apf4ugyz - wandering madness x2 for radials 22.3% fire/bolt/tempering, pre lamp layer 1 - save scum for the fire radials, farm equipping the fire waning

apf4ugyz - brainsucker radials 9.1% phys +67.5 flat arc, pre lamp layer 1 before and inside the treasure room - save scum, farm equipping the fire waning and a fire radial if you dropped one on the way to the treasure room

258eatgn - brainsucker boss (layer 1) for triangle flat arc gem 9.8%temp +32.6 arc

8) Uncanny Saw Cleaver +6/10

462yygcg - loot the weapon from the coffin in layer 1, pre lamp bonus room

Snatchers farm for twin blood stone shards in Hypogean Gaol for a +6 - Charge R2 to trigger transformation into charged R2 to the back instead of taking the visceral

Kill Witches of Hemwick to use runes - 0 insight, chain backstab strat (2:10:40).

Reverse depth chunk farming for a +9 - zh784e7n terrible cursed glyph - Boar as layer 1 boss is the most efficient method for a fast +9, equip Eye (3) and use pungent blood cocktails

Blood Rocks - all layer 1, pre lamp bonus room treasure - 6gn7kd3v; csdupmbq; 3xmi7j9r

9) False Depth Tempering Gems

rz2xju5h radials 25.3% - Merciless Watcher in pre lamp bonus room layer 1, circular room

258eatgn triangles 25.3% - Merciless Watcher in pre lamp bonus room layer 1, circular room

Equip Eye (3) and use the flat arc saw cleaver. Parry into dash L1, dash backwards

10) Undefiled Chalice - FRC Shortcut + Sinister Rite

Undefiled Pthumeru Dungeon

Follow the document linked above to loot the materials and buy Sinister Root chalices needed to open FRCs,

Layer 1 - Keeper of the Old Lords (2:03:18)

Strategy: flat arc Cleaver, equip Blood Rapture (2), Oedon Writhe (3) and Anticlockwise (3).

Shoot, trigger the backdash double swipe. Parry the second swing, R1 twice. Backdash once. Shoot, trigger the backdash double swipe and repeat. If low on stamina, take the visceral to regain bullets and health thanks to the runes.

If second phase occurs, use poison knives. Two will poison the boss. Approach Keeper only when she is running at you, dodge to the right and do a trick attack. Some attacks can’t be punished, wait for the right opening to do so.

After FRC access, rapid poison gems can be used as a substitute for flat arc.

Layer 2 - Watchdog of the Old Lords for Defiled root

Strategy: BL4 Watchdog of the Old Lords vwa6kcqd

Layer 3 - Amygdala for Sinister chalices (use flat arc Cleaver)

Strategy: Amygdala: A Comprehensive Guide by Arti

This boss is needed to obtain the Great Pthumeru Ihyll chalice. Having it in inventory will unlock Ritual Blood (3) and Tomb Mold (3) for purchase, needed to conduct the ritual to make Sinister Lower Pthumeru as it’s the cheapest in terms of materials required to unlock the Sinister rite. It can be bought together with the other needed sinister chalices from the bath messengers in cn6anzq4k, layer 1 pre lamp bonus room.

Arcane Haze Extractor - FD Lower Pthumeru (depth 3) ux2bg9mk

Layer 1 - Watchers in long room

Layer 2 - Extractor in the pre boss bonus room

PART 2 - FARMING FOR MANDATORY GEM SETUPS - Estimated time: 1 hour

FLAT ARC GEMS

RADIALS - 7ebbmq4z

Layer 1 - Brainsucker mob inside the cave to the left, past the lamp drops 9.1% arc +67.5 arc

TRIANGLE - q2f8y9fh

Layer 1- Brainsucker boss drops 9.8% arc +72.5 arc

Use Fire gems.

POORMAN

RADIALS - e8um2a42

Layer 1 - Watchers in long room (1:16:55 - 1:24:30)

Kite the watchers, parry dash L1 with flat arc cleaver.

Layer 2 - 2 Labyrinth Spirits for 12.2% Phys. near death + 27% Phys. near death (1:27:00)

Fire gems and R1 spam.

TRIANGLE - khsva3kx (1:29:29)

Layer 1 - Labyrinth Spirit near the lamp drops 12.2% Phys. near death + 27% Phys. near death

Fire gems and R1 spam.

RAPID POISON

RADIALS - n6fbw837 (2:54:06)

Layer 1 main area - 2 purple aura scorpions with babies in oil pool for +16.8 RP +14 Flat Arc

Use Fire gems/molotovs

TRIANGLE - 6g62eurh (3:01:20)

Layer 1 pre lamp - 2 purple aura scorpions with babies for +16.8 RP +14 Flat Arc

Bosses weak to rapid poison generally have 180 rapid poison defense. Need enough RP to proc in 3-4 hits.

BRIEF CHALICE BOSS GUIDES

Beast Possessed Soul

Near Death gems, Pellets, parry into charged R2 -> L1.

Optional: use cocktails to backstab into Charged R2 -> Charged R2 -> L1.

Merciless Watchers in stairs arena (1:54:00)

Optimal Farm location. Get on the second floor. Will keep the gun watcher a floor above and not shooting you. Same parry strat as before. Gems: either near death or flat arcane work

Pthumerian Elder (3:16:24)

Rapid Poison Gems. Generally Speaking, dash right, pause, dash right. R1 mash. Every 4th R1 procs rapid poison.

Undead Giant, chain variant (1:41:19)

Rapid Poison Gems, AI loop. If loop breaks in phase 1, circle counterclockwise and roll to reset. If loop breaks in phase 2, take distance and wait for big swing + chain, then walk in. Will trigger a vertical slam. Roll right and loop is reset

Strategy: LVL4 No rolling/sprinting/dashing Undead Giant (Ball and Chain)

Watchdog of the Old Lords (3:03:00)

Refer to Undefiled Watchdog strat.

Blood Starved Beast

R1 Mash/Backstab into Visceral with Rapid Poison gems.

Loran Silverbeast

Fire Gems.

Celestial Emissary

Rapid Poison gems, every 4th r1 staggers and procs.

Ebrietas

Labyrinth Sage/Madman

Near Death Initially. Sneak up for the first backstab. Pungent Blood Cocktail. Charged R2 -> R2.

Once a full set of fire madmen gems is obtained, swap to those.

HBLB/BLB

Very inconsistent due to worm, probably avoid or upgrade mule to 24-30 vit. Use Clockwise (2) and (3), Lake (3) as runes, top hat and executioner set.

TL;DR to the fight: stay directly underneath the head and roll the first attack backwards then roll in on the second.

When in worm phase strafe diagonally right in or out to avoid worm thrust. Allow the boss to approach you.

Abhorrent Beast

Near Death Gems. Feel free to poison knife, takes 1 to poison.

Pulsing gems (all shapes) urx3wn2n - 5 HP regen/2 sec + 2nd effect

Sleeping Beast-Possessed Soul (triangles), can be kited towards Bone Ash Hunter (radials), Logarius Wheel Hunter (wanings). All enemies are close to each other on Layer 1.

PART 3 - POST AMELIA GOODIES

Anticlockwise (1) in Forbidden Woods

Anticlockwise (2) from Patches

Clockwise (2) in Nightmare Frontier

Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge in Upper Cathedral Ward for buying Beast Blood Pellets

Reminder to follow Eileen’s quest line before touching the skull in the Grand Cathedral.

Spreadsheet Bloodsheets

False Depth Runes list by Hakuno Bloodborne fast build

Raw Footage: Part 1, Part 2

Escape Soft-locking in Test Dungeons [source]

Fellow prospectors,

As many of you know, the advent of save-edited dungeons came with a unique problem for this game. A handful of dangerous test maps, particularly one inhabited by a certain Pthumerian Descendant, were shared on the server by a player with a save editor some time ago. Ever since, there have been countless cases of newer players entering them and accidentally soft-locking themselves, incidentally keeping these dungeons from expiring due to constant activity. Previously, there has been no way to escape them without a back-up save on most versions of Bloodborne, but I am pleased to report that this is no longer the case.

This method uses a newly-discovered exploit dubbed the "dungeon merging glitch". With proper sequencing of dungeon placements and actions between two characters, the glitch confuses one character's location and makes the game attempt to spawn them into another dungeon's map, which we use to our advantage here. All you need to escape is a second character and an online player to summon you into any dungeon. Here's what you need to do:

Save and quit to the main menu from the trapped character.

Enter the game on your free character and get summoned into any dungeon on any altar other than the one your first character is stuck in. If you originally entered the soft-locking dungeon on any of your six ritual altars, you can use the Makeshift Altar on this second character to search for a random host, in case you don’t have an available friend to coordinate with.

Once you have been summoned, quit to the main menu at any time. (Note: DO NOT use the Silencing Blank, you specifically need to quit out for this glitch to work.)

Load back in on your trapped character. Their model should be invisible and the background will be a gray void. After about 30 seconds, your HP bar will hit zero. After another 30 second delay, the death effects will trigger and the "YOU DIED" screen will appear. At this point, the game will automatically boot you back to the main menu.

Enter the game on that character once more and you will now be back in the Hunter's Dream.

For some additional resources:

An updated video guide by u/benyamxn showcasing the above steps.

The Bloodsheets, which now have a section for the dungeon merging glitch, thanks to u/XTrinX. You can read more about how it works and what its applications for gem farming are there.

The initial video I made when we first discovered this was possible. ben's video is much better now since his was recorded and edited after further testing.

This is not a perfect fix, but the fact that we now have a possible way out of these dungeons is huge. Massive shout-outs go to u/benyamxn for originally experimenting with Short Root glitches and his continued help with improving this guide, as well as u/pashok696 for revealing the dungeon merging glitch itself. Without their efforts, none of this would be possible.

Stay safe out there, prospectors. ^^

Arti’s Definitive Guide to BL4 Runs [source]

Hello, hunter! I am Arti, a Soulsborne challenge runner. I’ve invested most of my time in these series to understanding PvE intricacies and minimum-level runs. I have beaten the Souls trilogy and Bloodborne at minimum level without rolling, blocking, parrying or quickstepping; DLCs included.

I am also one of the founders and owner of the Company of Champions Discord server. It’s a community completely dedicated to challenge runs in multiple games and currently with over 2700 users seeking to get better and better at all games.

I am writing this guide because I think current ones are kind of lacking in parts and there are no good written guides for Bloodborne - they’re all mostly videos and those can be hard to follow through while you’re playing. Hopefully this will get more people into challenge runs and we’ll see great players develop from it.

My YouTube channel

My Twitch channel

Company of Champions Discord Server (and my Discord ID is Arti#2384 in case you have questions)

This guide will include:

Progression route (including weapon upgrades)

Items to pick up (including important gems)

P.S: You should always look to grab everything you see, because I don’t mention items such as Coldbloods or Madman’s Knowledges, yet those are still very useful.

Boss strategies

Areas strategies

This guide will NOT include:

Chalice dungeons

Gem and Blood Echoes farming (although I’ll briefly mention it in the next paragraph)

Item duping, skips or major glitches

Cheese strategies (yes, I am aware of all the possible cheeses in this game and no, I won’t mention them because I think it goes against the challenge aspect of a BL4 run)

About farming gems from Winter Lanterns: I personally dislike it because from my personal experience, the gems you acquire from base game are perfect for progression and you deal perfect damage to bosses if you follow my recommendations from this guide (perfect as in not too high and not too low; with the exception of a few bosses that I will sequence break for the purposes of this guide).

That being said, if you absolutely need to farm gems from Winter Lanterns at Nightmare of Mensis or Fishing Hamlet, go for it and look for Weapon Durability Down or Stamina Regen Down curses, as they’re the least punishing ones to have. The strategy to kill them usually is to just charge an R2 and spam L1 as that will staggerlock them to death. If your damage is too low to do so, try to learn how to parry them properly.

About farming Blood Echoes throughout the game: I won’t mention it throughout the guide because usually you don’t have much to spend on anyway, so Coldbloods are enough for most of your needs. However, if you find yourself having too much difficulty with the run and spending too many Blood Vials, you can farm Blood Echoes from a few good spots in the game:

Early game. After you kill Witches of Hemwick, you can go back from their lamp to the lamp in the beginning of the area through the gate shortcut and kill all the enemies on your way there. A lot of them will have their back turned on you so you can sneak up on them for a free kill and a decent amount of echoes. Each run through will get you about 15k Blood Echoes.

Mid game. When you get to Lecture Building 1st Floor, you can go into the theater full of enemies and kill all of them very easily with Fire Papers or Bolt Papers, or even bolt/fire gems. They’re very weak to these elements. You can also lure them to the door and kill them one by one. Each run will get you about 15k Blood Echoes and quite a bit of Quicksilver Bullets, but despite getting the same number of Blood Echoes as the Hemwick farm, this is a lot faster so you’ll get way more echoes/minute.

Late game. After you kill Micolash and get to the second half of Nightmare of Mensis, you can farm by running through the area with the Maneater Boars and getting them to fight the Shadows of Yharnam there. Backstab the first Maneater Boar for a free kill and then drag the other two the the Shadows and let them fight each other. Each run will get you about 60k+ Blood Echoes and take a very short time, so it’s the best farming spot in the base game.

Other farming spots will either be too hard at BL4 or too slow, so these will be your best options throughout the game if you’re really in need of Blood Echoes to buy some items. Moon runes are also very useful if you want to farm for a while, but don’t forget to switch back to the runes you were using before after you’re done.

Savescumming

Despite the ugly name, savescumming isn’t exactly a bad thing. Savescumming is the act of uploading your save file to the cloud (with PS+) or to an USB. By doing so, you’ll be able to redownload your file whenever you die or use too many consumables or something similar, and when you load in the game again, you’ll be back to where you were when you uploaded your file. This is very useful for bosses like Shadows of Yharnam, for example, which are very far from the lamp; if you upload your file right before their fog door, you can just download it back whenever you die and you’ll be in front of their door and full of consumables.

Despite this, though, I wrote this guide while assuming you won’t savescum due to not having access to such feature or because you don’t want to feel like you cheated in any way, so don’t worry - you won’t be at a disadvantage if you don’t abuse this, it would just be a way to make your life a tiny bit easier; and was worth mentioning in case you were unaware of it.

Important Concepts of Bloodborne

Before we properly start the guide, some important concepts and definitions need to be addressed for a better understanding of how some mechanics work.

Beast Blood Pellets and Beasthood Meter. Beast Blood Pellets are pretty much taboo across the community. Many players are afraid of using them despite the great damage increase, due to the defense reduction counterpart. Thankfully, at BL4 you have very small base defense to begin with, which means that the reduction from it will barely affect you at all! To put it into numbers, just know that by just having your Beasthood Meter barely showing up, you’ll already have a 20% damage increase with the downside of having 20% defense decrease, but in endgame that will mean a 60 attack increase for the price of 2 less defense. It is that ridiculously broken, and it gets worse. At full bar, you get 70% damage increase with the downside of having 80% defense decrease, which at 301 base damage (what you’ll have for the majority of endgame) that means a 210 attack increase for the price of 8 less defense. If you’re not sold out on this by now, you’re crazy.

Backstabs, parries and viscerals. Backstabs and parries are extremely useful at BL4, but viscerals are not. While you’re usually looking to visceral at any opportunity during levelled/casual runs because they’re your main damage dealer, at BL4 your visceral damage will be very low due to the fact that it’s tied to your Skill level. Since you have low Skill and you never level it up, you’ll be stuck with bad viscerals for the entire playthrough. But if viscerals are bad, why are backstabs and parries still useful? Well, not only do backstabs and parries put enemies into a staggered state that gives you an attack opportunity or room to heal, that staggered state that they enter takes double damage. Which means, if you backstab or parry an enemy and then hit them with a charged R2 before they recover, you can deal a massive amount of damage even at BL4. You’ll be using that a lot in this run; so much so that sometimes if I mention a backstab you should already assume it’s going to be followed by another charged R2 for great chunks of damage.

Beasts and Kin. These are the two main types of enemies. It’s important to know and distinguish them because some weapons deal more damage based on enemy type and some gems have reduced damage curses vs beasts or kins, and you wouldn’t want to use those against said enemies. Beasts are weak to serrated damage (such as Saw Cleaver, the weapon you’ll be using, which deals 20% bonus damage to beasts) and fire element, while Kin are weak to thrust damage and bolt element.

Why Saw Cleaver is better than Saw Spear. While both weapons have extremely similar movesets and Saw Spear has the upper hand due to getting serrated on both forms and having a thrust attack, Saw Cleaver gets the win simply for having a higher base damage. You’ll barely ever use the tricked form of either weapon, so despite Saw Spear getting the best tricked form, Saw Cleaver is still the best overall choice at BL4 because the more damage you have, the better.

How Insight affects your Beasthood Meter. The more insight you have, the slower your meter will fill up and the faster it’ll go down. If you’re struggling with keeping your meter up, consider spending your Insight with some items. This is also why you should never use the Madman’s Knowledge when you get them, but only when you need to buy something that you’ve been saving for.

Those are the most basic things you need to know to be successful in this run. Understanding how something works usually gives you better results than mindlessly following advices or guides, so I’ll try my best to explain all my thought processes along the way so you can learn new things.

Without further ado, let’s get started with the run!

Character Creation

Class: Waste of Skin

That’s about it. Unfortunately we don’t have starting gifts in Bloodborne, unlike the Souls series. Make sure to make your character enjoyable to your eyes because you’ll be stuck with it for quite a while.

Iosefka’s Clinic and Central Yharnam

Important Items:

4x Blood Stone Shards

10x Molotov Cocktails

4x Bold Hunter's Mark

Tiny Music Box

Saw Hunter Badge

Red Jeweled Brooch (turns into Red Blood Gem)

Blood Gem Workshop Tool

Objectives:

Kill Father Gascoigne

When you wake up in Iosefka’s Clinic, run up to the werewolf and try to backstab him for a visceral attack opening. You can’t sneak up on this enemy as he will aggro to you regardless, so your best bet is to get behind him before he manages to turn around for the backstab to work. If you don’t get it and die, just grab your Saw Cleaver and Hunter’s Pistol from the Hunter’s Dream and bully him to death when you come back.

Grab whatever the werewolf drops and don’t forget to get the Blood Vials inside the Clinic before heading outside to Central Yharnam. When outside, grab the Quicksilver Bullets near the gate, open it and also grab the other vials down the stairs.

Run past the Yharnamite, pull the lever down to get access to the ladder and grab the vials near the lever. Before heading up, break the boxes near the sleeping enemies to grab the Molotovs. Climb the ladder, light the lamp and go to the Hunter’s Dream to grab the Saw Cleaver and Hunter’s Pistol if you haven’t already.

From the lamp, you want to go across the small bridge and jump down the ledge to the left, run around the enemy and grab the Molotovs. Go through the central area with the huge bonfire, up the stairs to the left and once you’re through the small tunnel, turn to your left and break the boxes to grab a Blood Stone Shard. Keep moving forward and break the boxes near the dogs to drop down the ledge. Run past everything and break more boxes to get into the upper area of the sewers. Go talk to Eileen and she will give you some Bold Hunter’s Marks. Break the chains to drop the corpse near the door that leads to Eileen’s place, drop down and grab its Blood Stone Shards. Go to the outer side of the sewers and get to Gascoigne’s Daughter to grab the Tiny Music Box (for the Brick Troll near the ladder that leads to her, you can sneak up to him by slow walking and backstab for a free visceral).

Head back down and go through the sewers as you normally would. Right before the Maneater Boar’s tunnel, head into the small alley to the right and grab some more Blood Stone Shards. Then, instead of running through the Maneater Boar’s tunnel, climb the ladder and get the elevator shortcut for Father Gascoigne (don’t forget to run through the Brick Trolls and actually open the gate, this will also make your life easier for later when you want to kill Cleric Beast). After opening the shortcut, go back down to the Maneater Boar’s tunnel and get the Saw Hunter Badge near it; that’ll be important because it unlocks Pungent Blood Cocktails in the Bath Messengers’ shop.

Once it is all setup, it’s time to go for Father Gascoigne. Good luck.

Father Gascoigne

Health: 2031HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZomOPPM9AA

There are five main strategies against Father Gascoigne: regular fight (dodge and R1), fishing for backstabs (looking for openings to charge an R2 to his back and then doing a visceral attack - my personal favorite), parrying (self explanatory), Tiny Music Box abuse (which will be our intended method as it is the easiest way without resorting to actual cheese) and cheese (throwing Molotovs at him while he’s stuck on the stairs). I will teach the Tiny Music Box abuse, as it is the most effective and easiest way to kill him. If you wish to learn the other methods, search around YouTube or try to experiment by yourself.

The abuse: when you first enter the fight, good tombstone to stand behind. This way, the tombstone will be between you and Gascoigne and he won’t be able to reach you with his attacks. Once you’re safe, begin the abuse, which goes as follows: (1) use the Tiny Music Box, then (2) he gets staggered by it and (3) you backstab him for a free visceral, then (4) as he gets up, you lock onto him and throw a Molotov for free damage. Repeat these steps two more times and he will transform into phase 2. When he transforms into a Werewolf, you can repeat those steps one more time but instead of going straight to the backstab, you’ll want to R1 him four times while he’s staggered by the Tiny Music Box, then backstab him for a visceral and throw a Molotov while he’s down to finish off the fight. If he somehow survives in case you did something wrong, just stick close to him and hit him whenever there’s an opening until he dies.

!!THIS METHOD IS NOT INFINITE!!; you can only do it three times before he transforms and one time once he is transformed, so you should look to finish him within these limits.

Once Father Gascoigne is dead, open the gate and before continuing forward, drop down the ledge onto the rooftop and grab the Red Jeweled Brooch, which will transform into a Red Blood Gem (your first Blood Gem in this run). After grabbing that, progress normally and open the chest with the Blood Gem Workshop Tool, then go to the next area.

Cathedral Ward: First Visit and Gathering Materials

Important Items:

13x Blood Stone Shards

Hunter Set

3x Fire Paper

Tempering Blood Gemstone (1)

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +3

Add the Red Blood Gem and Tempering Blood Gemstone (1) to your Saw Cleaver

Get to Old Yharnam

Once you grab Cathedral Ward’s lantern, go outside through the door to the left of the stairs and grab the Hunter Set behind a tree, then equip it - you will be using this set until you kill Blood-Starved Beast. Go up the stairs and grab the Blood Stone Shards near the gate, keep going forward and grab all the materials you will find in the next area. This includes Blood Stone Shards near the crow behind a tree and near the Church Giant, where you will also find a Wandering Nightmare (Bloodborne’s equivalent of a Crystal Lizard) holding even more Blood Stone Shards; kill it with a Molotov to grab those and head down the stairs to open the chest with a Tempering Blood Gemstone (1). From there, you can use a Bold Hunter’s Mark to get back to the lantern safely and warp back to the Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +3 with all the Shards you got if you haven’t missed any. After upgrading your Cleaver, you can also put in both gems we got earlier, making you a tiny bit stronger. If needed, you can buy whatever you feel you’re missing from the Bath Messengers (Molotovs, Vials, Bullets, etc.).

Head back to Cathedral Ward and go out the same door, but this time go down the stairs and into this new area full of enemies. A safe way to traverse this area is to snipe the dog with a Molotov and hug the left wall while sprinting all the way to the stairs, but you can just run past all enemies if you don’t care about getting hit once or twice. Run up the stairs, open the door and go out the door across the room to talk to Alfred and get some Fire Papers. Head back, pull the lever, get the Madman’s Knowledge before dropping down and then head to Old Yharnam’s lamp. Grab the lamp and the Pungent Blood Cocktails near it.

Old Yharnam

Important Items:

Hunter's Torch

Ashen Hunter Set

Powder Keg Hunter Badge

6x Beast Blood Pellets

2x Fire Papers

Optional Items:

Charred Hunter Set

Objectives:

Kill Blood-starved Beast

When you first get to Old Yharnam, go straight ahead from the door and drop down to the side of the building, then grab the Hunter’s Torch; you can also kill the Wandering Nightmare if you need Blood Stone Shards or want some extra ones to upgrade other weapons (it is worth upgrading the Hunter’s Pistol with any excess materials). Head back to the lamp and now go through the area normally. You can equip the Hunter’s Torch you just got to make the area slightly easier, since Beast Patients (the main Old Yharnam enemies) are afraid of fire and usually won’t engage you if you have it equipped.

You can also make a slight detour to grab the Charred Hunter Set if you want; it’s really useful against Shadows of Yharnam and Laurence due to its extremely high Fire Resistance stats.

After getting through Djura’s machine gun shots, go up the ladder on the building he’s on top of and kill him, which will allow you to buy the Ashen Hunter Set from the Insight Shop (you will be using this set for the entire run because it has decent defensive stats and one of the best Beasthood stats in the game, which is important when utilizing Beast Blood Pellets). You can easily kill Djura by shooting him three or four times as soon as you get up the on the rooftop - this will make him fall down the building and die, and you can even reload the game to pick his Powder Keg Hunter Badge which will allow you to buy Oil Urns which can be situationally useful when paired with Molotovs.

After killing Djura and picking up his badge, go back down the ladder and proceed through the area normally. I recommend using a Pungent Blood Cocktail inside the church before dropping down from the wooden platforms to distract the enemies, as they can be quite annoying if they decide to chase you. Get out of the church and grab the shortcut to Djura’s building before progressing. When you get the shortcut, head back down and continue through the area.

After crossing the bridge that leads to the tower where the werewolf breaks the door to jumpscare you, head left and into the alley to grab a lot of Beast Blood Pellets; these will be your best friends for boss fights throughout the run. Head back and, when the werewolf breaks the door, go through it and head up the stairs to unlock a shortcut and grab some Fire Papers at the top.

Once this is all done, you now have a free path to Blood-Starved Beast. One more optional thing you can do, as always, is to kill the Wandering Nightmare found right before the boss.

Blood-Starved Beast

Health: 3470HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAu3QKtIQa0

There are four main strategies against Blood-Starved Beast: regular fight (dodge and R1); fishing for backstabs (which is the strategy I will be expanding on in this guide); parrying (self-explanatory) and Pungent Blood Cocktail abuse [this is generally used in speedruns and no hit runs, and it revolves around the boss getting distracted by the cocktail while you attack it with transforming attacks (R1L1 combo) to stack up your Beast Blood Pellet and get tons of damage - it’s very easy to recreate in a casual setting but wastes a few consumables that could be important later, so I won’t be explaining it in-depth, but feel free to use this if you prefer to do so].

For the backstab-fishing strategy, you want to know two main things: how to dodge Blood-Starved Beast’s attacks and what attacks to punish. While it sounds hard, it’s hilariously easy to do so. To dodge ALL of its attacks, run into it diagonally and to the left. You’ll always want to be running to your left side (so, under Blood-Starved Beast’s right arm) and you will never get hit. You don’t even need to roll at all, which makes it even more hilarious, but feel free to do so if you don’t trust these words.

That was how to dodge its attacks, but how to actively punish them? Well, there are only two backstabbable attacks: the simple swipe and the one where it rears up then slams its head down, then swipes to the side. To punish the former, you just dodge it by running to your left diagonally and charge up your R2 to its back. To punish the latter, you dodge it the same way but instead of immediately charging your R2, you’ll need to reposition yourself a little by moving forwards while it does the swipe - you start charging your R2 and it’ll hit it right as it finishes the swipe.

Now this is a good time to explain how backstabs and viscerals work in Bloodborne. Visceral attacks scale with Skill levels, which you have very little at BL4. This means your visceral will deal significantly less damage the more you progress through the game. While that sucks, an amazing mechanic is that while an enemy is staggered from a backstab, they will take double damage from your next attack. That means when you backstab an enemy, it is better to charge another R2 to hit it for massive damage than to visceral it. Against Father Gascoigne, it was really early into the game and you still had a Saw Cleaver +0, which means that visceral was still better; but at this point, you have a Saw Cleaver +3 and with all the multipliers, charging a second R2 will deal more damage than performing a visceral attack on Blood-Starved Beast.

This boss has three phases and all of them add more attacks and the ability to poison you through attacks (phase 2) or through an aura (phase 3). All of the new attacks can be dodged with the same strategy from phase 1, so keep doing that and you’ll be fine. The way the aura works in phase 3 is that it will only stay on the place where it casts it (so where it transforms into phase 3 and where it does the AoE explosion) and only for a limited time, so run to the other side of the arena when it casts it to avoid ever being caught. Bring some Antidotes if you absolutely cannot avoid the aura in phase 3.

Also regarding phases, a minor tip is that you can backstab Blood-Starved Beast while it transitions to the next phase (it’ll do an animation before going to the next phase and you can punish that animation; phase 2 starts at around 70%HP and phase 3 at around 30%HP, so pay attention to that).

Other than that, just keep up the backstabs until it dies. You can use a Fire Paper to make it easier and faster, but I will suggest to hold onto your Beast Blood Pellets for later bosses.

Kill Blood-Starved Beast, grab the lantern and head back to the Hunter’s Dream where you’ll buy the Ashen Hunter’s Set for 6 Insight and spend your excess Blood Echoes on whatever you want or need, then we’ll go back to Cathedral Ward. Don’t forget to equip your new set.

Cathedral Ward: Second Visit and Abandoned Old Workshop Exploration

Important Items:

9x Twin Blood Stone Shards

6x Numbing Mists

Doll Set

Third Umbilical Cord

Tempering Blood Gemstone (2)

Bloodtinge Gemstone (2)

4x Bolt Paper

Optional Item:

Fire Blood Gemstone (3)

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +5

Switch your Tempering Blood Gemstone (1) for a Tempering Blood Gemstone (2)

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +3 and add in a Bloodtinge Gemstone (2)

Get to Hemwick Charnel Lane

On your second visit to Cathedral Ward, the door at the right that was locked before will now be open, and that’s where we’re headed now. Go up the elevator and into the Healing Church Workshop tower. In the first level of the tower, kill all enemies and grab the chest for a Bloodtinge Gemstone (2). This will be the best gem for your Hunter’s Pistol until Nightmare of Mensis. After doing this, rush to the last level of the tower (be careful with the Brick Troll when going up the ladder) and get the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge inside a chest; this badge will allow you to buy Fire Papers and Bone Marrow Ashes from Bath Messengers, which is amazing because you’ll be using a ton of those in this run (Bone Marrow Ashes when paired with a Hunter’s Pistol +9 can get you through some stuff with relative ease and safety, such as Lady Maria’s third phase).

Now it’s time to go down the tower. On the first level of the tower, instead of going directly towards the hole on the ground, go around the tower to find a Wandering Nightmare. Kill it for some free Twin Blood Stone Shards. Go down the hole and begin your descent through the wooden platforms and towards the Abandoned Old Workshop. In the Abandoned Old Workshop, you’ll find the Doll Set (you will sell this for a ton of Blood Echoes) and a Third Umbilical Cord (needed to unlock Moon Presence, the true last boss of Bloodborne). Light the lamp for good measure and continue going down the tower.

When you finally reach the floor, sprint to the door and open it up. The Beast-possessed Soul kneeled near the door won’t hit you because it always gets up and turns around instead of going directly for you, so you’re safe to just get out of there. In this area, you can get a Fire Blood Gemstone (3) from a corpse; it’s not that necessary in the grand scheme of things but it’s really useful to kill Brainsuckers in Upper Cathedral Ward later into the run. After getting this gem (or not), go to the elevator and escape this area.

Right after going up the elevator, climb the ladder to your left and grab the Numbing Mists (they can be useful against Vicar Amelia if you don’t manage to kill her fast enough). Go back down the ladder, pull the lever to open the gate and go open the larger gate to get access to the area full of Church Giants. Grab as many Madman’s Knowledges as you can and head towards the area where you get access to Forbidden Woods. Kill the Brainsucker in the small alley with a Molotov and grab the Twin Blood Stone Shards behind him, then head towards Forbidden Woods and get the Tempering Blood Gemstone (2).

Use a Bold Hunter’s Mark to go back to your last lamp and warp back to the Hunter’s Dream. In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll want to upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +4 and switch your Tempering Blood Gemstone (1) for the Tempering Blood Gemstone (2) you just got. Notice that this new gem gives you bonus attack when you’re at full health, so try to stay at max HP as long as possible from now on. You also want to get your Hunter’s Pistol to +3 with all the excess Blood Stone Shards you might have; if you don’t have enough for +3, you can sell the Doll Set for a lot of Blood Echoes and buy the remaining Shards needed from Bath Messengers now. Spend your excess echoes on Fire Papers, Molotovs (important for the next section), Pungent Blood Cocktails and whatever else you think you need like vials and bullets. After getting your Hunter’s Pistol to +3, equip the Bloodtinge Gemstone (2) you got earlier. Head back to Cathedral Ward.

From Cathedral Ward lamp, you want to head to Vicar Amelia’s arena but instead you’ll take the path to the right and go fight the Tonitrus Hunter on the path to Yahar’gul. This is a really easy fight since your attacks are faster than his, so just (1) walk up to him, (2) R1L1 once, (3) walk away before he can retaliate. Repeat these steps until he dies and you’ll get 4x Bolt Papers. Continue going towards Yahar’gul’s entrance while ignoring all enemies. When you get to the area with two Executioners and two Wandering Nightmares, get close to the Wandering Nightmares and reload the game. Doing this will reset spawns and prevent the Executioners aggroing onto you. Keep doing this until you’re near the door and behind the second Executioner, this way he will never aggro onto you when you enter the game. At this point, you want to load the game, Molotov one of the Wandering Nightmares, get its Twin Blood Stone Shards and quit out again. Load the game one more time and kill the second Wandering Nightmare with another Molotov for even more Twin Blood Stone Shards. If this goes against your way of playing the game or you think it’s too cheesy, just try to do it normally. It might take a few attempts, but you can do it. After killing both Wandering Nightmares and getting their drops, use a Bold Hunter’s Mark and go back to your lamp.

From here, it’s time to head to Vicar Amelia’s arena again, but this time we’re going to the left path and towards Hemwick Charnel Lane. If that small forest area before Hemwick’s lamp is being too annoying at low health, you can spend a few Pungent Blood Cocktails there to distract the dogs. If you feel like that’s unnecessary, just run towards the gate in a zigzag motion to avoid any shots and dog attacks. Open the gate and light the lantern. Before starting Hemwick for real, head back from the lamp and to the left of the gate you’ll find a Twin Blood Stone Shard behind a few rocks. After getting this shard, go back to the Hunter’s Dream and upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +5.

Time to start going through Hemwick Charnel Lane.

Hemwick Charnel Lane

Important Items:

10x Twin Blood Stone Shards

8x Bone Marrow Ash

Rune Workshop Tool

Optional Item:

Lake Rune

Objectives:

Kill Witch of Hemwick

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +6

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +4

Change the order of gems in your Saw Cleaver - since getting it to +6 unlocks the last gem slot, you’ll want the order to be Tempering Blood Gemstone (1) (the one with 1.1% attack up), Tempering Blood Gemstone (2) and Red Blood Gem in the last slot and the reasoning behind this is that the last slot does not accept Radial gems, which means Red Blood Gem is the best one you have at the moment that fits it.

Hemwick Charnel Lane is supposed to be a quick part of your run, mostly important for upgrade materials and the Rune Workshop Tool, so I’ll try my best to keep this section really brief.

From the lamp, you want to go down the stairs and either kill or avoid all enemies there. Behind the circle with tombstones and a statue in the middle of the area, you’ll find some Twin Blood Stone Shards. Continue progressing through Hemwick and when you reach the Brick Troll and enemies throwing molotovs, you want to go and grab some more Twin Blood Stone Shards near a ledge close to one of the molotov enemies.

From there, just progress through the area normally until you get the elevator shortcut. From the elevator, kill the enemy hidden near the wooden bridge before she pushes you off and grab the Bone Marrow Ashes behind her. Go inside the dark house and be careful with hidden enemies; especially the dogs. Go up the ladder and, on the second floor of this dark house you’ll find a Wandering Nightmare and kill it for some more Twin Blood Stone Shards.

From there, go through the rooftop while avoiding the hidden enemies that try to push you off and then instead of dropping down the ledge into the main area, run towards the gate side while keeping yourself near the wall, trying to avoid all enemies. You’ll find more Twin Blood Stone Shards behind an enemy near the wall. After getting these, drop down and unlock the gate shortcut by pulling the lever. From here, I recommend you to go directly to Witches of Hemwick and kill them first, as that will unlock their lamp and make your life a lot easier to get the remaining items.

Witches of Hemwick and Finishing the Area

Health: 2611HP each

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEJzzSR4InI

There’s not much to talk about Witches of Hemwick aside from the fact that Insight affects the fight; unlike any other boss in the game.

If you go into the fight with >1 Insight, they will summon Mad Ones (the tall enemies). If you go into the fight with no Insight at all, they won’t summon anything and the fight is even easier.

For the purposes of this guide, I am going to assume you’ll fight them with >1 Insight, so this is a good fight to learn proper camera management. You need to keep an eye out for Mad Ones at all times, and you’ll want to always be a few meters away from them as they can run really fast and if you keep your distance you can have time to react properly. Other than managing camera and avoiding Mad Ones, you should know that one Witch of Hemwick starts with the health bar showing up while the other is not even in the arena; it also always have a fixed spawn point near the entrance of the arena. The second Witch of Hemwick only shows up when the first one’s health bar drops below 50%. At this point, the second one’s health bar will still be invisible, but you can damage her (and you will want to do so). Try to get both of them as low as possible before killing either, because then you’ll have 50 seconds to finish off the fight before the dead one respawns.

So, those are the mechanics of the fight. My recommendation regarding strategies is to backstab them with a fully charged R2 and combo it with a transforming attack (L1). When you do so, they’ll try to teleport away but you have enough time to untrick your weapon and do the same combo over and over again. So it would basically be: R2L1, L1, R2L1 and repeat the process until they get really low, then go for the other one. If you can’t get this combo’s timing down, you can perform a backstab into a visceral and repeat the process until they get low. Again, basically: R2, visceral, R2, visceral and repeat until they get low, but this time kill them and then go for the other one.

After you kill Witches of Hemwick, light their lantern and grab the Rune Workshop Tool in the basement at the back of the boss arena.

After lighting the lantern, you want to reset the area by either going to the Hunter’s Dream or using a Bold Hunter’s Mark. Go up the stairs to exit the arena. You’ll want to slow walk as to not aggro the enemies, and when they start walking outside you’re free to break a few of the boxes in the room which will reveal another Wandering Nightmare with more Twin Blood Stone Shards. Kill it and grab those, then head outside and go all the way to the cliff at the side of the area opposite to the gate to get a Lake Rune (optional, since you won’t be using that for too long).

Go back to the Hunter’s Dream, upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +6 and change the order of its gems to get full use of them (refer to the start of this section, at the “objectives” topic), then upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +4 and equip the Lake Rune if you got that from Hemwick Charnel Lane.

Time to head back to Cathedral Ward and get killed by the Snatcher right outside the church, which will lead you to our next area: Hypogean Gaol.

Hypogean Gaol

Important Items:

6x Twin Blood Stone Shards

Spark Hunter Badge

Objectives:

Kill Darkbeast Paarl

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +5

Hypogean Gaol is an even quicker visit than Hemwick Charnel Lane. You’ll wake up inside a cell and, from there, you want to work your way out and find the lamp on top of the stairs. These stairs are around a circle pillar, in a spiral-like form. If you always take the staircase to the right side of this pillar, you’ll run into a Wandering Nightmare and kill it (preferably with a Molotov) for some Twin Blood Stone Shards. From there, continue going up until you get the lamp.

After getting the lamp, you want to head down the first set of stairs and run across the room with both Snatchers to go outside. When you’re outside, head left and into an alley and you’ll find another Wandering Nightmare full of Twin Blood Stone Shards for you to get. After you kill it, keep heading forward until the end of this alley, where you’ll find a door that leads back to the lamp you just lit.

From here, you can either finish cleaning up the area if you wish to do so since it’s a fairly small location or just head straight to Darkbeast Paarl.

Darkbeast Paarl

Health: 4552HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFDCAmEnoOw

Darkbeast Paarl isn’t that interesting of a boss. It has camera issues and an annoying moveset, so our goal will be to end it as fast as possible.

There are three main strategies for Darkbeast Paarl: normal fight (dodge and R1 to the legs, as always), speedrun staggerlock (which will be our intended method) and AI loop (which is mostly used in no roll runs but it’s also moderately complex to learn and recreate, so we’ll stick to the staggerlock - but the basic gist of it is that by standing on a certain position, you’ll get him to repeat the same attack over and over again, which is easy to dodge and punish if you get consistent).

