The Blood of Dawnwalker Skill Trees Explained: Swordmastery, Witchcraft and Vampirism

In The Blood of Dawnwalker, you won't pick a class and adventure with your new skills for the entire game. Instead, Coen, the game's protagonist, grows through three skill trees, and because he's a man by day and a vampire by night (a Dawnwalker), those different skill trees are tied to the in-game day and night cycle.

Crafting the right skills in both forms can turn Coen into a beast, in both human and vampire form. Overall, the skill trees have a lot going on, so let's break down the trees and get an idea of what's the best way to tackle them in this pre-launch guide.

Check out our overview guide to The Blood of Dawnwalker and our Combat Guide if you want the wider picture first before checking out the skills.

Table of Contents

• How Skill Trees Work
• Swordmastery
• Witchcraft
• Vampirism
• Which Tree Should You Pick?
• FAQ

How Skill Trees Work

Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism. Each one is packed with a mix of active abilities and passive perks. But skills are not as simple as levelling up and spending points. For the human form trees (Swordmastery and Witchcraft), for some nodes you'll need to acquire skill manuals in the world or buy them. This then costs time to "unlock", which makes each choice even more important given the 30-day clock.

Note: Vampirism skills are not unlocked via manuals; they are unlocked by corruption, which is achieved via the consumption of human or animal blood.

Like any RPG, active skills go on your bar/quick slots and are cast when you have the resources required to use them. Passives work in the background and trigger when required.

Pro Tip: You can only have one ultimate per tree, so choose wisely when looking at each of the three per tree below.

Swordmastery

Swordmastery is the standard fighting skill tree for Coen in the day. You'll find things like Stinging Blade for aggressive pressure, increasing sword damage by a flat % and Omniblock for tidier defence, plus perks that speed up your swings or shave the stamina cost so you can keep the pressure on. There's also Charge, which stops you getting interrupted mid-combo, which is lovely when a boss is trying to poke you out of your attack chain.

It's the least flashy of the three, sure, but it's the tree that keeps you alive when your fancy stuff is on cooldown or flat-out unavailable.

The three Swordmastery ultimate abilities are:

1. Last Stand: Increases weapon damage by 150% while your health is below 30%.
2. Sword Sage: Reset active ability cooldowns.
3. Tactical Mastery: Restores some Activation Charge when you use a Swordmastery ability.

Witchcraft

This is Hex magic channelled through runes carved into Coen's skin. Control, debuffs, damage over time, and a few utility hexes for poking around the world.

It comes at a price, though. Casting a hex spell in Witchcraft chips away a little of your own health on top of the Activation Charge cost, and some hexes need a bit of setup rather than an instant press. Burning Blood, a damage-over-time hex, is a good example of it. It's worth noting that the tree also has a few passive skills such as Frugal Witchcraft, which reduces the amount of HP sacrificed.

The tree has three ultimate abilities:

1. Entwined Torment: Target two enemies with a Witchcraft ability when it’s the first ability you use in combat.
2. Runic Bulwark: Casts a magical shield that will block three attacks. You can replenish the shield by using other Witchcraft abilities.
3. Aether Cascade: Using an ability will reduce the cost of the next ability by one Activation Charge.

Vampirism

This is where the supernatural fun lives. Voracious Bite lets you leap in, drain an enemy, and top off your health to keep your blood hunger in check. Shadow Step is a short teleport with a handy yellow marker showing where you'll land; Shadow Walk sends you up walls and across ceilings at the cost of stamina, and Focus sharpens your senses so you can follow glowing blood trails to clues and loot at night. Then there's Wolf Form for turning into an actual wolf and legging it across the map.

The trade-off is Blood Hunger: feed and you power your vampiric side; go too long without and Coen can lose the plot at night. Leaning hard into Vampirism means keeping that hunger fed and your corruption managed. This will also impact choices, causing him to potentially harm an NPC.

Vampirism ultimate abilities:

1. Rebound Death: Once per combat, when you receive a killing blow, you will instead gain temporary immortality and Life Steal on your attacks.
2. Lethal Crescendo: Boosts your claw damage after a kill.
3. Sanguine Renewal: When you use Voracious Bite to feed, it will also reset ability cooldowns.

FAQ

1. How do you unlock Ultimates? Ultimates sit right at the bottom of each skill tree, so you've got to work your way down the tree to reach them first. Once you're there, unlocking one costs 35 skill points.
2. Can you have more than one ultimate? Not within a single tree. Each tree has three ultimates on offer, but you only get to pick one. In theory you could end up with one from each of the three trees, but between the skill-point cost and the 30-day clock, spreading yourself that thin is a big ask in one run.
3. Can you reset skill trees? Yes, by visiting the dedicated NPC. Medic NPCs can reset your talents, but your ultimates can be swapped on the fly.
4. How many skill trees are in The Blood of Dawnwalker? Three: Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism. Swordmastery works day and night, Witchcraft is daytime only, and Vampirism is night only.
5. Why can't I use my hexes at night? Witchcraft runs off runes carved into Coen's skin, and those carvings heal over at night once he turns, sealing your hexes until sunrise.

That's the pre-launch skill tree rundown. We'll have plenty more Blood of Dawnwalker coverage on Method when the game launches.