Bloodborne (From Software / Sony)

Doctor Nick

So I went back to Central Yharnam (amazing how quickly I make it through this place now, when I think back how tough it was initially) and decided to do the Cleric Beast given I skipped him when I heard he was optional but with a bit more confidence and knowledge with regards strategy he was easily killed. I still got that overwhelming feeling of satisfaction as it was thanks to the Cleric Beast I traded the game in, in a rage, last time. Huge spoilers ahead:

Old Yharnam was a tough one to traverse as well but once you know who is where and how they attack it's handy enough as well. That fecker on the rooftop felt like Gascoigne all over again though in a smaller space with a roof to fall off. Was very easy for me to fall off but didn't realise he could too. There we were going at it, he'd a bit under half health left and I stunned him with a gunshot and did 3 quick attacks finishing with a stabbing motion and next thing I know he falls off the roof, dead. I couldn't pick anything up from him. Thinking it must be a glitch I ran back but no, no more hails of gunfire at the beginning of Old Yharnham.

The first time I went head to head with the Blood Starved Beast it was going great. Got it down health wise to just about a third left and I suddenly die. He was nowhere near me. Glitch or something I'm not aware of? Unfortunately it hasn't gone as well since (albeit i only tried twice more as it after midnight and I up at 6)

Can I ask what is the story with blood echos? I know they're for buying stuff and levelling up but should I be holding onto them for something or is it OK to spend them as you like, e.g. Levelling up, fortifying/repairing weapons etc. This morning before work I redid the journey from Central Yharnham to Old Yharnam to get a supply of bullets, blood, molotovs etc rather than buying them and I have about 18,000 blood echoes so starting to think will there come a time I'll need them for something and I'll have spent them on cool upgrades.

Addictive game, love it. Been a while since something got me this hooked

Digital Solitude

If you head back up the tower, that guys gear should be on top of it, normally takes a reload when stuff falls off the map in Souls games.

Spend away, take every level you can and use the change to repair weapons or buy stuff. Every enemy aside from bosses constantly respawns, so if you need a few echo's just replay an area.

Or better again, do the dungeons, where bosses respawn, though this may end up costing you vials in the long run if you need some.

There's no stage in the game where you need to ship 100,000 echo's to progress or anything like that if its what you're asking, you can beat the game without spending a single echo if you're really damn good. All echo's are for are levelling, items and upgrading and repairing weapons.

Doctor Nick

Digital Solitude wrote: »

If you head back up the tower, that guys gear should be on top of it, normally takes a reload when stuff falls off the map in Souls games.

Spend away, take every level you can and use the change to repair weapons or buy stuff. Every enemy aside from bosses constantly respawns, so if you need a few echo's just replay an area.

Or better again, do the dungeons, where bosses respawn, though this may end up costing you vials in the long run if you need some.

There's no stage in the game where you need to ship 100,000 echo's to progress or anything like that if its what you're asking, you can beat the game without spending a single echo if you're really damn good. All echo's are for are levelling, items and upgrading and repairing weapons.

Nice one man, thanks. Will check up the tower again later, don't think I checked up there after returning to the area although I did loads of times after he fell.

Doctor Nick

Blood starved beast is no more. So I was told to go to the chapel of Odeon to got some supplies and returned to Temple of Odeon. I want to upgrade my Bloodtinge to use a weapon I have acquired so decided before going to the chapel I'd head out to Cathedral Ward and earn me some echoes.

I'm going to put spoiler tags on the next paragraph but not sure they're needed but when in doubt...

All going grand until some thing I've never seen before (definitely wasn't there before). So I'm bashing R2 and this things health is going down. Didn't time it right and he grabs me that was the end of me. WTF? We have one hit kills now?

Instead of waking in Hunters Dream I woke in what I later found out was some jail above ground). Hmm I think looks interesting. So I'm exploring, see a door which a rat runs past. I walk in and something grabs be from behind. Dead again!!! Loads up again I take a bit more care approaching this area so roll through the door. 2 of those yokes that killed me so there so I attack them with just regular R1 attacks but they take a lot of striking. When they drop all I get is 2 bleeding pebbles!!!! (I do enjoy throwing pebbles at beasts tho but that's beside the point).

