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[Afrodium]

Given the glowing reviews and large marketing campaign, it's safe to assume there's a LOT of newcomers to the Souls (Blood?) series. With the OT moving at a breakneck speed, I thought new players could use a place to post their impressions of the game and ask for any assistance. Are you in love with the game and looking forward to checking out Dark Souls and Demon's Souls next, or are you pissed that you got caught up in the hype and wasted $60? If you're in the latter camp, feel free to vent your frustrations here and maybe someone can give you the advice you need to keep on pushing.

A great beginner's guide can be found here that outlines some information pertaining to classes, weapons scaling, and stats. In addition to that information, I have the following tips.

Blood Echoes don't matter: Don't get too hung up on retrieving your Blood Echoes. I mean, try to preserve them by all means, but understand that losing them is no big deal. Since there's a system in place in which your XP can be lost, the game is balanced around the fact that you won't spend 100% of the XP you gain. If you lose a level or two's worth of Blood Echoes it will suck, yeah, but it doesn't mean you're now under leveled for the rest of the game.

Levels don't beat bosses: Unlike a traditional RPG in which you can beat a boss by simply over leveling it, Bloodborne and the other Souls games don't work that way. If you're stuck on a boss, don't wast hours farming the levels for Blood Echoes in the hopes that you can outlevel it. This won't hurt, but it won't beat the boss alone. If you're stuck on a boss, it's probably because you need to fight better, not because your level is too low.

Shortcuts are the best: I see a lot of new players in the OT asking where the next lantern is. In Bloodborne, you're not going to want to be looking out for lanterns so much as shortcuts. Open every possible door and gate you can and pull every lever and you'll probably find yourself back in a familiar place. The first and second bosses are about 30 seconds away from the same lantern with the right shortcuts opened up.

Improve your weapons: This one is fairly straightforward. Upgrade weapons at the forge. It's just as important as leveling your character. All of the starting weapons improve their scaling levels once upgraded to +2 (Threaded Cane goes from a C in skill to a B in skill, for instance).

Never give up: Goonies never say die

Some lifehacks for people who get stuck all the time and have issues

1. Exploit the Regain system
The Regain system allows you to get your HP back if you attack enemies shortly after suffering damage. Sometimes though you get more damage than you can regain from an enemy (because he has less HP and therefore you can do less hits), but as of right now you can keep hitting enemies until their death animation is done. I can't imagine this being intended by FROM, and it saves some Blood Phials in areas with tougher enemies that take time to kill.

2. Buy the Hunter gear
The game is really hard if you use your basic gear. Fortunately, you can buy a 4-piece armor set at the vendor in Hunter's dream for about 2500 blood echoes in total. And yeah, that armor set is pretty much a game changer for the beginning section of Bloodborne. You can do this even before the first boss. If you have issues getting 2500 blood echoes though

3. First shortcut and small farming route
NOT saying that this is a particularly good farming route, but it did help me getting the Hunter gear and some level ups quite fast. Many people miss this, but you can open up a shortcut to the bridge that leads to the first boss fight (Cleric beast). Just go down the stairs after the two wolves, go through the house, go downstairs, leave the house, follow the stairs, kill the one enemy with the torch and axe and go further and you will open up a gate. Now, what I did was to go back and instead of going into the house, you can go under the bridge where two big guys wait for you. Kill them, go through the house again, go upstairs, kill the 3 ravens + the big guy and rinse and repeast, and if you feel confident enough kill the wolves as well.
This makes about 850 per run, and about 1500 if you kill wolves as well.

4. Use the projectile weapon all the time
This is - to me- the probably most important key mechanic so far. Your weapon has the ability to stun enemies and even bosses if you time your shot right. You should NOT care about the bullets at all, since a lot of enemies drop the randomly (you can farm the dude in the wheelchair that is in the house which leads you to the first shortcut) and you can craft your own bullets if you press UP on the D-Pad, which you should totally do since blood phials drop all the time.
If you time your shot right (just shoot right before an enemy attacks), a sound will be played and you will see enemies on their knees. GET CLOSE and press R1 to do destroy enemies.

