The Blood of Dawnwalker Troubleshooting: Crashes, Stuttering, and Fixes

The Blood of Dawnwalker’s launch week has been strong, but like most big Unreal Engine 5 releases it shipped with a handful of PC problems. Rebel Wolves has been unusually transparent: the official Hotfix 1.0.2 notes name the issues, give workarounds where they exist, and say plainly which ones are still being worked on — and Hotfixes 1.0.4 and 1.0.5 (September 9–10) have since shipped a save-blocker fix and shader-pipeline work. This page gathers all of it in one place — what is fixed, what has a workaround, and what is still open as of build 1.0.5.

Why Is the Game Crashing While Compiling Shaders?

This is the most serious launch issue: some players crash during the initial shader compilation instead of reaching the menu. The official guidance is specific — check that your BIOS is up to date. The 1.0.2 notes list it as a known issue with the BIOS check as the listed fix, and launch-week press coverage has tied the crashes to an interaction involving Oodle, the decompression middleware the game uses.

If a BIOS update sounds intimidating, treat it with respect: it is a firmware update for your motherboard, it varies by manufacturer, and doing it wrong can brick the board. Download the update only from your motherboard maker’s support page, follow their flashing instructions exactly, and do not interrupt power mid-update. If you are on a prebuilt or laptop, the manufacturer’s own update utility usually handles it safely.

How Do I Fix Stuttering in Windowed or Borderless Mode?

The official workaround is simple: launch the game in Full Screen. Stuttering specific to Windowed and Borderless display modes is the second named known issue in the 1.0.2 notes, with Full Screen listed as the workaround. Hotfix 1.0.5 (September 10) brought the first official mitigation: improvements to the shader-compilation pipeline, which the notes say “can fix stuttering issues for some users” — so update and test before anything else. If stuttering persists, the Full Screen workaround remains in force.

If you rely on Windowed mode for a second monitor or alt-tabbing, know the trade-off: you are choosing between convenience and smoothness until the fix lands. The patch history page tracks every hotfix, so check it before assuming a stutter you are seeing is still unfixed.

One more thing worth checking if stuttering appeared after you modded the game: community threads from launch week describe stuttering caused by leftover mod files — specifically the dwmapi.dll that UE4SS-based mods drop into the game folder. That is a community-reported pattern rather than an official one, but removing mod files is a reasonable first test before anything drastic. The mods guide covers what UE4SS is and where those files live.

What About Controller Issues?

Four controller facts to know as of Hotfix 1.0.5:

• DualSense on PC — supported on Steam and GOG since Hotfix 1.0.3 (September 4, 2026). If a PlayStation 5 controller was not being picked up correctly before, this patch is the fix you were waiting for.
• PS5 button-mapping option — still missing, and still listed as an open known issue. There is no official workaround yet.
• Outdated GameInput software (PC) — Hotfix 1.0.4 (September 9) fixed the FPS drops that connecting a controller with an outdated GameInput stack could cause. Update the game (and Windows) before blaming the pad.
• Dead zone and sprint input (PC) — adjusted in Hotfix 1.0.2. If launch-day input felt off, it may already be fixed; let the game update before troubleshooting further.

Which Bugs Are Already Fixed?

The quest-blocker sweep in Hotfix 1.0.2 fixed the progression bugs players hit most often in the opening hours — Coen unable to talk to Farkas after the NPCs around him die, Lunka getting lost during the tutorial, and the Uriashi blacksmith’s holy-sword crafting. If you put the game down on day one because of one of those, update and reload: the first hours in the Vale Sangora walkthrough picks up right where the tutorial now works.

The bigger sweep came in Hotfix 1.0.4 (September 9): stability improvements, a fix for the bug that blocked players from saving the game, another batch of quest blockers, and dozens of smaller fixes — dead NPCs no longer start dialogues, torches no longer grow uncontrollably, and Quality preset mods apply properly again.

The full itemized list, with platforms and official sources, is on the patch history page.

What Should I Try Before Anything Else?

Standard Unreal Engine 5 launch hygiene, in the order worth trying:

1. Update your GPU drivers. Both NVIDIA and AMD ship game-ready drivers for major UE5 launches.
2. Verify the game files. Steam and GOG both rebuild corrupted files from the launcher — a five-minute check that rules out a broken download.
3. Clear the DirectX shader cache. A corrupted cache is a classic UE5 failure mode; clearing it forces a clean recompile. (Given the shader-crash issue above, do this when the game is closed.)
4. Check the display mode. Full Screen, per the official stuttering workaround.
5. Update your BIOS if you are hitting the shader-compilation crash specifically.

For the underlying hardware floor and upscaling advice, see the PC system requirements page; for the settings that matter most in the first session, the launch day guide has the short version.

Where Do the Official Notes Live?

The known-issues list, workarounds, and every change so far come from the official hotfix announcements — Rebel Wolves posts them on the game’s site and on Steam. The patch history page links every official source directly, and this page will be updated as each issue moves from “known issue” to “fixed.”