Something I THINK is worth noting? The insight shop, as of a recentish patch, opens with 1 insight instead of 10.

This early on, we can only buy pungent blood cocktails and the small resonant bell. DO NOT DO SO if it means you will hit 0 insight, since you need 1 to level up. This is one of the few ways you can screw yourself in this game.

Eileen is the other character we need to talk to before doing either boss. I forgot where she was, so I had to look it up (this is why I bought the guide). We need to head back past the old lady's house to drydock (the official name of the wooden inside warehouse area) and get on the rafters again where we cut down the bodies.

As it turns out, we can go outside on the right side of these rafters?, behind some barrels. Across a small wooden plank bridge is Eileen, who will give us 4 homeward bones when we first talk to her, an emote the second time, and tell us to go away the third time. Getting that third dialogue is what we want here.

If you haven't already, keep using Iosefka's vials over and over and talking to her over and over to get her final dialogue (you'll know it) where she says she wants to meet you after the hunt is over. You don't NEED to do this, but it's your only chance to hear this dialogue so you should make the attempt.

Now it's time to go fight the first boss again.

The Cleric Beast:

This fight is hardish? because bosses in Bloodborne have A LOT, and I mean A LOT, of health.

This boss tends to hit really hard in front of and to the side of itself, so the trick of course is to try to roll behind it and attack from that spot. Occassionally, the boss will also go into a "rage" mode where it's attacks change, and the trick here is when the boss is glowing red just back off for a bit. Getting too far away from the boss tends to trigger a jumping attack, so.... try to avoid doing that? Basically, just try to stay close and behind and don't roll too early. Doing all that and you will be fine . Molotoves can be used to finish off this boss, but you also want them for the 2nd one so try to make sure you KNOW it will secure the win if you are going to use them.

Tip of the Day: Oil Urn + molotov = double damage on one attack.

This boss basically tanked me at the very end on my first attempt? I was doing really well and then I just couldn't finish it off. Once the boss gets low on health it gets A LOT more aggressive and a lot harder to damage.

After beating this thing, you get 4K souls, whatever blood echoes you might have left on the field, those random silver bullets over there, and the sword hunter badge. And a lantern. And..... no new area? When I said this boss was purely optional I meant it. You also get 4 insight.

Well hmmm. Hmmmmm. HMMMMMM.... well Gilbert basically tells you to go beat the 2nd boss? Yeah.

The new badge doesn't do anything for the insight shop. However, we can now buy antidotes, bold hunter's marks, and the hand lantern. .... Buy the hand lantern. We also have the opportunity to buy the hunter chief emblem for 10K, the kirkhammer for 3K, and the repeating pistol for 3K.

With my souls, I leveled up once (Vit up 1), bought the hand lantern, and bought the Blunderbuss. This again leaves me with no real amount of souls . I'm also down to 6 blood vials but who is counting? If you've actually been using this, our new warp spot is almost but not completely useless. If you haven't been opening up the shortcuts.... well then it's a tiny mercy for this next part but realistically it's still a mostly useless warp point just there because all bosses must drop a lantern.

Now it's time to go back to the 2nd boss. But first, let us examine the actual words of the music box shall we? The one the little girly gave us?

"A small music box received from a young Yharnum girl. Plays a song shared by her mother and father. Inside the lid is a small scrap of paper, perhaps an old message. Two names can be made out, however faintly. Viola and Gascoigne." Well Gascoigne, or Father Gascoigne, is the next boss. Using this item will stun him for a few seconds, but only once. We can very much use this in our fight against him. We can also use that elevator and the trap bridge from earlier to get to him very fast.

Um...... Gascoigne is very hard. Very very hard. Now.... you might not like the idea but it is possible to farm bloodstone shards from the guys right before him. VERY VERY SLOWLY. If you run into the dark building first before fighting the big guys, the guy in the chair in the dark house always drops 4 silver bullets too, and you are likely to get a bunch of souls and blood vials doing this. BTW, this is where you can easily farm quicksilver bullets whenever. he always drops 4, he is always there, and he's very near a lantern. Kill 3 enemies for 4 bullets. Have 100 in about an hour. Boring but the reason why you should never run out of those. I'm going to do this until I can upgrade my weapon and then I shall do a boss description .

First off, I routinely spend an hour writing posts that are less than a quarter the length of the one you spent nearly three hours on, so don't feel bad -- you're apparently more skilled at putting your thoughts into words than I am.

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So, I've been playing some Freedom Planet which I picked up from GOG... I think at the same time as I did Long Live the Queen? Anyway, point is, I love it. It is a wonderful homage to the Genesis-era Sonic games that I feel taps into what was good about those early Sonic games better than they did -- but I am speaking at this point from only having played through one of the Story lines and none of the other modes, so there might be some differences I'm not aware of. However, from what I've experienced so far it keeps momentum in more ways than one better than those early Sonic games did. For instance, I often got stuck at Marble Hill Zone for lack of any clear way to go and would spend half an hour just trying to find my way around (and to be clear, I played these Sonic games relatively recently through the DS repackaging {which I'm calling repackaging because it was the first 4 Sonic games on one cartridge}); I never get lost in Freedom Planet, and although I'm horrible at the combat, I think it's much more forgiving than the Sonic system.

I only have to wonder why there's a SHMUP section in the last level???

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Also, for some reason the iOS version of Valiant Hearts is free, so I went ahead and downloaded it. I think I've played maybe 10 minutes so far, though I can't say I'm not enjoying the experience.

^^ I hate the water zones in the original sonic games.

Just got back on. Right now, Jack is playing "let's see how long for 3 more shards to drop" simulator. I don't know why, but I like to farm up the best weapon I can in any particular area (although screw that for the gun). My character looks like a cross between Ronald Mcdonald and Van Helsing right now.

