Skyrim:Dawnbreaker

Daedric Artifact: Dawnbreaker (0004e4ee) (lore page)
Type	One-handed Sword
Editor ID	DA09Dawnbreaker
Statistics
Damage	12
Damage	12		{{{health}}}
Speed	1
Speed	1	Reach	1
Weight	10	Value	740
Tempering	Ebony Ingot
Tempering	Ebony Ingot	Perk	None (See Bugs)
Enchantment
Burns for 10 points, and when killing undead, a chance to cause a firey [sic] explosion that turns or destroys nearby undead: Meridia's Retribution, 1 pt for 10 secs Fire Damage, 10 pts
Charge/Cost = Uses		5000/16=312

Dawnbreaker

Dawnbreaker is a Daedric artifact given as a reward by Meridia upon the completion of her quest, The Break of Dawn. It can be improved using an ebony ingot. Besides dealing ten points of fire damage on every strike, Dawnbreaker has a chance to create a fiery explosion upon defeating undead. Any undead caught within the blast radius are set on fire and will flee. If you are a vampire, the blast will harm and can potentially kill you. Undead killed by the explosion disintegrate and leave behind an ash pile. Light emanates from Dawnbreaker's cross-guard, an effect that is particularly pronounced in nighttime hours or in dungeons without illumination.

Related Quests

• The Break of Dawn: Find Meridia's Beacon and use its light to cleanse her temple of undead.

Notes

• It is safe to use Dawnbreaker with Serana as a follower despite her vampire status.
• Hitting a civilian with the explosion counts as assault.
• Dawnbreaker makes for a good weapon against vampires. On top of being very weak against fire, they are also considered undead, therefore they are affected by the fiery explosion.
• If you are playing as a vampire when the explosion occurs you will be affected by it and gain the active effect, Meridia's Retribution.
• The fiery explosion has the same visual effect and functions the same way as the Bane of the Undead spell.
• The description is slightly misleading, in that it is not necessary for Dawnbreaker to actually deliver the killing blow to an enemy for the explosion to trigger: as long as the target has been hit by Dawnbreaker within 10 seconds before it dies, it may still explode.
• The explosion effect has a tendency to knock items around, so players should be mindful of this in dungeons, especially with smaller items like rings. At the same time, this can also cause soul gems being used for spellcaster traps to be dislodged from their position, effectively disarming the trap.
• The enchantment of this weapon is increased if you have the Augmented Flames perk. The fire damage is increased to 12 if you have the first perk and 15 if you have both the perks.
• For historical information, see the lore article.
• Hendraheim^CC contains a special holder for this item.
• Dawnbreaker has the highest amount of charge for an enchanted weapon that can be depleted (as some enchanted weapons have a charge that does not deplete, such as Zephyr) in the entire game.

Bugs

• Though it can be tempered with an ebony ingot, it is not classified as an ebony weapon, nor is it classified as any other standard weapon material. Therefore, its upgrades do not benefit from any smithing perks, and, without a Fortify Smithing effect, it can only be tempered to Flawless quality.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Patch addresses this issue. It now benefits from Daedric Smithing.
• Due to a bug in the related quest, you may gain two Dawnbreakers by using an area-of-effect spell to dislodge it from its pedestal. See this page for details.
  • The Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch, version 4.1.3, fixes this bug.