Revision 10

When They Activate

As a Dawnwalker, Coen's vampire side emerges at night. His claws extend, his Hex Magic rune scars seal shut as vampiric regeneration takes over, and his entire moveset shifts to supernatural abilities. These powers are only available at night; during the day, Coen fights as a human.

Core Abilities

Shadowstep

Short-range teleportation. Coen blinks forward and reappears almost instantly at the target location. In combat, it allows rapid repositioning. Dodging attacks, flanking enemies, or escaping encirclement. Outside combat, Shadowstep reaches elevated platforms, crosses gaps, and accesses areas unreachable on foot. All vampires possess some version of Shadowstep, though in murohni (failed vampire transformations) it manifests as an unstable variant.

Plane Shift

Full vertical traversal. Coen can walk on walls and ceilings, defying gravity entirely. He stays upright while doing it, walking the surface on two feet rather than crawling. He can scale buildings, cross along the underside of bridges, or cling to cave ceilings. The ability opens up the entire vertical axis of the game world at night, creating routes, vantage points, and hiding spots that don't exist during the day.

Plague Shift

Coen transforms into a swarm of bats for traversal. This is a movement ability rather than a combat one. It lets him cover longer distances, reach distant platforms, and bypass obstacles that even Shadowstep and Plane Shift can't handle. The transformation is temporary, used to bridge gaps in the world rather than as a permanent flight mode.

Clawride

High-speed vertical drops and enhanced rooftop traversal. When combined with Plane Shift, this lets Coen move quickly across elevated terrain. Climbing a wall, sprinting across rooftops, and dropping down with Clawride for a fast descent. It's the traversal equivalent of a sprint button but oriented vertically.

Voracious Bite

Coen bites enemies to drain their blood, restoring health. This makes night combat inherently more aggressive than day combat. Staying on the offensive keeps you alive. The bite also helps manage the Blood Craving meter. Feeding can be partial (knocking the target unconscious) or total (killing them).

Voracious Bite is confirmed first-hand by the studio: it is named in a post-launch patch note fixing a tutorial that could be broken by using the ability too quickly, which places it in the shipped game and in the tutorial sequence specifically.

Acquired Abilities

Coen can absorb new vampire powers by draining other vampires. Each vampire has distinct abilities, and defeating them grants access to what they had. Known acquirable powers include:

• Blood Whips: Ranged magical attacks manifested through blood control. Obtained from Xanthe

• Boiling Blood: A timed ability that triggers an explosion if not managed. Also associated with Xanthe

This system ties power progression to the enemies you choose to fight. Going after a specific Vrakhiri member isn't just a narrative choice, it's a build choice.

Post-launch guides describe the same system with three specific results. Drinking from Ambrus grants Scarlet Shield, drinking from Bakir grants Shadowstorm, and drinking from Xanthe grants Blood Surge. None of the three costs a skill point. Two further abilities, Piercing Shriek and Mesmerize, arrive through quests rather than through a body. The unlock routes are set out in full on Vampire Combat and Night Abilities.

No complete list of night abilities has ever been published, by the studio or by anyone else. Everything outside the named grants above is described as unlocking through Corruption, which rises every time Coen drinks from any source, so the night set fills in gradually rather than being laid out in advance.

Claw Combat

At night, Coen's claws replace his sword. The claws can tear through enemy armor, and dismemberment is possible. The fighting pace is faster and more aggressive than daytime swordplay, with less emphasis on directional blocking and more on sustained offense supplemented by Shadowstep repositioning.

Stealth

Using vampiric powers in populated areas carries risk. At night, Svartrau and other settlements have vampire patrols loyal to Brencis. If Coen is spotted in vampire form, consequences follow. Combat escalation, reputation damage, or locked-off interactions. The combination of Shadowstep, Plane Shift, and Plague Shift gives players multiple stealth options: teleport past patrols, climb above them, or fly over them entirely.

Skill Progression

Vampiric abilities are upgraded through the Vampirism skill tree, and the generic perks that span all three trees also benefit night abilities. Investing in Vampirism makes Coen more powerful after dark at the cost of not improving his daytime capabilities, creating a meaningful specialization choice.

Traversal by these abilities is tracked in its own right: an achievement covers covering 1,000 metres using vampiric movement. Unlocking a tree ultimate is likewise confirmed for Vampirism, matching the equivalent unlocks in Swordmastery and Witchcraft.

The night tree also carries perks that modify these powers rather than adding new ones. Coverage of the finished game names Shadow Dweller, whose levels extend the range of the short-range teleport, along with Shapeshift for wolf-form travel, Death From Above for drop attacks, Endless Hunger for night-time maximum health, Nourishing Blood for feeding recovery and Hastened Corruption for the rate Corruption itself builds. These sit alongside the abilities rather than replacing them, and are covered with the rest of the tree on the Skill Trees page.