The Blood of Dawnwalker: Broad Swing Manual Location

The Broad Swing Manual is one of the earliest Swordmastery pickups you can grab in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it doesn’t require clearing a bandit camp or spending a single denarius. It sits on a corpse in the open world, a short jog from a fast travel point, and reading it puts a wide area attack on Coen’s ability list.

Quick answer: Fast travel to Outlaw’s Gorge, follow the rocky path downhill away from the thatched-roof hut, and loot the corpse lying on the ground to pick up the Broad Swing Manual.

Broad Swing Manual location at Outlaw’s Gorge

Open the map and set Outlaw’s Gorge as your fast travel destination. It’s the closest point to the pickup, so travelling anywhere else means a long walk through the hills for no reason.

The Blood of Dawnwalker world map with quest markers spread across Briar Sloughs and Maragair Wealds — The map screen, where you select the Outlaw’s Gorge fast travel point before heading downhill.

After you arrive, turn away from the thatched-roof hut and take the rocky path running down the hillside. The route is narrow but obvious, and the drop only takes a few seconds to descend.

Look for the corpse lying flat on the ground beside the path and loot it. Everything in the pile comes in one interaction, so there’s nothing else to search nearby.

What the corpse drops

The body carries three items. Only one of them matters for your build, but the note is worth keeping if you’re collecting the world’s written material.

Item	What it’s for
Broad Swing Manual	Makes the Broad Swing ability available in the Swordmastery tree
The Arms of the Doge, Part 1	Readable note
Common Yarrow	Herb used in crafting and alchemy

Inventory screen with the Broad Swing Manual selected and its description panel open — The Broad Swing Manual sitting in Coen’s inventory after the corpse is looted.

Reading the manual and unlocking Broad Swing

Manuals in The Blood of Dawnwalker aren’t equipment. Coen reads them, and the corresponding entry opens up in his development tree, where you still spend the points to take it. Read the Broad Swing Manual from your inventory and a NEW PERK AVAILABLE prompt appears.

To confirm it worked, open the Character menu and switch to Swordmastery. Broad Swing should now be listed there with its cost showing instead of being greyed out as unavailable.

Swordmastery development tree with the Broad Swing ability highlighted and its unlock cost shown — The Swordmastery tree in the Character menu, where Broad Swing appears once the manual has been read.

Broad Swing ability stats

Detail	Value
Type	Active weapon area attack
Damage	300% weapon damage
Cooldown	40 seconds
Tree	Swordmastery

The 40-second cooldown is the thing to plan around. Broad Swing is built for the moment a group closes in on you rather than for single-target duels, so holding it until two or three enemies are grouped gets far more out of the 300% multiplier than opening a fight with it.

A second Broad Swing Manual near Laslea Glen

If you’ve already passed Outlaw’s Gorge or want the copy on your way to something else, another Broad Swing Manual sits in a hut in the northeast of the map. Find Laslea Glen in the north, then head directly east to the hut. The manual is inside alongside the Bandit’s Treasure Map that’s resting on the desk.

Clear out the rest of the hut before you leave. The same room holds a Golden Earring, a Balm of Fortitude, and Hunter’s Trousers.

Note: duplicate manuals aren’t wasted effort in general. The game hands out more manuals than you need for a full tree, and they turn up in chests at bandit camps, soldier camps, monster lairs, and ancient circles, as random drops from defeated enemies, and on the shelves of Swordmastery Teachers.

Because the prologue puts you on a clock, the Outlaw’s Gorge pickup is the version worth doing. It costs one fast travel and a short run downhill, and it converts into a crowd-clearing attack you’ll lean on every time a patrol decides to surround Coen.