Blood of Dawnwalker Companions: Anca, Lacra & Crake Explained

Who Are the Companions in The Blood of Dawnwalker?

Three characters carry full companion questlines in The Blood of Dawnwalker: Anca, the herbalist from the prologue; Lacra, a vampire noble inside Brencis’s court; and Crake, the leader of the persecuted Manumit minority’s rebellion. Each is reached through a chain of quests rather than a single recruit button, and each pulls on the game’s branching endings. This page is the overview — who they are, how you earn them, and what they do. The romance mechanics are covered separately in the /guides/romance-options/ guide, so we will not repeat the dialogue trees here.

Anca — The Herbalist Who Taught Coen to Read

Anca is Coen’s earliest ally and the warmest of the three. She is a former monastery novice and village herbalist — the game’s opening sends Coen to her for medicine for his sick mother, a time-limited errand (the quest shows a clock icon and expires if you dawdle). Bandai Namco’s pre-launch “Forging Connections” article frames her as the one who taught Coen to read and encouraged him to look past the obvious meaning of things — she is the story’s symbol of guidance, and it hints she carries a secret that once separated her from the village.

After the prologue she reappears as a full companion quest-giver. Her chain runs through the monastery and its library — the first post-prologue quest, Echoes of the Silenced Bells, sends you into the catacombs to “search for the forbidden books” and secure a safe passage to the library for her. It is one of the more gentle companion threads and, per the /guides/prologue-missable-quests/ page, the prologue choices that build her trust are easy to miss.

Lacra — The Vampire Noble Inside Brencis’s Court

Lacra is the dangerous one. She is a vampire noble of Brencis’s court — over two centuries old — driven by her own vengeance and an agenda she keeps close to her chest. Where Anca is daylight and guidance, Lacra is the night-side alliance: getting close to her means moving through the vampire politics that run on Brencis’s court.

You find her in the city of Svartra, in the Cathedral Complex district; the quest that kicks off her thread is tracked in the journal as “A Friend Like This.” Her route is a loyalty gauntlet — every mercy you show her world (sparing the Urisk elder Nish, de-escalating the matriarch) moves you closer — and it is the only companion line with a hard endgame consequence: a single mandrake choice decides whether she is alive for the /bosses/brencis/ finale.

Crake (Marat) — The Leader of the Manumit Rebellion

Crake is the military companion and the one with the clearest recruitment condition. He is the ruthless commander of the Manumit rebellion — the valley’s persecuted minority fighting Brencis — and, as Coen eventually gets him to admit, his real name is Marat. Pre-launch material called him Marat; the shipped game leads with the alias, which is why players who read the marketing are briefly confused to meet “Crake” instead.

How to Join the Rebellion

Crake does not trust Coen on sight. His recruitment is a proving test, delivered in his own words: “Kill some soldiers, destroy blood transports, build a reputation for yourself. The moment I see Brencis coming after you, I’ll know I can trust you. When that happens, come to the Cathedral Plaza in Svartra.” Do enough damage to Brencis’s forces, show up at the plaza, and the Manumits vote Coen in — “You’ve won the vote, Coen. You’re one of us now.”

What His Questline Does

Once inside, Crake hands Coen the rebellion’s work, tracked under the journal quest “What Hunts the Night” with objectives like Help Crake investigate the scouts’ deaths and Help Crake escape the ambush. His chain builds outward: hunting whatever slaughtered his scouts (a Brencis-crafted winged creature), decoding an inscription through a reluctant scholar, and finally coordinating the assault on the castle with the outside claimant Lord Katalin.

In combat, the honest read from the footage is that the ally is present but Coen carries the fight — during the ambush escort Crake “isn’t too good of a fighter” against the guards, so treat companion missions as your combat with a witness, not a co-op bout.

The personal layer is what makes him land: Crake is the estranged son of a father who disowned him, keeps his sexuality hidden for survival, and still secretly watches over that parent “like a guardian angel.” That confession is earned across several missions, not one scene.

Do the Companions Change the Endings?

Yes — through two levers. Crake’s rebellion and the army he brokers are one of the routes to storming Brencis’s castle, and the epilogue’s tone shifts with how far you got with him. Lacra’s route forks the finale outright (the mandrake). Anca’s thread is gentler but her best outcome is tied to a late choice about the source. Because you only get one run of the 30 days, you cannot max all three in a single playthrough — the constraint the /guides/one-playthrough-faq/ and /guides/missable-quests/ pages are built around.

Can You Romance Your Companions?

All three are also romance options, but romance and companionship are separate systems here. The exact flirt choices, quest gates, and the Lacra mandrake fork are fully laid out in the /guides/romance-options/ guide — read that page for the dialogue trees; this one stays about who the companions are and what they do for your run.

Crake / Marat — companion conversation and name reveal (DanaDuchy) — YouTube

Crake / Marat — companion conversation and name reveal (DanaDuchy)

Anca's companion quest: Echoes of Silenced Bells (ConCon) — YouTube

Anca's companion quest: Echoes of Silenced Bells (ConCon)

Sources & Verification

• How to do “Echoes of Silenced Bells” Quest Guide by ConCon — Anca’s post-prologue companion quest (library/catacomb objectives). Anca screenshots come from this capture; see the Anca dialogue at 3:56.
• How To Find LACRA Fast by CDG — locating Lacra in Svartra’s Cathedral Complex and the “A Friend Like This” quest. Lacra screenshots come from this capture; see the Lacra portrait at 0:06.
• Crake Romance | The Blood of Dawnwalker by DanaDuchy — on-screen dialogue confirming Crake’s real name (Marat), his father, and the campfire confession. Crake screenshots come from this capture; see the Crake portrait at 1:15.
• Complete Crake / Marat Romance & Relationship by Naughty Gaming — the recruitment chain (prove your worth → Cathedral Plaza → rebellion vote), “What Hunts the Night” quests, and the castle-assault/ending link. Used as a fact source only (its frames carry a channel watermark); see the Cathedral Plaza instruction at 3:58.
• How to Help Crake Escape the Ambush by PazarGamingGuides — the “What Hunts the Night” journal objectives and companion combat. The combat and journal screenshots come from this capture; see the quest journal at 2:40.
• Thoughts On Companions & Social Dynamic | Review by Important Goose — post-launch confirmation that the companions are Anca, Lacra and Marat, and that they are quest-linked allies rather than permanent followers; see the companions segment at 19:34.
• Hidden Agendas! Lacra, Anca, Marat by Important Goose — readout of Bandai Namco’s official “Forging Connections” article (Marat as rebel leader, Anca teaching Coen to read, Lacra’s hidden agenda).

More The Blood of Dawnwalker Guides

• The romance routes for all three: /guides/romance-options/
• What your allies decide at the end: /guides/all-endings/
• The clock that limits every quest: /guides/30-day-time-system/