Vampire Apocalypse Survival Guide!

Well then, as you may or may not know Dawnguard adds random Master Vampire assualts on cities, villages, and small farms around level 10 (though they may begin earlier). Supposedly, these attacks are like the random dragon attacks, but more lethal especially if there are two Master Vampires attacking the city.

So to make sure you do not end up with an cities, villages, or farms I am attempting to compile a list of ways to prevent this. Feel free to add any other tips!

1. Be very careful of fast travelling. Like dragon attacks, vampire attacks chances increase if you fast travel and arive at NIGHT (7pm - 5am).

2. When entering a city at night, stay around the main gate for a few minutes. Usually the vampires will tend to attack soon after you enter. If you do not wait you increase the chances of the cities populace being killed.

3. Villages and farms are a bit trickier, the vampires appear to spawn outside of the villages/farms, but only when the player is near.

4. When in doubt, lower the difficulty! Although this will also make the NPCs in the village die even faster, usually it is usually worth doing.

5. If you are level 10, or around there, use Flames or any Fire enchanted weapon you may have. Even if you are not a Destruction mage, flames SHOULD prove somewhat useful against these vampires. When combined with novice difficulty this may make the fights shorter and with less causalites.

6. If you have Healing Hands use it on the NPCs that are fighting the Vampires. WARNING: Some NPCs may view Healing Hands as an attack!

I was in dragon bridge when a courier came and have me 5 letters of inheritence from riften at same time.

I think it is safe to say... You don't even have to be in that cell for vampire attacks to happen.

Well in my experience so far (and confirmed with a friend) it seems to be the case. We both had major cities wiped out, and were able to figure out that the vampires come in through the main gate shortly after you arive. If you don't wait around just to make sure, they can come in and slaughter the NPCs and you won't know until you walk outside, or return to the city later.

Like I said, it's a bit more difficult for the smaller cities and isolated farms (The Rift comes to mind) because they will spawn outside of the town, but other than that they're very similar to dragon attacks. We all know that dragons do not attack unless you are in the area.

Then again, that's also why I'm creating this thread so I can get confirmation of things from other people.

Wouldn't it be better to go into cities at night so there's less civilians out in the streets?

Depending on the city, most civilians wander around at night until about 12am. Since I usually frequent Riften, I notice many NPCs (some of which are miscellaneous quest givers) still wandering the streets. I know in Whiterun Belethor, Amren, and a few others tend to roam the streets late at night. If they are leaving the tavern and there is a vampire attack they will also charge towards the vampires (or dragon as the case may be).

does this happen no matter what you do in the expansion? I completed vamp questline, and I have yet to encounter these dudes

From what I have gathered, yes.

You know what they say about npc's..

If they don't kneel on one knee, then they ain't essential

Perhaps, but many of those non-essential npcs can give out Miscellaneous quests!

I think we need more guards >.>

That too! Although a single guard seems to be able to take down a Master Vampire and two Vampire Thralls. The problems seem to occur when TWO Master Vampires show up.

Better NPC AI that makes them run into houses the moment of an attack, and lock the doors, would also help.

Difficulty has no effect on any other NPC, it only affects you.

You take more damage and deal less damage with a higher difficulty, npc's fighting each other is unaffected.

Well seeing as you may "accidentally" hit some other NPCs during the fight, the chance is still there that they can die faster.

Few restoration spells can help NPCs a lot

Thanks for the tip!

Thank god I made a back up save. I hope my world hasn't been massacred. Bethesda needs to get rid of this or make a one time thing.

Your world shouldn't be massacared unless you were in the specific cell and ignored/did not see the Master Vampires assault your city.

The thing is, I should not have to worry about doing all this stuff every time I enter a city. From lvl 10 on I get to worry every time I fast travel or walk to a city about dragons, vampires or both killing the population....yay? But thanks i'll try these out .

If Bethesda didn't [censored] up their own designs so much people wouldn't have to tip toe around poor game mechanics, or have ghost towns. They should have a random generator for npcs that make a new one when one is killed. That way you don't end up not being able to sell anything. That, and they need to make quest givers essential until after the quest.

Well until Bethesda decides to edit some things about it the best we can do is gather information about the attacks.

After selling my copies of the Vampire Apocalypse Survival Guide, I'll be selling garlic to help ward off vampires as well!

Seeing as garlic was lethal to vampires (or at least one) in Oblivion, I don't see why hanging twenty cloves of garlic at the main gates and around the cities wouldn't work!