Terminology Bloodborne Wiki » Game Mechanics » Terminology

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Basic Information

Gameplay-related Terms As Bloodborne is an Action RPG with duel-type combat, you may find terminologies common in RPGs and fighting games used by the community. This terminology shares most of the terms with previous Souls games like Demon's Souls and Dark Souls. PvE: Stands for Player vs Environment. PvP: Stands for Player vs Player. BL: Stands for "Blood Level" Rally: Is a mechanic which allows the player to regain lost HP after taking damage. When an enemy's attack hits, a portion of the HP gauge briefly turns orange, indicating the amount of damage inflicted. Attack the enemy before the orange bar disappear to restore a given amount of HP. Aggro: Possibly short for "Aggravate", it is the action of provoking an enemy or NPC into attempting to engage combat with the player. While this usually means walking within a certain distance of a monster's line of sight, it can also refer to pulling a monster from afar, or attacking certain non-hostile NPCs (which turns them hostile, and provokes them into fighting you). AoE: Area of effect; refers to attacks that only affect those within a specifc target range or distance. BS: Stands for "Backstab" Farming: Exploring a particular area to hopefully grab many rare items from enemies or collect souls. Many players will repetitively travel throughout certain areas of the game in hopes of gathering a rare item from a particular enemy such as Blood Stones. Fishing: Seeking to perform one action rather than fighting as normal, typically multiple times in a row. Common examples are backstab fishing (usually by circling around an enemy or waiting for them to attack) and parry fishing (either baiting out certain attacks, or simply spamming parry). Fishing is typically frowned upon in PvP, and can trivialize PvE fairly easily. Ganker: Players who brought allies to a PvP situation, hoping to win by number advantage. In Bloodborne, this terminology usually applies to host players who summon cooperator(s) and deliberately waits for an invasion to happen so that the invader usually ends up in a 1v2 or 1v3 situation. Griefer: Players who take pleasure in bringing grief to other player, even if the griefer does not gain significant gameplay reward or even at a disadvantage. In Bloodborne, it is usually a player that uses high level gear on a low level character (so that it matches the online level range) to invade people. They mostly invade people on Central Yharnam and other starting areas to easily win fights against novice players. Grinding: Doing repeated activity (such as killing enemies) to gain experience points in order to level up faster. In Bloodborne, this basically means "Blood Echoes farming" as echoes are used for levelling up. Jumping: When being invaded/invading, you attack the invader/are attacked by the host immediately after spawning (i.e. "getting a jump on the invader/host"). Sometimes referred as "rushing". In Bloodborne this is not prevalent, since unlike in previous Souls games, there are no predetermined spawning points and invader spawns on spot where s/he rang. NG+: Stands for New Game Plus Oki: Short for "Okizeme", which is the Japanese term for the tactical situation that is present against an enemy that is rising up off the ground, typically against someone who is recovering from being knocked down. Example of okizeme attacks (often themselves referred to as "okizemes" or "okis") in Bloodborne is swinging your heavy weapon (or casting a hunter's tool) while the opponent are getting up (and thus unable to do anything) and timed it so that the attack connects right after the opponent's invincibility wears off. Also commonly referred to as a "wakeup" or "wakeup attack". Pulling: A method used to draw out an enemy for tactical purposes, like separating an enemy from a group, or luring them into a more preferable terrain. This is commonly done with ranged items such as pebbles, but can be done with a variety of long-ranged attacks, including the use of Simon's Bowblade. Spam: A repeated action (usually an attack) done generally to dish out large amounts of damage in disregard to one's safety. (e.g. spamming Kos Parasite transformed explosion) Twinking: The act of bringing mid/late-game, upgraded equipment to an early-game, low level environment for the purpose of securing easy wins in PvP. Commonly performed using upgraded weapons, with high blood gems and may kill lower level players in one hit. Twinks are frowned upon by most people, with the act of twinking generally considered cheap and unchallenging. Whiff: Refers to an attack that fails to connect with the opponent. Whether it misses them completely, or actually hits a character, but because that character was in