How Miles could be killed

[ajotatxe he/him]

I think that there must be more ways to kill Miles Dagouter with the available technology than the ones suggested in the saga, without removing the spikes from him. 

Perhaps some of them would inmobilize him permanently without actually killing him. 

• Throwing him into the ocean. The golden spikes should prevent him swimming, and if somehow he removes them, he dies, of course. If drowning, high pressure, low temperature or predators can't kill him, he would be going to have a very hard a long life wandering at the bottom of the sea.
• Crushing him under tons of rock. The flesh should eventually lose the contact with the spikes. 
• Burning him at high temperature to ensure the total cremation of the body. Note that gold would melt.
• Throwing him into a pit full of acid. HF should do the work.
• Split his body and keep the pieces in different aluminum boxes.

Some more ideas?

 

 

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, ajotatxe said:

I think that there must be more ways to kill Miles Dagouter with the available technology than the ones suggested in the saga, without removing the spikes from him. 

Perhaps some of them would inmobilize him permanently without actually killing him. 

• Throwing him into the ocean. The golden spikes should prevent him swimming, and if somehow he removes them, he dies, of course. If drowning, high pressure, low temperature or predators can't kill him, he would be going to have a very hard a long life wandering at the bottom of the sea.
• Crushing him under tons of rock. The flesh should eventually lose the contact with the spikes. 
• Burning him at high temperature to ensure the total cremation of the body. Note that gold would melt.
• Throwing him into a pit full of acid. HF should do the work.
• Split his body and keep the pieces in different aluminum boxes.

Some more ideas?

 

 

Honestly, anything that keeps doing damage to him WOULD kill him eventually if he couldn't escape. His Goldminds are sizable, but finite. What's more, he has no other abilities that give him strength or mobility, limiting his options for getting away. 

It's basically just as Wayne said- you can beat anybody, provided they can't fight back properly. 

 

That being said, a well placed aluminum bullet in the head or a proper Hemalurgic theft would be the most efficient methods to take him out, I believe. 

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Honestly, anything that keeps doing damage to him WOULD kill him eventually if he couldn't escape. His Goldminds are sizable, but finite. What's more, he has no other abilities that give him strength or mobility, limiting his options for getting away. 

It's basically just as Wayne said- you can beat anybody, provided they can't fight back properly. 

 

That being said, a well placed aluminum bullet in the head or a proper Hemalurgic theft would be the most efficient methods to take him out, I believe. 

I don't think that even an aluminum bullet would kill him. He would just heal around it. There's a WoB somewhere.

[Trusk'our he/him]

2 hours ago, Ookla the Hoppy said:

I don't think that even an aluminum bullet would kill him. He would just heal around it. There's a WoB somewhere.

I think he could survive most aluminum hits since his gold could keep the rest of his body going, but it can't heal the surrounding area. I think that the aluminum wouldn't be pushed out like other bullets either.

Spoiler

https://wob.coppermind.net/events/219-words-of-radiance-philadelphia-signing/#e6365

Kurkistan

What would happen if you shot a thug with an aluminum bullet or stabbed him with an aluminum knife?

Brandon Sanderson

Ah, that's a good question. The wound would not be able to heal around the aluminum, but once the aluminum came out and was gone from the system, they would be okay.

Kurkistan

Wait, is that a Bloodmaker, not a Thug?

Brandon Sanderson

Oh, you're talking about Thugs?

It would work similarly, but it really wouldn't have a huge effect on them.

Kurkistan

Alright, because Peter was implying that there was some weird aluminum interaction with Thugs.

Brandon Sanderson

What was he thinking of...?

There is some weird interaction but...

Kurkistan

In the wedding scene, Wax thinks they would have aluminum bullets to deal with Thugs, and I was like, "Oh, that's a typo." And Peter was like, "Oh no it's not..."

Brandon Sanderson

No, no. That would just be-- it's like I said: healing it until the bullet is gone, it's just the same as Bloodmakers.

It's possible this will change and healing magic will be able to eject at least some portions of aluminum (and I'd actually prefer that, since it keeps Bloodmakers more interesting), but right now I think aluminum is a soft counter to healing magic.

Edited December 8, 2025 by Trusk'our

[DracoAdamantus he/him]

17 hours ago, ajotatxe said:

Throwing him into the ocean. The golden spikes should prevent him swimming, and if somehow he removes them, he dies, of course. 

I'm confused on this one. Yes obviously if you trapped him at the bottom of the ocean by chaining him to a rock or something he's eventually going to run out of healing and die, but how would the his gold spikes prevent him from swimming?

[Duxredux he/him]

On 12/8/2025 at 10:34 AM, DracoAdamantus said:

I'm confused on this one. Yes obviously if you trapped him at the bottom of the ocean by chaining him to a rock or something he's eventually going to run out of healing and die, but how would the his gold spikes prevent him from swimming?

Presumably that much gold will weigh him down. Because it's heavy.

 

The primary issue with a lot of these is that Miles is clever and resourceful and luring him into a scenario where you could deploy one of these strategies would be extremely difficult unless you've succeeded at the main step that Wax managed - to capture him or otherwise immobilize him. Take cremation - how exactly do get the drop on him with that much fuel for fire when he may be able to just walk or shoot his way out? Does the setup withstand exploding when the dynamite he carries on his person nonfatally blows him up and either scatters or possibly detonates whatever you were burning him with? Similarly, lugging around a vat of acid or trying to rig a trap to dump it on him is tough for how clever and heavily armed he is. 

