Starting The Blood of Dawnwalker after the prologue can feel disorienting. The 30-day timer is running, the world opens up, and there are quests, towers, camps, and skill trees all demanding your attention at once. The good news: that timer is more forgiving than it looks, and the early game has a clear priority order if you know where to look. This guide breaks down exactly what to do first so you hit the ground running instead of wandering into a camp full of elite soldiers you can't handle yet.
What should you prioritize right after leaving Laslea?
Once you separate from Anca and step into the open world, resist the urge to sprint toward the main quest marker. The first hour or two are best spent building a foundation: map coverage, core skills, and a couple of early quests that unlock the game's main antagonist progression system.
Here's a quick-reference priority order before diving into each item:
How do you climb the Scouting Towers?
Two towers are accessible early: the church tower in Laslea Glen and the Briar Sloughs Watchtower to the south. Both reveal clusters of map markers when you reach the top, which is worth doing before anything else so you know what's around you.
The catch is that you can only scale these towers at night. Coen's Shadow Step and Planeshift vampire abilities are the only way up. Shadow Step lets you teleport short distances vertically, and Planeshift handles wall-running segments, but both drain stamina. Plan your route up carefully and don't spam movement or you'll run dry halfway.
Both Shadow Step range and your stamina pool can be upgraded through the skill trees, so if the climb feels tight right now, it gets easier as you invest points.
Blood of Dawnwalker Guide: Things You Should Do First
Why should you unlock Shapeshift and Mercurial Fervor immediately?
There are no mounts in Blood of Dawnwalker. Your movement speed across the open world depends entirely on two abilities: Shapeshift (Vampirism tree) and Mercurial Fervor (Witchcraft tree).
Shapeshift transforms Coen into a wolf when you double-activate sprint at night, letting you cover ground at speed as long as your stamina holds. Mercurial Fervor is the daytime equivalent on the Witchcraft tree. Both abilities improve with investment, eventually removing the stamina cost entirely.
Shapeshift requires 1 point of Corruption to unlock. Corruption is tracked by the fang icon next to your health bar at night, and it fills by using your Voracious Bite attack to drain enemy blood. Every time you fill the meter completely, your Corruption level increases by one. Feeding on civilians also raises it outside of combat, though that comes with its own implications.
If you want to accelerate this, the Hastened Corruption ability on the skill tree increases how much Corruption you earn per bite. Worth grabbing early if vampire abilities are your focus.
How do skill trees and manuals work early on?
Coen has three skill trees: Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism. Early on, the simplest approach is to invest in core attack, defense, and stamina stats across all three before chasing flashy abilities.
The important thing to understand is that higher-tier Swordmastery and Witchcraft skills are locked behind manuals you have to find or purchase. Vampirism abilities, by contrast, are gated by Corruption level instead. This means your Vampirism tree can grow through combat naturally, while Swordmastery and Witchcraft require active hunting for skill manuals.
Blood of Dawnwalker Guide: Things You Should Do First
For a deeper breakdown of which perks are worth prioritizing across all three trees, the best early skills and perks guide covers exactly which abilities to unlock first and why.
What is the Pilgrimage for Power, and is it worth doing?
As you head toward the Briar Sloughs Watchtower, a quest marker appears on the other side of the river to the south. This is the first Pilgrimage for Power, and it's worth completing before you do much else.
The pilgrimage leads you up a climbing trail that ends in a fight against a large bear in front of a rune carving. Defeat the bear, analyze the runes, and you unlock Ravenous Flock for purchase on the Witchcraft tree. Ravenous Flock is an area-of-effect spell that stuns enemies around the impact zone, which makes group fights significantly more manageable.
Two things to know before you cast it: first, it requires 2 activation charges, so you'll need to invest in Forbidden Sigils to get a second charge. Second, casting Ravenous Flock costs 40% of your current health. Several Witchcraft spells have this blood price mechanic, so don't fire it off when you're already low.
How do you get a good weapon early?
Just south of the Pilgrimage location, watch the western side of the road for a Will-o'-the-Wisp quest popup. Following the wisp leads through the hills, past another bear encounter, and ends at a treasure chest containing a Knightly Greatsword. For where you are in the game, this is a meaningful attack power upgrade.
The Will-o'-the-Wisp quests are repeatable encounters across the world, and they reliably lead to worthwhile loot. This first one is easy to miss if you're rushing south toward the miller questline, so keep your eyes on the left side of the road.
For keeping that Knightly Greatsword (or any weapon you find) scaled to your level as the game progresses, check out the guide on how to upgrade weapons and armor so your early-game finds don't become dead weight.
Blood of Dawnwalker Guide: Things You Should Do First
How does rescuing Mert the Miller fit into the bigger picture?
Nearby Mert's Mill is where you'll find Renna, the miller's wife, who kicks off a quest called The Firebrand. Rescuing Mert matters beyond the immediate story beat because it directly fills the anger meter beneath Ambrus's portrait in the Court menu.
Ambrus is the first major vampire target in the northern part of the map. The Court menu shows how all the vampire lords connect and tracks your progress toward confronting each one. Every action that undermines Ambrus's operation fills his meter, and freeing Mert is one of the more substantial contributions early on.
The quest has multiple approaches. You can enter the prison camp during the day, but you'll be required to surrender your weapons at the gate. Going in at night keeps your vampire abilities active, which is the stronger play at this point in the game. Inside, you can either bribe the jailkeeper for cell access or beat down a soldier who's been harassing Mert to get the same result.
What else fills Ambrus's anger meter?
After dealing with the mill, continue south along the road. A soldier patrol will engage you almost immediately. Taking them out fills more of Ambrus's meter, and reading the notes they drop marks additional camps with leech shipments on your map.
Clearing those camps serves two purposes: it pushes you closer to a direct confrontation with Ambrus, and each cleared camp rewards you with blood leeches that restore health in vampire form. At this stage of the game, that's a reliable healing source that doesn't depend on crafting ingredients.
Don't forget healing supplies
Before heading into any of the camps or the miller rescue, make sure you have at least one Minor Healing Ointment crafted. The recipe is available from the start: one Canteen of Water and two Ribwart Plantains. Ribwarts are found on the ground along paths, and water canisters turn up in barrels and crates.
Food provides some recovery, but it doesn't replace a proper healing item in tougher fights. Loot every container you pass and pick up plants along the way. Coen can carry a solid amount, and excess ingredients can be stored at shrines, so there's no reason to leave anything behind.
Blood of Dawnwalker is at its hardest in these opening hours. The difficulty curve flattens noticeably as your skill trees fill out and your gear improves. If specific encounters feel punishing, adjusting difficulty in the settings is always an option, and there's no shame in it. For a broader look at systems like fast travel, combat basics, and loadouts, the Blood of Dawnwalker beginner's guide covers everything you need to know before the game really opens up. For more guides covering every system in the game, browse the full Blood of Dawnwalker guide collection.