Hunter's Guide

I am here to help new-comers to Bloodborne through their long and arduous trial of the masterpiece that is this game.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Mergo’s Loft Middle and endings

Mergo’s Loft is the last half of the Nightmare of Mensis. It is also the last part of the main game. The Shadows of Yharnam make a return here as a normal mob. You can also find the last upgrade material to make a weapon +10 from Mergo’s Loft. I also personally use this as a Blood Echo Farming route. Equip a tier 3 Moon Rune(which you can get after pulling a lever to drop an enemy into a pit) and your best Heir runes. Clear out the Shadows and Boars and repeat. This easily nets me thousands of Blood Echoes each run(results may vary depending on your current NG cycle)

In Mergo’s Loft Middle, you encounter

Shadows of Yharnam

Mob Version: these don’t transform into snake people

Maneater Boars: these boars have eyes covering their heads and their breath causes Frenzy

They are hostile to the Shadows

Chime Maiden(online only)

Carrion Crows

Hunting Dog

On the path to the Blood Rock(+10 upgrade item), you’ll encounter

Nightmare Apostles

Winter Lanterns

The ones here drop some of the best gems outside of Chalice Dungeons

From the Mergo’s Middle Loft Middle Lamp, exit the building. There should be a group of Carrion Crows and a single Hunting Dog guarding some bloodstone Chunks. After advancing a bit you’ll find an elevator with a broken door. This particular elevator is needed to get to the Blood Rock. You’ll have to roll/walk out mid-descent/ascent onto an opening in the wall.

I’ll go over the path to the Blood Rock later.

Turning around will lead you to a pair of Shadows who are patrolling the area. There will be a Candlestick Shadow up on some stairs who will try to target you if it notices you. Take care of them and advance. If you have a sharp eye, you’ll notice you’ll be able to drop into the sewer(?) area nearby. The sewer area has a Scurrying beast, two Shadows, the Chime Maiden if you’re online, and some Bloodstone Chunks.

There will be a Maneater Boar with its back turned towards you after the Shadows. Kill it and advance.

There will be 2 Maneater Boars in the next street, along with a few powerful Blood Gems and Coldblood. You can sprint past these boars, and if you’re successful, aggro the Boars into the next group of Shadows. After this, you’ll find a ghostly lady who is mostly silent except for her tears. There will be a lift ahead which is the shortcut to the Lantern. There is also a chest nearby with an Iosefka’s Blood Vial inside.

Across from the lady is an elevator to the Boss Arena. Approaching the baby carriage will play a cutscene and start the boss fight.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse is the last mandatory boss fight of the game. She is a ghastly figure with multiple arms and is wielding a blade in most of them.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse does not have a second phase, or at least doesn’t have a noticeable phase transition

Mergo’s Nurse mainly attacks with her swords in either flurries, stabs, or strikes with multiple blades at once.

Mergo’s Nurse has an attack which she uses once or twice in this fight.

It is indicated by her raising her arms and casting a shadow over the arena.

During this section, a clone of her appears and performs a single attack and leaves.

This clone appears quite a few times

The phase lasts about a minute or two

You can avoid most of the attacks during this section by running in a large circle around the arena

Killing the Nurse grants you a Third of the Umbilical Cord

It also unlocks Blood Rocks in the Insight Shop for 60 insight a piece.

For the Blood Rock you need to go on the broken elevator I’ve mentioned previously. You should see a place where you can jump off early. Jump off there and you should find yourself in a hallway with a chest that has inflicted organs(Chalice Dungeon Material) in it. Go outside and you should encounter a Winter Lantern among the stones. After that Winter Lantern, you should encounter a pair of Winter Lanterns in the next small area.

After you deal with those 2, advance inside and you should find yourself in a room filled with Nightmare Apostles.

After you are done with that room, you should be able to advance to a lever at the end of a hallway. Pulling said lever will play a cutscene. After that, you can drop down a hole in the previously mentioned hallway.

Down there will be a Winter Lantern guarding a chest at the opposite end of the room across some rafters. The chest holds the Choir Bell. There will also be some Nightmare Apostles in this room.

Outside there will be a courtyard-like area with a bunch of items. Among the items are a droplet arcane gem and a droplet bloodtinge gem. There will also be a bunch of Madman’s Knowledge and Great One’s Wisdom. You can find a door which is unlocked with the Iron Door Key around here. On later NG cycles where you don’t have need for the gems, you can equip your highest Frenzy Resistant equipment, empty your insight, and equip some Deep Sea Runes, and you can rush towards the pit where the Blood Rock is. The Blood Rock is underneath in a pit where you dropped something with a lever. If you want the tier 3 Moon Rune(+30% Blood Echoes), you’ll need to run to where the Mergo’s Chief Attendants are. You should find an elevator there which you can ride down. At the bottom, you will find the Brain of Mensis, the thing which was sending Frenzy from afar earlier. Make Contact and wait for the entire gesture to be finished(indicated by your character switching positions). When the gesture is done, you’ll get the Tier 3 Moon Rune. If you feel like achieving Platinum, kill the Brain because it will drop the Living String, an item which you cannot get anywhere else in the game. It is required to access the final Chalice Dungeon.

For the endings, you need to head back to the Hunter’s Dream. You will find it on fire and talking to the Doll will have her tell you that you need to talk to Gehrman. The 3 endings are as follows,

Accept Gehrman’s offer

Refusing Gehrman’s offer

Deny Gehrman’s offer and have consumed 3 umbilical cords.

Denying Gehrman’s offer will allow you to fight Gehrman.

If you have consumed 3 umbilical cords before beating Gehrman, you will encounter a secret boss fight.

Gehrman, The First Hunter is an optional boss at the end of Bloodborne.

I recommend taking on this boss if you have an interest in getting all the weapons in Bloodborne, as he drops the Old Hunter Badge which unlocks his set and his weapon in the shop.

He fights with his scythe and his shotgun and has 3 phases

His first phase has him fighting with his scythe only, using hard-hitting attacks.

His second phase at ~75% has him fighting with his sword and his shotgun, utilizing quicker attacks and an occasional shotgun blast to stagger you

His third phase at ~50% has him channeling for a bit and gaining the capability of quickening, which means he’ll be invisible when he quicksteps. He alternates between scythe and sword

In his third phase, he gains hyper-armor, meaning normal attacks won’t stagger him

He can be parried throughout the entirety of the fight

He has an attack where he shoots you with a heavy pistol, this shot parries you no matter the circumstance

He has an attack which is fairly easy to parry in scythe form. It is a charge attack reminiscent of the Hunter Axe charged R2.

If you have consumed 3 third umbilical cords, you get access to a secret boss fight.

The secret boss is the Moon Presence, a mysterious Great One whose motives are for the most part unknown.

You fight this boss directly after Gehrman

Gehrman stays dead so you won’t have to fight him again if you die here

Mainly attacks in weird 3-hit combos.

Sometimes jumps into the air and tries to land on you

Has an attack which is undodgeable. It looks like a flash of light

It leaves you at exactly one health

You can’t dodge it

It stays still for a while after it casts this attack, meaning you can rally back health if your weapon has good enough rally

At ~50% it begins sending exploding orbs into the air

These orbs deal 1 damage

They leave you incapable of healing

Stick to its sides and its back and you should be fine

This has been Bloodborne.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Nightmare of Mensis

The Nightmare of Mensis is your next stop on finishing the main game. It is another Nightmare area which you have to access through the Lecture Hall.

From the Advent Plaza(where you fought the One Reborn) you’ll have to enter the building with the mummies. Interact with the single interactable mummy in this room. You’ll be teleported to the Lecture Building 2nd Floor.

The Second Floor of the Lecture Building has stronger Slime Scholars than on the first floor and has a single unarmed Church Giant in one of its corners. Said Church Giant has flaming fists.

There is not to gain from here except a Bloodstone Chunk, some sedatives, and two runes.

You can also talk to Patches from here. Go to where the Church Giant is and drop down the door it is guarding. After a bit of talking he will give you the Tier 2 Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (+15% stamina)

The other rune you can get from here is a Tier 2 Communion Rune (+2 Blood Vial Maximum)

To advance to the Nightmare of Mensis you’ll have to go through the two large doors.

In the first half of the Nightmare of Mensis you will encounter

Silverbeasts: the ones here will spawn Hateful Maggots if you don’t kill them with fire or visceral attacks.

Hateful Maggots: spawn from Silverbeasts

Giant Lost Child

Nightmare Apostles: giant spiders.

Normal: run of the mill giant spiders

Giant: a massive giant spider

Human head: can cast arcane spells.

Hostile Hunter NPC

Wields Ludwig’s Holy Blade, Rosmarinus, and Augur of Ebrietas

He drops 3 sedatives on death.

Mergo’s Attendant

Flail

Crossbow

Unarmed

Unarmed are Non-hostile until attacked or until you’re in combat with a Chief Attendant

Mergo’s Chief Attendant: wield an axe and a chain whip. All of its attacks deal rapid poison buildup

Carrion Crows: the crows here have dog heads

Hunting Dogs: the dogs here have crow heads

Micolash Puppet: an enemy unique to the first boss fight of the Nightmare of Mensis. They do not provide Rally.

When you first spawn into the Nightmare of Mensis, you won’t spawn near the Lantern. On the path to the Lantern, you’ll encounter a Silverbeast and a scurrying beast which will drop some Chunks. You’ll also find a Frenzied Coldblood.

A thing to note about the Nightmare of Mensis is the giant light which induces Frenzy and damage over time whilst you’re in its line of sight. This is a pain to deal with so you’ll have to move quickly and bring sedatives

Near the Nightmare of Mensis Lantern, there are a couple of Silverbeasts and a corpse with 8 blood vials on it. If you head towards the bridge you’ll encounter some more Silverbeasts and some Giant Children. Heading along the cliff wall will lead you to some Giant Children and another Lantern. 2 of these 3 Giant Children are guarding a Tier 1 Eye Rune (discovery up)

Heading along the bridge you’ll encounter a single Silverbeast at the end of it. After you turn the corner you may notice several Giant Children. The first one is guarding nothing in particular. The second one is guarding some chunks(the other two will notice you by the time you reach the second one). Two Giants are by the massive doors which you will have to get past. As such using a blue elixir will prove useful if you are not interested in confronting the giants.

Inside the building you just entered are a large group of Nightmare Apostles. I personally don’t like fighting them as they can easily swarm you to death. They won’t drop down from the ceiling until you walk about half-way into the room so I personally go off to the right hallway as they won’t drop down if you go in here. You still have to go through the main area, however.

In this hallway, you will find a Kin Coldblood outside and a single Madman’s Knowledge.

Going back into the main area there is a corpse at the end of the room with 6 Shaman Bone Blades on it. If you want you can use the Shaman Bone Blade on the large Nightmare Apostle to aggro it to its smaller friends. Outside you will find yourself on a walkway with a Hostile Hunter NPC on it.

After you have dealt with all of them, you will need to proceed inside the building.

Inside the building, you will hear the footsteps of Mergo’s attendants. On the lower floor, there is a Frenzied Coldblood near an elevator shortcut back to the Lantern from earlier. On the upper floor, there is a chest with Yellow Backbones in it.

After going further into the building, you will have to descend a massive set of stairs. At the bottom of said stairs, there is a Mergo’s Chief Attendant rounding a corner. Deal with it and move on. After a bit more walking there will be an unarmed attendant who will be hostile regardless of whether or not you attacked it. After that there will be a small area with 3 Crossbow Attendants and a Chief Attendant. You can avoid them using a blue elixir. They are guarding an elevator to advance. At the top of the elevator you will find yourself at an area with a group of Carrion Crows and 3 Hunting Dogs. One of them is with a few Carrion Crows and two of them are guarding Kin Coldblood and a Chunk. There is also high tier Blood Gem(+12.6% Phys ATK up, +2.3 Rally potential up) in one of the hanging cages. There will be a boss fight soon so use the nearby elevator shortcut to get back to the lamp and restock your supplies in the Hunter’s Dream. I also advise bringing along a full stack of poison knives if you wish for a surefire way of finishing the fight.

Go and enter the building and cross the bridge inside. You’ll encounter two unique enemies who are only present for this particular boss fight. Walk inside the corridor and the boss cutscene will play

Micolash, Host of the NIghtmare, is standing in your way. You have to kill him in order to advance. He drops the Mensis Cage upon his death and his death will unlock the path needed to proceed.

This boss fight is particularly tricky as it is more of a puzzle boss than anything.

This boss fight has 2 phases, with the second phase activating at 50% health

The first phase has him fighting with the Augur of Ebrietas

The second phase has him add punches and the Call Beyond to his arsenal

There will be constantly spawning Puppets

There are a lot of items strewn throughout Micolash’s maze. One of which I personally try to get every run, the Iron door Key

There is also a tier 2 Moon Rune in Micolash’s maze(+20% Blood Echoes)

It’s found at the bottom of a spiral staircase.

The Iron Door Key will be useful pretty soon, but not right now.

It opens a door in Micolash’s maze, but I do not recommend opening that door after the boss fight because it will be too dangerous at this moment

The puzzle for this boss fight is that you have to find a way to herd him into an area which he can’t run away from you.

This is far easier in this first phase. When you fight this boss for the first time, go straight, then right, then right, then straight, then turn around, left, then left, then straight. This pattern usually ends the chase immediately for me.

In the first dead-end room, you will have to fight Micolash along with 2 Puppets. He will usually cast the Augur when you’re in front of him. You should be able to punish this attack with ease.

After you have depleted his health to about 50%, Micolash will “die” before teleporting away to a different location.

The second phase is a bit trickier to end but you can cheese this portion of the fight if you do it correctly.

He can use mirrors to teleport in this phase if your insight is high enough.

The point where you can cheese him with the most ease is when he drops down from a balcony area down to a lower area with a mirror. If you brought along a full stack of poison knives, you can poison him with impunity as it only takes 2-3 knives to poison him. If you don’t decide to poison him, you can drop down to follow him, after which he will gate himself in an area which you cannot get in via conventional means.

To get in, you have to drop down from a higher point in the maze. You can identify this area via the corpse with a Bloodstone Chunk on it.

After you get the drop on him, he will try to retaliate. He may spam the Call Beyond, but do not worry too much. If you can dodge it properly and get close to him, he won’t be able to cast the Call.

You should be able to kill him shortly after.

After he’s dead, a cutscene will play and you will be able to advance.

This has been the Nightmare of Mensis.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Upper Cathedral Ward.

The Upper Cathedral Ward is where the Church Choir was once held, now it’s empty and overrun. There’s not a large number of materials in the Upper Cathedral Ward, but there are a few things which are worth getting, namely a tier 4 Communion Rune and the Great Isz Chalice.

To get to the Upper Cathedral Ward, you have to warp to the Cathedral Ward Lantern.

Remember the locked door at the top of the tower from way back earlier in the game? The Upper Cathedral Ward is through this door.

The enemies you’ll encounter are

Celestial Children: These small enemies are classified as kin and will take extra damage from thrust and bolt attacks. Their attacks can cause Frenzy build-up, so bring along some sedatives.

They are also found in the Isz Chalice Dungeon.

Hooded Brainsuckers

Church Servants: Their weapons are always buffed regardless of your insight level

Scourge Beasts: this variant of Scourge Beast has blue eyes and will rarely drop Bloodstone Chunks.

Celestial Mob

Carrion Crows

From the door, there will be a single Celestial Child and a few Blue Elixirs nearby. After this, you’ll have to go up a few stairs onto a bridge. On the bridge, you’ll encounter a couple of Church Servants and a few Celestial Children.

After the bridge is the Upper Cathedral Ward Lantern.

You’ll find yourself, after a bit of walking, at a giant locked gate. There will be many Celestial Children nearby and there will be a Tier 2 Great Lake Rune to the right.

