From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[NJClaw]

Everything was smooth sailing until bloodstarved beast. Even the jackass with the gatling gun up on the clocktower wasn't too bad, but flapping poisonous roast beef is one horror too far. Will manage it at some point but burned 2 or 3 insight on a sunbro and don't feel like losing even more. Weaknesses appear to be fire and parrying, gotten it down to around a quarter life a couple times so I'll get it eventually but it's a pain while it's spazzing around.

Just dodge right bro.

To elaborate, dodge towards the BSB, to your right, but into the left side of the beast. That particular area is the boss's blind spot. The fight becomes ridiculously easy once you realize that. In fact, BSB the easiest boss in the game when you know you just gotta stay by its left side.

Always relevant:



You don't even have to dodge. Slowly walking left is enough to become virtually immune to all of its attacks.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Apparently pungent cocktails work on it, so you can cheese it.

 

[Black Angel]

Apparently pungent cocktails work on it, so you can cheese it.

It wasn't even merely 'apparently', the description was rather specific:

Mature blood cocktail that releases a pungent odor when thrown that attracts blood-thirsty beasts.

A precious tool in sadly short supply.

In Yharnam, they produce more blood than alcohol. as the former is the more intoxicating."

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Witches of whatever sorta qualifies as a shit boss I'd say. Not an annoying one but I figured the gimmick out instantly. Thus far the one and done bosses have been Gascan, cleric beast, and witches. Ball-busting has been darkbeast and blood starved beast. And Amelia has been reasonable few attempts. Playing pretty slowly but still digging it quite a lot, and my gut feeling on darkbeast being a pain is I'm assuming that's a higher level area given it's two tombstones removed from the starting areas. I'm better equipped now so I could probably go in there with a sunbro and maybe use a fire paper and smack it but I think I'll bide my time for a while.

 

[Silva]

You killed wolf bro. I hope you die one thousand times to darkbeast.

 

[Fatty]

Darkbeast can be piss easy if you don’t let it scare you. LORAN Darkbeast, on the other hand (optional) has me about ready to quit.

 

[Jaedar]

Darkbeast can be piss easy if you don’t let it scare you. LORAN Darkbeast, on the other hand (optional) has me about ready to quit.

About darkbeast:

Paarl is veeeery vulnerable to just going in and smashing, as iirc each of his limbs can be broken once, leaving him wide open, and letting you follow up with a visceral attack. With decent damage it's entirely possible to kill him before he gets more than two moves off.

Don't recall loran darkbeast

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

You killed wolf bro. I hope you die one thousand times to darkbeast.

Darkbeast killed. BEAST GENOCIDE NOW. Also made the electro-mace and I might like it even more than my hammer, got them both upgraded to +6 and the mace is pretty goddamn cool. Currently got 4 paths open to explore, took a stagecoach to castle Cainhurst, got more to check out in spooky woods infested with snakes, could check the outside of the gaol and brave the pig, and I'm also in a college or something. Haven't done boss battling besides darkbeast though I also found a wild underground poison cave adventure land which took me back to the clinic at the start of the game where I dispensed electro-justice on the doctor chick since she was seemingly making blobby dudes and shooting tentacles out of her arm and that's bad juju.

 

[Machocruz]

Fiiiinally got around to playing this for real, on a PS5 I recently acquired. The input response is so much better than when I tried it on PSNow. Even Cleric Beast was giving me problems there, but here I beat him easily on first attempt. Gascoigne went down on first attempt too, but that one was ragged and I almost got raped to death against some tombstones. I'm actually relieved when I get him into beast form, as i find him much easier then.

But Amelia has been kicking my ass. My brain is just not grasping some of her attack tells in the heat of battle, or the dodge timing on some of her swipes. From afar her shit is obvious and I can see how she should be as easy as I've heard (although I've also read a fair number of people having trouble with her), but I eventually lose my composure. Tried her after Gascoigne and exploring Cathedral Ward and some of Old Yarnham. I saw the BSB sitting in a building and I noped it back to the OY lantern as I heard he was a terror, and if I'm already having trouble with Amelia...

But...

After getting bent over about a half dozen times by VA, I said fuck it and went for BSB. And beat him on the first attempt. In fact, I almost got a perfect on him, but he hit me with a late poison attack, for which I had no antidotes equipped, and I spent the last minute of the battle trying to finish him off , avoid getting hit, while popping blood vials to keep my health from zeroing. A couple cheeky molotov's got him to a pinky width amount of health and I rushed in for the kill while he was taking a shit or something. He's intimidating, especially when you take his reputation into account, but mechanically he's not much going for him.