The speedrun method is fairly simple to explain and recreate: while Paarl is still sleeping, you want to use a Fire Paper and Beast Blood Pellet and run straight to his right front leg (the one to your left, in case you’re bad with directions). When you get there, you’ll perform three R1 attacks while he gets up and charges up the AoE explosion. If done correctly, you’ll break Darkbeast Paarl’s leg before the AoE explosion comes off, which will make him fall to the ground. When it’s on the ground, you’ll want to circle him clockwise, breaking all legs as you go - the best combo for this is R1L1L1 as it stacks a lot of beasthood and increases your damage.

So the breakdown of it is: (1) run to the front right leg and R1R1R1, (2) go to the back right leg and R1L1L1, (3) go to the back left leg and R1L1L1 and (4) go to the front left leg and R1L1L1. If you do this correctly, Paarl will never get up from the ground and will never have a chance to fight back at you. When you finish, it’s going to either be dead or really low on health. In case it’s the latter, hit its head with a few R1s as it’s down until you break it, which will give you a visceral opening. In case you miss the visceral, just stick close to Paarl and R1 him to death. Since you got it so low, it’ll start jumping back immediately and it’ll do two transformations: the first one to reacquire its buff (getting lightning all over its body) and the second one to start phase 2. Both of these transformations take 2 or 3 seconds to go through and they’re free damage openings; so just spam R1 until it dies.

In case you make major mistakes and everything goes south, you’ll just have to try it again but with a little more difficulty since Paarl will now be already awaken when you reenter the arena. In this case, you’ll just fight normally while focusing one of the legs until it breaks. When the first leg breaks, repeat the process I mentioned (go through all legs clockwise, breaking them) and finish off the fight.

Killing Darkbeast Paarl will reward you with the Spark Hunter Badge, which unlocks Bolt Papers in the Bath Messengers - and just like Fire Papers, you’ll be using a ton of these throughout the run.

Light the lantern, head back to the Hunter’s Dream and upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +5, buy whatever you need (Fire Papers are recommended) and then warp back to Cathedral Ward.

Cathedral Ward: Third Visit and Vicar Amelia’s Death

Important Item:

1x Twin Blood Stone Shards

Objective:

Kill Vicar Amelia

There’s really not much to talk about here. From the lamp, head straight to Vicar Amelia and let’s take her down.

Vicar Amelia

Health: 5367HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdEqks9P2Dc

Vicar Amelia is, unironically, one of the hardest and most complex bosses in the game… if you have low damage. Since that isn’t our case with this route, she is going to be one of the easiest and fastest bosses to kill in this run. You’re welcome.

Before you start the fight, you’ll want to use a Fire Paper and a Beast Blood Pellet (speedrunners usually use them after the fight has started, but it’s unnecessary in this case since you already have a Saw Cleaver +6; just be safe and pop it before the cutscene plays).

Run up to Amelia and, while she does the scream that starts the fight, you hit her left arm (the one to your right side) with an R1L1 combo, which will break it and stagger her. While she’s staggered, you want to untrick your weapon and R1L1L1 either of her legs to make her fall on her knees. While she’s down, R1L1L1 the other leg to break it too. At this point, you can break her head while she’s down and then the other arm to stagger her again, but either way your beasthood meter will be filled up quite a bit, so you just spam R1 until she dies. That’s it, that’s the fight. She won’t have time to attack you because at this point, Amelia will be so low that she’ll start transforming into phase 2 and will try to heal off her broken limbs. These are all free openings for some safe damage.

Once again, backup strategy in case you make a major mistake and die: when you reenter her arena, wait until Amelia does the scream from a distance and then she usually will do a jumping attack. Just dodge it and break either of her legs, then repeat the process mentioned before. Bonus tip: the Numbing Mists we picked up earlier prevents her from healing. Congratulations, you bullied Vicar Amelia to death.

After killing her, interact with Laurence’s Skull on the altar to trigger a cutscene and get the password to enter Forbidden Woods. Light the lantern and head straight to Forbidden Woods’ entrance.

Say the password, enter the door and interact with the corpse for a Madman’s Knowledge, then head down the stairs. When you exit this tower, drop down the hill in front of you and you’ll fall on top of a Twin Blood Stone Shard.

After getting the Shard, head straight to the lamp and light it up. It’s time to get lost in the Forbidden Woods.

Forbidden Woods: First Visit and Gathering Materials/Key Items

Important Items:

6x Twin Blood Stone Shards

1x Blood Stone Chunk

Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (1)

Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (1)

7x Beast Blood Pellets

11x Poison Knives

4x Blue Elixir

Tonsil Stone

Cainhurst Summons

Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter

Objectives:

Unlock all shortcuts

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +6

Get all key items to unlock optional areas

Forbidden Woods is a very convoluted area, but thankfully we don’t need to spend as much time here because our weapons are well upgraded already. This area has more than 20 Twin Blood Stone Shards in it, but we only need 6 more to upgrade our Hunter’s Pistol to +6.

So, from the lamp, you want to go across the bridge (be careful with the trap) and run forward while keeping yourself near the wall to your right. When you get past the Large Huntsman (werewolf-ish looking guy), you’ll want to drop down the ledge and kill the Wandering Nightmare in front of you for some Twin Blood Stone Shards. After doing so, turn backwards and go towards and across the yellow flowers on the ground. You’ll want to enter the broken house right after the yellow flowers and get the Beast Blood Pellets behind the Large Huntsman.

From there, keep progressing through the area normally. Go across the small village and swamp (again, be careful with traps and molotovs) and once you’re right at the end of the small swamp, look to your left and you’ll see a Large Huntsman, so go towards him and grab the Twin Blood Stone Shards behind him. From there, keep moving forward for a little bit and you’ll notice that to your right there’s kind of an alley leading up to a door. Go through that place while getting the items on the ground for some more Twin Blood Stone Shards and open the gate to grab a few more Pungent Blood Cocktails. With this, you already have enough shards to upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +6, but you can keep getting them from Forbidden Woods if you feel like you want to upgrade another weapon for whatever reason (upgrading your Hunter’s Torch could be a good idea because it deals decent damage to certain enemy types, but I won’t mention it from now on and won’t route for it in this guide - this is just a friendly suggestion but by no means necessary).

Now that you’re set on Twin Blood Stone Shards, keep progressing normally and right before you reach the cannon, enter the broken house to your left and grab a few more Beast Blood Pellets behind the Large Huntsman. Again, keep going forward and in the dark area with the Snake Parasite (dude with snake head), instead of going towards the shortcut you want to go straight across the room and drop down the ledge and onto the rooftop. Then, go up the ladder and across the giant windmill gears to get some Poison Knives. Then, continue going towards where you find the Afflicted Beggar and you’ll get even more Poison Knives on the rooftop where you find him. Speaking of the Afflicted Beggar, you have two choices: if you’ve been bringing NPCs to Oedon’s Chapel, you can send him there for some free Beast Blood Pellets whenever he kills a NPC. If not, you can safely kill him by blocking him on the door and using the Poison Knives you just got. Killing him will get you a decent amount of Blood Echoes and a rune (that you honestly won’t need).

From the Afflicted Beggar, just go back down and keep progressing as you normally would. Right after the small bridge you’ll find another Snake Parasite. Get through him and go up the hill to your right, where you’ll find an elevator shortcut. Don’t forget to actually go up the elevator and open up the door, or else you’ll still be blocked.

Now that the shortcut is unlocked, we’ll go through the second half of Forbidden Woods. Thankfully, all items we still need are fairly easy to reach. From the elevator, you want to follow the lanterns through the main path until you see the Giant Snake Ball coming out of the woods to your right… you’ll know it when you see it. Then, go to where the Giant Snake Ball came from and next to a wall you’ll see three Snake Parasites around an item; run up to them and grab the Blood Stone Chunk. If you die, just go back to where you found the Giant Snake Ball and instead of going to the right, you’ll want to go to the left and drop down to a place where you’ll see a lot of Small Celestial Emissaries (the blue aliens). In this area, you’ll find the Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (1) (which raises your maximum stamina by 10%) behind a few tombstones, guarded by two Small Celestial Emissaries with tendrils coming out of their head. It’s good that they’re there, because it’ll be impossible for you to miss it.

From here, you can either go directly towards Shadows of Yharnam or, if you died while getting the rune, you can just follow the lanterns’ main path until you reach Shadows of Yharnam. Now, instead of going into the boss arena, you’ll want to go to the direction opposite to it. You’ll find a gate, open it and grab the Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (1) (which raises your maximum HP by 5%) right in front of it. Now, just use your Bold Hunter’s Mark to go back to your lamp safely.

Now that you got everything you needed from Forbidden Woods and unlocked all the important shortcuts, you have a free pathway to Shadows of Yharnam; but instead of going for that fight, we will begin our sequence break to upgrade our Saw Cleaver to +9, which means we’ll visit a few optional areas before progressing through the main game.

To do so, you’ll need to venture into the Forbidden Woods one more time. Go across the path with the yellow flowers again and, instead of going to the small village, go up the hill to your left where you’ll find a bunch of dog cages. Kill all the dogs and interact with the window on the wooden house which has a lantern beside it. By doing so, you’ll talk to Patches and he will give you the Tonsil Stone; and that’ll be your key to get to Nightmare Frontier.

After getting the Tonsil Stone, go towards the giant gate and enter the big house to your left. Inside, you’ll find a few Blue Elixirs which can be helpful to go through a few rough areas (use them at your own discretion - I would recommend them for Nightmare Frontier, Nightmare of Mensis and Hunter’s Nightmare in the DLC).

Go outside the house and enter the cave behind the area with the cages. Go through the poisonous swamp and into another cave where you’ll find some ladders. Use an Antidote before going up the ladders, then start your ascent. When you finally get all the way up there, unlock the gate behind you and start going forward towards Iosefka’s Clinic. Avoid the Brainsucker and go up the ladder, then go through the rooftop and into Iosefka’s Clinic. When you’re inside, do NOT go for Impostor Iosefka, as killing her now will prevent you from getting the last Third Umbilical Cord you’ll need for true ending. You’ll come back here later, don’t worry. From the window, just head straight to your right and get the Cainhurst Summons in the room with a Small Celestial Emissary. As a bonus reward, kill the Small Celestial Emissary for Iosefka’s Blood Vial. Open the door, go to the lamp and get back to Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +6 and equip both runes you just got from Forbidden Woods (Clockwise Metamorphosis (1) and Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis (1) - you’ll be using them for the rest of the run). On the stairs that lead to the house in Hunter’s Dream, you’ll now find an item called Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter. This is a key item and will grant you access to the Old Hunters DLC. Spend any excess Blood Echoes on whatever consumables you need and head to Cathedral Ward.

Now that you’re in Cathedral Ward, remember the path full of Executioners and Wandering Nightmares where you got a few materials? Yeah, you’ll have to go back there. When you get across that area, go into the church and head towards the door that leads to Yahar’gul. When you’re near the door, an Amygdala will grab you and teleport you to Lecture Building’s First Floor (thanks to the Tonsil Stone we picked up earlier).

There is quite literally nothing noteworthy in this area, so just talk to Patches who is behind a door across the room where the lamp is and then proceed to Nightmare Frontier.

Nightmare Frontier

Important Items:

Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2)

4x Blood Stone Chunks

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +7

Progress Patches the Spider questline

Nightmare Frontier is a fairly confusing and annoying area with all the poison and enemy ganks going around, but thankfully you won’t need to spend too much time around here.

From the lamp, progress through the area normally until you get to the hunter NPCs. From there, enter the cave behind the hunter to the right, near the poisonous swamp. From there, just run and keep going through the main path while avoiding all enemies. You can also ignore all Wandering Nightmares, as they just drop Blood Stone Shards and you don’t need those anymore. At some point, you’ll get to a big tombstone that looks like a ramp. Go on top of it and it’ll fall down, becoming a small bridge and a very comfortable shortcut for you. Go back through this new bridge and head to the right, where you can see the Shining Coins left by Patches on the ground. Instead of following them, keep heading forward and into the cave where you’ll see a Giant Lost Child (the enemy that throws rocks at you). Instead of heading towards it, drop down the ledge to your side and you’ll find a Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) which increases your HP by 10% when equipped. After getting this rune, head back to the Shining Coins and trigger Patches’ cutscene to progress his questline (it’ll be important to get a nice Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) when you reach Lecture Building’s Second Floor right after The One Reborn). When the cutscene ends, use a Bold Hunter’s Mark to get out of the pit that Patches’ pushed you into. From the lamp, now it’s gonna be time to progress through the poisonous swamp and towards Amygdala’s arena. Just sprint across the entire swamp and bring Antidotes. Get through the Giant Lost Child and avoid the Winter Lantern (humming lady that frenzies you) to go straight to the area in front of Amygdala’s arena. From there, keep going forward and get the elevator shortcut near the Loran Silverbeast.

Now that you got the elevator shortcut, dying won’t matter that much since the items you’ll need are really close to it anyway and you won’t need to go through the poisonous swamp again.

When you go down the elevator, head towards Amygdala’s arena and when you reach the first “tombstone bridge” you’ll be able to see a Large Wandering Nightmare in the poison pool near a few Crawlers. I highly suggest sniping it with a few Molotovs because this kind of Wandering Nightmare can actually fight back and with the enemies near it, it can be a little dangerous. Don’t be too worried, though, because if you kill it and die, you won’t lose the item. The Large Wandering Nightmare will actually respawn and you can kill it again for the item in case you missed it before. Either way, kill this Large Wandering Nightmare for a few Blood Stone Chunks, then go back up to the area in front of Amygdala’s arena.

From there, you’ll want to go back to where you found the Winter Lantern and you’ll notice that there’s another Large Wandering Nightmare near her. Kill it and grab some more Blood Stone Chunks (be careful not to make it fall off the map, or else you’ll have to reload the area and do it again). If both Large Wandering Nightmares mentioned never showed up for you, you’ll likely need to use a Bold Hunter’s Mark to reset the area and get them to spawn.

After killing both, you’re safe to get out of Nightmare Frontier and head back to Hunter’s Dream because you’ll come back to kill Amygdala when you have a Saw Cleaver +10 and better gems.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll want to upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +7 and equip your new Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) - at this point, the runes you should have equipped are: Clockwise Metamorphosis (1) and (2), and Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis (1). These are the best runes you’ll have until you get Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis (2) from Patches to substitute your current one.

Now that you’re all set up, head to Witch’s Abode lamp (Witches of Hemwick boss lamp) in Hemwick Charnel Lane.

From the lamp, you’ll want to head outside and run straight to the obelisk right in the middle of that area, which will trigger a cutscene (thanks to the Cainhurst Summons we got earlier) and a chariot will show up next to you. Go aboard the chariot on a journey to visit Forsaken Cainhurst Castle.

Forsaken Cainhurst Castle

Important Items:

5x Blood Stone Chunks

Tempering Blood Gemstone (3)

Optional Items:

There are a lot of armor pieces and weapons scattered around Cainhurst; you can get them to sell later if you’re struggling with Blood Echoes

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +8

Unlock all shortcuts

From the lamp, your first goal is to go to the middle of the outside area instead of going inside the castle. If you go forward from the lamp, you’ll eventually see an alley full of Parasite Larvae with a Tempering Blood Gemstone (3) at the end, so you really want to grab that one because it’s a big upgrade to your current Tempering Blood Gemstone (1), so even do a suicide run to grab it if needed.

Now that you got the gem, it’s time to head inside the castle.

When you’re inside, go up the stairs and to the right balcony to get a Blood Stone Chunk. From there, continue progressing through the area until you find the first few Lost Childs of Antiquity (the gargoyle-like enemies). You’ll want to go up the tower to the left and grab another Blood Stone Chunk up there. Again, continue progressing until you get to the elevator shortcut.

After unlocking the elevator shortcut, go up the stairs and on the second floor you’ll grab another Blood Stone Chunk on the corner opposite to the open window where you’ll head out next. Grab that chunk and head outside from the window and drop down the ledges and, instead of going inside the room (unless you want the items in there to sell later), keep moving forward through the ledges until you find another door to go inside, where you’ll find a lever that moves the bookshelf to reveal a ladder.

Go up the ladder and instead of heading towards Martyr Logarius, you want to go all the way to the other side and find a Wandering Nightmare near the handrails; kill it for some Blood Stone Chunks and you’re done with this Forsaken Cainhurst Castle run through.

Go back to the Hunter’s Dream and upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +8, then switch your Tempering Blood Gemstone (1) for your new Tempering Blood Gemstone (3). Now you want to warp back to Cathedral Ward, where you’ll head to where you first picked up the Hunter Set. There, you’ll get grabbed by an Amygdala and teleported to Hunter’s Nightmare, where you’ll light the lamp and start your DLC materials run through.

Hunter’s Nightmare

Important Items:

6x Blood Stone Chunks

Eye Pendant

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +9

Unlock all shortcuts

Light the Nightmare Church lamp

From the first lamp, the first thing you’ll want to do is head straight to Laurence’s arena and grab the Eye Pendant on his hand. This item will be important to get access to Research Hall later. Don’t forget to unlock the gate shortcut on your way to Laurence’s arena in order to make your life easier in case you die.

From Laurence’s arena, you’ll want to head to where the Yahar’gul entrance was in the normal world, so to the left side of the stairs (right if you’re coming from the lamp). Get through the machine gun traps and head inside the house (a small tip: wait outside for a few seconds until all enemies get outside, this way you won’t get trapped on the door) then immediately turn right to get out and onto the blood river. Here, I recommend using a Blue Elixir to become invisible and get through the Bloodlickers with more safety. Go forward and below the bridge and then immediately turn right to go up the stairs and into the building to unlock a shortcut near Simon.

This shortcut will make your life much easier, so now you can actually go grab the materials.

From the lamp, go back through the shortcut door and head all the way back through the blood river until you find a cave.

At the entrance there will be a Wandering Nightmare, so kill it for some Blood Stone Chunks. Pull your Hunter’s Torch out and go inside the cave, immediately sprinting to avoid the Gatling Gun shots from the Djura’s Disciple inside. Near Blood-Starved Beast you’ll find another Blood Stone Chunk and some other items. Then, continue exploring the cave and you’ll find another Blood Stone Chunk near a ramp and Beast Patients. Now you can either suicide or use a Hunter’s Mark to go back to the lamp.

From the lamp, go through the shortcut door again and onto the blood river, but this time you’ll progress forward. When you reach the area with an Old Hunter and a few dogs and crows, I recommend using another Blue Elixir and throwing out a Pungent Blood Cocktail to distract the dogs. Then just sprint straight through them all and go up the ladder, as the Old Hunter likely won’t have enough time to kill you since you used the Blue Elixir.

After you get up the ladder, run as fast as possible through the blood river to avoid cannon shots from the Nightmare Executioners and head to the right to light a new lamp. From this lamp, head down the stairs and kill the Wandering Nightmare for a few Blood Stone Chunks.

Head back to the Hunter’s Dream, upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +9 and warp back to Forbidden Woods… time for Shadows of Yharnam.

Forbidden Woods: Second Visit and Shadows of Yharnam’s Death

Objective:

Kill Shadows of Yharnam

From the lamp, head down the elevator shortcut and follow the lanterns’ main path until you get to the river. Get through the Maneater Boar and head left (opposite to the path where you got your rune). It’s time for Shadows of Yharnam, good luck getting ganked.

Shadows of Yharnam

Katana Shadow

Health: 3645HP

Weakness: Bolt

Candle Shadow

Health: 2302HP

Weakness: Bolt

Fireball Shadow

Health: 2046HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdpkmJnk3MQ

Shadows of Yharnam is a chaotic fight with a lot going on, so I’ll try to breakdown everything you should be aware of and give you a general idea of what the main strategy is going to be.

First off, it’s important to understand how different phases work. First phase is the normal fight and what you’ll be facing for the majority of it. Second phase begins when they all stagger almost at the same time and start transforming themselves, getting new attacks and a slightly different look.

Second phase only starts if one of the Shadows of Yharnam drops below 30% HP, or if all of them drop below 50% HP. With that information, the best way to fight them is to focus two Shadows (Katana and Fireball) until their HP is near the 30% threshold, and then kill Katana Shadow while they’re transforming into phase 2. The reason why we kill Katana Shadow first is because it’s the most aggressive enemy and it has the highest HP, so killing it makes the fight easier, safer and faster. After killing Katana Shadow, it’s time to kill Fireball Shadow; and the reasoning behind that one is because it has the lowest HP out of the three, which means it’ll go down within a few hits, leaving you on a 1v1 with Candle Shadow.

Now that the core strategy of the fight is laid out, I’ll go into a few particular tips.

Start the fight with a Bolt Paper because, as you can see above, Katana Shadow is weaker to bolt than fire. During first phase, you’ll want to separate them as much as possible, avoiding direct contact with Fireball Shadow and hitting Katana Shadow only when it’s within a safe distance from Candle Shadow. There are a lot of tombstones (including a giant one) in the arena, so use those to your advantage to separate them all and block fireballs when needed.

Another important note is that your attacks will stagger them every single time, as they have no hyper-armor attacks. This means if you’re going to get hit and don’t have time to roll, you can try to hit them in order to stop their combo.

The best way to get a lot of damage onto Katana Shadow is to parry him and hit him with the R1L1 combo (if you have a safe opening to do so), but just hitting it with R1L1 or R1R1 and running away is fine too if you want to be extra safe.

What I usually do to make this fight easier and faster goes as follows: (1) separate the Shadows of Yharnam, (2) Katana Shadow will get to you faster, with Candle Shadow right behind, (3) R1L1 or R1R1 Katana Shadow, (4) run to the other side of the arena, avoiding Candle Shadow’s attacks and (5) on your way, hit Fireball Shadow once, twice or as many times as you think it’s safe.

Repeat these steps until they’re both close to 30% HP, then use a Beast Blood Pellet and another Bolt Paper (if needed) and R1L1L1L1 Katana Shadow to death while it’s transforming to phase 2. If the combo isn’t enough to finish it, just stick close to it and spam R1 until it dies as it should be pretty low by then.

Now that Katana Shadow is dead and second phase has started, your strategy will be to separate Candle Shadow from Fireball Shadow so you can safely kill it. Usually running to the other side of the arena will be enough to separate them, as Candle Shadow will follow you but Fireball Shadow will not, so you can then run back to it and hit it a few times and repeat the process until it dies.

Once Fireball Shadow is dead, you want to kill Candle Shadow as fast as possible because phase 3 will start and he will gain a new attack where it can summon a giant snake to hit you but, thankfully, there’s an AI loop to kill Candle Shadow very easily and safely.

Get close to Candle Shadow (wait for an opening if you’re afraid of getting too close), lock onto him and hit it, which will make him sidestep. When he finishes the sidestep, hit him again, and he will sidestep again. Just keep hitting and he will keep sidestepping, and will never attack you. Repeat this whole process until it dies and you’ll have beaten one of the most stressful fights in the game. Congratulations!

Light their lamp and head through the woods to find yet another lamp. Be careful with the Garden of Eyes (stupid fly looking enemy) on your way!

Light the lamp and welcome to Byrgenwerth.

Byrgenwerth

Important Item:

Lunarium Key

Optional Item:

Eye Rune (2)

Objective:

Kill Rom, the Vacuous Spider

Byrgenwerth is a fairly small area, but there are a few strategies to be discussed here in order to traverse through it safely.

The first thing you want to do is, from the lamp, head through the gate to the left of the building and make your way over to the other side of the building, where you’ll find a closed gate. Pull the lever to open it up, as it’s a pretty good shortcut that avoids pretty much every enemy in the area. After opening this shortcut, reset the area by either dying or using a Bold Hunter’s Mark.

Now, from the lamp, go through the shortcut and into the building. Inside this building there is a Hunter NPC called Yurie, the Last Scholar. To avoid Yurie completely, you’ll want to go halfway up the stairs and then back down and hide behind them. By going to the middle of the stairs, you will trigger Yurie to start walking but without noticing you. While you hide behind the stairs, Yurie will go all the way down and notice there’s no one there, which will make her go back up and face the wall with her back turned to the stairs.

What this means is that you’re now safe to progress through the area without being noticed, so go up the stairs (never sprint, only move normally) and to the left. You’ll find a ladder, so go up and grab the Lunarium Key which will allow you to open the door next to the stairs.

Go back down the ladder, open the door and you’ll see Master Willem sitting on a rocking chair. Interact with him for some free Insight and, if you wish, kill him for an Eye Rune (2) (which can be good if you need to farm for Blood Vials or Quicksilver Bullets).

Now, you’re free to drop down to Moonside Lake and fight Rom, the Vacuous Spider.

Rom, the Vacuous Spider

Health: 4235HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdEqks9P2Dc

There are two main strategies for Rom, the Vacuous Spider: the one cycle (where you kill her before she can teleport, usually done in speedruns and no hit runs) and the regular fight (where you fight all three phases properly, which is a little bit harder but more consistent than the one cycle).

For the purpose of this guide being really complete, I’ll explain both strategies thoroughly so you can choose whichever is your preferred method.

Rom’s One Cycle Strategy

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9sYqcEvYz0

If this is your first time getting to the fight, the spiders will only spawn once you hit Rom. The safest way to make them spawn is to shoot Rom from far away, so none of the spiders will fall onto your head and damage you. For the one cycle strategy this HAS to be the way to start the fight, because you don’t want to ever hit Rom before the spiders are all dead.

To get the one cycle strategy down, you’ll first need to kill all spiders. The safest way to take them all out is to rotate Rom either clockwise or counter-clockwise and always kill the one that is further away from the others - and remember to always hit its body because it takes a lot more damage than the head. This might take a while, but it’s the safest and most consistent way to take them all out; if you get really good at doing this and understand their AI better, you can start experimenting with different ways to kill them even faster during openings or when you notice the others aren’t targeting you.

After you take all the spiders down, you’ll want to unequip your Saw Cleaver by pressing right on the d-pad (don’t unequip it from the menu, it’ll be way slower and unnecessary). Use a Beast Blood Pellet and start doing R2 punches to Rom’s head (because she doesn’t take any real damage to the head) with your fists to charge your beasthood meter. Once the beasthood meter is full, equip your Saw Cleaver again by pressing right on the d-pad and follow these instructions:

Hit Rom twice with R1, and she will stagger;

Hit her with another R1 and use a Bolt Paper while waiting for your stamina to regenerate;

Your next hit will make her start channeling the teleport, so you’ll do the following combo: R1R1R1 and a fully charged R2;

Be careful not to hit her head with the fully charged R2, or the strategy will not work.

Following these steps will always stagger her out of the teleport. Using the Bolt Paper only after doing 3 R1 attacks is important because if you use it early, you’ll deal too much damage and Rom will teleport earlier, which makes this strategy impossible.

I tested it extensively and managed to get it several times in a row, so if you follow these steps perfectly with the setup we have by this point in the run (Saw Cleaver +9 with Tempering Blood Gemstone (2), Tempering Blood Gemstone (3) and Red Blood Gem), you’ll be able to stagger her every single time.

After getting the stagger, one of two things will happen: she will either (1) backstep, giving you enough time to recharge your stamina and kill her by spamming R1 without her ever managing to teleport or (2) start teleporting, which you’ll punish by spamming R1 but won’t actually manage to kill her.

If the latter happens and she does teleport, though, not everything is lost. She will be very low, so you can rush up to her and spam R1 until she dies while ignoring all spiders. This is not as safe or as consistent, but it gets the job done. Good luck!

Rom’s Regular Fight Strategy

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5aUwdbIV0Y

Unlike the one cycle strategy, in Rom’s regular fight you’ll actually have to learn all phases and how to deal with her new attacks. This is also going to be a long fight, so be patient!

In phase one, Rom has no attacks at all, so you don’t need to pay any attention to her while clearing out the spiders. Just like I mentioned in the one cycle strategy video, the best way to deal with the spiders is to just circle Rom clockwise or counter-clockwise and kill whichever spider is the further away from the rest. A good to approach these spiders is to always run towards them diagonally, as to avoid any attacks they might come up with. And a bonus yet important tip is to never stand directly behind or in front of the spiders, as they have some attacks that can come out pretty much instantly and kill you.

After you kill all the spiders, you can use a Bolt Paper if you’d like and just hit Rom until she teleports away. Be careful not to get her too low, or she will teleport directly to her third location and you’ll have to deal with a lot more spiders than usual.

Once Rom teleports once, second phase starts. In this phase, Rom starts attacking you, so you’ll need to always have your camera on her and pay attention to how she is telegraphing the next attack. There’s only three attacks, and here’s how to recognize each:

If Rom stands up with her head aimed at the sky, she’s going to summon a sequence of meteors that will fall from the sky and track you down. To dodge this attack, simply run in any direction and everything will miss - but be careful not to run into any spiders.

If Rom arches her back in a “U” position with both her tail and head up, she’s going to do an AoE explosion. To dodge this one, simply run away from her as you would for any other AoE attack.

If Rom rolls and lays with her belly up, she’s going to summon meteors that will rise from the ground in a circular area around her. Similarly to the AoE explosion, just run away to dodge this attack.

Now that you know all of her possible attacks, all you’ll need to do is to keep an eye for whatever she’s doing and kill all the spiders while Rom tries to somehow hit you. Be extra careful because Rom can cancel an animation into another attack pretty much instantly, so be aware of what she’s doing even when dodging an attack. It’s really important to manage your stamina in a way that you’ll always have enough to outrun her attacks. Once all spiders are dead, simply walk up to Rom, use another Bolt Paper and hit her until she teleports again.

Once Rom teleports twice, third phase starts. You should try to immediately find her because she can start doing an attack as soon as she teleports. This phase is really similar to second phase, the only difference is that now Rom will do melee attacks and flop around when you get near her, so you should always be careful and only get close if there’s an opening. Kill all the spiders while being careful with all that you learned in phase 2 and, once it’s just you and Rom, use a Bolt Paper and get close to finish her off. My recommendation for this last part is to always wait for Rom to flop around before going in for a hit, and to always only do 1 or 2 hits to avoid being caught by her next attack and to save some stamina in case you have to run away.

Once Rom is dead, run up to Queen Yharnam and you’ll get teleported to Yahar’gul, Unseen Village. Go through the door, run past the enemies and light the first lamp. Welcome to one of the hardest areas in the base game!

Yahar’gul, Unseen Village: First Visit and Gathering Materials

Important Items:

8x Blood Stone Chunks

Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5)

Upper Cathedral Key

Objectives:

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +8

Unlock all shortcuts

From the lamp, walk up to the ledge near the corpse sitting on a chair and drop down, you’ll find a Blood Stone Chunk behind the deformed statue. After getting the Chunk, run down the stairs full of enemies and go through the building while avoiding rifle shots.

When you’re out of there, enter the next building through the hole on the wall and progress through the corridor, then open the door near the Brick Troll that will spawn from the ground. Head to the left to get out of there and then up the stair steps right in front of the exit.

In this area, there will be a few of those Hemwick enemies and they can easily overwhelm you, so try to keep yourself always moving. Once you’re up those steps, go down the next stairs to your right and turn left and backwards to get another Blood Stone Chunk from a corpse on the ground. After getting this Chunk, go back near the stairs you just came from and you’ll notice the handrail is broken, so drop down that ledge and head into the door, then drop down another ledge into the cell to grab the Upper Cathedral Ward Key.

When you get the key, just head out of the cell and backtrack to where you were before dropping down (in the area with Hemwick enemies). I highly recommend using a Blue Elixir here to be extra safe, and then run down the staircase while an Amygdala shoots lasers at you - it shoots it in a zig-zag motion, so I usually dodge it by standing still and waiting for the ground to explode before running all the way down. Once you’re down there, light the next lamp for a very useful checkpoint.

From this new lamp, right outside you’ll see a Wandering Nightmare - kill it for a few Blood Stone Chunks. Keep progressing through the area until you get to a very familiar area; remember the lamp from when you visited Hypogean Gaol? Yeah, you’re in that place now but the lamp is broken and unusable… this is still good, though, because you recognize this place and it’ll be easier to navigate through it.

From the broken lamp, go all the way down to the jail cells where you first spawned in when you got to Hypogean Gaol, then go down to the basement where Adella was located. Instead of finding Adella, you’ll see a Snatcher’s corpse holding a few Blood Stone Chunks. So, from there, go back up the spiral stairs and head into the room that leads to Darkbeast Paarl’s arena. Near the room where there previously was a table and two Snatchers gathered around it, you’ll find another Snatcher’s corpse holding more Blood Stone Chunks.

Once you got those Chunks, go back to the main room of the building where you’ll find three Hunter enemies and just run all the way across the room while avoiding them. Get out of the building, head to the left and up the stairs, then continue going forward until you find an open door. Inside this room, you’ll find an elevator that leads you to the first lamp of the area, so you just got a great shortcut.

When you go back down through the elevator, you’ll notice there’s a broken wall that leads to a rooftop. Jump off the elevator and onto the rooftop, then go into the room with the teleporting bath. Examine the bath to teleport to another location, where you’ll head out the door to your left and down the stairs. You’ll find a Werewolf there, but you can slow walk behind it to avoid aggro. Head into the room to the left right after the stairs and keep going down until you find another Werewolf. Right behind him, you’ll find a Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5). Grab that and use a Hunter’s Mark or die to get back to the lamp, then you’ll warp back to the Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +8 and switch your Saw Cleaver’s Tempering Blood Gemstone (2) for the Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5) you just got. An optional thing you might want to do for the next area we’re going to visit is to switch your Red Blood Gem for the Fire Blood Gemstone (3) that I recommended back when we visited Cathedral Ward for the second time and went down the Old Workshop tower. If you didn’t grab that gem, a few Molotovs and a Hunter’s Torch +6 will be enough.

Warp to Cathedral Ward and go all the way up the Old Workshop tower, and now you’ll be able to open the door on the last floor. Welcome to Upper Cathedral Ward!

Upper Cathedral Ward

Important Items:

2x Blue Elixir

Great Lake Rune (2)

Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge

2x Blood Stone Chunks

Orphanage Key

Objectives:

Get Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge to be able to buy Beast Blood Pellets from Insight Shop

Unlock all shortcuts

Right at the start of Upper Cathedral Ward, you’ll find a Blue Elixir next to a big gate, near the bridge that leads to the lamp. Grab that and head to the lamp to light it up.

From the lamp, go up the stairs and head all the way to the right where you’ll find a Great Lake Rune (2), which can be useful for any bosses you’re struggling with if you switch the stamina rune for it (though, personally, I’d still recommend sticking to the stamina rune). Now head back and go all the way to the left and up the stairs, get past the Scythe Church Servant and go to the main room with the big candelabrum. In this room, you’ll eventually need to clear both sides, so I’ll recommend going to the left first because that’s where most items and the door key are. Pull out your Hunter’s Torch and go down the staircase, then the candelabrum will fall down and the room will become completely dark and filled with Werewolves.

Head to the back left of the room (near the staircase) and go through the pathway that leads to a corridor. At the end of this corridor, you’ll find a Wandering Nightmare; throw a Molotov to kill it - be careful because it’s close to a door and right behind that door is a Brainsucker waiting to surprise you. Avoid him and kill it with fire (Molotovs, Fire Papers, the Saw Cleaver equipped with the Fire Blood Gem (3) or Hunter’s Torch are all really effective) because that’s its main weakness. Grab the Blood Stone Chunks from the Wandering Nightmare’s body and head up the ladder.

Right after you go up the ladder, you’ll notice a corridor full of items and another Brainsucker. Grab all those items (the most important one will be the Blue Elixir) and kill the Brainsucker - behind him, you’ll find a closed door that you can open and get a good shortcut in case you die.

Head back to the ladder and go out the door next to it, and you’ll find yourself in a balcony with two Brainsuckers. The one further away and next to the small door will be holding the Orphanage Key, so kill it to grab that one. In order to do this safely, just kill both of them separately and grab the Orphanage Key. Bonus tip: if you ever get grabbed by a Brainsucker, immediately quit out the game through the menu and reload it, as that will reset their spawn point and release you from the grab.

Once you have the Orphanage Key, you can go back to the main room (with the fallen candelabrum) but this time you’ll head to the back right of that area and you’ll go through the pathway that’ll lead you to another big corridor. In this corridor you’ll find a Brainsucker and an item on the ground, behind a pillar. Avoid his attacks and grab the item, which will be a Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge, and it’ll allow you to buy Beast Blood Pellets and Blue Elixirs from the Insight shop. If you die to that Brainsucker, it doesn’t matter as long as you got the badge.

Now you can just go all the way to the other end of the candelabrum room and open the main door with the Orphanage Key, and then unlock the gate shortcut. We’ll use this shortcut later, but for now, it’s time to get back to the Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll want to restock on Beast Blood Pellets (buy enough to get to 10, any excess will go to your storage box) and change your Fire Blood Gem (3) back to the Red Blood Gem. You might also want to restock on any papers you might be missing. Bolt Papers are recommended for the next boss fight.

Once you’re done in the Hunter’s Dream, you can warp to the Yahar’gul, Unseen Village lamp.

Yahar’gul, Unseen Village: Second Visit and The One Reborn’s Death

Objective:

Kill The One Reborn

From the lamp, you’ll want to head to the elevator shortcut and jump off onto the rooftop on your way down. You’re going to be using the teleporting bath once again.

Once you’ve teleported, you’ll want to go straight ahead and drop down the ledge near the Bell Ringer. From there, just run straight to the big gate and you’ll get to One Reborn.

The One Reborn

Health: 10375HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mj4Cu2kQ40M

Unlike most other bosses, there’s no such thing as “different strategies” for One Reborn. You either know how to fight him properly, or you don’t know the fight. So, here’s the proper step-by-step guide on how to easily finish him off!

The first thing you’ll do once you enter the fight is to head to the back left of the arena and head up the stairs to get to the Bell Ringers on the balcony. There are six Bell Ringers and you can kill each of them with an R1L1 combo.

The way that most runners prefer to do this (no hit runners, especially) is to ignore the first Bell Ringer and come back to it later; so the order would be: (1) ignore the first Bell Ringer, (2) kill the second one right at the middle of the balcony, (3) kill the third one and go through the bridge to head to the other balcony, (4) kill all three Bell Ringers in this balcony in the order you get to them, (5) head back through the bridge to the first balcony, (6) go all the way to the Bell Ringer you ignored and kill her. Doing this makes it a little safer to dodge One Reborn’s projectiles, but you should still be wary of those. Always keep an eye out for whatever One Reborn is doing, as it can still hit you when you’re up in those balconies.

Once you finish off the last Bell Ringer, head down the stairs and use a Beast Blood Pellet and a Bolt Paper. One Reborn will always do an AoE explosion while you’re walking down the stairs, so it’s a good time to buff up. Once he does the AoE attack, you can get straight to the limb right beneath its head and start hitting it with R1L1L1 until it staggers. Once One Reborn is staggered for the first time, the fight is over. Similarly to Darkbeast Paarl, you’ll want to circle it clockwise while breaking all of its main limbs [front right, back right, “tail”, back left, right left and “head” (or, rather, its actual body)]. A simple R1L1L1 combo will be enough to break each of its limbs and keep it eternally staggered. Once you rotate all the way and get to its head/main body, just spam R1 until it dies.

Congrats, you just killed one of the easiest and most uninteractive bosses in the game!

Light its lamp and go interact with the body sitting on a chair to get warped to Lecture Building’s Second Floor.

Lecture Building, Second Floor

Important Item:

Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune(2)

Objectives:

Finish Patches’ questline

Get to Nightmare of Mensis

The Second Floor of the Lecture Building is going to be a very quick visit. From the lamp, simply go all the way to the other end of the area and you’ll see a Church Giant to the right. Behind him, there’s a hole you’ll want to drop into where you’ll find Patches inside of a small room. Interact with Patches and he will beg for his life. If you pardon him, he will start appearing in Chalice Dungeons as a vendor which can be rather useful and he will give you an Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2), which you’ll be using until you finish the run. If you don’t pardon him, he will just give you the rune but won’t help you in Chalice Dungeons as a vendor. Your choice really doesn’t matter much, so it just boils down to personal preference and if you hate Patches or not.

Once you’re done with him, open the big door at the end of the hall to get teleported to Nightmare of Mensis.

Nightmare of Mensis, First Half

Important Items:

6x Blood Stone Chunks

6x Shaman Bone Blade

2x Blue Elixir

Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5)

Objectives:

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +9

Kill Micolash, Host of the Nightmare

From the cavern where you spawn in, progress through the area until you find the first Loran Silverbeast near a tree. Here, you’ll have two choices: you can either slow-walk up to him and backstab him for a free kill (be careful with the Parasite Larvae that will come out of its body afterwards) or throw a Pungent Blood Cocktail to distract it and just run past it.

Either way, after getting rid of that Loran Silverbeast, you’ll see a Wandering Nightmare - kill it for some Blood Stone Chunks and then light the lamp right ahead of it.

After lighting the lamp, you’ll now have to deal with the hardest part of this area. There are three Loran Silverbeasts here, one right after the other. Again, you’ll have two choices: run like hell and pray they won’t get you or use two or three Pungent Blood Cocktails to distract them while you run away safely. I highly recommend the latter, so go spend some Blood Echoes or Insight on Pungent Blood Cocktails if you don’t have any with you.

