sand-box page

Test Page Bloodborne Wiki » Test Page

Source ❘ Edit ❘ Sitemap ❘ License page revision: 18, last edited: 17 July 2021

Unidentified Corpses

List of corpses (bodies) you find throughout the Yharnam, belonging to the lootable or unique deceased characters we don't know identity of. All following corpses are part of the environment.

Lootable Corpses

Unique Corpses

Meta PvP Builds Guide By Ithmari [source]

Out of all the builds listed here the most viable and optimal ones are Quality and Str/Qual. These 2 builds are relatively close in terms of power with Quality slightly ahead in terms of damage while Str/Qual sacrifices a bit of damage and Visceral Attack for survival to use BR. Though if you know how to heal then your best choice would be Quality. Both builds have access to Heavy Abyssals as well as Adepts and Visceral Damage giving you access to the majority of the weapons in the game. Only downside for both builds is not having more than 50 Vitality but that doesn’t take away anything from both builds. You can make the strongest build arguments for Str/Skl/Gouge builds but VitGouge is only ever useful if you're host so they fall behind in taking trades with your opponents if they are also on builds that deal Physical Damage with Heavy Abyssals (excluding Tinge Burst Damage and Adepts). These 2 builds suffer a lot just like 2Kat when they're the Invader due to cut-hp and not being able to trade well due to it only upside being the invader is, you might have a chance of surviving a visceral. Str/Gouge though is still higher up than Skl/Gouge because of the damage that you have due to Heavy Abyssals while Skl/Gouge has maximum Visceral Damage over Str/Gouge. Skill/Quality Skl/Qual is a dedicated Reiterpallasch build which works like a lesser Saw Spear with short hitboxes but attached with a gun having the best angle to shoot from as well as having Hyper Armour on every single shot that you shoot with it so you can tank hits and potentially parry your opponent if it is a latent fight so it is a trade-off. A Headshot from a Reiterpallasch will true combo into an Evelyn shot. With Tempering Abyssals as well as Reiterpallasch mash and Gunshot chip damage it makes up for the lack of damage compared to a Quality build. This build unfortunately has low damage due to not having Heavy Abyssals and it's a running trend with any Skill oriented build unfortunately. 2Kat 2Kat is the highest skill ceiling build in the game since it requires you to know match-up knowledge as well as advanced understanding of PvP's mechanics. Even if it is the hardest build to play it is obviously not the best build nor a viable build at the end of the day simply due to how atrocious Chikage's moveset is and relying heavily on Evelyn to do the bulk of the damage which then makes it a passive parry-fishing build. You can try to play aggressively with BR Wake-Ups while managing bullet count but apart from that you won't be getting any unzips (Transform Attack) on your opponent with the weapon's moveset alone at the highest level of play and if your opponent is patient enough once you are out of bullets you won’t have much to threaten the opponent and you’re left with garbage moveset to make the work and your only crutch would be then the burst damage of Chikage but for that to work you have to be the host and have HP advantage (excluding Adepts). LetterGun LetterGun is the better Bloodtinge weapon this game has to offer with solid Tricked Tap R2s and Dash R1s. If you use it with 2H Tech then each Dash R1 will true combo into a gunshot (Dependent on Lat). You can also toggle off the weapon to do a LetterBomb (L2) but to make sure not to get hit by frenzy build-up you must have at least minimum of 180 Frenzy Resistance. Best way to fully optimise this build is to use 2H Gun Tech which allows you to use your off hand while having your main hand is tricked. Not only does this give you a true combo with enough lat but also making sure you have Gun Pressure while also having really good Dash Attacks. Arcane/Bloodtinge Arc/Tinge gets heavily nerfed because of the White Church Set as well as the %5 Great Lake Rune. It's not a hard hitting build but Saif/Chikage combo makes it somewhat decent. Despite being a diverse build it simply doesn’t make enough damage output as much as Physical Damage and tools are obviously a joke with only viable tool being BR. Exe Gloves can work sometimes only if you give them a slight curve to throw some timings off but overall it isn’t the best build. Strength/Bloodtinge Str/Tinge is probably the most versatile build in the game having access to both of the Bloodtinge weapons as well as majority of the weapon roster in the game with only downside being not having access to BR as well as close to none Visceral Damage but the damage output and pressure makes up for it. Pairing in this build is also very strong with Saw Cleaver/Bloodletter or Chikage. You also have access to Gatling Gun as memey as it is the damage you can get off of it is decent and you can Recovery Cancel with it. You also have Evelyn which has amazing chip damage, You have access to Adepts, Bloodtinge Weapons, Almost all the weapons from the roster. Best Hybrid build in the game you can’t go wrong with Str/Tinge.

Skill/Bloodtinge Skl/Tinge is a dedicated Bowblade/Reiterpallasch build with Chikage as its pocket weapon (which is the best way to use Chikage. In a Hybrid build used as a quick burst weapon off a toggle.) Apart from that Reiterpallasch gunshots can get a bit more damage but that's about it and Bowblade can be used as a mash weapon instead if you don’t wish to use Reiterpallasch. This build doesn't have the best damage to offer as well as not having access to BR but some versions of the build does use BR by cutting vitality/tinge for more survival but 40 tinge Chikage isn’t really the best burst option sweet point is definitely 45 if you do want burst damage and you’d ideally want Vitality above or at 45 anything lower is definitely not optimal. Strength/Arcane Str/Arc is a dedicated Logarius Wheel build. It has multi-hit Dash Attacks when tricked and can be used for slow poisoning in high-lat matches for passive damage while keeping up pressure with Wheel that you’d use to damage with. Apart from that you have access to Heavy Abyssals so the only upside compared to Skl/Arc is your Physical Damage simply being better so you can actually challenge with it if wheel doesn’t work for you in said match and downside being in comparison to Skl/Arc is not having any Visceral Damage. Skill/Arcane Skl/Arc is a dedicated BoM (Blade of Mercy) build it has very strong Dash Attacks both Tricked and Untricked with amazing multipliers paired with 21s. It's somewhat versatile with swapping between Converted and Physical weapons but again Physical suffers from not having Heavy Abyssals. Arcane Arcane is pretty much the most garbage build overall in the game due to having really bad damage output as well as how easy it is to lower it’s already bad damage output with %5 Lake Rune and Armour Swapping to Choir Set or any set that has relatively good Arcane Resistance. Apart from that tools are really bad to use as a primary way of dealing damage and you’re pretty much stuck with converted weapons that deal very low damage compared to rest of the builds that use those weapons in Physical Damage forms and this build uses Kos Parasite as it’s main way of dealing Arcane damage and it’s not the best weapon in the game due to being very slow and it just ends up as a Dash Attack weapon and at that point you’re better off with Str/Arc if you do want any sort of Arcane Damage with Dash Attacks. Builds Used By Ithmari: Quality: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58953 Str/Qual: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58954 Skl/Qual: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58950 Str/Gouge: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58956 Skl/Gouge: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58957 2Kat: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/53973 LetterGun: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58955 Arc/Tinge: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/53974 Str/Tinge: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58952 Skl/Tinge: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58951 Str/Arc: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/69848 Skl/Arc: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/58958 Arcane: https://mugenmonkey.com/bloodborne/69849

» Environment Gallery

001	Abandoned Old Workshop	007	Forbidden Woods	013	Iosefka's Clinic	019	Old Yharnam
002	Altar of Despair	008	Forsaken Cainhurst Castle	014	Lecture Building	020	Research Hall
003	Byrgenwerth	009	Healing Church Workshop	015	Moonside Lake	021	Statues of Yharnam
004	Cathedral Ward	010	Hemwick Charnel Lane	016	Nightmare Frontier	022	Testing Chalice Dungeons
005	Central Yharnam	011	Hunter's Dream	017	Nightmare of Mensis	023	Upper Cathedral Ward
006	Fishing Hamlet	012	Hunter's Nightmare	018	Objects	024	Yahar'gul, Unseen Village

- Made by ico in 2023 -

Whirligig Saw ❘ 回転ノコギリ	Right Hand Weapon

In-Game Description A trick weapon crafted by the workshop heretics, the Powder Kegs, and weapon of choice for the old hunter Valtr, the Beast Eater. This weapon pummels beasts in its mace form, but its true strength lies in its attached mechanical saws. These discs, lined with serrated teeth, spin rapidly, trashing the flesh of beasts into fine shreds. Note 1: The same in-game description in US & UK versions. ✓ Note 2: Original Japanese text on Original Japanese Item Index page. ✓ Overview The Whirligig Saw requires 18 strength and 12 skill to use. Though it requires a high investment in strength, this will not be wasted, as it scales exceptionally well with this stat. It even receives an S rating when fully upgraded! Many attacks in normal mode offset the Whirligig Saw's scaling by having low damage multipliers. The real star of the show is the transform mode, which rapidly shreds with some attacks. In addition, this mode deals a 20% damage increase against enemies weak to serration. Both modes utilize the game's regain system very well. All things considered, the Whirligig Saw should feel comfortable to anyone familiar with Logarius' Wheel. Normal Mode: For the most part, damage multipliers for normal mode attacks score lower than the weapon's overall attack rating. Attacks are mainly blunt, but there are a few thrust attacks at your disposal. You may want to use this mode for its speed and comparatively lower stamina costs, especially when handling more evasive enemies. Transformed Mode: The Whirligig Saw's transform mode uses a large array of physical attacks, which is a good balance to all of the blunt and thrust attacks of the normal mode. This mode is overall slower and consumes more stamina, but deals more damage per hit. It also gains a 20% attack bonus against enemies weak to serrated weapons. This mode is similar to Logarius' Wheel with its shredding attacks; players utilizing the regain system will benefit greatly from using this mode. Availability Normal: Treasure in (The Old Hunters DLC): Treasure in Hunter's Nightmare, just after Nightmare Church lamp. You head down the stairs, drop down to your right and a little further up it will be on the tombstone. It is possible to obtain Whirligig Saw faster by jumping on the wooden beams from top of ladder before Bloody Plaza and then subsequently jump on the tombstone it's on. [video] Uncanny: Sold by: Chalice Bath Messengers & Patches, the Spider; Pthumeru L1, main area, 8i29rqz3 - [video] Lost: Sold by: Chalice Bath Messengers & Patches, the Spider; Pthumeru L1, main area, 8i29rqz3 - [video] Gem Shapes and Alternate Weapons Right-hand weapons can have up to three gem slots, and some left-hand weapons have one slot. There are different slot shapes, though; not every gem will fit every slot. The slot types are: Radial, Triangular, Waning, and Circle. Your gem's shape needs to match the slot you want to use it in. If you find a really great gem but the shape doesn't properly match your weapon, don't give up hope. There are actually two alternate versions of every right-hand weapon - the Lost and Uncanny versions. They're identical to normal weapons except that they have different slot configurations (► Blood Gems Sockets on the right). These alternate weapons can be found in Chalice Dungeons. There is also an exceedingly rare fifth type of gem shape - Droplet gems. These are "almighty" gems; they can fit in any type of gem slot! Gem Advice The infamous Pizza Cutter is a beast of a Strength weapon, which should immediately point anybody seeking to optimize it towards high Strength investment, be it a pure Strength build or a quality spread. In either case, one Heavy Abyssal and two Tempering gems is, as usual, the gold standard for a basic Whirligig. It is notable that the untricked mode deals exclusively Blunt damage, so 32.6% Blunt Adept gems can make this mode hit harder than usual, however this robs you of the weapon's best feature, its tricked mode, and is not often recommended. The Whirligig's pure physical serrated damage also makes it appealing for conversion to Fire damage on Arcane builds, resulting in one of the most powerful anti-beast converted weapons in the game. Two Cold Abyssals and one Fire Abyssal will make this build shine. Best suited for: Strength builds, Quality builds, Arcane builds Arcane conversion: Yes For more information check the Best Blood Gem Setups page. Key Attacks Normal Mode: The R1 chain is a series of fast blows and, while not exactly rapid, their speed will somewhat make up for the low damage multipliers. Blunt attacks receive higher rates of health regain, which synergizes well with the speed of these attacks and more aggressive play. The fourth hit of this chain is thrust type, though its usefulness can be quite limited due it to being so late in the chain. The backstep R1 makes for a better and more useful thrust attack. Its damage multiplier low, but it uses much less stamina than the dashing R1 thrust. Backsteps won't put much distance between you and the range of most enemy attacks, if at all. They also require specific timing to properly utilize the invincibility frames, so in some cases the dashing R1's higher stamina may be worth it. The normal R2 has much better damage than most attacks, but you're better off just using the transform mode R1s for faster swing speeds and similar damage. A charged R2 will deal much more damage than other attacks, but it's really only useful for setting up rear visceral attacks. Instead, consider using the leaping R2. This is a great alternative; it uses slightly more stamina, but deals a fairly similar amount of damage without the long charge. It's also great for breaking enemy super armor, which it does with high impact. Transformed Mode: The R1 chain has a good damage multiplier and peaks at the fourth hit with a small area of effect grinding attack. If you manage to pull off the whole thing, it deal a great amount of damage. Otherwise, you can use the first R1 for prodding back enemies. Quickstep R1s are very useful for this purpose as well. Single hits are almost a necessity for some enemies, and for these instances you can use a backward quickstep R1. This gives good forward momentum which is only complimented by the forward jab. A fully charged R2 will take a lot longer than most other weapons' equivalent attacks to perform, but it is very powerful and creates a small, continuous grinding area of effect. If you feel that an enemy is getting too close during the long charge, releasing it early is not a bad idea. Doing so will result in a standard R2, but with its startup out of the way during the charge, the swing will be near instant! This can also work as a strong fake out against players online. Another two grinding attacks are the leaping and backstep R2s; the leaping R2 deals more damage, but the backstep R2 uses less than half the amount of stamina to perform. Holding L2 causes your character to hold the blade outward while it spins. This chips away stamina quickly while active and cancels upon release. You can still slowly move around while doing this, which will allow you to walk into enemies with the blade. Enemies with next to no super armor will be stun locked, unable to attack. Foes with high super armor values will appear to flinch, but can still attack, so don't get too greedy! Tapping L2 also works as a forward jab, though the damage multiplier for a single hit isn't that good by itself. Durability Durability of the weapon depletes when used. This means hitting an enemy, destructible object or bouncing off the walls. Hitting undestructible objects and environment does not deplete your durability. Style of an attack or upgrade of the weapon, even different weapon, does not matter - each count as one hit. Every 10th hit against the enemy/object depletes 1 durability. Exception is Tonitrus, which when in self buffed mode, depletes durability at rate of 2 hits. Hitting an enemy in dying animation still counts as hit. Also hitting multiple enemies/destructible objects at once counts as one hit per enemy - hitting 3 enemies at once counts as 3 hits towards durability counter. Shields lose 1 durability every 10th hit. Bounce means when your hit is bounced back off the wall or other objects. Every 5th bounce depletes 1 durability. Not every weapon can be bounced off, Whirligig Saw belongs into the category which cannot. Damage reduction when heavily worn. When weapon is at 30% of total durability, it reaches the Risk state and AR is reduced by 30% and when it hits 0% of total durability, weapon is Broken, then AR is reduced by 50%. Whirligig Saw which has 230 points of durability reaches risk state at 69 Dur. Workshop's Repair: cost of repair depends on the weapon and its upgrade. For Whirligig Saw +0 it's 3 Blood Echoes per 1 point and for Whirligig Saw +10 it's 10 (values are rounded), full repair costs for +10 are 2400 Blood Echoes. Notes This Weapon is part of The Old Hunters DLC. Weapon's Rally: A lot of attacks multiply the rally number by their attack damage multiplier. Some of them are special-cased to have a different amount of rally, both multipliers can be seen in the Normal & Transformed Mode Attacks Properties tables below. Rally number (in flat HP) can be raised by upgrading the weapon, as seen in the Upgrade Table below. Uncanny and Lost versions are sold in every Chalice Bath Messengers & Patches, the Spider shop, both for the same price. Uncanny and Lost versions available for purchase after obtaining normal version of the weapon. Visual glitch was discovered where you can temporarily glitch cape [wiki page] from your chest garb if you use Yahar'gul teleport or portal traps in Chalice Dungeons. You need to equip any weapon your hunter puts on their back (Kirkhammer, Ludwig's Holy Blade, Burial Blade & Whirligig Saw) and enter the teleport. Video: Bloodborne - New DLC Weapon "Whirligig Saw" Location by tassssssssss. You can find concept art of the Whirligig Saw in Bloodborne Official Artworks, on page 242.

Blood Gems Sockets Whirligig Saw Uncanny Whirligig Saw Lost Whirligig Saw

» Lore - Where to read

[Wiki] Dialogue Reference, all dialogues (used & unused) from the base game [Wiki] Datamined EN & JP Dialogue Comparison, all dialogues (used & unused) from the base game and DLC, EN & JP side by side [Wiki] Original Japanese Item Index, original Japanese text (name, quick description & item description) for all items in the game [Wiki] Original Draft Dialogues, translated from Japanese [Web] Lokey Lore - Bloodborne, by Lokey who is a Souls fan writing on Souls lore, highlighting errors in the games’ official localizations with in-depth analysis. [Doc] Bloodborne Japanese Retranslation Guide, by LastProtagonist aka Presance. [Wiki] Multilingual Names, official names in all six languages: English, Japanese, German, Spanish, French and Italian. [Gamefaqs] Lore Translation Guide by Intothisworld [Doc] Bloodborne Plot Research, determining the most “accurate” translation of the text. [Wiki] Bloodborne Cut Content Progression Map [Wiki] The True Story of Bloodborne Video Series and Bite-Sized Bloodborne Video Series by Charred Thermos [Doc] [Wiki] The Paleblood Hunt - Finalized and revised with both new and old theories. 108 pages on Bloodborne's Lore, Characters, History, and World. [Doc] The Haemonomicon, compendium of investigative works for Bloodborne UPDATE: Yharnam-scholars.wikia.com new #lore wiki, replacing the Haemonomicon [Doc] Lore Resources by Kou_Kagerou [Doc] [Archive 30-09-2022] Bloodborne Re-Translated by Last Protagonist & Aruki Mania, (Spreadsheet of EN & JP script comparison, as well as a "re-translation" of the Japanese script that aims to clarify some inconsistencies) [Doc] Bloodborne Walkthrough & Lore Guide by chasemcguire20 [Reddit] Arcane - The Biggest Theme of Bloodborne Lost in Translation?, [download PDF file] [Reddit] Bloodborne's Biggest Secret Finally Revealed: Nightmare Mist, [download PDF file] [Reddit] "When all is melted in blood, all is reborn." - The Terrifying Rituals of Pthumeru [Reddit] Lore of the Old Hunters: What we've learned; What's changed; What we can believe [Reddit] Bloodborne Timeline (updated for The Old Hunters) [Reddit] The Sin (Disgustingly DLC Spoileriffic) [Kotaku] What's Really Going On in Bloodborne [Reddit] The final DLC boss and Gehrman [Reddit] In Defense of Iosefka [Reddit] Quick Lore - An Easy to Read, bullet pointed, explanation of the universe of Bloodborne, and the Player-Character’s narrative [Ian Lepkowsky] Bloodborne’s Hidden Backstory Finally Explained [Doc] K→MP: Or, How a Fish Monster Died and Turned into a Moon God [Reddit] Theory on the Yharnam dogs [Reddit] Explanation for Gascoigne's daughter quest [Reddit] Insight-granting epiphany : Cainhurst, the Healing Church and Byrgenwerth [Kotaku] The Artists and Paintings That Bleed Through Bloodborne [Reddit] Gascoigne's daughter and the imposter sister

001	Ashen Blood Beast Patient	038	Gel	075	Keeper's Hunting Dog	112	Nightmare Executioner (Church Cannon)
002	Beast Patient	039	Giant Fishman (Anchor)	076	Kidnapper	113	Old Hunter (Beast Cutter)
003	Beast Patient (Female)	040	Giant Fishman (Fists)	077	Labyrinth Madman (Corpse)	114	Old Hunter (Beasthunter Saif & Rifle)
004	Bell Ringer	041	Giant Lost Child	078	Labyrinth Madman (Sickle)	115	Old Hunter (Beasthunter Saif)
005	Bloodlicker	042	Gravekeeper Scorpion	079	Labyrinth Madman (Twin Sickles)	116	Old Hunter (Boom Hammer)
006	Brain of Mensis	043	Hemwick Grave Woman (Molotov)	080	Labyrinth Rat	117	Old Hunter's Hound
007	Cain's Servant (Cane & Candelabra)	044	Hemwick Grave Woman (Cleaver & Torch)	081	Labyrinth Ritekeeper	118	Parasite Larva
008	Cain's Servant (Cane)	045	Hemwick Grave Woman (Mallet)	082	Labyrinth Warrior (Crossbow & Sword)	119	Pilgrim
009	Cain's Servant (Rapier)	046	Hemwick Grave Woman (Pole Iron)	083	Labyrinth Warrior (Greatsword)	120	Rabid Dog
010	Carrion Crow	047	Hemwick Grave Woman (Sickle)	084	Labyrinth Warrior (Morning Star)	121	Rotted Corpse
011	Celestial Child	048	Hole Digger	085	Labyrinth Warrior (Sword & Shield)	122	Scourge Beast
012	Clocktower Patient (Acid Bottles)	049	Hunting Dog	086	Labyrinth Watcher (Bare Hands)	123	Shadow of Yharnam (Mace & Fireball)
013	Clocktower Patient (Crawling)	050	Huntsman (Bare Fists)	087	Labyrinth Watcher (Cleaver & Lantern)	124	Shadow of Yharnam (Sword & Candle)
014	Clocktower Patient (Fists)	051	Huntsman (Cleaver)	088	Labyrinth Watcher (Cleaver)	125	Shadow of Yharnam (Sword)
015	Clocktower Patient (Head)	052	Huntsman (Cutlass)	089	Labyrinth Watcher (Dagger)	126	Scholar (Bare Hands)
016	Clocktower Patient (Headless)	053	Huntsman (Delayed Molotov)	090	Labyrinth Watcher (Halberd)	127	Scholar (Flask)
017	Clocktower Patient (Infected Hand)	054	Huntsman (Molotov)	091	Labyrinth Watcher (Twin Axes)	128	Skeletal Puppet
018	Clocktower Patient (Leaping)	055	Huntsman (Oil Urn)	092	Large Crawler	129	Small Celestial Emissary
019	Clocktower Patient (Magic)	056	Huntsman (Pitchfork)	093	Large Huntsman (Plow)	130	Small Celestial Emissary (Tendrils)
020	Clocktower Patient (Stand) )	057	Huntsman (Rifle & Cutlass)	094	Large Huntsman (Spear)	131	Snail Woman (Bare)
021	Cramped Casket	058	Huntsman (Rifle)	095	Large Huntsman (Torch & Saw)	132	Snail Woman (Shell)
022	Crawler	059	Huntsman (Sickle)	096	Large Nightmare Apostle	133	Snake Ball
023	Evil Labyrinth Spirit	060	Huntsman (Torch and Axe)	097	Large Snake Ball	134	Snake Parasite
024	Executioner	061	Huntsman (Torch and Shield)	098	Large Wandering Nightmare	135	Undead Giant (Hatchet and Cannon)
025	Eye Collector	062	Huntsman's Minion (Brick)	099	Loran Cleric	136	Wandering Nightmare
026	Fish Dog	063	Huntsman's Minion (Statue)	100	Loran Silverbeast	137	Watcher Chieftain (Club & Lantern)
027	Fishman (Cleaver)	064	Children of Rom	101	Lost Child of Antiquity	138	Watcher Chieftain (Heated Club)
028	Fishman (Melee Harpoon)	065	Church Giant (Axe)	102	Mad One	139	Watcher's Gravedigger (Hook & Lantern)
029	Fishman (Rake & Awl)	066	Church Giant (Bare Fists)	103	Merciless Watcher (Mace)	140	Watcher's Gravedigger (Pickaxe)
030	Fishman (Ranged Harpoon)	067	Church Giant (Flame Fist)	104	Merciless Watcher (Saw)	141	Watcher's Gravedigger (Rifle, Hook & Lantern)
031	Fishman (Twin Rakes)	068	Church Giant (Wrecking Ball)	105	Merciless Watcher (Scattergun, Club & Lantern)	142	Wheelchair Huntsman (Flamesprayer)
032	Fishman Mage (Curse)	069	Church Servant (Flamesprayer)	106	Mergo's Attendant (Crossbow)	143	Wheelchair Huntsman (Gatling Gun)
033	Fishman Mage (Staff)	070	Church Servant (Cane & Lantern)	107	Mergo's Attendant (Flail)	144	Wheelchair Huntsman (Pistol)
034	Fluorescent Flower	071	Church Servant (Cane & Pistol)	108	Mergo's Attendant (Unarmed)	145	Wheelchair Huntsman (Rifle)
035	Forsaken Castle Spirit (Head)	072	Church Servant (Cane)	109	Mergo's Chief Attendant	146	Wheelchair Huntsman (Rosmarinus)
036	Forsaken Castle Spirit (Knife)	073	Church Servant (Crucifix)	110	Nightmare Apostle	147	Winter Lantern
037	Garden of Eyes	074	Church Servant (Scythe)	111	Nightmare Executioner (Axe)

Cleric Beast Fight As you can see fighting Cleric Beast inside was experience to behold. Labyrinth Watcher Chalice Dungeon enemy Labyrinth Watcher placed in Forbidden Woods. Loran Cleric Chalice Dungeon enemy Loran Cleric placed in Yharnam area. Shotgun Model We can see early model of shotgun firearm Vicar Amelia Vicar Amelia was early in development placed in "Witches Abode" in Hemwick Charnel Lane. Blocking In leaked Project Beast trailer there was shown blocking with a weapon.

