The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Destroy the Leech Barrels

Ambrus keeps his blood supply usable by farming leeches, whose spittle stops blood from clotting. Wrecking the barrels of collected leeches is one of the fastest ways to raise his anger level, and it shows up three separate times across the marshes of Vale Sangora as the Leech Collector activities.

Quick answer: Kill the roughly four soldiers stationed at the camp, walk up to the yellow-highlighted leech barrels, hold the interact key (Hold F on keyboard) to start the cutscene, then pick “I’m destroying these, whether you like it or not” so Coen cuts the barrels open with his sword. The cutscene ending confirms the objective.

The three leech barrel camps and what they pay out

All three sit in the middle of Ambrus’s swampy territory, each on a small island with a hand-built camp on it. Wetland Helpers is the one tied to Clasgny Woods. They play out identically, and the reward is the same whichever camp you hit first — only the leech count scales with how many you have already cleared.

Activity	Time cost	Reward
Ambrus’s Collectors: Bounty of the Mire	3 time segments	250 XP, 1 Skill Point, Blood Leeches
Ambrus’s Collectors: Wetland Helpers	3 time segments	250 XP, 1 Skill Point, Blood Leeches
Ambrus’s Collectors: Unsavoury Solutions	3 time segments	250 XP, 1 Skill Point, Blood Leeches

The Blood Leeches payout climbs as you work through the set: 5 at the first camp you finish, 12 at the second, and 18 when you resolve the third. Only the barrel interaction spends time — fighting the guards, looting bodies and picking the camp clean cost you nothing on the clock, so do all of that before you touch anything.

How to destroy the leech barrels

Clear the camp. Each island holds around four of Ambrus’s soldiers, and they are ordinary guards rather than elites. Day or night both work, so pick whichever form you prefer to fight in.

Loot everything before you approach the barrels. Bodies and containers around the camp are free to search, and the objective clock does not start moving until you interact with the barrels themselves.

Find the leech barrels. They glow yellow in the camp, and the tracker on the right of the screen will read “Destroy the leech barrels” under the Wetland Helpers heading.

Quest tracker showing the Destroy the leech barrels objective under Wetland Helpers — The tracker lists “Destroy the leech barrels” alongside the running “Rescue your family” objective. Image: Rebel Wolves

Stand beside them and hold the interact input — the prompt reads Destroy [Hold F]. Releasing early does nothing, so keep it held until the prompt fills and the scene takes over.

Coen standing beside the glowing leech barrels in the swamp camp at night — The leech barrels sit in the middle of the cleared camp, highlighted in yellow. Image: Rebel Wolves

A cutscene starts and a Collector walks in to object. You can skip the cinematic with the on-screen SKIP button if you have already seen it at another camp.

Cutscene in the woods with the SKIP prompt in the lower left corner — The SKIP prompt in the bottom left lets you cut the scene short. Image: Rebel Wolves

Listen to the Collector’s protest — “Hey! What do you think you’re doing? Leave these barrels be!” — and answer with “I’m destroying these, whether you like it or not.” That is the line that keeps the barrels on the chopping block.

A Collector confronts Coen next to the barrels and tells him to leave them alone — The Collector steps in mid-interaction to argue for the leeches he harvested. Image: Rebel Wolves

Watch Coen draw his sword and break the barrels open. The Collector threatens you on his way out — “Go ahead. Boyar Ambrus will make you pay.” — and Coen signs off with a curse aimed at Ambrus himself.

Coen cutting open the leech barrels with his sword as the Collector looks on — Choosing to stand your ground has Coen slash the barrels apart on the spot. Image: Rebel Wolves

Note: If you trigger this at night as a vampire while your health is low, hunger can take the wheel and replace your dialogue with a [give in to the hunger] feeding prompt on whoever is standing in front of you. Top your health up before you interact if you want the conversation to play out normally.

Destroy the barrels or let the Collector keep them

Backing down with “Take them. Hope they’re worth it” hands the leeches to the Collector and still closes the activity. The XP, the Skill Point and the Blood Leeches are identical either way, and neither line has produced a visible long-term consequence.

The real difference sits at the end of the chain. Destroying the barrels at even one of the three camps is what puts The Bloodletter in play once you finish the last one.

Choice	Outcome
“I’m destroying these, whether you like it or not.”	Coen breaks the barrels. Same rewards, and it arms The Bloodletter spawn at the final camp.
“Take them. Hope they’re worth it.”	The Collector keeps the leeches. Same rewards, no miniboss credit from that camp.

The Bloodletter fight at the final camp

If you smashed barrels at least once, The Bloodletter turns up near the third camp right after you settle the barrel question there. He is a large, dual-sword-wielding fighter and a clear step above the camp guards.

His unblockable attack has a wide area of effect. When you see the wind-up, dodge twice rather than once so you are fully outside the swing. The payoff is a heavy loot drop, which is the main reason to run the full set of three camps.

How to tell it worked, and when a camp fails to close

Completion is confirmed the moment the cutscene ends. The “Destroy the leech barrels” objective clears, the 250 XP and Skill Point land, and Blood Leeches appear in your inventory. Ambrus’s anger level also ticks up in the Court tab.

There is one known failure case. Spare the barrels at every single camp and the last one you visit will not register as complete — it still burns the three time segments, but no reward and no anger increase follow, and The Bloodletter never appears. Destroying the barrels at a minimum of one camp avoids that entirely, which makes it the safer default given how tight the 30-day clock is.