How quickly can you finish the Dawnguard quest line?

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I like some aspects of Dawnguard (such as the added weapons and creatures), but I hate others (I.e. constant vampire attacks killing traders and quest givers).

So with a view to keeping the positives and stopping the negatives, in my current play through I want to just get the quest line over with as quickly as I can (joining the Dawnguard) to stop the vampire attacks.

Does anyone have any idea how quickly this could be done? I have played through the quest line once before but took my time with it, so I have no idea how long it would take if I tried to do it as quickly as possible.

For what it's worth I'm at level 56 right now and have outrageously overpowered weapons and armour due to maxed out smithing and alchemy (when wearing my buffed armour/jewellery my Daedric sword has 546 damage plus 76 fire damage and 76 shock damage...). My point being I don't expect any of the quest line itself to be particularly challenging, which should shorten the process.
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
The fastest I've ever done it is in about 2 days of constant play (about 16 hours). Most of it (if you fast travel and don't do side-quests that aren't required) can be done relatively quickly. The longest part was the Hidden Vale section (for me).

You do know that you'll still get Vampire attacks and encounters after you eliminate Harkon though, yes (at least that has always been my experience)? It's kind of like, you'll still encounter dragons occasionally even after you defeat Alduin.
 

Daelon DuLac

How do you backstab a Dragon?
16 hours!? Wow that's a lot longer than I thought.

Yep I know you'll still get vampire attacks but with massively reduced frequency
You could probably reduce it to 4 or 5 hours if you skipped eating, bathroom breaks, dialogue, fast traveled, knew your exact routes and avoided both encounters and collecting anything (i.e. the lost books, treasure, etc...), in other words do a straight shot. It would still easily take you over an hour to make it through the hidden vale as you just can't avoid all those fallmer. Between the Soul Cairn and the Hidden Vale, it takes a lot of time to get through everything.
 

The Honorable Gidian Diva of Sass

Sahrot Vahlok Spaan. Bahnahgaar. Minion #88!
Staff member
The Souls Cairn will absolutely destroy your time of you don't know how to navigate it. That place ate up at least 8 hours in and of itself on my first playthrough purely because I got turned around.

Honestly though how fast you can clear it depends on you. I cleared it in about a day on a low difficulty and know the quests well enough to navigate everything.
 

Sah

Well-Known Member
how fast you finish Dawnguard depends on how far you have gotten in the Main quest Line.................if you DON'T have the scroll Elder Scroll witch is a essential part of Dawnguard also...you will also have to do all the quests....................so like it or not you have to do half the main quest line first

if you have done the main quest line............dawnguard can be fast, but like Sir Gidian :) said The Souls Cairn will absolutely destroy your time of you don't know how to navigate it


PS.............if you use a PC there is a mod called A Matter of Time witch lets you set default starting levels for quests............so you could set you first vampire attack to start at level 100 (max) you can do the same for dragonborn........like start it after the main quest line ext
 
Thanks for the replies all.

Shortly after I made this thread I started and completed the main questline in about 4 hours. This involved running through the main quests (no side quests), not picking up any loot or visiting any towns or doing basically anything else between quests (other than a brief sojourn to Morthal to have vampirism cured by Falion....doh!).

Very good point above regarding whether or not you have acquired the first elder scroll, which I had, so that obviously sped things up a lot.

I actually didn't have much difficulty getting around the soul cairn. The forgotten vale was a lot more time consuming I found!

Killing Harkon was hilariously easy. I crouched behind him when he was speaking to Serana just before the final battle and did a sneak power attack with my aforementioned Daedric sword, taking about 75% of his health straight away!
 
For what it's worth I should say that I actually really enjoyed the questline, I had forgotten how good it was. Aside from the incessant vampire attacks, Dawnguard really is a great DLC.
 

DrunkenMage

Intoxicated Arch-Mage
Rather quickly if I want to rush it. I visit all the needed locations (or close to them) at low level and fast travel throughout the questline. I also get the Elder Scroll (Dragon) in about two minutes using a bucket to break into the Tower Mzark Lift.

Soul Cairn isn't too bad as I know my way around, and if I'm playing as a magic user I'll grab the conjured horse on my way to kill the second or third Keeper.

Forgotten Vale is fairly alright, though I do hate Darkfall Cave I think it is? Mostly due to the fact Falmer and their pets irritate me with their poisons and ice magic slowing me.
 