5. Upgrade your shit
You will find a bunch of bloodshards in the beginning areas of the game which you can use in the Hunter's dream to upgrade your weapons. A +1 weapon is a different beast that a regular weapon with no upgrades at all.
Also, learn the icons! Learn which attribute does your weapon scale with and improve that attribute at the puppet.

6. The first boss
The Cleric Beast is a very epic fight and will not only test your abillities but also prepare you for what's to come since this enemy can only be killed if you accept the new mechanics and use them all the time. What I mean by that is that dodging and sidestepping are essential in this fight, and because of the small area and the crazy camera this can be annoying. The Cleric Beast's moveset involve mostly his two arms which he uses for a bunch of front attacks - what helped me was to get close, waiting for him to start an attack and then dash behind him, do a few hits and evade afterwards. He has an attack where he attacks backwards, too, but will only use it if you spend too much time behind him. Another great thing about him is that you can stun him with your weapon; the gun is super helpful since you can keep your distance and repeatedly shoot him (!) until he gets stunned, which means you get close and slash his face open. If he does his scream, slash the shit out of him or throw molotovs and burn him. You can finish this fight in like 2 minutes.

7. The second boss
Few here had issues with him which is why I was kinda worried at first, but I got him on my second try. This boss is much faster and reckless than the first one, but also not a problem if you figure him out and use the environment wisely. The the biggest advantage here is that for the most time you fight a humanoid that has the same sizes as you and follows the same ruleset as you, which means you can exploit the tombstones and trees to keep your distance between him. He is deadly if you keep too much open space between you and him, so be careful.
He uses the same moveset as you: rolling, shooting, weapon transformation etc. Always keep him on lock, be ready to dodge all the time and get a feeling for his movements. If you get a better understanding about that, use your projectile right before he attacks (or when he is rolling!) to shoot and stun him and cut him open. Don't go beserk on him with normal hits though as he breaks out of hitstuns and will attack you (always do 3-4 attacks when attacking him without stun, which you should do when he does a jump attack or anything that takes time to recover).
It's pretty easy to nullify his gun and hard attacks if you keep objects between him and you, and when he reaches like 15% - 20%, he will transform into a beast. You can STILL fuck him up during transformation, and you should, but when his transformation reaches its peak you might get pushed on the ground if you are to close. His beast is fucking crazy and might kill you, but what I did was to dodge some attacks until I was behind him and then I threw a molotov to burn and kill him.

I know all of this is known to skilled players, but seems like there are some having issues here and there. Hope this might help anybody!

edit: sorry for the bad English, but my brain doesn't quite work yet after my first playing session lol

That's all I've got. I'll try to update the OP later with tips from other players. I'd also like to ask that any advice that doesn't have to do with being new to the series (Where do I go after the first boss? What does this key open? Where did the guy in the wheelchair go? etc.) be posted in the OT instead of this topic.

 

[GlamFM]

Thank you for this thread. Subscribed.

 

[epmode]

Regarding weapon upgrades, is it possible to farm those blood stone things required for the early upgrades? I have a few already but I can't remember if I picked them up from random monster loot or if they were hand-placed in chests or whatever.

edit: Thanks for the answers! Now that I know the stuff is farmable just after the first boss, I'll upgrade my cane once or twice.

 

[Barry Burton]

Yeah, good call on this thread. I own Dark Souls but haven't gotten around to playing it yet, so Bloodborne will be my first one of these games.

 

[Nibel]

Made this post in the OT, sorry for the bad English

Some lifehacks for people who get stuck all the time and have issues

1. Exploit the Regain system
The Regain system allows you to get your HP back if you attack enemies shortly after suffering damage. Sometimes though you get more damage than you can regain from an enemy (because he has less HP and therefore you can do less hits), but as of right now you can keep hitting enemies until their death animation is done. I can't imagine this being intended by FROM, and it saves some Blood Phials in areas with tougher enemies that take time to kill.