Great Lake Runes increases all types of DMG reduction, but at a smaller amount than other Lake Runes

Going to the left of the large door will lead to a set of stairs with a Scythe Church Servant atop it. Below the stairs are a group of Carrion Crows guarding a Frenzied Coldblood.

Inside the Building the Church Servant is guarding is a room with a single Hooded Brainsucker guarding a corpse with the Choir Set minus the headpiece

The Choir Set has the highest arcane defense in the game.

There is a nearby corridor that is fairly long, with an item at one end of it. Once you pick up this item, a Scourge Beast will ambush you through the window.

When you enter the large area with the Chandelier and head down the stairs, Scourge Beasts will break the chandelier they are hanging on, effectively snuffing out the light. They will likely immediately go after you. It is possible to duck back into the previous corridor and finish them off with a long-reaching weapon as they usually get stuck on the door. They can get through but rarely. There are a total of 4 Scourge Beasts in this room, with one of them patrolling the side hallway. The left hallway has a Scurrying Beast which will bait you into an ambush with a Brainsucker. The right hallway is patrolled by a Brainsucker, and there is a Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge in this hallway. There is also a locked door in this area with Ritual Blood 5 near it.

The Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge unlocks poison knives in the shop, as well as the Rosmarinus and other items.

There is a ladder near the Brainsucker Ambush with the Scurrying Beast. At the top of it is a branching path. One leads to a hallway back to the top of the stairs from earlier and the other leads to more Brainsuckers. The hallway shortcut has a Single Brainsucker in it and has the Choir headpiece and some Madman’s Knowledge among other things. The area with 2 Brainsuckers also leads back to the corridor with the ambush Scourge Beast. One of these Brainsuckers will drop the Orphanage Key which will unlock the door in the area below.

There is a large door near the two Brainsuckers which will lead you to a corpse which will grant you a new gesture called Make Contact

The Make Contact gesture will be important later on.

Go back down to the first floor and unlock the door. There will be a corpse with some Coldblood on it and a lever which will unlock the large, locked gate. There will be a side path here which you will have to take. On this path, you will encounter a Celestial Mob. After a bit more walking, you’ll find yourself in a garden. This Garden is the arena for the next boss fight, the Celestial Emissary.

The Celestial Emissary is a Kin Great One and is visually indistinct from Celestial Mobs for the first half of the boss fight.

This boss is one of the easier ones in the game but has a few quirks.

Until the Emissary is depleted to 50% health, it will hide among a group of respawning Celestial Mobs.

Its health bar is not visible if you lock onto it, and it usually stays at the back of the group.

In its second phase, it grows dramatically in size and will start attacking you

It has a third phase at 25% health, where it grows tentacles on its head and will gain the capability of shooting arcane attacks.

If you want to make this boss fight even easier on an arcane build, use the Tiny Tonitrus to clear out the Mobs and deal a respectable amount of damage to the Emissary itself.

When you kill this boss, it drops the Tier 4 Communion Rune which grants +4 max blood vials held.

It also unlocks the Lumenflower Garden Lantern

The Emissary is not the only boss fight in the Upper Cathedral Ward. There is a massive window near the Lumenflower Garden Lamp. There is a Celestial Child on the other side of the window. You can break said window and make it to the other side. You’ll find yourself on a walkway over the Grand Cathedral. On the right side of the walkway is the Call Beyond Hunter Tool I’ve mentioned a while back.

At the end of the walkway is an elevator guarded by two Celestial Mobs, one of which can cast arcane attacks. Down the elevator is a trio of Celestial Children and the summoning sign for Damian of Mensis.

This next boss fight is with Great One Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

Ebrietas, like the Emissary, is a Kin Great One. She will take extra damage from bolt, thrust, and she will take massively increased damage from attacks to her head. She is much more difficult than the Celestial Emissary in my experience.

She has two phases in total.

In the first phase, she mainly attacks with tentacles and head slams.

She has an incredibly hard-hitting charge attack which can take away most of your health. I recommend unlocking your camera and rolling away. If you find that she hits you even if you roll away, just take the hit without dodging and heal up as failing dodges increases the damage the attacks would’ve done

She has an attack where she spits blood at you, either in a spray or in two mid-range bursts. Her blood causes frenzy so I recommend bringing some sedatives

Her head slam attack is one I always watch out for, as it is as prime time to get in some damage on her head.

You can visceral attack her if you damage her head enough

The second phase begins at 50% health, Ebrietas will lower her head and begin channeling for a few seconds before going back on the offensive. Use this opportunity to get in a lot of damage.

During the second phase, Ebrietas gains a few new attacks and will begin attacking more persistently.

There is also a damaging aura around Ebrietas which will slowly drain your health

This also drains Ebrietas’ health as well for some reason.

One of the new attacks Ebrietas gains is a flying head slam, you’ll have to dodge two head slams in total before you can retaliate.

She also gains an attack similar to Call Beyond which you dodge via running in a circle around her.

She has a grab attack which she tries to eat you. This induces frenzy

When you kill her, you gain the Great Isz Chalice and the ability to use the Altar of Despair, which can resurrect Annalise if you had happened to send Alfred there for his questline.

This has been Upper Cathedral Ward.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Yahar’gul the Unseen Village

Yahar’gul the Unseen Village is where you have to traverse to next to advance the story. After Rom’s death, the world has been drastically changed. The moon is now red and you can now permanently see the Lesser Amygdalas around the world. Arianna and Adella will no longer give you blood. Any NPC you haven’t sent to Oedon Chapel is now no longer accessible. You can now finish Eileen’s questline. The old lady will give you sedatives if you ask her for them. Gilbert has turned into a beast and will drop a tier 2 Clawmark Rune. Snatchers will no longer spawn in the world.

Clawmark Runes increase the damage of your visceral attacks

I will only go over the path I usually take when I play through this area and as such I will have missed stuff.

Eileen is found at the entrance of the Grand Cathedral, severely wounded. She will tell you to turn back. Going inside the Grand Cathedral is a single hostile hunter NPC donning the Cainhurst Helmet, gloves, and leggings, along with the Crowfeather Garb. He wields the Chikage and Repeating pistol

This fight is likely one of the hardest non-boss fight encounters in the game.

While his Chikage is intimidating, his pistol is the main threat

It deals massive damage and if he manages to land a parry, then you are likely to be killed by it outright.

He also utilizes the Old Hunter Bone and Numbing Mists to give himself an edge in combat.

He will heal once or twice when his health gets below about 50%

He will always shoot after doing a roll.

He has a massive health pool

He drops the Tier 3 Blood Rapture Rune when he is killed.

Blood Rapture Runes grant you health when you perform Visceral attacks

After you kill him, Eileen will give you the Hunter of Hunters Covenant Rune and the Crow Hunter Badge

Hunter of Hunters rune grants increased stamina recovery

The Crow Hunter Badge unlocks the Blades of Mercy and Crowfeather Set in the shop

After this point, Eileen disappears from your world without a trace

In Yahar’Gul the Unseen Village, you encounter

Almost every variant of Huntsman Enemy

Chime Maidens: The Chime Maidens here will respawn every enemy you killed until they die. Killing Chime Maidens will stagger their summons and will leave them weaker.

Brick Trolls

Cramped Caskets: These enemies spawn in the later half of the Unseen Village. They can’t be parried but are vulnerable to Fire Damage. They are fairly dangerous even on their own.

Some of the Cramped Caskets can fire projectiles at you.

Every variant of Graveyard Hags

Hunting Dogs

Scourge Beasts: They are basically the same as previous Scourge Beasts except they look incredibly different.

Wheelchair Huntsman

3 Hostile NPC Hunters.

Two of them are wearing the Yahar’gul set and one of them is wearing the Iron Yahar’gul helm

The one wearing the Iron Yahar’gul helm wields the Beast Claw

The one located near the exit of their encounter wields a Rifle Spear and Cannon

The one located on the stairs wields the Threaded Cane and Flamesprayer, as well as the Tiny Tonitrus

The Tiny Tonitrus is a Hunter Tool which you can find in the Unseen Village. It requires 25 ARC and 6 QS bullets required to use. It shoots an arc of lightning in a straight line.

From where you spawn in after you have killed Rom, go through the door with the Lesser Amygdala hanging over the door. This Amygdala will take you to the Lecture Building if you have the Tonsil Stone the first time you get grabbed.

On the path to the Yahar’gul Lamp, two Huntsman will be summoned for you to fight. After that, you have to go down a set of stairs with a Frenzied Coldblood in a corner nearby. There will be a Huntsman waiting to ambush you here.

From the Lantern, there will be a small troupe of Huntsmen who are proceeding down to where you have to go soon. To the right of that group is a single Bloodstone Chunk and stairway that leads to the Iron Yahar’gul helm. There is a Wheelchair Huntsman nearby and a single Yharnam Huntsman.

Back to where you're supposed to go is a large set of stairs filled with various Huntsman. There is also a Lesser Amygdala who will try to grab you on your way down. I recommend trying to run past these enemies as this part is particularly dangerous. It is perfectly fine, however, to lure a few of these enemies out before heading down. Do take care as the Chime Maiden will revive them shortly. The Chime Maiden is inside the building the stairs lead into, as well as a couple of Rifle Huntsman. There is a cage near the Chime Maiden with a Waning Bolt Gem inside.

The next building will have a locked door and you will have to enter through a hole in the wall. The Chime Maiden in here will spawn in a Brick Troll in front of you and a normal Yharnam Huntsman behind you to catch you off guard. There is a corpse in here with a Tier 2 Heir Rune. The Chime Maiden will also spawn in a Wheelchair Huntsman and a Torch Huntsman when you get to her area inside. There is a corpse inside a cage with a Frenzied Coldblood on it. You can open the locked door from earlier from this side.

When you exit this building, you will hear the distinct sounds of Graveyard Hags. There are quite a few of them in this next small section. A group of them is off to the right of the door. In the area with the trees in the center of it, there is a corpse with a single Bloodstone Chunk on it. There is a gap in the fence which you can drop down to. There is a Frenzied Coldblood here and an entrance to another building. Inside, there is a Chime Maiden which you should quickly dispose of as there is a Brick Troll on this floor. Down below, there is a cage with a corpse inside it which you can drop down into. This corpse holds the Upper Cathedral Key, which is used to access an optional area. There is also a chest guarded by a Brick Troll and a Wheelchair Huntsman. This chest holds the Tiny Tonitrus.

To advance, you have to descend down some stairs with a Lesser Amygdala hanging over. This one will fire beams similar in nature to those that the Amygdala boss shot at you. Inside this building is another Lantern which is marked as the Yahar’gul Chapel Lantern. Right outside a different door, there is a Scurrying Beast which drops 2 Chunks.

In the next area, there is a Rifle Huntsman on a ledge which you can drop down on. There are also 2 Hunting Dogs below him. Their Chime Maiden is nearby, so don’t worry about them reviving so soon as you can quickly dispatch of the Maiden. She is hiding in the corner opposite of the stairs. There is a group comprised of a Rifle Huntsman, a Pitchfork Huntsman, and a Brick Troll nearby. After you deal with them, there is a lone Huntsman guarding 8 Blood vials. Going inside the nearby building will introduce you to the Yahar’gul gank squad.

They are all particularly tough, and you may need to take them out one at a time, which is easier said than done as they are all aggroed at the same time. You will likely need to find a way to separate them using the environment.

In total, they drop a Madman’s Knowledge, tier 1 Clawmark, and 20 QS bullets.

After you have dealt with them, exit the building through the door the Rifle Spear Hunter was near. There you’ll meet your first Cramped Casket. There is also a burning corpse nearby which you can lure the Cramped Casket onto to deal a lot of damage to it.

Side Note. if an item is on a Snatcher’s Corpse, it’s Bloodstone Chunks.

There will be a Rifle Huntsman nearby which will take some shots at you nearby. His Chime Maiden is in fairly short walking distance to him so be sure to take her out quickly. There will be an elevator very nearby which you can access. There is an area which you can get off the elevator early. This area which there are 2 Hunting Dogs, a scurrying beast which drops 2 Chunks, and a Scourge Beast guarding 1 Chunk. Most importantly there is a bath which you can inspect for a shortcut to a later part of the area.

From the other side of the bath, going straight will lead you to your objective, but going left will lead you to a better Radial Blood Gem for your weapon.

There is a Scourge Beast at the entrance of the building which the Blood gem is in. Inside said building is a Rifle Huntsman and another Scourge Beast guarding the Blood Gem, which grants +18% physical attack.

From the Bath, going straight will lead you to a Chime Maiden who will quickly spawn a Yharnam Huntsman for her protection. There is a ladder which you have to go down. You will see a large area which is empty. Going near there will increase the sounds of the whispers that have been playing. Entering the area will play a cutscene and start the boss fight.

The One Reborn is a massive amalgamation of flesh and bones. It has been summoned by a multitude of Chime Maidens.

The One Reborn is weak to fire and bolt but is strong against Arcane.

It is assisted by Chime Maidens who will heal it and shoot fireballs at you. You can kill them off by walking up some stairs located on the opposite side of the entrance.

This boss is one of the easier late game bosses.

This boss does not have a second phase or at least does not have a noticeable transition into the second phase.

It mainly attacks with flailing its limbs around and with arcane attacks.

You can break its limbs to stun it for a while for some free damage.

The corpse on top seems to take extra damage.

It also takes extra damage from plunging attacks.

It has an incredibly dangerous vomit attack which can deal a lot of damage.

Avoid this attack by walking up some stairs.

Killing this boss gives you 3 Yellow Backbones and unlocks Bloodstone Chunks at the Insight Shop

Yellow Backbones are a Chalice Dungeon Material.

This has been Yahar’gul the Unseen Village.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Byrgenwerth

Byrgenwerth was once a place of research and study. This next area is essential in advancing Bloodborne. It is a fairly small area, but there are a few things that make it tricky. There are not as many valuable resources here than in the Nightmare Frontier. It is more of a mid-to-late game area as compared to Cainhurst or Nightmare Frontier.

There are a few unique enemies in Byrgenwerth that are not found anywhere else in the game except in the Chalice Dungeons on occasion.

Garden of Eyes: These enemies are a mashup of man, spider, and a fly. They are not very dangerous but they have a grab attack that builds up frenzy.

An observation I’ve made is that they don’t respond to gunshots if they don’t directly hit them.

Fluorescent Flower: There are only one of these enemies in the entire game outside of Chalice Dungeons.

They have high defenses against most types of damage.

They can shoot fireballs at you from a distance

The ones in Chalice Dungeons take extra damage if you strike their flower.

They don’t have many attacks hitting their sides.

They have dangerous melee attacks and a grab attack

1 Hooded Brainsucker

Yurie, the Last Scholar: She is an NPC hostile Hunter. She wields the Threaded Cane and the Rosmarinus, a weapon that is similar to the Flamesprayer but deals arcane damage instead of Fire damage

She deals incredible damage and wields two Hunter Tools, the Augur of Ebrietas and the Call Beyond

The Call Beyond is a Hunter Tool that requires 40 arcane and 7 QS bullets to use

It summons a large number of projectiles that deal a large amount of damage with a fairly respectable homing property and large range.

When she casts Call Beyond, dodge towards her as the homing property of the missiles is too strong to just dodge backwards.

Also, I recommend unlocking your camera when fighting her as it makes it so that your dodge turns into a roll giving you more invincibility frames.

She drops 5 Blue Elixirs when she dies.

Quick note: On the way to the Byrgenwerth Lamp there is a single Garden of Eyes waiting to ambush you.

From the Byrgenwerth Lantern, there is a spot near a tree where you can summon the Younger Madaras Twin. In the area after that, there is 3 Garden of Eyes in total, two of which are patrolling the area and one of which is hiding behind a tree.

