There are 12 sources of legendary vrakhiri blood and Blood Phials in The Blood of Dawnwalker. We’ll show you what you get for each one and where to find them all.
How Vrakhir Blood and Vampire Abilities Work
Each major vrakhir in Blood of Dawnwalker has a unique Vampire ability associated with them. Unlike all other perks and abilities in the skill tree, the only way to unlock each Vampire ability is by drinking the blood of the associated vrakhir.
| Ability | Vrakhir’s Blood | Number of Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Scarlet Shield | Ambrus | 3 |
| Shadowstorm | Bakir | 3 |
| Blood Surge | Xanthe | 2 |
| Piercing Shriek | Brencis Isbrand | 3 |
| Mesmerise | Lacra | 1 |
Once you’ve unlocked the ability (and you have high enough Corruption), you can spend skill points and time to upgrade each ability, just like anything else in the skill tree.
However, the vast majority of vrakhiri in the game also have a few legendary Blood Phials that contain their blood. While the first sip of a given vrakhir’s blood will unlock the ability, subsequent sips of their blood will upgrade that ability to the next level for free.
The final upgrade to each Vampire ability costs 3 Skill Points and 2 hours, so the fact that Blood Phials allow you to bypass these costs is pretty significant, equivalent to up to 23 Skill Points and 11 hours if used optimally.
Since each upgrade costs a different amount of skill points and/or time, and there are never enough Blood Phials to get all 4 upgrades, it’s pretty important to spend Skill Points and time on the cheapest upgrades without overspending.
Ambrus’s Blood and Scarlet Shield
Scarlet Shield restores a portion of a health segment each time you execute a perfect block and has progressively lower chances to trigger from directional blocks and omniblocks.
It is a passive effect, so it doesn’t take up a quick slot or have a cooldown or activation cost, but it still needs to be equipped.
Upgrading Scarlet Shield slightly increases the health restored by the effect and increases its chance to trigger from directional and omniblocks. It eventually enables the attack after a perfect block to heal you for a portion of the damage you deal and grant a chance for any block to get upgraded to a perfect block.
Scarlet Shield is an insanely powerful piece of survivability that significantly reduces the need to use Voracious Bite or blood vial consumables to restore health.
There are 3 sources of Ambrus’s blood, so it’s ideal to spend 1 Skill Point and 1 hour to manually upgrade Scarlet Shield from Tier I to Tier II.
Boyar Ambrus
You can choose to drink Ambrus’s blood after defeating him outside of Maragir in Ambrus’s Fiefdom.
Xanthe’s Recruiters: Unquenchable Thirst
You can loot a Phial of Ambrus’s Blood from the blood reliquary at Xanthe’s Blood Guard recruitment tent outside the Silty Mug Inn about halfway between The Silts and Tantari Woods in Xanthe’s Fiefdom.
Murohn in St. Tyna’s Grove
You can loot a Phial of Ambrus’s Blood after defeating a Murohn in its cave in the heart of St. Tyna’s Grove due east of Svartrau City in Ambrus’s Fiefdom.
Bakir’s Blood and Shadowstorm
Shadowstorm dramatically slows down time around you for a few seconds, refills your stamina bar, and eliminates stamina costs for the duration.
It costs 2 Activation Charges and 15% of your health and has a 90s cooldown.
Upgrading it increases the duration and eventually adds a damage boost to your attacks.
While everything does move in slow motion, you are still vulnerable to attacks, Quicksilver-style. You’ll waste a ton of time if you try to block the hit, so just teleport behind people.
Since stamina is free, it’s best to prioritize spamming attacks. Don’t use other abilities until the effect ends.
There are 3 sources of Bakir’s blood, so it’s ideal to spend 1 Skill Point and 1 hour to manually upgrade Shadowstorm from to Tier I to Tier II.
Boyar Bakir
You can choose to drink Boyar Bakir’s blood at the Lunar Manor in The Silts in Xanthe’s Fiefdom (not Bakir’s!) after defeating him in battle.
Xanthe’s Recruiters: Come Home
You can loot a Phial of Bakir’s Blood from the blood reliquary at Xanthe’s Blood Guard recruitment tent outside Tantari, north of the Tantari Woods, in Xanthe’s Fiefdom.