2. Buy the Hunter gear
The game is really hard if you use your basic gear. Fortunately, you can buy a 4-piece armor set at the vendor in Hunter's dream for about 2500 blood echoes in total. And yeah, that armor set is pretty much a game changer for the beginning section of Bloodborne. You can do this even before the first boss. If you have issues getting 2500 blood echoes though

3. First shortcut and small farming route
NOT saying that this is a particularly good farming route, but it did help me getting the Hunter gear and some level ups quite fast. Many people miss this, but you can open up a shortcut to the bridge that leads to the first boss fight (Cleric beast). Just go down the stairs after the two wolves, go through the house, go downstairs, leave the house, follow the stairs, kill the one enemy with the torch and axe and go further and you will open up a gate. Now, what I did was to go back and instead of going into the house, you can go under the bridge where two big guys wait for you. Kill them, go through the house again, go upstairs, kill the 3 ravens + the big guy and rinse and repeast, and if you feel confident enough kill the wolves as well.
This makes about 850 per run, and about 1500 if you kill wolves as well.

4. Use the projectile weapon all the time
This is - to me- the probably most important key mechanic so far. Your weapon has the ability to stun enemies and even bosses if you time your shot right. You should NOT care about the bullets at all, since a lot of enemies drop the randomly (you can farm the dude in the wheelchair that is in the house which leads you to the first shortcut) and you can craft your own bullets if you press UP on the D-Pad, which you should totally do since blood phials drop all the time.
If you time your shot right (just shoot right before an enemy attacks), a sound will be played and you will see enemies on their knees. GET CLOSE and press R1 to do destroy enemies.

5. Upgrade your shit
You will find a bunch of bloodshards in the beginning areas of the game which you can use in the Hunter's dream to upgrade your weapons. A +1 weapon is a different beast that a regular weapon with no upgrades at all.
Also, learn the icons! Learn which attribute does your weapon scale with and improve that attribute at the puppet.

6. The first boss
The Cleric Beast is a very epic fight and will not only test your abillities but also prepare you for what's to come since this enemy can only be killed if you accept the new mechanics and use them all the time. What I mean by that is that dodging and sidestepping are essential in this fight, and because of the small area and the crazy camera this can be annoying. The Cleric Beast's moveset involve mostly his two arms which he uses for a bunch of front attacks - what helped me was to get close, waiting for him to start an attack and then dash behind him, do a few hits and evade afterwards. He has an attack where he attacks backwards, too, but will only use it if you spend too much time behind him. Another great thing about him is that you can stun him with your weapon; the gun is super helpful since you can keep your distance and repeatedly shoot him (!) until he gets stunned, which means you get close and slash his face open. If he does his scream, slash the shit out of him or throw molotovs and burn him. You can finish this fight in like 2 minutes.

7. The second boss
Few here had issues with him which is why I was kinda worried at first, but I got him on my second try. This boss is much faster and reckless than the first one, but also not a problem if you figure him out and use the environment wisely. The the biggest advantage here is that for the most time you fight a humanoid that has the same sizes as you and follows the same ruleset as you, which means you can exploit the tombstones and trees to keep your distance between him. He is deadly if you keep too much open space between you and him, so be careful.
He uses the same moveset as you: rolling, shooting, weapon transformation etc. Always keep him on lock, be ready to dodge all the time and get a feeling for his movements. If you get a better understanding about that, use your projectile right before he attacks (or when he is rolling!) to shoot and stun him and cut him open. Don't go beserk on him with normal hits though as he breaks out of hitstuns and will attack you (always do 3-4 attacks when attacking him without stun, which you should do when he does a jump attack or anything that takes time to recover).
It's pretty easy to nullify his gun and hard attacks if you keep objects between him and you, and when he reaches like 15% - 20%, he will transform into a beast. You can STILL fuck him up during transformation, and you should, but when his transformation reaches its peak you might get pushed on the ground if you are to close. His beast is fucking crazy and might kill you, but what I did was to dodge some attacks until I was behind him and then I threw a molotov to burn and kill him.