A full hour later I've FINALLY got the saw cleaver +3. All of that for +11 damage. .... Yeah. I'm going to bed now . 6:41:38 on the save file and I still haven't beaten the 2nd boss.

Looks like I'm using the right one (starting), then, since my INT is 37.

While we are talking about catalysts, it's also worth mentioning that Logan's cannot be upgraded at all BUT IS STILL THE BEST after 41 int, if you don't want to go with tin crystalllization. In fact, imho it's the best for everything but pvp. Tin Crystallization does more burst damage, but over time 4 casts of a spell with logan's will do more damage than 2 casts with the crystallization catalyst. <- But if you only needed 2 to kill that boss.......

It's also worth mentioning that pyromancy just flat out damages almost everything else in the game for damage over time, so sorcery is supposed to be more bursty anyways. The added benefit of the tin one is that you can put it away and your number of uses left will double until you take it back out (keep in mind that it rounds down though).

It's 12:04 PM. Let us see how long this boss takes.

Well that was easy? It's 12:10 PM and the boss is dead.

So here's the boss run. Assuming you have opened all shortcuts, kill the two guys in the bottom of the house and then go around to it's left? Then use the elevator, go across the ambush bridge, and go up to the boss. Along the way you want to try to take out the bridge people with the flaming boulder, parry the 3 big guys, and just wail on the shield dude? You kill the guys in the house for the 4 silver bullets to let you parry the big guys for free. The shield guy CAN drop a molotov, but 3 hitting him breaks his guard and with a +2 weapon will usually kill him. The 2 wolf dudes after the bridge? If you hug the left wall they won't aggro.

Also, there is a lore note in the back of the bottom of the dark house that I just found and did not mention before so ...... lore yay. Not much worth mentioning that I won't mention in a bit but its cool. I forget the words though (this was last night).

^^ You normally get a minimum of 6 blood vials on this run. I needed 9 blood vials, 8 silver bullets, 2 molotov cocktails, and the tiny music box to beat the boss. Below is some strategy, but before that some random notes for before and after the fight.



First things first, you get 1 point of insight for starting the fight, 1 point for seeing his transformation into his 3rd form (which CAN be gotten around via a glitch or just wayyyyyyyy too much damage too fast), and 2 points of insight for beating him. Along with the two madman's knowledge from central yharnum, you can have up to 10 insight at this point in time. That is intentional, and it was designed to let you buy his armor from the dream as soon as you beat him if you had explored everything (pre-patch). Gascoigne's armor has good slow poison resist, but it's a little worse than the hunter sets at everything else. But it's really good poison resist means we WILL want it for a bit later in the game.

Anyways..... the other thing worth mentioning is that Gascoigne's lamp is the last chance to go back to the dream and spend some loot before the prices of all items double in the echoes shop. This is also the last time you'll get to talk to Iosefka or get vials from her, so make sure to grab one AND SAVE IT for the end game bosses.

Father Gascoigne:
Phase 1: Gascoigne will try to hit you with an axe and a shotgun. He combos a bit but this phase is by far the easiest. You can keep gravestones between you and him to avoid the shotgun, and assuming you have longer reach than he does you can attack him through them? Be warned. His longest reach can juuuuust reach through the gravestones here. Do not use molotovs in this phase.

Phase 2: Once he loses a third of his health, he gets a lot more aggressive and the length of his axe doubles. The strategies from phase one still apply, but it's worth noting that you are probably going to have to leave the tombstones behind here. The best way to fight him here is to hit him once or twice, dodge to the left or right to avoid the inevitable shotgun blast, and then roll behind him to repeat.

Phase 3: On the last 3rd of his health, he transforms into a werewolf. If you use the tiny music box just before he does this, it will stun him and you'll have the chance at a backstab. A visceral off of a backstab and 2 molotovs is what I used to end this most dangerous phase really really fast. If you don't have the music box or you miss the backstab..... well then. He is much faster, much more aggressive, has even more reach, and he's all around more dangerous. He also now has a leaping attack that can probably one shot you. Good luck .

The tiny music box can be used earlier in the fight for some free damage, but it immediately triggers a phase 3 transformation after the stun wears off so it's best to use it towards the end of phase 2 if you've got it.

After beating this fight, you can go up the stairs and past the gate to drop down for the red jeweled broach. That's the little girl's mother's broach. Well.... you just killed her father, and it looks like her father has killed her mother. Oh dear. Use it immediately. You'll get a trophy and there is literally no good reason to give this to the little girl other than you wanting to. Using the key we get from Gascoigne, we can head through the gate and up a ladder to a room with a chest. This chest has a tool that will now let us add gems (like the one we just got from the broach) to our weapons to buff them. There's also a lore note on the table about a future area. Past this we'll arrive at Oedon Chapel and a cutscene, and we go to night from evening (phase shift of the day).

It's worth noting that Gascogine is the first MANDATORY boss of the game. The only reason to beat the cleric beast is the badge that lets you get the kirkhammer, the emblem, and the repeating pistol. REALISTICALLY, the emblem is the main reason to beat it? The emblem lets you skip straight to the 2nd half of the cathedral ward instead of halving to take a detour to old yharnum.

Notice how the sky outside has gone from early evening to late evening? It's not DARK yet but it's noticeably later. These phase changes are supposed to make older areas harder as well, although I don't notice it in central Yharnum.

Anyways, we end up in Oedon Chapel. Talking to the blind samaritan will let you send people here as a safe spot.

Questwise, Ghernum tells us to go get a chalice? This guy is useless basically. Where do we get a chalice? Go figure it out.

Going back to the 1st floor sickroom lantern..... Iosefka is acting differently. <- This is fake Iosefka. I'm telling you this because they designed this whole thing horribly and the game does a bad job of saying this. Um....... looking at her hand it now has a knife it nit. FUN. You can no longer get blood vials from her but the clinic is now also a "safe" spot. Whenever you meet a survivor now, you can send them to the chapel or the clinic.