After you take care of those 3 you have to go forward there is a tree over yonder. Behind the tree is a Hooded Brainsucker guarding the Second Tier Arcane Lake

Arcane Lake Runes reduce arcane damage.

After that, there are two Gardens that will drop off a ledge that is on the second floor of the building when you approach. The Fluorescent Flower is also on the other side of the area so be careful as to not get hit from the damaging fireballs it fires. There is also a Madman’s Knowledge on a corpse here and a Great One’s Wisdom.

Great One’s Wisdom grants 2 insight instead of 1

There is a Garden of Eyes guarding 5 sedatives far off in a corner.

Next to the entrance of the building is a gate which you should open as it leads back to the Lantern. Inside the building is a chest holding a single Pear Slug, a Chalice Dungeon Ritual Material. Yurie is on the second floor and will walk down to the first pretty soon so don’t dally.

On the second floor, there is a large door that is initially locked. Next to it is a spot where you can summon Mensis Scholar Mensis.

Mensis is an important term you will recognize later in the game

He wields the Threaded Cane and the Loch Shield.

The Loch Shield is a DLC Item that is similar to the Wooden Shield that focuses more on non-physical reduction than physical reduction.

He wields 4 Hunter Tools in total

A Call Beyond

Augur of Ebrietas

Blacksky Eye: a DLC Hunter Tool that blasts an arcane projectile that requires 16 Arcane and 1 QS bullets to use.

Choir Bell: a tool that is found later in the game, it heals in an AOE around the caster and requires 15 Arcane and 7 QS bullets

There is a chest to the rightward area of the door that has a variant of the Student set from the Lecture Building. You can also summon Henryk here if you have killed him prior.

To get the key that unlocks the large doors you have to go climb up a ladder that is on the second floor. More specifically you have to go left from the large, locked doors. After ascending the ladder, you will be able to immediately find the Lunarium key to unlock the locked doors. Going up the stairs in this room will eventually lead you to a single Garden of Eyes and a chest containing the Empty Phantasm Shell.

The Empty Phantasm shell requires 3 QS bullets and 15 arcane. The buff it applies is similar to the buff that fire or bolt paper applies.

After unlocking the large doors you will meet Willem. He serves no real purpose in the game besides giving you a single Insight when you talk to him and dropping the second tier Eye Rune when he is killed.

Eye Runes increases your discovery which increases the drop rate of items

Willem doesn’t actually talk but he does point you to the lake where you have to make the plunge.

When you make the plunge, you will find yourself at the Moonside Lake; this is where Rom, the Vacuous Spider resides.

Rom the Vacuous Spider is a Great One in Bloodborne. Killing her will kick off a sequence of events that will mark the start of the end of the game.

Rom drops some Kin Coldblood when she dies

Rom is one of trickier bosses in Bloodborne and where I hit my first wall.

Rom’s head takes greatly reduced damage.

She has 3 phases.

In the first phase, she is initially non-hostile and her health-bar will not appear until you attack her

Every time after the first will have Rom spawn her spiderlings immediately

When you attack her she spawns a multitude of spiderlings to protect her

The spiderlings are one of the most dangerous parts of the fight as they are very capable of dealing large amounts of damage and are capable of killing you quickly.

Rom in the first phase has no attacks of her own yet.

I personally pick off the spiderlings one by one in this phase.

Their heads take greatly reduced damage so aim for their behinds or sides.

Quite a few of the spiderlings attacks leave them open to retaliation.

The first phase ends at about 66% health and Rom will teleport away and spawn in more spiderlings.

In this phase, the spiderlings attack patterns are unchanged for the most part.

Rom gains a few arcane attacks to aid in your demise

Meteor shower: Rom rises up on her tail and summons a rain of meteors to deal damage

Meteor Eruption. Rom curls up on her back and summons meteors from the ground around her.

Arcane AOE: Rom curls up on her stomach and after a short while, she causes a highly-damaging explosion around her

Rom will tend to use the Meteor shower when you’re further away from her and Meteor Eruption when you’re closer to her.

In this phase and the third phase, I tend to use hit and run tactics as the arcane attacks make picking off the spiders individually much more difficult.

The second phase ends at about 33% health and Rom will teleport away and spawn in more spiderlings

The fight is largely unchanged besides Rom gaining a melee attack for when you get too close.

The aforementioned melee attack is merely Rom flailing around.

There are several things to note about this boss fight.

You can interrupt Rom’s teleportation by dealing enough damage to her while she’s teleporting

This will, however, start Rom’s third phase

Rom’s spiderlings don’t despawn when going into next phases so if you’ve been relying on the hit and run tactic you will have to be prepared for an incredibly large amount of spiderlings looking to kill you.

Rom and her spiderlings take massive damage from bolt so be sure to use bolt paper and a fast weapon to kill her as quickly as possible.

There is a tactic that I’ve rarely used that you can use to melt through Rom’s health-bar incredibly quickly.

Clear out spiderlings in the first phase

Make sure you have an empty right-hand weapon slot

When you have cleared out the spiderlings, switch to your bare hands and consume a Beast Blood pellet

Smack Rom’s face until you think your beasthood meter is filled enough

Switch to your weapon (Saw Cleaver/Spear works best from what I’ve seen)

Buff your weapon with Bolt Paper

Empty your stamina bar into Rom

Repeat until dead

Once Rom is dead there will be a Figure in the distance. When you approach them, a cutscene will play and you will be teleported to the place where you were taken to the Lecture Building.

This has been Byrgenwerth.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Nightmare Frontier

The Nightmare Frontier is a large and expansive area filled with strange and dangerous creatures. It has odd geometry and is home to some of the most annoying enemies in the game. The Nightmare Frontier is in no way, shape, or form required to finish the game but it is required if you want to get all the trophies and an extra chalice dungeon. It is a similar case with Cainhurst Castle as it is a late game area. I find the area to be harder than Cainhurst Castle while the Nightmare Frontier Boss is easier than Martyr Logarius.

To actually get to the Nightmare Frontier you have to first go through several steps. First, you’ll have to spawn in at the Grand Cathedral. Then when you walk outside you’ll have to make a left at where the Crucifix Servants are. After walking for a bit down the side area If you look closely, you’ll see two hostile hunter NPCs in the area down below. They are both wearing the Yahar’gul set. One of them is wielding the Rifle Spear and Ludwig’s Rifle and the other is wielding the Tonitrus mace and the Wooden shield. You can either walk down the stairs to meet those two foes or you can sneak up behind them via dropping off of a roof. The Tonitrus hunter is not that unbearable as compared to the Rifle Spear hunter. The Rifle Spear Hunter is quite spammy with his shotguns and also has infinite ammo so he could be quite a pain to deal with. After you deal with those two you can advance in this side area of Cathedral Ward.

Now you can either descend a set of stairs or go up a small hill with a single Snatcher on it. Going down the stairs will lead you to a scurrying beast. I recommend going up the hill with the Snatcher on it as it leads down to a few ledges with Rifle Huntsmen on them which you would not be able to reach if you went down the stairs. Looking ahead you will see two executioners, one of which is standing guard at a giant door and the other is patrolling around. There are also two scurrying beasts nearby so I recommend getting their individual attention via throwing knives, pebbles, etc. After you’ve disposed of them you can turn your attention to the scurrying beasts.

When you walk inside the building you’ll notice a giant door. If you have at least 40 insight, you’ll see another secret. Walk in front of the door and just wait. Don’t do anything despite what may be coming towards you. When it does grab you, you’ll take a bit of damage and a cutscene will play. After said cutscene is finished you’ll wake up in a new area called the Lecture Hall. You’ll only be brought to the Lecture Hall if the Tonsil Stone is in your inventory.

The Lecture Hall is filled with a few new enemies and is, for the most part, unimportant in finishing the game besides getting to new places. But there are a few useful items you can glean from here, however. You can only access the second floor later into the game.

The enemies in the first floor of the Lecture Hall are,

Slime Scholars: they are likely people who were transformed via their contact with the Great Ones(gods). They have two variants. They have a chance to drop sedatives.

Melee: These guys attack with their stretchy limbs. You can avoid their attacks via dodging to the sides. Some of them are hanging from the ceiling, waiting for an unsuspecting passerby.

Ranged: These guys mainly attack with by lobbing a dangerous fluid at you. It has a lingering area of effect but it doesn’t last long.

From where you first spawn in, you’ll find yourself in a huge hall in what appears to be a university. There are various rooms with various items which you may want. The door that is straight across from the room where the Lamp is is the NPC which gave you the Tonsil Stone.

The first door to the right can’t be opened from this side. The door across from it, however, is open. There is nothing of interest in this room though besides another door to a larger area. Upon walking into this area you’ll be ambushed by a Slime Scholar. In this room is a key and the Student Set. You can exit from the other side of the room.

There is a small circular room near the previous one with a Slime Scholar hanging over 2 Madman’s Knowledge.

Across from the previous room is a room with a chest with 2 Red Jelly items in it. These are essential ingredients for higher difficulty Chalice Dungeons.

Go back into the main area and head towards roughly the center. Looking to the left(right if you’re coming from the lamp) and you can open the locked door. This room is filled with Slime Scholars of both variants. I recommend going out the door and use either Molotovs to any clustered Slime Scholars and using normal attacks to finish off the rest. You can use this room to farm for Blood Echoes, QS bullets, or Sedatives. From this room, you can access another room which has the Augur of Ebrietas in it and the door from earlier which couldn’t be opened from the other side.

The Augur of Ebrietas is a Hunter Tool that requires 1 QS bullet and 18 Arcane to use

When used it summons tentacles from the casters hand to strike your opponents

It can parry attacks and can backstab(prep for a visceral attack) opponents

It has S scaling in Arcane.

When you have cleared out this floor of the Lecture Hall go to the large doors with an ominous mist pouring out of it. This will lead you to the NIghtmare Frontier.

The Nightmare Frontier is home to a lot of nasty creatures, but is also home to a lot of useful materials. The enemies here are,

Silverbeasts: These beastly creatures are an odd sort. They don’t back off at the sight of fire and are usually seen wielding torches.

They have a low amount of hp but they have a pretty decent physical defense

They can use their torches to attack and do a flamethrower attack

They can cause an electrical nova with their bodies

Upon reaching about 50% health they start attacking like Scourge Beasts

They drop Waning gems every so often.

Giant Lost Child: while their names aren’t at all threatening, they are certainly deserving of a great deal of caution.

When they notice you at a distance, they’ll start chucking boulders at you which deals a massive amount of damage which is capable of even one shotting you.

The debris from the boulders can also deal a large amount of damage

Crawlers: They are slug-like creatures that inhabit the Nightmare Frontier. They are one of the few enemies in the game that is capable of inflicting Rapid Poison, a status effect similar to Frenzy, but much less dangerous. Two variants. They are vulnerable to thrusting damage. Antidotes are a must have when facing them.

Large Crawlers: a Larger version of the Crawler enemies

Small Crawlers: Slightly more common variant of the Crawler enemies.

Winter Lanterns: one of the most dangerous enemies in the game. Being near them causes constant Frenzy buildup and continuous damage over time.

They have only one attack and that is a grab attack.

Their grab attack is tricky to parry. About halfway through their grab animation, you shoot.

Waiting too long will get you grabbed even if the parry sound effect went off.

Having sedatives on hand will be useful if the Frenzy is about to go off.

They tend to drop really good droplet gems, the best gems outside of Chalice dungeons. But this only applies to the Winter Lanterns in two other areas.

Chime Maiden(Online Mode Only): Chime Maidens have two functions in the main game.  Spawning enemies and matchmaking.

They will only spawn if you have used decided to summon for a boss fight

They will, however, spawn regardless of whether or not you’ve decided to summon in two areas. One of which is the Nightmare Frontier.

In a later area, Chime Maidens serve the purpose of buffing and reviving enemies while they are still alive.

In Chalice Dungeons, they continuously spawn enemies with an enormous aggro range.

2 NPC Hunters

One is wearing the Yharnam Hunter Set and wields the Hunter Axe with a bolt gem and a Pistol

One is wearing the Black Church Set and is wielding a Threaded Cane and Blunderbuss. He occasionally throws poison knives.

The Yharnam Hunter will notice you first.

They both drop a single Lead Elixir when killed.

Large Scurrying Beasts: basically normal scurrying beasts but larger and are capable of defending themselves.

I won’t write about the entire Nightmare Frontier. I will, however, write about the fastest way to the shortcut to the beginning of the level, how to find the two Bloodstone Chunks, and the Messenger’s Gift Hunter tool if you’re interested in Platinuming Bloodborne. I’ll also detail how to get to the Chime Maiden if you don’t want to PVP or be invaded.

Straight from the Nightmare Frontier Lamp, there’s a small Scurrying Beast hiding to the right of an incline. After walking up the incline you will see the first Silverbeast in the area. It will be sitting down looking away from you and you are unable to lock onto it whilst it is sitting down. You can just walk up to it and backstab it. Having about 20 in Skill will pretty much guarantee that the Charged R2 and visceral attack will kill the Silverbeasts. If you look down off to the right you will see 2 Lead elixirs on a corpse on a ledge.

Lead elixir gives you anti-stagger and increased defense at the cost of slower move speed for a time.

After continuing left for a bit and looking down to the right, you’ll see another Silverbeast. There is also a Large Scurrying Beast near it so feel free to kill it. Continuing onward will lead you to another Silverbeast.

After you have dealt with that Silverbeast, continue onward to the natural bridge. If you look to the left you will see a poisonous swamp area with several Crawlers in it. If you want the Messenger’s Gift you can jump down there and head into the cave with the Winter Lantern. In there is the Messenger’s Gift.

The Messenger’s Gift is a Hunter Tool that transforms your character into a small messenger for 1 QS bullet and 10 Arcane.

Blue elixir is slightly more reliable but Messenger’s Gift is indefinite so long as the caster doesn’t evade, attack, or is attacked.

In the swamp area there are also 2 small Scurrying Beasts and one larger one. I recommend using a Bold Hunter’s Mark to warp back to the lamp.

Back at the bridge you can see a torch light glowing in the distance. This is the Yharnam Hunter I’ve mentioned earlier. He has a pretty large sight range and will chase you pretty quickly. The Black Church Hunter will engage quickly after.

After you have killed those two head down into the swamp area. If you’ve decided to go after the Messenger’s Gift earlier, you will have noticed that the swamp slows down your movement and builds up slow poison. Having antidotes handy is recommended. In the swamp are quite a few Crawlers. There are also some Giant Children watching the swamp, waiting for someone to bombard with boulders. There is a cave opening immediately to the right of where the swamp starts. This opening will eventually lead to the Chime Maiden who you are free to kill. There’s also a drop down with a corpse with 2 Blood Vials being protected by a Silverbeast already righting like a Scourge Beast. That area is a whole other area of its own.

The swamp is where you have to sprint through to advance through the Nightmare Frontier. There is a cave on the other side of the swamp is a cave with a Giant Child in it. You have to make a sprint for this cave as there is another Giant Child watching from a high up ledge. After you’ve gotten to the cave, you can deal with the Giant Child after you’re sure you still can’t be hit by the other Giant Child.

Walking out the other side of the cave, you will have to face a Winter Lantern. After you’ve dealt with that, there is a Large Scurrying Beast near the edge. It tends to jump off. This one has 2 Bloodstone Chunks.

There is a poisonous swamp in the next area that you can just walk around thankfully.  There is a corpse at the start of the bridge to the boss arena. Don’t go there yet. You still have to activate the elevator shortcut to the start of the lever. Walk up to where the Silverbeast is standing guard. Kill it and continue up to the elevator. Activate the elevator and head back down.

The Large Scurrying Beast with the other 2 Chunks is in the poison swamp close to the elevator. There are 2 Crawlers near it.

Head to the Boss Arena and be prepared to face Amygdala, one of the Great Ones in Bloodborne.

