

Black Market key

Just before the hole in the wall, you'll be in a room with a piano. To the left of the piano is a hallway blocked by a bookcase. Climb over the bookcase and go up the stairs. In the apartment at the top of the stairs, you'll encounter your first Nest Master. His scream will cause the bloodflies in the area to attack you at the same time he does. Knock him out (or kill him) and then destroy the nest.

There is a display case full of bloodflies on the right side of the apartment. Smash it open for a health elixir and the black market key.

Wall of Light

After exiting the Black Market, you can turn head straight up the road instead of turning left into the Infested Building. This will bring you to the wall of light and the Grand Guard checkpoint. For stealthiness, we recommend sticking to the balconies above the path.

It's a short walk to the checkpoint. When you arrive, there are two guards threatening a local right in front of the wall. After a lot of harsh words, the corrupt guards toss the man into the light wall, killing him. However, if you act fast, you can save his life and pick up the Stay of Execution achievement. We recommend Sleep Darts for this part because you don't have a lot of time to act. As you approach, dart the guard on the roof to the right — he doesn't do anything to the civilian, but he'll notice when things don't go as planned. Quickly turn your attention to the other two guards, darting the one on the left first (he's the one doing the threatening), then the one on the right. The civilian will take off and you can clean up the mess.

Head up to the windmill on the right. Hop up the ledge and throw the switch to turn off the wall and give you access to the Canal Square. You can either continue into the Square, or head into the apartment with the Outsider Shrine.

Outsider shrine

From the windmill where you turned off the power to the wall of light, turn toward the Canal Square. There's a path running from left to right in front of you. Just a little to the right of where you're standing, there's a hallway into an apartment building.

There are two Overseers inside "investigating." Pause before going up the stairs to let the Overseer finish yelling at the civilian, then sneak up behind him. Both Overseers in the apartment are preoccupied with their business, so you can knock them both out without trouble. Grab the bonecharm and runes (seamless plug for the collectibles guide) in the apartment and talk to your new friend, The Outsider.

When you're done, you can smash the white doors (next to the Overseer in the last image above) to come out onto a balcony above the Canal Square.

Upgrading your powers

At this point, you should have six or seven runes. We recommend using them to upgrade your Far Reach power. This power is the reason we recommend using Emily for a stealth play. If you don't have enough runes, just focus on adding the Pull Objects ability. This lets you pick up objects from across the room or from above, which is a great way to collect those items out in the open in front of the Overseer Building.

Canal Square

The Canal Square is where your disparate starting paths come back together before branching out again. Starting at the wall of light, the infested building balcony is above and to your left. The Outsider Shrine apartment balcony is above and to your right.

Where to go from here

You really only have two choices. You can head to the Overseer Offices on the right side of the canal — there are lots of collectibles to pick up and it's where you continue Mindy's side mission from the black market — or you can ignore that and keep heading toward Addermire Station.

Doctor's office

If you want to skip the Overseer Offices, there are technically two ways to get there. There's a road on the left that leads a little more directly to the station, but it's full of guards and it's really not worth your time. The best way to go and still maintain your sneakiness is to cut through an out-of-the-way office. Climb up onto the balcony by the infested building and head as far to the left of the door as you can. When you hit the fence, look for a lamppost in the square that you can Far Reach onto. From there, look to your left.

There's a balcony on the second floor that you can warp to. You can pass through the office to the other side of the building — and pick up a few useful items on the way. On the other side, you can stick to the balconies and awnings to avoid detection as you continue toward Addermire Station.

Overseer Offices

There's a lot going on in the Overseer Offices and, unsurprisingly, there are a lot of Overseers around and in it. There are also a lot of collectibles inside. From the Outsider Shrine apartment balcony, turn right and climb up to the roof. Turn left and head to the end of the building. From here you can jump or Far Reach onto third floor balcony. This will put you right in the Vice Overseer's office and is the best place to start exploring the building.

