Bloodborne (Dark Souls 2 successor (Dark Souls successor (Demon's Souls successor)))

[JonCole]

Patrick Klepek put out his Bloodborne review. I love these text screenshots -

 

 

[Korax]

Are the stat soft caps known yet? I hit 26 strength and noticed that my weapon damage isn't going up as much as if I put points into skill (using Ludwig's Holy Sword). 

It'd make sense if 25 is the soft cap, but it seems really low. 

 

I tested out the whip too. Why is this weapon not amazingly popular? You get the use both forms with the gun! That's amazing. I also got a rune that heals 200 HP on a visceral attack. That seems borderline broken considering how easy it is to get visceral attacks off. 

 

http://bloodborne.wikidot.com/stats

 

Looks like stats have two progressive caps, initially 25-40 depending on stat, and then further diminishing returns at 50 for everything.

 

 

Both play a part. The stone changes how it reacts. Insight effects what you can see.

 

Insight at 40 or hitting a certain story point changes what you see, having the stone makes it so that it teleports you to another location instead of just killing you.

 

Didn't play much last night, but decided to try to recover my echoes. Loaded my game, went to the area where I lost them, and they just weren't there. Nothing on the ground, no nearby enemies with glowing eyes. Just gone. Kind of a bummer.

[JonCole]

That happened to me yesterday. Got killed by one of those werewolf things because I was being careless, and when I came back no glowing eyes, no blood spot. It was only like 4k blood but meh.

[Korax]

BEAT IT

 

Got the easy ending, then used a backup save to get the secret ending. The last (non-secret) boss fight really made me get better at parry timing, because I don't know if I would have been able to brute force my way through like I did with Gwyn in Dark Souls.

 

I'll probably start another game in a few days, but I definitely want to chew on the story for a while, and read whatever lore and theories get pieced together over the next few weeks/months.

[Twig]

Well I guess now I know what people are complaining about when it comes to grinding for potions. I can't beat third/fourth boss

blood-starved beast

and just wasted like fifty potions on him as well as most of my bullets and antidotes.

 

So I gave up on him and went to the locked door for which I bought they key and fortunately I can farm shit there while exploring a new place, so it's not too bad. But fuck me if I'd already gone through this area I'd be annoyed. Well I'm still annoyed.

 

Mostly because of that fucking loading screen.

[Cyborg771]

I'm getting pretty close to the end. How exactly did you duplicate your save file in order to get multiple endings? I can't find a copy function in the loading screen (unless I'm blind)

Also is there anything I should keep in mind for making sure to get the "real" ending? I already know about the "three thirds" thing.

Edit: Just beat it. Holy crap, my body was so tensed up during the whole last boss sequence that I kind of seized up and shook during the credits. I've never felt that way during a game before.

[Bjorn]

Using the character I restarted with a few days ago, I've about caught up to where I was (exploring the Forbidden Forest), and an Arcane build is pretty fucking cool.  It's still an aggressive melee build, because there aren't many other options in this game, but it feels quite a bit more diverse.

 

Spoiler for equipment if people want to discover it themselves:

 

So far, the "spells" are all geared towards assisting your melee.  I've got one that lets me make short range teleports instead of rolls, one that knocks down everything close to me (great panic button) and one that shoots out a bunch of tentacles from my hand that will knock down anything medium sized or smaller and does more damage than any gun I've seen (not counting the cannon).  Enemies that were previously massive pains in the ass are super easy now.  For weapons, I've got a fire enchanted Ludwig's Holy Sword and the Tonitrus (sp?) lightning mace.  Between the two of them, I've always got a weapon that something is vulnerable to. 

[Griddlelol]

I am totally getting destroyed by the nightmare place. It's frustrating because it's the first time I've had to farm for blood stuff

[Korax]

I'm getting pretty close to the end. How exactly did you duplicate your save file in order to get multiple endings? I can't find a copy function in the loading screen (unless I'm blind)

Also is there anything I should keep in mind for making sure to get the "real" ending? I already know about the "three thirds" thing.

Edit: Just beat it. Holy crap, my body was so tensed up during the whole last boss sequence that I kind of seized up and shook during the credits. I've never felt that way during a game before.

 

Under the settings menu there's a save data management option that lets you copy saves to an external drive.

 

I would have loaded a backup to get the other ending, but I had already jumped the gun on the secret ending, so I'll have to start a new game to do that. Which is fine, because I still haven't killed that one boss because of the elevator glitch, so I want to get around to that.

