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

[eot]

After BSB. I actually managed BSB with very little trouble, mostly because I summoned Alfred. I keep getting wrecked by Amelia, not doing much better in Hemwick Charnel Lane (keep getting to that area with the huge guys with Axes, can't manage to parry those guys to save my life). My Hunter's Axe is +6 and my Hunter's Pistol is +4 and I've dumped pretty heavily into Str/Vit/End.

You can sneak/run past the axe guys, and there's another shortcut there.

For Amelia, I like the running R2 attack with the 2-handed Axe. Quite often you can tag her head when you run straight at her, which I think does more damage. The moves that I think are easiest to deal damage on are the very slow grab that she does and the hand slam shockwave attack (you have to dodge fairly late for that). If you can get behind her that's also a good spot to deal damage, but don't linger because she has a backstep that'll damage you. Don't get too greedy with your hits, do one or two attacks. You take extra damage if you get hit during your attack animation. If you get her to maybe 15-20% you should be able to finish her off with molotovs. Not locking on can also help when you're close to her.

[Twig]

I was pretty stoked when I got that weapon but then realized I'd probably need to make a new character and focus entirely on arcane to use it. Which is something I kind of want to do, but I'm not like a lot of people who play these games. I don't want to rush through the same content over and over. I'll just reach the caps on str/skill and switch over to leveling up arcane.

 

Well or vit. Which is still only 20. But I seem to be doing okay!

 

EDIT: Oh yeah hitting Amelia's head is a pretty good deal. It definitely does a lot of damage and if you manage to stagger her, or catch her offguard after a heavy attack, try to focus on that.

 

FWIW once I was able to kill her the game as a whole became a lot more manageable for me. I think, for me, it was just a matter of getting used to how Souls games work all over again.

[Bjorn]

Yep, it's called the Tonitrus (I couldn't remember the name earlier), and I think it is the most powerful backup weapon in the game for Strength or Arcane builds.  It's an interesting weapon.  In regular form, it's just okay, scales strong from Str, weak from Arcane and has about a 70/30 damage split between Physical/Lightning.  But "transformed", all of its damage changes to Lightning for ~3 seconds and it gains a significant bonus, the bonus is about equal to the extra damage from an R2 charge attack for many weapon.  Strength scaling continues to affect its transformed state, which is why it stays powerful even on a pure Strength build.  It's got terrible durability though, and depending on it through a whole area will degrade it to the point where it starts losing damage. 

 

Off the top of my head all the enemies I can think of that are really strong vs physical damage are ones that you wouldn't have encountered yet.  But even against regular enemies, the Tonitrus will outdamage the axe per hit when its charged (assuming they are both about the same level). 

 

Oh, and I'd save your Twin Shards for it, or another melee weapon, at least until you have a bunch.  Pistol damage is low enough for your build that there isn't a lot of value burning limited resources on it at this point, and leveling it doesn't seem to help staggering at all.  Eventually Twin Shards flow like water though, at which point you might as well level it. 

 

 

I played some last night (couldn't play the rest of the weekend) and just wanted to veg out without trying to hard, so I went back to my original Skill build to mess around in areas I'm already familiar with.  This time when the crow lady had her first fight...

 

I let her die so I could get her weapon and armor. I'm a bad man! I dig her dagger though, it's super fast and hits surprisingly hard once you understand how to use it (dodge attacks and R2/L2 rule). It also seems to have stupid amounts of stagger, like something more comparable to a Strength weapon, whereas the Cane has shit for stagger.

[Griddlelol]

I beat Eileen's questline last night on NG+ (I faced her before not her prey). 

 

That was a tough fight that I refused to cheese. Took me far more tries than any boss, and I had to farm for bullets twice. Funnily enough, once I used my trick weapon in both forms, I gained the upper hand. Using the Great Sword Mode twice, to get two hits after the hunter attacks, then using L1 to do another horizontal swing and pull out my gun for a quick stun to make sure the hunter can't retaliate (and got some visceral attacks from that strategy too).

The hardest part was knowing when the hunter was going to swipe with his sword, or shoot, as the gun does bucket loads of damage, and can set you up for a visceral. 

Love the hunter fights. They're the best part of the game.

[N1njaSquirrel]

So I'm pretty certain I'm getting to the end of the game. I only have one area left to explore. I also know there's multiple endings and stuff. Would someone mind telling me in a non-spoilery way how to get the best ending? Or when I should back up my save so I can see all 4 endings?

