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Bloodborne |OT+5| Grant Us Eyes!

NKnight7

Neo Member
Progress update - beat the witch, trying out Ludwig's Holy Blade. This game is pretty fun. Went back to Cathedral, noticed that some enemies changed or have now elemental attacks. This game is scary too. Feels like I'm playing a horror game.

My personal favorite weapon, that and the Saw Cleaver.
 
My personal favorite weapon, that and the Saw Cleaver.

What do you like about these weapons? I haven't tried the cleaver yet. I'm not quite sure how the weapon upgrade system. Sounds like later I can add passive abilities. Now it just looks like a cool looking sword, but I still find the axe to be most helpful - long range attack, high damage, and enemies tend to stagger when they get hit.
 

NKnight7

Neo Member
What do you like about these weapons? I haven't tried the cleaver yet. I'm not quite sure how the weapon upgrade system. Sounds like later I can add passive abilities. Now it just looks like a cool looking sword, but I still find the axe to be most helpful - long range attack, high damage, and enemies tend to stagger when they get hit.

It mainly has to do with damage, I feel like that I've gotten good strength and power out of both weapons, so much so with the cleaver that I used it entirely for my first playthrough and rarely felt the urge to switch it out. Right now with this playthrough I'm currently on I'm using Ludwig's sword mostly, but do plan on switching it out once I get to the DLC and get a certain weapon from there. Also, I just love the design of both weapons. The axe is great too, because like you said with its range and staggering capabilities.

Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I love this game. Many of the weapons feel and look unique, and can fill their certain roles and uses fairly well. It's really fun to experiment with them.
 
Ran around in the woods. Kinda confusing, find the snake enemies annoying. Then ran into the boss fight with 3 shadows. Annoying. Was trying to do visceral attacks, died twice, twice only able to kill one of them

Edit: beat them. Yay progress.


It mainly has to do with damage, I feel like that I've gotten good strength and power out of both weapons, so much so with the cleaver that I used it entirely for my first playthrough and rarely felt the urge to switch it out. Right now with this playthrough I'm currently on I'm using Ludwig's sword mostly, but do plan on switching it out once I get to the DLC and get a certain weapon from there. Also, I just love the design of both weapons. The axe is great too, because like you said with its range and staggering capabilities.

Honestly, that's one of the reasons why I love this game. Many of the weapons feel and look unique, and can fill their certain roles and uses fairly well. It's really fun to experiment with them.


I played around with the weapon more, definitely noticed more subtleties with the weapon, with animation and taking on different types of enemies. so far with the upgrades it's my strongest weapon.
 

saltyramen

Member
this is strange af but i got this game at launch when it had the long ass loading times and got to the first lanky ass boss.. v frustrated w that whole rinse and repeat gameplay of walking thru the gates and finding him again.. ended up selling it. i got decent to the pt where i could read enemy patterns but wasn't ever great at the game. inb4 git gud

but. years later i want to play this again lmao. i don't know why. i feel like i never was fully satisfied and have to see what is so great about it.

do you have tips for jumping in again? do i turn off that online ghost shit? what is the best starter weapon? and does that whole doing the first segment shit ever end w closer save points?
 
this is strange af but i got this game at launch when it had the long ass loading times and got to the first lanky ass boss.. v frustrated w that whole rinse and repeat gameplay of walking thru the gates and finding him again.. ended up selling it. i got decent to the pt where i could read enemy patterns but wasn't ever great at the game. inb4 git gud

but. years later i want to play this again lmao. i don't know why. i feel like i never was fully satisfied and have to see what is so great about it.

do you have tips for jumping in again? do i turn off that online ghost shit? what is the best starter weapon? and does that whole doing the first segment shit ever end w closer save points?

