Rebel Wolves has responded directly to a wave of PC performance complaints tied to its debut RPG, offering fixes for some issues and acknowledging that others are still being worked on.
The response comes just days after "The Blood of Dawnwalker" launched to a generally warm critical reception, one that has been somewhat overshadowed by technical frustration from PC players.
'The Blood of Dawnwalker' PC Problems
"The Blood of Dawnwalker" launched to "Mostly Positive" reviews on Steam and largely favorable coverage from critics, currently sitting at 84 on Metacritic for its PC version and holding 75 percent positive reviews out of more than 1,400 ratings on Steam.
Despite those solid numbers, a noticeable chunk of the negative feedback centers specifically on performance, with players reporting stuttering, crashes, and general instability that fall short of what the game's recommended PC specs should deliver.
Community reaction has been vocal. One Reddit thread bluntly stated that "optimization is way beyond trash," while other players noted that most of the negative reviews on Steam trace back to performance concerns rather than complaints about the story or gameplay itself.
Several players also expressed disappointment over the game's current lack of HDR support on PC.
Devs Address 'The Blood of Dawnwalker' Issues
Rebel Wolves responded through the game's official X account, listing four of the most commonly reported issues alongside current solutions where available.
According to the developer's post, players experiencing stuttering in Windowed or Borderless mode should try switching to Full Screen instead.
On the other hand, players hitting crashes during shader compilation should update their BIOS, which the studio linked directly as a fix.
For the remaining two issues, missing button remapping support for PS5 controllers and 'sprinting' stopping when changing directions on a gamepad, Rebel Wolves confirmed both are still being actively worked on.
In the meantime, the studio suggested lowering controller sensitivity from 1 to 0.8 within the game's console settings as a temporary workaround for the sprinting issue specifically. The shader compilation crash reportedly stems from outdated BIOS versions on Intel Core CPUs conflicting with the game's Oodle and Unreal Engine components, an issue Intel has since identified on its end as well.
Known Issues – fixes & workarounds (03/09/2026)
— Dawnwalker (@DawnwalkerGame) September 3, 2026
🔸 Game stuttering when in Windowed / Borderless mode – please try launching the game in Full Screen
🔸 Game crashing on compiling shaders – please update your BIOS, that should fix it https://t.co/8Bk08Ns4FD
🔸 Missing option of…
'The Blood of Dawnwalker' Workarounds for PC
Beyond Rebel Wolves' official statement, community troubleshooting has uncovered a few additional steps some players have found helpful.
Clearing a corrupted PSO shader cache stored in the AppData folder has resolved startup crashes for some users, and forcing the game to run under DirectX 12 through Steam's launch options has also worked as a fix for certain DirectX 12 initialization failures. Verifying game file integrity through Steam and updating to the latest GPU drivers remain standard first steps recommended for players running into instability as well.
Rebel Wolves released its first official post-launch patch for "The Blood of Dawnwalker" shortly after acknowledging these issues, focused specifically on PC input adjustments around controller dead zones and sprinting.
The studio has confirmed more updates are on the way as it continues gathering player feedback, though it has not given a specific timeline for when the remaining controller mapping and sprinting fixes will be fully resolved.