I know all of this is known to skilled players, but seems like there are some having issues here and there. Hope this might help anybody!

edit: sorry for the bad English, but my brain doesn't quite work yet after my first playing session lol

 

[Slaythe]

As of now the game is super vague as to how to obtain more weapon transformations.

Will it ever tell me what to do and i'm just too early in the game or ... ?

 

[JimmyRustler]

I know it's not a popular opinion here on GAF but I'll say it anyway...

If you feel overwhelmed and lost in the game, there is no shame in using guides to point you to the right direction. I did so with Dark Souls and have no regrets.

 

[Krakn3Dfx]

Subbed, even tho I've played through all 3 previous Souls games, I wouldn't say I played through them well. Will be interested to see some tips and tricks here that will help me play through BB.

Just remember, very important,

 

[Mupod]

Honestly while I'm sure it's tougher for newcomers I feel like my experience with Souls games/monster hunter was working against me in ways. It is NOT in my nature to be aggressive after taking a hit, nor is it to just get in and mash charge attacks hoping to stagger bosses.

Regarding weapon upgrades, is it possible to farm those blood stone things required for the early upgrades? I have a few already but I can't remember if I picked them up from random monster loot or if they were hand-placed in chests or whatever.

I swear I got one from one of those werewolf things. Not sure though.

 

[PodcastFips]

Still not sure if I want to jump in spontaneously... I didn't play Demon's Souls for more than an hour because I was pretty overwhelmed. No explanations, no nothing. But it just looks so appealing and also seems to have a faster pace.

Decisions

 

[Bucca]

Do not get pressured into the elitist Soul series mentality of doing all bosses solo only.

Don't be afraid to summon one or two people to help out with frustrating areas and bosses.

 

[shinobi602]

Thanks for this.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, and I do enjoy a challenge, but what I don't like is obtuseness for the sake of being obtuse. Throwing you into a world and not explaining things well in-game isn't challenging to me, it's just frustrating and bad design. But this should help a lot.

 

[Afrodium]

Regarding weapon upgrades, is it possible to farm those blood stone things required for the early upgrades? I have a few already but I can't remember if I picked them up from random monster loot or if they were hand-placed in chests or whatever.

The first area has some scattered around, and there's enough to upgrade a starting weapon before the first boss. There are enemies who drop them in the sewer area.

 

[Recidivus Crimen]

Im going to keep an eye on this thread. I'm still on the fence on whether I should try the game out but all this talk about the difficulty is making me hesitant. Thanks for the thread.

 

[bombshell]

There was also a PS Blog post with tips:

Bloodborne: 24 Tips for Survival

 

[Tyrant Rave]

Do not get pressured into the elitist Soul series mentality of doing all bosses solo only.

Don't be afraid to summon one or two people to help out with frustrating areas and bosses.

Yeah I was gonna say something similar. There's no shame in playing co-op and you shouldn't let one roadblock ruin the game for you. Plus, it's fun running levels with people and helping others. It's also a very effective way to gain blood echoes since you get to keep them if you die while you're summoned. So keep that in mind if you need to get echoes.

 

[NIN90]

Regarding weapon upgrades, is it possible to farm those blood stone things required for the early upgrades? I have a few already but I can't remember if I picked them up from random monster loot or if they were hand-placed in chests or whatever.

Yes, there are two Werewolf-looking enemies just before the fog gate leading to the second boss that would often drop one or two shards but they stopped after a couple runs (yes, I had to do that run to the boss a lot :s).

 

[JustinBbad]

Subscribing to the thread. This is my first "Souls" game and I think I'm falling down the rabbit hole. After about two hours of play, I beat the cleric Beast on my first attempt. The feeling of accomplishment after many, many deaths was more than I felt in a video game in a long time.

