Come Home Quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker – Full Walkthrough & All Choices

TL;DR

• Come Home is the third and final quest in Xanthe’s Recruiters series — a Court Activity in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
• Location: Southwest of Tantari, southeast of Svartrau City and south of St. Tyna’s Grove.
• It takes 3 Time Segments and rewards 100 XP, 1 Skill Point, and the Phial of Bakir’s Blood (if you collect the blood).
• The quest has a key NPC — Yanos — who you can kill, intimidate, or pay off (250 Denarii).
• After dealing with Yanos, you choose to either collect or destroy the blood from the Reliquary.
• Collecting the blood gives you the Phial of Bakir’s Blood, which unlocks Shadowstorm in the Vampirism tree.
• Paying off Yanos (250 Denarii) unlocks the Family Ring reward from his mother — you can still collect the blood afterward.
• Also loot the nearby chest — it contains a document that marks more Xanthe activities on your map.
• This quest is missable — the 30-day countdown can lock you out.

Come Home is the last of Xanthe’s three Recruiter Court Activities in The Blood of Dawnwalker, and it packs the most choices of the set. The first two — Taste of Power and Just a Bit More — were straightforward fight-and-decide missions. This one introduces a new character, Yanos, and gives you multiple ways to handle him before you even get to the main reward. Get this right and you walk away with the Phial of Bakir’s Blood, a Legendary Consumable that unlocks one of the strongest active abilities in the Vampirism tree.

This guide covers the exact location, every choice you can make, what each outcome gives you, and whether you should drink the phial once you have it. If you’ve been working through the Xanthe questline, our guide on how to get the Phial of Ambrus’s Blood covers the previous step in this series.

Come Home Quest – Quick Overview

• Quest Type: Court Activity (Xanthe’s Recruiters)
• Location: Southwest of Tantari, in Tantari Woods — southeast of Svartrau City, south of St. Tyna’s Grove
• Missable: Yes
• Time Cost: 3 Time Segments
• Reward: 100 XP, 1 Skill Point, Phial of Bakir’s Blood (if blood is collected)
• Optional Reward: Family Ring (if Yanos is paid off or intimidated)
• Quest Description: Xanthe’s Blood Guards are recruiting people by offering them a taste of Vrakhiri blood. A distressed mother nearby reveals that one of those recruits is her son, Yanos.

Come Home Quest in The Blood of Dawnwalker

Where To Find The Come Home Quest

Like all Court Activities, Come Home doesn’t appear on your map automatically. It shows up as an “Unknown Activity” in Xanthe’s Court panel until you physically walk into the area or discover it from a document looted at another Xanthe activity — specifically, the document found in the chest at Taste of Power or Just a Bit More, which marks more Xanthe events on your map.

To reach it, head southwest of Tantari in the Tantari Woods region. The camp is also described as being southeast of Svartrau City and just south of St. Tyna’s Grove. A small Blood Guard camp in this area is the starting point. Walk into the location and the activity triggers automatically.

Tip: If you’re already working your way through Xanthe’s other activities, run all three Recruiter quests back to back. Each one takes 3 Time Segments, and together they hand you all three Legendary phials — Brencis, Ambrus, and Bakir — in quick succession. This is one of the most efficient ways to fill out Xanthe’s Anger meter while stacking vampiric power unlocks at the same time.

Step 1 – Speak With the Distressed Woman (Optional)

When you arrive at the camp, before jumping into the fight, you’ll notice a distressed woman nearby. You can talk to her — she reveals that one of the Blood Guard recruiters is her son, Yanos, and she begs you to convince him to desert and come home.

Speaking to her is optional, but it opens up the most complete version of the quest, including the Family Ring reward. If you skip her and go straight into the fight, you lose access to the pay-off option and the ring.

Step 2 – Deal With the Blood Guard Recruiters

Clear the Blood Guard recruiter camp. There are only a handful of soldiers here — far fewer than a full outpost — so this fight is relatively quick. Take them out to proceed to the next stage.

