Prologue route at a glance
Choice pages: force-feed Esme, save Vlad, and defeat Brencis in the prologue.
The prologue has eight time segments—two morning, two noon, two afternoon, and two evening—before Mass. A clock marks time-sensitive quests, while an hourglass shows the number of segments an action consumes. Nearly every optional prologue quest becomes unavailable when the story advances to Sacred Covenant, so keep a manual save before the final evening segment.
The first hour: what to do first
- Leave Coen's house and help Yanna, Lunka, and Mirto with Live Bait. Find the four fishing rods and return them to the four spots by the river. Do not play tag; it wastes time.
- Keep calm during the conversation with Brencis's officer. The non-violent responses preserve the most dialogue and avoid an unnecessary fight.
- Return to Laslea and accept Disturbed, Blasphemy, and Deep Down, but do not start all three immediately.
- Visit Anca and begin Withering Away. If you want her romance route, choose to stay for Page Turner when the optional dialogue appears.
- At the end of the first hour, make a manual save before committing to an hourglass action.
The goal of the first hour is not to clear every marker. It is to collect the useful quests, learn the time UI, and preserve enough segments for the medicine and investigation routes.
Eight-segment recommended order
Segment | Quest / activity | Why it goes here --- | --- | --- 1 Morning | Live Bait | Teaches the opening route and sibling choices 2 Morning | Dead Drop → Withering Away | Start the medicine thread early 3 Noon | Page Turner (optional) | Uses one extra segment and supports Anca's route 4 Noon | Withering Away, part 2 | Brew Esme's medicine before Mass 5 Afternoon | Enter Not → If a Tree Falls → Deep Down | Pick up the investigation chain while Lazar is alive 6 Afternoon | Blasphemy | Resolve Gremla's banner before the evening transition 7 Evening | Disturbed | Finish the graveyard investigation 8 Evening | Like Father, Like Son | Final prologue story beat before Mass
This is a practical order, not a mandatory sequence. If you skip Page Turner, use the saved segment for Into the Den or another optional activity. Into the Den is not time-sensitive and can be completed after the prologue.
Esme's medicine: exact recipe
During Withering Away, part 2, use hot water and add three spoonfuls of herbs. This is Anca's recipe. The first force-feed choice at the start of the game has no long-term impact, but preparing the medicine incorrectly can produce a worse outcome for the family at Mass.
After brewing the medicine, convince Esme to drink it. Pieter's training dialogue is flexible; do not follow him up the hill to train if you still have a timed quest to complete—he remains available at the end of the day.
Page Turner and Anca
If you want Anca's route, accept the optional Page Turner segment. Pick the red-cover book, continue the playful responses, and collect the dried herbs from the shed with Focus before returning to Anca. The quest uses one extra segment; the combined Withering Away and Page Turner route takes two segments.
The translation answers are Kisses and Grains of sand. Wrong guesses are not a hard fail, but the red-cover route gives the most relationship dialogue.
Afternoon investigation route
Enter Not
Approach the abandoned house north of Anca's home, enter via the lower roof, and collect the Figurine of St. Jude, Last Confession, 17 Denarius, gold tableware, Mending Ointment recipe, and Knyaz Skender's Orders. Return the figurine to the church later to complete the thread.
If a Tree Falls in a Forest
Inspect the body beside Northern Foothills shrine, follow the footprints and loot the Uriash patrol orders. This is a free investigation step in the launch route, but it becomes unavailable after the prologue transition.
Deep Down
Start from Gavril's lead near Blackwater Hollow and go before evening. If you arrive in time, Lazar is alive; waiting until evening changes the scene to Lazar's corpse. In the ruins, inspect the murals and the final sarcophagus to obtain Mireleaf Bracers and the Claw Art ability. Defeat the Forgotten Guardian and replace the practice sword with its Undead Warrior's Sword.
Missable and optional quest list
Quest | Timing | Recommendation --- | --- | --- Live Bait | Morning; prologue-only | Do first for a clean opening Dead Drop | Morning; prologue-only | Free investigation, then continue Withering Away Page Turner | Noon; optional | Do for Anca relationship progress Blasphemy | Afternoon; prologue-only | Resolve before Mass; banner choice changes context Disturbed | Evening; prologue-only | Complete before the final segment Deep Down | Afternoon is safest | Do before evening to keep Lazar alive Enter Not | Afternoon; prologue-only | Loot the house and return the figurine If a Tree Falls in a Forest | Afternoon; prologue-only | Inspect the body and report the patrol orders Someone Needs a Lesson | Optional; prologue-only | Skip if optimizing the first route On the Run | Optional; prologue-only | Skip if you need the segment elsewhere Into the Den | Not time-sensitive | Return after the prologue if you skipped Page Turner
Choices that matter most
- Use the medicine recipe exactly; this is the clearest family-risk choice in the prologue.
- Choose whether to stay with Anca for Page Turner or preserve the segment for another activity.
- In Blasphemy, decide whether Premysl returns the banner; the choice changes the Mass context and village reactions.
- Reach Lazar during the afternoon if you want his living dialogue and the full Forgotten Guardian reward route.
- Make a save before the final evening segment; once Mass begins, unfinished prologue quests fail.
Focused prologue pages
Source and verification
This launch-build route cross-checks the prologue quest order and segment guide and the full quest list. Exact dialogue, reward, and time values can vary by patch or language; record the installed version when reporting a new result.