Yes, You Can Beat Brencis in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s Prologue—Here’s What Happens

The Blood of Dawnwalker lets you face off against chief vampire Brencis during the Prologue’s “Bad Blood” mission, and while you’re massively underpowered, it’s technically possible to defeat him with nothing but Coen’s starting armor and sword. Beating him triggers a sequence the developers have called “a feat worthy of legends.”

What Actually Happens When You Win

If you manage to parry and dodge your way through Brencis’s attacks—including his blood projectiles and summoned blood weapons—you’ll unlock a cool cutscene where Coen knocks the vampire lord backward. Brencis then becomes “supremely annoyed” and teleports Coen directly to the final battle of the game, which takes place in an arena in Anachora, described as a hellish vampiric afterlife.

Defeating his Prologue form immediately unlocks Greifberg Castle, where the climactic fight normally occurs, and grants you the Realmwalker Achievement for visiting Anachora. But here’s the catch: you’ll face Brencis, Grotesque Ascendant—his true form—right away, and it’s brutally difficult even on Story mode. A single attack from this version is enough to one-shot you, and while some players have beaten his regular Prologue form multiple times, actually surviving his ascendant form at this early stage remains extremely rare.

Publisher Bandai Namco confirmed to Eurogamer that only a handful of internal developers have managed the full feat, calling it “extremely hard to actually do.” Beating Brencis at this stage appears to unlock one of the game’s seven endings, most likely The Folk Hero ending, which is achieved by sneaking into Greifberg Castle to kill him early without ally support.

Why This Matters

The Blood of Dawnwalker is a dark RPG where Brencis serves as the central antagonist tormenting protagonist Coen throughout the story. Unlike traditional boss encounters that save the final villain for the endgame, this game puts him front-and-center during the Prologue as an intentionally unwinnable gauntlet—a skill check meant to humble players and establish Brencis as a genuine threat.

By allowing skilled players to skip straight to the endgame fight and potentially trigger an alternate ending, the developers have created genuine player agency within what appears to be a scripted narrative moment. It rewards mastery of parrying and dodging mechanics while respecting player choice, even when that choice is to tackle content far beyond the intended difficulty curve.

The “feat worthy of legends” framing isn’t marketing fluff; it acknowledges that only dedicated, highly skilled players will ever experience this path.

What’s Next

If you’re considering attempting this early Brencis fight, expect a grinding parry-and-dodge marathon with your starter sword against a boss with massive health pools. Those looking for a more traditional playthrough should focus on leveling up and gathering better equipment before facing him during the intended sequence.