Mysterious Instruction and Initial Instructions Solution – The Blood of Dawnwalker

TL;DR

• Both quests are hidden — no marker appears on the map when you find the first clue.
• First, loot the green book Searching for Manumit Caches from a soldier or guard in Svartrau City.
• Collect all eight saint papers (From Life of St. Cuthbert, Tyna, Mihai, Tobias, Teotim, Anthony, Gregory, Benezet) hidden in caches across Svartrau City.
• The Mysterious Instruction decoded answer is: “North of Svartrau Into Waterfall by Great Bridge.”
• The waterfall stash is northwest of Sandy Gorge Shrine — head northwest to the river, then west to the waterfall.
• Loot inside includes epic armor, the Arbiter’s Medallion legendary amulet, rare consumables, and silver.
• For Initial Instructions: deposit all papers in a marked tree at St. Rudel’s Cemetery northwest of Svartrau City.
• Return to the same tree the next in-game day to collect a second reward (money, silver items, and a recipe).
• Both rewards stack — do both routes with the same set of papers.

The Mysterious Instruction and Initial Instructions in The Blood of Dawnwalker are two of the best-hidden quests in the whole game. The game never puts a marker on your map when you first stumble onto these clues. Most players pick up one of the papers and think it’s just flavour text. It’s not. Solve both puzzles and you walk away with a legendary amulet, epic armor, silver, and a recipe — all from optional content that most people completely miss. This guide gives you every paper location, the full decoded answer, and exactly where to go for both rewards.

If you’re hunting for other hidden rewards in the Svartrau area, check our guide to the A Bulwark Against Darkness quest — another quest that rewards you with legendary gear if you know where to look. And for a full overview of early game content, our Blood of Dawnwalker prologue walkthrough is a good starting point.

Mysterious Instruction and Initial Instructions Solution–The Blood of Dawnwalker

What Are the Mysterious Instruction and Initial Instructions?

These are two halves of a hidden treasure hunt run by the Manumit, a rebel group operating secretly inside Svartrau City. They’ve stashed papers around the city referencing the lives of various saints. Each paper hides a single word. Together, those words form a coded location clue — the Mysterious Instruction — that points to a hidden cache of valuable loot.

The Initial Instructions are a second path using the same eight papers. Instead of decoding the message yourself, you deposit the papers in a marked tree at a cemetery and the Manumit handles the reward for you. The good news is that you do not have to choose between them. Use the papers for both routes and collect both rewards.

Step 1 – Get the Searching for Manumit Caches Book

Before any cache icons appear on your map, you need the green book called Searching for Manumit Caches. This is a random drop from soldiers. Guards patrolling inside Svartrau City are the most reliable source. Kill or loot guards in the city and check their drops until you find it.

Once you have it in your inventory, the Manumit cache hunt becomes active and you can start tracking down all eight papers. Read the book to see the initial clues.

Step 2 – Find the Mysterious Instruction

The Mysterious Instruction is a separate coded note you also need to find. It can appear in multiple locations. Here are the known spots:

• Inside one of the Manumit stash caches around the city — it may randomly appear in a stash when you loot it.
• On the northern side of Svartrau City, near the location marked with the Curious House symbol on your map.
• East of Neustadt district.
• From Silberstein Shrine, head west until you see a ledge to the southwest. Jump across and drop down — search the hidden stash below to find the Mysterious Instruction.

Use Focus Mode when searching any of these spots — hidden items glow and are much easier to spot.

Step 3 – All Eight Manumit Cache Paper Locations

All eight papers are hidden in Svartrau City. You can collect them in any order. Here is where to find every one:

From Life of St. Benezet

Go southwest of Silberstein Shrine. Look for a crate decorated with potted plants nearby. Search inside the crate to find this paper.

From Life of St. Cuthbert

Head to the entrance of The Cathedral Complex. Near a set of stairs, look for a rebel symbol painted on the wall. The cache is hidden under a rock directly below that symbol. This paper is also a good area to cross-reference with our Cathedral Complex locked door key guide if you’re exploring the area at the same time.

From Life of St. Tobias

Head into Altenmarkt and walk south toward the Medic shop. The From Life of St. Tobias paper is hidden inside one of the wall tiles in this area. Use Focus Mode to spot it — it blends into the wall. Note: there is a separate stash under a rock on the nearby stairs close to Svartrau North East Shrine that is NOT one of the eight required papers, but it can contain useful loot including equipment, silver, and a potion.

From Life of St. Mihai

Stay near Altenmarkt but move just north of the district, near the blacksmith. Search for a small alcove in the walls — there is a hidden cache inside it containing this paper.

From Life of St. Gregory

Start from the North West Gate of Svartrau City and travel southwest. Climb the short staircase you encounter and look at the rocks nearby. One rock conceals the cache containing this paper.

From Life of St. Teotim

Continue southwest from the St. Gregory cache location. The next stash is near a group of thugs in the area. It contains the From Life of St. Teotim paper.

From Life of St. Tyna

Travel west of Neustadt. Find the alley in this area and follow it all the way to the end. The cache at the back of the alley contains From Life of St. Tyna.

