Thread by @AlexandraErin

Going through Stilton's Manor on a normal Dishonored 2 playthrough: This is an interesting and challenging twist on the core gameplay.

Going through Stilton's Manor on a New Game+ playthrough: Dang, this sure would be easier if I had my GOD-LIKE SUPERPOWERS.

On a normal playthrough, void magic is something you still have to ration and think about the use of. But with all the runes and charms you can accumulate 1.5 times through the game you can basically do whatever you want, when you want.

Room full of guards? You can stop time. You can hypnotize them. You can stop time and hypnotize them. You can take them out in a flurry of activity while moving at heightened speed in the moments they first start to be aware of you.

You can moonwalk past any challenge.

It's the one part of the game that doesn't really materially change between a vanilla run and New Game+. Sure, you've got more upgrades and bone charms to play with, but a lot of your charms interact with powers you can't use in the mansion.

It's not any harder in NG+, but the difficulty spike it has compared to all the other missions, including the one you just completed, is considerably more pronounced.

This is not a critique of Dishonored 2 or that mission, which is possibly one of my favorites. It's just an observation of how two different game elements (the mechanic shift inside the mansion and the New Game+ power boost) interact with each other.

And since you can chain New Games on top of each other, each time you go through it the difference becomes more pronounced. Though there are diminishing returns on getting more powers because of overlap and ones that are contra-indicated for differing strategies.

You can only fit 10 powers or gadgets on your hotbar. The ability to slow time while choosing from your whole inventory of gimmickry alleviates that a bit, but you're probably mostly going to use the ones you have hotkeyed.

I recently realized that I almost never take the wind gust power because it's too dangerous to use if I'm trying not to kill anyone and not reliably lethal enough to use when I am. Even if I have the runes for it, it's not making it into my hotbar.

And a lot of the use cases for fully upgraded time bending, mesmerism, and domino chaining are the same: you need to take out a room full of people quickly.

There are differences. You can mesmerize people or stop time to get through a room unseen without having to dispatch anyone. You can stop time to get past moving mechanisms or deal with things that can't be mesmerized. You can do fun things with domino chaining.

But the biggest general use case for the three of them -- dealing with a crowd without causing a commotion -- is the same, meaning that while it can be worth having multiple of them, you get diminishing returns in terms of how easily you deal with obstacles.