The Blood of Dawnwalker beginner guide: the 30 days, how long to beat, tips

The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first game from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded by developers of The Witcher 3. Fourteenth-century Europe, the Black Death, and vampires rising in the middle of it. You play Coen: by day a human with a sword and witchcraft, by night a vampire with claws and supernatural strength. The goal is to save your family from the vampire lord Brencis — and you have limited time to do it.

The time limit is what scares people most, so let's start there.

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How the 30 days and 30 nights work

The story is built around 30 days and 30 nights, but it is not a real-time clock. Every day and every night is split into 8 segments, and time moves only when you take a marked action:

• advance the main quest;
• pick certain dialogue options;
• wait at a shrine;
• learn higher-level skills.

Before such an action the game shows an hourglass and how many segments it will cost. Walking around the world, fighting, looting chests and fast-travelling between unlocked shrines is free — do as much of it as you like.

If day 30 passes, the game does not end, but you lose some story events. According to the developers, a single playthrough shows you most of the content but not all of it — some branches are mutually exclusive.

How long it takes to beat

Estimates vary more than usual here because so much depends on play style.

What to do first

The most important decision shows up in the prologue. The quest with the healing herbs has a clock icon — do it right away, don't postpone it. When you brew the remedy, choose hot water and three scoops. Coen's mother's fate depends on it, and it is the moment beginners miss most often.

A few more things for the first hours:

1. Save manually before big choices. The game lets you save at any time — use it.
2. Wayside shrines are both fast-travel points and storage. Unlock every one you pass.
3. Watchtowers can only be climbed at night using a vampire ability. From the top you see points of interest on the map.
4. Separate loadouts for day and night. Gear and quick slots for the human and the vampire are best set up separately, and newly unlocked passives sometimes have to be equipped by hand.

Day and night: two different characters

By day Coen heals with consumables, so craft the starting ointment right away — you need water and ribwort plantain. He fights with a sword and witchcraft.

By night he heals with blood: biting enemies or drinking from people and animals. That fills the Corruption gauge, which some vampire abilities require. But don't let the vampire get too hungry: Coen may then attack someone nearby — including a character important to the story.

There are no horses in the game. To move faster, learn the daytime sprint ability and the night-time wolf form.

Levelling: where to put your first points

• Start with stamina and a cheaper dodge — they work day and night, and everything in combat costs stamina.
• The first levels of many swordsmanship skills cost no time. Pricier ones do cost hourglass segments, so choose when to take them.
• Higher-level sword and witchcraft skills need manuals found in camps and ruins.
• Some vampire abilities are unlocked by phials lying around the world. They are worth hunting down — it is free power.

Combat: directions and the perfect block

Combat here is a directional duel. Watch the indicator showing where the enemy strikes from and block in that direction. A last-moment block — a perfect block — opens a counter. Attacks that can't be blocked must be dodged. If directions feel hard, there is a simpler universal block (costs more stamina) and an auto-block to ease you in.

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Difficulty

There are four presets at the start: Story, Fair (default), Challenging and Duelist. On top of that, combat and RPG difficulty are set separately — and all of it can be changed at any time. Higher tiers remove the block direction hints, so beginners are better off starting on Fair or Story.

PC system requirements

You need about 60 GB on an SSD.

The most common PC complaint is stutter when turning the camera in villages. The developers recommended playing in exclusive fullscreen (not windowed or borderless), and updating your motherboard BIOS if the game crashes during shader compilation, especially on Intel CPUs. Players add: upscaling on Quality or Balanced, motion blur off, third-party overlays closed.

What to know before renting

• The game is single-player only, with no multiplayer. According to the developers, it has no Denuvo.
• The usual order for an offline rental: sign in, download the game, launch it once and then switch Steam to offline mode — details here.
• Languages: full English voice-over and several others. There is no official Ukrainian; a community translation exists and is enabled through the Polish language slot.
• Scores: 85 on Metacritic, "Very Positive" on Steam. Players praise the day/night split, choices with consequences and the grim atmosphere, and criticise repetitive combat, animations and launch performance.

Sources

• Steam store page — requirements, languages, release date
• Shacknews: developer interview on length
• Insider Gaming: how many hours the game takes
• FinalBoss: how the 30-day clock works
• KeenGamer: beginner tips
• Kotaku: developer advice on PC crashes
• IGN: 10 things to do first (video)
• Mezha: community Ukrainian translation