CHOICES · FULL SPOILERS
The Blood of Dawnwalker Endings Guide
The usual seven-ending checklist covers four main Brencis routes, two early exits and the 30-day failure state. There is also a tested secret variation for defeating Brencis during the Prologue. This guide gives you a save plan first, then the trigger for every route.
- How many endings are there? Seven named routes in the standard checklist, plus a secret Prologue victory variation — jump to the at-a-glance table.
- “Ends and Means” is a main quest, not an ending. Follow the Ends and Means walkthrough for that route.
- Which endings use an ally? The Patricide fights with Lacra (Midnight Reckoning); The Knyazmaker fights with Crake (Rise at Dawn).
This page names every ending and the main characters used to reach them. If you are still in the Prologue, use the Prologue Walkthrough instead.
The Blood of Dawnwalker ending routes at a glance
| Ending | Route | Key requirement | Trophy / note |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Turncoat | Accept Brencis's deal. | Choose the family bargain instead of attacking. | In the Nick of Time |
| The Folk Hero | Fight Brencis alone. | Enter Greifberg Castle without Lacra or Crake. | The Folk Hero |
| The Patricide | Fight with Lacra. | Finish Lacra's route and start Midnight Reckoning. | Main ending route |
| The Knyazmaker | Fight with Crake. | Finish Crake's route and start Rise at Dawn. | Main ending route |
| Prologue victory | Defeat Brencis in Laslea. | Win both phases of the intended-to-be-lost Prologue fight. | Secret solo-ending variation |
| A Hero They Deserve | Leave Vale Sangora. | Reach the western exit beyond Coward's Path and confirm that you will leave forever. | Early ending |
| Together Forever | Stay with your family. | Clear four Home Sweet Home loops, then speak to the family in loop five. | Early ending |
| Time Runs Out | Let the clock pass 30 days. | Take more than 30 in-game days after the Prologue. | No trophy; free roam remains |
One-playthrough save plan
The cleanest setup is to make the early endings before you invest in the final route, then keep a manual save after the three main vassals are defeated and the ally preparations are complete.
Protect the Prologue state
Give Esme the correct medicine before the opening window closes. Keep a save before the Prologue exit so you can recover a relationship route without replaying the whole campaign.
Complete the three vassal routes
Use the All Quests Walkthrough and Court Activities guide to defeat Ambrus, Bakir and Xanthe. Do not spend your final save on a small exploration detour.
Finish Lacra and Crake's preparations
Complete the ally questlines, but keep the ending-starting conversations distinct. Lacra uses Midnight Reckoning; Crake uses Rise at Dawn.
Make the final route save
Save before the final quest and another time after the ally preparations are complete. This is the branch point for The Folk Hero, The Patricide, The Knyazmaker and the betrayal route.
Reload after each ending
Use the branch save rather than overwriting it. Record the exact choice that started each outcome, because the four main endings are easy to confuse after a long quest chain.
Does draining or killing Bakir change the ending?
No. The choice after The Lunar Game does not redirect Coen into a different main ending route. Bakir is still removed as an active vassal either way, so choose based on the ability and Anachora content you want rather than trying to unlock The Folk Hero, The Patricide or The Knyazmaker.
| Bakir choice | Ability result | Story content |
|---|---|---|
| Kill | No additional ability. | Skips Bakir’s Anachora scene and proceeds to the post-fight treasury. |
| Drain | Unlocks Shadowstorm and adds Corruption progress. | Sends Coen to Anachora, where he can leave Bakir there or invite what remains of him to stay. |
Drain Bakir if you want Shadowstorm. Inviting or leaving him in Anachora changes later commentary, not the main ending branch. After either kill method, return to the treasury and loot his body and the room; the Court Activities guide has the reward checklist.
The four main Brencis endings
A Deal with the Devil: the parley behind two endings
The Turncoat and The Folk Hero share one trigger quest. A Deal with the Devil appears only when the three vassal bosses — Ambrus, Bakir and Xanthe — are defeated inside the 30-day window and Infamy is at its maximum. Advance to the next day: the Infamy Edicts scene plays, Brencis’s parley message arrives and the quest starts automatically. The meeting is at night at Shrike’s Crag, west of Svartrau, and the route runs about 4 time segments.
Make a manual save before the parley conversation. The dialogue there is the branch: accept Brencis’s terms and the route moves into the family bargain that ends as The Turncoat; refuse and the campaign continues toward the solo Griefberg assault that ends as The Folk Hero. Reload the pre-parley save afterwards to clean up the remaining endings without replaying the campaign.
1. The Turncoat
Choose this route when the priority is getting Coen's family back through a deal with Brencis. In the final quest, accept the offer rather than choosing the immediate attack. The route then asks you to mark the Manumit hideout, which requires the connected Firebrand chain and its follow-up steps.