After getting through these three Loran Silverbeasts, you’ll go up a small hill while some Giant Lost Children throw rocks at you. You’ll notice while going up that there’s small areas to your left where there’s a Giant Lost Child standing on it - you’ll find two entrances, one after the other and each holding one Giant Lost Child. If you go into the second entrance, you’ll find a Blood Stone Chunk behind the Giant Lost Child there.

After getting that Chunk, just sprint straight to the giant door but instead of opening it, go to the left and grab another Blood Stone Chunk behind a pillar. Now you’re free to go and open the door to enter the building.

Inside this building you’ll find a ton of spiders, including a giant one. Just take the stairs to your right and avoid all of them and, at the other end of the room, you’ll get a bunch of Shaman Bone Blades which can be useful for bosses like Celestial Emissary and Living Failures.

Get the Shaman Bone Blades and head out of the building, and you’ll find yourself on a bridge. In front of you, there will be a Hunter enemy and, to avoid him, you just need to run diagonally to the right and you’ll get past him without any trouble. You may want to wait a few seconds when you get on the bridge because after the Hunter enemy, a Mergo’s Attendant will be walking towards the door and, if you go too fast, he might end up blocking your exit - so just wait for a few seconds and he’ll already be away from the door by the time you get there.

When you get past the bridge and into the new building, go down the stairs to the left and keep running towards the left side and you’ll see a broken mirror board that you can get behind, then run through the balcony to grab a few Blue Elixirs. You can also grab the elevator shortcut to the lamp from this building, but it’s not really necessary unless if you’re really afraid of dying here.

After getting the Blue Elixirs, use one and go through the rest of this area while avoiding the enemies and holes (Hunter’s Torch is recommended here) until you get to the elevator. Enter the elevator from behind to avoid the enemy in front of it and, once inside, stay behind its small cage wall to avoid getting shot by the crossbow enemy in front of you.

From the elevator, avoid the dog-crows and crow-dogs and just go straight to the elevator shortcut just to be extra safe and not need to redo this entire area again. Light the lamp and go back up.

Near the stairs you came up from, there will be a cage with an item in it. Run into the cage (no need to jump or roll, just run into it) and grab the Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5) which will be useful against Micolash. Go back up the stairs and head to the side area to the left with a few dogs and you’ll find another Blood Stone Chunk. After getting that Chunk, just head back to the lamp and warp to Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’ll upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +9 and switch your Tempering Blood Gemstone (3) for your new Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5). Also, you’ll want to finally switch out your Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (1) for the Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) that you got from Patches. At first, you might think I’m crazy for recommending you a rune that only increases your stamina by 4 points, but those 4 points are almost exactly what you needed to be able to do three charged R2s in a row, which will be useful for bosses like Orphan of Kos.

Buy some Beast Blood Pellets and papers if you’re missing those and head back to Nightmare of Mensis - time to fight Micolash, Host of the Nightmare.

Micolash, Host of the Nightmare

Health: 5250HP

Weakness: Fire (fun fact: his fire resistance is literally one point lower than his bolt resistance)

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYvUqLI9GYU

Micolash is not an exceptionally hard boss - in fact, he’s pretty simple. However, it gives a lot of trouble to people who might not completely understand how the fight works, so let’s try to break it down a little in order to understand what is really going on in this fight.

This fight starts off with a chase; you’ll need to lure Micolash into a small room to be able to actually fight him. The way this part works is that Micolash will always run directly away from you (except for a few rare cases where he’ll turn back and run into you or something similar).

Think of the arena like a football field (a rectangle) with six main corners - back right (where you start), back left, mid left (where Micolash starts), top left, top right and mid right (where the door to the room is). Micolash will always run from one corner to the next one. Also, there will be puppets around the arena trying to attack you while you chase Micolash, but you can just ignore them.

With this in mind, from the fog door you’ll want to chase him down until he stops in front of the door of the room that you want to lead him into. Once he’s in front of the door, never come at him from the side. You want to come from the middle corridor, in a way that he’s between you and the door which will force him to run into the room.

Enter the room right after him and buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and a Fire Paper. In this room there will be two puppets alongside Micolash, so lure them away from him and kill them before engaging; a simple R1L1L1 will do the trick.

Once the puppets are dead, you can go for Micolash. He only has one attack in this phase, which is the Augur of Ebrietas. That attack won’t oneshot you with the runes you’re using, but it’s also really easy to avoid by just walking around him to the left or to the right, either will do the trick. First phase will basically just consist of dodging the Augur of Ebrietas and doing an R1L1 combo, then backing out. If he’s close to a wall, you can R1L1L1L1 until your stamina runs out as he won’t be able to dodge it, then back out once your stamina ends. That’s it for the first phase.

Once Micolash is below 50%HP, he will teleport to another location and you’ll have to find him once again. Just keep climbing up the building while avoiding the enemies and you’ll eventually find him on top of some stairs and near a door. From here, you’ll want to lead him either into the room he’s next to or into the mirror that’s inside the room ahead of him - either will lead him to the same place.

He will now be right below the balcony of the room to the left and if you drop down, he will run into another room where a gate will close behind him. To get into this room, simply climb all the way to the top (to the room with the mirror he runs into sometimes) and to the right you’ll see a room with a hole to drop into (bonus commentary: there’s a Blood Stone Chunk next to this room in case you missed any earlier).

Buff yourself up with a Fire Paper and Beast Blood Pellet and drop into the hole while doing a plunging attack. Sometimes it hits Micolash and pancakes him into the ground and sometimes he dodges it - either way, right after dropping in you’ll want to stick as close to him as possible because in this phase he has a few new attacks.

On top of the Augur of Ebrietas, Micolash can now cast A Call Beyond which will instantly kill you if you get hit and he suddenly became a karate master, so he will try to punch you around (fortunately it doesn’t deal too much damage in case you get hit).

The basic strategy for this second phase is to stick close to him, R1L1 whenever there’s an opening and move a little away to avoid getting hit by his punches or the Augur. You can also roll through these attacks easily. In case he somehow gets enough distance and time to cast A Call Beyond, there’s two things you can do: (1) if you read the attack early enough, you can shoot him to stop him from casting or (2) if he does cast it, you can dodge by quickstepping twice forward as soon as it’s about to hit you. Do NOT try to quickstep away from it, because you WILL get caught and die.

Other than this, just stick close to Micolash and R1L1 whenever there’s an opening. Similarly to the first phase, if he’s close to a wall you can just spam R1L1L1 until your stamina ends because there’s nothing he can do in that scenario. Just keep at it and you’ll kill him in no time!

After killing Micolash, a cutscene will play and a bridge will come up giving you access to the next area. Go back to the top floor of the area and cross the bridge to light the lamp, then go back to the Hunter’s Dream. From the Hunter’s Dream, warp back to 1st Floor Sickroom lamp to clean up some unfinished business in Iosefka’s Clinic.

Iosefka’s Clinic

Important Item:

Third Umbilical Cord

Objective:

Kill Impostor Iosefka

From the 1st Floor Sickroom lamp, just head back through the door you unlocked when you first visited Iosefka’s Clinic and head to the upper floor of the area where you’ll find Impostor Iosefka lying on a bed, going insane. Finish her off and you’ll get an One Third of Umbilical Cord, which will be important to unlock the true final boss of this run.

By now, you should have two of these (one from the Old Workshop and the one you just got) and you need three to unlock Moon Presence’s fight. Fortunately, the last one drops from the next boss we’re going to fight in this run, so warp back to Hunter’s Dream and then go back to Nightmare of Mensis on the Mergo’s Loft: Middle lamp (post-Micolash).

Nightmare of Mensis, Second Half

Important Items:

Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5)

Damp Bloodtinge Gem (5)

Nourishing Damp Blood Gem (4)

Blood Rock

Third Umbilical Cord

Objectives:

Upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +10

Kill Mergo's Wet Nurse

The second half of Nightmare of Mensis is the last area of base game and, thankfully, the last time we’re going to need to grab some really important items.

From the lamp, you’ll want to go and grab the broken elevator near the ledge after the stairs. Instead of going all the way down, you’ll drop into an open window halfway through by rolling into it and then go through the bridge full of Winter Lanterns. On this bridge, you’ll find a Tempering Damp Blood Gem (5) near a Winter Lantern in the latter half of the bridge.

After getting this gem, continue progressing through (bring Sedatives if you need) until you find a lever. Pull the lever to trigger a cutscene, then drop down the hole on a room near the lever. Go out through the door and you’ll find an area full of items laying on the ground, grab them all and before you drop down the ledge to get the Blood Rock, keep moving forward and go down a few stairs and turn around so you’ll find a Damp Bloodtinge Gem (5) for your Hunter’s Pistol.

Go back, drop down the ledge in the middle of the area (be careful not to fall down the big hole) and grab the Blood Rock, then use a Hunter’s Mark to go back to the lamp.

Before going back to the Hunter’s Dream once again, you’ll want to progress towards Mergo’s Wet Nurse arena now. Avoid the Shadows and, after the first Maneater Boar, you’ll find a Nourishing Damp Blood Gem (4) to your left, near a tree. After getting this gem, you can go straight to the area where you find Queen Yharnam and unlock the elevator shortcut near her - if getting to this shortcut is being a little too hard for you, you can use a Blue Elixir to easily avoid all the Maneater Boars and Shadows. Go back to the lamp and warp back to Hunter’s Dream.

In the Hunter’s Dream, you’re going to upgrade your Saw Cleaver to +10 and equip the gems you just got. Also, switch your current Hunter’s Pistol gem for the Damp Bloodtinge Gem (5) you just got.

Your final Saw Cleaver gem setup will be 15%/18%/18%, giving you 121 bonus attack for a total of 301AR without any buffs. Now, from my extensive experience with BL4 runs, this is the perfect amount of damage to deal with all late game bosses as it isn’t too low and it also isn’t too high, giving you the perfect amount to experience a nice challenge... so I really suggest you to stick with these until the end. If you feel this is too low and you absolutely need more damage to deal with bosses, go take a look at the first page of this guide for a brief explanation of where and how to farm for good gems without going through Chalice Dungeons.

Once you’ve got your whole setup ready to go, warp back to Mergo’s Loft: Middle lamp in the Nightmare of Mensis and go straight to Mergo’s Wet Nurse with the shortcut you just unlocked.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse

Health: 14081HP

Weakness: Fire and Bolt (Wet Nurse has the same resistance to both)

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AEuZnMzmjc

Note: This video is a few minutes longer than it should be because I was waiting for Wet Nurse to do the Shadow Realm attack one more time so I could showcase both how to avoid it completely and how to deal with it if you get caught in the same video.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse, just like some of the previous bosses, isn’t too complex. She only has a few attacks and one very interesting mechanic, so let’s get right into the fight.

First off, you’ll want a Beast Blood Pellet and Bolt or Fire Paper active at all times because she has quite a bit of HP and these will help to speed up the entire thing.

Unlike most other bosses, Wet Nurse doesn’t really have a second phase. At some point in the fight (usually when she falls a little below 70%HP), she will start doing an attack that will teleport you to what we usually call the Shadow Realm or Nightmare Realm (in the game’s code it’s called Nightmare Veil, but we don’t talk about that here), but that’s the only change during the fight and it can barely be called a different phase… we’ll get back to it later, though.

Her attacks are very slow and telegraphed, and you dodge them all pretty much the same way. In a way, Wet Nurse is really similar to Blood-Starved Beast. If you always keep close and dodge/run to the left, she will always miss you. The best way to punish Wet Nurse is to stay behind her and R1L1, and an optimal fight would usually look like this: (1) dodge her attack and get behind, (2) punish her with R1L1, (3) she hops away and you follow her, preparing to dodge to the left and (4) repeat all of the previous steps. Another important note is that, in order to dodge the 360º uppercut slash that she does, you’ll need to circle her body clockwise really quickly instead of just running towards the left like all other attacks.

And another exception is the lawn mower attack - in this specific case, you’ll want to go a little further back and position yourself perfectly behind her and then follow her around while hitting her back. If you do this correctly, you’ll never get hit by it and you’ll have quite a nice damage opening. If you don’t feel comfortable enough to do this, just run away and come back when she finishes the attack - but know that this will make the fight a lot longer than it needs to.

Other than those general tips, we should get into one of the most important mechanics in the fight: the Nightmare Realm. In this attack, Wet Nurse will put her hands up and summon some sort of black magic ball that works as an AoE attack. There are two ways to deal with this: you can dodge it (yes, it is dodgeable!) or if you get caught, you can go to the border of the arena and run around clockwise until you’re out of the Nightmare Realm. If you simply run around clockwise, none of the attacks will hit you; the hardest part of doing this is managing your stamina so it never runs out but my recommendation is to just stop sprinting for a second or two after dodging an attack for your stamina to recover properly, then start sprinting again.

So that’s how to deal with it if you get caught, but if you want to dodge it and never enter the Nightmare Realm, all you’ll need to do is to lock onto her as soon as you see her doing the attack and then dodge twice to the left or to the right as soon as you see the black magic ball. Just apply all of these tips to your fight and you’ll kill her very quickly!

Once you’re done with Mergo’s Wet Nurse, it’s time to head back to the Hunter’s Dream and stock up on consumables because now we will warp back to Central Yharnam and head straight to the Cleric Beast through the shortcut we opened at the start of the run, and then we’ll begin our little boss rush section to clean up optional bosses!

Cleaning up Base Game

Objectives:

Kill Cleric Beast

Kill Amygdala

Kill Martyr Logarius

Kill Celestial Emissary

Kill Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

Cleric Beast

Health: 3015HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inUPwhTjiR8

Cleric Beast can be quite a challenging boss if you fight him at the start of the game with a Saw Cleaver +0, but there’s no reason to do so and that is why I routed this run in a way to fight him only after you kill Mergo’s Wet Nurse.

If you kill Cleric Beast early, you’ll get a badge that lets you buy a key that unlocks the big gate in Cathedral Ward, which in return lets you skip Blood-Starved Beast; but this is not an optimal route because you get a lot of good resources from Old Yharnam and Old Workshop Tower, so you should never look to skip Blood-Starved Beast in a low level run - plus, you get to save the 10k Blood Echoes that otherwise you’d need to spend on the key.

Anyway… about Cleric Beast? In this route it’ll be your punching bag to relieve stress. Simply walk up to it and spam R1 while focusing each limb to stagger it down for the entire duration of the fight. Even if you don’t want to break each limb, you can just randomly spam R1 and it’ll die in a few seconds. Have fun!

After killing Cleric Beast, warp back to Hunter’s Dream and then warp to Nightmare Frontier where you’ll go directly to Amygdala using the elevator shortcut you’ve unlocked earlier into the run.

Amygdala

Health: 6404HP

Weakness: Fire and Bolt (Amygdala has the same resistance to both)

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai-hJmx2fIM

Upon entering Amygdala’s arena, buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and a Fire or Bolt Paper - and as a bonus tip, Bone Marrow Ashes will also be extremely useful in this fight as her head takes a ton of damage from buffed up shots, especially considering your Hunter’s Pistol is at +9 right now.

She will walk up to you and your best bet will be to either wait for an attack and then run past her to get more space to fight her or just run straight forward and pray she doesn’t hit you when you get close (this latter method relies a little more on RNG than skill, so I wouldn’t do it - I prefer to bait an attack to safely run under her).

Once you have more space to deal with Amygdala, your preferred way to approach the fight will be to stay at mid-distance. Just away enough for her arms to never hit you, but close enough to bait her attacks and punish.

The basic gist for the first phase will be to bait out an opening and you’ll have two ways to punish: she will either do an attack that puts her head near the ground, which you can punish by running into her and attacking with an R1 or two, or she will do the laser or the acid pool attack, both of which you can punish by hitting her right front arms (the ones to your left). To reach her arms while she’s shooting the lasers, you’ll want to trick your Saw Cleaver and hit it with an R1 since it reaches higher up.

At some point, you’ll end up breaking her head. Take that opportunity to perform a visceral attack. If you calculate it correctly, you can even do a fully charged R2 to her head as soon as she falls down and still get the visceral attack done.

Once Amygdala is below 70%HP, she will go into second phase. There are no big difference in her moveset, except for the fact that now most of her attacks will have a small lingering AoE explosion attached to them, so be careful not to get it by it and even if you dodge it, don’t run into it immediately or you’ll get hit by the lingering hitbox. Other than that, her only new attack will be another variation of the acid pool where, instead of just dropping it into the ground, she will flop her head around and hit a much larger area - so this attack is not punishable anymore because you will get hit.

With these changes in mind, just keep fighting her exactly as you did in the first phase. Same punishes, just need to be a little more careful.

Once Amygdala is down below 30%HP, she will go into third phase by breaking her front arms and using them as weapons. Her attacks have a much larger range now, to the point that it’s almost undodgeable. Because of this reason, your strategy for this phase will be to stay under Amygdala (near her tail) and wait for her to jump up.

If you’re under Amygdala’s tail and she jumps up, you won’t ever need to roll because she will never hit you, and this becomes quite a good opening for attacks. When she jumps up, she will do a complete 180º so move a little forward (towards where her tail was, not towards where her head was) and once she lands, you’ll be right below her head and able to hit her with one or two R1s. Repeat this step until she dies and you’ll be done with Amygdala.

Once you’ve killed her, warp back to the Hunter’s Dream and then go to Forsaken Cainhurst Castle where you’ll head directly to Martyr Logarius with all the shortcuts you’ve unlocked earlier in the run.

Martyr Logarius

Health: 9081HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_bWi699hkU

Martyr Logarius is a very interesting boss that can give a lot of trouble to newer players due to all the magic attacks he throws at you, but he’s easily manageable if you play this fight patiently.

Upon entering the arena, you’ll want to approach Logarius by running through the side of the arena and using the pillars as a shield to his magic. Buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and a Fire Paper once you’re close, and go for him once there’s an opening. The best opening to engage him is when he casts a bunch of skulls - just dodge through them and punish Logarius.

Once you’re close enough to hit him, you’ll start a bit of an AI loop on him. If you hit Logarius two or three times, he will always backstep and try to attack you, but his attack is pretty slow. So what you should look to do is to always follow him after the backstep and hit him two or three times again. It goes like this: (1) you hit Logarius with two or three R1s or an R1L1 combo, (2) he backsteps, (3) you follow him and (4) you hit him again with two or three R1s or an R1L1 combo, then repeat steps 2 to 4 until the start of the second phase.

Once Martyr Logarius is a little below 70%HP, he will drive his scythe to the ground and start channeling an AoE explosion. It takes a few seconds for the explosion to come out, so you can attack him a few times before interrupting it with a backstab. So, what you’ll want to do is as soon as you see him putting his scythe on the ground, attack him with three or four R1s or do an R1L1L1 combo.

After doing so, wait for your stamina to regenerate to a little over half the bar and then perform a backstab (fully charged R2 to his back and another fully charged R2 for double damage while he’s staggered) - this will stop his channeling but second phase will start regardless.

During second phase, he loses his magic attacks and will focus a lot more on chasing you around and performing melee attacks with either his scythe (slower, easier to avoid attacks) or his sword (faster attacks, harder to predict). He will also sometimes fly up to the sky and plunge at you or straight up dive you, and these will be the main openings you’ll look for.

You should approach this phase by playing with an unlocked camera and walking/running in and out of Logarius’ range to bait his attacks out.

The last and most dangerous thing he can do in second phase that you should know of is that sometimes Logarius will drive his sword into the ground and it’ll start summoning a lot of flying swords that track you down. To avoid this, you’ll need to destroy the sword he drove into the ground and the best way to do so is to lock onto Martyr Logarius and then spam your right analog stick until it switches the lock-on to the sword, then shoot it with your Hunter’s Pistol.

One shot is enough to destroy it and end that attack, and you should roll right after destroying it because sometimes a sword will still fly into you and deal some damage if you don’t dodge.

Now that you know how to deal with his most dangerous attack, it’s important to talk about the openings. There are three main safe openings:

1. He will fly directly up and plunge at you after a few seconds. To avoid and punish this attack, you’ll want to turn your camera up to look at him and roll as soon as he drops down, preferably towards his back side. If you dodge this correctly, you’ll be positioned perfectly to backstab him before he recovers from this attack.

He will fly up and backwards, then dive at you after a few seconds. To avoid this one, you’ll want to roll to your right, right before he hits you. If you dodge this correctly, you’ll be positioned close to his back so you can either do a backstab or R1L1 if you feel like you don’t have enough time to charge your R2.

He will try to hit you with his scythe, which is usually a three-hit-combo. You can parry any of these attacks for a free visceral or R1L1 opening, but the easiest attack to parry is definitely the third hit as you can position yourself quite well for it. If you prefer or feel comfortable, you can also dodge the third attack into Logarius instead of parrying it, and by doing so you’ll be near his backside and it’ll become a good opening to backstab him for a lot more damage than if you chose to parry him.

These will be your main sources of damage in phase 2. It is also important to note that your gun deals decent damage to Logarius, so using Bone Marrow Ash a few times to speed up the fight isn’t a bad strategy either. Also, other than looking for these openings, you should always be running around the arena and away from Logarius in order to never get caught by his fast sword slashes.

Apply all of these tips to your fight and you’ll eventually kill Martyr Logarius.

After killing him, you can pick up the Crown of Illusions and go talk to Annalise to enter the Vileblood covenant and get a kinda decent rune, but it honestly doesn’t matter that much.

Whatever choice you make, light up the lamp after you’re done and warp back to the Hunter’s Dream, restock on consumables and warp to Upper Cathedral Ward because now we’ll take on Celestial Emissary.

Celestial Emissary

Health: 2764HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EXR3oPwEpU

Celestial Emissary is considered an extremely easy boss even by new players and, as you might have guessed, it isn’t much different in a BL4 run.

Upon entering the arena, you’ll want to move towards the stairs near the area where they spawn; you’ll fight them on top of those stairs. Buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and a Bolt Paper and, as they come up to you, you’ll want to R1L1 and hit as many of them as possible in a single combo to build up your beasthood meter really fast. To recognize which of the aliens is the real boss, you can just lock onto them and if a health bar doesn’t show up on top of their head, that’s the real one.

After killing everyone but the real boss, you’ll have your beasthood meter almost completely built up which means you have a huge damage buff. From now, all you need to do is to just spam R1 until they die as it’ll only take a few hits.

If you want to completely avoid the second phase and its transformation, you can backstab Celestial Emissary while it crouches down to channel the transformation and interrupt it, then finish the fight off with more R1s.

But yeah, that’s basically it… that’s really all that there is to Celestial Emissary. Just another boss to relieve your stress.

Bonus note: another fun strategy (but rather unnecessary if you have decent damage) is to use a Shaman Bone Blade against the real boss and see all of the other aliens punch him down until it dies. It's really quite hilarious.

After killing Celestial Emissary, light up the lamp and break the window near it, then it’s gonna be time to move onto Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos.

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

Health: 12493HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqowIVc0lBk

Ebrietas, much like any other big bosses, is best fought at medium distance. You’ll always look to stay away enough to react to her attacks properly but close enough to bait more attacks and punish whenever you have a chance.

Once the fight starts, you’ll want to buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and Bolt Paper to deal tons of damage to her. If it’s the first time you’re walking into the arena, Ebrietas will only engage once you start hitting her, so that’s a good chance to build up a lot of beasthood. If it’s not the first time, once you enter the fog door she will not engage you until you get close enough, so you should always look to only use your buffs once you get closer to her.

Speaking of buffs, Bone Marrow Ash is recommended in this fight since she will often do attacks that are dangerous to get close to so you can punish them with a shot to her face. With your Hunter’s Pistol +9 and a Bone Marrow Ash, you’ll deal 600+ damage to her per shot.

Ebrietas has two phases, and both play out just the same. In the first phase, you’ll stay in front of her and a little away and only punish a few attacks; mainly the head slam and the tentacle slam.

For the head slam, she’ll fly a little bit towards you and slam her head down, which you can punish with a charged R2 if you’ve positioned yourself correctly or an R1R1 if you’re not that comfortable with the charged R2. You’ll eventually get used to this attack in such a away that you’ll know exactly where she will land, and you can start charging your R2 even before she slams her head down to hit her exactly as she lands.

The tentacles slam is much easier to punish. Just stay away and as soon as she slams her tentacles down, walk up to them and R1L1 with your camera aimed at the ground in order to hit them, then back away again.

Another attack that you can consistently punish is her charge. Yes, that one charge that everyone complains about is punishable! Instead of trying to dodge and getting caught by it, it is much better to just start sprinting to the right or left as soon as you see her starting the charge animation. It will always miss you (unless if you’re close to a wall or too far away from her, which in the latter case you should run backwards instead of sideways) and you can hit her “leg” after she gets past you, so it’s a decent opening.

So that’s pretty much it about Ebrietas, and that’s how you fight both phases. Stay away, wait for the head slam or tentacles slam for a good punish. If she charges, sprint to your right or left to dodge it and then hit her leg. You should always be moving around to avoid attacks like her blood spitting. If she isn’t giving you good openings, buff your Hunter’s Pistol with a Bone Marrow Ash and shoot her face to speed up the fight.

Once she’s below 50%HP, she will bow down and start channeling an aura which will damage you if you stay too close to her, but it’s a very small amount of damage and won’t hurt you much if you stay at the distance I recommended. While she’s bowing down, you can spam R1L1 to her head for a lot of free damage.

It is also worth mentioning that, with this strategy, her head will eventually break and you should take the visceral opening and then attack her as she’s recovering from it, but always be careful not to waste all of your stamina so you can still run away or dodge her attacks.

In second phase she gets two new attacks (other than the damaging aura, which isn’t really an attack). The first one is a flying charge into a head slam, which is really rare because she only ever does it if you’re really far away. In case she does it to you for a reason, just run to your left or right just like you did for the normal charge and you will be fine.

Other than that, the only other thing worth mentioning is the attack where she will summon three sets of projectiles that will track you down and one-shot you if you don’t avoid it. Thankfully, these are very easy to avoid by just sprinting around the arena, much like you dodge Rom’s homing meteors; but keep an eye at Ebrietas while you dodge these projectiles because she can still do other attacks while you’re running around.

Apply all the tips and strategies mentioned here and you’ll kill Ebrietas pretty quickly since you deal so much damage to her. This fight shouldn’t be more than two or three minutes long if executed correctly.

After killing Ebrietas, light her lamp and warp back to the Hunter’s Dream. Restock on consumables and warp to Nightmare Church lamp in Hunter’s Nightmare, where you’ll now be going to take down Ludwig, the Accursed/Holy Blade.

Ludwig, the Accursed/Holy Blade

Health: 16658HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LF-g6jCi18

Ludwig is the first boss of the DLC and one of the hardest bosses in the game, but thankfully your damage output is still quite high at this point in the DLC so the fight won’t end up being that long. There’s a lot to learn about this fight too, but I’ll try to keep it a little brief (which is going to be hard, since Ludwig is my favorite boss in the game).

When you enter through the fog door, immediately buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and Fire Paper. Ludwig will always start the fight by jumping at you, so your first move will always be to dodge to your left and hit his body with a L1 (doing a L1 after rolling/quickstepping will do a trick attack without the need to R1 first).

For some reason, Ludwig has a glitched hitbox and it functions as he had two models at the same time, which means your attacks will charge your beasthood meter twice as fast as against other bosses... and that is absolutely amazing for you.

After this first opening, Ludwig will turn around and face you. From here on, you’ll want to always stay in front of him and fight from mid distance. By doing so, you’ll be able to react to all of his attacks much better and you won’t get caught by attacks like the headbutt or the claw swipe that oneshots you.

Unlike most bosses, almost all of Ludwig’s attacks in first phase are punishable, so I’ll list them here and exactly how to dodge and punish them:

Triple swipe combo. This attack is dodged by walking backwards during the first two swipes and then dodging diagonally to the left, as if you were going under his arm as it attacks. You can actually walk under it without even dodging, but do whatever you feel more comfortable with. This is probably going to be your most used opening.

Headbutt. This attack is dodged by simply keeping distance between you and Ludwig. You can punish it by attacking his head with an R1 as his head comes back down, but you need to be fast and immediately start walking backwards after it.

Double stomp and swipe combo. In this attack, Ludwig will stomp around twice and then swipe to your left. Just like the triple swipe combo, you can dodge this by walking backwards during the first two stomps but then dodging diagonally to the right as he does the swipe, as if you were going under his arm once again. And just like the triple swipe combo, you can actually just walk under the last swipe and he won’t hit you; but feel free to dodge it however you feel most comfortable with.

180º swipe. This attack is usually followed up by a headbutt, so you have two choices here: either run in diagonally to the left after the attack has finished and hit his body as he headbutts, or bait off the headbutt and attack his head. The problem with the first way to punish this attack is that sometimes, instead of headbutting, Ludwig will do two swipes and backstep to quite far away, and if you weren’t positioned correctly, those swipes will hit you and hurt a lot.

Bite combo. Dodge to the left and hit his body.

Charge. Dodge to either left or right as soon as he’s about to hit you or just start sprinting to either side as soon as you see him starting the charge animation. You can sometimes punish this attack by hitting his sides if he lands next to you.

Spitting attacks. Both are dodged the same way, just run diagonally to the right and he’ll never hit you. If it’s the longer variation, you can even run towards him and hit him on the head or on the side as he spits.

Ceiling drop. Ludwig will jump up to the ceiling and drop down after a few seconds. There’s two ways to dodge this attack: you can either start sprinting from one end of the arena to the other when you see blood dripping from the ceiling or you can roll as soon as you hear him screaming before he drops down. The first strategy is much more consistent and easier to pull off. After he drops, you can turn around and hit his head once before backing off.

And that’s all the decent openings for Ludwig. You should always be looking to R1L1 him to charge up your beasthood meter and deal tons of damage. At some point, you’ll break his sides which is a huge opening for tons of damage. When you break either of his sides, spam R1L1L1L1 and back off as soon as he sidesteps.

You can also break Ludwig’s head, which can be either a visceral opening or a free opening to R1L1L1 while he’s down; whatever you choose to do is fine.

Unlike most other bosses, you’ll probably need to fight Ludwig a few times to get a good feeling for how the fight works, but apply these tips and you’ll get good at the first phase really fast.

Once you’re done with the first phase, a cutscene will play and Ludwig will now fight you with his Holy Moonlight Sword. If your buff from the previous phase ran out, it’s a good idea to rebuff right after the cutscene. If it’s still active, just fight him and rebuff whenever it runs out and you get a safe opening.

Ludwig usually starts off his second phase with one of these three attacks; here’s how to dodge and engage him:

Double moonlight waves. Just strafe them and then run up to him. When you’re getting close, stop running so you can actually roll/quickstep instead of jumping.

Big moonlight wave. This attack takes almost the whole arena, and you can dodge it either by staying close to the fog door (if it’s his first attack) or running all the way to the left or to the right or by simply quickstepping through the wave. After dodging, run up to him and engage just like you would in the double moonlight waves.

Running slash. If he doesn’t do either of the previous attacks as an opener, he’ll probably walk towards you for a bit and then do the running slash, which can be very quick and take you by surprise; however, this is the best and easiest opening for you. Simply dodge to the right diagonally and engage him.

After the opener and finally engaging Ludwig, you’ll want to stay close to him for as long as possible. Always stay either at his right side or his left side, preferably switching sides whenever he does an attack trying to reach you; but it’s a matter of personal preference. Much like his first phase, it’ll take you a few attempts to get a real feeling for how the flow of this fight works.

You can bait his attacks through good positioning, but writing that down word for word would take too much space, so I’ll leave you with some general tips and what attacks you should be aware of:

Ground circle AoE. Ludwig will drive his sword to the ground and do an AoE attack in a circular area around him. You can attack him a few times before the AoE goes off and then back off, only to go back in after the attack is done to re-engage him.

Double swipe backstep into slam and uppercut. If you see Ludwig holding his sword up, backstep away because he’ll swipe twice in an almost 180º area and slam down his sword after the swipe, which will be followed by an uppercut. You can immediately run up to him after he’s done with the uppercut to re-engage.

These are the weirdest attacks to be aware of, but both are easily manageable. Once you take a little of his HP down, Ludwig will stagger and you can attack him a bunch of times during that for some free damage. As soon as he gets up, back off because he’ll do a new attack.

Ludwig will hold his sword up and charge it up for a few seconds, then release a huge AoE explosion which will be followed by him slamming his sword down and casting a very large wave that will immediately kill you. As scary as that sounds, this is by far the best opening you’ll have in phase 2.

Walk away while he charges the AoE explosion, then as it comes off, start running towards him and by the time he slams, you’ll be at his side and the wave will miss you completely. As soon as you get to his side, you can start spamming attacks at him until the attack is done; it’s a huge opening for some great free damage. Make sure to not waste all of your stamina because as soon as he finishes the attack, he will start attacking you again and you’ll need some stamina and good reactions to dodge it.

Thankfully, though, after that attack the fight is pretty close to the end. At around 20%HP, Ludwig has another scripted stagger, and after you get that, the fight is over. Just spam R1 once he’s staggered and you’ll get the kill.

As I’ve mentioned, it’ll take you some tries and a bit of experience to get the hang of Ludwig, but you’ll get it done eventually.

After killing Ludwig, you can talk to his head and kill it to grab the Holy Moonlight Sword, which can be sold for a lot of Blood Echoes.

Go through the subterranean passage and through the church with two Hunter enemies, grab the elevator by using the Eye Pendant you got back when you first visited the Hunter’s Nightmare and the light the Research Hall lamp.

Research Hall

Important Items:

2x Blue Elixir

6x Beast Blood Pellets

Laurence's Skull

Objectives:

Kill Living Failures

Kill Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

After grabbing the lamp, the first thing you’ll want to do is warp back to Hunter’s Dream and then warp to Ludwig’s lamp. Since you just got the elevator that leads to Research Hall, the bottom part of it will have moved up which will reveal an item called Laurence’s Skull near the NPCs. This item is what will give you access to Laurence’s boss fight later into the DLC.

Now that you got Laurence’s Skull, you can go back to Research Hall’s lamp and start going through that area. The first thing you’ll notice on the bottom floor is that there’s a poisonous pool full of items in it. Grab them and you’ll get some Blue Elixirs (which are the only really important items of the bunch at this point).

Speaking of Blue Elixirs, you’ll be using a bunch in this area. You can use your first one at the bottom of the first staircase and run up to the first floor (take the staircase to the right), then turn left instead of entering the door to the room full of patients. Run through this corridor until you find a bunch of objects blocking a door to your right; break them, open the door and go up the ladder inside this room (pulling out your Hunter’s Torch is recommended).

Once you’re up the ladder, use another Blue Elixir if your current one ended and go through the room with the room while avoiding the crazy patient (he’ll sometimes attack the air for nothing, just ignore him) and open the door to the second floor.

On the second floor, you’ll want to wait for all the patients to go up the stairs and get killed by the machine gun wheelchair enemy, and only then go up while avoiding his shots. If you go up the stairs alongside the patients, you might end up getting shot by the machine gun and fall down the stairs.

You can also wait for you current Blue Elixir to end and then re-apply it before going up the stairs to traverse safely. It’s slower, but a lot more consistent.

Once you got all the way up the stairs, there will be a patient near a ladder. Just run past it by strafing its attacks (running diagonally to the right is what works the best) or bait an attack and dodge it, then run towards the ladder. Start going up the ladder before the patient gets to you and you’ll be safe.

Once you’re up, walk through the rafters carefully while avoiding the rats (and don’t go grab the item, you’ll get jumped by a crow and could end up getting killed by it) and go straight to the lever on the platform in the middle of the rafters to move the staircases up, giving you access to Living Failures and unlocking Adeline’s shortcut room. Now, either die or Hunter’s Mark back to the lamp.

From the lamp, walk to the right to enter Adeline’s room and grab the elevator. When you get out, you’ll be in a room with three wheelchair enemies, but you can easily kill all of them and grab the Beast Blood Pellets in there. You’ll notice there’s a door and an elevator in this room, but you won’t need the elevator at all. Just go out through the door and onto the stairs that will lead you directly to Living Failures.

One last commentary about this area is that, right before Living Failures arena’s door, there will be a patient mumbling about Lady Maria. Kill it to avoid the annoying dialogue everytime you walk up to the fog door. Or don’t. Your call.

Either way, it’s time for another boss fight!

Living Failures

Health: 20646HP total

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0-9na2nC5E

Living Failures can be quite a chaotic yet boring fight. With this in mind and in order to not waste much time at this boss, we will fight them by doing what is known as the spawn-camp loop/strategy.

When you first enter the arena, there will be one Living Failure up. Your goal will be to kill it as fast as possible, so buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and a Bolt Paper and come close to him. He’ll open the fight with an attack that you can usually parry and then punish, or you can fight him by dodging the melee attacks and doing an R1L1 combo. If you’re in front of him, he’ll usually try to stomp you down with a headbutt to the ground, and that’s a good opening for a backstab if you dodge it and get behind him.

Each individual Failure has very little HP, so it shouldn’t take you long to kill it. Once the first one is dead, another one will have already spawned and, to the left of the arena, another one will start spawning soon, at that’s where the loop starts.

You can hit the spawning Failure as it gets up and, by the time it fully spawned, it’ll be dead already. If you repeat this step by killing it every time it spawns, the other two Failures will never spawn, so you’re left in a 1v2 instead of a 1v4.

The only thing you should be careful with are the magic attacks that the other Failure will be throwing at you, but those are easily strafeable and you can keep up the loop after dodging them.

Since it’s a little hard and rare to keep up the loop until the fight ends, at some point it might get broken off and you’ll have to fight them normally but they’ll be a lot lower already so the fight is more manageable.

So, to fight Living Failures normally, what you should know is that there will always be two magic casters and two melee attackers. You should recognize which is which as soon as possible and then always focus down the magic casters, since those are easier to punish and you’ll never have to deal with the melee attacks - be careful though, because despite being magic casters, they can still headbutt stomp you out of nowhere.

Recognize their roles, run around the arena, hit the casters once or twice and repeat the process. It’s slow and tedious, but it gets the work done.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the meteor rain attack, which you will avoid by staying behind the tree in the middle of the arena. They don’t move and don’t attack you while they cast this either, so you can hit any of them while they’re casting the meteors as long as you’re safe to do so.

Unfortunately, this is a pretty bad and unfun boss fight, but it’s not particularly hard so you’ll kill them easily as long as you’re patient.

There are also two other strategies worth mentioning in case you want to do something different:

Shaman Bone Blades work on Living Failures, so if you hit one of them with a Shaman Bone Blade, they’ll attack each other and give you some free damage.

Rapid Poison gems work on Living Failures, so if you got those from a Chalice Dungeon in case you were doing them, you can use them to take big chunks of health from them after every few hits or so. You can also farm these gems from the Mergo’s Chief Attendants (also known as Axe Ladies) in Nightmare of Mensis. These enemies only drop radial gems, so you still need a waning and you can find it in the Research Hall right before the staircase where Gatling Gun Wheelchair enemy shoots down the patients; instead of going up the stairs, go into the room to your right and you’ll find a Dirty Damp Blood Gem (5) on a corpse, guarded by one of the big patients.

Personally I’d just suggest to do the spawn-camp loop as that’s the most reliable and easy way to kill them, but feel free to test different things out.

Once Living Failures are dead, you can light their lamp and head straight to Lady Maria’s boss fight.

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

Health: 14081HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1DX7qn3BfM

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower is a fan favorite boss and one of the most cinematic fights in the series, but unfortunately this fight has a few design flaws that get extremely noticeable and annoying at BL4.

When you go through the fog door, Lady Maria will walk towards you and engage when you’re close enough. Buff yourself up with a Beast Blood Pellet and Bolt Paper before she engages and prepare yourself for the first attack.

In the first phase, Lady Maria will always engage you through a gap closer; meaning she will always do an attack that kinda makes her body dash towards you. So, once you get to the distance where she usually does an attack to engage you (just a few meters), you can preemptively dodge the incoming attack by quickstepping diagonally to the right.

Once you dodge her first attack, you can bully her. So, the way Maria’s AI works is that she will always try to either punish you or quickstep away after getting hit. Whatever she does, it’s gonna be pretty easy to abuse her openings because 99% of her attacks are dodged by simply strafing.

Here’s how first phase is gonna play out: (1) you dodge her opener attack and punish with R1L1, (2) you preemptively strafe to the right before she starts attacking, (3) her attack misses you completely, (4) you walk up to her and R1L1 again, then just repeat steps 2 to 4 to completely bully her while being basically untouchable.

While utilizing this strategy, you should be aware of two things that can go wrong:

If Lady Maria quicksteps away from you, you’ll need to dodge her incoming attack just like you dodged the opener. This is easy, though, because she will try to attack you immediately after the quickstep. This means you can preemptively dodge her incoming attack as soon as you see her quickstep animation end, and then engage her with an R1L1 and restart the “loop”.

