All Characters Ranked: Best to Worst in The Blood of Dawnwalker

The Blood of Dawnwalker has a cast of characters ranging from deeply realized allies to functional quest-givers who exist only to move you to the next marker. This ranking evaluates every major named character across four dimensions: story impact, combat utility (where applicable), quest depth, and community reception. The result is a tier list that reflects how much each character actually adds to your run — not just how much screen time they get.

Ranking Criteria

Dimension	Weight	What It Measures
Story Impact	35%	How much the character changes the narrative, your choices, or the ending
Combat Utility	25%	How useful they are in boss fights and the final assault (if applicable)
Quest Depth	25%	How much content and meaningful choice their questline contains
Community Reception	15%	How positively players discuss and remember the character

S Tier: The Essential Characters

1. Coen (Player Character)

The protagonist of The Blood of Dawnwalker. Coen is not a silent avatar — he has a defined personality, a family he is trying to save, and a body count that grows whether you want it to or not. Every ranking dimension applies to him by definition. His internal monologue and dialogue options give the game its voice.

2. Lacra

Lacra is the assassin who came to kill Brencis and stayed to help Coen do it. Her questline is the longest and most consequential ally chain in the game. Complete it and she fights beside you in the final battle; skip it and you face Brencis alone. Her backstory, her motives, and her relationship with Coen are among the best-written content in The Blood of Dawnwalker. See the full Lacra character guide.

3. Crake

Crake is not his real name. That is the first thing you learn about him, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. His Manumit questline unlocks the rebellion route, changes the final assault, and opens the betrayal ending path. Crake is the political heart of the game — the character who understands that killing Boyars is not the same as changing the system. See the full Crake character guide.

A Tier: The Strong Supporting Cast

4. Anca

Anca is the herbalist who teaches Coen to read, to see beyond what is plainly written, and to care about something other than the mission. Her romance is the most prominent in the game, her questline unlocks the Font of Life, and her epilogue is one of the most discussed in the community. She is not an ending ally, but she is the human story inside the vampire war. See the full Anca character guide.

5. Farkas

Farkas is the character whose smile never reaches his eyes. His motives are opaque, his loyalty is conditional, and his questline forces you to make choices that feel wrong no matter which option you pick. Farkas is the best example of a character who is more interesting because the game refuses to explain him. See the full Farkas character guide.

6. Brencis

The primary antagonist and final boss of The Blood of Dawnwalker. Brencis is not a cackling villain — he is a system given human form. His presence looms over the entire game even when he is not on screen, and the Brencis boss fight has three versions depending on your choices. As a character, he is the wall the story is built to break against.

7. Ambrus

Ambrus is the first Boyar most players confront, and he sets the template for what the court expects: formality, cruelty, and a duel that pretends to be honor. His Gilded Gauntlet duel is the game’s first major difficulty spike, and the poison subplot surrounding it is one of the more morally complex side stories. Ambrus is not the most powerful Boyar, but he is the one who teaches you how the court works.

B Tier: The Functional Middle

8. Bakir

Bakir — the Mad Khan, game master of the courts — is the second Boyar on most players’ lists. His Lunar Game duel is a puzzle-boss hybrid that rewards preparation and observation. As a character, he is memorable more for his arena and his games than for his personality, but the design of his fight elevates him above a generic mid-boss.

9. Xanthe

Xanthe is the third Boyar and the one whose fate is most in your hands. Kill her or make a deal — the choice changes the final assault on Greifberg Castle in your favor if you spare her. Xanthe is the clearest example of the game’s kill-or-deal design philosophy, and her boss fight is one of the more visually striking encounters.

10. Esme

Coen’s mother. Her survival is determined by a two-minute crafting puzzle in the prologue — hot water, three spoonfuls of herbs — and her fate echoes through the entire story. Esme does not have a traditional questline, but the weight of her presence (or absence) is one of the most effective pieces of narrative design in The Blood of Dawnwalker.

C Tier: The Forgettable Functionaries

11-15. Regional Quest-Givers and Minor Boyar Agents

The remaining named characters — regional quest-givers, Boyar agents, and functional NPCs who exist to hand you the next activity chain — serve their purpose and little more. They have dialogue, they have markers, and they are gone. None of them are badly written; they are simply not given the screen time or choice density to be memorable.

Community verification in progress: The exact ranking of C-tier characters varies significantly between community discussions. Some players remember specific regional NPCs fondly; others cannot recall their names.

Characters NOT in This Ranking

The following characters are excluded because they lack sufficient community data or appear too briefly to evaluate meaningfully:

• Unnamed NPCs and enemies
• Characters who appear in a single quest with no consequential dialogue
• Characters added in post-launch patches (evaluation pending)

How This Ranking Was Compiled

This tier list synthesizes data from:

• Community discussion threads and Reddit polls
• Walkthrough and guide completion rates (which characters players actually engage with)
• Speedrun and optimal-route discussions (which characters are skipped)
• Narrative analysis from gaming journalism and video essays

This is a living ranking. As community strategies evolve and post-launch content changes the meta, character evaluations may shift.

Related Guides

• Lacra Character Guide — the assassin’s full questline and motivations
• Crake Character Guide — the rebellion’s hidden leader
• Anca Character Guide — the herbalist and the Font of Life
• Farkas Character Guide — the smile that never reaches his eyes
• All Bosses Ranked — the difficulty tier list
• Choices & Consequences — how your decisions shape who stands beside you

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the best character in The Blood of Dawnwalker?

Lacra and Crake are the most consistently top-ranked by the community due to their quest depth, ending impact, and narrative complexity. Anca follows closely for players who value the emotional storyline over mechanical utility.

Does character ranking affect gameplay?

No. This is a community evaluation, not a mechanical tier list. Every character functions the same regardless of how players rank them. The ranking reflects narrative quality and player experience, not combat statistics.

Will this ranking change after DLC or patches?

Yes. Post-launch content that adds character quests, new endings, or mechanical changes will affect this ranking. Check back after major updates.

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Source: Community polls, Reddit discussions, IGN walkthrough engagement data, Fextralife Wiki traffic patterns