Weepers



"Have pity for those afflicted. But a warning - pity them from afar."

- The Heart

Weepers are sufferers of the rat plague in the last stages of the disease. They squat in various abandoned areas throughout Dunwall, such as the Distillery District and the Flooded District, and their numbers increase with chaos.

Appearance and Behavior
Weepers have discolored skin and haemolacria, which causes blood to drip from their eyes in a tear-like fashion, hence their name. They usually appear as very gaunt and grunting survivors, aristocrats, Bottle Street thugs, City Watch guards or officers. They have blood on their clothes and face, vomit black sludge, and often experience hair loss. Decreased immune functioning also leaves weepers susceptible to parasites, which burrow and hatch inside their bodies. The resulting insects will sting anyone who comes too close to the afflicted. Rats will not attack weepers, even when summoned by Corvo Attano with Devouring Swarm, due to their advanced stage of infection.

In later stages of the disease, their capacity for thought and reasoning is greatly diminished from the plague-fever. As such, weepers are less aware of their surroundings and easier to sneak past; Corvo can bypass them with very little effort. They also lose their ability to speak and would lash out at any nearby non-infected creatures. However, it is believed by some that weepers are not actually hostile, and their "attacks" are really attempts to seek aid from uninfected humans. The Heart reveals that at least some of them have chosen to spend their last moments infecting any sane person they encounter.

Combat

 * Weepers produce a lot of moaning noise; upon hearing weeper cries, it is best to locate the source quickly in order to avoid being attacked unexpectedly.
 * In combat, weepers will run up to Corvo and attack. Due to lack of any significant defense and their simple combat tactics, weepers are easily defeated with any conventional weapon. It is also possible to avoid them altogether, as weepers do not actively search the area around them.
 * If Corvo allows a weeper to get close enough, it will grab onto him and vomit, causing him to take considerable damage.
 * Some weepers have small swarms of flies buzzing about them. The flies will attack anyone engaged in melee combat with these weepers and continue to attack even if the weeper is killed or knocked out, as long as Corvo is close to the body.
 * The use of ranged weapons or sneak attacks is recommended to dispose of weepers, as they can cause high damage in close combat, especially in groups.
 * Guards and thugs will attack weepers on sight, and as such, weepers can be used as distractions to allow Corvo time to escape from the area.
 * Weepers can easily be knocked down by attacks with a sword, allowing Corvo to handle groups and finish off individuals with less difficulty.
 * If Corvo drop assassinates a weeper, he may take a moderately small amount of damage.

Dishonored

 * Plague Affinity - Damage by weepers grants a small amount of mana.
 * Plague Resistant - Weepers inflict slightly less damage.

Unused Quotes
At earlier stages of development, there were supposed to be non-hostile weepers whose infection has not progress too far but they were cut from the game. These lines are still in the game files as well as some recorded ones.
 * "By the Outsider, it hurts."
 * "If the pain gets any worse, I'll run at one of those wall of light checkpoints. Run right into it."
 * "I just want it to end!"
 * "Rats, rats, rats everywhere!"
 * "It burns and burns my skin."
 * "I feel so bad.."
 * "There's someone."
 * "Damn plague..."
 * "Need to go back."
 * "It was better to leave them. Maybe they're weren't sick with it yet. I could have actually helped them by leaving."
 * "Oh, another one."
 * "Listen.."
 * "The flies are the worst part."
 * "He's lucky he's not sick."
 * "I feel too bad to keep going."
 * "If he wasn't my cousin, I wouldn't have let them in. But they had nowhere to go, and they were all so sick."
 * "The rats don't bother me any more."
 * "Maybe he has something."
 * "Please don't run away"
 * "Hey, wait..."
 * "I'll walk with you. Wait."
 * "Come on! Wait for me."
 * "Come back. Don't go."
 * "Stil with us?"
 * "Maybe a few more nights."
 * "Maybe I'll feel better next week."
 * "Always the same."
 * "So... Much... Pain..."
 * "Does it hurt to breathe deep?"

Trivia

 * Thaddeus Campbell can be found as a weeper in The Flooded District mission if Corvo chooses to deal with him non-lethally during the High Overseer Campbell mission.
 * If not freed during the High Overseer Campbell mission, the black marketeer named Griff can be encountered in the House of Pleasure mission as a weeper.
 * Weepers possess very low perception, even lower than rat swarms, making it easy to sneak past them. "Patrolling" weepers, however, sometimes exhibit normal sight.
 * Weepers do not react upon spotting unconscious bodies or corpses.
 * At the end of the game, if Corvo's chaos rating is low and Piero Joplin and Anton Sokolov were rescued during The Loyalists mission, the two can be seen treating and curing weepers, ending the plague.
 * Weepers will attack survivors if they spot them, even those meaning no harm to them.
 * In the rare case of a weeper managing to kill an NPC, an animation plays in which the victim swats at the many flies that have been vomited onto them, falls to their knees, and dies.
 * Despite the detrimental nature of Weepers, killing them will raise chaos.
 * In The Brigmore Witches DLC, weepers found in the sewers below the Drapers Ward Textile Mill will not attack the patrolling witches.

Gallery