If you attack Lady Maria with an R1L1 and you notice that her body doesn’t flinch while she’s charging an attack, it’s because she will be doing the downcut that gives her hyper armor. Hyper armor is a mechanic in the game where the enemy enters an unflinchable state and you cannot interrupt their incoming attack. If you notice this attack, dodge as soon as she tries to hit you. If you dodge too early, you will get caught by it. This attack is not easily strafeable, so you should quickstep diagonally to the right to avoid it instead of just strafing to the right.

With these tips in mind, it won’t take you long to get really good at the first phase and just completely bully her into the second phase.

When Lady Maria gets below 60%HP, she will dash away from you, stab herself with the Rakuyo and do an AoE explosion after a few seconds. If you follow her when she dashes, you can safely hit her three to four times before the explosion (which also doesn’t have that big of a radius).

After the explosion, second phase will start where Maria’s attacks will now have longer range and higher damage due to the trails of blood they leave behind, but the attacks are still the same and you’ll approach her the same way you did in the first phase, except for a few differences:

Instead of strafing, you’ll now be safer if you dodge all attacks diagonally to the right. The reason for this is that, while some attacks are still strafeable, others will start hitting you from now on due to the increased hitbox. Some of these attacks also have a little delay before coming out, so the best way to dodge Maria in phase 2 is to: (1) R1L1, (2) strafe to the right for about 0.5s and (3) dodge diagonally to the right; then repeat these steps. The strafe step is important because it means the faster attacks won’t hit you, and dodging is important because this way you’ll avoid the delayed attacks. What this means is that you’ll never have to react to her attacks. Preemptively dodging like this will avoid her entire moveset in phase 2.

The other difference is that she’ll now also get three new moves where she sheaths her Rakuyo and charges up a powerful attack. The three variations can be recognized by looking at where she’s holding the Rakuyo. If it’s on her left side (your right), she’ll do a slash. If it’s on her right side (your left) and pointing towards you, she’ll do a very long range stab that can be followed by a slash if you’re still in front of her when you dodge. If it’s above her head, she’ll do a slam (and this is the attack you should be most careful of, because it comes out faster than the other two).

The last difference in her moveset is that now she’ll have a dive bomb attack where she will lunge up in the air and do a plunging AoE attack. This attack has some minimal tracking and you can easily dodge it by either running under her or running away from her.

All of her charged attacks can be dodged either by standing beside her (which is difficult to do properly) or by simply quickstepping at the right time. You can tell she’s going to attack you when you notice a blue particle effect; or you can simply get a good feeling for it after dodging it a few times. The best tip I can give you when she’s charging an attack is to not panic; stay calm and quickstep only when you have to.

Once Lady Maria is below 30%HP, she will dash backwards and start levitating while charging yet another AoE explosion, and this signals the start of the third phase. Much like the second phase transition, you can follow her after she dashes and hit her a few times before backing away to avoid the explosion. Don’t forget to rebuff with Beast Blood Pellet and Bolt Paper in case they ran out already.

In the third phase, Lady Maria’s attacks will once again remain the same but with yet another twist - now fire particles will follow her attacks after a short delay. This is what I meant at the start of this section when I said she has some bad design choices - due to the delay between her attack and the fire effects, you’ll almost always get caught by the fire’s lingering hitbox if you try dodging her like you did in the first two phases.

So, instead of engaging on Maria and having a close-up fight, this phase will consist of you running away from her while avoiding her attacks and waiting for a good opening - the charged attacks. Ignore everything else she does, just run away and avoid getting hit; roll when necessary. In this phase, you should be always extremely aware of the arena’s walls and be careful not to get trapped by her.

Once you notice she’s charging up an attack, start running towards her and prepare to roll/quickstep when she’s close to releasing the attack. Don’t run into the slam, as you will get caught by that one since it comes out faster than the stab or the slash.

After dodging her charged attack, you can either R1L1 and run away or, if you’re behind her when you finish the quickstep animation, you can backstab her for a ton of damage. And that’s all you’re gonna repeat for phase 3, making it a pretty boring yet stressful phase - but thankfully she’ll be pretty low already and it’ll take you two or three openings at worst to finish her off.

If you find this third phase strategy too slow or boring, you have three other choices:

Trading hits with Lady Maria. If you want to keep fighting her one-on-one in melee range, you’ll get caught by the fire trails a lot but you can heal up through the rally mechanic by punishing her - which means the third phase will be played very similarly to the second phase, only a bit more dangerous.

Shooting her with Bone Marrow Ash buffs. While you’re running away from her, you can shoot her up sometimes from a distance and deal some decent damage if you buff your Hunter’s Pistol with a Bone Marrow Ash. Doing this will certainly speed up the third phase.

Parrying Lady Maria. Unlike the first and second phase where it’s never worth it to parry Maria since you can just stick close to her and deal a ton of damage, you can actually abuse parry openings to dish out a lot of damage. All of her attacks are parriable.

Whichever turns out to be your chosen strategy, just keep at it and you’ll eventually beat Lady Maria.

Once she is dead, light her lamp and pick up the Celestial Dial near her to get access to Fishing Hamlet by moving the clock. Go through the clock and light the Fishing Hamlet lamp to start out the last area in the game.

Fishing Hamlet

Important Item:

Blood Rock

Objectives:

Upgrade your Hunter Pistol to +10

Kill Orphan of Kos

Fishing Hamlet is a rather short area that you can finish off in just a few minutes.

From the first lamp, you’ll want to go to the center area with the Sorcerer Fishman (where you find the well with the Rakuyo sharks inside) and use a Blue Elixir a little bit before he sees you. By doing so, the Blue Elixir effect will remain until you get to the second lamp, so you can traverse through Fishing Hamlet without any problems. Just follow the main path and occasionally strafe spears and dogs, and you’ll get to the cabin lamp without any issues.

Once you light the second lamp, your first goal will be to unlock door shortcut inside the cave after Brador. Just enter the cave, turn left and stick close to the wall until you find the door, open it and now you’ll be able to go through it from the lamp instead of running past Brador every time you die.

After opening the shortcut, you’ll want to drop down the ladder near the Fishman that casts lightning at you and run inside the next cave while avoiding the Snail Women attacks.

Upon entering the cave, you’ll want to take the left path and when you get close to the Sorcerer Fishman at the end of this path, you’ll notice another path to your right that leads to a ledge where you’ll drop down and pull a lever to unlock the elevator shortcut. Go up the elevator and open the door that leads back to the lamp.

After unlock this shortcut, go down the elevator again and, instead of going to Orphan of Kos, take the other path that leads you further inside the cave and when you get to the bifurcation, go to your right. Run through that entire room until the end and you’ll find a Blood Rock.

Bonus tip is that in this bifurcation you’ll find two Winter Lanterns, and they drop the best gems you can get outside of Chalice Dungeons. Refer to the start of the guide to see how to kill them and what gems to look out for, but once again, I really recommend sticking to the 15%/18%/18% gems you already have because they deal the perfect amount of damage.

Use a Hunter’s Mark to go back to the lamp and warp back to Hunter’s Dream. Upgrade your Hunter’s Pistol to +10, restock on consumables and go back to the Fishing Hamlet where you’ll now go fight Orphan of Kos. Good luck!

Orphan of Kos

Health: 19217HP

Weakness: Fire

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev99xJUIXfE

Ah, sweet child of Kos. Arguably the hardest boss in Bloodborne, or even in the entirety of Soulsborne. Orphan of Kos has two phases and the way they play out is pretty different, so let’s start off with the first phase.

When you first enter the fight, Orphan will be standing on his mother’s corpse and staring at the moon. Once you get close enough, he will turn around and start approaching you. Right before he turns around is a good time to buff yourself up with a Fire Paper and a Beast Blood Pellet. And yes, you read that right, Orphan’s main weakness is fire. Despite what many people think, he is not a Kin, and his resistance to bolt is surprisingly quite a bit higher than his fire resistance.

Anyway, Orphan will engage onto you and his first attack is always going to be one of the following two:

Orphan jumps and plunges at you, which you’ll dodge by running under him and then punishing with a backstab followed by another charged R2.

Orphan runs/dashes at you while dragging his placenta (yes, that’s his weapon) on the ground, followed by an uppercut. This attack is tricky to dodge and punish at first, but it’s important to learn it because Orphan likes doing it a lot and it’ll make the first phase faster if you manage to punish it every time. When he dashes at you, he’ll do an uppercut. Dodge away from that because if you dodge towards him he’ll hit you behind his back. After that, Orphan will slam his placenta which you can easily avoid by keeping distance, and then you want to immediately start walking towards him and circle him clockwise while he does another slam. If you circle him correctly, the last attack will always miss and you’ll get a free backstab opening. This is tricky to do and it’s an adaptation of a “no roll” dodge, but it’s the best way to punish him.

Now that we got his possible openings out of the way, let’s go to the fight itself.

Much like a lot of the other bosses, you want to fight Orphan of Kos at a certain distance and walk in and out of his range to bait his attacks. He will swing his placenta at you in many ways, and all of them are dodged by simply keeping your distance.

Orphan of Kos is extremely complex and pretty much all of his attacks are punishable, but for the sake of keeping this guide easily accessible to beginners, I’ll focus on the easiest openings in both phases.

Here are the attacks you want to punish and how to do it:

Jumping attack. He will do this quite a bit during the first phase… as I stated in the point about his openers, just walk under him and backstab him after he lands.

Dash while dragging the placenta. Once again, already explained previously.

Overhead placenta slam. Orphan will start walking towards you with his placenta over his head, then he will slam it to the ground. To dodge and punish this, you can either just walk up to him and circle him if you were close enough when he started walking, or you can walk up to him and quickstep towards him once he is slamming the placenta down. Either way, you should end up behind him after dodging, which means you get a free backstab opening since it takes him a while to recover from that attack. If you were too far away and afraid of walking up to him, you can outspace the attack and parry it for a free opening. Getting the backstab is better, though.

Charged placenta 180º circle. Orphan will stop for a second and start charging up an attack, then he will throw his placenta and drag it in a 180º circle motion from your right to your left. To punish this attack, stay a little close to him and quickstep diagonally to the right in a way that it looks like you’re jumping the rope that connects his placenta to his hand (also known as his umbilical cord). If you dodge this properly, walk towards his back and backstab him as he does the follow-up slam that will miss you. If you were too far away to begin with, instead of risking yourself and going into this attack, it’s better to just back off and let him do it while you just watch.

Four hit combo. Orphan of Kos will stop for a second while screaming and proceed to do a quick 4-hit-combo. Unlike the other attacks, your best bet to punish this one is to parry him and then use the opening to hit him.

All of the other attacks are punishable too, but you’re better off just running away from them and waiting for the openings mentioned in the previous paragraph. Be extra careful with his projectiles, always dodge them forward instead of backwards because otherwise you’ll get caught by the splash damage. In case you’re curious about how to punish all of the other attacks, you can check out this gif album made by Dargonsouls with all possible phase 1 openings.

Once Orphan of Kos gets below 50%HP, he will start his transformation animation that starts off the second phase. He slams his placenta down while screaming and acquires some sort of wings. This animation takes a few seconds and, right at the end of it, you can backstab him for some free damage.

Now, you might remember that a while back in the guide I recommended the Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) and said it’d come in handy for Orphan of Kos because you can do three charged R2s in a row. And here’s the explanation of why it’s useful: during the second phase, you can backstab Orphan into a charged R2, at which point most bosses recover and you have to back off; but it’s different this time. If you backstab and do a charged R2, Orphan will fall on all fours and get staggered for a few seconds, which is enough for you to charge a third R2 and backstab him once again.

So, in this unique scenario in the game, you can punish an enemy with three charged R2s to the back and a visceral. In the second phase, this is how you’ll always punish. Get on his back, backstab him, charge an R2, charge another R2 for a second backstab and then visceral him because you’ll be out of stamina to do anything else. After the visceral, back off and wait for another opening.

Another very important point to his second phase is that, as soon as it starts, you should go to the water as fast as possible and fight him there. The reason for this is that Orphan has an attack where he screams and lightning comes out of his mother’s corpse, so if you stay in the water, you’ll have a good view of that attack and be able to react to it properly and dodge it every time instead of getting one-shot out of nowhere.

His second phase is even more complex than the first one but, once again, I’ll only list the easiest opening for the sake of this guide remaining approachable to all levels of skill.

Your approach to the second phase will be to run away from everything he does, with a few attacks to be cautious about.

If Orphan throws a bunch of sacks at you, outspace it or run backwards and then run the other way because he will jump over you and throw them again in the opposite direction. And if he steps back and stops for a second, he’s going to charge at you, which is one of his most dangerous attacks. Just dodge to the right or left at the right time or parry him if you’re confident.

Other than these, he can do a bunch of combos that are easily dodgeable by just running away from him. And if he jumps high up in the air, he’ll either attempt to fall onto you or do an AoE attack that goes towards you in three separate lines that kinda form a triangle, so to dodge it you just need to walk a bit to the side.

Other than these attacks to care for, the only attack you’ll truly look to punish in this phase is when he starts stomping around and jumps over you. Count the stomps and run under him (with the camera unlocked, or else he will hit you) and then backstab him. It’s always going to be three stomps followed by the jump. Stomp, stomp, stomp and walk under him for the free backstab opening.

Once again, if you’re curious about how to punish all of the other attacks, you can check out this gif album made by Dargonsouls with all possible phase 2 openings.

Just apply all the tips given regarding how to avoid his attacks and punish the easy ones I mentioned and Orphan of Kos will soon fall to you.

Once he is dead, make sure to hit the shadow near Kos’ corpse to get the “Nightmare Slain” message, then light the lamp and head back to the Hunter’s Dream to restock on consumables. Warp back to the first lamp of Hunter’s Nightmare because it’s time to go fight Laurence, the First Vicar.

Laurence, the First Vicar

Health: 21243HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCcfSuYBQDk

Laurence is also considered one of the hardest bosses in the game and one that people have the most trouble with at BL4 due to its enormous healthpool and damage. A valid recommendation for Laurence is to switch your set for the Charred Hunter set that I recommended you to get from Old Yharnam if you’re having too much trouble with his damage. Charred Hunter set has one of the highest fire resistances in the game, so it helps a lot against Laurence. You can also switch out your Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis Rune (2) for the Great Lake Rune (2) you got from Upper Cathedral Ward to further increase your defenses. However, if you’re not having that much trouble, you can just keep using what you already have equipped.

Every time you enter Laurence’s fight, he will always start with a scream and walk towards you, then do his slam into explosion attack. With this in mind, you can consistently deal 1500+ damage to him in this opener; buff yourself up with a Bolt Paper and a Beast Blood Pellet and run up to him - he will do the slam and you can just run past it as he slams behind you. This attack actually consists of two openings. As he slams, you hit his leg with R1L1 and back off a little while untricking your weapon (press L1 again). He’ll take his hand off the ground, causing an AoE explosion (which is why you have to back off a little, the radius of this explosion goes up to his leg so you’ll get hit if you stay there); after the AoE, turn back and R1L1 his leg again.

After this opener, Laurence will always either hop back or do a backhand attack to you. He usually does the former, but always be prepared to dodge if he does the latter.

Still regarding the opener, if you farmed gems from Winter Lanterns and have higher damage output, you can break his leg in this first attack and, if you do so, he will always hop back and do another slam into explosion - which means you can always consistently go for the other leg and break it too, making the fight a lot faster.

Since I recommended 15%/18%/18% gems for the whole guide, I’ll still write as if you didn’t farm gems at all.

After the opener, the fight starts. Unlike what most people think, Laurence actually has THREE phases. He starts off by having pretty much Cleric Beast’s moveset and at around 80%HP he gets completely new follow-ups, new attacks and his AI becomes more aggressive.

Since the first phase only goes on for his first 20% of HP, it ends pretty fast if you break his legs, so that is going to be your focus at the start. Always focus the leg that you hit the most at the start, and then start focusing the other one down. Every limb break is a big opening for huge damage.

The main openings you’ll be looking for are:

Laurence’s main combo. He does this combo a lot throughout first and second phases, and it consists of 4 attacks. He starts by slamming the ground near him and then does a swing from your left to your right, followed by a reaching swipe and another swipe closer to his body. To dodge and punish this attack, you want to wait for the slam and first swing, then run under his legs and start hitting his right leg (the one to your left). You can hit him up to four times during this opening if you get used to it, but BE CAREFUL. His last hit is really close to the leg you’re hitting, so if you’re not positioned correctly he will get you.

180º swipe from your left to your right. This is one of the easiest and best openings to punish in this fight. Laurence simply does an 180º swipe from your left to your right that you can usually outspace, but if you’re close enough, he will follow it with another swipe; this time from your right to your left. To punish this, you want to quickstep forward during the second swipe and start hitting his legs. This attack has quite a big window for damage, so you can safely hit him 3 to 4 times before backing off, or even more in case you break one of his legs during the opening.

Big slam into AoE explosion. Same attack as his opener. During the actual fight when you can’t react to this fast enough to run under the slam and stick close to him, you should move back to avoid the slam part and then run up to Laurence and hit is leg twice after the explosion, and back off again.

Medium slam, no explosion. This attack is really similar to the big slam, but there’s less charge up and the ground doesn’t explode after he takes his hand off. Instead of running up to him and hitting his leg, you’ll want to run up to his hand and hit it instead. Be careful with the lingering hitbox right after he slams the ground.

Punch, punch, double-handed slam. I guess there’s just no better way of describing this attack. Laurence punches the ground with one hand, then the other, and follows up with a double-handed slam and puts his head at ground level. To dodge this, just outspace the entire attack and then go in after the slam to hit his hands or his head. It’s quite an opening and you can hit him up to three times very safely, or more if you break one of his hands or his head during this opening.

These are pretty much the best openings in the first phase and what you should always be looking for. Once Laurence drops down below 80%HP, he will get some new follow-ups to some of these attacks.

Going in order: for the first attack (Laurence’s main combo), Laurence will sometimes fall to the ground and start swiping in front of him. You dodge it exactly the same way I described before, but now it’s even better because the opening is huge and you can hit him for a ton of damage while he’s on the ground.

For the second attack (180º swipe from your left to your right), sometimes he will follow it up with a forward punch instead of the second swipe, so be aware of that.

The big slam into AoE explosion stays the same.

For the fourth attack (medium slam, no explosion) he will now slam two more times closer to his body if you get close to his hand, but it’s really hard to get hit by that even if you’re unaware.

Punch, punch, double-handed slam also stays the same.

The tips for both phases are pretty much the same: punish the attacks I mentioned and run away or dodge all of the rest.

Before moving on to the third phase, there are two things I want you to be aware of:

Laurence’s attacks are based on your positioning. Don’t stay too far away from him or he will do annoying jumps or other attacks that reach very far and are hard to react to. Don’t stay too close or you’ll get caught by his lingering hitboxes. You need to stay at a medium distance and keep walking in and out of his range to bait the attacks you want.

Since his attacks are based on your positioning, there are two dangerous things that can happen if you’re behind him or at his side after punishing and you should always be aware of it: (1) on either of his sides, he will do a backhand attack whenever you’re staying near a leg - back off immediately after punishing him or prepare yourself to quickstep the backhand whenever it happens. In phase 2, he will sometimes drop to the ground after a backhand and that can be used as a good opening too. And the other thing you should be aware of is: (2) sometimes, instead of doing a backhand, Laurence will do a 3-swipe-combo where the first swipe is a little delayed, so be careful when dodging that. You should always be prepared for that attack to come out and quickstep at the right time and away from him, or else you will get roll-caught and die.

Apply all of these tips and put some time into learning his first two phases and you’ll get consistent at it in no time.

Once Laurence drops down below 40%HP, he will lose the bottom half of his body and start fighting you by crawling through the arena while dripping lava from his torso. Thankfully, this is his easiest phase and if you got this far you can kill him by just staying calm and reacting to his attacks.

Unlike how most people play against this phase, I will recommend you to stick close to Laurence at all times - right beside his small arm. I know it sounds scary, but trust me, it’s the best way to fight him.

Laurence will often crawl around the arena, and there are two variations of the crawl combo and you should be aware of them. He will either crawl by slamming the ground 7 times or 3 times, and you should always be counting these slams. These are the reason why you should stick close to him, because if you fight from afar and wait for good openings, he can easily start crawling around and corner you at one side of the arena, stunlocking you to death.

Since you’ll be fighting him by sticking close, the crawls are very free dodges. Just stick to your left (his right side) and follow him in a circular motion as he crawls. He will never hit you and you can stay very safe beside him.

If he crawls by slamming the ground 7 times, he won’t follow it up with any attack so you can punish him by hitting his head a few times (I recommend two R1s just to be safe).

If he crawls by slamming the ground 3 times, he will follow it up with a swipe that you can dodge simply by staying close to his body, which turns into a free opening for two or three hits. That’s why it’s important to count the slams.

Other than when Laurence is crawling around the arena, he will always attack you by doing some side swipes or backhands, so only punish him once or twice and always be prepared to react to the next attack. Also, always be careful not to go too far behind his back or you’ll get caught by the lava on the ground.

On top of these swipes, backhands and all the crawling, there are two main openings for you to get good damage in.

Laurence will stop for a second and start vomiting lava. If you’re already close to him, hit him for the entire duration of this attack (be careful with the tracking, you should always hit and move a little or you’ll get caught by it). If you’re far from him when he starts this attack, run diagonally to the left until you reach him and then start punishing.

Laurence will hold his hand in the air for a second and slam the ground, and a lot of lava will start coming out of his torso for a few seconds. For this one, just quickstep the slam and start hitting his head for the entire duration of this attack. If you were far, run up to him and punish.

The last and most dangerous attack you should be aware of is Laurence’s delayed slam. You’ll dodge this by either waiting until the last second and quickstepping it, or by walking/running away from him when you see him charging it up. This attack is almost always followed up by a side swipe, so be aware of that and stay ready to dodge it if you’re close to Laurence.

Take this fight slowly and patiently but, most importantly, stay calm. Make good use of all these tips and you’ll be able to take Laurence down.

Once he is dead, it’s time to head back to Hunter’s Dream for our last segment.

Hunter’s Dream

Objectives:

Kill Gehrman, The First Hunter

Kill Moon Presence

Finish the game

Before heading in to the last two fights, you’ll need to restock on all the consumables you used against Laurence (and make sure to repair your Saw Cleaver, Laurence’s huge healthpool breaks your weapon pretty fast).

!!VERY IMPORTANT - USE YOUR THREE ONE THIRD OF UMBILICAL CORDS BEFORE HEADING TO GEHRMAN!!, if you don’t, you’ll get locked out of Moon Presence’s fight and end the game without fighting that boss.

Once you’ve used all One Third of Umbilical Cords, head to Gehrman and hit him. I recommend this because you might end up choosing the wrong option in his dialogue by mistake, ending the game then and there without the chance of fighting him. If you still want to see his dialogue, be careful and choose to refuse his offer when prompted.

Time for the two last bosses in the game. You got this!

Gehrman, the First Hunter

Health: 14293HP

Weakness: Bolt

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Hci0E860vo

Gehrman is one of the most beloved fights in the game due to how cinematic it is, especially when paired with that beautiful soundtrack.

Gehrman has two phases, but his first phase is divided into two (so… three phases?). He will start off with his Burial Blade in scythe form, and it’s the easiest form to fight. Keep your distance and walk in and out of his range to bait his attacks and combos. He can only do a few things, and here’s how to deal with all of them:

Three hit combo. Gehrman will combo you with three separate attacks that track you. Outspace or quickstep backwards for the first attack and parry the second for a free opening. The best way to punish parry openings is to quickstep onto him and do a L1L1 combo (L1 right after the quickstep will do a trick attack).

Scythe pull. Gehrman will attempt to pull you with his scythe and follow it up with a slash or a jumping attack that goes over your head. If he does the slash, you can parry him and punish. If he jumps over your head, you can unlock your camera and backstab him as he lands; but if you’re not comfortable with that, dodge away and not into the attack or else you’ll get hit by the hitbox behind him.

Charged attack. There are two variations of the charged attack: it can either be faster and then Gehrman will perform an uppercut into a downslash or it can be longer and Gehrman will spin onto you. For the first one you’ll want to outspace him and parry the downslash for a punish, and for the second one you’ll want to wait right before he spins to shoot for a guaranteed parry. You can also wait until he spins and shoot, because he actually spins twice and you can easily parry the second spin for an easy punish.

That’s really pretty much all that Gehrman does and it all boils down to good old parries.

Once Gehrman is below 75%HP, he will trick his Burial Blade to curved sword form, which is the trickiest one to deal with. It’s very easy to dodge everything he does, you can just quickstep diagonally to the right and everything will miss you. The problem ends up being that he will sometimes randomly shoot you, even at close range, and there’s no secret to dodging that - it all boils down to reaction. The other problem is that, after dodging his attacks, it’s hard to get an opening because Gehrman dashes away from you very quickly; so most of your openings will be one or two hit attacks - be extra careful because he can dash away and shoot you immediately after a punish.

The only attack that you can reliably parry is when Gehrman does his big combo. Shoot him at any point in the combo and you’ll get a nice parry opening. If you don’t parry him, beware the shot that comes off at the end of this combo.

Outside of these general tips, there’s not much I can say about the curved sword form. Quickstep diagonally to the right, hit him once and avoid his shots. Keep it up and you’ll get to the next phase hopefully very quickly.

Once Gehrman gets below 50%HP, you he will scream and get a blue aura around him - that signals the start of phase 2. During the scream, Gehrman gets hyper-armor and you can hit him during it. Right after the end of the transformation, you can backstab into a charged R2 for a huge chunk of free damage to start this phase off.

The important thing about this phase is that now Gehrman doesn’t get staggered by R1 attacks, only by parries or backstabs. He will get a few new attacks that you should be aware of:

In curved sword form, he pulls his gun out while kneeled and shoots a single bullet that will parry you if it hits regardless of what you’re doing. Always dodge this or you’ll be open to Gehrman’s follow-ups.

In scythe form, he can dash across the arena and then dash onto you again while attacking. This attack has very bad tracking, so usually just walking backwards or moving at all is enough to dodge it.

Also in scythe form, he can jump up in the air and summon a wind attack to you that works as an AoE. To avoid this, simply spam quickstep backwards as soon as you see him go up in the air, or just sprint away from him.

In both forms, Gehrman can sometimes stop and stare at the moon. This is a free opening for a few hits, but back away from him after punishing or else you’ll get caught by his AoE explosion.

Other than these new attacks, the fight is functionally the same. Since he doesn’t get staggered by normal attacks anymore, you should always be careful with damage openings since you can’t interrupt his attacks anymore and he can try to hit you out of nowhere.

I find that the best way to deal with this phase is to wait until he tricks back to scythe form and perform a few easy parries until he dies.

Keep at it and this fight shouldn’t take you long since you beat much harder bosses already.

Once Gehrman is dead, a cutscene will play and you’ll immediately start fighting Moon Presence, the true last boss of Bloodborne.

Moon Presence

Health: 8909HP

Weakness: Fire and Bolt (Moon Presence has the same resistance to both)

Strategy Showcase: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUscgB_DJM

Ah, Moon Presence. The last boss of this hellish run.

If you got this far, I have no doubt that you don’t need a guide anymore and Moon Presence will die like it’s nothing. You probably noticed that Moon Presence has only 8909HP, which is about 40% of Laurence’s total HP and less HP than Martyr Logarius. Needless to say, it dies pretty fast.

It is a very anti-climatic ending to this run, but you need to get it done, so here’s some general tips.

When you enter the arena, immediately buff yourself up with a Bolt Paper or Fire Paper and a Beast Blood Pellet. Unlike many other bosses, Moon Presence is really fast and will get to you in no time, so buff quickly.

The general idea against this boss is to always dodge diagonally to the right, punish it with an L1 transforming attack and back off. If you’re feeling confident, you can extend the punish to an L1L1 (after dodging).

The reason to back off and fight it from a distance is that, if you stay close, it will always either do an uppercut with both hands which is very tricky to dodge or it will back off while spinning and hit you with its tail.

Now that you’re aware of those attacks, just repeat this process. It’ll come charging at you, you quickstep diagonally to the right and punish it with an L1 transforming attack.

Once Moon Presence gets below 70%HP, it’ll back off and cast its AoE that puts you at 1HP. It’s undodgeable, so take this opening to spam R1L1 or charged R2s at it and recover all of your health through rally.

After this attack, second phase starts where Moon Presence will often stop and cast bubbles that go up in the air and pop, making it rain blood onto you. You can either back off from those attacks and wait for her to come to you, or tank it and keep hitting her while she’s casting the bubbles. The blood doesn’t deal much damage, but it prevents you from healing (similar to Numbing Mist’s effect).

And that’s pretty much the fight. Your best opening is always going to be the 1HP AoE, as you can dump all of your stamina onto Moon Presence by spamming attacks.

You can also break its head and arms if you hit them enough times, which are also great openings to deal huge chunks of damage.

But as I mentioned, if you got this far, you got this. Just apply these basic tips and play aggressively - you’ll kill Moon Presence and finish this run for good.

Epilogue and Special Thanks

If you managed to get this far and complete this run despite all the stress and frustrations, you have my serious congratulations.

I hope that doing this run has sparked something in you and that you’ll seek to do even harder challenges and improve yourself. Maybe you’ll do it again but without upgrading your weapon? Or you could go a little easier on yourself and do a BL4 run without any consumables! Perhaps you could even take my route and try to beat all the bosses at BL4 and without rolling or quickstepping, as that’s a very nice way to reinvent yourself.

Whichever choice you make, even if you decide to put away the game and retire for good, I want to thank you for sticking with me until the end of this run. Have some rest, you deserve it.

I’d also like to thank a few friends and fellow challenge runners, as without their help and support throughout the years I probably wouldn’t be writing this guide by now.

Thank you to StochasticGD for being an amazing friend and one of the most knowledgeable Bloodborne players that I know.

Thank you to Parallax2137, G-S0ul and Tolomeo for inspiring me to get into challenge runs and do everything that I’ve done.

Thank you to LedZepphead for helping me by proof-reading through almost the entirety of this guide.

Thank you to Dargonsouls for being the first player to completely dissect Orphan of Kos and bless the community with wonderful resources such as his gif album full of punishes.

And a very big and special thanks to the entire Company of Champions community for being so amazing and doing so much for challenge running in general, but especially the moderation team - Unsafekibble716, Qizzok, LookingGlass, Parker, Demofreak, Evoryn and, once again, LedZepphead - for making it all work and keeping the community great.

To whoever stuck with the guide until the end, I hope you enjoyed it.

Much love,

Arti.

Classes & Weapons at Base Level [source]

Table lists all the starting classes and the weapons that can be used by the classes right at base blood level. The four numbers listed below each origin are their starting Strength / Skill / Bloodtinge / Arcane levels. If a weapon isn't here, it's because no origin is applicable to its use. Weapons available to all origins are marked.

Weapon Name	Milquetoast	Lone Survivor	Troubled Childhood	Violent Past	Professional	Military Veteran	Noble Scion	Cruel Fate	Waste of Skin
Starting Levels	12 / 10 / 9 / 8	11 / 10 / 7 / 7	9 / 13 / 6 / 9	15 / 9 / 6 / 7	9 / 15 / 7 / 8	14 / 13 / 7 / 6	9 / 13 / 14 / 9	10 / 9 / 5 / 14	10 / 9 / 7 / 9
Saw Cleaver (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Hunter Axe (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Threaded Cane (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Saw Spear (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Burial Blade						✓
Blade of Mercy			✓		✓	✓	✓
Beast Claw						✓
Tonitrus	✓			✓		✓
Reiterpallasch							✓
Hunter Pistol (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Hunter Blunderbuss (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Torch (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Wooden Shield (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Flamesprayer	✓		✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
Hunter's Torch (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Ludwig's Rifle	✓						✓
Rosmarinus	✓		✓		✓		✓	✓	✓
DLC required beyond this point
Beasthunter Saif			✓		✓	✓	✓
Beast Cutter	✓	✓		✓		✓
Boom Hammer				✓		✓
Church Pick					✓
Fist of Gratia (All)	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Piercing Rifle	✓						✓
Loch Shield	✓	✓		✓		✓

Cosplay Builds [source]

Name	Starting Class								Recommended Weapons
Shadows of Yharnam	Professional	30	12	10	25	25	8	60	Chikage, Madaras Whistle
Notes: This is the hyper-aggressive sword wielding shadow. Whoever uses this build should host, to ensure a proper phase three using the Madaras Whistle and a higher HP pool. Proper Chikage HP management is also important.
Shadows of Yharnam	Cruel Fate	35	12	10	23	5	25	60	Flamesprayer, Rakuyo, Fire Paper
Notes: This is the secondary shadow. Use the flamesprayer for zoning and to keep pressure on the invader. Apply the Fire Paper to your Rakuyo in phase two.
Shadows of Yharnam	Waste of Skin	30	9	25	9	7	30	60	Tonitrus, Executioners Gloves
Notes: This is the tertiary shadow. Stay back, use the Executioner's Gloves as a replacement for the fireballs. Don’t use your Tonitrus unless they get close.
Micolash, Host of the Nightmare	Cruel Fate	50	12	10	9	5	84	120	Kos Parasite, A Call Beyond, Augur of Ebrietas
Notes: This is basically just a standard Pure Arcane build. Be sure to use the Kos Parasite without a Milkweed rune so that your bare fists actually do damage.
Impostor Iosefka	Waste of Skin	50	9	10	42	8	50	120	Threaded Cane, Repeating Pistol, A Call Beyond, Augur of Ebrietas
Ludwig, the Accursed and Holy Blade	Cruel Fate	50	12	38	25	5	40	120	Beast Claws, Holy Moonlight Sword, Beast Roar
Notes: This one was a blast to make. Beast Claws for phase one, HMS for phase two. Use the Beast’s Embrace rune.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower	Professional	50	12	10	40	50	8	120	Rakuyo, Chikage
Notes: Maria’s fight is a tricky one to accurately replicate. The first two phases are just her using the Rakuyo Transformed and Untransformed, which is easy. Then the blood attacks come in, which can be mimicked using the Chikage. Then… the blood coming from the Rakyuo catches fire. That’s harder. Originally I entertained using a Fire converted Rakuyo, but that doesn’t work very well. For maximum kosplay, you can either keep using the Chikage, or swap back to the Rakuyo, then apply Fire Paper.
Witches of Hemwick	Cruel Fate	50	12	10	40	5	49	120	Blade of Mercy untransformed, Messengers Gift, Beast Roar, Executioner’s Gloves
Notes: Mad One Weapons: Burial Blade untransformed.

How to Make a Build in Bloodborne [source]

Where Do I Start?

So it’s your first time playing Bloodborne. What do you do? When creating a character, the first thing you’re confronted with is your choice of six different starting origins which determine your initial stats. Which one do you pick? Well, on your first runthrough it doesn’t really matter, but I would recommend Military Veteran, since it has good strength, skill, and vitality and leaves Bloodtinge and Arcane low.

Which Build Should I Pick?

If you’re a first time player, go for what is referred to as a “Quality” build, which is a Strength and Skill Hybrid. This lets you optimize your weapon choices and explore almost anything you want, which is ideal for a newbie. Don’t worry too much about capping your level or being optimized on your first character. If you want to spend a few points into Arcane to try out the Flamesprayer or Old Hunter Bone that's perfectly fine, just don’t level yourself into a corner by spending too many points into unnecessary stats. If you’ve played Dark Souls before and you know whether you like heavy or fast weapons better, choose Strength or Skill accordingly, but be warned that Bloodborne’s combat is much faster paced and mobile than that of Dark Souls, so your favored weapons may change to adapt. Perhaps you’ll want heavier weapons to stagger your enemies to keep them in one place, or use faster, low-stamina weapons for maximum mobility. Builds that focus on Bloodtinge and Arcane as their main source of damage are definitely something to avoid until you have fully explored the game, have researched how to get those characters off the ground, and are confident in your skills, especially Arcane. In the end, the most important thing is experimentation. Try all the weapons you can and then make a build around the playstyle you like the most.

How Should I Level Up?

There are a few basic rules to leveling in Bloodborne, that, to those new to the Souls games, will be less than obvious.

Don’t Level Stats You Don’t Need.
This means that if you’re making a physical build, Bloodtinge and Arcane should remain at their base levels. If you’re making an Arcane Strength build, Bloodtinge and Skill should remain at their base (or as close as you can keep them to use the weapons you want), and so on.

Learn the Softcaps
Softcaps are a concept in Bloodborne and other Souls games that enforces diminishing returns. However, rather than a gradual curve, these returns drop off sharply at set intervals. For Skill, Strength, Bloodtinge and Arcane, the softcaps are 25 and 50, with the maximum for all stats being 99. For Vitality, the softcaps are 30 and 50, and Endurance the only softcap is 40. Upgrading past the second softcap is essentially a waste, and unless your weapon is one of a select few that does not scale with other stats very well (Rakuyo, Blade of Mercy, Whirligig Saw, Amygdalan Arm) reaching the first softcap in the other is more effective than hitting 50 with the main stat. This means that if you’re doing a physical build you’ll usually want to hit 30/15/25/25/minimum/minimum before choosing either strength or skill to specialize in, and invest in Vit whenever you feel like you need more. The second damage softcaps are incredibly severe, with damage per level dropping by a factor of six. The vitality softcaps are the most lenient, and if you have points to spare or are running an uncapped build, investing in vitality past 50 isn’t a terrible decision. Note that if you’re running an arcane build, the softcaps still apply to converted weapons, but the damage of Hunter Tools actually increases per level the higher your arcane goes. These tools don’t have softcaps so much as sweet spots, and they are unique to each one.

Endurance Doesn’t Matter
If you’ve played Dark Souls, this one will be new to you. In Bloodborne, there is no heavy armor and if you've looked down you'll notice that none of my builds exceed 15 endurance. If you feel like you need/want 20, especially for more stamina demanding weapons like Wheel, Kirk, LHB, or Rakuyo, that's perfectly fine, but more than that is rather wasteful, especially for PvP. Endurance doesn’t see nearly as much of an increase as much as other stats do, to the extent that using a top level stamina rune is equivalent to adding ten whole levels of endurance. In fact, many (if not all) of the weapons in the game are completely viable without needing to level endurance at all.

Where Do I Finish?

If you’ve looked, most of these builds cap out at Blood Level (BL) 120. Why? Well, the PvP meta is at 120 (though some people like the BL 98 meta), but anywhere from 90-140 will still get matches reliably. More than that won’t really get matches, and under that people either don’t do PvP (willingly, that is) and/or any build at that level isn’t finished. You should finish the base game around 90+, or 105+ if you have the DLC. If you’re running a single stat physical build like Strength or Skill you could take about ten to twenty levels off of this, depending on how confident you are in your ability.

What Are The Starting Weapons Like?

When you first enter the Hunter’s Dream, you can choose between two firearms and three weapons. The big question is: Which one is right for you? While you can only choose one of each, don’t worry too much about this. You can find an item that lets you purchase all of them from the shop pretty early in the game.

Hunter Pistol:
The Hunter pistol fires a single projectile like, well, a normal gun. For a bit of an antiquated firearm, it is quite fast to fire, though its damage (like almost all guns in the game) is negligible. Be aware that in order to hit anything at all (with most any gun, but this one especially) you will need to at least briefly lock on to your target before firing. This can also be used to aggro enemies from range, since your character throws pebbles (and molotovs) like they’re a toddler.

Hunter Blunderbuss:
This firearm fires pellets like a shotgun in a wide arcing band slightly slower than the pistol. This makes it ideal for dealing with evasive targets, namely other hunters in PvP. While it is not able to reliably aggro or damage targets from range, it is surprisingly responsive and actually can be used to deal some small damage at close range (though this is not recommended) because, well, it’s a shotgun.

Threaded Cane:
Like all main weapons in Bloodborne, the Threaded Cane transforms between two distinct weapons. The Untransformed version is a small sword-cane. This form is lightning fast, and incorporates plenty of thrust damage (a useful subset of physical damage to which certain enemies are vulnerable), but with the downside of a very short reach. The weapon’s Transformed state is a whip composed of several blades, rather like barbed wire. This form isn’t all that fast (a common misconception), but it consumes little stamina, has good area control, and is serrated, meaning that it deals extra damage to certain large beasts. Overall, this weapon has low rally potential and low damage, (though the speed of the cane can sometimes make up for it) so be careful with it in that regard. Both forms have minimal stagger, but the cane can charge its R2 very quickly so it can be used for that sweet tactical backstab later on. This weapon scales with the Skill stat, reaching a B scaling at maximum upgrade, making it a good choice for builds focused on this stat.

