The Blood of Dawnwalker Best Ending Ranked
To get right into it, I personally think The Knyazmaker is the best ending in The Blood of Dawnwalker overall (and was the one I chose first playthrough). It lets Coen defeat Brencis alongside Crake and the Manumit rebellion, which makes the finale feel like the culmination of a much larger struggle for Vale Sangora rather than Coen simply settling everything alone.
That doesn't mean it's the universally "happiest" outcome, though. The Turncoat is arguably better if your only priority is getting Coen's family back, while The Patricide is a strong alternative if you prefer Lacra's storyline. There are seven endings in total, but only four feel like proper final routes rather than deliberate early exits or failure states.
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Best Ending Overall
All Endings Ranked
The Knyazmaker
The Patricide
The Folk Hero
The Turncoat
Bad and Early Endings
Can You Get Every Ending?
What Is the Best Ending in The Blood of Dawnwalker?
My pick is The Knyazmaker.
Instead of Coen defeating Brencis entirely by himself or compromising with him to rescue his family, The Knyazmaker brings Crake and the Manumit into the finale.
I like that because Brencis isn't only Coen's personal enemy. His rule affects the entire valley, so having the rebellion that has spent the game opposing him actually participate in bringing him down makes the ending feel broader and more earned.
It's also one of the proper "good" endings rather than an early conclusion. You need to engage with Crake's questline before ultimately defeating Brencis together.
That gives the route more buildup than simply walking into the final confrontation alone.
If you've also followed Crake's personal storyline or romance, the ending has even more narrative weight because someone you've spent a substantial amount of the game helping becomes part of Coen's final stand. My Blood of Dawnwalker romance options guide covers how Crake's relationship develops separately from the ending itself.
All Blood of Dawnwalker Endings Ranked
For an overall playthrough, I would rank the endings like this:
1. The Knyazmaker — best overall culmination of Coen's story and the wider resistance against Brencis.
2. The Patricide — another strong allied ending, particularly if you've invested heavily in Lacra's storyline.
3. The Folk Hero — satisfying if you want Coen to defeat Brencis completely on his own.
4. The Turncoat — arguably the best outcome specifically for Coen's family, but achieved by betraying your allies and making a deal with Brencis.
5. Together Forever — interesting as an alternate ending, but it traps Coen inside the dream rather than resolving the real conflict.
6. A Hero They Deserve — Coen simply abandons Vale Sangora and his responsibilities.
7. Time Runs Out — the clearest bad ending, since Coen fails to rescue his family before Brencis sacrifices them.
The first four are the endings I would actually compare when deciding how I wanted a full playthrough to conclude. The others are more valuable for seeing alternate possibilities or collecting trophies than for getting a satisfying resolution.
1. The Knyazmaker – Best Ending Overall
The Knyazmaker requires completing Crake's storyline and ultimately defeating Brencis with Crake and the Manumit.
Crake's route includes The Firebrand, Shadows in the Woods, Where Loyalty Lies, What Hunts the Night, What Moves the Dead, Who Pulls the Strings, and eventually Rise at Dawn and Fall Before Dusk, with Distant Shadows and A Closer Look available as additional parts of his storyline.
What pushes this ending above The Folk Hero for me is that it actually pays off one of Dawnwalker's major supporting factions.
Coen is obviously capable of becoming powerful enough to challenge Brencis himself, but the Manumit rebellion exists because Brencis' rule is bigger than one family's tragedy. Letting the people actively fighting that regime participate in its downfall fits the scale of the conflict better.
It also avoids the compromise at the heart of The Turncoat.
You aren't accepting Brencis' deal just because it gives Coen what he personally wants, and you aren't abandoning the valley after everything you've learned about what's happening there.
For a first playthrough where I wanted the finale to feel like the payoff to the most content possible, this is the route I'd choose.
2. The Patricide – Best Lacra Ending
The Patricide is the closest competitor to The Knyazmaker.
This route has Coen defeat Brencis together with Lacra after progressing through her storyline, including A Friend Like This, Song of the Mountain, Hive and Seek, Our Rotten Roots, and Midnight Reckoning.
The optional Night of Horrors quest also fits into that chain before the finale.
I rank it slightly below The Knyazmaker mainly because I prefer what Crake and the Manumit represent for Vale Sangora's future.
Lacra is a more individual ally, whereas Crake arrives with an actual resistance movement built around fighting Brencis' rule.
But if Lacra is the character you've become more invested in, I don't think choosing The Patricide leaves you with a lesser ending in any meaningful mechanical sense. It's still one of the proper good endings and gives that relationship a direct payoff in the final confrontation.
It's probably the ending I'd pick on a second full run after doing Knyazmaker first.
3. The Folk Hero – Best Solo Ending
The Folk Hero is the cleanest ending if your version of Coen is someone who doesn't want to owe the victory to anyone else.
You defeat Brencis alone.
There is something appropriately dramatic about that after spending the game turning Coen from a newly created Dawnwalker into someone capable of challenging the most powerful enemy in Vale Sangora without Lacra or Crake beside him.