Felt pretty good, but I went back and got reamed some more by Amelia. Blew through a couple stacks of vials overall, and down from 4 to 1 fire papers. So again I said fuck it and went to Hemwick. Almost killed the Witches on my first attempt, but got too cocky after having the second witch down to only an inch or so of health and succumbed to a stun magic/grab combo I didn't expect or see coming. I HATE the massively damaging stun-grab-health siphon attacks in this game. It's so annoying to have to watch helplessly as you get drained. But I thought it was a cool little boss fight. To me it's what a "gimmick" boss battle in these games should be like. It was a pleasant respite from dodge-dodge-dodge battles.

Before I fought BSB, I stumbled upon Darkbeast while running around OY. I gave it a go, although I knew I would probably get wasted. Which I did. Later for that.

Currently I'm farming up a huge supply of blood vials and echoes to buy a lot of fire papers in preparation for my next Amelia attempts. While frustrating to have my progress slowed like this and feeling like a scrub, I love to hate it and hate to love it. The music, sound, aggression, bone breaking i.e. the presentation make it pretty thrilling and sensorily satisfying. And getting beat like I am sparks my competitive nature; I will not give up. But the way they did healing consumables adds an extra layer of aggravation and tedium. The estus flask was a masterstroke in Dark Souls and would have made this game even more enjoyable.

I've also upgraded the axe to +5, as I didn't like how little damage I was doing at +3.

But so far this has got to be one of the coolest games ever made. Surely one of the top 3 games released on a console of last generation, and maybe the best. Absolutely the best console exclusive, imo. The art direction is incredible, one of the most visually lavish and stylish games ever seen. Top shelf monster design, fashion, environmental detail. The level design is insane, DS1 on steroids when it comes to levels folding back into themselves and leading into other areas in various ways. The plot so far is dark and evocative, like FS spent a lot of time not just reading Lovecraft, but Poe, Howard, Stoker, Shelley, Wells, Barker, etc. It plays better to my interests than Souls, which are just fantasy gobbledygook to me. Besides the healing implementation and those stun-siphon attacks, I don't think there is anything else I don't like about it yet. I just enjoy being in the world, which is something consistent across all my favorite games. Running around even after I've cleared an area or progressed the story past it, taking in the ambiance, not wanting to leave.

 

[Silva]

Enjoy yourself. I got a PS4 just for BB back in the day and I must have around a thousand hours or so in it, with every build possible. Easily my most played Souls game. I acknowledge DS1 is the "greater" game, you know, from a historical POV and all that. But BB is just so much cooler and fun to play it's not even a contest. Even the little details, like the character clothes flowing during movement and getting soaked in blood, are amazing. This is truly a masterpiece.

 

[Vorark]

Currently I'm farming up a huge supply of blood vials and echoes to buy a lot of fire papers in preparation for my next Amelia attempts.

After you're done with level up routine, spend all your unused echoes on blood vials and you'll soon have a nice stash. Won't help you right now with Vicar Amelia but will be extremely useful later in the game.

 

[Silva]

And mandatory advice: consider making an Arcanist somewhere down the road. It's the most interesting build in BB due to how it exploits each enemy weakness. It's not the same as in Souls where it's simply a long range caster, here it's more of a scholar/technologist of sorts in the way it uses tools and such.

 

[Sunri]

I bought PS4 to play BB to be honest it wasn't worth this game lacks DS build variety armors are useless, but it's not bad anyway just lack replayability

 

[Jaedar]

I bought PS4 to play BB to be honest it wasn't worth this game lacks DS build variety armors are useless, but it's not bad anyway just lack replayability

BB is 100% fashion souls. I'd be mad, but how can you be mad when the fashion is so fancy?

 

[Sunri]

I bought PS4 to play BB to be honest it wasn't worth this game lacks DS build variety armors are useless, but it's not bad anyway just lack replayability

BB is 100% fashion souls. I'd be mad, but how can you be mad when the fashion is so fancy?

I mean yea they look cool and have some serious drip, but it doesn't matter what you wear it just for looks

 

[Anonona]

Actually armor's resistances do help to a certain extent, particularly when it comes to poison, frenzy, fire, etc. There is a notable effect if you equip a whole set with the appropriate resitance. The interesting part when it comes to building is weapon selection and what kind of blood gems (don't recall the exact name) you decide to engrave on them. There are multiple version of the same weapons with different slots and can allow you things like loosing HP constantly in exchange for power, increase in certain types of attacks (pierce, blunt, slash, etc), elemental damage, lifesteal, what stats will be used for damage scaling, etc. Only caveat is that if you want to dig deeper into weapon customization you have to play the random generated labyrinth to acquire unique weapons and blood gems.

 

[Matador]

Daily reminder that chalice dungeons were a great idea and fun, although they could be better implemented. I hope they iterate over that concept in a future game.

One interesting thing they could have done with them was make them Iron Man (roguelike style):

- You die, you lose everything and can't come back to that dungeon seed.
- You can't fetch any item found on the chalice dungeon to the outside, unless you beat it completely in one go.

This would have increased the stakes, and make the coop more interesting.

