The Cycle of Love Walkthrough in The Blood of Dawnwalker (Xanthe Quest)

The Cycle of Love is Xanthe’s main quest — PowerPyx lists it as the game’s route into her fight, with young women going missing in the valley and soldiers pointing at the Dark Mistress. The quest costs 4 time segments, has no fail state, and pays 500 XP — plus the Blood Surge ability if you drink her blood at the end. Its objectives, verbatim: “Wait for an opportunity,” “Get to the mansion,” “Give the lantern to the statue,” “Find Xanthe,” “Find a way to enter the locked room,” “Enter the locked room,” and “Kill Xanthe.”

How Does The Cycle of Love Begin?

Max out Xanthe’s anger through her Court activities — Game8’s wording: “players must first complete 9 of Xanthe’s court quests.” Then the sources split on the messenger: Game8 sends a guard named Leonard to hand over the lantern; PowerPyx describes two unnamed soldiers asking you to investigate the mansion. Either way, agreeing grants Xanthe’s Lantern, the only pass through the Howling Keep’s entrance. The keep sits in the map’s southern region, and supernatural enemies respawn as you backtrack — PowerPyx recommends quicksaving on Duelist difficulty.

The Lantern-Statue Route Through the Keep

The rule that governs everything: “Placing the blue lanterns at the statues will cause the red vines nearby to disappear, allowing passage.” The full sequence, per PowerPyx:

1. Entrance: clear the two enemies, place the lantern on the statue to the left.
2. Upstairs south: take the open doorway near a statue. In the next room, skip that room’s lantern-statue and take the northwest doorway instead — inside, optionally speak with the girl and take her room’s lantern.
3. Locked-room puzzle: place a lantern on the main-area balcony statue (it holds the door open), retrieve the second room’s lantern and carry it out, then place one on the statue in the room halfway down the stairs. Loot there includes the Cycle of Ruin and Dirty Trick manuals, plus a note that points at A Friend Like This.
4. Ground level: carry both lanterns back out, place one to open the west-wall door, clear the enemies, grab the lantern in the back room, and use the floor trapdoor to descend.
5. Underground: after the fights, the dog room’s glowing body holds the Key to the Kennels, unlocking a wooden door back to the main hall. Taking the lantern off the statue there spawns more enemies.
6. First room, revisited: replace a lantern on its statue, reclaim the balcony lantern, then go through the far door and place a lantern on each of the two statues flanking the stairs.

Entering the final room auto-triggers a conversation with the girl — Chariklea. Her dialogue choices have no effect on her replies, so pick freely; the conversation is the calm before everything else.

The Fight

Right after the Chariklea conversation, Xanthe attacks and throws you into the Kennels arena. PowerPyx’s essentials: she floats like the witch-type enemies, her ground AoEs are dodges and her red tentacles blockable — swinging left, right, or overhead — and perfect blocks interrupt her. She carries a yellow bar that must fall before her white bar takes damage, and crossing the red markers on the white bar makes her teleport and summon red healing orbs — destroy them fast. The healing phase only happens twice, so her health is finite. The full moveset breakdown lives in the Xanthe boss guide.

The Blood of Dawnwalker — The Cycle of Love Full Walkthrough — YouTube

The Blood of Dawnwalker — The Cycle of Love Full Walkthrough

Kill or Spare — From the Quest Side

The Dark Mistress trophy does not require her death: PowerPyx confirms sparing her still counts toward it. Sparing her removes the supernatural enemies from Griefberg Castle in the castle-assault ending — but you miss drinking her blood here (it can still be found elsewhere as a consumable). Killing her also leaves a Legendary Amulet, the Corrupted Pendant, on her death spot (per Game8). Killing her leaves the castle’s supernatural garrison intact. The full consequences for the final assault — the Blood Guard withdrawal, the trap-skip — are laid out in the boss guide’s kill-or-spare section.