Cleric Beast Fight As you can see fighting Cleric Beast inside was experience to behold. Labyrinth Watcher Chalice Dungeon enemy Labyrinth Watcher placed in Forbidden Woods. Loran Cleric Chalice Dungeon enemy Loran Cleric placed in Yharnam area. Shotgun Model We can see early model of shotgun firearm Vicar Amelia Vicar Amelia was early in development placed in "Witches Abode" in Hemwick Charnel Lane. Blocking In leaked Project Beast trailer there was shown blocking with a weapon.

» Bosses Gallery

001	Abhorrent Beast	010	Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos	019	Maneater Boar	028	Rom, the Vacuous Spider
002	Amygdala	011	Father Gascoigne	020	Martyr Logarius	029	Shadow of Yharnam
003	Beast-possessed Soul	012	Forgotten Madman	021	Merciless Watchers & Chieftain	030	The One Reborn
004	Bloodletting Beast	013	Gehrman, The First Hunter	022	Mergo's Wet Nurse	031	The Witch of Hemwick
005	Blood-starved Beast	014	Keeper of the Old Lords	023	Micolash, Host of the Nightmare	032	Undead Giant (Club and Hook)
006	Brainsucker	015	Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower	024	Moon Presence	033	Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades)
007	Celestial Emissary	016	Laurence, the First Vicar	025	Orphan of Kos	034	Vicar Amelia
008	Cleric Beast	017	Living Failures	026	Pthumerian Descendant	035	Watchdog of the Old Lords
009	Darkbeast Paarl & Loran Darkbeast	018	Ludwig the Accursed	027	Pthumerian Elder	036	Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen

Table of Contents

Model compilation by ico

In-Game gallery by GoesOnGhost

Model gallery by Sophie Pilbeam

- Hunting Dog -

Images taken in-game are from regular console or jailbroken console for the best results. Model images are taken from model viewer or other third party programs.

- Made by ico in 2023 -

- Made by GoesOnGhost in 2023 -

- Made by Sophie Pilbeam in 2023 -

- My Thanks to Ko-fi Members & Backers -

RizioSvP catalina Babypana Se7en rohnianscholar This is my humble thanks to those above who decided to become members on wiki's ko-fi page and continuously support wiki through various tiers of membership.

Names below belong to all kind (and unanonymous) hunters & scholars who supported wiki through aforementioned ko-fi page. Thank you! TBSkyen SophiePilbeam jesscapricorn rohnianscholar Christian S. Shirin SophiePilbeam Jacob Nemo Squirrels Saint Riot ChiaroBen watashiwashhh jjcooke TM khamul Joe TheMobRules Justin Coleman Cultist mitch waves Valefor laurent Ko-fi Supporter Avi Reyving_Lanatic Lasertriad VioletHX Matt AesirAesthetics The True Connoisseur DMc Misterr. Nicole W Arbizo Zoren Derek Anndedm Lola ajax UnpronounceableName Neighborlymaberly Gin dopefull Kab Tarnished_Hunter Esper_Row Trin Wakka Hugo Skaski Jaities Kou Vodkafolie brycer Retro ico Charred Thermos Dajo_k StochasticGD Fenris Hade emlan BellringerMal Satchamobob Nathan Ramone Haekki jonmooretx Ottowillem The Polyester Pimp Gary Marshall Zara33 John Lopez UndyingPatron Gabe Mosz Emerald Embers werig Redgrave

Micolash freed from his shackles is inviting you to his nightmare. If you can comprehend one of his musings, Micolash will grant you an Insight. Let us sit about and speak feverishly. Chatting into the wee hours... of my wonderful nightmare!... New ideas, of the higher plane! Ahh, Kos, or some say Kosm... Hear my words for this week... (click to expand) What a vile sight, don't look away, truth is staring at you clear as day, you or them, whose deed is worse, at the end what remains is curse. Answer is Accursed Brew, +1 Insight acquired by Rizio Hunters delved into the Nightmare and tried to interpret Micolash's musing alas incorrectly for the time being: Previous Musings - Such affection I feel truly graced, even though it's probably misplaced, it's time to embrace your bloody path, and only then I will honor your wrath. - Evelyn by Trin - Chances I did not get, paying their eerie debt, was it me they should dread? but now you will suffer instead. - Bastard of Loran by no one - Pity, feet planted on the ground, no more with what you've found, venturing into the arcane fall, miracle if you live through it all, like in a dream nowhere to run, don't lose it or damage is done. - Frenzy by Mensis Scholar Se7en - Hunters searching far and wide, ever craving to finish their pride, long journey awaits those who try, for a mere chance they have to die. - Blood Rock by Trin - Observe inner side and see, how dedicated you must be, is it genuine or foul play, no matter, slay your prey. - Vileblood Register by Trin - Keep me close you never know, I may solve your future woe, throw out doubts, it's a bliss, don't look closer, what is this. - Pebble by BabyPana - You seem oblivious at first, pay attention? Am I cursed? Your decision is unclear...yet, perhaps,...you are the threat. - Suspicious Beggar by Rizi - It is so dark I cannot see, Feel the cold, hear my plea, Different yet once cherished, All is done, I have perished. - Rakuyo by Rizi - What do you see I do not know, Would you believe your former foe, Scholar or hunter looking for clues? One thing is sure, madness ensues. - Enlarged Head by BabyPana - O little ones give me your hand, I have seen enough I understand, without me to mark the end, whatever the cost, be friend. - Hunter Chief Emblem by Skaski - Eyes on the inside I donť believe, yet if you do you might grieve, one or two things is all I need, rather avoid such harrowing deed. - The Witch of Hemwick by BabyPana - Oddity not so common to see, hunters could hardly perceive, open your ears but don't get caught, despite the believe blessing it's not. - Rosmarinus by BabyPana - If you noticed you might know, given that's not my only woe, forbidden or not, all is fair, do not blame me if you care. - Arianna, Woman of Pleasure by BabyPana - Despite reaching one's inner soul, in your eyes it will always be foul, don't get blinded by own mind, watch thine health, self signed. - Bloodletter by BabyPana - If you came across the tails of two, it's intuition or lies you saw through, you may doubt the value it shares, surely there is someone who cares. - Cainhurst Badge by no one - Am I real, the words you hear, are not reason you are here, come for me when I am not near, without words that much is clear. - Yamamura the Wanderer by JohnGrey - Oh dear, hunter did I become heavy, am I familiar, the reason for melancholy, useful or not, please don't you worry, choice is yours, parting, end of story. - Red Jeweled Brooch by Karl - What you might see is crystal clear, however what you feel is truly surreal, endure the fear then you can proceed, sight of ire gone yet still take heed. - Blue Elixir by Se7en

Eileen the Crow welcomes you to Yharnam. Oh, a hunter, are ya? And an outsider? What a mess you've been caught up in. And tonight, of all nights. Prepare yourself for the worst. There are no humans left. They're all flesh-hungry beasts, now. Try to keep your hands clean. A hunter should hunt beasts. Leave the hunting of hunters to me... Perfect timing. I must warn you... not to go near the wiki pages... (click to expand) Few hunters can resist the intoxication of the hunt... Wait... how curious, these are not hunters from our land, so called Mound Makers are filling their corpse pile... they are my mark but first we have to track them down - find Malformed Vertebra for Mound Makers to reveal themselves. + 1 Insight acquired by Skaski (1 day) by finding the Malformed Vertebra! Now hunt is on!. + 4 Insight acquired by Skaski for finding first, second, third and fourth Mound Maker! Despite the Skaski's great effort Mound Makers survived and are here to stay in Yharnam, however they had to find place to hide and are no threat at the time being. Hunt is over! You Hunted... tba tba tba tba tba † Eric tba tba tba tba tba a Roderick's assistant by Skaski † Roderick † Gallivan † Albus † Istvan † Alberich † Elliot an old prospector an obstetrician a Shabriri's devotee a corroded knight a foreign arcanist an old hunter by Hollowed_Trash by Skaski by Skaski by Skaski by Skaski by Skaski

Valtr, Master of the League welcomes in new confederates. Members of the League cleanse the streets of all the filth that's spread about during the hunt. The nights brims with defiled scum, and is permeated by their rotten stench. Sentence these fiends to death. With the help of your League confederates. On a night of the hunt, no, on any night, nothing out there deserves to live. (click to expand) Vermin writhe within filth, and are the root of man's impurity. Crush all vermin without hesitation. Confederate's Instruction Amongst group of messengers there are 4 vermin fiends. Furthermore there is/are vermin fiends hidden in our ranks. Our goal is to kill all vermin messengers or kill all vermin players. Player who survives with the most vermin crushed wins. Their goal is to kill all innocent messengers or kill all normal players. Player who survives with the most innocent kills wins. At the start of the hunt, order in which players play will be set. Players will play one action per turn. Vermin players will be let known in secrecy about their role and all vermin messengers. For each vermin messenger there will be vague clue revealed so players could decide. Actions are: Kill Messenger, Accuse Player, Keep All Alive (action moves to other player) Kill Messenger Action: When messenger is killed, it is revealed if messenger was innocent victim or vermin fiend. Accuse Player Action: When player is accused all player votes whether to kill player or not, majority decides, if there is draw player survives. When killed it is revealed if player was innocent victim or vermin fiend.

Abyss Watchers

(click to expand)

5 / 0 6 9 / 4 0 / 0 1 0 / 0 0 / 0 3 0 / 0 6 5 1 27 felix RizioSvP

Date Battle Ended Champions & Outcome Board June 01, 2024 felix vs RizioSvP round 18 Abyss Watchers gathered all forces and won Image April 12, 2024 Se7en vs RizioSvP round 21 Abyss Watchers gathered all forces and won Image March 22, 2024 Skaski vs RizioSvP round 13 RizioSvP depleted Skaski's Embers and won Image March 09, 2024 RizioSvP vs Skaski round 15 Abyss Watchers gathered all forces and won Image

(click to expand)

Abyss Watchers rise once every week to purge any sign of the abyss spread. At the start of each week "Abyss Watchers" weekly challenge will be announced. Every player with at least 1 Insight has to apply in order to participate in the challenge. Two players will be drawn and they will battle it out between two of them and Abysswatchers themselves, once both players agree on the date, the challenge can begin. Introduction Abyss Watchers weekly challenge is resource game where you compete against other player and Abyss Watchers. Winning player will gain + 2 Insight for the leaderboard, if Abyss Watchers win both players will lose 1 Insight from the leaderboard. Each round you draw numbers from 1 to 7 and one with the higher number wins the draw. There are two resources tied to this base mechanic. Embers serve as de facto lifes for every player and Abyss Watcher, you gain Embers by winning draws and lose them by losing. Once reached 0 Embers the player or Abyss Watcher dies. Abyss is difference in drawn numbers and represent you succumbing to the Abyss as you lose (e.g . P1 draws 1 and P2 draws 6, difference between their numbers are 5 so the losing player will gain + 5 Abyss points while winning player will lose 5 Abyss points (Note: lowest number is 0, can't go to negative)). Player or allied Abyss Watcher with the highest Abyss value will be primary target for the Abyss Watchers. Game Plan Game starts in the Preparation Stage where only 2 players are present, starting with 1 Ember and 0 Abyss and they draw numbers in 3 rounds to gain initial resources. Players cannot take resources from one another. Once 3 rounds are completed, the first Abyss Watcher spawns and game enters the Battle Stage. Both players and all Abyss Watchers will make one initiative action (defending doesn't count as action) each round. Abyss Watchers, one spawns at the end of every 3rd round, with 3 Embers and will attack player or other Abyss Watcher with the highest Abyss value. Actions: Attack target, Ally Abyss Watcher, Use Sigil Card, Buy Sigil Card Attack target - Pick target and attack be it player or Abyss Watcher (cannot attack allied Abyss Watcher). Players can attack each other but their opponent does not take/lose resources. Only Abyss Watchers can take resources from the player and are able to kill the player. Ally Abysswatcher - Choose Abyss Watcher to become your ally once in your team it will attack target you picked. To be able to ally Abyss Watcher you have to have one more Ember than the messenger holds (e. g. if Abyss Watcher has 3 Embers you have to give him 4 of your own to make him your ally. If you would want to befriend ally of your opponent you will have to give him 2 more than the messenger currently holds). When you reach 0 Embers your allied Watcher will sacrifice itself giving you + 1 Ember, it can also sacrifice itself and remove other Abyss Watcher if it has at least same amount of Embers. Once Abyss Watcher is allied to player's team the Abyss resource is added to the messenger. Use Sigil Card - Each player will pick one of the Sigil Cards at the start of the challenge and can use it only once (unless stated otherwise). Buy Sigil Card - Each player can use their action to buy any card from the set (if you hold card it will be replaced), each card costs 2 of player's Embers. Winning & Losing Conditions Players win when opposing player reached 0 Embers OR if you collected 3 allied Abyss Watchers. If Abyss Watchers fill the board with 3 members of the legion they win and both players lose.

You can buy Sigil Cards with your Embers, each card will cost you 2 Embers and action, therefore active card can be played next turn (passive will be in play immediately). Passive cards are marked with (P). Note: *Warrior Jar – Upon playing it, it will be placed at the third (last) spot of the Abyss Watchers, only one Warrior Jar can be placed. **Toast – it is possible to befriend Siegbräu Festival Watcher even from other player’s team. Carim's Grace Reduce other player allied Abyss Watchers Ember to 1 Sif's Will Reduce your team Abyss to 0 and move your Abyss to other player Second Chance (P) Revive with 1 Ember upon death Patches' Ace Add + 2 to your draw (lasts 3 rounds) Part of the Legion Cost -1 Ember to befriend Abyss Watcher (lasts 3 rounds) Abysswalker All opposing Abyss Watchers attack only you, no effect on Abyss (lasts 5 rounds) Poisonous Swamp All Abyss Watchers cannot take action, all lose Ember third round (lasts 3 rounds) I sacrifice Sacrifice allied Abyss Watchers and receive all Embers Farewell of Yore (P) +1 Ember when other player's Abyss Watcher has highest Abyss (each round) Crestfallen Ambition Remove opposing Abyss Watcher with 5 Embers and more from the board Quiet Resolve (P) Give allied Abyss Watchers your Embers (unlimited uses) Toast Find Abyss Watcher to make a toast with and befriend him** Praise the Sun Next 2 loses against Abyss Watchers won't affect you Pharis Strike Shoot arrow to remove Abyss Watcher Ember (3 Uses) Warrior Jar Blocks path of Watchers forces, primary target, breaks upon 3 loses.*

In Battle Stage of the game random events can occur which are tied to Abyss Watcher spawning, instead of regular Abyss Watchers there can be ones with special properties. Champion of Cinder Legends have it that amongst Abyss Watchers lies Champion of Cinder prepared to rise once more. Gameplay: There is a chance that Champion of Cinder spawns, characterized by the red eyes. Starts with 5 Embers, cannot be allied and each round takes action as first Abyss Watcher. Note: Crestfallen Ambition Sigil card has no effect on Champion of Cinder. Mauve, the Crestwarden It is said that special Abyss Watcher hides in their ranks who is sympathetic to the undead struggles. Gameplay: There is a chance that Mauve spawns, characterized by the purple armor. At the end of the spawning round gives both players choice to either replenish their card or pick new card. Mauve doesn't count towards the Abyss Watchers victory conditions and disappears at the end of the round. Siegbräu Festival Duty is the most important matter in legion life of Abyss Watcher however who would neglect festivities, sip jolly on your favorite brew even an Undead can enjoy. Gameplay: There is a chance that festive Abyss Watcher spawn, it can happen 3 times, each Watcher spawns with 2 Embers and takes action as last Abyss Watcher. Note: It is possible to befriend Watchers from Siegbräu Festival with "Toast" Sigil card.

(click to collapse)

Mound Makers

(click to expand)

Welcome, this is pit for hollows. Come here to pile up your victims, for that will form your anchor. You'll see when you go mad. They'll be your family. Let's see if you can tell how big families are, look at the pictures and make your guess. Make your guess: If you guess right you will get 3 Shackles, if your guess miss by one you get 1 Shackle. If you are wrong (miss by two) as first you lose none, when second you lose 1 Shackle, when third you lose 2 Shackles. Make your bet: You can bet on yourself to receive higher reward for guessing the right number. You can bet 1 Shackel on exact number to win 10 Shackles from the bank. You can bet against player that his/her guess will be worse than yours, as reward you take same number of Shakles from player (and vice versa). In all cases if you lose, Shackles you bet are lost. 1 43 0 Hollowed_Trash Reaper Ashley

Welcome, here rest warriors of the past. Only those who claimed victory are recognized and stories about their mound offerings across many fierce battles are told. Reaper (44) H._Trash (8) Trin (3) RizioSvP (2) Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Unknown Date Families The Best Piler The Second Piler The Third Piler Board June 15, 2024 20 Reaper (43) Hollowed_Trash (1) Ashley (0) Image May 30, 2024 20 Hollowed_Trash (6) felix (5) Reaper (1) Image May 24, 2024 23 Trin (3) Hollowed_Trash (0) felix (0) Image May 03, 2024 25 RizioSvP (2) Hollowed_Trash (1) Skaski (0) Image

(click to expand)

Few families will have head of the family within the mound, granting various properties to the family, and ones who make the right guess fastest will take the head and can use it to their advantage. Each player will receive Founding Piler skull at the start of the game. Maximum number of heads in your inventory is 3. Founding Piler Grants all players + 2 Shackles when present. Inventory: Grants you + 1 Shackle for each family presented. Breaks after horrible guess (missed by 5). Corruptor (0 Coins) No bets and no timer when present. Inventory: Grants you 1 coin to bribe the game for each right guess. Bribing: get low Shackle picture, don't allow bets, set own timer. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Executioner If player has skull and guessed wrong as the third one the skull is lost. Inventory: Break skull of other player. Breaks after used. Merchant For 1 Shackle you can buy hint (one from 5 numbers). Inventory: Grants you hint for 1 Shackle (one from 5 numbers). Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Risk-Taker Players who bet will not lose any Shackles from bets. Inventory: You will not lose any Shackles from wrong bets. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Shield-Bearer No Shackles are lost upon wrong guesses. Inventory: You will not lose any Shackles upon wrong guess. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Curse-Bearer (Cursed) Decline reward by 1 shackle and increase penalty by 1 Shackle. Inventory: Curse player of your choice (- 1 shackle) until he/she makes the right guess. Breaks after used. Revered Piler (Blessed) Grants you +1 Shackle when present. Inventory: Blessed by this skull (+1 shackle) until you make the wrong guess. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Marathoner Prolong timer for player guesses by 30 seconds. Inventory: Grants you another 30 seconds for your guesses. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Patron Grants all players x2 rewards for correct guesses. Inventory: Grants you x2 rewards for your correct guesses. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Gravelord Grants each player +5 Shackles for every skull in their inventory. Inventory: Grants you +5 Shackles whenever skull is obtained. Breaks after horrible guess (missed by 5). Bandit Steal 2 Shackles from each player. Inventory: Steal 1 Shackle from each player until it breaks. Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Deserters Each player will get Deserter skull into their inventory. Inventory: Grants you +1 Shackle whenever skull is broken. Breaks after horrible guess (missed by 5). Occultist Doubles effects of the skulls and takes 1 Shackle from all players. Inventory: Doubles effect of all skulls in your inventory and deplete 1 Shackle each turn. Breaks after horrible guess (missed by 5). Traitor tba Inventory: tba Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2). Monarch tba Inventory: tba Breaks after wrong guess (missed by 2).

(click to collapse)

Table of Contents

Gallery Page

Basic Information

Description

Preparation

Overview

Strategy

Environment

Old Hunter Summons

Notes

Cleric Beast Weak Points

Attack Patterns Phase One

Attack Patterns Phase Two

Table of Contents

Related Wiki Pages

Gallery Page

Basic Information

In-Game Description

Opens

Availability

Notes

Merchants

Related Wiki Pages (In Alphabetical Order)

Arcane Builds Guide

Bloodletter

Datamined Internal Names

Hunter's Nightmare

Challenge Runs

In-game Art - Key Items

In-game Art - Key Items [datamined]

Items

Key Items

Laurence's Skull

Loch Shield

Lore Index

Original Japanese Item Index

Simon's Bowblade

The Old Hunters

The True Story of Bloodborne Video Series

Treasures

Preset Labyrinths

There are ten Preset Chalice Labyrinths in Bloodborne. Each labyrinth is comprised of three layers, with the exception of the Lower Pthumeru Labyrinth, which has four layers. Clearing these labyrinths will reward you with loot, key items, weapons and more Chalices to unlock more challenging dungeons.

Note: Click on the map for full resolution, © Bloodborne Collector’s Edition Guide by Future Press.

Pthumeru

Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 1	Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 2	Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 3
L1 Boss : Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades)	L2 Boss : Merciless Watchers & Chieftain	L3 Boss : Watchdog of the Old Lords
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Central Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 1	Central Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 2	Central Pthumerian Labyrinth Layer 3
L1 Boss : Beast-possessed Soul	L2 Boss : Keeper of the Old Lords	L3 Boss : Pthumerian Descendant
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L1	Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L2	Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L3	Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth L4
L1 Boss : Merciless Watchers & Chieftain	L2 Boss : Undead Giant (Club & Hook)	L3 Boss : Rom, the Vacuous Spider	L4 Boss : Bloodletting Beast
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3	Walkthrough: Layer 4

Cursed Pthumerian Defilement Layer 1	Cursed Pthumerian Defilement Layer 2	Cursed Pthumerian Defilement Layer 3
L1 Boss : Keeper of the Old Lords	L2 Boss : Watchdog of the Old Lords	L3 Boss : Amygdala
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Pthumeru Ihyll Layer 1	Pthumeru Ihyll Layer 2	Pthumeru Ihyll Layer 3
L1 Boss : Pthumerian Descendant	L2 Boss : Bloodletting Beast (Parasite)	L3 Boss : Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Hintertomb

Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 1	Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 2	Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 3
L1 Boss : Maneater Boar	L2 Boss : Undead Giant (H. and Cannon)	L3 Boss : Blood-starved Beast
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Lower Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 1	Lower Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 2	Lower Hintertomb Labyrinth Layer 3
L1 Boss : Brainsucker	L2 Boss : Forgotten Madman / Escort	L3 Boss : Pthumerian Elder
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Loran

Ailing Loran Layer 1	Ailing Loran Layer 2	Ailing Loran Layer 3
L1 Boss : Beast-possessed Soul	L2 Boss : Blood-starved Beast	L3 Boss : Abhorrent Beast
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Lower Loran Layer 1	Lower Loran Layer 2	Lower Loran Layer 3
L1 Boss : Loran Silverbeast	L2 Boss : Abhorrent Beast	L3 Boss : Loran Darkbeast
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Isz

Isz Gravestone Layer 1	Isz Gravestone Layer 2	Isz Gravestone Layer 3
L1 Boss : Brainsucker	L2 Boss : Celestial Emissary	L3 Boss : Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
Walkthrough: Layer 1	Walkthrough: Layer 2	Walkthrough: Layer 3

Pthumerian Labyrinth [Depth 1]	Items Full Map Layer 1, Layer 2 & Layer 3

Bonus % Increase to Damage Taken

Enemy	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Beast Patient	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Beast-possessed Soul (Cathedral Ward)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Blood-starved Beast | wandering boss variant only	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Brainsucker (all)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	50%
Carrion Crow (all)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Celestial Emissary (Small) & Celestial Emissary (Tendrils)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	50%
Crawling Corpse (all)	-	-	-	-	-	-	50%
Crawling Corpse (Forbidden Woods)	-	-	-	-	-	300%	-
Executioner (all)	-	-	-	-	50%	50%	-
Fishman (Hamlet)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Gel	-	-	-	-	50%	50%	50%
Giant Fishman (Anchor) & (Fists)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Gravedigger (Hook), (Pickaxe) & (Rifle)	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Huntsman (Torch and Axe) | butcher outfit variant	-	-	-	-	50%	-	50%
Child of Rom	-	-	-	-	-	-	50%
Labyrinth Madman	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Labyrinth Warrior	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Labyrinth Watcher	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Maneater Boar | excluding boss version	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Merciless Watcher | excluding boss version	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Crawler & Large Crawler	-	-	-	-	-	-	50%
Pthumerian Descendant | wandering boss variant only	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Pthumerian Elder | wandering boss variant only	-	-	-	-	50%	-	-
Rabid Dog | Excluding Hunter's Nightmare dog	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Scourge Beast (all)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	-
Scholar (Bare Hands) & (Flask)	-	-	-	-	-	50%	50%

