The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to Level Up Fast and Get Stronger

Levelling up in The Blood of Dawnwalker does not automatically make Coen more powerful. Skill Points are important, but you also need Skill Manuals, stronger equipment and enough denarii to purchase useful upgrades. Coen’s vampire abilities even have their own progression system through Corruption, giving you several different ways to improve your character.

In this guide, we’ll explain how to level up quickly, earn more money and turn your progress into meaningful upgrades. By combining exploration, open world activities, equipment upgrades and Corruption gains, almost everything you do can help Coen become stronger.

Special thanks to Dopamine Hunter for sharing the tips featured throughout this guide.

Exploration is the foundation of fast progression because it leads you to quests, activities, equipment, Skill Manuals, treasure and valuable items to sell. However, you should avoid wandering around without a plan.

Begin by unlocking as many Shrines as possible. Shrines allow you to spend Skill Points and provide Fast Travel points, making future journeys much quicker.

You should also climb Towers to reveal nearby activities and points of interest. Once a region has been revealed, you can plan an efficient route instead of searching blindly.

Quests and Court activities provide significant XP, but they should not be your only focus. Clear worthwhile open world activities while travelling between larger objectives.

These can include:

• Monster Lairs
• Soldier and Bandit Camps
• People in Danger
• Ancient Circles
• Roaming enemies and patrols

Monster Lairs are especially useful because they reward XP and Skill Points without advancing time. This is valuable when the campaign clock limits how many major activities you can complete.

Rather than searching for one perfect XP farm, ask what you can complete on the way to your next objective. Revealing each region through Towers makes it much easier to combine several activities into a single route.

Levelling up rewards Skill Points, but that does not automatically make every ability available. Many Swordmastery and Witchcraft upgrades also require Skill Manuals.

Manuals can be obtained from loot, chests, activity rewards and merchants. This means you can have enough Skill Points for an upgrade but remain unable to unlock it until you find or purchase the appropriate Manual.

Exploration and money are therefore important parts of character progression. Keep searching activities and containers for Manuals, and check merchants whenever your build is missing an important upgrade.

Thorough exploration will quickly fill your inventory. Keep equipment that improves your build, alongside useful ingredients, crafting materials, consumables and progression items. Extra weapons, armour, trade goods and junk should usually be sold.

The denarii you earn can be spent on:

• Better weapons and armour
• Skill Manuals
• Crafting materials
• Other useful resources

Once you have unlocked several Shrines, you can Fast Travel to a merchant, clear your inventory and quickly return to exploring.

Silver can also become a valuable source of money later, particularly after you meet the specialist trader who buys it. Avoid treating every piece of silver like ordinary junk before finding this merchant.

A high character level will not help much if your equipment and stats do not support the way you fight. Your progression should translate into more damage, stronger survivability and faster clears.

Weapon focused Swordmastery builds can benefit from complementary stats such as:

• Weapon damage
• Critical chance and critical damage
• Stamina efficiency
• Perfect Block bonuses
• Activation Charges

Vampirism focused builds may instead prioritise claw damage, Vampiric Ability cooldowns, stamina efficiency and blood drinking bonuses.

You do not need to follow one exact build, but your bonuses should work together. Higher rarity equipment is not automatically better either. Wearing an armour type you are not proficient with can apply penalties, so compare the actual stats before replacing your current gear.

For more help with combat, check out our The Blood of Dawnwalker Combat Guide.

Treasure Maps are more than optional distractions. They can lead you to valuable treasure and equipment that provides a bigger power increase than gaining a few additional levels.

If you are struggling against Monster Lairs, camps or difficult quests, repeatedly farming XP may not solve the problem. Explore for treasure, complete useful side activities and improve your equipment before attempting the encounter again.

Better gear increases your damage and survivability, allowing you to clear harder content faster and earn more XP in the process.

Coen’s Vampirism progression is tied to Corruption rather than Skill Manuals alone. Increasing Corruption makes more Vampirism upgrades available.

The easiest way to build Corruption is by drinking blood with Voracious Bite. You still gain Corruption when Coen’s health is full, so use the ability whenever an opportunity appears during nighttime exploration or combat.

Blood vials can also increase Corruption, but they remain useful for healing and crafting. Avoid consuming your entire supply solely to level Corruption when Voracious Bite provides a renewable alternative.

By feeding regularly while completing other objectives, you can develop Coen’s vampire abilities without setting aside time for a separate grind.

The best way to progress is to combine these methods instead of treating them as separate grinds. Reveal the map, complete activities along your route, collect Skill Manuals and equipment, sell unwanted loot and use Voracious Bite whenever possible. This will steadily improve every part of Coen’s character while helping you level up faster.

For more useful advice and help avoiding common early game mistakes, check out our 12 Things I Wish I Knew Before Playing The Blood of Dawnwalker guide.