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

Now I returned to Cathedral Ward, but instead of taking on the boss behind the big doors I first went down to that area where there was someone waiting by a well. It seemed like they were another NPC hunter, who I fought and beat, but then there was a second one with some sort of scattergun that was harder. And then, after that, it kept leading down to *another* area, past a couple of those executioner guys, a big arena with some alter in the middle. And then I noped out. As far as I know this is still Cathedral Ward, because I never got a location update. Hmm.

(altar)

The witches disappear and reappear, summoning other things, but some are illusions and only the 'real' one takes damage on the boss bar (similar to, yeah, the other Souls fights that work similarly).

I just like the whole vibe of that area, especially winding around to where you see the lake (and get the Lake ruin).

So the new area I descended to in the Ward ... bad idea? Boss battle first?

Mmmm I think it's a dead end for now...if you come back later, you can access an optional area, which you'll reach via a different route later anyways.

the area has... stuff in it right now but there's no progress you can make there, optional or mandatory. the mandatory route is the big cathedral boss

Had a few minutes so thought I would give the Vicar a shot, and beat her on the first try! Not sure what it necessarily got me besides a mysterious cutscene, but I know there are more people hanging out at the church now. One of them gave me some magic blood, the other one said not to go into the basement, which may mean go to the basement.

hint for optional area: start knocking on every door you come across

Hmm. I thought I'd knocked on every door so far. Most people lately babble, but there have been three I've talked to about a rescue/safe spot, two of whom are at Odeon. There was a door with a password I didn't know, but I still don't have the password, afaict.

you do have the password now but that's not why i told you to check the doors, dialogue changes as the night progresses and new things will happen, even in places you've already been to

Yeah I think you got the 'password' after beating Amelia (don't worry, you don't have to actually know it, the door will open, it's kinda dumb).

Amelia is super tough for me early on, because she heals and it's hard to outpace it if your damage is low. I think she's meant to discourage you so that you explore all the optional paths in the area, and come back later.

I find this game rewards rather than punishes aggression, which is kind of the opposite of Dark Souls. Often if you race into a boss fight instead of hanging back a bit in DS, they demolish you. In this game so far, the bosses are fast enough that waiting lets them get the upper hand. In Amelia's case, I just went in and started wailing on the legs, with occasional dodges and stamina breaks. I'm not even sure I saw her heal? I did use that magic blood I just got in the church from the prostitute I rescued, maybe that helped.

Will def. go back and talk to more locked up jerks in the town.

It just occurred to me how much of the game I've played so far that seems to be ... optional? Cleric Beast. Blood Starved Beast. Witch in that area. The alternate hunter's dream. The spooky place I wake up in when those things kidnap me. All the chalice dungeons. Are some of the seemingly optional areas and bosses just optional early game, or do they stay optional? Or, are they optional but important and foolish to skip, like the way the Witch gets you the ability to use Runes?

Made a few little baby steps. Went back to some doors and mostly got people in extreme distress, though one guy that was grouchy before ... well, he was still grouchy, but I told him about the safe church. I also fought another NPC hunter and helped Aileen, then unlocked the door with the password and made it to the lantern in the forbidden woods, which seems to be the progress route.

most of the areas you listed stay optional, one will eventually end up as part of the main route

all optional areas are foolish to skip because they're more bloodborne (except the chalice dungeons, fuck those)

But if you don't do any chalice dungeons then you miss unique fights like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bB9IgKc3K4

(generally accepted to be a parody of certain Dark Souls combat styles, lol)

the youtube embed isn't working on my computer rn but i assume it's a video of the fat naked rolling dudes with clubs

Yes. Yes it is.

Also the chalice version of Amygdala in the small arena was a memorable challenge for me.

Is there any reason to hold off on the optional areas rather than take them on now, or is it just a matter of being powerful enough? I'm done the witch woods but haven't explored much of that hyperloop gooooal area yet.

Post-Amelia I imagine you can do any of them.

Honestly I forgot how many areas of the game are technically optional, even ones I consider huge/cool areas of the game (like Castle Cainhurst).

the dlc is definitely best left for late game. perhaps just before the final boss but then you wouldn't get to use the dlc weapons much unless you do ng+

the others just tackle them as you find them. maybe hold off on yahargul if the boss there seems too hard

i summon online help for everything so i can't really gauge difficulty tbh

Post-Amelia I imagine you can do any of them.

Honestly I forgot how many areas of the game are technically optional, even ones I consider huge/cool areas of the game (like [Hidden text. Tap to view]).

yes, a faq is handy. i missed it in my 1st playthrough along with the clinic, ebrietas and the workshop

The DLC is fantastic, and also hard.

ouch, darkbeast pearl kicked my ass on that first try. And there are so many animals on that level, dogs and pigs. I'll have to try some different strategies. Even used up all my blood vials!

Couple of stray observations, before I dive into the forbidden woods (I think I've made it halfway, though hope to find a shortcut back). One, not having to deal with your weight and fat rolling is such a relief. Two, same thing with endurance seemingly being less important. Three, weapons appear to be more straight forward, or at least scaling is a little less important. Four, bullets and blood vials aplenty.

It's funny, I think the blood vials system deters just running past enemies. If you try to speed through the game you can find yourself without any (especially when fighting bosses), but if you're engaging with all the enemies and dying a lot (as intended) then you'll have plenty.

I still think there should have been some sort of unlimited refill, even if it's only 5-10 vials and you need to unlock it, or something.

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.