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In The Blood of Dawnwalker, romance ties directly to story progression. Each character has their own chain of quests that also happens to move you closer to your actual goal, so you're rarely doing anything "extra" to unlock a romance, you're just paying attention to how you play through content you'd be doing anyway.
There's also a neat parallel with the game's three Skill Trees here. Just as Coen can build into Witchcraft, Swordmastery or Vampirism, his three romance options split along roughly the same lines: Anca is a witch, Crake is fully human, and Lacra is a vampire.
Below is each of their questlines, along with the choices that push things toward romance.
Anca
Anca's story starts in the Prologue, when Coen is sent to her for help with his mother's sickness - the first hint that there's history between the two of them. Anca becomes one of the key figures on the road to Brencis, pointing Coen in the right direction almost as soon as the Prologue ends. Her questline runs:
- Echoes of Silenced Bells - complete
- Between the Words - complete
- Where Old Devils Lie - complete
- Stronger Than Achilles - romance triggers at the end of this quest
Anca's questline
The key moment lands during Stronger Than Achilles, when you're searching for the ancient artefact that grants Achilles-like strength. Telling Anca you love her, and letting her be the one to use the artefact's power rather than keeping it for yourself, is the deciding choice.
Once you're talking to Anca directly, picking the more forward dialogue options gets you there. She doesn't seem interested in anything long-term, and unusually, the harsher choices earlier in the story - telling her you're angry with her, or picking her to mutilate her own hand instead of yours, or letting her drink the Water of Life instead of you - don't appear to lock you out of the romance either.
Lacra
Lacra enters the picture through Vicho's questline, though this first quest isn't strictly required - you can come across the same content directly if you know where to look, without Vicho pointing you there at all. The alternate route runs through an optional objective to investigate the alley by Svartrau's north-east wall using Focus Mode; head there yourself and inspect the signs of struggle, and it kicks off the same chain Vicho would otherwise send you on.
Investigate the alley
It's the same underlying quest either way, just triggered differently. Otherwise, the full questline chain is:
- A Study in Crimson - complete
- A Friend Like This - complete
- Song of the Mountain - complete, or let the timer run out
- Hive and Seek - complete
- Our Rotten Roots - complete
- Night of Horrors - romance triggers at the end of this quest
Lacra's questline
Near the end of Night of Horrors, ask her whether Vrakhiri can get drunk. She'll offer her own blood in response, which Vrakhiri apparently find particularly appealing. The "Kiss her" option opens up right after.
Crake
Coen first meets Crake through Sara while working toward joining the rebels, though actually getting there requires raising Infamy first. Once it's high enough, an official invitation to join the rebels and fight Brencis follows. Crake's questline runs:
- Where Loyalty Lies - increase Infamy
- What Hunts the Night - complete
- What Moves the Dead - talk to the Old Lady
- Distant Shadows - can be completed, or failed without derailing the questline
- A Closer Look - romance triggers at the end of this quest
Crake's questline
After Distant Shadows, one of Crake's men will ask why he's upset. Go with "Wish I knew," then "I'll talk to him." When you track Crake down during A Closer Look, tell him you care about him and keep pressing him to open up about Ascar. He'll eventually kiss Coen, with a "Kiss him back" option following straight after.
Quick note: You can romance all three in the same playthrough.
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