Talking to Gilbert, he will give you the flamesprayer. it's a fire weapon (useful against beasts) that will consume silver bullets over time?

Going to talk to the old lady in Central Yharnum, let's send her to the chapel shall we? The blind samaritan will give you a gesture as a reward and she WILL be of some use eventually. Doing the same for the little girl..... she never makes it to the chapel? Well that's no good. Um....... going to the sewer boar, the boar drops the red messenger ribbon. It ....... it ate her. This game is dark as **** sometimes. Do not give this to the messengers, as it's important for continuing this quest later.

Before I forget, higher VIT skill means your blood vials restore more heatlh.

So...... we have cleared all the content for now in Central Yharnum. On to the Cathedral Ward.

A word of warning. I don't remember if he is in pre or post Old Yharnum. So we are going to avoid the areas where I'm worried about it being, okay? We can deal with it at a later date when we aren't in danger of not having any insight at all.

At the church, make sure to head out the left exit next to the old woman. In this courtyard, you'll fight two lantern guys. BE WARNED. At 15 insight or higher , you will find them a lot harder. The obvious item here is 6 blood vials, while the not so obvious item behind some headstones is a slightly different set of hunter's gear? The body has better arcane resist but lower phys def due to the lack of a cape? And the headpiece is a top hat.

We are not here to explore yet, so go to the left exit here and follow the path. We are just trying to get to old yharnum. We will clear out this corner of the cathedral ward but the other parts of it right now are a little too high level for us. At the bottom of the staris you'll run into some more people and dogs. It should be obvious but they take more hits than the enemies in central yharnum and are thus more dangerous. Off to the right is a coldblood dew(2) and 4 molotovs. To the left (not inside the church yet) is the path we want to take. At the top of the stairs are a gunner and two dogs. Lure the dogs back so you can kill them out of his sight, and then kill the gunner. Open the door past him and head straight across.

Down here, we have a new NPC named Alfred. He is not Solaire. He does not praise the sun. But we will elect to cooperate with him. Choose cooperate. He will give you the pray gesture and 3 fire paper. Talking to him and asking about the healing church will give us a bit of lore about blood healing. Talking to him about byrgenwerth will give you a hint on how to get to the forbidden woods later.

Now time out for a second.

If you bought the emblem for 10K after beating the cleric beast, you can explore the other parts of the cathedral ward right now AND beat it. If not, you can explore some more than I'm covering here but you can't beat it. If you have the emblem, you can also get to hemwick charnel lane now, which is a completely optional area where you earn the rune tool by beating the boss there.

Essentially, we have 3 areas open to us. Cathedral Ward, Old Yharnum, and Hemwick Charnel Lane. The latter two need the emblem and are MUCH harder for our current level. So I'm going to old Yharnum reguardless. We want to kill the boss there anyways for optional reasons reguardless, so might as well do it now. GOOD optional reasons.

Anyways, Alfred will now be summonable for the Old Yharnum boss if you want to spend insight attempting that. His questline also leads to a covenant later in the game. Now, we are in the back of the church. The item is a madman's knowledge, and the switch opens the path to old yharnum. Hit it and then let's go in through the front entrance shall we? There is one enemy in here by another madman's knowledge. To be blunt, madman's knowledge doesn't have much use other than trying to skyrocket your insight to make the game harder OR recovering from mind flayer attacks. So don't consume any of these yet (you shouldn't have). I recommend buying Gascogine's armor and the co-op bell for 7 insight, and saving our 8th? We don't need the invasion bell yet and can safely buy it after beating the Beasty down in old yharnum.

The room below the chapel has a tempering blood gemstone. The one we got from the brooch was +2.7% phys attack. This is a mere +.7% phys attack but still something we will find useful. Down the stairs will be your first beast . Similar to the ones from central yharnum, the ones in old yharnum can be farmed for bloodstone shards if you still need those. After the ladder, take the staris up to get 4 antidotes before going down.

Down the stairs, we can go into the room to the right to find 3 pungent blood cocktails hidden below some coffins. And we can of course light the lantern in this room to go back to the dream. Let us do so.

Between the dew we picked up and the souls I picked up, I was able to buy the repeating pistol (last unique item from the shop I was missing) and level up once. I now have VIT/STR/SKL all at 16, for some perspective. -1 SKILL there let me just barely 4 shot the lantern guys with a saw cleaver +4, which is one combo for me. With both gems my cleaver has 141 attack. And that is where we are stopipng for now. Like 2/3 of all that time was me writing part of this post, so it only takes about a half hour if you beat Gascoigne on first try.

A bit on trophies for this game.



^^ Those 7 bosses are the only ones that the game requires you to deal with, although either old yharnum or the cleric beast are necessary as well.



You have to do one of the first two, but those 8 bosses are technically optional.

In addition, we have the following exploration trophies:


In addition, there is a trophy for getting each of the 3 main game chalices (fixed ones) as well as a trophy for beating the last boss of the one you get from old yharnum

Finally there are various collectoin trophies (but not clothing or gestures) and one for each of the endings.

This is going to suck.

My policy is going to be to kill Djura? You miss out on a gesture but you can explore the rest of the area instead of having to come back much later. I don't even use gestures. So the first part of all this is going to be trying to get to him rather than explore.

When you first try to open the door, there is a notice basically telling you to GO AWAY. Directly ahead of you can drop down onto a wooden pillar to get a blood stone shard. Dropping down onto the roof and then down to the ground, we run into two hooded ladies. They are guarding the hunter's torch, which is a straight up upgrade over the torch. In addition to my pistol this will be my other left hand weapon.

I then noticed I could drop down even further onto a circular half circle ledge? Then further down onto the ground. Here is an obvious shortcut door that does not open from this side. Going past it, we come to a ladder with a coldblood dew at the top. And we have dropped down back to where we started. Neato.

