So apparently only 51.3% of players have beaten the witches of hemwick.

Hemwick has the following enemies:

Hags -> With a fiery poker, a massive hammer, an assassin's knife, and/or firebombs these are all a threat. They seem to be the class cannon type of enemy, to the point where I could 2 shot them? But they do massive amounts of damage, taking out 1/3 to 1/2 of your health with a single hit. And Jack was at level 36 with 20 VIT losing 1/3 of his health.

Hunters -> Only in the area before the lantern, these with their dogs are a HUGE threat due to the fact that the area has like 10 of them around a big open forested area.

Dogs -> Throughout hemwick, these guys are very very dangerous and usually they come in packs. There is one particular pack guarding a lake rune later on in the level that is 5 dogs backed up by a molotov throwing lady. They can VERY RARELY drop twin shards.

Big Guys -> same as always, you need to learn to parry them

Executioner's -> You REALLY need to learn to parry them. Same as the one in yharnum, although my parries had gained enough damage to be 1 riposte lethal now.

Mad Ones -> Only appear if you have 15 insight throughout the area through portals at least 1 insight in the boss encounter. These guys are tankier than the witches by far and melee oriented. Do A LOT of damage and are probably a very tough enemy for most players.

^^ Hemwick, starting at the lantern, comes out near some witches. You then go up near a locked gate and around the first part, which has A LOT of hag enemies, to unlock an elevator shortcut past this first little part. Then you can follow the level even further past more hag enemies and dogs, exiting the barns near the executioners and the other side of that locked gate from earlier (opened with a lever by it). Basically, the level is one giant circle. When you reach the executioners you can go straight to fight A LOT of dogs and a hag in order to reach the moon rune, while to the left is the path to the boss.

The Boss is Formally known as

The Witches of Hemwick:

These eye colored crones start out very passive. In fact...... you may mistake the single mad one in the center of the room for the boss. Like....... that was so easy oh wait why isn't the health bar going down?

The witches are invisible, and there are two of them. In the first part of the fight you basically stumble upon them (methodically searching of course) and try to damage them before they warp away. Once you have done enough combined damage to both of them, more mad ones will start to appear more often and it will get a lot more stressful. Once the first witch has DIED, the 2nd (it may also be a ton of combined damage) will start to use stunning attacks and actually fight you. It's basically a brainsucker but it would rather have your eyes than your brains, so your insight is safe. And.... they can actually do that kind of loop to so beware and try to come from above if you know where the boss is.


Once the boss has been beaten, you can light the lantern and then visit the room past it to get the rune workshop tool. This will let you equip the runes you have been picking up everywhere. 3 of your choice + a covenant rune.



^^ It's a good point in time to mention that this is a good time to do the first layer of the first chalice dungeon. I won't spoil it, but it's going to be too easy if you wait until later. The second layer is still a bit beyond Jack though.


Finally, this is about the point in time we can do Henryk. If you go through the front door of the chapel, Eileen is immediately to the left. Exhaust her dialogue and then go back to where Father Gascoigne was. Henryk is here, and you and Eileen need to work together to kill him BE WARNED. He can easily kill her 1 v 1 (and you), and this is a tough foe you'll need to fight together. Don't let him kill her and you'll be fine . Assuming he never kills her, you can run down here as many times as you want to attempt it from the nearby lantern in the chapel. Also a note, Eileen may or may not show up on the first attempt. Um... if she doesn't then you gonna die.

I really appreciate the time and effort that goes into your field reports, Jack. Until Sony relents and decides to port Bloodborne to PC, I'll have to experience it vicarously through you (well, you and Miracle of Sound's song).

On a "world last kill achievement" front, I finally managed to land that jump against Bed of Chaos. Time to handle the Archives.

Good news. There is not a main game boss left you can't beat with Great Combustion and Havel's. ..... Man the end game drops off on NG.


If you want to actually experience most of what Bloodborne has to offer, I would recommend watching this series on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyfeBHA ... 8sQ3VrOnnP

^^ Absolute best you are going to get without playing it.