 

[Machocruz]

After you're done with level up routine, spend all your unused echoes on blood vials and you'll soon have a nice stash. Won't help you right now with Vicar Amelia but will be extremely useful later in the game.

Yeah I haven't even raised any of my attributes since I fought her. Been using all the echoes I get from farming vials to buy moar vials, papers, and get my weapon upgraded. I have about 200 something vials currently, and 30 + fire papers and a +6 hunter's axe. That stuff is just to make things less tedious/more convenient, not necessarily easier. I have no doubt I'll put her down eventually, but I don't just want to get by, I want to learn the fights thoroughly and be able to execute well. For that reason I wish there was a way to replay bosses without having to start a new game. Boss respawn/rush mode/menu-select should be a universal feature in games.

But BB is just so much cooler and fun to play it's not even a contest. Even the little details, like the character clothes flowing during movement and getting soaked in blood, are amazing.

Pretty much how I feel. Like I said, the theme clicks with me in a way that knights and dragons and fire keepers doesn't. I have fun just running around pulling out spines and pig assholes with visceral attacks; it never gets old, it's one of the greatest 'fuck you' moves in video games. Almost everything looks and feels cool. Trick weapons are bad ass, come on. Don't know how I'll feel about the cosmic shit later, as I'm digging the more grounded, grimy blood plague shit that's going on right now.

 

[Silva]

Machocruz , raising vitality at first will make your life easier. At least to 18. Raising dex/str doesn't make good returns at short term anyway.

 

[Machocruz]

Silva I agree. My VIT has been 21 the whole time, probably since BSB. Secondary emphasis on END.

But I finally got the bitch.

The conventional wisdom seems to be be aggressive and stay on her ass. My ass. It wasn't working, I was just making myself an easier target for her. Because I didn't want to rely on consumables, I did the typical Souls safe strat: wait for a big attack then hit her with a couple of my own while she's recovering, then back off. When not attacking, I only stayed close enough to be able to rush her when she tried to heal. Still not as clean a fight as i would have liked, I can do better. Glad I can progress the game, but I want to fight her again!

 

[Jaedar]

Machocruz , raising vitality at first will make your life easier. At least to 18. Raising dex/str doesn't make good returns at short term anyway.

Yeah, VIT is great to raise in BB. Blood vials always heal ~1/3rd of your max hp, so there's a pretty huge modifier to any max hp gain once you take that into account.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Machocruz , raising vitality at first will make your life easier. At least to 18. Raising dex/str doesn't make good returns at short term anyway.

Yeah, VIT is great to raise in BB. Blood vials always heal ~1/3rd of your max hp, so there's a pretty huge modifier to any max hp gain once you take that into account.

That makes sense, but the little voice in the back of my head always says "You're not going to be tanking shit, raise your damage dealing stats and fuck your HP". Kinda like stamina seems so ridiculously expensive to try to get another swing out of most of my weapons I don't really bother. Think I put a few points in so I have the tiniest sliver for a final swing and I've ignored it since.

Did get a rune to bump HP by 10% or something though, so if I'd been raising VIT more that would be even juicier.

 

[Machocruz]

Lolol now I'm beating my head against Shadow of Yharnam. I've seen videos, didn't think it would be this difficult (for me). Probably the most deaths I've had in any From boss fight. I found myself getting worse at the fight then when I first started, so I stopped and did the lecture building. Fire effects are really nice in this game, btw

Found the shortcut/backdoor from Forbidden to Iosefka's clinic. Explored that and she's hostile, and since I don't know what fighting or killing her means for game progress or sidequests, I just ran away. Level design continues to impress. No wonder DS3 is kind of weak, they shot their load making this one.

 

[Roguey]

That makes sense, but the little voice in the back of my head always says "You're not going to be tanking shit, raise your damage dealing stats and fuck your HP". Kinda like stamina seems so ridiculously expensive to try to get another swing out of most of my weapons I don't really bother. Think I put a few points in so I have the tiniest sliver for a final swing and I've ignored it since.

Putting points into vitality gives you immediate returns, whereas damage takes a long time before the benefits actually make a difference.

As for stamina, getting 40 points into endurance is good but there's very little point in going over that https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Endurance

 

[Silva]

Lolol now I'm beating my head against Shadow of Yharnam. I've seen videos, didn't think it would be this difficult (for me). Probably the most deaths I've had in any From boss fight. I found myself getting worse at the fight then when I first started, so I stopped and did the lecture building. Fire effects are really nice in this game, btw

Found the shortcut/backdoor from Forbidden to Iosefka's clinic. Explored that and she's hostile, and since I don't know what fighting or killing her means for game progress or sidequests, I just ran away. Level design continues to impress. No wonder DS3 is kind of weak, they shot their load making this one.

Did you send people to her clinic for shelter? If so..

Spoiler

..seeing what she did to them is enough justification to kill the bitch.