The Blood of Dawnwalker · Boss Guide
The Vrakhiri Court gives you three boss fights before the game lets you at Brencis himself, and all four lean hard on the fundamentals from our combat guide — perfect blocks, directional dodges, and reading unblockable tells matter more here than raw stats.
All three Court members can be approached in any order, but Ambrus → Bakir → Xanthe matches their intended level range, and Brencis himself is tuned for roughly level 25-30. Going in out of order isn't fatal, but expect a harder time if you jump ahead.
Recommended Court order, by level range
| Attack | How to answer it |
|---|---|
| Sword Flurry | A fast multi-hit combo — dodge backward to get clear of the whole string |
| Upward Slash | He teleports away, then lunges in with an unblockable upward hit — side-step, don't block |
| Downward Slash | Same teleport setup, unblockable downward hit — side-step again |
Scarlet Shield: at roughly two-thirds health, Ambrus wraps himself in a shield that heals him off any damage you land on it. Stop attacking and either wait it out or dispel it immediately with the Dirty Trick ability — don't try to force damage through it.
Blood Clones (final stretch): near the end of the fight he summons clones that surround and attack you. Perfect-block through them rather than chasing individual clones — damage to a clone doesn't count, and the real Ambrus reappears once the phase ends.
Before the fight: completing the "Bittersweet Toast" quest lets you poison Ambrus ahead of time, so he takes steady damage and staggers periodically throughout the fight. He's also immune to bite/feed abilities, so don't plan around draining him mid-fight — draining his blood after the kill is what grants the Scarlet Shield ability for your own Vampirism tree.
The fight sits at the end of "The Lunar Game," a masked tournament where you're stripped of your gear and vampiric abilities before stepping in. When Bakir demands you take your mask off, refuse — accepting ends the encounter without a fight, refusing triggers the real battle against Bakir and his remaining henchmen (with a few allies fighting alongside you).
Wicked Tendrils is her signature attack — a series of whip-like strikes from different directions in sequence. Hold block and match the directional prompt for each tendril as it comes in; stringing together several successful blocks staggers her briefly, opening a punish window.
Sparing or killing Xanthe isn't just flavor — see the Brencis section below for how it affects the final fight.
Brencis runs two full phases, each with its own health bar and a complete moveset switch between them. This is the fight our skill trees and Corruption guides are worth reading before — a leveled-up Vampirism kit noticeably closes the gap.
| Attack | How to answer it |
|---|---|
| Dual slash | Unblockable, comes out fast — side-step as soon as you see the wind-up |
| Blood spears | Thrown from range or in melee — side-step either way |
| Cross slash | Dodge backward to clear it |
Brencis Shadowsteps constantly to reposition — follow with your own Shadowstep rather than chasing on foot. He also repeatedly summons Specters that can hit you from off-screen if ignored; clear the ones near you before returning your focus to Brencis himself. This phase is primarily a survivability and pattern-recognition check.
| Attack | How to answer it |
|---|---|
| Overhead slam | Side-step |
| Horizontal swipe | Side-step, or dodge forward through it |
| Tentacle swings | Side-step as the wind-up telegraphs |
| Explosion | Dodge away from the source |
| Scream | Dodge sideways |
| Root channel | An unavoidable drain once it catches you — pop a healing consumable rather than trying to escape it |
| Summon burst | Chain consecutive dodges until it stops |
Treat any large telegraph as a potential unblockable until you've actually seen it — several of his phase-2 hits can take huge chunks of health if blocked instead of dodged. Perfect Blocks are still your best tool for forcing openings, and interrupting his wind-ups with active abilities or a weapon art can stagger him outright.
Carry-over from Xanthe: if you spared Xanthe during her own boss fight, Brencis's Phase 1 doesn't summon Specters at all — one less thing to manage while you're still learning his moveset.
What order should I fight the Court in?
Ambrus, then Bakir, then Xanthe — that matches their level range. Brencis comes last, around level 25-30.
How do I break Ambrus's Scarlet Shield?
Use Dirty Trick to dispel it, or stop attacking and wait it out — damaging the shield heals him instead of hurting him.
Does anything carry over into the Brencis fight?
Yes — sparing Xanthe removes the Specter summons from Brencis's first phase.