Skill trees in The Blood of Dawnwalker
Three trees, two of them tied to day or night, and skills that cost time as well as points. Read this before spending anything: there is no way in the game to take a point back.
How skills work, briefly
- Earn skill points by levelling up and completing quests. The level cap is 50. There is one shared experience bar and one kind of skill point, usable in any tree.
- Spend them at a shrine. The skill screen itself says “Go to any road shrine to learn”.
- Pay in time too. Most perks take one to three segments of the 30 days to learn; a few, including Mercurial Fervour and Shapeshift, take none.
- Unlock the right to learn it. Swordmastery and Witchcraft abilities need their manual, read from your inventory first; many Vampirism abilities open as Corruption rises.
- Slot what you learned. There is a day set and a night set of quick slots, four active abilities per type, and some abilities with passive effects only work while equipped.
The Blood of Dawnwalker - Early Game Skill Tree Guide | Best Early Skills
IGN · 11:19
Eleven minutes on the three trees: what the hourglass cost means, why manuals gate abilities, and the early picks.
The three trees
Swordmastery
Day and night
- Size before release
- 22 perks and 7 abilities
- What unlocks abilities
- Skill points and manuals. Swordmastery manuals are left around the world by soldiers and bandits, or sold by fencers; sellers include Ocha, Drogos and the teacher Constantin.
- More slots
- Master Fencer adds ability slots
- Ultimate perks need
- 35 skill points spent in the tree
Witchcraft
Abilities by day; some passives at night too
- Size before release
- 21 perks and 10 abilities
- What unlocks abilities
- Skill points and manuals, found in ancient ruins and haunted places or bought from other magic practitioners. Quite a few passives on the left of the tree still apply at night.
- More slots
- Forbidden Sigils adds ability slots
- Ultimate perks need
- 35 skill points spent in the tree
Vampirism
Night only
- Size before release
- 20 perks and 10 abilities
- What unlocks abilities
- Skill points. Many abilities open as Corruption rises rather than through manuals; some come from quests or from a boyar's blood instead.
- More slots
- Vrakhiri Might adds ability slots
- Ultimate perks need
- Corruption level 15
What a skill really costs
These trees are the whole of character building — there is no class or creator ahead of them. Points are the obvious cost. The one that catches people is time: the hourglass on a skill is time taken from your 30 days, the same budget quests spend. Most perks cost one to three time segments. Each hourglass may stand for an in-game hour, with some skills costing two; how time segments work has the full picture. Mercurial Fervour and Shapeshift, the two haste perks, cost points but no time; the getting-around page covers them. Several perks in one shrine visit add up, so budget for them in the time planner.
Manuals are the other gate: without the manual, having the points does not let you learn the skill. Ocha, Drogos and the Swordmastery teacher Constantin sell them, and others turn up in chests and camps. Swordmastery is no exception — improving those abilities needs manuals too. Each level of an ability takes another copy of the same manual. Collected manuals sit in the manuals and recipes section of your inventory, and once you have used one you go to a shrine. Many Vampirism abilities ask for Corruption instead, and others come from quests, such as Piercing Shriek from Lacra's Our Rotten Roots. The three boyars are a shortcut of a different kind: drinking a defeated boyar's blood grants their ability, probably with no skill points needed, though Scarlet Shield, Ambrus's ability, may cost one.
Ultimate perks
Each tree has three ultimate perks, and you learn one per tree: each tree’s ultimate row carries the label “only one can be learnt”. The Swordmastery and Witchcraft screens count points spent toward 35 before the row unlocks, rather than charging a 35-point price. Either way it is a late-game choice; for Vampirism it waits on Corruption 15. Strong picks include Runic Bulwark for Witchcraft, Last Stand for Swordmastery and Renounce Death for Vampirism.
Can you respec?
On PC, modders have filled the gap (there is more on them on the mods page). The Respec Your Skills mod on Nexus Mods refunds spent skill points and needs UE4SS to load; its author notes it does not give back the time segments you spent learning. A second mod, posted to r/DawnwalkerOfficial, adds a Reset Skills option at the shrine without UE4SS. Both are PC mods.
Best-skill picks, compared
Skills recommended across three best-skills lists. The rows at the top appear on two of the three; the rest on one.
| Skill | Tree | Lists | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Endless Effort | Swordmastery | 2 of 3 | More stamina for long fights and boss battles. |
| Mercurial Fervour | Witchcraft | 2 of 3 | A fast sprint that makes getting around by day far more tolerable. |
| Shapeshift | Vampirism | 2 of 3 | The wolf form, the night-time answer to long-distance travel. |
| Burning Blood | Witchcraft | 2 of 3 | Damage over time that can jump to another enemy when the target dies. |
| Swiftness | Swordmastery | 2 of 3 | Faster attacks after a perfect block. |
| Master Fencer | Swordmastery | 2 of 3 | More Swordmastery ability slots. |
| Forbidden Sigils | Witchcraft | 2 of 3 | More Witchcraft ability slots. |
| Second Skin I | Swordmastery | 1 of 3 | Smaller penalties for medium armour; take it before the heavy-armour rank. |
| Second Skin II | Swordmastery | 1 of 3 | Smaller penalties for heavy armour. |
| Vrakhiri Might | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | More Vampirism ability slots. |
| Sustained Focus | Swordmastery | 1 of 3 | More activation charges, which every active ability draws on. |
| Perfect Block | Swordmastery | 1 of 3 | Stamina and charge back when you block perfectly. |
| Hastened Corruption | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | Faster Corruption, which effectively acts as an XP multiplier. |
| Endless Hunger | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | Much more health at night. |
| Voracious Bite | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | The upgraded bite both damages and heals. |
| Frugal Witchcraft | Witchcraft | 1 of 3 | Healing on spell kills offsets the health spells cost. |
| Vigour | — | 1 of 3 | Maximum health, useful early in human form. |
| Shred | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | Bleed chance on weapon and claw attacks. |
| Blood Surge | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | An explosive attack that works well on bosses. |
| Pack Mule | — | 1 of 3 | More carry weight, fewer trips to traders once Infamy makes towns awkward. |
| Stinging Blade | — | 1 of 3 | A flat increase to weapon damage. |
| Blood Theft | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | Attacking restores vampiric health you recently lost. |
| Piercing Shriek | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | Stuns and weakens enemies in front of you. Comes from Lacra's quest Our Rotten Roots. |
| Scarlet Shield | Vampirism | 1 of 3 | A chance to regain health when you block. Comes from drinking Ambrus's blood. |
Two achievements tied to skills
Glass Ceiling
“Reach Level 50.”
2.4%
Mastery
“Level up one Swordmastery, Witchcraft, or Vampiric Ability to its full potential.”
13.8%
Rates are Steam’s global figures from the game’s first week; the achievements page has the rest.
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