No tips as I just started myself. Coming from someone who has no background in this kind of game...this shit is legit yo
 
this is strange af but i got this game at launch when it had the long ass loading times and got to the first lanky ass boss.. v frustrated w that whole rinse and repeat gameplay of walking thru the gates and finding him again.. ended up selling it. i got decent to the pt where i could read enemy patterns but wasn't ever great at the game. inb4 git gud

but. years later i want to play this again lmao. i don't know why. i feel like i never was fully satisfied and have to see what is so great about it.

do you have tips for jumping in again? do i turn off that online ghost shit? what is the best starter weapon? and does that whole doing the first segment shit ever end w closer save points?

Went through the same thing except I picked the game back up months later that year. I stuck to it, and now this game jumped to my all-time favorites along with RE4 and Mario 64. Gitgud is a given, but here are a few tips from the top of my head:

-Don't kill everything and learn how to run away. The game wasn't made for you to kill everything on the map, and running away is easier than you think. Likewise, killing the big bad dudes that roam as mobs are not always worth it. To add: locking on (pressing R3?) is not entirely necessary. This especially true for big bosses that make the camera go crazy. Try smacking big things on their legs one or two times before retreating by rolling away from them.

-Heave a hunter's pistol and a blunderbuss equipped. Forget torches and that one wooden shield they give you, stick with these. Shoot stuff from a far to bring mobs closer or shoot just in time for a parry when you're 1-on-1 with something. Practice parrying the ogres in Yharnam as they are about to smack you midway with a rock. Then try to parry the lantern dudes in the map after that as soon as they are at arm's length. Learning how this mechanic works was for me the single thing that kept me going. Also, shoot any kind of dog as soon as you see one.

edit:

BTW never try to parry (non-human) bosses by timing gun shots. Usually they go down when enough damage is done by doing enough damage to their head or one of their limbs.

Hunter pistol: shoots straight with far reach, is faster and needs more precision for parrying. Can do a lot of damage when leveled up later in the game, especially when buffed.

Blunderbuss: staggers easily, meaning you can misfire but still stagger enemies and bosses (great for controlling groups, especially with little dogs involved). Does little to no damage and doesn't reach far but sprays left and right for close range. This is also slower than the pistol but as a result needs less precision for landing parries.


-Spend your echoes as soon as you get them. Don't risk losing all the money on the next boss fight or on the newest side of the map. Travel back and forth to the hub and spend your echoes on vials, bullets, and leveling. For leveling, the single most important stat to put your money on is vitality. Raise that red bar to take extra hits and avoid getting one-shot by the bosses. Don't go over 25 points for stamina (that's your green energy bar). Everything else leave for later, trust me on this.


-Stick to two of the starter weapons and learn them well. Experiment with the rest of the inventory waaay later in the game. There's plenty to do before finishing the game, and this is where you can pick up other weapons that match your stats or even plan ahead for a new game that's better suited to any given weapon.
That being said:

-Level up your two favorite weapons every chance you get. Consult the repair counter in the hunter's dream to see if you've got enough blood stone shards to get your weapon to the next level. While you're at it, set up the gemstones dropped by enemies all over. Nothing to obsess over about on this area other than applying random gemstones to your weapons and see which ones show a better damage stat (marked in blue). Don't bother leveling guns in the beginning, especially not the blunderbuss which acts more as a parry spray.

-Youtube search boss fights when you're stuck on one. There's way too many videos out there, but my recommendation is to look for boss fights done in level 4. These are the people that beat bosses without leveling, and what they show is the closest to a fool proof way to kill them. At the same time, they usually take longer to beat the boss and let you see how they handle most of the boss's patterns.

bonus: on any given weapon, try this combo: R1>L1>L1... That's just pressing R1 once and then L1 until you're ready to roll away or the stamina bar runs out. It staggers most things in the game, it does a lot of damage, and it's satisfying.
 

saltyramen

Member
Went through the same thing except I picked the game back up months later that year. I stuck to it, and now this game jumped to my all-time favorites along with RE4 and Mario 64. Gitgud is a given, but here are a few tips from the top of my head:

-Don't kill everything and learn how to run away. The game wasn't made for you to kill everything on the map, and running away is easier than you think. Likewise, killing the big bad dudes that roam as mobs are not always worth it. To add: locking on (pressing R3?) is not entirely necessary. This especially true for big bosses that make the camera go crazy. Try smacking big things on their legs one or two times before retreating by rolling away from them.