Pros: Fast, low stamina use, great area control, serration

Cons: Low damage, low stagger, low rally, struggles against bosses

Saw Cleaver:
The Saw Cleaver is a very unique weapon. It is initially a large serrated blade (rather like a crude oversized meat cleaver) wielded by a long arcing handle connecting to the front of the blade rather than the back. When Transformed, the blade whips out, using the full length of the handle. The untransformed mode is where this weapon really shines. It's good speed, damage, stagger, and fairly low stamina consumption are great, and it comes with a serration bonus to boot. However, the offset to these advantages is that the range is minimal, and there are no lunging thrusts like the cane, forcing the wielder into close range combat. Transformed gains range and stagger but makes big sacrifices in terms of speed. The transformed form’s biggest flaw is its moveset, which consists almost entirely of vertical swings. This weapon has essentially zero crowd control capabilities aside from the very slow R2 which doesn't have great range either. This inability to deal with multiple enemies is a big downside, especially for beginners. However, the L1 transformation attack deals a considerable amount of damage and stagger, and has both speed and range.

Pros: Fast, good damage, good stagger, low stamina consumption, serration

Cons: No area control, forces fast-paced point blank combat right out the gate, lacking moveset in Transformed mode.

Hunter Axe:
The Hunter Axe begins as a one handed axe with a gigantic blade, and transforms into a much larger, two handed version. Untransformed has massive stagger, rally and damage, but is slow and has tremendous stamina consumption. Its range is very low and when coupled with its slow speed is a bit tricky to use for beginners, but the charged R2 has insane stagger and damage, and charges relatively fast. Transformed is a truly monstrous two handed axe with massive range, rally, and stagger. Its L2 has good crowd control and it’s charged R2 attack basically turns you into a killer beyblade and will not only stagger but actually send pretty much any enemy that’s not the size of a building flying, and probably just flat out kill any human sized one. The Axe reaches a B scaling in strength at its maximum upgrade level, making it a good choice for Strength-focused builds.

Pros: Huge damage, stagger, rally, fantastic range and area control

Cons: Heavy stamina consumption, very slow.

WARNING: If you use the Axe, you will probably spend most, if not all of your time in its two handed form. You won’t learn how to use your gun, which will be fine at first, but trust me it will come back to bite you in the ass later in the game. This is (in my opinion) objectively the best of the starting choices as a weapon, but unquestionably the worst as a learning tool, which is really what you need when beginning the game.

Recommendation?
Use the Saw SPEAR. You can get it pretty much immediately, but as an item in the world, not from the shop. The untransformed version has the same great moveset as the cleaver, but the transformed version’s attacks have none of the glaring flaws of its counterpart, and is serrated to boot. It does marginally less damage, but the massive improvement in the transformed state is quite worth it, especially for beginners. Additionally, the spear has better overall scaling, focusing a bit more on skill. In late game, this actually pushes the spear’s damage output past that of the cleaver.

Bloodborne Discord Collected Resources

Many of your fellow Hunters have kindly made/found resources for anyone wishing to make the best of their gameplay experience. We've organized almost everything that's been shared with the server here for convenience. Thanks go to the discord mod team for collecting and organizing all the resources included below. Also you can join the Bloodborne discord with this invitation link.

Undefiled Pthumeru Dungeon (Quick FRC Unlock) ► Khan
A guide to using false depth story dungeons to unlock Depth 5 FRC chalice dungeons for farming without passing through all the story chalice dungeons.

Orphan of Kos GIFs Phase 1 & Orphan of Kos GIFs Phase 2 ► Dargonsouls
A collection of clips which demonstrate backstab punishes for many of Orphan's attacks.

Bloodborne Weapon Hitboxes ► Emma
A collection of hitboxes for Bloodborne including most trick weapons used by the player.

Boss Damage Types ► KitPes
Collection of notes regarding types of damage dealt by main game and chalice bosses.

Bloodborne: Let's Talk Lore ► Aegon of Astora
A Youtube playlist of Bloodborne playthrough experiences that also discuss its worldbuilding and its game mechanics. Last updated July 2017.

Bloodborne with JSF and Sin ► Sinclair Lore and Jerk Sans Frontieres
A Youtube playlist of podcasts discussing various details of Bloodborne's worldbuilding, from NPCs to thematic elements. Last updated October 2021.

Defiled Watchdog Guide ► chaizaeng
Some guidance to fighting one of the more challenging chalice bosses, the Watchdog of the Defiled Chalice. Includes recommended weapons as well as images of boss movesets to watch out for.

Weapon AR Comparison with Different Stats ► Ayman
A spreadsheet comparing the AR of all Bloodborne weapons when the level for the weapon's primary stat is 50 while the secondary/tertiary stats are base.

Rom: A Comprehensive Guide ► Arti
A guide to fighting the base game and chalice boss Rom the Vacuous Spider.

Bloodborne Up Close: DLC Edition ► Jerks Sans Frontieres
A series of videos examining the visual details of Bloodborne's enemies and environment, DLC Edition.

Bloodborne Up Close ► Jerks Sans Frontieres
A series of videos examining the visual details of Bloodborne's enemies and environment.

How to Make a Bloodborne Mule ► StochasticGD and Crowley
A guide to making a BL4 mule character that outlines game progression, chalice exploration, and goodies to pick up to do so and be PvP/co-op ready.

Laurence ► Vic Wraith
A guide to fighting the DLC boss Laurence, the First Vicar.

Amygdala: A Comprehensive Guide ► Arti
A guide to fighting the base game and chalice boss Amygdala.

Ludwigology ► StochasticGD
A guide to fighting the DLC boss Ludwig the Accursed / Holy Blade.

Bloodborne Gem Farming Videos ► Castiel, Forsaken Plague Doctor
A playlist of chalice runthroughs showing off the FRC glyphs and layouts most commonly used for gem farming.

Current Patch (1.09) Skips ► Sad
A spreadsheet containing all the currently working skips in the game documented with links.

Nourishing Gems AR Comparison ► Ayman
A look at different damage values based on Nourishing Gems set in various weapons.

Quality Build AR Comparison ► Ayman
A look at different damage values between various Quality builds.

Arcane AR Comparison ► Ayman
A look at different damage values based on ARC scaling.

Bloodtinge AR Comparison ► Ayman
A look at different damage values based on BLT scaling.

Holy Moonlight Sword Build Info ► cone
A guide to optimizing stats and gems for Holy Moonlight Sword. Includes preset stat spreads and glyphs for the recommended gems.

Bloodsheets ► The Tomb Prospectors
Spreadsheet with save-edited dungeons, including false depth dungeons, reverse depth dungeons, dungeons with edited gempools, terrible curse dungeons, test dungeons and more!

How To Escape Soft-locking Test Dungeons ► EsperRow
Directions for escaping developer chalice dungeons as described in PSA about Glitched/Developer Chalice Dungeons.

Bloodborne Bestiary
A roster of Yharnam inhabitants, bosses, and locales.

PSA about Glitched/Developer Chalice Dungeons ► xtrinx
Warning against chalice dungeons created by the PSN user mitianshi. They are glitched/developer dungeons that are difficult to leave unless through convuluted means. Look out for any Open Privacy Chalices with empty chalice icons and ?PlaceName?, Depth 0/6-8, or ?MenuText? for text. Glyph knvzjv62 is the currently the most active one. We recommend not visiting the chalice to let the glyph die out. Visit only at your own risk!

BL4 Guide ► Arti
A guide on Blood Level 4 runs.

Bloodborne: Theme Run/Cosplay Run List ► Prime
A guide to putting together Bloodborne cosplays based on available sets and weapons. Includes instructions for acquiring outfit pieces.

All Sinister Chalices ► The Tomb Prospectors
A false depth glyph for all the Sinister Chalices required for FRCs in one location.

The Yharnam Scholars Wiki ► BB Discord Scholars
A collection of various lore theories written and run by our own server Scholars.

Bloodborne Japanese Retranslation Guide ► Presance
Alternate English translations for Bloodborne, based on the Japanese edition and original Japanese texts.

Bloodborne Bosses: Tips & Tricks ► Tranurz, Boreas & Hayden
A comprehensive guide to taking on each and every boss in Bloodborne (including The Old Hunters DLC and Chalices).

Blade of Mercy PvP Damage ► FoxyHooligan
A rundown with numerical data on the damage dealt by the Blade of Mercy with varied gem setups.

Best Blood Gem Setups (using edited dungeons) ► XTrin
A comprehensive sheet with the best blood gem setups, edited dungeon glyphs and locations for Strength, Skill and Quality.

Logarius Wheel PvP damage ► FoxyHooligan
A rundown with numerical data on the damage dealt by the Logarius Wheel with varied gem setups.

Amygdalan Arm PvP Damage ► FoxyHooligan
A rundown with numerical data on the damage dealt by the Amygdalan Arm with varied gem setups.

Boom Hammer PvP Damage ► FoxyHooligan
A rundown with numerical data on the damage dealt by the Boom Hammer with varied gem setups .

Kos Parasite PvP Damage ► dark_sun_ty
A rundown with numerical data on the damage dealt by the Kos Parasite at various level thresholds and with varied gem setups.

Bloodborne Damage Calculator ► FoxyHooligan
A helpful damage calculator for PvP. Make sure to save your own copy of the sheet (File -> Make a copy) in order to input your own values.

Build AR calculator ► Khan
Extremely useful build maker/stat simulator provided kindly by Khan. Features: Blood gems: You can select the desired bloodgem for your weapon. If the gem isn't available, you can customize your own bloodgem. Double right-clicking on certain gems from the list pops up glyphs. Weapons: Double-clicking weapon icon pops up weapon selection window. You can also check on access route. BL calculator: You can calculate required blood echoes from current BL to target BL. Multiplayer level range calculation and determination of opponent's BL on PvP are also available features.

Gem and Stat based dmg calculations: Chikage and Kos Parasite ► FoxyHooligan
Damage calculation of Chikage and Kos Parasite for various moves, with varying gem sets and stats.

Hunter Tools Scaling
A snippet from the Arcanist Cookbook. A sheet containing all the scaling values for the Hunter Tools in the game, including the DLC.

Chalice Dungeons Exploration ► The Tomb Prospecors
The sheets in this document include all Bloodborne chalice dungeon maps explored by the Tomb Prospectors community, including all 2300 root chalices, with focus on chalice dungeon rarities such as rare enemies, unusual architecture or glitches.

Bloodborne Plot Research ► Micolash
An intensive breakdown of Bloodborne text translations and in-depth study into the lore of the game, thoroughly researched and meticulously compiled for the purpose of theorycrafting.

Reference List by Dagdammit ► Dagdammit
A list of interesting reads compiled by user Dagdammit#0612 that helps convey the theme employed by Bloodborne lore.

NPC Face Data (sliders) ► Zullie the Witch (compiled by Herne™)
Sliders for making the faces of the NPCs from the game (DLC included).

Consumable Duplication Method ► Dankoyster
A slightly updated version of the item dupe that's been around since the original Dark Souls, except without the risk of actually using the item.

Bloodborne envmaps ► Dropoff
Image textures used to simulate specular reflections, which are seen on smooth surfaces.

Defiled Amygdala strategy ► Thor
A comprehensive quick kill strategy by a seasoned veteran of the game. Very handy when going through story chalices.

Cut Dialogue Subtitles ► BellringerKat
A script of all the dialogue that was cut from various NPCs in the final version of the game.

Safe Test Chalices ► Zullie the Witch
A spreadsheet by Zullie containing all the known Test Chalices that are safe to explore. You do not need to backup savedata prior to exploring these.

Data Mining Thread ► Nova
A detailed mega thread on a collaborative effort of all data-mined content in Bloodborne.

Arcane Scaling Tool Damage Test (Base Game only) ► x_stickman_x
Damage test on hunter tools with small increments in the Arcane stat ranging from 3 to 99. Only base game tools observed.

A Hunter’s Guide to Damage ► Anon (bb korean)
A comprehensive guide to understanding attack rating and attack damage calculations.

Spoiler-free Pocket Guide ► Friendly Man
A pocket guide with useful information for newcomers and people who need a quick refresher. Spoiler-free.

Bloodborne weapons per origin ► Asgore
Spreadsheet that lists all the starting classes and the weapons that can be used by the classes right at base blood level.

Bloodborne Beasthood Guide ► /bbg/
A basic guide to beasthood, beast claws, and pellets with information regarding statistics and mechanics.

Bloodborne Boss Weaknesses ► Kab
A spreadsheet with boss defense stats and weaknesses, including defense modifiers and formulas for chalice dungeon bosses.

The Arcanist Cookbook
Various spreadsheets on making Arcane builds with supplementary information on bosses, gems, weapons, tools, and runes.

The Bloodborne Sheets
A compilation of spreadsheets mostly on story and root chalice dungeons with special glyphs listed for finding goodies. Extra information on all Bloodborne bosses, armor, weapons, and runes have also been included.

Bloodborne Build Planner ► Juli
A comprehensive guide to character creation in Bloodborne. Includes information on stats, weapons, tools, and runes you can use for your builds.

Weapon AR Calculator
Instructions and formulas for calculating your weapon damage. Linked at the beginning is a document compiling all Bloodborne weapons' attribute scaling, base damage, and attribute saturation as well.

How to Make a Build in Bloodborne ► Boreas
A guide to character stats optimization in Bloodborne. Included with the suggested builds are also the appropriate weapons and tools.

The Chalice Atlas ► GhostlyMire
A compilation of chalice dungeon resources put together by the Bloodborne-Wiki and the Tomb Prospectors. Look through here for information on chalice types and their possible loot (glyph sheet linked after the introduction).

Main Story Bosses

Boss & Location	Main Damage Types	Notes
Cleric Beast Central Yharnam	Physical
Father Gascoigne Central Yharnam	Physical	Gunshots deal arc/fire damage (60/40%)
Vicar Amelia Cathedral Ward	Physical
Blood-starved Beast Old Yharnam	Physical	Jump attack deals Blunt damage. Phase 3 poison explosion deals Arcane damage.
The Witch of Hemwick Hemwick Charnel Lane	Physical, Arcane	Melee attacks deal physical damage and projectiles deal Arcane. Summoned Mad Ones deal Physical damage.
Darkbeast Paarl Old Yharnam	Physical, Blunt, Bolt	All melee attacks in regular mode deal roughly 50% phys or blunt and 50% bolt damage. In “broken” form (without sparks) the bolt part is removed but the phys/blunt part is increased by roughly 30-40%. Damage output in broken form is independent of phase and is comparable to regular phase 3.
Shadow of Yharnam Forbidden Woods	Physical, Fire	All melee attacks from Shadows are physical. Giant snake also deals physical damage.
Rom, the Vacuous Spider Moonside Lake	Physical, Blunt, Arcane	Rom’s body slams deal Blunt damage. Falling meteors are 40% phys/60% arc. Rising ones are 20% phys/80% arc, dealing significantly more damage. Small spiders deal only Physical damage.
Martyr Logarius Forsaken Castle Cainhurst	Physical, Arcane	Melee attacks are purely physical.
The One Reborn Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	Blunt, Arcane	Also has several weak Physical melee attacks. Vomit and raining crap, as well as bell maiden projectiles, deal Arcane damage.
Amygdala Nightmare Frontier	Blunt, Physical	Vomit, lasers and their explosions deal Physical damage, melee moveset is blunt.
Celestial Emissary Upper Cathedral Ward	Blunt, Arcane	Melee moveset is entirely blunt.
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos Altar of Despair	Blunt, Physical, Arcane	Head slams, ground and aerial charges, and overhead tentacle slams are blunt, other melee attacks are physical. Lasers and blood vomit deal Arcane damage.
Micolash, Host of the Nightmare Nightmare of Mensis	Arcane
Mergo's Wet Nurse Nightmare of Mensis	Physical	Also has a couple of thrust attacks.
Gehrman, The First Hunter Hunter's Dream	Physical	Gunshots deal Blood damage. Phase 2 buff explosion deals Arcane damage.
Moon Presence Hunter's Dream	Physical	Raining blood deals arcane damage. 1 HP AoE attack technically deals around 28000 physical, fire and bolt damage (in NG).

The Old Hunters DLC Bosses

Boss & Location	Main Damage Types	Notes
Ludwig Hunter's Nightmare	Phase 1: Blunt Phase 2: Physical, Arcane	Bite combo in phase 1 is physical, rest of melee attacks are blunt. Water spray attack deals Arcane damage. Phase 2 sword attacks are 50% phys/50% arc, lightwaves and AoEs are purely Arcane.
Living Failures Research Hall	Blunt, Arcane	Unlike Rom’s meteorites, Failure ones are purely arcane. All melee attacks are blunt.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower Research Hall	Phase 1: Physical, Thrust, Phase 2: Blood, Phase 3: Blood, Fire	Phase 1 damage types are similar to player rakuyo attacks. In phase 2 and 3 all melee attacks deal Blood damage, with flame trails dealing Fire damage in phase 3.
Orphan of Kos Fishing Hamlet	Physical, Arcane, Bolt	All melee attacks in both phases deal mostly physical damage with relatively minor arcane component, the value of arcane damage is constant for all attacks in each phase while the physical part varies between individual attacks. Thrown projectiles and explosions deal Arcane damage.
Laurence, the First Vicar Hunter's Nightmare	Physical, Fire	Phase 1 melee hits are purely physical, in phase 2-3 a relatively minor fire part is added. Flame explosions and AoEs deal purely fire damage.

Chalice Dungeons Bosses

Boss & Location	Main Damage Types	Notes
Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades) Pthumerian Labyrinth L1	Physical, Blunt	Ground slam, jump and leg kicks are blunt for all three Undead Giant variants. Forward blade thrusts deal Thrust damage, other melee attacks are physical.
Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon) Hintertomb Labyrinth L2	Physical, Blunt, Blood	Cannon shots deal Blood damage. Axe melee attacks deal Physical and cannon melee attacks deal Blunt
Undead Giant (Club and Hook) Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L2	Physical, Blunt	Hook attacks are physical, club and chain attacks are Blunt.
Merciless Watchers & Chieftain Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L1	Club Watcher: Blunt, Saw Watcher: Physical, Shotgun Watcher: Blood
Watchdog of the Old Lords Cursed Pthumerian Defilement L2	Physical, Fire	Only jump and charge attack deal both damage types (60/40%). Other melee attacks are purely physical.
Keeper of the Old Lords Central Pthumerian Labyrinth L2	Physical, Fire
Brainsucker Isz Gravestone L1	Physical, Blunt	Some hand swipe attacks are blunt, rest are physical.
Pthumerian Descendant Central Pthumerian Labyrinth L3	Physical
Pthumerian Elder Lower Hintertomb Labyrinth L3	Physical, Blunt, Thrust	Mace (including subsequent explosion), hook and halberd attacks are blunt. Lance, ground spear and crossbow shots are thrust, rest melee attacks are physical. Despite the visible flaming effect appearing when getting hit by all attacks, only fireballs that drop during phase 2 staff spin attack actually deal fire damage.
Maneater Boar Hintertomb Labyrinth L1	Physical
Bloodletting Beast Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L4	Blunt	Both variants have entirely blunt movesets.
Beast-possessed Soul Ailing Loran L1	Physical, Fire
Loran Silverbeast Lower Loran L1	Physical, Fire, Bolt	Melee attacks are purely physical.
Abhorrent Beast Ailing Loran L3	Physical, Blunt	Only several arm slam attacks of phase 1 deal blunt damage, all other moves are physical. Despite its appearance and blood gem drops this boss deals no bolt damage at all.
Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen Pthumeru Ihyll L3	Physical, Thrust, Arcane	Melee attacks are either purely physical/thrust or have small arcane part. Blood attacks and telekinesis grab deal Arcane damage.

Two Stats Combinations

These following sets are optimized for a combination of the two stats described, which can help against an environment/enemy who uses both types of damage. They will not necessarily be the highest in that particular stat unlike those listed above, but will have the combined total of best resistance across two stats.

Highest STR/ARC Resistance

Part	Piece
Head	Gold Ardeo	50	40	60	40	40	40	70	12	15	13	16
Chest	Executioner Garb	90	120	110	100	110	90	100	53	45	17	45
Hands	Executioner Gauntlets	40	60	40	50	60	50	50	26	24	9	24
Legs	Executioner Trousers	50	70	50	60	60	60	50	30	26	10	26
		Physical Defense				Elemental Defense			Resistance			Beasthood

Highest SKL/ARC Resistance

Part	Piece
Head	Harrowed Hood	60	40	50	40	60	50	50	20	19	2	18
Chest	Harrowed Garb	120	80	90	90	110	90	110	56	58	9	44
Hands	Harrowed Gloves	60	40	40	60	50	40	50	35	31	4	25
Legs	Harrowed Trousers	70	50	50	60	60	50	60	38	33	5	27
		Physical Defense				Elemental Defense			Resistance			Beasthood

Highest SKL/BLT Resistance

Part	Piece
Head	Harrowed Hood	60	40	50	40	60	50	50	20	19	2	18
Chest	Harrowed Garb	120	80	90	90	110	90	110	56	58	9	44
Hands	Harrowed Gloves	60	40	40	60	50	40	50	35	31	4	25
Legs	Harrowed Trousers	70	50	50	60	60	50	60	38	33	5	27
		Physical Defense				Elemental Defense			Resistance			Beasthood

Bloodborne Respec: How To Change Starting Origin [source]

The original resource figured out by Claude on the Tomb Prospectors Discord. Search for your characters name in Advanced Mode to find your spread. I also take off all Runes so my VIT/END read correctly.

Here's an example of what Military Veteran looks like at the beginning of a new character. When respecing characters with poor stat distribution, I would start over at BL10 with the most optimized starting origin for whatever I want to build towards. You can use the Quick Mode Blood Echoes cheat to level back up to BL120 or your desired level easily. Military Veteran is one of the most used origins for minmaxed builds.

Here is one of my characters after changing origin to Lone Survivor for a more optimized stat spread at low level. Stats shown here are the proper starting stats for this origin, with correct HP and stamina. Discovery is not affected by any of these bytes.

Lone Survivor is actually a poorly optimized origin when compared to MV, but can save you one or two points at a low enough blood level.

Use https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne and hex to decimal translation sites to properly represent your VIT/END.

Basic Information

The IGN First month long coverage of Bloodborne for February 2015. IGN First schedule was as follow: first week - news every day, while following weeks were about 3 news a week for the rest of the month.

The IGN First was extensively covered on the News Blog on day to day basis. Information displayed on the wiki will follow the same day to day format.

DAY 1 - February 2nd: Bloodborne: The first 18 minutes

IGN Video & Article: [YT] Bloodborne: The First 18 Minutes - IGN First; Bloodborne: The First 18 Minutes - IGN First. The opening 18 minutes of Bloodborne throws you right into the deep-end with a mysterious, nightmarish cinematic. Once you gain control of your character, you'll die at the hands of a vicious beast, explore the bright and colorful hub world, and enter the treacherous town of Yharnam. Note: the capture is from a slightly older build and the game is still under development, so definitely be aware of that if you notice a rough edge or two.

Other Articles: Bloodborne's First 19 Minutes Analysis; Menus, Attributes, Weapons, Mechanics and More [broken]

Discussion: IGN First: Bloodborne - Discussion Megathread - Reddit Thread; Bloodborne gameplay: The Fisrt 18 minutes - NeoGaf Thread

Notable Information: Different post-alpha HUD in the top left corner. Hunter's Dream was named Dream Refuge in pre-release build. Arcane icon is pictured as an apple. Eileen the Crow was situated near caged dogs before Dry Dock in Central Yharnam which makes her easier to find than in retail version of the game.

DAY 2 - February 3rd: Bloodborne Hands-On: We were punished and we liked it

IGN Article: Bloodborne Hands-On: We Were Punished and We Liked It - IGN First by Marty Sliva, Bloodborne’s dark tone and brutal difficulty are readily apparent in the spiritual Souls sequel’s opening hours. The brooding action-RPG is packed with the same barrier to entry, environmental storytelling, and bosses that seem to be ripped straight from the deepest depths of your nightmares that fans of the Souls series loved throughout the past console generation. But for all of the great things that Bloodborne shares with the iconic trilogy, it’s the ways it differed that really impressed me throughout my time with the first two hours of the PlayStation 4 exclusive.

DAY 3 - February 4th: Bloodborne: Exploring its Vast Character Creator

IGN Video & Article: [YT] Bloodborne: Exploring its Vast Character Creator - IGN First; Bloodborne: Exploring its Vast Character Creator - IGN First by Marty Sliva. We're continuing strong through the first week of February's IGN First on Bloodborne with a dip into its robust character creator. Personalizing your wandering hero has always been an important facet of the Souls series, but Bloodborne definitely goes even deeper with a larger suite of customization options.

DAY 4 - February 5th: Inside the Mind of Bloodborne and Dark Souls’ Creator

IGN Article: Inside the Mind of Bloodborne and Dark Souls’ Creator - IGN First by Marty Sliva. Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the most influential game directors of the last generation, but he’ll never tell you that. Director on Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, he helped put From Software on the AAA developer map by creating beautiful, punishing, and incredibly rewarding games that remind us what it was like to sit in front of our NES’ and chip away at the classics. During our IGN First trip to Tokyo for Bloodborne, we spent a day at From Software and sat down with Miyazaki himself. Our discussion traveled from Bloodborne’s inception, to the rise of speed runs and streaming, and even to which games he’s looking forward to in 2015. Sit back and relax, this one’s a doozy.

+ click to read whole interview | more interviews on its respective wiki page

A candid conversation with From Software’s Hidetaka Miyazaki by Marty Sliva.

Hidetaka Miyazaki is one of the most influential game directors of the last generation, but he’ll never tell you that. Director on Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne, he helped put From Software on the AAA developer map by creating beautiful, punishing, and incredibly rewarding games that remind us what it was like to sit in front of our NES’ and chip away at the classics.

During our IGN First trip to Tokyo for Bloodborne, we spent a day at From Software and sat down with Miyazaki himself. Our discussion traveled from Bloodborne’s inception, to the rise of speed runs and streaming, and even to which games he’s looking forward to in 2015. Sit back and relax, this one’s a doozy.

On How Bloodborne Came to Be

“To speak precisely on the timing, it was just about when we were wrapping up Prepare to Die when Sony approached From Software," Hidetaka Miyazaki told us. His response to Sony? "Why don't we start talking about next-gen?"

But of course, the world of Bloodborne was something that Miyazaki had been thinking about for quite some time. “...the game mechanics, or the gothic theme for example, those were some areas or concepts that were always brewing, and one of the areas that I always wanted to achieve in my career, and I knew that when that trigger was pulled, this was it.”

On Inspirations for the Setting

The world of Bloodborne is brimming with influences from our own history. From the aesthetics of Victorian London, to the mass hysteria of the Black Plague, it feels familiar while still maintaining an air of mystery.

When I asked Miyazaki about his history with...well...history, he responded, “The short answer to your question is...not necessarily did I really study the history during my student years. However, it has always been an area of interest, naturally as you can see with my games. One thing I'd like to emphasize is that because they are areas of interest, and because they have significant roles in human history, there isn't really a specific element that I'd like to pursue or I would like to connect to as an inspiration, specifically because if I did, I would dig too deep into that particular angle of history or incident, and it's more or less a hybrid. I touch these points lightly, intentionally.”

On Reading Books Before Playing Games

Miyazaki’s love for reading is immediately apparent when you hear him speak. He explained to us, “Growing up, as a kid, I loved to read. I liked to read books that were above my range. I always tried to aim higher and read difficult books. What would happen is, although I could read them, sometimes -- because I was so young -- I couldn't read TOO deep into them. Maybe I would understand half of the story? What would happen is that my imagination would help fill the other half, and that imagination element would just blow up. That's kind of the part I enjoyed as well, filling the gaps of where I didn't understand the readings, where my imagination took me eventually to think that I understood what I was reading.”

He elaborated, “It kind of relates to what I'm doing in my creations. In addition to that, I studied Sociolology and Psychology, and, after school, I revisited those themes, and this is the fruit of what you're experiencing now.”

When asked if he played games a lot as a kid, his answer surprised. “Growing up, I was restricted at home from playing video games until I reached University. This is a reason why I stumble when I'm asked this question. There was a board game called Sorcery which is one of my favorites and I would often revisit the game. It's not a video game but it definitely stands out in my mind as a game that impacted me.” Unsurprisingly, he elaborated on another physical game he enjoyed, “I've been a fan of Dungeons and Dragons, and for them to have come this far is very meaningful to me.”

On How Development on PS3 Informed PS4

Miyazaki began his career developing games for the PlayStation 3. Years later, he’s on a brand-new piece of hardware. We asked him about that leap in technology. “...the PS3, at that time, was revolutionary for introducing the network features and functionality, hence, that kind of explains why Demon's Souls and Dark Souls were designed in those ways. Now, fast forwarding to PS4, the Share feature is obviously adding onto that network connectivity and capability and the sharing of the experience. This is an area which plays a theme in Bloodborne where for example, sharing dungeons will be one of the key factors.”

On Speed Runs and Streaming

Beneath the initial layer of extreme difficulty and opaque storytelling, the Souls community has rallied around mind-boggling speed runs and long-form streams of the games. And you know what, Miyazaki is a huge fan of this. When asked if he predicted this community during development, he cheerfully replied, “I'm very well aware of how players are enjoying the speed runs. I would like to correct that I'm nowhere near perfect and that was nowhere near what I was aiming for or expected. That was actually behavior by the consumer base that I did not anticipate. I have watched those and I actually enjoy that kind of...almost...interaction, in some ways and that is also at the core of my thinking or philosophy upon game design.”

In terms of streaming the entire game on services like Twitch, he sees both the positives and negatives. “Of course, there are areas or storylines for example that I would like for the users to experience or take away from Bloodborne, but there's always kind of a thought that it would be interesting from my or the team's point of view as well, where the gamers take it and how they get creative and how they want to play.” He continued, “I see it as almost an interaction between the two, in terms of, ‘Oh, I actually didn't think of that, but you took it in a different way and found YOUR way or interpretation of how you would like to enjoy Bloodborne.’”

On Bloodborne’s Ties to Demon’s Souls

Between the ties to Sony, the faster combat, and the presence of a Nexus-like hub world, Bloodborne definitely feels like a follow-up to Demon’s Souls. When asked, Miyazaki told us, “Just reflecting on your question and the history of my development...it carries the DNA. It carries the DNA of Demon's Souls and its very specific level design. And even in Bloodborne, the upper maps, the maps above ground, are all along the lines of Demon's Souls and very specifically designed.”

But that’s not to say there’s nothing new in Bloodborne. Specifically, the procedurally-generated Chalice Dungeon throws a curveball at what most Souls fans expect from the bespoke level design of the games. Miyazaki resumed, “In terms of Chalice Dungeon, yes, there is an element of randomness. However, once, for example, a Chalice Dungeon is created, you can lock that. Once you've locked it, you can go back and play it time and time again and learn it. So, on those terms, it's still along the lines of a Demon's Souls experience. But, we did want to have some sort of variance with a new IP like Bloodborne, to throw something new into the mix.”

With a smile, he concluded, “Hopefully, it will resonate with the people and the fans will appreciate it.”

On Horror

What genre does Miyazaki consider the themes of Bloodborne to fall under? We asked if he was a big fan of horror, and his reply surprised us. “I'm not necessarily a fan of horror genre of movies or books. I do like reading in general but I'm not specific in terms of genres. If I had to call out a genre, I would say dark fantasy. I do like taking things in from text and letting my imagination explore and run with the stories. What you see is the full combination of a lot of those elements combined with the core theme of the game.”

On whether he’d ever tackle a lighter, more family-friendly tone in a video game, he smiled and replied, “It's funny you say that because I get asked this question quite frequently, and my answer to this has always been that I've always had an interest in doing something colorful or heartwarming, but no one believes me.”

“Admittedly, games like [Bloodborne], which are dark and somber, are kind of my expertise and that's what I go back to, those are my roots and probably something I'll continue doing. However, I've always had an interest in doing something that's more child-friendly or more colorful and lively. For example, games like PoPoLoCrois on PS1, Ico on PS2...those games stand out from my point of view, just as examples, of something I'd like to explore given the opportunities.”

On Quickening the Pace of Combat

The first thing most people think when they get their hands on Bloodborne usually revolves around the more aggressive-nature of combat. According to Miyazaki, “There are two reasons for this. I wanted to differentiate from the previous series and I wanted to consider the hunt your nightmare theme. Considering the hunt your nightmare theme and the massive challenges in the game, adding the speed element and proactive battles, I thought this was a better match for Bloodborne. I felt that by adding the faster paced proactive combat players would gain a sense of accomplishment by overcoming those battles.”

On How the Hell Multiplayer Works

Multiplayer has always been a bit of a mystery in the Souls games. In light of recent trailers that showcased three human players teaming up to fight a single boss, fans theorized that there might be a more streamlined, jump into a friend’s game kind of multiplayer this time around.

Well, that’s not the case, as Miyazaki clarified. “You still have to go through the matchmaking process. However, there is a workaround where you can use keywords or a secret word and share them with friends. And of course, you can use Chalice Dungeons where you can share your chalice Dungeon with a limited number of friends.”

On His Influence on Gaming as a Whole

Despite the monumental success of his games, Miyazaki is a quiet, and humble creator. When asked how he felt about the Souls games being some of the most influential of the past generations, smiled and responded, “I'm very humbled and grateful to even be considered that influential in the industry. I feel that may be a bit exaggerated. I have been influenced by many games in the industry and am grateful and honored to be a part of the games industry.” After a moment of silence, he finished with a laugh, “I often get criticized for not answering this question well *laughter*

On Where Games Will Be in Five Years

“If I knew the answer to that question I would tell you! (laughs)”

On the Rise of Virtual Reality

It seems like a trade show can’t go by without news regarding some form of VR, whether it be Oculus, Morpheus, or anyone else. Miyazaki understands the appeal, saying, “I feel that the devices are such impactful pieces of technology that..it's a game-changer by itself, the delivery and the experience. Business aside, from the point of view of a creator, I would like to be a part of that exploration, of that movement and process. Fingers crossed, as an outsider, that it takes off. Still, as a creator, I'd like to be a part of that movement. Looking back at when the PS1 and N64 came out, polygons were the big thing, and suddenly the experience of 3D on your screen was made a reality.”

He continued on the future of the technology, “I'm very excited for the possibility of Oculus and Morpheus to explore another phase, a new angle, of innovation, and how could I deliver content, game-specific content. That's something that really excites me.”

On His Most Anticipated Games of 2015

We finished off our time with Miyazaki by focusing on life after Bloodborne. Once the game is out the door, what is he looking forwarding to playing?

“Just specifically from the game industry point of view, I'm looking forward to E3 for example, and specifically, being domestic developers, games like Metal Gear Solid V...obviously being open world, something new. And Zelda, again open world and a very new approach that they're taking. [Those are] probably the two pillar titles that I'm looking forward to. From a consumer point of view, Evolve is one I want to get my hands on and start playing. Left 4 Dead is something I really enjoyed in the past and I'd like to, if I have the time, explore Evolve as well.”

On What’s Next

But of course, as much as he’d love to sit down and play games for the rest of 2015, that probably isn’t going to happen. He concluded with a smile, “Realistically speaking, once I've wrapped this, anytime I have extra time on my hands, I will start to create or develop or design something new, because that's the most exciting thing.”

Marty Sliva is an Editor at IGN. He is ready to die, die, and die some more in Bloodborne.

DAY 5 - February 6th: Making Bloodborne: Part 1 - Souls Evolved

IGN Video & Article: [YT] Making Bloodborne: Part 1 - Souls Evolved; [YT] Bloodborne Has Shields - IGN News;Making Bloodborne: Part 1 - Souls Evolved - IGN First by Marty Sliva. A highlight of our trip to Tokyo was being able to visit the offices of both From Software, as well as Sony Japan Studio. Through hours of interviews, and some amazing footage from around the offices and Tokyo itself, we were able to put together an intriguing look at the developers took the basic framework of the Souls series, and built upon it on the PlayStation 4 for Bloodborne.

+ click to read whole transcript | Whole Making Bloodborne coverage on its respective wiki page

1. Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio:
When we started this new project, the idea and core philosophy started by reflecting on the success we had with Demon's Souls. We thought it really delivered a totally new kind of experience to players. By revisiting this collaboration, and creating something for this new piece of hardware, our goal was to deliver another brand new kind of experience to the players.

2. Yasunori Ogura, PR, From Software:
I think Demon's Souls is a representative title in many ways from our point of view. Again, we shifted the dynamics of the game design. It's not like we calculated our global success, but it came as result of focusing on a game with a sense of accomplishment. And I think that resonated well with players worldwide.

3. Ryo Fujimaki, Lead Graphic Artist, From Software:
Bloodborne was produced with the idea that the world, the characters, and the player will become a single entity, allowing the player to create a world of their own to enjoy. Under this theme, the player progresses through a variety of different situations. Some beautiful and extravagant, while others are dark and depressing.

4. Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio:
The game is set in a massive and cursed city called Yharnam, which is inspired by 19th century gothic horror traditions. This city had originally been home to an illness called the Scourge of the Beast, and when the hero comes to Yharnam, that plague has really started to spread through the city like a pandemic. So the player becomes a hunter, hunting these beasts, and the story begins from there.

5. Tetsu Takahashi, 2D Designer, From Software:
In Bloodborne, I tried to depict the fear or panic people feel when faced with the unknown or something they don't understand. In this period without advanced medicine, plagues and disasters would fall into those categories. Also, I tried to depict the darkness that is born from a damaged psyche.

6. Ryo Fujimaki, Lead Graphic Artist, From Software:
Characters in Bloodborne are greatly influenced by the concepts of the Victorian era. The culture and detailed designs of the Victorian era are reflected in the characters, along with a little dash of our own inspiration.

7. Tetsu Takahashi, 2D Designer, From Software:
There are the professional hunters who hunt the beasts in Yharnam. They're members of organizations like guilds or the church and they hunt these beasts according to their particular organization's principles. While creating these designs, I thought about how to bring these hunters to life in different ways, through their unique expertise and personal preferences.

8. Ryo Fujimaki, Lead Graphic Artist, From Software:
With the PS4's performance, we were able to render precise designs, use new forms of lighting,and add post effects much more freely.

9. Jun Ito, Programmer, From Software:
I don't think the basic process for creating a game has changed much, but the memory storage and the number of CPU cores had much bigger increases during the transition from PS3 to PS4 versus the transition from PS2 to PS3. The PS4 is a wonderful device that is very easy to create with.

10. Tetsu Takahashi, 2D Designer, From Software:
PS4 allows us to create very detailed graphics which were impossible with the previous hardware. However, it also means that there's a greater expectation for highly detailed designs.

11. Jun Ito, Programmer, From Software:
We spent a lot of CPU power on simulating fabric, so all our time and effort as programmers will be rewarded if players feel the world has a softness to it. Up until now we've worked in worlds, that feature a lot of armor, but this time we've created a world full of fabric allowing for ease of movement.

12. Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio:
One of the underlying core concepts for the game is the intense life-or-death combat, so part of that was making the combat more aggressive and offensive for the player. In coming up with a new combat style compared to Demon's Souls, on thing we really wanted to do was intensify the close-range attacks, and also make the encounters a lot faster paced.

13. Ryo Fujimaki, Lead Graphic Artist, From Software:
We focused on the various reactions each character makes, so they can react to the player's actions. To do so, we have to tweaked the game to ensure the player feels well challenged. Most of our focus during development has been on gameplay-related elements, including things like a deep sense of immersion, a great sense of achievement and deadly combat.

14. Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio:
We wanted these encounters and battles to be so intense that if you just stand and wait, you'll get overwhelmed and killed right away. We wanted to encourage players to not hide and wait, but instead to be more aggressive and proactive in battle. That's why we decided to equip player with a melee weapon and firearm, and not a shield. To add to all that, and encourage players to be more aggressive we have introduced the new Regain system, where players can regain some of their lost health if they successfully counter-attack within a certain window of time. There are shields in the game. However if you're always standing back and guarding, you'll die very quickly. So you have to incorporate it into your strategy of how you play and fight.

15. Yasunori Ogura, PR, From Software:
I think for anybody who is involved in game creation or in the creative field, their ultimate goal is to make something memorable or that lingers in the player's memory. How you get there is probably the difference. From our point of view, a lot of people use the word "difficulty" to describe elements of what we do in our games. Sense of accomplishment. Overcoming your fears. A lot of keywords that tie back into Bloodborne are certainly driving factors at From Software.

16. Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio:
What I really hope players take away from this game is, when we sat down with the team at From Software, one of our biggest goals was to make a game that not only Demon's Souls fans could enjoy, of course, but that new players could get into as well. I think it's going to be a really fun experience for players, so if we can get even one new person to try it out, whether they're more of an action game fan, or an action RPG fan, I think they'll really like it. I'm grateful for the chance to talk about the game and get people excited about the launch. Thank you very much.

