Spoilers

Vampire blood and potency

Watch blood and potency separately

Your blood meter determines Gorged, Sated, Hungry or Starving. These states change as blood is gained or spent. Potency grows over time and names your rank, from Fledgling to Vampire Sovereign. Raising maximum blood does not move the state thresholds: Gorged still starts at 80, Sated at 50 and Hungry at 20.

Blood changes your damage

Becoming a vampire adds 2 to your mortal base damage. The current blood state contributes another 3 damage while Gorged, 1 while Sated, 0 while Hungry and minus 2 while Starving. Equipment, Terroir and other combat modifiers still matter.

Travel faster on foot

Gorged and Sated vampires gain their faster pace on roads and beaten trails while on foot. The earlier road or trail pace doubles, up to 6 before later bonuses and penalties. An ordinary minor road rises from 2 to 4 and a major road from 3 to 6. This window runs from First Watch through Early Morning and ends at Mid-Morning. It does not add the same bonus while riding, sailing or flying in Bat Form.

A bite can restore blood

An ordinary melee swing restores 3 blood per drinkable target while Gorged, or 2 in the other blood states. A chained second hit can also feed you. Restoration stops at your maximum. A swing against only Bloodless creatures costs 2 blood. A creature with blood that cannot be drunk gives no blood and does not cause that cost. If the swing feeds from one of its targets, it uses the feeding gain.

The empty meter has its own penalty

Starving begins below 20 blood, but its health penalty begins at 0. In solo play, with an empty meter the vampire turn takes 1 health every 15 world turns. Rest, passive Terroir healing, regeneration buffs and Well Fed recovery stop healing you while blood remains empty. Getting even a little blood back removes this empty-meter gate.

Blood can drain in several ways at once

In solo play, ordinary vampire upkeep costs 1 blood every 25 world turns. Open sunlight adds 1 every 5, and Bat Form adds 1 every 10, or every 20 at potency 60 or higher. These costs can coincide. Shelter or a place without sky prevents the sunlight cost. The protection after a Wayfarer defeat can pause ordinary and sunlight drain until its shroud ends.

Grow through time and feeding

In solo play, potency gains 1 every 500 world turns since the transformation. A completed sleeping feed grants 1 potency, or 6 if the settlement's vampire awareness is Fortified or Purging. Your ordinary attack damage can grant 10 when it kills a Vampire Hunter. All of these gains stop at 100. A completed sleeping feed restores 20 blood plus 1 for every 10 potency you already have, before the blood cap, then grants its potency.

Notice the thresholds between ranks

At potency 20, feeding wake chance falls by 5 percentage points. At 50 it falls by 10 points instead. The final chance remains at least 1%, and guards, suspicion, mood, previous feeding and your concealment still change the risk. At potency 30, a Gorged vampire can pass the guard-specific Charm gate. The next rank name is Bloodlord at 40, so some changes happen between rank names.

Higher potency changes capacity and sun burn

At potency 40, maximum blood becomes 110. The extra space is not filled by the increase. At 60, the extra Bat Form upkeep is halved. At 80, sun burn receives a 25% reduction after the exposure and weather factors. Burn then rounds to whole damage with a minimum of 1 before later fire protection. The current turn applies no separate tree-canopy reduction. This potency benefit does not reduce the separate sunlight blood drain.

People notice hunger and strength

At potency 40 or higher while Starving, an interaction with a non-guard trader outside the wilderness roles has a 40% chance to be refused because of your appearance. Hungry and Starving vampires can draw appearance comments. At potency 60 or higher, a daytime conversation can also draw a comment at any blood state. Earlier memory, mood and other dialogue can take priority.

Let automatic drinking use ordinary blood

In solo play, automatic eating and drinking can use eligible common blood drinks when blood drops below 50. It chooses from the backpack before the Quick Bar, respects automatic-use protection and waits at least 2 world turns between successful automatic meals or blood drinks. Uncommon Blood Vials are outside this automatic choice. Manual drinking still lets you choose which blood to spend.

The vampire clock in co-op

Scheduled vampire effects are checked when your own body receives its turn update. The idle-player pass skips vampires, so a partner’s turn does not replay your blood drain, sun burn, empty-blood damage or passive potency gain, and missed checks do not catch up later. The solo cadences above describe the base rules.