To complete Dog Days, speak to Vannaka in Stormtouched Highlands, read the Ritual of Purification lore beneath the wyrm corpse, defeat the Garou King, and purify his Tainted King's Token at Lougrim's Shrine. The ritual consumes two Ram Horns and three Shocking Plant Bulbs together with the token. Return the Purified King's Token to Vannaka to receive the Garou Highborn's Cloak.
The common stopping point is obtaining the tainted token and assuming the fight finished the quest. It does not. You still need the lore, ritual ingredients, shrine interaction, and final conversation. Keep those stages separate so you can identify what is missing without repeating the entire journey.
Prepare the ritual materials and a Highlands loadout
There is no listed prerequisite quest for Dog Days. Its practical requirements are the Garou King encounter and the purification recipe. You can prepare the two resource types before completing the fight, but you still need the quest's token and the ritual knowledge to finish.
| Required item | Amount | Source or role |
|---|---|---|
| Tainted King's Token | 1 | Obtained from defeating the Garou King |
| Ram Horn | 2 | Collected from Rams |
| Shocking Plant Bulb | 3 | Collected from Wild Lapulis Vines |
| Purified King's Token | 1 | The ritual's result, delivered to Vannaka |
Bring suitable armour, weapons, and food for fighting Garou and the king. Antipoison potions are recommended for the journey, while Air Runes are useful if your character has access to Windstep. The spell supports movement around the Highlands; it does not replace the required token drop or ritual ingredients.
Keep enough inventory room for the materials and token. A preparation list is easiest to check by the exact item names. The bulbs are also called Shock Bulbs in quest guidance, but the required material is the Shocking Plant Bulb dropped by the relevant plant enemy.
Find Vannaka and start the quest
Vannaka stands under a cliff in the eastern part of Stormtouched Highlands. Find him and speak to him about the Garou and their rituals. Finish the conversation so you have the investigation objective before beginning the rest of the route.
He is the starting and finishing contact. Keep his location in mind when planning the route through the region, because you will return after acquiring the token and again after purification. Finding the king first does not remove the need for Vannaka's quest dialogue.
Use the cliff and Highlands location as references rather than looking for a quest giver in an unrelated swamp or vault. Dog Days takes place around the Highlands landmarks: the wyrm corpse, the king's castle, Lougrim's Shrine, and Vannaka's position.
Read the Ritual of Purification beneath the wyrm
Find the lore book beneath the wyrm corpse. The route approaching from the north has fewer enemies in the described walkthrough. A Garou Thane stands near the book and faces away, giving you an opportunity to approach and read without turning the stop into a fight with every enemy in the camp.
The important action is reading the lore, not simply reaching the corpse or walking past the camp. This supplies the ritual knowledge used later at Lougrim's Shrine. Check that you interacted with the book before leaving for the castle.
The shrine's purification interaction requires this earlier reading. If you arrive with the token, horns, and bulbs but cannot complete the intended ritual, revisit whether the lore was read. Gathering more copies of the ingredients is not the first fix for an unread prerequisite interaction.
It is useful to make the lore stop before the king, following the quest's described route. That puts the purification preparation in place before the largest fight and leaves you with a clearer return sequence once the token drops.
Reach the Garou King in the northwestern castle
The Garou King is at the top of the hill inside the castle in the northwest of Stormtouched Highlands. Your objective is the king, rather than every Garou encounter between Vannaka and the castle.
Use Windstep where available to navigate the approach and avoid unnecessary enemies. The route can involve multiple Garou, so do not arrive at the king after exhausting every consumable on fights that were not required for the token. Keep the supplies intended for the actual encounter available until you reach the top.
The king behaves as a Garou Thane. Familiarity with those attacks helps you recognize the encounter's rhythm, but the walkthrough does not establish a special elemental weakness or an exact damage threshold you must reach. Use the equipment you can already operate reliably rather than switching to an unsupported supposedly mandatory weapon.
The arches of the ruined temple offer a described Windstep position from which to avoid the king's attacks. Treat that as a positioning option if your character can use it. The core quest condition remains defeating the king and obtaining his token, regardless of whether you use that position or fight from the ground.