Keep the pre-final-quest save before you accept the deal. The betrayal route is not the same as simply fighting Brencis alone; the dialogue intent is the branch.
2. The Folk Hero
A Lone Wolf’s Hunt starts when you enter Greifberg Castle without Lacra or Crake and leads to The Folk Hero trophy or achievement. This is a solo assault, so keep a manual save before crossing the castle boundary.
At night, approach from Svartrau and use Planeshift plus Shadowstep to climb over the castle wall. The side entrance northwest of the Vedera Shallows Shrine works during either day or night; entering by day keeps Coen in Human form, while entering at night starts the assault in Vampire form. To open it yourself, defeat Gheorghe, “The Rabid Duke,” at the Racovitza Bandit Camp on the eastern edge of the map and loot the Side Gate Key to Greifberg Castle.
If you reach the route through A Deal with the Devil, reject Brencis’s bargain and continue toward the solo assault. Do not bring an ally into the castle: Lacra and Crake lead to their own ending routes instead.
3. The Patricide
Finish Lacra's questline and begin the ending through Midnight Reckoning. The route uses Lacra's help for the Brencis fight. Complete any optional Lacra objectives before the ending conversation if you want the associated achievement or extra context.
4. The Knyazmaker
Finish Crake's questline and complete Who Pulls the Strings, which starts Rise at Dawn immediately. The final meeting does not open at once: wait at least two in-game days, or 32 time segments, before returning to Crake to continue into the ending. The route uses Crake and the Manumit for the final fight. Keep it separate from Lacra's branch: the two ending quests are independent routes, not two dialogue options inside one final battle.
Vladimir and the assault: if Vladimir survived the Prologue and you encourage his recklessness during Old Friends, New Friends (the hideout conversation), he rushes the gate during the Griefberg assault and gets many Manumits killed. Treat the hideout conversation as a route decision if you are keeping the Crake branch clean.
After draining Ambrus at the end of The Gilded Gauntlet, inviting the remaining part of him into Coen makes him available to assist during the later Brencis fight. This choice adds support and occasional commentary, but declining the invitation does not lock one of the seven endings. Make the decision before your final-route save if you want to test the Brencis battle both ways.
Secret variation: defeat Brencis in the Prologue
When Brencis fights Coen in Laslea near the end of the Prologue, the expected route is to lose. Winning the first phase instead starts a second fight against his Grotesque form; defeating that phase rolls an abbreviated epilogue and ends the campaign before the open world begins. Treat this as a secret variation of the solo Brencis outcome rather than one of the seven named checklist entries.
Coen is deliberately underpowered here. During the Grotesque phase, a landed hit kills him even on the lowest difficulty, so protect a save before the encounter and expect a challenge run rather than a normal Prologue objective.
Buried Past: Volk’s outcome
Volk’s side-quest ending is decided by the help you give him before the final visit. Exhaust the extra dialogue choices, complete every optional chore and agree to search for Pieter’s treasure. On that route, Volk turns against Brencis’s ambush, kills the soldiers, leaves Volk’s Sword in the hut and departs. If you skip the full set of chores or refuse the treasure search, Volk betrays Coen after the soldiers attack; killing him yields Volk’s Sword and 200 denarii, while sparing him leaves no reward when you return later. For the visit-by-visit plan, chores checklist and reward ledger, see the Buried Past walkthrough.
The two early endings
A Hero They Deserve
Travel to Coward's Path on the western edge of Vale Sangora, west of Briar Sloughs. Follow the trail to the broken bridge, cross the chasm with fully extended Shadow Step range and use the exit arch; the ending begins when you confirm that Coen will leave the valley forever.
Together Forever
Enter Home Sweet Home through Silts Tower, ignore the well and complete four full rescue-and-boss loops. At the start of loop five, speak to the family and remain with them to trigger the ending.
These endings count as story outcomes, but they are not substitutes for the four main outcomes if you are working toward the full difficulty or completion route. Make a separate save before experimenting with either one.
Time Runs Out: what happens after day 30
If you take more than 30 in-game days after the Prologue to defeat Brencis, the family sacrifice scene triggers. This is the no-trophy ending. Current route coverage reports that you can still free-roam and complete other ending routes afterward, but the time-out state changes the Prologue result and removes the clean path to the time-limited betrayal achievement.
If you want to see the time-out state, make a duplicate manual save first. Shrines make it possible to move the clock forward quickly, but the experiment should not consume your one clean ending setup.
Final checklist before choosing
- Esme's Prologue medicine is resolved.
- Ambrus, Bakir and Xanthe are defeated.
- Lacra's and Crake's ending preparations are complete if you want their branches.
- Your manual save is before the final quest and a backup exists outside the active slot.
- You know whether the next branch is family, solo, Lacra, Crake or an intentional early exit.
- You are still inside the 30-day window for the time-sensitive route.