-Heave a hunter's pistol and a blunderbuss equipped. Forget torches and that one wooden shield they give you, stick with these. Shoot stuff from a far to bring mobs closer or shoot just in time for a parry when you're 1-on-1 with something. Practice parrying the ogres in Yharnam as they are about to smack you midway with a rock. Then try to parry the lantern dudes in the map after that as soon as they are at arm's length. Learning how this mechanic works was for me the single thing that kept me going. Also, shoot any kind of dog as soon as you see one.

-Spend your echoes as soon as you get them. Don't risk losing all the money on the next boss fight or on the newest side of the map. Travel back and forth to the hub and spend your echoes on vials, bullets, and leveling. For leveling, the single most important stat to put your money on is vitality. Raise that red bar to take extra hits and avoid getting one-shot by the bosses. Don't go over 25 points for stamina (that's your green energy bar). Everything else leave for later, trust me on this.


-Stick to two of the starter weapons and learn them well. Experiment with the rest of the inventory waaay later in the game. There's plenty to do before finishing the game, and this is where you can pick up other weapons that match your stats or even plan ahead for a new game that's better suited to any given weapon.
That being said:

-Level up your two favorite weapons every chance you get. Consult the repair counter in the hunter's dream to see if you've got enough blood stone shards to get your weapon to the next level. While you're at it, set up the gemstones dropped by enemies all over. Nothing to obsess over about on this area other than applying random gemstones to your weapons and see which ones show a better damage stat (marked in blue). Don't bother leveling guns in the beginning, especially not the blunderbuss which acts more as a parry spray.

-Youtube search boss fights when you're stuck on one. There's way too many videos out there, but my recommendation is to look for boss fights done in level 4. These are the people that beat bosses without leveling, and what they show is the closest to a fool proof way to kill them. At the same time, they usually take longer to beat the boss and let you see how they handle most of the boss's patterns.

bonus: on any given weapon, try this combo: R1>L1>L1... That's just pressing R1 once and then L1 until you're ready to roll away or the stamina bar runs out. It staggers most things in the game, it does a lot of damage, and it's satisfying.

saved. thanks a bunch. re4 and sm64 eh? big shoes to fill lol
 
saved. thanks a bunch. re4 and sm64 eh? big shoes to fill lol

Also worth remembering, and I'll add this to that list: hunter pistol and blunderbuss are slightly different:

Hunter pistol: shoots straight with far reach, is faster and needs more precision for parrying. Can do a lot of damage when leveled up later in the game, especially when buffed.

Blunderbuss: staggers easily, meaning you can misfire but still stagger enemies and bosses (great for controlling groups, especially with little dogs involved). Does little to no damage and doesn't reach far but sprays left and right for close range. This is also slower than the pistol but as a result needs less precision for landing parries.

Also, nobody has all the time in the world to beat everything alone or fully appreciate the game offline. When you're absolutely stuck on a boss or some part of the game, say fuck it and summon random people for help. Most of the time coop people will try to do everything for you, though the game never stops being unforgiving and always does its thing to kill cooperators more easily, meaning it's still a challenge no matter what. No shame in bringing in other people!
 
does that whole doing the first segment shit ever end w closer save points?
Almost every area has a shortcut to the boss. The way Souls games go is you explore the area, unlock a shortcut or waypoint and then do the boss.

So if you're going the long way to get to a boss, likely you haven't unlocked a door or noticed another way to go. Example: The 'first' boss Cleric Beast should take about 10 seconds to run to from the lamp. Some later bosses do have longer run backs, but that's all it is - running back, you don't have to engage a single enemy, although they often put helpful enemies on the way back, ones that say drop a handful of healing items every time or something like that. Things are rarely random in Souls games, use the environment to your advantage.
 