Heading left, Djura will yell at you. Up and to the left is 6 blood vials. Near the bridge we will face our first enemy. He is obviously afraid of our hunter's torch, which is the gimmick of this area (or the first one). All non hooded enemies will cower for a bit at your torch, ala the bug things from No Man's Wharf in Dark Souls 2. Across the bridge two more will attack you. And then a third. Around to the left of this building is a hooded patient (official enemy name ... semi) guarding another dew. Around the right is two blood stone shards. Heading a bit down the stairs, you will be able to lure two noon hooded ones and a hodded one up it. Moving forward, you can kill a couple more.

When you hear the words "which is why I must stop you", that is where you are screwed. The gatling gun is about to start shooting at you. You want to head down into the building below, using the brick as cover, and pick up the antidotes inside as well as killing the bigger hooded patient. The left exit leads to a balcony with another shard, while the right leads to a room with a couple more enemies and some explosive pots. Um..... don't stand near them when the gun goes off. It hurts. A LOT. The item in this room is some antidotes. Quickly running across the next bridge, you can kill 4 crows guarding 2 shards. The next room (this whole area is pretty linear) has a big one and two small ones without hoods. It should be noted that the tree in front of you IS cover.

There are a lot of enemies in this area, but getting closer to the church and using the torch will help. The statue has a dew by it if you want to make a mad dash for the obvious trap.

Down and to the right is the ladder leading to Djura's belltower. It's time to kill him. Also WOW we have actually gotten most of the stuff before him in this area. The enemy that will attack you before you try to use this ladder is Djura's ally. He isn't guarding anything important, so it's best to just leave him alone.

NOW. The best way to beat Djura, which is a really hard fight, is just to bum rush him and push him off the tower. If he dies in an area where you can't reach the soul, then you can quit and reload and it will be at his spawn point. If you die before you can get his drops, they will also be at his spawn point (this is why Jack is not going to mess with Djura's ally again). He drops the powder keg hunter badge, which is a relatively important item, so make sure to get it if killing him now. If you really really want the gesture, you have to come back here after beating a later area.

..... Jack lied. We are going to kill Djura's ally. I can't read the **** map worth anything in the guide so I have to know.

...But first, let's go back to the dream since he killed me again and investigate what the badge got us.

So the store now sells rope molotov cocktails? Don't buy those. They have a use but not one I would condone. The other items that don't exactly look familiar but might have already been there and I just didn't know it are antidote, oil urn, and blood cocktail for consumables. For weapons, we've got the stake driver and hunter's torch. And notably the insight shop now sells Djura's equipment. Those are worth buying later when we have some spare insight.

Heading back to central yharnum, I'm going to see if I can just sneak past? I recognized the two crow demons with him, and nothing particularly important is in that area so I CAN skip it. But the area below is not skippable. ... This is where Jack drops down quickly to bypass the enemies. Anyways drop off near where djura's ally and two crow demons are to get to the bottom entrance of this REALLY dark area. And... the next room is a mob room. There are a lot of enemies in there. Lure them out slowly and fight them on this tiny balcony.

It is also that at this point i went "**** they deal poison buildup" and put on Gascoine's set. The random soul is some blood vials, while the chest contains a tempering gemstone. Heading up the stairs, we will fight four guys next to the rifle spear. This weapon has AMAZING reach potential. We also find a lore note about how they burned this place back in the day. The dead guy in the chair has the charred hunter's garb, and through the doorway we can see another enemy apparently carrying my blood echoes. it's at this point iin time that dudes start wandering down those stairs. Well then. Running past Djura's ally, we go back up the ladder and across to drop down to the wooden platform below.

We are now on a wooden bridge in the temple overlooking the hallway we would have been in if we had just run past the ladder into this temple. Up here we can grab a madman's knowledge on a beam safely, but it's best to clear this area before going for the rest of the loot. The trick is to drop down to the hallway and try to lure them up the stairs? Using the hunter's torch for some cover. This is another one of those rooms with A LOT of guys in it. Technically gals actually. Um....... watch out for slow poison.

In the middle of a stairs we can exit to a wooden platform with 2 shards on it, and the altar in this church has some ritual blood on it. You NEED that ritual blood, so grab it. Across from the altar is a madman's knowledge. And.... just ignore the giant handing demon thing in the middle of this church. In the main hallway below the wooden bridge is an exit to the rafters of this place. We can use this to drop down and get some coldblood dew, but we are going to have to come back in from the wooden bridge to get the good stuff . Dropping down to the wooden bridge with an item below the beam, we get 4 molotovs. Now this jump is hard. Run and jump to get to the other wooden bridge. And um..... I keep missing that ledge. What is that item?

Hmm.... messenger head bandage. I don't particularly need that. If you want a messenger accessory than get it? Looking at the guide, we've already gotten every KEY item in this area, so we can relax a bit. I will skip it, since it has no application on combat, but you can get it if you want. That jump IS possible.

And unfortunately Jack has to go so back in a while.

So a couple of things.

1) Oh yeah. The area is A LOT easier to run through with Djura dead. As a general rule, this isn't Dark Souls 2. There are NO BONFIRES in any area except for the one at the beginning and the one after the boss is dead. Thus, you have to open shortcuts and reduce the distance to the boss so that the run is manageable and you can semi-safely ignore the enemies on the way there (or as with Gascoine and me safely take them out). Djura is a major threat that severely extends the length of the area, and the only reason to spare him until later is the "Brush off Dust" gesture.

2) In case I gave the opposite impression, I want to make something clear. I am not following a guide here. Yes, I do own the Bloodborne guide. But I'm not following it step by step. I have a vague familiarity with a few things due to watching people play this a couple times on youtube. But generally I'm just getting lost and looking up things like "What is that item that's pissing me off?" in the book. If I was following a proffessional guide here, then the things I am typing would actually read like I was planning ahead in the specific sense instead of the general and knew where I was going.