I don't think I'm going to be able to keep up the level of detail of the first posts. It takes 4 times as long as just playing the game. I'll probably keep up this middling level I've got going on though.

^^ Also I'm sorry but it's like Demon's Souls. They probably aren't going to port it. ....... Especially since a lot of people bought their bloodborne machine just to play it. Very few exclusives can say that.

On a side note, I am going to farm 2 twin shards because how bad can that possibly be in an area where I two shot everything?

So um..... I beat Yahargul as well. Died 5 times in the area and then beat the boss in one try. Figures. <- The boss drops another badge, and since I forget what they all do once my store is this massive, here is the list of things you can buy pre-Amelia (assuming you have all badges). Keep in mind that I have done the first layer of the first chalice dungeon, but none of the rest of it, and that DOES unlock at least one or two things as well. But if you can do Yahargul you can do that.

Right Hand Weapons:
- Saw Cleaver - 1K
- Saw Spear - 1K
- Hunter Axe - 1.1K
- Threaded Cane - 1.2K
- Kirkhammer - 3K
- Ludwig's Holy Blade - 20K
- Rifle Spear - 4K
- Stake Driver - 8K
- Tonitrus - 26K

^^ You will not find Ludwig's Holy Blade or the Stake Driver in the environment. You also won't find the 2 starting weapons you didn't pick or the kirkhammer. They must be bought here.

Left Hand Weapons:
- Hunter Pistol - 1.6K
- Hunter Blunderbuss - 1.7K
- Repeating Pistol - 3K
- Ludwig's Rifle - 10K
- Flamesprayer - 8K
- Hunter's Torch - 2K

Various equipment sets. Off the top of my head you've got the one the shop starts with and somewhere in a chalice dungeon you'll unlock the tomb prospectors set (which costs A LOT).

You won't find the other starting weapon or Ludwig's Rifle in the environment. They must be bought here.


Materials:
You can buy blood stone shards at some point? for 2K. I think this might be DarkBeast Paarl's badge but I do not guarantee that. You can also buy Ritual Blood for 2.5K.

Consumables:
Blood Vials
Quicksilver Bullets
Antidotes
Molotov Cocktails
Rope Molotvovs
Oil Urns
Blood Cocktails
Throwing Knives
Pebbles
Fire Paper
Bolt Paper
Bone Marrow Ash
Bold Hunter's Marks
Shining Coins
Hand Lantern

^^ Lots of useful stuff there. Off the top of my head, the only thing I NEED that isn't there is sedatives.


On a more personal note, I have a saw cleaver +6, a hunter pistol +4, and still using the hunter set from Yharnum. The exceptions to that have been boss specific swap outs that didn't apply that much to the areas before them, such as Gascoigne's for Blood Starved Beast and Henryk's for Paarl.


Now let's see if I can come up with something for Paarl's badge other than Tonitrus (an electric weapon) and Bolt Paper.

...... Huh. That's actually it. Okay? Well..... poo. I guess I did know.


Well, there are 5 badges I am missing. One is from the upper cathedral ward and mostly off limits for now. One is for beating the final boss. And the other 3 are covenant related. Oh boy oh boy.

So I got to 7 twin shards and then said **** it I'm going to the Hypogean Goal. .... Well that was a really good and really bad decision.

Let us say this area looks like this from the lantern:
        DBP

                      T
         L
               B
         K


                B

                OR     


Let the DBP be where Darkbeat Paarl is, let L be the Lantern, let B be the two Boars, and let K be the exit outside near the two kidnappers. Let T be where the Tonitrus is. Basically...... you get to the lantern and two kidnappers are guarding the way outside. Going right as soon as you go outside leads down to two dogs and eventually leads back inside to a room between the lantern and the boss. Going outside and down (killing the boar on the way) leads to the entrance to a later boss fight that is currently blocked. In front of it though you can obtain an armor set from a coach driver's seat and some madman's knowledge from people kneeling down (and a dew nearby).

If you go left when you come outside and immediately circle around you can go down where there is a crawling madness AND a shortcut back inside that you MUST OPEN NOW. DO IT. <- This lets you skip one of the hardest encounters in the pale blood moon version of this level and is a godsend if you do it now.

