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Bloodborne |OT++++| Now with Trusty Patches

Melchiah

Member
Started playing on Saturday and by the time I quit yesterday I was level 75 and finished up the One Reborn. This game seemed way harder my first play through with the Cane/Blades of Mercy. I guess part of that is learning how to beat the bosses previously but strength weapons in general seem much easier to use. Kirkhammer pretty much kept Paarl permanently staggered. Ludwig's made pretty quick work of the Hunter at the end of Eileen's quest. I do miss the quickness and move set of the Blades though. This game sucked me back in!

You can keep Paarl staggered with the Cane's whip form, which does 20% bonus damage, and Fire Paper as well.
 

DSmalls84

Member
You can keep Paarl staggered with the Cane's whip form, which does 20% bonus damage, and Fire Paper as well.

lol I think the first time I just kept hitting him with the Cane in stick form. It was definitely more difficult. I probably didn't use the whip as much as I should have.
 
The longer I play the game the less I even attempt to parry. The timing seems really inconsistent and it's often easier to simply dodge through an enemy's attack.
 

Melchiah

Member
lol I think the first time I just kept hitting him with the Cane in stick form. It was definitely more difficult. I probably didn't use the whip as much as I should have.

Oddly enough, the default form of the Cane seems to work better against Amelia though. When I've fought her, it's been easier to stagger and beat her that way.
 

DSmalls84

Member
Oddly enough, the default form of the Cane seems to work better against Amelia though. When I've fought her, it's been easier to stagger and beat her that way.

Yeah, I remember beating Amelia with it on my first attempt and wondering why so many people had issues lol.
 

Donos

Member
The longer I play the game the less I even attempt to parry. The timing seems really inconsistent and it's often easier to simply dodge through an enemy's attack.

Yeah, there are some special enemies who have an easy window but most haven't. Only used it for these enemies (e.g. big brick guys) for some bosses (boosted with runes) in chalices and hunters. Always with a pistol > better spam.

What is this about cheesing Micolash? Not the lowest tier but he's definitely lower tier. Only his one AoE attack is a problem but you just have to interrupt him.


Soooo. Only the last Boss of the DLC left (OoK) for Platinum.
Phase 1 is not a problem if i'm concentrated and don't get greedy and keep my stamina but Phase 2 gives me a bit trouble. One fuckup and it's a 1/2 hit KO (NG+, sl 130, LHS +10 with top gems). But he seems like he's easier than other bosses. Only fought him 5 times so i can't read all his moves yet but anything obvious what helps with phase 2?

Really like this fight.
 
Here's how I would probably rank the bosses in terms of difficulty myself*, from S being hardest to E being easiest:

Tier S
- Orphan of Kos
- Laurence
- Ludwig
- Amygdala (Defiled chalice version)
- Watch Dog (Defiled chalice version)
- Abhorrent Beast
- Bloodletting Beast (Depth 5 chalice/Headless version)

Tier A
- Loran Darkbeast **
- Lady Maria
- Martyr Logarius
- Ebrietas (Chalice version)
- Undead Giant (Depth 3 chalice version)
- Pthumerian Descendant (Depth 5 chalice version)
- Keeper of the Old Lords (Depth 5 chalice version)

Tier B
-
Gehrman
- Ebrietas (regular version)
- Rom (chalice version)
- Bloodletting Beast (Depth 3 chalice version)
- Blood-Starved Beast (Depth 4 chalice version)

Tier C
- Father Gascoigne
- Vicar Amelia
- Blood-Starved Beast
- Darkbeast Paarl
- Yharnam Queen
- Rom (regular version)
- Living Failures

Tier D
- The Shadows of Yharnam
- Cleric Beast
- Amygdala (regular version)
- Moon Presence
- Pthumerian Elder
- Beast-Possessed Soul
- Micolash (only here because of a potential OHKO attack, he'd otherwise be in the lowest tier :p)

Tier E
- Celestial Emissary
- The Witch of Hemwick
- The One Reborn
- Mergo's Wet Nurse
- Merciless Watchers
- Watch Dog of the Old Lords (depth 1 version)
- Forgotten Madman

Tier "why is this even a boss":
- Loran Silverbeast
- Maneater Boar
- Brainsucker

Mentioning some chalice versions whenever relevant, sometimes there's a huge discrepancy between versions (Rom, Watch Dog, Amygdala), sometimes minor but still there (Bloodletting Beast), sometimes irrelevant (Merciless Watchers are always pretty easy for instance).