Knock out the Vice Overseer at his desk. There are two more Overseers in the room to your right. Crouch at the doorway and wait out their conversation. When they're done talking, one will leave and go into the chapel one more room over. When he's gone, sneak in and take them out one at a time. The third floor is now clear for you to plunder at will. The various literature you pick up will give you the clues you need to open the safe in the Vice Overseer's office — if you get confused, check the Mission Clues section of your options menu.

Up on the fourth floor, you'll find two more Overseers and the interrogation room where Mindy's body is being kept. Again, you have to wait out their conversation. Find somewhere to hide — right next to the locked interrogation room door works — and wait for the Overseer to walk past. Knock him out and stash him somewhere. Then you can sneak in and pickpocket, then knock out, the other one. Use the key to open the interrogation room. Alternately, you can just smash through the window and climb inside.

Carrying a dead body through the streets tends to raise some eyebrows, so delivering Mindy's prize is probably best done from the rooftops. There are no more guards between you and roof, so you can move pretty freely. There are two more Overseers up on the roof, though. Wait out of sight for the pacing one to have his back to you — if he's off to the left side, he'll see you coming from a long way off. Knock out both guards and you've got the run of the rooftops.

When you're moving around on the balconies outside of the Overseer Office, just watch for the guards posted there. They're not paying attention to the balconies — they're watching the people below — so they're easy to take out, but they'll notice you if you land next to them accidentally — say if you fall off of the roof.

Keep Far Reaching along the balconies to end of the row of buildings. Mindy is waiting for you in a cellar at the end. Keep an eye on the crowd below you before you hop down to the ground — there are a lot of guards nearby and the civilians will panic when they see you.

Dr. Hypathia's Apartment

The last (optional) point of interest is Dr. Hypathia's apartment. She lives above the safe store opposite the Addermire Station.

As usual, there are two ways in. You can Far Reach onto the balcony, or you can go in through the door. Warping to the balcony doesn't really require any planning. Just aim at the balcony and go inside.

The front door approach requires you go into the safe store. The area out front is heavily patrolled by guards, so it's probably best to find the back way in. Use the balconies and lampposts as best you can to get most of the way there, then Far Reach into the alley. Try to be quick in this process because the guards patrolling the roof of the station can spot you. The back door to the safe shop lets you in through the offices. You'll find a note back there and the key to the doctor's apartment. Take the key and head upstairs — if you want to get some good loot, grab the safe combination from the cash register out front and open the safe in the back of the sales floor before you go.

Loot everything you can from the doctor's office and then figure out how you want to approach Addermire Station.

Addermire Station

Around

While carrying a dead body around isn't the most honorable of pastimes, it does provide you with the easiest way to get to the level's exit. When you deliver the body from the Overseer Offices to Mindy, she informs you that her compatriots have turned off the third rail on the carriage line nearby. Conveniently for you, this line lets you bypass the Addermire Station building.

Hop up onto the carriage stop above Mindy's basement burial ground. Follow the tracks down, then take the right. This will lead you right to the carriage you'll be taking to the Addermire Institute. There are two guards standing around nearby when you exit, one on each side of the carriage. Use Far Reach to outmaneuver them and knock them out. Then, climb into the carriage and ride away.

Over

It's also possible to climb onto the roof of the Station. There are several guards up there patrolling. Try to take them out from the balconies across the street — like Dr. Hypathia's balcony — with sleep darts. Just try to time it carefully because if they fall when they're walking too close to the skylights, they'll crash through and fall to their deaths and that's less than ideal. Once you can move a little more freely, warp over to the roof and cross it to the back side. Drop down on the far side, handle the two guards and then you can catch your ride out of town.

Through

Pulling of this approach without being seen and without resorting to killing people is very, very difficult. First, you have to get through the front door. The best way to manage this is along the bridge on the left side of the station. There's a low window that will get you inside without needing to actually use the door. Once inside, keep to the right as you sneak up on the front desk.

There's an open window to the right of the front desk area that lets you into a back room. There are several guards back here taking a break, so you have to be careful they don't notice you. Far Reach through the window and remove the whale oil powering the wall of light. Sneak back out to the desk area and use every obstacle you can to avoid being spotted. The wall of light and the exit is to the right.