Bakir’s Distilleries: Coercion and Duress Walkthrough in The Blood of Dawnwalker

Bakir keeps the valley drunk on cheap liquor so nobody sobers up long enough to fight the vrakhiri, and Coen’s answer is to smash the stills one by one. Coercion and Duress is one of three distillery activities in Bakir’s region, and it is one of the quicker ones once you know where the door is.

Quick answer: Loot the Letter of Reprimand from a soldier during Bakir’s Pillories and read it, then head to the gated alleyway distillery in Svartrau City, kill every guard, deal with the Distillery Worker, and interact with the equipment to sabotage it. The activity costs 3 time segments.

Quest reference: region, level, and time cost

Coercion and Duress is a Court activity, which means it feeds Bakir’s anger level and helps unlock his duel. It is not a side quest you can safely leave for a rainy day, because every Court activity spends in-game time out of the 30 days you have before Brencis’s coronation.

Detail	Value
Type	Court activity (Bakir — Distilleries)
Region	Svartrau City, Vale Sangora
Suggested level	20+ (Bakir’s region)
Time cost	3 time segments
Objective	Sabotage the distillery

Note: Court activities do not appear on your map on their own. They sit as “Unknown Activity” markers until you either stumble onto them or reveal them by climbing towers.

How to unlock Coercion and Duress

There are two ways in. The straightforward one is simply walking into the distillery, which starts the activity on the spot. The other route comes from a different Bakir job entirely.

Clear the soldiers during Bakir’s Pillories and search their bodies for the Letter of Reprimand. Reading that document adds two entries to your journal at once, Coercion and Duress and the separate Ends and Means distillery. It is the fastest way to get both stills marked before you commit any time to them.

Sabotage the distillery: full walkthrough

Open the journal and track “Sabotage the distillery” so the marker sits on your compass. The objective text spells out the point of the job — killing guards alone does nothing, the equipment has to go.

Follow the marker to the gated alleyway in Svartrau City that hides the distillery. The approach is narrow and dark, and the entrance sits behind the gate rather than on the main street.

Coen moving down a dark alley toward the marked distillery entrance, glowing jars on the shelves — The gated alley leading to the distillery, with lootable jars glowing along the route. Image: Rebel Wolves

Fight the guards in the yard. Several armored enemies come at you in sequence, and the fight is far more comfortable at night, when claws and vampire abilities are on the table instead of the sword.

Coen striking an armored distillery guard whose health bar is almost empty — Cutting down a distillery guard as his health bar drains. Image: Rebel Wolves

Keep clearing until nothing is left standing. The equipment cannot be interacted with while guards are still alive, so sweep the whole yard before you go looking for the still.

Third-person combat against a targeted guard with a partially drained red health bar — The last of the yard defenders being worn down in melee. Image: Rebel Wolves

Handle the Distillery Worker who steps out mid-fight, then walk up to the machinery and use the interact prompt. Coen wrecks the still automatically, which closes the objective.

The Distillery Worker choice: spare him or kill him

Before the last blow lands, a man interrupts with “I beg you, stay your hand! Enough bloodshed!” He identifies himself as a distiller who worked the trade long before the vrakihri arrived, and says Boyar Bakir now works him to the bone.

Gameplay moment inside the distillery during the Coercion and Duress activity — Inside Bakir’s Svartrau City distillery during Coercion and Duress. Image: Rebel Wolves

The conversation gives you four ways out. Picking the mercy line sends him running with a quick “I’m gone! Thank you!” and no combat.

Dialogue option	Result
“Get out of here before I change my mind.”	He flees and survives
“You die like the rest.”	He is killed
“Why not simply run away?”	Extra conversation, choice stays open
“[give in to the hunger]”	Vampiric option

His fate does not gate the objective. Either way, the still still needs breaking, and the activity counts toward Bakir’s anger level all the same.

How to confirm the quest completed, and what you get

Sabotaging the equipment burns the time segments immediately, so the screen jumps forward and a “Time Has Passed” notice appears — in a night run, that lands you in the morning. A QUEST ENDED banner follows, along with the reward tally.

The Time Has Passed notice on screen with Coen standing indoors after sabotaging the distillery — The “Time Has Passed” screen that fires once the still is destroyed. Image: Rebel Wolves

Reward	Amount
Experience	19 XP
Currency	250
Skill Points	1

The journal then closes the entry with one of two outcomes. Finish the job and it reads that the distillery is shut down for business, with a hope that everyone sobers up and sees the vrakhiri for what they are. Walk away to fight Brencis instead and it logs that you had no time to deal with it.

Common reasons the objective does not complete

Guards are still alive in the yard, so the sabotage prompt on the equipment will not appear.
You killed the guards but left without touching the machinery — the kills alone do not close the objective.
You are looking in the wrong place. The Coercion and Duress still sits behind the gated alley in Svartrau City, not in the barn used by Ends and Means or the cave used by Offshoot.

If you are working through Bakir’s board in order, this one pairs neatly with Ends and Means, since a single Letter of Reprimand puts both on your map. You do not need to clear every Court activity in the region either — roughly three quarters of them is enough to push a vassal’s anger to the point where the duel quest unlocks, which leaves plenty of days on the clock for everything else.