 

Despite thinking that I would take a break, I immediately started into NG+, and made the Central Yharnam loop without any problems. Even though the enemies are rebalanced to be just as tough to a NG+ character as they were to a new character, having the combat skills and experience from a full playthrough made it pretty easy. I'd compare it to taking hours to get through the Undead Burg or Sen's Fortress for the first time in Dark Souls and then tearing them up on subsequent games. Knowing what's there and how to deal with it makes a huge difference.

[N1njaSquirrel]

So noob question inbound: How do you use runes? I have a bunch, but have yet got the tool to apply them? I'm worried that I've missed something.

[Bjorn]

So noob question inbound: How do you use runes? I have a bunch, but have yet got the tool to apply them? I'm worried that I've missed something.

 

Yeah, there's a tool you get after a boss fight.  Have you found...it's called Hemwich Lane or Hemwich village, or something like that? The path to it is to the left of the Great Cathedral (if you're facing it) if you've found it. 

[Bjorn]

I just lol'd so hard at this at work. 
 
Spoilered for trap location (Forbidden Woods)

[Griddlelol]

So noob question inbound: How do you use runes? I have a bunch, but have yet got the tool to apply them? I'm worried that I've missed something.

Go to the other table in the hunters dream after you have the tool you need.

I did some pvp today as an aside. It was pretty intense, so incredibly different from dark souls (where my experience was limited). The combat pace is massively amplified. You can't have the kind of stand offs like in DS where no one would swing for minutes. Just moving back and forward until someone commits. Instead they tend to be all out attacks, because if you back away, you're gonna get shot.

I need to learn how to deal with two people. Those with more experience, how do you handle coop partners? I had an idea of using the whip with poison upgrades and kiting people around the level. However I have no idea if the poison is working. The poison is only like 6.7 arbitrary units...

[Korax]

Beat NG+ Cleric Beast on my first try. Better knowledge of the combat mechanics is definitely making a difference.

[Bjorn]

I beat Darkbeast Paarl on my first shot tonight!  That was intense, was completely out of heals and molotovs at the end, and only had about a third of a health bar left when I finished it off.  Those are probably my favorite boss fights, when you manage to squeak through with a win on your first attempt. 

 

And I also had a super weird glitch tonight.  I was fighting the boss of the Forbidden Forest and...

 

got killed. But instead of respawning somewhere else, I respawned back in the boss arena with the 3 shadow dudes standing around, but not recognizing me. If I used a Hunters Mark to teleport back to my last lamp, I would just re-appear in the arena. Near as I can tell, the game decided that the (invisible) lamp in the bosses arena was the last lamp I had activated. I was really worried it would be a game breaking bug. I quit out and backed up my save. When I reloaded, I was all the way back at the entrance to the Forbidden Forest (the top of the winding path that eventually leads to the first lamp). I was worried I might not be able to traverse the fog gate, so the first thing I tried was using another Mark, which once again took me back to the boss arena. I just beat the crap out of all three of the shadows, they never responded and eventually died. I got the prey vanquished message, the souls and a new rune. After that I co-oped it just to see what the entire battle was like. It doesn't seem to have broken anything else as near as I can tell, but I was really worried it would be a game stopping bug for that character.

[melmer]

Ha, I had a bug last night in about the same place. I was getting my arse kicked by the guy in the building just along from there. I ran all the way back to the lamp, followed closely all the way, and attempted to go back to the hunters dream and got hit out of the menu just as I was about to press yes. Alive with 1 millimetre of health left I ran to the next lamp. She had stopped chasing me now. But choosing to return to the hunters dream did nothing. Even tried to 'quit game'... Nothing, still in control of my character in the game. I tried to quit game again, this time the whole screen turned solid grey except the HUD. I may have had to quit again, but finally got back to the title screen. I was a little worried my save would've been corrupted. Oh, I was also caring 98,000 echoes :/ luckily it loaded fine with 94,000 echos. I can take that hit I had the coop belting at the time as well, not sure if that played a part

[Griddlelol]

I got to the last boss, but I'm not ready to fight yet, I know I've missed a bunch of stuff.

Does anyone know if you need to have certain things done before you move onto NG+ for 100% completion?