Ambrus’s Leech Collectors
The third time you disperse one of Ambrus’s Leech Collector Camps in the Briar Sloughs of Ambrus’s Fiefdom, you’ll have to contend with one of Xanthe’s Blood Guards who will drop a Phial of Bakir’s Blood.
Xanthe’s Blood and Blood Surge
Blood Surge automatically defeats its non-boss target and deals a bit of AoE damage in a small radius around the target.
It costs 3 Activation Charges and 25% of your health and has a 30s cooldown.
Upgrading Blood Surge increases the AoE damage, AoE radius, and damage dealt to bosses.
Blood Surge is best used as often as possible on regular enemies at full health, ideally whichever enemy is closest to the greatest number of other enemies, though the AoE damage isn’t that much, so it’s more important not to waste the resources on an enemy that isn’t at max health.
There are 2 sources of Xanthe’s blood, so it’s ideal to spend 3 Skill Points and 2 hours to manually upgrade Blood Surge from to Tier I to Tier II and then again from Tier II to Tier III.
Boyaress Xanthe
You can choose to drink from Boyaress Xanthe after defeating her at Howling Keep or in Svartrau Cathedral (she’s there every other night christening some new Blood Guards).
Svartrau Cathedral Treasury
You can loot a Phial of Xanthe’s Blood from a blood reliquary stashed away inside the office on the second floor of the Treasury building at Svartrau Cathedral. Check out our guide on how to get St. Mihai’s Sword for more details on how to get inside.
Brencis’s Blood and Piercing Shriek
Piercing Shriek applies a series of debuffs in a long-range conal attack centered on your current target. Debuffed enemies are stunned for a few seconds, take more damage and deal less damage, and blocking reflects some of the damage they would have dealt back at them, with perfect blocks reflecting a whole lot more damage.
It costs 1 Activation charge and 20% of your health and has a 30s cooldown.
Upgrading Piercing Shriek extends the duration of the stun and all other debuffs and amplifies the effect of each debuff.
Piercing Shriek offers powerful debuff and control. It’s most useful against bosses and tough enemies, particularly ones you can’t drink from, but might not be worth the time it takes to cast unless you’re low on resources or can hit multiple enemies.
Keep in mind that the debuff duration will eventually last significantly longer than the cooldown, so don’t use it again on the same enemy until it’s worn off.
There are 3 practical sources of Brencis’s Blood, so it’s ideal to spend 1 Skill Point and 1 hour to manually upgrade Piercing Shriek from Tier I to Tier II.
Draining Isbrand
You automatically gain an upgrade level in Piercing Shriek after completing the second Lacra quest called “Our Rotten Roots” where you explore Anachora with her.
Xanthe’s Recruiters: Taste of Power
You can loot a Phial of Brencis’s Blood from the blood reliquary at Xanthe’s Blood Guard recruitment tent on the western edge of Altenmarkt in Svartrau City.
Mt. Balaur
You can loot a Phial of Brencis’s Blood (along with the Gladius) from his former cave domicile on Mt. Balaur west of Parlita in Boar’s Back in Bakir’s Fiefdom.
You can only access this part of the cave at night. You’ll need to Shadowstep onto the ledge at the back of the cave where blood was dripping.
Lacra’s Blood and Mesmerise
Mesmerize turns a non-boss enemy into an ally, forcing them to fight for you.
It costs 2 Activation Charges and 30% of your health and has a 45s cooldown.
Upgrading Mesmerize extends the duration of the mind control effect, significantly improves their damage output, and eventually enables their attacks to restore your Activation Charges.
Mesmerize costs more to upgrade while being less useful than the other active abilities since there aren’t any spare phials and it doesn’t work on bosses.
There is only 1 source of Lacra’s blood, and you’ll have to give up a Vampire Ability Slot used for one of the more economical abilities, so it’s suboptimal to spend any Skill Points or Time to upgrade Mesmerise.
Lacra Herself
Lacra will let you drink her blood straight from the source after you devour the Mandrake with her at the end of her third quest called “The Night of Horrors”, which takes place in The Silts of Xanthe’s Fiefdom. Even if you decline to drain her directly, she’ll still give you a Phial of Lacra’s Blood.
