The Blood of Dawnwalker: How to romance Lacra

Lacra is the only vrakhir you can romance in The Blood of Dawnwalker and is certainly an attractive choice if you're interested in someone a little darker and more close to your vampiric side than the other two options, Anca and Crake.

Lacra's questline also delivers several revelations about Brencis, the main antagonist of the game, and lore fans will delight in the many secrets that her missions provide regarding the role of vampires in this twisted world. She'll also help you access the uriashi village, a tranquil place where you can rest from the horrors of Vale Sangora and pick up some sweet loot.

In this guide, we'll explain exactly how to romance Lacra in The Blood of Dawnwalker, including completing her quests, engaging in some flirtatious moments, and maybe even one or two steamy bloodsucking scenes.

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How to romance Lacra

To romance Lacra, you'll need to complete her questline and pay close attention to certain choices during conversations. Follow the steps below:

1. Find Lacra in Svartrau, starting A Friend Like This
2. Complete the Song of the Mountain quest
3. Complete the Hive and Seek quest
4. Complete the Our Rotten Roots quest
5. Complete The Night of Horrors quest

Note: Since Lacra's a vrakhir, you must complete her quests at night, which is a sharp contrast with Anca and Crake. You'll also need to wait until evening or in some instances until the following nightfall to progress the latter steps of her quest after Rotten Roots, so be aware of this if you're low on time.

1. Find Lacra in Svartrau, starting A Friend Like This

Lacra's a little tricky to find, and it's possible to avoid meeting her for the entire game. She can be found in northern Svartrau City, and chances are you might hear about her from another vrakhir in the area, Vicho, while completing the quest A Study in Crimson. You may also hear about Lacra after defeating Ambrus and reading the letter on his corpse, or if you're like me, perhaps you'll just stumble upon her naturally when wandering through Svartrau at night.

If you're searching the rooftops of Svartrau for Lacra, keep an eye out for a drained body and a note next to it. Apparently Lacra had a stalker who was lusting for her and sending her notes. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Whichever way you end up choosing, Lacra's starting quest is entitled A Friend Like This, and involves tracing signs of a fight throughout the streets and rooftops of Svartrau. Use Focus mode to follow the blood-splatters and destroyed tiles you come across, and use Shadowstep to check the roofs. Eventually, you'll reach a balcony in front of a door.

Enter, and you'll see Lacra interrogating a beat-up uriashi. She assumes that you're a foe rather than a friend, and combat will ensue. Beat her up, and then you'll be presented with a chance to talk.

Lacra's way of getting info is to usually pummel it out of whoever she's in contact with. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Lacra's trying to find the location of the uriashi village, where Brencis' sire Isbrand is located. Her captive isn't talking, and you can stand by and let her torture the poor guy, or you can be a little more empathetic, which is the route I selected. If you want to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, sympathise with the injured uriashi and promise to avoid slaughter by choosing the following dialogues:

• "Gladly, but we will actually talk."
• "I need to know how to get to your village."
• "You have my word."
• "I promise."
• "You're not killing him."

Consider these dialogue choices to be a hint of how you can act throughout Lacra's quests - either doing things her natural way, which will always be a little more hot-headed and violent, or choosing the pacifist route when possible. The choice is yours, and you can still romance Lacra either way. Notably, though, she tends to be impressed with Coen if he goes the non-violent route more often than not.

Mark step as finished.

2. Complete the Song of the Mountain quest

Now that you know the rough location of the uriashi village, it's time to find the place. Meet up at Crown Rock under the cover of darkness and talk with Lacra. She'll ask if you want to feed on a shepherd before the arduous climb; the choice is yours, but I didn't. (Turns out it's mostly a bluff anyway.)

Proceed up the mountain, following the wind chime trail and defeating the wildlife that gets in your way, including the Pack Leader and the Ravenous Bear. Eventually you'll reach a clearing where uriashi will come out and taunt you.

This is a delicate situation that can quickly turn violent, meaning that you'll have to slaughter all of the uriashi in the village if you want to proceed. While this offers up some good free loot, it's definitely the chaotic evil option. Play your cards right, however, and the uriashi Matriarch will come out and speak with you.

Unless you want to face the Matriarch and her entire clan in several rounds of grueling combat, it's best to take the peaceful route. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

If you want to handle things with a more delicate touch, then you'll have to convince her and the other uriashi that you come in peace. I took this approach, and selected the following dialogue options. Over the course of these choices, you'll surrender your weapons and get the Matriarch to trust you.

