PROGRESSION · COLLECTION
The Blood of Dawnwalker Skill Manual Locations
Manuals are the tax on two of Coen's three skill trees. This list names every Swordmastery and Witchcraft manual in the launch build and the chest, camp, activity, teacher or vendor that hands it over, so you can buy the book on a route you were already walking instead of crossing the valley for one perk.
Swordmastery and Witchcraft perks need a manual before you can buy them. Vampirism does not — all 20 of its skills open on skill points and Corruption alone. Reading a manual only unlocks the purchase: you still pay XP at a Shrine and accept the time cost before the perk is yours.
How manuals gate the skill trees
A manual is not a level-up. Coen reads it, the perk appears in the character menu in a locked state, and it stays locked until you return to a usable Shrine, spend the XP and confirm the time cost. That means a book you find in a soldier camp at midnight is still a purchase you have to complete on your own schedule, not a power spike on the spot.
The scale of the gate is what makes manuals worth planning around. Of the 65 skills across the three trees, 34 sit behind a book. Swordmastery is the worst offender: 18 of its 24 skills list a manual. Witchcraft locks 16 of its 21. Vampirism locks none. The entire catalogue holds only 49 manuals, so the same book is often the only key to a perk you actually want.
| Tree | Skills | Ranks | Manual-gated | When you can use it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swordmastery | 24 | 71 | 18 of 24 | Any hour |
| Witchcraft | 21 | 50 | 16 of 21 | Day |
| Vampirism | 20 | 50 | 0 of 20 | Night |
Two consequences follow. First, your opening points belong in Vampirism, because it is the only tree that does not make you shop before you commit — see Best Skills & Builds for the exact order. Second, shopping for technique is free in story time; looting, walking and haggling do not move the 30-day clock. The real price of a manual is the walk to the vendor, which is why the list below is grouped by source type rather than by skill tree order.
Character level is rarely the blocker: the highest requirement anywhere in the three trees is level 15, and nothing in the opening tiers asks for a level at all. If a skill is unavailable to you, the missing piece is almost always the book.
Witchcraft manual locations
Witchcraft has a vendor-driven economy. Two suppliers carry a large share of the tree — Vera in Maragir Wealds and the Matriarch witchcraft vendor — so a single daytime shopping trip to the north-west can hand you most of the tree at once. The rest come from Ancient Circles, haunted sites and a handful of named activities.
| Manual | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Forager | Chest near the top of Briar Sloughs Tower; sold by Vera in Maragir Wealds. |
| Herbal Remedies I | Reward from the Will-o-the-Wisps activity east of Maragir Wealds Shrine; sold by Vera and by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Amalgam | Chest in an abandoned camp north-west of St. Tyna's Grove Tower; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Herbal Remedies II | Chest at the Kobolds' Nest south-east of Laslea Gate Shrine; sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Medicus I | Chest on St. Tyna's Grove Tower; chest on Boar's Back Tower; sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Medicus II | Sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. Also awarded by the Lost Blood activity in St. Tyna's Grove. |
| Forbidden Sigils | Sold by the Matriarch vendor; can also be looted from the Witch boss at the bandit camp in St. Tyna's Grove. |
| Aether Flow | Chest on Rockfalls Tower. |
| Blasphemous Echo | Chest at the Kobolds' Nest east of Southern Swampside Shrine; sold by the Matriarch vendor; reward from The Highland Grave. |
| Witchcraft Mastery | Sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Lasting Malediction | Sold by Vera in Maragir Wealds. |
| Evil Eye | Chest at the Kobolds' Nest north of Maragir Wealds Watchtower Shrine; sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Frugal Witchcraft | Reward from the Will-o-the-Wisps activity west of Sloughside Mill Shrine. |
| Potent Blood | Sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Font of Life | Quest-only: drink from the Font of Life during Stronger Than Achilles. |
| Unholy Fervour | Chest on Tantari Tower; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Burning Blood | Ancient Circle south-west of Eerie Knoll Shrine; Ancient Circle south of Parlita Woods Shrine; the Working Her Magic activity at the Curious House; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Soul Reaping | Ancient Circle east of Maragir village; haunted site south-west of Ruined Hut Shrine; sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Soul Stigma | Ancient Circle north-east of St. Tyna's Grove Tower Shrine; sold by Vera and the Matriarch vendor. |
| Cycle of Ruin | Chest at the top of Maragir Wealds Tower; Ancient Circle west of Coward's Path Shrine; side room in Howling Keep during The Cycle of Love; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Ravenous Flock | Quest-only: reward from the A Pilgrimage for Power activities — Bear Trouble, Dark-Thing and Fanatics. |
| Unholy Vitality | Haunted site south-west of Eerie Knoll Shrine; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
| Mercurial Fervour | Chest on Silts Tower; Ancient Circle north-east of Briar Sloughs Crossing Shrine; sold by the Matriarch vendor. |
Mercurial Fervour deserves a note of its own. It costs a single point and turns daytime sprinting into Haste, which shortens every walk you take before the sun goes down. On a clock where travel is free but time is not, it is the cheapest movement upgrade in the game and the first Witchcraft book worth buying outright.
