Deciding whether to spare Xanthe or kill her in The Blood of Dawnwalker is one of the toughest moral choices in the game. You can corner Xanthe at the climax of The Cycle of Love quest to put Coen face to face with the most twisted domestic setup. Kidnapping and slaughtering innocent young women to keep a sick, miserable daughter alive through dark alchemy and grotesque surgery is a damn monstrous thing. Even on the verge of death, bleeding out and cornered, the Boyaress tries to barter her way out of the Coen’s claws.
Depending on how you play around this standoff, you can walk away with an explosive Vampirism skill, saddled with an unwelcome mental roommate, or shave off half the headache of the final dungeon. If you want the best endgame loot, an easy time raiding Greifberg Castle, or are not sure what to do about her sick daughter, here’s everything that happens when you kill, drain, or spare Xanthe in The Blood of Dawnwalker.
This article contains spoilers for The Cycle of Love quest and the endgame follow.
Should You Drain, Kill, or Spare Xanthe in Blood of Dawnwalker?
For most playthroughs, killing Xanthe is the better choice. Sparing her slightly simplifies the endgame, but killing her yields better rewards, nets you a powerful Vampirism ability, and stops her ongoing killing spree for good. The choice becomes available at the end of The Cycle of Love after you defeat her in her mansion.
What Happens If You Kill Xanthe?
Taking Xanthe out will remove her from Brencis’ court, but it will force you to deal with her retaliatory defenses during the final assault on Greifberg Castle. About the endgame consequences, you will still have to fight your way through Xanthe’s elite Blood Guards and will be forced to solve a disorienting puzzle—a series of looping rooms filled with ghost enemies before you can reach the throne room.
On the good side, if you kill Xanthe, you can loot her body for the Corrupted Pendant Legendary amulet, which grants increased damage against mortals and improves your vampire health pool. If you drain her blood, you will unlock the Blood Surge in the Vampirism skill tree, an ability that causes targeted enemies to explode for massive area damage.
With Boyaress gone, you must decide what to do with her suffering daughter Chariklea. You can either leave her to fade away alone in the mansion until the magic holding her together fails or put her out of her misery right away.
Draining vs. Killing
Defeating Xanthe at night allows you to choose to drink her blood instead of eliminating her then and there. If you do that, it will teleport you both to the spirit realm of Anachora, where you get another choice to either invite her soul into Coen’s mind or leave her behind, similar to the invitation decisions from the Ambrus and Bakir fights.
Note: If you fight Xanthe in human form or defeat her during the day, the option to drain her blood won’t trigger, limiting you to normal execution.
What Happens If You Spare Xanthe?
If you choose the “All right. Let’s work together” dialogue option, it makes it easy to reach Brencis’ encounter, though it comes at a steep cost and has consequences on the final mission. When you go easy on Xanthe, she’ll withdraw her Blood Guard in the endgame, so you only have to deal with Ambrus and Bakir’s leftover forces and Brencis’ guards. Further, her annoying looping room traps will be completely disabled, with no hurdles on your way to the finale, and Xanthe will also give you some helpful tips on how to sneak through the castle and take down Brencis.
Though there are downsides to sparing Xanthe, as you’ll forfeit the chance to loot the Corrupted Pendant or extract her blood for the Blood Surge skill, you can still unlock the ability if you manage to find a rare Phial of Xanthe’s Blood as world loot near the Cathedral. Despite her claims that her daughter is “fixed” and the killing is over, the epilogue shows that young women continue to go missing wherever mum and daughter wander around, which proves she’ll never stop doing whatever it takes to keep Chariklea alive.
Confronting Xanthe Early at Svartrau Cathedral
Xanthe is unique among Brencis’ Boyars because you can encounter her outside her main quest. If you infiltrate Svartrau Cathedral at night, you can catch her performing dark rituals on newly recruited Blood Guards and initiate an early boss fight. Beating Xanthe at the cathedral skips her infamy questline and saves you time on your playthrough. But this early duel will lock you out of the dialogue to spare her, railroading you straight into the death or drain outcomes.
