The real cost
Every guide about Daggerfall's diseases frames them as a build choice. Curse yourself for the stat block, keep the power, move on. That framing is wrong, and if you adopt it you will lose a character you thought you were improving.
The reason is a single mechanic that almost nobody mentions until it has already happened to them: becoming a vampire resets all of your legal reputation and revokes every guild membership you hold. Not your rank with one guild. All of them, at once, on the spot.
Infection is permanent after seventy-two in-game hours, and the moment it sticks your reputation is gone and your guild ranks are stripped. If you have spent forty hours building a Fighters Guild career so you could walk into Sentinel with a good rank, one unlucky fight in a crypt at level eleven undoes all of it.
What that means in practice
Any guild can be rejoined, but only after 28 days have passed. The Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood cannot be rejoined at all. Lose those two and that character is permanently locked out of the best passive income and the best contract work in the game.
So there are exactly three honest positions, and you should pick one before you go dungeon diving:
- Cure immediately. Carrying a cure potion or a cure spell, and treating any vampire bite as an emergency.
- Commit deliberately. Take the curse on purpose, at a level where losing the guild career no longer hurts, and play a vampire for the rest of the run.
- Ignore it and lose. Which is what happens to most players, and they usually do not notice until they try to sell loot.
Our guild guide is worth reading before you decide, because the guild economy is what vampirism actually attacks. Vampirism is not balanced against a stat bonus. It is balanced against your place in Iliac Bay society.
How infection actually works
Both curses use the same delivery mechanism. You do not get vampirism from a swamp, a Daedra shrine or a bad dream in your sleep. You get it from being injured by the creature that carries it, and the roll happens on the injury, not on the kill.
The numbers
- 1.22% chance per injury from a Vampire or a Vampire Ancient.
- 1.22% chance per injury from a werewolf or a wereboar.
- Level 1 characters are immune. You cannot be infected at all at level one.
- Disease resistance does nothing. No amount of Resist Disease changes the roll.
- Only the opposing curse grants true immunity. Lycanthropes cannot become vampires. Vampires cannot become lycanthropes.
One and twenty-two percent per hit sounds alarming, and it is, but it is also compounded by how vampires actually fight. A vampire does not nibble. A vampire hits you repeatedly while you are slowed, blinded, or charmed. One encounter can easily be four or five injuries. Treat any vampire fight as five infection rolls, not one.
Never fight a Vampire or a Vampire Ancient at the same time as a werewolf. You cannot become both, and stacking the two encounter types in one barrow is how players end up with a save they cannot explain.
Where vampires and lycanthropes actually are
Lycanthropes appear in the wild from very early on, which is why plenty of low-level characters catch the curse by accident. Vampires are gated much harder: they only begin spawning in dungeons from character level 9. Below that you are functionally safe from vampirism no matter how hard you push.
That gate is the reason vampirism is the more common deliberate curse and lycanthropy is the more common accident. If you are below level nine, you can plan around the curse. Above it, you should already have a cure on you. Our dungeon guide covers which floors concentrate vampires so you can route around them.
The 72-hour cure window
There is a grace period after infection and it is the only thing standing between a bad fight and a ruined character. You have 72 hours after infection to be cured by a potion, a spell, or a temple healer. After that window closes, the curse is permanent for that character and no amount of gold changes it.
What the cure removes
A cure is total. It strips the bonuses, it strips the bloodline or the shape, and it strips every obligation attached to the curse: the feeding clock for vampires, the fifteen-day kill clock for lycanthropes, the forced moon transformation, the reputation penalty and the guild revocation. There is no partial cure anywhere in the game.
A temple healer will cure you for free within the window, which means the seventy-two hours are a real emergency window and not a countdown to an expensive purchase. Find the nearest temple, not the nearest potion seller.
Three ways to spend the window
- Temple healer. The simplest. Walk in, ask, cured. Cost is travel time.
- Cure potion. Reliable if you already carry one. Worth banking before level nine.
- Cure spell. The cheapest long-term answer if you build one. Cure Disease is a spell effect, not a potion effect, so this lives in your spellmaking plan.
Note what is not in that list: there is no way to cure yourself in the field with a generic disease remedy at level one confidence. Build the spell or carry the bottle.