Bonus % Decrease to Damage Taken

Enemy	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Abhorrent Beast	-	-	-	-	-	-	15%
Darkbeast Paarl / Loran Darkbeast	-	-	-	-	-	-	15%
Fluorescent Flower	-	-	-	-	15%	15%	15%
Church Giant	-	-	-	-	-	-	15%
Keeper of the Old Lords	-	-	-	-	-	15%	-
Lady Maria	-	-	-	30%	-	-	-
Loran Cleric	-	-	-	-	15%	-	15%
Loran Silverbeast	-	-	-	-	-	-	15%
Martyr Logarius	-	-	-	-	15%	-	-
Parasite Larva	-	-	-	-	15%	15%	15%
Queen Yharnam	-	-	-	-	15%	-	15%
Snail Woman (Shell) & (Bare)	-	-	-	-	-	-	100%
The One Reborn	-	-	-	-	15%	-	-
Watchdog of the Old Lords	-	-	-	-	-	15%	-
Winter Lantern	-	-	-	-	15%	15%	15%

Bonus % Increase to Attack Rating (AR)

Enemy	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt	Stamina
Beast-possessed Soul (Boss only)	15%	15%	15%	15%	15%	15%	-%	-%
Mad One (15 Insight summon only)	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	10%
Sinister Bell Ringer (Multiplayer Summon)	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	10%

Bonus % Decrease to Attack Rating (AR)

Enemy	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt	Stamina
Keeper of the Old Lords | wandering boss	25%	25%	25%	25%	-	25%	-	-

Bonus % Increase to Damage Dealt

Enemy	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt	Stamina
Brainsucker (Byrgenwerth)	30%	30%	30%	30%	-	-	-	-
Brainsucker (Upper Cathedral Ward)	30%	30%	30%	30%	-	-	-	-

Immunity to Status: Slow Poison, Rapid Poison, Pungent Blood Cocktail & Shaman Bone Blade

Enemy					Enemy
Abhorrent Beast			X	X	Labyrinth Watcher			X
Amygdala			X	X	Laurence			X	X
Bell Ringer			X		Living Failure			X
Bloodletting Beast			X	X	Loran Cleric			X
Bloodlicker			X		Loran Silverbeast | boss only			X	X
Blood-Starved Beast				X	Lost Child of Antiquity			X
Brainsucker | boss only			X	X	Ludwig			X	X
Celestial Emissary (Small) & Celestial Emissary (Tendrils)			X		Mad One			X
Celestial Emissary (boss)			X	X	Maria			X	X
Celestial Child			X		Martyr Logarius			X	X
Cleric Beast			X	X	Merciless Watcher | boss only			X	X
Clocktower Patient | crawling & in poison pool variants exluding leaping variant	X		X		Mergo's Attendant (all)			X
Cramped Casket			X		Mergo's Wet Nurse			X	X
Crawler & Large Crawler	X		X		Moon Presence	X	X	X	X
Crawling Corpse			X		Nightmare Apostle & Large			X
Darkbeast Paarl / Loran Darkbeast				X	Nightmare Executioner (Axe) & (Church Cannon)			X
Evil Labyrinth Spirit			X		Old Hunters all			X
Ebrietas			X	X	Orphan			X	X
Eye-Collector			X	X	Parasite Larva | Forbidden Woods only	X		X
Executioner			X		Pilgrim			X
Father Gascoigne			X	X	Pthumerian Descendant			X	X
Fishman all			X		Pthumerian Elder			X	X
Fluorescent Flower			X		Ritekeeper			X
Garden of Eyes			X		Rom			X	X
Gel			X		Shadow of Yharnam (Mace), (Candle) & (Sword)			X
Gherman			X	X	Scholar (Bare Hands) & Scholar (Flask)			X
Giant Lost Child			X		Skeletal Puppet			X
Gravedigger (Hook), (Pickaxe) & (Rifle)			X		Snake Ball & Large Snake Ball			X
Huntsman (all variants)			X		The One Reborn			X	X
Child of Rom			X		Undead Giant | boss only			X	X
Church Giant | Forbidden Woods only	X		X		Vicar Amelia			X	X
Church Servant			X		Wandering Madness & Large Wandering Madness	X	X	X	X
Keeper of the Old Lords | boss only			X	X	Watchdog of the Old Lords			X	X
Kidnapper			X		Winter Lantern			X

"Red-Eyes"

Bonus % Increase to Attack Rating (AR)

Enemy	Max HP Increase	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Beast Patient (Female) | Automatically applied to 3 outside of Blood-Starved Beast boss room	50%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%
Lost Child of Antiquity	-	50%	50%	50%	50%	-	-	-

Bonus % Increase to Damage Dealt

Enemy	Max HP Increase	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Old Hunter (Beast Cutter) & Old Hunter (Boom Hammer)	-	40%	40%	40%	40%	-	-	-
Old Hunter (Beasthunter Saif)	-	100%	100%	100%	100%	-	-	-

"Beast Infection"

Bonus % Increase to Attack Rating (AR)

Enemy	Max HP Increase	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Beast Patient (Female) | Automatically applied to 3 outside of Blood-Starved Beast boss room	50%	40%	40%	40%	40%	-%	-%	-%

Bonus % Decrease to Defense

Enemy	Max HP Increase	Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Beast Patient (Female) | Automatically applied to 3 outside of Blood-Starved Beast boss room	-	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%	20%

Add Slow Poison Buildup to Attacks

Enemy	Add Slow Poison Buildup
Beast Patient (Female)	65

Bonus % Increase to Damage Dealt vs Weak Enemy

Righteous Damage Weakness	Weapon	Bonus %
Bloodlicker	Holy Moonlight Sword	50%
Evil Labyrinth Spirit	Church Pick | Thrust Attacks only	20%
Forsaken Castle Spirit (Knife), (Head)	Kirkhammer | Untransformed Mode Only	50%
Lost Child of Antiquity	Logarius Wheel	30%
Queen Annalise	Ludwig's Holy Blade	50%
	Threaded Cane | Untransformed Mode Only	20%

Killing Sinister Bell Ringer Bonus % Increase to Damage Taken

Killing a Sinister Bell Ringer that spawn red enemies in Yahar'gul will result in the following modifier applied to those enemies:

Phys.	Thrust	Blunt	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	-	-

Gunshot Weakness

Enemies	Effect
Cain's Servants (Cane), (Cane and Candelabra) & (Rapier)	Gunshots, Hunter Tools, and Blood dmg attacks will result in a massive knockdown.
Clocktower Patient (Crawling)
Nightmare Apostle
Old Hunter's Hound
Rabid Dog
Skeletal Puppet

Fear of Torches

Enemies	Effect
Beast Patient	Beast Patients will be hesitant to attack the player out of fear when the player is handling a torch.
Nightmare Apostle	"Very rare effect applied to random spiders in chalice dungeons. Coming into proximity of certain spiders when equipped with a torch will result in the spider becoming stunned for a moment, backing off, and then will stay away from the player for a short while. This effect will wear off after ~10s or if the player un-equips the torch. This effect will only trigger once, unless the map is reloaded."

Bloodborne Lore: What Really Happened to Laurence, Part 3 - The Beastly Messiah | Google Docs Link

What really happened to Laurence? That’s the question I set out to answer nearly two years ago after coming across some new information that indicated there might be much more to Laurence’s story than we’ve understood.

In the previous two episodes of this limited series, we’ve seen that some of the most popular interpretations of Laurence’s actions and timeline might be inaccurate, having been informed by an incomplete record of evidence.

In this episode, we’ll focus on Laurence’s unusual postmortem path, expanding upon one of the main conclusions from this series—that Laurence didn’t establish the Healing Church. Instead, as we’ll see today, Laurence was somewhat of an unwilling participant in the establishment of the Church, an institution born by blood and one monstrous miracle.

WARNING:

Several major conclusions in this video essay are built upon concepts from the previous two episodes. I strongly encourage you to view those episodes for relevant context.

Retable Revelations

It’s no secret that the Healing Church is laden with Christian iconography and terminology, with perhaps no better example than the altar in the Nightmare Cathedral. Here, Laurence’s cleric beast body lies in recline on a stone sculpture of a cloth-covered altar, invoking Michelangelo’s La Pieta or, more generally, artworks in the style of the lamentation of Christ. This, as we’ve discussed in past episodes, casts Laurence as a Christ-like figure. But how seriously should we take this? Is it simply a design touch to accentuate the ecclesiastical nature of Laurence within the context of the Healing Church? Or is it something much more substantive in the game’s environmental storytelling? Based on everything we’ll discuss in this episode, I think it’s much, much more. And by viewing Laurence through this religious prism, we can make several new and exceptionally significant breakthroughs in the lore that I believe finally show us what really happened to Laurence.

We began this work in the previous episode, where we made a profound observation about the four altars in Bloodborne’s three Grand Cathedrals—two of which are in the Hunter’s Nightmare, and one in the waking world. We saw that each of the four altars contains a unique presentation of the bodily remains of Laurence, meaning that the church altars, and the apses in which they’re located, are inextricably linked with Laurence. I cannot overstate the value of this observation. We didn’t focus much on the other elements of these altar displays, so we need to do that today. Notably, this altar in the Nightmare Cathedral is missing much of the ornamentation and reliquaries that we find in the Grand Cathedral in the waking world and in the area below the Surgery Altar. Here, Laurence’s body, lying atop a large platform, consumes the majority of the space. It’s only when we defeat Laurence and his body is removed that we’re able to take a closer look at this altar. Behind the platform is what appears to be a retable, which is a tall wooden structure situated behind a church altar, which typically displays relics or religious art, mainly paintings or reliefs. We see retables in each of the game’s three Grand Cathedrals towering over the altars that hold Laurence’s physical remains—his beastly skull, his human skull and his cleric beast body. In the Nightmare Cathedral, we’re able to see a portion of the relief that’s carved into the front of the retable, which appears to show a woman wearing a veil. Unfortunately, the rest of her body is obstructed by the stone platform. This is also the case in the waking world Grand Cathedral, where the image is almost entirely blocked by the statues and relics in the display.

The hidden relief can only be revealed in the other nightmare cathedral. Once we raise the Surgery Altar platform, we see an altar that’s almost identical to the altar from the Grand Cathedral in the waking world. Unfortunately, the statues of supplicants block almost all views of the retable. But if you can time it just right, you can activate the elevator, jump and then land on the altar chair as it descends. This gives us the clearest, most complete view of the image in the retable, which shows a scene in the style of the lamentation of Christ. Obviously that’s consistent with the religious nature of the setting. We are in a cathedral, after all. But there’s one piece in particular that’s germane to our discussion in this excavation of Laurence. The dead body shown in the relief is the body of a man, and he’s lying at an angle on a cloth-covered platform that is identical to the platform upon which we find Laurence, the First Vicar. It’s not just similar, it’s an exact copy down to the fine details of the drapery folds.

I showed in great detail in the previous episode how the four altars within the game’s three Grand Cathedrals provide us with mirrored versions of Laurence: one his beastly version, the other his human version. We see this with his skulls, and we see this with his outstretched bodies. One skull belongs to a beast, one to a human. One dead body belongs to a beast, one to a human. It’s this reflection, in part, that allowed us to determine that the cadaver shown on the Surgery Altar is Laurence’s human body. This dynamic is playing out yet again here.

The retable image shows a man’s dead body reclined on this cloth-covered platform. The Nightmare Cathedral altar, by contrast, shows the dead body of Laurence, the cleric beast, reclined on an identical cloth-covered platform. This strongly indicates that the body shown in the relief is the dead human body of Laurence. This might seem like a bit of a leap, but don’t forget that these reliefs are found on the three altars that contain Laurence’s remains. There’s an implied connection to Laurence, more specifically his dead body, already built into these displays.

It also has to be noted that this is artwork that we weren’t able to see until the DLC was released. It’s there in the base game within the waking world—it’s just hidden. This means that From Software took two deliberate steps in their design process. One, they designed the area below the Surgery Altar in such a way as to reveal the entire relief of the retable, which we’re unable to see anywhere else in the game. Second, they designed the platform or altar holding the cleric beast body of Laurence to be the exact same as the platform shown in the relief on the retable. This asset predates this asset.They duplicated this design when creating the platform in the Nightmare Cathedral so that it would allow us to connect Laurence’s cleric beast body to this human body in the relief. We’re supposed to connect these corpses. But much more importantly, thanks to this connection, we’re supposed to realize that Laurence died as a man, not a beast.

This discovery allows us to start putting together what I believe is the most complete and, to the best of my knowledge, untold timeline relating to Laurence’s life and death. Before we can explore the larger significance of this conclusion, we need to turn our focus to another environmental asset in one of the nightmare cathedrals. Remarkably, it’s telling us the exact same story.

Shrouded in Mystery

In “What Really Happened to Laurence, Part 2,” we went through a robust and convincing set of details that allowed us to confidently say that the body on the Surgery Altar is Laurence’s human body. In the process, we observed something very striking and peculiar about the aptly named Surgery Altar. The area is absolutely flooded with bright light, as if it’s a surgical table being illuminated for a procedure or dissection. But that’s not the only asset within this building to which this applies. On the other end of the cathedral, we see an effigy tomb showing a dead man’s body wrapped in a death shroud or burial shroud, which is also brightly illuminated. The lighting is a prominent and distinctive link between the shrouded corpse and the cadaver on the Surgery Altar.

That’s one reason why I believe that we’re being shown Laurence’s dead body at two points in time. We see his shrouded human corpse at the time of his burial. His nose still has its normal shape. His body contains its outer flesh. This is the corpse of a recently deceased man. By contrast, the body on the Surgery Altar has had its flesh and cranium removed by three men wearing Surgical Long Gloves. This is Laurence’s dissected dead body. It’s even possible that the long rippled sheets lining the table aren’t surgical sheets at all but, in fact, are the unfurled burial shroud we see wrapping Laurence’s dead body, as if to symbolize that the body was taken directly from the grave to the dissection table. We can’t say that for certain, but it’s an interesting idea.

On a slightly whimsical note, I asked in the previous video if you knew where else this asset could be found. Where else is this shrouded corpse located in the game? I asked that question for a specific reason, because we have to keep something very important in mind: This isn’t the original asset. It’s a copy. In fact, it’s one of several copies. And this copy appears in the DLC. But it’s the original asset—the one that was part of the base game—that matters most. Quite a few people knew that this asset could also be found in Cathedral Ward, hiding a subterranean staircase. It’s essentially the gateway from Cathedral Ward to Old Yharnam, which has some major lore significance of its own. But very few people mentioned the other appearances of this asset. It’s found in a similar passageway in the Hunter’s Nightmare, which doesn’t seem to have any real significance. But far, far more importantly, it’s found in the Church of the Good Chalice in the oldest and deepest reaches of Yharnam. This is the original asset. And it’s here that we’re able to continue unraveling the mysteries of Laurence. If we know that this is Laurence and therefore this is Laurence then we have to conclude that this, the original asset, is Laurence. This isn’t just wild speculation, I promise. Let’s look at the evidence.

In a pair of videos about the religions of Yharnam, which I’ve linked in the description, Tarnished Archaeologist focuses on the scene we observe in the statuary of the Church of the Good Chalice. As they rightly acknowledge, this is a graveside scene. We see a man’s body, wrapped in a burial shroud, with three women mourning his death. Behind them is a gravestone. Tarnished Archaeologist primarily dedicates the investigation of this area to the central female figure, who they refer to as the Madonna. At least for this episode, I’m not incredibly concerned with the women in this scene, although we’ll address them briefly. I’m much more concerned with the dead man.

As many players and lore hunters have observed, below the statuary we can see a sort of narrative relief showing that the death of this man was significant, as evidenced by the large crowd gathered to honor his passing. That’s definitely noteworthy, indicating he was a highly revered figure. But we can’t overlook the location of this display. By that, I don’t mean just Old Yharnam, which is definitely very, very relevant. I mean its placement within the church building itself. Think back to the previous episode. What did we observe? Within the apses of the game’s three Grand Cathedrals, we found four unique iterations of the bodily remains of Laurence on four unique altars. And what do we see here? Within the Church of the Good Chalice, yet another place of worship, we have an altar situated in the apse of a church. And what do we find there? Yet another depiction of the bodily remains of Laurence. This marks our fifth example of Laurence’s remains displayed within the apse of a church.

We’ve already seen Laurence characterized elsewhere as a Christ-like figure, and as I asked before: Should we interpret this comparison casually, or is it much more meaningful? Here’s where we begin to see the linkage of Laurence with Christ take another major step forward. Because this is Laurence, who is depicted as a Christ-like persona elsewhere, it helps us explain why we observe three female figures in this burial scene. They’re mirroring the story of Christ’s burial. In the New Testament book of Mark, Chapters 15 and 16, the gospel writes that three women were present for Jesus’ crucifixion and his resurrection. Somewhat similarly, the gospel Luke writes that Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body down from the cross, “...wrapped it in a linen shroud and laid him in a tomb cut in stone, where no one had ever yet been laid…. 55 The women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid” (Luke 23:53-55).

Religious art from as early as the fifth century shows three women coming to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body with aromatic oils, only to find his tomb empty save for one or two angels who spoke to them saying that Jesus has risen from the dead. These women are known as the Three Marys, generally believed to be some combination of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary of Clopas, Mary of Jacob and Mary Salome. The Three Marys at the tomb of Christ have been commemorated by countless artists over the centuries.

In the Church of the Good Chalice, we see a man’s body wrapped in a shroud, lying upon what appears to be a tomb in front of a gravestone. Above him, three women—just like the Three Marys—are mourning his death. This is a sculpture commemorating Laurence’s death and burial, and, critically, it reinforces the comparison of Laurence to Christ.

There’s little information we can glean about the three female figures from the Church of the Good Chalice statue, but it seems a virtual certainty that the main figure shown at center is the same woman we see within the artwork of the retable in the Grand Cathedral. Here again, she’s veiled and overlooking the dead body of a Christ-like figure. If this is Laurence, which seems plainly obvious, then this should be Laurence. But here’s another interesting observation: In the Surgery Altar cathedral in the nightmare, we have three figures, who appear to be men, hunched over a corpse on an altar within the apse of a cathedral. Very similarly, within the Church of the Good Chalice, we have three figures, this time women, positioned over a corpse on an altar within an apse of a church. In both cases, the body is aligned perfectly parallel to the transept of the churches, with the corpses’ heads on the right side of the altar. These displays appear to show two key points in Laurence’s postmortem timeline, designed in such a way as to play upon a shared motif. One is the burial of his body within a grave with three women mourning his death. The other is the removal of his body from the grave and subsequent dissection by three men.

All of this also indicates that Laurence, as we’ve long understood, was a central figure in the history of Old Yharnam, so much so that his burial would be memorialized in stone in the apse of the oldest church in the city. But here, he was shown as a man, meaning at some point, something exceptional happened. Laurence died a man, but he transformed into a cleric beast whose shattered skull eventually became the primary relic of the Healing Church. Even if we don’t fully know the details of how Laurence died, we still need to understand why his skull became revered in the Grand Cathedral. Here again, environmental assets tell the story.

Upon This Skull

Why is Laurence’s beastly skull the primary relic of the Healing Church? That seems like an easy question to answer if you believe Laurence, the man and former scholar of Byrgenwerth, established the Church. That makes Laurence’s skull simply a relic retained in honor of the church’s founder. But there’s good reason to believe it’s something much different. I’ve argued over the last couple of years that Laurence didn’t establish the Healing Church and in fact was already dead by the time the Church was founded. The most common rebuttal to that claim is his boss title: Laurence, the First Vicar. Critics of this claim have said, “Doesn’t that title confirm that he was a founding member, or at least an early leader, of the Healing Church?” I get that argument, and it makes sense on a basic level, but the answer is no. And I don’t say that with any malice or derision, because for years I believed the same thing. It took a lot to change my mind. But the evidence is just too overwhelming to ignore.

The main argument that Laurence, the man, didn’t establish the Healing Church comes from Bloodborne game director Hidetaka Miyazaki, who said in a 2016 interview with Future Press that Laurence’s “skull was the start of the Healing Church itself.” It seems hard to square this idea, given the title of the boss Laurence, the First Vicar. How could Laurence be the first vicar of the Church if his skull represented the start of the Church itself? Several key environmental assets seem to help us navigate this question.

There’s no shortage of imagery comparing the Healing Church with the Roman Catholic Church—and there’s no shortage of imagery linking Laurence with Christ. From his burial scene to the retable artwork that links his dead human body to his dead beastly body, Laurence is portrayed again and again as Jesus Christ. And although official Catholic doctrine states that Jesus established the Catholic Church, Jesus as a living man took no direct actions to create the Catholic Church as an institution within Rome. Instead, the key figure in the creation of the Roman Catholic Church was his disciple Simon Peter, or St. Peter.

I noted earlier that it’s impossible to get a clear view of the retable in the waking world Grand Cathedral because it’s obstructed by other relics. We have a golden coffin, which is likely an ossuary of some sort. But above it we have a monumental throne. And this throne shapes much of how we should view Laurence’s role in the Healing Church. This asset undoubtedly was modeled upon the Chair of St. Peter, a grand sculpture completed by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini in 1666. Just like Bloodborne’s throne is situated in the apse of Yharnam’s Grand Cathedral, Bernini’s masterwork resides in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican, the seat of the Roman Catholic Church. That’s because St. Peter is considered the first bishop of Rome and thus the first in an unbroken line of Catholic leaders, later popes, that traces nearly 2,000 years. His namesake throne represents the seat of papal authority in Rome. Although it’s disputed whether St. Peter ever actually traveled to Rome, it’s a belief central to Catholic orthodoxy that this disciple of Jesus came to the heart of the Roman Empire where he established what would become the world’s most powerful religious order. This belief stems in part from the words of Jesus as told in the gospel of Matthew. Jesus says to Simon Peter, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock,” meaning Peter, “I will build my church” (Matthew 16:18). The Chair of St. Peter, therefore, doesn’t just represent papal authority; it represents the foundation of the Catholic Church itself. It’s a grand symbol of the establishment of the church.

Why would we see a facsimile of the Chair of St. Peter in Bloodborne? Aside from underscoring the parallels of the Healing Church and the Roman Catholic Church, the presence of the chair in the Grand Cathedral tells us about the history of the Healing Church. In earlier iterations of the game, Laurence’s skull wasn’t just near the chair like we see in the final game. It was found on the chair. We see this in the concept art for the Grand Cathedral where Laurence’s beastly skull, with its stringy hair and gaping fracture, is resting on the chair. We also see it in the trailer when the game was still in development under the name “Project Beast,” where a skull, presumably Laurence’s, is affixed with a crown and sitting on the chair. In both cases, Laurence’s skull was directly physically connected with this monumental chair that’s modeled upon the Chair of St. Peter. Laurence’s skull, therefore, was initially designed to be explicitly associated with the establishment of the Healing Church because it was directly connected with an environmental asset that, in the real world, is synonymous with the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church.

Although the skull was later relocated to the altar, the giant throne mimicking the Chair of St. Peter remained nearby. And here’s what’s fascinating. Although we have four different altar displays within the apses of Bloodborne’s three Grand Cathedrals, the two displays that contain this monumental chair have a shared feature: These displays contain the skulls of Laurence. They don’t contain his whole body. Just his skulls—because his skull is linked with this chair, which was modeled upon the Chair of St. Peter. Laurence’s skull, just like Peter, was the rock upon which the church was founded. It’s just like Miyazaki said: “[Laurence’s] skull served as the start of the Healing Church itself.”

Laurence, the man, during his life and the time immediately following his death, is treated as Bloodborne’s Christ—which we’ll examine in greater depth later on. But his beastly skull is Bloodborne’s St. Peter. It was the rock upon which the Healing Church was founded. That’s what Miyazaki means. This still begs the question, “Why was Laurence’s skull considered the foundational piece of the Church?” We can come back to that question later once we reveal more of Laurence’s history.

The Holy Medium

All of this keeps in line with everything I’ve argued in the last two episodes about what we learn from Alfred, who gives us an exceptional amount of information about the history of the Healing Church. 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. The discovery of this holy medium, Alfred says, “led to the founding of the Healing Church, and the establishment of blood healing.” For years, the overwhelming majority of the lore community has understood Alfred’s use of the term “holy medium” to mean one thing: the old blood. But based on what we’ve discussed in the previous two episodes and what we’re about to cover, I think we can demonstrate that this isn’t accurate.

As we’ve noted in each episode of this series, the the term used for “holy medium” in the game’s original Japanese text is seitai (聖体), which can be translated as either “holy body” as in the dead body of Christ, or the Eucharist, meaning the bread and wine that Christians consume during Communion. Once consecrated the Eucharist is considered to be the body and blood of Christ. So, Alfred is telling us that Byrgenwerth scholars went into a burial place or tomb and returned with a holy body or what is essentially Bloodborne’s version of the body and blood of Christ. Alfred also tells us that this holy medium is venerated in the Grand Cathedral, the same place where Laurence’s beastly skull is kept on display as a relic. But the original Japanese text of Alfred’s dialogue seems to be more nuanced. Whereas Alfred’s line in the official English version is, “I have heard that the holy medium of blood healing is venerated in the main cathedral,” the Japanese version appears to be closer to, “(for) blood ministration, I’ve heard the holy body it originates from is enshrined within the Grand Cathedral” or “I have heard that the holy body, source of the salvation of blood, is enshrined in the Grand Cathedral.” These translations strongly imply there was a bodily origin source of blood healing. If Laurence, as we’ve seen, is Bloodborne’s Christ, then Alfred is telling us that scholars went into the tomb of the gods and retrieved Laurence’s remains—which were buried in a tomb, as we see depicted in the graveside sculpture within the Church of the Good Chalice. They later dissected his remains, as depicted on the Surgery Altar. These men are removing the flesh—and more importantly the blood—of Laurence, the “holy medium” of the Healing Church.