LotusEater

I brake for blue butterflies
I can whip through pretty quick as well. I prefer to go ahead and clear out Blackreach as well for Return to Roots quest so that adds a couple hours. About 7-8 hours all included. 9 or 10 hrs if I mine all the ore and find all the chests, which I usually do. Blackreach has gobs and gobs of loot. So does Soul Cairn and Forgotten Vale for that matter. I can never just run through.
 
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I can whip through pretty quick as well. I prefer to go ahead and clear out Blackreach as well for Return to Roots quest so that adds a couple hours. About 7-8 hours all included. 9 or 10 hrs if I mine all the ore and find all the chests, which I usually do. Blackreach has gobs and gobs of loot. So does Soul Cairn and Forgotten Vale for that matter. I can never just run through.

Oh yeah I hear you on that, I could never rush through Blackreach, it's probably my favourite location in the game. In fact I plan to return to the forgotten vale and soul cairn as well to have a proper wander around
 

TheNatural

Active Member
Completing the questline does not decrease the frequency of vampire attacks. You just get less attacks with master vampires and more with blooded, if I recall correctly.

I'm not sure why so many people want to rush through questlines, I very rarely use fast travel and actually enjoy the Dawnguard questline for the most part. I mean, sure I blaze through the falmer bits and don't explore every nook and cranny anymore, but I still like getting all of the rare/unique items to fill out my trophy rooms in my player homes.

Fast travelling and just whipping through stuff doesn't really seem appealing to me.

That being said I am usually tempted to get in and out of solstheim as fast as possible, but I always end up spending too much time there. If it weren't for Neloth I would probably skip it altogether.
 
Completing the questline does not decrease the frequency of vampire attacks. You just get less attacks with master vampires and more with blooded, if I recall correctly.

Are you sure about that? UESP says:

"Random encounters with members from the opposing faction in hold capitals and the wilderness will be less frequent. Random vampire attacks will only occur during an eclipse."

Since I defeated Harkon I've played probably 5-6 hours, including lots of fast travelling between towns, and have only had one vampire attack, which sure enough was just after I used auriels bow to block out the sun.

In my previous play through I don't recall a single vampire attack after finishing the quest line.
 
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TheNatural

Active Member
On my last couple of playthroughs I actually forgot about the main quest after I gained the ability to learn shouts. It's embarrassing actually because I really like the last few legs of the quests but I get distracted.

I am hell-bent this time on collecting everything, all of the unique vanilla/DG/DB items, all of the dragon priest masks, all of the claws, and all of the daedric artifacts. It's always been my goal but I've never gotten close :sadface:
 

Dabiene Caristiana

Your friendly neighborhood weirdo
So I take it that everyone is agreeing that doing the quest knowing little to nothing about it takes the average person about 8-12 hours? Correct?


From my experience, it took me about... 20 hours fresh off the boat. No guides, (except the freaking vale after wandering around mindlessly for about an HOUR) and very little fast travel. I also took my time listening to conversations and dialogue.

Speed run... 8-10 hours. Though this depends on several factors already mentioned:

Character Level
Locations discovered for fast travel
Main quest done, or at least to the point of the first scroll obtained
Equipment + any items such as potions, boosts, etc for battles
Play style - This does believe it or not contribute to the time spent. My speed runs would be longer if I was a sniper by just a little than say a brute warrior or a very powerful mage.

... That pretty much sums it up.

Oh, and also how fast you can kill swimming, duo, hell raising dragons that want to have you over for an icy swim party. ;) Though they took me like 5-10 minutes to kill tops.
 

Mighty Pecan Pie

The secret American
So I take it that everyone is agreeing that doing the quest knowing little to nothing about it takes the average person about 8-12 hours? Correct?


From my experience, it took me about... 20 hours fresh off the boat. No guides, (except the freaking vale after wandering around mindlessly for about an HOUR) and very little fast travel. I also took my time listening to conversations and dialogue.

Speed run... 8-10 hours. Though this depends on several factors already mentioned:

Character Level
Locations discovered for fast travel
Main quest done, or at least to the point of the first scroll obtained
Equipment + any items such as potions, boosts, etc for battles
Play style - This does believe it or not contribute to the time spent. My speed runs would be longer if I was a sniper by just a little than say a brute warrior or a very powerful mage.

... That pretty much sums it up.

Oh, and also how fast you can kill swimming, duo, hell raising dragons that want to have you over for an icy swim party. ;) Though they took me like 5-10 minutes to kill tops.

The Vale is awesome though..
 

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