The Blood of Dawnwalker The Heart Wants What It Wants

Choose Andrei’s Ring for Ocha’s spell in The Blood of Dawnwalker’s The Heart Wants What It Wants quest. Enter the upstairs room of his hideout at night, take the ring, give it to Ocha, release the pigs to distract the guard, and draw the hex beside the window. The successful spell kills Andrei. Afterwards, meet Ocha by the river and choose whether to encourage her to stay in Svartrau or return home.

Quest start, route and important choices

Question	Answer
Start	Ocha in the Altenmarkt tavern, western Svartrau
Related lead	A Mother’s Plea can direct you to her
Recommended entry	Nighttime balcony approach to the hideout
Correct memento	Andrei’s Ring
Other items	Pendant and Cleaver
Reward to look for	Broad Swing Swordmastery Manual
Later decision	Ocha’s plans during the riverside conversation

Treat the quest as two decisions: how to resolve Andrei, then where Ocha goes afterwards. A successful ritual does not settle her future automatically. Keep a save before entering the hideout and another before the riverside conversation so you can revisit either decision separately.

If you are here for the ring answer, the first paragraph is enough to choose the right item. The branch table below explains why the ritual and a direct fight lead to different options. It contains outcome spoilers, so finish the infiltration first if you want the conversation to surprise you.

Enter the hideout and take Andrei’s Ring

Follow the quest marker to Andrei’s building on the northern side of Svartrau. At night, use vampire traversal to reach the upper balcony on the building’s south side. Stay on the upstairs route while searching for the memento; going downstairs can start the direct-combat branch.

Use Focus Mode inside to identify the small chest on the desk. Take the ring and return to Ocha outside. If you collected more than one item, select the ring when handing over the keepsake. The balcony approach and chest are documented in PowerPyx’s walkthrough.

Before leaving the room, check the item name rather than relying on the appearance of a jewellery icon. A pendant is also a personal object, but it is not the correct focus for this spell. That distinction is useful if you searched the room quickly and picked up everything highlighted.

For a controlled ritual route, keep your attention on the upper room and balcony return. Search the current objective before experimenting with the lower floor. If you want to compare a fight, use the earlier save rather than accidentally mixing the combat branch into your intended spell route.

Release the pigs and draw the hex

After receiving the ring, Ocha asks you to create an opening at the correct window. Interact with the pig enclosure gate beside the building. Once the guard moves away, use the quest interaction at the window to draw the symbol.

The ring route ends with Andrei dying from the spell. It is a stealth approach to the objective, not a peaceful debt-forgiveness outcome. PC Gamer’s branch walkthrough records the mementos and the consequences of the successful ritual.

Check three checkpoints if the window interaction is unavailable: Ocha has received the ring, the journal asks for the distraction or hex, and the guard has moved away. Start with the checkpoint that differs in your save. Repeating the enclosure interaction before handing over the item will not substitute for the preceding conversation.

Make the riverside meeting your next target once the hex is complete. Remaining in the hideout to search unrelated rooms can obscure the fact that the quest has already moved to its next stage. Follow the new journal marker before treating the absence of another window interaction as a bug.

Ring, wrong memento or direct combat: compare outcomes

Route	What happens to Andrei	What changes for the final conversation
Correct ring and hex	Dies from the spell	Ocha can stay in the city with Nora or return to the Uriashi settlement
Direct fight downstairs	Dies after the confrontation	Ocha can travel with Nora or return home
Wrong memento	Spell fails; the route moves toward combat	The direct-killing outcome affects her available plans

Our recommendation is the ring route if you want to preserve the city option. It follows Ocha’s plan and leaves a useful teacher connection in Svartrau when paired with the appropriate riverside advice. A player deliberately choosing combat should decide that before going downstairs.

A useful way to evaluate this choice is to separate “how I enter” from “what ending I want.” Night traversal helps reach the item; it does not itself determine Ocha’s future. The memento and the later conversation are the actions that need your attention, so keep those two checkpoints in your save notes.

Decide Ocha’s future at the river

Meet Ocha outside the city and complete the conversation. If you accept the meal, collect three crayfish using Focus Mode to find searchable spots. Then listen to her plans and choose the advice that matches your intended outcome.

To encourage the city or travelling option, PC Gamer lists this sequence:

1. “Do you miss home?”
2. “New things can be exciting, sure.”
3. “Our neighbours helped a bit.”

For a return-home outcome, steer the conversation toward missing home and valuing homemade food. The exact setting of Ocha’s next life also depends on whether Andrei died from the spell or direct combat. Check both parts of your route when comparing results from different saves.

Finish this conversation to obtain the Broad Swing manual. If your next goal is a sword build, connect that reward to the build guide rather than immediately buying more manuals. Decide which ability you need before turning Ocha’s teacher role into a shopping detour.

Quest blockers and patch troubleshooting

Official Hotfix 1.0.4 fixed a blocker in this quest. Its notes do not identify the underlying cause. On an older installation, update first; then compare the current objective with the route above and retry from a save before the stalled transition if necessary.

For a useful bug report, record the platform, build, selected memento, current objective and whether the guard left the window. That distinguishes an item-choice problem from an interaction that failed after the correct prerequisites. Keep the original save while testing a reload.

Sources and correction note

Reviewed October 10, 2026 using the named PC Gamer and PowerPyx guides and the official patch announcement. The decision table and checkpoint advice are editorial synthesis. This revision corrects the mementos, Andrei’s fate and the reward, and replaces the earlier unsupported gameplay-testing claim. See the quest directory and city location anchors for related routes.