Visceral Attacks Bloodborne Wiki » Game Mechanics » Visceral Attacks

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Basic Information

With a firearm equipped, a shot fired by pressing L2 with proper timing just before and enemy attacks causes the enemy to stagger. An enemy can also be caused to stagger by facing its back and holding R2 to unleash a charge attack. Once an enemy staggers, press R1 to execute a visceral attack. When an opponent has been staggered they are open for a lethal visceral attack - simply press R1 when directly in front or behind them. This attack is the same regardless of which weapon you're using, and has its own separate damage calculation, so its power doesn't depend on the weapon you use. Visceral attacks deal a lot of damage and are often the fastest possible way to end a fight. They give your character invincibility while executing them, and knock nearby enemies away. The enemy on the receiving end of the visceral attack will also be knocked away. You can even use this to knock a strong enemy off of a cliff or another high place for an instant kill! Visceral attacks are able to benefit from the special effects of a number of Caryll Runes. Interrupts and Visceral Attacks You can use gunshots to stop enemy attacks if you time your shots correctly; this is called an interrupt. To do this, press L2 during the enemy's attack while holding a gun in your left hand. You also need to have enough ammo to shoot, of course. The timing can be difficult, and it varies for every attack. This is a high-risk, high-reward technique. This isn't possible against every foe, but it can be used against most enemies, including some bosses! If you are successful, the enemy will be staggered and left open. Approach the opponent from the front and press R1 while it is staggered to execute a powerful visceral attack. Visceral attacks aren't the only option while the enemy is staggered, though. You can also perform normal attacks - the first one that hits will get a very large damage bonus. Some weapons are fast enough to perform a fully charged R2 attack for massive damage. The Cannon can also work wonders in this situation. Test out different attacks and see what works best for you. Another aspect of using Blood Vials in battle against hunter enemies or other players in PvP is that you can be interrupted (or interrupt) Blood Vial consumption animation. Not only will it stop you from recovering health, you are vulnerable to a Visceral Attack. Timing for the interruption is when your weapon disappears and vial is at the top of the swing until vial is shot into the leg. [frame video] Caryll Runes Blood Rapture: V.ATKs restore HP. With Blood Rapture, your Visceral attacks will restore some of your HP. This is a good alternate form of healing if you like to use interrupts often. The amount healed is a fixed value, not a percentage; this means that Blood Rapture synergies better with high defense than high maximum HP. You can use Blood Rapture as a tool to maintain the Fool effect, but note that the healing from Blood Rapture occurs after the damage for the Visceral attack is calculated; you won't get the Fool damage bonus on your Visceral attack if you start it with less than full HP. Clawmark: Ups Visceral ATK. The Clawmark Rune increases the damage of your Visceral attacks. Given that staggered foes already take double damage from other attacks, it isn't always particularly useful. The main benefits of Visceral attacks are the knockback that they can cause and the invincibility frames that they give you. In a crowd of foes, they are a lot safer than performing a normal attack as a follow-up. If you are using other Runes to augment your Visceral attacks, Clawmark could be a helpful bonus. Heir: More Blood Echoes gained from V.ATKs. The Heir Rune gives you additional Blood Echoes when you kill enemies with Visceral attacks, alternatively you have about 6 seconds to kill the enemy after your Visceral Attack to benefit from rune's effect.. As with the Moon Rune, this is helpful if you want to level up or purchase a lot of consumable items from the shop. Heir Runes don't grant any bonuses in combat, however, so only use them when you don't need the boost that other Runes can give. Oedon Writhe: Visceral ATKs grant QS bullets. Rear Visceral attacks can also trigger this effect, so staggering enemies from behind can lead to bullet restoration as well; that works well if you are using a weapon with a fast charged R2 like the Saw Cleaver. When combined with a powerful, high ammo consumption firearm like the Cannon, you can alternate between Rear Visceral attacks on weak foes and Cannon blasts on strong ones. All told, this is probably the most useful Rune that affects Visceral attacks. It can be used in combination with the others, though, to make Visceral attacks a viable tactic in many fights. Just beware that they won't benefit you as much against foes that can't be staggered easily. Visceral Attack & Damage ► Your base visceral attack damage is not connected to the weapon you are using, the base damage is calculated based on your Blood Level (softcapping at level 80 and maxing out at level 200) and it will be the same regardless if you use Blades of Mercy, Kos Parasite, Kirkhammer, your bare fists, or any other weapon. ► Any blood gems that would increase your Thrust damage will increase visceral attack damage as well, but the effect they have on your visceral attacks is totally independent of the effect they have on your weapon. You could have a Beast Cutter, which only deals Blunt damage, and put three Adept (Thrust) gems on it and get no increase in damage on it, but it would increase your base visceral attack damage by the amount indicated by the gems, and it would be the same amount whether those gems were on the Beast Cutter, the Church Pick, the Saw Spear, or any other weapon. ► The Threaded Cane's transformed form increases SKL scaling by +15 and has the same effect on visceral damage as a +15 Sharp gem. On the character with 99 SKL this only adds 200 more damage to visceral attacks, and technically the Threaded Cane will give you the best visceral attack damage but it's not by a useful margin when you're already dealing several thousand damage. ► The Logarius' Wheel transformed form decreases all physical damage by 30%, including your visceral attacks which always deal purely Thrust damage. ► Weapons that are Serrated/Righteous in one form but not the other will apply that bonus to visceral attacks in that form only. Weapons that are Serrated/Righteous in both forms don't apply the bonus to visceral attacks. Guns that can Interrupt Hunter Pistol Hunter Blunderbuss Repeating Pistol Ludwig's Rifle Evelyn Piercing Rifle Trick Weapons that can Interrupt Rifle Spear Reiterpallasch Notes Invincibility: When you are opening a door, a gate, activating a Chalice Lever, opening a Chest or Coffin, or performing a Visceral Attack, you are completely invincible. You are also immune to Frenzy or Rapid Poison triggering their damage on you if you are performing any of these actions. You are immune to even lethal Fall Damage. This actually extends to a Chalice Dungeon where you can perform a Visceral Attack on an enemy on a bridge and fall off and skip a whole layer of the Chalice, seen in video here. Despite the popular believe character's hand does not turn "beastly" during the visceral attacks. [Image, video]

