How can I change from being a murderous cretin?

I started playing through dishonored killing everything in sight.

Then, at the end of Lady Boyle's Last Mission, Emily asks Corvo how many people did he kill, and he finds a note that shows how disturbed Emily is becoming.

I used this as a moment of catharsis for Corvo, and started to creep around, trying to get my Chaos back to the good side. The problem is, even ghosting levels and not killing anyone- even the targets- my Chaos was still high at the very end.

In fact, at the boat, Samuel gives me a dustoff saying that I was brutal when I didn't need to be, and had disappointed him. I was able to save Emily, but it was because I was fast, not because that's what the ending dictated. The ending didn't say that Corvo explicitly died, though it did show Emily at Corvo's gravestone.

I'd read that it is possible to turn around Chaos, but didn't know if it takes longer than I had from that point.

Does anyone know how long it takes to turn around Chaos, and which actions are better focused on in doing so?

Solution 1:

I've played through all the 3 ways. The only way to "turn around Chaos" is to finish the game once and then just play the missions where your Chaos-level is high whilst killing noone. It doesn't matter if you're detected or render someone unconscious. As soon as you've got low chaos-level on all missions, just play the final mission and enjoy the good ending.

Solution 2:

I did kill a lot of people in Jailbreak in my first playthrough, as I was very rusty at stealth games. In mission 2 and mission 3 I killed very few people, and the chaos dropped to low quite quickly.