Lacra: the whole questline, and the order that matters
A vrakhir with her own reasons for wanting Brencis dead. You meet her by losing a fight to her, and you can miss her entirely.
Lacra is the only vampire among the three romances, and the only one you have to fight before she will speak to you. IGN calls her a completely missable character: her line begins with A Friend Like This, and if that never triggers, she never appears. GameSpot's framing of her is the useful one — she has made ending Brencis's schemes her unlife's mission, which is why she tolerates Coen at all. The other two partners are on the romance page.
Her questline, in order
1. A Friend Like This
3 segments
Starts: IGN: kill Ambrus and read the note on his body. Polygon says walking the north-east alley of Svartrau after the prologue starts it too.
Follow the blood and the broken roof tiles to a house where she is interrogating an Uriashi prisoner, then fight her. The fight stops on its own when her health runs out; IGN notes she shifts into a wolf and has no unblockable attacks.
2. Song of the Mountain
4 segments, per a player-written route
Starts: Automatic, once you have met her and interrogated Nish.
Meet her at Crown Rock after dark and go on to the Uriash village. GameSpot's rule is that her missions can only be started at night, since she is a vampire — though Game8 marks the first one as available in either phase.
3. Hive and Seek
4 segments
Starts: Talk to her at the cliff edge in the Uriashi village and pick the line about leaving.
A silver-poisoned kobold cave that ends at Chonk the Insatiable. Take the Hive's offer and you skip fights; refuse and you take two more Wrongs. The chest to the right of the chained Isbrand holds Isbrand's Plate.
4. Our Rotten Roots
4 segments
Starts: Return to her a day after Hive and Seek.
Game8 puts it at Westridge Outpost Tower, while Fextralife files this part of her line under Rockfalls. Either way it ends in the vampire hell of Anachora. Going the wrong way at the fork angers her, and GameSpot's apology lines put it right. Rewards Piercing Shriek either way, per Eurogamer.
5. The Night of Horrors
6 to 7 segments
Starts: Wait a day after Our Rotten Roots and speak to her. Fextralife has you tell her the parley with Brencis is a trap.
Optional, and the romance quest. Will-o'-wisps trade Coen's and Lacra's confessions for passage. GameSpot warns that fighting the patrolling soldiers advances time and the quest fails outright if morning arrives.
6. Midnight Reckoning
Starts: Offered at the same time as The Night of Horrors.
The finale with her, and the road to Brencis. Starting it is the point of no return.
What her line pays
| Reward | From | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Isbrand's Plate | Hive and Seek | A legendary chest piece, in the chest to the right of the chained Isbrand. IGN and GameRant both flag it as easy to walk past. |
| Piercing Shriek | Our Rotten Roots | Eurogamer: you get it whichever way the fight's ending choice goes. |
| Mesmerize and Mandrake Ward | The Night of Horrors | GameSpot: mind-control an enemy for a while, and once a night death is replaced by three restored health segments. |
| The Relic of St. Tobias | The Night of Horrors | One of the saint relics the Arbiter ritual will accept. |
| Vicho as a merchant | After Hive and Seek | A Study in Crimson starts on its own and opens the witchcraft trader. |
Hive and Seek is also the one that pays a skill point on top of 1,000 XP, by IGN's count, and the relic it eventually leads to is compared with the others on the relics page.
The romance itself
It happens at the end of The Night of Horrors, in the cavern where an ancient vrakhir has been consumed. Eat the mandrake, follow her, drink when she offers her wrist, then kiss her. Polygon, GameSpot and Fextralife all give that same order of choices.
What does not cost you the romance is almost everything else. IGN says how you handle her Uriashi captive does not matter and that staying peaceful against her wishes does not either; Polygon says you can oppose her at several points and still apologise your way back; PC Gamer says the kobold decision is free. The three romances do not compete, either — all three guides say Coen can pursue more than one.
What the guides cannot agree on about her
- What starts her line. IGN and Fextralife say Ambrus’s note; Polygon says the alley works on its own; LunarGaming’s video has Vicho send you to her first, which reverses IGN’s order, since IGN has Vicho’s quest unlock after Hive and Seek.
- Whether Song of the Mountain expires. IGN’s romance guide calls it time-sensitive and says to start it as soon as night falls, while IGN’s own day walkthrough says it has seen reports that passing time does not fail it. Doms Roundtable’s video describes arriving to find the Uriashi clan slaughtered for waiting too long.
- Whether Hive and Seek touches the romance. IGN, Polygon and GameSpot all say the choices there are free. GameRant is alone in describing a romantic tracker that the kobold decision nudges either way.
- Whether she survives the finale. PC Gamer’s endings guide mentions a mid-fight cutscene implying she dies if you skipped the mandrake, and says plainly it has not played that variant to confirm. Fextralife lists The Night of Horrors as optional for that ending.
Starting her line, and keeping her alive
- How do you start Lacra's questline in The Blood of Dawnwalker?
- Kill Ambrus and read the note on his corpse, which is IGN's route. Polygon says you can also simply walk into the north-east alley of Svartrau City after the prologue and follow the blood trail. She is genuinely missable: if you never trigger A Friend Like This, you never meet her.
- What locks you out of romancing Lacra?
- Taking Midnight Reckoning before The Night of Horrors. Both are offered at once after Our Rotten Roots, and Polygon says the romance is gone if you do them in that order. Almost nothing else matters — you can oppose her, spare her prisoner, and pick either side with the kobolds.
- Can you romance Lacra and Anca?
- Yes. Polygon, IGN and PC Gamer all say Coen is not limited to one partner, and the three lines can run in the same playthrough in any order.
- Can Lacra be killed?
- Not by accident, the way Anca can. Polygon's reasoning is simply that she is already a vampire. You can still lose her line by never starting it or by rushing the castle — and if The Night of Horrors runs into morning, the quest fails and Method says the romance goes with it.
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