DAY 6 - February 9th: Bloodborne Developer Walkthrough: The First 18 Minutes

IGN Video: [YT] Bloodborne Developer Walkthrough: The First 18 Minutes - IGN First. Same first 18 minutes footage, but this time with Sony Japan Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa acting as our tour guide. Discover the secrets of the game's opening, from the creepy cinematic and your first death, to the twisting alleys of Yharnam.

+ click to read whole transcript | [Made for /r/bloodbornethegame]

Masaaki Yamagiwa, Producer, Japan Studio

My name is Masaaki Yamagiwa, and I am the SCE Japan Studio Producer for Bloodborne. Today, I would like to walk you through the beginning of Bloodborne.

The game begins with the main character arriving in Yharnam for a specific purpose. In this scene you see the character about to get a blood transfusion after signing a contract with the doctor. In the actual game, the contract is signed when you complete the "Character Creation" process. This cutscene is pretty horrific, but it's a very crucial part of the story. For now, let's enjoy the scene. Try to imagine what this could all mean.

Okay, now our character is awake. This is where the gameplay begins. We're currently in the Iosefka Clinic. Having undergone a blood transfusion, the main character's memories have become clouded and he has forgotten why he came to the city. The Blood Minister from before is nowhere to be found. All right, let's get moving. Yharnam is a cursed city overrun by the plague of the beast, and beasts like this can be found roaming all over the city. The beast is coming after me now. I had no weapons to fight with, so now I'm dead.

This place is called the Hunter's Dream, the dream world of the hunters. This Hunter's Dream serves as the player's home base. Here you can level-up your character, strengthen your weapons, warp to different locations in Yharnam and more. That's just a doll. For now, I'll just say that she's a key character in the game. Something is calling us from the ground. These are "messengers," and they serve the hunters. The player is allowed to choose one trick weapon from three options at the start of the game. Let's go with the saw cleaver. You can of course acquire other various weapons as you proceed through the game. And from a different group of messengers, you can choose from two types of firearms. Let's try the Hunter's Blunderbuss. These messengers give you the Notebook item. This lets you leave behind messages with your messengers to exchange information with other players. Now let's equip the weapons we've received. I'll equip a trick weapon in my right hand and a gun in my left. Actually you can equip up to two weapons per hand to swap between. These are the fountain messengers. You can use the Blood Echoes acquired by defeating enemies to trade for weapons, armor and items here. It's basically an item shop. This is a Headstone of Awakening. It allows you to warp to various places within Yharnam, the real world. Let's leave the dream and go back to the real world.

And now we're awake. The lamp to the right of the character is what connects the real world with the Hunter's Dream. There's the beast that killed me earlier. Now that I am armed with my trick weapon and firearm, I should be able to beat it. This time I was able to defeat the beast. When you defeat enemies, you obtain Blood Echoes. A second ago, you could see that enemy's eyes were glowing. That means it stole your Blood Echoes. In this game, you'll drop all your Blood Echoes if you are killed by an enemy. If you return to the place you died, you can get them back. But sometimes a nearby enemy will snatch up your Blood Echoes before you can return. That means that you can win your Blood Echoes back by killing the enemy that took them.

Now we are outside. This area is called Central Yharnam. The ominous color of the sky foreshadows the hardships that await you. We're under attack. You can change your trick weapon's form like this. When you Saw Cleaver changes form, its range and swing change as well. To succeed in battle, knowing when to use each form is crucial. Let's pull the lever here. A ladder dropped down, so let's climb up it. We just heard a chilling scream, like a beast howling. It came from that bridge over there. I'm going to try to make my way there. Here's a lamp. If we light it, we'll link this location to the Hunter's Dream. Lamps like this are located throughout Yharnam. Once a lamp is lit, you can access that location any time from the Hunter's Dream. When you see a lit window like this, that means there's someone inside. Get close to the window to hear what they have to say.

This man's name is Gilbert, and he's afflicted with a severe illness. Many of Yharnam's residents have locked themselves inside their homes for fear of the beasts. Keep your eyes peeled for other people hiding like this. Some may even have useful information to aid in your quest. There is an item next to the dead body. You can obtain items by picking them up off the ground or from defeated enemies. Here's and enemy equipped with a shield. You can change your trick weapon's form even during your attack combos like this. Transforming your weapon during combos like this can knock an enemy's shield away, so use your combos strategically to get the upper hand. Here is a mob patrolling the street. These people were originally Yharnam residents who banded together to hunt the beasts but they've started to become beasts themselves. They've lost all human reason and gone mad. They even think you are a beast and try to come after you. I took some damage, so I'll use a healing item called a Blood Vial to recover some HP.

Here's another group of enemies. Let's try to move closer without them noticing us. I pulled off a sneak attack. The second attack here is called a Visceral Attack. If you use a charge attack from behind, you can knock the enemy off balance. When the enemy stumbles, time your next attack just right to pull off a Visceral Attack. A giant mob has gathered at the end of the road here, executing a larger beast. There too many to fight head-on, so let's go around. I see an item. Let's go grab it. I just got ambushed. I am sure you Demon's Souls fans out there will enjoy these kinds of surprise enemy placements.

And again, attacked from a blind spot. It is very important to remember where enemies are located. This game is designed so that even if you're not that good at action games you can still progress if you learn from your mistakes and hone your strategies. A bell is tolling. It means the beast hunt has begun. A giant mob that was hanging around before has now started to disperse to go back to hunting down beasts. Let's use this opening to get across the street here. The enemy hasn't noticed me yet. Now's my chance.

Now let's head down into the street. I'd like to show how to perform a Visceral Attack with a firearm. If you fire your weapon right as the enemy is about to attack, the enemy will lose its balance leaving an opening for you to perform a Visceral Attack. A lot of enemies have left the area already, but there are still quite a few hanging around here.

This is one of the tougher spots in Central Yharnam. A lot of players died here during the alpha test and at our consumer hands-on events. It's hard to fight multiple enemies at once, so the trick is to carefully take them down one by one. Here comes a dog. These dogs are tricky because their movements are so quick. The good thing is they're small, so gunshots can knock them away from you. I'll try to use the gun to take care of this dog. I managed to take out the dog. Let's keep up the pace and clear out the rest of the crowd. There's a pesky enemy shooting me from above.

Finally made my way across the main street. In the alpha test code, we only had the route down over to the right. But in the full game, there's another path beyond these coffins. The world of Yharnam is very large and complex, with many shortcuts and secret paths like this in each stage. Exploring and finding hidden routes like this is one of the fun parts of the game. Since we're here already, let's jump down and see what's here. I see someone. Let's see what she has to say.

She's a veteran hunter. She gave me a Bold Hunter's Mark as a token of gift. This handy item allows you to reawaken at a lamp after dying, without losing your Blood Echoes. The dog is barking next to the house. It must sense someone hiding inside.

There are a lot of dogs locked up in cages here. Don't let your guard down. Sometimes a dog will bust its way out of its cage and come attack you. I just opened a shortcut door that was locked from the other side.

I just got ambushed by a guy hiding in the dark, but I was able to use the Regain system to get my health back. The Regain system is a special ability hunters have where you can take damage but get your health back if you counterattack an enemy within a certain amount of time. The Regain system rewards players for being more aggressive and exchanging blow for blow with the enemy. This gate can't be opened from the other side. Actually the area on the other side is where we saw the lamp next to Gilbert's house. So we've opened a shortcut to the very beginning of the stage. Since we've made it back to the lamp, let's take a break and head to the Hunter's Dream for a moment.

The door to the house that was closed earlier is now open. There is someone inside so let's go talk to him. This character's name is Gehrman, and he provides hints about the story. Remember to speak with him often, to see what new information he might have. At the fireplace, you can use the Workshop to fortify your weapons. But right now we don't have the materials to upgrade anything yet. Let's use the headstone to return to reality.

We've lit two lamps so far, so there are two destinations listed here. Let's go back to where we just came from. I'll take the left route through the open gate. Let's go inside the dark house again. This building has two floors, so let's check upstairs.

Now we're on the bridge where those beastly howls came from earlier. A gigantic beast just jumped down from the rooftop. This boss is called the Cleric Beast. This was the beast that was howling when I climbed the ladder earlier. Its weak point is its head. You can switch the target lock between its head and its chest, so I'm going to focus on attacking its head. The boss has a variety of attacks including swinging his arms to the sides smashing down at you, grabbing you, and pouncing on you. The key to beating him is learning his attack patterns and figuring out when he is vulnerable to attacks. I'll try to get closer as I roll to dodge his attacks. I attacked the arm for major damage, and caused him to recoil in pain. Here's my opening to attack and do a lot of damage. Unfortunately, I ended up dying.

But I don't want to spoil the fun for you just yet by beating him in this video. I want you to experience this intense boss fight and the huge sense of accomplishment first-hand when you defeat him on your own. I hope you all enjoyed that. It was fun introducing lots of new things about the game. We have much more in store for you in the rest of the game, so I hope you're as excited for the launch as we are. Thank you for watching!

DAY 7 - February 11th: Bloodborne's Gorgeous, Gothic Environments

IGN Video: [YT] Bloodborne's Gorgeous, Gothic Environments - IGN First. Join us on a visual tour of the gorgeous, gothic environments of Bloodborne. We venture far outside the confines of Yharnam and show you some never-before-seen locations that you'll most likely be suffering thousands of deaths across. Bonus: The video is accompanied by a song from the soundtrack that provides a perfect dark, moody tone.

Other Links: Album of Screencaps from "Bloodborne's Gorgeous, Gothic Environments" video.

DAY 8 - February 13th: Bloodborne's Haunting Music

IGN Video & Article: [YT] Bloodborne's Haunting Music - IGN First; Bloodborne's Haunting Music - IGN First by Marty Sliva. Like From Software's games before it, Bloodborne is punctuated with epic, brutal, and memorable boss battles. But while the art and combat design are both part of the reason why these encounters are so iconic, there's an unsung hero to the Souls series: its incredible music. That's why we're happy to debut a behind-the-scenes look at the work that goes into producing one of these tracks. Seeing the song emanate an entire orchestra alongside a choir makes you appreciate the piece even more.

Other Articles: The Otherworldly Music of Bloodborne. Hello everyone, this is Chuck Doud, the Director Of Music for Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios America. The score was recorded in London at Abbey Road and Air Studios. It was performed by a 65 piece orchestra, a 32 piece choir, and multiple vocal and instrumental soloists. Over 90 minutes of music was mixed at our recording studios here at the Playstation headquarters in San Mateo. The music was composed by in-house composers at From Software as well as the multiple guest composers.

DAY 9 - February 17th: Bloodborne's Devastating Weapons in Action

IGN Video: [YT] Bloodborne's Devastating Weapons in Action - IGN First. To defeat the terrifying beasts in Bloodborne, you're gonna need a variety of awesome weapons. Check out this montage of the tools at your disposal as you slice through the creatures that stalk Yharnam.

DAY 10 - February 19th: Bloodborne Story Trailer

IGN Video: [YT] Bloodborne Story Trailer - IGN First. Discover what plagues the city of Yharnam in From Software's much-anticipated action-RPG.

Other Article: Bloodborne: Story Trailer Hints at Dark Secrets. Today as part of IGN First we revealed our brand new story trailer for Bloodborne, the PS4-exclusive Action RPG from developers FromSoftware and SCE Japan Studio. This trailer introduces some of the characters you’ll meet along the way as you venture into the depths of the cursed city of Yharnam, and hints at some of the dark secrets waiting to be uncovered by brave hunters.

Other Links: Album of Screencaps from "Bloodborne Story Trailer" video.

DAY 11 - February 20th: Bloodborne's Horrifying Monsters and Mini-Bosses

IGN Video: [YT] Bloodborne's Horrifying Monsters and Mini-Bosses - IGN First. From Software has made a name for itself by populating its worlds with some of the most terrifying and memorable creatures to ever haunt a video game. Bloodborne looks to be no different.

Other Links: Album of Screencaps from "Bloodborne's Horrifying Monsters and Mini-Bosses" video.

DAY 12 - February 23rd: Making Bloodborne: Part 2 - A PS4 Exclusive

IGN Video: [YT] Making Bloodborne: Part 2 - A PS4 Exclusive. Sony and From Software detail co-developing Bloodborne for the PlayStation 4 in Part 2 of our behind-the-scenes series.

Other Article: The Making of Bloodborne, Part 2. Today, with IGN First’s special Bloodborne coverage entering its final week, we get to learn more about the collaboration between Japan Studio and From Software that once, long ago, led to Demon’s Souls and now leads to the dark world of Bloodborne. Watch the new video above.

+ click to read whole transcript | Whole Making Bloodborne coverage on its respective wiki page

1. Shuhei Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios:
We have a history in Japan Studio to try new ideas, Japanese "devs" in general are trying to find their own niche so that they can still be relevant to the larger audience than just their home market and the culture that Japan Studio has I believe is good fit in these new situations.

2. Masami Yamato, Head of external development, Japan Studio:
The Internal Development group has creators including Fumito Ueda and Keiichiro Toyama in it, and they take plenty of time to develop truly unique and special games. I think they are the pillar of first party development, the bones of Japan Studio. The external Development group functions as the muscle, suggesting the board possibilities of new game experience in a faster cycle. We started this project because we had been hoping to create a new game with Miyazaki-san and From Software since the success of Demon's Souls in Japan and other regions.

3. Shuhei Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios:
Game came out in Japan with pretty low key they are not too much in a marketing of thinking, people actually I clearly remember it was consumers in Japan who bought just the game and found out how great and how deep the game is, despite the insure in very difficulty.

4. Yasunori Ogura, PR, From Software:
This is From Software's 26th year in the game industry. Starting off with the PS1 generation. The kind of sense of accomplishment that is at the core of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls is actually something that we strived for in one of our first games, King's Field. So from the very beginning we've tried to make games that retain that core tenet of providing a sense of accomplishment. After the PS2 came around, we started working on a variety of games. But we decided we wanted to go back to those roots, and that how we came up with Demon's Souls. This core tenet is something that I think we'll continue to carry throughout future From Software games.

5. Masami Yamato, Head of external development, Japan Studio:
Usually, developers come up to us with their ideas to start a new project. Bloodborne was a bit of a special case. As we had a strong desire to work with Miyazaki-san, we brought the idea to From Software.

6. Shuhei Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios:
There are lots of ideas thrown and discussed between Japan Studio and From Software but when it came to me it was already pitch hard, very dark, kinda dark setup and more moody and beautiful. And what Miyazaki-san talked about, he doesn't necessarily want to make the game harder or more difficult from the difficulty standpoint in rather he would like to players feel that at any time they might die. He wanted to make the battle, combat more active so that players go more aggressive, and risk and reward dynamic view are changed much higher.

7. Yasunori Ogura, PR, From Software:
In collaboration with PlayStation to create Bloodborne, from the fan's perspective, I think it probably resembles the development of Demon's Souls. With Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and this time around with Bloodborne, each game has its own taste, or style, while being similar in various ways.

8. Masami Yamato, Head of external development, Japan Studio:
Japan is a very different market and not all games that are successful here do as well globally. To make an analogy, you can go to Kyoto and watch a sunset in that beautiful setting, and you can go to the US west coast and watch the sunset sink into the horizon. Both of them possess their own unique beauty that can touch people's hearts. I think that among game creators as well, there are lots of very talented people, regardless of birthplace, nationality or race, who have the vision to create games that touch people's hearts around the world. And Miyazaki-san is undoubtedly one of those people. He creates games which resonate with people regardless of the fact that they were made in Japan or that there are cultural differences between Japan and other countries. That's why Miyazaki-san's titles are well received all over the world.

9. Yasunori Ogura, PR, From Software:
From Software is often thought of as a “different” kind of developer. We don't really think of ourselves as being that different. We just want to make games that are fun and that fans can enjoy playing. That's why we do what we do. I think that vision is very strong. We're very grateful to have partners that enable us to continue to maintain that focus.

10. Shuhei Yoshida, President, SCE Worldwide Studios:
Game used to be challenging, game used to really challenge your skills, effort and "creativities" back in the days. And overtime more games have become kinder, more easier in giving hand-holding to consumers and that's all great with broaden audience of new players and casual players. But at the same time there are always the consumers who remember the time we spent a lot of time to understand and solve challenging games, overalls times and Bloodborne and the Souls games are really bringing back those memories of you as a game players, I myself spent hours and hours playing Miyzaki-san's game and I don't regret any moment, not a bit so enjoy.

DAY 13 - February 25th: Bloodborne Month Finale Teaser

IGN Teaser: Bloodborne Month Finale Teaser

DAY 14 - February 27th: Bloodborne's Darkbeast Boss Gameplay

IGN Video & Article: [YT] Bloodborne's Darkbeast Boss Gameplay - IGN First. A lone hunter tries to survive in this first footage of the Darkbeast boss battle.

Other Article: SPOILERS: New Bloodborne Boss Revealed. Today I would like to introduce a brand new boss enemy from the game. Just like in Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne will feature many boss enemies of all shapes and sizes, and there will be a variety of ways to defeat them. So I think you will find that the gameplay in Bloodborne is rich and diverse. I am happy to introduce a new boss character called “Darkbeast.” This electric beast emerges from giant skeletal remains. With lightning coursing through its body, it bombards the player with its erratic and off-speed movements.

Basic Information

This page contains the whole dialogue script for all characters from the game. Subtitle text was extracted by BellringerKat, Audio extracted by JackSparrow420, formatted and compiled by Sophie Pilbeam. Unused subtitled dialogue highlighted in this color. Unused audio dialogue without subtitles highlighted in this color. Characters are in alphabetical order.
UPDATE: On Jan 13, 2018 Sanadsk was able to extract files from The Old Hunters DLC.

Isz Glitch Cure [by jrson83]

This guide is intended to help Bloodborne players access the cure to Isz Glitch, that was discovered, but not widely distributed.

How to know if a character may be affected by Isz Glitch

coffins

Every dungeon has a list of items to obtain from them, getting these items will reduce your dungeon pool as the game tries to lead you to the ones you are missing. Once you obtain all special chest items, you can then generate any dungeon again. Isz has an item that doesn't exist and thus you can never get, making it so your dungeon list never goes back to being completed.

Guidance tier 3

Revered Great One Coldblood

Check the characters inventory for related items

Once a weapon is looted, it will be available for purchase from the Bath Messengers. So one way is to check their offer.

Once a caryll-rune is looted, it will be available in your inventory. If you did not sell the rune it should be in there.

Blood Rocks can be obtained in various locations, so there is no way to tell.

Layer 4 Nourishing gem is not a part of glitch, it's a generic treasure that can be looted many times.

-- Beastmaster's Damp Blood Gem

The groups and related items:

Group 0	Ludwig’s Lost Holy Blade
Group 1	Lost Kirkhammer
Group 2	Lost Threaded Cane
Group 3	Great Deep Sea
Group 4	Deep Sea
Group 5	Great Lake
Group 6	Arcane Lake
Group 7	Eye
Group 8	Blood Rock
Group 9	% Arcane gem / % layer 4 Nourishing gem
Group 10	?
Group 11	?

Check by play testing Isz chalices

Chalice Dungeons Exploration Sheet

Chalice Dungeon Screenshot Database

1. FRC offers

2. Layer 1 - 3 Bosses

3. Notes

4. Main Layout - The starting point when using the screenshot db

5. Bonus Room

1 - 32

Madman’s Knowledge

Great One’s Wisdom

Check the event flags Hex value

Following the next chapter, you should be able to determine the particular hex value within the affected characters savegame. A fully maxed out Isz with the glitch looks like FF C0, which means the character has looted every unique Isz item.

Tip: It is easier to cure the Isz Glitch after you looted all items or before looting any.

How to cure the Isz Glitch

In order to cure a characters Isz Glitch, we have to modify the related flags within the characters decrypted PS4 savegame.

The Bloodborne savegame is not static, but we can use 4 bytes as operation starting point to create a Save Wizard Quick Code.

07 00 13 00

The player spawn point can be identified by FF FF FF FF following 4 bytes:

The Hunters Dream (spawnpoint): B1 16 20 00

The Hunters Dream (???): A6 16 20 00

The Hunters Dream (???): A9 16 20 00

Needs to be confirmed:

Looking at various savegames, the decimal offset between 07 00 13 00 and B1 16 20 00 is static 338.

The decimal offset between B1 16 20 00 and the Isz Glitch bytes FF C0 is also static 3169.

Calculating the offset between 07 00 13 00 and the Isz Glitch FF C0 bytes:

338 + 3169 = 3507 (dec) = DB3 (hex)

[Isz Glitch Cure]

80010004 07001300 - Searches for 4 bytes of 07 00 13 00 once using Default Offset

92000000 00000DB3 - Adjusts the pointer offset by adding a value of 338 + 3169 = 3507 dec = DB3 hex to the pointer

D8000000 0100C0FF - Tests if 2 bytes from pointer equal `FF C0`, skips the following code line if operation fails

18000000 0000FFFF - Writes 2 bytes from pointer, replacing `FF C0` with `FF FF`

Using Apollo Save Tool library I created a Quick Code which can be applied to a savegame using Save Wizard, Apollo Save Tool library or Apollo Save Tools.

Here is an example output when using the patch with Apollo Save Tool library:

❯ ./patcher userdata0000.savepatch 1 userdata0000

Apollo cheat patcher v0.3.0 - (c) 2022 by Bucanero

[i] Applying codes [1] to userdata0000...

[+] Applying code #1...
- Game Genie Code
- Applying [Isz Glitch Cure] to 'userdata0000'...
- Searching (len=4 count=1) ...
- ----- Search 4 bytes -----
- 000000: 07 00 13 00
- ----- Search 4 bytes -----
- Search pointer = 171450 (0x29DBA)
- Byte Test (0002AB6D) C0FF = C0FF
- Wrote 2 bytes (FFFF) to 0x2AB6D
- OK

Patching completed: 1 codes applied

Cure the Isz Glitch

Start Bloodborne and load the character you want to cure

Position the character at the initial spawn point in the Hunter's Dream

Use a lamp to transport back into Hunter's Dream. If you accidentally moved the character in the Dream, use a Bold Hunter's Mark to reset to initial spawn.

Press Start > Settings > Quit > Close Bloodborne.

From here the guide will show two possible solutions:

How to cure the Isz Glitch on a regular PS4

How to cure the Isz Glitch on a jailbroken PS4

How to cure the Isz Glitch on a regular PS4

If the character savegame is used on a regular PS4 console, you will need Save Wizard for PS4 MAX Recommended, which unfortunately has to be paid for. Do not buy Save Wizard.online: PS4 Edition, since we need to use advanced mode which is only available in the MAX Edition.

Step 0: Preperation

You will need the following:

A regular PS4 with the characters savegame

Save Wizard for PS4 MAX Recommended

USB Stick

Step 1: Copy the savegame to USB

Connect a USB storage device to the PS4 system.

Go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data in System Storage > Copy to USB Storage Device.

Select Bloodborne

Select Copy

Step 2: Modify the savegame with Save Wizard

Connect the USB storage device to the PC.

Run Save Wizard. It should load the Bloodborne savegame from the USB drive.

Step 3: Save Wizard Quick Code (experimental)

Please follow the tutorial How to Add Quick Code On Save Wizard from xdgmods.com.

[Isz Glitch Cure]

80010004 07001300

92000000 00000DB3

D8000000 0100C0FF

18000000 0000FFFF

This is experimental and needs to be tested. Remember to always backup your savegame!

Step 4: Copy the savegame back to PS4 HDD

Connect the USB storage device to the PS4 system.

Go to Settings > Application Saved Data Management > Saved Data on USB Storage Device > Copy to System Storage.

Select Bloodborne

Select Copy

How to cure the Isz Glitch on a jailbroken PS4

On a jailbroken PS4 we can use Apollo Save Tool to copy the characters savegame to USB device. The savegame will be decrypted automatically, means we can modify hex values using any hex editor.

Step 0: Preperation

You will need the following:

A Jailbroken PS4 with: Apollo Save Tool latest version

HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor

USB Stick (extFAT formatted)

Step 1: Activate offline account

Make sure your offline PS4 account is activated.

Run Apollo Save Tool

Select User Tools > Activate PS4 Accounts

You should see a list with all your accounts. An account is not activated when it has no auto-generated account ID, meaning (0000000000000000) following the username.

3. Select the account > Auto-generated Account ID

4. Exit Apollo Save Tool

5. Restart the PS4 console

Step 2: Copy the savegame to USB

Connect a USB storage device to the PS4 system.

Run Apollo Save Tool > From HDD > Select Bloodborne savegame > Copy to USB Storage Device.

The savegame will be copied into the folder:

Step 3: Modify the savegame

Either using Quick Code (experimental):

Download and extract the latest release of Apollo Save Tool library.

Copy your savegame userdata0000 - userdata0010 into the Apollo Save Tool library folder.

Create a file userdata00XX.savepatch > Copy & paste the following Quick Code:

[Isz Glitch Cure]

80010004 07001300

92000000 00000DB3

D8000000 0100C0FF

18000000 0000FFFF

This is experimental and needs to be tested. Remember to always backup your savegame!

4. Open a Terminal > Run ./patcher userdata00XX.savepatch userdata00XX.

5. Expect the response Patching completed: 1 codes applied and you should be done.

Or by modifying the savegame with HxD:

Connect the USB storage device to the PC.

Create a backup of the PS4 folder located on the USB device!

Open the folder PS4/APOLLO/XXXXXXXX_CUSAXXXXX_XXXXXXXX, you will see multiple files userdata0000 - userdata010.

Run HxD goto File > Open > Select the file userdata0000 from the USB device.

Go to Search > Find (or press ctrl + F). Select Hex-values tab and enter: 070013. Press OK.

6. Look for 4 FFs, so FF FF FF FF followed by either B1 16 20 or A9 16 20 depending on your characters location.

7. Place the cursor between the last FF and B1.

8. Go to Search > Go to (or press ctrl + G) > Select dec & current offset > Enter 3169 > Press OK.

9. The cursor should be placed automatically at the first char of one FF, followed by 0C.

These two bytes represent the flags where the game registers having looted unique items from Isz. They change to FF when you have looted all the items indexed in them. The first one maxes out naturally, while the second one gets stuck on C0 and fails to reach the maximum.

10. Go to Search > Replace (or press ctrl + R) > Select Hex-values > Search for: C0 > Replace with: FF > Press OK.

11. The C0 should be replaced with a red colored FF.

12. Select File > Save

Step 4: Copy the savegame back to PS4 HDD

Connect the USB storage device to the PS4 system.

Run Apollo Save Tool > From USB > Select Bloodborne savegame > Copy to HDD.

Conclusion

Congratulations, your character is now Isz Glitch free.

How to know that the cure has helped

Go to Check by play testing Isz chalices section.

The only ways to check if the glitch fix worked is to either use the screenshot database or check map IDs of generated dungeons in the save editor.

-- Tringun

Resources

General information.

Bloodborne: The Tomb Prospectors

The Tomb Prospectors Discord

The Tomb Prospectors' Resources, Guides and Studies

The Tomb Prospectors Discoveries

Isz Glitch related.

Isz Glitch, cracked and explained

Isz Glitch, cracked and explained (original thread)

Isz Glitch and gem farming: an overview of the common 32

Guide to Offline Prospecting (by Grzester23)

Offline gem farming guide

Prospector exploration sheet of all root dungeons

Chalice Dungeons Exploration Sheet

Chalice Dungeon Screenshot Database

Isz Glitch Cure related.

Chalice Flag Unlocking and Isz Glitch Cure by AzureEvening (Dec, 2020)

Isz Glitch collection/information at bloodborne-wiki.com

Hex editing related.

Tomb Prospectors - Hex Research Central

Bloodborne Master Spreadsheet (Public)

Bloodborne Respec: How to change starting origin

Bloodborne - Gems, Rune and Armor HEX ID's

Credits

All credits go to the authors of the actual articles.

The instructions on how to cure the glitch were created by adopting the original Isz Glitch Cure Guide created by AzureEvening.

Portions of the guide are created by adopting the original content from Isz Glitch collection/information at bloodborne-wiki.com.

PvP Meta Builds by Che

Name	Starting Class								Che's Notes
Strength
WoS Strength	Waste of Skin	77	9	50	12	7	15	120	13 skill 76 vit if you wanna use cannon
CF Strength	Cruel Fate	76	12	50	12	5	15	120	13 skill 75 vit if you wanna use cannon
Dedicated MaceLetter build	Waste of Skin	71	9	50	9	16	15	120	12 skill 68 vit if you wanna use HMS, Wheel, Whirligig, Gatling Gun
Skill
Skill Vitgouge	Waste of Skin	76	9	10	50	10	15	120
Skill Vitgouge 2nd	Waste of Skin	68	9	18	50	10	15	120	18 strength will give you 600 AR Saw Spear and Reiter
Skill Endgouge	Cruel Fate	50	40	10	50	5	15	120
Reiter Turtle	Cruel Fate Waste of Skin	50	34	11	50	10	15	120
40 End Reiter Turtle	Military Veteran	50	40	14	50	10	6	120
Skill feat. Evelyn	Noble Scion	62	8	10	50	25	15	120
My favourite Rakuyo build	Cruel Fate Waste of Skin	50	20	10	50	25	15	120	Actually really good for any Skill oriented weapon. 2Rak works really good on it
Quality
Standard Strength / Quality	Waste of Skin	64	9	50	25	7	15	120
Endgouged Strength / Quality	Cruel Fate	50	25	50	25	5	15	120
Strength / Quality feat. Evelyn	Noble Scion	47	8	50	25	25	15	120	Probably the best spread for Whirligun
High Strength / Quality	Waste of Skin	49	9	50	40	7	15	120
50 / 50	Military Veteran	47	10	50	50	7	6	120
Standard Skill / Quality	Waste of Skin	61	9	25	50	10	15	120
Endgouged Skill / Quality	Cruel Fate	50	25	25	50	5	15	120
Skill / Quality feat. Evelyn	Noble Scion	47	8	25	50	25	15	120
Strength / Quality for Nourishing HMS	Cruel Fate	50	15	50	25	5	25	120
Skill / Quality for Nourishing HMS and Burial Blade	Waste of Skin	50	9	26	50	10	25	120
Bloodtinge
Chikage, Letter, Bow	Noble Scion	68	8	14	15	50	15	120
2kat	Noble Scion	73	8	10	14	50	15	120
Letter Vitgouge	Waste of Skin	73	9	14	9	50	15	120
2kat Glass Cannon	Noble Scion	45	8	10	14	78	15	120	Going up to 78 Tinge will give you an edge of 40 AR over a 50 Tinge Kage
Lettergun	Noble Scion	71	9	14	11	50	15	120	Take out some points from Vit and put them into End if you wanna go full monkey
Arcane
Arcane Vitgouge	Waste of Skin	83	9	10	11	7	50	120
Arcgouge	Waste of Skin	50	9	10	11	7	83	120	If you're looking for high damage from tools
Arcane VitEndGouge	Cruel Fate	72	22	10	11	5	50	120	Decent build for Kos Parasite as well
Everything Arcane	Waste of Skin	70	9	20	14	7	50	120
Arcane for Nourishing HMS	Cruel Fate	50	15	25	25	5	50	120	48/22/25/20/5/50 is a really good alternative. HMS can be really stamina hungry when 2 handed
My favorite Kos Parasite build	Cruel Fate	54	40	10	11	5	50	120
Kos Gun (or the Chad Arc/Tinge)	Waste of Skin	50	9	10	11	40	50	120
Arcane Vitgouge feat. Evelyn	Waste of Skin	65	9	10	11	25	50	120
Gunglitched Madmans Wheel	Waste of Skin	49	9	25	12	25	50	120
Hybrid
Strength / Tinge	Military Veteran	50	10	50	14	40	6	120	45 vit 45 tinge is a good alternative if you like to play at low vit
Skill / Tinge BR	Noble Scion	47	8	10	50	40	15	120
Skill / Tinge	Noble Scion	48	8	10	50	45	9	120
Standard Blood / Arc	Noble Scion	48	8	10	14	40	50	120	45/45 or whatever. Hit up one of the many arc/cringers if you're looking for a more specific build
Dedicated Letter Blood / Arc	Waste of Skin	48	9	14	9	40	50	120	No Kage, no Saif, no Evelyn. Amazing
Strength / Arc	Waste of Skin	47	9	50	12	7	45	120	Bad build
Dedicated Tonitrus build	Waste of Skin	45	9	50	9	7	50	120
Skill / Arc	Waste of Skin	47	9	10	50	7	47	120
Skill / Arc for Nourishing HMS	Waste of Skin	46	9	16	46	7	46	120
Reiter Rosi	Waste of Skin	47	9	10	47	10	47	120	Make a good use of your bullets
Builds from famous players
OG Drisful's Blood / Arc	Noble Scion	40	8	16	14	46	46	120	Bad build if you're bad
Drisful's 50 / 50	Noble Scion	38	8	10	14	50	50	120
Scorched Knight's Quality	Cruel Fate	50	12	50	38	5	15	120
Ramu's 2kat	Noble Scion	40	8	10	14	83	15	120
Che's QualiTinge	Noble Scion	47	8	25	25	50	15	120	Kage and/or Letter with a decent quality backup
Che's rivisited Arcane VitGouge	Waste of Skin	80	9	10	14	7	50	120	14 skill for offhand thrust Pick
Che's 3HMS	Waste of Skin	47	9	50	32	7	25	120	Hardswapping between Nourishing, Blunt and Thrust
My favourite Quality	Waste of Skin	47	9	50	42	7	15	120	Fits heavy Rakuyo super well

Basic Information

New Players ► Recommended (Late Blood Moon): Player Level

70 - 80

& Weapon Upgrade

Timezones	Bosses	Enemies	NPCs	Important Items	Insight
None	► Gehrman, The First Hunter	None	● Doll	● Notebook	+ 1 Encounter Gehrman, The First Hunter
	► Moon Presence		● Gehrman	● Beckoning Bell	+ 3 Defeat Gehrman, The First Hunter
			● Bath Messengers	● Silencing Blank	+ 5 Encounter Moon Presence
			● Insight Bath Messengers	● Old Hunter Bell	+ 5 Defeat Moon Presence
			● Stump Messengers	● Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter
				● Yharnam Messenger Hat (DLC)
				● Worn Messenger Top Hat (DLC)
				● Messenger Head Bandage (DLC)

Timezones	Bosses	Enemies	NPCs	Important Items	Insight
None	► Gehrman, The First Hunter ► Moon Presence	None	● Doll ● Gehrman ● Bath Messengers ● Insight Bath Messengers ● Stump Messengers	● Notebook ● Beckoning Bell ● Silencing Blank ● Old Hunter Bell ● Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter ● Yharnam Messenger Hat (DLC) ● Worn Messenger Top Hat (DLC) ● Messenger Head Bandage (DLC)	+ 1 Encounter Gehrman, The First Hunter + 3 Defeat Gehrman, The First Hunter + 5 Encounter Moon Presence + 5 Defeat Moon Presence

Hunter's Dream ❘ 狩人の夢	Location

Description

The Hunter’s Dream serves as the base where hunters can purchase items, upgrade their character, repair and upgrade weapons, and more. It's here that you'll find the Doll, and Gehrman a mysterious wheelchair-bound advisor. Use lanterns scattered around Yharnam to return to the Hunter’s Dream at any time. When you die the first time, you end up here.

Connections

Yharnam Headstone, Frontier Headstone, Unseen Headstone and Nightmare Headstone

Bath Messengers

Use Blood Echoes to buy items from the Bath Messengers or sell unneeded items. As the story progresses, additional items become available for sale.

Buying Items with Insight

After gaining 1 Insight, a Messenger appears that offers to trade items for it. As the story progresses, additional items become available for purchase.

Workshop

Use Blood Echoes alone to repair weapons or in combination with fortification items to fortify weapons. Sufficient Blood Echoes and fortification items are required to make repairs and fortify weapons. After acquiring Blood Gem Workshop Tool, Blood Gems can be fused to and removed from weapons. Up to three Blood Gems can be fused to weapons, each having its own effect, such as improved attack or an increased chance of causing status afflictions.

Storage

Items in the player inventory can be placed in storage. Each item in the player inventory is limited by a maximum capacity. Acquired items that exceed the maximum capacity for that item are automatically sent to storage. The icon next to the item you pick up will be a box, indicating it's going to storage. When you die, the game automatically replenishes your Quicksilver Bullets and Blood Vials supplies from your storage.

Memory Altar

With the proper workshop tools, one can memorize Caryll Runes. Memorizing Caryll Runes yields various effects, including improved character stats and increased capacity for holding Blood Vials and Quicksilver Bullets.

Altars & Makeshift Altar

Offer items to a Holy Chalice and conduct a ritual to unseal a Chalice Dungeon. With a network connection, you can search for Chalice Dungeons unsealed by other players. As the story progresses, new type of Chalice Dungeons can be unsealed. Inspect the Makeshift Altar to automatically join an unsealed dungeon. In order to use Makeshift Altar player need to acquire Short Ritual Root Chalice item.

Stump Messenger

Use the Stump Messengers to customize the appearance of messengers that appear in the field. After acquiring a messenger accessory, show it to the Stump Messengers, and thereafter all messengers will adorn that accessory.

World Notes

Hunter's Dream | Workshop: To escape this dreadful Hunter's Dream, halt the source of the spreading scourge of beasts, lest the night carry on forever.

Hunter's Dream | Workshop Gehrman Spot: Ascend to Oedon Chapel.

Hunter's Dream | Workshop Gehrman Spot: A Holy Chalice is said to be enshrined in Old Yharnam, seated in the valley.

World Changes


Skyboxes during the Day, Evening and Nighttime.	Skyboxes during the Blood Moon.	Workshop is on fire when you defeat Mergo's Wet Nurse.	Skyboxes when Moon Presence descends.

Before Yharnam Sunrise ending.	After Yharnam Sunrise ending.	Doll will occasionally pray there and have unique dialogue line.	When Blood Moon is triggered, lighting changes and flowers start to glow.

New Game Plus & Beyond

The main changes in New Game + are the enemy's stats; they all hit much harder and have larger health reserves, so they are more difficult to kill. The increase to their stats is dependent on the area, with earlier parts of the game getting a much bigger increase than later ones, so you'll need to be on your toes right from the start. The values shown in the tables below show you how much enemy stats are multiplied by in each area. More information on New Game + wiki page.

New Game +

Location
Central Yharnam	912	742	86	86	86	86	83	80	93
Cathedral Ward	830	1054	104	104	104	104	98	96	111
Healing Church Workshop	1143	776	104	104	104	104	98	96	111
Healing Church Workshop \| Executioner	919	700	104	104	104	104	107	96	96
Forbidden Woods	1213	3660	105	105	105	105	101	98	113
Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	975	2046	106	106	106	106	102	98	114
Hunter's Nightmare	1209	1472	107	107	107	107	102	99	115
	► Defenses: Physical, Blunt, Thrust, Blood, Arcane, Fire and Bolt. Resistances & Bonuses don't change in further playthroughs.

New Game + Multipliers

Location
[NG+] Central Yharnam	6.080	15.453	1.240	1.240	1.240	1.240	1.240	1.240	1.240
[NG+] Cathedral Ward	4.218	5.461	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355
[NG+] Healing Church Workshop	4.218	5.461	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355
[NG+] Healing Church Workshop \| Executioner	4.218	5.461	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355	1.355
[NG+] Forbidden Woods	3.967	5.266	1.243	1.243	1.243	1.243	1.243	1.243	1.243
[NG+] Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	1.883	4.217	1.137	1.137	1.137	1.137	1.137	1.137	1.137
[NG+] Hunter's Nightmare	1.591	4.145	1.118	1.118	1.118	1.118	1.118	1.118	1.118

Beyond New Game +

The increase in difficulty does not stop after your first playthrough - you can keep making things more and more difficult all the way up to your 7th playthrough. Starting with NG+2, subsequent playthroughs have enemy HP and Blood Echoes amounts that scale consistently off of NG+ values, this does not apply to the defences which stay the same as in NG+ (multiplier value 1.00). The Playthrough table shows the multipliers for further rounds of NG+. These are applied to the values in the above table, and not to the game base values.

