The Blood of Dawnwalker: Best Abilities

The Blood of Dawnwalker has three distinct Skill Trees: Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism. Using Abilities requires Activation Slots, and they must be equipped into your Ability Wheel beforehand, making preparation before battle a key gameplay factor. Abilities can synergize with each other, as well.

In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about Abilities in The Blood of Dawnwalker, including the best Abilities to unlock first, which ones to prioritize, the best Ability synergies, and useful Tips & Tricks.

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Unlocking Perks and Abilities

You can unlock new Abilities at Shrines. Doing so costs Skill Points, which you gain by leveling up. Some Abilities have multiple levels, granting increased effects. Learning Abilities often advances time by one segment, too.

Higher-tier Abilities might require you to find and read a specific Manual to unlock them. These can be found throughout the world and purchased from Merchants. You can only unlock an Ability once you've unlocked the previous Skill.

Perks VS Abilities

Each Skill Tree (Witchcraft, Swordmastery, and Vampirism) has Perks and Abilities:

• Perks offer passive bonuses and don't need to be equipped. They make your character stronger with stat buffs, or by unlocking new mechanics like Perfect Riposte and Counterattack.
• Abilities can be passive or active, and they must be equipped in the Ability Wheel to use them. They are more powerful than Perks, but cost Activation Charges and have a cooldown. Passive Abilites must be equipped, too, as Coen won't benefit from them otherwise.

Activation Charges

Activation Charges are required to use Active Abilities and Weapon Arts. They regenerate over time during combat, and Blocks and Attacks speed up recharge time. Some Perks in the Swordmanship Tree increase the recharge and number of Activation Charges:

• Sustained Focus: Increases the number of Activation Charges, up to 4.
• Renewed Focus: Increases Activation Charge restoration time.
• Walking Fortress: Performing a Perfect Block speeds up the restoration of Activation Charges.
• Tactical Mastery: Reduces the cost of all Abilities by 1 Activation Charge. This is an Ultimate Ability, so you won't be able to learn it until late game.

There are other Perks, like Wild Blood and Unholy Fervour, that improve Vampirism and Witchcraft Activation costs, too.

Ability Slots

Abilities must be equipped in the Active Abilities panel, taking up an Ability Slot. Otherwise, Coen won't be able to use them during combat, and Passive Abilities won't have any effect.

At the start of your journey, you'll only have 1 Ability Slot available for Vampirism, Witchcraft, and Swordmanship. You must level up the perks Master Fencer, Forbidden Sigils, and Vrakhiri Might to unlock more Ability Slots and equip more Abilities.

Some unique Witchcraft and Vampirism abilities are always active and do not take up an Ability Slot:

• Compel Soul: Lets you speak with the dead.
• Astral Communion: Allows you to activate Ancient Circles and take on trials during the day.
• Mercurial Fervour and Shapeshift: They grant Haste, speeding up movement while exploring.
• Death from Above: Instantly kills a target below you.
• Voracious Bite: Restores health by drinking blood.

The Swordmanship Tree is active both during daytime and nighttime, meaning you always benefit from it. Swordmanship Perks are strong for the early game, too, boosting your character considerably and unlocking more combat options.

For these reasons, the Swordmanship Tree is the best Skill Tree for the early and mid game, and you should allocate most of your points into it.

Best Early Game Abilities

These Perks will make your character stronger as you start your journey. Get them in this order:

• Endless Effort: Increases Stamina.
• Sustained Focus: Increases number of Activation Charges.
• Perfect Riposte: Unlocks Perfect Riposte. Read our Tips & Tricks section to learn more about Perfect Riposte. Requires the Omniblock Perk first.
• Perfect Block: Enhances Perfect Block's stamina and Activation Charge boost.
• Counterattack: Attacking after a Perfect Block deals more damage.

As for Active Abilities, you should prioritize getting Swiftness or Broad Swing early.

Best Late Game Abilities

The Swordmanship Tree falls off in the late game, as Witchcraft and Vampirism abilities are stronger when it comes to dealing damage.

However, stacking Swordmanship Perks allows you to reduce cooldowns and restore Activation Charges more quickly, making it relevant, even though it probably won't be your main source of damage.

Leveling up Perks like Sharp Eye, Growing Momentum, and Walking Fortress will grant you great passive buffs. Artery Strike will be your main source of damage, dealing high single-target damage with a chance to insta-kill.

As for Ultimate Perks, Sword Sage is best for Swordmanship-focused builds, as it will let you chain multiple Artery Strikes. If your build is mixed and you've invested a lot of points into Vampirism or Witchcraft, Tactical Mastery is your best bet, as it reduces the cost of all Active Abilities.

Witchcraft Abilities are only accessible during daytime, with some exceptions. They offer a multitude of buffs, ranging from defense and survivability to raw damage and stun. They can also be used to enhance your Weapon combat, making it synergize with the Swordmanship Tree.

In general, the Witchcraft Tree is best used as a Support Tree, enhancing your combat with buffs.

Best Early Game Abilities

Unlocking these Witchcraft Perks in the early game will enhance your weapon-based combat:

• Unnatural Resilience: Grants damage reduction while a Witchcraft Ability is active.
• Witchcraft Mastery: Witchcraft Abilities deal more damage.

