The Blood of Dawnwalker Prologue Walkthrough: Laslea Glen Quests, Controller Fixes, and Early Economy

Rebel Wolves has finally released The Blood of Dawnwalker, opening the gates to the unforgiving, 14th-century dark fantasy realm of Vale Sangora. Millions of players are currently navigating Coen’s tragic origins and exploring the beautifully grim open world. Naturally, launch day brings a mix of incredible narrative discovery alongside a few technical hurdles.

The development team has already pushed Day-One Update 1.003, which significantly improves overall rendering performance, especially in densely wooded areas and crowded settlements. Make sure your client has downloaded this update before starting your playthrough. However, while the official patch smooths out framerates, it misses a specific input quirk that has been actively bothering gamepad users. The community has quickly found a reliable workaround for this controller issue, allowing you to experience the opening hours without mechanical friction. From technical tweaks to surviving the highly missable prologue quests, here is everything you need to know to establish a perfect start in Vale Sangora.

Fixing the Diagonal Movement Bug

If you are playing with a controller on PC, you might notice something completely off about Coen’s movement speed. When pushing the left analog stick straight forward, Coen sprints at full speed as expected. But if you push the stick diagonally to run at an angle, the character inexplicably slows down to a casual jog. Early players initially mistook this for an intentional encumbrance system or a stamina penalty, but community testing revealed it is actually a deadzone interpretation error between certain gamepads and the game’s input logic.

According to players on the official subreddit, the game’s default input system struggles with standard ‘Circle’ stick trajectories produced by various third-party controllers (like the GameSir series) and occasionally even official gamepads routed via standard Steam Input profiles. The circular bounding box restricts the raw diagonal value from reaching maximum output, causing the engine to register the input as only a partial tilt.

The fix is entirely straightforward. Open your respective controller configuration software—whether that is Steam Input settings for the specific game profile, the Xbox Accessories app, or your peripheral’s proprietary software. Navigate to the left stick calibration settings and change the stick trajectory or output mode from “Circle” (sometimes labeled as Radial) to “Raw” (or Square/Axial depending on the software). This forces the controller to send the unedited maximum values directly to the game, instantly curing Coen’s diagonal sluggishness. Do this before leaving the starting area, as you will absolutely need your full sprinting speed when the story escalates.

The Point of No Return: Surviving Laslea Glen

The Blood of Dawnwalker features a prologue that lulls you into a false sense of security. The starting zone, Laslea Glen, serves as a narrative sandbox where you learn the ropes of daytime exploration, basic resource gathering, and the initial combat and hex magic mechanics. The village feels alive, filled with merchants, local disputes, and quest-givers going about their daily routines.

However, Laslea Glen operates on a ticking clock tied directly to your main quest progression. Story spoilers follow for the first few hours.

As you follow the primary narrative threads, you will eventually receive a main quest titled “Bad Blood.” Proceeding with this mission initiates an irreversible world state change. The formidable vampire lord Brencis launches a violent, coordinated assault on the valley. The scripted sequences here are brutal, culminating in Brencis murdering Coen’s father and burning Laslea Glen to ashes. Understanding the villain’s motivations requires digging deeper into the game’s lore, which you can read about in our Brencis and Vampire Officers overview, but your immediate concern is survival.

Following the attack, the game transitions immediately into the “Smoke and Ashes” quest. The lush valley you spent hours exploring is replaced by smoldering ruins and lingering threats. Your objective shifts dramatically to scouring the destruction for any signs of your surviving family members. Because the physical location is fundamentally altered, the game unceremoniously fails or removes any pending side quests associated with the original Laslea Glen settlement. If you rush the main story, you will permanently lose access to early experience points, unique lore interactions, and valuable starter gear.

Highly Missable Prologue Quests

To ensure your quest log is clean and your inventory is properly stocked before facing Brencis, make sure you actively seek out and complete the following local tasks before advancing “Bad Blood.”

Bandit’s Treasure Map Found on the rugged outskirts of the glen, this brief investigation starts when you discover a hastily drawn map on a slain highwayman. The map leads to a hidden cache of early crafting components and a decent chunk of starting currency. While the geographical spot where the treasure is buried technically remains part of the map later, the contextual triggers and the NPC interactions associated with the map disappear entirely once the village burns.

Pilgrimage for Power (Sacred Stones) This is a massive, game-spanning collection quest that tasks you with finding Sacred Stones of the uriashi, ancient relics scattered across Vale Sangora. The very first stone is hidden within the boundaries of the Laslea Glen prologue. Securing this stone early gives you a vital bump in foundational stats. Missing it means you will have to backtrack to the ruined, much more dangerous version of the valley later in the game, putting you at a statistical disadvantage during the brutal early chapters.

Local Disputes: Blasphemy, and A Monk and a Saint The villagers of Laslea Glen are dealing with heavy religious and social tensions even before the vampire attack. Quests like “Blasphemy,” “Someone Needs A Lesson,” and “A Monk and a Saint” involve mediating disputes between orthodox religious figures and desperate locals accused of heresy. These quests do not offer massive combat rewards, but they provide crucial context regarding the world’s harsh faith systems. Resolving them grants you early silver and dialogue options that help establish your version of Coen’s moral compass.

Shadows in the Woods & Echoes of Silenced Bells These two combat-focused requests require you to investigate the deeper woods bordering the village. You will face minor supernatural threats—excellent target practice for mastering your parry timings and dodge rolls. Completing these combat trials early ensures you have enough skill points to invest in your initial builds and skill trees before the difficulty spikes outside the valley.

Early Economy: Where to Sell Silver Items for Maximum Profit

Once you survive the devastation of “Smoke and Ashes” and step out into the wider, unforgiving map of Vale Sangora, you will naturally start accumulating various silver items. Whether you loot old chalices from abandoned crypts, steal tarnished rings from bandit camps, or uncover decorative plates in ruined manors, you will quickly notice they take up valuable inventory space.

Your first instinct might be to offload these treasures to the first traveling merchant or generic shopkeeper you encounter on the road. Do not do this. Standard vendors across the wilderness offer severely reduced prices for precious metals, treating finely crafted silver as basic junk. Selling to them is a massive waste of potential income.

To maximize your profits, you must hold onto your silver hoard until you reach Svartrau City, the massive, fortified capital situated near the middle of the world map. Svartrau City serves as a major hub for trade, politics, and faction quests. Once you gain entry to the city walls, bypass the initial market stalls and navigate toward the southwestern district of the settlement.

Tucked away in this fortified corner is a specialized antiquities merchant who deals exclusively in precious metals and historical artifacts. This specific vendor pays exponentially more currency for silver items than anyone else in the game. Liquidating your silver stockpile here will yield a massive influx of wealth, fundamentally changing your early-game economy. This sudden wealth allows you to comfortably purchase high-end crafting materials, upgrade your weaponry, and afford necessary supplies for long excursions.

Having a healthy supply of currency is also incredibly useful for your interactions with companions. Shortly after leaving the destroyed glen, you will cross paths with Anca. She serves as one of the first friendly faces you meet post-prologue and plays a major role in the game’s romance options. Affording better gear to protect both yourself and your newly found allies makes the harsh journey through Vale Sangora significantly more manageable.