The rule you need to know before you touch the prologue
Daytime is divided into eight segments. Every quest carrying a clock icon consumes one or more of them, and the moment the eighth is spent the day is over: the Blood Mass begins, all unfinished clock-icon quests fail automatically, and their rewards are gone for that save.
This is why the prologue generates so many searches. It is not hard. It is a budget, and the game does not show you the budget in a way that discourages wandering.
The free three — do these before anything else
None of these cost a segment. There is no reason to leave the prologue having skipped them.
| Quest | What you do | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Enter Not | Search out the statue of St Jude and hand it to Father Florin | 100 XP |
| If a Tree Falls in the Forest | Investigate the fallen tree and the body, then speak with Zdislav | 100 XP |
| Dead Drop | Explore the Exiles' graveyard and take the Purifying Ring | 100 XP + 21 Denarii |
The one quest you cannot afford to fumble
Withering Away — costs 2–3 segments, and it decides whether your mother Esme lives. The remedy is hot water plus three spoonfuls of herb. Fail the mixture or run out of daytime on it and she dies, which locks part of the ending space, since family survival determines which endings remain reachable.
Spend on this before you spend on anything optional.
Where the value actually is
Ranked by what you get per segment, based on community tallying rather than an official table:
| Quest | Segments | Return | Worth it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blasphemy | 1 | Highest XP in the prologue; picking the sympathetic or procession line at the talk with Premysl yields the Summer Amulet, which raises human-form health; informing on the quest at delivery pays 325 XP + 25 Denarii | Best single segment available |
| Deep Down | 1 | Rescue Lasal, fight the Forgotten Guardian boss, take the Mirelif Guard from the sarcophagus in the ruins; 250 XP + 50 Denarii, and it unlocks the claw-strike combo | Second best — it grants an ability, not just numbers |
| Like Father, Like Son | 1 | After brewing the medicine, accept Pit's training invitation and win the spar for the Charge skill manual + 100 XP | Yes, it is a skill book |
| Into the Cave | 1 | Common gear plus a letter pointing to the silver trader | Marginal, do with leftovers |
| Someone Needs a Lesson | 1 | 250 XP | Fine filler |
| Disturbed | 1–2 | 250 XP + 25 Denarii | Fine filler |
| Live Bait | 1–2 | 250 XP | Mediocre per-segment value |
| On the Run | 2 | 250 XP + 50 Denarii | Only if you have a clean two left |
| Dead Drop follow-up (thief's treasure map) | 2 | Rare weapon, gold cross and others | Deferrable if time is tight |
| Ankaradin language lesson | 1 | 100 XP | Skip. Worst return in the prologue |
A plan that fits
Eight segments, comfortable version:
- Free three — zero cost
- Withering Away — 3 (assume the expensive reading, so you are not caught out)
- Blasphemy — 1
- Deep Down — 1
- Like Father, Like Son — 1
- Disturbed — 1
That is eight exactly, and it takes the mother, both skill books, the amulet and the best XP lines. If Withering Away only charges you two segments you get one spare for someone else.
What about the softlocks?
Hotfix 1.0.4 on 9 September fixed a cluster of prologue and early-game blockers: the tutorial stalling if you used the devour bite too quickly, Coen getting trapped inside certain houses, a bug that prevented saving at all, plus quest fixes on Deep Down, On the Run and the hive-and-search task. If a prologue quest is not completing rather than you having run out of time, confirm you are on 1.0.4 or newer before assuming you broke it yourself.
⚠️ Naming note: English quest titles above are carried from Chinese-language community tables that included the original English in parentheses. Segment costs and reward figures are community tallies, not an official table, and they can differ by difficulty setting. Verify against your own quest log before treating any single row as gospel.
People also ask
- How many daytime segments does the prologue give me?
- Eight. When they run out the day ends and the Blood Mass sequence starts whether or not you are finished, which is the trigger for every unfinished clock-icon quest failing at once.
- If I run out of time, can I reload and redo the prologue?
- That depends on whether you saved. There is no prologue selection afterwards and the missed rewards are described as permanently gone for that save, so the practical answer is to treat the eight segments as spend-once and keep a manual save before committing one.
- What exactly happens if I brew the medicine wrong?
- The correct mixture is hot water plus three spoonfuls of herb. Getting it wrong, or letting the time run out on Withering Away, kills your mother Esme and locks out part of the ending space, because family survival feeds into which endings are reachable.
- Are prologue dialogue choices dangerous?
- Mostly no. The overwhelming majority of prologue dialogue branches have no material effect, so you do not need to save-scum conversations. Spend your caution on the clock-icon quests instead.
Sources & version history
External claims on this page trace to the items below. Anything we could not confirm is written as a question, not a fact.