Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger is a supernatural ability granted to Emily Kaldwin by the the Outsider. At a cost of 40% of her mana, it allows Emily to summon a duplicate of herself which can be used to distract enemies, or upgraded to fight them.

Upgrades[]

Ability	Runes	Previous upgrade	Description
Doppelgänger	4	N/A	Summon a shade of yourself that attracts enemies.
Baffling Shade	1	Doppelgänger	Your Doppelgänger will confuse enemies as it fades away.
Deadly Shade	3	Doppelgänger	Summon a Doppelgänger that can fight enemies and assassinate when undetected.
Twin Shades	3	Deadly Shade	Summon two Doppelgängers who act independently of each other.
Transposition	2	Doppelgänger	Swap places with your summoned Doppelgänger.

Usage tips[]

When summoned, a Doppelgänger will always be facing Emily, except when an enemy is nearby.
If enemies kill Emily's Doppelgänger, they will believe they have eliminated the threat in an area and return to a lowered state of awareness.
Standard Doppelgängers can be used to distract enemies, allowing Emily to sneak past.
The Deadly Shade upgrade allows the Doppelgänger to fight enemies itself, making it easier for Emily to kill the remaining foes.
- Twin Shades increases the effectiveness of this strategy. If Emily herself joins in, the odds are tilted massively in her favor.
Doppelgängers cannot be summoned to the other side of walls of light, nor will they attempt to pass through them.
The Transposition upgrade allows Emily to escape combat by summoning a Doppelgänger outside of the fight and switching places with it. The enemies will continue to attack the Doppelgänger, thinking it is still Emily herself.
- The range for switching places is approximately twice the summoning range.
- Attempting to switch places with a Doppelgänger through an active wall of light will kill Emily.
The Baffling Shade upgrade allows Doppelgängers to confuse enemies when it dies. In stealth, this increases the time window to sneak past. In combat, this allows for Emily to do more damage to her enemies before they return their focus to her.
- The Doppelgänger itself is also affected by this upgrade, but Clockwork Soldiers and Emily are not.
If enemies spot the Doppelgänger, it does not count as a detection for Emily. However, enemies killed by Doppelgängers do count toward Emily's kills. This is of note for those attempting a Clean Hands run.
Domino can be used on the Doppelgänger, which Emily can then attack or knock out safely to affect the linked enemies.
Stun mines and spring razors can be attached to the Doppelgänger, allowing it to take out enemies more easily. The Doppelgänger itself does not trigger these weapons.
- The spring razor and stun mine do not fall off if a Doppelgänger uses Far Reach, allowing for a group of enemies to be assassinated or knocked out very quickly.
Doppelgängers are summoned one at a time, allowing for precise positioning with the Twin Shades upgrade. However, each Doppelgänger uses the same amount of mana to be summoned.
Summoning a new Doppelgänger causes the previous one to disappear. With Twin Shades, the first-placed Doppelgänger will disappear.
Doppelgängers can be summoned on the ground while Emily is falling and then drop assassinated, negating all fall damage.
When killed or knocked out, Doppelgängers immediately disappear.
- The one exception to this is sleep darts, which makes Doppelgängers disappear only when they fall to their knees.
Doppelgängers with the Deadly Shade upgrade have the ability to use Far Reach, confusing enemies during combat. They can use this ability more often than Emily can, though it is unknown whether they have limited mana, or what their reaching range is. It also appears they cannot make use of the Pull Enemies upgrade.
- In New Game + and Missions +, Corvo Attano's Doppelgängers use Blink instead.
- Despite having access to these abilities, Doppelgängers will instead throw stones at out-of-reach enemies.
When summoned behind an unaware enemy, Doppelgängers assassinate them almost immediately. However, they appear unable to assassinate two unaware enemies, instead attacking the second one.
Doppelgängers will fight with swords, but will not use ranged weapons or gadgets.
Doppelgängers will not react to sound, meaning it is possible to summon one just out of sight of the enemies, or even with its back turned, and it will not attack. Care should be taken when summoning in combat to avoid this.
Doppelgängers can only be summoned on surfaces which appear flat, which does not include surfaces which have flat hitboxes but do not appear flat, such as pipes.
Passive civilians will not be targeted by Doppelgängers, while fleeing civilians will be.
Doppelgängers can be used to attract bloodflies and rats, but they are not very efficient at killing them.
Rewired watchtowers do not react to Doppelgängers, while watchtowers functioning properly do. Doppelgängers do not attempt to avoid watchtowers, and so are often killed in the first volley.
Doppelgängers will be summoned on the ground directly below the location of the power. This allows for summoning of Doppelgängers when the user is located high above the enemy.
Doppelgängers will attack all Clockwork Soldiers, whether rewired or not. Normal Clockwork Soldiers tend to kill them quite quickly, while rewired ones will not retaliate, even when beheaded.
The Twin Leech bone charm regenerates health rather quickly. If Emily has bone charms that allow her to regain mana easily, or an excess of Addermire Solutions, she can summon a Doppelgänger to regenerate most to all of her health for little to no cost.
Enemies killed by Doppelgängers, whether stealthily or in combat, do not disintegrate if Emily has Shadow Kill at any level.
When holding an item such as a Whale Oil Tank and using Transposition the item will be brought to Emily.

Related Bone Charms[]

Enduring Allies - Summoned Doppelgängers last longer.
Resilient Allies - Summoned Doppelgängers have more Health.
Life Bond - When you heal yourself, your summoned Doppelgängers are also healed.
Bright Moon - Doppelgängers inflict more damage, but their duration is halved.
Twin Leech - Regain Health while your Doppelgänger is active.

Trivia[]

Doppelgänger reflects Emily's attempts to keep up her appearance of being an Empress instead of displaying her real personality.^[1]
Killing a Doppelgänger does not count as a death in the mission statistics.
Despite stating that it must be an enemy, killing a Doppelgänger can unlock the Fearless Fall achievement.
It appears that the Doppelgänger's sword is not affected by any upgrades.
Even when summoned on the Dreadful Wale, when Emily does not have her scarf up, Doppelgängers still do.
- The same is true for Corvo regarding his mask.
At least one other individual has/had the Doppelgänger supernatural ability.
In New Game + and Missions +, when Corvo uses this ability, the Doppelgängers will have his model instead of Emily's.

Gallery[]

References[]

↑ Developer Commentary - Doppelgänger

[1] Developer Commentary - Doppelgänger

[1]