• "All right, fine."
• "Lacra, calm down."
• "Nobody needs to die" OR "Everybody shut up for a second."
• "Can we stop the hostilities?"
• "We've already proven it."
• "What more proof do you need?"

Don't lose your cool when the rocks start hitting Coen! Remember, it's just a test to see how you react. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Once you've picked these choices, you just have to swallow your pride and let the other uriashi pelt you with rocks for a bit. This finally convinces the Matriarch that you mean no harm, and she'll bring you into the village.

If you've met the Matriarch's daughter, you're in luck An extra tip from Jeremy

If you've already completed the quest The Heart Wants What It Wants, you'll have met the daughter of the uriashi Matriarch, Ocha, in Svartrau. The Matriarch will thus already know of you as a uriashi friend, and she'll let you into the village without having to go through all of this rock-throwing faff.

Once in the village, enjoy the sights of one of the few places in Vale Sangora free of Brencis' violence. It's quite the idyllic and cosy place, with some very peaceful music playing in the background, and after learning of Isbrand's location from the Matriarch, you can stop to visit merchants for a while. When you're ready, talk with Lacra again to progress her questline.

Mark step as finished.

3. Complete the Hive and Seek quest

Hive and Seek sees Coen and Lacra descend into the earth into kobold territory to find Isbrand. This is a linear dungeon crawl of sorts that doesn't require too much guidance, though you will run into rivers of silver that will cause damage if you wade into them. Shadowstep and plenty of vampiric healing items are needed to make it past these nasty pools alive. You'll also encounter some truly beefy kobold opponents called Wrongs, who act almost like kobold-vrakhir hybrids and attack you on sight with poison.

Going deeper into these caves reveals some graffiti that hints at how Isbrand's been doing underground. It might seem like the kobolds are revering him from this picture, but nah, they're actually eating him. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Partway through Hive and Seek, you'll have a choice of whether or not you want to cut a deal with the Kobolds, who can help make your exploration of these caverns a little easier. They know where Isbrand is located, and all they seem to want in return is for you to take out some Wrongs - notably, a very large Wrong called "Chonk".

I'd recommend taking the kobold guidance, since doing so gives you a temporary kobold NPC who sounds like Gollum and guides you through the remaining tunnels, which otherwise all look the same and are easy to get lost in. You'll have to defeat a group of Wrongs along the way, and then your kobold buddy will lead you to a secret tunnel that ultimately drops down into a room where Isbrand is chained up against a wall.

Dang. At least the kobolds know the art of recycling their food supply! | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Drop down into the room to start a cutscene. Looks like Isbrand's in a very bad way - in fact, the Wrongs have been feeding on him for two years straight. Gross. Anyway, as you examine Isbrand, Chonk will attack along with a posse of Wrongs. They're not too difficult to defeat if you've already managed to survive the other kobold attacks thus far.

For all the hype he got, Chonk is surprisingly unchonky. I was expecting an absolute unit; I emerged from this fight rather disappointed. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

When the combat is won, the kobolds who've been assisting you up until now show their true colours. Unless you want to fight the entire hive, you can talk your way out of this situation by choosing the following options:

• "Calm down and think for a moment."
• "You can't all eat at once."
• "You will lose your bond if you eat it."

Once you've convinced the kobolds to flee (or massacred them), loot everything in the room before interacting with Isbrand. The main treasure here is Isbrand's Plate, a Legendary medium suit of armour that looks darn spiffy. Isbrand won't be using it any longer, so you might as well wear it in his stead!

Mark step as finished.

4. Complete the Our Rotten Roots quest

Vampire hell is a creepy, desolate place. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Rotten Roots sees you and Lacra entering Anachora, the hellscape that all vrakhir are doomed to inhabit at some point in their eternal lives. This place is a surreal, red-tinted nightmare realm that requires you to Shadowstep from platform to platform as you fight hordes of enemies and unlock memories locked away in Isbrand's head, all of which relate to Brencis' past and master plans for Vale Sangora.

Your trek through Anachora is mostly straightforward, and all you'll have to really worry about is surviving the mobs that the game constantly throws at you, including the boss Essence of Grief, and the occasional jank that results from using Shadowstep on upside-down platforms. Enjoy the various flashbacks that emerge, including seeing Brencis' younger form.

