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Starting Bloodborne for the first time. Anything I should know?

It's easier than people make it out to be. Don't worry that much about stats or weapons. Just find a weapon you like using and master it.

Level up and upgrade your weapon when you can.
Rest is pretty straightforward.
 
pay attention to the items you pick up and watch how you use them. Be patient starting off. Once you get rolling you won't stop.
 
Just try not to die alot. Everytime you die, you will have to farm for blood vials. You will be farming ALOT.
 
zkorejo said:
Just try not to die alot. Everytime you die, you will have to farm for blood vials. You will be farming ALOT.
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You don't lose blood vials by dying, or any items by dying. Just Echoes. You only use blood vials when you use blood vials. In fact that mechanic lends to kamikaze-ing an item you want and getting killed a viable tactic.

Everyone plays differently but I only had to farm for vials two or three times for bosses, I found the game kept me pretty well stocked. Let alone having to farm every time I died, which would have been crazy. If you use a lot of vials, just use leftover Echoes to buy vials and save them in storage (happens automatically if you have more than 20)

Then when you die it automatically pulls some from storage.
 
Practice parrying on the big dudes with bricks in their hand. Their timing is easy to read. It can feel like a gamble at times but when you get that timing down and rush in for the visceral attack you will feel like such a badass. Don't wait til the very end to learn parrying like I did.

Also, press up on the d-pad to get five more bullets when you run out. It saps some of your life though so you'll probably have to heal after. Works in a pinch when you need a few more shots.
 
Treat it like a horror game. Regular mobs can and will kill you, especially if you try to take on several at a time.
 
Learn the Central Yarnham farming route well. Once you take out the first 2 bosses, you can spawn at the tomb of Odeon lamp and work your way backwards to the Central Yarnham lamp backstabbing and killing everything in your path (don't forget the pig in the sewer). This usually nets you 8-12 vials, 4-8 bullets and ~5000 echoes every time for about 5-10 minutes of effort. It also helps you improve your skills with parrying, dodging and combat in general. Spend an hour or so doing this and you'll have >100 vials and bullets and can effectively go through the game like you have a respawning estus pool. You'll also level up for the much harder areas and bosses you'll tackle next (Old Yarnham and Cathedral Ward). This route remains the most efficient farming path until much, much later in the game from when you're a low level character to when you're able to one shot everything you see in this area.
 
zma1013 said:
Learn the quick dodge or you will have an awful time. The quick dodge is essential to avoiding attacks in most cases. I only say this because we had a thread one time where a person was having a difficult time and it was because he didn't know there was a quick dodge. Instead he was just backstepping which is not the same.

Quick dodge looks like you are sliding across the ground really fast. It makes you invincible for a brief moment and allows you to escape danger more easily. You can only quick dodge while you are locked on and pressing the left stick in a direction and pressing the dodge/run/roll button.
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.
 
The ogre looking guys are the best bet for refilling blood vials.

The game is tough but very doable.

It's good, but not as good as many people will claim.
 
Seven Force said:
I know the Souls games are great ARPGs and all, but I never got around to playing any of the games outside of a few minutes of Demon's Souls. I know Bloodborne is a bit faster paced combat wise to the other Souls games, so I figured I'd give it a shot, since it seemed a bit more up my alley.

So! Is there anything I should know going in as far as general tips from Souls vets? It'd be my first time really wading into one of these games, so I just want to know what to expect generally. Aside from dying a lot, haha.
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Bloodborne has by far the best strategy guide ive ever seen. You can find them for like 30 dollars on Amazon, i would highly recommend it. I tried playing Demon Souls and hated it, but once i read the strategy guide for this it helped me understand how the game works and it made me love bloodborne, and once i understood the game i was able to beat Dark Souls 3 without a guide.
 
DriftingSpirit said:
1.)Do not give up immediately. The first area seems to be really tough on purpose. I nearly gave up there but I stuck with it and it really, really paid off for me. Patience and learning from your mistakes is key.

2.)Dodging/rolling toward the enemy during attacks may be better than rolling away from them. Play with it and consider what is best during situations.