And heading towards the top of the level from the outside you'll encounter a boar, A LOT OF DOGS, and at the very end a kidnapper guarding the tonitrus body.

Going down the stairs and inside (note that one of the two kidnappers in this big room near the lantern might actually spawn next to you or on the stairs when you warp in or die and warp in) the first door (not down to where you originally arrived here) will lead you to a room with two hags. You'll then get to fight some "dead bodies" that are really just faking and then two kidnappers. The real secret to this room? There's nothing important in it and you can just run past to the boss. The kidnappers won't follow you down the drop and anything that does is easily dispatched. This leads to the boss, DARKBEAST PAARL.


Um...... Darkbeast Paarl is the cleric beast except it does Bolt Damage and can gain a lightning aura via self buff when you get rid of about 2/5 of its health. <- This will make it do more damage. The best part of this fight is that it's actually possible to knock this boss over if you do enough damage to it fast enough . The really nice part of this fight? This boss is not as hard as the kidnappers. I mean.... sure it has more health? But what does that really matter? You can stun it occassionally AND it does less damage in one hit (although still a lot for people who aren't like Jack with his 26 VIT at the time). And um....... no seriously. This is like the other beast fights you've done so far. This one just does electric damage.





Enemies in this area are limited to the same dogs from hemwick, the kidnappers, these hags that try to grab you and scoop out your eyes for a ton of damage but otherwise can still be two shot like those in hemwick, the two boars on the main street, and some standard beast yharnumites playing dead in a couple of locations. The only thing that's really new or hard here are the 6 kidnappers you can encounter throughout the level.

5 Things I Think are Wrong with Bloodborne so far

1) Arcane

I take back my first impressions. This is the new Attunement. If you aren't playing a dedicated character then any return at all from this requires a crapton of investment that could be better spent elsewhere.

Unlike Attunement, there isn't really a dedicated build here. .... There just isn't. There's only 4 offensive spells in the game which, according to the community, all really really suck compared to investing in a different damage stat. And the weapons you have available? They also suck and can't be gotten early.


2) Endurance

In the first 3 games, this stat did multiple things. And you needed it. I started out this game thinking I was going to wait a bit....... <- If arcane is the new attunement then this is the new resistance. It does ONE THING and one thing only. What that equates to is that stamina now only matters at 10 point intervals and even then it kind of isn't needed that much. So you have to pay about 6 points into the stat to achieve an effect where you will barely notice because you aren't running out that much less often anyways.

Basically, it comes down to this formula. Enough stamina = 1 extra swing. Enough STR = enough damage that your first 4 swings make up for that extra swing you didn't get, while also killing certain things just plain faster

Which would you choose?


3) Kidnappers

Hyper Armor and 2 shot you at a stupidly high amount of health for the point in the game where they are located. So....... stupidly high damage outranking that of the area boss and can't really be stunned. Also have such low windows for parrying that I can't do it reliably. And take a decent number of swings with a +6 weapon to take down, meaning that it usually takes 3 rotations to kill one if you don't parry. Heck, they can survive a parry from a level 48 person.

These guys. These guys are just stupidly buff for the part of the game in which you encounter them, even outside of Yahargul.

4) Brainsuckers

Just going to say........ anything that can stunlock you at range and steal an irreplaceable resource you can't get back from it, in my opinion, in a souls game, is annoying.

5) How runes are handeld.

^^ I mean come on? You get tons of them before you ever get to equip them and you never get to equip them unless you go to that optional area which people DO MISS.

^^ The above will be discussed in more detail, but let me say just one thing.

.... This game doesn't level gate appropriately. If you do everything before Amelia other than Yahargul, then you can do that. That's good. But Hemwick is too easy if you save that for 2nd last. And if you do EVERYTHING before Amelia, well then......

So I went in level 49. 29/10/22/21/9/8. 222 WPN Attack on the saw cleaver. 1066 Health, 91 stamina

I was able to just walk up to the boss and smack it to death, using regain to live through all of that. Because I am overleveled. BUT I am only overleveled because all of the areas before this one were what I did first, and I couldn't possibly get to everything at an appropriate level. The chalice dungeons extend this 10 fold, as I am probably going to be overleveled for several of them by the time I can do them OR I will be overleveled for the main story.


