Everything you need to know about getting the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai in The Blood of Dawnwalker, including the silver sword hilt, sword fragments, and how to forge it.
Silver Sword Hilt
It’ll take a fair bit of work to get the silver sword hilt, including completing multiple quests in and around Svartrau City.
Keep in mind that once you reach Infamy IX, the associated Edict locks down the gates into and out of Svartrau and prevents you from getting inside the Svartrau cathedral during the day.
A Monk and a Saint
You’ll need to locate Albertus in the Middens, a largely abandoned suburb full of unsavory types outside Svartrau.
You’ll find your monk in the only unlocked shack at the northern edge of the Middens. There’s a bunch of writing on the walls everywhere.
Albertus is a bit crazy. The only way to get information from him is to pick up a piece of charcoal off the ground (keep talking to him and the dialogue option to do so will appear). Then you need to write out the correct lines on the wall:
- Abelard the Sorrowful
- Svartrau Plaza
- …his penance, the place of his redemption
- …never once set foot inside it
- St. Mihai, a great warrior, arrived at Vale Sangora…
This interaction will tell you that the St. Mihai’s silver sword is located at a crypt beneath Svartrau Cathedral. The only reliable way to get into the Cathedral Complex is using the gate by the Asylum.
Locating the Cathedral Crypt
The goal of the next part of the quest is to go to Svartrau Cathedral and find St. Mihai’s crypt. The quest design here is quite ornate and there are several ways for Coen to figure out where St. Mihai’s crypt is. Each involves getting inside a restricted building in the cathedral complex.
- Caretaker’s Shed
- Treasury
- Library
Inside each building, you’ll find information about St. Mihai and his crypt. Some information is present in multiple places and there are multiple side quests on the Svartrau Cathedral grounds, so you don’t need to do everything if you only care about getting the sword.
Treasury
You can find the Treasury Key in a book in the bell tower in the cathedral being guarded by a little boy. He’ll let you in if you bribe him.
Use the key to unlock the treasury and use Focus Mode to help you ransack the place. On the main floor behind a bookshelf, you can find St. Mihai’s Chalice, which will show you what St. Mihai’s crest looks like upon inspection. After that, it just turns into an ordinary Golden Chalice that you can pawn off.
Library
You can learn more about the location of the crypt from the Cathedral Chronicle in the library. You can get into the Cathedral Library at night by Shadowstepping up to a balcony and getting in on the second floor using the unlocked door.
Use Focus Mode to help you find all the little goodies and the Annals of the Cathedral that tells you about the location of the crypt.
Caretaker’s Shed
You can loot the Caretaker’s Key from the Murohn sealed away behind a bookshelf in the closet on the second floor of the Asylum. You may need to speak to the Deacon in the main cathedral and one of the patients to learn about the bookshelf.
You can use Compel Soul on a corpse down there to learn more about what happened. Informing the Deacon about the status of the caretaker (turned Murohn) is part of a separate quest related to Xanthe called “A Dubious Gift”.
Inside the Caretaker’s Shed, you’ll find the Shards of Stained Glass, which you can take to the craftsman by the boarded-up window in the main cathedral for analysis during the day.
St. Mihai’s Memorial Stone
Once you have gathered enough information, your quest will update, allowing you to head to St. Mihai’s memorial stone in the courtyard. You’ll need to inspect the second stone from the right.
Inside the Cathedral Crypt
It may seem like you just stepped into a labyrinth, but St. Mihai’s crypt is just a loop with only one of the gated chambers being unlocked. Use Focus Mode to spot it through the cracks in one of the walls.
You can use Compel Soul on St. Mihai during the daytime after you best him in combat for a little bit of lore on your affliction.
Silver Sword Shards
There are 3 sword shards hidden in Kobold caves in each corner of Vale Sangora. You’ll need to find each of them to return St. Mihai’s Sword to its former glory.
Ambrus’s Fiefdom Shard
You can find a sword shard in a defaced shrine in a cave in the northern part of Maragir Wealds in Ambrus’s Fiefdom.
Bakir’s Fiefdom Shard
The sword shard in Bakir’s Fiefdom is located in a Kobold burrow in the mountains between Boar’s Back and Rock Hills in Bakir’s Fiefdom. You’ll need to crouch to get inside. You’ll need to defeat the beefiest Kobold in the game to get this shard.
Gollum XXL will spit poison at you, so unless you’re investing fully into the Vampirism tree, it’s probably easier to do this during the day when you have more reliable access to healing items.
Xanthe’s Fiefdom Shard
When you reach the cave between St. Tyna’s Grove and the Tantari Woods, you’ll discover that the silver sword shard is missing and was taken by some of Xanthe’s forces.
You can loot the shard from a small box in the tent at a Soldier Camp in the bog north of Tantari Woods.
Reforging the Silver Sword
After you collect the hilt and at least one of the shards, you can reforge the Silver Sword!
Finding the Uriashi Blacksmith
The Uriashi Blacksmith is located on the edge of the tree line in the northwestern part of the Briar Sloughs in Ambrus’s Fiefdom.
Initially, she does not trust you. To get her to help you, you’ll need to select the option “I want to kill Brencis“. This will also unlock access to her as a standard blacksmith vendor.
Once you have the hilt from Svartrau Cathedral, you can upgrade the silver sword with this gal each time you get a new sword shard.
Tempering the Sword
After you’ve reforged the Sword of St. Mihai, the blacksmith will tell you it needs to be tempered to unleash its true power. The place to temper it is in some ancient ruins northwest of the Uriashi Hermitage.
The ruins are blocked by some blood webs, but the silver sword can cut through it. Inside, you’ll have to do a little boss fight and a cutscene will play, giving you the Imbued Sword of St. Mihai.
Imbued Sword of St. Mihai
The Imbued Sword of St. Mihai is a legendary greatsword, so it has the highest stats available and a slow attack speed. Its perks improve your weapon crits, damage output against supernatural enemies, and reduce the cooldown on Swordmastery abilities.
While its stats make it particularly strong against Vrakhiri, it doesn’t do anything special against specific enemies like the Master Sword or anything. It’s a solid sword, no doubt, but it might not be ideal for your build
It does have a unique Weapon Art that coats the blade in your blood and offers the highest DPS potential out of any sword in the game.
Keep in mind that the DPS stat is higher because the sword has boosted crit chance and damage in lieu of other perks. Since its attack speed is slow, directional blocking is harder as well because you’re committed to each swing for a longer period of time.
The damage boost against supernatural enemies and swordmastery cooldown reduction might make it less useful for your specific build as well. If you’re relying on Witchcraft or Vampirism abilities and are fighting mortals or beasts, there are better options out there.