Visceral Attack Damage Calculation

Visceral attack is performed with a special virtual weapon that has the following stats: base AR: 100 Thrust ATK 0 STR scaling 1.3 SKL scaling During a visceral attack, your right hand weapon gem bonuses are applied to this “weapon”. Since it deals thrust damage, all gem effects that increase thrust ATK count towards visceral AR. Visceral “weapon” cannot be converted to elemental, but things like fire/bolt paper and gems with flat elemental bonuses increase its damage too, albeit insignificantly. STR/SKL scaling gems affect visceral AR too. The right hand weapon upgrade level or attack values have no effect on visceral damage. However, special effects like serration or hidden damage bonus from Threaded cane do affect visceral attacks. Visceral AR scales with character’s offensive stats, like any physical melee weapon. Since visceral has 0 strength scaling by default, character’s STR stat does not affect visceral damage unless you use a weapon with heavy gems in it. The stat scaling is determined by attribute saturation values, which have a softcap at 50 STR/SKL: Attribute value Sat Attribute value Sat Attribute value Sat Attribute value Sat Attribute value Sat 5 0.05 26 0.38 48 0.765 69 0.8776 90 0.9633 6 0.06 27 0.3975 49 0.7825 70 0.8816 91 0.9673 7 0.07 28 0.415 50 0.8 71 0.8857 92 0.9714 8 0.08 29 0.4325 51 0.804 72 0.8898 93 0.9755 9 0.09 30 0.45 52 0.808 73 0.8939 94 0.9796 10 0.1 31 0.4675 53 0.812 74 0.898 95 0.9837 11 0.1175 32 0.485 54 0.8163 75 0.902 96 0.9878 12 0.135 33 0.5025 55 0.8204 76 0.9061 97 0.9918 13 0.1525 34 0.52 56 0.8245 77 0.9102 98 0.9959 14 0.17 35 0.5375 57 0.8286 78 0.9143 99 1 15 0.1875 36 0.555 58 0.8327 79 0.9184 16 0.205 38 0.59 59 0.8367 80 0.9224 17 0.2225 39 0.6075 60 0.8408 81 0.9265 18 0.24 40 0.625 61 0.8449 82 0.9306 19 0.2575 41 0.6425 62 0.849 83 0.9347 20 0.275 42 0.66 63 0.853 84 0.9388 21 0.2925 43 0.6775 64 0.8571 85 0.9428 22 0.31 44 0.695 65 0.8612 86 0.9469 23 0.3275 45 0.7125 66 0.8653 87 0.951 24 0.345 46 0.73 67 0.8694 88 0.9551 25 0.3625 47 0.7475 68 0.8735 89 0.9592 A visceral attack consists of 2 parts: an initial thrust, dealing relatively low damage, and a visceral itself, dealing the most damage. The second part has different multipliers depending on the enemy: it has higher multipliers for enemies that are put into visceral position by breaking their body parts, like Undead Giants and most large bosses. The multipliers for all of these attacks are scaled off character’s total BL, with softcap at BL80 and hardcap at BL200+: BL Initial thrust Visceral (parry/backstab) Visceral (broken body part) 4-14 0.5 2.5 3 15-29 0.55 3.25 3.75 30-44 0.6 3.9 4.4 45-59 0.65 5.7 6.2 60-79 0.7 6.4 6.9 80-99 0.75 7.2 7.7 100-119 0.8 7.4 7.9 120-139 0.85 7.6 8.1 140-159 0.9 7.7 8.2 160-199 0.95 7.8 8.3 200+ 1 7.9 8.4 The total damage of visceral attack is calculated as follows: VisceralAR = (BaseAR + (BaseAR * StrScal * StrSat) + (BaseAR* SklScal * SklSat)) * Gem% * Clawmark% * AtkMultiplier + FlatAR

