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

Yeah that's right. My sense of direction is appalling so I end up running around the labyrinth house and getting decked by skellingtons a lot

It's worth learning about how Chalice Dungeon generation works so that you can generate any dungeon you desire. It is esoteric and confusing, I still don't fully understand it. Once you've unlocked the capacity to generate any possible dungeon, you can consult online databases of glyphs and find gems and items and armaments and anything you want. You'll also face some insanely hard enemies.

My last play through, I was focusing on an Arcane build. I had three weapons that I used. A fire-based Saw Spear, a bolt-based Saw-Cleaver, and a physical-based Church Pick. The best gems for these involved generating a cursed (you have half-health) 5-level root dungeon and descending down to the bottom and killing a Pthumerian Descendent. He would drop, usually, a level 19 or 20 gem; ideally, I wanted a level 20 "Cold Abyssal Cursed Blood Gem", one that paired maximum damage boost (either fire, bolt or physical) with a manageable curse (either stamina debuff, atk vs. kin down, or durability). There are many found glyphs that created optimal conditions for this endeavour, listed online. I would make it to the bottom, save outside the arena and killed him and save-scummed and reloaded and killed him again, over and over, until I got the gem I wanted. It was a highly enjoyable chore. I killed that Descendent 200 times at least. Immediately after getting my first useable Abyssal gem, my weapon went from flimsy to ironclad, and the game became much more manageable.

Cainhurst Crow NPC.

Oh shit, is this the one in the cathedral later? I don't think I ever bothered with him. Whatever guide I was following I think essentially warned that no matter how good or strong you are, it's basically a long slog of a fight.

Yeah, a crazy NPC who Eileen the Crow has trouble with (you meet her outside rather dishevelled). He heals constantly, has quickstep and I think has ranged attacks too