The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Dawnguard is a downloadable content add-on for the action role-playing open world video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. It was developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The Xbox 360 version of Dawnguard was launched in English-speaking territories on June 26, 2012, and in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain in mid-July 2012. It was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam on August 2, 2012. Due to performance issues, the PlayStation 3 release of Dawnguard was delayed until February 26, 2013. Dawnguard revolves around an ancient prophecy predicted by an Elder Scroll. The Dawnguard is an organization dedicated to hunting vampires who attempt to stop the return of a powerful clan of Vampires named the Volkihar who possess the power to turn into monstrous "vampire lords". The Volkihar's leader Lord Harkon intends to use an Elder Scroll to permanently blot out the sun. The player can choose to either aid the Dawnguard or join the Volkihar, becoming a vampire lord themselves in the process. DLC includes different armors, items, weapons, characters, etc. Gameplay Two unique skill trees are introduced in Dawnguard, one for vampirism and one for lycanthropy. Players are given the choice to join forces with the vampiric Volkihar Clan or to fight them alongside an order of vampire hunters known as the Dawnguard. Players will be granted access to one of two home bases: Castle Volkihar or Fort Dawnguard. New armors, perks, and weapons are introduced, including a crossbow for the Dawnguard. Crossbows remain loaded while moving in the world, allowing a quicker reaction than bows at the cost of being slower to reload and reducing the player's movement speed during reloading. Crossbows fall under the archery perk tree and all points assigned to archery will also apply to them. Crossbow bolts can be crafted with enchantments to create bolts with additional magical damage. A temporary transformation into a "vampire lord" is available for vampires. It functions like the existing werewolf transformation, with the exception that it may be used repeatedly rather than being limited to once per day. The vampire lord has a new skill tree to level up. Werewolves have also been given a skill tree, which they did not have previously. The vampire lord skill tree contains eleven perks, and the werewolf skill tree contains eight perks. The vampire lord levels up through kills with its