Backstab

By maneuvering to the opponent's back and landing a fully-charged R2 attack, you can cause most enemies to stagger. While in this state, you can either hit them for a large damage bonus or perform a rear visceral attack. Whether or not the rear visceral attack or another type of attack is more powerful depends on your stats, gems, and runes. As with normal visceral attacks, your character is invincible while performing the attack, and nearby enemies will be knocked away. Even if another attack would deal more damage, sometimes it's worth using a rear visceral attack for these effects. Backstrike Hit the enemy with maximum charged R2 attack from behind When enemy is collapsing follow up with R1 button Will set off a high power attack different from normal attack High power special attack will occur

Charge Attack

Charge R2 attacks are a powerful tool in every Hunter's arsenal, but they take time to power up and leave you wide open to attack. Use them sparingly and carefully, and time the attack to the range of your weapon and the distance of the enemy.

Caryll Runes & Visceral Attacks

Clawmark Effect Values

Rune Effect	Stacking Effects			Value	Added	Raw %	ME %
Base	-	-	-	1361	0	0	-
+10%	+10%	-	-	1497	+136	+9.99%	-
+20%	-	+20%	-	1633	+272	+19.98%	-
+30%	-	-	+30%	1769	+408	+29.97%	-
+30%	+10%	+20%	-	1797	+436	+32.03%	+2.06%
+40%	+10%	-	+30%	1947	+586	+43.05%	+3.09%
+50%	-	+20%	+30%	2124	+763	+56.06%	+6.11%
+60%	+10%	+20%	+30%	2327	+966	+70.97%	+11.03%
Note: ME = Multiplicative Effect; testing performed on Huntsman (Torch & Axe) in Central Yharnam on NG+1

Heir Effect Values

Rune Effect	Stacking Effects			Value	Added	Raw %	ME %
Base	-	-	-	742	0	0	-
+30%	+30%	-	-	964	+222	+29.91%	-
+40%	-	+40%	-	1038	+296	+39.89%	-
+50%	-	-	+50%	1113	+371	+50.00%	-
+70%	+30%	+40%	-	1350	+608	+81.94%	+12.14%
+80%	+30%	-	+50%	1446	+704	+94.87%	+14.96%
+90%	-	+40%	+50%	1558	+816	+109.97%	+20.08%
+120%	+30%	+40%	+50%	2025	+1283	+172.91%	+53.11%
Note: ME = Multiplicative Effect; testing performed on Huntsman (Torch & Axe) in Central Yharnam on NG+1

