Blocking Damage

Executioner

Children of Rom

Labyrinth Warrior (Sword & Shield)

Huntsman (Torch and Shield) Central Yharnam

Huntsman (Torch and Shield) Forbidden Woods

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page revision: 03, last edited: 01 Oct 2022

Table of Contents

Basic Information

In Bloodborne there are very few tools provided to you for blocking incoming damage and it is almost always not preferable to do so. Even very few enemies employ such tactics and have blocking animation. In this page you will find all information about blocking be it done by you or the enemy.

Shield Blocking

Wooden Shield: Simply put, the shield will not protect you from much at all. You can block attacks by holding L2, but each attack will still damage you. Each hit will also reduce your stamina; once your stamina hits zero, your guard will be broken and the enemy will hit be able to hit you. Worse still, you'll take additional damage if you are struck by the enemy while your guard is broken.

Shield	Physical	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt	SP	RP
Wooden Shield	50	50	40	20	30	55	55
Loch Shield	30	30	70	70	70	55	55
	Blocking with shields also reduce Beasthood build-up by 55%.

Loch Shield: Similar to the Wooden Shield, the Loch Shield does little to defend you from physical attacks. The Loch Shield's true purpose is to defend you from all other types of non-physical damage, which it does a tremendous job at. Holding L2 will bring the shield up to block attacks, but it will take off stamina while absorbing hits. Try to keep the shield up only when necessary, since you'll recover stamina by a much slower amount while defending. If you're not careful and run out of stamina while holding L2, your guard will be broken and you'll receive additional damage.

Weapon's Blocking

Kirkhammer & Ludwig's Holy Blade: Being attacked during certain moves causes you to enter a blocking stance, maintained by holding L2. The stance reduces damage taken (blocks 55% Phys/Blood, 30% Arcane, 40% Fire, and 30% Bolt), prevents flinching from most frontal attacks, and deflects weak attacks. It persists until you run out of stamina after blocking an attack, or performs any action other than walking, running, or sprinting. The only moves that can initiate blocking are the transformed backstep R1 of Ludwig's Holy Blade and the Kirkhammer's transformed sprinting R1 and backstep R1. [Blocking Stance + Guard Broken]

Weapon	Physical	Blood	Arcane	Fire	Bolt
Kirkhammer	55	55	30	40	30
Ludwig's Holy Blade	55	55	30	40	30

Enemy Blocking

Some enemies have blocking animation and will take reduced damage (and status build-up) when hit during the animation. In the table on the right you will find all enemies with blocking animation, there are a few other enemies for which blocking numbers are specified, but they don't have any guarding animations therefore not used (Labyrinth Warrior (Greatsword), Watcher's Gravedigger (all variants), Beast-possessed Soul, Kidnapper, Winter Lantern, and Skeletal Puppet).