Part II- The Jindosh Lock, the Howlers, and the Abbey

Part II- The Jindosh Lock, the Howlers, and the Abbey

After your chat with Meagan, drop down into neutral territory, turn around, and use your sword to knock apart the barricade on the ground level door.

Open a locker here to find the first rune of the Dust District (Rune 1/5).

Go back outside, and veer right past the statue for a look at the Jindosh Lock, and its accompanying riddle. The riddle format should be familiar to anyone who's taken the SAT (and good practice for anyone who's about to).

There's an achievement for solving it here and now, but if you plan to explore the rest of the District, you'll find other chances at a solution, so budget your time accordingly. Assuming you don't intend to exit the level here, go back to statue plaza and look for an air conditioning unit with some blocks beneath it and an open window above it.

Use the former to reach the latter, and slip through an undistinguished apartment enter the Dust District proper. Blink across to the balcony opposite, and prepare for bloodflies.

Use your bottle (the one you picked up in the small room after the Wall, if you've been following this walkthrough)to take out the two hives near the stairs. Don't go up quite yet though- take out the Heart to pinpoint the rune behind you- the hive here has no blood amber, so decide what ratio of resources/health you want to spend getting past it, and grab the rune (Rune 2/5)

Go upstairs, noting the open window. Grab the flammable rum from the kitchen and then exit through this window, using the piping to reach the window across the alley.

This place is bit of a tough nut- there are a lot of hives, and two nest keepers, neither of whom can be choked out. The low ceiling also makes a good drop-stop extremely tricky. I recommend saving your sanity and just sleep-darting the nest-keepers. There are two spares further in the apartment (next to a fan in the surgery), and even if you're running low, there's a black market nearby.

The hives can then be slashed and/or burned at your leisure. Loot the near rooms for some coin and scrimshaw, and elixirs if you need them. The Heart will reveal a Shrine tantalizingly close, but it's not in this building. Instead, go to the balcony nearest the shrine, and Blink up to the awning above.

This leads to the upper level of the Crone's Head – a single Howler is on watch, though he's mainly just watching the wall. Pick his pockets before putting him on the sleepytime express.

Go down the stairs, and follow the Heart into Paolo's office. Note the giant chalk scrawl which indicates Paolo sometimes forgets where he is.

I suppose repeatedly turning into a swarm of rats after suffering fatal bodily damage might scramble the brains a bit. Hasn't done much for his complexion either.

Take the ratboy's own portrait (Painting 1/3), then then painting of Granny Rags he has in his bathroom-slash-unholy-shrine (Painting 2/3), which I guess is where you keep such things.

Finally, turn right and claim your Runes from Paolo's ersatz shrine (Runes 3 & 4/5).

Let the Outsider continue his passionate love affair with the sound of his own voice, before returning to the real.

Note: The musicians you need for the Songs of Serkonos achievement are playing in the courtyard below, but are in turn watched by Howlers, as well as Paolo himself.

Lurk on the nearby rooflet or Blink behind the screen to get your music appreciation quota and 1/3rd of the achievement. Be sure to do this before causing any ruckus which might make the musicians flee. When you're done here, go back and clear out the second level of Paolo's apartments. You'll find a guard at the door, a guard at a table on the balcony, and guard sleeping on a cot. All can be stashed safely out of sight in the nearby bathroom.

You might need a few tries to get the door shut, but it's important you do, because this area will soon be crawling with guards. In the room with the cot is a metal crate. Clear off all the coin and glassware up top, then open to reveal the Spiked Grenade Blueprints (Blueprint 1/2).

Behind the crate lies Paolo's bedroom and some choice lootables, including ingots in the trunk at the foot of his bed.

There's scrimshaw in the bathroom that you have break glass to get to, but the sound doesn't carry down to the ground floor. Note; There's also a bonecharm on this level off the balcony, in Durante's Room (you may have noticed the note on the door), but we can't get to it quite yet, so don't worry about it. Head the stairs inside Paolo's apartments, and through the kitchen, nicking some Tyvian Ore from the safe behind.

You can pickpocket the guard closest to the main entrance (sneaking along the lefthand alley), but when you're done return toward the plaza and turn right into a small alley dead-ended with a boiler. You can see something unsavory going on through a window at ground level, to your left.

Drop through the unbarred window and shadow-then-choke the lone howler (you may need to wait for him to finish his smoke). The tied up overseer doesn't count as a hostile observer here, even if you chat with him.

There are some blueprints for a Secondary Coiling on a small table (Blueprint 2/2) and a charm (Bonecharm 1/8) on the largest table, along with a bit of whalebone.