I'm not sure where to go after the first boss. I'm farming blood echoes to buy the thing that opens the cathedral ward, but not sure that's the right approach.

 

[Mupod]

3. First shortcut and small farming route
NOT saying that this is a particularly good farming route, but it did help me getting the Hunter gear and some level ups quite fast. Many people miss this, but you can open up a shortcut to the bridge that leads to the first boss fight (Cleric beast). Just go down the stairs after the two wolves, go through the house, go downstairs, leave the house, follow the stairs, kill the one enemy with the torch and axe and go further and you will open up a gate. Now, what I did was to go back and instead of going into the house, you can go under the bridge where two big guys wait for you. Kill them, go through the house again, go upstairs, kill the 3 ravens + the big guy and rinse and repeast, and if you feel confident enough kill the wolves as well.
This makes about 850 per run, and about 1500 if you kill wolves as well.

The cool thing about this is the wheelchair guy in the house drops 4 bullets every time. Bullets are very good on the big guys and a riposte + one followup attack will kill them. Plus it's good practice.

But what I learned here is not to use them on the big guys - use blood bullets instead. Press up on the d-pad to convert some of your hp to 5 bullets then hit one of the easy enemies to get most of that health back. Now you have 5 bullets plus at least 4 to use on the boss.

On the subject of the boss I had a lot of trouble. I know you can stagger him for a riposte but I could not do it consistently except the first time. It seems like if you shoot him twice off the bat he falls, but after that all bets are off. On some attempts I got 3 ripostes off, some I got none. Really frustrating, but the trick to the fight is your charged-up one handed R2 attack. It staggers him briefly. I actually facepalmed at how easy it was once I stopped using heavy two-handed attacks.

I really wish I'd known about buying the hunter set but I was stubborn and wanted to win with my starter gear. I found a full free set immediately after the boss too...

 

[shanafan]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

 

[boredofcanada]

Regarding weapon upgrades, is it possible to farm those blood stone things required for the early upgrades? I have a few already but I can't remember if I picked them up from random monster loot or if they were hand-placed in chests or whatever.

There are two lizard dudes right before the gate to Father whatever boss guy. They drop them a lot.

 

[Darkness Unleashed]

Another newbie to the series here. Played for a couple of hours yesterday and Im really liking it. Made it to the first boss and it whooped my ass badly.
Unfortunately I had another compromise so I had to stop playing before I could beat the damm thing.

So I quit the game after I died, and my question is: Will I still be able to retrieve my blood echoes when I get to play today? I had like 5000 of them.

 

[ScriptedReality]

Nice. I'm actually intimidated by this game but I've always wanted to be good at souls type games.

 

[gunstarhero]

Subbed - thanks OP!

Does each weapon have that super powerful looking stab attack you're using on the first boss? I'm currently using the axe, and charging it (in 2 hand form) as my strong attack. I guess my question is how many types attacks does each weapon carry, and how are they done?

 

[Ferr986]

You can also offer yourself to be summoned for help in bosses for a good chunk of Echoes (and also keep learning to play the game).

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

Echoes are both the currency of the game and the XP to level up. It's important to have them but you dont have to demoralize yourself if you lose a good chunk because you keep getting more while playing.

 

[NIN90]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

They are important as they are your primary currency but losing some here and there is not a big deal, especially early on when early enemies drop very small amounts.

 

[Afrodium]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

Blood echoes ARE important in that they're XP and currency of this game. I apologize if that was confusing in the OP. Bloodborne and other Souls games have a mechanic where all Blood Echoes are carried on your person. When you die, they are left on the ground and you must retrieve them on your next life or they're gone forever. What I meant in the OP is that losing them in this fashion is not the end of the world.

 

[Tyrant Rave]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

Don't stress about echoes, really. Yes they are used as currency and a means to level up, but it's not the end of the world if you lose them. If you really need them, take my advice and use the resonant bell and help people in co-op sessions. That way you can gather echoes and if you die while you are summoned you get to keep all of your echoes. It's a safe and effective method at gathering them.

