The Blood of Dawnwalker might look like other fantasy RPGs at first glance, but there are tons of creative ideas here. Some of the systems can really throw you for a loop if you’re not prepared. Before you start leveling up Coen, level up your own knowledge with these eight important things to know before starting.
Time Management
The single most crucial mechanic in The Blood of Dawnwalker is time. After the prologueyou have just 30 days to rescue Coen’s family from the vampire lord Brencis. Almost everything you do eats up segments on the timeline, from exploring, to completing quests, to even leveling up. The good news is that you’re usually given a clear indication that you’re about to spend time with your next action.
Anytime you see an hourglass icon next to an icon, that action will cost you time, and the number next to the hourglass specifies how much. Each day-night cycle has 16 units of time: multiply that by the 30-day limit, and that means you have 480 total portions of time to finish. That also means you will not be able to see everything the world has to offer on your first playthrough.
Many quests in your journal will show you how much time a step will take, but remember that’s only for that one step. Since most quests require you to make multiple decisions, each of which have their own time requirements, don’t be fooled into thinking that spending time only happens once per quest.
If you’re in the open world and you hear a ticking clock sound and see grayed-out segments appear on your timeline, that means you’re approaching an open-world event that will take a certain amount of time to complete. If you’re short on time, keep that in mind before blindly charging ahead.
Battle Basics
Given all the demands on your time, you might feel rushed to complete quests, but combat is very deliberate. It’s not slow, but reading your opponents is more important than trying to tank their attacks and rush through the battle. Dawnwalker allows you to do an “omni block” or “omni attack,” which means just pressing those respective buttons, but you can also specifically block and defend in the four cardinal directions. Attacking will spend stamina no matter what, but a successful directional block costs none.
This is explained in the tutorial, but knowing when to do which is important. You can rely on the large red flashes on the side of the frame to tell you which direction you should block. Even if you can’t see the enemy on your screen yet, a left- or right-side red flash means that’s where the attack is coming from.
Shrine Services
As you explore, you’ll run into tons of shrines. These posts let you take several important actions — provided you’re able to access them. Most are simply sitting beside the road, but the handful of destroyed shrines require a little repair job before you can use them. Others might be active, but guarded by soldiers who need to be taken out first.
In any case, shrines are where you spend your skill points on perks, fast travel between any shrines you’ve discovered, store your items for the future, or pass time. Those are mostly self-explanatory, but remember that passing time is always a gamble in this game, as even some skills require time segments to acquire; skipping time is like throwing away free skill points.
Certain quests and activities are only available in the day or night, so there may be an instance where skipping ahead is justified, but it’s still not normally recommended.
Reading and Feeding
Shrines serve as a place to level up, but sometimes you’ll need more than just a skill point or time segment to get the perk you’re looking for. Certain Swordmastery and Witchcraft skills also require a manual in addition to a skill point. You can loot these from enemies, obtain them as quest rewards, or simply purchase them from certain merchants. There’s no one way to get it done, but note that you have to actually read the manual from within your inventory to make the associated perk available.
As for your vampire powers, some of those are gated behind Corruption — the fang icon next to the skill tells you the required level. Corruption only increases when you drink blood, so make sure you use that Voracious Bite skill as often as possible. Each time you top off the meter next to your nighttime health bar, your Corruption level will rise by one.
Nighttime Nourishment
As the most basic vampire lore tells us, drinking blood is also how Coen heals at night. In fact, it’s the only way to heal during this time. The good news is that you don’t have to seek out enemy soldiers or innocent victims: you can also latch onto any animals you see bopping around. The bigger the target, the more blood you’ll suck, and the more health you’ll restore, with humanoids giving you the most.
More good news: drinking blood doesn’t mean using your bite attack all the time. Coen can also carry vials of blood that serve as nighttime healing potions. Voracious Bite should be a regular move combat maneuver for you, but it’s not the only option.
Tricky Towers
Towers are another nighttime activity. There are several of them scattered across the world, and climbing them enables you to scan the area and add a bunch of points of interest to your map. You might think that this is a daytime activity, but it’s actually the opposite: Coen’s vampire eyes help with that.
Climbing the towers also requires your Shadow Step and Planeshift abilities. Reaching the top means finding the right spots to warp around, then scale the walls like you’re giving a middle finger to physics. Just remember that you can only defy gravity for as long as you have stamina.
The Danger Zone
Dawnwalker gives you 30 days to save your family, and you have free reign to explore the whole map during that time. You are more than welcome to explore any area you wish, but it’s not really recommended: anytime you see a skull on the map or beside an enemy’s health bar, it means they’re a higher level than you. The darker red it is, the more deadly they are. This even happens with one of the first main story quests, Echoes of Silenced Bellsin an effort to encourage you to start exploring.
You may wish to dip your toes into high-level zones for the XP, but recognize that it’s a risk. You can even go all the way to Brencis’ castle and start the point of no return if you want, but take it from me: that’s for no-hit challenges and speedruns only.
Brencis and His Vassals
To take down Brencis, you’ll need to understand how the Court system works. This has a dedicated page on the menu, showing a red web of Brencis’ vassals and specific quests and activities that are linked to each of them.
For example, destroying Ambrus’ leech collections or defeating his patrols is a great way to piss him off, aka fill the red meter under his portrait. Once it’s full, you’ll trigger a quest to face him head-on. This goes for Xanthe, Bakir, and even Brencis himself, too.
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