From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Hobo Elf]

Hobo, Im using a chikage+9 for melee and whip cane+7 for range control. Im a skill-26 bloodtinge-35 vitality-28 troubled childhood dood.

Perhaps my build was poorly made ? Im finding the game quite challenging. With some subtle peaks of difficulty here and there (I faced three fatties on a lower pthumerian depth 3 dungeon that almost raped me). It seems the starting whip cane-using skill-skinny is clearly inferior to the strength Axe-wielding guy.

Are you using your Evelyn against the Amygdala? Chikage has pretty poor range so it's probably not going to help you much vs a boss like Amygdala, so popping him with Bone Marrow Ash shots should work well. If this is your first time then it's not surprising that it feels pretty hard. Bloodborne is the hardest of these games imo. Your build probably isn't the most optimal, but neither was my first char. I used Blade of Mercy so I needed Skill and Arcane, but I also wanted to use Evelyn so I had to level up Bloodtinge as well. My stats were spread out so thin I feel embarrassed looking back at this dood. But even then I still managed to beat the game.
And I agree with Cowboy that the game isn't very friendly for people who want to use Bloodtinge and Arcane on their first char. These stats are super powerful, but they suck ass for a long time, because the weapon, blood gem and spell locations are abysmally awful in this game. And the DLC did not help with it at all, just made it even worse.

 

[Silva]

Ebryetas was kicking my ass so I tried my hand in the DLC for serious. And wow what da fuck is that beastman hunter you find near your pal Gilbert house ? The dude shouts, scratches and bites like an animal. Is it possible for us to be like that ?

By the way, I'm already considering my next char but I'm undecided. My first choices was a skill/arcane build (I want to use blades of mercy and throw tentacles from my hands like a badass eldritch arcanist). But now I've seen the beastman Im excited to try a strenght-build barechest wolverine-like badass!

What would you guys suggest ?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Blades of Mercy is fun and the tentacle spell is stylish and sweet as fuck. With Arcane you also get the power of Cauliflower after beating the DLC.

You do want to be Cauliflower, right?

And, yes, the pseudo-werewolf form should be doable. I think you need to join the Blood Beast covenant and use the Beast Claw weapon to imitate that NPC.

 

[Mozg]

Literally had a fork with a cauliflower floret on it at my lips when I clicked this thread

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Blades of Mercy are very cool, although they just taught me that Amygdala is really annoying without decent range on your weapon. Normally you can just sit under her and swing at her arms or head, but with Blades it's enough of a pain in the ass to do this that actually handling the fight the way it was intended is better.

Only bad thing about Blades is that getting them the intended way requires killing the Bloody Crow, which is a rather dumb and cheap fight.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Yeah, just shank Eileen and don't bother with doing her quest line the legit way. Not only will it take a long time, but the Bloody Crow is probably the worst fight in the game.

 

[Silva]

Heh, I found the bloody crow fight one of the best in the game. But then I love the kind of twitchy, frenetic affairs that hunters fights use to be. That's one of the reasons Im loving the DLC, by the way.

Oh and I learned to use the rapierpallach and I'm stunlocking foes like hell with it. On transformed state it's stabs are super fast and consume little stamina. And if you follow a combo with R2 it parry-shots the enemy letting you combo-visceral-attack it. Pretty cool.

Is there a better stunlocking/low-stamina consumption weapon than it ? How is Mercy Blades in this respect ?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Blade of Mercy is as you'd expect dual wielding two daggers to be like. Does shitload of damage and is perfect at stunlocking enemies. One thing that I've learned to do is to use the Tentacle spell to knock down enemies once I'm out of stamina. While they get up I regen stamina back and can go right back into stunlocking them. Works quite well.

 

[Silva]

Thanks, Hobo.

Heh, what about a duel, folks ? I confess all this talk about builds and tactics is making me curious to see you gentlemen in action. How do we setup such a thing ? Is there a password system for this just like in DS3 ?

On another subject, while starting a new game and watching the intro again, I had an epiphany: when you receive blood ministration, the act of the wolf burning as the messengers appear is the moon presence saving you from beasthood. That's the point when MP picks you as its chosen hunter. Makes any sense ?

 

[Talby]

If you kill Eileen you miss out on the Hunter rune, though. The Bloody Crow is pretty easy to cheese anyway.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Whew boy. I've been playing other games so I've been slacking with the Bloodborne DLC, but I just the Lady Maria fight. That was a fun fight indeed. At the last sliver of her HP she parried me and did a visceral attack. I nearly soiled my breeches thinking that she was gonna OHKO me. Came close but not close enough and I managed to finish her off.

 

[Silva]

Just reached Lady Maria. One of the best fights so far. The atmosphere leading up to it, the awesome music, her cool attitude and move set, everything is perfectly tailored and make it damn exciting.

