Buffs Bloodborne Wiki » Game Mechanics » Buffs

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Table of Contents

Basic Information

Buffable and Non-buffable Weapons

Self Buffs

Arcane Items

Consumables

Weapon Buffs

Arcane Items

Consumables

Debuff

Consumables

Basic Information

Buff is the term generically used to describe a positive status effect that temporarily affects mainly player or enemy statistics. In Bloodborne there are several ways to buff your character using consumables or other more obscure options. In this page we will exclude Gem effects, if you want to know more about Blood Gems visit their hub page. Debuffs are effects that may negatively impact a player character or a non-player character in some way other than reducing their hit points. Self Buff Limitation: Just as you can apply only one buff for the weapons, you cannot have more than one self buff active at the same time. Only exception is Beasthood generated by the Beast Claw. Therefore you can't combine effects of the items such as Arcane Items Messenger's Gift and Old Hunter Bone. Consumables Beast Blood Pellet, Blue Elixir, Lead Elixir and even special blood vials with self buff effect like Blood of Adeline, Blood of Adella, Blood of Arianna. So beware when going into the fight that you can't use two of before mentioned items and "cannot use" animation will be performed when trying so which can cost you the fight.

Special Ritekeeper Buff: In Root Chalice Dungeons with Rotted Offering there is a 17% (base) chance to appear in non-Hintertomb and 13% (base) chance to appear in Hintertomb dungeons, these special Labyrinth Ritekeepers will patrol large rooms, gather other enemies around it and then strengthen them. Even when the Ritekeeper is killed, the enemies will retain their powered-up status which lasts for 18 seconds. This effect will normally apply to the adversary players as well, increasing AR (Phys., Thrust, Blunt & Blood) by 35%, and if you use the Shaman Bone Blade, you as a host can receive this buff alongside with cooperators. [Image / Video]

Buffable and Non-buffable Weapons

There are two types of weapons in Bloodborne: weapons that can be buffed (strengthened) with Fire Paper, Bolt Paper, or Empty Phantasm Shell, and those that cannot. Usually, weapons that can be buffed only deal physical damage; the lone exception is the Reiterpallasch. Weapons that cannot be buffed always have more than one damage type. This is an important distinction because some gems work differently depending on the type of weapon in which they are placed. Refer to the following lists when you need a reminder about which category a weapon is in. Beware: equipping your firearm with any elemental blood gem [arcane, bolt & fire] will prevent you from buffing your right hand weapon despite it being "buffable".

Buffable Weapons: Saw Cleaver Saw Spear Hunter Axe Threaded Cane Kirkhammer Ludwig's Holy Blade Stake Driver Beast Claw Reiterpallasch Beasthunter Saif Beast Cutter Church Pick Whirligig Saw Rakuyo

Non-buffable Weapons: Burial Blade Blade of Mercy Chikage Rifle Spear Tonitrus Logarius'Wheel Holy Moonlight Sword Boom Hammer Amygdalan Arm Kos Parasite Simon's Bowblade Bloodletter