Amygdala is a Great One with a spider-like, bony body. It is similar to the creature that brought you to the Lecture Building.

Amygdala has a fairly low health pool in comparison to other bosses, but only its arms and head is vulnerable to damage as its legs and tail take massively decreased damage. It is possible to open up the legs and tail to normal damage via damaging them enough.

This boss has 3 Phases. 

The first phase has Amygdala merely attacking with by flailing its arms at you. It also can shoot lasers out of its head which deals no damage but has a delayed explosion. It has a vomit attack that it will channel for a bit and a bunch of vomit will come out from its head. The vomit itself deals fire damage and staggers your character by a respectable amount.

The second phase kicks off at 67% health with Amygdala roaring and she gains a few new attack patterns and some of her attacks are empowered by arcane explosions that occur after impacts. Her Vomit Attack now covers a lot more area. Her laser attacks are a bit more varied.

The third phase kicks off at 33% health with Amygdala ripping off some two of her arms and gaining more effective range. It, however, loses some attacks, namely one where she attacks directly under her with her arms, this allows you to stay under Amygdala with less risk.

Amygdala has two attacks which are fairly exploitable if you have a high-reaching weapon. A stomp and a jump. They both leave Amygdala’s head fairly low enough and leaves her open long enough to get a free hit. If you can dodge in the right direction, you can be placed close enough to Amygdala’s head for some more free hits. They both deal incredible damage.

Amygdala has low defenses against bolt, fire, and arcane.

If you damage her arms enough, Amygdala will be staggered and will take extra damage until it heals the body part, usually after three of its own attacks.

This applies to her head, and damaging its head enough will leave it vulnerable to a Visceral Attack.

Personally, I deal with the first and second phases of the boss fight by waiting for attacks that leave Amygdala’s head in a vulnerable position while for the third phase I make a beeline towards somewhat under Amygdala as to not trigger its jump or stomp attacks and to be able to easily run under it when it does an attack.

When it is defeated, it grants you the Ailing Loran Chalice.

Where Pthumeru Chalices are of the Pthumerians, Ailing Loran is a city that has had a scourge of beasts similar to Yharnam and has been buried by sands.

You can find a lot of Waning Gems in Loran Chalices.

A few notes about Nightmare Frontier.

There are a total of 5 runes found in the Nightmare Frontier

Second tier Stunning Deep Sea: increases rapid poison resistance

First-tier Fading Lake: increases fire damage

Second tier Clear Deep Sea: increases slow poison resistance

Second tier Great Deep Sea: increases general resistance

Second tier Clockwise Metamorphosis: increases max hp

There are a few shining coins lying on the ground in the Nightmare Frontier. You will be knocked off a cliff if you approach them.

Getting knocked off the cliff is unavoidable if you approach the coins as you are knocked down during a cutscene

This has been the Nightmare Frontier.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Cainhurst Castle

Forsaken Castle Cainhurst is an icy place, once brimming with life, now filled with ghosts and servants

While Castle Cainhurst is a later game area it is still possible to access it right after you get the Cainhurst Summons in Iosefka’s clinic to gain access to a stronger Blood Gem and some Bloodstone Chunks to boost your character further ahead in terms of progression.

To first get to Cainhurst Castle you need to go to Hemwick Charnel Lane via the lamp to Witch's Abode, from the Hemwick Charnel Lane lantern, or to walk there from the Grand Cathedral. There is a large black obelisk right before the hill where the Witch's Abode is located. A cutscene will play in which a stagecoach being drawn by two horses will appear and its door will open. Entering the stagecoach will play another cutscene where you will find yourself at the gates of Cainhurst Castle.

In Cainhurst Castle you will face.

Cain’s Servant: Found within the Castle. They have 3 variants. They can all be knocked down by blood damage(i.e. bullets)

Cleaner: Will only attack if provoked. Wields a cane

Blow-dart: There are two types of blow-darts. One is damaging while the other marks you and makes the Widows more aggressive. Found in the library

Knight: Wields a rapier. Attacks swiftly, are aggressive, and are evasive.  

Gargoyle: Found on the balconies and rooftops of Cainhurst Castle. They attack with their wings and with a grab attack. If you interrupt these gargoyles while they’re standing for an attack, it will knock them down and they will take more damage. They have a small chance to drop Bloodstone Chunks.

Bloodlicker: A dangerous enemy. Can’t be visceral attacked. Their stomach size indicates their physical resistance. Have attacks that can hit you from any direction except from their sides. 3 variants in the main game and 1 extra in the DLC

Bloated: literally unable to fight back due to its belly.

Hungry: most common one in Cainhurst Castle.

Starved: Similar to Hungry Bloodlickers but a bit more aggressive from what I’ve seen.

Bound Widow: Found throughout the inside of the Castle. They have 2 variants. Most of their danger comes from their numbers. They are all invisible until they’re approached

Knife: Most common variant. Will become more aggressive if you’re marked

Screamer: These only appear in one room. They cannot directly damage you but their screams are able to immobilize you for a few seconds.

Hateful Maggots: These enemies are found in a lower area of Cainhurst Castle. They are vulnerable to blunt damage but are very low to the ground.

From where you start off when first arriving in Cainhurst Castle you will need to first walk up the stairs leading to the gate of Castle. You will only need to wait for the gate to open as it will open on its own.

When the gate finally opens you will see a courtyard full of Bloodlickers roaming around and the Castle Cainhurst Lantern.

From the Lamp, you can see to the left the entry to the inside of Cainhurst Castle and to the right, a lower area filled with maggots. Next to the fountain, there are a few numbing mists on a corpse. When you’re just about to reach the stairs to the door, look back and see the bloated Bloodlicker and two starved Bloodlickers. They are feeding on 3 corpses: 2 of which have Frenzied Coldblood on them and one of which has 4 numbing mists on it. There are 4 more numbing mists to the right of the door off to the corner.

Down in the area with the many Hateful Maggots in it is a Radial Tempering Blood Gemstone. This particular Blood Gemstone adds a 9.5% physical attack boost and a +3.6% physical attack boost when near death. I advise running in to pick up the Gem then running out as the Maggots are too much trouble than they’re worth.

Walking up to the door will open it automatically. When you walk into the first area you can hear the cries of weeping women and the cleaners working their hardest to make sure the castle is clean. The crying is from the Bound Widows. The servants can drop blood vials so if you are running low on vials I recommend clearing out this lower area full of cleaners. There is one Madman’s Knowledge in the right side of this area and another one to the left. There is also a chest in the corner which has the Reiterpallasch, a Skill-scaling weapon that can fire bullets in its transformed mode.

Walk up the stairs and turn right. There are several Bound WIdows here and one Cleaning Servant. On a corpse near the Cleaning Servant is a single Bloodstone Chunk, the third tier or fortifying material.

Turning left, however, will lead you to where you’re supposed to go in order to advance. There are more Widows and another singular Cleaning Servant. You will also find a room which appears to be a dining room. A respectable amount of Widows are here, waiting to ambush you. There is a corpse in the center of this room which has 4 QS bullets and a chest on the right side of the room which has a Noble Dress.

Walk outside to the balcony and make a left. You’ll find yourself on the wall of Castle Cainhurst. If you’re particularly observant you can notice a Gargoyle perched on top of some ledges. You can find another Bloodstone Chunk here by walking straight ahead then making a left up some spiral stairs. There is a Gargoyle perched like a statue here so be careful. After killing off both Gargoyles head toward the doorway which has two torches lit by it. Be wary of an ambush by a Gargoyle, however. Inside is a corridor with a single Knight Servant in here. After you deal with him you have to go outside and either go back inside through another door or turn right to get 3/4s of an attire. The attire in question is the Executioner’s set but it doesn’t have the headpiece. You can get the headpiece by completing Alfred’s questline. It is guarded by two Gargoyles so either run back inside or face them head-on.

Inside there you’ll find yourself in a Library. Immediately to the left, there is a chest and an elevator shortcut back to the courtyard of Cainhurst Castle. Inside the chest is the Vileblood register. It is only useful in online mode as it is just a leaderboard of who PVPs successfully the most.

Back in the Library, there is a Blowdart Servant in here which marks you for the Widows to attack. When you’re marked the Widows will scream and start moving towards you much more aggressively.

There is also a chest at the right side of the library that has a gun in it called the Evelyn. It has higher bloodtinge scaling than the standard Hunter’s Pistol but it has less base damage than it. The chest is sealed off by tables but you can get to the chest by jumping over with the library stairs. You’ll have to run up the stairs that are close to the left of the Servant.

On the second floor, there are mainly Knight Servants and Blow-dart Servants. The Blow-dart Servants here only deal damage to you.

In the far left corner of this floor, there is another Bloodstone Chunk.

To advance you have to find the empty window pane that leads to the outside. You’ll have to drop down onto the balcony below. There is also a ledge that has 10 QS bullets that you can easily miss.

Going inside will lead you to another room filled with Bound Widows. There are also screamer variants of the Widows in here which paralyze you but deal no direct damage. There are two chests in this room. One of which has 3/4s of the Knight Set and the other chest has a Hunter Tool Called the Executioner’s Gloves. The Executioner’s Gloves cost 3 QS bullets and 20 arcane to use. They fire off 3 skulls which all deal arcane damage and are pretty good at staggering opponents. Go back outside and drop onto the ledge where you can spot the Gargoyle perched on top of a gargoyle statue. On your way to that Gargoyle, you’ll notice a spot in the wall where you can go back inside. The item that the Gargoyle is perched over is a Kin Coldblood which grants a ludicrous amount of blood echoes.

Back inside you’ll see a lever which you’ll have to pull to pull back a ladder which was disguised as a wall. You’ll have to climb up this ladder to advance. At the top of the ladder go up the small set of stairs and make a left. After a long bit of walking you’ll reach the corner of the room and if you look to the left you’ll see a Scurrying Beast. This particular one drops 2 Bloodstone Chunks when it is killed. Run back and open the chest you may have spotted while going around. It has a Droplet Warm Blood Gemstone. This droplet Gemstone increases bloodtinge scaling by a flat amount of 13.5.

Turn around and find the stairs that lead to the roof of the Castle. At the top, there is a Red-eyed Gargoyle here. It is essentially a stronger version of a Gargoyle. There are also 2 normal Gargoyles which will flap their way towards the roof so you’ll have to deal with the single one as soon as possible. There is also a corpse here which has the last piece of the Knight Set, the Knight’s Wig.

Now you’ll have to drop off to another piece of roof with fencing on it. Then you’ll have to drop to another rooftop. Then you’ll have to drop down again to a bridge like area. Do take care as it is possible to fall off the roof and die. You’ll also find a Kin Coldblood here as well. Climb up the ladder and move forward a bit until you find the corpse that has some Bold Hunter’s Marks on it. Then you’ll have to walk back up to where the arch with the two torches is. After some more walking, a cutscene will play and you’ll have to face the boss fight of Cainhurst Castle, Martyr Logarius

Martyr Logarius is a master spellcaster and an incredibly skilled fighter. He makes great use of both disciplines during his boss fight.

He has 2 phases

In phase 1 He will mainly attack with arcane spells, rarely throws out a melee attack, and will do his best to back away from you.

He has 4 types of spells in this phase.

A row of small skulls that have homing properties and hurt quite a bit

A larger skull which he will cast when you’re right in front of him

A larger skull which starts off as a small skull and explodes into a larger skull after he backs off

It will explode into a larger skull regardless of whether it looks like Logarius is making it explode

A large swirling mass of skulls which has a small homing property.

Phase 2 begins when he hits about 70% health.

At the start of phase 2, he will buff himself granting himself hyper-armor and will deflect any bullets you try to shoot at him

You can interrupt this buff by delivering a charged R2 to his back.

He won’t cast this buff again

As such you will need to do your best to keep his back away from a wall when he is almost at 70% health

During phase 2 Martyr Logarius will attack with mainly his scythe and his sword.

His sword is fast and quick but it doesn’t hit as hard as his scythe

His scythe is hard-hitting and slow but it isn’t as fast as the sword.

The scythe has more reach and is likely to hit you if you dodge too early

Martyr Logarius has two different plunging attacks. One which he goes straight up and hovers for a bit and plunges straight down on you with his scythe and another which he hovers for a bit and attacks with his scythe in a spin attack.

The one which he jumps straight up is the harder to dodge of the two as it is highly likely he won’t be on your camera while he’s performing this attack and the other one only requires you to dodge toward him

He also has an attack where he plunges a spectral version of his sword into the ground which will cause a rain of swords to fly towards you.

You can lock onto the sword to shoot it with your firearm

It causes an explosion when it is cast.

You can destroy this sword to end the sword rain.

When he is defeated he drops the Crown of Illusions near the Lamp.

Equipping the Crown of Illusions and heading to where Logarius’ seat was will reveal that there was a hidden throne room there all along. Going inside will greet you with an NPC. Her name is Annalise, and she is the Queen of Vilebloods. She tells you to kneel in front of her throne and she will rebuke you if you do otherwise. Talking to her and swearing oath to the Vilebloods will unlock you a new covenant and will grant you the Cainhurst Badge, unlocking for purchase in the Shop.

Cainhurst armor Set

Chikage

The Chikage is the only weapon in the main game that scales with Bloodtinge in one of its forms

In transformed form its blade is coated in blood

It causes Rapid Poison to build up in its transformed form

It depletes your health slowly while it is transformed

Its R2 increases the health drain while charging.

Evelyn

Numbing Mist

Reiterpallasch

The Vileblood covenant rune, Corruption, grants +1 health regeneration when you are low on health. It also causes Blood Dregs to be dropped from non-respawning hunter enemies and from PVP.

In Annalise’s chamber, there is an item for you to pick up. It is the Unopened Summons. You can give this to Alfred to get the Wheel Hunter Badge. It unlocks

Gold Ardeo: headpiece of the Executioner set

Logarius Wheel

The only weapon in the main game which has an S scaling in strength when fully upgraded. 

Its transformed form deals a large amount of arcane damage 

Its transformed L2 buffs the arcane damage at the cost of health drain. 

You can press L2 up to 4 times with each press buffing the damage and the health drain.

If you decide to travel back to the Vileblood Queen’s Chamber you can find that Alfred has reduced Annalise to a pulp. Talking to him will grant you the roar gesture. You can also interact with Annalise’s flesh to get an item that you can use to resurrect Annalise.

If you return to Alfred’s original spot you will find that he has committed suicide and you can pick up the Radiance Rune-the Covenant Rune for Executioners-from his body. The Radiance Rune increases the effectiveness of blood vials by 2%.

One thing to note about the Corruption and Radiance runes is that players who have the Corruption Rune equipped cannot cooperate with those who have the Radiance Rune equipped and must do combat with them and vice versa.

This has been Castle Cainhurst and Alfred’s questline.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Forbidden Woods Pt.2

I’ve decided to change the name of this guide to Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne as it previously had the same name as a Youtuber’s video.

The second half of the Forbidden Woods is the nesting grounds of a multitude of venomous snakes. A lot of the items in this part of the Forbidden Woods requires you to go out of your way and explore the area. What I’ll go over here will cover the 4 runes you can acquire in the Forbidden Woods, the attire that is here, and the 2 shortcuts.

The enemies in this half of the Forbidden Woods are

Executioner

Snake Balls: they are the most common enemy here in the second half of the Forbidden Woods. They are small and can be hard to spot from a distance. All of their attacks inflict slow poison. Use a weapon with long range for them

Greater Snake Balls: A larger version of the Snake Balls. They have a long sight range and are capable of spitting poison at you. All of their attacks inflict slow poison. I recommend circling around it to hit it from behind as most of its damage comes from being in front of it.