Sooooooo.... we left off at the altar where the ritual blood was? The boss of this area is going to drop a chalice, and you'll be able to get a material from him as well? I forget exactly how this goes, but this ritual blood is the other thing you need to use that chalice and go to the first chalice dungeon. The door behind this altar is where we are about to go. My goal right now is to find a shortcut and then homeward bone back. Then we can use that shortcut to explore more.

I keep forgetting to post this, but I was wrong earlier. The saw only has bonus damage against beasts untransformed. Now if we come out and look to the left, that church is our goal. Actually to our left are some crows guarding two more shards. It's pretty obvious by now that farming for a +3 wasn't strictly necessary, but it did help against Gascoigne. Going all the way right, we find a ladder going up that opens a shortcut door. This shortcut empties out near Djura's ally, but it IS a shortcut that lets us skip that church and a lot of hard enemies. Here is where I bone'd back with a mark. I must mention at this point that the badge also unlocks the rifle spear in the store (forgot to say so). Using the coldblood dews I had, I was able to level up vit and str to 17, leaving skill at 16. The stake driver has a ridiculous cost at 8K, so I spent the rest of my souls on 2 marks for later use.

Teleporting back to Old Yharnam, we can run past all the enemies (in my case kill some too) and use this shortcut to get back. It takes.... a minute and 3 blood vials for me to do that? Ok. Moving on...... the tunnel next to the ladder is next. Watch out. The enemies in the next room are hiding in the smoke. Past them is our first wandering madness (or mine), that drops 3 shards.

Down the stairs, we encounter two scourge beasts. My cleaver can 4 hit combo them. To the left immediately is some cocktails. Straight ahead is 2 shards and a locked gate. This is where we come from later if we want to make peace with djura. Be careful progressing down the next path, as a beast will leap out of a boarded up house (ambush) somewhere aroudn here but i forget where. Oh... yeah. Church looking building on the right here. These enemies commonly drop shards btw so good place to farm? Let's go in there. There are some more weaker enemies in here. A side room has 2 shards. And at the very top is some fire paper. We have also come to that one way locked gate I mentioned at the beginning of this section. We now have a one way trip to the boss . Moving further on, a big patient is hiding in the mist while a beast is on the main path. I think the big patients might be screaming to attract other enemies? Don't know for sure and not going to look it up but that's my theory. soon we see 10 bullets on the right of the main path and we continue. And soon after 2 bold hunter's marks to our right. And WE CONTINUE.

In the grass here is a note saying "if you need assistance only ring the bell". If you are playing online, you can summon alfred here to help with the boss.

Make sure to be careful while walking around. To the left and right both sets of grass have a dew in them, but 3 blindfolded patients are also here. And..... that's all Jack wrote until the boss is dead.

If you are appreciating what I am writing here, please tell me.

^^ Jack is back.

The reason I say this is because doing this doubles or even triples my playtime in some areas. Thus I A) really would like some encouragement if people are finding this interesting at all and B) would like to know if I'm wasting my time.


Did it on my 4th attempt once I was out of fire items. Classic.

Um........ this part of the game sucks? They don't tell you where to go unless you get lucky enough to hunt down Gehrman. "Ascend to Oedon Chapel". What does that mean? Well basically, the way forward after beating the Blood Starved Beast is a door that opens in the chapel where you have been sending people for safety. Aside from actually going there and going "whatsthis; this wasn't open before", Gehrman is the only indicator that this change occured.

Speaking of, Jack just learned of a new feature on the ps4. TROPHY STATISTICS.

So....

72.5% of people who play the game have beaten the cleric beast. Sounds reasonable. I can see 27% of people rage quitting before ever getting there and .5% never being able to find the thing because it's optional.

For Father, and this is the proper spelling because the trophy says so, Gascoigne the trophy goes to 68.2% of people. So 2/3 of people who play Bloodborne make it to at least the second boss. Goody . Or..... 4.3% of people rage quit because this guy is the noob pwner. .... Either or. <- No seriously. Gascoigne is nowhere near hardest boss in game, but dude pwns noobs real well. He sure pwned Jack. Is Jack a noob? Well Jack is having a wee bit of trouble adjusting to the combat system so I would certainly say so.

Now the next 2 trophies, one for beating the 3rd boss and one for getting the item it drops, are identical by necessity at 58.2%. Now, like with the cleric beast this guy is TECHNICALLY skippable. But I highly doubt a 7th of people who make it past ye olde noob pwner decide to farm 10K and go deal with Vicar Amelia right off the back. <- I took four attempts and I was already starting to empathize with PewDiePie a bit. This one too is a noob pwner, and I would estimate at least 8% of people who play the game drop it because of him or the area before him. Also interesting.

Speaking of, Jack now has 32 bloodstone shards. I can fully upgrade something to +3 TWICE. WTF? I spent 2 hours farming 5 of that stuff and now it's dropping from the sky likes it raining the **** things.

Now why don't I say closer to 10%? Well because somehow 59.2%, a full 1% higher, get a Caryll rune. <- That's not standard fare before getting to the 3rd boss. Jack certainly hasn't done it yet. That 1% anomaly does mean something here. But it's still safe to say a lot of people leave because these bosses are very very hard.

And finally, 70.2% of people who play the game have gotten a blood gem. Now um..... that is more than the number of people who have beaten Gascoigne. That highly suggests that people are stealing the red jeweled broach from that arena and not popping it open before being able to use it. ..... To be fair it also highly suggests that a very high number of people are just popping that open in general. There are 3 blood gems in the game. 1 requires either beating the beast or getting the emblem AND beating a harder boss than the blood starved beast. The 3rd requires beating the bloodstarved beast. A lot of people are stealing that little girl's momento.


