How to Beat the Beast of Balaur in The Blood of Dawnwalker (Hellhound Guide)

The Beast of Balaur is what happens when The Blood of Dawnwalker stops testing your dueling technique and starts testing your nerve. It is a hellhound miniboss in a cave under Mount Balaur — west of Parlita, deep in the mountains — and the fight itself is only half the reason to make the trip. The cave behind the boss hides a 220 DPS legendary shortsword and a free vampiric ability, both reachable in a single night run. This guide covers the approach, the fight, and the loot most players miss.

Where to Find the Beast

The quest The Beast of Balaur is one of the early side hunts in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it starts without any prior quest flag, level gate, or story requirement:

1. Open the world map and find the Mount Balaur shrine, west of Boar’s Back and south of Briar Sloughs — on the way toward Laslea Glen. Arriving registers it as a fast travel point.
2. Face the shrine and climb the cliffs on its right side. The climb itself triggers the quest. If nothing appears in your tracker, you are on the wrong side of the shrine.
3. Follow the linear path, crawl under the low rock obstacle, and continue to the cave mouth. The objective updates to “Explore the cave.”
4. Inside, follow the tracks with Focus Mode (L2/LT) if you lose the path. The boss arena is a short walk in.

PowerPyx lists the starting location as west of Parlita, the time cost as 3 time segments, and the reward as 250 XP. There is no fail state — you can walk away and return later.

The Fight: Hellhound Tactics

The Beast of Balaur is a supernatural wolf — a hellhound — and it fights like one. This is a creature encounter, not a duel, so forget the parry rhythm that wins human fights. The patterns:

• Lunges and bites — fast, low-commitment attacks that punish standing still. Dodge sideways, not backwards; the lunge tracks retreating targets.
• Wide sweeps — telegraphed tail and claw arcs that cover a surprising radius. Back out during the wind-up, dart in for one or two hits during recovery.
• Corner pressure — the cave arena is small and the beast knows it. Keep moving along the edges; getting pinned between the beast and the wall is the most common death here.

The general creature-fight discipline applies: dodge first, punish second, one or two confirmed hits after an opening, then reset. Do not trade — hellhound damage outpaces yours at this stage of the game.

What the Beast Drops

Loot the corpse before moving on:

• Psglov Claws — crafting material from hellhound-type enemies.
• Hellhound Pelt — another crafting material, used in gear upgrades down the line.

Sweep the arena after the kill. A sarcophagus in the area holds a Reliable Battlesword (140 DPS) — a solid early-game upgrade if you are still on starter steel. Investigating the body in the cave updates “The Beast of Balaur” journal entry.

The Real Prize: Gladius + Phial of Brencis’s Blood

This is the part most players miss, and it is the entire reason to do the hunt at night. At the back of the boss arena there is a raised ledge. Shadow Step up it — the vampiric traversal ability that only works after dark — and follow the passage to a hidden study room full of books, scrolls, and maps.

Loot it thoroughly:

• Chest → the Gladius, a legendary shortsword with 220 DPS and stats that carry you through the early and mid game. It leans into critical damage and fights human enemies exceptionally well — the trade-off printed on the item card is reduced effectiveness against supernatural foes and slower activation charge restoration.
• Table beside the altar → Phial of Brencis’s Blood, a legendary consumable. Drinking it pushes Coen’s Corruption to level 2 and immediately unlocks Piercing Shriek in the Vampirism tree — no skill point cost, no waiting.
• Shelves → an Unholy Fervour Manual, a Recipe for Yrakhiri Attunement, a Scribble-Covered Map, and Faded Orders.

The phial is easy to miss — the altar draws the eye first. Check the table next to it.

One warning before you drink the phial: raising Corruption is a permanent shift, not a temporary buff. If you are keeping Corruption low for a specific playthrough or ending, hold onto the phial and drink it later — or never. The Gladius alone is worth the trip regardless.

Arriving in Daylight: The Dead End

Shadow Step is a nighttime-only ability. If you hike to Mount Balaur during the day, you can still kill the Beast and loot the sarcophagus — but the back ledge is unreachable, and the study room with the Gladius and the phial stays locked. The fix is simple: return after dark. The shrine fast travel point you registered on the way in makes the round trip painless.

How This Fits Your Run

The Beast of Balaur is best tackled early — the hellhound is beatable at low level with starter gear and patience, and the 220 DPS Gladius pays off immediately against the human enemies that dominate the opening acts. The Phial of Brencis’s Blood also front-loads a vampiric power you would otherwise unlock through story progress, which matters if you are planning a night-heavy build.

If you missed the hunt and are already deep into the game, do not worry — the quest does not expire, the boss does not scale with story progress, and the rewards are just as strong. Before you push into the endgame, the Gladius is one of the cleanest upgrades you can grab in an evening.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the Beast of Balaur in The Blood of Dawnwalker? In a cave under Mount Balaur, west of Parlita and west of Boar’s Back. Climb the cliffs to the right of the Mount Balaur shrine to trigger the quest, then follow the linear path to the cave.

What does the Beast of Balaur drop? Psglov Claws and a Hellhound Pelt from the corpse, plus a Reliable Battlesword (140 DPS) from a sarcophagus in the arena. The hidden study room behind the boss holds the legendary Gladius and the Phial of Brencis’s Blood.

Can you fight the Beast of Balaur at low level? Yes. There is no level gate, and the fight is a positioning test rather than a gear check. Patient dodging and one-or-two-hit punishes win it with starter equipment.

How do I get the Gladius in The Blood of Dawnwalker? Kill the Beast of Balaur, then Shadow Step up the raised ledge at the back of the arena — only possible at night — and open the chest in the study room. The Phial of Brencis’s Blood is on the table beside the altar in the same room.

Is the Beast of Balaur connected to Bakir? Community reporting has long linked the hellhound to Bakir’s storyline, but the confirmed facts place it as a self-contained side hunt with its own quest, rewards, and hidden room. Treat any deeper connection as unverified.