Dog Days in Dragonwilds: Sneak to the Book, Safespot the King
Dog Days is a three-part investigation into the Garou and their rituals, and the walkthrough hands you a shortcut for each part. Approach the lore book from the north, where there are fewer enemies, and sneak past the thane guarding it — he faces the wrong way. Then Windstep onto the arches of the Garou King's ruined temple to safespot the fight entirely.
Quest Details
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Type | Secondary |
| Start | Speak to Vannaka, at the centre of the Stormtouched Highlands |
| Requires | None |
| Items needed | 2 ram horns, 3 shocking plant bulbs |
| Recommended | Good armour and weapons, food, antipoison potions, air runes for Windstep |
| Enemies | Multiple Garou and the Garou King, 1–2 rams, 1–2 wild lapulis vines |
| Reward | Garou highborn's cloak |
No quest requirement at all — Dog Days is reachable as soon as you can survive the Stormtouched Highlands, which is worth knowing because the region gates it in practice rather than on paper.
Part One: The Lore Book
Vannaka is under a cliff in the eastern part of the Highlands. He asks you to investigate the Garou rituals, and the first step is a lore book.
Go to the location of the lore book, beneath the wyrm corpse, and read it. It is advised to go around and approach from the north, as there are fewer enemies. There is a garou thane next to the book, but facing the opposite direction, so you can sneak there and read the book.
Three separate pieces of routing advice in one paragraph, and all three are worth taking:
- The wyrm corpse is the landmark. The book is beneath it.
- Approach from the north. Fewer enemies on that side.
- The thane is facing away. You can sneak past rather than fight — and a Garou Thane has 585 to 810 health, is weak to Crush and resistant to Stab, so the fight you are skipping is a real one.
Sneaking pairs with knives here. Dragonwilds does not publish a sneak multiplier the way Valheim does, but avoiding a 585-health thane entirely is worth more than any multiplier.
Part Two: The Garou King
After the book, you need the King's tainted token. He is in the castle in the north-west of the Highlands.
Use Windstep as much as you can, to avoid as many enemies as you can. At the top of the hill, in the castle, you need to defeat the king, who is a thane, and his attacks are the same. It is suggested to cast Windstep onto the arches of the Garou King's ruined temple to safespot its attacks.
"He is a thane and his attacks are the same" is the most useful sentence in the quest. You already know this fight:
| Garou Thane | Garou King | |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 585 / 810 | 1,035 |
| Weak to | Crush | Crush |
| Resistant to | Stab | Stab |
| Power level | 3 / 4 | 5 |
Same weakness, same resistance, same moveset — about 28% more health than a level-4 thane. Bring a Crush weapon and leave the dagger behind.
The safespot is the arches. Windstep onto them and the King cannot reach you, which turns a 1,035-health fight into a ranged grind at no risk. Whether you use it is a taste question; the wiki suggests it outright.
The King drops the Tainted King's Token at 100%, so there is no roll involved — one kill, one token.
Part Three: The Ritual
Return to Vannaka with the token and he tells you it is tainted and needs purifying. Head north to Lougrim's Shrine, kill the garou druids there, and use it.
The druids are why antipoison is on the recommendation list. A Garou Druid has 292 to 405 health, is weak to Fire, resistant to Crush — the opposite of the King — and immune to Poison, with a poisoned magic dart that deals physical and poison damage together.
Drink the antipoison before you engage. Resistance is applied when the effect is created and ignored on every subsequent tick, so a potion drunk after the dart lands does nothing for the poison already running.
The shrine then asks for the ritual materials: 2 ram horns and 3 shocking plant bulbs — which is where the 1–2 rams and 1–2 wild lapulis vines in the enemy list come from.
The Loadout Problem
The quest asks for two opposite answers in the same trip:
| Target | Weak to | Resistant to |
|---|---|---|
| Garou King | Crush | Stab |
| Garou Druid | Fire | Crush |
The druids resist the very Crush that kills the King. So a single-weapon run will grind through one half of the quest regardless of which half you optimised for.
Carry a Crush weapon and a Fire option, and expect to swap between the castle and the shrine.
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Conclusion
Dog Days starts with Vannaka at the centre of the Stormtouched Highlands, needs no prior quest, and runs in three parts with a stated shortcut for each. The lore book sits beneath the wyrm corpse — approach from the north for fewer enemies, and sneak past the garou thane beside it, who faces the wrong way and would otherwise be a 585-to-810-health fight. The Garou King in the north-west castle is a thane with the same attacks, at 1,035 health, weak to Crush and resistant to Stab, and the walkthrough suggests Windstepping onto the arches of his ruined temple to safespot him entirely; he drops the Tainted King's Token at 100%. The third part is a purification at Lougrim's Shrine, guarded by garou druids — weak to Fire, resistant to Crush and immune to Poison, with a poisoned dart that makes antipoison-before-engaging mandatory. That creates the quest's real constraint: the druids resist the exact Crush that kills the King, so carry both a Crush weapon and a Fire option. The ritual itself wants 2 ram horns and 3 shocking plant bulbs, and the reward is the Garou highborn's cloak.
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