In AoL, we see him ambush Wax and friends on the train when Wax wasn't ready. When Wax was prepared and could force a confrontation at the Vanisher hideout, it was where Miles could field a small army and set the environment. Miles doesn't get into fights he doesn't think he will win, and he's had dozens of criminals do their best to take him down. Not a chance he'll go anywhere near the open ocean. Pit trap? No way at a fancy wedding party, on a moving train, or his own turf.

As a nod to our resident Hemalurgy enthusiast, @Trusk'our, Wax and friends didn't know enough about Hemalurgy for any of that. They didn't have Spook's book yet and the details had been redacted from the public history by Sazed. Getting close enough for Hemalurgy without Atium against possibly the best brawler Wax has ever known without getting stabbed by his Aluminum knives or shot - good luck.

As for strategies, the main trick is to immobilize him so he can't shoot or blast his way out of his restraints or whatever you were planning to use to kill him. His own regenerating flesh will shield his spikes from acid or fire and when fighting he is constantly tapping enough Health to survive practically anything. There are plenty of options, it's the execution that's the hard part.

Wax's best bet on the train, if he ever had the opportunity, probably would have been if he had managed to get Miles on the floor with a well-timed weight increase then pinning him by just sprawling on him, tapping weight as necessary. I don't think Miles could escape if a Skimmer sat on his upper back and shoulders while he was prone. The catch is that Wax was on a train and couldn't tap too much weight without damaging the train car, but he should have been able to tap enough to pin Miles and get him into a wrestling lock. Of course if Miles didn't have backup and is just fine getting shot as collateral.

[Nitpicking]

Since you asked: bring a larkin/lanceryn with you. Or even just a leecher (who could destroy Miles' gold reserves, preventing him from compounding gold and reducing his effective healing stores enormously).

Edited December 13, 2025 by Nitpicking

[Nitpicking]

... or a Nicroburst. She could force Miles to burn all his gold in a giant burst, if she could touch him while he's healing. Again, without his allomantic powers, Miles would just be a Bloodmaker like Wayne, no longer a compounder (until he swallowed more gold). Presumably you could shoot him repeatedly while he fumbled for a metal vial.

[Highprince645343]

A large explosion would probably work, he survives dynamite but I'm sure a stronger one could take him out. I wonder if a 

Spoiler

Radiant using the surge of transformation could turn him into fire/some other substance

 

[Frustration]

Drop him into the CR, or space. Either will work

[CoderDrag0n8 He/They]

NUKES

sorry, felt the need to say

he just

wont have a body to regenerate

or goldminds

or literally anything within a something radius

[___ He/Him]

Just rip out his stomach

Easy

[Immortal Platypus]

Really simple answer? Nightblood. 

Shardblades would probably also work, if you kill him fast enough (separating soul from body should do the trick) he doesn't have time to heal.

Aluminum grenades (traditional, not southern Scadrian). 

A-Aluminum/A-Duralumin southern Scadrian grenades (however that works) would be interesting.

F-Copper grenade to wipe his memory? Not sure how that works. Could be cool.

Silver might have some interesting effects. if you can soulcast things into silver, you might be able to petrify him by soulcasting parts of him to rock as they're healing (probably the weakest time for their cognitive aspect) and within the rock, small areas of silver or silver dust. Aluminum might also work.

I had one more idea that I wasn't sure about, but totally forgot it.

[SirToastedBagel]

Take Miles silver lighter away from him, and lock him in a room with an enraged shade. 

[+robardin he/him]

On 12/14/2025 at 5:01 PM, Nitpicking said:

... or a Nicroburst. She could force Miles to burn all his gold in a giant burst, if she could touch him while he's healing. Again, without his allomantic powers, Miles would just be a Bloodmaker like Wayne, no longer a compounder (until he swallowed more gold). Presumably you could shoot him repeatedly while he fumbled for a metal vial.

I was very disappointed that we didn't get to see any Nicrobursts in action in the Era 2 Wax and Wayne set of FOUR books, or even any mention of one off-screen.

I could see how they might be rarer than other Allomancers (the 16 powers are not evenly distributed, apparently, as we have WoBs that Coinshots are more common than other types), perhaps even the most rare. But surely any that existed would be in some demand?

We see how awed even experienced Allomancers like Wax are to encounter his "double" from the Set using duralumin with his Steelpushing in The Lost Metal; wouldn't the same effect be sought after by, say, the military or the constabulary, to pair up in a team with their own Allomancers?

And so, we can only speculate on exactly how a Nicroburst would interact (or a Leecher) with a Feruchemist tapping their metalmind.

I think there's a WoB that the Investiture has to be "kinetic", i.e., being accessed actively, to get Nicroburst, for one, but that there would be an effect; and that Leeching a Feruchemist wouldn't empty a suitably filled metalmind all at once, it would take some time depending on how full it was (versus Leeching the typical metal reserve from an Allomancer, I suppose unless someone like Wax had swallowed a LOT of steel). Can't find these references offhand in an Arcanum search, so I hope I'm not misremembering something.

And how'd the Set get those spikes for duralumin, anyway? If the Set could ferret out "duralumin gnats" to harvest for Hemalurgic spikes (I guess in Era 2 Allomancers just "know their metal" upon Snapping, which is different than it had been in TFE, even if they're "gnats"), why not also scoop up some spikes for A-nicrosil?

I feel like I've written this before...

Ah yes... About three years ago, I went so far as to headcanon in fanfic scenes for a "Nicky Nicro" into the Era 2 storyline, LOLOL.

 

Edited December 18, 2025 by robardin

[THEHOLYTINEYE]

overload his gold with tnt and the destroy his metal minds