From Life of St. Anthony

Fast travel or walk to the Svartrau West Shrine and head north. Look for a hay cart in the area. Search it — the From Life of St. Anthony paper is hidden inside.

Step 4 – Decode the Mysterious Instruction

Once you have all eight papers, you can decode the Mysterious Instruction. The note tells you to extract one specific word from each saint’s text. Here is the full breakdown:

• From Life of St. Cuthbert — 13th word: North
• From Life of St. Tyna — 9th word: Of
• From Life of St. Mihai — 2nd word from the end: Svartrau
• From Life of St. Tobias — 12th word: Into
• From Life of St. Teotim — 22nd word from the end: Waterfall
• From Life of St. Anthony — 31st word: By
• From Life of St. Gregory — 7th word: Great
• From Life of St. Benezet — 15th word: Bridge

String those eight words together in order and you get the full location phrase:

“North of Svartrau Into Waterfall by Great Bridge”

You don’t have to count every word manually if you just want the treasure. The solution is above. Skip straight to the waterfall using the directions in the next step.

Step 5 – Find the Waterfall Stash (Mysterious Instruction Reward)

The waterfall the decoded message refers to is northwest of the Sandy Gorge Shrine, near the Great Bridge spanning the river. Here is exactly how to reach it:

• Fast travel to Sandy Gorge Shrine in Svartrau Outskirts.
• Head northwest from the shrine until you reach the river.
• Once at the river, turn west and follow the bank.
• Look for a waterfall — there is a hidden cave entrance behind the falling water.
• Swim or drop down into the river basin under the bridge to reach the cave entrance.
• Enter the cave and loot everything inside.

The cave has no map icon and no quest marker pointing at it — the bridge is your landmark. Drop a custom marker on the river directly below the bridge northwest of Sandy Gorge Shrine to keep yourself oriented.

What’s Inside the Waterfall Cache?

• Arbiter’s Medallion — a Legendary amulet. Every stat on it feeds stamina economy, letting Coen attack and block more often. This is one of the best early-game accessories in the whole game.
• Epic-quality armor pieces
• Rare consumables
• Silver items — sell these at the Silver Trader in Svartrau City for maximum Denarii

The Arbiter’s Medallion alone makes this entire hunt worth doing. It is available from very early in the game if you know where to look, and it stays useful for a long time. Check our silver selling guide to make the most of the silver loot you find here.

Step 6 – Complete the Initial Instructions (Second Reward)

Once you’ve looted the waterfall or even before — the same eight papers also unlock a second separate reward through the Initial Instructions route. Here’s how:

• Travel to St. Rudel’s Cemetery, located northwest of Svartrau City.
• Enter the cemetery and look for a tree marked with the Manumit symbol. Switch on Focus Mode and it will glow gold — it’s much easier to spot this way.
• Interact with the tree and place your collected papers inside.
• Coen receives Final Instructions — a note from the Manumit saying, basically, don’t bother decoding the Mysterious Instruction and just come back for your reward tomorrow.
• Return to the same tree the next in-game day to collect your reward.

What’s in the Cemetery Tree Reward?

• Money (Denarii)
• Silver items
• A recipe — confirmed drops include the Recipe for Potent Keen Eye Potion, though this may vary

The cemetery reward is smaller than the waterfall cache, but it costs you nothing extra since you’re using the same papers you already collected. Always do both.

Tips for Both Quests

• Use Focus Mode constantly while hunting papers. The caches are tucked into wall tiles, rocks, crates, and hay carts — most of them are invisible until Focus Mode lights them up.
• You can do both reward routes. Depositing the papers at the tree does not stop you from using the decoded message to find the waterfall. The eight papers are the key to both.
• Loot guards in Svartrau City early to get the Searching for Manumit Caches book. The sooner you have it, the sooner cache icons start appearing.
• The Arbiter’s Medallion can be grabbed without the quest. The waterfall cave exists with or without the decoded phrase — if you happen to swim there during general exploration, loot it regardless. The Legendary amulet is available very early and is one of the strongest accessories in the game at that stage.
• Don’t confuse the bonus stash with the required papers. The rock near Svartrau North East Shrine has extra loot but does NOT count as one of the eight papers. Ignore it for completion purposes.
• Return to the cemetery tree the next day — the reward does not appear immediately. Wait one in-game day after depositing the papers.
• While exploring Svartrau City for these caches, it’s worth doing these nearby quests at the same time: Svartrau Cathedral Treasury and the Echoes of Silenced Bells quest.

More Blood of Dawnwalker Guides

Here are more guides to help you get the most out of The Blood of Dawnwalker:

• Wisp Treasure Hunt – Watermill Hills
• All Laslea Glen shrine locations
• All Infamy Edicts explained
• How to get more ability slots
• Best skills to level up first
• How to ally with Xanthe
• Finders Keepers quest – Silver Cache location
• Letters to Lunka – all Sanzhani locations
• How long to beat The Blood of Dawnwalker
• Release date, platforms and editions

The Blood of Dawnwalker is available on PC via Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation.

Frequently Asked Questions