[Griddlelol]

So I'm pretty certain I'm getting to the end of the game. I only have one area left to explore. I also know there's multiple endings and stuff. Would someone mind telling me in a non-spoilery way how to get the best ending? Or when I should back up my save so I can see all 4 endings?

 

I thought there were only 3 endings...I want to see the 4th!

 

Non-spoilery way:

 

Eat the umbilical chords. Fight for your life.

 

Spoilery

The umbilical chords can be found in the abandoned workshop (beneath the upper cathedral), Adrianna and from killing the Wet Nurse. You must have sent Adrianna to the cathedral (before killing Rom, after killing 3 bosses at least), and not let her die. Killing the Wet Nurse nets you one from the boss, and also one from Adrianna if you find her. I'm pretty sure you can send her to the clinic and you'll find it on her dead body, not tried that way though. I believe you can also get a 4th part from Iofska, but I don't know how, and you only need three anyway.

 

So how do you do the save back-up? I don't really want to do a 3rd play through right now, but it doesn't seem like you can just duplicate the save file in game. Is there another way to do it?

 

I need to find a place to farm Chalice dungeon reagents. Bad. I never have any.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Ok sweet. I haven't found any umbilical chords yet. 

 

I could be completely wrong about 4 endings.

 

As for Chalice dungeon reagents, I have found most of them in higher level dungeons. I hope that helps.

[Griddlelol]

Unfortunately I'm stuck at level 2 dungeons which are tedious as hell. I just steam roll through them because I'm level 12X. Also I despise that they're so dark. I wouldn't even be in them if there wasn't 2 achievements linked to them.

 

I'll probably progress to the last boss then finish them up, hopefully I'll find some mats in the main story.

[N1njaSquirrel]

what are the 2 dungeon achivements? I completely agree, they are tedious. And whilst at first they sound like a neat idea, when you've seen the basic rooms 5 or 6 times, it gets a tad weary. (Although saying that, the last dungeon level I was in had a huge open area that I'd never seen before which was pretty nifty)

[Griddlelol]

There are actually 3- 

 

Kill the final dungeon boss, collect all hunter weapons and get a blood gem level 15. 

[N1njaSquirrel]

Oh man that sounds like a slog.

 

Do you lose your chalices when you get to NG+?

[Griddlelol]

Nope, they're the same, and become mind-numbingly boring because they don't scale with NG+ difficulty.

[Bjorn]

I enjoyed going through the dungeons once, but needing to repeat them (for mats or to get and get certain items) isn't as much fun.  I kind of wish they hadn't have been designed to be repeatedly played, but had just been another optional area to explore.

 

 

I think I am also at the very end, it certainly feels that way.  I'm close to the top of the tower in the Nightmare of Mensis.  I decided to back off and go finish the few other things I hadn't done, like exploring the Upper Cathedral Ward and killing the crow lady's final target.  Which I finally got done after he murdered me a bunch last week!  I upgraded my cannon to +8 and shot him four times with ash powered shots.  Eat cannon ball, fucker.  The Upper Cathedral Ward was infuriating. 

 

My biggest problem with the brain sucking enemies was how they would end up spamming their spell that traps you, which made them completely uninteresting to fight, because there was no strategy. It was hide behind a pillar until they got bored and turned around.

The first boss was a pleasant surprise! I had thought the blue aliens were all creations of the false Ioesfka, so finding a whole garden of them was neat. Ultimately that boss and the next one seemed pretty straight forward. I wish I understood more of what was going on with them.

[N1njaSquirrel]

I am in the exact same place Bjorn! I did those things too!

 

I agree, the upper cathedral ward was really infuriating. I also finished Cainhurst, which was a super neat area. The boss fight was super tense as I had run out of blood vials, so the finishing blows were crazy tense.

 

I also got my first covenant! Does anyone else know what wearing the crown opens up for you?

 

So where/who is this crow lady? I really hope I haven't missed her! I assumed I just haven't met her yet, but if Bjorn is doing her stuff, it means I must have missed something.

[Bjorn]

So where/who is this crow lady? I really hope I haven't missed her! I assumed I just haven't met her yet, but if Bjorn is doing her stuff, it means I must have missed something.

 

The crow lady is a recurring NPC, she shows up at least 4 times.

