Better Chaos System

Rebalance Dishonored's chaos without changing damage, deaths, objectives, challenges, or the visible mission-stat counters. Choose a ready-made ruleset or configure individual chaos multipliers directly from the in-game MODS menu.

Requirements

- Dishonored 1 on Steam, buildid 8335061

- Dishonored Mod Loader 1. 3. 3 or newer

Features

- Exact current chaos score shown in the pause-menu MODS interface

- Four rulesets: Vanilla weights, Proper No Chaos, Forgiving, and Custom

- Custom multipliers from `0x` to `2x`

- Separate controls for hostile kills, civilian kills, bodies found, alarms, and other chaos events

- Fractional carry, so values such as `0. 25x` remain accurate across batched payouts

- Dynamic, Freeze current, Always low, and Always high policies

- Persistent settings through Dishonored Mod Loader

- No edited game packages or altered damage types

Rulesets

Vanilla weights

Keeps Dishonored's original chaos amounts.

Proper No Chaos

Blocks chaos gains and enforces low chaos while keeping lethal combat lethal. Kills, objectives, challenges, and visible mission statistics continue to work normally.

Forgiving

The default profile:

- Hostile kills: `0. 25x`

- Civilian kills: `2x`

- Bodies found: `0. 5x`

- Alarms: `1x`

- Other chaos events: `0. 5x`

Custom

Uses the individual multiplier rows in the menu. Available values are `0x`, `0. 25x`, `0. 5x`, `0. 75x`, `1x`, `1. 5x`, and `2x`.

Chaos Policy

- `Dynamic`: use the adjusted live chaos normally.

- `Freeze current`: prevent the current chaos score from changing.

- `Always low`: enforce a low-chaos live state.

- `Always high`: enforce a high-chaos live state.

Policies take effect on the next verified chaos event. Proper No Chaos always enforces low chaos.

Installation

1. Install Dishonored Mod Loader 1. 3. 3 or newer.

2. Extract the archive into `Dishonored/Binaries/Win32`.

3. Load a save and open `Pause Menu -> MODS -> Better Chaos System`.

4. Confirm that `Compatibility` shows `Active`.

Installed file:

Binaries/Win32/Mods/plugins/BetterChaos.dll

Important Details

- Enemy detection is not an independently weighted chaos event in the active native deed table. It remains visible in mission statistics.

- Main assassination targets inherit the hostile or civilian kill category accepted by the game.

- `Alarms` means guards activating alarm devices, not merely detecting the player. Dishonored batches the native chaos payout after five alarm activations.

- No separate controls are exposed for rats, plague, mission routing, or endings; Better Chaos only adjusts the live chaos state used by the game.

- The current release supports only Steam buildid 8335061.

Compatibility

GOG, Epic, Microsoft Store, older Steam executables, and modified executables are not supported by this release.

Troubleshooting

- If Better Chaos does not appear, confirm that Dishonored Mod Loader 1. 3. 3 or newer is installed and its MODS menu works.

- Confirm the DLL path is exactly `Binaries/Win32/Mods/plugins/BetterChaos.dll`.

- Open a save before checking the MODS menu; it is not available on the title screen.

- If `Compatibility` reports `Unsupported build`, restore the supported Steam executable.

- Diagnostic events are written to `Binaries/Win32/Mods/plugins/betterchaos.log`.

Uninstall

Delete `Binaries/Win32/Mods/plugins/BetterChaos.dll`. Keep Dishonored Mod Loader if other mods use it.