Collect the Tainted King's Token and return to Vannaka
After the Garou King is defeated, collect the Tainted King's Token. Check the item name before leaving. Other loot from the encounter does not stand in for the quest token, and returning with an ordinary Garou drop will not fulfill this stage.
Go back to Vannaka and show him the token. He explains that it is tainted and must be purified. This conversation connects the boss reward to the shrine objective. Do not skip it simply because you already know the ingredient list.
At this point, your next task is preparing the ritual rather than looking for another king. You need the existing token, two Ram Horns, and three Shocking Plant Bulbs. The token's tainted state is intentional at this stage; it is not an indication that the wrong version dropped.
Gather two Ram Horns
Kill Rams in Stormtouched Highlands and collect their horns until you have two. Count the actual items in your inventory rather than assuming a fixed number of Rams will always provide the exact amount you need.
The required material is Ram Horn, not a general animal bone, fur, or a horn from another creature. Use the item's name to check your collection before moving to the shrine. This avoids a long return trip with the right quantity of the wrong material.
If you prepared the horns before the king fight, inspect your inventory after returning to Vannaka. Materials reserved for the quest still need to be available when the ritual runs. An item stored elsewhere is not the same as an ingredient you have brought to the shrine interaction.
Gather three Shocking Plant Bulbs
Defeat Wild Lapulis Vines in the Highlands and collect three Shocking Plant Bulbs. These hostile plants are the relevant enemy source for the ritual's bulbs. Ordinary gathered plants and unrelated herbs do not replace them.
The ritual requires three bulbs alongside two horns. Keep both quantities visible in your preparation check rather than remembering only that you defeated the right enemy types. A partial ingredient collection is enough to recognize the resource, but not enough to complete the ritual.
This is a collection step, not a new purification method. You do not have to use the bulbs on the token yourself in the field or search for an oil-processing workstation. Lougrim's Shrine performs the described conversion once the complete materials and lore condition are satisfied.
Find Lougrim's Shrine and clear its interaction area
After Vannaka tells you to purify the token, head north to Lougrim's Shrine in Stormtouched Highlands. Garou Druids are present at the shrine area in the walkthrough. Deal with them so you can reach and use the scenery interaction.
Confirm that you are at the Highlands shrine for Dog Days. Another similar shrine exists in Whispering Swamp's cave, but it is not the location described for this ritual. A familiar-looking structure in another region does not replace Lougrim's Shrine simply because the shapes match.
Before interacting, check four conditions: you have read the Ritual of Purification lore, you hold the Tainted King's Token, you have two Ram Horns, and you have three Shocking Plant Bulbs. This is the complete ritual preparation, with no additional potion or metal requirement listed.
Perform the purification and check the result
Interact with Lougrim's Shrine and perform the Ritual of Purification. The recipe combines one Tainted King's Token, two Ram Horns, and three Shocking Plant Bulbs to produce one Purified King's Token.
The output is the state change that matters. After the interaction, look for Purified King's Token rather than planning another Garou King kill. The original tainted token is one of the recipe inputs, so the purified version replaces the purpose of that earlier quest item.
If the ritual is unavailable, inspect the specific condition that is missing. An unread book, a missing token, one horn short, and a missing bulb are different problems. Repeating the boss encounter cannot supply ritual knowledge, while collecting more horns cannot make up for the missing token.
If your materials are complete but the expected interaction still does not progress, compare your active quest stage with the last conversation completed. The described path returns to Vannaka after the king and before purification. There is no need to invent another hidden ingredient when an earlier dialogue or lore interaction remains unfinished.
Deliver the purified token and collect the cloak
Return to Vannaka with the Purified King's Token and speak to him. This is the finishing conversation. The reward is the Garou Highborn's Cloak, not simply the items looted from the king.
Check completion after that conversation. If you still have a tainted token, you have not completed the shrine conversion. If you have the purified token but no quest reward, return to Vannaka rather than revisiting the lore book or gathering another set of bulbs.
For a route that stalled midway, resume from the state you actually have: read the lore before the ritual, obtain and show the tainted token after the fight, bring the two ingredient quantities to Lougrim's Shrine, and deliver the purified result. Each stage advances a specific item or interaction, making it possible to continue without starting every collection step again.