PSA: You don't need servant coffins to upgrade your castle heart in V Rising

V Rising servant coffin - Castle Throne
(Image credit: Stunlock Studios)

So, you're playing V Rising for the first time. You've got yourself the foundation of a nice little vampiric castle on the go; plenty of crafting stations, resource refineries, and maybe even a little crypt where your coffin is securely stowed. The problem is you're struggling to upgrade your castle heart through the main tutorial questline.

The Expanding Domain quest tasks you with levelling up your castle heart from one to two, but when you look at the heart, it seems to require four servant coffins and 50 floor tiles. You have no servant coffins and even if you browse through the list of V Blood bosses and their unlocks, none of them seem to drop the schematic either.

The good news is that you don't need servant coffins to upgrade your castle heart—it's just a confusing interface. If you hover your cursor over the "upgrade castle heart" button, you'll see that it instead costs:

  • Twelve copper ingots
  • Twelve leather

The four servant coffins and 50 floor tiles are actually the cap for your current castle level, meaning you can have four servant coffins active and that much space in tile terms. It's a very confusing visual layout, and the funniest thing is that I was confused by exactly the same thing when I first played the game two years ago in early access. 

In terms of servant coffins, as you progress through the main tutorial, you'll get a quest to build a stone coffin, which will then reward you with the servant coffin schematic. The trickiest part of crafting one of these is acquiring greater blood essence. You can make this in the blood press using four unsullied hearts, but since these are a rarer drop from high-level human enemies and V Blood bosses, it takes a little while to gather them.

When you do wrangle up enough materials to craft a servant coffin, you'll get the Dominate Human ability—access this by pressing CTRL and selecting it in the radial wheel. Though it disables your spells, this state gives you access to Subdue Human, which you can use on weakened human enemies to lure them back to your castle. Different enemies have different abilities, but generally, higher blood percentages make for better thralls.

Once there, activate the servant coffin to inter the enemy and wait until they're finished cooking. You can't do all that much with your vampiric thrall initially—they'll just hang out and guard the castle, though they will potentially die if there are dangerous enemies lurking. Don't worry too much, though; you can always revive them via their servant coffin.

As you continue the tutorial quest, you'll eventually get the castle throne, and this is where you can start sending your servants out to hunt enemies and pilfer resources. Before you do, make sure to equip your thrall with some armour and a weapon, since this will help them tackle tougher enemies and make it back alive with your precious plunder.  

Sean Martin
Senior Guides Writer

Sean's first PC games were Full Throttle and Total Annihilation and his taste has stayed much the same since. When not scouring games for secrets or bashing his head against puzzles, you'll find him revisiting old Total War campaigns, agonizing over his Destiny 2 fit, or still trying to finish the Horus Heresy. Sean has also written for EDGE, Eurogamer, PCGamesN, Wireframe, EGMNOW, and Inverse.

Read more
Avowed tips - Kai turning his head slightly to look straight ahead, standing inside a building with shelves in the background.
5 Avowed tips that will help you survive the Living Lands
kingdom come: deliverance 2
12 things to grab first in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Avowed upgrade weapons and armour - The player character holding a flaming sword in their right hand and a shield in their left, overlooking a wooden area at night.
How to upgrade gear and get crafting materials in Avowed
Henry and Radzig stand side-by-side, Henry looks shocked and Radzig looks proud.
8 Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 tips that will help you become Bohemia's next top knight
Avowed adra locations - An adra pillar used as a campsite in the Scatterscarp region.
How to get adra in Avowed
Avowed - The Delemgan Queen, a magical humanoid creature with bark skin, leaf accents, and twisted root horns and crown
Delemgan Queen stealth route in Avowed: How to get the adragan heart without fighting her
Latest in Survival & Crafting
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Sunset in the desert in Hello Sunshine
Hello Sunshine is a desert survival sandbox where you live in the literal shadow of the colossus
Performers acting as zombies are seen on a train coach during the "Train to Apocalypse" event as part of the Pandora Box Artmire Festival 2024 held to attract commuters to ride the city's rapid transit system LRT (light rapid transit), in Jakarta on July 11, 2024. (Photo by BAY ISMOYO / AFP) (Photo by BAY ISMOYO/AFP via Getty Images)
Venerable browser-based MMO Urban Dead is closing this week after a 20-year run, not with a bang but with a whimper
Wearing a hazmat suit, a Rust player proudly holds up a freshly cooked pie, foregrounded by a table covered with pies and a large pumpkin on the left.
Rust's crafting update gives the survival sim real-time food cooking and pies to rival Monster Hunter, but the tastiest treat is the ability to make and throw 'bee grenades'
A pig, a cow, and two birds dance
Minecraft Live returns in March with everyone's favorite kind of content: 'exclusive movie content'
An explosion in a desert environment
Survival sandbox Core Keeper gets explosive next week with a whole new skill tree devoted to bombs and grenades
Latest in Guides
Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 barbers change hairstyle - Henry sitting on a horse wearing armour.
How to find a barber and change hairstyle in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Marvel Rivals characters - Captain America running towards the camera.
All Marvel Rivals characters - current and upcoming heroes
Blue Lock Rivals - a player in a soccer uniform kicks a ball
Blue Lock Rivals codes and how to redeem them
Player character and chococat sat next to a stick in Hello Kitty Island Adventure
Where to find sticks in Hello Kitty Island Adventure
FragPunk codes - A close-up shot of a mercenary wearing a mask with glowing eyes.
All FragPunk codes and how to redeem them
The Sims 4 - A business owner looks at a customer angrily
How to get disruptive customers to leave in The Sims 4 Businesses & Hobbies