Self Buffs

Messenger's Gift Using it requires only a single bullet with an arcane stat of 10. It does no damage, doesn't heal you, and has no scaling. All it does is turn you into a message! Well, it makes you look like one... as long as you don't make any large movements. If you try to run, roll, attack, or use an item, the effect will break. This spell is entirely for fooling other players online. Whether you are an invader setting up an ambush or a normal hunter hiding from the Vilebloods, this is the best camouflage you'll find in this nightmare. Old Hunter Bone You need 15 points of arcane stat to use it, and it costs four bullets per use. It increases the speed of your rolling and quicksteps. This does not increase the number of invincibility frames in your roll. It does, however, allow you to recover from a roll much more quickly; this means you can start another roll sooner. In that way, the Old Hunter Bone can actually provide you with more invincibility. Beast Blood Pellet These pellets temporarily awaken your inner beast and increase your attack power for 60 seconds. While under their influence, each successive hit will build up your beast gauge. Your physical attack power will increase depending on how much you fill your beast gauge; but be warned that your defense will fall as well. Blue Elixir Drinking a Blue Elixir will render your character partially transparent for 30 seconds. During this time, it is harder for most enemies to see you. What this means is that you can get closer to them before they notice you and attack. Note that this only applies to your visual presence; the enemy can still hear you! If you run, fight, or do anything that makes a lot of sound, the enemy can still find you. Lead Elixir Despite in-game description, Lead Elixir does impact how much damage you take from the attacks. Every melee ATK - physical, be it normal or visceral attack, and elemental (e.g. buff), its damage is reduced by 50%. Every ranged ATK - Arcane & Bloodtinge Items (hunter tools), Flamesprayer & Rosmarinus and all bullets do standard 100% of damage. Only exception is Simon's Bowblade, its ranged attacks damage is reduced by 50%. Light and Normal impact hits will not stagger and will bounce off of the player providing openings to strike back. Even Heavy impact hits can bounce off but will stagger. While Lead Elixir effect is active Augur of Ebrietas and Beast Roar will forfeit their knockdown property and will only stagger you. Noteworthy is that transformed 2 handed Chikage will not bounce off.

Blood of Arianna In-game Testing: Gif on the right shows results of the test, without using Blood of Arianna (base) it took 76 frames to fully regenerate depleted stamina while when effect of the vial was active it took 33 frames, making it ~130% increase of stamina regeneration for the whole duration of 20 seconds. Blood of Adeline In-game Testing: Gradual healing starts after initial animation ends, then continues for 10 seconds. Vial heals 5 HP every 3 frames, making it 50 HP healed every second. Blood of Adeline will, after initial 50% heal, gradually recover 500 HP in total. Blood of Adella In-game Testing: Gradual healing starts after initial animation ends, then continues for 20 seconds. Vial heals 5 HP every 3 frames, making it 50 HP healed every second. Blood of Adella will, after initial 25% heal, gradually recover 1000 HP in total.

Arcane Items

Icon	Name	Use	No. Held	Usage Type	QS Bullet Use	Stats Req. Stat Bonus	How to obtain
	Messenger's Gift	Enveloping black mist changes user into messenger	- / 1	Unlimited Use	1	- / - / - / 10 - / - / - / -	Treasure in Nightmare Frontier
	Old Hunter Bone	The art of Quickening speeds up rolling and quicksteps [15 seconds]	- / 1	Unlimited Use	4	- / - / - / 15 - / - / - / -	Treasure in Abandoned Old Workshop

Consumables

Icon	Name	Effect	No. Held	Stored	Usage Type	Availability
	Beast Blood Pellet	Increase ATK power Decrease DEF [60 seconds]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Afflicted Beggar's Quest, Impostor Iosefka' Quest, Treasure in Main Story, Lower Loran, Dropped by Carrion Crow, Scourge Beast, Beast-possessed Soul [More...]
	Blood of Adeline DLC	Restore 50% of total HP and gradually heal for 10 seconds	- / 1	- / -	Finite	Adeline, Research Hall Patient' questline
	Blood of Adella	Heal 25% of HP Gradual heal [20 seconds]	- / 1	- / -	Finite	Adella, Nun of the Healing Church Quest
	Blood of Arianna	Heal 25% of HP Increase stamina regeneration [20 seconds]	- / 1	- / -	Finite	Arianna, Woman of Pleasure Quest
	Blue Elixir	Harder to detect by enemies [30 seconds]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Treasure in Main Story, Isz Gravestone, Dropped by Church Servants/Giants, Small Celestial Emissary, Yurie, Sold by Insight Bath Messengers [More...]
	Lead Elixir	Grant super armor in cost of slow movement [30 seconds]	- / 3	- / 99	Finite	Impostor Iosefka's Quest, Treasure in Main Story, Dropped by Giant Lost Child, Hunters of Despair, Sold by Insight Bath Messengers [More...]