Van Bur3n

Member
Coming from the Hunter Axe, Church Pick, and Rakuyo, I don't think I've ever used a more boring weapon than Ludwig's Holy Blade. I had more fun using the Beast Cutter, and that says a lot.
 
Coming from the Hunter Axe, Church Pick, and Rakuyo, I don't think I've ever used a more boring weapon than Ludwig's Holy Blade. I had more fun using the Beast Cutter, and that says a lot.

Well, Church and Rakuyo were DLC, added way later into the game.

LHB is pretty versatile since the blade can scale with skill and strentgh in both forms while the church pick have to be buffed to be arcane , its L2 is pretty useful for an early Vis on bosses
 

Toxi

Banned
Holy shit Darkbeast Paarl is hilariously easy with the Kirkhammer. Smack him in the head with a charged attack, he goes down instantly. Do it every time he charges himself back up.

Wonder if Loran Darkbeast will be as easy once I'm leveled up.
 

SDR-UK

Member
Holy shit Darkbeast Paarl is hilariously easy with the Kirkhammer. Smack him in the head with a charged attack, he goes down instantly. Do it every time he charges himself back up.

Wonder if Loran Darkbeast will be as easy once I'm leveled up.

Spoiler alert:
No, he won't be.
 
Well, Church and Rakuyo were DLC, added way later into the game.

LHB is pretty versatile since the blade can scale with skill and strentgh in both forms while the church pick have to be buffed to be arcane , its L2 is pretty useful for an early Vis on bosses

What does that mean? Does it mean a weapon like LHB can increase in damage with skill and strength are increased? And conversely a weapon that needs to be buffed by arcane can only be better if arcane is level up?

Just got blade of mercy ><
 
Made it to Unseen Village and Lecture Building. Hatethe respawn enemies. Ran into the 3 Hunters, fuck that shit. Went to "outside" at Lecture Building and died at poison water. Fuck that shit.

Just saw in youtube you can get to the clinic in the beginning from the woods? It's all connected? That's amazing.
 
Made it to Unseen Village and Lecture Building. Hatethe respawn enemies. Ran into the 3 Hunters, fuck that shit. Went to "outside" at Lecture Building and died at poison water. Fuck that shit.

Just saw in youtube you can get to the clinic in the beginning from the woods? It's all connected? That's amazing.

All yharman is an open world
 

gogosox82

Member
Holy shit Darkbeast Paarl is hilariously easy with the Kirkhammer. Smack him in the head with a charged attack, he goes down instantly. Do it every time he charges himself back up.

Wonder if Loran Darkbeast will be as easy once I'm leveled up.

Good luck trying to keep Loran Darkbeast stunned on the ground because you will need it.
 
What does that mean? Does it mean a weapon like LHB can increase in damage with skill and strength are increased? And conversely a weapon that needs to be buffed by arcane can only be better if arcane is level up?

Just got blade of mercy ><

Weapons scale with different stats, and to different degrees. It shows it on the stats screen, Bicep = strength, hand = Skill (called dexterity in the Souls games), weird symbol = Bloodtinge, star = Arcane. Although in Bloodborne basically all of the weapons start with mediocre scaling and improve with upgrades.

Made it to Unseen Village and Lecture Building. Hatethe respawn enemies. Ran into the 3 Hunters, fuck that shit. Went to "outside" at Lecture Building and died at poison water. Fuck that shit.

Just saw in youtube you can get to the clinic in the beginning from the woods? It's all connected? That's amazing.

Dark Souls 1 does it as well, and it being cut down/ mostly removed in 2 and 3 is one of the most commonly-voiced disappointments about those games. It's especially useful in Dark Souls 1 because it gives you access to a huge number of weapons from the start of the game as long as you know where to find them.
 