* Speaking generally, 'cause a lot of the time it depends on your build. For instance I struggled against Lady Maria the first time with my str build, using a kirkhammer (transformed, which was a mistake -- got her far more easily once I used the non-transformed one, and on a dex build I wreck her), and defeated the Orphan and Laurence on my second try, but overall I consider them harder than Lady Maria.
Same with Father G; he's the non-optional story boss that killed me the most in my first playthrough, but now that I am better at parrying and know about the tiny music box (I missed it first time) I consider him a lower-tier difficulty.

** Been a while since I bothered clearing the Lower Loran dungeon though, but I remember him being pretty hard.

I'm sure plenty of people would strongly disagree with my tiers though. :D Especially where I put regular versions of Rom and Blood-Starved Beast, and the Shadows of Yharnam, which were never an issue for me.
Why is Keeper of the Old Lords Tier A? I've beaten the shit out of most of those things fairly easily. Only hard time was when I was using the Pizza Cutter and didn't try to parry her.
 

ColdPizza

Banned
The longer I play the game the less I even attempt to parry. The timing seems really inconsistent and it's often easier to simply dodge through an enemy's attack.

I've been noticing this myself. There's a few instances in which I know it should stagger an opponent and they charge right through it.
 

Melchiah

Member
Why is Keeper of the Old Lords Tier A? I've beaten the shit out of most of those things fairly easily. Only hard time was when I was using the Pizza Cutter and didn't try to parry her.

Yeah, Keeper and Maria are really easy to beat with parry & visceral combo. Both go down in less than two minutes.

The different rankings of BSBs puzzle me as well. I'd also put Paarl into tier E.
 
Out of every single boss, I think Laurence is the only one where I figure I'm going to be low on vials (or out) by the time it's finished, even if I have a "good" fight. Others are, or can be challenging when facing them the first time, but you learn the moves, and it gets easier. All the fire AOE going off with Laurence is just hard for me to avoid, but I'm usually too aggressive anyway.
 
Yeah, Keeper and Maria are really easy to beat with parry & visceral combo. Both go down in less than two minutes.

The different rankings of BSBs puzzle me as well. I'd also put Paarl into tier E.
Yeah sadly I didn't record or at least upload my Maria fight that I won cause that thing was parry city. Now the Keeper...I've smacked that woman upside the head so many times with my cane on video...it's just sad. The parry, "smack dat bitch up" combo is just too stronk. BSB is a pain to me, I hate the poison mechanic. Though you could easily beat it by just running to the left side of it usually.
 

Donos

Member
ROM(regular) was super easy to me. He doesnt even do anything!

many die because of meteors or unlucky spider attack. I personally didn't care about spiders and ran through the groups straight for Rom. Helped in about 30-40 Rom fights and in half of them, the host died fighting the little spiders while i took big chunks of health out of Rom just avoiding them.
 

Melchiah

Member
Yeah sadly I didn't record or at least upload my Maria fight that I won cause that thing was parry city. Now the Keeper...I've smacked that woman upside the head so many times with my cane on video...it's just sad. The parry, "smack dat bitch up" combo is just too stronk. BSB is a pain to me, I hate the poison mechanic. Though you could easily beat it by just running to the left side of it usually.

Maria is somewhat harder than Keeper, when it comes to parry timing, and BSB varies for me. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it catches me off-guard with its jump attacks, and then it's time for desperate evading. I tend to use parry to beat BSB as well. For some reason, I've had more trouble with the main game version than the chalice one though.
 
Maria is somewhat harder than Keeper, when it comes to parry timing, and BSB varies for me. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it catches me off-guard with its jump attacks, and then it's time for desperate evading. I tend to use parry to beat BSB as well. For some reason, I've had more trouble with the main game version than the chalice one though.
Main game BSB is a pain in the ass cause you're too low level to sustain and dish out any sort of real damage. At least unless you're using the saw cleaver which I just never use. Maria is harder to me cause she's more aggressive and does more damage than the Keeper's and the parry timing is too different. You pretty much have to shoot Maria when you see her raise her sword to parry her and not during a wind up attack like with the Keeper.
 