Heir - Testing Effect Duration When Killed With Normal ATK After Visceral ATK

Heir Effect	Frames	Seconds	Heir Effect	Frames	Seconds	Notes
Yes	171	5.70				Note: Frames were counted in interval when DMG on screen from Visceral Attack vanishes and ends when DMG on the screen appears from the finishing blow. Seconds, frames value / 30 frames (30 frames per second).
Yes	187	6.23
Yes	195	6.50
Yes	197	6.56	No	202	6.73	Results: Heir Effect wears off between frames 197 - 202 which is 6.56 - 6.73 seconds. Therefore in general you have about 6 seconds to kill the enemy after your Visceral Attack to benefit from Heir Rune effect.
			No	203	6.76
			No	209	6.96
			No	213	7.10

Heir & Moon Caryll Runes Synergy

Effect	Heir Equipped			Moon Equipped			Value	Added	Raw %	V / R	Notes
+120%	-	+40%	+50%	-	-	+30%	2025	+1283	+172.91%	427.66	Note: Moon +30% with Heir +30% Caryll Rune have conversion 1:1 in this setup, you get same values (+172.91%) having all three Heir runes and Hier +40%, +50% with Moon +30% while profiting from Moon +30% effect when not killing enemies with VA.
+110%	+30%	-	+50%	-	-	+30%	1880	+1138	+153.36%	379.33
+110%	-	+40%	+50%	-	+20%	-	1869	+1127	+151.88%	375.66
+100%	+30%	+40%	-	-	-	+30%	1755	+1013	+136.52%	337.66
+100%	-	-	+50%	-	+20%	+30%	1736	+994	+133.96%	331.33
+100%	+30%	-	+50%	-	+20%	-	1736	+994	+133.96%	331.33
+100%	-	+40%	+50%	+10%	-	-	1714	+972	+130.99%	324.00
+90%	-	+40%	-	-	+20%	+30%	1620	+878	+118.32%	292.66
+90%	+30%	+40%	-	-	+20%	-	1620	+878	+118.32%	292.66
+90%	-	-	+50%	+10%	-	+30%	1591	+849	+114.42%	283.00
+90%	+30%	-	+50%	+10%	-	-	1591	+849	+114.42%	283.00
+80%	+30%	-	-	-	+20%	+30%	1504	+762	+102.69%	254.00
+80%	-	+40%	-	+10%	-	+30%	1485	+743	+100.13%	247.66
+80%	+30%	+40%	-	+10%	-	-	1485	+743	+100.13%	247.66
+80%	-	-	+50%	+10%	+20%	-	1469	+727	+97.97%	242.33
+80%	-	-	+50%	-	-	+30%	1446	+704	+94.87%	352.00	Note: Despite this rune setup being so low in the leaderboard, it has 4th highest value per rune (352.00), naturally both 3rd tier runes. Also Moon and Heir runes have in this setup 1:1 conversion, you get same values having +30%, +50% Heir runes and Hier +50% with Moon +30% while profiting from Moon +30% effect when not killing enemies with VA.
+70%	+30%	-	-	+10%	-	+30%	1379	+637	+85.84%	212.33
+70%	-	+40%	-	+10%	+20%	-	1371	+629	+84.77%	209.66
+70%	-	+40%	-	-	-	+30%	1350	+608	+81.94%	304.00
+70%	-	-	+50%	-	+20%	-	1335	+593	+79.91%	296.50
+60%	+30%	-	-	+10%	+20%	-	1273	+531	+71.56%	177.00
+60%	+30%	-	-	-	-	+30%	1253	+511	+68.86%	255.50
+60%	-	+40%	-	-	+20%	-	1246	+504	+67.92%	252.00
+60%	-	-	+50%	+10%	-	-	1224	+482	+64.95%	241.00
+50%	+30%	-	-	-	+20%	-	1157	+415	+55.92%	207.50
+50%	-	+40%	-	+10%	-	-	1142	+400	+53.90%	200.00
+40%	+30%	-	-	+10%	-	-	1061	+319	+42.99%	159.50
Note: V / R = Value per Rune; testing performed on Huntsman (Torch & Axe) in Central Yharnam on NG+1