Some ammo and sundries in the blue crate, including a sleep dart. If you need incendiary bolts, exit through a hole in the wall behind the overseer, and smash the boards from the high window to loot the traps beyond (these can come in handy if you're running low after the bloodfly cull).

Either way, return to the alley with the boiler, then back to the second level balcony. Paolo should be hanging around toward the stairwell here- a good bottle throw will lure him up the stairs, but no one else (their lightning bolts might appear, but only Paolo actually investigates).

Choke him out and immediately retreat through the second floor windows- he's about to do that ratswarm thing again, and those buggers bite.

Paolo reincarnates on the third floor of his apartments, along with five guards.

Either work your way up the building using Blink to get behind the guards, or enter through the third level balcony to reach Paolo (Some of the guards have loot, but not the two in the closed room. If you simply must take them out, use glasses and bottles from the dining room to lure them into ambush, once you've steathily opened the door).

Choke out Paolo for the last time, then loot him to grab Granny's hand, which will grab you right back. Corvo stomps it to yield 3 new bonecharms (Bonecharms 2,3,4 of 8). Open all the windows here before you leave- you'll be back.

You may want to take out the courtyard Howlers- a few do carry loot, after all. However, if you do so, keep a razorsharp eye on your stats- I had a lot of trouble where choked out guards were misread as 'dead' by the game- particularly the young lady smoking in the archway (emphysema presenting with severe allergic reaction to throttling?)

In any case, once you've choked and stolen all you care to, head back out toward the Lock, and then toward the Overseer Outpost.

The plaza just before the Overseer has one of those neat elevated platforms just made for Blinkers. Blink on up, and use the heart to locate a nearby bonecharm. You'll have to smash some boards to get into the window, but the guards below don't react.

Grab the charm and loot the place from top to bottom- notables include a passel of sleep darts and a rather touching love letter. Leave through the front door. You can smash the window to the Silvergraph studio now if you like, but there's an inner door that needs a key, so you might as well wait.

Across from the studio is an apartment you can blink up to for some decent loot, if your conscience can stand stealing everything not nailed down while the two occupants chat about how hard it is to make a living these days.

Head to the gate and use Blink or the smashed gatehouse to get around the first guard, then pickpocket and choke.

Be careful not to wander too close the second overseer yet- he sets off deeper into the compound once you get close enough, and that makes him harder to ambush. Hide the first overseer in Mindy's (She'll appreciate that), then use Blink to get close to the second guard and take him out quickly.

Ignore the main outpost to the right, and instead hug the wall left until you reach a small dead end. Look up and use Blink to reach high, boarded window above an AC unit.

This is Corvo Attano's childhood home. You did not, alas, make a habit of collecting Outsider artifacts as a little tyke, but you can find your mother's journal in her room, and an old trophy of yours hidden behind some loose bricks.

Exit the way you came in and continue following the wall left. There's a historical marker in front of your house worth glancing at, but then you'll climb some detritus and along some pipes to the outpost entrance. Blink in through the upper window (they seem to be renovating).

Blink across to the chandelier, then the small room ahead. Shadow and choke the one wakeful overseer, then loot and choke his sleeping confederates, one of which will have a valuable key for you.

Exit the sleeping chamber bearing right to choke out the guard at the top of the stairs. Drag him back with the the rest, then consult the Heart for a nearby Rune. The key you just acquired will get you in, and the Rune is in a metal chest along with a rewire tool and a few precious ingots (Rune 5/5).

Blink up and into the elevator shaft, then up through the elevator car itself to the fourth level. This part of the building is rife with broken windows, which you can use to good effect. Go through the first broken window to your right, and use the balustrade here to get the drop on the hallway guard.

Drag his body toward the elevator and through another broken window into a small storage area to your left (there's a grenade of the shelf here too, if you need one). The other half of this room has a lootable blue crate, but keep sharp eye out for a patrolling overseer who sometimes wanders in here. A small window connects to the Overseer's Office- sneak in and choke out the big man, then leave his snoozing highness by the window for later exfiltration (the two acolytes here are too devoted to look up. So devoted, infact, that you can actually rob and choke them out without raising the alarm).

Raid the small desk by the window room for another bonecharm (Bonecharm 6/8) and the key to Durante's room.

Face the main door of the office, then Blink up to small balcony on the left. Here you'll find a dust-filled room with an audiograph and painting of Aramis Stilton (Painting 3/3).