For anyone who wants to know my order, my remaining game order is Forbidden Woods -> Nightmare Lecture Hall 1F -> Nightmare Frontier -> Iosefka's -> Cairnhurst -> Byrgenworth -> Yahargul (pale moon) -> Forbidden Lecture Hall 2F -> Nightmare of Mensis

^^ I will do the Upper Cathedral Ward and its 2 bosses as early as I can there, but I don't remember where you get the key for that.

On a different note, let me say EXACTLY when the time changes occur.

Enter Oedon Chapel
Touch the Skull Amelia was Praying to
Talk to the Bloody Queen after beating Rom

^^ This is the 3 times when time changes. A lot of areas get harder after each change, so that is why I'm trying to do everything before Amelia and Byrgenworth respectively. But a key note here is that the boss's death doesn't trigger it, THE CUTSCENE AFTER DOES. So if you beat the boss you still have one last chance to warp back and spend blood echoes.

And you would do this because shop prices go up as the night progresses.

Edit:

In addition, I think I have beaten everything in the "Awaken Above Ground" gravestone.

1st Floor Sickroom
Central Yharnum
Great Bridge
Tomb of Oedon
Cathedral Ward
Grand Cathedral
Old Yharnum
Church of the Good Chalice
Graveyard of the Darkbeast

Follow the yell brick road. Follow the yellow brick road. Follow follow follow follow follow the yellow brick road.

Man the Forbidden Woods is a maze.

So if you are wondering where the fire doggy is, it's at the bottom of the first chalice.

^^ The first chalice dungeon rewards you with its root chalice for beating its second boss and rewards you with the central pthumerian chalice for beating its third boss. While it's not strictly necessary to explore this place, doing so will provide you with the six ritual blood (2) needed to perform the next ritual.

On a side note, Bloodborne will sometimes give two different things the same name and then add an (X) next to it (basically almost every non-weapon non-armor item). The higher the X, the better it is and the rarer. So you need ritual blood (1) from Old Yharnum to get into the first chalice dungeon, ritual blood(2) from the first dungeon to get into the 2nd, and tomb mold from various places as well as ritual blood (1) to open root chalices for the first dungeon.

Anywho, what is this dungeon like? Well be prepared for poison and bell witches, as well as kidnappers and various other hard enemies. On the 3rd layer we get the addition of two bugs similar to the one you find in Byrgenworth, which are VERY dangerous compared to everything else here that isn't a boss.

That all being said, I did the first layer pre Hemwick and the last two pre Forbidden Woods, and I died ONCE to the third boss of this dungeon. And I felt everything was just about fair and just the right difficulty. So I would recommend actually trying it like that.

Layer 1 Boss is a Tomb Giant. In terms of difficulty, he is about as difficult to fight as the ball and chain giant from Cathedral Ward but with a lot more health.

Layer 2 Boss is 2 tomb watchers and a watcher chieftain. Um....... 1200 HP for the two watchers and 900 for the chieftain means I just chunked them down while running around the room and healing. This boss fight was way too easy at level 49, but then again they almost killed me a couple times so......

Layer 3 Boss is the Fire Version of Darkbeast Paarl. Like...... similar attacks (although slightly different patterns), similar self buff mid fight (I miss the poison guy; his buff was actually for something other than more damage per hit), and so on. The huge difference here is that he also has ranged attacks through fire breathing and he has a fire breathing attack that can put a large pool of lava on the ground. So .... be prepared for that.

And now that we have done all that...... we are off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz. Because beause because because because of the wonderful things he does. ..... I am going to hate the forbidden woods by the time I get through them. Taking a break first though.

Because it's actually useful information, here is what the guide recommends for each area:

Central Yharnum: Level 25-35; Weapon +3
Cathedral Ward: Level 20-30; Weapon +3 (how does that work?)
Old Yharnum: Level 25-35; Weapon +3
Hemwick: 30 - 40; +3
Yahargul (Evening): 35-45; +4
Forbidden Woods: 40-50; +6

So if you've been following this, I'm level 49 going into the woods and I do and yet don't feel prepared for it? At the same time I pwned Hemwick at level 36 and completely owned Amelia at level 49, so the guide may be somewhat right here.