Don’t rush past the camp containers. While some of the pickups here may trigger an Infamy increase, the camp still has loot worth grabbing before you move to the Reliquary.

Step 3 – Deal With Yanos (Three Options)

This is where Come Home separates itself from the other two Recruiter quests. After dealing with the main guards, you have to decide how to handle Yanos. He’s a Blood Guard officer and son to the woman you just spoke with. You have three ways to deal with him:

Option 1 – Kill Yanos

Push him into a fight and kill him outright. Select the dialogue line “You seem eager to die for the knyaz — guess it’s your lucky day” to start combat immediately. This takes out Yanos along with any remaining soldiers. It’s the fastest option and you skip the 250 Denarii cost, but his mother won’t give you the Family Ring.

Option 2 – Pay Yanos Off (250 Denarii)

You can bribe Yanos to leave. Select “Take the money and scram” and pay him 250 Denarii. He accepts the money and heads home with his mother. As a reward for this outcome, his mother gives you the Family Ring after the fight wraps up. This is the only way to get the ring, and it’s the cleanest resolution if you want to keep the story tidy. You still proceed to the Reliquary afterward.

Option 3 – Intimidate Yanos (Requires High Infamy/Threat Level)

If your Infamy rating is high enough, you can intimidate Yanos into deserting without paying anything. This saves the 250 Denarii and achieves the same outcome as paying him off — he leaves, and you can continue to the Reliquary. The threat level required appears to be high, so this option won’t be available early in your playthrough. Check your Infamy rating before expecting this line to work. Note that you won’t get the Family Ring through this route — that reward is tied to the pay-off path.

For more context on how Infamy and Edicts work across the game’s Court system, see our full Infamy Edicts guide.

Step 4 – The Reliquary Choice: Collect or Destroy the Blood

Once Yanos is dealt with, you approach the golden Reliquary — the same golden box setup as the other two Recruiter quests. You have two options:

Destroy the Reliquary

Smash it. The blood spills and the activity ends. You get the standard XP and Skill Point reward, but no phial. Choose this if you are deliberately running a low-Corruption build and want to avoid the Vampirism unlock and the Corruption spike that comes with the phial.

Collect the Blood (Recommended)

Interact with the Reliquary and choose to collect the Vrakhiri blood. This costs the 3 Time Segments and gives you the Phial of Bakir’s Blood — a Legendary Consumable that unlocks Shadowstorm in the Vampirism tree when consumed. It also significantly raises Coen’s Corruption, just like the other phials in this series.

This is the recommended option for anyone building toward the vampire playstyle. The phial is a permanent unlock and Shadowstorm is one of the stronger active abilities in the game.

Step 5 – Loot the Nearby Chest (Don’t Skip This)

After dealing with the Reliquary, look for a chest near the same location. It contains a document that reveals more of Xanthe’s activities on your map. This is the same system used in Taste of Power and Just a Bit More — each Recruiter chest marks additional Court Activities you might not find on your own. Don’t leave the camp without grabbing it.

What Is The Phial of Bakir’s Blood?

The Phial of Bakir’s Blood is a Legendary Consumable. Drinking it does two things permanently:

• Unlocks Shadowstorm in Coen’s Vampirism skill tree.
• Significantly raises Coen’s Corruption — this cannot be undone.

What Does Shadowstorm Do?

Shadowstorm is an active vampiric ability available only at night. It slows down time around Coen, giving him a window to attack freely or heal while enemies move at reduced speed. It is exactly as powerful as it sounds in a crowd or during a tough boss fight.

The trade-offs are real though:

• It costs 2 Activation Charges to use.
• It sacrifices 12–15% of Coen’s health on activation.
• It has a 90-second cooldown, so it’s a commit-when-it-counts ability, not something to spam.

At higher ranks, Shadowstorm’s duration extends, attack damage during the effect climbs (first by +20%, then +25%), and kills during the window can extend its duration further. These upgrades require increasing Corruption to unlock. For help deciding when and how to use new ability slots alongside Shadowstorm, see our ability slots guide.

