BLOODBORNE given Feb '15 Euro/NA release date, deemed worthy of own thread by ilxor

Oh, I'd much rather not have to collect them, but at least you bank your surplus, so that even having to rerun a section or fight enemies over and over is ultimately as beneficial as frustrating. For example, I can run past the first chunk of enemies in Forbidden Woods, but I'd much rather fight them for supplies (which in some ways seem more important than souls in this game).

Alright, now this is why I like having a guide handy. I was making my way through the forbidden woods, which is full of hilarious booby traps and insta-kills, like the guy with a canon. And other surprises, like the snake head people. I explore a bunch, get lost a lot, eventually find the easy shortcut back to the lantern. In my experience, the second shortcut is always the one closest to the boss, so it seems a good place to pause, so I go back to the guide to see if there was anything important I missed before I forged ahead. And what do you know, there is an entire cave system I missed that eventually leads back to the very beginning of the game, where things are weirder than ever - like wandering big head aliens? - and, more importantly, seem key to the story. Or at least seem to introduce lots of variables into the game to once again make me consider the choices I make. For example, when people ask me to tell them a safe place, everyone has been ok with the chapel except one guy who stubbornly refused to go. In the forest I met some NPC cannibal I didn't want to send to the chapel, because ... he was eating people. But would doing the opposite have gotten me different results? How about if I had never taken those caves back to the clinic? Would that part of the story have played out one way or another, or did going that route unlock a different story path? Iosfa old me to leave, so I did, but what if I didn't? Would I have had to fight her? Either way, like the giant tree in Dark Souls, I think I literally never would known about all this extra or side stuff.

you could fight iosefka, yes, and the clinic leads to a very good optional area. i missed both in my blind playthrough

the npc would eventually eat everyone in the cathedral so good call on that too

the one guy who refused went to the clinic instead and was used as a guinea pig, if you told him to go to the clinic he'd have gone to the church and be safe (unless the cannibal came too obv)

I believe going back to the clinic unlocks the cool optional area we were talking about above :) Did you pick up an item there?

xp

yes and the clinic is also sort of key for the true ending

I think I got everything I could get at the clinic. I killed three aliens, talked to Iosefka and then warped back to the hunter's dream before looking for more stuff. I figure I should finish the woods first before getting too distracted.

did you get the summons?

Yeah, I must have. Will I know when to use it, or is it something I need to look up?

Hint: Readtheitemdescription

lol One of the most perversely funny things about these games is how there is so much detailed lore dumped into the item descriptions, and yet the descriptions of what each item is actually for are often hilariously lacking. Like, sometimes you'll find something and it says "just a rock, of no importance." And that can mean what it says, or it can mean it's *super* important, but only if you know what to do with it, which of course the description does not tell you.

warp to witches boss arena and walk back out to hemwick, when you walk near the stagecoach stop a cutscene will trigger

Wow, that was pretty awesome. So was there something in the summons I got at the clinic that told me to do that? I must have missed that, or read the wrong part of the description. I guess this is sort of like the magic painting in Dark Souls, where you had to know to go back to the original prison (how would anyone know this!?!?!), find the doll, and then have it when you touch the painting. Anyway, it looks like I have a lamp to warp back to when I feel like doing this part. I know just looking around I was killed almost instantly by these bug-things.

it says the stagecoach leaves from hemwick. it doesn't say precisely where in hemwick, that part is up to the player figuring out. the landmark is pretty obvious in hindsight

going back to the asylum in dark souls is a given because if you pay attention the first time through you'll notice locked doors and shinies out of reach.

i did find the way to go back there blind, i wasn't looking for it, just noticed it during gameplay goes without saying but bloodborne has elevators with secrets too, just like i found the way to nito's covenant blind. i didn't actually go to either of those because i'm impatient and didn't wait long enough in the nest/coffin to be taken away, just thought they were cute easter eggs (DkS was my first souls game) and left the the trigger spots to never return

Apparently if you die before getting on the carriage you miss your chance?

what really?! that sucks

Obviously I haven't tested it! Maybe it's just how I read the advice and it's actually that if you get killed before you get on the carriage *right then* then you miss your chance, but you can warp back to the dream and then back to the marker again and trigger the cut scene anew. That makes more sense.