	NG+2		NG+3		NG+4		NG+5		NG+6
Location
Central Yharnam	975	817	1003	928	1026	1113	1048	1484	1094	1855
Cathedral Ward	888	1160	913	1318	933	1581	954	2108	996	2635
Healing Church Workshop	1223	854	1257	970	1285	1164	1314	1552	1371	1940
Healing Church Workshop \| Executioner	983	770	1010	875	1033	1050	1056	1400	1102	1750
Forbidden Woods	1297	4026	1334	4575	1364	5490	1394	7320	1455	9150
Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	1043	2251	1072	2558	1096	3069	1121	4092	1170	5115
Hunter's Nightmare	1293	1620	1329	1840	1360	2208	1390	2944	1450	3680
HP & Blood Echoes Multipliers	1.07	1.10	1.10	1.25	1.125	1.50	1.15	2.00	1.20	2.50

New Game +

Location
[NG+] Central Yharnam	912	742	86	86	86	86	83	80	93
Central Yharnam	150	48	70	70	70	70	67	65	75
[NG+] Cathedral Ward	830	1054	104	104	104	104	98	96	111
Cathedral Ward	197	193	77	77	77	77	73	71	82
[NG+] Healing Church Workshop	1143	776	104	104	104	104	98	96	111
Healing Church Workshop	271	142	77	77	77	77	73	71	82
[NG+] Healing Church Workshop \| Executioner	919	700	104	104	104	104	107	96	96
Healing Church Workshop \| Executioner	218	128	77	77	77	77	79	71	71
[NG+] Forbidden Woods	1213	3660	105	105	105	105	101	98	113
Forbidden Woods	306	695	85	85	85	85	82	79	91
[NG+] Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	975	2046	106	106	106	106	102	98	114
Yahar'gul (Blood Moon)	518	485	94	94	94	94	90	87	101
[NG+] Hunter's Nightmare	1209 ↥	1472	107	107	107	107	102	99	115
Hunter's Nightmare	760	355	96	96	96	96	92	89	103
	► Defenses: Physical, Blunt, Thrust, Blood, Arcane, Fire and Bolt. Resistances & Bonuses don't change in further playthroughs.

Breakable & Normal Weak Points

In Total and Part HP columns you will find value of the base HP without area multiplier. In Bloodborne each entity has own base HP (and NG) value which is then multiplied by the area (or part of the area) multiplier in which enemy or boss is in.

In the HP Percentage column you will find value of how much damage you need to deal to that body part to break it in percentage of total boss HP.

Enemies and Bosses can have multiple weak points which some are breakable (listed with multipliers) and take higher damage while broken while some will have only higher damage multipler the whole time (mainly listed in the notes section).

Main Game Bosses

Boss & Body Part	Total HP	Part HP	HP [%]	Damage X	Damage X after breaking
Cleric Beast \| Central Yharnam
Notes: The Cleric Beast's head and all four of its limbs can be injured separately, stunning it and giving you a few seconds to pile on additional attacks; its wounded limbs will also take 50% more damage. Hitting its head with gunshots, thrown weapons or melee attacks will stagger it, allowing you to inflict heavy damage with visceral attacks; it will eventually heal any damaged parts of its body, restoring their defense to normal but also allowing you to injure them again.
Head	2700	20	0.74%	1	1.5
Small Arm	2700	120	4.44%	1	1.5
Large Arm	2700	300	11.11%	1	1.5
Leg	2700	200	7.41%	1	1.5
Darkbeast Paarl \| Old Yharnam
Notes: Dealing heavy damage to Paarl's head in a short period of time will stagger him and allow you to perform a frontal visceral attack; repeatedly striking his limbs knock him down and dispel his lightning aura, at which point he'll take 50% more damage until he restores it. Hitting his other limbs can keep him down, allowing for chaining it if you are doing enough damage to his limbs.
Head	1800	130	7.22%	1	1.5
Front Leg	1800	150	8.33%	1	1.5
Rear Leg	1800	200	11.11%	1	1.5
Vicar Amelia \| Cathedral Ward
Notes: You can injure her head and all four of her limbs by hitting them repeatedly; doing so will cause her to stumble, and the injured limb will take an additional 50% damage.
Head	2500	80	3.20%	1	1.5
Arm	2500	150	6%	1	1.5
Leg	2500	200	8%	1	1.5
Rom, the Vacuous Spider \| Moonside Lake
Notes: While fighting Rom, focus on attacking only one of her sides - these spots can be injured with repeated attacks, after which point they'll take additional damage when hit.
Left Side	1000	250	25%	1	1.25
Right Side	1000	250	25%	1	1.3
The One Reborn \| Yahar'gul, Unseen Village
Notes: The large corpse atop its front half, the lower central core of its body and all four of its large arms can be injured once each to knock it down for several seconds, allowing you to let loose with your strongest attacks at no risk to yourself; the large corpse receives heavily-increased damage and is your priority target once you've knocked the boss down.
Small Leg	1800	100	5.56%	1	1.5
Large Leg	1800	200	11.11%	1	1.5
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos \| Altar of Despair
Notes: Target Ebrietas' head with your strongest attacks and do your best to stagger her. She'll expose her head after her ram attacks and Head Smash, so your goal during both Phases should be to bait these attacks from as far away as possible and quickstep in to strike before she lifts her head.
Head	1800	200	22.22%	2	2.5
Legs/Tentacles	1800	200	11.11%	1	1.25

Boss & Body Part	Total HP	Part HP	HP [%]	Damage X	Damage X after breaking
Amygdala \| Nightmare Frontier
Notes: Its head will take tremendous damage, even from normally weak sources such as pistols. Focused attacks on its head will eventually stagger it and allow you to perform a frontal visceral attack. Two brighter limbs will take additional damage as well.
Head	2200	300	19.09%	1.4	2.1
Arm 4	2200	200	9.09%	1	1.5
Arm 5	2200	200	9.09%	1	1.5
Arm 6	2200	180	8.18%	1	1.5
Arm 7	2200	150	6.82%	1	1.5
Arm 8	2200	150	6.82%	1	1.5
Arm 9	2200	120	5.45%	1	1.5
Arm 10	2200	120	5.45%	1	1.5
Tail	2200	200	1.82%	0.2	0.3
Legs	2200	100	0.91%	0.2	0.3
Ludwig the Accursed \| Hunter's Nightmare [DLC]
Notes: Ludwig's left and right sides can be injured individually and will take additional damage from all attacks thereafter; he will also be temporarily stunned when one side is injured allowing for a few more swings before he recovers. Unlike many other bosses Ludwig will not regenerate damaged limbs, so take full advantage of this and focus on one side for optimal damage or injure them sequentially to keep him immobilized, Repeated blows to the head during Phase 1 will stagger him, at which point you can perform a visceral attack on his face. If you have a Cannon, it can be used with Bone Marrow Ash to attack Ludwig's head and stagger him very quickly. During Phase 2 Ludwig will stagger after sustaining enough damage, at which point a visceral attack can be initiated from the front of his torso. His sides no longer can be injured at this point, but breaking his super armor will cause him to stumble. The transformed L2 attack of the Whirligig Saw is supremely effective for quickly injuring Ludwig's legs, especially when augmented with Fire Paper; during Phase 2 it is one of the fastest and easiest ways to stagger him.
Head	2400	400	16.67%	1	1.5
Side	2400	200	8.33%	1	1.5
Laurence, the First Vicar \| Hunter's Nightmare [DLC]
Notes: Target Laurence's head with pistols or the Piercing Rifle to stagger him, then follow through with a visceral attack. Staggering him works in exactly the same manner as with the original Cleric Beast; he will eventually repair the damage to his head, allowing you to injure it and stager him again. You can also injure Laurence's limbs, but unlike most other bosses this will only stun him temporarily and does not actually increase the damage he receives.
Head	2700	60	2.22%	1	1
Arm	2700	150	5.56%	1	1
Leg	2700	150	5.56%	1	1
Moon Presence \| Hunter's Dream
Notes: Dealing enough damage to its head will knock it into a stagger state and enable you to follow hrough with a visceral attack; repeated blows to its arms will injure them and cause it to stumble for a few seconds, setting it up for further combos. Any injured part of its body will take drastically increased damage, including its head; it will eventually repair this damage with its Regeneration move, but this will also allow you to stagger it again with focused attacks on its face.
Head	1020	100	9.80%	1	1.5
Front Leg	1020	150	14.71%	1	1.5
Rear Leg	1020	200	19.61%	1	1.5

Chalice Dungeon Bosses

Dungeon Boss & Body Part	Total HP	Part HP	HP [%]	Damage X	Damage X after breaking
Bloodletting Beast \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: Repeated blows to its head will injure it and cause it to stagger, allowing you to perform a frontal visceral attack; all four of its limbs can be injured as well, and will receive 50% more damage afterwards. It will eventually heal any injuries to its limbs or head, but in the process it will make them vulnerable to injury again, giving you more opportunities to perform visceral attacks. During its second phase it will no longer restore its wounded extremities.
Head	1700	100	5.88%	1	1.50
Arm	1700	150	8.82%	1	1.20
Leg	1700	300	17.65%	1	1.15
Watchdog of the Old Lords \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: By hitting its head and each of its four legs separately, these parts can be injured once per fight and will receive 50% more damage as a result. Injuring its head or any of its limbs will also cause it to stumble, opening it to your attacks. You'll need to move out again quickly, though, as it will use a medium range explosion once it has stood up.
Head	2000	400	15%	0.75	2.50
Front leg	2000	80	4%	1	1.50
Rear leg	2000	280	14%	1	1.15
Abhorrent Beast \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: You can injure his arms and head separately; once any of these parts have been injured, they will receive 50% more damage. By striking the head you can eventually stagger him, which will injure the head and open the beast up for a visceral attack.
Head, Legs and Arms	1190	200	16.81%	1	1.50
Rom, the Vacuous Spider \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: While fighting Rom, focus on attacking only one of her sides - these spots can be injured with repeated attacks, after which point they'll take additional damage when hit.
Left side	1000	250	25%	1	1.25
Right side	1000	250	25%	1	1.30
Amygdala \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: Its head will take tremendous damage, even from normally weak sources such as pistols. Focused attacks on its head will eventually stagger it and allow you to perform a frontal visceral attack. Two brighter limbs will take additional damage as well.
Head	1800	300	23.33%	1.4	2.10
Arm 4	1800	300	16.67%	1	1.50
Arm 5	1800	230	12.78%	1	1.50
Arm 6	1800	300	16.67%	1	1.50
Arm 7	1800	170	9.44%	1	1.50
Arm 8	1800	200	11.11%	1	1.50
Arm 9	1800	170	9.44%	1	1.50
Arm 10	1800	200	11.11%	1	1.50
Tail	1800	400	4.44%	0.2	0.30
Legs	1800	150	1.67%	0.2	0.30
Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades), Undead Giant (Club and Hook) and Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon) \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: Twin Curved Blades Variant: By hitting its head and each of its limbs, you can injure these parts separately, which will cause them to take 50% more damage; after some time the specifically injured limbs will have their defenses restored by the Recovery move, though this will allow you to injure them again. You can also stagger it by hitting its left and right legs, opening it up for a visceral attack. Club and Hook Variant: It has several weak points including its head, its legs and a large lump of flesh on its right hip; all of these spots can be targeted for extra damage or additional effects. Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon) Variant: They can be staggered by attacking their legs, which will open them to visceral attacks to their head. This can only be done once, and then you'll need to wait until after they have used their limb recovery, indicated by a swirling red particle effect, in order to do it again.
Head	1800	100	5.56%	1	1.50
Arm	1800	170	9.44%	1	1.50
Leg	1800	220	12.22%	1	1.50
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: Target Ebrietas' head with your strongest attacks and do your best to stagger her. She'll expose her head after her ram attacks and Head Smash, so your goal during both Phases should be to bait these attacks from as far away as possible and quickstep in to strike before she lifts her head.
Head	1620	400	49.38%	2	2.50
Arms	1620	250	15.43%	1	1.25
Tentacles	1620	300	18.52%	1	1.25

Roaming Chalice Dungeon Bosses

Roaming Dungeon Boss & Body Part	Total HP	Part HP	HP [%]	Damage X	Damage X after breaking
Watchdog of the Old Lords \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: By hitting its head and each of its four legs separately, these parts can be injured once per fight and will receive 50% more damage as a result. Injuring its head or any of its limbs will also cause it to stumble, opening it to your attacks. You'll need to move out again quickly, though, as it will use a medium range explosion once it has stood up.
Head	550	400	54.55%	0.75	2.5
Front leg	550	80	14.55%	1	1.5
Rear leg	550	280	50.91%	1	1.15
Abhorrent Beast \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: You can injure his arms and head separately; once any of these parts have been injured, they will receive 50% more damage. By striking the head you can eventually stagger him, which will injure the head and open the beast up for a visceral attack.
Head, Legs and Arms	600	200	33.33%	1	1.5
Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades), Undead Giant (Club and Hook) and Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon) \| Chalice Dungeons
Notes: Twin Curved Blades Variant: By hitting its head and each of its limbs, you can injure these parts separately, which will cause them to take 50% more damage; after some time the specifically injured limbs will have their defenses restored by the Recovery move, though this will allow you to injure them again. You can also stagger it by hitting its left and right legs, opening it up for a visceral attack. Club and Hook Variant: It has several weak points including its head, its legs and a large lump of flesh on its right hip; all of these spots can be targeted for extra damage or additional effects. Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon) Variant: They can be staggered by attacking their legs, which will open them to visceral attacks to their head. This can only be done once, and then you'll need to wait until after they have used their limb recovery, indicated by a swirling red particle effect, in order to do it again.
Head	540	100	18.52%	1	1.5
Arm	540	170	31.48%	1	1.5
Leg	540	220	40.74%	1	1.5

Enemies

Enemy & Body Part	Total HP	Part HP	HP [%]	Damage X	Damage X after breaking
Church Giant (Axe), Church Giant (W. Ball), Church Giant (Bare Fists) and Church Giant (Flame Fist) \| various locations
Notes: There is one move that can be used by all Church Giants, and while they rarely use it, you should always be on the lookout for it. If you're standing reasonably close in front of them they'll sometimes raise their leg up and use a powerful stamp, so powerful that it actually breaks their leg. When that happens you'll be able to see the bone sticking out of their knee, and if you attack it you'll do considerably more damage than normal and have the ability to stagger them. Unlike armed Church Giants both fist versions have also powerful slam attacks with their left or right arm where they break them and you can hit the bone that sticks out of them to make them stagger for a moment, with no visceral opportunity though. Flame Fist Variant: This Church giant is the only one of his kind that can be staggered without having to wait for it break its leg, and there are a couple of ways you can go about it. The first method is to attack his head when he lowers it during or after one of his attacks. Bait him into using an attack that causes him to lower his head so that you can strike it and stagger him; overhead or jumping attacks will generally give you the best chance of hitting his head. Unlike armed Church Giants both fist versions have also powerful slam attacks with their left or right arm where they break them and you can hit the bone that sticks out of them to make them stagger for a moment, with no visceral opportunity though.
Legs	400	40	10.00%	1	1.5
Lost Child of Antiquity \| various locations
Notes: While these enemies can be interrupted and staggered, shooting them during any of their attacks (but outside of the interrupt timing window) will knock them onto their backs, where they'll flail about helplessly on the ground for several seconds before getting back up; this offers a prime opportunity to hit them with your strongest attacks at no risk to yourself.
Fluorescent Flower \| various locations
Notes: If you have even one Poison Knife, you can throw it at the dangling flower to poison the entire enemy. This shining flower takes additional damage making it prime target.

An Agony of Effort Lore Extra: What Really Happened to Laurence - The Forbidden Lore of Willem and Laurence | Google Docs Link

When we touch the skull on the altar of the Grand Cathedral, we observe a scene that we’re led to believe is the final interaction between Laurence and Willem. But what if I told you that this wasn’t their last encounter and that there’s an untold chapter in their story that’s been hiding in plain sight this entire time?

What I'll present to you today, I believe, will completely upend everything we know about Laurence and his place in Bloodborne’s story. It’ll also solidify beyond a shadow of a doubt the medical metaphor that I’ve argued serves as a central framework for the game.

I was fairly confident about how From Software landed on the name Laurence, and I summarized my thoughts on that matter in a previous episode of this series. But after further investigation, I can say with absolute certainty that I was wrong. Based on the information I’ll share in this supplementary episode, I’ve come to the steadfast conclusion that it was a different real-life source who inspired Laurence’s name. And as we’ll see today, this same real-life source was the inspiration for Laurence’s ultimate fate in the game. There’s a body of evidence that indicates Laurence and Willem ended their relationship under much different circumstances than we thought.

As with any deep lore dive, the process of uncovering this secret won’t be quick or easy. But fortunately it won’t be a slog. As we proceed through this episode, we’ll make several game-changing discoveries that’ll allow us to leave with a remarkable takeaway. Our journey today begins in an unlikely location and with an even unlikelier character. We commence with Dores, the mysterious graveguard of the Forbidden Woods.

A Grave Ordeal

Everything we learn about Dores seems to come from the Graveguard attire set, which we’re told belonged solely to this character. Unlike the hunter attire sets and other Church garb that was worn by many if not all members of these professions or institutions, the Graveguard attire appears to have been worn specifically by Dores. The text of this attire collection is unusual, telling us that two servants of Master Willem went mad after encountering the Eldritch Truth in the labyrinth. The two servants, we’re told, remained loyal to Willem even in madness. One became the gatekeeper, guarding the passageway to the Forbidden Woods with a password. The other, Dores, “became a graveguard of the forest,” the Forbidden Woods. Dores—a grave guard or gravekeeper—was assigned to this post, we can assume, not to tend to the thousands of graves littering the Forbidden Woods. Dores, it seems, was there to prevent people from accessing the area appropriately named the Forbidden Grave, the final accessible site of the Forbidden Woods, which lies on the edge of the College of Byrgenwerth. Dores was guarding this grave as a servant of Master Willem of Byrgenwerth. That’s what the in-game lore would have us believe. So what exactly was going on in this graveyard adjacent to Byrgenwerth? Whatever it was, Willem didn’t want people to know about it. It was forbidden activity that must be kept secret. This seems logical, considering the unnamed gatekeeper in Cathedral Ward serves a very similar purpose to Dores. He prohibits anyone from accessing the Forbidden Woods unless they know the secret password, the sacred adage of Byrgenwerth.

I think it’s fair to say that for most of us, that’s the extent of our knowledge of these two characters, who seem to have little to no bearing on Bloodborne’s larger story. But based on what I’ll show you today, I think we’ve grossly misinterpreted Dores, the gatekeeper and their impact on the story of Willem and Laurence. First, though, we need to do a bit of scene setting. I promise you this will be worth the effort.

Lore Dissection

Let’s recap what we’ve previously concluded about Byrgenwerth. As we’ve noted many times before, “byrgen” is an Old English word meaning burial place or grave. Byrgenwerth, therefore, could be considered the “College of the Grave,” implying that the scholars of this college, this “old place of learning,” as Alfred calls it, were gaining knowledge by studying the contents of graves. That makes perfect sense, considering they were delving into the Tomb of the Gods. As I noted in the final episode of my main series, the proximity of Byrgenwerth to the Forbidden Grave, is a strong indication that the scholars of Byrgenwerth were digging through this graveyard to do their research. It seems reasonable to interpret that this is where they accessed the Tomb of the Gods and encountered this forbidden knowledge that drove Dores and the gatekeeper mad.

As we’ve also discussed at length, Byrgenwerth’s grave exploration is a key part of Bloodborne’s overarching medical metaphor. It’s a dramatic interpretation of real-life medical and surgical research of the 17 and 1800s that cuts through the entire game. In the Georgian and Victorian eras, the primary form of medical research was anatomical dissection. In the major cities of Great Britain, mainly London and Edinburgh which were home to prestigious medical colleges and a number of private anatomy schools, there weren’t enough dead bodies that could be legally obtained so that all the young men training to be physicians and surgeons could perform dissections. To meet this demand for cadavers in these medical and surgical schools, anatomy instructors had to go to extreme lengths—which meant body snatching, digging up corpses from fresh graves. It was incredibly common for anatomy instructors to conscript their students or assistants into this grisly service as part of their enrollment in these sought-after medical programs. But surgeons would often keep a few men or even a gang of body snatchers on retainer who were known as resurrection men or “sack ‘em up men.” The process of body snatching was fairly straightforward. After digging a shaft in the dirt, resurrection men would break open one end of the coffin, remove the body, stuff it into a bag and take it under the cover of darkness to a grateful surgeon or anatomy instructor who would pay them handsomely for their ghoulish goods. This practice was routine for about a hundred and fifty years.

In earlier episodes, we’ve discussed how the uniform-clad students of the School of Mensis are portrayals of the anatomy students of the 1800s who would be draped in darkly colored gowns while performing dissections. Exceptionally important for our discussion today, there are two groups in Bloodborne that are responsible for obtaining bodies for the students of the School of Mensis. The first are the Kidnapper enemies, who deliver freshly killed human subjects in a bag to the Hypogean Gaol. These figures are just like the body snatchers and “burkers” who delivered bodies in bags to anatomy schools. The others are the Yahar’gul Hunters, who are described in their attire set as “kidnappers” who wear this attire to “blend into the night.” These kidnapper figures who blend into the night are just like the real-life bodysnatchers who dug up graves under the cover of night and delivered the corpses in cloth or burlap bags to surgeons at anatomy schools, just like the School of Mensis or the College of Byrgenwerth. The Yahar’gul Hunters are described as “hunters in name only” who “answer to the village’s founders, the School of Mensis.” Just like the hired goons who dug up bodies for early surgeons and anatomists, the Yahar’gul Hunters work on behalf of these scholarly figures of Mensis. It’s a 1-to-1 parallel.

It’s crucial to recap these findings, because the Graveguard set employs some of the same elements, while taking us a couple of steps further. We can reveal these details with a close inspection of the attire artwork, followed by a reading of the item descriptions.

Let’s start with the visual attributes first. Understandably, the most striking feature of Dores’ design is his mask. But this is the spooky, shiny object to distract us from the information-rich details everywhere else in his attire. Let’s focus instead on the Graveguard Robe. Here, we can spot an accessory shared with the Yahar’gul Hunters: a length of rope wrapped around the torso, and hanging off the side at the waist. There’s a reason why both Dores and the Yahar’gul Hunters have this on their clothing. Rope was essential in the body snatching business. You’d need it in some cases to pull up a coffin that had been buried more than just a few feet underground. But body snatchers commonly would loop a rope around the body to drag it out of the coffin, just like the rope we see looped around the torso of these two attire sets. This is the first of several pieces of information that link Dores to body snatching and anatomical dissection. I realize that might seem like a stretch right now, but as we continue, you’ll realize it’s not a stretch in the slightest.

The artwork for the Graveguard Mask and Robe give us yet another valuable piece of information that’s incredibly easy to overlook. These attire pieces, as we can see here, aren’t made of cloth—they’re made of burlap, just like the bags that Bloodborne’s Kidnapper enemies use to bring our body to Yahar’gul. More importantly, it’s just like the bags that the real-life resurrection men would have used to transport bodies to anatomists. Let’s return to the Graveguard Mask for a minute. In addition to the ghostly face, the unusual shape of this mask gives it an occult, ritualistic aesthetic. But the pointy edges that poke out on the sides of the Graveguard Mask have always seemed strange to me. Then I realized why they look like this: The Graveguard Mask is a burlap sack. The pointy edge that we see on our left is the bottom corner of the bag. The stitching in the middle of the mask is just like you’d use to sew up the sides of the burlap sack. Suddenly, the ghostly face of the Graveguard Mask makes much more sense. With rope tied around the body and a burlap sack thrown over its head, Dores is supposed to look like a dead body being pulled from a grave. So, with a quick inspection, we’ve already discovered two game-changing details about Dores. But we’re just getting started.

The item description for the Graveguard Kilt and the Graveguard Manchettes contains a sentence that the other items in the attire set don’t have: These articles of clothing are “Covered in the blood of untidy rituals.” If you recall from the final episode of my Agony of Effort series, I put forth a good bit of evidence that Bloodborne’s rituals are code for anatomical dissection. It’s one of the main takeaways of the series, and one that I knew would be hard for many players to accept. I won’t regurgitate the entire segment from that episode, but I noted that many of the ritual materials of Bloodborne are labeled in their item descriptions as “body parts.” More importantly, several of these ritual materials are body parts displayed in glass containers filled with fluid, just like the diseased tissues and internal organs that real-life anatomists of the 17 and 1800s would have removed from cadavers during dissection and then preserved in jars filled with alcohol solutions.

The Graveguard Kilt and Manchettes are telling us that the game’s rituals are bloody and untidy, much like the process of dissecting a corpse would be. But the Graveguard Robe is the linchpin of this metaphor. Its description states, “Countless bloodied ritual tools hang from its back,” meaning the back of the robe. Even not knowing what these tools are, this description tells us that these rituals aren’t just bloody ordeals; they require certain tools for the job. When we look at the attire artwork again, we’re able to see these ritual tools that are referenced in the robe’s description.

The largest and most recognizable ritual tool on the back of the Graveguard Robe is a bone saw. These were commonly used in amputations, as we discussed in Bite-Sized Bloodborne #3, but they were a traditional tool in the dissection kits of the 17 and 1800s. The other instruments here are a little harder to identify. Let’s go left to right:

First, we have a metal tool that looks incredibly similar to bone forceps found in U.S. Civil War medical kits of the mid-1800s. Bone forceps also would have been used in dissections of the 1800s and are still in use for dissections today.

Next, we have a retractor, perhaps what’s known as a deaver retractor. This would be used to pull back the openings of a large, deep incision in the chest or abdomen. The pair of hooked instruments to the right are also antique retractors used in surgery and dissection.

And lastly, we have what appears to be either a probe or a penfield dissector tool.

The ritual tools of the graveguard are tools that real-life anatomists would have used to dissect bodies in the 17 and 1800s.

You might be wondering, what about the big hook and the handaxe that we see here. Are those dissection tools? No, they’re not. But in terms of the hook, I think it’s like the burlap bag and the rope on the torso of the Graveguard Robe. It’s a tool for body snatching. An 1896 article in the leading British medical journal The Lancet describes the use of large hooks in the body snatching business. After resurrection men dug a shaft, “...the coffin was lugged up by hooks to the surface, or, preferably, the end of the coffin was wrenched off with hooks while still in the shelter of the tunnel” (187). As for the handaxe, I’m not sure. Axes really weren’t used in surgery or dissection because they were inaccurate and didn’t produce the clean cuts of saws or incision knives. Axes also weren’t used to open coffins in the act of body snatching. As medical researcher Frederick Waite noted in a historical review of body snatching in the 1800s, “use of [an] ax or hatchet made too much noise for safety.” A hook, crow bar or auger would have been the tool of choice because it would allow body snatchers to break open the coffin much more quietly and not arouse suspicion.

Continuing our examination of the Graveguard attire, on the front side of the robe we find a satchel containing what might be another bone saw and the handles of large forceps. We don’t get a full view of these tools, so it’s hard to say precisely what they are. But the concept art for the Graveguard attire shows a bone saw and what might be two blades of surgical scissors that have been separated.

To summarize what we’ve revealed so far, we’ve seen that the graveguard Dores went into the Tomb of the Gods alongside the man who would become the gatekeeper of Byrgenwerth. Dores’ attire is equipped with tools for bloody, untidy rituals. And the instruments that were used in these rituals are the tools that body snatchers would have used to obtain corpses, and that anatomists would have used to dissect them. If we’re supposed to apply these details to Bloodborne’s narrative, then seemingly every bit of information we can obtain about Dores indicates that he was a body snatcher who engaged in or assisted with anatomical dissection. This is critical.

Dissection is a popular theme in Bloodborne and especially for the figures of the Forbidden Woods, which include the Madaras Twins. As we can observe if we summon him or if we kill Valtr, the Younger Madaras Twin is dressed in the Butcher attire set. We learn from its attire description that, somewhat like Dores, the Madaras Twins were “denizens” of the Forbidden Woods. And just like Dores’ Graveguard attire, the Butcher set worn by the Madaras Twins contains a bevy of references to anatomical dissection, both in its artwork and its text. As I pointed out in Part V of my Agony of Effort series, the item descriptions for the Butcher attire tell us that the twins “dissected their beast prey, to support the villagers in their forbidden research.” Obviously, we see the word “dissected” in the English and Japanese text. But beyond that, the visuals of the set are indicative of dissection. The Butcher Garb contains a sullied apron like those worn by early anatomists, while the Butcher Mask is modeled upon a Medieval executioner’s hood. The Younger Madaras Twin also carries the Hunter’s Axe, which is wielded, according to its item description, by those who wish “to play the part of executioner.” This isn’t a coincidence. In Great Britain, the bodies of executed criminals were the primary source of cadavers that anatomists were allowed to dissect in the mid- to late-18th century, following the implementation of the Murder Act of 1752. The “prey,” if you will, of real-life executioners were convicted criminals who would be hanged and then dissected for medical research. The “forbidden research” of the Forbidden Woods seems to be a reference to anatomical dissection, which also might shade how we interpret the Forbidden Grave. As a final point on the Butcher attire, Last Protagonist notes in his Japanese retranslations that the name for this attire in its original Japanese isn’t the Butcher set; it’s the Dissection set. He even notes that the Japanese word in the title of this attire set “literally [means to] separate viscera’ and is more commonly taken as ‘autopsy’ or ‘dissect.’” There’s a common theme here in the Forbidden Woods, as we can see.

Thus far, Dores fits perfectly into Bloodborne’s central medical metaphor which primarily focuses on body snatching and anatomical dissection. But there’s one more thing I think we have to consider, and if you’ll forgive the grandiosity of the statement, I think it’s a revolutionary idea that upends our long-held notions of the game’s plot while solidifying my argument for Bloodborne’s hidden meaning.

When we speak with Alfred in Cathedral Ward, he gives us a brief history of the College of Byrgenwerth. As we’ve discussed, Byrgenwerth can only be accessed through the Forbidden Woods and is immediately adjacent to the Forbidden Grave. Alfred tells us, “Once, a group of young Byrgenwerth scholars discovered a holy medium deep within the tomb,” referring to the Tomb of the Gods or the labyrinth. Alfred goes on to say that the discovery of this holy medium “led to the founding of the Healing Church, and the establishment of blood healing.” Within the lore community, the term “holy medium” has often been interpreted as a substance, such as the Old Blood, a Great One or some other remnant of the Great Ones. It’s also often assumed that these young Byrgenwerth scholars that Alfred mentions included Laurence and possibly even Gehrman and Maria. But there’s no information in the game that directly or even really indirectly links these named characters to this group from Byrgenwerth that went into the tomb. Additionally, there’s no direct evidence that the holy medium they found was the Old Blood or something related to the Great Ones. So, who exactly were these “young Byrgenwerth scholars,” and what exactly was this “holy medium” that they discovered? I think we have the answers to these two questions.

Let’s focus first on what the scholars discovered. For that question, we need to turn to the Japanese text. Aruki Mania has released dozens of videos over the last five years examining the game’s original Japanese and comparing it with Bloodborne’s official English text. I’ve previously cited his work from his Translationborne series. In one of his videos from 2017, which I’ve linked in the description, he points out that while the English version uses the term “holy medium” to describe whatever it was that the Byrgenwerth scholars discovered in—and retrieved from—the Tomb of the Gods, the original Japanese uses the term “seitai,” which can be interpreted in a couple of ways. The most common translation for seitai is Eucharist, meaning the bread and wine that Christians consume during Communion. This translation certainly gives a divine or godly aura to whatever was found in the Tomb of the Gods. And that’s important, as we’ll find out. But seitai can also mean simply, “holy body,” which can be interpreted in a much more literal sense. The term is used to describe the physical body of Christ or the bodies of emperors, who in Japan, are believed to be of a divine bloodline. This opens up the possibility that the Byrgenwerth scholars didn’t just bring back some divine substance; they delved into the tomb and brought back a dead body.

Alfred also tells us that this “holy medium” or “holy body” is “venerated in the main cathedral.” As we know, the thing that’s venerated in the main cathedral is the beastly skull of Laurence. This is why Last Protagonist has suggested that the holy medium was the body or skull of Laurence.

That obviously sounds strange and runs counter to the popular sentiment in the lore community. But it’s hard to argue with the text-based evidence. And after what I’m about to show you, I’m confident you’ll agree that this is the correct interpretation.

The Real Laurence

Laurence, as we know, underwent some sort of beastly transformation and became the first cleric beast. Because Laurence was somehow associated with the establishment of Blood Healing, a practice that ends up transforming a large number of humans into beasts, there are certainly many correlations with Robert Louis Stevenson’s story, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as I’ve previously discussed. I had assumed that this was the main inspiration for Laurence and that his name was also derived from sources associated with the anesthesia-like Healing Blood that became Laurence’s long-term legacy. While I don’t reject my earlier conclusions about the influential role of Jekyll and Hyde on Bloodborne’s beastly transformation and the Healing Blood, I now know that my conclusions about Laurence’s naming origins were completely and utterly wrong. Please allow me to correct the record with this bit of history.

In the late 1750s, an Irish-born clergyman, suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis and a troubled marriage, found a new calling. From his home in Sutton-on-the-Forest, a tiny village near York in the far north of England, he wrote and self-published a series of comic novels that almost overnight made him a celebrity in London and a star in the literary circles of England and France. The novels, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, were of a satirical styling that was both endearing and controversial at the time. But, at least for our purposes, it isn’t so much the literary works of this man that connect him to Bloodborne. Instead, it’s the details of his life and, more importantly, his death.

Laurence Sterne became vicar of Sutton-on-the-Forest in the late 1730s and performed vicary duties for nearby Stillington as well. It was after 20 years in the clergy and only after advancing into his mid-40s that Sterne tried his hand at writing, becoming an almost instant success. Unfortunately for Laurence Sterne and his readers, his tuberculosis worsened rapidly in 1768 shortly after Sterne published what would be his final work, A Sentimental Journey. He died in March of that year and, despite his modest fame, was buried in a paupers’ graveyard in Hanover Square in London. That’s when matters turned to the macabre.

Two days after Sterne’s burial, body snatchers dug up his corpse, transported it almost 60 miles north and sold it to anatomists at the medical college at Cambridge. There, Sterne’s remains were dissected by professor of anatomy Charles Collignon. Although there are differing accounts of the events that day, someone in the audience recognized that the body on the dissecting table was that of known author Laurence Sterne. It wasn’t enough to stop the dissection and the accompanying lecture, but it certainly changed the destination of Sterne’s remains after the procedure was completed. Typically, dissected bodies—or the miscellaneous pieces of it—would be buried unceremoniously near anatomy schools, prisons or workhouses. Or they could just be cremated. But that’s not what happened with Sterne’s remains. According to biological archaeologists Jenna Dittmar and Piers Mitchell, it’s believed that a student or faculty member retrieved Sterne’s remains after the dissection and returned them to London for burial. Believe it or not, we haven’t reached the strangest part of this story.

I think the amateur historians from the blog The London Dead captured it best in their entry on the strange saga of Laurence Sterne: Following the dissection, “Sterne’s corpse was discretely returned to St. George’s Field sans head according to some who reckoned that Dr. [John] Parsons or Dr. Collignon hung onto the skull as a souvenir.”

It’s believed that Charles Collignon, the anatomy professor who performed the dissection, wanted Sterne’s skull as part of anatomy collection that he would go on to amass over the years. It was the first collection of its kind at Cambridge, and many of its preparations remain at the medical college today as part of the Duckworth Collection. More than 250 years after the dissection of Laurence Sterne, no one can say for certain whether his skull is one of the hundreds at Cambridge, as many researchers insist, or whether it indeed was returned to St. George’s Field in London all those years ago. Many of the graves at the old cemetery were relocated in the 1960s to make way for a commercial development. The Laurence Sterne Trust and its curator Kenneth Monkman hoped to help facilitate the transfer and reinterment of Sterne’s remains, and they received permission to search for his remains at the grave marked by his headstone. To their bewilderment, they found several skulls in and around the grave, including one whose cranium had been sawn completely off—a telltale sign of dissection.

In short, Laurence Sterne died, and his body was removed from its grave and dissected. His head was removed, and it’s possible that its cranium was sawn completely off. And more than two centuries later, no one really has a clue what happened to the missing skull of Vicar Laurence.

The similarities between the 18th century author, Laurence Sterne, and the former scholar of Byrgenwerth, Laurence, are hard to ignore. They share the same name with the same spelling. They share the same vicar title. Their heads were somehow removed after death so they could be kept on display. And there’s a strong implication in the item Laurence’s Skull that his human skull is lost and can’t be found.

These similarities also strongly indicate to us that just like the body of Laurence Sterne, the body of Laurence, the First Vicar, might have also been removed from the grave and dissected.

This is what Alfred was telling us. This holy medium, or holy body, that was found in the Tomb of the Gods and brought back, was the body of Laurence. This body, or at least what remains of it, is what is venerated in the Grand Cathedral. Laurence, according to what Alfred is telling us, is the origin of blood healing. It wasn’t Queen Yharnam. It wasn’t Ebrietas. It was Laurence.

The body of Laurence being this holy entity also makes the other translation of seitai seem completely appropriate. As we discussed earlier, seitai is most commonly translated as Eucharist, the bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ, that are consumed in the religious ceremony of Communion. By consuming this symbol of dead but divine flesh and blood, Christians make spiritual contact with Christ. Compare that with Laurence, whose bodily remains are found in a religious sanctuary, the Grand Cathedral. He’s considered a messianic figure within the Healing Church, a quasi-religious organization led by clerics and nuns. Body snatchers were called resurrection men because they brought bodies out of the grave, just like in Christian theology Jesus rose from the dead and disappeared from his tomb. Laurence being resurrected, so to speak, is yet another Christ-like quality that From Software seems to be leaning into by playing on the literal and lingual symbols of body snatching. Whereas Christ resurrected, Laurence was resurrected.

We’ve answered the question, what was the holy medium or holy body that this group of Byrgenwerth scholars discovered in the Tomb of the Gods. It was Laurence. But we still haven’t answered the question, who were the Byrgenwerth scholars that made this discovery?

I don’t think we can answer this question with absolute certainty, but I think we can come very close. If Laurence was the holy medium that was found in the tomb, then clearly Laurence wasn’t part of this group of scholars that made this discovery. So who were they? I think it might have been Dores and the gatekeeper. That might sound ludicrous at first, but let me show you several things and have you look at some well-known features in the game with a completely different perspective. I’d ask you to hold your judgment until then.

We know for certain that Master Willem, the head scholar at Byrgenwerth, sent or even accompanied a small group of his servants into the labyrinth. The Japanese text leaves open the possibility that he led this group into the tomb. These servants were Dores and the man who would become the gatekeeper. As we’ve already shown in great detail, everything about Dores is associated with body snatching and dissection. It therefore seems a very safe bet that Willem sending or accompanying Dores into a tomb was for a very specific purpose: to snatch a body for dissection. This tandem of Dores and the future gatekeeper could have been merely servants, much like the hired body snatchers that surgeons and anatomy instructors of the 18th and 19th centuries often relied upon. But as I mentioned before, it wasn’t at all uncommon for medical colleges and anatomy schools to push the burden of obtaining bodies onto the medical students. A fictional but still accurate depiction of this very thing is the plot of R.L. Stevenson’s short story The Body-Snatcher. Two of the senior medical students in this 1884 story are tasked with obtaining bodies at the insistence of their head master, who is referred to only as Mr. K—---. The work takes them by night to remote graveyards in the countryside near Edinburgh, where they dig up what they believe is a farmer’s wife and start to bring it back to the medical school in their horse-drawn carriage. Although they’re called servants in the Graveguard attire, could Dores and the gatekeeper have been scholars of Byrgenwerth following the orders of their head master?

Removing Laurence’s body from the tomb is one thing. Dissecting is another. How do we know that Laurence’s body was dissected? Because the game tells us so. The Surgery Altar in the Hunter’s Nightmare, as I said in Part XIV of my Agony of Effort series, is a monument to the art of dissection. That’s not hard to figure out. But there’s a very important detail that takes on a new and exceptional significance after what we’ve discovered about the real-life influence for Laurence. The desiccated corpse on the table is missing the top of its skull. I previously thought that the Surgery Altar was just a scene or symbol to underscore the importance of anatomical dissection to Bloodborne’s story and underlying metaphor. But after further review, I don’t think that’s true. I think this sculpture captures a moment in time in the Bloodborne story. It depicts the dissection of the body of Laurence. As we noted about the corpse of Laurence Sterne, his head was removed in a dissection and, quite possibly, the top of the cranium was sawn off. This is identical to the body on the table of the Surgery Altar. In order to activate the elevator for the Surgery Altar, we have to obtain an item called the Eye Pendant, which we find resting in the hand of Laurence, the First Vicar, in his cleric beast form in the other Nightmare Cathedral. We have to bring it back and place it in the skull of a dissected body on the Surgery Altar. This directly links Laurence to the dissected body on the table. When we use the elevator device, the platform directly below the Surgery Altar shows the waking world altar of the Grand Cathedral upon which Laurence’s beastly skull resides. We’re supposed to associate Laurence’s skull with his dissection.

It’s crucial to note that the device used to activate the elevator is the Eye Pendant. Its description tells us that we need to “Grant eyes to the surgery altar skull.” This is the same phrase that Micolash uses in his famous line, “Grant us eyes, grant us eyes. Plant eyes on our brains to cleanse our beastly idiocy.” By putting eyes on this corpse’s brain, by granting it eyes, we’re putting an eye into the cavity of a dissected body. This is exactly what I meant when I said earlier in this series that the term “Eyes on the inside” means a surgeon’s or anatomist’s ability to literally see inside the human body during a surgical operation or dissection.