SDR-UK

Member
BSB is a somewhat easy encounter, especially if you pay attention to all of the loot available to you in the immediate area of Old Yharnam. The Pungent Blood Cocktails and Fire Paper make it a joke of a fight if you use them. You get enough of those to survive the fight and then some, totally trivialised the boss for me.
 

Melchiah

Member
Main game BSB is a pain in the ass cause you're too low level to sustain and dish out any sort of real damage. At least unless you're using the saw cleaver which I just never use. Maria is harder to me cause she's more aggressive and does more damage than the Keeper's and the parry timing is too different. You pretty much have to shoot Maria when you see her raise her sword to parry her and not during a wind up attack like with the Keeper.

The main game BSB managed to kill me few times on both NG+, and 3rd playthrough with another character, whereas the chalice one went down with fewer tries. I guess one factor is, that the chalice area is more open, and you're less likely to get stuck in the scenery.

The parry timing with Maria is indeed different, and took me a while to learn. During the second phase it's easier to parry when you move to her side while she's recovering from the previous visceral strike. Here's a video of how I beat her in just over a minute: https://youtu.be/bwamRl8mjlU


EDIT:
I really don't rely on Pungent Blood Cocktails for that fight.

Me neither. I find it distracting to juggle the items in the heat of the battle. That's why I also prefer to use Blood Vials instead of Antidotes, when I'm poisoned.
 
With that fight I usually just try to have only fire paper and antidotes in my inventory, less to juggle, and maybe molotovs. BSB is easily my least favorite fights, along with Rom. I honestly just consider Rom to be a damn chore at this point. She's not even hard, just boring.
 

Melchiah

Member
With that fight I usually just try to have only fire paper and antidotes in my inventory, less to juggle, and maybe molotovs. BSB is easily my least favorite fights, along with Rom. I honestly just consider Rom to be a damn chore at this point. She's not even hard, just boring.

I tend to use only Fire Paper when I'm against BSB. I find the fights exciting, and I've always been looking forward to them, when I reach Old Yharnam. The same can't be said about Rom. She's the least fun boss to fight in the whole game to me. Hopefully there won't be anything similar in DS3.
 
The longer I play the game the less I even attempt to parry. The timing seems really inconsistent and it's often easier to simply dodge through an enemy's attack.
It's consistent it's just a matter of knowing each enemy's windup. Mostly you want to wait till the very last moment to fire your gun. There are a few instances like with some hunter enemies where it feels like I timed it right but no stagger.
 

Nerokis

Member
I've been super absorbed in Bloodborne stuff for the past month or so. Tonight I'll be picking up DS3, and it feels like I'm about to wake up from the dream.

It's a bittersweet feeling. :p
 

DSmalls84

Member
Orphan of Kos can go fuck itself. Man so many times I'll get the boss down to 20-39% health only to get killed with multi hit attacks.

Yeah phase 1 is manageable and super easy to exploit once you learn his moves and tells. Phase 2 on the other hand...ugh. Him and Laurence were by far the two most difficult bosses for me.
 

Jrmint

Member
^I just beat the game with the same result! Feels so damn good!

I was really struggling with the late game bosses, but the last one I had to summon help with was Ebrietas. I was gonna summon help from good ol' Gaffer SDR, but I wanted to try it myself first.

I 1-shotted Wet Nurse, 2-shotted Gehrman. I was going to purposely die to the final secret boss, so that I could use the burial blade in normal mode, but I said nah, and went for the kill which I was able to get in 1-shot as well. So so so happy I was able to beat the end of the game with no help.

I didn't really understand the ending, so I'll have to look that up, but feels so good either way. Beating BB is probably my favorite gaming accomplishment to date.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
Why is Keeper of the Old Lords Tier A? I've beaten the shit out of most of those things fairly easily. Only hard time was when I was using the Pizza Cutter and didn't try to parry her.
Because the defiled chalice version can OHKO super-easily, especially if you miss one parry it's all over. She'll die fast but she can also kill you fast. There have been many times where I died to her (him?) repeatedly, and then killed the Watch Dog in one try.