We see this concept expressed by the environmental assets that are brightly illuminated in the second nightmare cathedral, which we examined earlier in this episode. Here, the light illuminates Laurence’s dead body, wrapped in a death shroud for burial. Specifically, it’s lighting Laurence’s human skull. It also lights his body that was removed from the grave and dissected, as we see here. And when we raise the Surgery Altar platform and allow the moonlight to shine down on the lower level, the light illuminates one object in particular: the chair—the symbol of the establishment of the church. And it’s where we find the item Laurence’s Skull. It’s just like Miyazaki said: Laurence’s “skull was the start of the Healing Church itself.”

One of the most common responses to the assertion that Laurence’s dead body is the “holy medium” is something akin to, “How could Laurence be the holy medium if he already knew about the old blood?” Unfortunately, this question comes from a place of misunderstanding. I’m arguing and have been arguing in all three videos about Laurence that the so-called “old blood” isn’t the same thing as the “holy medium.” They’re related, but not synonymous.

Obviously, Laurence’s remains aren’t the origin source of the “old blood,” which itself is a somewhat problematic term that’s been treated as a proper noun of sorts within the lore community. For now, I’ll just refer to it as “the blood.” But yes, we know Laurence wasn’t the original source of the blood because of what we observe in the cutscene showing the dialogue between Willem and Laurence. Willem repeatedly mentions the blood, and the two men say in unison, “Fear the old blood.” Obviously, they’re not talking about Laurence’s remains when referring to the blood.

Alfred tells us, though, that it was the discovery of this “holy medium,” meaning Laurence’s remains, that “led to the founding of the Healing Church and the establishment of blood healing.” This is entirely consistent with what Miyazaki revealed when he said that Laurence’s skull “served as the start of the Healing Church itself.” Alfred and Miyazaki are saying the same thing. It’s still reasonable to ask, “How did the discovery of Laurence’s remains lead to the founding of the Healing Church and the establishment of blood healing?” Although we’re missing some details in the middle, we have a good bit of information to work with on the front and back ends.

Laurence’s conversation with Willem, as we just noted, confirms that he and Willem were well aware of this mystical blood. They knew it well enough to understand that it was something to be feared. The Beast rune tells us why. Because with Byrgenwerth’s discovery of this special blood came deviations—a sort of diseased, perverse metamorphosis—and “the discovery of undesirable beasts.” It’s the beastly transformation.

There are several compelling theories about exactly where Byrgenwerth scholars discovered this blood, but regardless of the original source of the game’s mystical blood, the lore heavily implies that it was the same kind of blood that was used in the ancient land of Loran. We know from the Ailing Loran Chalice that a beastly scourge plagued Loran long ago, hence its name “Ailing” Loran. The Lower Loran chalices also tell us there were “trace remains of medical procedures” that likely were the cause of this transformation, not an attempt to cure it. The implication is that there was some mystical blood being used in Loran as a medical treatment and it ultimately ended up triggering a beast plague. One could argue it was this blood that Byrgenwerth scholars discovered, but there’s reason to believe that the game’s powerful blood is simply the blood of the dead, and there’s not some single, original source. An entire video series could be devoted to the nature and origin of the blood, but fortunately that’s not something we need to solve here. The point is that Willem and Laurence knew about the blood, they knew it had potentially curative power and they knew that using this blood came with great risk.

The strong implication is that this same mysterious blood was the cause of the schism between Laurence and Willem. Laurence saw the blood as a miraculous gift, and Willem didn’t. That’s pretty clear. As the Rune Workshop Tool tells us, “Provost Willem would have been proud of Caryll’s runes, as they do not rely upon blood in any measure.” It’s inferred that Laurence saw great potential in the blood just like the ancient scholars of Loran who used it as a medical treatment. But Laurence’s desire to use the blood conflicted so strongly with his headmaster’s ideals that Willem would view Laurence’s departure from Byrgenwerth as an act of betrayal.

Although we don’t see references to Laurence throughout Old Yharnam, the fact that there’s a picturesque monument to his burial found in the oldest church in the city indicates that after Laurence left Byrgenwerth, this is where he came. What happened next is incredibly hard to say, and any assertions about Laurence’s specific actions are guesswork to some degree, but I think we have enough to go on.

We know that a plague of beasts eventually consumed Old Yharnam. That’s obvious. But because everyone in the sculpture in the Church of the Good Chalice is a human, it suggests the plague in Old Yharnam didn’t occur immediately. It likely occurred after Laurence died. At the same time, this sculpture seems to be telling us that Laurence, Bloodborne’s Christ, was viewed as a savior in Old Yharnam. Why?

It’s because Laurence came here, to Old Yharnam, for a very specific reason and did something that the residents of the old city would have considered worthy of deep reverence. The history lies in the Antidote item description. Old Yharnam was being ravaged by a mysterious sickness. It was the ashen blood. The people of the old city used these medicinal tablets, but they only provided short-term relief for a disease that no one had been able to cure. That is, until Laurence. This scholar from Byrgenwerth came to the city touting a substance that he and his fellow scholars had discovered in the tomb of the gods. It had been used as a medical treatment long ago, and perhaps it could be the cure for the ashen blood sickness that was plaguing Old Yharnam. Laurence and his former master Willem knew that this blood was to be feared, but what better opportunity to employ the blood than during a sweeping outbreak of disease? Laurence distributed the blood to those afflicted with the ashen blood sickness. And it worked. The people were cured. Laurence was hailed a savior. And eventually when Laurence died, he was considered such a revered figure that the residents of Old Yharnam would memorialize his burial, placing an elaborate monument within the oldest church in the city. Large crowds gathered to pay their respects to Laurence after he died. But as we well know, use of the old blood as a medical treatment is a precursor to a plague of beasts. That’s exactly what happened in Ailing Loran. And it’s exactly what would happen again in Old Yharnam. It would make sense that Laurence died before this occurred, because he was a revered figure at the time of his death.

We also have to assume that Laurence consumed or transfused the blood because we know he eventually transformed into a beast. It’s this detail that helps support the idea that the beast plague in Old Yharnam didn’t occur immediately. It took time—because we know Laurence died a man, as the retable and effigy tomb show. His transformation must have occurred later.

So how did we end up with Laurence’s beastly skull in the waking world Grand Cathedral? As far as I can tell, there’s only one explanation that makes sense. But this explanation only makes sense if we understand a specific feature of the game’s mystical blood.

The Holy Chalice

There’s a surprising amount of information we can obtain about Laurence and the Healing Blood in the early game. It’s just not easy at first to realize that the sources of this information are talking about the same thing. They seem to converge on the Church of the Good Chalice. It’s Gehrman who tells us to come here. “Seek a Holy Chalice,” he says, “as every hunter before you has.”

This quest takes us to Old Yharnam, where we eventually have to defeat the Blood-Starved Beast to obtain this chalice, which we learn is the Pthumeru Chalice. This is the first chalice we can obtain in the game, and its placement here is notable. We find it in the aptly named Church of the Good Chalice, indicating that the church itself was named in honor of this cup. That would explain why Gehrman told us that this chalice is “worshiped in the valley hamlet.” The Pthumeru Chalice appears to be the central relic behind the religion of Old Yharnam. It’s significant, then, that the altar within this church, a church dedicated to this holy chalice, is a depiction of the burial of Laurence. These features signal that Laurence and the Pthumeru Chalice are closely related. Why is that so? Although there are likely other connections, the Pthumeru Chalice is the only one of the game’s 25 chalices that uses the term seitai, the Japanese term that means “holy body” or Eucharist.

From Software’s effort to connect the Pthumeru Chalice with Laurence is yet another major attempt to portray Laurence as Bloodborne’s Christ. In this instance, we’re not just seeing a simple imprint of eucharistic ritual. We’re experiencing a twist on the Holy Grail mythos, which itself was heavily manipulated by the Christian faith. In Arthurian legend, which has many different authors and thus many different tellings, the Holy Grail was an item, sometimes described as a stone or a plate, but more popularly represented as a gilded cup that possessed mythical power to provide bountiful food, to put men in a state of spiritual ecstasy or, as it became much more commonly known, to heal any illness and grant immortality. The curative power of the Holy Grail, which was a later interpretation of the grail mythos, resulted from the injection of Christian dogma and iconography by Medieval authors, primarily the French poet Robert de Boron.

De Boron’s telling of the grail myth drew heavily from the legend of Joseph of Arimathea and the ritual of communion. According to the gospels of the New Testament, during the Last Supper, Christ filled a cup with wine and shared it with his disciples. “Drink from it, all of you,” Jesus said. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:27-28). This was the origin of the communion practice and the symbolizing of the ceremonial wine as the blood of Christ.

In the grail story of Robert de Boron, Joseph of Arimathea took the cup of the Last Supper and used it to collect the final drops of blood from Christ as he hung on the cross. The cup containing Christ’s blood became known as the Holy Grail. In the Medieval legend, Joseph of Arimathea brought the grail to England to Christianize the land, using the grail to perform miracles. It mysteriously disappeared and became mythologized as an ever-elusive relic and the quarry of many a noble quest. According to some of the most popular theories of the grail myth, including the one advanced by Dan Brown in his novel The Da Vinci Code, the grail eventually was hidden away in a church, specifically the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, just south of Edinburgh.

These grail myths should seem eerily similar to what we experience in Bloodborne, because they are. Gehrman tells us to “seek a holy chalice” that, like in a popular grail myth, is buried in an old, forgotten chapel. It’s one of many chalices, Gehrman says, that has been “lost…in the hands of men,” just like there are many cups that are believed to be the true Holy Grail. By instructing us to seek this chalice, Gehrman seems to be sending us on Bloodborne’s version of a Holy Grail quest. I don’t think this is an accident, for several reasons. For one, the Isz Chalice is a deformed replica of the Marian Chalice and is one of the clearest clues about the grail connection to Bloodborne’s chalices. Some grail researchers believe that the Marian Chalice was used by Mary Magdalene to collect the blood of Christ and therefore is the actual Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Gehrman refers to the Pthumeru Chalice as a “Holy Chalice,” a term that has become synonymous with the Holy Grail. The Pthumeru Chalice is also styled as a ceremonial cup, just like a grail. But even more noteworthy, the term used in Japanese for “chalice” when referring to any of the game’s 25 chalices is Seihai 聖杯, which can be used when referring to a communion chalice, but it’s also the term used when referring to the Holy Grail. This theme is very strongly emphasized in the game when it comes to the chalices, the blood and Laurence.

Although all of that is relevant, we haven’t addressed the most important point. As I mentioned before, the holy blood of Christ within the grail mythos possessed a nearly magical quality. The blood contained within the Holy Grail could heal the sick and grant eternal life. This translates directly to Bloodborne. What is the central feature of the Healing Church? It’s the Healing Blood. It’s this mystical, presumably divine, blood that is characterized as a panacea or cure-all.

This special, forbidden blood is what Laurence used to cure Old Yharnam of the ashen blood sickness. But perhaps it’s more than that. Perhaps, just like the legendary blood of the Holy Grail, Laurence’s special blood might also grant eternal life.

The Beastly Miracle

By this point, I think we’ve clearly seen that Laurence died as a man. His dead human body is shown in the relief of the retable in the Grand Cathedral. His dead human body also is shown wrapped in a shroud for burial. So how do we go from Laurence the dead man to Laurence the dead beast?

Let’s face it: We have to conclude that Laurence the man didn’t stay dead. He came back to life—but as a beast. The transformation occurred after his death. As ridiculous as that might seem, it makes perfect sense.

We know that Laurence is consistently portrayed as Bloodborne’s Christ, whose death is lamented in various religious buildings throughout Yharnam and the nightmare. And when it comes to Jesus Christ, what was his greatest miracle? What is he best known for? What act of his became the promise of hope extended to all his believers? It was his resurrection. It was his life after death and the promise of eternal salvation. If Laurence transformed into a beast after death in some sort of nightmarish resurrection, it helps explain why all the imagery around Laurence treats him as a Christ-like figure. It explains why the imagery around Laurence shows him as a human at the time of his death. And it also explains why all the imagery around Laurence isn’t associated with his life—it’s dedicated entirely to his death. We never see his face, we hear only 30 words of dialogue in Laurence’s voice and we learn virtually nothing about specific actions he took as a scholar. But we see his bodily remains here, here, here, here, here, here and here (four altars, effigy tombs, opening cinematic). In many ways, Bloodborne is a saga of Laurence’s death and beastly resurrection.

If what we’re seeing in the second nightmare cathedral is a sort of timeline of Laurence’s remains, it’s notable that everything here is related to his human remains. We have his human body in a shroud, his human body being dissected and then his human skull on the altar below. Where does the beastly transformation fit into all this? We know that Laurence’s human skull only exists in the nightmare, thus it’s not real per se. It’s a symbol of what Laurence lost. In reality, all that’s left of Laurence is a beastly skull. The Surgery Altar also can only be found in the nightmare, so perhaps this display is just like Laurence’s human skull, in that it doesn’t reflect the true nature of Laurence’s remains when they were dissected. But the effigy tomb showing Laurence’s body in a shroud can be found in multiple places in the waking world, most importantly in the Church of the Good Chalice. It exists in Bloodborne’s version of the real world. What does this mean?

I think the most logical explanation is that the scene in the Surgery Altar is a storytelling device to indicate that Laurence’s corpse was dissected and in this process, his head was removed. But his corpse wasn’t a human corpse within the waking world. It was a beast corpse, hence why we see his beastly skull in the Grand Cathedral.

As Alfred tells us, a group of young Byrgenwerth scholars went into the tomb of the gods where they discovered a holy body. It was the body of Laurence, the Christ-like savior of Old Yharnam. But he was no longer a man—he had transformed into a horrible cleric beast. The scholars would have been shocked by this turn of events. Laurence’s transformation was an abomination, but also a ghoulish miracle. He had achieved a sort of horrific immortality. This creature was something never seen before. Laurence was the first cleric beast, after all.

Although we never observe Laurence’s resurrection directly during gameplay, I think we might be receiving a glimpse of it elsewhere: It’s in the game’s opening cinematic. I mentioned in the first episode of this Laurence miniseries that the cinematic appears to show a hunter walking through the tomb of the gods. He’s moving through dark corridors and compact archways like we see in the labyrinth. Importantly, there are massive tree roots growing through the stonework, just like those we see everywhere throughout the tomb of the gods. Alfred tells us it was within the tomb of the gods that the holy medium, meaning Laurence’s dead body, was discovered. Near the end of the cinematic, we see Laurence’s beastly skull, symbolically imbued with a drop of holy blood from an unknown divine source, indicating that the blood was the cause of his beastly transformation. And as the hunter reaches out to touch the skull, behind him a hulking cleric beast emerges from the shadows as if to symbolize the resurrection of Laurence. His skull tells us that Laurence was dead, but the emergence of the beast symbolizes his return to life through the power of the mystical blood. These aren’t real events in the cinematic. This is pure symbolism.

It also turns out that the rumor we learn from Gilbert, a fellow outsider, was true. Gilbert gives us two bits of information about the church. “Deep within Cathedral Ward,” he said, “is the old grand cathedral… the birthplace of the Healing Church’s healing blood, or so they say.” He follows up even more bluntly, saying, “Across the valley to the east of Yharnam, you’ll find the Cathedral Ward. Deep within lies the old main cathedral, said to be the source of blood.” It’s within the cathedral we find the skull of Laurence, the source of blood. The scholars who discovered Laurence’s beastly body dissected it and drained it of blood. The skull remains on the altar in reverence to Laurence, the source of the Healing Blood. It’s a symbol of the divine power of the blood to grant life after death, consistent with the Arthurian legend and the power of Christ’s blood, contained within the Holy Grail, to heal any illness and grant everlasting life. Laurence’s skull is in the Grand Cathedral adjacent to the monumental chair, inspired by the Chair of St. Peter, because upon Laurence’s beastly skull, the Healing Church was founded.

This is the holy medium.

We can’t say for certain whether Laurence’s use of the so-called “old blood” significantly modified his own blood or, if he essentially replaced his own blood with the mystical blood he found in the tomb of the gods. We, the player-character, receive a transfusion in the introduction of the game, so perhaps Laurence did something similar with this mystical blood, and eventually it triggered his transformation after death. Regardless, I think it’s fair to say that Laurence, more than anything, was a carrier of special blood and not a divine being of sorts, though he might have aspired to be. Although he wasn’t the original source of the game’s mystical blood, or the “old blood” if you prefer, he nevertheless served as the source of the blood used by the Healing Church, who perceived him as a superior being because of this dramatic transformation and his return to life.

This is why Laurence’s remains appear on five different altars in the game. According to the Canon of Catholic Law, the altar serves as the table from which the Eucharist is offered during Mass. Upon the altar sits the bread and wine that are the body and blood of Christ. In Japanese, this would be the seitai, the same term used for Bloodborne’s holy medium, which is Laurence’s bodily remains.

Even after all we’ve discussed, the question lingers: Who discovered Laurence’s body, dissected it and used his blood to establish the Healing Church and its practice of blood healing? By now, we should already know the answer. And this answer helps us tap into one of the most popular theories in the lore community.

Slaying the Beast

If Laurence transformed into a beast after death and thus while in the tomb, who would have killed Laurence the beast? Alfred simply refers to “a group of young Byrgenwerth scholars” that discovered Laurence, the holy medium, deep within the tomb of the gods. But let’s think back to the previous episode. I argued that the Surgery Altar scene is showing us the dissection of Laurence’s body after it was removed from the grave, and I believe the main scholar leading the dissection isn’t some nameless figure. Based on a number of distinctive features belonging to the bearded scholar and the dissected body, we were able to conclude that this man is Brador. If that’s true, it means several major pieces of this puzzle begin to click together. Let’s take a look at six important points.

First, If Brador was part of the group that discovered Laurence’s body in the tomb, it means that he was actually a Byrgenwerth scholar. Although that seems hard to believe, it would explain several very confusing story and design elements. For one, it would explain why this bearded man in the Surgery Altar display is wearing a bishop’s miter. This isn’t a piece of attire worn by clergy of the Healing Church. Instead, it’s attire worn by the old scholars of Byrgenwerth. That’s why this headpiece is nearly identical to the one worn by Master Willem, from the unusual squid-like tail design to the distinctive blinder over the eyes. This seems to have been a very deliberate design choice.

Second, it would explain the text from Brador’s Testimony that says he “killed a compatriot.” Brador is described here as a “Healing Church assassin,” which naturally suggests that Brador was already in the employ of the Church and killed a fellow clergy member. But based on everything we’ve discussed in the last few episodes, this language might be technically accurate but very tongue-in-cheek. If Brador was a scholar of Byrgenwerth and he was responsible for slaying Laurence after he transformed into a beast, then Brador did indeed kill a compatriot—Laurence—who was a fellow scholar of Byrgenwerth. If Brador then used the blood of Laurence, drained from his dissected body, to establish the Healing Church, then in a weird way Brador was a “Healing Church assassin” of sorts.

Third, and most obviously, it would explain why Brador is wearing the scalp and hide of a cleric beast, which is what Laurence eventually became. We’ve already examined in the previous video the many clues that indicate the cleric beast that Brador killed, skinned and scalped was Laurence.

Fourth, if a group of Byrgenwerth scholars led by Brador went on to establish the Healing Church using Laurence’s beastly skull as a foundational holy relic representing the healing power of divine blood and the prospect of immortality, it would explain why the Church and Byrgenwerth are so closely linked. For years, we’ve assumed Laurence was the common thread. If Laurence founded the Healing Church, it would seem reasonable that he brought certain norms and traditions with him—mainly the attire. As the Tomb Prospector set tells us, “The Healing Church traces its roots to Byrgenwerth.” We also learn that the Choir set is worn by “the highest-ranking clerics of the Healing Church, and scholars who continue the work that began at Byrgenwerth.” But as we’ve well established, Laurence died before the Church was founded. How, then, was the Church an offshoot of Byrgenwerth? This was only possible if scholars of Byrgenwerth established the Church, as Alfred tells us—not Laurence.

Fifth, if Brador was responsible for killing Laurence, dissecting his body and using Laurence’s blood to establish the Church, it likely explains why Brador’s weapon is called the Bloodletter. Brador was responsible for exsanguinating Laurence’s corpse. Laurence’s blood then became the Healing Blood.

Sixth and finally, if Brador killed Laurence after he had transformed into a beast, it lends support for the popular theory that Laurence is—or at least was intended to be—the Bloodletting Beast.

This idea was popularized, perhaps even originated, by Sophie Pilbeam within the first year or two of the game’s release. Sophie, who is part of the Sinclair Lore podcast, more recently summarized this theory in a 2023 video about Laurence, which I’ve linked in the description.

The theory lost a little bit of steam within the lore community once the DLC was released, mainly because we encounter Laurence in the Hunter’s Nightmare. Many people reasoned that if this monstrous cleric beast is Laurence, then the Bloodletting Beast can’t also be Laurence. Even though I understand what critics are saying with that argument, I’m not particularly persuaded by it. First, as Sin of the Sinclair Lore podcast also noted, we find Laurence in the Hunter’s Nightmare, which we know is highly distorted. What we experience here seems to be much more symbolic in nature. Moreover, just like we discussed in the previous episode, the physical skull of Laurence that we observe in the Grand Cathedral looks absolutely nothing like the skull of Laurence, the First Vicar, which is very canine in its appearance and contains two enormous antlers. Laurence’s actual skull is much more humanoid in its appearance, and importantly doesn’t contain antlers or even pedicles where the antlers would have been attached. The cleric beast version of Laurence is essentially a narrative device not to be taken literally.

By contrast, the Bloodletting Beast has a very humanoid face with two large canines, meaning the pointed teeth, much like we see in Laurence’s skull. The Bloodletting Beast’s head contains a massive gash, which is similar but not identical to the giant gash in Laurence’s skull. One other thing of note, which I brought up in the previous video. Laurence’s skull contains long, straight hair, something not found on his cleric beast version. But the Bloodletting Beast’s long, straight hair is far more similar.

Although Laurence’s appearance in the DLC undermined the Bloodletting Beast theory in the eyes of many lore enthusiasts, there was another component of the DLC that simultaneously helped fan the flames of the theory. That component was Brador, who is infamously wearing the scalp and hide of a cleric beast. This naturally prompted people to wonder if perhaps the compatriot that Brador killed, skinned and scalped was Laurence, following his transformation into a beast. Additionally, as we noted before, Brador wields the iconic weapon called the Bloodletter. If Brador killed a cleric beast using the Bloodletter, then it’s reasonable to assume the name of this weapon might somehow be linked with the Bloodletting Beast. But because the cleric beast outfit didn’t match the design of the Bloodletting Beast, there was still some reluctance to embrace this theory.

What I find most compelling is that the Bloodletting Beast has two forms. The first time we encounter the beast, it’s fully formed albeit with two massive wounds. When we encounter it again, it’s missing its head. The Bloodletting Beast might be Laurence, who transformed into a beast after being buried in a tomb. If Brador killed Laurence and dissected his body, perhaps he decapitated Laurence in the process and brought Laurence’s skull back as a sort of chalice filled with Laurence’s blood. It remained on the altar of the Grand Cathedral as a foundational relic of the Healing Church. The rest of Laurence’s remains might have been left behind in the tomb, hence the Headless Bloodletting Beast.

As we’ve seen in these three episodes, there was far more to the story of Laurence and the Healing Church than we originally thought. Laurence didn’t establish the Church and instead was considered the source of its Healing Blood. The religious parallels were the guiding light to this discovery. And with this new information in our possession, it might be worth re-examining the game with a fresh perspective to see what other secrets can be unearthed. Thanks for watching.

Oh, before I forget, I don’t know what happened with Laurence and the Moon Presence. Good hunting.

References

Reid, Margaret J. C. The Arthurian Legend: Comparison of Treatment in Modern and Mediaeval Literature. London: Routledge, 1938.

Rogan, Clare I. “Representing the Seat of Papal Authority: A Rediscovered Drawing for the Chair of St. Peter by the Workshop of Gian Lorenzo Bernini.” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts (2020) 94, no. 1: 40-53.

Additional Resources

Last Protagonist and Arukia Mania. Bloodborne Japanese Retranslation Guide Bloodborne Japanese Retranslation Guide

Sinclair Lore. Laurence the Worst Vicar (Part 1) [Bloodborne Lore].

Tarnished Archaeologist. The Secret Religion of Old Yharnam | Bloodborne Archaeology Ep. 1.

Tarnished Archaeologist. Old Blood: The Hidden Story of Yharnam’s First Healing Church | Bloodborne Archaeology Ep. 2.