Anyway I go into the next room and see 3 of those things that sent me here from Cathedral Ward so I wussed it and sprinted past them right into another fcuking Boss! Can't remember his name but he was electrified this time. Anyway I'd used up blood viles, ammo and molotovs by this point so this didn't last long.

Am I doing this area too soon or does it matter and it's just like all other areas that you just have to observe and strategise? Should I have gone straight to the dungeon using the chalice I got after BSB?

Cheers if you read all that.

The snatchers got triggered when you killed BSB, I ended up there around the same time as you. Darkbeast Paarl was crazy fast for me at that point so I left him until later in the game. He is entirely optional but if you've not killed

Gatling gun guy earlier and you beat Paarl you can open the door behind him and sneak up on the gunner and speak with him to learn a geasture I think

The area is optional for you for now, it will be mandatory much later on. But there is a

Nun NPC in the lower area you can send to the church

you get locked out of that area in it's current form after the

Rom

boss fight

Doctor Nick

Deleted User wrote: »

The snatchers got triggered when you killed BSB, I ended up there around the same time as you. Darkbeast Paarl was crazy fast for me at that point so I left him until later in the game. He is entirely optional but if you've not killed

Gatling gun guy earlier and you beat Paarl you can open the door behind him and sneak up on the gunner and speak with him to learn a geasture I think

The area is optional for you for now, it will be mandatory much later on. But there is a

Nun NPC in the lower area you can send to the church

you get locked out of that area in it's current form after the

Rom

boss fight

Oh yeah gestures - what is the purpose of them really? Do they have any effect offline or is it more for online play or something? I did meet

The Nun NPC in the lower area but sent her to Iosefka (don't seem to have the option to send to the church). And I did fight the Gatling gun fella on the roof so probably won't meet him.

nix

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Oh yeah gestures - what is the purpose of them really? Do they have any effect offline or is it more for online play or something? I did meet

The Nun NPC in the lower area but sent her to Iosefka (don't seem to have the option to send to the church). And I did fight the Gatling gun fella on the roof so probably won't meet him.

You need to be wearing the chruch/priest chest or gascoignes leather coat, she then recognises you as someone holy then and you can send her to the chapel/clinic.

And yeah, gestures are pure cosmetic, for online use really with other players. Some npc's may react to some gestures also

Zero-Cool

IGN's (seriously, don't let that put you off) series Prepare To Try will be starting a Bloodborne playthrough soon. The dark souls 1 and 3 play throughs were top class, highly recommended.

https://twitter.com/PrepareToTry/status/858002974311944193

Doctor Nick

Fcuk me Cathedral Ward is big and the hunters that stick in packs are getting harder as well on top of some really f'd up beasts and those feckers with the lamps. And wtf,

(gattling gunners in wheelchairs hahahah)

Tried first dungeon a few times. Ended up admitting defeat and will do CW and come back to it. Yeah I know I'm a wuss who can't play a game like this :pac:

Oh and I've seen a couple of you tube videos and everyone seems to have messengers everywhere, I don't really. I've more since I downloaded the update but not too many messengers.

Doctor Nick

Doctor Nick wrote: »

Fcuk me Cathedral Ward is big and the hunters that stick in packs are getting harder as well on top of some really f'd up beasts and those feckers with the lamps. And wtf,

(gattling gunners in wheelchairs hahahah)

Tried first dungeon a few times. Ended up admitting defeat and will do CW and come back to it. Yeah I know I'm a wuss who can't play a game like this :pac:

Oh and I've seen a couple of you tube videos and everyone seems to have messengers everywhere, I don't really. I've more since I downloaded the update but not too many messengers.

I found out very late in the day when at my wits end and in need of help in one of the later dungeons you need to change the network setting in options to world wide then I got help first time but that didn't affect the messages I saw loads of those helpful "ambush ahead" and a "hunder is never alone" ones etc. Was even getting my own rated regularly.