Weapons scale with different stats, and to different degrees. It shows it on the stats screen, Bicep = strength, hand = Skill (called dexterity in the Souls games), weird symbol = Bloodtinge, star = Arcane. Although in Bloodborne basically all of the weapons start with mediocre scaling and improve with upgrades.



Dark Souls 1 does it as well, and it being cut down/ mostly removed in 2 and 3 is one of the most commonly-voiced disappointments about those games. It's especially useful in Dark Souls 1 because it gives you access to a huge number of weapons from the start of the game as long as you know where to find them.

Thanks. The world is impressive and there are so am here ways to upgrade. Kinda overwhelming. Recently read about the cannon in one of the old threads, so been trying get that.

Just past The One Reborn. I find the whole unseen village to be unsettling as fuck, from the bells to the respawning to the 3 Hunters and those monsters with a shit load of skulls on them, they also do tons of damage.

I been attaching fire or bolt gem on mh weapons, seems like it's still the physical attacks that do the most damage. I don't know how to get my weapons to glow with fire or bolt
 

Toxi

Banned
I been attaching fire or bolt gem on mh weapons, seems like it's still the physical attacks that do the most damage. I don't know how to get my weapons to glow with fire or bolt
You can use Fire Paper or Bolt Paper to get weapons to temporarily glow with the element.

Elemental gems entirely replace physical damage with elemental damage, so they're only useful for a dedicated Arcane build in most cases.
 
You can use Fire Paper or Bolt Paper to get weapons to temporarily glow with the element.

Elemental gems entirely replace physical damage with elemental damage, so they're only useful for a dedicated Arcane build in most cases.

You can buy fire and bolt papers from the shops in the Hunters Dream.

Thanks. And yeah I noticed there wasn't much increase in damage when I added fire or bolt gem. Good to know it's for dedicated Arcane build.
 

Toxi

Banned
Thanks. And yeah I noticed there wasn't much increase in damage when I added fire or bolt gem. Good to know it's for dedicated Arcane build.
I should note that elemental gems do not replace the damage if your weapon already deals that kind of elemental damage. So if you put a bolt gem on the Tonitrus, a weapon that already does bolt damage, you'll just get an increase in the weapon's bolt damage with no impact on the physical damage.

But that's still really only useful for hybrid Arcane builds.
 
So I'm at nightmare mensis. Ran into those ladies with brain, keeps getting killed with frenzy. Any tips? I know sedatives help but the build up of frenzy is too fast. This whole part is scary...
 
So I'm at nightmare mensis. Ran into those ladies with brain, keeps getting killed with frenzy. Any tips? I know sedatives help but the build up of frenzy is too fast. This whole part is scary...

Frenzy deals a proportional damage according to your health so you have to use the sedative before the frenzy kicks in.

You can make your frenzy bar longer with frenzy resist gear and rune , giving you more time to kill the corrupted doll, use the sedative and survive
 

Toxi

Banned
I should note this take some practice to get the timing down. Good to have sedatives on hand just in case.
Yep. It's likely death if you get grabbed. But once you get down the timing, it's easily the safest way to take them out, since you can avoid frenzy damage entirely without needing Sedatives.

Also, Frenzy scales with your Insight, so spending most/all of your insight makes the buildup significantly slower.
 
Yep. It's likely death if you get grabbed. But once you get down the timing, it's easily the safest way to take them out, since you can avoid frenzy damage entirely without needing Sedatives.

Also, Frenzy scales with your Insight, so spending most/all of your insight makes the buildup significantly slower.

I almost didn't spend my insights at all and the build-up was near instant. It was so infuriating before I figured that out.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?
 
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?
Makes enemies stronger sometimes more aggresive


In some cases you can see monsters before red moon phase
 
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?

Sometimes you can hear sounds with high insights which you can't otherwise, like
the baby's cry
.
 
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?
Insight is a bit like humanity in that it's a currency used for co-op. It can also be spent at the insight shop in the Hunter's Dream.