Damage

Depth	Guillotine	Pendulum Axe	Rolling Boulder	Arrow	Barbecue Pan [pic]	Exploding Barrel	Poison Smoke
1	550	550	1000	300	130	152	0.1% + 12 / s
2	650	650	1400	370	160	187	0.1% + 13 / s
3	800	800	1600	500	230	257	0.1% + 17 / s
4	1000	1000	1670	580	270	322	0.1% + 21 / s
5	1000	1000	1670	600	280	372	0.1% + 25 / s
	Physical Damage			Fire Damage

Note 1:	Arrow trap gets affected by dungeon damage scaling.
Note 2:	Flaming Boulder doesn't have a separate entry from the normal one.
Note 3:	Dungeon Cannons deal 350 blood dmg base and scales with chalice multipliers.

Table of Contents

Related Wiki Pages

Chalice Glyphs: tested July, 2023

Basic Information

Table of Contents

List of Changes

How to Access

Amygdalae Grab (DLC Access) Research

DLC Trophies

DLC Notes

NeoGaf's The Old Hunters |OT|

Pre-release Archived Information

Related Wiki Pages (In Alphabetical Order)
Used In:	link, link, link
Related:	link, link, link

Basic Information

Unique item list for each chalice. All these items can be found in coffins in each bonus room and can only be looted once. Sinister chalices have the same items as their non-sinister equivalent chalice.

Unique Items

Chalice	Consumables & Key Items	Materials	Weapons	Caryll Runes	Blood Gems
Pthumeru depth 1	Frenzied Coldblood (7) 10x Bone Marrow Ash 6x Fire Paper	None	Uncanny Saw Cleaver	None	Blood ATK % Circle gem
Pthumeru depth 2	Frenzied Coldblood (9) 4x Shaman Bone Blade	None	Uncanny Saw Spear Uncanny Treaded Cane	None	Physical ATK % Droplet gem
Pthumeru depth 3	Great One Coldblood	None	Uncanny Kirkhammer Lost Saw Spear Lost Saw Cleaver Uncanny Riflespear	Formless Oeden +2	Fire ATK % Radial gem
Pthumeru depth 4	None	None	Ludwigs Uncanny Holy Blade Uncanny Chikage Uncanny Logarius Wheel Uncanny Reiterpallasch	Blood Rapture +250 Lake +5%	Physical ATK % Radial gem
Pthumeru depth 5	Ring of Betrothal	Blood Rock	Lost Burial Blade Lost Blade of Mercy Lost Chikage Lost Logarius Wheel Lost Reiterpallasch	Formless Oedon +5 Communion +5 Lake +7% Heir +50% Oedon Writhe +3 Clockwise Metamorphosis +15%	Physical ATK % Radial gem Blood ATK % Circle gem
Hintertomb depth 2	Frenzied Coldblood (9) 6x Bolt Paper	Blood Stone Chunk	Uncanny Hunter Axe	None	Heavy Droplet gem
Hintertomb depth 3	Great One Coldblood	None	Uncanny Stake Driver	Great Deep Sea +50 Deep Sea +100 Stunning Deep Sea +100 Great Lake +3%	ATK vs Beasts UP % Triangle gem
Loran depth 4	None	None	Uncanny Beast Claw Lost Hunter Axe Uncanny Tonitrus Lost Riflespear	Dissipating Lake +7% Fading Lake +7%	Fire ATK % Waning gem
Loran depth 5	None	Blood Rock	Lost Beast Claw Uncanny Burial Blade Uncanny Blade of Mercy Lost Tonitrus Lost Stake Driver	Beast +100 Stunning Deep Sea +300 Clear Deep Sea +300 Dissipating Lake +10% Fading Lake +10% Clawmark +30% Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis +20%	Fire ATK % Waning gem Bolt ATK % Waning gem
Isz depth 5	None	Blood Rock	Ludwig Lost Holy Blade Lost Kirkhammer Lost Treaded Cane	Great Deep Sea +150 Deep Sea +300 Great Lake +5% Arcane Lake +10% Eye +100	Arcane ATK % Triangle gem

Chalice	Unique Loot
Pthumeru depth 1	Uncanny Saw Cleaver, Frenzied Coldblood (7), 10x Bone Marrow Ash, 6x Fire Paper, Blood ATK % Circle gem
Pthumeru (2)	Uncanny Saw Spear, Uncanny Treaded Cane, Frenzied Coldblood (9), 4x Shaman Bone Blade, Physical ATK % Droplet gem
Pthumeru (3)	Uncanny Kirkhammer, Lost Saw Spear, Lost Saw Cleaver, Uncanny Riflespear, Formless Oeden +2, Great One ColdBlood, Fire ATK % Radial gem
Pthumeru (4)	Ludwigs Uncanny Holy Blade, Uncanny Chikage, Uncanny Logarius Wheel, Uncanny Reiterpallasch, Blood Rapture +250, Lake +5%, Physical ATK % Radial gem
Pthumeru (5)	Lost Burial Blade, Lost Blade of Mercy, Lost Chikage, Lost Logarius Wheel, Lost Reiterpallasch, Formless Oedon +5, Communion +5, Lake +7%, Heir +50%, Oedon Writhe +3, Clockwise Metamorphosis +15%, Ring of Betrothal, Blood Rock, Physical ATK % Radial gem, Blood ATK % Circle gem
Hintertomb (2)	Uncanny Hunter Axe, Blood Stone Chunk, Frenzied Coldblood (9), 6x Bolt Paper, Heavy Droplet gem
Hintertomb (3)	Uncanny Stake Driver, Great Deep Sea +50, Deep Sea +100, Stunning Deep Sea +100, Great Lake +3%, Great One Coldblood, ATK vs Beasts UP % Triangle gem
Loran (4)	Uncanny Beast Claw, Lost Hunter Axe, Uncanny Tonitrus, Lost Riflespear, Dissipating Lake +7%, Fading Lake +7%, Fire ATK % Waning gem
Loran (5)	Lost Beast Claw, Uncanny Burial Blade, Uncanny Blade of Mercy, Lost Tonitrus, Lost Stake Driver, Beast +100, Stunning Deep Sea +300, Clear Deep Sea +300, Dissipating Lake +10%, Fading Lake +10%, Clawmark +30%, Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis +20%, Blood Rock, Fire ATK % Waning gem, Bolt ATK % Waning gem
Isz (5)	Ludwig Lost Holy Blade, Lost Kirkhammer, Lost Treaded Cane, Great Deep Sea +150, Deep Sea +300, Great Lake +5%, Arcane Lake +10%, Eye +100, Blood Rock, Arcane ATK % Triangle gem

Announcement Poster & Rules

Results

A group of hunters led by AutumnalVoid followed by veterans Blarc576, BabyPana, Trin from Tomb Prospectors and scholar mug made their way into the deeps of Bloodborne Wiki and brought back information about whereabouts of the Messengers' Lodge.

First Hunter in 36 minutes	Report: and first hunter to unravel the mystery was AutumnalVoid (twitter) showing off the spelunking skill and do it in 36 minutes. But hunt for others continues who will be next?
	AutumnalVoid's Strategy: Started with "obvious" things like doll, lady maria, then some basics like yharnam, micolash, gherman and when I came to blood vials, I extended from opening single tabs to opening multiple that were offered when typing in a search. Not sure exactly which entry's additional suggestions had the flowers page in it, it was quite an adrenaline rush when I found the first little one on iosefka's blood vial.
Second Hunter in 53 minutes	Report: Keep it coming! We have second hunter to discover the secret this time it's Blarc576 (discord) doing it 53 minutes.
	Blarc576's Strategy: Home -> Sitemap -> Brute force every page there is in alphabetical order, in short: I was lucky it sat under "F".
Third Hunter in 1h 8 minutes	Report: Third hunter BabyPana (discord) made its way into the unknown and in 1h 8 minutes.
	BabyPana's Strategy: Well, I actually found on my second try! Had I joined the hoont at 7pm I might have been the first one. I just thought "where would I find the a messenger dressed up as the doll?", so I searched for the Hunter's Dream, and then the wiki suggested me the Flowers in Hunter's Dream entry.
Fourth Hunter in 1h 25 minutes	Report: 4th huntress made it in! It is getting crowded, Trin (discord) from Tomb Prospectors used well her prospecting skills, at time 1h 25 minutes.
	Trin's Strategy: I was clicking on each pages through Sitemap and hoped, ...I tried to click on pages I thought wasn't visited as much.
Fifth Hunter 2h 19 minutes	Report: Fifth hunter mug (twitter) sneaked in and secret is no more! This time in 2h 19 minutes. Hunters are returning to the surface to let everyone know about what they found. Secret will be revelead at 10PM (CEST) so about 25 minutes from now.
	Mug's Strategy: I guessed it would have something to do with the Doll, so I was searched things related to the doll and saw the page when I searched hunter's dream haha.

Community

What is this? One of the messengers made it outside of Bloodborne Wiki and joined Tomb Prospectors on Discord.

Child’s Play

Aside from their corpse-like appearance, thanks to their small stature, the Messengers also appear somewhat childlike. Taken together, these details suggest that these creatures might very well be dead children—or spirits of dead children. This idea isn’t new, but it isn’t just reliant upon these surface-level observations. To the contrary, there’s a trove of compelling evidence to support this line of thinking. In this section, we’ll progress from the most basic to the most robust supporting information.

Within the Nightmare Frontier, we can obtain a somewhat frivolous item called Messenger’s Gift, which transforms the player-character into a small group of Messengers. While the English text refers to this transformation as a “parlor trick,” in the Japanese it’s described as “a childish kind of illusion” (Last Protagonist) or “a type of illusion on the level of child’s play” (Aruki Mania). That gets us started. There’s also a small collection of purely cosmetic items that are exclusive to the Messengers, which allow us to outfit them in bows, bandages or even Church attire. The description for almost all these accessories includes the statement, “Why not let them be happy, and revel as babes?” All these descriptions allude to the happiness of infants—children at play and babes in revelry.

The infant-like physiognomy of the Messengers, coupled with these item descriptions that refer to their childlike behavior, bolsters the notion that the Messengers are—or at one point were—human children. But those are minor details compared to what we can discern from the vessels that house the Messengers: the stump and the baths. These change everything. Let’s first turn our attention to the stump, where we can change the outfits and accessories of the Messengers. If we’re operating on the assumption that 1) the Messengers are dead, and 2) they’re childlike, then we’re able to make a massive revelation about where From Software drew inspiration for this environmental feature.

Passiliran

The mountainous region of Tana Toraja in central Indonesia is home to an ethnic group called the Torajans, who are known primarily for one thing: their unique rituals to treat and honor the dead. Although the Torajans practice a form of Christianity, their spiritual beliefs are distinct from observers of the faith across the world. In Tana Toraja, the dead must receive a funeral commensurate with their status in the culture’s caste system, otherwise the soul of the deceased won’t pass on to the afterlife. For that reason, most families, which have no intergenerational wealth, save for years to pay for funeral expenses which primarily involves the purchase of pigs and water buffalo that are slaughtered in honor of their dead loved one. During this period of saving, the body of the deceased remains in the home and is treated as if the dead family member is still alive.

But the funeral rites for dead infants and stillborn children are perhaps even more remarkable. In Torajan culture, when a fetus or newborn dies, in order to send its spirit directly to the afterlife the family will carve a hole in a breadfruit tree and place the body of the deceased child inside. They cover the hollow with palm fibers, and years later, when the fibers have fallen away, the child’s body will have been absorbed by the tree. For the Torajans, this arboreal grave serves as a “second womb,” and “When the tree dies, a timely death has been achieved” (Hoppenbrouwers et al., 660).

This is an intriguing explanation for why the Messengers of Bloodborne reside in the stump. It’s an indication to us that, like dead Torajan infants, the Messengers are dead children. But there’s more to it than that. As part of their ongoing efforts to honor their deceased loved ones, the Torajans routinely change the clothes of the dead, which involves exhuming the corpse every few years to change its clothes and accessories, such as jewelry and eyeglasses. The Messengers of the stump, who live in the hollow of a tree, similarly allow us to change their attire and accessories. This seems to explain why the item descriptions of most Messenger accessories state, “The inhabitants of the stump appear to have an interest in adornment.”

Limbus Infantium

That might clarify matters involving the stump, but what about the baths? Again, if we’re operating on the assumption that the Messengers are dead and childlike, we can find our answers. These stone installations within the Hunter’s Dream and deep within the chalice dungeons are called baths, we know, because the Saw Hunter Badge refers to “the messengers in the bath.” But this word choice appears to be a bit of misdirection. These are actually baptismal fonts, the sacred vessels used to baptize newborn children.

Although many denominations of Christianity observe baptism, some view the practice as largely symbolic of one’s acceptance of Christ as a personal savior while treating the act of baptism as the cleansing or washing away of one’s sin. Catholicism, though, for centuries has treated baptism as a necessity for spiritual salvation and admittance to heaven. This stems from Christ’s exchange with Nicodemus in the New Testament Book of John, Chapter 3. Nicodemus tells Jesus, “‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.’ (3) Jesus answered him, ‘...I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ (4) Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ (5) Jesus answered, ‘...unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” (Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition)

Because of Jesus’ rather unequivocal statement that baptism is necessary for salvation, many Christian denominations, including Catholicism, Christian Orthodoxy and Lutheranism, among others, don’t leave fate to chance. Rather than allowing a person to accept baptism at a later time in life, these denominations practice infant baptism shortly after a child is born. For Catholics, this is an edict contained within the Code of Canon Law, which states, “Can. 867 §1. Parents are obliged to take care that infants are baptized in the first few weeks; as soon as possible after the birth or even before it, they are to go to the pastor to request the sacrament for their child and to be prepared properly for it. §2. An infant in danger of death is to be baptized without delay.”

But what happens when a child dies before it can be baptized, whether dying while still in the womb or shortly after birth? This has been a point of uncertainty and ecumenical debate for centuries.

Theologians from as early as the fourth century contended that because dead infants were incapable of any moral act, it isn’t reasonable that they should suffer the punishment of hell. But because these children were never baptized and thus were still stained by the original sin of Adam that applied to all mankind, they could never ascend to heaven. Christian scholars reasoned that there must be a destination for dead, unbaptized infants whose only fault was being conceived into a sinful human race.

Around 370 A.D., the Archbishop of Constantinople, Gregory of Nazianzus, composed an oration on the topic of baptism. St. Gregory reasoned that, “those who fail to receive the gift [of baptism]…perhaps on account of infancy, or some perfectly involuntary circumstance through which they are prevented from receiving it…will be neither glorified nor punished by the righteous Judge.”

It was this rationale that over time led to the hypothesis of a Limbo of Infants, a realm bordering hell where the souls of unbaptized children would go for all eternity. This realm, in theory, would contain the spirits of aborted fetuses, of children who died in the womb, of those who died shortly after birth or those who were still too young to have developed the cognitive capacity for reason. Of great debate for centuries was whether these innocent souls would suffer pain, like the souls in hell, or would simply be deprived of the ultimate glory of heaven and the joy given by the Beatific Vision, coming face to face with God. The prominent 13th century philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas reasoned that these infant souls would not merely be free from pain; they would be in a state of natural joy, unaware that they had been deprived of the vision of God. Although the Limbo of Infants was never formally adopted as part of Catholic doctrine, the idea persisted for nearly seventeen hundred years until the Church under Pope Benedict XVI officially rejected the concept of Limbo in 2007.

The Messengers of Bloodborne, as we’ve shown, appear to be dead and childlike. And as the Doll tells us, these “little ones” are “inhabitants of the dream.” The Hunter’s Dream is their home, for all intents and purposes. So why are they found in these baptismal fonts and this tree stump? It’s to symbolize that the Messengers aren’t just children; they’re children who died in the womb or shortly after birth, hence before they could be baptized, and they’ve been relegated to this Hunter’s Dream, a Limbo of Infants for these Messengers. Why would the Messengers be the spirits of dead fetuses or newborns? We’ll return to this concept in Part 2.

While we’ve focused so far on what the Messengers are, we need to shift our attention to what the Messengers do. What exactly is their purpose in the game? We receive our first major clue during Bloodborne’s opening cutscene. After we’re administered the Yharnam blood, we seem to lose consciousness and experience a vision or hallucination. The Messengers rise from beneath the operating table and eventually overtake us as our field of vision fades to black. That’s when we hear the voice of the Doll for the first time. “Ah, you’ve found yourself a hunter.” Because the Doll and the Messengers inhabit the Hunter’s Dream, this short scene seems to suggest that the Messengers have somehow latched on to the soul or essence of the player-character and delivered it from Iosefka’s Clinic to the Hunter’s Dream. This sequence provides us with one of the most important insights into the Messengers’ purpose in the lore. They’re not just our companions; they’re psychopomps.

Psychopomps

A psychopomp is a guide to or protector of the soul as it makes the journey from the land of the living to some inevitable afterlife destination. For thousands of years, psychopomps have assumed numerous forms across a variety of cultures and religions, from human figures such as a shaman, to spirit animals such as dogs or deer. But there are other commonly known psychopomps. In Norse mythology, for example, the psychopomps of fallen warriors were the valkyrie. These warrior maidens were responsible for guiding the souls of the dead to Valhalla, Odin’s hall within Asgard, the realm of the gods. In Ancient Hebrew texts, the Archangel Michael is described as the psychopomp to the patriarchs, delivering the souls of Adam, Moses and Abraham from earth to heaven.

How do we know that the Messengers are psychopomps? There are many pieces of supporting evidence, but let’s start with the most basic. Even though it’s called the Hunter’s Dream, this area is overtly portrayed as an afterlife of sorts. Let’s think about it: When we die in the game for the first time, what happens to us? We don’t just start over at some random respawn point in Central Yharnam. We rise up from the ground of the Hunter’s Dream, in a haze, surrounded by gravestones and an endless sky of impenetrable fog. We’re being shown, at least initially, that this is where we go when we die. The Messengers somehow brought us here in the opening cutscene, and the Doll’s voice confirms that. Perhaps more accurately, they guided our soul here, just as a psychopomp would do. But that’s just the beginning.

Although Bloodborne contains about 15 distinct regions, from Central Yharnam to Byrgenwerth to Cainhurst, it’s largely divided between two realms or dimensions: the waking world and the dreamlands. The unsavory regions of the dreamlands include the Hunter’s Nightmare, the Nightmare Frontier and the Nightmare of Mensis. The Lecture Building, according to the Lecture Theatre Key, also is “adrift in the nightmare.” And the dreamlands include the Hunter’s Dream, although it might be slightly unique, as we’ll discuss later on.

The player-character can cross into the dreamlands by touching the dead body of Micolash near Advent Plaza or by carrying the Eye of a Blood-Drunk Hunter while being killed by an Amygdala. But if we want to access the Hunter’s Dream or return to the waking world from the Dream, we need something else: We need the Messengers. Not only does it seem clear that the Messengers first delivered us to the Hunter’s Dream during the opening cutscene, these creatures can be found alongside the mechanisms that we use to travel between worlds. They suddenly emerge at the base of the lamps that allow us to travel to the Hunter’s Dream. The Messengers also reside at the base of the Headstones of Awakening in the Hunter’s Dream, which allow us to reach the lamp locations everywhere throughout the game. If we want to travel to the Dream or to any lamp location, it would seem the Messengers are necessary to make that journey.

During Bloodborne’s development, From Software had implemented a travel system only slightly different from what we receive in the game’s finished product. In earlier drafts, the player-character was supposed to take a seat in a chair and slowly nod off, allowing them to return to the Hunter’s Dream. Although developers eventually settled on lamps instead of chairs, even in earlier stages of development the Messengers appear to have been part of the travel mechanic, as Lance McDonald demonstrated in 2018. The Messengers arise from the ground at the foot of the chairs, just as they do with the lamps in the commercially released version of the game. I think this is important because it suggests that interdimensional travel isn’t contingent upon a certain mechanism. It’s contingent upon the Messengers.

All of this substantiates the idea that the Messengers serve as our spiritual escorts across the boundary of the dreaming and waking worlds. If the Messengers are indeed the psychopomps of Bloodborne, it seems worthwhile to take a closer look at this phenomenon and where From Software might have drawn inspiration from real-world mythology and religion. This is where the psychopomp idea truly takes flight.

Mercury Rising

Although psychopomps manifest in many forms, some of the most widely recognized psychopomps are deities, including the Egyptian god Anubis and the Greek goddess Hecate. But commonly considered the archetype of psychopomps is the Roman god Mercury.

Mercury, along with his Greek predecessor Hermes, was responsible for ushering souls to the underworld. This meant delivering them to the banks of the River Styx, where the next psychopomp Charon would ferry them to Hades. But as with many Hellenic deities and their Roman offshoots, these weren’t the only areas of divine oversight for these gods. In addition to their role as guides to the dead, Hermes and Mercury were the gods of messages, or just commonly known as the messenger gods. They were regularly depicted as wearing a winged hat and winged sandals that allowed them to travel swiftly and shuttle messages or proclamations between the gods. And because Hermes was the only deity in the Greek pantheon who could cross into the underworld and return, he was seen as the intermediary between Hades and Olympus. That’s why Hermes and Mercury were considered the gods of boundaries. In fact, it’s possible that Hermes’ name comes from herma, an ancient Greek term for piles of stones that served as territorial boundary markers or trail markers.

Aside from their roles as conveyors of messages and souls, Hermes and Mercury were the gods of commerce and merchants. Although it’s disputed, it’s possible that the Latin mercari, meaning to trade, may have originated from Mercurius, the Latin name for the god Mercury. Words in romance languages associated with marketplaces, including marche or mercado, might be derived from Mercury.

What does all this mythology have to do with the Messengers? Well, let’s ask ourselves: What are the Messengers responsible for? First, as we’ve discussed, the Messengers seem to usher the soul of the player-character between worlds. They do this in the opening cutscene of the game and presumably every time we travel using the lamps or headstones. This suggests that the Messengers, like Hermes and Mercury, fulfill some sort of psychopomp responsibility within the game’s mythology. But what else do the Messengers do? Just like their name tells us, they deliver messages. The description for the Notebook item tells us, “Leave a note using messengers….Use them to send messages to other worlds.” Here, just like with Hermes and Mercury, the gods who relayed messages between the lands of the living and the dead, the Messengers are responsible for the conveyance of messages between worlds. But what else do the Messengers do? Their vital role, as easy as it is to take for granted, is to serve as the merchants of the game. These bizarre figures who can’t walk or speak, for some inexplicable reason were designed as the vendors of the game. We buy and sell weapons, armor and consumables by interacting with the Messengers—not with Gehrman or the Doll or some human being at a shop; we conduct business with the Messengers. Mercury and Hermes were the gods of shopkeepers and merchants, and the Messenger Baths are the marketplaces of Bloodborne.

Because of their association with messages, commerce, conveyance of souls to the afterlife, and their ability to cross into all planes of existence within the Bloodborne universe, the Messengers appear to be representative of, or somehow intertwined with the mythos of, the god Mercury. Why is that so?

Although there might be much more to it, I think this association with Mercury is to confirm the psychopomp role of the Messengers and simultaneously demonstrate that the Hunter’s Dream and the nightmare regions aren’t just to be seen as alternative planes of existence or dreamlands—we’re supposed to see them as afterlifes for the Messengers, the hunters and the scholars of Bloodborne. That’s what we’ll explore in Part 2. Thanks for watching.

References

Apel, Thomas. “Mercury.” Mythopedia, December 9, 2022. https://mythopedia.com/topics/mercury.

Cain, John. “Soul.” In Encyclopedia of Death & The Human Experience, Vol. 2, edited by Clifton D. Bryant & Dennis L. Peck, 881–83, 2009.

Code of Canon Law: Book IV, Part I, Title I, Chapter III: c. 867. https://www.vatican.va/archive/cod-iuris-canonici/eng/documents/cic_lib4-cann834-878_en.html#CHAPTER_III.

Endres, Fr. David. “Question of Faith: Do We Still Believe in ‘Limbo’?” The Catholic Telegraph, November 29, 2017. https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/question-of-faith-do-we-still-believe-in-limbo/46903.

Hannah, Darrell D. Michael and Christ: Michael Tradition and Angel Christology in Early Christianity. Eugene, Oregon: Mohr Siebeck, 1999.

Hoppenbrouwers, Toke, Stanislaus Sandarupa and Aurora Donzelli. “From the Womb to the Tree: Child rearing practices and beliefs among the Toraja of Sulawesi.” Wacana 18, no. 3 (2017): 658-91.

International Theological Commission. “The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Died without Being Baptized.” https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html.

Kugel, Seth. “In Indonesia, a Region Where Death Is a Lure.” The New York Times, July 30, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/30/travel/frugal-traveler-indonesia-death-rituals.html

Pullella, Philip. “Catholic Church Buries Limbo After Centuries,” Reuters, April 20, 2007.

Tahir, M. Dalyan, “Learning Local Wisdom through the Symbols of Ma’nene’ Rituals in North

Toraja: A Semiotic Perspective.” The Journal of Ultimate Research and Trends in Education 2, no. 3 (2020): 108-20.

The Britannica. “Mercury: Myth, Symbols & Facts.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mercury-Roman-god/.

Trenchard, Tommy and Aurelie Marrier d’Unienviell. “The Dead Live With Their Loved Ones On This Indonesian Island.” NPR, September 29, 2019. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/09/29/764638760/photos-the-dead-live-with-their-loved-ones-on-this-indonesian-island

Webb, Dom Bruno. “Unbaptized Infants and the Quasi-Sacrament of Death.” The Downside Review, 71 no. 225 (1953): 243-57.