Swordmastery manual locations
Swordmastery books come from three places: soldier and bandit camps, the teachers who sell techniques, and two general stores. The teacher network is the important part — Ursul, Ocha, Constantin and Catalin's Tutor between them stock most of the tree, and several of them hold multiple copies of the same manual.
| Manual | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Omniblock | Sold by teacher Ursul; chest at the bandit camp in The Silts. |
| Perfect Riposte | Sold by teacher Ursul. |
| Counterattack | Tent in the soldier camp just south of Laslea Glen; sold by Ursul and Ocha. |
| Sharp Eye | Sold by teacher Constantin. |
| Perfect Block | Sold by Ursul and Ocha. |
| Stinging Blade | Sold by Ursul and Ocha. |
| Fate's Favour | Sold by Ocha; chest at the bandit camp in The Silts. |
| Precision | Sold by teacher Ursul. |
| Growing Momentum | Sold by Constantin and by Catalin's Tutor. |
| Endless Effort | General store in the north-west corner of Svartrau. |
| Fleet of Foot | General store in the north-west corner of Svartrau. |
| Master Fencer | Sold by teacher Ocha. |
| Renewed Focus | Sold by Catalin's Tutor and Ocha. |
| Restless Blade | Sold by Constantin and Ocha. |
| Vigour | General store in the north-west corner of Svartrau. |
| Second Skin I | Sold by the armorer in Maragir and the armorer in Svartrau. |
| Second Skin II | Sold by the armorers in south-west Svartrau, the Svartrau market and Tantari; also sold by Ocha. |
| Dirty Trick | Sold by teacher Ocha. |
| Charge | Story reward from the Prologue quest Sacred Covenant; chest at the soldier camp north-east of Lupila Riverpass Shrine; chest at the soldier camp in Tantari Woods; sold by Ocha. |
| Adrenaline Rush | Chest at the bandit camp south-east of Eerie Knoll Shrine; chest at the soldier camp south of Rockfalls Pasture Shrine; sold by Ursul, Constantin and Ocha. |
| Walking Fortress | Soldier camps directly south of Stuga Marshes Shrine and west of Woodcutter's Camp Shrine; bandit camps south of Svartrau and in Tantari Woods; sold by Ursul, Catalin's Tutor and Ocha. |
| Broad Swing | Soldier camp south-west of Lower Maragir Wealds Shrine; soldier camp west of Burner's Clearing Shrine; sold by Constantin, Catalin's Tutor and Ocha. |
| Artery Strike | Soldier camp east of Woodland Outpost Shrine; soldier camp east of Vedera Spring Shrine; soldier camp in the Rockfalls region; bandit camp south of Svartrau; sold by Catalin's Tutor and Ocha. |
| Swiftness | Bandit camp west of Stelian's Redoubt Shrine; bandit camp north-east of Vedera Spring Shrine; sold by Constantin and Ocha. |
If you only make one shopping trip, make it to Svartrau. The north-west general store carries Vigour, Endless Effort and Fleet of Foot — three perks that raise health, stamina and dodge quality for any build — while the city's teachers cover the counter-attack and block family around them.
Manuals you can only earn from quests
Five manuals in the launch list cannot be bought at all. They are fixed rewards tied to named activities, which makes them the ones you can genuinely miss.
- Ravenous Flock — the three A Pilgrimage for Power activities: Bear Trouble, Dark-Thing and Fanatics. Each awards a copy, so the Witchcraft crowd-damage ability has three guaranteed sources.
- Burning Blood — the Working Her Magic activity at the Curious House, or either of the two Ancient Circles south-west of Eerie Knoll Shrine and south of Parlita Woods Shrine.
- Medicus II — the Lost Blood activity in St. Tyna's Grove, once you finish the merchant's story in Svartrau.
- Font of Life — drink from the Font of Life during Stronger Than Achilles. The same choice point decides whether you leave with Ancient Greaves.
- Cycle of Ruin — one route to it runs through the lantern-lit side rooms of Howling Keep during The Cycle of Love, though the tower chest and the Ancient Circle give you alternatives.
Vampirism has no books. Its powers come from Corruption, which rises when Coen drinks blood. Any guide that sells you a "Vampirism manual" is describing a different system, and any chest you label that way is a wasted trip.
Planning a manual run
Treat the list above as a shopping list and the map as the constraint. Four habits keep manual collection cheap.
Buy before you explore
Shops and teachers cost no story time, only denarii. Sweep Svartrau and Maragir Wealds first, then decide which perks are still missing and worth a camp raid at all.
Fold camps into routes you already have
A soldier camp chest is only cheap if the camp sits on the way to something else. Keep the manual list open while you plan regional loops, and pick up books as by-products of quest travel.
Read the book at a Shrine you can use
Unlocking the perk and buying it are two separate acts. Time the read so the next usable Shrine is close, and keep enough XP in reserve to actually take the upgrade.
Spend points where the phase uses them
Swordmastery works at any hour, Witchcraft only by day, Vampirism only at night. A perk you cannot use in the phase you actually play is a parked point — match the purchase to your route, not to the rarity of the book.
One practical warning about vendors: merchant stock rotates with the story day. If a teacher is not carrying the manual you want, they may carry it after the next day turns rather than never — check back on your next pass through the city instead of writing the perk off.
Manual checklist
- Buy first, raid second — teachers and general stores cover the largest share of both manual trees.
- Prioritise Mercurial Fervour, Vigour, Sustained Focus and Master Fencer if you only take four books.
- Leave the A Pilgrimage for Power, Working Her Magic, Lost Blood, Stronger Than Achilles and Howling Keep rewards until their quests are already on your route.
- Never spend a daytime excursion looking for a Vampirism manual.
- Keep a denarii reserve for teachers; several sell multiple copies of the same manual.
- Read the manual, then buy the perk at a Shrine in the same loop. Availability is not the upgrade.