As Orochinagis says, it does change some enemies and other minor things in the world. Some enemies and bosses get new abilities, and with high enough insight you can
see the Amygdala type enemies hanging out on the side of buildings etc earlier than you would without high insight

Re: Frenzy. High insight makes you more susceptible - so it's a very good idea to get rid of as much insight as possible before going in an area with high risk of frenzy. Frenzy is basically like bleed in DS1, a bar builds up and when it fills it pops off and does a large amount of damage.

If you're not doing a lot of online play, I would get rid of insight often - spend it on bolt paper, beast blood pellets, armour sets etc. Insight is pretty plentiful, so no need to be precious with it.
 

Toxi

Banned
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?
Frenzy is what happens when you are forced to process the eldritch truth. Your head literally explodes.

The Frenzy status condition works a lot like Bleed in Dark Souls. It will automatically remove 75% of your max health, so getting Frenzied with less than 75% is instant death.
 

gogosox82

Member
So i have two questions then, what does frenzy do? And is there a good reason to not spend insight? I have so far treated it kinda like humanity, as something its good to have a high number in, but considering whats written above, that seems to not be the case?

Frenzy is a lore thing but it also works like bleed in ds1 and ds3. It does a percertange of your health based on your frenzy resist. Its why people usually spend some insight if they are going through a zone with frenzy enemies. Because the frenzy build up will be nearly instant if you have a lot of insight. Insight is good if you want to use beast blood pellets as insight increases your beasthood which can help you put out insane amounts of damage. But I don't think you need more than 300 beasthood. So you don't need to run around with 50 insight. You can just spend on paper or sedatives etc.
 

Morfeo

The Chuck Norris of Peace
Alright, thanks for all the answers! I havent used a single insight so far in the game lol, so my frenzy buildup was always instantly. And since i already have the red moon - i guess i should just spend it all. Thanks alot!
 

Toxi

Banned
Alright, thanks for all the answers! I havent used a single insight so far in the game lol, so my frenzy buildup was always instantly. And since i already have the red moon - i guess i should just spend it all. Thanks alot!
You do want at least 1 Insight, since with 0 Insight the Doll is inanimate and you can't level up.
 
Still haven't had the chance to try the party on the frenzy enemy. Did accidentally dropped the mother brain, eventually found it but missing the make contact gestures ....then also realized I totally missed the key to upper cathedral. This game ....so good
 

Mephala

Member
Hello Bloodborne Gaf! Any advice would be much appreciated.

All three weapons play a little bit differently but are incredible in different ways and can carry you through the game when you're comfortable enough with it. You can buy the other weapons later.

The beginning armor you get is trash. While most armors offer similar protection the clothes you start out in offer virtually nothing. You want to get real armor to help out if you're struggling. You can find a set for free but you can also save up and buy it from the shop in Hunter's Dream.

Stamina while useful can be sacrificed for health or other stats because it begins to regenerate incredibly fast. You can dodge as soon as you have any stamina at all. It is still sometimes useful to increase as it allows you to swing more times quickly.

Skill vs strength really depends on your weapon choice but getting a little of both to try things out isn't going to gimp you really. Cane is the closest to a full skill based weapon you will see in quite some time while the others scale decently to both skill and strength for the most part.

One tactic for bosses is to not attack but to move around and observe them first. Weave in and out of it's range. See how long you can linger within its reach and work out how many hits you can land before you need to retreat. This is particularly useful if you find yourself running low on blood vials (potions). Try to get to the boss without using any. Then try to fight the boss without using any, this forces you to learn and if you do well and think you have a chance then you can use potions to get you there.

Don't farm vials alone. Farm blood echoes to buy vials is usually more efficient. Practice on enemies and explore then buy vials. Buy vials with excess echoes after leveling or shopping. Going out to explore with 0 echoes and no fear of death or loss can be rewarding.