Additional Resources

Lance McDonald. “Bloodborne Alpha Cut Content::Yharnam NPC::Fully Working Warp Chair!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xDX6UWpacM

Last Protagonist. “Japanese Retranslation Guide.” https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NKkhAVz338xavCMiHplN--qxQG63K5kpBFDsbNUlg5g/edit#gid=0

Last Protagonist. “The Old Blood Explained.” See section “Blood, Beasts, and Messengers.” https://youtu.be/CKqGCS5Z9OY?list=PLQnUanUs-C--r07ZH3qD_X8Rwxx8gSoku&t=43

	Blood Vial	輸血液
	Special blood vial that restores HP.	ＨＰを回復する特別な血液
	Special blood used in ministration. Restores HP. Once a patient has had their blood ministered, a unique but common treatment in Yharnam, successive infusions recall the first, and are all the more invigorating for it. No surprise that most Yharnamites are heavy users of blood.	血の医療で使用される特別な血液。ＨＰを回復する ヤーナム独特の血の医療を受けたものは 以後、同様の輸血により生きる力、その感覚を得る 故にヤーナムの民の多くは、血の常習者である

	Blood Vial （輸血液）
	Special blood vial that restores HP.	ＨＰを回復する特別な血液
	Special blood used in ministration. Restores HP. Once a patient has had their blood ministered, a unique but common treatment in Yharnam, successive infusions recall the first, and are all the more invigorating for it. No surprise that most Yharnamites are heavy users of blood.	血の医療で使用される特別な血液。ＨＰを回復する ヤーナム独特の血の医療を受けたものは 以後、同様の輸血により生きる力、その感覚を得る 故にヤーナムの民の多くは、血の常習者である

	Blood Vial （輸血液）
	Special blood vial that restores HP.	ＨＰを回復する特別な血液
	Special blood used in ministration. Restores HP. Once a patient has had their blood ministered, a unique but common treatment in Yharnam, successive infusions recall the first, and are all the more invigorating for it. No surprise that most Yharnamites are heavy users of blood.	血の医療で使用される特別な血液。ＨＰを回復する ヤーナム独特の血の医療を受けたものは 以後、同様の輸血により生きる力、その感覚を得る 故にヤーナムの民の多くは、血の常習者である

Basic Information

Icon	Name	No. Held	Stored	Availability	Opens	Special note
	Astral Clocktower Key	- / 1	- / -	Living Failures	Opens gate to Astral Clocktower	Key to Astral Clocktower, atop the Grand Cathedral

Astral Clocktower Key ❘ 時計塔の鍵	Key Item

In-Game Description Key to the Astral Clocktower at the top of the Grand Cathedral. The caretaker of the tower's numerous patients, known to them only as Lady Maria, made her home behind the giant star-interpreting clock. Note 1: The same in-game description in US & UK versions. ✓ Note 2: Original Japanese text on Original Japanese Item Index page. ✓ Note 1: Different in-game description (right) in US (1) & UK (2) versions (more). ✕ Note 2: Original Japanese text on Original Japanese Item Index page. ✓ Opens Click for full resolution, © Bloodborne Collector’s Edition Guide by Future Press. You'll automatically receive Astral Clocktower Key upon defeating the Living Failures boss towards the end of the Research Hall. Once you have it you'll be able to open the door to the Astral Clocktower that the boss was guarding. At the start of Living Failures battle you'll only have to face one or two of these enemies, but as the fight progresses, more and more will gradually appear in the area. While each one only has a relatively small amount of health and can be killed off, you need to defeat enough of them to deplete their overall shared HP pool. Because they have quite high physical resistance, your best means of killing them is to use elemental attacks, or try to Interrupt them and use Visceral Attacks, since they will still deal significant damage. Once you've killed enough of them to finish the fight you'll automatically get the key, and the Lumenwood Garden lamp will appear at the back of the area near the locked door. Upon entering the Astral Clocktower you'll notice a mysterious figure sat in a chair on the opposite side of the room; approach the chair and inspect the corpse to trigger a cutscene. As soon as that cutscene is over the fight with Lady Maria will begin, so make sure you're ready beforehand. Availability Dropped by (Old Hunters DLC): Living Failures in Research Hall Lumenwood Garden Notes This Item is part of The Old Hunters DLC. Upon starting New Game+ all of the Key Items (except for Badges, Blood Gem Workshop Tool, Rune Workshop Tool, Short Ritual Root Chalice, Workshop Haze Extractor, Yharnam Stone and Ring of Betrothal) you acquired on your previous playthrough will be stripped away and you'll need to collect them again.

Huntsman (Torch & Axe) ❘ 獣狩りの群集	Regular Enemy

Description These denizens of Yharnam started off hunting beasts, but eventually the plague took most of their humanity as well. The fever-like urge to hunt remains, but they themselves have already been infested with the scourge of the beast. Unaware of this fact, they continue to search for prey to hunt and kill. Perhaps through their murky eyes, humans are seen as the true beasts. (Pre-release official description) Overview A basic enemy encountered throughout Yharnam and the surrounding areas. Huntsmen patrolling the streets of Central Yharnam will travel set routes which you can use to either avoid or ambush them; they also sometimes guard fixed positions. These foes are weak on their own, but almost never appear alone - the greatest danger they present is their ability to swarm you in large numbers if you're not careful. Their close-range torch attacks are especially deadly, because they leave almost no time to react and can hit you several times in a row; on the other hand, their weapon attacks have longer reach, but are much slower and more predictable. There are a wide variety of Huntsmen, but they all share some basic traits and can be killed with a few hits from your weapon. The trick to eliminating risk is to separate them and fight them one at a time, using pebbles if necessary. Some, such as the Torch & Shield variant, are more defensive and require a slightly different approach, but most, when fought alone are best tackled by cutting them down before they can attack. The ones that use longer combos, such as the Sickle and Cleaver variants, tend to give you easy chances for landing charged R2 attacks from behind while they recover from their attack string. The Cutlass and Pitchfork variants are the most dangerous, and should be considered the highest threat among a group of them, due to their ability to strike from the back of the group and still reach you. Executioners found in lower streets of Healing Church Workshop. Huntsman's idle animation can separate him from the group. Strategy Avoid standing close to them, because they can use an extremely fast poke with their torch that can easily hit you out of your attacks - instead, stay just outside their melee range and wait for them to act. If they attack with the torch, wait for them to finish swinging and strike during their recovery; if they close in with the axe, quickstep toward them and through the attack, then hit them from behind. They turn around too quickly to use a charged R2 after evading through an attack, so a quick R1 combo will work out better. Be careful when pursuing these enemies, because they can use a multi-hit torch attack while walking backwards, and it's easy to get caught in it if you're overly aggressive. Variants Basic variant found throughout Yharnam. Variant with White Clothes found in Forbidden Woods. Variant with Executioner Clothes found in Healing Church Workshop. Blood variant summoned by Bell Ringer in Yahar'gul. Old Hunter variant found in Hunter's Nightmare. Notes All enemies and bosses (except hunter enemies) have 999 frenzy resistance, despite that they are still vulnerable to such status. The only way to see it without modding is to use Shaman Bone Blade on enemy inflicting frenzy to attack others. [test video] Huntsmen in area surrounding Lower Chapel in Cathedral Ward have different HP pool (194 HP) than rest of the area (197 HP). Huntsmen (Executioners) found in Healing Church Workshop ground streets have different HP and Blood Echoes pool (218/128) than rest of the area (271/142). They wear Butcher Set which can be found as treasure in Hunter's Nightmare. Their attack patterns are the same with the normal version. In groups Huntsmen with torches will perform torch waving animation and shout rare dialogues like "Death to the minister! Death!", "Rip the kid apart!", "Idola will be the judge!", "You! Yes!", "Dammit! Where are you tryin’ to go?" In developer testing Chalice Dungeon was discovered original version of this enemy as seen in Project Beast trailers, for more information go to Save-editing Chalice Dungeons wiki page.

For all models and in-game images visit Gallery wiki page. Pungent Blood Cocktails don't attract this enemy, making the item ineffective. Shaman Bone Blades affect this enemy, making it hostile to other enemies.

Chalice Dungeons [By Esper_Row, with input from the Tomb Prospectors’ Discord]

Getting Started What is a chalice dungeon? A chalice dungeon consists of three or four layers, each containing a minor level culminating in a boss fight. Each layer tasks the hunter to navigate a series of underground ruins and find a lever that opens a locked gate to the boss, so that they may proceed to the next floor and repeat the process until the dungeon’s end. The difficulty of a dungeon is dependent on its depth, which is represented by a number from 1-5, with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. Chalice dungeons are divided into two categories: fixed dungeons (also called “story dungeons” by the community) and root dungeons. How do I begin dungeon-diving? The first obtainable chalice is the Pthumeru Chalice, which is dropped by the Blood-starved Beast in Old Yharnam. The two Ritual Blood (1) needed to create it are found earlier in the level, on an altar in the church with the crucified beast corpse and horde of beast patients. To use it, conduct the ritual at any of the six altars to the left of the headstones in the Hunter's Dream. This is where you will always be creating dungeons. You’ll be able to obtain all of the remaining chalices for Pthumeru by progressing past this one. Other chalices obtained from the main game are the Ailing Loran Chalice from Amygdala in the Nightmare Frontier and the Great Isz Chalice from Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos in Upper Cathedral Ward, although these will be significantly more difficult and should be saved for much later in your playthrough. What is the difference between a fixed dungeon and a root dungeon? A fixed dungeon can be considered the normal version of a chalice. Its map has set enemy/item placements, layouts, and bosses, all of which remain the same each time the dungeon is generated. Fixed dungeons are generally made once per character to unlock other chalices they contain and make them open to connect to for co-op. A root dungeon will almost always be a different experience every time you create one. When a root dungeon is generated, the game pulls from a list of 100-200 pre-generated dungeon maps for that chalice and spawns one of them. Each map will have a unique arrangement of rooms and differing placements of items, enemies, and bosses. Root chalices are never required for story dungeon progression, but they are important to have for accessing glyphs later on. When should I tackle the fixed dungeons? Depth 1 is scaled to be accessible as soon as you defeat the Blood-starved Beast, so you can begin the journey immediately. Gehrman even encourages the hunter to do so. A +3 weapon is good to have at this point, which should be achievable with the abundance of Blood Stone Shards scattered throughout the early game. Depth 2 is a minor step up in enemy scaling from the previous depth. Most will be comfortable coming here directly after depth 1, although getting a handful of extra levels beforehand is wise. Depth 3 sees a noticeable spike in difficulty and should be saved until after you reach Yahar'gul, Unseen Village in the blood moon phase. A +6 weapon at minimum is recommended. Depth 4 is where the dungeons start to earn their infamy, as this is where the ever popular Defiled Chalice resides. Enemy damage and health modifiers start to rival and even exceed the late game and DLC here, so it’s best to hold off on these dungeons until you reach the endgame in Mensis and max out your main weapon at +10. For the Defiled Chalice in particular, which comes with the twist of a cursed rite, it’s wise to have a high Vitality stat (at least 40 ideally) and multiple Clockwise Metamorphosis runes. Depth 5 amps the enemy scaling even further than depth 4. While the lack of a natural cursed rite makes the depth 5 fixed dungeons less punishing than the Defiled Chalice, you should still expect a decent challenge here, especially from Pthumeru Ihyll. If you choose to ignore the dungeons until after completing the main game and/or DLC, depths 1-3 will largely become a cakewalk, due to their early and mid game difficulty that never scales with story progress or New Game Plus cycles. Making detours into the dungeons throughout a playthrough will provide more gems/upgrade materials for the main story and prevent the monotony of blitzing through five or more easy dungeons all in a row during the endgame. What are ritual materials? Ritual materials are ingredients used to create chalice dungeons. The most basic ones are Ritual Blood and Tomb Mold, which will be required for the majority of dungeons you make. These materials are each separated into five levels, represented by the number in their names. The level of Ritual Blood/Tomb Mold needed always corresponds to the dungeon’s depth, so the depth 1 Pthumeru Chalice requires Ritual Blood (1) and the pattern continues from there. As you descend to lower and lower depths, you will need to gather higher quantities of increasingly rare materials for each dungeon made. If you are following the game’s intended dungeon progression, exploring each fixed dungeon’s layers and side areas thoroughly to find chests with materials is critical. You may occasionally need to farm certain enemies for materials as well. All materials will eventually become purchasable in the Hunter’s Dream from the two messenger’s shops by completing certain fixed dungeons and entering New Game Plus. The only material found exclusively outside of the dungeons is the Living String, which is needed for Pthumeru Ihyll and dropped by the Brain of Mensis on death. As such, it is recommended that you do not enter New Game Plus until you obtain this material, as you will otherwise need to make your way back to Mensis in New Game Plus to obtain it. There is also a common bug associated with the Brain that prevents it from dropping the Living String while in co-op, however it should respawn after reloading the area. What is the Short Root Ritual Chalice? The Short Root Ritual Chalice can be bought from the Insight messenger bath for 10 Insight after completing the first Pthumeru fixed dungeon. It enables use of the Makeshift Altar, which comes with a handful of useful functions. With it, you can perform a quick search to open a random root dungeon you meet the entry requirements for, resonate your bell to be summoned to a host seeking assistance, or invade a dungeon with an active bell maiden as an adversary, all directly from the Hunter’s Dream. This is a great tool for hunters looking to find random dungeons to explore and/or participate with others in, although the game’s age and the altar’s notoriously slow matchmaking usually make for long waiting times between sessions. What are rites? Rites are additional modifiers that can be added to a root dungeon. Each rite makes a dungeon more difficult, but some also improve your rewards for exploring. The lower the depth, the more rites become available. There are four in total that are available by the time you reach Depth 5: The fetid rite will grant a red aura to several enemies throughout the dungeon, increasing their damage output by 35%. On the positive side, these enemies will drop larger amounts of Blood Echoes and more rare items. The rotted rite will replace some enemies in the dungeon with one or a combination of the following new enemy types in every layer: Eye Collectors, who will aggressively summon Mad Ones in groups of three until killed NPC hunters of varying builds, including: Saw Spear hunter wearing the Bone Ash set, Chikage hunter wearing the Cainhurst set, Logarius Wheel hunter wearing the Gold Ardeo Roaming Labyrinth Ritekeepers, each flanked by a small patrol of Pthumerian watchers The cursed rite will halve the hunter’s HP while they remain within the dungeon. It also causes all enemies to drop cursed gems by default, which have much stronger primary effects at the cost of a random negative effect. Like the fetid rite, echo amounts and item drop rates from enemies are improved, but the cursed rite also has a hidden effect that boosts the item discovery of any hunter with an Eye or Milkweed rune equipped by a staggering 1000. While cursed dungeons represent some of the most challenging content Bloodborne has to offer, they are always the most lucrative places to farm for blood gems and echoes. Sinister Rite will add a guaranteed Bell Ringer to every layer of the dungeon. Notably, this rite is only available for separate sinister root chalices and cannot normally be stacked with the prior rites. Ringing either of the Beckoning or Sinister Bells in a sinister dungeon will still spawn a second Bell Maiden, allowing up to two invaders to join at once. This rite provides no tangible improvements to rewards, but it is handy for PvP-centric hunters looking to set up fight clubs or run dungeons with the added twist of multiple invaders. If they are entirely optional, why even bother with the chalice dungeons? Players looking to obtain Bloodborne’s Platinum Trophy must reach the Pthumeru Ihyll fixed dungeon to defeat Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen. Doing so via the intended path will require traversing the four previous Pthumeru fixed dungeons and, unless in New Game Plus, two additional detours into other chalices for necessary materials. More dedicated hunters seek the dungeons for their powerful Blood Gems, which trounce those found in the main game. To give an example, the strongest physical damage gems outside of the dungeons are 22.3% cursed temperings, dropped by Winter Lanterns in the Fishing Hamlet. In depth 5 cursed dungeons, the Merciless Watchers can drop temperings as powerful as 27.2%, providing a substantial leap in damage for any build. Optimizing any weapon in Bloodborne will require varying amounts of time spent farming in the dungeons’ lowest depths. There are, of course, more reasons to go deeper. The chalice dungeons are home to unique enemies and bosses not found anywhere in the base game or DLC, many of which will pose a significant challenge to experienced hunters. Other benefits include finding uncanny or lost variants of each weapon with different gem slots, the strongest versions of most runes from the main game, the Beast Claw trick weapon, two unique sets of attire, efficient farming locations for Blood Echoes, and the allure of finding Bloodborne’s greatest rarities.

Dungeon Navigation How are chalice dungeons structured? As mentioned earlier, a chalice dungeon consists of three or four layers. Each of these will have three distinct sections, commonly referred to in order as the pre-lamp, the main area, and the pre-boss. Finally, a layer will be capped off in an arena with a boss encounter. The pre-lamp is the corridor leading from the beginning of the layer to the layer’s starting lamp. Often, there may be a bronze door or open doorway on one side of the hallway that leads to a side area. These will always contain a well-guarded treasure coffin with rare loot like ritual materials in fixed dungeons or Caryll runes and weapon variants in root dungeons. Although these paths are optional for completing the dungeon itself, their rewards are often enough to make them worth exploring, especially if you are combing through the fixed dungeons. The main area is the middle section of a layer, immediately following the lamp. There will always be a locked gate near said lamp. Your task will be to find a lever within this section to unlock the gate and continue forward. This lever will be found somewhere deep in the main area. Explore diligently and check every corner and closed door to find it. Once you have done so, return to the start of the main area and open the gate to enter the pre-boss. The pre-boss is the corridor leading to the boss arena. Just like the pre-lamp, there may be a side area with a treasure coffin, which will work the same way as a pre-lamp side area. The end of the layer will always have a boss fight. Defeat the boss, proceed to the next layer, and repeat the process until you reach the dungeon’s end. Are there any deviations to this dungeon structure? The chalice dungeons occasionally throw small wrenches in the mix, but the core progression of pre-lamp/main area/pre-boss/boss will always remain the same. The main area can contain its own bonus area and treasure coffin, either behind a bronze door or through a seamless corridor transition. The pre-lamp and pre-boss areas may also sometimes connect to the main area via alternate routes, and in the case of the pre-boss section, this may even allow the hunter to bypass the locked gate and open it from the other side without ever touching the lever. Additionally, unlike the main game, illusory walls are present in two of the fixed dungeons and many of the root dungeons. There is a chest in a doorway blocking my way forward, what do I do? You can break it with your weapon or firearm. This will take several swings, but doing so will let you pass. Unlike Dark Souls II, breaking chests will not damage their items inside. Shotgun firearms like the Blunderbuss are great for breaking chests quickly with their high ammo spread. Sharing and Accessing Glyphs What is a glyph? When a hunter creates a root dungeon, a unique eight character code will be generated for it, visible in the bottom right corner of the dungeon menu. Think of this as a password that can be entered to access that dungeon again at any time. To enter a glyph, interact with any of the six ritual altars and select “Search by Chalice Glyph”. I just made an interesting glyph, how do I make it open to others? Interact with the ritual altar holding said dungeon and select the option to share it. This will open access to other players once you have shared it with either an open or closed privacy setting. What is the difference between a dungeon being open or closed? An open glyph can be entered by any player ringing at the Makeshift Altar, allowing hunters to summon cooperators or be invaded by adversaries directly from the Hunter's Dream. This is especially convenient for hunters looking to quickly help a friend on a lower layer of a difficult dungeon. Bear in mind that it takes much longer on average to be summoned from the Makeshift Altar than from inside the dungeon itself, so be patient when waiting to connect. A closed dungeon can only be accessed by inputting its corresponding glyph at a ritual altar. Hunters will not be able to enter these dungeons with the Makeshift Altar and must instead ring their bells near the host’s proximity on the same layer of that dungeon. Most save-edited farming glyphs are closed. Why was my glyph deleted from the server? Glyphs that are not routinely accessed by other hunters will eventually expire and be removed from the server, presumably to maintain space for others. While we do not fully understand the specifics of how this system works, it typically takes around two weeks of inactivity for a glyph to be purged. Sadly, there is no way to recover a glyph once it is gone. If you want to keep your glyph alive as long as possible, consider sharing it with friends and/or the community on social media to increase the chances of other hunters accessing it. Why don’t I meet the requirements for entering [insert dungeon]? wo conditions must be met to enter any standard root dungeon: First, you must have already obtained the corresponding root chalice for the glyph you are trying to enter. (for instance, pwmf22gu, a classic farming glyph, is a Pthumeru Ihyll, so entering it requires the Pthumeru Ihyll Root Chalice or its sinister variant in hand). Second, you must have previously generated dungeons with all of the same rites as the glyph you want to access. Creating a single root dungeon with the fetid, rotted, and cursed rites all applied is sufficient. There is no need to complete this dungeon, enter it, or even keep it on an altar; making such a dungeon will guarantee that you can enter glyphs with any combination of F/R/C rites, so long as you also meet the first condition. Note: The same rule applies for the sinister rite, therefore you must make your own sinister root dungeon with its rite enabled before having access to any sinister glyphs. This is less important than the other rites, as sinister chalices are never used for farming glyphs. Multiplayer Interactions Is there any difference in how I connect to people for co-op/pvp in dungeons? The core fundamentals of Bloodborne’s summoning system remain the same. The host rings the Beckoning Bell, the cooperator rings their Small Resonant Bell, and both wait to connect. If a Bell Maiden is present, you will be notified of her ringing by a hud message and she will actively search for an adversary to invade your session until she is killed. Passwords carry over as well. The only difference is that potential cooperators and adversaries have the option to search for sessions from the Makeshift Altar for added convenience. Why can’t my friends connect to me in [insert dungeon]? Bloodborne’s bell summoning system is notoriously obtuse and finicky, so there are a number of factors that could be tripping you up. Below is a list of details you can check for troubleshooting: Ensure you all have a matching password. This sounds obvious, but everybody forgets to switch their password from time to time. Set your matchmaking to “Worldwide” if you have not already. Check to be sure the bell symbol under your HP and stamina bars isn’t grayed out; remaining on ladders or unstable ground like certain bridges will cross this icon out and prevent you from connecting. If your cooperator is ringing into an open dungeon via the Makeshift Altar, be mindful that the Makeshift Altar is infamously slow at matchmaking, so do not expect to connect for at least a few minutes most of the time.. If you are in a closed dungeon, make certain you are meeting the following criteria on top of the first two bullet points above: All participants must ring on the same layer of the dungeon to connect. Ring in the same general area as your cooperator(s) (e.g. if they are ringing on the stairs leading to the layer boss, make sure you ring there too). Check what oath runes you and your cooperators are wearing. Executioners and Vilebloods connecting to each other takes demonstrably longer than ringing with any other combination of runes. Hunter of Hunters also appear to take longer to be summoned on average. Do covenants interactions carry over from the main game? Vilebloods and Executioners will still be enemies when summoned onto the same team and Hunter of Hunters can enter as adversaries too. The Milkweed, Beast's Embrace, and Impurity runes are good choices to avoid unwanted interactions like these.

