From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[MajorMace]

Skill and bloodtinge, with the cane and regular pistol.

The tools of a gentleman.

 

[Skinwalker]

Skill and bloodtinge, with the cane and regular pistol.

The tools of a gentleman.

Wearing Gascoine's set, I look like quite the gentlepimp.

 

[Cyberarmy]

the game

 

[Dadd]

If you want to play with the Blade of Mercy (my favorite weapon), you can get it early by killing the crow woman as soon as you encounter her in the first area. Don't let the deceptively low damage discourage you, once you get used to its moveset it's a great weapon.

This is what I did on my first run and I didn't regret it.

 

[Silva]

Something of note about the Arcanist build in BB, in case Skinwalker doesn't know, is that it's more of a tools and weird weapons user than a spellslinger. More Lovecraftian researcher and less Tolkienesque wizard, if it makes sense. Which is what makes it such an unique build, as it promotes knowledge of the different enemy types and picking the right tool/weapon for each job from a varied selection you'll keep.

Just remember to wear the academicians set from Miskatonic Byrgenwerth University to look like a prestigious professor.

Fucking Cthulhu on a bike, does Old Yharnam look and play better in daytime than at night. It's so much easier to navigate this maze, and there are actually plenty of nice details on the textures that aren't visible in darkness.

If only the Forbidden Forest was accessible during daytime.

Same goes for Hemwick Charnel Lane, it's gorgeous by day.

 

[Silva]

If you want to play with the Blade of Mercy (my favorite weapon), you can get it early by killing the crow woman as soon as you encounter her in the first area. Don't let the deceptively low damage discourage you, once you get used to its moveset it's a great weapon.

This is what I did on my first run and I didn't regret it.

And miss her storyline with old man Hendrik plus Crow of Cainhurst at the end? Heresy.

I would challenge you to a duel in Nightmare Frontier to give you a lesson, if I was still playing.

 

[Silva]

Something interesting about BB fighting system: when you get accustomed to each weapon combos and timings, you can click in the right moment (or queue) to chain each slash precisely and in sequence, instead of, you know, desperatedly clicking in full-auto mode. It makes the experience falls into a rhythm, a dance of sorts, specially when you also chain transformation attacks and dodges into the mix. This is most pronounced against tough mobs attacking you from multiple sides, like those in deep chalices.

I only grokked this on my 3rd or so playthrough. Perhaps this is what inspired Sekiro rhythm-like mechanics in a way...

 

[Skinwalker]

Fucking Cthulhu on a bike, does Old Yharnam look and play better in daytime than at night. It's so much easier to navigate this maze, and there are actually plenty of nice details on the textures that aren't visible in darkness.

If only the Forbidden Forest was accessible during daytime.

Same goes for Hemwick Charnel Lane, it's gorgeous by day.

And the Hypogean Gaol!

 

[Silva]

Damn, I never saw the Hypogean Gaol by day.

 

[Skinwalker]

Man, this nightmare frontier level almost drove me insane. I held off on exploring it in my first playthrough, which is a good thing because I would not want to explore it all over again. This level has FromSoftware's obligatory toxic swamp that impedes your movement, and it's filled with tentacle-brains that almost instantly made me frenzy as soon as I approached them. Must have lost at least 50k bloods to these fucking things.

At least I got to fight a spider-cthulhu at the end. The threaded cane came in very handy, its vertical attack was perfect for hitting the weak spot (head). Strangely, beating the boss had no effect on the hydrocephalic guy behind a locked door in the "lecture hall" nightmare.

 

[Dadd]

If you want to play with the Blade of Mercy (my favorite weapon), you can get it early by killing the crow woman as soon as you encounter her in the first area. Don't let the deceptively low damage discourage you, once you get used to its moveset it's a great weapon.

This is what I did on my first run and I didn't regret it.

And miss her storyline with old man Hendrik plus Crow of Cainhurst at the end? Heresy.

I would challenge you to a duel in Nightmare Frontier to give you a lesson, if I was still playing.

I would've spanked you into the ground; you're lucky I no longer own a PS4.

That reminds me, a question for anyone here, why do you think the headstones say "awaken above ground"?

 

[Skinwalker]

The Hunter's Dream is some sort of limbo of the dead, i.e. the grave?

 

[D_X]

tentacle-brains that almost instantly made me frenzy as soon as I approached them.

Winter Lanterns are something else, eh? I remember my first time encountering them in the Frontier, trudging through that miserable place just to get insta killed by that damned thing. Fortunately, there's only a handful of them in the game. Bring sedatives next time or just spend your insight at the insight shop since it really has no other use and the more you have, the faster you frenzy.

The Hunter's Dream is some sort of limbo of the dead, i.e. the grave?

Don't go down the rabbit hole of trying to make sense of what the hell is going on in BB.

This is the best way to approach the game's story.

 

[Silva]

The Hunter's Dream is some sort of limbo of the dead, i.e. the grave?

Spoiler (?):

Spoiler

The Hunter's Dream is a safehaven in the dreamlands that the Moon Presence created to help out Laurence and his companions ro fight the scourge.

It's appearance mimics Gehrman's real world workshop that existed at a time (and still exists if you know where to look for).