3.)Quickly become skilled with the parry/visceral skill. If you time a shot with your gun just right during an enemy attack, they will stagger and take a knee. You can then go up to them and hit R1 in order to do a visceral attack and deal massive damage. Mastering this will greatly aid you with regular enemies as well as bosses.

4.)Explore the areas. Secret routes, hidden items, etc... It will benefit you in more ways than one.

Good luck and enjoy!
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This.
 
I think Dark Souls is a better place to learn how to play the series. Having to learn Souls via Bloodborne really kills the momentum of the game, while the slower learning process makes more sense in Dark Souls.
 
sn00zer said:
I think Dark Souls is a better place to learn how to play the series. Having to learn Souls via Bloodborne really kills the momentum of the game, while the slower learning process makes more sense in Dark Souls.
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Not really. I could never get into Demons or Dark Souls despite multiple attempts. It wasn't until I played and beat Bloodborne that I went back and was able to get into and finish Demons and Dark.
 
True Fire said:
Don't be greedy or you'll die.
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Nope - get greedy. Pressure your opponent and always be on the offensive, stopping only to dodge to the side and continue the assault. If you get hit, use the time immediately after to rally as much of your health as possible back. Only rely on vials when you absolutely need to.
 
Learn how to parry, get the DLC, complete it on your first run and stock up on blood vials and molotovs early since they get more expensive as you progress in the story but leveling up and upgrading your weapons only get more expensive by leveling up and upgrading.
 
Be patient, dodge carefully, level often, don't go bloodtinge or arcane as it's your first attempt, when you're in the nightmare just Sprint towards the bell ringers and kill them as fast as you can, only heal when you're safe, dodge towards the big enemies, not away from them, and put on your big boy pants.


Good luck brethren.
 
Jawbreaker said:
Don't spoil yourself during the first run of the game. Try to uncover its mysteries alone.
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I'm not even by any means the best Souls player but yeah I didn't look anything up regarding progress through the core game and despite many deaths it was so fun and immersive that I couldn't stop. Had the Platinum within 2 weeks. I feel like if I read anything it would have spoiled things.
 
Don't give up. You'll probably have a rough start, but once you get over that hump the game will become as awesome as everyone says it is.
 
If you are familiar with other action games like DMC, GOW etc. then you need to make the following adjustments.

*Read item descriptions. This is imperative if you plan on not using the Internet much. And read them very carefully particularly the last few lines because they may give hints as to how/why it's usable.

*Explore, explore, explore. This is a corner stone of these kinds of games. You will get better items, shortcuts to Lanterns/checkpoints and other nice secrets.

*Don't mash. Actions get buffered and you can't cancel out of animations like in other action games so don't mash dodge/attack button when you are in a tight spot. And actions get queued through hit stun too so if you are mashing attack while getting hit, as soon as you are out of hits stun then you will automatically attack again and possibly die.

*Dodging is king, you can dodge anything. It has invincibility frames which is standard in most action games.

*Parry with the gun is crazy good, time your gun shots to their attacks then dash up and press R1 on them for big damage.

*Hold R2 behind an enemy and if charged to max, on connection it will stagger them and you can run up behind their back and hit them with a big visceral attack (similar to when you parry them).

*Your extra Blood Vials are put in storage and you will get them when you go back to Hunter's Dream. This means you can farm them pretty easily. In addition... if you are farming for Vials using that standard route.. kill some dudes, get the vials then spend that extra Blood Echoes on MORE vials. Vials are very cost efficient in terms of currency, don't be afraid to spend money on them if you need to.

*If you need to use Summons or help from others, then you need to have Insight. Otherwise you can't summon.

*You can recover some of your lost HP by attacking enemies but don't rely on this too much. Sometimes you need to just back up instead of trying to life steal back, this usually ends up being a noob trap and how people get needlessly killed trying to over extend.


Everything else is generally straight forward.
 
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Enjoy the game and world and gameplay.

Seriously, have fun. Great game.

Second run you do you can do walkthrough or whatever you want and get all the sweet loot. First one just play on your own.
 
You should know that after you beat it every game will be underwhelming for quite some time until you can finally accept no game could top the magical experience you've had with Bloodborne.
 
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