The Blood of Dawnwalker · Getting Started
No story spoilers here — just what's worth knowing before you press start: how the game is structured, which difficulty to pick, roughly how long it runs, and the first couple of skills worth grabbing.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a single-player, open-world action RPG set in Vale Sangora, a region styled after 14th-century Europe. It opens with a linear Prologue — roughly 8 time segments' worth of story, or about 1-2 hours — before handing you the open world and starting a 30-day-and-night countdown to save your family. If you want the full quest-by-quest Prologue breakdown once you're ready for spoilers, see our main story walkthrough.
There are four presets, and you're not locked into your choice — the difficulty (and individual sliders under it) can be changed anytime from the settings menu, mid-playthrough included.
| Preset | Who it's for |
|---|---|
| Story | You want the narrative first — enemies give you more time to learn attack patterns |
| Fair | The recommended default for most players — full challenge, room to learn the directional combat system |
| Challenging | You want combat to push back from the start |
| Duelist | The hardest preset — removes the Perfect Block timing indicator entirely (see our combat guide) |
Beyond the four presets, separate RPG Difficulty and Action Difficulty menus let you fine-tune things individually — enemy health, enemy damage, enemy aggression, how tight the Perfect Block window is, and whether blocking happens automatically. Worth revisiting a few hours in once you know what you actually want more or less of.
Expect somewhere around 15-18 hours if you rush the critical path, up to 50-70 hours for a fuller playthrough with exploration, side content, and companion questlines — based on developer testing and early reviews. Because the 30-day in-game clock means you genuinely can't do everything in one run, how long your playthrough takes depends almost entirely on how much you choose to explore versus rushing the main threat.
Traversal speed matters more than it looks like it should, given how much ground Vale Sangora covers. Two early picks are worth prioritizing specifically for that:
Both are covered in more depth, alongside every other perk in the game, in our skill trees guide — and for a broader first-hours strategy (time management, combat basics, where to put your very first points), see our beginner tips.
Practical takeaway: start on Fair unless directional block-and-parry combat is new to you, don't stress about "doing it right" on your first run since 30 days was never going to be enough time to see everything anyway, and grab Shapeshift or Mercurial Fervour early so getting around doesn't eat into that clock more than it has to.
Is it open world?
Yes, after a linear Prologue — it's a single-player open-world action RPG set in Vale Sangora.
How long is it?
Roughly 15-18 hours rushed, or 50-70 hours for a fuller playthrough.
Which difficulty should I pick, and can I change it later?
Fair for most players, Story if directional combat is new to you — and yes, you can change presets or individual sliders at any time.