Gem Farming Is farming top tier blood gems from the dungeons worth the effort? While the uptick in damage between story blood gems and depth 5 cursed blood gems is substantial, Bloodborne’s main story is entirely doable for most average players with story gems and top tier chalice gems are often seen as overkill. This generally holds true for early New Game Plus cycles and the DLC as well. If you plan to engage in PvP with veterans, run low depth cursed dungeons, or go all the way to the highest New Game Plus difficulty, then chalice gems will become more important for keeping up with skilled hunters and heavily scaled-up enemies. Otherwise, if you’re only interested in a few casual playthroughs and don’t care about PvP, don’t feel too pressured to optimize. How and when do I get to farm top tier blood gems in the dungeons? All relevant farming glyphs are cursed depth 5 dungeons. To reach them, your priority is to obtain all three of the depth 5 root chalices and create your own root dungeon with all optional rites applied. Meeting these requirements will ensure your access to all farming glyphs for whatever blood gems you seek. Refer back to the final question of the Sharing and Accessing Glyphs section for a more in-depth explanation. I’m farming for [insert gem] and it hasn’t dropped yet, what gives? Patience is a virtue, and when it comes to gem farming, it is also a necessity. Even with the improved drop rates in save-edited farming glyphs, many gem types are still very rare and can take many hours or days of dedicated farming to obtain. What do all of the blood gem effects do? Below is a summary of each primary gem type and what they’re best used for: Tempering: Boosts physical damage at an average rate. These are very useful all-rounder gems that work for any non-arcane build, even if they aren’t always optimal. Adept: Boosts exclusively blunt or thrust damage at a higher rate than tempering. These will be much more situational than tempering gems, but if your weapon deals predominantly or exclusively blunt/thrust damage, these provide a generous boost in damage. As a side note, bear in mind that visceral attacks inflict thrust damage, meaning that thrust adepts will make them stronger while blunt adepts will provide no benefit for them at all. Nourishing: Boosts all damage at a lower rate than tempering. The lower numbers might look less appealing on the surface, but if your weapon has a mixture of physical and elemental damage, these will boost both damage types and sometimes outperform tempering gems. Importantly, blood damage is considered a type of physical damage for the sake of blood gems, so temperings will still boost blood damage higher than a nourishing will provide. Striking: Greatly boosts damage dealt exclusively by fully charged strong attacks. These gems are very situational and gimmicky, but for weapons with already potent charged attacks like the Stake Driver, using these can make for a fun meme-worthy build. Arcane builds using element-converted weapons will see no benefit from Striking gems, as their effects only impact physical charged attack damage. Radiant: Reduces all stamina consumption of a weapon’s moveset. These gems are essentially useless due to the already low stamina consumption on Bloodborne’s weapons across the board and added damage always being preferable. Fool’s: Boosts damage exclusively while the hunter is at full HP at a higher rate than tempering. Fool’s can either boost physical damage alone, like tempering gems, or all damage as nourishing gems do. If you’re confident in your ability to fight unscathed in PvE, fool’s gems can provide a decent chunk of extra damage. In PvP however, they are ill-advised due to factors like latency and the fast pace of fights making it extremely difficult to maintain these gems’ effect against experienced duelists. Poorman’s: Boosts damage exclusively while the hunter is below 30% HP at a higher rate than almost all other blood gems. Like fool’s, poorman’s can also drop as either tempering or nourishing effects. These gems are inherently risky by forcing a glass cannon playstyle, but for very knowledgeable players, especially challenge runners, they are very appealing for providing some of the highest damage possible in Bloodborne. Beasthunter/Kinhunter: Boosts damage exclusively against enemies that are classified as beasts or kin respectively. While these gems appear stronger than tempering gems in raw value, beasthunter and kinhunter effects are calculated after enemy defense is applied to your hits, making them weaker in practice. This on top of their situational applications and difficulty in farming makes these gems unappealing to most. Heavy: Improves the weapon’s strength scaling. Heavy abyssal gems provide such a massive increase in scaling that hunters on high level strength or quality builds will want to get one of them for most of their weapons. Sharp: Improves the weapon’s skill scaling. Due to a lack of any depth 5 boss at layer 3 or lower that drops sharp abyssals on par with heavy abyssals, any available sharp gems are always worse than temperings and should never be farmed. Warm: Improves the weapon’s bloodtinge scaling. For the same reason as sharp gems, these are entirely useless. Cold: Improves the weapon’s arcane scaling. These gems are crucial for arcane builds, as most convertible weapons have low arcane scaling to begin with. Pulsing: Steadily regenerates HP by a small amount every 2 seconds. The regeneration rate is very slow and not worth sacrificing your main weapon’s damage for, but if you are using a build that doesn’t care about gun damage, putting one on your firearm can help save a blood vial or two in a pinch. Murky: Enables the weapon to inflict the slow poison status and improves the build-up rate. The abundance of bosses with high poison resistance renders these situational to begin with and slow poison itself drains HP too slowly to compete with the raw damage provided by other blood gems. Dirty: Enables the weapon to inflict the rapid poison status and improves the build-up rate. The same issue with murky gems applies here, although rapid poison is a significantly stronger effect akin to the Bleed status in other Souls games and can be decent on weapons with fast multi-hit attacks against the handful of enemies that are weak to poison. Fire/Bolt/Arcane: Converts a pure physical damage weapon to the corresponding element and changes its scaling to exclusively arcane. For arcane builds, these gems are important for changing your damage type from physical to elemental and allowing your weapon to scale off of arcane. Bloodtinge: Boosts exclusively blood damage at a higher rate than tempering. While exceptionally tedious to farm in shapes other than circle, these gems are very potent for the tricked modes of the Bloodletter and Chikage while also being a staple for any high damage firearm. What blood gems will be best for my weapon/build? Given the large variety of blood gems, weapons, and possible builds, this is a hard question to give a general answer for. The Best Blood Gems Setups page on the Bloodborne Wiki is a good starting resource for checking what you should be aiming for on each weapon. If you want a more direct answer, you can ask in the Tomb Prospectors’ subreddit or Discord server for input from other prospectors. What are abyssal blood gems? Abyssal gems have the highest rank of any gem in Bloodborne and are greatly sought after by the more dedicated prospectors in the community. Each boss on layers 3 or 4 at depth 5 will have a 33% chance to drop an abyssal gem of their corresponding type. Abyssals are not always the best of their kind and not every gem type can be normally obtained as one, but many builds do require some for optimal damage, especially those incorporating strength and/or arcane. Save scumming is recommended for farming abyssal gems, as a hunter would otherwise need to reset the dungeon and run back to layer 3 or 4 for every farming attempt. Notably, there are a few exceptions to the normal abyssal rule. Pthumerian Descendant at layers 3 or 4 in cursed dungeons cannot drop abyssal gems. Additionally, Descendant and the Pthumerian Elder drop tempering abyssals at layers 1 and 2. These instances are attributed to mistakes or bugs rather than intentional decisions on the developers’ part. What is save scumming? Save scumming involves making a back-up save when farming bosses, which cuts out the need to redo the dungeon after the boss is killed. To start save scumming, proceed through a dungeon to the boss you’re looking to farm, save and quit immediately in front of the boss gate, and upload your save within your console’s cloud settings or on a separate USB drive. Re-enter the game and defeat the boss. If you get the gem you’re looking for, then you are good to move on. If not, go back into the settings and download back the save you just made. This will place you back where you were originally with the boss alive again, letting you repeat the process until you get your desired gem drop. Does item discovery help for farming gems? The answer depends on what you are farming. Discovery has no impact on the quality of gem drops, so its only use is helping those gems drop at all. Since all depth 5 bosses in root dungeons have a 100% chance to drop a gem to begin with, it will not help you with theirs. However, for mobs who regularly have consumables and materials in their drop tables, tacking on an Eye and/or Milkweed rune will make their gems drop more frequently. I see the phrase “Unable to acquire ?GoodName? due to inventory or storage max” while farming, is this something to worry about? No, this is a harmless side effect from save-editing dungeons. It’s a broken drop script attempting to give you an item that does not exist. You can safely disregard this message. What do OoS and OoE mean? OoS stands for out of shape. This refers to when a gem drops in a shape that is not native to the corresponding chalice (radial in Pthumeru, triangle in Hintertomb/Isz, and waning in Loran). The chances of this happening are significantly lower than in the main game, thus OoS gems found in dungeons are very valuable, especially when dropped from bosses. Bloodtinge gems in particular are highly prized as OoS drops for the Bloodletter and Chikage, as these are almost exclusively dropped as circle shape otherwise. The only enemies that drop gems with their own distinct shapes regardless of the chalice are the Beast-possessed Soul (enemy version, not the boss) and mobs spawned by the rotted rite. OoE stands for out of effect. This refers to primary and secondary effects on blood gems that are not native to the gempool of that chalice. In layman’s terms, they are extremely rare effects you will practically never see. For instance, while obtaining a Bloodtinge gem from the Merciless Watchers boss in unedited Pthumeru Ihyll is technically possible, the chance of it happening is 0.008%; an astronomically low possibility that few will ever see. What is a gempool? Each chalice has its own gempool, which determines all of the possible primary and secondary effects each gem dropped can have and their likelihood. In unedited dungeons, Pthumeru will provide gems impacting physical damage and support effects and Hintertomb is mostly the same with a slightly higher emphasis on poison. Meanwhile, Loran leans more heavily into elemental damage and poison gems while Isz is generally a mix of everything, despite its chalices’ item descriptions suggesting mostly arcane effects. With save editing, some players can share dungeons with tweaked gempools that make obtaining certain gems in different shapes much easier than normal and also sometimes improve drop rates altogether. See the following section and question for more information.

Save-Edited Dungeons What is a save-edited dungeon? Save-edited dungeons are made by players with access to a third party save-editing program, allowing them to make limited modifications to a dungeon. Most commonly, save editors are used to create dungeons with improved drop rates for blood gems that would normally be very challenging to obtain. It is important to note that while this is quite beneficial for farming certain gems, it is impossible to manually input custom drop rates into a dungeon with a save editor. At best, we can only work with what is already programmed into the game, so some gems still remain tedious to farm. Additional uses for save editing include: Creating false depth and reverse depth dungeons Stacking multiples of the cursed rite for increased item and blood echo drops Accessing developer test dungeons Changing what enemies are spawned by the rotted rite or spawning all of them at once Forcing a dungeon’s fourth layer open Spawning the Beast-possessed Soul mob and/or the chalice messenger bath What is a test dungeon? Test dungeons are broken and incomplete dungeons that contain significant amounts of cut content, including architecture, mobs, and even bosses that were all left inaccessible in the final release. These provide a unique opportunity to see content that was once planned for the finished game before being scrapped. Those with a save editor are able to recreate these maps as glyphs and share them publicly for the broader player base to explore. While they do not usually provide checkpoints for you to warp back to the Hunter’s Dream, simply falling to your death in one of the many pitfalls of these dungeons will do the trick. Just make sure to spend your echoes before entering if you don’t want to lose them in the process. What are False Depth and Reverse Depth dungeons? False depth dungeons are lower depth dungeons that have been edited to be accessible much earlier than intended. They can be found via glyphs once you have obtained the Pthumeru Root Chalice from Layer 2 of the first fixed dungeon. These allow you to obtain uncanny/lost variants of base game weapons, tier 3 runes, powerful blood gems, and even skip directly into later depth fixed dungeons to unlock the best farming glyphs within hours of creating a new character. Reverse depth dungeons are depth 1-2 root dungeons that have been edited so that enemies drop late game upgrade materials, namely Blood Stone Chunks and Blood Rocks from bosses. These glyphs are vital for farming these rare resources, as the bosses will be scaled for early game health and damage output, making them pushovers for any decent build. Chunks can be farmed from any boss and rocks from the Layer 3 and lower bosses of a reverse depth. Be sure to equip an Eye or Milkweed rune to improve the drop rates of these materials. These dungeons greatly streamline the buildmaking process, cutting down the time investment needed to reach the depth 5 dungeons and making farming easier. However, for hunters venturing into the chalices for the first time, these glyphs will sour the experience by overloading them with a ludicrous amount of echoes that far outpace the game’s intended leveling curve, while also letting them skip large amounts of content entirely. For these reasons, new players should look into save-edited dungeons very sparingly or not at all until a later playthrough. Are there any malicious save-edited dungeons I should be concerned about, and if so, how can I identify them? Unfortunately, there are a few problematic test dungeons that have been made open for anyone to access. These dungeons have no lamps to leave or cracks in the architecture to force a death by gravity, permanently trapping any character that enters. Some of these dungeons can be escaped naturally if playing on the European Game of the Year edition, but they still remain dangerous on all other versions of the game. In January 2022, a glitch was discovered by the community that allows players to confuse the character’s spawn point in dungeons, which can be applied to escape deadly test dungeons. An explanation of the glitch and instructions on how to use it for this purpose can be found in this Reddit post. While this discovery does mean that these dungeons are no longer true softlocks, you should generally avoid any unknown dungeon that has these traits in its menu: Broken descriptions/names with “?PlaceName?” or ?menuText?” text Depth 0, 6, 7, or 8 dungeons Multiples of the same rite applied or has the sinister rite stacked with other rites Glitches, Exploits, and Softlocks I’m trapped in a boss room with a Pthumerian Descendant, how do I get out? See if you have a save file backed up on the Playstation Cloud or on a separate USB drive from before you entered this dungeon; you may lose some progress, but this will let you restore your character to a safe spot. If you don’t have one available, your only option is to use a glitch to force yourself out. You can find guides about how to execute it here. What is the dungeon merging glitch? The dungeon merging glitch was discovered in early 2022 and its applications are versatile. To simplify an extremely complicated exploit, the dungeon merging glitch requires placing one character in a specific spot in a dungeon and using a second character to quit from a co-op or invasion session. When executed correctly, this will cause the first character to be launched into another predetermined dungeon, which retains the gem shapes, effects, and values from the dungeon they were initially set up in. This glitch is quite difficult to explain in short terms, so for a more involved explanation, see the Dungeon Merging tab in the Bloodsheets. This glitch is chiefly used to force the game to provide blood gems that are normally very tedious to farm, such as out of shape abyssals from bosses like Amygdala and the Bloodletting Beast. It also allows one to farm abyssal gems that are normally impossible to obtain, such as flat arcane gems from Brainsuckers and other gem types like adept, fool’s, poorman’s, and many more. The dungeon merging glitch can also be used to escape test dungeons that can otherwise soft-lock players, as explained in the previous section What on earth is the cum dungeon? The infamous cum dungeon, cummmfpk, is a save-edited dungeon created by long-time prospector XTrin that exploits an unfortunate enemy placement and the way Bloodborne progressively loads its level assets. In the pre-lamp side area of this dungeon’s first layer, a tomb prospector NPC is placed directly in the path of a swinging axe that continually damages him. Because the game doesn’t fully load the pre-lamp area until you get close to it, remaining in the hallway outside causes this NPC to remain stuck in place while the axe quickly kills him, providing an efficient, effort-free source of Blood Echoes. The dungeon has also been edited to have multiple cursed rites stacked together, which greatly enhances the amount of echoes obtained. This is why your HP is in double digits territory while inside. For a more visual explanation from an expert on how Souls games work, modder and content creator Zullie the Witch has a short video explaining cummmfpk’s exploit as well. I’m not getting free echoes from cummmfpk, why? cummmfpk’s echo farming exploit works so long as you do not approach the Layer 1 pre-lamp side area. Due to the way Bloodborne gradually loads NPC’s and objects based on distance, if you get too close to that area, it will be further loaded and the NPC hunter that would be killed by repeated axe swings will instead be knocked off and take no further damage. Taking a step or two out from the Chamber of the Seal lamp and looking for the damage numbers in the distance to your left is all you need to do. Miscellaneous Did the community ever figure out what the deal was with Guidance Tier 3 and Revered Great One Coldblood? Both exist in the game’s data and are fully functional, but neither can be obtained without modding on a jailbroken console or a save editor. While both were mentioned as lootable from depth 5 root dungeons by an official guide, a complete exploration of every root dungeon has proven this to be false. Does the Yharnam Stone do anything? A cut set of dialogue for the Hamlet Priest NPC that would have been triggered by having the Yharnam Stone was discovered, but this event was not kept in the final release of the DLC. The stone is best looked at as a testament to conquering the story dungeons and nothing more. Are the chalice dungeons affected by NG+ cycles? Chalice difficulty is never affected by New Game cycles and your progress will not be impacted by going to the next cycle either. If you enter a new New Game cycle, all of your chalices will be on the same altars they were when you completed the game. Can Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen be found in the root dungeons? Yharnam is exclusive to the fixed Pthumeru Ihyll dungeon. Can I get Uncanny/Lost variants of DLC weapons before entering the DLC? DLC weapons’ uncanny and lost variants are only unlocked at chalice messenger baths after you obtain their original versions from the DLC campaign. There is no way to save-edit weapons to appear at chalice merchants earlier than normal. I heard that everything in the dungeons has been found, is this true? With two complete rounds of community mapping for every root dungeon in the books and modders digging into the game’s files for years, it’s safe to say that every major secret in the dungeons has been laid bare. It’s very possible that there are other glitches and exploits yet to be found, but groundbreaking discoveries like new enemies and bosses are a thing of the past.

This is a big question, one that's asked pretty often round these parts. The issue being, the item descriptions on blood gems don't actually jibe with how blood gems work. There are a lot of mechanics at work here, and they differ somewhat between the main game and chalice dungeons. For the purposes of this note, we're going to be talking about chalice blood gems exclusively, and with a focus on Depth 5 Cursed gems. Some of this information may change when the DLC drops, but if you're like me and you're scrambling to get nice gems for your shiny new DLC weapons, this might be helpful! You guys know how much I love lists, so here's one for you. A list of general facts about blood gems to get you started. Some of these have exceptions, which I'll make a note of. I'm not going to go into specific values and bonus pools, because I think half the fun is discovery, and no definitive list of these exists. But the notes I'm going to make here should get you started. After examining a few gem drops, it should all fall into place for you in terms of what you're looking for and where you can find it. Shape is determined by Chalice type, with some exceptions Pthumeru = Radial Isz = Triangle Loran = Waning Some enemies, particularly NPC Hunters, Hemwick Witches, Beast-Possessed Soul, and perhaps others, override the shape rule and usually drop the same shapes no matter where you find them. Their bonus pools might differ in different Chalice types, though! Most Blood Damage and Bloodtinge Scaling gems you'll find will be Circular no matter where they appear, unless they're a rare off-shape drop Note that many enemies are absent from one or more of the Chalice types, which is the real issue in the "ideal imprint" discussions for weapons. The bonuses themselves are not functionally linked to the shape. For example: Watchers appear in Pthumeru and Isz, but not Loran, which is why people recommend 2x Radial 1x Triangle imprints to make use of their 27.2% Physical gems. Getting these gems in Waning is possible, but only as an extremely rare off-shape drop There's always a very small chance for any gem to be the "wrong shape" Rating is determined by Depth Depth 5 starts at 15 to 17 Enemies with red auras, roaming bosses, and NPC Hunters have +1 rating Bosses that are restricted to Layer 1 and 2 have +2 rating Bosses that can appear on Layer 3 and 4 have +3 rating Primary Bonus is determined by Chalice type, and the enemy Most enemies within a given location will have the same Primary pool, so you can reasonably know what you're going to get where, unless the enemy in question overrides the Primary bonus, for example: Undead Giant drops Adept (Blunt/Thrust) Headless Bloodletting Beast drops Heavy (STR Scaling) Keeper of the Old Lords drops Sharp (SKL Scaling) Pthumerian Elder drops Cold (ARC Scaling) Amygdala and Rom drop Nourishing (All ATK) Watchdog of the Old Lords drops Fire Loran Darkbeast and Abhorrent Beast drop Bolt Ebrietas and Celestial Emissary Boss drop Arcane There's always a very small chance to get something completely unexpected Secondary Bonus, if present, is determined by Chalice type, and the enemy Like primary bonuses, most enemies will drop the same secondary bonuses in a Chalice type, unless they override it, for example: Brainsucker always drops huge Flat Arcane as a secondary bonus Loran Cleric always drops huge Flat Fire as a secondary bonus Evil Labyrith Spirit always drops huge Phys. Up Near Death as a secondary bonus Technically, these "secondary bonuses" have values consistent with what you'd see as a primary bonus, but they take the second slot. Like Primary bonuses, there's always a small chance to find something you wouldn't expect otherwise Cursed gems are more powerful, but come with drawbacks Obviously most Cursed gems come from Cursed dungeons, but some rare exceptions exist. Even so, it's probably better to just farm gems in Cursed dungeons. Possible Curses are as follows: Increases stamina costs ATK vs the kin DOWN ATK vs beasts DOWN WPN durability DOWN (increases durability degradation per-hit) HP gradually depletes ATK DOWN Bonus and Curse Multipliers are determined by enemy Some weak enemies have decreased Primary bonuses for no apparent reason, for example: Wandering Madness, a.k.a. "Loot Enemies" Small Celestial Emissary Labyrinth Watchers (the skinny fellows, not the Merciless/Chieftan) Female Beast Patients (the ones with the cloaks) Having a Secondary bonus decreases the Primary bonus Secondary bonuses can be higher on some enemies, at the cost of even lower Primary bonuses. For example: Labyrinth Madman Watcher's Gravedigger (note that these have lower Primary than Labyrinth Madman) Abhorrent Beast Curses can also come in lower values, with a cost to the Primary bonus, on top of the potential cost of having a secondary effect. For example: Celestial Emissary Boss Rom, the Vacuous Spider Pthumerian Elder

Primary Bonuses In general, these are the gems you'll find from enemies in each area unless you've come across something that specifically overrides the area-based primary bonus. Note that you can, rarely, find any primary bonus in any location. Pthumeru Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Adept (Thrust/Blunt), Heavy/Sharp (STR/SKL Scaling), Striking/Radiant (Charge Atk/Stamina Cost) Isz Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Fire, Bolt, Arcane Loran Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Fire, Bolt, Dirty/Murky (Rapid/Slow Poison) Secondary Bonuses This probably isn't exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of what you're looking for. Remember that some exceptional enemies can override the area-based secondary bonus. These are listed in no particular order. Like off-shape and unexpected primary bonuses, you can rarely find any secondary bonus in any location. These are just the "common drops" so to speak, though some are more common than others. Pthumeru Mostly Physically-oriented, note that Open Foes and Charge Atk apply to ALL damage, but can only be found here outside of rare drops +Physical Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up %Physical Atk Up at full HP %Physical Atk Up near death %Charge Atk Up %Atk vs Open Foes Up %Reduces Stamina Cost Isz Overlaps with both Pthumeru/Loran, with some omissions, only place where Flat Arcane exists outside Brainsuckers and very rare drops +Physical Atk (Flat) +Fire Atk (Flat) +Bolt Atk (Flat) +Arcane Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up +HP continues to recover %Atk vs Beasts Up %Atk vs Kin Up %Reduces Stamina Cost %Boosts Rally Potential Loran Mostly Elemental-oriented, note that Isz and Loran both give Beast/Kin Up +Fire Atk (Flat) +Bolt Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up +HP continues to recover %Atk vs Beasts Up %Atk vs Kin Up %Boosts Rally Potential Click here for a (mostly complete) table of CURSED gem values. Some of these might be off by .1 because I used an algorithm to extrapolate the values from a few examples, and I just didn't have examples of all combinations. Prim. 0 Watcher drops Prim. 1 Chests, trash mobs, Loot enemies Gems with a Secondary effect, Sec. 1 Prim. 2 Gems with increased Secondary effect, Sec. 2 Gems with a normal secondary effect and reduced Curses Note that Brainsucker, Loran Cleric, and Evil Labyrinth Spirit use Prim. 1 values for their assigned secondaries, and Sec. 1 for their random primaries. Note that Secondary effects will randomly roll among the 3 values corresponding to the Rating the gem can be. For example Loran Silverbeast boss can roll the equivalent of Rating 17, 18, 19 Secondary effects on its gems. This doesn't necessarily correspond to the Rating of the gem itself, you could have a Rating 17 gem (and the resulting Primary value) with what amounts to a Rating 19 secondary effect. The Flat Physical (and Heavy/Cold) values here don't reflect the special increase to Abyssal gems that landed with 1.07, I still have to work out the mechanics here. These are the "base" values so to speak. The 1.07 change is extra to the normal algorithm for determining gem values.

