Early Game: First Act Walkthrough

The first act of The Blood of Dawnwalker is a race between three things: the main story of Vale Sangora’s opening regions, your build, and the 30-day clock. Get the order of those three right and the endgame opens up; get it wrong and the finale becomes a scramble.

What the first act looks like

After the prologue, Vale Sangora opens up as an open world and the first act moves you through the opening band of regions. Each region carries its own main-thread arc, and all of them feed the same war: Brencis at the top, with Ambrus, Bakir, and Xanthe running the field underneath him. Across the first act you get the full day and night system, the Blood Hunger mechanic, and all three skill trees in working order.

Confirmed early-game quest chains

These are the named quest chains that fire in the first act, with specific solutions and time costs verified from launch playthroughs. Prioritize these over generic exploration — they unlock build-critical gear, permanent perks, and the vassal arcs you must clear before the finale.

Save Mert the Miller (two full routes)

Mert is locked in Stoneward Post prison. Two distinct resolutions are available:

Daytime peaceful route (5 steps, safer):

1. Speak to the front guard and explain you are unarmed
2. Walk to the tower and find the woman arguing with Friedo — her brother (Yenno) is also in the jail
3. Threaten Yenno to learn Friedo and Cerbus are the real conspirators
4. Confront Friedo inside the tower and trick him into confessing
5. Reach Mert — the conversation always consumes 2 time segments regardless of how clean you handled the negotiation

Night infiltration route (stealth, faster):

1. Enter the tower after dusk — not near dawn (the guards shift)
2. Planeshift from the back roof to enter through the ceiling
3. Kill guards silently and grab the Prison Keychain (hangs on Friedo’s wall, visible with Focus)
4. Unlock the bottom dungeon cell

Both routes lead to Mert; the day route is dialogue-heavy, the night route is combat-light. Pick based on your build and your Corruption level (night infiltration may pressure it).

Come Hither (Murohn boss, Silk Threads)

The west Tantari / south Svartrau quest chain ends with a Murohn boss fight. The boss arena contains Silk Threads — one of the four Arbiter Armor components needed for the Bulwark Against Darkness quest. You do not need to kill the Murohn to grab them; they sit in the arena as a free pickup.

Forge It Anew (the legendary sword)

A three-part chain that gives you the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai — the highest-damage sword in the game, emphasized against vampires and monsters.

1. A Saint and a Monk (Svartrau cathedral area) — find a scholar who sends you hunting sword shards
2. Sword shard collection across four locations (St. Mihai and others)
3. Forge the sword at the blacksmith (Uriashi, the fishing elder from prologue, is the smith)

⚠ Blacksmith access was bugged at launch — patch 1.0.2 fixed Uriashi so he now correctly forges the sword. On v1.0 or 1.0.1, this chain could dead-end.

Echoes of the Silenced Bells (Anca’s St. Tyna quest)

Anca sends you to St. Tyna’s Monastery to investigate cursed undead nuns. Completing this earns you two Relics — Saint’s Tibia and Relic of St. Tyna — which are the second and third Arbiter Armor components. This chain is also where Anca’s relationship path deepens significantly.

Sanzhana Tribe branches (four side quests)

The Sanzhana people live in the Yawning Burrow. Four quest branches are available; only one is required to advance:

• Good Home (Svartrau Outskirts) — recommended first
• Tiny Dancer (Svartrau, night stealth mission) — steal a key and free a prisoner
• Burrow Sorrows (north Rockfalls) — kill kobolds harassing the tribe
• Pearly and Precious (north Boar’s Back) — ⚠ do not buy Silk Threads here; Come Hither has them for free

Priorities while the clock runs

The 30-day timer is the game’s hidden meta: quests and conversations consume days, and running past 30 changes your endings — it is not a hard fail, but you do not want to arrive at the endgame with zero buffer. In the first act, spend days in this order:

1. Each region’s main arc. These set up the vassal confrontations you must complete before the endgame. They are unavoidable and they are your biggest guaranteed day costs.
2. Depth in one primary skill tree. Swordmastery, Witchcraft, or Vampirism — pick a center by the end of the first region cluster and invest in it. Splitting across all three trees early is the most common early-game mistake; the XP and skill economy guide shows how the economy punishes it.
3. Vassal-adjacent side arcs. All three of Ambrus, Bakir, and Xanthe must be dealt with before the endgame, and their arcs begin in the early game. The side quests that advance those arcs are the only side content that is truly required.

Do not hoard either. Arriving at the endgame exactly at 30 with no buffer means every final-act choice costs real days.

One more thing the budget includes: travel. Treat it as part of the day math. Plan which region you are heading to before you leave, and cluster your activities so a single trip covers a region’s arc, its vassal side quest, and a skill investment rather than three separate hops across the Vale.

Day and night in practice

By day your tool is Witchcraft; by night it is Vampirism, with Blood Hunger riding along. The practical early-game lesson: secure a working night kit before you start sleeping through nights. If your Vampirism side is empty when the first regions’ nights hit, every night becomes a punishment phase instead of a resource. The day and night dual-form guide covers how the two states interact; the short version is that Blood Hunger compounds the longer you ignore it.

Side activity advice

Worth the days:

• Side quests tied to any of the three vassals. These are your endgame setup.
• Early skill unlocks in your primary tree. A few levels earlier means a smoother difficulty curve through the midgame.
• Your first few night runs, purely to learn the Blood Hunger loop while it is still cheap.

Defer or skip:

• Pure exploration and scenery runs. The Vale is large; the first act is when it feels biggest, and it shrinks.
• Optional conversations. Each one burns a day, and most are not ending-relevant.
• Anything repeatable that you can redo later with a stronger build.

When to push on

Three conditions should be true before you leave the first act behind: the opening region cluster’s main arc is complete, you have a primary tree with real depth and a functional night kit, and your day count has a visible buffer. When those hold, move into the vassal arcs in the order you have chosen — the order guide for Ambrus, Bakir, and Xanthe walks through how to sequence them — and keep the 30-day timer in mind as a budget, not a countdown.

If you came in cold on the prologue, start with the prologue walkthrough before the rest of this article.