All Choices and Outcomes Summary

• Kill Yanos → Collect blood: Fastest path. Get the Phial of Bakir’s Blood and the Shadowstorm unlock. No ring, no Denarii spent.
• Pay Yanos (250 Denarii) → Collect blood: Costs coin but earns the Family Ring from his mother. Still get the phial.
• Intimidate Yanos → Collect blood: Same as paying but free, if your Infamy is high enough. No ring.
• Any Yanos choice → Destroy Reliquary: Standard XP and Skill Point only. No phial, no Corruption increase. Best for low-Corruption playthroughs.

The Phial of Bakir’s Blood is available regardless of how you handle Yanos — the decision between collecting and destroying the Reliquary is the only thing that determines whether you get it.

Other Ways to Get the Phial of Bakir’s Blood

Come Home isn’t the only route to Bakir’s blood. If you already completed this activity or missed it, there are two more ways:

• Ambrus’s Leech Collector quests: Complete all three Leech Collector activities in Ambrus’s Court region and destroy the blood barrels at least once. A tough soldier called The Bloodletter spawns as a miniboss after the third quest. Defeat him and he drops the Phial of Bakir’s Blood. This is actually one of the earliest opportunities to get it in the game, since Ambrus’s region is lower-level than Xanthe’s.
• Draining Bakir himself: If you choose to drain rather than kill Bakir during his boss quest The Lunar Game, you’ll unlock Shadowstorm directly. The downside is that killing Bakir instead gives you Bakir’s Armour, so it’s a choice between the vampiric ability and a gear reward.

If you want a broader view of how these choices affect your build and progression through the vassal system, our The Cycle of Love quest guide covers how Xanthe’s Anger meters and boss triggers work together. And for the whole picture of how Court Activities fit into the game’s time management, check our complete quest list.

Should You Drink the Phial of Bakir’s Blood?

Shadowstorm is one of the more impactful active abilities you can get. The time-slow effect is genuinely strong against groups and during longer fights. But the Corruption cost is permanent, and that matters depending on how far into your playthrough you are and what your corruption level already looks like.

• Drink it if you fight in crowds or struggle with multi-enemy encounters at night. Shadowstorm is a strong panic button and a reliable damage window.
• Hold off if you’re Corruption-capped or close to it. If drinking it would push you past a threshold you care about, keep it in your inventory until you’re ready.
• Don’t drink it just to drink it if you rarely use active abilities. The 2-charge + health cost model means it takes some commitment and forward planning to use well.

For more on the Vampirism tree and how these phials fit into a full vampiric build, our best skills to level up guide is a useful reference alongside this one.

The Xanthe’s Recruiters Series – All Three Quests

Come Home is part of a set of three. Running them in order is the fastest way to earn all three Legendary phials and push Xanthe’s Anger toward the threshold needed to unlock The Cycle of Love:

• Taste of Power – Svartrau City courtyard. Rewards the Phial of Brencis’s Blood (unlocks Piercing Shriek). Chest contains a document revealing more Xanthe activities.
• Just a Bit More – East of the Silty Mug Inn. Rewards the Phial of Ambrus’s Blood (unlocks Scarlet Shield). See our full Phial of Ambrus’s Blood guide for details.
• Come Home – Southwest of Tantari. Rewards the Phial of Bakir’s Blood (unlocks Shadowstorm). Chest contains a document revealing more Xanthe activities.

More Useful Guides For The Blood of Dawnwalker

• How to Ally With Xanthe
• Echoes of Silenced Bells Quest
• The Gilded Gauntlet Quest Choices & Outcomes
• The Beast of Balaur Quest
• Lost Blood Quest Walkthrough
• Ambrus Dungeons – Judge and Executioner
• Ambrus Dungeons – Evil and Convenience
• Night Terrors Quest
• A Bulwark Against Darkness Quest
• Silver Selling Guide

Where to Get The Blood of Dawnwalker

• PlayStation Store
• Xbox Store
• Steam (PC)

Frequently Asked Questions