^^ That's all the trophy info we have right now, but I'll make sure to check it again with each new one.



This post is mostly going to be dedicated to lore now. I'm taking a break, because bosses in Bloodborne in general are just proving to be way way harder than the bosses in the other games. I feel like everyone is some version of Manus . At the end of this post though I will discuss the 3rd boss and how to beat it, the blood starved beast. Um...... but really I need to calm down and relax for a bit after this post.

Central Yharnum
So the lore of this place is that these are basically the people the church has abandoned to the beast hunts. Everyone thus has to burn incense at their door for protection to ward off the beasts while they cower in their houses throughout the night of the hunt. You, as a beast hunter, made a contract in exchange for yharnumite blood administration being used on you? We don't really know why, but you were given an operation where they gave you some Yharnumite blood and you signed a contract to become a hunter on the night of the hunt. We arrive in early evening, and it's obvious that Yharnumites don't trust outsiders. A Xenophobic lot, but wouldn't you be if outsiders viewed your customs as weird? Then again the beast scourge is a problem..... The people wandering the streets are actually going insane and on the hunted list, so .... feel bad but not too bad? <- It's basically really dark and **** up. In this area we meet Gilbert, a very sick man glad he is going to get to die human. We also meet Iosefka, who decides she wants to meet us when the night is up but is too afraid to open the door while the hunt is going on. We meet a little girl who fears for her parents, since her mother did not take the safe guard that keeps her daddy sane. We meet a hunter who hunts rogue hunters. And finally we meet a crotchety old woman who really just wants a safe place to go to. All these characters have their own motivations and it's just a glimpse into the hell we have walked into. We hear woman and children screaming in the distance. Along with the barking of beasts. We find everything going insane wherever we go, and this truly is a **** up world we have agreed to save. At the end of this long road we run into an ex-cleric now beast. And we learn that the people with more insight make the more powerful beasts when they go insane. At the end, we find the little girl's daddy, who has killed his wife and who we have to put down when he turns into a lycanthrope. <- All of this is happening partially because the church refuses to let any of these people into the safety of the cathedral ward. The "safety". They have all been locked out and abandoned to whatever happens, and some of them really are running out of protective incense. This is noticeable because of all the houses that don't have it.

^^ Once we get past Gascoigne, we do get a ray of hope. He looks like a very shady character, but he is like Dr. Seuss's "The Grinch" and turns out to have a heart of gold in the end. We are finally able to help that old lady, who shows no gratitude whatsoever because **** it we are hunter and that is our job to help people isn't it? We are still an outsider as well. Can't trust an outsider too much. Man, this blood is making Yharnum crazy. And that is really what is happening. Too much blood administration and/or insight is turning the weak-willed into beasts. But.... the little girl does not make it, and Jack cried for her. ... Central Yharnum is truly the home of the hopeless and the abandoned.




Old Yharnum

If Central Yharnum is the home of the abandoned, then Old Yharnum is the home of the damned. This is where the Ashen Blood Plague, a forerunner of the current beast scourge occured, turning all the "patients" into what they are. We also have scourge beasts running around, who seem to have come down here later. The patients are now poisonous to the touch. We get all of this from the description of the "Antidote" item, which says it can help delay but not stop the ashen blood plague that afflicted Old Yharnum. Namely, **** slow poison in their blood.

To stop this plague, the hunters burned the town. They burned it all. And then they built what is now Central Yharnum. Thus the name "Old Yharnum". This is why the patients in this area to this day fear fire. Various incendiary items in the game also have item descriptions attesting to this. It is here that we meet Djura, the hunter with a conscience who says we shouldn't be hunting people. His belief is that all beasts ARE people, and that the beasts in old yharnum are so far away from everything else that they aren't going to bother anyone. We should leave them alone. .... Well there's a single flaw in that theory. We need to get down to the church. Now. If Jack was able to just leisurely stroll on down to the church and not hunt anything on the way, Jack would love to take that option. But that wasn't an option was it? The only reason the patients aren't hurting anyone is because fire is bad and the entrance is still **** lit on fire. BTW, this is just a player theory but players believe that is all the work of Djura and his ally, who are trying to keep the beasts from going up above in order to protect them. The patients obviously don't bother them for..... probably a good reason. Yes, there is a moral and ethical argument being put forth here. And yes, Jack feels a little bad. But not as bad as if Jack had let these people cut in his face. We need to save the town and we were told we have to get to the church to do that so..... we have to go in.

Once we get to the bottom of this area, we meet the Blood Starved Beast, the boss of the area. It's in another church (seems like some sort of pattern), and this beast is the living incarnation of this plague. A giant monster that breaths out poison clouds and uses them as an offensive weapon, this thing guards the chalice Gehrman said we needed to obtain. And so we must hunt it.


The Blood Starved Beast:

This boss has 3 phases.

Phase 1: The boss is slow and only minorly aggressive. The easiest phase, you aren't likely to get poisoned here.

Phase 2: The boss is more aggressive, some of its attacks start to inflict a particularly virulent slow poison (more dangerous than normal slow poison), and it starts to lay poison clouds in the arena.

Phase 3: The boss is extremely aggressive and now it's getting hard to hit it. In addition, it now has a poisonous aura that means we can't stand close to it for too long before getting poisoned. This is by far the hardest part of the fight.


Strategies:

The trick to this boss is to try to roll behind it and to its left. Then you hit it once or twice and repeat. This works in all phases, although it's harder in the 3rd. Don't roll too early when trying to avoid attacks, and if it uses an overhead attack with its right arm you can sometimes just walk under the attack if you are close enough. ... That's basically it for the first phase. Roll behind and return fire. Watch out for the 4 hit combo where it can sometimes turn around a little bit. Really try not to let it grab you.