Check windows and doors, sometimes there is dialogue. Talk repeatedly to exhaust all dialogue before moving on. If I remember correctly most of the spots with talk has a lit window or lantern or a conspicuous lack of breakable barrels blocking the window as a way to high light it.
 
Hello Bloodborne Gaf!

I made this thread earlier today - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1449599
and ended up buying BB.

I have never played a souls game before and am looking for some beginners tips!

Classes/weapons? Strength/Stamina builds or something else? Things to look out for.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hell yeah! Always glad to see people jump in.

Here are some of my suggestions and tips, I should note that I am not native English speaker so my grammar could be kinda weird sometimes.

Bloodborne is a Souls game that's mostly about melee combat, magic builds are not really viable from the start, in fact, there's no actual magic system in this game, but that doesn't mean there's no magic at all, it's just very different.

Bloodborne_Origins_Chart_small.jpg


As for starting class, all class starts out at Level 10 while only Waste of Skin starts at Level 4, I personally recommend the Military Veteran starting class, it doesn't have the highest Vitality (HP) and Endurance (Stamina) but it does have very high and equal Strength and Skill, weapons have scaling in this game, some weapon scale with Strength, some weapon scale with Skill, some weapon scale with both.

Starting with a character that has both good STR and SKL means you will have more chance playing and experimenting with various different weapons, there's no best weapon in Bloodborne, every hunter weapon is unique and suits different playstyles.

However, I do think the Saw Cleaver and the Hunter's Axe are both pretty solid choice for beginners. Both of them are STR weapons btw, Saw Cleaver has great DPS while Hunter's Axe has a lot of reach when transformed (L1). You can't go wrong with either of them.
 

alt27

Member
All three weapons play a little bit differently but are incredible in different ways and can carry you through the game when you're comfortable enough with it. You can buy the other weapons later.

The beginning armor you get is trash. While most armors offer similar protection the clothes you start out in offer virtually nothing. You want to get real armor to help out if you're struggling. You can find a set for free but you can also save up and buy it from the shop in Hunter's Dream.

Stamina while useful can be sacrificed for health or other stats because it begins to regenerate incredibly fast. You can dodge as soon as you have any stamina at all. It is still sometimes useful to increase as it allows you to swing more times quickly.

Skill vs strength really depends on your weapon choice but getting a little of both to try things out isn't going to gimp you really. Cane is the closest to a full skill based weapon you will see in quite some time while the others scale decently to both skill and strength for the most part.

One tactic for bosses is to not attack but to move around and observe them first. Weave in and out of it's range. See how long you can linger within its reach and work out how many hits you can land before you need to retreat. This is particularly useful if you find yourself running low on blood vials (potions). Try to get to the boss without using any. Then try to fight the boss without using any, this forces you to learn and if you do well and think you have a chance then you can use potions to get you there.

Don't farm vials alone. Farm blood echoes to buy vials is almost always more efficient. Practice on enemies and explore then buy vials. Buy vials with excess echoes after leveling or shopping. Going out to explore with 0 echoes and no fear of death or loss can be rewarding.

Thanks! So the first area is the practice area im assuming. Is it better to use the trick of getting the insight fast and then being able to level up in this area while acclimitazing to the enemies? Thats when I just get to the first boss and die, right? Or finding the item in the sewers?

Or is the leveling that can be done on this part minimal? I like to level/improve characters and I have no problem farming things if its more beneficial.
 
Hello Bloodborne Gaf!

I made this thread earlier today - http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1449599
and ended up buying BB.

I have never played a souls game before and am looking for some beginners tips!

Classes/weapons? Strength/Stamina builds or something else? Things to look out for.

Any advice would be much appreciated.


Some things that really helped me, personally:

Weapon: In the end it's your choice but as a beginner I'd strongly advice to go with the saw cleaver for a start. You can get all the other weapons early in the game so so don't be scared to just go with one. Imo the saw cleaver combines all the strengths of BB's combat system and forces/enables you to go into the fight more aggressively.

