The Blood of Dawnwalker: Everything we know so far

March has arrived, and the countdown to The Blood of Dawnwalker is well underway. The fangtastic new game from developer Rebel Wolves – a new studio led by ex-Witcher 3 devs – will whisk us away to a medieval eastern European town besieged by vampires. Human by day, vampire by night, protagonist Coen has access to two unique combat styles depending upon which form he takes. These skills will help us hunt down the evil bloodsuckers terrorizing our village, avenging our family over 30 days and nights in a "narrative sandbox" of our own creation.

It will be up to you to decide which side of Coen's nature you want to lean into as you explore the open-world and take on quests to achieve your goal. Our recent Big Preview spotlight gave us a closer look at what to expect from the upcoming RPG, which draws from pen-and-paper RPGs, folklore, and their own grisly takes on vampire archetypes to deliver a unique roleplaying experience unlike anything we've seen before. A fang to the heart? Pretty hardcore, if you ask me. The devs have also confirmed that a romance system will feature in The Blood of Dawnwalker, if that's something you're into, and let's be real... in a post-True Blood world, I wouldn't have it any other way.

If you're keen to learn more about this "experimental" new open-world that aims to "push the genre forward", here's all the latest Blood of Dawnwalker news and updates to slake your thirst.

The Blood of Dawnwalker release date speculation

Blood of Dawnwalker is set to launch sometime in 2026.

We still don't have an exact release date, but in a trailer that was showcased during the Xbox Game Showcase 2025, it confirmed the 2026 year window. There have been hints that we'll learn more about the game at the end of this year. So once we have more state-of-development updates and news, we'll be able to narrow down a potential release date even further.

For now, though, we recommend sitting tight and checking out our list of the best horror games to keep you busy in the meantime.

The Blood of Dawnwalker platforms

Once it releases, you'll be able to play The Blood of Dawnwalker on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Unfortunately, this is a heavy-duty game that was developed using Unreal Engine 5, so we don't expect a Nintendo Switch release anytime soon. We also doubt that it will be added to our list of upcoming Switch 2 games in the future, either. However, you never know! If Nintendo gives us any surprising release date news, we'll be sure to let you know.

The Blood of Dawnwalker trailer

The first cinematic trailer for The Blood of Dawnwalker is here, and you can watch it for yourself above. In the clip, we see Coen desperately trying to save his little sister, Lunka, who has the plague. The two run into an abandoned ruin, where they become surrounded by the King's men who are aiming to kill Lunka in order to stop the spread of the disease. However, before the little girl dies, a group of vampires suddenly descend on the army like an all-you-can-eat buffet.

The trailer gives us our first real look at the vampire Brencis, who takes up the fallen king's crown and gives Lunka his blood after Coen begs him to save her. Don't let the child-saving antics fool you, though: Brencis is by no means a good guy.

"I've been watching your little valley. Pestilence, famine, killing, and blood spilled carelessly like water. Things will be different now for all of you." he says after destroying the crown and letting his undead friends literally tear a human limb from limb in front of the siblings. His words are pretty ominous if you ask us, and we imagine that nothing good can come from waking the ancient vampire's wrath.

The Blood of Dawnwalker story and setting

The Blood of Dawnwalker is set in AD 1347 in a fictional kingdom called Vale Sangora that's located "somewhere in the Carpathians" (aka Central to Southeastern Europe). In this world, darkness has spread as humans face a plague followed by the imposing force of the ancient vampire Brencis - who forces the human population into a life of servitude and blood taxes.

We follow a young man named Coen, who ends up with the vampiric curse. However, Coen isn't a full-blown creature of the night just yet. He is still half-human, meaning that he is a Dawnwalker: a being who can still navigate both the night and day. Described as a Jekyll and Hyde-style character, he'll need all the supernatural abilities now afforded to him as he races against the clock to try and save his family in only 30 days and 30 nights.

While we don't know the full story of Blood of Dawnwalker, we assume there will be more political upheaval and social dynamics to explore, given Tomaszkiewicz's work on The Witcher 3. We also know that Brencis will have a massive part to play in the story as he is set to be the game's main antagonist.

From the game's trailer we also know that Coen's actions will largely revolve around his bond with his sick sister named Lunka. The official Dawnwalker Twitter account has also been gradually posting characters' backstories for all of us to explore. For instance, we recently learned about the origin of an ancient Greek vampire who appeared in the cinematic trailer called Xanthe.

"She was a priestess, once, on a remote Greek island, the name of which she has since forgotten," the post reads. The account also shared that Brencis was born during the Roman Empire, and we discovered that the other vampires in the trailer are named Bakir and Ambrus.

Excitingly, it's also been revealed that the story of The Blood of Dawnwalker is akin to a narrative sandbox and is said to be "so non-linear that you can align with the human rebellion or finish the game without ever meeting them". Once prologue wraps, we'll essentially be able to have free reign over how we approach saving our family, meaning we'll have a lot of agency to shape our own journey in the RPG.

Blood of the Dawnwalker vampire lore

More details also shed light on vampiric side of the RPG in a Xbox Wire blog post, which revealed how one turns another. With a different spin on the classic lore we've come to know in popular culture, The Blood of Dawnwalker sets out to "honor the classic vision" of "elegant nobility of the night", while also "introducing some twists that make our vampires stand out in more distinct, sometimes unsettling ways."

