The Dishonored 2 Bone Charm Crafting Guide

The world of Dishonored is filled with mysticism, science, and political intrigue. As players explore the streets of Dunwall and Karnaca in the original game and its sequel, they are bound to come across powerful supernatural items known as bone charms. 

When paired strategically, these trinkets of carved whale bone can combine to give players several enhancements that complement their play style, be it the stealth oriented low-chaos approach or the rancorous, kill-anything-that-moves high-chaos method. 

Dishonored 2 introduces a new wrinkle to this bonus system with bone charm crafting. Though unlocking and upgrading the various supernatural powers at your disposal is the natural draw for spending runes, min-max oriented players should think seriously about investing in crafting as well. With almost 100 different pre-existing bone charms for players to experiment with, the possibilities are nearly endless. We break down how and why below.

Arkane already made cool bone charms for me to use. Why should I craft my own?
Because those minor bonuses your favorite bone charms bestow can be turned into major bonuses, stacking up to four times. For instance, if you successfully stack the Shift Shadow bone charm bonus, which makes you move slightly faster in stealth mode, you can move at highs speeds while staying stealthy. This can be a game changer for players attempting ghost and pacifist playthroughs.  

Okay I’m in. What do I need? 
The cost to entry for bone charming is cheap – one rune – but you should spend another five runes to put yourself in the best position to create great bone charms. Unlocking the Trait Synergy ability (three runes) allows you to stack the same trait on a bone charm four times, and the Witch Crafting ability (two runes) lowers the chance that your bone charms will be corrupted. Make sure you invest in these.

While you search for runes to unlock these crafting traits we recommend you scavenge as much raw whale bone as you can as well. This resources serves as the foundation for bone charm creation, so it’s always good to have some in reserve. 

After unlocking the crafting traits and gathering some raw whale bone, then you can start experimenting. The first step is to deconstruct bone charms in your possession. Doing so gives you more raw whale bone you can use for crafting, but more importantly you learn that charm’s traits, which can then to be applied to your own creations. 

Once you’ve learned the trait you want to exploit, it’s time to craft. Stack it four times on the rune and voila – you have a powerful new bone charm to wear. Beware, when stacking abilities four times there is a chance it can be corrupted. This could impart a negative trait to the bone charm as well.

Wait – I can accidentally corrupt my own bone charms? Why would I risk it?
Because the reward of stacking traits is greater than the risk of having one negative side effect. Some corruptions may not even apply to your play style, making it easy to live with the trade-off. 

That said, players who like to game the system can simply quicksave before making the charm and keep reloading until corruption is successfully avoided.

I’m a stealth player – which bone charms would you recommend creating?
The diverse array of bone charms in the game have a rich and varied amount of stealth-oriented traits worth pursuing. The previously mentioned Swift Shadow trait that speeds up movement while in stealth mode is one of the most useful movement bonuses. Also check out Swift Stalker (move faster with weapons sheathed ), Undertaker (move faster while carrying a body), Lucky Needle (chance to recover sleep darts), Strong Arm (choke your enemies unconscious slightly faster), and Shadow Embrace (Shadow Walk lasts longer).

I prefer spilling the blood of my enemies in a gory, public fashion. Which bone charms would be ideal for my violent tendencies? 
The bone charm customization options for bloodthirsty players include several options for boosting health/mana, ammo replenishment, and inflicting more damage. These include Restorative Glimmer (health regenerates when using Dark Vision), Spiritual Pool (mana regenerates faster), Combustion (grenades do more damage), Duelist’s Luck (ammo packs have a slight chance of containing one extra bullet), Duelist’s Skill (bullets inflict more damage), and Whirlwind (faster sword attack speed).

Regardless of which way you play the game, a Void Favor custom bone charm (sometimes using supernatural powers consumes no mana) is a good call.