Some Witchcraft Perks are always active and offer out-of-combat boosts. Get these whenever possible:

• Bewitching Influence: Improves purchasing and selling items. Getting it early will improve your economy for the whole run.
• Forager: This Tree enhances item harvesting, crafting, and consumables. Don't stock up on items, as they can only be used during daytime.

As for Active Abilities, choose either Soul Stigma or Ravenous Flock. The first one increases Crit Chance and Critical Damage, while the second one stuns a target and triggers area attacks.

The Mercurial Fervour Ability should be unlocked as soon as possible, as it speeds up movement.

Best Late Game Abilities

The Witchcraft Tree has several Abilities that synergize with each other, making it exponentially stronger as you put more points into it.

In a Witchcraft-focused build, your best damaging options are Burning Blood and Ravenous Flock, and you should also equip Cycle of Ruin to extend your Ability durations. As for passive perks, get any that enhance your Witchcraft Abilities, like Witchcraft Mastery and Lasting Malediction. Lastly, get the Aether Cascade Ultimate Perk.

Even if you're not specing into Witchcraft, you can benefit a lot from its Perks and Abilities for weapon-based combat: Soul Stigma coupled with Cycle of Ruin enhances weapon combat, while Unnatural Resilience increases your defenses and Runic Bulwark continuously triggers on Perfect Blocks.

Vampirism Abilities are only available at night, while in Vrakhiri form. They are focused on dealing damage and assasinating your enemies, enhancing your combat to greater levels than the Swordmastery or Witchcraft Trees can offer.

You can also use your Claws to attack, which is often better than using a Sword thanks to Vampirism Perks that enhance Claw damage. You must unequip your Sword to use Claw attacks.

There are tradeoffs to being a Vampire: At night, Coen can only heal by drinking blood, making combat more challenging. Additionally, he will constantly crave blood, threatening to murder any NPCs he interacts with, even allies, while he is at low health.

The Vampirism Tree has an additional requirement for unlocking Abilities: Corruption. It acts as a sort of Vampire level that increases when Coen drinks blood and uses Vampirism Abilities.

Best Early Game Abilities

These Vampirism Perks will enhance your survivability and combat damage:

• Nourishing Blood: Increases health restoration when drinking blood.
• Hastened Corruption: Corruption fills up faster. Get this early on, as it will let you unlock Vampire Abilities faster.
• Crimson Feast: Increases damage after drinking human blood.

As for Abilities, get Shapeshift as soon as possible to improve your movement speed, and Scarlet Shield to heal back during combat. Get Death From Above when you reach Corruption level 3, as it doesn't take up an Ability slot.

Best Late Game Abilities

Spending points into the Vampirism Tree turns Coen into a combat monster at night, granting immense damage buffs while decreasing the healing tradeoffs of Vampire form. We recommend picking Piercing Shriek and otherwise using Claws for attacking, leveling up the Razorsharp Claws Tree and the Lethal Crescendo Ultimate Perk.

If you're focusing on Sword combat, you can still get powerful passive buffs from Vampirism Abilities: Pick up the Perks Crimson Feast, Wild Blood, Blood Theft, and Crimson Rush, coupled with Renounce Death as your Ultimate. These picks will improve your Activation Charges and survivability.

Dawnwalker has dozens of Perks and Abilities, and finding the ones that suit your playstyle best can be a hard endeavor. Learn the best advice on Abilities with our curated Tips & Tricks:

There is no Respec

Right now, there is no Respec option in The Blood of Dawnwalker. This means you'll have to carefully consider which Perks and Abilities to unlock, as all your choices are permanent for the rest of your playthrough.

Learn Mercurial Fervour & Shapeshift First

The Mercurial Fervour Ability in the Witchcraft Tree and the Shapeshift Ability in the Vampirism Tree allow you to move quickly through the map, making exploration much quicker. They don't require Ability Slots, either, so you won't have to worry about equipping them.

Level Up Stamina

Stamina is a global resource in Dawnwalker, used to move with Haste, Attack, and Omniblock. Running out of Stamina during combat means you'll be vulnerable to incoming attacks.

The Endless Effort Perk can be upgraded up to +50% Stamina with just 2 Skill Points, not needing any Manuals or Time Segments spent.

Unlock Perfect Riposte

The left-most tree within Swordmastery has the Perfect Riposte tree, which unlocks the ability to attack in a Critical Direction after a Perfect Block. This attack deals increased damage, and is further boosted by other Critical-related Perks.

To perform a Perfect Block, you'll need to wait until the shield icon turns orange, and then do a directional block in the direction shown. Then, perform a directional attack in the correct direction to do a Perfect Riposte.

Don't Unlock Tons of Abilities

You can only equip as many Abilities as Ability Slots you've got. Active Abilities cost Activation Charges, too, meaning that unlocking several Abilities is often a waste of Skill Points, as you won't be able to equip and use most of them.

In the early game, focus on leveling up passive Perks, and don't unlock more than 2 Abilities per Skill Tree.