Skyrim Dawnguard or Vampire? What Actually Changes

Short answer: the Dawnguard and Volkihar paths diverge for exactly two quests after Bloodline, then merge again at Seeking Disclosure and run identically to the same final fight with Auriel's Bow. So the story is not the thing you are choosing. What you are actually choosing is which permanent perks your home base hands you and how reversible the decision is — and the second one is not symmetrical. Side with the Dawnguard and you can still become a Vampire Lord later. Accept Harkon's gift and you are a permanent enemy of the Dawnguard, attacked on sight even if you cure your vampirism. If you are undecided, the Dawnguard side keeps more doors open.

Verified against UESP on September 17, 2026. Dawnguard is included with Special Edition and Anniversary Edition — no separate purchase. Current build: Special Edition 1.7.104 (released August 27, 2026), which contains Xbox/PlayStation crash and storage fixes only, with no quest changes.

Four things to settle first

Starting it, and why it sometimes won't start

Nothing is added to your journal when you install the add-on. At level 10 an Orc named Durak approaches you; city guards also start mentioning the reformed vampire hunters, and running into the recruit Agmaer inside Dayspring Canyon works too. The canyon east of Riften is the only route to Fort Dawnguard — the map marker is not visible until you find the crack in the cliff.

Durak hands you a crossbow and 45 steel bolts outside the fort. Stash that crossbow in a container or give it to a follower before you talk to Isran, and Isran gives you a second crossbow and another 45 bolts.

If the questline refuses to start, or everyone is hostile, it is almost always one of these:

• You have a bounty in The Rift. The quest cannot start until it is paid
• You arrived with lycanthropy. Dawnguard members may attack a werewolf — a bug UESP lists as confirmed. The workaround is to reload, trigger Beast Form away from any NPCs, let it expire, and only then enter the canyon; transforming near the fort is itself a reliable way to turn everyone hostile
• You attacked or killed Vigilants of Stendarr. The Vigil and the Dawnguard are allied factions, so this can lock you out entirely — also listed as a confirmed bug on UESP
• Being a vampire yourself is fine — Isran will make remarks, but he still recruits you

Note that starting the quest destroys the Hall of the Vigilant regardless of your level or whether you ever visited it.

The branch is only two quests long

1. Dawnguard — talk to Isran at the fort
2. Awakening — free Serana in Dimhollow Crypt (20 point achievement)
3. Bloodline — escort her to Castle Volkihar; you choose here
4. [Branch] A New Order (Dawnguard) or The Bloodstone Chalice (vampire)
5. [Branch] Prophet — same name, different quest. Hunters rescue the Moth Priest; vampires secure him
6. Seeking Disclosure — shared from here on, with optional Scroll Scouting
7. Chasing Echoes — Castle Volkihar's courtyard and ruined tower
8. Beyond Death — find Valerica in the Soul Cairn (20 points)
9. Unseen Visions — read the Elder Scroll
10. Touching the Sky — claim Auriel's Bow (suggested level 18)
11. Kindred Judgment — kill Harkon (40 points)

Gunmar and Sorine spawn at radiant locations, so where you find them differs between playthroughs. Gunmar is hunting a bear somewhere in Skyrim; Sorine wants a lost gyro, which sits on the riverbank due south of where she stands — or talk her out of needing it with Speech.

What actually happens at Bloodline

• Accept: Harkon bites you, and you wake in the cathedral where he teaches you the form. You gain Vampire Lord transformation, Spell Tome: Necromantic Healing, and a word of the Drain Vitality shout, then start The Bloodstone Chalice
• Refuse: he blasts you out of the castle onto the rocks outside, and your only path is back to Isran for A New Order
• Walk away or stall once he demands an answer and it counts as a refusal. Leaving the conversation before that point costs you nothing, so you can go think about it
• If you are a werewolf, accepting cures your lycanthropy. Aela can turn you back once (which cures the vampirism), but you cannot advance the Volkihar questline or use clan services while mortal — and the second half of the Companions questline requires being a werewolf

The permanent perks, side by side

Both sides supply endless radiant quests. The practical rule: take the Dawnguard if you want crossbows, smithing and archery; take Volkihar if you intend to fight in Vampire Lord form. Building around that form is covered in our Vampire Lord build guide.

Which choice can you take back?

If your form and your allegiance disagree, parts of the questline stall indefinitely. When progress stops for no visible reason, check whether you are currently a vampire and fix it to match your side.

The ending, and what differs afterwards

Auriel's Bow is yours on either path. Base damage 13. The enchantment reads "20 points of sun damage, triple against undead," but the real numbers are 10 to the living and 30 to undead — the tooltip picks up only one of the two internal effects. The bow also breaks the barrier Harkon raises to heal himself during the final fight.