This boss's overhead right attack can be parried if you have the timing perfect, but Jack was not able to do so. This boss is also particularly vulnerable to fire damage. The best form of it is fire paper, but if you have molotovs and you aim carefully they help. The molotovs are in danger of going over its head and completely missing though, and they are very very hard to land in the third phase if not close to the boss.

Another item that works particularly well is that the boss gets easily distracted for a few seconds by pungent blood cocktails. Like the tiny music boss, this can let you set up visceral attacks if you work fast enough and get a backstab. Very useful. Now that I've stated some that, I don't like relying on item strategies. But I still feel like I should mention them. Blood cocktails are 2K a piece if you need to restock, so people who aren't already confident with the fight shouldn't start spending all their souls trying to do this (same with molotovs and fire paper).

A really good tip here is that you can easily use the pillars for cover, since putting one or two between you and the boss can give you a lot of leeway (keeping in mind the boss can clip through one so two is safer if you are trying to heal).

The most important tip of the fight? Don't stand in the **** poison cloud it starts making in phase 2. In phase 3, yeah sometimes you have to take the poison and heal up with an antidote due to close proximity. But poison cloud? Just move to the other half of the arena. This place is huge, and there's no reason you should be getting poisoned because you stood and let the cloud do it. <- In that vein, I would recommend wearing Father Gascoigne's armor if you have it. Not only does it help stop the patient enemies from earlier from poisoning you, but it really really helps against this boss. You basically have 1.5x as long before you get poisoned.




I beat this fight on my 4th attempt, and I didn't use any items except some blood vials and an antidote towards the very end while I was going for the lethal.

Not played anymore. Just decided to say this now so that I can use these terms without worry later.

Slow Poison = Poison

It's poison. You know, what every other game calls poison. Yay? On a high note, toxic has been removed from the game. .... On a low note frenzy exists.
The Blood Starved Beast gives off a particularly virulent poison that does more damage faster, and it's the closest this game is going to get to toxic. But it's... not. It's like halfway between poison and toxic.

Fast Poison = Bleed

It's the new bleed. Slow poison = chip away health. Yay. Fast Poison = omg the health is already gone better heal.

Frenzy = Super Bleed

A new status condition. Frenzy can one shot you when combined with the fact that most frenzy attacks do damage on their own. Um....... it's safe to assume that if you don't have full health then frenzy hitting the top will kill you. <- Winter Lanterns new Bonewheel skeletons because all they have to do to build frenzy is look at you.

And here's the kicker........ when you isolate yourself from the source of frenzy, your buildup is still going to go up for a few seconds. That's why it's super bleed. It does a lot more damage AND builds up way faster with more burst buildup and buildup over time even when nothing is attacking you.


Mind Flayer = Bloodsucker

New enemy that eats you brain and steals 2 insight per successful grab attack. That you are never going to get back. Has Jack overly paranoid beyond all reasonable limits. Is the new mind flayer, dethroning the old enemy that held the title......... well the mind flayer. It took 3 games but someone has Jack more paranoid then a mind flayer. And we will call it mind flayer.

Souls = Blood Echoes

Bonfire = Lantern

Parry = Interrupt

I really hope I don't mess this one up but Riposte = Visceral

Evening = Stage 1 Evening

Night = Stage 2 Evening

Midnight = Night

Palemoon = ....... Palemoon

Gas whatever letters that come after Gas = Gascoigne; I don't care if its Gaston or Gas Station

Lantern Guy = All church servants reguardless of whether or not they have a lantern



On a side note, Jack actually bothered to look up some enemy names after typing all the crap above.

Male Patient = Unhooded
Female Patient = Hooded
Ashen Blood Patient = Giant Hooded

And there I thought that Anor Londo archers were frustrating...

(I am not enjoying the Bed of Chaos "fight")

Tip for the bed of chaos: You can shoot the left and right weak spots with arrows.

If it makes you feel better, after my first time I only die like 7 times there, and only on the 3rd weak spot . The left weak spot can be sniped from a "safe" spot you can reach by hugging the left wall, and the right one is runnable to if you killed the left one. The middle...... that one is the bad one. Even when you manage to make the jump the **** thing is liable to firestorm you in the middle of rolling through all those branches.



Best advice for that fight ever? Fire Resistance. If you boost your fire resistance, the harder parts of the fight will come down to the hands and you won't get one shot by firestorm. The armor you find near the Ceaseless Discharge (the gold hemmed black set?) is great light armor for this fight, and so is the flash sweat pyromancy you can buy from Laurentius of the Great Swamp for 2K. Um...... you can't wear too heavy of an armor set for this fight because you need to be able to book it like hell? when it finishes doign the 2 armed sweeper dealy.

Edit: Oh and the flame stoneplate ring from sen's fortress.

This is taking forever and no one seems to care that much, so this might be the last night I do this. I kind of enjoy doing this, but if it's not entertaining anyone then I can just go over the bosses and save myself a few hours.

My goal here is to explore the lower parts of the cathedral ward and then use the new path. Heading out the front door of the church, there is a church servant in this square. There is also a kidnapper to the back and right of where we enter now. And WOW he killed me. Um...... new plan. We are going to Yahargul the Unseen Village first. This is a scripted event. The kidnappers appear when the blood starved beast dies. When one kills you, you go to this place in a sack. And..... it very hard. No big deal. I only had 163 souls to lose and I gained an insight (you get a point for coming to Yahargul in a kidnapper's bag). Even trade. Um..... that kidnapper was guarding an item but I know it's not that important. It's just a singleton madman's knowledge. Jack just **** with the guy because I wanted to kill him for the madman's knowledge.