Index Introduction What is Bloodtinge? General Information Weapons: The Chikage Weapons: Simon's Bowblade Weapons: The Bloodletter Weapons: The Reiterpallasch and Rifle Spear Weapons: Firearms Hunter Tools Gems & Farming Starting a Playthrough & Progression Final Words & Thanks Introduction Hello~ my name is MyHeartsMistakes, you've probably see me around this sub every now and again. I've been playing Bloodborne for a fairly long time. But definitely not as much as others, however I have made a habit of remembering information while I play. I mostly PvP while doing the occasional challenge run on my favorite bosses. I'm making this guide because I see a lot hunters asking for help on bloodtinge builds. Most of my Bloodborne experience has been using a Bloodtinge build, so I hope to impart some fellow hunters with some insight on how to be the best blood wielding hunter a hunter can be. Small Disclaimer: This guide is meant to help people start a bloodtinge build. It will not go over every move each weapon has. I believe the best teacher is experience and it will help you a lot more then what anyone else can tell you. However of course i'll go over tips and weapon combos for every weapon. But if you want to learn about every move in the moveset I suggest checking a wiki. What is Bloodtinge? Firstly Bloodtinge is a stat the governs the amount of blood damage you deal to enemies. The weapons that do blood damage are all firearms, the Chikage, Simons Bowblade, and the Bloodletter. Luckily for us, many enemies have little to no resistance against blood damage. This means that we will be effective on nearly (if not all) the enemies in the entirety of Bloodborne. Some enemies who are particularly weak to blood damage are, everyone's favorite, brain suckers. These guys will die extremely quickly while using the respective blood attacks on your weapon of choice. However, every build is not without its cons. As i'm sure you've noticed, our weapon selection isn't exactly the biggest collection. By creating a Bloodtinge build you will be limiting yourself to about two weapons (or three depending on your build). Make sure you really do like a certain weapon before choosing to make a bloodtinge build. General Information To start you need to understand that bloodtinge weapons have a very odd scaling. In their untransformed state they exclusively with Skill (Chikage & Bowblade) or Strength (Bloodletter). However when transformed bloodtinge weapons will lose all other scaling a convert to pure bloodtinge. This is why bloodtinge requires a much bigger stat investment to actually see results. This is also why 50 Bloodtinge is required to fully use a bloodtinge build. As well as why you should almost exclusively attack with your weapons transformed mode over their untransformed mode. Normally you will attack with your weapon in blood form 90% of the time. However because of this required heavy investment, your early game will be abysmal. But when you do get to the later stages of the game you’ll delete everything. Note: Bloodtinge weapons, when transformed, will knock dogs onto the ground as if you shot them with your gun. Bloodtinge weapons also cannot be buffed by anything, so keep that in mind. Weapons: The Chikage The Chikage is the only bloodtinge weapon included in the main game and is my personal favorite weapon. When transformed, the Chikage will coat itself in blood and be wielded with two hands. However while transformed the Chikage will constantly drain your health at about 0.85% hp per second. This can be easily managed if you just pay attention and get used to the weapon. The Chikage normally is a Katana that scales with the Skill stat. It has a B scaling in skill and a S scaling in bloodtinge. Like what I said before, its normal mode will only scale the skill stat while its blood mode will only use bloodtinge stat. The Chikage will want 50 bloodtinge to truly shine. Here is an example of a good Chikage build: BL 120 VIT 45-50 (required for PvP) END 25-30 (Normally 25, add more if you want) STR 10 SKL 25 (higher If you don’t want arcane or stamina) BLT 50 ARC 7-15 (Only go to 15 if you want use of the hunter tools) That much VIT is pretty much required because on my bloodtinge build, my Chikage can do up to 1000+ damage in a single transformation attack. This means anyone without at least 40+ VIT will be one shotted. As well as helping you manage the health drain in tight situations. Not to mention having lots of VIT is always helpful. The Arcane stat can be helpful to bloodtinge builds, but personally I don’t think it's too great on on them. If you want use of the tools feel free to upgrade that though, just remember you can’t use buff’s on bloodtinge weapons, so the Empty Phantasm Shell will be useless. Tips & Tricks - The Chikage’s bread and butter move would definitely be it’s amazing transformation attacks. The Chikage does 1.6x or 60% more damage on transformation attacks over normal ones. This should be the move that you spam in PvP. To do this do: L1 to R1 R1 to L1 dodge to L1 My normal PvE combo is L1 > R1 > R1 > R1 > L1 or however many R1's it takes till the enemy is almost dead, then finish them with a transformation attack to negate as much health drain as possible. Alternatively you should L1 before your stamina runs out. The L1 > R1 combo has a small step forward as well. This can catch some people off guard. It’s transformation attacks also have insane stagger, especially on hunters. You always want to open with a transformation attack during fights. It can easily stop almost every attack from a weapon. Since it can stop many attacks, you should abuse this and hang back and wait till the enemy attack to get a sweet counter hit while stunning them for a bit. I fought some NPC hunters to demonstrate this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdWEXGhKgNU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQgacMvz61g Final Comments - Pressing L1 after a combo should become instinctive. You want to have as little health drain as possible at all times. Finally I also recommend playing unlocked, the Chikage does so much better unlocked then locked. If you watch the videos above, you can see me playing mostly unlocked. Remember that lock on is a tool. There are times when it’s the right tool for the job and other times when it will actually hinder you. Learning to play unlocked will give you a lot better control with your attacks and the ability to track multiple opponents. Finally, while using the Chikage, you’re going to want to play in normal mode 80% of the time, but use blood mode to attack 95% of the time. You don't really want to use the normal mode unless you have something like 50 SKL which probably won't happen if you're trying to make a build for PvP. If you don't care about PvP though then it doesn't matter. Weapons: Simon's Bowblade Simon's Bowblade is probably the quickest bloodtinge weapon you can obtain in the story. It is also a DLC weapon, so keep that in mind. The bowblade while untransformed acts as a normal sword. It has an S scaling in skill/bloodtinge and while transformed it will shoot arrows using your quicksilver bullets. It costs one quicksilver bullet per arrow, so I highly recommend taking communion runes which will allow to you take more blood vials. Pressing up on the d-pad will provide you with 5 blood bullets at the cost of health (Note: tapping for blood bullets will take slightly less than a blood vial heals, you can use this to heal for small amounts). You cannot go over 5 blood bullets. The bowblade, unlike its other two bloodtinge friends, will be used mostly in its untransformed state. You don’t want to use arrows for every enemy because it would be a waste of bullets. A normal build for a bowblade main would be: BL 120 VIT 45-50 END 25-30 STR 10 (base) SKL 35-50 BLT 40-50 ARC 7-15 (Only go to 15 if you want use of the hunter tools) The bowblade will probably do best in a 50/50 SKL/BLT build. However doing this will force you to sacrifice other stats. I believe the bowblade will shine best while used in the off-hand to compliment your other bloodtinge weapon of choice. Being able to pull out significant ranged damage during fights can be a huge advantage. In my opinion the bowblade’s best move would also be its transformation attacks going both ways. While untransformed, the transformation attack will do a quick backstep while shooting an arrow. This a great for catching people off guard as well as letting you move away. From the bow form the transformation attack will be a long thrusting attack with quite a bit of phantom range. However in PvE be careful of using the bowblade to backstab. While untransformed the bowblade’s charged R2 move is a double spin attack. Since the spin hits twice, you’ll end up knocking the enemy out of the visceral state. However you can backstab someone with a fully charged arrow when transformed. Might be useful in some situations since you can do it from range (incoming co op wombo combos).

Final Comments - You can actually use the monocular to free aim the bow. Good to keep in mind if you’re invading and want to snipe a host or enemy. In bow form the L2 will do a quick slash with a arrow, it does crap damage, but can save you if someone is very close and on low health. Or it can be used like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyI0NPwko4 The bowblade can very easily trivialize and cheese many of the bosses in the game, since most were designed without the idea to actually counter someone with range. If it’s not dealing a lot of damage, it can also be used to throw around aggro for some bosses. For example, Ludwig the Accursed will always target the last person who hit him. By using the bowblade from a range when your host/friend gets low, you can switch Ludwig’s aggro to yourself so they can heal up. Weapons: The Bloodletter The Bloodletter will probably take the longest out of all the bloodtinge weapons to get. It requires you to get almost all the way through the DLC before it can be obtained. However do not let this dissuade you from trying the weapon, as it can be a great weapon! The Bloodletter has a A scaling in strength and a S scaling in bloodtinge, like all the other previous weapons, scales with strength untransformed and bloodtinge transformed. The Bloodletter is normally a mace with the majority of its attacks dealing physical damage and the charged R2 dealing blunt damage. This weapon can deal out a ton of damage and in PvE can stunlock enemies hard, however it suffers heavily from lack of range. To transform the Bloodletter you stab yourself in the chest sudoku style. It will deal around 20% of your health instantly, but will take no more health until you un-transform and retransform it again. (Note: You can kill yourself with the bloodletter for a special death animation of you stabbing yourself.) A normal build for the Bloodletter will look something like this: BL 120 VIT 45-50 END 25-30 STR 25-30 SKL 10-20 (You might want this to be able to use the Chikage or Bowblade in your off hand. Mind you they won’t be great, but if you only use them transformed they should perform fine) BLT 50 ARC 7-15 (Only go to 15 if you want use of the hunter tools) When two handed and transformed, the Bloodletter will really shine. Transforming it will give you a tone of extended range and increase that already high damage. Interestingly enough the attack speed on the Bloodletter doesn’t seem to go down at all even though the weapon gets much bigger. This means you can pull off some great combos. For example the Bloodletter’s R1 combo will do two horizontal sweep followed by an overhead smash with great tracking. Now for the weapons star move: the transformed L2. This move will make you smash your weapon into the ground causing an AoE explosion that deals massive damage to enemies stuck in the entire thing. However this move will also begin to frenzy you. When your frenzy meter fills you lose a big portion of your health. Interestingly the Bloodletters frenzy meter will only do 50% of your health, rather than the normal 70% (remember it frenzies your maximum health, not your current health, so if you’re under 50% hp you’ll die from the frenzy). (Side Note: The transformed charged R2 also has a mini explosion from the tip, gives you a little bit of extra damage + range. Just keep it in mind) Final Comments - Consider bring the Deep Sea rune (frenzy resist) when you use the Bloodletter. It will allow you to frequently use the L2 without much worry of being frenzied. You can find the tier two version (+200 frenzy resist) in the forbidden woods, behind the two big viper sphaggeti tangles in a corner (video location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUyI0NPwko4) Also consider holding onto lots of sedatives just in case you need to pop one in a pinch, so you can L2 again. You can unlock sedatives from the bath messengers in the hunter's dream by obtaining the Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge, found in the Upper Cathedral Ward. (Side Note: Apparently you cannot be frenzied by the Bloodletter if you have over 180 frenzy resist. I cannot confirm this though, so be warned.) Weapons: The Reiterpallasch and Rifle Spear The reason I didn't include the Reiter and Rifle spear in my list of bloodtinge weapons was mostly my personal opinion. I don't consider the Reiterpallasch a bloodtinge weapon at all. Yes, it does have bloodtinge scaling, but it's only used on one move. Not to mention that the move is only a gunshot as well. The Reiters gunshot actually has quite high base damage meaning it can be used quite well on a full skill build without any bloodtinge. The weapons I listed were weapons who all (or half) of their damage comes from bloodtinge. Weapons that require bloodtinge to actually be used effectively. This goes for the Rifle Spear as well. However by popular demand I will include a weapon breakdown for these weapons. The Reiterpallasch - The Reiter can be found inside the first room of Castle Cainhurst. It will located in a chest on the right (coming in from the door) corner, should be fairly easy to find. It has an A scaling in skill and a D scaling in bloodtinge. This means it will do much better in an all skill build over a bloodtinge build. The base damage for the gunshot is quite high and at 50 bloodtinge, it can out damage the Evelyn. If you really want to use it, I would recommend using it in the off hand along with Simon’s Bowblade as your main. This is because Simon's Bowblade will also do better in a build with lots of skill, making the Reiter a good choice. Untransformed it will act as a normal Rapier, using mostly thrusting attacks, which Kin are weak to. When transformed it will lose some range and most of its attacks will become slashing. While transformed the R2 will become a gunshot instead of a normal attack. The transformation attacks from untransformed will shoot a quick gunshot along with a backstep (similar to the bowblade). Good for catching people off guard or getting a quick parry. For builds I recommend a full skill build. However if you plan on using it in the off hand, the build for Simon’s Bowblade will work better. This weapon can also be buffed. The Rifle Spear - The Rifle Spear is a spear found in Old Yharnam, meaning it can be acquired quite early on. It has a B scaling in skill and bloodtinge. The spear has a very long reach and is a great choice for a defensive weapon. In its untransformed mode, like the Reiter, it will use mostly thrust attacks. When transformed the spear will be folded back, reducing the range. The transformed L2 will shoot your gun, like how it is untransformed. Something interesting to note is that the transformed charged R2 will make your hunter charge forward a fair distance. You’ll damage someone all the way along as well if you manage it hit them straight on. The bloodtinge scaling is a lot better then the Reiter’s so I believe it will do best on a build similar (or the same as) the bowblade. It also has a D in strength scaling. This weapon cannot be buffed. Final Comments - Like I said before, these weapons are not really “bloodtinge” weapons. They are more “skill weapons with some bloodtinge”. Using them in the offhand to compliment something like the bowblade could be fairly strong. Weapons: Firearms and Tools Firearms are an extremely important part of bloodtinge builds. Since the bloodtinge stat increases bullet damage, your gun’s will become one of the main damage sources in your build. They will do a lot, I mean a lot of damage as well. Using my +10 Evelyn, I will constantly get 400 damage per bullet and when buffed with Bone Marrow Ash, it starts to become a bit ridiculous. We have a couple choices for Firearms, so I’ll list them all here: The Evelyn - This is the go to gun for all bloodtinge builds. It’s also definitely the best gun for bloodtinge builds as well. It has an S scaling with bloodtinge making it very deadly after you get 50 bloodtinge. However it will only out damage the normal Hunter’s Pistol after 21 bloodtinge, so keep that in mind. Side Note: The Evelyn has an extremely long barrel, so the firing animation shows your hunter holding up the gun then shooting it sideways. While this looks really cool, the Evelyn appears to have a lot of trouble hitting enemies point blank. Be careful when you try to parry. The Repeating Pistol - This is some hunter’s prefered bloodtinge weapon, however personally I don’t think it's very good. It will deal more damage than the Evelyn per click, however it uses two bullets per shot. THis means while it does more per click the Evelyn does more per bullet. If you want the most damage out of all your bullets I would use the Evelyn. This is also the weapon used by the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst and as you know, point blank it will hurt. The Cannon and Church Cannon - These are the “hard hitters” in the firearm collection. The cannon uses 12 quicksilver bullets per shot and can be buffed with Bone Marrow Ash. With high bloodtinge expect to oneshot every other player with this weapon, if you get a direct hit. However it requires strength to use, so it should only be used in a STR/BLT (bloodletter) or QUALITY/BLT build. If you want to use the Cannon, I would recommend switching to the Church Cannon. They are very similar weapons, however the Church Cannon only uses 10 quicksilver bullets per shot. This means, if you tap for blood bullets, you can shoot the cannon at least four times. The Church Cannon does less damage than the normal cannon, but it will still easily one shot someone. While locked on the Church Cannon will have less range than the normal cannon, however if you unlock your camera and aim upwards the Church Cannon can actually fire much further then the normal Cannon. The cannon balls from the church cannon also only explode when they hit the ground. This means you can use them to snipe enemies if you are skilled enough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNWTdPfonIE&list=PLZ2tFPuPHVZGVZ_3CIuze9-mvEq1D_sWS&index=8 (Side Note: when free aiming with any gun or projectile, you're right analogue stick will control the direction while your left analogue stick or camera will control the height.) These guns are not exactly the best guns for bloodtinge builds, but can work in certain situations. The Gatling Gun - Another one of the “hard hitters” of the bloodtinge arsenal, the Gatling Gun is a rapid fire gun that will shoot about 4 bullets for every 1 quicksilver bullet consumed. You can get a ton of damage out of 20 quicksilver bullets, probably around 2000~. Good for finishing off bosses or normal enemies, but also requires strength to use. Can stunlock hunters pretty hard. (Side Note: By using short bursts in PvP, people will be forced to come close to you, so they won’t get hit by the bullets. Use this to bait players in and then attack them yourself.) Like I said with the cannons, this firearm isn’t the best for bloodtinge builds, but can work in certain situations. It also requires a STR/BLT build. If you have a SKL/BLT build I would not level up strength just for this weapon. Final Comments - You should +10 your firearm of choice at some point, since guns will be a vital point in the amount of damage you deal to enemies. However if you decide to use the Cannon or Gatling Gun, I wouldn’t +10 those. I highly recommend the Evelyn though.

Hunter Tools The main tool that you will use in bloodtinge builds will be Madara’s Whistle. You can obtain this whistle from completing Valtr’s questline or by killing him. If you do his questline/kill him then reload the area and kill the Younger Madara’s twin that come out near the lamp. He will drop the whistle (Side note: You can cheese the twin by running to the elevator and going down, he will just jump down the elevator shaft killing himself). When used, Madara’s Whistle, will summon a giant snake head to come out of the ground and bite everything that was in your area. However it also can hit you as well, it does like 3/4ths of your health if you’re hit by it (at 50 bloodtinge). The whistle is very effective on smaller enemies (especially hunters), because it will knock them high into the air. This gives you time to heal and set up for the next attack. When activated you have about a count of 3 in your head before you can move. While blowing the whistle you will walk and be very vulnerable. However you gain complete hyper armor when you put your lips to the whistle. This means if you see someone running towards you and you know they will attack, start blowing your whistle, they’ll get a few hits off, but if you just dodge back they’ll be hit by snake dealing most (or all) of their health. A good example of this is at the very end of this video where I fought the three Yahargul Hunters (from the Chikage section). I used Madara’s whistle to finish the last hunter off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdWEXGhKgNU (Side note: bragging rights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJreQHxdDqs) Fun Fact: Madara’s whistle like other hunter tools will keep scaling with bloodtinge past 50 all the way to 99. It’s the only thing that does this though, so I don’t recommend getting 99 bloodtinge just for this tool. It’s not that good on bigger enemies. The other hunter tools like the Old Hunters Bone, Beast Roar, Augur of Ebrietas, are okay, but aren’t very good on bloodtinge builds. You’ll almost never use the OHB and beast roar is very situational. I would put the points into something else. Gems & Farming For gems I would recommend using the “Lost” variant of all the weapons. Bloodtinge weapons actually have a circular slot for a 31.5% bloodtinge attack up gem to be fit inside. Blood damage is affected by the normal 27% physical damage up gems, but if you use your weapon mostly in blood mode (which you should), then grabbing a 31.5% bloodtinge gem will help. Side note: The Bloodletter will do better with the Normal variant of this weapon. The Lost version has a waning slot instead of a circular slot. The only time I can recommend going for the Lost variant is when you’re farming for off-shape gems and you get a waning instead of a radial. Alternatively if you’re feeling extremely masochistic like I was, then you can endlessly farm for 2 off shape 31.5% bloodtinge attack up gems with a good curse. It will take years, but when you get it, your damage will be absolutely crazy. I was pulling over 1000~+ damage with my Chikage from a transformation attack, not even a charged R2. (Remember: Physical damage gems will also affect blood damage. This means they benefit both forms of your weapons, however getting three 31.5%'s will give you a higher AR)

To get these gems and the weapon variants you need to dive into the depth 5 F/R/C chalice dungeons, it will be a grind trust me. If you have any questions about chalice dungeons please look at this FAQ. Here is a spreadsheet with info on player created dungeons with the loot in them: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1syKnSKflHbFiGY4pXkfIeXoMa2Lp9X1aXyme2qaTen4/htmlview?pli=1 Most people go two 27% physical attack up gems, and one 31.5% bloodtinge attack up gem. This will be the easiest way to get maximum effectiveness out of your weapon. To farm the top tier bloodtinge gems most people use the glyph: y592byza. This is located in an F/R/C Great Isz chalice. Here is the farming route: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6l2lTwJfE8&index=95&list=WL Alternatively you can use: e99tdh9f. Found in a F/C Great Ihyll Dungeon. You need to kill some dogs on the way, so it's slower though. To farm the 27% Physical Radial gems most people use: pwmf22gu (Video guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUArRwsmZc) To farm the 27% Physical Triangle gems use: 3eukenpk (Video Guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VNoDYWweSU) Since these gems are rating 20 gems, they will be cursed. This can be a really good curse or a really bad curse that will make the gem unusable. The curses are (the “x” is a variable that will be a number ingame): Attack Down by x% - Lowers your total AR from your weapon, making the gem unusable basically. One of the worst curses. HP Gradually Depletes -x Per second - Will constantly drain your health per second. Also makes the gems unusable, one of the worst curses. Attack Down vs. Beasts by x% - One of the more mild curses, good for PvP, but PvE might be a slight problem. One of the better curses to get. Attack Down vs. Kin by x% - Same as the “Attack down vs. beast's” curse. Isn’t that bad and there are notably less Kin than beasts in the game. Weapon Durability Down by -x - One of the better curses for most weapons. However our bloodtinge weapons have some of the lowest durability in the game. The Chikage only has 120 durability and these gems normally lower it by 50~ points. Either your Chikage will break after one fight or you’ll need to endless return to the dream to repair it. Is “technically” a good curse, but I wouldn’t recommend it for the bloodtinge weapons. The Bloodletter (270 durability) will be able to pull it off though. Stamina Costs up by x% - The holy grail of curses. This curse is almost unnoticeable making it the best curse for any gem. This is the curse you’ll be looking for. Gem Combinations - Each weapon has a couple of different gem combinations possible, The tables are read top to bottom, where the weapon variant and recommendation is listed, then gems vertically down. I’ll list the combinations here:

Gem Combinations

The Chikage
Normal (not recommended)	Lost (Recommended)	Lost (Most damage)
27% Physical Radial	27% Physical Radial	31.5% Radial Off-shape Bloodtinge
27% Physical Radial	27% Physical Radial	31.5% Radial Off-shape Bloodtinge
27% Physical Triangle	31.5% Circular Bloodtinge	31.5% Circular Bloodtinge
Simon’s Bowblade
Normal (#1)	Lost (#2)	Lost (Unrecommended)
27% Physical Radial	27% Physical Radial	1.5% Off-shape radial Bloodtinge
27% Physical Triangle	27% Physical Triangle	31.5% Off-shape waning Bloodtinge
27% Physical Radial	31.5% Circular bloodtinge	31.5% Circular Bloodtinge
The Bloodletter
Normal (Recommended)	Normal (most damage)
27% Physical Radial	31.5% Off-shape Radial Bloodtinge
27% Physical Radial	31.5% Off-shape Radial Bloodtinge
27% Physical Triangle	31.5% Off-shape Triangle Bloodtinge

Since the Bloodletter lacks a circular gem slot, the best combination would be using three 27% Physical gems. Getting the three 31%’s will be a huge pain, but if you do your damage will be high.

Starting a Playthrough & Progression Bloodtinge builds usually have a really bad early game, which is why they are normally not recommended for new players who are learning the game. However you obviously really want to make a bloodtinge build since you’ve even bothered to read this far. I’ll give some tips and show what I did for my bloodtinge build. Strategy #1: Slow and Steady - This strategy consists of playing the game normally clearing everything, then after Vicar Amelia either going for Cainhurst or heading into the DLC to kill Simon. This is probably the best strategy because fighting Martyr Logarius won’t be such a burden and you’ll have lots of materials to go on into the game with. It will however, take more time to do since you'll be trying to get everything you can get before Cainhurst. Start by leveling skill (or strength) and vitality. Rush skill (or strength) to its lower softcap (25) ASAP, it will help you take down enemies. As well as giving your first BLT weapon damage once you get it. Since bloodtinge only starts getting good at around 40~, you'll need to rely on the untransformed state for awhile. I recommend starting with the Saw Cleaver or Saw Spear, so you can beat the first few beast bosses quicker, but use whatever weapon you're best at. Strategy #2: The Great Run - This is personally what I did and I can say it was probably a bad (and fun) idea. Basically you go through the game as fast as possible while skipping everything, including the normal enemies, until you get to Martyr Logarius to grab your Chikage. However be warned, I fought Martyr Logarius at level 20~ with a +2 cleaver, so if you’re aren't confident you can kill him low level then I wouldn’t do this. The route I took from start to finish was: Wake up - Get killed by Wolf - Get weapons - Run past everything and light central Yharnam lamp - sprint to Gascoigne by skipping all enemies - Cathedral Ward lamp & back to dream. Buy the Chief Hunters Emblem (level up if you can) - Open plaza gate with Emblem - Vicar Amelia (3) - Run through the woods - Hemwick + Boss + dream - Cainhurst + Logarius If I had to say how long it took me I would say 2 hours…? I didn’t time myself, but it was pretty fast. You can coop as well if you want. Alternatively you can go to the DLC instead of the woods and grab the bowblade by killing Simon.

Final Words & Thanks Wow, that was long, I hope you learned something about the intricacies of bloodtinge. I’ll edit this with more information if I get any. Bloodtinge is my favorite build in Bloodborne and I hope you have fun with it as well. I’m almost impressed you managed to stick with this guide this long, haha. For one last thing, the last build I’m going to give is a Quality/Bloodtinge Build. This will be higher level, but allows you to use all the bloodtinge weapons well and use a lot of the other main game weapons decently. Of course the other weapons won’t be the best, but you can still use them! BL150 VIT 45-50 END 25-30 STR 30 SKL 30 BLT 50 ARC 7-15 This guide doesn't include some information like attack types (strike, blunt, etc), and information on weapon multipliers (R1's deal 1.00x>1.05>1.10x etc). They were in this guide, but they ended up making it really, really long. I just wanted a guide to help people get started. However If you're interested in weapon multipliers and attack types please check this Fextralife links, they are (mostly) accurate. The Chikage | Simon's Bowblade | The Bloodletter I want to give a big thanks to /u/amygdalapls, for providing information about formatting, the bowblade, and gem advice (thanks a lot!). I also want to thank /u/n00exec for providing me with a ton of information on the bloodletter and his quality build (Thanks a lot too!).

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 There are 11 unique coffin items in Isz you can only loot once. The only way to avoid the glitch is to not collect unique items in the coffins of Isz and Sinister Isz root side areas. Looting an item in one will reduce the number of dungeons in the other as well. As you can see below in the table, groups 10 and 11 are marked with ? as these two groups of dungeons are the final Isz Glitch phase. Tomb Prospectors still don’t know for sure why these two groups are repeating and there are only theories. One such theory hints that dungeons in these groups should include loot that's for some reason missing or has been removed but the game is still trying to give you a dungeon that's tied to an item that's no longer in there, and ultimately gets stuck in a loop (aka Isz Glitch). The following text was extracted from a conversation with AzureEvening on Jan 31th 2023. 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. The only two dungeon items that come to mind is Guidance tier 3 rune and Revered Great One Coldblood. Both of these items are in the official Bloodborne guide but are unobtainable in the game by normal means. They still exist in the files though, as it is possible to save edit them into your inventory. They just don’t have any drop table assigned to them. 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 Start a testing session and create multiple Isz chalices in a row with your character. Use the Chalice Dungeons Exploration Sheet (Isz or Sinister Isz tab) in combination with the Chalice Dungeon Screenshot Database. The following data from the sheet should help you to determine a characters location: 1. FRC offers 2. Layer 1 - 3 Bosses 3. Notes 4. Main Layout - The starting point when using the screenshot db 5. Bonus Room

Once you have figured out how to use the screenshot database, you should be able to determine the exact ID of your characters dungeon in a short time. The glitch related IDs 1 - 32 are located at the end of the sheets. If you collect every possible coffin while playing through multiple chalices, items that you may have looted already will be replaced by either Madman’s Knowledge or Great One’s Wisdom - this indicates that there is an event flag for each of these items that keeps track of what item you’ve already looted. 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 us