Throughout your adventure in the world of The Blood of Dawnwalker, your character will level up and earn one Skill Point with each new level. These points allow you to unlock new skills and upgrade the ones you already have. However, each skill upgrade consumes 1 time segment, making every investment an important consideration while you're still dealing with the initial 30-day time limit. Here are our recommendations for the best skills you should unlock as early as possible.
The first thing you need to know is that there are three skill trees, each with different unlock requirements:
These skills can only be used during the day. Some are available from the start and can be unlocked simply by spending Skill Points or by unlocking the previous skill in the tree, while others require Manuals. Skills that require one are marked with a book icon.
Manuals can be found as loot or purchased from Witchcraft Vendors scattered across the map.
These are the skills associated with fighting with a sword. They can be used both during the day and at night and, just like Witchcraft skills, some require Manuals before they can be unlocked. Once again, these skills are marked with a book icon.
These Manuals can be found as loot or purchased from Swordmastery Teachers, a handful of NPCs who become available after completing specific quests.
These are your abilities as a Vrakhir, and they can only be used at night. Many of them are highly aggressive, allowing you to drink your targets' blood, gain buffs from feeding on humans or animals, and much more.
Locked Vampirism skills require you to raise your Corruption Level. You can see your Corruption meter next to your Blood Bar, and it increases when you drink blood, whether in combat, from animals or by consuming blood vials you find.
Corruption does not decrease over time or through any similar mechanic. Once you reach a new Corruption Level, that level remains permanently unlocked.
Now that we've explained the differences between the three skill trees and how they are unlocked, let's focus on which skills you should get as early as possible. Later in the game you can specialise however you like — and once the initial 30-day deadline is no longer an issue, you can even work towards obtaining everything — but we strongly recommend that you prioritise the following skills:
The first Witchcraft skill we recommend unlocking as soon as possible is Unnatural Resilience. This skill grants up to +50% Armour while a Witchcraft Ability is active. It doesn't take much explanation to see why that's extremely useful in combat. Secondly, you should unlock at least one rank of Mercurial Fervour, although there is one drawback worth considering that might make the skill less appealing to you.
With this skill, when you sprint you can press the button again to activate Haste. This lets you travel across the map much faster at the cost of Stamina, although the Stamina cost is eventually removed at the highest rank. There is one significant drawback: using Focus Mode cancels Haste. If you're someone who constantly uses Focus Mode to identify objects and other important elements in the environment, you may find the skill less useful.
In the Swordmastery tree, start by unlocking one or two ranks of Endless Effort. This skill increases your maximum Stamina by 25% with each rank you unlock. The more Stamina you have, the longer Coen can keep fighting before becoming exhausted. You should also unlock one or two ranks of Pack Mule, located just below it. This increases your maximum Carry Weight, which is essential for any self-respecting explorer. Finally, Vigour increases your maximum Health. The usefulness of that one should be obvious.
Later on, you should consider unlocking a few ranks of Stinging Blade and Second Skin I, increasing your basic weapon damage and reducing the penalties associated with wearing Medium Armour.
Among the Vampirism skills, the first three you should prioritise are Endless Hunger (increases your number of Health Segments), Shadow Dweller (increases the range of Shadowstep, allowing you to teleport farther) and Voracious Bite (an active ability that lets you drink an enemy's blood during combat to restore Health; higher ranks make it increasingly effective).
Later on, you should consider investing in Closing Wounds (passive Vampiric Health regeneration), Hastened Corruption (makes the Corruption meter fill faster) and Dimension Reach (reduces the Stamina cost of Planeshift). Finally, there's Shapeshift, which works as the nighttime counterpart to Mercurial Fervour. While sprinting, you can activate Haste to transform into a wolf and move much faster. However, it comes with the same Focus Mode drawback as Mercurial Fervour, plus an additional inconvenience: because you can't use Focus Mode without cancelling your Haste, you won't be able to target animals with Voracious Bite while travelling at full speed. Depending on the way you play, that may be enough reason to skip it.