Brencis is so old that he starred in Shadow of Rome for the PS2. (I am kidding. But you should def check out Shadow of Rome if you're curious.) | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

However, there is one major choice that occurs as you near Svartrau City. You'll reach a fork in the road, with Lacra telling you to veer right instead of left. She's got something to hide, and you can confront her about it.

It's up to you whether or not you want to turn left, but to learn more about her backstory, I recommend it. This will cause Lacra to ditch you, meaning that you'll need to fight the next waves of enemies alone, but don't worry, it's only temporary.

Proceed through the next few areas and witness the scenes between the younger Lacra, Brencis and Isbrand. You'll soon emerge back at the site of Anachora's version of Svartrau, and Lacra will appear again. Choose the following dialogue choices to help stem the frustration she feels at you:

• "I'm sorry for going there."
• "I needed to know what you were hiding."
• "I'm still sorry."

After this, it's a straight shot to the depths below Svartrau, and after surviving more rooms full of enemies, it'll all end with a cutscene showing Brencis and his entourage trapping Isbrand. Then you'll need to fight Isbrand, the Broken Shade, who thankfully isn't very tough for an aged vampire of such great repute.

Die, grandpa. It's time for the younger generation of vampires to take over. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

After defeating him, you can choose to drain him and invite him into your soul, or simply let his soul wander the tortured land of Anachora for eternity. The choice is yours, and has no effect on this romance.

Mark step as finished.

5. Complete The Night of Horrors quest

You'll need to wait another night to start the Night of Horrors quest, which unlocks alongside Midnight Reckoning, a quest that leads to the ending where you and Lacra storm Brencis' castle and fight him together.

Do NOT start Midnight Reckoning prior to completing Night of Horrors. Doing so will lock you into the endgame and keep you from seeing the romance scenes, as well as learning more about Lacra's backstory.

Starting Night of Horrors will take Coen and Lacra to the swamp, in search of the lair of an ancient vrakhir named Kallias. Follow Lacra until she leads you to a shrine and begins talking about Will-o'-the-wisps. These floating lights feed off of human suffering and pain, and in order to get them to lead you to Kallias' hideout, you and Lacra will both need to trauma-dump your dark histories upon each other. How conducive to romance!

I did not realise that Will-o'-the-wisps were basically going to be the therapists of The Blood of Dawnwalker, but here we are. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

What follows are several scenes where Coen and Lacra will run after the wisps, fight a few groups of enemies, and share intimate details about their past. Don't worry about picking the right dialogue choices whenever you're prompted to trauma-dump; simply go with what fits the way you've been playing as Coen. For example, I decided to share details about the burden of responsibility that Coen has felt since childhood, as well as his guilt over the death of his brother Alin (which becomes very apparent if you've played through the Home Sweet Home quest).

Finally, you'll reach a cave where Kallias has conducted experiments. Filled with unusual tree-encrusted monsters, this cave ends with Kallias' corpse and a Mandrake plant, which Lacra will prompt you to eat. Be sure to eat the Mandrake, as this is a vital part of unlocking the final romance scene.

Apparently, Mandrakes can only grow from the roots of Anachora...and it sure looks like Kallias let himself be absorbed by those roots. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Lacra will also partake, and the pair of you will get drunk off of the Mandrake's power. Choose the following options after Lacra asks you to follow her:

• [follow Lacra]
• "Who says I'm not?"
• [drink]
• [kiss her]

Coen and Lacra will then proceed to go at it like vampire rabbits. After you've enjoyed the fruits of your one night stand, be sure to check out the Mesmerise and Mandrake Ward skills at your disposal. Mesmerise lets you temporarily mind-control an enemy to fight with you, while Mandrake Ward is a stunning ability that lets you cheat death once per night, instead restoring three health segments. Just what you needed to take down Brencis.

Nothing like a little drunk vampire smoochin' to get the blood going. | Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun/Rebel Wolves

Mark step as finished.

That wraps up our guide on how to romance Lacra in The Blood of Dawnwalker. For more help on the quests in this expansive RPG, see our guides on A Pilgrimage for Power, Forge It Anew, and A Bulwark Against Darkness. And if you'd rather have some advice for dispatching Brencis' boyars, refer to our guides on how to defeat Ambrus and how to defeat Bakir.