Snake Parasite: Some of the Snake Parasites can summon 4 Snake Balls

Celestial Mob: the Mobs are a kin type enemy and as such, they are vulnerable to thrust attacks(R2 of the untransformed Threaded Cane is a thrust attack) and bolt damage(Tonitrus, bolt paper, bolt gems). The second variant of them has tentacles sprouting from their heads and are capable of attacking with arcane blasts.

Rotten Corpses

Maneater Boars

Starting from the elevator into the 2nd half the of Forbidden Woods you turn right and head down the path. You’ll want to stick to the right and jump down. There should be a gap which you can jump across via sprinting and then pressing the circle button. After walking forward for a small bit you should encounter an Executioner guarding some Twin Bloodstones. After that, you should drop down and kill the Snake Ball. Continue heading forward but stick to the right while heading forward. Continue killing the Snake Balls and picking up all the items you come across. You’ll encounter a Snake Parasite that is guarding some Twin Bloodstones. Keep hugging the right and you’ll come across a Great Snake Ball in front of the huge tombstone. Kill it and there should be a thick coldblood lying against the tree and behind the tombstone is a Clear Deep Sea Rune

Clear Deep Sea Runes increase Slow poison resistance.

Backtrack and head down the slope. There are some Shining Coins and there will be a trio of Snake Parasites to the right in a closed-off space. They are guarding a Bloodstone Chunk here. Turn around and head forward. You'll have to fight a den of Snake balls and a single Greater Snake Ball. There is some loot here including a Frenzied Coldblood. Turn around and there is a cave with 2 Greater Snake Balls residing in it. It is either impossible to lure out one of the Greater Snake Balls out as they both have a large line of sight. It is possible however to get one of the Greater Snake Balls to follow you and get stuck on a tombstone. Then you can take it out using hit and run tactics. Then you can deal with the other Greater Snake Ball. The loot here are 4 Twin Bloodstones and a Deep Sea Rune

Deep Sea Runes increase Frenzy resistance

Turning back and heading forward will lead you to another area. Veering right will bring you to a cliff overlooking a locked gate. That gate is the shortcut to the boss fight so be mindful of that. Veering left will bring you to an area that is patrolled by Snake Parasites(these guys can summon Snake Balls) and there is a single Maneater Boar facing a tombstone. You should be able to sneak up on the Maneater Boar and land a charged R2 to it and give it a visceral attack. To the left of the Maneater Boar is a path that connects to a fallen tree. Cross the tree and you can pick up 3/4s of the Graveguard set. The set is incomplete and the headpiece of the Graveguard set is up on a cliff above you. To access the mask you have to go back to the elevator shortcut near the Lantern, then from there, you have to locate the hole which the Celestial Mobs are hiding in by sticking to the left, then jumping across to the other side where you can find the Graveguard headpiece.

After that you should drop down and head to the left. You’ll find yourself at a swamp sort of area. There is a Maneater Boar patrolling the lower part of this swamp so I would advise taking the high road to avoid confrontation with the Boar. Continue heading left and when you find yourself at a fairly flat area turn right and head upwards. There is a Snake Parasite in the way. Keep heading up and activate the elevator. The elevator leads into the windmill from earlier. This shortcut is for if you either miss the gate shortcut or if you die before you can open the gate shortcut. Go back to the lake and you can find a cave which you can go into. Inside here are the Celestial Mobs. There is a pair of arcane wielding Celestial Mobs right after the first one. They are guarding the Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune.

Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Runes increase your stamina.

The rest of the items you can pick up here are several Madman’s Knowledge.

Head towards where the Maneater Boar was headed earlier. Continue heading straight and If you see the Maneater Board either kill it or just be where it can’t get you. After traveling on the Boar’s path there are some large tree roots which you can get under and you can acquire the Dissipating Lake Rune

Dissipating Lake increases your bolt resistance.

There are some Rotten Corpses in the water so be careful as you can get ganged up on pretty quickly

There are 2 bonfires here and a pathway where the Maneater Boars can’t fit through. You’ll encounter a path heading downwards and a path heading upwards. If you have the League Rune equipped and you have killed Henryk you can summon him here for 1 insight. Head upwards and unlock the gate. There is a Snake Parasite and a Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune here. You can also summon the Younger Madaras Twin here if you have the League Rune equipped

Clockwise Metamorphosis Runes increase your Max HP.

Turn back around and head down the path. After a bit of walking, you should find yourself fighting the Shadows of Yharnam, Boss of the Forbidden Woods

The Shadows of Yharnam are of a trio of robed figures. They are servants to Queen Yharnam as their names imply but they have been infected by the parasitic snakes of the Forbidden Woods.

The three shadows each have a different moveset.

Sword Shadow: wields only a sword but is incredibly aggressive

Candle Shadow: wields a sword and a candlestick which it uses like a flamethrower

Fireball Shadow: wields a mace and is able to bombard you with fireballs

They have 3 phases

Their second phase reveals the snakes that have been infecting them and they gain new attacks

2nd phase activates when one of the Shadows are at about 35% health

When they are going into their 2nd phase they have an animation similar to that of the Snake Parasites when snakes are bursting out of their face. Use this as an opportunity to finish off the last Shadow.

The Sword and Candle Shadows can now extend their limbs to attack

Candle Shadow buffs its sword with fire

Fireball Shadow now has a mortar-like attack. It has a fairly short range, however.

The Sword and Candle Shadows are weak to bolt damage and arcane damage while the Fireball Shadow is not so I recommend bringing bolt paper to boost your damage output in this fight.

The Candle Shadow has a slightly higher fire resistance compared to the other Shadows

There is a giant tombstone in this boss’ arena which you can use to either separate the Shadows or to block fireballs. This tombstone will likely be as great an ally as a summoned cooperator.

When you have killed the Shadows you get the tier 1 Blood Rapture Rune and will gain access to Byrgenwerth.

Blood Rapture Runes restore your health by a flat amount every time you visceral attack

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Forbidden Woods Pt. 1

As I have stated in my previous post, the Forbidden Woods is the next step in advancing the story of Bloodborne.

To access the Forbidden Woods you have to first interact with the skull in Vicar Amelia’s boss room. A cutscene will then play.

Go to the graveyard with the two giants, now they will be sleeping. Find the side entrance that is next to the sleeping giant, head left and pick up any items you find. If you decided to cooperate with Alfred way back in Central Yharnam he will now be here. If you talk to him he now has another dialogue option.

Go all the way down the stairs and interact with the door, and select “Fear the Old Blood”. The door will open and you can interact with a corpse. Head down the spiral stairs and head down the path until you meet an Oil Urn Throwing Huntsman and a Large Huntsman

Oil Urn Throwing Huntsman: throws oil urns and are usually found near enemies that can deal fire damage

Deal with those two and head right, and then another right at a bonfire to encounter an executioner guarding a Madman’s Knowledge and an Adept Blood Gemstone.

The Adept prefix means that the Blood Gemstone either boosts thrust or blunt attacks.

Go back and take the path you didn’t take. After a bit, you can light the Lantern of the Forbidden Woods

Near the Lantern, there are a few Carrion Crows and an antidote. On the bridge, there will be an Axe Huntsman. There will also be a Rifle Huntsman at the end of the bridge. Engage on those two and advance.

There are traps in this section of the Forbidden Woods ranging from pits with enemies in them to logs with spikes. The triggers are usually planks of wood placed inconspicuously on the ground. The first trap is a spiked log that will hit you when it’s activated. Keep going forward and take a right and kill the Large Huntsman as he may pose a problem later. Double back and draw out enemies from the group. There are a few Oil Urn Huntsman in the back that will make this encounter particularly dangerous as you can accidentally dodge into a bonfire and some of the Huntsmen here can inflict fire damage with their torches. Once you are done with this encounter you can either head through the flower field or down the path on the right. Down the path to the right is a drop into a town with enemies. Through the flower field, you will see a Large Huntsman coming out of a hut that has some Beast Blood Pellets inside.

Continue heading down the path. You will see the entrance to the town but there is a path to the left which would be more beneficial to take than going straight into town. Veer left and head straight. There should be a house with an NPC inside which you can talk to. For the first time you talk to him he will give you some directions and the Tonsil Stone, a key item with which you can access an optional area. Keep going forward and you will have a gate closed on you. An Axe Huntsman will be operating the lever and will be taunting you. Turn around and head toward the dog kennels. Kill the dogs and turn right. There are 2 dogs out of their cages and they will try to kill you. After you deal them you can climb a ladder that a carrion crow is next to. On the roof of the building, there are a few carrion crows on top of it and the White Church Set. Go back down and head to the Axe Huntsman from earlier. Kill him, turn around and head inside the hut. Inside is a Hunter Tool called the Beast Roar.

It is a useful Tool for a low arcane requirement so consider investing in 15 arcane

Other Hunter Tools that only require 15 arcane to use are

Old Hunter Bone: decreases the time in between rolls/quick steps: requires 4 QS bullets

Empty Phantasm Shell: It applies an arcane buff similar to fire/bolt paper to your weapon. Requires 3 QS bullets

There is a Snatcher outside the hut guarding 6 blood vials. You can sneak up on it to hit it with a charged R2 and visceral attack it then; wash, rinse, repeat.

Go to the structure with all the huntsman on it. Clear it out as a few of them would’ve lobbed Molotov cocktails at you while you were traversing the oily water down below.

This next part is a detour if you want to overlevel your character a bit.

Double back to the dog kennels and head into the cave that is behind a kennel. Keep advancing downward into the cave until you reach the shores of a poisonous swamp. In here there are 3 unarmed Church Giants and a lot of hateful maggots. Equip your highest slow poison resist attire and attach all of your antidotes to your quick item bar and make a run towards the other side of the cave where there is an opening in the wall lit up with light. Pick up the Dirty Blood Gemstone on your way there. If you want a better Blood Gemstone than the ones you have now you can run back into the swamp and to your right you can pick up a Nourishing Blood Gemstone.

The Dirty prefix indicates that the Gemstone has bonuses to either Slow Poison or Rapid Poison.

The Nourishing Prefix indicates that the Gemstone has bonuses to “attack up” meaning that all damage types of the weapon will be increased. Used mainly with weapons that deal both physical and arcane damage. I.e. the Tonitrus.

There is another opening to this cave that is near a Frenzied Coldblood. Do be wary as a Giant can enter through here. Climb the tall ladder that is in this cave. Once you have ascended that ladder ascend another ladder. You will find that you are now back at Central Yharnam, near Iosefka’s Clinic. Pull the lever that operates the gate and turn around and head forward. There is another gate which you must head through. Keep going forward and you will encounter a brainsucker. Kill it and climb up another ladder. At the top of the ladder, there are a few carrion crows and a door leading into the back area of Iosefka’s Clinic. Turn left to access a higher tier communion rune(+3 max blood vials). Turn right to return to the room where you woke up in. In here there is a Cainhurst Summons and a celestial mob. It drops an Iosefka’s Blood Vial on death so I don’t recommend killing it if you have gotten one from Iosefka earlier on in the game and have not yet used it.

The Cainhurst Summons can take you to the Forsaken Castle Cainhurst. It is highly likely that you will be underleveled for this place when you can first access it. However, it is the first place where you can get Blood Stone Chunks, essential for upgrading weapons to +7, +8, +9. There are 5 in total in Castle Cainhurst and 1 later on in the Forbidden Woods and 4 chunks in the optional area hinted at by the NPC who gave you the Tonsil Stone. 10 Chunks in total will allow you to upgrade 3 weapons to +7 or one weapon to +8. One of the enemies in Castle Cainhurst has a chance to drop a Blood Stone Chunk however it has a very small drop rate.

Either walk back to the ladder leading to the poison swamp and continue forward in the Forbidden Woods or use a Bold Hunter’s Mark back to the Forbidden Woods Lantern(using a Bold Hunter’s Mark respawns all the enemies that were previously killed).

You can either clear out the town of enemies or just go back on the walkway where the Molotov throwing enemies once were.

Inside the town, there are various Huntsman enemies and one large Huntsman. There are some Rifle Huntsman in this town that are hiding. 3 Huntsmen are gathered around a bonfire. One of the houses has some Pungent Blood Cocktails. There is a pit trap here full of Carrion Crows. After you have cleared out this village head through the river area. It is full of Rotten Corpses that are lying in wait. If you have decided to kill the Molotov Huntsmen from earlier you don’t have to worry about getting pelted with molotovs but if you didn’t kill them be careful. The water here decreases your fire resistance so those molotovs will be doing a lot of damage if you don’t have attire specifically geared against fire damage(i.e. Charred Hunter Set).

At the end of the river, you’ll find yourself next to a house. Near the house, there are 2 Huntsmen, and on top of the house, there is a Rifle Huntsman. And there is also a Large Huntsman facing away from you on the left.

In the next area, there is a Huntsman operating a cannon at the end of the street. The cannon deals a lot of damage and can almost one shot you without counter hit damage(bonus damage that you’ll receive if you mistime a dodge/roll and get hit or get hit in the middle of an attack or getting hit while running/jumping). Wait for the cannon to fire, then gun it straight for the Huntsman operating the cannon. There are Huntsman in the houses in this area so feel free to clear out the houses before advancing into the windmill. Inside the windmill, there is a lone enemy. Run up to it, attack it, and it will clutch its head in pain before snakes burst from its head.

They have a low bolt and fire defense so it is helpful to bring either bolt or fire paper when dealing with them or if you have an upgraded Flamesprayer and are on an arcane build you can use that and an oil urn to melt through its health.

It is possible to parry attacks from the snakes that have erupted from their head. 

You can go outside the windmill to drop down on a platform. On the platform, there is a Large Huntsman after walking a bit to the left. There is also a ladder you can climb to gain access to an upper portion of the windmill. In this portion of the windmill you can drop down and grab a new weapon; the Cannon. 

The Cannon is a useful tool for strength builds(can only be used if you have 30 strength). It requires 12 QS bullets to fire and has large base damage in exchange for poor scaling.  

You can go back up the ladder after falling off and go straight ahead across the room to the area outside with a single NPC there having a meal. You can either send him to Oedon Chapel or Iosefka’s clinic but I prefer killing him on the spot since if you send him to Oedon Chapel he will begin killing the NPCs there. If you attack him he will reveal his true form as an Abhorrent Beast. 

The Abhorrent Beast is a swift, strong, and dangerous foe.

It is possible to cheese this fight with poison knives as he can’t fit through the doorway. 

He has buffs himself at 75% and <50% with him getting follow-ups to his attacks in his second phase as well as having his moveset modified, and getting new attacks in the 3rd phase.

You can either kill him, send him off to Iosefka’s or Oedon Chapel, or just leave him be. Go back down to the bottom of the windmill and head to the door that leads outside. There will be a Snake Parasite patrolling on the bridge, deal with it and move on. There should be an elevator to the right after the bridge. Take the elevator up as you still have to unlock the door from the inside to be able to use this shortcut. In this building is Valtr, Master of the League. The League is a covenant in Bloodborne that is centered around cooperation. Equipping the League’s covenant rune, Impurity will give you +2% max health while cooperating, reveal NPC summons, and give you Vermin every time you kill a boss with co-op online. The most useful feature of this Covenant is the NPC summons that it gives you if you don’t play online. 

This was the first half of the Forbidden Woods.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Hemwick Charnel lane

The Forbidden Woods is the next step in advancing the story of Bloodborne but taking a side path will be of great help in the future. The Rune Workshop Tool found in Hemwick Charnel Lane.

To get to Hemwick Charnel Lane from the Grand Cathedral you have to get past the two Crucifix Servants and turn right and walk forward. You should see a corpse with an item on it. Picking up the item will give you a bloodshot eyeball. Bloodshot eyeballs are used in the Hintertomb chalice ritual. Keep walking forward till you see an area filled with tall trees and graves. In this area are a bunch of Rifle Huntsman and Hemwick Hunting Dogs.