But that’s not all. There’s another major piece of this puzzle I think we’ve completely misinterpreted. Once we obtain the item Laurence’s Skull from the lower level of the Surgery Altar, we can return to the Nightmare Cathedral and use it to revive Laurence. When we do, he returns to life, and we see him close his hand that was previously holding the Eye Pendant, as if he recognizes that it’s been removed. It was—we placed it in the skull of the dissected body on the Surgery Altar. He then places his other hand not on his eyes but on the top of his head. This is the moment that Laurence realizes that his head was removed. He’s now aware that hunters took his remains from his grave and dissected them. He’s not overcome with guilt from his own actions. He’s outraged at what others did to his body.

Much like I had assumed the Surgery Altar was just a signal to emphasize the concept of dissection, I thought the same thing about the unique posture of Laurence’s burning Cleric Beast body in the Nightmare Cathedral. Here again, I was wrong. As I’ve pointed out many times, Laurence’s corpse is positioned to look exactly like “From Nature,” a plaster cast of a dissected body by Scottish surgeon and anatomist John Goodsir made in 1845. This isn’t an accident. It’s a deliberate design choice to scream to us that Laurence was dissected. It also has the side benefit of conveying the symbol of Christ from Michaelangelo’s Pieta, which was also the inspiration to Goodsir’s “From Nature.”

That’s not all that the Surgery Altar shows us. There are three figures surrounding the body. As many have long assumed, the figure leading this dissection ritual appears to be a young Master Willem, who’s wearing a distinctive hat similar to the one we see him wearing on the balcony overlooking the Moonside Lake. He’s accompanied by two assistants. Not one. Not three. Two. The same number of servants he sent into the labyrinth. Maybe this is Dores and the gatekeeper. There’s not enough information to make that conclusion with complete confidence. But there are a few things worth noting. We know from the Graveguard attire descriptions that these two characters went mad after going into the Tomb of the Gods and coming into contact with the Eldritch Truth, which means some sort of arcane knowledge. The concept of madness is almost omnipresent in Bloodborne, but there’s something that connects madness almost across the board: Madness is the result of coming into contact with the arcane, meaning the unknown internal features of the human body. People who come into contact with dead bodies in the tombs or engage in dissection rituals afterward lose their minds. For just a few examples:

The Ritual of Mensis, which I’ve argued is a reference to anatomical dissection, is performed by “madmen who toil surreptitiously.”

The player-character gains arcane knowledge by consuming the contents of a dead man’s skull, receiving “Madman’s Knowledge.”

The Madman’s attire set is worn by Healing Church Tomb Prospectors who “can’t withstand the weight of the old knowledge.”

Those who “delve into the arcane fall all-too-easily into madness,” so they must take Sedative, a liquid medicine developed at Byrgenwerth.

Lastly, “The bell-ringing woman appears to be a mad Pthumerian” having come into contact with the cosmos. These women ring their bells and bring enemies back to life. They resurrect the dead.

One of the figures in the Surgery Altar is holding a bell over the corpse of Laurence. Like the mad bell-ringing women, these chime maidens, they’re figuratively resurrecting Laurence, to use the parlance of 18th century body snatchers—or resurrection men.

A final point. I anticipate many people will find it hard to accept this idea that the body on the table of the Surgery Altar is that of Laurence. How could this be Laurence, when we know that his skull looked like this? To that, I would say: The game already gives us three versions of what Laurence’s skull or body could be. We have his beastly skull in the waking world. We have his Cleric Beast form, which as we well know doesn’t seem to accurately reflect the nature of his beastly transformation in the waking world. And finally, we have the item, Laurence’s Skull, which shows a fairly standard human skull many years after death. In a sense, it’s almost like Miyazaki is playing upon the mystery of the skull of Laurence Sterne. In the case of Sterne, there are three possible outcomes. Sterne’s skull might have been returned to a grave in London almost entirely intact. Alternatively, it might have been reinterred with the top of the cranium sawn off. And finally, it might still be residing in a collection at Cambridge. The ambiguity of Laurence’s skull in the game matches the uncertainty of the fate of Laurence Sterne’s skull in real life.

If you’re still not sold on this idea, let’s look at one final thing. Bloodborne’s opening cinematic shows the hunter hacking his way through the beasts of Yharnam before abruptly changing the setting. We see the hunter emerge in a dark location carrying a torch. This place is abandoned. The candles are extinguished. There’s no one here. But at last we see a familiar site, followed by the skull of Laurence. I had always assumed this cinematic was showing us the Grand Cathedral. But I don’t think that’s true. The hunter is walking through narrow corridors that don’t exist in the Grand Cathedral. I think this cinematic is showing us Laurence’s tomb. This is where the scholars of Byrgenwerth discovered the holy body of Laurence and brought his remains to the surface. This is the holy medium.

The cathedral containing the Surgery Altar appears to tell the story of Laurence in three acts. At the entrance to the cathedral, there’s a monument to Laurence, showing his recently deceased human body wrapped in a bag or perhaps a death shroud, having been removed from the grave. From there, it was taken elsewhere for further investigation, to be dissected, as we see on the Surgery Altar. Presumably years later, Laurence’s skull, removed long ago, becomes the holy medium upon which the Healing Church was founded.

Laurence’s story has been in front of our eyes the whole time. And it’s far more detailed and unexpected than we could have imagined. We just needed the medical metaphor to see it. Thanks for watching.

References

Dittmar, Jenna M. and Piers D. Mitchell. “The Afterlife of Laurence Sterne (1713-68): Body Snatching, Dissection and the Role of Cambridge Anatomist Charles Collignon.” Journal of Medical Biography 24, no. 4 (2016): 559-65.

“Giants of History Find a Place to Rest in Coxwold.” The Gazette & Herald, August 8, 2002. Accessed December 16, 2022, at https://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/6665794.giants-of-history-find-a-place-to-rest-in-coxwold/.

Green, Carole. “Laurence Sterne.” BBC, March 13, 2009. Accessed December 15, 2022, at https://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2009/03/11/laurence_sterne_profile_feature.shtml.

Pseudonymity, P. “DIE-jesting stURNe’s BURIALLs.” In Shakespeare’s Hamlet in an Era of Textual Exhaustion, Edited by Sonia Freeman Loftis, Allison Keller, and Lisa Ulevich, 199-243. Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

Rolleston, Sir Humphry Davy. The Cambridge Medical School: A Biographical History. Cambridge: University Press (1932).

Stevenson, Robert Louis. The Body-Snatcher. 1884. Pall Mall Gazette. https://archive.org/details/talesfantasies00stevuoft/page/86/mode/2up?view=theater

“Thomas Wakley, The Founder of ‘The Lancet’: A Biography.” The Lancet 148, no. 3804 (1896): 185-87.

Waite, Frederick C. “Grave Robbing in New England.” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 33, no. 3 (1945): 272-94.

Additional Resources

Aruki Mania’s “Translationborne 13: Thirsting and Starving for Blood.” https://youtu.be/q6diILIDuWA?list=PL5X6GrUkKqPsGvzd1ykSJe6wFpkvCrn8g&t=371

Last Protagonist’s “Fear the Old Lore 2.2.” https://youtu.be/GLyIT7F2634?list=PLQnUanUs-C-8zuZCf_tiTM6WJN6sET7mP&t=7808

An Agony of Effort, Part III - The Animal Within (The Beastly Scourge) | Google Docs Link

An Agony of Effort, Part VII The Vicar & The Blade (Laurence & Ludwig)

Laurence and Ludwig, fallen heroes of the Healing Church, are perhaps the most tragic figures in a story populated almost entirely with tragic figures. Although From Software exercised literary license in crafting these characters, they weren’t cut from whole cloth. Based on what we’ve discussed in this series, as well as some additional evidence we’ll reveal today, we can say with confidence that From Software drew inspiration from two historical figures—and the literary adaptation of one of those figures—to give life to these two foundational members of the Healing Church.

Before we can reveal the real-life inspirations for these characters, we have to briefly recall several key points I’ve made in this series. Point 1: Healing Church = Royal Infirmary In Part VI of this series, we discussed the ways in which the Healing Church serves as a parallel to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, arguably the world’s leading surgical hospital of the 19th century. It’s where Victorian author and poet William Ernest Henley sought and received treatment for tuberculosis in 1873, and where he became friends with famed author Robert Louis Stevenson. As I’ve argued throughout this series, From Software used Henley’s personal story and the literary works of both Stevenson and Henley to develop the main story of Bloodborne and several of its leading characters. Point 2: Hunters = Surgeons Throughout this series, and especially in Part VI, I’ve shown how From Software portrayed hunters as a metaphor for Victorian surgeons and anatomists, none more explicitly than the Healing Church hunters who are explicitly described as doctors. This is the core tenet of the game’s medical metaphor. And finally, Point 3: Healing Blood = Anesthesia In Part II of this series, I laid out the evidence showing that the Healing Blood, the central item in the game and the basis for the Healing Church, is meant to represent the intoxicating and addictive anesthetics of the Victorian era, primarily ether and chloroform.

When we view hunters as Victorian surgeons, the Healing Blood as an 1800s anesthetic, and the Healing Church as the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, other pieces start to fall into place fairly quickly. With that said, let’s turn our attention first to Laurence, the first vicar and founder of the Healing Church, then we can move on to Ludwig.

As we discussed in the second video of this series, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Gothic horror tale, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” served as the basis for the Healing Blood. In Stevenson’s short story, doctor and chemist Henry Jekyll experiments with chemical agents in his attempt to create curative substances. But in the process, he discovers certain agents that possess intoxicating, addictive properties that he can’t resist, and one of his concoctions transforms him into the repugnant Edward Hyde. Stevenson almost certainly based his story on the unsettling tale of American dentist and chemist Horace Wells, who experimented with ether and chloroform in the late 1840s, which caused a violent behavioral transformation and prompted him to take his own life.

In “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” Stevenson describes Mr. Hyde not just by his violent and antisocial behavior but by his unique appearance which is completely different from Dr. Jekyll’s. Although popular adaptations of the story later depicted Hyde as a sleek and flamboyant figure—somewhat like Gehrman during his boss fight—in the original tale Hyde is referred to much differently. Stevenson characterizes Hyde as a troglodyte, meaning a cave man or primitive ancestor to humans. Stevenson describes Hyde three times as “ape-like” in appearance. That’s how Hyde was depicted in the 1931 film “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

This is what we’re supposed to see in Laurence’s beastly skull in the Grand Cathedral, with its uniquely simian appearance. Unlike the Scourge Beasts or even Vicar Amelia and their canine physiognomy, Laurence’s transformed skull matches the description of the ape-like Mr. Hyde. Lore hunter JSF pointed out this detail years ago, but wasn’t sure what it might mean. It was and is an important observation. As I’ve repeatedly said and shown in this series, Stevenson’s “Jekyll and Hyde” was the inspiration for the Healing Blood. But critically, this detail allows us to understand that the ape-like Mr. Hyde, a beastly figure into which Dr. Jekyll transformed, was almost certainly the inspiration for Laurence. As we just noted, the theory is that Robert Louis Stevenson based his characters Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde upon Horace Wells, a pioneer of early anesthesia. If we start to connect the dots, we could argue that Laurence—the founder of the Healing Church and its champion of the anesthesia-like Healing Blood—was indirectly inspired by Horace Wells, a real-life physician driven to darkness and death by his addiction to ether and chloroform. We discussed in Part 4 of this series that Laurence got his name, in part, from Lauriston Place, a street in Edinburgh where the Royal Infirmary was relocated in 1879. This makes perfect sense, considering the Healing Church was inspired by the Royal Infirmary. But we can now look at two naming inspirations side by side: From Lauriston and Horace, we get Laurence.

Although there’s this ape-like physical skull that we associate with Laurence that remains in the waking world on the altar of the Grand Cathedral, his soul or consciousness is manifested in the Hunter’s Nightmare as the burning corpse of a Cleric Beast. We find this corpse resting on the altar of the Nightmare Cathedral.

It’s not surprising that many people have suggested that Laurence’s statuesque appearance is similar to Michelangelo’s Pieta, which depicts Mary cradling the dead body of Christ. Laurence of course is a Christ-like figure in some superficial ways, in that he sought to save humanity with the power of divine blood that possibly could help them transcend their human bonds and ascend to another plane of existence, just as Christ’s blood in the form of his martyrdom provides spiritual salvation and delivery to heaven for his followers. But Pieta isn’t the direct artistic inspiration for Laurence’s pose in the Nightmare Cathedral. Instead, just like pretty much everything else in the game, the inspiration comes from Edinburgh’s medical community in the 1800s. Housed in the Surgeon’ Hall anatomical museum is a plaster cast titled “From Nature” or “Cast From Nature.”

Although the work was inspired by Pieta, the piece is not Renaissance art. It’s a plaster cast of a partially dissected body, as captured by Edinburgh anatomist John Goodsir in 1845. Flaps of incised skin are folded back on the upper chest. We can see much greater similarity between Laurence and “From Nature” than we can between Laurence and Pieta, from the protruding ribs, to the back-leaning head to the identical positioning of the arms and legs. Not to mention, there’s no Mary figure in either “From Nature” or the altar containing Laurence’s cleric beast body. The only major difference is the direction they’re facing. This further reinforces Bloodborne’s use of the term “beast” to represent dissected bodies, or cadavers, also known as bodies drained of blood, while further underscoring the point I’ve been trying to make throughout this series: Bloodborne is meant to depict the nightmarish experience of Victorian-era illness and disease and the dehumanizing nature of medical research, surgery and addiction. The Edinburgh medical community, as well as the lives and works of William Ernest Henley and Robert Louis Stevenson are the soul of Bloodborne. This just further reinforces this conclusion.

Before we finish this section on Laurence, let’s examine one more thing. One of the more confusing items in the game is the key item called Laurence’s Skull. The item description is a swirling tempest of seeming contradictions: “Skull of Laurence, first vicar of the Healing Church. In reality he became the first cleric beast, and his human skull only exists within the Nightmare. The skull is a symbol of Laurence's past, and what he failed to protect. He is destined to seek his skull, but even if he found it, it could never restore his memories.”

This item description is exceptionally difficult to follow, but we’ll give it a try. At some point in the Bloodborne universe, Laurence was a scholar at Byrgenwerth. He discovered a special medium, the Old Blood, that had remarkable properties. It alleviated pain and provided a euphoric intoxication. He saw great promise in the substance and wanted to bring it to the masses, which was a noble aspiration. But the Healing Blood that he crafted was too seductive. Just like Dr. Henry Jekyll, Laurence was unable to resist the temptation of the intoxicating substances he had refined. He lost himself in the drug and transformed into something else. Just like Dr. Jekyll permanently transformed into the ape-like creature Edward Hyde, Laurence transformed into an ape-like beast whose skull we find on the altar of the Grand Cathedral. Laurence, the man, was forever lost when this beastly transformation occurred. He could never transform back into his human form. When the item Laurence’s Skull tells us “the skull is a symbol of Laurence's past, and what he failed to protect,” it means the past is Laurence’s human past, and what he failed to protect was his humanity. In “Jekyll and Hyde,” Dr. Jekyll had relied on a serum to transform him into Hyde, and another serum to transform him back into Jekyll. But eventually, the latter serum stopped working. The fading remnant of Dr. Jekyll’s consciousness within the physical form of Edward Hyde was trying to formulate a serum so that he could transform back into his human self, but it was never going to be possible. Laurence, his consciousness trapped in the Hunter’s Nightmare, is destined to seek his human skull, a symbol of his past, a symbol of his humanity, the thing he failed to protect. But it no longer exists in the waking world. In that world, there is no Laurence anymore. There are no human remains of Laurence. There’s just a skull of an ape-like beast that Laurence became. That’s what the item Laurence’s Skull means.

Ludwig, the Holy Blade With Laurence’s origins made much more clear, we can turn our focus to Ludwig. We learn from the Yharnam Hunter attire and the Sword Hunter Badge that Ludwig was the first hunter of the Church, therefore he would have come after the Old Hunters of Gehrman’s era. Let’s recall two of our main premises that we discussed earlier: 1) Bloodborne’s hunters are metaphorical representations of Victorian era surgeons, and 2) the Healing Church is meant to represent the Old Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. If these assumptions are accurate—if what I’ve argued throughout this series is true—then there should be clear-cut evidence substantiating this: That the real-life parallel for Ludwig would have had to have been a surgeon from the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in the Victorian era. Furthermore, if my insistence that the personal story and poetry of William Ernest Henley was indeed a major influence on the game Bloodborne, then we should expect to see a linkage between Henley’s poems from “In Hospital”—the book of poetry about his two-year stay at the Royal Infirmary—and Ludwig, a character inspired by a real-life surgeon of the Infirmary. Guess what? We do.

There are two vital pieces of information that allow us to pinpoint the true inspiration for Ludwig. The first piece comes from Bloodborne; the second comes from Henley’s poetry. Let’s start with the evidence from within the game. It’s an item that we don’t directly associate with Ludwig by name. But it’s obviously an item exclusively affiliated with Ludwig. It’s the Hunter Chief Emblem. The Hunter Chief Emblem is an item that provides the player easier access to Cathedral Ward, the home of the Healing Church, in the early game. But the emblem’s practical application is virtually irrelevant here. It’s the item name and description that are important. Let’s talk about the item name first. There are two important things to keep in mind about the word “chief.” First, throughout all of Bloodborne, the word “chief” appears only once: It’s in the Hunter Chief Emblem. It’s not in any item descriptions, lore notes or pieces of dialogue. It’s only on the Hunter Chief Emblem. Second, the lore hunter Last Protagonist confirms in his exhaustive Japanese retranslations that the word “chief” is correct, meaning there wasn’t a mistranslation in the original version, or some other more appropriate term that should’ve been used instead. The word “chief” in Hunter Chief Emblem is accurate.

Both of these are HUGELY important, as we’ll see momentarily. As for the item description, it states, “The main gate is shut tight on nights of the hunt, and could only be opened from the other side with this emblem. In other words, the captain's return, and this emblem, determined the end of the hunt.” The item bears an emblem we’re led to believe is the icon the Healing Church. We see this emblem on the Cathedral Ward gate, and we can see that it is almost identical to the Communion Rune, which we see throughout the Healing Church’s Research Hall. This tells us that the Hunter Chief Emblem belonged to the captain of the Healing Church hunters, not just any band of hunters. It didn’t belong to Gehrman’s Old Hunters or the Powder Kegs. This belonged to the captain or chief of the Healing Church hunters. Although the Sword Hunter Badge tells us that “Ludwig was the first of many Healing Church hunters to come,” within Bloodborne, there is only one figure who is named or alluded to as the leader of the Healing Church hunters: It’s Ludwig. We know from the Yharnam Hunter attire that Ludwig recruited hunters, implying he organized, trained and equipped them. We learn from the Radiant Sword Hunter Badge that this key item was carried by Ludwig’s successors or heirs to his will, suggesting that they venerated him as a leader. The spoken words of Ludwig, the Holy Blade, solidify this conclusion. After we defeat Ludwig in the Hunter’s Nightmare, he asks “Are my church hunters the honorable Spartans I hoped they would be?” as if they were his disciples or soldiers. He’s clearly being depicted as the leader or captain of these Healing Church hunters. It makes sense, then, that Ludwig, the first Healing Church hunter and commander of these “honorable Spartans” is the Hunter Chief to whom the Hunter Chief Emblem first belonged. Even if it was handed down over the generations, Ludwig is the only hunter we can individually identify as the owner of this emblem at some point in the history of Bloodborne.

With that in mind, we can turn to the other critical piece of evidence, this time within the literary works of William Ernest Henley. As we discussed in much greater detail in the first video of this series, Henley spent two years in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, from 1873 to 1875, where he underwent successful surgery on his right leg to remove infected tissue caused by tuberculosis of the bone. He wrote more than two dozen poems that were later consolidated into a book of poetry titled “In Hospital,” which captured his experience undergoing Victorian era surgery and his lengthy recovery in the Royal Infirmary. In three different poems from “In Hospital,” Henley refers to an unnamed surgeon at the Royal Infirmary as “The Chief.” He even titles one of the poems as simply “The Chief,” and dedicates this piece entirely to this surgeon. He describes this person as “the professor” who makes rounds with nurses, surgical staff and medical students scurrying along behind him, following his every word and instruction. As multiple literary historians have confirmed, and as basic logic would lead us to conclude, the surgeon that Henley referred to as “the Chief” was Sir Joseph Lister, chair of clinical surgery at the Royal Infirmary from 1869 to 1877. I realize that sounds extremely odd based on the figure we encounter Ludwig, the Accursed in the Hunter’s Nightmare. But stick with me for a few minutes and I think you’ll be surprised.

It’s not an overstatement that Joseph Lister was arguably the most important surgeon of the 19th century and remains one of the leading figures of medicine in the last 300 years. Lister developed and popularized what was known as the antiseptic surgical technique that revolutionized the preparation of surgical spaces and disinfecting of incisions. As head of surgery at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Lister also brought on a host of Nightingale Nurses, those who were formally trained in the nursing profession. These changes under Lister represented a period of modernization and improvement in the quality of medical care and surgery that had never been seen in a major hospital, and it triggered a mass transformation in medical care in the United Kingdom, Europe and America. Lister also ushered in a period of heavy reliance upon the new, seemingly miraculous anesthetics of his day, which further emphasized the Royal Infirmary’s step into the modern era. These anesthetics, ether and chloroform, are the Royal Infirmary’s version of the Healing Church’s Healing Blood.

Lister performed the surgery that saved William Ernest Henley’s right leg from amputation. As head of surgery at the Royal Infirmary at the time, and as Henley describes in his poems from “In Hospital,” Lister made rounds in the Infirmary to appraise surgical incisions and oversee the application of fresh bandages, soaked in carbolic acid. In the poem titled “Staff-Nurse: Old Style,” Henley says of the infirmary’s matronly nurse, “They say ‘The Chief’ himself is half-afraid of her.”. In the poem titled “Clinical,” Henley writes: “Hustles the Class! And they ring themselves Round the first bed, where the Chief (His dressers and clerks at attention), Bends in inspection already.

Because we know that Henley repeatedly referred to Joseph Lister as “The Chief,” and because we know that Bloodborne’s hunters are meant to represent Victorian era surgeons, we can confirm that the Hunter Chief refers to Lister. And because we know that the Hunter Chief is Ludwig, we can deduce that Lister was the inspiration for Ludwig.

It’s clever that the Hunter Chief Emblem is a piece of cloth, or handkerchief. Surgeons in the mid to late 1800s would have had two uses for cloth handkerchiefs. Prior to the surgery, they would douse a handkerchief with ether or chloroform and hold it by the patient’s nose to administer the anesthetic. This would have started the surgery. Once the surgery was complete, the doctor would use the cloth to wipe the blood from his hands. That’s why, according to the Hunter Chief Emblem item description, the presentation of the Hunter Chief Emblem signifies the end of the hunt. It’s the end of the surgical operation.

In the base game of Bloodborne, we find the NPC named Edgar in the Nightmare of Mensis. He’s wearing the Student Uniform and wielding Ludwig’s Holy Blade and the Rosmarinus—and yes, that’s the correct pronunciation. Edgar’s wielding of these weapons is meant to have us associate the Holy Blade with the Rosmarinus. Let’s examine why.

Joseph Lister, of course, was best known for his antiseptic method, which involved dousing bandages in carbolic acid, or phenol, and cleaning his hands and surgical tools in phenol as well. But he was famous for spraying vaporized carbolic acid in the surgery room in an effort to disinfect the air. The device he used was called a Listerizer, which is what Bloodborne used as the basis for the Rosmarinus, which is said to spray “a cloud of sacred mist.” Lister eventually abandoned use of the sprayer because it didn’t have any impact on infections and, ironically, it just badly irritated the eyes and sinuses of the surgical staff. I think that’s why the item description of the Rosmarinus includes the line, “Oh, fair maiden, why is it that you weep?” We’re meant to associate the Rosmarinus, much like the Listerizer, with Ludwig’s Holy Blade and thus Ludwig, who is based upon Joseph Lister. Both weapons are Healing Church weapons. As I’ve noted in this video and throughout this series, the Healing Church was based on the Royal Infirmary, which is where Lister developed and utilized the Rosmarinus-like Listerizer.

There’s some additional evidence to support the conclusion that Ludwig was inspired by Joseph Lister. First, let’s look at Ludwig’s Holy Blade. Lister, who inspired Ludwig, was a leading surgeon. The weapon of a surgeon, of course, would be a scalpel. Ludwig’s Holy Blade, as noted in its item description, is a silver sword. Silver was the preferred metal for early scalpels. It’s resistant to oxidation and is one of the least chemically reactive metals known to man, making it a valuable material in early medicine. We can think of Ludwig’s Holy Blade as Lister’s silver scalpel. We’ll come back to the item description for Ludwig’s Holy Blade in just a few minutes, because there’s another interesting takeaway.

All of Ludwig’s dialogue also appears to relate to Joseph Lister, often drawn from the verses of William Ernest Henley’s “In Hospital” collection. When we enter Ludwig’s arena in the Hunter’s Nightmare, we encounter something that no other boss in the game receives: a spoken introduction. A bloodied corpse speaks to us, warning of the approaching monster. “An unsightly beast... A great terror looms! Ahh... Ludwig the Accursed is coming. Have mercy... Have mercy upon us…”

Note the nature of this dialogue. The corpse is warning us of Ludwig’s approach. He says “Ludwig the Accursed is coming.” This text and From Software’s decision to include this sort of a boss introduction scene seems to be modeled off of the first paragraph of Henley’s poem titled “Clinical,” which is dedicated in its entirety to Joseph Lister. And just like the introduction of Ludwig, which speaks of this oncoming, looming figure, Clinical begins with the approach of the intimidating chief surgeon. Through the corridor’s echoes, Louder and nearer Comes a great shuffling of feet. Quick, every one of you, Strighten your quilts, and be decent! Here’s the Professor.

Although Lister would become one of the most influential and transformative figures in the history of surgical practice, he wasn’t without his critics during his lifetime. Among them were his Scottish contemporary James Young Simpson, as well as American surgeon Samuel Gross. We saw Gross and his assistants in action in the previous video, in the painting by Thomas Eakins, titled Gross Clinic. Unlike Lister and his surgical assistants who practiced with great attention to cleanliness and disinfection, Gross roundly rejected Lister’s antiseptic method. He, and many other physicians, didn’t put any stock into the germ theory of disease, which Lister had embraced after studying the work of French scientist Louis Pasteur. This context allows us to understand Ludwig’s dialogue after the player has defeated him, assuming we’re wearing church attire. Ludwig asks us: “Tell me, good hunter of the Church, Have you seen the light? Are my Church Hunters the honorable Spartans I hoped they would be?”

Whether we answer yes or no, Ludwig mentions his critics. If we say yes, he responds, “Ah, good...that is a relief. To know I did not suffer such denigration for nothing.” If we say no, he responds, “Oh, my. Just as I feared. Then a beast-possessed degenerate was I, as my detractors made eminently clear.”

Before we finish with Ludwig, it’s important to jump back to Ludwig’s Holy Blade. There’s one other big takeaway. The item description tells us that the Healing Church workshop of Ludwig departed from the ways of Gehrman’s Old Hunter Workshop. This indicates to us that the character Gehrman, as the first hunter and founder of the Old Workshop, likely represents more primitive surgical techniques in the decades if not century prior to Joseph Lister. For a good while, I wondered whether Gehrman was supposed to mirror Sir Robert Liston, a legendary and at times infamous surgeon of Edinburgh who practiced in the decades before the arrival of anesthetics.

Liston, not to be confused with Joseph Lister, was a leading surgeon of the early 1800s and taught at the University of Edinburgh medical school where he mentored the next generation of surgeons including Joseph Lister and a man we’ll discuss in an upcoming video, James Young Simpson. Liston was known for his flamboyance, confidence and—most importantly—speed. Surgeries prior to the antiseptic method, and prior to Victorian anesthesia, had to be performed quickly if the patient were to stand any chance of survival. Death from blood loss of course was a significant concern, but infection was the major killer. The longer a wound remained open, the more likely it was to turn septic. Liston reportedly was able to amputate a leg within three minutes and reveled in the challenge. It’s perhaps no coincidence that an old hunter technique was quickening, as we see in the item, Old Hunter Bone. It improves the speed of the hunter. The item itself appears to be a femur that has been severed, as in an amputated leg. Looking at Gehrman’s weapon, the Burial Blade, we naturally see a scythe that he uses to behead the player-character in the so-called “Yharnam Sunrise” ending. But the artwork for the Burial Blade depicts the untricked weapon’s handle as the bones of the lower leg. It’s supposed to look like a limb that’s been amputated, a Liston special. Also note that the Old Hunter Trousers contain a double belt wrapped around the leg to prevent beast blood from creeping up the leg. It’s also meant to depict a tourniquet belt that would’ve limited blood loss during an amputation.

I now believe that this is just supposed to link Gehrman with the old surgeons who would have performed amputations, not necessarily Robert Liston in specific. There are a few reasons why I changed my mind on this relationship, which I’ll discuss in the final videos of this series.

In the next video, we’ll take a closer look at the village of Hemwick. Although Hemwick and its charnel lane are often overlooked for their lore significance, we’ll see how they strongly reinforce Bloodborne’s connection to the work of William Ernest Henley. The village of Hemwick is not what it seems.

Welcome to the Cursed Land. The moon is close. It will be a long hunt tonight...

Hidden amongst the furthest reaches of the treacherous eastern mountains, this city lies in seclusion. Forgotten. Cursed. An affliction has cursed the city for countless ages, an endemic nightmare known only as the Scourge of the Beast. Those afflicted by this sickness lose all sense of reason, transforming into what can only be described as beasts. Night after night, “hunters” arise to cleanse the streets of these horrors.

Introducing Bloodborne, action RPG from renowned Japanese developer FromSoftware, makers of the hit Demon's Souls and Dark Souls series, exclusively on the PlayStation®4 system. Face your fears as you search for answers in the ancient city of Yharnam, now cursed with a strange endemic illness spreading through the streets like wildfire. Danger, death and madness lurk around every corner of this dark and horrific world, and you must discover its darkest secrets in order to survive. A Terrifying New World: Journey to a horror-filled gothic city where deranged mobs and nightmarish creatures lurk around every corner. Strategic Action Combat: Armed with a unique arsenal of weaponry, including guns and saw cleavers, you'll need wits, strategy and reflexes to take down the agile and intelligent enemies that guard the city's dark secrets. A New Generation of Action RPG: Stunningly detailed gothic environments, atmospheric lighting, and advanced new online experiences showcase the power and prowess of the PlayStation(R)4 system. Ever-changing Chalice Dungeons to Explore: Use holy chalices to gain entrance to a network of vast underground ruins, filled with traps, beasts, and rewards, to explore and conquer. These generated dungeons offer brand new challenges to master, and can be uploaded or shared with friends.	Current Wiki Schedule Adding datamined Rally values to each weapon's attack in Attacks Properties. Incorporating info into the PvP techniques page from Tech Guide 2 video by SK. Checking server erased glyphs in Caryll Runes (done) and Chalice Glyphs pages. Weekly Maintenance: checking for broken links, going page by page (now 1021) for fact checks, typos, grammar errors and design updates.
	Recently Updated Pages Vitality Endurance Bloodtinge Arcane Offensive Stats Level Stats Old Hunter Bone Blood Echoes Insight Strength Skill	Most Visited Pages Best Blood Gems Setups Chalice Dungeons Flow Chart Individual Blood Gems Old Hunter Summons Top-tier Farmable Gem Chalices The Old Hunters Modded Save Save-editing Chalice Dungeons HUD Icons Data Mining Progression Guide Guidance

Need more beginner tips or want to uncover Chalice Dungeons visit FAQs section. If you want to learn more about what means what on your screen and game mechanics go to Game Mechanics section. Bloodborne does not allow manual saves. Any time something happens, the game will auto-save. The game will also periodically auto-save even when nothing is going on.

Strength Equipment Requirements

Requirement	Weapons	Requirement	Firearms	Requirement	Shield & Torches
6		6		6	Torch, Hunter's Torch
7	Blade of Mercy, Threaded Cane, Saw Spear	7	Hunter Pistol, Hunter Blunderbuss, Fist of Gratia	7
8	Reiterpallasch, Saw Cleaver, Simon's Bowblade	8		8	Wooden Shield
9	Hunter Axe, Beasthunter Saif, Church Pick	9	Ludwig's Rifle, Evelyn, Piercing Rifle	9
10	Rifle Spear, Chikage, Burial Blade, Rakuyo	10	Repeating Pistol	10
11	Beast Cutter	11		11	Loch Shield
12	Tonitrus	12		12
14	Beast Claw, Bloodletter, Boom Hammer	14		14
16	Kirkhammer, Ludwig's Holy Blade, Holy Moonlight Sword	16		16
17	Amygdalan Arm	17		17
18	Stake Driver, Whirligig Saw	18		18
20	Logarius' Wheel	20		20
27		27	Church Cannon	27
28		28	Gatling Gun	28
30		30	Cannon	30

Arcane Equipment Scaling

Weapon	Scaling Base (+0)	Scaling (+1)	Scaling (+2)	Scaling (+3)	Scaling (+4)	Scaling (+5)	Scaling (+6)	Scaling (+7)	Scaling (+8)	Scaling (+9)	Scaling Max (+10)
Amygdalan Arm	D	C	B	B	B	B	B	B	B	A	A

Bloodtinge Equipment Scaling

Weapon	Scaling Base (+0)	Scaling Max (+10)		+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9	+10
Bloodletter	B	S	Detail ►	B	B	B	B	A	A	A	A	A	A	S
Cannon	E	D	Detail ►	E	E	E	E	E	E	D	D	D	D	D
Evelyn	B	S	Detail ►	B	B	B	A	A	A	A	S	S	S	S
Gatling Gun	E	D	Detail ►	E	E	E	E	E	E	E	D	D	D	D
Hunter Blunderbuss	D	A	Detail ►	D	C	C	B	B	B	B	A	A	A	A
Hunter Pistol	D	A	Detail ►	D	D	D	C	C	B	B	B	B	B	A
Chikage	C	S	Detail ►	C	B	B	B	B	A	A	A	A	A	S
Church Cannon	E	D	Detail ►	E	E	E	E	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Ludwig's Rifle	E	D	Detail ►	E	E	E	E	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
Piercing Rifle	D	A	Detail ►	D	D	D	C	C	B	B	B	A	A	A
Reiterpallasch	E	D	Detail ►	E	E	E	E	E	D	D	D	D	D	D
Repeating Pistol	D	B	Detail ►	D	D	C	C	C	B	B	B	B	B	B
Simon's Bowblade	C	S	Detail ►	C	B	B	B	B	A	A	A	A	A	S

An unmodified retail copy of Bloodborne runs on the Playstation 4 at 1080p resolution, and targets a frame rate of thirty frames per second. Although the game is fully playable and supported on the more powerful PS4 Pro and Playstation 5 consoles, performance remains locked to that of the Playstation 4. The game's performance targets can be unlocked through the use of patches created by Lance McDonald, which can be installed on Playstation 4 systems that have unofficially modified firmware. This allows for Bloodborne to be run at a much faster and smoother sixty frames per second, but at the cost of reducing the game's resolution to 720p. While Lance McDonald's patches can also allow the game to target sixty frames per second while retaining its 1080p resolution, the Playstation 4 lacks the necessary processing power to make this a feasible way to play Bloodborne. It is, however, possible to achieve this performance target using the superior processing power of the Playstation 5.

The YouTube channel Digital Foundry has access to footage of Bloodborne running at both 1080p and sixty frames per second on a modified Playstation 5 that is using the patch created by Lance McDonald. This cannot presently be accomplished using a retail PS5, as the necessary firmware patches and cracks are not available.


Performance remains smooth and consistent when running the game like this on Playstation 5 hardware, with encounters notorious for causing performance issues, such as the particle effect-heavy Blood-starved Beast fight, almost never dropping below sixty frames per second. The only instance of noticeable dropped frames occurred in the encounter with the Suspicious Beggar's Abhorrent Beast form, although Digital Foundry clarified that, as the footage was not recorded by them, it is possible the dropped frames were a glitch caused by the recording itself.

While the frame rate can be increased through patches, Bloodborne's native resolution remains capped at 1080p, even on Playstation 5 hardware. This inspired Digital Foundry to create a hypothetical demonstration of what Bloodborne running at an upscaled 4k resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels.

The project use Topaz Video Enhance AI, which contains multiple AI models that produce different results. Using an AI to upscale Bloodborne caused a number of issues that are normally present during AI upscaling, due to Bloodborne's heavy use of antialising, specular aliasing, and chromatic aberration. This results in an image with a lot of visual "noise" and unnatural lighting that AI upscalers are not used to dealing with, and required a large amount of tweaking to produce a clearer image.


Digital Foundry ultimately upscaled approximately forty minutes of footage to 4k, and presented it side by side with the original 1080p capture. The resulting footage looks much smoother and lacks obvious pixelation, but also softens the details on some textures, making them appear less distinct. According to Digital Foundry, it is unlikely that Bloodborne could ever run at a resolution above 1080p, as it was built specifically for the Playstation 4 and cannot simply be patched to run differently on the Playstation 5. A complete overhaul of the game would be required to have the game run natively in 4k, in which case a complete remake, similar to the 2021 remake of Demon's Souls, is a more likely outcome.

Note: Damage Multiplier data from official guide checked with http://darksouls2verificationdata.web.fc2.com/motion-bloodborne.html for correction after patch 1.09.

Feb 2022 Update: All attack properties (damage multiplier, damage type, stamina cost & attack impact) verified with datamined game files and added rally values for each attack.

Basic Information

This page contains embedded praske's spreadsheet of bosses and enemies values for Main Story and Old Hunters Expansion.

Use D-Pad Left and Right buttons (click into the spreadsheet) if you want to move table for more stats.

All bosses and enemies are sorted by their names alphabetically.

Bloodborne & The Old Hunters Collector’s Edition Guides

sand-box page

Test Page

How to make a mule in bloodborne - BL4 Guide [source]

PART 1 - UNLOCKING FRCs - Estimated time: 4 hours

1) Central Yharnam

2) Old Yharnam

3) Twin Blood Stone Shards

4) Cathedral Ward

5) Pthumeru Chalice

6) False Depth Runes

7) False Depth Elemental Gems

8) Uncanny Saw Cleaver +6/10

9) False Depth Tempering Gems

10) Undefiled Chalice - FRC Shortcut + Sinister Rite

PART 2 - FARMING FOR MANDATORY GEM SETUPS - Estimated time: 1 hour

FLAT ARC GEMS

POORMAN

RAPID POISON

BRIEF CHALICE BOSS GUIDES

PART 3 - POST AMELIA GOODIES

Escape Soft-locking in Test Dungeons [source]

Arti’s Definitive Guide to BL4 Runs [source]

Savescumming

Important Concepts of Bloodborne

Character Creation

Iosefka’s Clinic and Central Yharnam

Father Gascoigne

Cathedral Ward: First Visit and Gathering Materials

Old Yharnam

Blood-Starved Beast

Cathedral Ward: Second Visit and Abandoned Old Workshop Exploration

Hemwick Charnel Lane

Witches of Hemwick and Finishing the Area

Hypogean Gaol

Darkbeast Paarl

Cathedral Ward: Third Visit and Vicar Amelia’s Death

Vicar Amelia

Forbidden Woods: First Visit and Gathering Materials/Key Items

Nightmare Frontier

Forsaken Cainhurst Castle

Hunter’s Nightmare

Forbidden Woods: Second Visit and Shadows of Yharnam’s Death

Shadows of Yharnam

Byrgenwerth

Rom, the Vacuous Spider

Yahar’gul, Unseen Village: First Visit and Gathering Materials

Upper Cathedral Ward

Yahar’gul, Unseen Village: Second Visit and The One Reborn’s Death

The One Reborn

Lecture Building, Second Floor

Nightmare of Mensis, First Half

Micolash, Host of the Nightmare

Iosefka’s Clinic

Nightmare of Mensis, Second Half

Mergo’s Wet Nurse

Cleaning up Base Game

Cleric Beast

Amygdala

Martyr Logarius

Celestial Emissary

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos

Ludwig, the Accursed/Holy Blade

Research Hall

Living Failures

Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower

Fishing Hamlet

Orphan of Kos

Laurence, the First Vicar

Hunter’s Dream

Gehrman, the First Hunter

Moon Presence

Epilogue and Special Thanks

Classes & Weapons at Base Level [source]

Cosplay Builds [source]

How to Make a Build in Bloodborne [source]

Where Do I Start?

Which Build Should I Pick?

How Should I Level Up?

Where Do I Finish?