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Dishonored 2 walkthrough level 8: The Grand Palace

Jeffrey Parkin (he/him) has been writing video game guides for Polygon for almost seven years. He has learned to love just about every genre of game that exists.

Table of contents


Aboard the Dreadful Wale

In town

The Royal Palace

Aboard the Dreadful Wale


Once again, there's nothing to fix on the ship and very little to pick up. Run your normal sweep for anything left laying around, then head onto the deck for your briefing.

This big difference now is that you've got a new coconspirator (assuming you followed this guide, and Stilton isn't dead or insane).

In town


When you're ready, head into town on the skiff. Climb up the stairs all the way to the main streets. On the way, you'll pass a couple of workers hanging out near a boat — this is the black market delivery boat. There's nothing to do with them right now, but you'll find the key to their boat in a minute if you want to come back here and rob them. Continue along the path. When you come to the checkpoint barricade, turn right, then follow the alley on your left.

You'll pass a talkative beggar who will tell you about the Outsider Shrine if you give him some money. Continue up the stairs.

The art studio/apartment and the safe shop

Before you go into the hallway, Far Reach up onto the ledge above you and to your left, then up to the pipe. There's an art studio/apartment you can get into here (and there's a black bonecharm in the vice to your left). Continue through the apartment and onto the balcony.

This balcony overlooks your next destination, the safe shop. There are a few guards patrolling out front, but you can Far Reach right past them into the shop. Crouch before you go too far because there's a guard upstairs threatening the shopkeeper who will hear you. If you rush, you can pick up everything you need here before he gets done and comes downstairs. Otherwise, wait him out — he'll go and stand out front with his back to you. If you do wait for the conversation to be done, wait a little longer for the shopkeeper to go back upstairs. He doesn't like you looting his shop while he's standing right there. There are three things to pick up in the shop — the apartment seizure note from the front counter, the apartment key from the cash register and the gate code note from a counter in the back left. (The apartment seizure note tells you how you're going to get past the wall of light without much trouble.)

When you've got everything, head back outside. Sneak toward the guard, then turn left immediately to find an alley. At the end, you'll find the gate you just picked up the code to. Enter it, and continue on.

This is the back door to the black market. Sadly, we don't have the password yet — we'll point it out when we get there if you want it. What you can do here is swipe the Delivery Boat key from the woman arguing with the shopkeeper.

Continue along the way you were going and climb up on the rocks to the grassy area the beggar told you about. Turn left, then watch for a boarded up cave on your right. Smash your way inside to find the Outsider Shrine.

Head back outside and continue to the right. You're going to come to a courtyard — and the front door of the black market is down there on your left. However, this courtyard is another Howler trap. There are two on the balcony to your left, there's one in the second floor apartment in the opposite corner from you, there's one in a first floor doorway about halfway down the far side and there's a fifth one inside the black market. Domino the two on the left, then cross the courtyard on the rock ledge. Pick up at the least the one on the ground, then knock them out. Sneak up to the apartment on the second floor and sleep dart the one inside or Far Reach past him and choke him out.

The one in the black market is trickier — your best bet is to either lure him outside or sneak up to the door in and sleep dart him immediately. Stock up on whatever you need — focus on upgrades if you want to come back and rob the place because we'll pick up the password to the back door momentarily.

Back outside, follow the arcade on the far side of the courtyard (underneath where the Howler was hiding in the apartment) around to the right. Watch for a tripwire on the stairs at the end and then go up them. There's a boarded up door at the top that you can smash through.

The apartment at the end of the hall ahead of you has a guard and an audiograph inside which has the password for the black market's back door on the recording.

The watchtower

Head back out to the balcony and Far Reach up to the watchtower. Pull out the whale oil to shut it down. (If you're looking for collectibles, go back to the stairwell and climb up a floor. Smash through the barricaded door and quietly clear the apartment of bloodflies and knock out the nest master. There's a painting in the back room and you can use the balcony to Far Reach down to the watchtower.)

Far Reach down to the pillars and fence posts. Keep using Far Reach to hop from pillar to pillar until you can get into the building immediately to the left of the wall of light. Close the door behind you to keep from being spotted.

Climb to the top floor to find the shopkeeper's apartment. Get the collectibles inside and loot the safe — you can find the combination in a photograph in the shopkeeper's office (which seems like a really foolish thing for a shopkeeper to do, if you ask us). Use one of the doors there to continue to the Grand Palace.

The Royal Palace


From the shopkeeper's apartment, drop down and start working your way toward the palace. There will be two guards on your left, hanging out behind some boxes. Either knock them out or just avoid them altogether.