Hemwick Hunting Dogs are lean, mean killing machines. They are essentially hunting dogs with a different moveset and are tougher than normal hunting dogs, 

if you have trouble with them you can use Pungent Blood Cocktails to distract them

Some of the Rifle Huntsman in this area will take out a sword when you get close to them

Another enemy that will spawn in are the Mad Ones

Mad Ones: They are tall lanky killers that spawn in with bright red lights and an ominous sound. They are fairly tough enemies and are capable of stun locking you to death.

Mad Ones will only spawn if your insight is above 15 and it is night time.

After you get through this area head down where the two Hemwick Hunting Dogs and Rifle Huntsman are. Kill them and keep on going down. A Mad One will spawn and there is a gate that you have to open. Open the gate and light the Lantern

In Hemwick Charnel Lane you can fight

Graveyard Hags: there are several different variants of these enemies

Cleaver and Torch Hags

Molotov cocktails and cleaver Hags: they tend to stay back while lobbing molotovs at you.

Giant Hammer Hag

Sickle Hag

Plow Hag

Brick Trolls

Wheelchair Huntsman

Hemwick Hunting Dogs

Executioners

Carrion Crows

In the first area you will only fight Graveyard Hags, however after you go up the stairs you will be attacked by some more Hags, Hemwick Hunting Dogs, and a Mad One.

After that and some more stairs, you will be attacked by a Brick Troll who is assisted by a Molotov Hag. There is another Hammer Hag nearby the Molotov Hag

Go down the stairs and you will be ambushed by a Sickle Hag

Next, there is an open area with a bunch of Carrion Crows and a singular Mad One for you to fight

One of the Carrion Crows is bugged and it won't attack you at all

Near the Crows is an elevator shortcut which you should activate. Then after you've activated the elevator go back up and head towards the bridge. You'll be ambushed by a Plow Hag.

At the top of the bridge, there is a brick troll for you to fight. Inside the dark barn are a Molotov Hag, a Sickle Hag, and a Hemwick Hunting Dog that will rush you from further within the barn. Go up the ladder, walk a bit further and you can find a scurrying beast. A Mad One spawns in this same room so bring a Molotov to kill off the scurrying beast quickly. Turn around, make a right and walk across the rafters to get to the other side of the building.

In this little cordoned off area, there is the Wheelchair Huntsman and some items for you to pick up.

This is entirely optional and you don't have to get the items here, being a Madman's Knowledge and a blood gemstone

If you didn't do that, engage on the Mad One. Go outside and you'll find yourself on the roof of a building. Go on forward and you should see a Hammer Hag waiting to push you off the roof to your doom. Kill her and move on.

In this next area, there are a Molotov Hag, one Brick Troll, 2 Sickle Hags, 1 Cleaver Hag, and some Hemwick Hunting Dogs. Descend down the tower with all the bodies and go outside.

This last segment is the last part of Hemwick Charnel Lane. Down here there are 2 executioners, several Hemwick Hunting Dogs, and some Graveyard Hags. Off on a broken Bridge is a tier 1 Lake Rune.

The Lake Rune series decreases the amount of damage you take from physical damage to fire damage.

Off on a hill is a large building which you need to go into. At the top of it are 3 Graveyard Hags and 1 executioner that is hiding near a chest. That executioner will aggro into you when you begin attacking the Hags. After you're done with that go inside the building. Inside there is a single scurrying beast. Descend into the building and begin the boss fight. 

The Witches of Hemwick are a duo of witches with arcane power. It can be inferred from their appearance and from what they drop that their rituals require a lot of eyes.

This is the boss of Hemwick Charnel Lane and will grant you access to the Rune Workshop Tool.

They drop 4 Bloodshot Eyeballs on their death

This boss has two phases

The 2nd phase initiates when the first witch is killed.

The second phase has the second Witch’s health bar appearing and the witches will actively try to hold you down with arcane attacks similar to those of a hooded brainsucker’s

This fight is more gimmicky than difficult.

The Witches will continuously spawn Mad Ones

Mad Ones will not spawn if you have zero insight

The maximum amount of Mad Ones spawned is 3

They are not as aggressive when not attacking as the Mad Ones from earlier

The Witches are invisible unless you walk close to them

There is a red glow near them when they are summoning Mad Ones

They will occasionally use an arcane AOE attack when you’re near them but usually they just teleport away if you attack them a few times

In the second phase if you take too long to finish off the second witch the first will be respawned with 20% of its health left. This will continue until both are dead

When you start the fight the first witch always spawns in the corner to your left.

It is possible to kill the second Witch before you kill the first Witch, it's just that the second Witch’s health bar is invisible in the first phase.

A nice tip to know is that it is possible at the beginning of the fight to keep the first Witch in a backstab chain; just get behind her, Charge R2, visceral attack,  and repeat until dead.

I don’t recommend it in the 2nd phase as the multiple Mad Ones and the arcane attacks will likely kill you before you get to visceral chaining.

When you’ve killed them the Mad Ones will despawn and a Lantern will appear in this room. Disregard that for now and head for the locked door. It will open and on a corpse is the Rune Workshop Tool, allowing you to utilize Caryll Runes and their various benefits.

After this, you have essentially nothing else to do in Hemwick Charnel Lane beside access another optional area.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Cathedral Ward

The second part of Cathedral Ward, where the story wants you to go.

This first part of this guide will cover the way you should go if you killed the Blood-Starved Beast and don’t want to spend 10,000 echoes to pass through the gate.

From the Cathedral Ward Lantern the door that was previously closed will be open, and there will be an elevator.

The elevator takes you to the Healing Church Workshop.

The enemies in this area are

Wheelchair huntsmen: 3 new variants

Flamesprayer: can move around, there are only two of them and they are in the same area

Gatling gun: stationary, fires a stream of bullets before pausing

Rifle: stationary: fires one powerful shot before reloading.

Rifle huntsmen

Several variants of Yharnam Huntsmen

1 Brick Troll

Straight from the elevator, you will see a chest at the end of the room with a Tier 1 Communion Caryll rune that gives max vials up and a trophy as this should be the first rune you get in the game.

Caryll Runes are various runes that can do several different things for your character from stamina up to more Visceral attack damage

To be able to utilize caryll runes you have to go and do an optional area that you can access from the second part of Cathedral Ward

After you finish that uneventful room go outside and there you will be sniped by a Rifle Huntsman and a  Wheelchair Huntsman

You will be rushed by a sword-wielding huntsman while you’re on the bridge so take care.

Now before you go into the tower do know that if you want to advance in Cathedral Ward, you’ll have to go to the right of the door to the tower but there is a useful pickup at the top of the tower.

The first floor has several Yharnam Huntsman, tougher than the ones in Central Yharnam

The second floor has a Sword Huntsman, and one Gatling Gun Huntsman

After the second floor, you have to go outside to where the two Rifle Huntsman from earlier were shooting you from.

They can knock you off the building here so be careful

There is also a Brick Troll here.

You have to walk around the ledge till you see the ladder

Climb up the ladder and you’ll meet the two flamesprayer wheelchair huntsman

The chest in this room contains the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge

It also has a locked door which you can’t unlock right now

The Radiant Sword Hunter Badge unlocks in the shop

Fire Paper

Bone Marrow Ash

Ludwig’s Rifle

Flamesprayer

Ludwig’s Holy Blade

In my opinion one of the stronger weapons in this game, its greatsword form deals a lot of damage and is the best choice for a str/skl build

Now if you just want to advance and stick with your current weapon then don’t go into the tower, instead go right and drop down, you will find yourself in a dark area that has a lot of perilous drops. At the bottom of the tower lie a lone enemy. The Beast-Possessed Soul

This unique enemy is one of a kind in the main game and is one of the few beast enemies that utilizes fire

It can shoot fireballs and buff its attacks when its health has been depleted enough

It can be buffed if it lands a grab attack on you

Its death will grant you a Tier 1 Beast rune

The Beast rune increases your beasthood stat and gives you resistance to fall damage

Open the door and you’ll be greeted with a weird little area. In this area there are

2 Yharnam Huntsman but with a different costume

Some hunting dogs

Some Carrion Crows

1 Hooded Brainsucker: have a deadly grab attack that drains insight

Hooded brainsuckers have arcane spells which lock you in place, and if they land will be followed up by their grab attack

1 Snatcher: Tall enemies with bags, they stick out like a sore thumb

Have some arcane attacks that don’t do damage but stagger your character

They have really hard hitting attacks and they buff themselves after their health is reduced to 75%

When they’re buffed they attack faster and gain new attacks

When they are buffing themselves they are left open to a charged R2 to their back

When a snatcher kills you for the first time you are transported to a new “optional area”

It’s “optional” because you eventually go their later in the game.

This is the only way to get to this area at this point in time.

There is also a sweaty clothes set in this area

Find the elevator at the end of the area and you will be transported to the gated off sections of Cathedral Ward. The gates can be opened via levers. Opening all the gates in Cathedral Ward will advance Eileen the Crow’s quest line if you have started it. Also in the general Cathedral Ward, the enemies you’ll encounter are

Scythe Church Servants: wields a scythe that deals extra arcane damage when you have >15 insight

Repeating Pistol Church Servants: wield a repeating pistol along with the cane, shoots faster than previous gun toting enemies

Flamesprayer Church Servants: wields a flamesprayer sprays in a continuous line or in arcs

Crucifix Church Servants: wield a crucifix that can deal frenzy damage

When a frenzy meter is filled, it deals 70% of your max health in damage

Most variants of Yharnam Huntsman

Saw and Torch Large huntsman

Plow Large Huntsman: wields a plow, I personally feel that he is more dangerous than the other two variants of Large Huntsman

Brick Trolls, both variants

Church Giants: only the axe variant

Hunting Dogs

Brainsucker: this variant does not have arcane attacks

Carrion crows

The first gate you can open is right outside the elevator.

The second gate is found near the first gate, just a ways right of it.

If you got into Cathedral Ward with the Hunter Chief Emblem you would need to go down a side area to open this gate. Don't go up the large set of stairs with all the Church enemies. Go into the graveyard with the two Giants walking about.

Here is where you would be if you used the Hunter Chief Emblem to get into Cathedral Ward

From the gate that is opened with the Hunter Chief Emblem, you could go and engage in combat with the Giants in the graveyard, then go and advance.

To actually advance you would have to go left from the gate and advance into the alley that is patrolled by the Church Servant. Near the entrance of the alley is a Flamesprayer wielding Church Servant.

After walking a bit you can find a corpse with 12 poison knives on it

Poison knives deal less damage than throwing knives but after you throw enough knives the enemy will begin taking slow poison damage

A favored tactic for cheesing certain fights

Continue walking down the alley

Look left and you can speak to two NPCs

Both of them you can send to either Oedon Chapel or Iosefka’s Clinic

Send the woman to Oedon Chapel and the man to Iosefka’s

They won't look for a safe place until you’ve killed enough bosses

Continue going down the alley. You'll have to fight your way through a number of yharnam huntsman, including some large ones.

In a little corner off to the left, you'll be able to pick up the Black Church Set off a corpse

After a bit of walking, you'll be sniped by a Rifle Huntsman. He has some Huntsman nearby protecting him so be careful.

After that climb up the ladder in the building with the coffins.

Then jump off the building with the note on it and you’ll land on the other side of the gate.

Unlock the gate and you'll have to fight your way up the Grand Cathedral

Right before you head into the Grand Cathedral, there are two paths you can go on that lead to optional areas

Left leads you to Hemwick Charnel Lane

Right leads you to the Lecture Building. You can't head into the Lecture Building just yet

Heading into the Grand Cathedral will lead you into a Vicar Amelia’s boss room

https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Vicar+Amelia if you want a more detailed guide on Vicar Amelia

Vicar Amelia is the head of the Healing Church or was until she transformed into a beast. 

This is the boss of Cathedral Ward, and will allow you to advance the storyline of the game

Vicar Amelia has 2 phases

The phases transition when she hits 50% health

The second phase gives her some new attacks, she becomes more aggressive, and she gains a healing ability

The healing can be negated with numbing mists

it can be interrupted if you attack her enough

Numbing mists are mainly used for pvp or when you’re fighting hostile hunter NPCs

You can find 6 on top of the tower that is behind the gate with the wooden shield

It is impossible to parry Vicar Amelia with a gun but you can perform a visceral attack on her if you damage her head enough.

If you deal enough damage to any of her limbs, she will do a short animation where she recoils in pain. Attacking a damaged limb will deal increased damage

She also has a grab attack, it’s telegraphed by her raising both arms up for a moment.

One of her attacks, in which she brings her hands together and slams them on the ground, launches an aoe. I find it easiest to dodge when she’s performing that attack when I’m nearby.

You can summon Old Hunter Henriett if you have the Old Hunter Bell and have enough insight to summon her. She wields the kirkhammer and is a good distraction.

She drops the Gold Pendant when she dies and interacting with the altar advances time and allows you to advance.

If you have decided to advance in Eileen the Crow’s questline go to Oedon Chapel after you have opened all the gates in Cathedral Ward and talk to Eileen the Crow. She is off in the corner outside near the door that is straight out from the Lantern.

She tells you that there is a blood-drunk hunter in Oedon Tomb and that she plans to kill him. However, if you do not help her she will end up dead or blood-drunk herself.

Go run off to Oedon Tomb and sneak to where you can find the Red-Jeweled Brooch. You will see a lone hunter standing with his back towards you. That hunter is named Henryk. He is an incredibly tough foe and it is unlikely that you can handle him yourself.

He wields a Saw Cleaver and a Pistol

He also occasionally throws a knife at you.

He hits like a truck

He also takes hits like a truck

All in all he’s really dangerous

Especially if he gets you stuck on a tombstone

Drop down and proceed to sneak up on him

Hit him with a charged R2 to his back and visceral attack him.

Keep on fighting him and Eileen will pop up to help you fight him shortly after

Henryk can still easily kill Eileen if you’re not careful.

You can accidentally aggro Eileen if you hit her too many times

Henryk can and will occasionally shoot with his pistol

If you’re reckless you can actually get parried by this

If you want Eileen to live and if you want to advance her questline DO NOT LET HER DIE

If you die before Eileen does you can run back to Oedon Tomb and she will be there fighting Henryk

Henryk drops the tier 1 Heir rune on death and unlocks his set in the Insight messenger shop

The tier 1 Heir rune increases the number of blood echoes you receive from kills with a visceral attack

His set has high bolt resistance.

That is basically it for Cathedral Ward for now

[bloodborne-guide]

Beginner’s Guide to Bloodborne: Old Yharnam

Old Yharnam, where the beast hunting aspect of Bloodborne is taken to its most extreme. Pretty much all of the enemies in this area are considered beasts save for a few.

Now from the Lantern and the gate you will be greeted with dialogue from someone named Djura.

He’s an asshole…

Anyways on to business, there will be a new enemy type that is mainly found in Old Yharnam called, oh so eloquently, Beasts and there are 3 variants of them.

Beast: basically naked except for their fur

Are more common than the other two variants

Cower in fear when a torch is held in your off-hand

Chase you down

Cloaked Beast: Has a cloak over their head

Walk slowly

They do not cower in fear of fire

Have long and quick combos

Attacks build up slow poison, a status effect that chips away at your health

Greater Cloaked Beast: basically Cloaked Beasts but larger

More dangerous than the other 2 variants

Some Greater Cloaked Beasts can buff other enemies in the area, making them more aggressive and have slow poison build up on their attacks

Have a grab attack

All of these Beast enemies (and any other beast type enemy in this game) are susceptible to serrated and fire damage.