Kind of like the Pthumerian Descendant really. Annoying as fuck to fight

Yeah, Keeper and Maria are really easy to beat with parry & visceral combo. Both go down in less than two minutes.
And they can punish-heal or combo you to death real fast too.

The different rankings of BSBs puzzle me as well. I'd also put Paarl into tier E.
Because the Loran chalice version is much harder. As for Paarl, no way. He'll be stupidly easy, tier-E easy if you fight him by the time you reach Yahar'gul during the blood moon, but if you fight him early on (e.g. as soon as the bagmen can kidnap you there), he's not that hard, but also not trivial.
 

Melchiah

Member
Because the defiled chalice version can OHKO super-easily, especially if you miss one parry it's all over. She'll die fast but she can also kill you fast. There have been many times where I died to her (him?) repeatedly, and then killed the Watch Dog in one try.

Kind of like the Pthumerian Descendant really. Annoying as fuck to fight


And they can punish-heal or combo you to death real fast too.


Because the Loran chalice version is much harder. As for Paarl, no way. He'll be stupidly easy, tier-E easy if you fight him by the time you reach Yahar'gul during the blood moon, but if you fight him early on (e.g. as soon as the bagmen can kidnap you there), he's not that hard, but also not trivial.

I missed few parries, and one visceral strike, when I fought the Keeper in the Defiled chalice, yet I was able to beat her in under two minutes; https://youtu.be/mcePUbPDcFM Even the easier bosses can kill you fast, if you screw up. That's exactly what has happened to me, when I've fought the Witch of Hemwick. The difficulty of bosses varies between the players; what's hard to some, may be easier to someone else, and vice versa.

Now, Pthumerian Descendant of Ihyll chalice is an annoyingly hard boss, which I've yet to beat without co-op help. As for BSB, the Loran chalice version has always seemed easier to me than the one in Old Yharnam. Perhaps partly because of the more open area. Here's how I parried BSB of Loran to death, despite of several screw ups; https://youtu.be/8frwISFdrZI

I think Paarl only managed to kill me once, when I ventured there after being kidnapped to Hypogean Gaol. The fight is a lot easier, when done between Shadow of Yharnam and Rom. When it comes to the harder bosses, like Pthumerian Descendant and Orphan of Kos, it doesn't matter when you fight them, they'll still be challenging no matter what your stats are. Here's how I bet Paarl in under two minutes at level 53, eventhough I once again screwed up few times; https://youtu.be/S4S_62uJpmo
 

JJShadow

Member
First Souls game I ever play, and I have to say I'm really proud of myself. Before going into it I thought I was going to quit it after dying a thousand times (taking into account I'm not really skilled in this kind of games), but I've already managed to defeat 6 bosses, being the last one
the Darkbeast Paarl
. Beating bad-ass bosses or enemies in this game is one of the most rewarding feelings I've ever had as a gamer, just love it, and you really notice that feeling of becoming more and more powerful and skilled the more you play (and die lol)

A couple of questions:

- Regarding armor and attires, so far I've unlocked three new sets besides the initial one, but I've noticed that all of them have really similar stats in global, there are only few differences in bolt/fire resistance. Will I eventually find new attires that involve a substantial change in most of the stats?

- Regarding weapons, I'm almost 20 hours in and since the very beginning I've been using the Hunter Axe as my main weapon (+5 currently). I've unlocked and tried different weapons, but I'm really confortable with the axe, and I feel that by now, It's the best option in terms of crowd control/damage (although I'm getting used to Ludwig's sword and it looks like a really good alternative), but I'm afraid that maybe in the "lategame" may lose in terms of damage vs other options. What do you think guys?

- Finally, I'm currently level 45 or so, and my stats are the following ones:

VIT 23
END 19
STR 21
SKILL 18
BLO 9
ARC 8

As you can see I'm mainly focused on upgrade vit, end, str and skill, whereas I haven't still spent any point in bloodtinge or arcane lol. Should I start thinking in upgrading them or are they not really important?

Thanks!
 

Melchiah

Member
A couple of questions:

- Regarding armor and attires, so far I've unlocked three new sets besides the initial one, but I've noticed that all of them have really similar stats in global, there are only few differences in bolt/fire resistance. Will I eventually find new attires that involve a substantial change in most of the stats?

