Why the sword seems to disappear at night
This is the reason most people search for this in the first place. When night falls Coen shifts into vampire form, and the game's default night-time weapon is his claws — fast, razor-sharp, and animated very differently from swordplay.
The sword has not been removed. Hold the weapon-swap input and you move between claws and blade freely, in either form. At night you get better attack speed and generally hit harder regardless of which you pick.
Which you choose has build consequences. Razor Sharp Claws in the Vampirism tree only improves claw damage, so if you intend to keep swinging steel at night that perk is not for you. The Swordmastery tree, by contrast, works in both forms, which is a strong argument for staying on the sword.
Blocking works the same either way
The directional system does not change with your weapon. Blocking and parrying work identically for claws and swords: match the incoming direction, and time it late for a perfect block.
That consistency is why swapping weapons mid-run costs you nothing mechanically. The rhythm you learn with a sword by day transfers directly to claws at night.
Some abilities also carry across both forms, though they behave differently in each. The charge is one example that works as human and as vampire.
Sword arts and weapon charges
Sword arts and claw arts are special attacks tied to your weapon rather than to your activation charges. They build up by attacking and blocking in combat, and once ready they deliver a special unblockable attack.
These usually appear on rarer and legendary gear rather than on basic weapons, so an early legendary can meaningfully change how a fight goes. They run on their own cooldown, so there is no benefit to holding them once charged.
Legendary weapons in particular can carry effects that buff abilities or reduce their cooldowns, on top of the standard passive stat bonuses that scale with rarity.
Getting a strong sword early: Durandal
If you want a sword worth drawing, Durandal is obtainable very early and carries most of the opening act. It comes from a side quest that begins by investigating a broken cart, which yields orders describing a treasure transport carrying the former Knyaz's legendary blade.
From the cart you descend into the chasm to the floor below. Wolves attack first, and after the initial wolf goes down two tougher ghostly Vidmo bosses join in. Deal with the wolves immediately so they cannot interrupt you, then survive the spectral wave using precise directional blocks and careful positioning so you do not get cornered.
Durandal is looted from the wreckage once the fight is over. The catch is the price in time: the quest costs two day segments out of your 30-day budget, so it is a deliberate trade — a strong weapon for most of the game against two segments you cannot get back.
Upgrading and swapping weapons
Gear rarity runs from common to legendary, and rarer pieces carry more passive buffs — things like a percentage boost to maximum health or a widened perfect-block window. Those buffs are often worth more than a slightly higher raw armour or damage number.
A blacksmith can upgrade gear, but only up to one level above your current character level, which makes upgrading a legendary a recurring rather than a one-off job. Enemies and loot get progressively stronger the further south you travel, so higher-level weapons can be looted from chests in tougher regions.
Because some equipment is flagged for day or night use only, you maintain two loadouts and can swap between them freely from the inventory. Check the icons on a piece before assuming it will work in both forms.
Still to be confirmed
- The exact input for swapping between claws and sword — sources disagree between a Y press and a held X (Square on PlayStation). To be confirmed against the in-game bindings.
- The full PS5 and keyboard-and-mouse default binding tables — to be confirmed.
- Whether Durandal's two-segment cost varies with how you approach the quest — to be confirmed.