Far Reach up to the carriage rails — they should be off per the note in the black market. Just keep running along until you get to the palace.

Finding the duke

There are a few places you could find the Duke and/or his body double. Instead of walking you through checking each of those areas — and risking being spotted — we're going to take the long way around, knocking out guards and civilians along the way, to a place that consistently lets you find who you're looking for without a ton of danger to you.

Use the large lamppost-chandelier-things to stay above the four guards and Domino them together. These are the only four guards out front, so once you knock them out, you're relatively safe out front here.

Don't bother going any further inside — the palace is full of guards and Clockwork Soldiers. Face the front, then turn left. Hop through the water fixture and climb onto the low wall on the other side. Turn to your right, and you'll see two civilians and a guard watching them. Inch forward until you can Domino all three. Far Reach behind the guard and knock them all out.

Continue a little was along the outside of the palace. You'll come to a pool on your right. There are two civilians chatting inside. Stay out of sight and Far Reach up onto the trellis above the door. Far Reach again up onto the high wall to your left. There are two civilians and a guard below you. You don't need to knock them all out, but getting them out of the way removes a lot of risk.

You're going to keep traveling along the outside of the building a little further. There are two more civilians you have to handle up the stairs on your left. Stay out of sight and Domino them, then either sleep dart them or knock one out when their backs are turned.

Facing the building now, head to the far left and crouch. There's an open window at the end. Climb inside on top of a bookcase. There's a poker game happening to your right, but it's not worth your time to fight.

Far Reach straight out of the room to the top of the stairs. Before you head down, keep going out onto the balcony. There are two more civilians out there who will see you through the window. Knock them out before they call for the guards.

Back inside

Head back inside and down the stairs, then knock out the civilian at the bottom. There's a bonecharm and two more civilians in the room to your left. Stay crouched and keep heading along the hallway to the end, then go through the doors on your left.

If you head down the stairs here, you'll be heading toward the secret entrance to the Duke's vault, but we don't have the key yet, so it's not worth the trip. Head up the stairs two floors and go through the doors at the top to find Delilah's chamber. (There's a painting right ahead of you when you go though — it's next to the piano, as we mentioned in the collectibles guide.)

Sneak forward and to the left. Chances are, there will be two elite guards and the Duke's lookalike inside the next room. Domino ONLY the elites and knock them out when the lookalike walks away — if he sees you (or the bodies), he'll freak out and be useless to you for a little while.

Once the guards are unconscious and stashed, find somewhere to hide and watch the lookalike. If he starts smoking, you can be sure that it's the lookalike and not the Duke. Hop down and walk right up to him. After some gentle persuasion, the two of you will come up with a nonlethal plan to handle the Duke. You've got some work to do, but he'll handle the cleanup.

Head back to the stairs and go up one more flight. Go through the doors ahead of you to find the Duke's chambers. The lookalike will be in the room to your right, but he won't bother you. There's a loft upstairs where the Duke is hanging out with an elite. You can use the stairs to sneak up on the elite and Far Reach up to the chandelier to get an angle on the Duke. Knock them both out.

Loot the vault key from the Duke's body, then pick him up. Carry him downstairs and place him in his bed. The lookalike handles it from here, calling in the guards to take away the "crazy lookalike."

Once the guards have cleared out, head back to the stairs once again. Take them all the way down. When you get back to where you first started on the stairs, but go down this time. Keep heading down into the Personnel Only basement.

Crouch when you start approaching the pantry — there are two guards on the left. Wait at the doorway and they'll walk right in front of you. Domino them and knock them out. There's a button in the shelves on the left side of the center aisle. Push it and head into the secret passage.

Inside, there's a couple of collectibles in the weird shrine room to the left and a blueprint on the table. Head to the back of the room and use the Duke's key to open the vault. You'll see Delilah's horcrux immediately ahead of you, but don't rush into the room just yet.

There's a Clockwork Soldier patrolling the room. Use the bookcases to stay out of sight and destroy it.

Walk up to the horcrux and let things play out. When you've collected Delilah's spirit, you're done here. There are several other collectibles you haven't passed, yet, so refer to the collectibles guide and remember to save often and stay crouched.

Don't go back through the pantry to leave. Use the staircase inside the horcrux chamber. You'll climb up to the next floor and find a secret door. Use the button to open it.

There's an arc pylon on the far side of the room. Sneak through the door slowly and turn right immediately. Power down the arc pylon as soon as you can. Far Reach up through the skylight and start working your way toward Meagan's HUD marker along the roofs.

Far Reach down to the stairs to find the dock. You'll have to swim the last bit to the skiff.


Navigation

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