I am excited to get a PS4 this winter and hoover up this game and DS3

Darkbeast Paarl down! This one was really hard. I had to summon the NPC to help. The boss is really fast, so you have to play unlocked, and the lightning power is pretty tough, too. Hits hard as well. I think my problem was ultimately playing with a weapon that's too big and slow; I've been swapping between Ludwig's Holy Blade and the Saw Cleaver, both +6, but I think the damage to beasts and the speed/regen of the saw is better than the heavy hitter greatsword moveset.

I'm not sure what beating this boss gets me, though, even as an optional boss. It gets me a shortcut back to Old Yarnham but I'm not sure why I even want that shortcut. Maybe it'll become clear later.

OK, here is another example of something that sort of blows my mind but also makes me say wtf. If you kill Darkbeast Paarl but *did not* kill the machine gun guy from much earlier, you can apparently go back to him and become pals. How the hell did anyone figure that out?! That would mean intentionally *not* killing the OP machine gun guy in that level, and *then*, if you avoided him, thinking of coming back and making friends. How in the world did anyone know to do that?

Man, Forbidden Woods appears to be huuuuuge. But I'm doing OK. I found the bosses, and the shortcut to the bosses, so it's just a matter of figuring out how to beat them.

Took several tries, but I finally beat the Shadow Ninjas. They were kind of a pain, but in terms of strategy they were similar to other bosses: avoid the ranged attacks, and stun lock the enemy into submission. In this case, that meant taking down the sword ninja first, then the fire sword ninja, then the fireball ninja, pretty much in order of their aggression. Used up a ton of blood vials though, and I was surprised not to see a NPC summons. But they're done, and now there's another area (Bergenworth? a name I've encountered a few times already, at least) I've explored a little, one with these giant bug things that suck on your face and inject some sort of poison - is this frenzy? - and then some giant monster with a venus fly trap maw that shoots fireballs and spits ... something. But I got it down, eventually, and unlocked the first shortcut to/through a castle/house. God knows what's in store for me there.

That might be my favorite boss fight! The Ornstein & Smough of this game, where it forces you to keep track of multiple opponents and possibly not lock on (and that's exactly the strategy I remember using too). I'm kinda glad there's not an NPC summon, since diluting their aggression would ruin the mechanics of the fight.

The next boss though, whew.

Looking it up after the fact, apparently there are two potential NPC summons, but you have to be using one of the specific runes. Thanks a lot, aggressively oblique and obscure game.

The next boss though, whew.

Y'all are making me concerned.

Wow, really struggling with the NPC that comes down the stairs in Byrgenwerth, who keeps kicking my ass. I came really close one time but, impatiently, neglected to clear the area first, and while running away aggroed three (!)of those things with many eyes. I barely escaped, but used up all of my blood vials and have to go farm some in a different place before I even try again.

blood vial farming is obnoxious, dunno why they went back to that crap system when DkS already had figured it out with the flasks

The most annoying thing about it is that, as helpful as auto refilling is, you never really know how many you have backed up. You seem to always carry the "max" amount - 20 or whatever - until you don't, and it's only when the number keeps going down that you realize you're running out.

Does it show the full stockpile if you look in the inventory? That's how it is in DS3, I have 600 firebombs, until somehow I don't.

Hmm, good question. I'll have to stock up and see if it changes in there, or if it goes to the magic chest. Though honestly, I don't see why they would even have that storage chest if you could just accumulate extra stuff in your inventory. In fact, I think that's how it must work here, too, you have a ton of stuff stored that keeps refilling the inventory on your person, but only until you don't. The problem is that, unlike most stuff in your inventory, you really need blood vials. Or at least I do. But paying for them seems silly.

I totally cheesed that NPC, by the way. I just hit her a bunch, ran away, then did it again when she went back up the stairs. Am I proud? No. But I am done with her. Once I figure out the blood vial situation I will I guess take on the next boss. I assume that's what's coming up, because I saw a summons sign by those doors.

I went vial farming for a little while, then went back to the inventory box and it didn't show my surplus. Unless I'm missing something, the only way to know if you're running low is if you're running low. There's no way to know how much surplus you have. So, definitely annoying:

OK, that spider monster is some bullshit.