The DLC quality is over the ceiling, man. I'm anxious to see what they will do with the Dark Souls 3 DLC.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Lady Maria is probably my favorite boss fight in Bloodborne. Such a cool and fun boss fight. Not very difficult, although you do have to be on your toes because she's very punishing when you screw up badly. I probably will not know how good the DLC will be in DaS3, because it is doubtful that I'll ever buy and play it, but all the DLC From has put out so far has been golden and I don't see them slowing down.

Some random screenies I found that made me lol hard. Was thoroughly impressed with the likeness.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I'd find Lady Maria a lot more fun if she actually attacked instead of slowly walking towards you or slowly charging up long-range attacks. To use the most obvious point of comparison, the second phase of Abyss Watchers in DS3 is rather easy as well, but a lot more fun because the guy constantly attacks and moves around.

Her theme is also very annoying, because it starts out so beautifully, and then descends into completely inappropriate EPIC CHORUS shit.

 

[Talby]

I killed Maria on my first try. Still a fun fight, but all her attacks are well telegraphed.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Goddamn Orphan of Kos is cheap. He keeps killing me while my character is getting up after getting knocked down, but I haven't regained control yet so I can't dodge his moves. "Hardest" boss fight indeed. This guy is just a stone cold cheater.

Edit: It's over bros. Kos is aborted. Now I never have to do this fight again.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Goddamn Orphan of Kos is cheap. He keeps killing me while my character is getting up after getting knocked down, but I haven't regained control yet so I can't dodge his moves. "Hardest" boss fight indeed. This guy is just a stone cold cheater.

Edit: It's over bros. Kos is aborted. Now I never have to do this fight again.

I think that's just bad luck, he didn't really do that against me (on the other hand, Maria did). In general, Bloodborne is pretty dumb about stagger and knockdown mechanics, similar to DS3. Enemies will often keep swinging while you're knocked down, resulting in a hit before you can do anything, and which attacks inflict knockdown vs stagger seems completely arbitrary and sometimes actively bad. For example, the huge pigs have a charge attack which, if you get hit early into it, will carry it with you and hit you again, effectively one-shotting you. Ebrietas has a charge attack which can oneshot you if you're unlucky and get hit by multiple "parts" of her at the same time, as well.

As a general rule, I understand that knockdowns make the rally mechanic pointless, but their lack causes certain combos to effectively oneshot you, as you get very little opportunity to dodge out of them. Ludwig is very guilty of this, as are those big dudes with anchors in the Fishing Hamlet.

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's a flaw that came about the more aggro they made the enemies. It's a really frustrating way to die and there's literally nothing you can do about it.

 

[Mozg]

Do you mean you're actually vulnerable to hits while knocked down, or that his attacks are catching you right as your wakeup invincibility ends?

 

[Hobo Elf]

It's both.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

I'm actually kinda confused by how this works. I've been hit many times while knocked down and not just by special attacks designed to do that. On the other hand, the pig charge I mentioned earlier seems to stagger you, but does seem to give some invincibility frames, as otherwise you'd get hit twice immediately, while in reality there's a delay of around 1 second.

 

[Silva]

Just realized the logic behind the "buy items with Insight" mechanic: You don’t “buy” things in the dream – you materialize things because you have enough Insight to know it’s just a dream. What items are available depend on your own memories (when you kill an enemy and “buy” their attire), or the knowledge attached to small objects you find (like the various badges and the gear related to them). This kind of mimics that theory which says, when you’re dreaming and you have enough INSIGHT to perceive its a dream, then you can manipulate its “reality”.

Makes sense ?

 

[Bastion]

Makes sense ?

Have you seen all endings?

 

[Silva]

No, but I've read about them. Is there something about them that discredit my interpretation above ?

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Just realized the logic behind the "buy items with Insight" mechanic: You don’t “buy” things in the dream – you materialize things because you have enough Insight to know it’s just a dream. What items are available depend on your own memories (when you kill an enemy and “buy” their attire), or the knowledge attached to small objects you find (like the various badges and the gear related to them). This kind of mimics that theory which says, when you’re dreaming and you have enough INSIGHT to perceive its a dream, then you can manipulate its “reality”.

Makes sense ?

Thing is, in Bloodborne the dream world seems to simply be an alternate plane of reality, given that you can actually carry items from there into the physical world. And you also buy stuff with Blood Echoes in the dream just as well as with Insight, so I wouldn't look into it beyond it just being a way of making Insight useful for something. Honestly, the whole real world/dream divide seems rather poorly thought out, given that in the Hunter's Nightmare (which is a dream area) you kill Orphan of Kos' physical body, get a "PREY SLAUGHTERED" message, and then proceed to also kill his consciousness, resulting in "NIGHTMARE SLAIN" - but if it's a dream to begin with, then why the separation?