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.
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.
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.
