Pacifist Creed

[OZZO]

I'll use this thread to summarize tips and tricks for people who adopt the Pacifist Creed. Please add yours in the comments.

- Spartan kick will send enemies flying, be careful when using next to the edge. During the boarding I very rarely use it for this reason.
- 4th hit with the fists is stronger and might send an enemy flying beyond the edge to the death, if you fight on some elevated platform.
- Try not to knock out enemies on the edge. They will occasionally drop down and possibly get killed or drown if you're near the water.
- When you knock out an enemy, recruit at once so that other enemies cannot find and wake him up.
- If you really need someone dead to progress into the main story, tame an animal companion so that you can reduce the health of the enemy to about 20% and the animal will do the kill. I especially recommend Alpha animals, they can be tamed too.
- Dogs are not knocked out, they die. I use tamed animal or distraction leutenant to deal with the dogs.
- I don't accept quests on killing sharks, it's not possible to knock them out and shooting them from the ship does not seem to count to fulfilling the quest.
- It's not possible to knock out snakes, they just die from the first hit.
- I am not sure if it counts as a kill if you carry a knocked out enemy into the water or place them on a brazier as they are not dead instantly after this action... Early in the game there is an instance where you can progress with main story quests only if the bandits are dead. Uplay counts any knockout as a kill, so it's not trustworthy in this instance. Thoughts?
- I could not find a way not to kill cultists. Whaterver I do, there is that "Confirm kill" button that I can't avoid. During the boarding I carried out a knocked out cultist to my ship and when I teleport to any synced location the body disappears and the cultist is counted as dead. So, less killing even for those baddies.
- For a pacifist most missions will be better in stealth so invest points in Assassin and Hunter type of damage. It's important you are not discovered during infiltration, and for that you need to knock out enemies with one hit (Assassin damage) or with 1-2 paralyzing arrows (Hunter damage).
- In the forts take out weaker enemies first and for the one remaining strongest baddy use distraction leutenant and shoot a special hunter arrow (whichever is best for that situation) from some bushes. Then it should be much easier to do stealth attack and finish with fists.
- You can take any contracts requiring killing. They are fulfilled when you knock out these people and recruit them. In the dialogues though there is no difference, it goes as scripted, i.e. "I killed them all".
- At Level 15 you have the ability to switch between fists and some weapon. Use one of the good weapons you have there to reduce health of stronger foes and then switch to fists to knock out.
- With this playstyle half of the abilities in the tree will not be used, so you'll have more than enough points to boost all non-lethal abilities and a couple damaging perks to your liking that will help you to reduce health of stronger foes. I personally prefer hunter abilities for damage as they allow me to stay hidden.

P.S. Why is the Pacifist Creed so cool? Besides having a clear concience for not killing 2000+ people during the story I recruit all baddasses in the game to support my cause :-)

[Arcticspyder]

Thats definitely a different style of play!

[kro32]

If you knock someone out then set him on fire isn't that still killing him?

Same thing if you send your pet to kill him, its still you doing the killing ultimately.

You know that Charles Manson never actually killed anyone himself don't you, yet he went to prison for murder.

[Kabob]

Thanks for this post, it makes me smile.

Thinking outside the box +1
Sharing tips on play style and drawbacks +1
Ignoring people whom don't get it +1

[OZZO]

Originally posted by kro32:

If you knock someone out then set him on fire isn't that still killing him?

Same thing if you send your pet to kill him, its still you doing the killing ultimately.

You know that Charles Manson never actually killed anyone himself don't you, yet he went to prison for murder.

Good point. In this game though there are quests where certain people must die for the story to progress. I choose lesser evil here, but you're right, in moral view there is practically no difference.

[OZZO]

Originally posted by Kabob:

Thanks for this post, it makes me smile.

Thinking outside the box +1
Sharing tips on play style and drawbacks +1
Ignoring people whom don't get it +1

Thank you, Kabob :-)
In normal playstyle in Odyssey people kill between 2000 and 5000 other people. That's some "hero" if you can imagine it is you in real life.

[alison]

I just started playing this game and something that isn't really clear from this thread is that in order to use these pacifist approaches, you need to get off the first island. You can't do a non-lethal takedown of anybody on the first island, even if you upgrade the skill. Once you get off the first island, however, you unlock the ability to knock people out instead of magically assassinate them with a sword you're not even carrying. You don't get any XP for the non-lethal takedown, though, so you also need to follow up by recruiting them on to your crew, and then it counts game-wise as a "kill" and you can advance the mission.

I'm not sure if it's possible to get past the first island without killing anyone. My initial approach was to use fisticuffs to knock the guys out, but then they just lie there incapacitated blocking the missions from completing. In order to get the missions to complete I just switched my brain out of role-playing mode and into game mode then set their bodies on fire with the torch to pass the mission. I'm hoping that now I have the recruit option I'll be able to use that to use that for the rest of the game.

Also, in case anyone else is stuck trying to figure out the keyboard controls, once you unlocked the non-lethal arrow you need to craft them in the inventory by clicking on the quiver, hold RMB to aim, then press G to switch ammo. And when you want to recruit, the on-screen tip says to press Alt, but that only works if you hit Alt and release it quickly, it doesn't do anything if you hold Alt down for too long.