The Blood of Dawnwalker Withering Away Quest Guide

To complete Withering Away in The Blood of Dawnwalker, take the herbs from Anca, return to Coen’s home when prompted, then use hot water and add three spoonfuls of herbs to make the medicine. The quest is time-sensitive, so solve its core objective before spending segments on optional village errands. This page keeps the exact recipe at the top and explains the optional Anca branch below.

Start Withering Away and reach Anca

Withering Away starts automatically after All Good Things. Complete the opening chores at Coen’s house until Pieter sends you for Esme’s medicine, then follow the objective to Anca’s home. Inspect the partly watered vegetable patch and empty water barrel with Focus Mode, then take the path beside the house to find Anca at the river. Speak with her and accompany her home to obtain the herbs and written recipe.

The important choice is time, not a perfect line of dialogue. The prologue places many interesting quests in and around Laslea Glen, yet this objective has a clock marker and should stay near the top of the route. If you need the surrounding order, return to The Blood of Dawnwalker quests and quest order before taking a long detour.

The medicine answer: hot water and three herbs

When you return home and help Pieter prepare the remedy, choose hot water. Then choose three spoonfuls of herbs. Those are the two selections needed for Anca’s recipe, and they are the direct answer to the “how many spoonfuls of herbs?” search question.

Do not guess based on a remembered conversation if the game presents the choice after several other activities. The right sequence is hot water first, then three spoonfuls. If a future update changes the menu wording, follow the number shown in the live quest or recipe prompt and report the change with a screenshot to [email protected].

Should you stay for Page-Turner?

After receiving the herbs, you can choose to remain with Anca for the optional Page-Turner content. It can be worthwhile for players who value the interaction and relationship context, but it costs an additional time segment. It is not required to cure Esme or finish the central Withering Away path.

If you are following a strict prologue plan, only take Page-Turner if you deliberately reserve that segment. Choosing to leave lets you protect other activities in the afternoon or evening. The time-system guide explains why spending a visible segment is a meaningful choice rather than an automatic failure.

The herb-saving section in Page-Turner

If you stay with Anca during Page-Turner, use Coen’s focus when the scene asks you to save the drying herbs. The supplied launch research identifies 11 dried herbs hanging from the ceiling; together with the herbs already received, this makes 12 in the inventory before you speak with Anca again. That detail can change the scene’s dialogue, but it is separate from the three-spoonful medicine answer.

Do not confuse these two numbers. Eleven is the count to collect in the optional drying-herb interaction; three is the amount to put into Esme’s medicine. Players often combine them because both occur in the same quest chain, but they answer different prompts.

Fit the quest into the prologue route

A common efficient route places Withering Away after early nearby tasks such as Live Bait and Dead Drop, then returns to the medicine step around noon. This arrangement lets you gather leads close to Laslea Glen without ignoring the quest’s clock. It is a recommendation, not a claim that every other choice ruins the story.

When you leave Anca’s house, decide whether your next priority is a nearby optional quest, an urgent return, or a later route through the forest and village. Do not accept an hourglass action merely because it is close. Your tracker should be the final authority for the segment cost in the build you are playing.

If you want another prologue story before the cutoff, compare the one-segment Deep Down and On the Run routes in the quest database. The later Smoke and Ashes walkthrough covers the main transition out of Laslea rather than an optional detour before the medicine.

Why this choice matters

The quest is the game’s first clear demonstration that time is a resource and that Coen cannot solve every local problem. It establishes the family stakes and asks you to decide what receives attention during a crowded part of the prologue. The official game premise makes the same point broadly: each quest moves the family’s remaining time forward, and action or inaction can shape the world.

That does not mean you should make a fear-driven save file. Make the medicine correctly, choose Page-Turner only if it fits your goal, and let other branches reflect the story you want. The beginner guide explains what to do after the immediate pressure is under control.

If the quest seems stuck

First check whether you accepted the herbs from Anca and whether the quest tracker has updated to the return objective. At home, interact with the correct medicine scene instead of searching for a separate crafting bench. If the menu is not available, finish the preceding dialogue and check whether the current time or another mandatory conversation is blocking the next prompt.

Avoid using a guide’s dialogue preference as a prerequisite. The core solution is the herbs, the return, hot water, and three spoonfuls; optional lines and the Page-Turner detour are not required for that result. Save your current branch before testing a different choice if you want to compare outcomes.

Sources and update note

The medicine recipe, Anca’s river location and the one-versus-two-segment choice were reviewed October 10, 2026 against PowerPyx’s Withering Away walkthrough. The wider consequence framework is supported by the official The Blood of Dawnwalker site. This is a comparison of published sources, not a claim of personal gameplay testing; the latest review does not establish a patch-specific test of the optional herb-gathering scene.