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.