Vampirism: what you gain
Read the vampirism bonus list carefully, because it is enormous, and then read the loss list in the next section, because it is worse.
| Bonus | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All attributes except Intelligence | +20 | Strength, Speed, Agility, Endurance, Personality, Willpower and Luck all rise by 20. Intelligence is explicitly excluded. |
| Climbing | +30 | Stacks on top of the attribute gains. |
| Critical Strike | +30 | Applies to your weapon attacks in either form. |
| Hand-to-Hand | +30 | Unarmed combat becomes a real option. |
| Jumping | +30 | Not a jump spell. An attribute bonus. |
| Running | +30 | Matters on the long road between towns. |
| Stealth | +30 | The bonus that makes night travel genuinely quiet. |
| Levitate | Spell | A free levitation spell, always available. |
| Calm Humanoid | Spell | Affects humanoids only. |
| Charm Mortal | Spell | Your persuasion tool, built in. |
| Spell cost | One quarter | All of your spells cost 25% of their normal spell points. This is the strongest single line on the table. |
Why the spell cost line changes everything
Twenty free attributes are impressive. Spells costing a quarter of normal is a different game entirely. A spell that normally drains a meaningful chunk of your spell pool costs almost nothing, which means you can chain effects in fights that would drain a normal caster dry.
That is why the vampires who stay vampires in this game tend to be built around spells, and why the most painful cure is giving up the bloodline bonus that matches your class. If you are a spellcaster, the loss is real. Plan for it.
Vampirism: what it takes
This is where the arithmetic turns hostile. None of these are flavour penalties. Every one of them will end a run.
| Penalty | Rule | Practical effect |
|---|---|---|
| Sunlight damage | 12 damage every 4 in-game minutes | About twenty seconds of real time per tick, in daylight or a holy place. Daylight travel is a timer, not a style choice. |
| Feeding | Must feed every 24 hours | Miss it and you cannot use the rest menu at all. No resting means no spell or attribute recovery. |
| Fast travel | Not during the day | You walk half the Iliac Bay. Plan your routes around nightfall. |
| Legal reputation | All of it resets | Every legal faction you had built standing with starts over at zero. |
| Guild ranks | All revoked, 28-day rejoin | Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood can never be rejoined. |
The feeding rule deserves its own paragraph
Losing the rest menu is the penalty that quietly ruins a vampire character. Resting is how you recover spell points and fix attribute damage. Take a day of dungeon work without feeding and you arrive at the next town unable to rest, unable to heal properly, and increasingly likely to be killed by something ordinary.
Keep feeding on a schedule you can see. Most players solve this by treating feeding as part of the rest ritual, not as a separate chore, which is the only approach that survives a long play session.
No iron immunity
Lycanthropes gain immunity to iron and steel. Vampires do not. A silver sword hurts you exactly as much as it hurts anyone else, and most humanoid guards are armed with it. Do not carry the same confidence into a vampire build that the werewolf fantasy invites.
The nine bloodlines
When you turn, you wake in a random crypt and take the bloodline of that region. Nine exist. Each one adds a specific spell effect on top of the standard vampire package.
| Bloodline | Granted effect | Worth it for |
|---|---|---|
| Anthotis | +20 Intelligence, plus the standard vampire spell | Pure spellcasters. The strongest bloodline for magic, and the most punishing to lose. |
| Garlythi | Shield | Tanking and dungeon survivability. |
| Haarvenu | Ice Storm and Wildfire | Two-element damage from one bloodline. Excellent crowd clear. |
| Khulari | Paralysis | Controlling fights you cannot win cleanly. |
| Lyrezi | Invisibility and Silence | The default bloodline. Invisibility plus Silence is the best theft and escape kit in the game. |
| Montalion | Free Action | Armour-penalty relief and dodging heavy attacks. |
| Selenu | Resist Cold, Fire and Shock | Broad elemental coverage for elemental content. |
| Thrafey | Heal | Self-sufficiency on long dungeoning runs. |
| Vraseth | Nimbleness | Thieves and anyone moving through hostile space. |
Lyrezi is what most players actually get
If you did not choose your crypt, you almost certainly have Lyrezi. Invisibility and Silence on a character that already has +30 Stealth and +20 to nearly every attribute is a genuinely exceptional thief. It is also the bloodline you will keep longest, because most players never think to hunt for a better one.
Curing an Anthotis vampire permanently subtracts 20 Intelligence. This is not a bug report from a modder; it is verified behaviour. If your character is a Thalmor-adjacent intelligence build and your curse did not cure cleanly, that is why your spell costs went up.
Bethesda on bloodlines
Bloodlines were intended as a faction system. Regional bloodlines were supposed to shape how a vampire was regarded, and in practice they do almost nothing. Bethesda has stated publicly that the bloodline system does not work as originally intended and that it was never fixed. So when you read a guide that tells you to pick a crypt for political reasons, be aware that the game is not listening.
