Blood of Dawnwalker: 6 combat tips you need to know before playing

Blood of Dawnwalker is a unique RPG that will see you play as a human by day and a vampire by night.

Each mode has a different unarmed combat style, a different gear set, and even abilities that are exclusive to the two times of day. On top of all that, Blood of Dawnwalker’s combat is a bit different from most action RPGs.

In this guide, we’re breaking down the essential things you need to know to succeed at combat, and a few bonus tips that’ll see you improving the strength of your build throughout the game.

Claws, swords, and weapon swapping

By day you can swap between unarmed and swordsman combat, and by night you can swap between vampire claws and your sword. Unarmed combat is basically only good for a handful of non-lethal fights, but early in the game your vampire claws may actually be stronger than many of the swords you find, making claw combat much more advantageous. Later in the game, you’ll probably find much more powerful swords, making it less essential.

You can change your equipped weapon during combat from the Inventory menu, unlike other gear. You can swap between armed and unarmed in combat by pressing the Square/X button on PS5 and Xbox, respectively.

Directional blocking

Directional blocking is a huge part of the combat in Blood of Dawnwalker. Enemies you target will attack from one of four directions. Your targeting reticule will show a shield icon when they’re attacking, and if you tap the block button as the shield turns orange, you’ll parry the strike. This is the basic foundation of combat that you’ll need to master to progress through the game, but it gets more complicated when more enemies get involved.

Secondary enemies

When you’re facing off against more than one enemy, the most difficult thing to deal with early on will be blocking and parrying attacks from enemies that you’re not targeting. One thing the game never explains to you is that if a secondary enemy is preparing a blockable attack, they will always attack from the direction that they are in. For example, if an enemy approaches from the right side of the screen, you can parry to the right to counter them. If the camera moves after an enemy preps an attack, they will still attack from the original direction, which can be slightly confusing.

When a secondary foe preps an attack, the primary foe you’re targeting will avoid launching an attack. You’ll never have to deal with more than one attack at a time, but they will come rapidly if you’re facing off against a large number of opponents.

Craft heals; food is useless

You can eat food and other consumables to regenerate health over time, but it’s honestly pretty useless. Food won’t heal you at night, and during combat its effects are minimal at best. Instead, you should be crafting healing items, which offer far better results. Health items you can craft can instantly restore a large percentage of your health, or quickly regen health over time at a faster rate than food. You can also craft Blood Vials for the same effects at night.

Abilities are amazing

You shouldn’t ignore your suite of abilities. You’ll learn Swordsman, Witchcraft, and Vampirism abilities, and they all have uses in battle that you’d be a fool to ignore. Abilities in battle can make fights drastically easier, and even recover your health. You’ll need to level up and spend perk points before making full use of them, but ensuring you’re regularly using your abilities is the key to success. Witchcraft can only be accessed by day, and Vampirism by night — Swordsman abilities can be used at all times. You’ll need Activation Points to use abilities, which you’ll earn by fighting well.

Gearing up

You can have two different gearsets for night and day. This is good because some pieces of equipment will offer buffs to Vampirism or Witchcraft abilities, and these will only work during night and day, respectively. The best buffs overall tend to be for health regeneration and Activation Point stacking, allowing you to focus on dealing damage. Once you find Legendary tier gear that suits your playstyle, you should upgrade it at a Blacksmith instead of constantly using new equipment.