- Regarding weapons, I'm almost 20 hours in and since the very beginning I've been using the Hunter Axe as my main weapon (+5 currently). I've unlocked and tried different weapons, but I'm really confortable with the axe, and I feel that by now, It's the best option in terms of crowd control/damage (although I'm getting used to Ludwig's sword and it looks like a really good alternative), but I'm afraid that maybe in the "lategame" may lose in terms of damage vs other options. What do you think guys?

- Finally, I'm currently level 45 or so, and my stats are the following ones:

VIT 23
END 19
STR 21
SKILL 18
BLO 9
ARC 8

As you can see I'm mainly focused on upgrade vit, end, str and skill, whereas I haven't still spent any point in bloodtinge or arcane lol. Should I start thinking in upgrading them or are they not really important?

Thanks!

- You can pretty much choose the attire based on what looks the best for you. The higher bolt/fire/arcane/poison resistance helps against some bosses though. My personal favorites are the Crowfeather, Bone Ash, Hunter (Central Yharnam sewers), and Harrowed (DLC) sets, and I don't tend to use sets that have low physical damage stats.

- You can also stick with the weapon you like to use the most. Both the axe and Ludwig are good, and deal a plenty of damage. Ludwig's damage is a bit higher at maximum level than the axe's. I stuck with the Cane for the most of the game, including DLC. Only used Tonitrus against Rom, Ludwig against Ebrietas, and the Moonlight sword against the last boss of DLC.

- You don't need to spend Blood Echoes on Blood Tinge with that build. To my recollection, Arcane affects Ludwig, but you can do without as well.
EDIT: You can also ignore Skill stat, if you stick with the axe.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
the burial blade,
bts_lina.gif
bts_lina.gif
bts_lina.gif
 

Caderfix

Member
Is the Cannon worth upgrading for a strength build? I hardly ever use my pistol but is the damage high enough you can use it to finish off a boss?

It is. Bone Marrow Ash gives it a huge damage boost. Just use it a couple of times against bosses, it'll take e big chunk from their HP.
 
Micolash and Mergo were total pushovers! Not sure if I was on another level after completing the DLC or if they are just really easy in general. I'm leaning towards the latter, haha.
 
Micolash and Mergo were total pushovers! Not sure if I was on another level after completing the DLC or if they are just really easy in general. I'm leaning towards the latter, haha.
I actually think it's a combination of both. Micolash at least has that cheap laser light show attack, but Mergo doesn't even have that. As long as you don't get greedy and don't get caught up in her teleportation attack Mergo is easy.
 

ColdPizza

Banned
I actually think it's a combination of both. Micolash at least has that cheap laser light show attack, but Mergo doesn't even have that. As long as you don't get greedy and don't get caught up in her teleportation attack Mergo is easy.

Yah, Micolash was one shotting me with A Call Beyond on NG+...if you don't get out of the AOE it sucks. Always best to be super aggressive with him and stay close dodging his tentacle attacks.
 

Jrmint

Member
Yea his Call From Beyond was pretty bs in that small room, Wet Nurse was a really fun fight, and not too bad.

I also found Gehrman not super hard, but the human-type enemies were much easier throughout the game to me, as opposed to the big ass creature enemies.
 

Veelk

Banned
I actually think it's a combination of both. Micolash at least has that cheap laser light show attack, but Mergo doesn't even have that. As long as you don't get greedy and don't get caught up in her teleportation attack Mergo is easy.
Looking back, I only really found a handful of the bosses difficult. Gascoigne, because I didn't know how to play. Logarius, obviously. Some chalic bosses definitely, but those don't count as they're not in the main game, nor do the DLC bosses that were specifically designed to be harder than usual. And... That's it I think. I didn't hit any real walls in the main campaign I couldn't scale with some caution.

I totally agree with Jim sterling on his rant yesterday. There are definitely places that give you trouble, but bloodborne wasn't hard for the most part. I haven't played the other souls games, but it's "prepare to die" reputation is overstated at least as far as bloodborne goes.
 
Looking back, I only really found a handful of the bosses difficult. Gascoigne, because I didn't know how to play. Logarius, obviously. Some chalic bosses definitely, but those don't count as they're not in the main game, nor do the DLC bosses that were specifically designed to be harder than usual.