• Vampire side only: ownership of Castle Volkihar, plus the follow-up Destroying the Dawnguard (kill the fort's leaders; rewards are 3 Potions of Blood 25% of the time or a leveled item 75%). The quest giver admits the Dawnguard keeps operating even with its leaders dead
• Dawnguard side only: the option to talk Serana into curing herself
• Both sides: Harkon's Sword — a one-handed sword, 8 base damage, absorbing 15 Health, Magicka and Stamina. The enchantment only fires if the wielder is a vampire, so on a mortal Dawnguard character it is decoration

Difficulty flips, too. UESP rates Chasing Echoes Medium for vampires and Hard for the Dawnguard, and Kindred Judgment Hard versus Very Hard — because vampires walk through the castle as residents while hunters have to fight through it.

Both special arrows are available on both sides

Neither arrow type is faction-locked, and both are made from your own elven arrows.

• Bloodcursed Elven Arrows — ask Serana. Shoot the sun and it stays dark until the next morning, removing the vampire sun penalty
• Sunhallowed Elven Arrows — ask Knight-Paladin Gelebor in the Forgotten Vale. He blesses 20 at a time with no cooldown, so bring as many elven arrows as you can carry. Shooting the sun rains damaging rays on nearby enemies
• While the sun is blotted out, Sunhallowed arrows do nothing. Reading either Elder Scroll (Sun or Blood) restores the sun immediately
• Do not fire Sunhallowed arrows at the sun inside a city — the rays hit townspeople

The conversation that permanently locks out Serana's cure

Curing Serana is the Dawnguard side's signature reward, and an ordinary mid-questline chat can close it off for good.

1. After Serana brings her Elder Scroll to Fort Dawnguard, the topic "Have you always been a vampire?" leads to an option asking whether she has considered a cure. Ask it there and she calls her condition a gift and refuses to discuss it again — including after Harkon dies
2. The working sequence is: finish Kindred Judgment, leave Harkon's room, make sure you are not a vampire, then ask her about a cure. Avoid the self-centered reply and she leaves for Falion and returns human after three days
3. The dialogue only appears while she is actively following you

She is also essential and can never be killed. Her home base follows your allegiance — Fort Dawnguard or Volkihar Keep, and Valerica's study once Beyond Death is done — and after the campaign she often roams Skyrim, where you can re-recruit her wherever you run into her. Curing her has a price, though: a mortal Serana can no longer make Bloodcursed arrows or turn you into a Vampire Lord. She does stop being undead, so your healing magic works on her. She will not marry you either way.

Vampire Lord perks don't come from leveling

Worth knowing before you commit: character levels give you zero Vampire Lord perks. Progress comes only from kills landed in Vampire Lord form with Vampiric Drain or a power bite.

• The first perk costs 5 kills, the next 7, then 9 — two more each time. All 11 perks require 165 kills total
• Draugr and vampires count. Skeletons, spirits, dragon priests, constructs and summons do not, and neither do birds, chickens, fish, foxes or rabbits
• In the form you are locked to third person, cannot open menus or the map, cannot pick up items or talk — though levers and pull chains still work

Treat the Vampire Lord as a 165-kill investment, not an instant power spike. For occasional use, the Dawnguard's crossbow upgrades are the cheaper purchase.

Achievements are not skewed toward either side

UESP's Dawnguard faction page says three achievements (80 points); the Volkihar page says two (60 points). That is not a vampire penalty. The gap is Awakening (20 points), which sits before the branch — the Volkihar page simply starts counting at Bloodline. Since every player completes Awakening, both sides get all three: Awakening, Beyond Death and Kindred Judgement. Side-neutral achievements such as Lost to the Ages exist on top of that, so achievements are no reason to pick a side.

Summary

• The split lasts two quests; Seeking Disclosure onward is identical, and so is the ending
• Starts at level 10. A Rift bounty blocks it; lycanthropy or a history of attacking Vigilants can make the faction hostile
• The real difference is permanent perks: four master trainers and six crossbow upgrades versus the Vampire Lord tree and gear that scales it
• Reversibility is one-sided. Dawnguard players can still become Vampire Lords; Volkihar players are Dawnguard enemies forever, cure or no cure, and clan membership is offered exactly once
• Auriel's Bow, both arrow types and Harkon's Sword come either way — but Harkon's Sword only works for a vampire
• Serana's cure is Dawnguard-only and easy to lock out by asking about it too early; curing her ends Bloodcursed arrows
• Vampire Lord perks cost 165 form kills for the full tree

Sources: UESP Dawnguard Quests for structure, Dawnguard (quest) for start conditions, Bloodline for the choice, Dawnguard (faction) and Volkihar Vampire Clan for benefits, Kindred Judgment for endgame rewards, Serana, Auriel's Bow, Vampire Lord, and Special Edition Patch.