The Forbidden Woods is MASSIVE. And I mean that with as much emphasis as I can. I did as much as I could find in this area, and I still could not grab the cannon and graverobber's mask. And... it's not because I died. I didn't die a single time in the entire area except for the one kidnapper incident (although I had A LOT of close calls). I simply couldn't find the things because the area is so **** big and confusing and I didn't want to use the guide book to solve that particular issue. And um..... I accidetnally walked into the boss arena before finding what I was looking for.

If you want to actually keep track of where you have been here, I would recommend dropping shining coins on your path to distinguish such locations.


Anywho, what enemies do we face? Well..... there's definitely a lot of yharnumites and lycans. So expect those. And dogs. You love dogs right? And the kidnapper. Such a lovely chap. He even decided to give me a nice foot to face discount massage at one point. The NEW enemies in this area are all poison related. You have these snake bunches that can poison you but don't have much going for them outside of melee range. You have the snake parasites, which are highly dangerous enemies who have several snakes for a head. Um...... avoid their grabbing attack.

And then you have the massive snake bunches with a ranged poison attack. Such lovely chaps, they have the same trouble attacking behind them as boars do. Speaking of which two boars and some celestial children show up. The boards you have already seen but the celestial children are new. They are either really weak melee fighters OR spam ranged magic attacks. The magic ones have tentacles (you will know what I mean when you see it).


^^ All in all I felt like Indiana Jones going through the second half of here, and I did not like it. Not one bit. Especially since I got lost soooooooo many times. Thank heavens for ragdoll physics marking your path as well.


The Shadows of Yharnum
This is a 3 enemy boss which I really didn't want to fight the first time through the area. However, I got lost and accidentally wandered in so..... a battle happened. And I won.

Phase 1:
There is a melee character here, a character with a candle and a sword, and a character throwing ranged fire.

The main strategy of this fight is to COMPLETELY focus on one person and kill them all the way before moving onto the next person. This is because when about 150 damage under 1/3 of their combined health (basically one more hit on the almost dead guy) phase 2 will start, and when only 1/3 of their combined health is left phase 3 will start. Phase 3 is almost impossible with 2 people attacking you, so I would go with the strategy of only having one of them in the arena.

In phase 1, the sword guy will try to get in your face, while the canlde guy will try to do a flamethrower kind of thing and the magic guy will throw 3 curving fireballs. Use the headstone to break up lines of sight and try to burst down one of them.

The melee guy is the easiest to get rid of here, and he is the second most desirable to do so. The most desirable is the candle guy because he is harder in phase 2, but it's kind of hard to kill him without hurting melee guy too much. Fire guy, actually, should be left alive.

Phase 2: Both guys with swords get a buffed sword that can now extend about 10 feet during a slice whenever they so choose. The fire guy...... he keeps throwing fireballs? I didn't notice anything else. And they all now have snakes coming out of their heads. In this phase of the fight, it's recommended you focus down whichever melee person is still alive if you can, since A) they will be the person coming to you and B) they will be a bigger threat in phase 3.

Phase 3: Whoever is left will try to summon giant snakes that can easily one shot most people. Um...... you know how to prevent that? If you are attacking the person they won't do it. <- So if you are in magic guy's face the entire phase 3 than it's a really easy phase while if you let him get away from you OR you are facing one of the two melee guys then it is quite more difficult.




After beating them, you'll have a lantern. And this lantern will be where you warp to when you want to do Byrgenworth. But before that, it's a good idea (imo) to do Castle Cainhurst and the Nightmare Frontier, both of which can be accessed before the paleblood moon Byrgenworth will trigger.

You can't prevent her family from leaving after the snake incident, but you can give them a good reason to stay when they come back for the grand ball.

The first of a few posts today, let's do this .

