If I use the skill "Shadow Kill" and everyone that I kill turns to ash, does that count as spreading the plague and making the future of the game world worse? From my understanding, it spreads the plague when you kill people because of the rats eating their bodies etc. If there is no body, this shouldn't be a consquence should it?

Thank you for any assistance.

It's not the skill that causes high chaos, it's the act of killing. The skill has no effect on the chaos rating - but the killing itself does.

I think the idea is also that the killing causes the authorities to crack down harder, which would also lead to more deaths even if Corvo's kills turn to ash.

Well that svcks. I hate when a game does that. I would rather just kill who I want to and not worry about the consequences. On the other hand it gives me a reason to play twice.

For some reason even when I try to go without killing people I end up getting into huge battle royals.

Almost every other game lets you kill without second thought though. I quite like that this game turns over that unquestioning tradition of killing everything in your path and makes you think "what is really the right thing to do here, if there is a right thing at all?"

Do that! Seriously, just do it. If that's the way you want to play, then go for it. You'll probably have more fun with it (I know I do) and it's not going to make you get a "worse" ending, just a different one.

While I can understand what Arkane was going for with this mechanic, I think it's one that's often unclear to players, who can feel constrained or conflicted about effectively playing the role of an assassin while thinking they're not supposed to kill people. We're conditioned in some ways to think that doing so will lead to a "worse" ending. While I like that they've implemented mechanics by which there's some consequences for your choices, I think they could be explained better so we have a clearer idea of what to expect.

Shadow kill does leave loot though so at least there is still that.