Are you curious about the best perks in The Blood of Dawnwalker? This action RPG lets you play as both a human and a vampire. You also have different skill trees with powerful perks, often altering how you approach encounters. Our guide has several suggestions to help you with combat and exploration.
The Blood of Dawnwalker – Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism skill trees
Before we discuss the best perks in The Blood of Dawnwalker, let’s talk briefly about how you unlock and upgrade skills. Basically, you have three skill trees:
- Swordmastery – Your melee aptitude and physical prowess. Your abilities here can be used both in human form during the day and vampire form at night.
- Witchcraft – The Witchcraft tree has various perks related to spellcasting. Most are only applicable during the day.
- Vampirism – Your Vampirism skills emphasize sheer bloodthirstiness and lethality, including the use of claws to shred opponents. That said, these are only applicable at night.
There are also two notable differences in how skills become available. For Swordmastery and Witchcraft, you need to obtain manuals that allow you to learn perks. For Vampirism, you have to increase your Corruption level by drinking more blood.
Note: The vast majority of perks and abilities cost skill points and time segments to unlock and upgrade. Be mindful of Time Progression, especially since you only have 30 days to save Coen’s family.
Best Swordmastery perks
Some of the best skills in The Blood of Dawnwalker are in the Swordmastery tree. You utilize your melee weapons as a human and as a vampire, which means you get the most benefit from the boons you unlock. Here are our picks:
- Omniblock 1, Perfect Riposte 1, and Counterattack 1 – This whole column is great for defending and quickly countering. A perfect block, followed by a riposte with boosted damage, does wonders against all kinds of enemies.
- Stinging Blade 4, Fate’s Favor 4, Precision 1, and Growing Momentum 1 – This column also enhances your offensive capabilities via damage and critical buffs.
- Endless Effort 2 and Fleet of Foot 2 – Timing your dodges properly leads to faster activation charges.
- Sustained Focus 4 and Master Fencer 3 – Get the maximum number of activation charges and Swordmastery ability slots.
- Vigor and Second Skin (I or II) – Aside from the extra health, you have to choose whether you prefer medium armor or heavy armor so you can lessen the penalties.
Swordmastery abilities:
- Dirty Trick 1 – This ability remains handy throughout the campaign. The stun effect lasts for either the full duration or after you land three hits, which is more than enough time to take a breather and wait for other abilities to recharge.
- Artery Strike 3 or 4 – A high-damage strike that can decapitate your foe, with a boosted chance if your opponent is bleeding.
- Adrenaline Charge 3 or Walking Fortress 3 – The former improves passive activation charge, whereas the latter improves activation charge restoration and cooldowns via perfect blocks.
Swordmastery ultimate:
- Sword Sage – The fact that you can reset all active ability cooldowns whenever you kill an enemy is just downright bonkers.
Best Witchcraft perks
In our playthrough, we mostly utilized Witchcraft perks to supplement our playstyle.
- Forager 1, Herbal Remedies 1, and Amalgam 1 – Amalgam is the one that you really want here. With it, you can have simultaneous buffs from consumables, such as increased attack, defense, or stamina.
- Astral Communion 4 – This is one of the best perks in The Blood of Dawnwalker if you like Witchcraft spells. It provides a permanent damage boost to your abilities depending on how often you’ve used Astral Communion. If you complete all Haunted Site and Ancient Circle activities, you should have a 30% increase.
Witchcraft abilities:
- Mercurial Favor 1 – This grants Haste–i.e. major speed boost–when running as a human. You only need a single point to help with exploration.
- Ravenous Flock 4 – Once you’ve found all Sacred Stones, you should be able to reach max level with this ability. The stun duration, coupled with the area-of-effect damage, obliterates packs of hostiles.
Witchcraft ultimate:
- Entwined Torment – Whether you’re casting Ravenous Flock, Burning Blood, or something else entirely, being able to cause the affliction on two targets instead of one is amazing.
Best Vampirism perks
The best Vampirism perks in The Blood of Dawnwalker ensure that you strike fast and hard. You also need options to boost survivability.
- Vrakhiri Might – Level this up if you need extra slots for Vampirism abilities.
- Nourishing Blood 1, Crimson Feast 3, and Hastened Corruption 3 – The goal for this column isn’t just to keep you in tip-top condition. Rather, it’s to speed up your Corruption accrual, allowing you to reach higher Vampirism levels.
- Endless Hunger 3 – Additional health segments as a vampire.
- Optional: Razorsharp Claws column – It’s really up to you if you want to grab these perks. We primarily used melee weapons when fighting as a vampire, so we didn’t have a chance to focus too much on claws.
Vampirism abilities:
- Shapeshift 1 – This Haste boost transforms you into a wolf.
- Piercing Shriek 4 – Your scream hits and debuffs multiple targets in a frontal cone.
- Scarlet Shield – This allows your perfect blocks to restore health segments.
- Shred – Level this up a bit if you want. When used in conjunction with Artery Strikes, you might see more heads rolling.
Vampirism ultimate:
- Renounce Death – Granted, the game becomes very easy as you continue to progress. However, if you plan on playing on harder difficulties, then you need this so Coen can cheat death once per encounter.
That does it for our guide on the best skills and perks in The Blood of Dawnwalker. We hope these suggestions help you decide on how to build Coen into a ferocious killing machine.