He seems like a decent enough chap. He's named after both a Musketeer and a fine cheese, after all. Return to Byrne's office, then exit through the door and bear right, where you can eavesdrop on one Overseer mercykilling another. It does seem a trifle callous to choke out a guy while he sits in vigil over the cooling body of his brother, but after such an emotional ordeal he could probably use some rest.

Note that at the head of this room is the Book of the Fallen, which we non-lethalists won't need, but which the more bloody-handed can use for an achievement once they've killed Byrne. Return to the second floor, then descend the stairs by the elevator to get behind the desk clerk for robbery and/or asphyxiation, looting the room behind him.

Exit the way you came (through the second level window) and blink your way back to the platform, then left and down to the supposedly neutral ground of Valia Street (Though Stilton's map shows it as Avila Avenue. Curious).

Don't let the neutral ground thing kid you, though- enemies immediately turn hostile when they spot you.

Follow the signs to the black market. It's got an easy-to-spot green door, but it also has a few thugs hanging out, ready to cause trouble. You can wait for them to leave, or slip into the apartment building just next door to the left, and lure them into ambush.

Either way, talk to the black marketeer and purchase any upgrades you fancy before, predictably, looting the place.

Do this by turning back to the soup kitchen area here, then looking for a boarded up hole in the bricks.

To unboard it, just sword it, then loot the little bedspread here for some coin and whalebone. Exit to a tripwired alley.

Disarm and loot the traps, and you might as well take out the two overseers here as well, once they've finished their conversation. Stash there bodies in the overgrown courtyard here, then take a close look through the barred windows.

Shoot off the board across the door (a single crossbow bolt will do), then enter the building the normal way, go upstairs and open this door. Loot the place (including your crossbow bolt at the door), and read the note behind the wedding picture.

Use the calendar in the hallway to derive the combination of the store below (the first digit should be the number of the week, the second and third digit the day).

Armed with this knowledge, break in below and choke out the shopkeep. Having become a connoisseur of lootable black markets, I have to say this isn't one of the better ones. Still, there's some ammo, a map, and a bonecharm all yours for the taking (Bonecharm 7/8).

There's one last optional piece of business to care of while we're in Valia Street. If you follow the alley up, you'll be treated to a scene where the Overseers are about to execute some civilians without trial. It is technically possible to save them, though there's a lot of risk for essentially no reward. Still, if you don't want that particular blood on your hands, here's the procedure- Take out the guard wandering in front of the dentist's shop first. Blink over and choke him out while the executioner is going through his spiel. Stuff him and a doorway and Blink over to the executioner himself. Perch on the wall behind him, initiate a choke, and immediately start moving backwards. This will cause the both of you to drop over the side of the wall. Punch him out, wait a second for the civilians to flee, and then pop up to sleep dart the other guard here. Pick up the executioner and Blink to cover behind the dog kennel, then sleep dart the two guards that appear out of nowhere to investigate. Replenish your sleep darts from the second floor of the dentist's office. Stopping time can also be handy here. Whether you decide to go to all that trouble or not, you should still definitely take a look at the boarded-up apartment in the pink building here, which has some good loot.

Now would be a good time to explore any areas you haven't, and bust any heads you still want to, since you're about to enter the endgame of the Dust District. In particular, there's a pink apartment across the street from the Crone's Head courtyard (accessible via a balcony above the unmasked lady Howler sitting on some stone steps) that has some nice shinies. Near here there's also an ivory scrimshaw in a shop window you can claim by shooting it with a bolt.

If you're feeling like you need a little more coin, but don't want to tediously choke out the streetful of Howlers, just wait for a duststorm and use Darkvision to pick them clean.

There's also a safe shop just before the Howler checkpoint, but there isn't a whole lot there. When ready, return to Paolo's via the rooftops, and open Durante's office.

Here you'll find the method for disposing of both faction leaders nonlethally, as well as the key to the silvergraph shop, and clue to unlocking the Jindosh door, if you haven't already. His desk also holds level's final bonecharm (Bonecharm 8/8)

Go upstairs and grab Paolo's ratless body, then Blink across the rooftops to the Silvergraph shop. Go to the backroom and drop him into the crate provided, then collect Durante's pay from the nearby table. Loot the front room before you leave, including a silvergraph of Meagan on her skiff.

Now Blink on up to where you left Byrne snoozing peacefully and ferry him back to the shop as well. Be aware that some of the dogs that were resting before may be up and about now. Exit via the window and Blink back to the shop to put Byrne in his crate.

If your pockets are still feeling light, take one last lap around the district, mainly looking for opening windows to blink up to. Otherwise it's back to the Gate on onward to glory.

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