If you're worried about armor, you can find a suit of armor very early on that will be fine for the first few bosses.

 

[pottymouth]

This is a great thread. I remember how frustrated I felt back when I first played Demon Souls, I was about to throw in the towel then it all clicked and became one of the most rewarding games of last gen. Be patient, guys!

 

[-Digits-]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

They are important, but losing them isn't the end of the world. Sometimes you'll lose quite a few at once and you can get quite frustrated but the game is balanced accordingly and losing them from time to time is expected.

 

[shanafan]

Blood echoes ARE important in that they're XP and currency of this game. I apologize if that was confusing in the OP. Bloodborne and other Souls games have a mechanic where all Blood Echoes are carried on your person. When you die, they are left on the ground and you must retrieve them on your next life or they're gone forever. What I meant in the OP is that losing them in this fashion is not the end of the world.

No worries! Thanks to everybody who responded to me. Blood is my first Souls game, so these threads are amazing for the help before I jump in.

 

[Jonboy]

Great tips. Listen to the OP, folks.

 

[RedCrake]

Played for a couple of hours last night and was just getting continually destroyed. And... I liked it...

I think always hearing about how hard these games were changed my expectations. I wasn't even frustrated (although I'm sure I will be at some point). I just enjoyed trying out different strategies with the knowledge that I was almost certainly going to die.

Presumably I'll get better eventually, right?

 

[Tyrant Rave]

Played for a couple of hours last night and was just getting continually destroyed. And... I liked it...

I think always hearing about how hard these games were changed my expectations. I wasn't even frustrated (although I'm sure I will be at some point). I just enjoyed trying out different strategies with the knowledge that I was almost certainly going to die.

Presumably I'll get better eventually, right?

You will. Your equipment and stats also improve and you'll find yourself effortlessly mowing down enemies who used to give you a hard time.

 

[Boke1879]

I plan to pop the game in today, but I see a contradiction in the help.

It says that blood echos are not something to stress about getting, but then it says make sure to get blood echos to get the hunter gear. So.. blood echos are important then?

I think the OP meant to not rely on them or spend so much time grinding

 

[RustyNails]

I've played all the souls games except DS2. I have spent 3 hours just creating characters (got the game yesterday), and today I want to create a new one. Is this normal? I dont remember this happening to me in previous Souls games...

 

[Jonboy]

Honestly while I'm sure it's tougher for newcomers I feel like my experience with Souls games/monster hunter was working against me in ways. It is NOT in my nature to be aggressive after taking a hit, nor is it to just get in and mash charge attacks hoping to stagger bosses.

Haha. I agree. I found myself mashing L1 a few times last night hoping to pull up my shield before an enemy struck. That moment when you realize you have no shield...

 

[GlamFM]

I have a general question, still not sure if I should get the game.

I know this game is not about grinding or leveling, but still:

In theory, can you overlevel and grind in the early stages of the game and how far will it get you?

Can you trivialize content that way?

 

[TWrecks310]

Appreciate the thread OP! I have played Dark Souls before, but was swarmed with backlog and never finished it. I'll be playing Bloodborne for the first time tonight.

 

[Mitch]

Even though I ended up frustrated after playing for a couple hours last night, I am anxious to play more this evening. I've opened up two shortcuts so far, and each time I was extremely surprised and relieved.

Looking forward to seeing the first boss for myself. I definitely need some more practice before going in, so I'll run around and farm echoes for the majority of my session tonight.

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Jonboy]

Played for a couple of hours last night and was just getting continually destroyed. And... I liked it...

I think always hearing about how hard these games were changed my expectations. I wasn't even frustrated (although I'm sure I will be at some point). I just enjoyed trying out different strategies with the knowledge that I was almost certainly going to die.

Presumably I'll get better eventually, right?

