Coen’s story in The Blood of Dawnwalker always starts from the same place, saving his family from the vampire lord Brencis before his coronation, but it can close in eight different ways. How you enter Greifberg Castle, who fights beside you, and whether you keep the 30-day clock in check all decide which ending and trophy you walk away with.
Quick answer: Defeat Brencis inside 30 days to save your family. Do it alone for The Folk Hero, with Lacra for The Patricide, or with Crake for The Knyazmaker. Betray an ally in a deal with Brencis for The Turncoat. Leaving the valley, staying in the Home Sweet Home dream loop, and letting the 30 days run out are the three ways to end early. One warning applies to every path: Lunka is turned into a vampire no matter what you do.
All eight endings and how to trigger them
Six endings award a trophy or achievement. The prologue kill counts as The Folk Hero, while the time-limit failure gives no trophy at all. Every dialogue choice in the final quest is what locks in the outcome, so keeping a manual save before that quest lets you collect all of them in a single playthrough.
| Ending (trophy) | How to unlock |
|---|---|
| The Folk Hero | Defeat Brencis alone, with no ally. |
| The Patricide | Defeat Brencis alongside Lacra. |
| The Knyazmaker | Defeat Brencis alongside Crake and the Manumits. |
| The Turncoat | Betray an ally and take Brencis’s deal for your family’s freedom. |
| In the Nick of Time | Rescue your family before the 30-day limit ends (earned with a full win). |
| A Hero They Deserve | Leave Vale Sangora through the Coward’s Path gate. |
| Together Forever | Stay trapped in the Home Sweet Home dream loop. |
| Time Runs Out (no trophy) | Let all 30 days pass; your family is sacrificed. |
Setting up every ending in one save
Note: Reaching an ending only counts toward Duelist difficulty completion if you save the people of Laslea, which requires one of the four full endings. The two early exits still finish the game but do not satisfy that requirement.
Defeat Brencis alone (The Folk Hero)
This is the solo victory, with no ally sharing the fight. You reach maximum Infamy after killing the three Court bosses, wait until the next day for the Infamy Edicts cutscene, and then receive Brencis’s invitation to parley, which starts the final quest A Deal with the Devil. Choose “Enough. Time to end this” to attack him without help.
You can also skip straight to Brencis’s castle at almost any point, even right out of the Prologue. Climb the walls at night using Planeshift and Shadowstep, or take the side entrance. To open the side door you either complete Father Florin’s quest In the Name of the Father for the secret knock, or loot the Side Gate Key from the miniboss Georghe, the Rabid Duke, at a bandit camp on the map’s east edge.
Beat Brencis in his normal form, then again as his Grotesque Ascendant form in Anachora. Your family survives, and defeating him in this route also rewards the Gladius, a level 37 Legendary Shortsword.
The two allied endings (The Patricide and The Knyazmaker)
These finales require finishing an ally’s full quest chain, then starting their final mission instead of storming the castle solo. Both lead to the same broad outcome, saving your family, with minor differences.
| Ally | Quest chain to complete | Final quest and choice |
|---|---|---|
| Lacra (The Patricide) | A Friend Like This, Song of the Mountain, Hive and Seek, Our Rotten Roots | Midnight Reckoning; pick “Just draw your blade, Brencis” |
| Crake (The Knyazmaker) | The Firebrand, Shadows in the Woods, Where Loyalty Lies, What Hunts the Night, What Moves the Dead, Who Pulls the Strings | Rise at Dawn into Fall Before Dusk; pick “Try, then, you bald fuck” |
Lacra can die partway through the boss fight unless she has the Mandrake Ward perk, which comes from finishing the Night of Horrors quest with her before Midnight Reckoning. With that perk she heals and fights on, letting you kill Brencis, save your family, and keep Lacra alive. Crake’s route ends with the Manumits and Skender’s son Catalin joining the daytime assault on the castle.
