The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace is the eighth mission in Dishonored 2, in which the protagonist must infiltrate the Palace District and neutralize Delilah Copperspoon's final ally, Duke Luca Abele.

Pre-mission, Dreadful Wale
''You've eliminated most of Duke Luca Abele's key accomplices. Talk to your allies about the Duke before departing for the Grand Palace.''

Mission
''Self-serving and corrupt, Duke Luca Abele rules Serkonos, and orchestrated the Coup against you. Enter the Grand Palace to find and eliminate the Duke, who protects himself from assassination with a body double. You must also locate Delilah's spirit, the only means of counteracting her immortality.''

Details
Emily Kaldwin or Corvo Attano meets Anton Sokolov and Meagan Foster above deck. If Aramis Stilton was saved from insanity then he will also be present to assist with the preparations. Meagan explains that the time to eliminate the Duke has arrived and takes the protagonist down to the docks near the Grand Palace. Whilst travelling there, she mentions that the Duke has a body double and care should be taken not to assassinate the wrong person, adding that she has heard the double is a smoker.

From there, the protagonist makes their way across the district to the Grand Palace.

Special Actions

 * Through the Pantry - Entered Duke Luca Abele's Vault through the secret pantry passage.
 * Sunken Storage - Swam into the submerged storage room beneath the Palace grounds.
 * Friends in High Places - Replaced Duke Luca Abele with his body double.
 * Haunted by the Past - Removed the broken gazelle from Duke Luca Abele's Vault.
 * Black Market Heist - Tricked the black market shopkeeper into opening the back door.
 * Addressing Karnaca - Spoke to the people of Karnaca from Duke Luca Abele’s chambers.

General Mission Notes

 * There are multiple ways of distinguishing the real Duke from his body double.
 * Using the Heart to read into their pasts.
 * Listening to their monologues such as when they order the guards to leave or the double expressing resentment over Duke Abele taking credit for his paintings.
 * When investigating distractions (such as destroying the locked patio door), the real duke will always have his bodyguard search with him; the body double will search alone if he's the only one that notices.
 * The body double is a smoker and will occasionally light a cigarette.
 * Letters and notes found throughout the palace will hint as to who is who by indicating where the real duke is taking his meals, where additional guards are posted, and so on.
 * The body double and Duke carry different keys; the real duke always has the vault key on him, while the body double carries a chest key.
 * If the Duke is mistaken for the body double, he will pretend to go along with the plan before going for the alarm.
 * When the protagonist explains their plan to the body double, he will suggest rendering the real Duke unconscious and talk about the medallion. If Luca is mistaken for his double, the real Duke will suggest killing the other man, making no mention of the medallion.
 * Likewise, if the body double is falsely accused of being the real Duke, he will panic and blow his cover, saying he can't take a bullet for Luca, before heading to the nearest alarm. Conversely, the real Luca will readily own up to the fact that he's the real Duke if accused.
 * Locations of the Duke and his body double are randomized each time the mission starts. The possible locations are: the Duke's chamber, the Duke's office, the Grand Throne chamber, the private garden, or Delilah Copperspoon's chamber.

Trivia

 * If the decision is made to switch the body double with the Duke, the outcomes may differ depending on the chaos level. In low chaos, the body double will tell the guards to be nice with the real Duke when they take him away, while in high chaos, the body double will give an order to cut his tongue.
 * In high chaos, dead civilians and a guard can be found hanging from the center ring of the area by the watchtower.
 * The appearance of several newspaper articles found in this mission are directly influenced by the protagonist's overall actions at this point in the game. This includes chaos level, burglarized black market shops, Runes picked from Outsider shrines and valuables/coins collected.
 * It has been a month since the Coup when the mission starts.
 * In an early version of the mission, the objective was to search for one of Delilah's painting in the Duke's vault, which contained her soul. Back on the Dreadful Wale, the protagonist was to enter the painting with the help of Sokolov and battle with a golem to obtain the witch's soul.
 * According to unused lines of the Heart and comment by the protagonists in the game's text files, the golem was made out of Whalebone by Breanna Ashworth and animated by Delilah's soul.