Lycanthropy: werewolf and wereboar
Lycanthropy has two forms and they are identical apart from the model on screen. A werewolf and a wereboar have the same abilities, the same bonuses and the same penalties. The difference is cosmetic, and choosing a shape is a matter of taste rather than tactics.
The bonus package
- +40 Strength, Speed, Agility and Endurance. These cap at 100, and the bonus applies in human form too. You are not weaker between moons.
- +30 to Hand-to-Hand, Climbing, Running, Stealth, Swimming, Jumping and Critical Strike.
- Immunity to all diseases. Including vampirism and lycanthropy itself.
- Immunity to iron and steel weapons in were-form. That covers most humanoids and guards.
That immunity is the reason the werewolf fantasy in Daggerfall feels good. Most of Iliac Bay is guarded by iron-armoured infantry, and in were-form you are effectively unkillable by them. Two caveats, both important:
- It does not cover spells. A fireball hurts a werewolf exactly as much as it hurts a human.
- It does not cover hand-to-hand. Being punched by an unarmoured humanoid still lands.
The four attributes cap at 100
That cap is why late-game lycanthropy stops feeling like a power spike and starts feeling like a rounding error. If you entered were-form with Endurance 60, you leave with 100 and never gain from it again. Pushing those four attributes before infection is worth more than pushing them after.
The lycanthrope's obligations
The werewolf gives you the best melee package in the game and then charges you for it in ways that shape your entire calendar.
| Vampirism | Lycanthropy | |
|---|---|---|
| Infection chance | 1.22% per injury | 1.22% per injury |
| Cure window | 72 hours | 72 hours |
| Level 1 | Immune | Immune |
| Disease immunity | No | All diseases |
| Iron and steel | No immunity | Immune in were-form |
| Spell cost | One quarter of normal | Unchanged |
| Reputation | Reset to zero | Unaffected |
| Guild ranks | Revoked | Unaffected |
| Mandatory kill | Feed every 24 hours | Kill an innocent every 15 days |
| Deadline penalty | Rest menu unusable | Maximum health decays to 4 HP |
| Form control | Always human, hungry for blood | Forced were-form every full moon |
Kill an innocent every fifteen days
This is the cruellest mechanic in the game and it is not optional once you are a lycanthrope. Fifteen in-game days passes and you must kill an innocent. Miss it and your maximum health decays to 4 HP. Not a percentage. Four hit points.
That is effectively a death sentence outside town, and it is the single strongest argument for curing. Most players who keep the curse do so by killing regularly on a schedule, which turns a horror curse into a recurring chore with a body count.
The full moon takes your day
On every full moon you are forced into were-form for the whole day. You do not get a warning and you do not get a vote. The one saving grace is that this does not trigger during fast travel, so you can skip a moon if you planned ahead.
Were-form is a social blackout
This is the part that breaks save files and it is worth stating plainly. In were-form:
- Towns are empty. You cannot buy, sell, or talk to anyone.
- You cannot open your inventory or pick up items.
- Receiving a quest item while in were-form crashes the game.
- Crimes committed in were-form are not attributed to you.
Do not accept a quest, complete a delivery, or pick up anything while shifted. The crash from receiving a quest item in were-form is a verified hard crash, and it is the fastest way to lose an afternoon of progress to a moon you did not track.
Because crimes in were-form are not attributed to you, a werewolf can walk through a town being genuinely hostile to everyone without generating a bounty. That immunity is arguably the most useful and most broken thing about the form.
Hircine's Ring
Hircine's Ring is the best item in Daggerfall for a lycanthrope and a complete waste of everyone else's time. It comes out of Hircine's own quest chain, and Hircine can be summoned year-round at any indoor witch coven. His nominal summoning day is the 5th of Mid Year, but the coven route means you are never waiting for a seasonal window.
- Grants
- All lycanthropy benefits, without the curse.
- Removes
- The compulsion to kill an innocent every 15 days, and the forced full moon transformation.
- Enables
- Unlimited shapeshifting. You are not restricted to the moon cycle.
- Requires
- Already being a lycanthrope. For any other character it does nothing whatsoever.
- Summoning
- Any indoor witch coven, year-round. Glenmoril is the only coven that can summon him.
Do not start Hircine's quest chain speculatively. It is a long chain for a character-specific payoff. The efficient order is: get bitten, then go looking for Glenmoril, then decide whether you want the ring or the cure.