One such way in how a human gets turned, which sees a vampire pull out one of their teeth and "pierce the heart of their chosen target". This ritual is said to "play a crucial role" in Coen's transformation into a dawnwalker, but as a half human, something is said to have gone wrong in his case. While this is only lightly teased, what happens to Coen promises to "have far-reaching implications" in the world. How intriguing.

The Blood of Dawnwalker gameplay

We've steadily been getting a better idea of Blood of Dawnwalker's gameplay. Firstly, we know that it will be a single-player open-world game that is also marketed as the first chapter in a "new saga" from Konrad Tomaszkiewicz (one of the directors of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt). The upcoming game will be a story-focused RPG with multiple endings, and the open-world setting we'll venture to is said to be smaller in scale than other adventures so you feel like you know place.

Some gameplay footage then initially appeared in a trailer which debuted during the Xbox Game showcase 2025 (which you can watch above). In it, we see protagonist Coen dodging blows and fighting in close quarters with a sword as he speaks of monsters that roam in the shadows and take advantage of those in the light.

The follow-up Xbox Wire post directly after the showcase also shed some light on Coen's combat skills, with the developers at Rebel Moon studying "medieval fighting styles", with some trained swordsmen even on team. As a human by day, Coen will learn magic that's "raw" and "ritual-based", with dark primordial origins - meaning that the magic will be tied to grounded elements such as blood, heat, and air. Casting requires you to become a sort of conduit to occult carvings and runes, too.

At night, Coen's vampiric side awakens, where you can choose to fight with your "claws, enhanced strength", and "dark powers", that are "only available after sunset". If you do use these skills, it will affect your human side and feeds into a system that's tied to Coen's blood craving - which is connected to his health and hunger.

Lose health, and he becomes more suspectable to losing control and giving into his vampiric side. This can even lead to some bad consequences, and potentially even lock you out of certain questlines. To that point, creative Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz also revealed that the RPG is a sandbox that gives you a lot of freedom to do things like "kill off a lot of NPCs" - including really important ones you encounter on your journey.

Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz also explained that certain powers will also feed into traversal, pointing to a skill known as "Planeshift", "which allows [Coen] to break the law of gravity and walk on the walls and ceilings", while another known as Shadowstep, "allows Coen to teleport short distances."

The devs have also confirmed that romance will for sure be a thing, which is no doubt excellent news to those who like their RPGs a little bit more... emotionally immersive. "There are romance options, yes," creative director Mateusz Tomaskiewicz confirmed to a write-in questio during the New Game+ Showcase 2026, though he stopped short of divulging more detail. "I'll leave that for the future to talk about. However, yes, you can expect to build relationships with characters."

In a 20-minute gameplay overview video, we also got to see more of the RPG in action during a quest that takes place midgame (which is said to feature "legendary swords and a haunted alms house"). While we don't get much more detail on the questline itself beyond the fact that Coen is chasing leads to discover a "powerful weapon", we are shown some of the gameplay systems, including swordplay against travelling bandits on the road.

We see Coen is able to cast a hex known as "Burning Blood", which boils the blood of his foes and burns their skin to deal physical damage over time. We also see how you can perform finisher moves that in one case decapitates an opponent's head clean off.

There's some insight into the skill trees, too, with Coen having human perks, vampire perks, shared perks, and active abilities to invest in as you progress. Openly opposing vampires can also have consequences, with the gameplay video highlighting how our choices will impact our approach as we get further into the story. For more, be sure to check out our The Blood of Dawnwalker Gamescom 2025 preview.

The Blood of Dawnwalker 30 days and 30 nights

Time is also set to be a massive mechanic in the upcoming game. In fact, to complete the main objective of Dawnwalker, you only have 30 days and 30 nights to save your family.

Now, if you were worried that a time constraint would make you miss anything on your first playthrough, don't worry: exploring doesn't tick the clock forward. Instead, completing quests will move time along. However, there is some urgency with these said quests, so you can't completely relax either. One feature that will appear in Blood of Dawnwalker is a "limited time" quest system.

"In short - the player has limited time to complete the main goal - exploring the world doesn't move the time forward, but every quest does. It plays a huge role in our narrative setup, and we'll be expanding on what it means later on," explained Rebel Wolves senior PR manager Mateusz Greiner.

Greiner also assured fans that when choosing what to do in the game, so you can plan your time wisely, "it will always be clearly telegraphed to the player if an activity moves time forward (and by how much) - players will have control over it."

In a Q&A series, Rebel Wolves also answered fan questions, including one asking how the time mechanic works. The answer from the studio is quite illuminating. Once again confirming Coen will have 30 days and 30 nights to complete his main objective, the team explained that while the game doesn't end after that period of time, "Coen's family might suffer the consequences" if you waste that time.

Rebel Wolves also reiterated that The Blood of Dawnwalker doesn't have a regular clock, and completing quests is the only way time pushes forward, with each quest having an associated "time cost".

Can you pre-order The Blood of Dawnwalker?

There are currently no pre-orders for The Blood of Dawnwalker live (heartbreaking, we know). This likely won't change for some time, given that we only have a 2026 release window for the game.

If you are dying to play something right now, you can check out our guide to the best open-world games for 2025. Otherwise, we'll have to be patient and keep our wallets at the ready for Coen's journey.

For more future releases, head over to our guides on all the upcoming PS5 games, upcoming Xbox Series X games, and new PC games.