 

[D_X]

Spoiler (?):

Spoiler

Wut? I suppose it's something like a safe haven, but, iirc, there's no solid evidence to show that the Moon Presence created it or even maintains it.
Then, again, this is exactly why I said the best approach to BB's story is to completely ignore it and just kill.

 

[Silva]

D_X , the umbilical cord found in the old workshop gave away the info in version 1.0:

"Long ago, in an encounter with the Great Ones, a contract was established, establishing the hunters and the Hunter's Dream"


FS changed it in a subsequent patch, probably to obfuscate things but inadvertedly complementing the above:

"The Third Umbilical Cord precipitated the encounter with the pale moon, which beckoned the hunters and conceived the Hunter's Dream."

(source: https://bloodborne.fandom.com/wiki/Third_Umbilical_Cord )


Add this note from the lecture hall and the puzzle is solved:

"The nameless moon presence beckoned by Laurence and his associates. Paleblood."


It seems like when Great Ones create a location in the dreamlands they do it based on the host's memories or something. See how Micolash is called the "host" of the nightmare, despite Mergo clearly being the source of it, and how that realm resembles a grotesque mirror of the hidden village/Yahargul. Same goes for Moon Presence and Gehrman/the hunter's dream. Also, you can find Gerhman in the workshop having some nightmare and crying "Laurence, what is taking you so long... ", which implies Laurence beckoned the Moon but convinced his "associate" Gehrman to be the host. Poor old fella.

 

[D_X]

Damn, I forgot about the description of the cord. I think back in the day I thought pale moon is too obvious to be the Moon Presence since nothing seems to be straight forward in this game. In the end, I suppose, the best explanation is that Memezaky was hitting the sake hard when he wrote BB.

 

[Skinwalker]

Almost had a fit trying to beat that damned Ludwig the Inbred Horse or whatever his name is. I guess I was somewhat under-leveled (level 70), and had to survive his spastic attacks for much longer than most people, on account of doing moderate damage. After the fiftieth attempt, I finally nailed that son of a bitch. Putting the rest of the Hunter's Nightmare on hold for now.

In related news, I decided to do some of the chalice dungeons, even though they're fairly subpar. It's enjoyable to just have a good old-fashioned dungeon crawl adventure, and I haven't seen any dungeon levels in the main game so far (other than Hypogean Gaol, which is a literal (and fairly small) dungeon).

Am I right in assuming that each of the four "types" of dungeons (Pthumeru, Loran, etc) has exactly six normal chalices (and another six "root" versions)?

 

[D_X]

Am I right in assuming that each of the four "types" of dungeons (Pthumeru, Loran, etc) has exactly six normal chalices (and another six "root" versions)?

I don't know where you got 6 from. There are 4 "types" of chalices - Pthumeru, Hintertoombs, Loran and Isz. Of these, only Pthumeru has a chalice for each of the 5 depths, the other ones have only 1 or 2 at various depths (e.g. Isz only has one chalice at depth 5).

Root chalices are used just to create random generated dungeons and there is a root chalice for each of the non random generated ones. Iirc, you can use various materials when creating the random ones to make them even shittier but increase the chance of dropping better loot. If you're online, you can also grab the codes for random ones to recreate them so at least you know what crap is in them.

In terms of what you "need" to do, Loran and Pthumeru have crap that is required for chevoos, if you're into that. To open some of them, at least the depth 4 and 5 Pthumeru ones, you'll either need some crap from that some can be found in the main game and the rest in the other types, or go into NG+ where you can find or buy more without doing the other chalices. If you don't want to go into NG+, you'll have to do Isz and Loran. Hintertoombs, iirc, are entirely optional as they are the only ones without any crap that relates to the others.

 

[Skinwalker]

In terms of what you "need" to do, Loran and Pthumeru have crap that is required for chevoos

Chevoos?? Wtf is that?

 

[D_X]

In terms of what you "need" to do, Loran and Pthumeru have crap that is required for chevoos

Chevoos?? Wtf is that?

My bad, it's cheevos. I misspelled it.

Achievements, dude. Or trophies as Sony calls them. If you're in getting them there are 2 things in the Loran and Pthumeru chalices that you need.

 

[Skinwalker]

Oh! No, I don't care about achievements.

Anyway, I encountered a copy of the eldritch spider boss in one of the Pthumeru dungeons, so I'm guessing this is just extra Bloodporn content for people who didn't get enough from the actual game. I'm not done with the actual game yet (didn't even get to bloodmoon yet), so I'll hold off on the dungeons for now. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Silva]

Almost had a fit trying to beat that damned Ludwig the Inbred Horse or whatever his name is.

Wait, did you get the DLC?




(Ludwig the Accursed is a boss in the Hunter's Nightmare, an area that's only available with the DLC)

 

[cvv]

I don't care about achievements.

Spoiler

 

[Silva]

Skinwalker , since you got the DLC, I suggest you be on the lookout for weapons related to your build. For dex, the Saif and Maria's blades (Rakuyo?) are excellent, though the later is found by beating a tough "mini boss".

But the real show stealer is the Pizza Cutter.