Cures, covens and the Universal Cure
Witch covens are the quiet infrastructure under both curse systems. They are a minor faction, they will summon Daedra for you if you rank high enough, and they will make a Universal Cure that clears vampirism and lycanthropy at the same time. The Glenmoril coven is the only one that can summon Hircine.
Two quest cures, one potion cure
- Cure for Vampirism. Starts from a vampire hunter's letter. This is the route that keeps your reputation intact, because you finish the quest properly.
- A Special Mixture. Made by witch covens, including Glenmoril. Drinking it cures you immediately, but it fails the quest and costs you reputation.
The potion cure is faster and the quest cure is cleaner. If reputation matters to your character, do the quest. If you are twenty hours into a throwaway dungeon run and just want to be a normal person again, drink the mixture and accept the hit.
Lycanthropy cures
The werewolf hunter letter chain is the proper route: take a blood sample, then infect the last of a hereditary lycanthrope family. Glenmoril's A Special Mixture is the alternative. Both work. Only one of them tells the story correctly.
Which cure should you actually take?
Cure, unless you have a specific plan. The bonuses are real but they are replaceable with levels, spells and items. The guild ranks are not replaceable on any timescale you care about. If your character build still matters to you, the curse is a bad trade for the free stat block.
Exploits and verified quirks
Two lycanthrope behaviours are reliably reported as exploits. Both are exploits of the form state machine, not secrets, and both are labelled as such here.
Repeated looting while shifted
Failing to open a pile while in were-form resets the pile. That means you can re-loot the same pile repeatedly and receive more gold each time. It is a real duplication loop and it works because the reset is triggered by the failure state rather than the pickup.
Skill-boosting item conversion
Shifting into were-form while holding an item that temporarily boosts a skill converts that temporary boost into a real skill increase. You can repeat the process indefinitely, which makes permanent skill raises effectively farmable.
These are exploits, not features. If you are playing a shared or competitive character, expect them to be patched out, and do not build a character whose only attribute is a converted skill.
The quirk that catches people
A lycanthrope can still be infected by vampirism. You will get the dream sequence and the warning, but you do not actually become a vampire. The 1.22% roll still fires and still fails, because lycanthropy blocks the outcome rather than the attempt.
The unfinished system, honestly
Beyond the bloodlines, the deeper truth is that neither curse is finished work. Bloodlines do not function as a faction system and Bethesda has said so. Several of the penalties are punishing enough to end a character while several of the bonuses scale so hard late in a run that they trivialize combat. Daggerfall shipped in 1996 with these systems half-wired, and the honest way to play them is to decide your plan before you get bitten rather than reacting afterwards.
Curse questions
How do I get rid of vampirism or lycanthropy?+
You have 72 hours after infection to be cured by a potion, a spell, or a temple healer. After that the curse is permanent for that character. Inside the window you can also complete the proper quest: Cure for Vampirism from a vampire hunter's letter, or the werewolf hunter letter chain for lycanthropy. Witch covens can brew a Universal Cure that clears both curses at once.
Does vampirism ruin my character?+
Not the character, but the social world. Becoming a vampire resets all legal reputation and revokes every guild membership. Guilds can only be rejoined after 28 days, and the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood can never be rejoined. You also take 12 damage every four in-game minutes in sunlight or holy places, must feed every 24 hours or lose the rest menu entirely, and cannot initiate fast travel during the day.
What are the nine bloodlines, and which do I get by default?+
Anthotis, Garlythi, Haarvenu, Khulari, Lyrezi, Montalion, Selenu, Thrafey and Vraseth. You take the bloodline of the region whose crypt you wake up in. Lyrezi is the default and grants Invisibility and Silence. Anthotis is the strongest for a spellcaster because it adds 20 Intelligence, and it is also the one that permanently costs you 20 Intelligence if you are cured of it.
Is Hircine's Ring worth getting?+
Only if you are already a lycanthrope, and then it is the best item in the game for that character. It grants every lycanthropy benefit, removes the compulsion to kill an innocent every 15 days, removes the forced full moon transformation, and allows unlimited shapeshifting. For a character who is not a lycanthrope it is completely useless, so do not spend months on Hircine's quest unless the curse has already happened to you.
Still building the character underneath the curse? Read our alchemy guide for the potions worth banking before level nine, and our shopping guide for what a cure potion actually costs you when you are broke in Sentinel.
Make the choice before it chooses you
Daggerfall is free to play in your browser, no download and no install. Load a save, check whether you can reach a temple in one day, and bank a cure before you walk into a level twelve crypt.