Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall is story DLC for the first Dishonored, not the base campaign, The Brigmore Witches, or Dishonored 2. You play as Daud, with his own supernatural tools, assassin support, mission spaces, and consequences. This guide stays spoiler-light: it focuses on how to think, move, and plan without giving exact target solutions, rune routes, bone charm locations, endings, or achievement steps.
Content note: this is a mature-rated Dishonored release with violent stealth action, dark environments, strong language, and adult dialogue themes. The advice below keeps that context non-graphic and gameplay-focused.
Essential Tips
1. Play Like a New Character, Not Corvo With a Different Voice
Daud shares Dishonored’s stealth DNA, but The Knife of Dunwall gives him different priorities. He has assassin allies, a modified mobility style, his own gadgets, and a story built around investigation and consequence. If you enter expecting the exact rhythm of Corvo’s campaign, you may overlook tools made specifically for Daud.
2. Scout Before Spending Resources
Every mission is easier when you spend the first few minutes watching patrols, entrances, security devices, rooftops, windows, and neutral spaces. Daud has strong options, but the best option is usually the one that avoids turning a quiet room into a full alarm.
3. Treat Information as Progress
The DLC is not only about reaching a target. Conversations, documents, character placement, and environmental details can point toward safer approaches. Before you force a locked-down path, look for a way to learn more about the mission space.
4. Keep a Low-Noise Default
Even if you are not chasing a perfect stealth run, quiet habits make the DLC more forgiving. Close distance carefully, hide bodies when appropriate, move above sightlines, and avoid using loud tools just because they solve the immediate guard problem.
5. Decide Your Chaos Intent Early
The DLC reacts to overall approach. Pick a direction for the run before the first mission settles in: careful low-chaos play, messier high-chaos experimentation, or a casual first pass. Mixing styles without a plan can leave you with the disadvantages of both.
Read Each Mission Before Acting
The Knife of Dunwall’s missions are dense, vertical, and loaded with alternate angles. Your first job in any new district is to build a mental map: where the objective sits, where guards cluster, where civilians or neutral characters are, where machinery blocks movement, and where high ground gives you a cleaner view.
Do not rush straight to the marker. Markers tell you where the plot wants you to care; they do not tell you where the quiet route begins. A side entrance, upper window, dock approach, chain, pipe, or balcony may be the difference between one clean bypass and a room-by-room brawl.
Observation also helps with moral and mechanical choices. The DLC often gives you more than one way to resolve a problem, and some choices create more collateral damage than others. If you are keeping chaos low, pause before helping a plan that sounds destructive. If you are playing aggressively, still check whether a quieter setup gives you a better position before combat starts.
When you find a new named character, unusual device, or optional interaction, make a mental note and keep scouting. The most useful piece of information is often not next to the objective marker. The DLC rewards patience because its districts are built for routes, not hallways.
Use Daud’s Powers With Intent
Daud’s version of Blink is your core movement discipline. Use it to cross gaps, leave sightlines, reach high ground, and break pursuit. The important habit is aiming before committing. A sloppy teleport into eye level can be worse than walking, while a careful one can skip an entire patrol pattern.
Void Gaze is your reminder to look beyond guards. It can point you toward runes and bone charms, but the safer habit is to treat it as part of a scouting loop: enter a room, listen, check patrols, use Void Gaze, then decide whether the reward is worth the risk. Do not chase every shine immediately if it pulls you through a crowded space.
Summon Assassin is powerful, but it changes the feel of a situation. Use it when you actually want help controlling pressure or drawing attention, not as a reflex in every uncertain room. If your goal is clean stealth, any ally who creates a fight can complicate the state of the level. If your goal is survival in a loud encounter, the same power can buy breathing room.
Time-related mobility is strongest when you use it to create space rather than to show off. Rescue situations, risky crossings, and escapes from bad angles all benefit from powers that let you reposition. Save enough mana and supplies for recovery; a perfect plan that leaves you dry halfway through a mission is not a perfect plan.
Tools, Favors, and Allies
Daud’s kit includes tools that solve different problems. Chokedust is for disruption and escape windows. Arc mines and stun mines are for controlled traps. The wristbow gives ranged options. The blade is your last-resort close tool. The right question is not “What can kill this enemy?” but “What tool creates the least future trouble?”
Before a mission fully opens, check available favors and think about your route. Favors are not just bonuses; they can shift the starting conditions or reduce risk in a specific area. If you are planning to continue into The Brigmore Witches from an imported save, coins and purchases deserve more thought than they would in a one-off DLC run.
Allies matter because Daud is not operating like a lone outsider. The Whalers can be part of the fiction and the tactics, but you should still control the pace yourself. Let support solve pressure when you choose it. Do not let the presence of allies convince you to stop scouting, stop saving, or stop thinking about chaos.
For a first playthrough, avoid trying to optimize every collectible, favor, achievement, and outcome at once. Learn the mission flow first. The DLC is short enough that a second pass with a clear goal will usually feel cleaner than a first pass overloaded with checklists.
Chaos and Mission Habits
Low chaos is less about one dramatic decision and more about repeated restraint. Avoid unnecessary kills, keep alerts down, watch where unconscious bodies land, and think carefully before triggering events that cause widespread harm. The game is built to allow powers, tools, and stealth to coexist, so you do not need to play powerless to play carefully.
High chaos can be satisfying, but it is still better when planned. If you choose combat, choose the arena. Fight from height, funnel enemies, prepare traps, and keep an exit. Daud is dangerous, but crowded rooms can still punish panic.
Manual saves are part of good mission craft. Save before committing to a major infiltration, after a clean section, and before testing an unclear choice. Use reloads to learn, not to erase every imperfect moment. A little friction is part of Dishonored, but a preventable chaos spiral can sour an entire run.
Most importantly, separate your first-play curiosity from completion goals. The DLC includes low-chaos, high-chaos, no-alert, no-kill, favor, and special-action categories for players who want them. Those goals are easier when you dedicate a run to them instead of discovering halfway through that your casual choices already broke the plan.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
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Do not sprint to the objective marker - Scout side paths, high ground, and alternate entrances before committing.
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Do not spend powers just because mana is available - Keep enough resources for escapes, rescues, and mistakes.
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Do not treat Summon Assassin as a stealth button - Call support only when the attention it creates fits your plan.
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Do not ignore favors before a mission - Check whether a favor changes the route or risk profile you are about to take.
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Do not chase every rune or bone charm immediately - Finish scouting before entering a dangerous pocket for a reward.
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Do not mix low-chaos and loud combat habits casually - Choose the run style you actually want before the mission snowballs.
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Do not leave bodies in patrol paths - Move unconscious or dead enemies out of sight when your route depends on quiet.
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Do not assume this DLC teaches The Brigmore Witches exactly - Treat it as the first half of Daud’s arc, with carryover considerations but its own mission rhythm.
Summary
| Category | Top Tip |
|---|---|
| Scope | Treat this as Daud’s Dishonored story DLC, not a base-campaign or Dishonored 2 guide |
| Stealth | Scout vertically before following the objective marker |
| Powers | Use Blink and Void Gaze to plan routes, not just react to danger |
| Allies | Summon support when you want pressure shifted, not when you need pure stealth |
| Tools | Match gadgets to outcomes: disruption, traps, ranged control, or escape |
| Chaos | Pick low-chaos or high-chaos intent early and play consistently |
| Favors | Review mission favors before committing to a route |
| Carryover | Think about coins and save import if you plan to continue into The Brigmore Witches |
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5 checked for this guideEvery factual claim in this guide was checked against at least two independent sources before publication. These are the references used for Dishonored: The Knife of Dunwall.
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