Yet another Clean Hands question (SPOILERS)

[akadabeer]

During the High Overseer Campbell mission, if you spill the drinks and follow Campbell and Curnow to the secret room, and then turn off the music after Campbell draws his sword, then Curnow will notice Campbell and kill him, then thank you and walk away. This marks the Lethal Option as completed, but the mission summary screen still says No Kills.

The question is: Does this destroy my Clean Hands run? Or am I still OK, since I didn't actually kill anyone?

[Krugerk]

To be safe, I'd just blink up behind Campbell while Curnow is looking at the painting and (as he's drawing his sword) choke him out. Curnow will notice, but him seeing you doesnt count as detection and he doesn't become hostile. He thanks you and walks away. I know that most of the time if there's a kill that you could've revented it counts as a kill, but i'm not 100% sure about this one. Better safe than sorry.

[cyberwiz97]

That's a good question. Unfortunately, I can't test it since I've already gotten the achievement I would think it would be okay since YOU didn't kill him. However, because you were indirectly responsible, I'm not really sure if it'll count against you. When I did this solution, I got a checkmark for No Kills, as you did. Typically, a No Kills checkmark is what is used to guage whether we should get Clean Hands or not. But, who knows what the devs have determined in this regard.

[Krugerk]

I second cyberwiz, you should be okay but I can't be 100% sure. Besides, if you choke him out you get the satisfaction of the torturing him

[5M0k1N]

"Clean Hands does not consider Corvo to have killed someone if a person is killed by someone other than Corvo."
http://dishonored.wikia.com/wiki/Clean_Hands

[akadabeer]

Thanks for the input, everyone. I guess the reason I'm nervous about it is I heard that any action you do that leads to someone's death, for example letting the rats out in Dr. Galavni's house, will count against you. And while there is definitely the immense satisfaction of branding Campbell, there's also the risky process of carrying him from the secret room to the chair. I was hoping this might allow me to skip that part. I guess I could just let him die by Campbell's poison and not have to worry about it, but that just feels wrong.

[ALT08]

Play it safe and neutralize Campbell yourself. Blink behind him after he draws his sword and chokehold him. Taking him up to the interrogation room is not too hard either; just quicksave a lot and use the ceiling pipes/lamps to get around.

[akadabeer]

I'm trying to do a no-saves complete run, because my previous runs haven't gotten me Ghost/Clean Hands, and I'm wondering if it's because my use of saves has somehow broken the linearity of my single run-through. Either way, I'm also trying to increase the difficulty so the game doesn't get too boring in my hundreds of runthroughs trying to get this bugged achievement :D but at the same time trying not to introduce too many complications that might yet again bug them out.

[akadabeer]

I am infinitely pleased to announce that I can confirm that letting Curnow kill Campbelll does NOT prevent you from achieving Clean Hands!

For anyone still struggling with Clean Hands, I would suggest taking a look at the weepers in the sewer - I had been sleep darting them, but this time through I tried not to choke out or sleep dart anyone unless I absolutely had to, and always checked before I left the bodies to be sure that they weren't dead. To my surprise, I found that the male weeper, after I sleep-darted him, was falling through the floor, putting his head into the water, drowning him. This didn't show up on the mission summary, but definitely locked Clean Hands. All in all, I knocked out only 7 NPCs: 2 guards in the last room of the prison, the overseer guarding overseer martin, the 2 weepers in the sewer, Sokolov, and Lady Boyle. Well, and, I guess, everyone in the Hound Pits Pub using Piero's device...

Finally, done with this frustrating achievement. Now I can get back to the glorious killing!