Near the kennels near the village in Forbidden Woods you can follow a path back and to the left to a poison cave. This cave is inhabited by leeches and Giants, but the main point of this area is to run through it and to grab the ladder leading up to Central Yharnum. A) Open the gate here to go back to the sickroom lantern (first lantern ever in the game) so you have that shortcut and don't ever have to go back through the poison cave again. B) Watch out for the Bloodsucker down the other path, so it doesn't steal some of your insight.

It's also worth noting that talking to the npc in the house near the kennels will get you the tonsil stone if you don't already have it. You NEED this item to access an area later if you want to access it before the paleblood moon, so it is highly recommend that you grab this item on your way past the kennels.

Heading down the path and defeating the bloodsucker, you'll be able to climb up a ladder to the roof of the clinic, and here you can fight past some crows to enter the clinic proper. You'll know you are here because the name will flash. Heading to the right first, kill Iosefka and take the Iosefka's Blood Vial she drops. Um.... you'll know it's Iosefka because of the Blood Vial. Similarly, there will be an enemy here for everyone you've sent to the clinic. Down this path you'll also be able to exit down to the sickroom lantern and you'll find the Cainhurst Summons on the table where you started the game. Eerily, it's specifically addressed to the player, telling them to come to the forbidden castle.

Heading down the opposite path and heading straight at the fork will lead you to a room with a communion rune in a chest, while heading right at the fork and opening the door will bring you to the operating room. Um...... when Fake Iosefka starts talking, stop and listen and then leave. Don't go up the stairs. Fighting her now means you will A) have a very tough fight and B) miss out on a third of umbilical cord later. You want to come back and get that because it's one of the easiest ways to get one, and you need 3 of the 4 to access the true final boss.

So some lore. You can tell she has been "saving" npcs by turning them into these...... things. Ick. But she truly believes that the next stage in human evolution involves this kind of transformation, and Fake Iosefka is basically this mad scientist sort of character one should be wary of. You can also tell from the presence of these things in the forbidden woods that the students of Byrgenworth might have had the same view at some point.



You can go to the giant monolith next to the two exeutioner's in Hemwick Charnel Lane, while holding the summons you get from the clinic, to have the coach to Cainhurst Castle appear in a cutscene. Using the action prompt to get in will spawn a second scene taking you to the castle and..... how did we get here? That coach behind us is obviously in disrepair and the horses have obviously been dead forever. Not to mention the bridge is out. Let's head in shall we? ..... And the gate opens by itself. Oooh a lantern. Let us handle this area later (we will handle it after Byrgenworth proper).


It it at this point in time that I recommend handling Byrgenworth proper, unlocking all the shortcuts and all the loot except for the boss, and then coming back for the boss later. There are 4 enemies here, and I will describe them now:

1) Bloodsucker: Near the Tree at the beginning; likes to spam the stun thing a lot more than some other ones we have seen. Between this and the one at Iosefka's, I've begun to realize how good molotovs and bone marrow ash are on these guys (takes 3 items at my current +6 pistol to kill one).

2) Garden of Eyes: These are the Dozens of Eyes bug things that you will see walking around, and they are the reason i am experimenting a bit with raising my stamina. You need a good six hit combo at our current level to take them out, but after the 3rd or 4th hit they will be stunned. They have some melee attacks that are a threat here, but the true threat here is that their grab attack can inflict frenzy. And um..... we don't have sedatives to deal with that yet. It's only really a threat if you get grabbed twice, but you'll lose like 700 - 800 health easy if your frenzy build up hits the top. On top of that, frenzy buildup takes forever to go down so it's possible to walk around for a minute and get frenzied by a completely separate enemy group. Watch out for these guys, as they will usually come from a location designed to surprise and ambush you as well.

3) Giant stick Bug Thing: If you have guns, then the eye on its tail shooting the massive fireballs is a good weak point to shoot with some bone marrow ash. If not..... well this guy can't hit you if you are to its side further down where it trying to turn around will also push you a bit. You can then spend a long time smacking it to death from there from relative safety. The small flaw in this plan is the one bug enemy in this area.

