If you’re trying to figure out how to prepare the herbs in The Blood of Dawnwalker, the game makes this simple recipe surprisingly easy to mess up. During the Withering Away prologue quest, Pieter asks you to prepare Anca’s medicine for Esme, but you can’t pull the recipe back up once you’re actually making it.

The correct combination is hot water followed by three spoonfuls of herbs. Those are the instructions Anca gives you earlier, so you don’t need to experiment with the other choices. If you’re still early in the game, our Blood of Dawnwalker best start guide also covers some of the bigger decisions worth understanding before you get much deeper into Vale Sangora.

Jump To Section:
How to Prepare the Herbs
What to Do After Making the Medicine
What Happens If You Prepare It Wrong?

How to Prepare the Herbs in The Blood of Dawnwalker

When Pieter asks you to make the medicine, choose “Use hot water” first. When the game asks how many herbs to add, choose “Add three spoonfuls of herbs.”

So the full recipe is simply: hot water, then three spoonfuls.

The confusing part isn’t really solving the recipe itself. It’s remembering it. Anca gives you the instructions beforehand, but the game doesn’t let you simply open the recipe while you’re standing there preparing the medicine. If you skimmed the earlier conversation or didn’t expect to need the exact quantity later, it can suddenly feel like you missed an item or another clue somewhere.

If the quantity is the part you’re second-guessing, we also have a separate breakdown of how many spoonfuls of herbs to use in The Blood of Dawnwalker. The answer is three, and you don’t need to add anything beyond what Anca originally told you.

I’d follow the recipe exactly rather than testing the other combinations. This is one of those moments where the game presents several options even though it has already quietly given you the correct answer.

What to Do After Making the Medicine

Preparing the herbs isn’t quite the end of the sequence. Once the medicine is ready, you still need to get Esme to take it.

When you reach the relevant dialogue choice with Esme, choose “Tell her a story.” That means the complete sequence to remember is: use hot water, add three spoonfuls of herbs, then tell Esme a story.

This comes very early in the game, but Dawnwalker quickly starts throwing much larger choices at you. If you’re already wondering how much your decisions matter, our guide explaining what happens after 30 days in The Blood of Dawnwalker goes into one of the game’s most important progression systems.

What Happens If You Prepare the Herbs Wrong?

You should avoid deliberately changing Anca’s recipe if you’re trying to get the intended outcome. The correct medicine specifically uses hot water and three spoonfuls of herbs, and preparing it incorrectly can have negative consequences later.

That makes this different from some of Dawnwalker’s more subjective choices where there isn’t necessarily one obvious “correct” option. Here, the game already gave you the recipe; the challenge is simply remembering it by the time Pieter asks you to make the medicine.

If you’re trying to shape the rest of your playthrough around the best possible outcome, our Blood of Dawnwalker best ending guide breaks down the endings and how they compare.

For the rest of your playthrough, you may also want to check our best difficulty to choose and best skills and perks ranked. If you’re planning around character relationships or completion, we also have guides covering all romance options and the complete Blood of Dawnwalker trophy guide.