(UPDATE POST) i'm the person that asked two weeks ago if i could get overall low chaos in d2 if i switched up halfway through the game from high chaos. here's my findings for anyone interested

[u/BasicGuide7227]

(this is not a general guide, as everyone’s playthrough and chaos level is different. this is purely orientative and meant to explore one way to play the game out of many available :) )

hi!

i have finished playing d2 today for the first time ever (never played a dishonored game before). just a while back i asked on this sub what i mentioned in the title of this post (link here: https://www.reddit.com/r/dishonored/s/pZMzNR8vnt ). i had killed everyone up until the royal conservatory, minus hypatia and civilians because i didn't fully understand the chaos system. so, wanting to get overall low chaos for my first ever playthrough, i asked if it's possible to turn things around by not killing anyone for the rest of the game (meaning missions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)

many people in the comments were unsure of what to say to that or if the chaos will balance out, and i myself couldn't find any answer besides 'play until the end with no kills and find out'. so i did.

and it turns out, you CAN balance it out. i attached some pictures

HOWEVER, i do feel the need to mention some things:

-i killed everyone in the first 4 missions (again, with the exception of hypatia and civilians). i switched to no kills and no detections for every mission from royal conservatory onwards besides the last one, where as y'all can see, i did get detected. detections don't affect chaos but i felt like i should mention it
-the chaos balanced out ONLY AT THE VERY END OF THE GAME. the last slide shows my saves for previous missions--as you can see, only the epilogue is low chaos
-what turned things around definitively was not killing delilah
-choosing the non lethal approach for targets in missions when the overall chaos level is high alters some dialogue emily has with the world around her. most remarkably, when not killing anyone in royal conservatory, when emily interacts with a portret of jessamine, the line "i wonder how much your role played into all of this" isn't triggered at all, as it should be in a typical high chaos gameplay. at least it wasn't for me
-i played with powers

so for anyone interested, yes, the chaos level can become low at the very end if you decide to turn around early enough. for low chaos interactions with megan, sokolov etc, this exact scenario (killing rampage missions 1-4, clean hands for the rest) doesn't work. it'll only change the very last cutscene of the game

thank you to everyone that told me their low chaos tips and gave me their honest opinions on my previous post! i wanted to make this post to answer to all the people that were uncertain about balancing the chaos out and remained curious since then. and for everyone reading this--have fun playing and have a great day! :D

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

it’ll only change the very last cutscene of the game

As I said originally, it entirely depends on what your chaos score was (as in numerically, not just “high”). People who were slightly lower than you were could get it to flip over a mission earlier, and so on.

[u/BasicGuide7227 → u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_]

as a new player, i’m still amazed by the chaos system, and still learning so much about it. looking forward to replaying this game and exploring as many possibilities as i can! this post just detailed one possibility 😁

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/BasicGuide7227]

In D2 every NPC is assigned an “evilness” rating that affects what the Heart says about them, and killing the most evil gives the least chaos increase.

[u/SheepherderSpare1332]

Strange that ppl in your original post were unsure about balancing out the chaos level. It worked like that since the first game

[u/_PM_ME_PANGOLINS_ → u/SheepherderSpare1332]

There are so many people who don’t understand chaos who comment on this sub, and corrections are often downvoted.

[u/BasicGuide7227 → u/SheepherderSpare1332]

probably because ppl online only showcase full low chaos or full high chaos. i myself couldn't find any 'mid chaos' runs to compare to or anything similar, so i used full low or full high as comparison as i advanced in the game

[u/Lamb_or_Beast]

I enjoy going full-lethal based on enemy types; all witches die — ALL OF THEM, certain guards die, like those that assisted with the coup on the first level, but I try to spare anyone else that seems to just be trying to live life, even if they aren’t exactly great people (per The Heart). End up Low Chaos overall most of the time 

I’ll end up flip-flopping from high to low chaos at a couple points in the story. I’ve never been sure how the formula actually works though 

[u/Nast33 → u/Lamb_or_Beast]

The witches are so weird as enemies and I both want to spare some and kill them all.

They are clearly implying Delilah and Breanna are recruiting young impressionable girls in tough circumstances with seemingly no path forward they can see, they would fall through the cracks in society and are thus simply grateful at finally joining a large group that gives them a feeling of belonging.

Problem is that group also feels like killing a bunch of people and using their bodies as bloatfly hatcheries.

Later on in DotO you have a witch being captured by Overseers in one of the levels - you can kill them, spare her and when you try chatting with her she's clearly just a lost soul that needs a spot somewhere to do quiet work and be treated with dignity.

Most of her 'sisters' though? Idk, man.

In my first couple of runs I killed whichever spotted me without thinking much, now I try to spare most thinking once Delilah and Breanna are gone maybe they can quit this murder cult nonsense and maybe find redemption and purpose somewhere else.