There are two ways to go from directly outside the gate. Left or right

Left is where you’re supposed to go, right can lead you to an item called Hunter’s Torch

The Hunter’s Torch does not provide more light than the normal Torch but it deals more damage

Also going right has a scurrying beast with some bloodstones. It also jumps off a ledge but you can follow it as that is where you can find the Hunter’s Torch and a shortcut which you can unlock later. You have to keep going down to find the Hunter’s torch and the ladder back up. Also, there are 2 Cloaked Beasts around here

If you went left you will encounter your first Old Yharnam Beast. It is first obscured by some smoke so it might have the jump on you. There are also several other Beasts in this area and one Cloaked Beast off in the corner. After you have cleared out this area you can advance.

There is a small courtyard like area with a bunch of statues, beasts, and a few cloaked beasts. I highly recommend not going too far forward until you have cleared the area of enemies. You will see why shortly.

Now one thing to note that if you look off to the right you can see that there is no fencing to keep you from falling off the ledge in one small area, I usually go down this path as it is safer to go down in my opinion. If you did advance past a few statues Djura will begin shooting at you with his Gatling gun.

Yeah, that is what I meant when I said he’s an asshole.

Anywho if you went down after you fall down the ledge you’ll see a Greater Cloaked Beast in there, first one you encounter. After that room is an area with some explosives, Djura will shoot these in hopes of catching you in the resulting explosions. There are also a few Beasts in here that will likely die from the explosions. After this room there will be a small bridge you have to cross. Sprint across it to avoid getting shot. Here there will be some Carrion Crows guarding a blood stone. In the next room there will be two Beasts in a corner and 1 Greater Cloaked Beast hiding. Near the Greater Cloaked Beast’s hiding spot is a bloodtinge gemstone.

The next area is fairly perilous and I usually sprint past it. There are several Beasts and Cloaked Beasts here and Djura still can shoot you while you’re down here. There is also a hostile Hunter NPC, one of the first. He wields a Saw Spear and pistol. If you want a free weapon and attire set you have to go in the building near this area, it's dark and there are a lot of beasts in there. The free weapon is the Rifle Spear and the free attire is the Charred Hunter Set

Just climb up the ladder.

When you have climbed up the ladder do NOT go up the second one. Djura is a really tough enemy and you’d be better off going through the hidden ledge that is opposite of the ladder.

If you really want what he drops you can either

Cheese him by knocking him off the tower

Done by spamming your gun or poking him off with the dash attack of the Hunter Axe

Befriend him later in the game if you have encountered another optional boss.

Not the one at the end of Old Yharnam however, a different one that you can encounter after the one at the end of Old Yharnam

Befriending him will make him non-hostile and will give you the Powder Keg Badge and the Brush Off Dust Gesture however you cannot buy his set unless you kill him

The Powder Keg Badge unlocks in the messenger shop

oil urn

rope Molotov cocktails

these are molotovs you throw behind you

Stake Driver

Djura’s weapon of choice

has a powerful charged R2 attack when transformed

Rifle Spear

The L2 input while transformed is a shotgun blast

Now if you went off the ledge you will find yourself on the rafters of where you’re supposed to go.

Keep going and don’t fall off. You may notice an explosive hanging precariously off some scaffolding. Knock it down and set fire to the entire area down below, it makes the encounter down there so much easier. The tricky part right now is to get down from the rafters.

The enemies in this area are all 3 variants of Old Yharnam Beast

The Greater Cloaked Beasts in this area will buff the others

You don’t have to set the area on fire but I prefer doing it.

You should notice the item pick up at the altar looking thing in this room. It’s ritual blood, used for chalice rituals. Chalice Dungeons are entirely optional.

So walking out of the building there are two ways you can go, left or right. Right is where you’re supposed to go and there are 6 blood vials and a shortcut back to Djura’s tower. Going left leads you to some Carrion Crows and some bloodstones.

To access the shortcut back to Djura’s tower you’ll need to climb up a tall ladder and open the gate.

The way to advance has a corridor that leads to a room with 3 Beasts and a Scurrying Beast at the far left end of the room. Either Molotov the scurrying beast or empty your stamina bar into it. The next area has 2 Pungent Blood Cocktails and is patrolled by two Scourge Beasts.

In this part of Old Yharnam, there are a large number of Scourge Beasts.

After you deal with the two Scourge Beasts here keep on moving forward. If you hit a locked gate, you’re going the wrong way.

If a lone Scourge Beast ambushes you-you're going the right way.

Near a the previously mentioned Scourge Beast Ambush is a cylindrical staircase in a building with a single Beast and an item gank. Heading up this building will lead you to a shortcut back to the Lantern. Use this shortcut to get back to the boss room if you die in there.

After you go back down to where you were, you’ll hear a Greater Cloaked Beast screeching. Scourge Beasts can also be buffed by Greater Cloaked Beasts. This is the only instance in the main game, however. The Greater Cloaked Beast has its back to you so you can get a backstab off on it here.

Then either gun it or face down the buffed Scourge Beast.

Going ahead from here will lead you to another Scurrying Beast that runs down some stairs. Kill it and reap the rewards.

If you’ve spoken to Alfred earlier you can summon him here for the boss fight that is in the ruined looking church.

The Blood-Starved Beast is a malformed creature, with its skin flayed off its back. As its name says, it wants blood and it just so happens a wandering hunter just stumbled upon it.

This is the boss of Old Yharnam, and will grant you access to Cathedral Ward if you haven’t already bought the Hunter Chief Emblem.

This boss has 3 phases.

The phases transition when its health is depleted to 66%  and 33%

The second phase gives it some new attacks and gives it slow poison build up on its attacks. It's now more aggressive

The third phase gives it more attacks and standing near it builds up slow poison. It’s now even more aggressive

During phase transitions, it sits still for a bit leaving it open to attack

During the third phase, one of the attacks it gains is a channeled AoE attack that builds up a lot of slow poison

When going into this boss fight you should put some antidotes on one of your quick slots so when you do get slow poisoned you can remove the debuff. There are also 3 antidotes behind an altar in the area.

Parrying is really effective in all stages of this boss fight

A lot of its attacks will probably miss if you’re at its side or behind it.

In the Second and Third phase, it has a grab attack, the telegraph for this attack is it will run up in front of you and pause momentarily, standing with its legs bent at a 90-degree angle and then it will leap.

You can parry its grab attack but I don’t recommend it as it deals a lot of damage and usually procs slow poison

If you throw a Pungent Blood Cocktail the Blood-Starved Beast will go to where you threw it. This leaves it open to being attacked and you can even get a backstab on it during this time.

Killing the Blood-Starved Beast will give you the Pthumeru Chalice and access to the Chalice Dungeons

It also allows you to advance in Cathedral ward and spawns new enemies around, and it also opens up a lot of areas that you can access later in the game.

After you have defeated the Blood-Starved Beast you can consider Old Yharnam conquered.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Cathedral Ward and how to advance

TLDR: To advance in Cathedral Ward, either kill the Cleric Beast and buy the Hunter Chief Emblem or kill the boss of an optional area.

Oedon Chapel is basically the NPC hub of this game, you can send NPCs here if you so wish but only after you talk to the resident of this chapel. You can also send NPCs to Iosefka’s clinic but you won’t be able to see them again till after you kill a mandatory boss later on

There is a door in Oedon chapel that will open up after you kill an “optional” boss

If you decide to go through the door that is ahead of the lantern you will encounter

2 Cane Servants: 1 behind a wagon and another near a Lantern Servant

1 Lantern Servant, at the top of a large set of stairs.

Near the Lantern Servant is a wooden shield, not very useful but has a single niche use.

Go out the door to the left and you will see a new variant of enemy.

Church Servants: These guys have several variants but let’s focus on the ones you meet here

Lantern Servants: These guys walk around with a cane in one hand and a lantern in the other, they can use arcane abilities if your insight is above 15

Cane Servants: These guys only wield a cane but they are more aggressive in their attacks

All variants of Church Servant are incredibly easy to parry, making visceral attacks effective against them

After you deal with the 2 patrolling Church Servants you can pick up the attire that is off in the corner of the area which you are in, it is the hunter set with top hat

There are two ways you can go, up the stairs or down a different set of stairs.

Going up will lead you to a new enemy, Church Giant

Church Giants: These are fairly dangerous enemies that come in different variants. There are only two variants in this section of the game.

Axe Giant: The most common version, wields a massive axe that has a large hitbox. Stay close to them and dodge INTO the axe because you gain invincibility frames

Ball and Chain Giant: There is only one of these guys in the entire game, gave me a lot of trouble when I first fought him. Use the same strategy for the axe giants

One thing that is common between all of them is that they all have a hard hitting attack that  causes one of their leg bones to pop out of their leg. Attacking this bone will leave the giants open for a visceral attack. I recommend unlocking off the giant when trying to attack the bone.

After you deal with the single Church Giant there are two ways for you to advance, up the stairs or down the stairs.

Going up will lead you to a locked gate. This is what I meant when I said that the Cleric Beast was “optional”. This door will only be unlocked if you buy a key item that is unlocked after you kill the Cleric Beast for 10,000 Blood Echoes.

Going down will lead you to the area with a Ball and Chain Giant, some Brick Trolls, Carrion Crows, and Scurrying Beasts.

Scurrying Beasts: These enemies are really important. Upon death they are guaranteed to drop bloodstones. They do not respawn if you pick up their loot however.

They have low health bars but have high resistance against physical attacks. I would advise bringing along a few molotovs to quickly kill these guys off and pick up their loot.

The first part of this little mini area has the two Brick Trolls and Carrion Crows

The first one has its back towards you, however, I wouldn’t recommend going in for a backstab as its friend usually walks up towards this area. Try to get one of them to aggro onto you via throwing knife or pebble and pick them off one by one.

Near the ledge, there is a corpse with a monocular on it. The monocular can be used for getting a better look at things.

Now the tricky part. There is a Scurrying Beast here and 5 bloodstone shards. But nearby is the Ball and Chain Giant. I suggest you lock onto the Scurrying Beast first and throwing a molotov at it to finish it off in one hit. Then rush to pick up the loot and kill the giant (easier said than done). After you’re done with that, pick up the bloodstone shards from the nearby corpse, then descend into the poorly lit room with vases.

There are no enemies here so you don’t need to worry about getting ambushed. There is a chest at the end of the room, next to a closed door. The chest has a blood gem in it so be sure to pick it up if you didn’t convert the Red Jeweled Brooch into a droplet gem.

Now let’s say you went down the stairs instead of up the other set of stairs.

This path leads down to a group of Yharnam Huntsmen and some Hunting Dogs

There is a building with an ambush inside and a Madman’s Knowledge.

Next to the building is a stairway with a Rifle Huntsman at the top of it, when he aggros onto you, so will his two hunting dogs.

After you deal with those three go inside the building from earlier, you will now see that you are on the second floor of it and there is a lever.  Pull it to reveal a secret passageway for an “optional” area.

There is another door that you can open, going down will let you talk to a friendly NPC hunter named Alfred the Executioner, exhausting his dialogue and agreeing to cooperate with him will net you some fire paper and a new gesture

Fire Paper: buffs weapon with fire

You can talk to him again for some lore but it is not required.

Go down into the secret passageway and proceed to the next area.

In this secret passageway, there is another bloodgem, some antidotes, and a single Scourge Beast in the dark.

After a bit of walking, you will see the lantern for this area.

There is also some pungent blood cocktails hidden by some breakables.

There is a large door that you literally cannot miss that has a prompt to inspect

The note warns you to turn back, and that hunters are not wanted here

Interacting with the door again will open it and you’ll be greeted by a burning city and someone who REALLY doesn't want you there.

Welcome to Old Yharnam, forgotten and abandoned by men.

You will find an optional boss at the end of Old Yharnam that, upon its defeat, will allow you to advance in Cathedral Ward.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Central Yharnam PT2.

So you’ve defeated the Cleric Beast and have discovered that the Great Bridge is locked. You need another way to get to the Cathedral Ward

Take any available lantern to the Hunter’s Dream if you were able to encounter the Cleric Beast, there will be a new NPC for you to talk to. She will be responsible for leveling up your character as you progress through this game. This NPC will only be animate if you have at least 1 insight.

Insight is gained by consuming Madman’s knowledge, Great One's Wisdom, encountering a boss, killing a boss, entering certain areas, or consuming an item that is necessary for one ending of this game.

Level up your character and head back to Central Yharnam.

Starting off from the Central Yharnam Lantern head to the gate that is near Gilbert’s house that you should have unlocked before fighting the Cleric Beast. Face the dark house and go to the left of it. There should be two Brick Trolls over there you have to fight. If you look ahead you should see a room with a lever. Said lever will be inoperable until you activate the elevator that is connected to it.

Go back to where you fought the two Brick Trolls. There will be a pathway that leads to the Great Bridge* and an alley with that is full of dog kennels and hunting dogs.

Hunting dogs: the first variant of dog-type enemy you encounter in this game. They are swift and will make short work of you, but they are fragile and can’t take a lot of hits.

Most of the dogs in this area are in kennels however, and you can kill them off. There is also a coldblood dew that is being guarded by a single Hunting dog.

You may have also noticed a lone Hunting dog harassing a door. Kill it and talk to the old NPC over there. You can send this NPC to one of two areas after you complete the Central Yharnam section of the game but not before you talk to the NPCs of those areas.

After you are done with that head into the building next to the Old Lady. There will be a new enemy type that you will have to watch out for, they are called Large Huntsmen and there are 3 different variants of this huntsman but only two types are in Central Yharnam. They are all easily countered with parries as their attacks are fairly telegraphed. Don’t underestimate them however

Saw and Torch Large Huntsman: Can attack with its torch to deal fire damage.

Spear Large Huntsman: Has longer range than the Saw and Torch Huntsman, it is more dangerous than the Saw Large Huntsman

Go down the stairs and kill the enemy that is over there. Do NOT continue down through this area however. Go back up the stairs and smash all the breakables here and you will find a way onto the rafters. Over here there are several items you should pick up and two items, a saw spear and some bloodstones, you have to cut down and pick them up from the lower area. There will also be an NPC hunter named Eileen the Crow and you can trigger her questline after talking to her. She gives you 4 Bold Hunter’s Marks and a gesture after you exhaust her dialogue. Drop down into the area below but do NOT fall into the sewer area below, you’ll take heavy fall damage and may die. Instead, fall onto the first floor of the building, you won’t die and you’ll only need one blood vial to heal up the damage. In this area, there will be

1 Rifle Huntsman

1 Spear Large Huntsman

1 Saw Large Huntsman

The Spear Large Huntsman will be facing a wall, sneak up on him and charge up an R2 then proceed to visceral attack him. Just don’t get too close or he’ll retaliate. Then on to deal with the Rifle Huntsman, he patrols near one of the exits of the building. He has a fairly large line of sight and may aggro on to you while you’re dealing with the Large Huntsman and give you trouble. The Saw Large Huntsman is patrolling near the far left corner of the building.

After this you may drop down into the sewer area to pick up the items from the corpses you cut down earlier. Here there will be a new type of enemy and a Madman’s Knowledge

Labyrinth Rat: These enemies are fairly common in Yharnam sewers, they have no way of attacking you if they are not directly facing you. They also appear in Chalice Dungeons

Clear out the area and continue heading through the aqueduct. If you decide to pass up the loot from the corpses you cut down earlier head through the door leading to a higher up section of the sewers. Here in the aqueduct section there is,

1 Spear Large Huntsman

2 Rifle Huntsman

A lot of Carrion Crows

A lot of Wretched Undead, you’ll know this one when you see it: These guys are slow and are in groups

One Maneater Boar: this one is a particularly tough enemy. It canNOT be parried but it can be backstabbed via charged R2 to its rear

Several things I would like to note about this area,

There are quite a bit of ambushes set up by the Carrion Crows and Wretched Undead

The Maneater Boar is guarding two items; Saw Hunter Badge and Coldblood dew

There is a ladder about halfway through the area leading to an NPC after a Brick Troll and some Carrion Crows

This NPC is a little girl whose parents are missing and her dad is a hunter. Speak to her to start her questline, but to seal her fate. Exhausting her dialogue and saying you will find her parents will give you a Tiny Music boss. This will be useful pretty soon as it will temporarily stun a boss a finite number of times allowing you to get some free hits in.

