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Vampiric Powers
September 23, 2026 at 07:29 AM
Clarified that the blood whips were Xanthe's own attacks in the 2025 reveal rather than an earlier name for Blood Surge, standardised Mesmerise, and dropped a note about this page's own edit history
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.
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.
Full vertical traversal. Coen can walk on flat walls and ceilings, defying gravity entirely. He enters Planeshift by Shadowstepping onto a wall or ceiling, it works only in the vrakhir form, and walking in it drains stamina: if stamina runs out he falls from a ceiling or drops into Clawride on a wall. 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. Walkthroughs describe Shadowstep and Planeshift as available from the moment Coen gains his vampiric abilities. Some previews called it Shadow Walk, an earlier name for the same ability.
There is no bat or swarm transformation in the shipped game as of September 2026. The movement abilities recorded in the game's own data are Shadowstep, Planeshift and Clawride, plus the Shapeshift wolf form for covering distance (see Wolf Transformation). Turning into a bat was one of the features some players had expected from a vampire game, and a community mod now adds bat flight, but that is a modification rather than a feature of the game.
High-speed vertical drops and enhanced rooftop traversal. When combined with Planeshift, 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.
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.
Coen can absorb new vampire powers by draining other vampires. Each vampire has distinct abilities, and defeating them grants access to what they had. Two names for Xanthe's powers have been carried here from pre-release coverage:
Boiling Blood: a timed ability that triggers an explosion if it is not managed. Attributed to Xanthe in pre-release coverage of the June 2025 gameplay reveal.
Blood Whips: ranged attacks manifested through blood control, attributed to Xanthe in that same pre-release coverage. Accounts of the shipped game give Blood Surge as what drinking from Xanthe actually grants, so Blood Whips describes Xanthe's own attacks in the June 2025 demonstration rather than an ability Coen grant. See 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 Mesmerise, arrive through quests rather than through a body. The unlock routes are set out in full on Vampire Combat and Night Abilities.
The studio has not published a list of night abilities, but databases compiled from the game's own text list ten Vampire abilities: Blood Surge, Crimson Rush, Death from Above, Mesmerise, Piercing Shriek, Scarlet Shield, Shadowstorm, Shapeshift, Shred and Voracious Bite. Five of them come through quests or vrakhir blood rather than purchase, as set out above, and the rest open up as Corruption rises, which happens every time Coen drinks from any source. Shadowstep, Planeshift and Clawride sit outside that list as the movement set Coen has from the start.
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.
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 and Planeshift gives players several stealth options: teleport past patrols, or climb above them onto walls and ceilings.
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. Dimension Reach cuts the stamina cost of Planeshift and removes it entirely at its top rank. These sit alongside the abilities rather than replacing them, and are covered with the rest of the tree on the Skill Trees page.