Stats
I'm sure there are different takes on this but in the beginning you can't go wrong with (literally vital because=life) vitality and (important) strength. Mix it up with a bit of (it helps) endurance from time to time.

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Combat http://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/combat
In the hub area there are little tips on the ground. Please make sure to learn the basic techniqes described there. There are three essential parts that will make you a badass fighter in no time:

1) Transformation combo (I'm not sure what it's called exactly at the moment :D)
Every weapon has two modes and you can switch at any moment with one button, even while fighting. For example:

Attack+Attack+Transform (this changes the weapon mode and is an attack at the same time. The next attacks will be executed in the new mode)+Attack+Attack.

One smooth and very powerful combo. There is a weak and a heavy basic attack so experiment with them as well. It's not hard to grasp as long as you understand the basic template of attacking, changing the mode on the fly and continuing to attack. Makes for good damage.

2) Parry
That's what the gun is for. You don't usually use it as a weapon as it's too weak for that. You have to understand the animations of the enemy's attack. A typical enemy attack looks like this:

A.) Telegraphing the attack B.) executing the attack C.) recovery

With your gun you want to disrupt the attack animation just after A.) when the B.) forward motion of the attack begins.

The enemy will kneel down giving you time to do a visceral attack with one press of the basic light attack button. Don't worry about the bullets, many enemies drop them so you'll probably never have shortage.

3) Dodging & the regain system
The enemies will have a hard time even hitting you if when you have perfected dodging. Use it generously.

If you lose energy you can take it back by hitting the enemy!!! The time window for that is limited (you'll see that you health bar isn't fully empty yet. The bright part of the meter shows how much you'll regain if successful).

So try to be aggressive. Go in there, dodge if you can and stay ahead of the curve. I love this dynamic.

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Exploring/Progress/Bosses
Bloodborne can be punishing but it it gives you everything you need to survive and become stronger.

Explore! Search every corner for good stuff.
Level Up!
Back off if necessary! Running isn't shameful Sometimes acting a little cowardly saves your life.
If you die, don't lose hope! The experience you'll gain in combat is much more precious than any loot you'll find in the beginning of the game. Also you'll get blood vials which you use for healing.
 

alt27

Member
Hell yeah! Always glad to see people jump in.


Bloodborne_Origins_Chart_small.jpg


As for starting class, all class starts out at Level 10 while only ''Waste of Skin'' starts at Level 4, I personally recommend the ''Military Veteran'' starting class, it doesn't have the highest Vitality (HP) and Endurance (Stamina) but it does have very high and equal Strength and Skill, weapons have scaling in this game, some weapon scale with Strength, some weapon scale with Skill, some weapon scale with both.

Starting with a character that has both good STR and SKL means you will have more chance playing and experimenting with various different weapons, there's no best weapon in Bloodborne, every hunter weapon is unique and suits different playstyles.

However, I do think the Saw Cleaver and the Hunter's Axe are pretty solid choice for beginners. Both are STR weapons btw, you can check the weapon scaling.

Thanks! Ive been seeing alot of people online either mention MV, Violent past and Lone Survivor as well for starting classes. Choices....choices....mmmm

I dont want to be restricted to single weapon use early on in the game as one style might not be to my liking, but I will want to get use to as many as I can, as it will probably be useful for other enemiy types later in the game I assume.
 

Ferr986

Member
Cant really add much because almost everything has been covered.

I would say to not get down if you lose a big chunk of echoes. Its not a big deal, you'll be drowning on them later.

Also explore a lot, to find loot and also shortcuts to get to the boss faster. The box art hunter outfit, for example, can be found exploring in the first area.

Edit: dont worry choosing a starter class. It hardly makes a difference. You can also level STR and SKL to get access to more weapons, its the so called Quality build. First soft cap of attack attributes come at 25 so its pretty early (second is at 50). Upgrading weapons gives more damage than levels too.
 
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