The Blood of Dawnwalker: frequently asked questions
Short answers to the questions people actually search for.
- Which is the best ending in The Blood of Dawnwalker?
- There is no single canonical best. The three endings where you defeat Brencis with your family alive — alone (The Folk Hero), with Lacra (The Patricide), or with Crake and the Manumits (The Knyazmaker) — are the good outcomes; which of those is best is a question about whose side you took, not a ranking. All three require beating the 30-day clock. The two bad ones are letting the timer run out, and taking Brencis's deal (The Turncoat). All eight outcomes, with how many players reached each →
- Who should use the Font of Life?
- It depends on what you want. Coen drinking gives a secret Witchcraft perk with passive daytime health regeneration, which nothing else does, and may be the strongest pick. Destroying it gives the legendary Ancient Greaves, which may be an excellent trade or may not be worth losing the perk. Anca using it changes her story and nothing else. The romance survives all three. All three outcomes, and which to pick →
- Is there no main quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker?
- There is, but it is not a list. After the prologue the journal shows a single goal — reach your family before the 30 days run out — with a day counter, rather than a chain of numbered main quests. You advance it by disrupting the three boyars' courts until your Infamy is high enough to unlock the final quest. People searching "no main quest" are usually looking at an empty main-quest tab and assuming something broke; nothing has. How court activities drive the story →
- How long is the time limit in The Blood of Dawnwalker?
- Thirty in-game days, each split into a day phase and a night phase of eight time segments — sixteen a day. Time is spent on quest objectives rather than ticking down, so exploring and fighting cost nothing. How the time system works →
- Does time pass when I explore or fight?
- No. Walking, exploring, killing enemies and fast-travelling between shrines are all free. Time is only spent completing quest objectives, on dialogue options marked with an hourglass, learning perks at a shrine, waiting at a shrine, and a few specific world interactions. Getting caught stealing costs four segments. What costs time →
- Is 30 days enough to do everything?
- For the main story and the side quests, comfortably. The 46 side quests in the quest table come to roughly 109 to 130 segments out of a budget of about 480 (30 days x 16), and the main story runs 7 to 10 days. One reviewer finished with 15 days spare. What you genuinely cannot finish is the prologue, which has its own much smaller budget. Plan a run →
- What happens if the 30 days run out?
- It is not a game over. Your family dies, the timer is removed entirely, and the goal changes from rescuing them to avenging them — and you can keep playing untimed. You lose the best ending and the In the Nick of Time achievement. What happens after 30 days →
- How many endings does The Blood of Dawnwalker have?
- Seven or eight: killing Brencis during the prologue is either its own ending or part of The Folk Hero. There are eight distinct outcomes either way. All endings, with unlock rates →
- Can you save Esme?
- Yes, during the prologue quest Withering Away: brew Anca's medicine with hot water and three spoonfuls of herbs, then offer to tell her a story to get her to take it, before nightfall. A wrong brew may mean she dies at the Blood Mass and is missing from the epilogue, or it may have no major consequence at all. Withering Away, choice by choice →
- Do quests expire if I ignore them?
- After the prologue, no. A quest stays available indefinitely until you start it — only once started can its objectives become time-sensitive and fail. So the risk is opening quests early, not leaving them alone. Prologue quests are the exception: all of them vanish when the prologue ends. The full missables list →
- Is it made by the Witcher devs?
- Partly. Rebel Wolves made it, not CD Projekt Red, and the studio was co-founded by the game director of The Witcher 3. Many, or at least some, of The Witcher 3's former developers worked on it. The Witcher 3 comparison page has what is alike and different. Dawnwalker vs The Witcher 3 →
- Is there a horse or mount?
- No, there is no mount of any kind. You get a daytime and a night haste perk, a wolf form at night, and fast travel between shrines you stand at. See how you get around. How you get around →
- What is the age rating?
- ESRB M (Mature 17+), PEGI 18 and Germany's USK 18, with the ESRB listing intense violence, blood and gore, strong sexual content, nudity and strong language. Australia rates it MA 15+. The full table by country is on the age rating page. Age rating by country →
- Is there New Game Plus?
- Not yet. The game has no New Game Plus mode today, but its director has said one is planned, without a date or details. A New Game Plus described before release did not ship. Until it arrives, a manual save before the final quest reaches the endings that branch there without starting over. New Game Plus: planned, not dated →
- Does The Blood of Dawnwalker have Denuvo?
- No. The developers said no before release, and the Steam version has no third-party DRM. The GOG version is sold DRM free and plays offline. Denuvo, DRM and offline play →
- Can you respec your skills?
- No. There is no way to reset spent skill points, and a medic respec described before release is not in the game. On PC, mods on Nexus Mods add one. Skills are learned at shrines and most also cost time, so the only undo is an older save. How the skill trees work →
- Does the PC version have HDR and a FOV slider?
- No to both: there is no native HDR, and field of view can be changed only with mods. Ultrawide works in gameplay, but cutscenes are letterboxed and capped at 30fps. Best PC settings →
- What difficulty settings are there?
- Four presets: Story, Fair (the default), Challenging and Duelist. The big patch planned for early October adds an easier fifth that takes the Story name, and today's Story gets a new one. Assists such as auto block can be changed separately, but the Duelist achievement requires the preset untouched from start to finish. What each preset changes →
- Can you do everything in one playthrough?
- No. The time mechanic means some quests will be left undone, and that applies to the prologue in particular. For the main game the constraint is mostly phase-locking rather than the budget. All quests and costs →
- What is the difference between day and night?
- Coen is human by day — Witchcraft and Swordmastery, potions and food to heal, no vampiric traversal, and Haunted Sites are day-only. At night he is a vampire — Vampirism and Swordmastery, Shadowstep and Planeshift, healing only by feeding, and Monster Lairs open up. There are two separate equipment sets and two ability quick-slot sets, one per phase. Day and night compared →
- Can you keep playing after the ending?
- Two different questions get mixed up here. After the 30-day timer expires you can definitely keep playing, untimed. After you trigger an actual ending, the story is most likely over and the open world gone, though you may be able to continue. Endings →
- Does The Blood of Dawnwalker run at 60 FPS on PS5 or Xbox?
- Yes, in Performance Mode, added on PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X in the day-one patch after a pre-launch backlash over the original 30/40 FPS-only plan. It can drop into the low 40s in heavy scenes, and every mode reportedly fights frame-time spikes during cutscene camera cuts. Xbox Series S has one mode only, at 30 FPS. Every mode, by platform →
- What are the PC system requirements?
- Minimum is an i5-11400F or Ryzen 7 2700X, 16 GB RAM, a GTX 1060 or RX 580 with 6 GB VRAM, and 60 GB on an SSD. Recommended steps up to an i7-11700K or Ryzen 7 5700X and an RTX 4060, RX 7600 XT or Arc B580 with 8 GB VRAM. Windows 10 and DirectX 12 for both. Full specs →
- How much does The Blood of Dawnwalker cost?
- $69.99 for the Standard Edition and $79.99 for the digital Eclipse Edition on Steam. A physical Collector's Edition sells for €199.99 on Bandai Namco's European store, and what is in each edition is on the platforms and editions page. The Eclipse extras — a digital world compendium, the soundtrack and a comic book — are also sold separately as an add-on, and contain no gameplay. What it cost Rebel Wolves to make →
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