the middle of a dodge-roll at the time, the attack does no damage. Whiffing an attack usually makes your character open to counter attacks. Chalice Dungeons Terminology Glyph: refers to an 8 character long combination of letters and numbers that define a Chalice Dungeon that is active on the Bloodborne server that anyone can type in the “Search by Glyph” option on a Ritual Altar in the Hunter’s Dream to construct the Chalice Dungeon, so as long as they possess the Root Chalice for that Glyph, for absolutely free, no Ritual Materials consumed. You must have an active PlayStation Plus (PS+) subscription in order to access any Glyph. Save Backup: refers to the practice of turning off Automatic Updates on the PS4 for Bloodborne, and manually uploading or downloading your Save Data to either the PS+ Cloud or a USB, which is used as a trick to load right outside a Boss fight again if ideal situation was not met. This replenishes all consumables such as QS and Blood Vials, Fire/Bolt Papers, Beast-Blood Pellets, Pungent Cocktails, Antidotes, etc. This is often used when farming in the hardest Chalice Dungeons for Bosses on Layer 3 or Layer 4 to acquire ideal gems without needing to destroy the Glyph made and needing to do the entire dungeon again. Prelamp: refers to a side area located after the Chamber of the Seal lamp and before the first door in the main hallway leading to the Layer’s main lamp. On Layers below Layer 1, prelamp refers to the same general area, but just after the elevator. It is possible for a Layer not to have a Prelamp side area. Preboss: refers to a side area located after opening the locked door with the Lever and in the hallway to the boss room. Like prelamp, it is possible for a Layer not to have a Preboss side area. Great One’s Wisdom: When a player has already looted a Coffin containing a non-Ritual Material Item they already possess or have possessed at some time in the past, a Great One’s Wisdom will appear instead. Glyphs can be used as Insight Farms this way to anyone of any Blood Level by looting previously looted coffins and removing the Chalice from the Ritual Altar in the Hunter’s Dream and punching in the Glyph again until desired. Invincibility: When you are opening a door, a gate, activating a Chalice Lever, opening a Chest or Coffin, or performing a Visceral Attack, you are completely invincible. You are also immune to Frenzy or Rapid Poison triggering their damage on you if you are performing any of these actions. You are immune to even lethal Fall Damage. This actually extends to a Chalice Dungeon where you can perform a Visceral Attack on an enemy on a bridge and fall off and skip a whole layer of the Chalice, seen in video here. Torch: Torches are quite useful in Chalice Dungeons, particularly in Loran layouts. While they do illuminate pitch black areas, they also have the ability to fend off the many Beast Patients seen in Loran to clear a path. When you L2 with a Torch out in their direction, they will cower and back away. They will continue to give chase if you turn your back on them. They do not scare away Lycanthropes, the big wolves that crawl on all fours, or Beast Patients that wear the yellow cloaks covering their eyes from the flame. The Torch is found in Central Yharnam next to the Brick Troll banging on the large door near the fountain past the huge bonfire right at the start of the game. The Hunter’s Torch, which does double damage of the Torch and has much superior scaling good for Arcane Builds, is located in Old Yharnam. Spawn at the Old Yharnam lamp and go straight ahead, fall onto a rooftop, follow the railings down to the floor below. It will be hidden in a nook with 2 Beast Patients nearby. Blood Gems Terminology If you are wondering about terminology surrounding Blood Gems follow to the Blood Gems Terminology wiki page.

Common Equipment Abbreviations SC: stands for Saw Cleaver BC: stands for Beast Claw HB: stands for Hunter Blunderbuss SS: stands for Saw Spear AA: stands for Amygdalan Arm HP: stands for Hunter Pistol; also acronym for Hit Points TC: stands for Threaded Cane BS: stands for Beasthunter Saif FS: stands for Flamesprayer KH: stands for Kirkhammer BC: stands for Beast Cutter RP: stands for Repeating Pistol RS: stands for Rifle Spear BH: stands for Boom Hammer LR: stands for Ludwig's Rifle SD: stands for Stake Driver CP: stands for Church Pick CC: stands for Church Cannon LHB: stands for Ludwig's Holy Blade HMS: stands for Holy Moonlight Sword FoG: stands for Fist of Gratia BoM: stands for Blade of Mercy KP: stands for Kos Parasite PR: stands for Piercing Rifle LW: stands for Logarius' Wheel SB: stands for Simon's Bowblade GG: stands for Gatling Gun BB: stands for Burial Blade WS: stands for Whirligig Saw and Wooden Shield HT: stands for Hunter's Torch LS: stands for the Loch Shield