Near the entrance to where the Maneater Boar is hiding is a ladder leading to a small bridge with several huntsmen of varying types and a Brick Troll at the end of it. But NEXT to the bridge is an elevator. Take the elevator to activate it. Either head back to the dream to level up or go back down the elevator. Begin fighting the crowd on the bridge, but do be careful as a giant flaming ball will soon go down the bridge dealing damage to everything it hits. If you don’t want to go through that go and kill the Maneater Boar. There will be a door near where the Boar is leading to that exact same place, but you pop up on the side of the bridge with the Brick Troll. Finish it off as it usually takes a large amount of damage from lighting the ball on fire. Go up the stairs and you will see two Large Huntsman, one spear and one saw, guarding a few Bold Hunter’s Marks. You can easily sneak up behind one of them and perform a backstab; I recommend doing this as they are fairly tough individually and are even more dangerous if both of them are focusing you at the same time.

Go up some more stairs and walk into the graveyard and begin boss fight

Father Gascoigne is a fellow hunter like yourself, but he has lost himself to the bloodlust of the hunt is now looking to make you his next prey.

Gascoigne is the first mandatory boss in Bloodborne

He is fast, tough, and may cause you to give up.

There are several things you need to know about this boss and the area in which you fight him in,

IMPORTANT: using the Music Box 3 times will send Gascoigne directly into phase 3, and will only stun him once in phase 3. After that, it is rendered useless.

Now we have that out of the way I’ll explain Gascoigne’s three phases

Phase one has him wielding the Hunter Axe and Hunter’s pistol. The pistol has a blunderbuss scatter effect however.

Try to get Gascoigne stuck on the tombstones and attack with a long reaching weapon such as the transformed forms of the Hunter Axe, Saw Cleaver, Threaded Cane, Saw Spear.

He’ll periodically shoot his gun, usually after a combo or after a dodge roll/quickstep

Gascoigne has a habit of knocking you back with an attack, then following up with a jumping attack.

He also usually attacks right after a dodge roll.

He does not have any particularly fast combos in this phase.

Phase two has Gascoigne extending the Hunter Axe. He can still use his pistol.

He either goes for one spin or two spins

He may follow it up with a shotgun blast or jumping attack

Phase 3 Gascoigne is undoubtedly the hardest part of the fight. He transforms into a fully fledged beast.

Phase 3 Gascoigne receives augmented resistance against all forms of damage, loses resistance against fire damage, serrated modifiers now work on him, and gains a respectable amount of hyper-armor

Has an entirely new moveset

He’s still vulnerable to parrying

Attacks more often, meaning more parry opportunities

Can now break tombstones

Can only be stunned once by the Tiny Music Box

After knocking you down will likely follow up with a quick jump attack that knocks you down and spams it

Has a long and quick combo that can easily finish you off, it ends with a kick

Has an attack where he jumps into the air and dives down on you

Now let’s assume you have now defeated Father Gascoigne, his death does several things

Gives you Oedon Tomb Key

Advances time by a bit

Unlocks Father Gascoigne’s set from the Insight Messenger shop

Oedon Tomb Key is required to open the gate at the top of the stairs in this area

But before you do anything; light the lamp, pick up the Red Jeweled Brooch, and either give it to the Little Girl or smash it for a blood gem  

Blood Gems are basically upgrades to your weapon, there are 4 different gem slots and 5 different gem shapes

Radial: tends to augment physical attacks

Triangle: tends to add additional effects

Waning: tends to add effects such as fire, bolt, healing, etc.

Circle: are almost always put into guns, adds blood damage

Droplet: unique, dropped by a late-game enemy or from special items, can be put into every gem slot

Blood Gems can only be put into weapons when you get the Blood Gem Workshop tool in a chest in a study room almost immediately after Father Gascoigne. Go and enter the Cathedral Ward and talk to the NPC there, exhaust dialogue and go back to the First Floor Sickroom and exhaust all of Iosefka’s dialogue

That is the second half of Central Yharnam, its boss fights, and a tiny bit of Cathedral Ward

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Central Yharnam PT1.

So you’ve started up this game and were greeted with a cutscene and were sent to character creation.

There is no actual reason to spend too much time in character creation since appearance, gender, age, and etc. have no bearing on stats. What does have bearing on stats is what origin you choose for your character. Another thing to note is that the only difference between each origin is the distribution of stats within them.

https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Classes

My personal favorite classes are Lone Survivor and Military Veteran but feel free to choose whatever origin you want, especially if you want to go all out in character creation and create a super long and complex backstory that will have no effect on what goes on in game.

So now that you’re done with your character you will be greeted with another cutscene and will then be given control of your character.  I couldn’t wait to get started with the game when I first started out.

Feel free to take a look around in the room in which you start out in, there will be a lore note in the room. Go down the stairs and there will be more notes for you to read. The next room will have your first enemy, the scourge beast.

Let yourself die to the enemy and be sent to the game’s main hub.

Cutscene ensues and you will have a chance to explore the main hub. In the main hub, called the Hunter’s Dream, is where you will level up your character and upgrade your weapons, as well as buy stuff with Blood Echoes and Insight.

But before you can do anything, you’ll need to pick out your weapons.

You have 3 choices for your right-hand weapon and 2 choices for your left-hand weapon.

The three choices for right-hand weapon are

Saw Cleaver: jack of all trades, great transformation attack

Hunter Axe: has a two-handed form, high rally

Threaded Cane: quicker than the others: has wide range in whip form

I much prefer going Saw Cleaver, but they are all viable. Do note that the threaded cane is a bit weaker starting out than the other weapons.

The two choices of left-hand weapons are the Hunter Pistol and the Hunter Blunderbuss

The pistol is a faster shot while the blunderbuss has wider spread.

They are both equal in usefulness but I would say that the pistol is better for beginners since it shoots quicker and can spam if you’re desperate

Guns don’t deal a lot of damage unless you’ve dumped a lot of stats into bloodtinge.

Go to the tombstone that has little messengers at them and choose to spawn at First Floor Sickroom. You will spawn at a lantern in one of the rooms of the Clinic. Do NOT advance to where the scourge beast killed you, instead turn around and go up the stairs to talk to the NPC that is there. She will give you a single healing item that heals 70% of your max health. You cannot have more than one of these healing items.

Then you go to the scourge beast that first killed you. Kill it in return and move onward. There are more notes in the next room.

Head outside and pick up all the items in the courtyard. There you have officially stepped into Central Yharnam. Go explore a bit, but you will have to walk past the carriage to advance

There will be a few enemies past the carriage, they will be the main type of enemy you will be facing in the Central Yharnam area. They are fairly deadly in big groups so try when you encounter a large conglomerate of them, try to lure them away from each other to make your life easier.

This first encounter should not be too difficult, as there are only 3 in total but don’t get reckless. One of them, which we will call Yharnam ax-huntsmen, is nothing too special but can be used to practice parrying. The other 2, which we will call Yharnam cleaver-huntsmen, is the weakest variant of the Yharnam huntsmen. Near those cleaver-huntsmen are 6 Molotov cocktails, keep them as they will be useful for a later boss fight.

If you haven’t noticed already there is a lever which you have to pull to unlock a ladder which will lead you to the Central Yharnam lantern.

There’s an NPC named Gilbert near the Central Yharnam lantern, he gives you a free left-hand weapon later on so be sure to exhaust his dialogue. From there on you can go and explore the rest of Central Yharnam.

Central Yharnam is a fairly large area and you’ll need to learn how to deal with groups of enemies. You can either aggro singular enemies with pebbles, which you can get right after Gilbert’s house, or you can deal with them all at the same time.

There are also a few enemies that will give you a bit of trouble if you don’t learn how to parry them.

Executioners: Only one in Central Yharnam in a hidden corner near a gate that is operated with a lever, they are susceptible to parries but are resistant to physical damage

Brick Trolls: The first time you’re supposed to see one of these is on the other side of large locked doors. They are pretty easy to parry but hit hard and may take one or two more hits after they’ve been parried

Scourge Beasts: There are only two of these guys in Central Yharnam however, they appear in the same place, on the Great Bridge. Parrying is essential to dealing with scourge beasts. They have one attack that is incredibly telegraphed. They get up on their hind legs slowly and jump at you, dealing damage throughout the entire duration of the jump. If they do clip you but you still get a parry, go in for the visceral as it will restore any recently lost health.

There are a group of enemies that you will likely first encounter on the road. They are all various types of Yharnam huntsman

Axe-huntsmen: Already went over this one

Cleaver-huntsmen: Already went over this one

Shield-huntsmen: attacks with wooden plank shield and a torch, are not very dangerous but can distract you from other enemies

Pitchfork-huntsmen: attacks with a pitchfork, I actually don’t have any specific advice for this one, weirdly enough these guys give me the most trouble out of the huntsmen variants.

Begin exploring this long road, enemies patrol this road so be careful, and pick up any item you find. Put priority on finding the stack of 4 Molotovs that are nearby a single cleaver-huntsman. Remember do NOT use the Molotovs yet.

Keep going down the road and look to the right of a carriage, there will be a variant of Yharnam huntsmen wielding a rifle. Kill it and go up the stairs near it. There is a lone bloodstone shard (weapon upgrade material). I would also like to mention that ambushes litter this game so if you see an item be careful just in case an enemy might be hiding around a corner to gank you.

At the end of the road, there is a large group of various types of huntsmen surrounding a bonfire. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. They can very easily stun-lock you to death as a group.

After you are done with that, pick up any and all items that might’ve been dropped by the enemies. Go around the large locked doors into the area with the fountain. Before you go near the fountain look back at the path and pick up the coldblood dew there. Coldblood items are consumables which give you Blood Echoes. I would advise you to not make the same mistake I did when I first went through this game, I used coldblood items the moment I got them, which was a fairly stupid thing to do on my part since there was not a lot of things that were worth spending on yet at this point in the game.

There will be a Brick Troll at the locked doors, which I mentioned earlier. Near it are two items which are a torch and 2 blood vials. Now after you have dealt with him go and turn around and find the carrion crows guarding two oil urns.

Carrion Crows: large crows which are fairly annoying to deal with, usually drops pebbles.

Oil urns: throwing items, used to drench enemies in oil which reduces fire resistance.

Like with the Molotovs from earlier, do NOT use the oil urns till you get to the boss at the end of the Great Bridge.

So now you’ve cleared out most of the first part of Central Yharnam

Go and locate the Great Bridge (still technically part of Central Yharnam), and fight the earliest boss in Bloodborne.

On the Great Bridge, you will encounter the following

2 Scourge Beasts: Mentioned them earlier

1 Cleaver huntsman: will ambush you

1 Brick Troll: hangs out around carrion crows

3 Carrion Crows: hangs out around 1 brick troll

Now after the two scourge beasts you will walk along for a bit, then get ambushed by the cleaver huntsman. Now when I first went through this area I did not do what I’m about to tell you right now. I did not go and unlock the shortcut leading to the Central Yharnam lantern and when I died against the boss, I had to walk the long way around to get to the boss fight.

To unlock the shortcut to the Central Yharnam lantern you have to go inside the building that the cleaver huntsman was nearby. It will be fairly dark, you may need to equip the torch, and there will be enemies inside waiting to ambush you. In here there are two new enemies,

Saber huntsmen: wields a saber

Wheelchair huntsmen: This type of enemy has different variants but the one in here wields a pistol, it guards an item

The item it guards is 2 pungent blood cocktails. When these are thrown, beasts in the nearby area will aggro onto the area in which you threw the cocktails at. Exit the house and you will see an ax-huntsmen. Near the Ax-huntsman will be a gate leading to the Central Yharnam lantern.

Either restock or advance on the Great Bridge. Make it past the brick troll and his friends and you have made it to your first boss fight

The Cleric Beast is a massive creature that is surprisingly quick and has superhuman strength. I still have a bit of trouble with this boss but the advice I can give you for this beast is to wait until it starts attacking before you begin throwing oil urns and Molotovs at it, I have missed so many Molotovs against this thing. Aim for the head so you can perform a visceral attack on it. It can jump incredibly high but don’t panic and do your best to dodge. Refer to the fextralife wiki if you want a more in-depth guide on how to deal with the Cleric Beast. The cleric beast is “optional” and is not blocking any pathways. You do have to kill the cleric beast later on if you don’t want to have to deal with another “optional boss” to advance the story.

https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Cleric+Beast

And with the death of the Cleric Beast begins your conquest of Bloodborne.

I hope this will have helped you in any way shape or form.

[bloodborne-guide]

Novice’s Walkthrough of Bloodborne: Mindset and controls

These guide/walkthroughs will be basically most of what a beginner would need to know about Bloodborne and how to overcome most of what will be thrown at you in this game.

I have played this game for about a year now, having Platinumed the base game and am planning to get the DLC and 100% that also.

Let’s start out with several questions:

Is this game as hard as I’ve heard it was?

Will this game make me rage quit before I’ve even beaten the first mandatory boss?

Will I quit because I can’t make it past the first area?

The answer for most new-comers to this game will likely be yes, but fear not my comrades, almost everyone who has played this game will have multiple walls they must overcome, whether it be a boss, an area, or some other thing, ALL of them can be conquered through blood, sweat, tears, rage, and frustration. Believe me, I know, I have had quite a few times where I had to stop playing the game for a while because I couldn’t get past a boss fight. But I have never truly given up. And that, I suppose, is one of the most important things a person can have while playing a game like this, an unbreakable will. Allow yourself to rage at a boss, allow yourself to throw a controller at the wall not really, allow yourself to be bent over, but never let this game break you. With patience, determination, and memorization, nothing in this game will stand in your way.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into the game’s controls. There are notes in the main hub of this game that tell the controls of this game and stuff you may not know, but I have actually never seen them during my first playthrough of this game, leading me to a bit of frustration of me not knowing how to do visceral attacks and other useful things. Here are the basic controls:

R1: light attack

R2: strong attack

Hold R2: charged attack

L1: transform weapon

L2: off-hand attack (usually a gun)

O: backstep

Directional input+O: roll, quickstep when locked on

R3: Lock on

Directional input+R3: look around

Directional Input+L3: move around

Directional Input+L3+O: move around quicker

L3: switch action (not really useful)

Up Dpad: sacrifice health for bullets, really useful for some builds

Down Dpad: switch item on the quick slot

Left Dpad: Switch off-hand item

Right Dpad: Switch right-hand weapon

Triangle: use blood vials

Square: use consumable item in quickslot

X: interact

Now there are a few mechanics that will be incredibly useful to know that may not be entirely obvious at first:

Rally: When an enemy attacks you, you will be given a chance to recover some of your lost health via attacking them back. Different weapons give different amounts of rally.

Visceral Attacks: An essential technique that should be mastered by any player of this game. There are two main ways to open up an enemy for a visceral attack, interrupting one of their attacks by using your off handgun or by performing a charged attack behind them. When you have successfully staggered that enemy, move in front of them (behind if you staggered them via charged attack to their back), input R1 and enjoy free damage, rally, temporary invincibility, and a neat little animation. Some of the larger bosses in this game require you to damage their head if you want to perform a visceral attack. Not all enemies can have a visceral attack performed on them.

Gestures and Personal Effects: This is more of a quality of life feature more than anything. Press the left side of the touchpad to access gestures. Gestures are acquired as you play through the game. Press the right side of the touchpad to access Personal Effects. Use this for consumables/usable items that are not really important, but still have their uses (i.e. pebbles and monocular).

All of this information should be good enough for any new-comer to start off their journey in Bloodborne. Remember, never let yourself be broken by what may appear difficult.