Betray an ally for a deal (The Turncoat)
The Turncoat trades your friends for your family’s safety. During A Deal with the Devil, Brencis brings your father Pieter as proof of life and offers to free everyone if you mark the Manumit hideout. Choose “I just want my family back,” then confirm “I’ll do it,” avoiding any dialogue with the sword icon that starts a fight. Return to Svartrau City and interact with the hideout door at night to seal it.
You can also reach this ending mid-fight if you have already progressed an ally’s chain far enough to know their hideout. In Lacra’s finale, pick “I accept your offer. I’m sorry, Lacra.” In Crake’s, pick “Please – maybe we can come to an agreement.” Either way, the ally dies and your family goes free.
The early and secret exits
Three routes close the story ahead of the main confrontation. None of them save your family through the normal path.
Leave the valley (A Hero They Deserve)
West of the Coward’s Path Shrine in the Briar Sloughs, a broken bridge leads to an open gate, the only unblocked exit from Vale Sangora. Visit at night, use Planeshift and Shadowstep to climb the canyon and cross, then pick “Leave the valley forever.” Coen walks away from his family and everyone in Laslea.
Stay in the dream (Together Forever)
The Home Sweet Home quest starts at a locked tower in the south, one of Xanthe’s Court activities, reached through the top door. It traps you in a looping nightmare where you fail to save your family. Escape routes appear after a couple of loops, but if you defeat the boss four times and speak to your family instead of leaving, the fifth loop locks Coen in the dream permanently.
Beating Brencis in the Prologue
Defeating Brencis in both of his forms during the Prologue quest Bad Blood is extremely hard, but possible with practice. Doing so sends you straight to the epilogue and unlocks The Folk Hero on that first playthrough. The result is nearly identical to a normal solo kill, with a few unique lines and Coen already bearing Witchcraft marks. Your whole family survives if you brewed your mother’s medicine correctly, and Lunka’s fate stays the same. The trade-off is skipping every companion’s minor ending.
Missing the 30-day limit
If the clock runs out, Brencis sacrifices Coen’s entire family in a cutscene and your objective changes to avenging them. You can still fight and kill Brencis afterward, but you lose the In the Nick of Time trophy and the full family epilogue. Only actions that advance the plot consume time, so focusing on the three Court bosses can leave the finale reachable in under 10 in-game days.
The epilogue and character fates
The Turncoat, Folk Hero, Patricide, Knyazmaker, and the prologue kill all lead to the same epilogue, Things Will Be Different Now, where Coen returns to Laslea Glen and helps the villagers before visiting the cave where he hides Lunka. A stranger named Neberu reveals himself as a fellow dawnwalker and one of the Arbiters, offering help for Lunka on behalf of the Augurs. Coen then leaves the valley with his turned sister. A post-credits scene confirms Coen is still alive in the present day.
Beyond the main finale, your side-quest choices shape the fates of the valley and its people.
| Character or place | Outcome |
|---|---|
| Vale Sangora | Killing Brencis leaves a power vacuum and the plague returns; leaving him alive keeps the valley plague-free but still paying blood tribute; Catalin’s rule is as harsh as the Knyaz before him. |
| Lacra | Survives to appear in the epilogue and travel on, or dies and wanders the cursed plains of Anachora for centuries if she is not saved. |
| Anca | Leaves Laslea Glen to undo her curse if Coen drinks from the Font of Life, or stays as the village medic if he does not. |
| Vicho | Kept alive and fed, he lives in town taking blood in moderation; left unresolved, the murders continue. |
| Crake | Fights bandits or serves Catalin if Brencis falls; caught and killed if you betray the Manumits or fail to kill Brencis. |
| Father Florin | Canonized as Saint Florin of Sangora if you help him; hanged for his crimes if you do not. |
| Coen | Retains his humanity if barely corrupted, or embraces the darkness as a vampire if highly corrupted. |
Whichever route you take, one detail never changes. Lunka is turned into a vampire in every single ending, so no choice in the game keeps her fully human. If you want to see everything, make backup saves before the final quest and after finishing Lacra’s and Crake’s chains, then work through the endings one reload at a time.