Digital Solitude

I never saw that many messages about Bloodborne, even at launch.

Dark Souls always seemed to be busier.

Though I've had a theory that I was softbanned from the BB servers for a while, couldn't get Co-Op partners, even using passwords to line up. Could explain not seeing many messages.

Doctor Nick

Just got to Vicar Amelia. If I start fighting her I'll be up all night so PS going into rest mode n I'll start back in a day or 2. Spending tomorrow with nature.

Doctor Nick

Another quick question. How does this differ in terms if difficulty level to the Souls games? About the same, this is harder, Souls 3 is harder?

Digital Solitude

This is probably the hardest game, DLC included. I haven't played DS3 DLC but the base game is fairly easy for the most part.

Digital Solitude

Digital Solitude wrote: »

This is probably the hardest game, DLC included. I haven't played DS3 DLC but the base game is fairly easy for the most part.

Hmmm subjective, I'd rate it the same as DS3 in terms of difficulty if you took out the chalice dungeons which are optional. Though it really depends on experience doesn't it? Like 4 souls games and on to BB you're going to have an edge, though that said majority of the bosses outside of dungeons in BB i thought were kittens compared to the souls games.

I can still recall the one moment in the series that made me want to genuinely walk away with rage ..... the archers in anor londo, not even bosses and given the boss in that area they still take the cake, so many falls to my doom or getting battered. In the end it was simple

run at them

only took me 3 days to think to try that

Doctor Nick

So annoying getting their (Bosses) health down. One strike they're out and then they manage to get one final devastating combo out and you're gone. Back to the start of the level for the 100tg time.

Pretty sure I found out what the profile problem was. The previous game I had was GOTY. The new one just the regular. When I try to load up on my own profile it looks for DLC which ain't there anymore. Have to wonder if same thing would happen on the profile I setup to play this on if I rebought GOTY thereby losing my progression to date.

Doctor Nick

Guys what is the point of the hunters mark (mask?) and the dark one? It says awaken anew one with blood echoes one without. Sounds to me it's like killing yourself so IMO it's a rather pointless consumable. Am I missing something? Been very reluctant to use.

Digital Solitude

The Bold Hunters Mark just teleports you to the last lamp essentially, they're handy if you're farming, saves trekking back to the lamp each time you finish a run. That's the only time that I've used them.

The Regular Hunters Mark just teleports you to the last lamp, but you lose any echo's you're currently carrying. It doesn't leave a new bloodstain, so if you're on the way back to a valuable bloodstain and get wrecked by an easy enemy, you can Hunters Mark back and try again without wasting any consumables.

Doctor Nick

Oh cool, that's good to know. Will have to start using that going forward. Nothing worse than losing 10K+ echoes.

noodler

Was able to solo BB Vanilla easily (fully admit the DLC has not been tackled yet).

I had to summon for Pontiff and it took me an age to beat Dancer, Nameless and Sould of Cinder solo.

DeadlyByDesign

Gave up on BB a long time ago. I got to Amelia and couldn't beat her. I think I was doing it wrong though as I did not to BSB first? Cant remember the level I was but would it make a difference if I skipped BSB and went straight to Amelia? I still love the game though and reading some of this thread I am tempted to re-install it.

nix

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Gave up on BB a long time ago. I got to Amelia and couldn't beat her. I think I was doing it wrong though as I did not to BSB first? Cant remember the level I was but would it make a difference if I skipped BSB and went straight to Amelia? I still love the game though and reading some of this thread I am tempted to re-install it.

Doing BSB first would be the quickest/easiest route, as the only way to get to Amelia without doing BSB is grinding a load of bloodshards so you can buy a key to open a gate. Which you end up bypassing anyway by killing BSB which opens the gate in the chapel and going that way to get to Amelia.

Giving up on Bloodborne at that stage would be sad, you've already beaten Gascoigne, who is one of the hardest bosses. Amelia can be hard if using the wrong weapon, the threaded cane going against Amelia as a first timer would be very rough to get passed.

