No, Shadows Kill is a passive power: it costs runes, but once unlocked, it's always active.

The only way to get perks is to find whale bone charms. Charms from pre-order packs set aside, each charm randomly offers an unpredictable passive effect (usually a minor bonus to your stats) as soon as you equip it. So basically, once you found a few charms, you choose which ones you want to equip or not to build your own set.

A few charms you get to pick, and one is random? Is that right?

No, you get charms randomly, and choose which you want to equip.

Sigh, I was fearing that. Oh, well could have been worse.

And you won't know what the charms are until you've equipped them that first time, right?

I don't know but this defeats the purpose of having these passive effects in the first place. A game that invokes player choice actually gives you random bonuses if you find them. What if I need the Shadow Kill enhancement so I can play my stealth murderer? What if I need my swimming enhancement because I want to approach a mission in different ways? The only choice here is whether or not to equip the charms you find. We don't know for certain how many of them are but if it's all chance then what's the point? I might as well not look for them because from the sounds of things Shadow Kill is probably be a pretty rare one apart from the other stat boosts.

I am sorry to sound ungrateful but this is a disappointment for me. I never have luck in games so an RNG element in Dishonored is a little kick in the knee. It won't ruin my overall experience but I was so looking forward to learning all of the enhancements and picking out the best for my playstyle. Know I will most likely have to pray to the gods before I pick every charm in order to get the ones I want. Once again I apologize for sounding ungrateful but I was really looking forward to that.

It'll probably tell you what the charms do

Shadow Kill is an enhancement, not a charm. You buy it like any other supernatural ability, you don't randomly find it.

OK, now I am completely confused. Are enhancements always active abilities that don't cost mana? And are charms just pure stat boosts? My point still stands however that they shouldn't be random.

As far as i understand powers are devided into two groups: active powers(stop time, possession, etc) and passive(vitality, shadow kill, etc). Passive are also called enhancements and they don't cost mana. Passive and active require runes to be unlocked and upgraded. Bone charms serve to increase your stats (as Sarakyel said).

Yeah, I see. Let's hope we got this right. I still say that you should pick which stats to upgrade. Freedom and choice remember guys?

I think randomization can add to the replayability.

Well, it definitely does but doesn't the low number of available charms do that too? I mean, if the wiki is right, you have a total of 45 passives or unique charms or w/e and you can get only 12 or little bit more than that in one playtrough. That alone adds to the replayability. They are still just stat boosts but I still believe that the player should choose which stats he wants.

Yep, you got it right!

Right now I can't remember how the game is balanced when it comes down to bone charms (total existing charm effects vs. number of charms that can be found in a playthrough vs. max number of charm slots you can unlock vs. number of charm slots you start with), but the 45/12 balance feels wrong to me. Will ask Sidrath for an official confirmation!

Well, the charms probably don't affect the overal experience that much, so maybe that's why they decided to go for randomization, to add some variation to each playthrough. It would be even better if they spawned in random places every time, but ofcourse it's not that easy to make it work properly.

Thank you for all the information these two days Sarakyel. And thank you everyone who have been patient with my low level of intelligence. But yeah, I love the game and I wasn't gonna abandon it even if Shadow Kill wasn't passive and so on. Dishonored is great!

Yeah, I was thinking about that. In some set random locations and you gotta go find them each time. Like I said before they don't mean all that much to the gameplay itself but in terms of customization most people prefer to have a say in the matter (like I do). That's not a problem however and it doesn't ruin or break the gaming experience.

Thank you, guys, for your active involvement in the forum life!

Sarakyel is right, there are more than 12 charms in the game, but we expect most players to find something like a dozen in a playthrough, they are hidden.

Also, calmlikeabomb is right, think of it as small little passive perks in most cases, not big effects like shadow kill or agility. The preorder DLCs give a good idea of what the effects can be, not game affecting, but interesting little bonuses.

To answer Calrabjohns, yes, you will know what the charms are on picking them up, they are named and have a description, again, just as the preorder ones.

Note that you can choose which one you activate into your active slots at any time, so you can change your "deck" of charms depending on the situations.

Thank you for clarifying this! That's good I have no problems with that.

Could the charms have negative effects? Do you only have a certain number of charm slots? Can you not unequip charms? Why would you not want to equip a charm? Also, to Sarakyel or Sidrath, this is off topic, but what is the relation between the Overseers and the Abbey of the Everyman? Are they the same thing? Are the Overseers the believers of the Abbey of the Everyman? Are they completely seperate religions? What are the philosophies of the Overseers? They seem hostile.

You have a finite number of bone charms slots, this number can be raised through upgrading.

You can unequip bone charms, yes, and switch them over during the missions to adapt to the situation.

For instance, imagine you have that DLC charm that allows you to reduce the sound made by broken glass, and you want to break a glass door to use it as a diversion, you won't want that charm activated, right? so you can just deactivate it/replace it with another.

As for the Overseers, they are part of the Abbey, yes...

Thanks! For the charm switching, can you do that at any time, or only at the Hound Pits (the mission hub)?

You can during the missions even. That's nice.

Yes, very!