The Blood of Dawnwalker: Best Mods and How to Install Them ⋆ S4G

My overview of mods for The Blood of Dawnwalker highlights the best additions and shows you how to get them running without the usual headaches.

Sort The Blood of Dawnwalker mods by endorsements and the top spot doesn’t go to a graphics mod or a new weapon, but to Better Story Timer by Caites. The mod extends the amount of time you have to finish the main story. And the gap is substantial: Better Story Timer has 1,006 endorsements, while the runner-up sits at 381. Dawnwalker fans clearly have a favorite.

You can find all our other The Blood of Dawnwalker guides in our guide roundup.

The Most Popular Types of Mods in Blood of Dawnwalker

The time mechanic is one of the features that sets Dawnwalker apart from other RPGs. Important activities consume time, and some are only available during the day while others can only be completed at night.

Note: Our beginner’s guide to Blood of Dawnwalker explains exactly how the time system works.

That’s exactly what the community is targeting. According to the author, Better Story Timer increases the main story limit to 90 days, raises the number of time segments from eight to 16 or 32, and can optionally remove the time cost from traits and abilities. Timeless Treasure by bruender09 takes a similar approach by removing the time cost from treasure maps and world chests.

Note: Better Story Timer comes in several versions, and you should only install one of them: either 90 days, 32 daily segments, or the combination of 90 days and 16 segments. Removing the time cost from traits and abilities is an optional extra. If you want custom values, disable read-only mode for the game.ini file, enter your preferred number of days, then make the file read-only again.

Behind the time-related mods is a second major category: mods designed to remove friction in general. Easier parries, no stamina cost while sprinting, no cooldowns, automatic looting, increased carry weight. What these mods have in common is that they remove costs: time, stamina, or waiting.

Whether that’s a good thing comes down to personal preference. If you consider the time mechanic a fundamental part of the game, these mods remove some of that experience. Everyone else may find that they actually make the game more enjoyable.

The Blood of Dawnwalker: Coen looks out over the snowy Sangora Valley while an arrow highlights the timeline and remaining time. — A lot of players seem to have issues with the timeline. The most popular Blood of Dawnwalker mods are the ones that let you manipulate the clock. © S4G / Bandai Namco

What You Need to Know Before Installing Your First Mod

Dawnwalker supports three different ways of installing mods. Each has its own destination folder, and putting a mod in the wrong folder simply means nothing happens – with no error message to tell you why.

Type	Destination Folder	Important
PAK Mods	`Content\Paks\~mods\`	The tilde before “mods” is required. Without it, the game won’t recognize anything
INI Mods	`%LOCALAPPDATA%\Dawnwalker\Saved\Config\Windows\`	The file must be set to read-only
UE4SS	Win64 folder next to `Dawnwalker.exe`	Do not install it in `Engine\Binaries\Win64`

Note: Modding only works on PC with the Steam and GOG versions. Consoles are not supported. There is no load-order system, and multiple PAK mods generally work together as long as they don’t modify the same system.

You should also back up your save files before you start. You can find them under %LOCALAPPDATA%\Dawnwalker\Saved\SaveGames\. Removing a gameplay mod in the middle of a playthrough can corrupt your save files.

How to Set Up UE4SS

Some mods require UE4SS, a framework that hooks into the game. Vercadi’s version is the most widely used, with 381 endorsements.

The important thing is to use the version specifically adapted for Dawnwalker. The standard UE4SS release can cause crashes. The current build is designed for Steam version 25232147 running on Unreal Engine 5.5.4 and was last updated on September 12, 2026.

Here’s how the author describes the installation process:

Close the game
Find the Win64 folder containing Dawnwalker.exe
Back up any existing files
Extract the entire package into that folder
Make sure the files are located next to the EXE
Launch the game through Steam

If you want to remove UE4SS again, deleting the folder is not enough. You also need to remove dwmapi.dll, otherwise conflicts may remain.

