How To Save Lacra In The Blood of Dawnwalker – Both Methods Explained

TL;DR

• Lacra dies during the Midnight Reckoning quest if you take her to fight Brencis without the Mandrake’s protection.
• The only direct way to save her is to complete The Night of Horrors quest before starting Midnight Reckoning.
• Night of Horrors becomes available after finishing Our Rotten Roots — wait one full in-game day, then return to Lacra at the Westridge Outpost Tower.
• At the end of Night of Horrors, accept the Mandrake when Lacra offers it — this unlocks the Mandrake Ward perk for Coen and gives Lacra the same protection.
• Refusing the Mandrake closes off Lacra’s survival and her romance route permanently.
• The alternative is to defeat Brencis without bringing Lacra — she survives but the Midnight Reckoning ending is no longer available to you.

Knowing how to save Lacra in The Blood of Dawnwalker matters more than it first appears. She is one of the key characters you spend the most time with in the open world, and the game lets her die during the final confrontation with Brencis if you have not done one specific thing beforehand. Once Midnight Reckoning begins and Brencis defeats Lacra in that cutscene, there is nothing you can do to change it at that point. The decision has to be made earlier. This guide covers both methods for keeping Lacra alive — the direct route through The Night of Horrors, and the alternative route that avoids taking her into the castle entirely. For the full context of where Lacra’s questline fits among everything else, see our complete quest list for The Blood of Dawnwalker. If you are still working through the open world before tackling Lacra’s chain, our guide on The Highland Grave quest in Rockfalls is worth doing for the gear it gives you before these later fights.

lacra in the blood of dawnwalker

Why Lacra Dies — What Happens Without Preparation

Throughout her questline, you learn that Lacra is a vrakhiri whose official role is to observe Brencis and gather intelligence — not to confront him directly. Her personal history with Brencis and Isbrand makes her determined to fight him anyway, which sets up the danger.

If you take Lacra into Greifberg Castle during the Midnight Reckoning quest without completing The Night of Horrors first, Brencis defeats her during the confrontation. The cutscene plays out with her taking a blow that is fatal. There is no dialogue choice, no combat action, and no way to intervene once the sequence begins. It is locked in. Her death at that point also closes off the Midnight Reckoning ending — called The Patricide — permanently, since that ending requires Lacra to survive and fight alongside you.

Lacra’s Full Questline In Order

Before you can reach The Night of Horrors, you need to complete every earlier quest in Lacra’s chain. There are no shortcuts. The full order is:

• A Friend Like This — the first meeting with Lacra, found in an alley in the northeast edge of Svartrau City
• Song of the Mountain — Coen and Lacra travel to the Uriashi Village together
• Hive and Seek — a cave exploration quest searching for the vrakhiri Isbrand
• Our Rotten Roots — Coen and Lacra visit Anachora to witness Isbrand’s memories
• The Night of Horrors — the critical quest where Lacra gets the Mandrake’s protection (this is what saves her)
• Midnight Reckoning — the ending quest where Lacra confronts Brencis

Do not skip ahead to Midnight Reckoning without finishing Night of Horrors first. The window closes once that ending quest begins. For the romance side of this questline, our guide on romancing Lacra in Blood of Dawnwalker covers every dialogue choice from A Friend Like This through to Night of Horrors.

Method 1 – Complete The Night of Horrors (Direct Save)

This is the best method. It keeps Lacra alive, lets her fight alongside Coen against Brencis, and opens the Midnight Reckoning ending. It also gives Coen the Mandrake Ward perk — one of the strongest passive upgrades in the game.

Step 1 – Finish Our Rotten Roots

The Night of Horrors only unlocks after you complete Our Rotten Roots. That quest takes Coen and Lacra into Anachora to witness Isbrand’s memories. After it ends, Lacra says she has an idea she wants to try before dealing with Brencis — but she needs time to research it first.

Step 2 – Wait One Full In-Game Day

After Our Rotten Roots, you must wait at least one full in-game day — 16 Time Segments — before The Night of Horrors becomes available. You do not have to stand around. Go work on other quests or Court Activities. The wait happens passively. This is also a good time to ensure Coen is well equipped for the fights inside the upcoming crypt. Our guide on the best skills to level up is worth checking before the Night of Horrors combat sections.

Step 3 – Return To Lacra at The Westridge Outpost Tower

Once the day has passed, go back to Lacra at the tower near the Westridge Outpost Shrine. Start the conversation and ask “You had some idea to talk through?” then confirm you are interested in what she suggests. This formally begins The Night of Horrors and immediately transports Coen and Lacra to a swamp in the southern part of the map.

Important: The Night of Horrors is a night-only quest. Do not start it if your night-time Time Segments are running low. It takes 6 to 7 Time Segments to complete. If you run out of time before finishing, the quest can be cancelled and Lacra skips straight to Midnight Reckoning without the Mandrake — leaving her unprotected.

Step 4 – Follow The Wisps Through The Swamp

Lacra’s goal is to uncover secrets connected to the ancient battle between Mihai and Kallias. The quest works by baiting will-o-the-wisps to guide you toward Kallias’s hidden location. Between each wisp stop there are dialogue moments where Lacra and Coen open up about what they have been through. These feed into the romance route if you are pursuing it.

