I've spent over 80 hours in The Blood of Dawnwalker—here are my top 20 quick tips to survive Vale Sangora

Searching for some Blood of Dawnwalker tips? Deciding what to do first in this vampiric RPG can be tough, especially if you're the kind of person who's paralysed by indecision when a game gives you a lot of freedom. You've got 30 days to save your family: everything else is pretty much anyone's game.

There's no right or wrong answer. You can't really fail The Blood of Dawnwalker either, depending on how you define failure. While its time constraints form a guideline and structure to follow, where to spend that time is entirely down to you. Here's my best advice from spending 80 hours with the game, testing its many quests and choices.

1. Use the shield icon to Perfect Block

Rather than timing your block to the enemy's swing, wait for when the shield turns orange on the directional indicator. Also unlock Perfect Riposte for a guaranteed crit afterwards.

2. There's plenty of time to fast travel

I barely levelled in my run because I was worried about time and I made it to the end of the story with a whole 15 days left. Don't be like me.

3. Killing enemies is time-efficient

Murdering enemies you find, particularly wolves, boar, and bear bosses in the woods, is an extremely time-efficient way to get XP. In fact, it costs no time at all

4. Use towers to mark points of interest

Climbing each region tower at night will add all of its points of interest as ? symbols, including landmarks and potential quests.

5. Upgrade your vampire health ASAP

Do this with the "Endless Hunger" skill. This will make you less likely to lose control and be forced to feed on poor humans in dialogue due to only having one segment left.

6. Drink blood to increase Corruption

Animals and enemies are a great consequence-free source of blood. Some vampiric abilities are only accessible if you drink Vrakhir blood from the game's boyar bosses.

7. Grab a legendary sword early

Head to the broken bridge in northwest Briar Sloughs to start the Cursed Chasm quest. Drop down the east side of the ravine, fight some ghosts, and you'll get the legendary Durandal.

8. Spend your time wisely

You can only complete activities marked with a moon at night, and those marked with a sun in the day. Quest approaches will also change based on which it is.

9. Find new Swordmastery skills

You can get Swordmastery Manuals from Bandit and Soldier Camps or buy them from blade instructors.

10. Don't sleep on weapon arts

Every blue, purple, or orange (legendary) weapon has a weapon art, essentially a free skill, that you can use on cooldown. Bracers also have "claw arts" for when you're a Vrakhiri.

11. Check bookcases for Witchcraft spells

New Witchcraft Manuals come from Ancient Circles, Haunted Sites, Pilgrimage of Power quests, and Witchcraft vendors, but you can find freebies in bookcases.

12. Sell silver for big bucks

Selling silver you find exploring at the shop in Svartrau is a great way to make a lot of money very, very fast.

13. Exploration costs no time at all

Committing to activities is the only thing that costs time, so you can explore and uncover as many opportunities as you want before actually spending any.

14. Loot humans and animals for blood

The hardest part of being a vampire is healing, so make sure to loot all human and animal corpses since they have a random chance to drop blood consumables.

15. Also feed mid-combat

Remember you can use Voracious Bite mid-combat to get a bit of health back. Press Z to open active abilities and then click it when you have an activation charge.

16. Set gear presets for day and night

Click "Equipment Preview" in the right of the character screen to set different loadouts. This lets you choose passives that benefit your human side by day, and vampire side by night.

17. Scarlet Shield is very strong

This is the vampiric ability you unlock from drinking Ambrus's blood in The Gilded Gauntlet quest, and it's by far the most powerful, partially healing every time you Perfect Block.

18. White dialogue options can lead to yellow ones

I found this in Blood of Dawnwalker's romances. Sometimes skippable white dialogue options lead to otherwise inaccessible yellow "choice" options, so be thorough to avoid missing character moments.

19. Keep an eye out for new ? symbols

Though it doesn't happen often, quests sometimes appear in regions you've already "cleared". Keep an eye out for these if you want to explore every opportunity.

20. Don't skip the Vrakhiri Boyar quests

You unlock these by angering the Boyar of each region when you destroy enough of their operation, and they're some of the best quests in the game—don't skip them.

Blood of Dawnwalker guide: Quest assured
Blood of Dawnwalker romances: Hot blooded
Swordmastery manual locations: Slice and dice
Witchcraft manual locations: Spells trouble
Blood of Dawnwalker Vrakhir blood: New abilities