The saw cleaver is a solid choice for a first timer, its one of the best weapons in the game and favoured by many, i use it nearly every build until i get the weapon i want

DeadlyByDesign

nix wrote: »

Doing BSB first would be the quickest/easiest route, as the only way to get to Amelia without doing BSB is grinding a load of bloodshards so you can buy a key to open a gate. Which you end up bypassing anyway by killing BSB which opens the gate in the chapel and going that way to get to Amelia.

Giving up on Bloodborne at that stage would be sad, you've already beaten Gascoigne, who is one of the hardest bosses. Amelia can be hard if using the wrong weapon, the threaded cane going against Amelia as a first timer would be very rough to get passed.

The saw cleaver is a solid choice for a first timer, its one of the best weapons in the game and favoured by many, i use it nearly every build until i get the weapon i want

Already purchased the key to gate so can fight her. But you reckon still fighting BSB first is more time efficient?

Doctor Nick

nix wrote: »

Doing BSB first would be the quickest/easiest route, as the only way to get to Amelia without doing BSB is grinding a load of bloodshards so you can buy a key to open a gate. Which you end up bypassing anyway by killing BSB which opens the gate in the chapel and going that way to get to Amelia.

Giving up on Bloodborne at that stage would be sad, you've already beaten Gascoigne, who is one of the hardest bosses. Amelia can be hard if using the wrong weapon, the threaded cane going against Amelia as a first timer would be very rough to get passed.

The saw cleaver is a solid choice for a first timer, its one of the best weapons in the game and favoured by many, i use it nearly every build until i get the weapon i want

Funny you should say that, I was struggling with Amelia and was sure I'd missed something along the way so created a new profile and started over. First profile I had hunters axe and pistol to start, this time went with saw cleaver and blunderbuss and finding it much handier. Got Cleric Beast in one. Gascoigne took a couple of tries (compared to days before).

Last time I summoned Alfred for BSB but didn't this time and got through it (albeit on lots of tries). Am back up to Amelia and can get her down to when she transforms (final phase?) and I get destroyed. In saying that I haven't spent as long trying yet as I did with BSB so not giving up yet

Oh and I actually prefer saw spear to cleaver.

nix

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Already purchased the key to gate so can fight her. But you reckon still fighting BSB first is more time efficient?

Not if you already have the key, but if you went BSB without getting the key, you would get a load of bloodshards from killing the BSB and also would have saved 20k shards not buying the key, so you would be a higher level

Doctor Nick

nix wrote: »

Not if you already have the key, but if you went BSB without getting the key, you would get a load of bloodshards from killing the BSB and also would have saved 20k shards not buying the key, so you would be a higher level

I didn't get any shards from killing BSB. Just a chalice. Unless you mean travelling through Old Yarnham to get to it. Fecking twin shards are being very elusive. Not so much last time

Digital Solitude

Twin shards are very elusive, even rarer than chunks.

When you can start pissing insight away they're fine.

For Amelia, take it a slow fight, bait out her leap, Dodge right and get a few headshots in, rinse repeat.

When she gets to phase two, bring out the fire paper and only get aggressive when she retreats to heal.

That was my strategy after she held me up for days in a Lvl. 4 run, worked very well.

nix

Doctor Nick wrote: »

I didn't get any shards from killing BSB. Just a chalice. Unless you mean travelling through Old Yarnham to get to it. Fecking twin shards are being very elusive. Not so much last time

Sorry, echoes, not shards

Doctor Nick

nix wrote: »

Sorry, echoes, not shards

Sound, thanks for clarifying. Thought I'd royally f'd something up which wouldn't be unheard of when I'm playing something

Doctor Nick

How did folks here level u? . First profile I mainly focused on strength and skill. This time round was HP and endurance which (for me) seemed the better way. Then I focused on strength and skill. These are all now around the 20 mark but Bloodtinge and Arkane are still low (approx 10). Am I better off now focusing on these when levelling up now? Most of my weapons are +4. Poxy twin shards are now impossible to find.

Did my first dungeon. 3 different bosses in it. Handy enough to my surprise