 

1. In Central Yarnham, there's a slightly hidden balcony off the rafters of the big room that opens up into the rats. 

2. In the Cathedral Ward, after all (or maybe one in particular) the big gates have been opened, she's to the left of front door of the room with your lamp and survivors.

3. After that, she's dueling a crazed hunter in the same place you fought Father Gascogne, you can help her or let her die.

4. Assuming she's alive, after killing Rom she shows up at the Grand Cathedral, and the interaction is different whether you have previously encountered her or not.  So even if you never saw her, she should be there.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Oh her. I was wondering where she went! I met her the first time. I guess I know what I'm doing tonight. 

[Griddlelol]

Her armour is also the coolest in the game. It's not bad either.

[N1njaSquirrel]

Do you get it for finishing her questline?

 

Also, The bone ash armour is my personal favourite. Especially the mask:

 

 

[Bjorn]

The Bone Ash is just soooooo....gothy?  Grim Reapery?  It's a bit to heavy for me.  The Crowfeather armor is where it's at though.  The physics of the feather cape are super neat.  And yes, for finishing her quest, you get a badge giving you the ability to buy all her stuff.

 

 

Oh yeah, I also did a bunch of PvP last night, since I kept getting invaded going up the tower.  I think I fought 6 people, won 3 and lost 3.  I don't find it to be as interesting as PvP in the Souls games.  It was fun, but it doesn't feel like something I'm going to build a character for.  I like the slower paced PvP in the older games. 

[eot]

So how do you do the save back-up? I don't really want to do a 3rd play through right now, but it doesn't seem like you can just duplicate the save file in game. Is there another way to do it?

Plug in a USB stick, go into settings (for the PS4) and there's an option to manage save data.

[JonCole]

Is it possible to see crow lady if you missed her first appearance? I just heard about her a couple days ago after missing her completely the first go-round and when I went there to check for her she was gone.

 

I played a fair bit yesterday after having taken a break for a few days, totally missed that area right by the Cathedral Ward lamp that opens up after you do the spoiler thing. Long story short, my weapons are much better blood gemmed out, I've got a +3 Ludwig's Holy Blade that I'm tooling around with, switched to half of a Tomb Prospector's set, and I put a handful of points into Vit so hopefully I'm a little more hardy to the extent that it might let me eke through some of these boss fights. Also, I practiced parrying against the big axe Executioner-type dude in Central Yharnam a few times and think I've got it.

 

Instead of fighting Amelia some more and frustrating myself at a greater rate, I think I'll go through Hemwick once more from Cathedral Ward to farm some more blood echoes/blood shards for my Holy Blade/look for missed items and eventually take out the Witch. My poor attempts at handling the Chalice Dungeon has destroyed my Antidote stash, so any extra echoes to restock would be great.

 

Plug in a USB stick, go into settings (for the PS4) and there's an option to manage save data.

 

This is definitely possible, or if you have PS+ you can always back up a single save file to the cloud and upload it/download it at will. Kinda like a save state.

[Bjorn]

Is it possible to see crow lady if you missed her first appearance? I just heard about her a couple days ago after missing her completely the first go-round and when I went there to check for her she was gone.

 

As far as I know, she will always show up in her next location, even if you missed her previously.  So if you've opened the big gates in the Cathedral Ward, check  outside that front door.  If she's not there, then head for the Gascogne fight.  You can tell when she's moved to the Gascogne arena by the lamp as well, it gets turned off and you can't fast travel there.  

 

Hemwich is a good direction to head as well, there are some Twin Shards there that will let you upgrade to +4 or +5. 

[Korax]

This is definitely possible, or if you have PS+ you can always back up a single save file to the cloud and upload it/download it at will. Kinda like a save state.

 

Dunno if it works the same way for PS4, but on PS3 and Vita you can only access a cloud save once every 24 hours, so doing it that way might take a while. USB stick was how I did it.

[Bjorn]

Browsing reddit, I just learned that equipping the Hand Lantern

by ~20 percent.  I used it a bunch early on, but have spaced off using it later.  So if you've been using it, you might think about switching it off for harder fights. 

 

Also, since we're talking about Crow lady this gif is amazing:

 

 

 

Source

 

 

Also, also, the loading time patch is closer to being done, hopefully by the end of the month.

[Twig]

Browsing reddit, I just learned that equipping the Hand Lantern

by ~20 percent.

Haha whaaaaaaaaaat. I turn it on all the time because I think it looks kinda cool. Welp.