It also makes the final battle feel like the purest test of the character you've built.
That's especially appealing if you've spent the whole game refining your combat setup rather than focusing heavily on companion questlines. My Blood of Dawnwalker best skills and perks guide covers the upgrades I think give Coen the strongest general build.
What keeps Folk Hero below the two allied endings for me is exactly what makes it attractive: you're doing everything alone.
Dawnwalker spends a substantial amount of time introducing people and groups who have their own reasons to oppose Brencis. Leaving all of that outside the finale makes the ending feel slightly less connected to the wider world, even though it's arguably the most impressive victory for Coen personally.
4. The Turncoat – Best Ending for Saving Your Family?
The Turncoat is the most interesting ending to rank because it arguably gives Coen the thing he's wanted from the beginning.
You betray your allies, make a deal with Brencis, and get your family back.
If your entire interpretation of Coen is that everything else is secondary to saving his family, there's a very reasonable argument that this is actually the best ending for him personally.
That's what makes it more complicated than simply labeling it a bad ending.
Coen's original mission isn't to liberate Vale Sangora or become a hero. It's to save the people Brencis has threatened. The Turncoat accomplishes that goal, but the cost is abandoning the people who helped you get there.
I wouldn't choose it as my canonical ending because the betrayal undermines too much of what you've potentially built throughout the game, but I think it's one of the game's more interesting roleplaying choices precisely because it forces you to decide whether Coen's family really does come before everyone else.
It's also particularly useful on Duelist if your priority is the related completion trophy, since taking Brencis' deal can avoid the normal final boss fight. My Blood of Dawnwalker trophy guide covers that route in more detail.
What Are the Bad Endings?
The remaining three outcomes are much easier to classify.
A Hero They Deserve lets Coen leave Vale Sangora entirely. You can actually trigger it shortly after the Prologue by escaping through the western side of Briar Sloughs at night.
It is essentially the "none of this is my problem anymore" ending. It's funny as an option and useful for the trophy, but obviously not something I'd choose as the conclusion to a proper playthrough.
Together Forever is considerably darker.
During Home Sweet Home, Coen becomes trapped in a looping dream involving his family. The game repeatedly gives you a route toward escaping through the well, but if you keep completing the loop and eventually choose to remain with your family, Coen stays trapped there with them.
What makes this one interesting is that it gives Coen the illusion of the thing he's fighting for while requiring him to abandon reality to keep it.
It's a much more thematically interesting bad ending than simply leaving the valley, but it's still clearly not the outcome I'd want for him.
Is Time Runs Out an Actual Ending?
Yes, although it functions differently from the other endings.
If more than 30 in-game days pass before you save Coen's family, Brencis sacrifices them.
You can still free-roam afterward, so reaching the deadline does not immediately terminate the save. You can even continue toward other endings, although the failed rescue changes what you've accomplished and removes the associated successful-rescue outcome.
That's why I rank it last.
Unlike The Turncoat, where Coen makes a morally questionable choice to achieve his original objective, Time Runs Out simply means he failed to achieve it.
Which Ending Is Best for Duelist Difficulty?
If you're approaching the ending primarily from a trophy perspective rather than a narrative one, The Turncoat has a major advantage.
Duelist requires completing the proper game route rather than using one of the early endings, but agreeing to Brencis' deal through The Turncoat route can bypass the normal final boss fight.
That makes it the path I'd consider for a Duelist trophy run even though I rank it below Knyazmaker, Patricide, and Folk Hero as an actual story ending.
If you're deciding whether Duelist is worth playing in the first place, my Blood of Dawnwalker best difficulty guide explains what the mode changes compared with Fair and Challenging.
Can You Get Every Ending in One Playthrough?
Yes, and I would absolutely take advantage of that rather than replaying the entire game seven times just to see the outcomes.
The main thing is to preserve a manual save before the final quest after you've completed the requirements for both Lacra and Crake's ending routes.
The normal ending choices are largely determined during the final portion of the game, so with the necessary ally questlines completed, you can branch into different endings and reload afterward.
A Hero They Deserve and Together Forever happen much earlier under their own specific circumstances, so those are worth handling separately with manual saves if you're trying to see everything.
This is also one of the rare cases where I think save scumming actually improves the experience. The endings represent genuinely different interpretations of what Coen should prioritize, and seeing several of them makes the final choice more interesting rather than simply turning it into a trophy checklist.
Which Ending Should You Choose?
For a first playthrough, I would choose The Knyazmaker.
It gives Crake and the Manumit a meaningful role in defeating Brencis, rewards one of the game's major side storylines, and makes the final confrontation feel like the culmination of what has been happening across Vale Sangora rather than only Coen's personal revenge.
Choose The Patricide if Lacra is the ally you're more invested in, Folk Hero if you want Coen to stand entirely on his own, and Turncoat if you believe saving his family matters more than loyalty to everyone who helped him.
That's what I think Dawnwalker's ending choice ultimately comes down to. The strongest ending isn't necessarily the one where Coen personally gets everything he wants. It's the one that best reflects what you decided his 30 days in Vale Sangora were actually for.