4) The Hunter inside the main building. I recommend opening both sets of doors before going up the stairs, which will trigger the battle. You can then run in and out of the bulding (assuming all enemies outside are dead) and it's really easy to use hit and run tactics as the guy (girl?) is going through the doorways since they can't really dodge out of the way or break out of a combo. This one also takes a lot of hits, so play it safe and use said hit and run tactics. It has the 40 Arcane magic spell that can one shot a lot of people, and if you stand in its line of sight too long it will use it.

It's also worth noting that this area is very small and just one circle, where before entering the building you can open the gate back to the lantern.


Once inside the building, you can get a rare chalice material from the chest on the first floor, the student uniform attire (good arcane defense) from the second floor chest, the lunarium key leading outside on the 2nd floor from a table on the 3rd floor, and the empty phantasm shell hunter tool (spell tool) at the very top floor guarded by a single garden of eyes enemy. In a chest. 3 chests in this building lol.


Going outside on the second floor with the lunarium key, we see Wilem. THE WILEM. Oh I am such a fan. .... Kill him for the rune he drops. Anyways, if you talk to him he will point to the edge of this platform. And..... that's his only other purpose other than dropping that rune. In the entire game. That's it. Um...... this is the point in the game where most people have to consult a guide to figure this out. Fromsoft did a very bad job directing the player on where to go in some parts of this game. But um..... you can jump off the tower here into the moon's reflection in the water to start a boss fight. I don't recommend doing so however, since it moves time forward and we don't want the shop's time to move forward before we do the other two areas available to us (one is Cainhurst and one is the area we get to with the Tonsil Stone).

For the next post, I'll describe Cainhurst after I've done it and maybe the Nightmare Frontier (how to get there). The levels recommended for those two areas are 45-55 and 50-60 respectively, with it being recommended that you do Cainhurst first.

So, having gone through at least the first half of the game, here are my impressions on each boss.

Cleric Beast (Optional):
Ye old Vanilla Beast. For most players, this will be the first boss they encounter in the game, due to path of least resistance. You can also tell that for most players, they are intended to die here and then start leveling up. For a first boss, it is a good introduction into the game but it's a little too hard? It has a wee bit too much health and is a wee bit too fast in its final phase, meaning that I died more times on this thing than any boss after it (except for the Blood Starved Beast).

Father Gascoigne (Mandatory): Lore-wise, he is amazing. All the buildup, which the player can completely miss but still we will give them credit for it, up to this boss followed by the phase 3 transformation makes this probably THE best boss so far lorewise. The problem with this guy is that for the first mandatory boss, he has the same problem as the cleric beast. He is a bit too hard? 1/4 of players don't really make it far past this point in the game, and this noob killer is one of the reasons. He is designed to teach you that boss battles will NOT let you turtle up and still win, but what actually ends up happening is that he is probably the hardest boss you will face pre-Amelia. The actual mechanics of the fight are really cool, but I think he would have been better later in the game as opposed to Fight #1 or #2.

Blood Starved Beast (technically Optional but usually Mandatory): This boss is slightly disappointing because of the re-skin, but the mechanics at work here are so good that this is probably one of my favorite bosses in the game. And as opposed to the first 2, he is the perfect level of difficulty for when and where you face him, making it also one of the best designed fights in the game. It rewards you for paying attention and making the right moves while also not being the overly unfair punishing **** that the first two bosses were.

The Witches of Hemwick (technically Optional but usually Mandatory but easily missable): I don't like how runes were done in general, since the only reason this area is not easy to miss is that you are going to have to explore looking for the Forbidden Woods regardless. And .... you get about 6 runes easily before you can equip any of them. To top it off the boss you fight to unlock it was basically two bloodsuckers and a few mad ones. Overall I don't really like this fight mechanic-wise. Lorewise? It's a neat boss but I don't think it contributes anything major so that doesn't really redeem it either.

DarkBeast Paarl (completely optional): Like the bloodstarved beast, this boss was the perfect difficulty for when you could face him. The mechanics in the fight are also superb and really well done. There are just two problems here. 1) He is the 3rd or more likely 4th reskin of this same boss you are going to see in the main game. 2) He is too easy compared to his area. It is sooooo disappointing to finish exlporing Yahargul (Evening); with all the ambiance, really great music, and challenge provided; only to walk into this boss fight and go "wait this is the boss?"