[eot]

Two more things regarding the health system:

If I'm not wrong, your healing is percentage based so it basically scales with your VIT. As a consequence pumping VIT is overpowered in this game. In Dark Souls it mattered less, because in practice you tended to be limited by how much you could heal in a fight and having a bit more life didn't increase that.

 

Also, I miss the limited healing when you're just exploring. I was able to go through the Forbidden Woods (a long area) without resting at a lamp once (save for one super early death). I think I was exploring that area for close to two hours. The thing is, as long as you're playing above a certain threshold and never using more pots than what drops you can keep going forever. The attrition of constantly having less and less healing is what made places like Sen's Fortress memorable. Even just choosing to chug an Estus was a major decision a lot of the time.

[Griddlelol]

I have a spoiler-y question about an item:

I'm trying to get the tonsil stone, but I appear to have missed one way of getting it (killing the vicar, then going to a house in the cathedral district). Does anyone know of an alternate way of getting it, or do I have to wait for NG+?

Two more things regarding the health system:

If I'm not wrong, your healing is percentage based so it basically scales with your VIT. As a consequence pumping VIT is overpowered in this game. In Dark Souls it mattered less, because in practice you tended to be limited by how much you could heal in a fight and having a bit more life didn't increase that.

 

Also, I miss the limited healing when you're just exploring. I was able to go through the Forbidden Woods (a long area) without resting at a lamp once (save for one super early death). I think I was exploring that area for close to two hours. The thing is, as long as you're playing above a certain threshold and never using more pots than what drops you can keep going forever. The attrition of constantly having less and less healing is what made places like Sen's Fortress memorable. Even just choosing to chug an Estus was a major decision a lot of the time.

I totally agree with this. I've deliberately avoided putting too much into vit because I saw how powerful it was. Also what I've noticed is that the healing you receive on hitting an enemy is less related to he much damage you swing does than I initially thought. Healing is more efficient by swinging a fast weapon multiple times, rather than swinging a slow weapon once or twice.

[JonCole]

What's a good way to counter another hunter that has a blunderbuss? He seems to hit me every time he fires despite my best dodging, and it does enough damage that even closing the distance takes out half of my health bar.

[Twig]

I just died to a hunter like that (the NPC hunter in Cathedral Ward, with the rifle spear, I think?). And by died I mean literally one more attack would've killed him.

 

I was just using nearby environment geometry as a shield and every time he shot I'd poke my head out and try to get a couple swings in before running back behind the geometry.

 

It was mostly effective until I got overconfident at his low health... ):

 

Also then I immediately died to a lantern guy and didn't get back to my echoes and had to watch that fucking loading screen again so I quit again.

[osmosisch]

I have a spoiler-y question about an item:

I'm trying to get the tonsil stone, but I appear to have missed one way of getting it (killing the vicar, then going to a house in the cathedral district). Does anyone know of an alternate way of getting it, or do I have to wait for NG+?

 

I got mine from the

forbidden forest

in a dialogue

[Cyborg771]

I got mine from the

forbidden forest

in a dialogue

When you get to the second swining trap, the one right outside the village, turn left and go up the hill. There's a house on your left there and you can talk to a guy through the window. He'll give you the tonsil stone.

[JonCole]

I just died to a hunter like that (the NPC hunter in Cathedral Ward, with the rifle spear, I think?). And by died I mean literally one more attack would've killed him.

 

I was just using nearby environment geometry as a shield and every time he shot I'd poke my head out and try to get a couple swings in before running back behind the geometry.

 

It was mostly effective until I got overconfident at his low health... ):

 

Also then I immediately died to a lantern guy and didn't get back to my echoes and had to watch that fucking loading screen again so I quit again.

 

I think it's important to note that last line was an edit.

 

I basically had the same scenario as you, except I died the first time to the electric mace guy, came back and picked up my bloodstain, killed him, and then almost got wrecked by the rifle spear/blunderbuss guy. Also, that guy chases you FOREVER so keep that in mind if you feel like challenging him again.

[melmer]

Top tip!

5. You can break out of grab attacks

Around the time you reach the Forbidden Woods, you'll encounter enemies that grab you and deal a lot of damage while you're unable to move. If you quickly alternate between pressing L2 and R2, you can break out of the grab slightly quicker. Additionally, you'll be in a different state when breaking out of the grab. Without pressing L2 and R2, you'll end up knocked to the ground and it takes seconds to get back up. If you do press L2 and R2, you'll throw the enemy off you and will immediately be able to take action.