You get it.

Welcome to the Souls series, my friend.

 

[bombshell]

Thanks for this.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, and I do enjoy a challenge, but what I don't like is obtuseness for the sake of being obtuse. Throwing you into a world and not explaining things well in-game isn't challenging to me, it's just frustrating and bad design. But this should help a lot.

It does explain most of the game mechanics via the messages on the floor in both the beginning area and around the Hunter's Dream area.

And there's a game manual in the game info area in the OS if you press down.

 

[N° 2048]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/03/23/bloodborne-24-tips-for-survival/
Bloodborne: 24 Tips for Survival


Thanks for this thread

 

[TWrecks310]

I have a general question, still not sure if I should get the game.

I know this game is not about grinding or leveling, but still:

In theory, can you overlevel and grind in the early stages of the game and how far will it get you?

Can you trivialize content that way?

You can definitely grind if it's like Dark Souls. The game is more about skill then levels, but leveling can help.

 

[IAmRandom31]

Honestly while I'm sure it's tougher for newcomers I feel like my experience with Souls games/monster hunter was working against me in ways. It is NOT in my nature to be aggressive after taking a hit, nor is it to just get in and mash charge attacks hoping to stagger bosses.



I swear I got one from one of those werewolf things. Not sure though.

Very, very true.

I am fighting hard to break old habits but they are pretty firmly in place. So after taking hits I am often backing away and being passive. But those times when everything clicks and parry and dodge and backstep and whatever and then counter and command the flow of the fight, you find things going much better for you.

It is a slow learning process, but it is coming together. But yeah sorry this is a newcomers thread. Out! But cool idea for a thread. Would love to hear impressions from brand new players of these games

 

[King Tubby]

Maybe the most important tip for newcomers is, do not think about this game the way you might think about most other games. I see a lot of people get frustrated because they keep playing a certain way with a certain approach and keep dying, and they get frustrated and blame the game, when the reason they just keep throwing their heads against the wall is because other games have conditioned them to think simply in that way. The souls games/this game greatly reward exploration and experimentation, and when what you are doing is not working be bold and try something else. At worst, you lose a few blood echoes; at best, you learn something, or even triumph.

Played for a couple of hours last night and was just getting continually destroyed. And... I liked it...

I think always hearing about how hard these games were changed my expectations. I wasn't even frustrated (although I'm sure I will be at some point). I just enjoyed trying out different strategies with the knowledge that I was almost certainly going to die.

Presumably I'll get better eventually, right?

Being willing to try different strategies is the first step to becoming grossly incandescent.

Spoiler

By which I mean good.

 

[Nintenyearold]

Good thread idea! I played some DeS but I'm essentially a noob to the series. I might be looking for advice here after I start the game tonight

 

[Nibel]

I have a general question, still not sure if I should get the game.

I know this game is not about grinding or leveling, but still:

In theory, can you overlevel and grind in the early stages of the game and how far will it get you?

Can you trivialize content that way?

It can help to boost stats/armor/weapons, but in the end it's more about your skill. It doesn't matter if you can take more hits or do more damage and ignore learning enemy patterns and mastering your moveset.

 

[Ferr986]

I have a general question, still not sure if I should get the game.

I know this game is not about grinding or leveling, but still:

In theory, can you overlevel and grind in the early stages of the game and how far will it get you?

Can you trivialize content that way?

If it's like Dark Souls, grinding will help you but wont trivialize the content, you'll still need to "git gud".

Talking about Dark Souls experience though, still need to start BB.

 

[Jonboy]

Thanks for this.

I'm enjoying the game a lot, and I do enjoy a challenge, but what I don't like is obtuseness for the sake of being obtuse. Throwing you into a world and not explaining things well in-game isn't challenging to me, it's just frustrating and bad design. But this should help a lot.

Make sure to read all of the little notes. Many are left behind by other real players, but a number of them (especially early in the game and in hunter's dream) are left to teach you the basic mechanics.