Vicar Amelia (Mandatory): The classic conundrum. If you beat her when it's a good time to fight her then the areas you could have done before her will be harder. But if you do those areas you'll level too far past her and the fight will be stupidly easy. She is also a reskin and unlike Paarl her mechanic (self-healing) isn't even interesting so much as slightly annoying. ... Maybe.

Shadows of Yharnum (Mandatory): This boss is either really really easy or really really hard, and neither fight is that satisfying for me. Either you know how to do the fight and you are properly leveled to be able to do it without much issue, or you are missing one of those two things and the boss is just going to feel as cheap as ****. But it does get props for being a unique (at least in the main game) boss in how it works and the fact that you are forced to split your attention in a way that no other boss forces, so I still kind of like it.


While I COULD do the other bosses now, I'm going to wait until I've beaten them because I know I would have given Amelia a different review before actually facing her. The same with the Shadows.

So far, putting 3 points into stamina gets you 1 extra transformed attack with the saw cleaver.

I am bloodstone chunk farming, and boy can I tell you it is not fun? A semi-thorough search of Castle Cainhurst gives you 6 Blood Stone Chunks. Now...... you need 16 to get a weapon from +6 to +9. Where do the other 10 come from? Why from Vampires or Werewolves of course. You see, Blood Chunks have a 1.5% drop rate base from Lost Children of Antiquity and 4% from certain Scourge Beasts. The issue with farming from scourge beasts is that they are in highly dangerous areas and only appear after we beat Byrgenworth. While the Lost Children of Antiquity are the gargoyle like enemies in Castle Cainhurst. Taking a simple route from the lamp through the front door to the 1st shortcut, you will encounter 6 of these little guys. This is why we beat Byrgenworth (mostly) first. Because Wilem drops the eye rune, which increases our item discvoery from 100 to 170. Um.... I'm not sure how much that raises their chance of dropping things? but it should help.. right? Definitely higher than 1.5%, and higher chance of twin shards too.

Anywho, I might have just gotten really lucky but 3 runs got two chunks. At the same time, 3 runs only got 3 twin shards. So.... my numbers are probably lucky. I can also tell this is going to take a lot of time, so it might be a while before I post on the nightmare frontier.




Castle Cainhurst Tips:
- Run straight into the castle from the beginning area; nothing worth dealing with the crap out here
- After getting inside for the first time, make sure to clear each area thoroughly and don't ever drop down until you know no other routes are open
- Most enemies can be easily staggered with a saw cleaver (talk about other weapons in a bit), and everything here is slow moving, so take your time
- Do not, and I repeat do not, mess with the headless women carelessly; This variant can stun you, allowing anything (heck they are going to try after a stun) backstab you, attack you, etc. <- Only really dangerous enemy in the castle if you are careful
- At the same time, try not to let the lost children of antiquity grab you? It's a very damaging attack.

Um..... if i could beat the boss I wouldn't be bloodstone chunk farming, so I'll mention the boss once I figure out how to deal with it.

Every weapon in Bloodborne has a hidden "poise damage" value. Basically, each enemy (you have no poise whatsoever but enemies do) has a certain amount of "super armor" before you can stagger them. And every weapon you can melee with does a hidden amount of damage to enemy poise. So, while some weapons can attack a lot more often (looking at you Ludwig's Holy Blade <- Jack was experimenting with this because it's really really popular), attacking often doesn't do crap if you can't stun the enemy. This is why one might, for certain areas, might want to consider a lower damage and/or slower attacking weapon vs something that attacks faster for more damage.

^^ Do you want to know how I realized all this? Its because Ludwig's is really bad for farming gargoyles right now, while the cleaver is working awesomely. Despite it doing "less damage". They are attacking through my ludwig's attacks even when I chain 3 of them together, while the cleaver stun locks them after one hit.

Unless someone has a problem with it, I'm just making this a general off topic thread. Does not mean I'm going to stop......