The wisp trail runs through several sections with enemies along the way. Here is what you face in order:

• Reach the roadside shrine and feed the wisps a painful memory in dialogue
• Follow the wisps to a stone slab — inspect it and answer Lacra’s questions
• Fight through two groups of zombies along the path
• Defeat a group of Tatzelwurm lizards in a smaller open area
• Crouch under branches to find the wisps near some plants — inspect the severed arm
• Defeat a group of hellhounds that spawn after the arm inspection
• Continue following the wisps to the cave wall with red roots — inspect the rock to open the path

Step 5 – Explore Kallias’s Sunken Crypt

Enter the crypt. The first main room has items you can inspect with Focus Mode. Progress down the linear path and clear a room full of undead enemies. Continue into the hallway and jump left across the gap in the floor.

At an intersection in the hallway, interact with a body twice to pick up a Legendary Sword called The Vrakhiri — this is a bonus reward from the quest, not part of the main objective but worth collecting. Then use Shadowstep and Phaseshift to cross the larger gap: teleport to the ledge on the left, then across to the opposite side.

In the next room, inspect the sarcophagus in the middle. More enemies — spirits this time — spawn immediately after. Defeat them, then continue the dialogue with the wisps to open the final path.

Step 6 – Find The Hidden Cave and Accept The Mandrake

Lacra breaks down a wall to reveal a hidden area. Inspect items in the first room if you want, then walk into the next room. This is the moment everything in the questline has been building toward.

Lacra offers Coen the Mandrake — a rare plant with protective power tied to the ancient battle between Mihai and Kallias. You have two choices here and they are not equal:

Choice 1 – Accept The Mandrake (Strongly Recommended)

Coen consumes the Mandrake. Both Coen and Lacra absorb its power. This unlocks the Mandrake Ward Vampiric Perk in Coen’s skill tree, which grants one death prevention per night — when Coen takes lethal damage, he survives with a sliver of health instead of dying. It is one of the most powerful passive abilities in the game and has no other unlock path.

More importantly for saving Lacra: because she consumes the Mandrake alongside Coen, she receives the same protective effect. When Brencis strikes the blow that would kill her during Midnight Reckoning, the cutscene plays identically — but this time Lacra survives and recovers from the wound. The Mandrake’s power keeps her alive.

After the Mandrake scene, a second dialogue leads into the romance scene with Lacra. Engaging is optional — it does not affect the ending — but it does unlock the Mesmerize Vampiric Ability if you follow through. To pursue the romance, choose: “Can vrakhiri get drunk?” → follow Lacra → “Yeah, I’m all over all of it” or “Who says I’m not” → drink → kiss her. Our dedicated guide on romancing Lacra covers every step if you want the full route.

Choice 2 – Refuse The Mandrake

If you refuse the Mandrake, Lacra consumes it alone without Coen. This ends the quest early. You do not get the Mandrake Ward perk. The romance route with Lacra is permanently closed. And Lacra does not receive the shared protection — she will still be killed by Brencis during Midnight Reckoning. Refusing the Mandrake is the worst possible choice in this quest. There is no benefit to it.

The Night of Horrors Quest Rewards

• Mandrake Ward — Vampiric Perk, one death prevention per night (only available through this quest)
• Mesmerize — Vampiric Ability (only if you pursue the romance scene)
• The Vrakhiri — Legendary Sword found in the crypt during the quest
• 1000 XP
• 2 Skill Points
• Misery Loves Company — Trophy/Achievement awarded on completion

For more on the Mandrake Ward perk specifically, including how it works against the toughest fights in the game, see our full guide on The Night of Horrors and the Mandrake Ward perk.

Method 2 – Defeat Brencis Without Lacra (Indirect Save)

If you missed the window for The Night of Horrors — either because you ran out of time or started Midnight Reckoning too early — there is still a way to keep Lacra alive. Do not take her to fight Brencis.

Several endings do not involve Lacra at the castle at all. In these routes, she simply never goes to Greifberg and therefore is never in the position where Brencis can kill her. She survives because she never participates in the fight.

The endings where Lacra stays safe without Night of Horrors include:

• Accepting Brencis’s parley and defeating him there
• Infiltrating Greifberg Castle alone
• Initiating the Rise at Dawn quest and fighting Brencis with Marat instead

In these outcomes, Lacra survives but there is no special interaction with her after the ending. She simply leaves — annoyed that Coen dealt with Brencis without her. The Midnight Reckoning ending, which is the one where you fight Brencis alongside Lacra, is not available through this route because that specific ending requires her to survive the crypt fight, which only works with the Mandrake.

Which Method Should You Choose?

If you want the full Lacra experience — her surviving the fight with Brencis, the Midnight Reckoning ending, the Mandrake Ward perk, and all the story payoff from her questline — complete The Night of Horrors first. It is the only route that achieves all of those things together.

The indirect method works as a fallback if you missed the window, but it costs you the Midnight Reckoning ending and the Mandrake Ward, which is one of Coen’s best defensive perks especially going into the final boss.

Make a manual save after completing The Night of Horrors and before starting Midnight Reckoning. This lets you reload and try different endings without losing progress. The game supports 54 manual save slots so there is no reason not to. For everything you should have sorted before the finale, also see our guides on unlocking more ability slots and The Cycle of Love — Xanthe’s boss quest — which you should complete before Midnight Reckoning.

What Happens After Lacra Survives

When Lacra has the Mandrake’s protection and you take her into Greifberg Castle, the confrontation with Brencis plays out as normal. The cutscene shows Brencis defeating Lacra with a blow that should be fatal. Then — because of the Mandrake — she recovers. The Mandrake Ward effect kicks in for her exactly as it does for Coen, and she gets back up. The fight continues with Lacra by your side.

Completing the Midnight Reckoning ending this way unlocks The Patricide achievement or trophy. It is one of the more satisfying conclusions to the questline because Lacra gets the confrontation she wanted and walks away from it.

Frequently Asked Questions