Day and night are close to two different games
Human through the day, vampire after dark. It is not a cosmetic change — different trees, different movement, different healing, and content that only exists in one of them.
| ◐ Day — human | ◑ Night — vampire | |
|---|---|---|
| Skill trees | Witchcraft and Swordmastery | Vampirism and Swordmastery — Swordmastery is the only tree that works in both |
| Traversal | A human sprint and nothing else. No Shadowstep, no Planeshift, and vertical exploration is heavily limited | Shadowstep, Planeshift, Clawride and wolf shapeshift |
| Healing | Food, potions and consumables | Blood only. Consumables do not work — you heal by feeding with Voracious Bite |
| Exclusive content | Haunted Sites, which are gated behind Witchcraft and therefore impossible at night. Compel Soul, which lets you talk to the dead. Daytime merchants and NPCs | Monster Lairs, hidden vendors and nocturnal enemies |
| Combat | Weaker — a sword and magic | Stronger — claws |
| The risk | None specific to the phase | Blood Craving. At one health segment your dialogue options warp into 'give in to the hunger', and you may kill the person you are talking to |
Quests are locked by phase, and the lock is on starting them
A quest marked with a sun or a moon must be started in that phase. Turn up in the wrong form and it is simply not available to you. Of the 45 side quests, 12 are day-only and 4 are night-only; the rest can be started in either.
Day-only (12)
- Dead Drop · free
- If a Tree Falls in a Forest... · free
- Blasphemy · 1 seg
- Deep Down · 1 seg
- Disturbed · 1-2 seg
- Live Bait · 1 seg
- On the Run · 1 seg
- Someone Needs a Lesson · 1 seg
- Bandits's Treasure Map: Laslea Glen · 2 seg
- Page-Turner · 3 seg
- Stronger Than Achilles · free
- Where Old Devils Lie · 5 seg
Night-only (4)
- Night Terrors · 1 seg
- A Study in Crimson · 4 seg
- Our Rotten Roots · 4 seg
- The Night of Horrors · 6-7 seg
Two loadouts, not one
The game keeps two separate equipment sets and two separate ability quick-slot sets, one per phase, and perks are individually labelled Daytime, Nighttime or Anytime. So building Coen means building him twice. Swordmastery is the hedge: it is the one tree that pays off in both forms.
Changing phase on purpose
Wait at a shrine. That is the intended way to fast-forward, and it costs segments like anything else — so flipping back and forth carelessly is one of the few ways to actually waste the budget.
Keep going
Sources: GamesRadar+ — time and day/night systems · Game8 — day and night cycle · Fextralife — new player help