The Blood of Dawnwalker arrives on September 3, 2026 — thirteen days from now.
The studio behind it, Rebel Wolves, was founded in 2022 by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz: the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the former head of production on Cyberpunk 2077. This is their first game. It is an incoming release that carries more pedigree than most studios get in a decade.
Why This Is One of the Most Anticipated RPGs of the Year
The Witcher 3 is one of the most decorated games ever made. Tomaszkiewicz directed it. After 17 years at CD Projekt, he left in 2021 and assembled a team of fellow veterans — creative director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz, narrative director Jakub Szamałek, design director Daniel Sadowski, and art director Bartłomiej Gaweł — all of whom worked on The Witcher series or Cyberpunk 2077.
Rebel Wolves has grown to 160 employees. Their publisher is Bandai Namco. Their engine is Unreal Engine 5.
The question the incoming release answers: what does a studio built from the architects of modern RPGs make when they are free to build anything?
What Is The Blood of Dawnwalker?
The Blood of Dawnwalker is a single-player, narrative-driven action RPG set in an alternate 14th century during the Black Death. It is a multi-platform release — available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on the same day.
The game is described by Rebel Wolves as a "narrative sandbox" — not a linear story, not a traditional open world, but a structure built for multiple playthroughs where the choices the player makes determine which quests they access and how the story ends.
Estimated playtime: 50–70 hours.
The Story: Coen, Brencis, and Thirty Days
The setting is Vale Sangora, a fictional valley in the Carpathian Mountains. The Black Death has devastated the region, and into that vacuum stepped Brencis — a vampire lord who offers blood that cures the plague in exchange for a recurring blood tax.
The protagonist is Coen, a young man whose family is abducted by Brencis to be sacrificed at his investiture ceremony. Brencis attempted to turn Coen into a vampire. The transformation failed — but not entirely. Coen became a Dawnwalker: half-human, half-vampire.
He has 30 days and nights to save his family before the ceremony begins.
Triage Over Checklists: The 30-Day Mechanic
This is the design decision that separates The Blood of Dawnwalker from every other open-world RPG incoming to 2026.
The player has 30 in-game days to reach their goal. The time system works like this:
- Exploration does not advance time. Walking the open world, discovering locations, investigating — none of it costs days.
- Quests and story actions advance time. Choosing which missions to pursue is choosing how to spend the countdown.
- Leveling up consumes time. Getting stronger costs days.
- Each day/night is divided into 8 segments. The player chooses what happens in each.
The result is a game where every quest is a real decision. Players cannot do everything in a single run. The incoming story branches depending on what you chose to prioritize — and what you let run out.
Editorial take: Tying progression and leveling to an in-game clock forces players to engage with the story as a triage problem, not a checklist. It is the most interesting structural idea in an RPG this year.
Day and Night: Two Different Games
Coen's dual nature means the gameplay changes completely depending on the time of day.
As a human (day):
- Directional swordplay with blocking
- Hex magic and witchcraft abilities
- The ability to communicate with the dead
As a vampire (night):
- Vertical wall-walking and parkour
- Shadowstep teleportation
- Claw combat and blood regeneration through feeding
- Stealth — Coen must avoid detection after dark
- Bloodlust management — if Coen feeds too little, he risks losing control and attacking NPCs
Three skill trees run across both forms: Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism.
The Dawnwalker Saga
The Blood of Dawnwalker is the first entry in what Rebel Wolves has announced as the Dawnwalker Saga — a series of games set in the same universe across different historical eras, each with self-contained stories. No cliffhangers. No unresolved threads carried across entries.
A June 2026 trailer hinted at the expanded universe by showing Coen in a modern-day setting — a glimpse of what the saga's future entries might explore.
Editions and Release Details
| Release date | September 3, 2026 |
| Platforms | PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC |
| Publisher | Bandai Namco |
| Standard Edition | $69.99 |
| Eclipse Edition | Includes Digital World Compendium, Digital Soundtrack + Digital Comic Book |
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Frequently Asked Questions
When does The Blood of Dawnwalker come out? September 3, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC simultaneously.
Who made The Blood of Dawnwalker? Rebel Wolves, a studio founded in 2022 by Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The core team includes veterans from CD Projekt who worked on The Witcher series and Cyberpunk 2077. The game is published by Bandai Namco.
Is The Blood of Dawnwalker open world? It is not a traditional open world. Rebel Wolves describes it as a "narrative sandbox" — exploration does not consume the in-game clock, but story choices and quests do. The world is open to traverse, but the 30-day mechanic means players cannot complete everything in a single playthrough.
What is the 30-day mechanic? Coen has 30 in-game days and nights to save his family before Brencis's ceremony. Exploring and traversing the world does not advance time — only pursuing quests and plot actions does. Leveling up also costs time. Players must choose which missions to prioritize, and different choices lead to different outcomes.
What are Coen's abilities? By day, Coen fights as a human with swordplay, directional blocking, and hex magic. By night, he becomes a vampire with wall-walking, Shadowstep teleportation, claw combat, and blood feeding. Three skill trees — Swordmastery, Witchcraft, and Vampirism — span both forms.
How long is The Blood of Dawnwalker? Rebel Wolves estimates 50–70 hours for a full playthrough. The narrative sandbox design is built for multiple runs with different outcomes.
Is The Blood of Dawnwalker coming to Game Pass? No. The game will not be available on Xbox Game Pass at launch.