Note: UE4SS’s console window can hurt performance and cause stuttering. Look for ConsoleEnabled in UE4SS-settings.ini and set it to 0 to disable the console.

The Best Mods at a Glance

Figures accurate as of September 14, 2026. Endorsements change daily.

Time Pressure and Pacing

Mod	Author	What It Does
Better Story Timer	Caites	Lets you adjust the main story time limit and daily time segments
Timeless Treasure	bruender09	Removes the time cost from treasure maps and world chests
Quest Reward Multiplier	Lilyhunte	Multiplies quest currency by two to ten times

Combat

Mod	Author	What It Does
Easier Parry	nectarines	Doubles the parry window
Combat Tweaks	Caites	Lets you adjust enemy health, damage, stamina, and parry windows
Stamina and Sprint Tweaks	nectarines	Removes stamina costs from sprinting, blocking, and dodging
No Ability Cooldowns	nectarines	Removes cooldowns, including those for vampire abilities

Coen fights several mercenaries in The Blood of Dawnwalker during the boss fight against Xanthe, the Dark Mistress. — There are also plenty of good mods for customizing combat in Blood of Dawnwalker. © S4G

Quality of Life

Mod	Author	What It Does
Nax-AutoLoot	Naxterra	Automatically loots containers, corpses, and gathering spots
Weight Limit Plus	mmarcussa	Presets for 100, 150, 200 (vanilla), 400, 1,000, 1,500, and 999,999, plus custom values from 1 to 999,999
More Markers	mmarcussa	100 markers, six icons, compass tracking, and optional day/night reminders
Richer Merchants	Glacknarf	Gives merchants more money so they can buy more of your items
Configurable Loot Quality	Caites	Lets you fine-tune loot quality
Mod Setting Menu	mmarcussa	Shared settings menu that requires UE4SS

Visuals

Mod	Author	What It Does
Ultra Realistica ReShade	Tobkes	Adjusts lighting, contrast, and colors with no performance loss, according to the author
Performance Engine Tweaks	Vercadi	Engine tweaks that, among other things, remove motion blur
Wild Stylez	fostot	Ten hairstyles with up to 441 color combinations
Dawnwalker Transmog Manager	H0tGlueGun	Changes the appearance of gear while keeping its stats
Vampire NPC’s Red Eyes	Maypara	Changes the eye color of vampire NPCs

There are also several smaller tweaks designed mainly to save your sanity: No More “Ring The Bells” and No Panic Shouts by Glacknarf disable recurring peasant dialogue, while No Jumpscares by KageNoKira removes jump scares from cutscenes.

Common Problems

Nothing happens. Check the destination folder first, as this is the most common cause. Is the tilde present in ~mods? Is the INI file actually set to read-only?
The game crashes. If the crashes started after installing UE4SS, remove dwmapi.dll and the ue4ss folder, then start over with a clean installation. Crashes caused by individual mods have also been reported.
You don’t know which mod is causing the problem. The UE4SS author recommends starting with only the included helper files, moving all your own mods out of the game folder, and then adding them back one at a time until the crash returns.
Stuttering for no obvious reason. See the section about the UE4SS console window above.

Why Mods Stop Working After an Update

Updates reset INI files, which also removes their read-only status. The mod can then quietly stop working without an error message and without anything changing in the folder itself.

UE4SS also needs to be updated after game patches because each build is made for a specific version of the game. Some older game builds may not have a compatible package at all.

So after every patch: check whether your INI files are still read-only, look for compatibility notes on the mod pages, and redownload any affected files.

Do Achievements Still Work After Installing Mods?

There is no universal answer, and anyone who claims otherwise is guessing. The author of Better Story Timer explicitly states that the mod does not affect achievements. There is no comparable information available for the other mods. There’s a technical reason for that: an INI tweak only changes a configuration file, a PAK file replaces game content, and UE4SS hooks into the running game process. Those are three very different levels of modification. If you want to play it safe, back up your save and check the respective mod page to see what its author says.