Weapon Buffs

Empty Phantasm Shell The Empty Phantasm Shell requires 15 arcane to be used and consumes three bullets with each use. It adds 80 points of arcane damage to each attack while it persists, and it lasts for one minute. The main point here is that it adds exactly 80 points of damage to each individual attack. No matter how strong or weak your attack is, it adds 80 points. No more, and no less. This means that weapons that attack quickly and cost little stamina gain more benefit from Empty Phantasm Shell than slow, stamina-expensive weapons do. Bolt Paper Bolt Paper acts exactly the same as Fire Paper, with the only difference being that you'll get an increase of 80 bolt damage rather than fire. Weapons that are capable of doing a lot of hits in a short period of time will once again see the best increase in overall damage; because the additional damage will be applied to more hits. Bone Marrow Ash Bone Marrow Ash greatly increases the power of your next Quick-silver Bullet shot. It can only be used on your left-hand weapon; it won't apply to the shots fired by Reiterpallasch or the Rifle Spear. For weapons that hit multiple times per Quicksilver Bullet, like the Flamesprayer, the bonus is applied to all of the hits for the first bullet. Using Bone Marrow Ash on a strong weapon, like the Cannon or the Repeating Pistol, can result in very high damage. The most damaging single-hit attack in the game is done by using Bone Marrow Ash on a Cannon and shooting a staggered enemy; it can deal well over 4000 damage. Similar damage can be done with a Flamesprayer, Bone Marrow Ash, and an Oil Urn.

Fire Paper When used, Fire Paper sets your weapon on fire In addition to looking really cool, this adds 80 points of fire damage to every attack that you do. This is a flat 80 points; it doesn't matter how fast or slow, or strong or weak your attack is Every attack gets 80 additional points of fire damage. This means that weapons that attack quickly and cost little stamina gain more benefit from Fire Paper than slow, stamina-expensive weapons do. The Reiterpallasch is one good choice; it has fast, low-stamina attacks. More interestingly, the bullets it fires in transformed mode benefit from the paper! As a result, you can actually shoot fire damage bullets. The Threaded Cane and the Stake Driver are also good choices, as are the normal modes of the Kirkhammer and Ludwig's Holy Blade.

Arcane Items

Icon	Name	Use	No. Held	Usage Type	QS Bullet Use	Stats Req. Stat Bonus	How to obtain
	Empty Phantasm Shell	Empty shell that applies arcane power [80 Points] to weapon [60 seconds]	- / 1	Unlimited Use	3	- / - / - / 15 - / - / - / -	Treasure in Byrgenwerth

Consumables

Icon	Name	Effect	No. Held	Stored	Usage Type	Availability
	Bolt Paper	Add 80 Bolt DMG to every ATK [right-hand weapons]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Treasure in Main Story, Ailing Loran, Lower Loran, Dropped by Kidnapper, Yahar'gul Hunter (T & WS), Sold by Merchants [More...]
	Bone Marrow Ash	Increase power of QS Bullet [Left-Hand Firearms] [1 Shot / 60 seconds]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Treasure in Cathedral Ward, Hemwick Charnel Lane, Chalice Dungeons, Dropped by Djura's Ally, Huntsman (Rifle), Huntsman (R & C), Sold by Merchants [More...]
	Fire Paper	Add 80 Fire DMG to every ATK [right-hand weapons] [60 seconds]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Alfred's Quest, Treasure in Old Yharnam, Chalice Dungeons, Dropped by Alfred*, Labyrinth Watchers Fire ver., Sold by Merchants [More...]

Debuff

Numbing Mist Numbing Mist blocks healing effects. This is most useful in PvP; if you can hit an enemy player with this, they'll be unable to restore their HP using Blood Vials! It lasts an entire minute, too, so this is a very powerful item to use, whether early in a fight or after you've already done some damage. On the other hand, you obviously need to be careful not to get hit with one of these yourself.

Consumables

Icon	Name	Effect	No. Held	Stored	Usage Type	Availability
	Numbing Mist	Blocks healing effects [30 seconds]	- / 10	- / 99	Finite	Impostor Iosefka's Quest, Treasure in Main Story, Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth, Dropped by Cain's Servant (Rapier), Sold by Insight Bath Messengers [More...]