^

I honestly don't even know the right approach, it's among the first enemies in all of these Souls games I'd consider an outright troll. The enemy is not fast or particularly strong or interesting. Its minion don't do much. The level itself is a wash of nothing. The boss just sits there like a lump while you try to take out these waves of baby spiders (that are super strong from the front), and then, even if you are patient and make some progress and you think you've finally got a leg up, it just drops a bunch of magic rocks on your head and kills you. Can I summon an umbrella?

If I may...

fuck a vacuous spider

― Keith Moom (Neil S), Sunday, April 19, 2015 8:56 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't remember exactly what my winning strategy was...some combination of use the Tonitrus, kill most/all of the baby spiders first (from behind), and something something something meteors? Also you can keep attacking for a bit even after he appears to have disappeared/teleported.

I think you run towards the boss for some of the meteor patterns and away for others, can't remember which is which though.

i could maybe replay this
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Sunday, September 27, 2020

Been playing Mortal Shells instead, which I should talk about on here somewhere. It's very good!

xpost That's the lightning mace, right? I think I have that one. Probably better than wasting bolt paper on my saw.

yes to both.

This spider is such a waste of (real) time and (virtual) resources. I got it down to about a quarter health, but had used up almost all of my blood vials (again) getting there. And of course making you go back to the hunter's dream rather than simply rest at a bonfire and reset makes farming a huge PIA. Go back to hunter's dream, immediately warp to somewhere else, get some blood vials, back to hunter's dream, repeat. It's just so tedious, especially since the boss fight itself is literally an endurance test: just panic roll, over and over, through the little spiders, through the crystals, fingers crossed you luck out and don't get hit, then race to the spider and hit it as much as your stamina will let you before you race out of there again and start the rolling. Which is to say, sure I'll beat it eventually, sooner rather than later, but it will not be satisfying. Even the NPC summons is no help.

I tried using the thunder mace, but I was making more progress with my Ludwig's holy blade, untransformed (for speed). I tried it with bolt paper a couple of times, but I didn't want to totally run out, since that stuff is expensive.

haha, ok, and now it's dead. I sort of stumbled on what I was doing wrong just from writing the above. The secret (at least this time) was not to roll roll roll but run run run. So, rather than try to roll through attacks/spiders/crystals, better to just sprint and weave. I went back to the lightning mace, would lure the little spiders to me, then I would activate electricity, run in, hit a few times, then run away, always making sure to have enough stamina to sprint through the magic attacks. And of course I went through, like, 15 blood vials, so now I have to farm again. Also, the game just got really fucking weird and scary and I have no idea what's going on, so it's time for a short break. Looks like there are at least three places for me to go right now, the optional spooky carriage castle area, the area near the great cathedral that I discovered earlier and was teleported to just now, and this unseen village, where, just getting to the lamp, it seems that enemies ... respawn? Also, there are giant monsters in the air.

it seems that enemies ... respawn?

hint: remember the necromancers in the darks souls catacombs?

lol no, but looking it up ... I do now.

btw one of the funniest things about these games is how they always talk up, like, Grumpus the Great Scholar, and then you meet Grumpus and it's a giant dragon. Like, how did the dragon read all those books, it's a fucking dragon, it can't even turn the pages.

lol because it's always a human who was studying how to turn into a boss (dragon)

Seath was just a particularly inept dragon rite

Strengths: betrayal, being able to somehow read books

Weaknesses: having skin or whatever

I'll probably play more of this today, but glancing at a progress guide there does seem to be a number of options right now: I can do the castle, I can be teleported to ... nightmare world? I can be teleported to a lecture hall (?), I can activate the DLC (and I think I have to do that before I fight the/a final boss, right?). I can try a chalice dungeon or two (to just get stuff, right?).

Yeah, if you finish the game first, I think you need to go back through Vicar Amelia in ng+ to access the DLC.

the dlc is hard and doing it in early ng+ is generally advised against

cainhurst or lecture hall are safe choices. or try the dlc, even if it's too hard you get a few new weapons by exploring the starting area

Should I do any of that before I progress through ... Unseen Village? I think that's my most recent new lamp.