Bone charm crafting in Dishonored 2 is an incredibly powerful tool that allows players to customize their abilities and optimize their playstyle. If you haven’t experimented with it yet, you’re missing out on a game-changing mechanic. This guide will walk you through the fundamentals of bone charm crafting, the best strategies for maximizing their effects, and how to avoid corruption.

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Unlocking Bone Charm Crafting

To start crafting bone charms, you need to unlock the Bone Charm Crafting ability by spending runes. It’s highly recommended to upgrade this ability to at least the third tier for optimal results. The key upgrades include:

1. Bone Charm Crafting – Allows crafting of custom bone charms.
2. Witch Crafting – Enables crafting of traits from sacrificed bone charms.
3. Energy & Master Crafting – Lets you create bone charms with up to four traits with minimal corruption risk.
4. Craft Runes – Allows you to craft runes from whale bone and also sacrifice runes for extra whale bone.

While crafting runes is an option, it’s not essential since whale bone is plentiful throughout the game.

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How to Learn Bone Charm Traits

Before you can craft bone charms, you need to learn traits by sacrificing existing bone charms. Here’s how it works:

• Regular bone charms grant their trait upon sacrifice.
• Black bone charms do not provide traits but instead yield four whale bones when sacrificed.
• Corrupt bone charms cannot transfer traits but can still be broken down for whale bone.

For example, sacrificing a bone charm with Lucky Needle (a chance to recover sleep darts) will unlock that trait for future crafting.

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Crafting Bone Charms with Multiple Traits

Bone charms can be crafted with 2, 3, or 4 traits, each increasing in cost:

• 2 traits – 3 whale bone
• 3 traits – 4 whale bone
• 4 traits – 6 whale bone

Since whale bone is abundant, always aim for 4-trait bone charms for maximum effectiveness.

Stacking Traits for Maximum Effect

One of the best ways to craft powerful bone charms is by stacking the same trait multiple times to amplify its effect.

For example:

• Stacking Strong Arms four times will let you choke out enemies incredibly fast.
• Stacking Void Favor four times drastically increases the chance that supernatural abilities won’t consume mana.
• Stacking Swift Shadow boosts your movement speed while sneaking to near-normal running speed.

Even with maxed-out crafting, there’s still a low chance of corruption when crafting 4-trait bone charms. Corruption applies a negative effect, but these are often minor or even beneficial depending on your playstyle.

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Understanding Corruption in Bone Charm Crafting

Occasionally, a crafted bone charm will become corrupted, adding a negative trait. Examples include:

• Whirlwind (Faster sword attacks) + Short Fuse (Grenades explode sooner) – This might actually be a benefitrather than a disadvantage.
• Bullets Inflict More Damage + Slower Movement Speed – Might be fine if you prefer ranged combat.

With fully upgraded crafting, corruption occurs in about 10-20% of cases, so expect an occasional corrupted charm.

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Best Bone Charm Combinations

Here are some of the most powerful bone charm combinations you can craft:

Combat-Oriented Build:

• Whirlwind (Faster sword attacks)
• Bullets Inflict More Damage (Stronger pistol shots)
• Deep Grave (Higher chance of grave hounds dying instantly)
• Healthy Appetite (Food restores more health)

Stealth-Oriented Build:

• Swift Shadow (Move faster while sneaking)
• Strong Arms (Choke enemies out faster)
• Void Favor (Supernatural abilities consume no mana occasionally)
• Relocation Sickness (Witches stumble when teleporting – useful for dealing with them)

These combinations allow you to specialize in combat, stealth, or hybrid playstyles, tailoring bone charms to your needs.

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Crafting and Sacrificing Runes

The Craft Runes upgrade allows you to:

• Create runes for 9 whale bones.
• Sacrifice runes for 8 whale bones.

Since the game provides plenty of runes, sacrificing unnecessary runes for whale bone can help fund more bone charm crafting.

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Final Thoughts

Bone charm crafting is an essential mechanic in Dishonored 2, allowing for deep customization and powerful synergies. By sacrificing unnecessary charms, stacking traits, and understanding corruption risks, you can tailor your abilities to fit any playstyle.

Experiment with different combinations and see what works best for you!

For more Dishonored 2 guides and tips, be sure to check out our other articles.