I totally agree with Jim sterling on his rant yesterday. There are definitely places that give you trouble, but bloodborne wasn't hard for the most part. I haven't played the other souls games, but it's "prepare to die" reputation is overstated at least as far as bloodborne goes.
It only gets stupid if you do layer 5 Defiled Chalice Dungeons.
 

Donos

Member
Is it still a bad idea to play the bloodborne dlc if you're on new game plus?
doable. What level and weapons do you have? Also, you can now summon NPC "league" members for some fights. Valtr is pretty good (e.g. for Ludwig).

It's a good challenge.

Went in with in with NG+ around lvl 105 with LHS +10 and good gems and only need to beat the last boss now. First boss can be a bit of a roadblock though.
 

Morrigan Stark

Arrogant Smirk
I missed few parries, and one visceral strike, when I fought the Keeper in the Defiled chalice, yet I was able to beat her in under two minutes; https://youtu.be/mcePUbPDcFM Even the easier bosses can kill you fast, if you screw up. That's exactly what has happened to me, when I've fought the Witch of Hemwick. The difficulty of bosses varies between the players; what's hard to some, may be easier to someone else, and vice versa.

Now, Pthumerian Descendant of Ihyll chalice is an annoyingly hard boss, which I've yet to beat without co-op help. As for BSB, the Loran chalice version has always seemed easier to me than the one in Old Yharnam. Perhaps partly because of the more open area. Here's how I parried BSB of Loran to death, despite of several screw ups; https://youtu.be/8frwISFdrZI

I think Paarl only managed to kill me once, when I ventured there after being kidnapped to Hypogean Gaol. The fight is a lot easier, when done between Shadow of Yharnam and Rom. When it comes to the harder bosses, like Pthumerian Descendant and Orphan of Kos, it doesn't matter when you fight them, they'll still be challenging no matter what your stats are. Here's how I bet Paarl in under two minutes at level 53, eventhough I once again screwed up few times; https://youtu.be/S4S_62uJpmo
You don't need to explain to me how to beat Paarl. I can completely smoke him too, depending on my level. :p First time I fought him was right before Rom since I hadn't died to a bagman until then, and he was complete cake, but on another playthrough I went there early and went "oh.... ouch". Notice I didn't put him on a high tier, I put him alongside other easy bosses like Amelia and the Shadows. Just not on the same tier as the Witch or Celestial Emissary, who are brain-dead no matter what. If you fight Paarl right after BSB, he can be dangerous. The thing with Paarl is that he can be stunlocked/staggered over and over, and if you do that, he's a complete piece of cake, but if he manages to rebuff his electricity and spam it, he can be dangerous. So he'll be wildly inconsistent and very dependent on the player's attack power.

Pthumerian Descendant is indeed an asshole, we agree there. I know he's vulnerable to parries but I find him really hard to parry. If he rears back to do that slower charged attack, I can time it; but some of his attacks are lightning quick and not telegraphed and it's a total crapshoot, and of course you can eat a full combo (or at least several hits before scrambling away from his combo) if you miss. Yesterday I beat him with my bloodtinge, but only after giving up on trying to parry him, and instead I used the transformed Bloodletter, because even a normal R1 staggers him, and did decent damage each time, so I could do a dodge-hit-and-run strategy (almost impossible with a weapon with low staggering power, or just incredibly annoying anyway, you always trade hits). He went down without too many issues using this strategy.

Anyway, yeah I didn't expect people to 100% agree with my tiers, and they are not set in stone, it can vary according to your build, how early/late into the game you fight them, and so on, but these tiers reflect my experience more or less generalized across 6 different characters.
 

SSReborn

Member
doable. What level and weapons do you have? Also, you can now summon NPC "league" members for some fights. Valtr is pretty good (e.g. for Ludwig).

It's a good challenge.

Went in with in with NG+ around lvl 105 with LHS +10 and good gems and only need to beat the last boss now. First boss can be a bit of a roadblock though.
I'm about level 103 and I'm using the threaded cane +10 also the hunters pistol + 7. I also have a kirkhammer + 8 which I think I can upgrade a bit more. I'll give it a shot I enjoy a challenge either way.
 
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