Notice the gate to our cell is unlocked. That's important. Use that. Now to the left is nothing and to the right is a dew, a lore note, and stairs leading down. This next room has a frenzied dew and a church lady huddling in the corner. If you keep talking to her she will give you a madman's knowledge and then you can send her to oedon chapel. You can only do this however if wearing either a piece of gascoign'es set or a piece of church garb.

And..... it turns out left actually does lead somewhere. It leads to the rest of the level. Jack is just blind when not carrying the hunter's torch in every nook and cranny. Going all the way up and back and up (watch out for kidnappers) leads to the lamp of this area. And that doorway you pass on the way up leads to a boss. Now you may notice that there are two kidnappers in the middle of this room with the grated floor. Well then..... they are guarding an item. And since Jack has zero souls Jack dashed for and got it. And joy oh joy it's a moon rune. This explains the trophy I guess? Except no no it does not. Must kill beast to get here.

Now.... jack will level with you. We are taking the lantern and getting the **** out of here. We will be back before Amelia but we aren't doing this here just yet. I used the extra insight we have gotten to get the Ashen Hunter Armor from the insight shop. I then made a decision I KNOW I will regret later and used 3 of my 7 madman's knowledge to buy the rest of the set. I am going to save the dew however until I get a bunch more of it.

Now back to the cathedral ward. First rule: Don't mess with the kidnapper.

Ok when heading out this door a lantern guy attacks you. There isn't anything in this square other than that and the kidnapper guarding the stupid skull. We can see some items from here but after killing the two lantern guys at the top of the stairs it seems we cannot progress anywhere to the left or right of our location. In fact, it seems like we don't have anywhere to go. Good job crew. Great exploration. We have covered all of the Cathedral ward and it only took 3 dead enemies and one dead Jack to make it happen.

Okay. Well...... Jack is playing semi blind. Remember that. Oh. There is a crow to the left of the stairs before you go up. And **** it this is where Jack burns all of his dews to level up once. I hope you are happy game. So jack wanted to burn a small dew to just be able to squeak over the line of paying for the chalice ritual. But jack burned a big dew. Mountain dew. And one thing led to another..... Jack leveled up STR to 18 and unlocked a chalice dungeon we aren't exploring yet. I know that **** is hard too. We want to be level 35? before we go in. Jack is level 30 with 18/10/18/17/9/8 in stats. .... I'm going to be honest we may go in anyways.


BACK TO THE CATHEDRAL WARD. Let's keep this three stooges parody rolling. I've got a fashionable gascoigne's set on and we are playing Bloodborne. Heading to the door the blood beast unlocked, we find an elevator. You can leap off midway and follow a path to a chest with the formless Oedon rune. This .... is the precious rune you need for the ultra rare rune trophy. Neat. And a messenger urn festival. And ... we have to drop down.

BACK TO THE DREAM.

NOW BACK TO THE CATHEDRAL. Free heals. Don't pass em up.

My goal of this next segment is to clear out the next area and then open the cathedral ward shortcut? that will let me do that area at my leisure. I'm sure I'm going to regret parts of this. I mean a bloodsucker will make at least one appearance and I know that will suck. But what else will happen? Let's find out shall we?

It is at this point in time that i am going to complain about the game being so dark that i am using a torch when not in combat in some of these areas.

Actually using the elevator takes us to a room with a machine gunner in a weelchair. .... Don't let him kill you. We also have a chest with the communion rune. .... All these runes, no rune workshop tool. What a shame. And we see a bridge across from here. Now....... we are going to climb that tower. There are going to be lots of enemies with guns. I am just warning you now because I won't be able to describe it much. Won't have time.

A beast man will attack you, and to the left if you are quick you can get a wandering madness worth TWO TWIN SHARDS. You also notice a drop down that leads us to another area. We will come down once we have gone up.

INside this tower is 4 yharnumites, one with a gun. I feel disrespected with how easy this room is. Around the right of the tower is the same drop down, so we are going to take the inside stairs up. But first the chest on the ground floor. Bloodtinge gemstone. Nice. On the 2nd floor is a wheechair machine gunner you must focus first and another lycan dude.

To the left as I exited I got ambushed by two gun guys and a big guy but usually you can circle around and it's more tame. Going up the ladder, we want to circle around the building all the way to the left to get a dew.

We then want to circle all the way around to the right for another lore note. "The sky and the cosmos are one. - The Choir". INside, another lycan and two flamethrower wheelchair guys will attack us. They are guarding a chest with the radiant hunter badge and a locked door leading to the upper cathedral ward.

Now let us go down. Now I don't remember anything toooooo important being here on that one plank, but don't quote me on that. The item I grabbed on the lower plank is a madman's knowledge. Watch out and stay topped off. There is a lot of falling damage ahead. The torch cna help you spot platforms below you but I still used 6 blood vials doing this. AT the bottom is a tough goat man scourge beast thing with a lot of health that drops the beast rune when killed. Guarding a door. And the biggest mind **** in the game soon to be.

Down the alley to the left are two crows guarding hte rumpled yharnam hat and the sweaty clothes. The main street has 3 yharnumites that bum rushed me. And..... let me check that i'm in the right area in the guide?

And oh crap i missed it. Hidden door on the way down who knew?.... This game is bad at leading you to important places. Heading back down... i landed on the right platform but died. ****. Okay the idea is to roll towards the ropes and hit the platform below them (behind you on the first bridge). But miss the plank or it will knock you out of the way and you'll fall too far. Then fall down to the door to the area we want. While we are here, let's talk to Adella for her blood. Yay? Um.... only take it 3 times if you don't want to miss an event with another npc later. Like Iosefka's blood vial, the blood of adella is one of two healing items you can get that are REALLY REALLY GOOD in this portion of the game. She also gives you the prayer gesture.

This time I landed on the right platform, chugged 2 vials, and landed in front of the right door. We open the path down to ..... the biggest mind **** of Bloodborne. We get 2 insight and a trophy just for showing up. That's right, this is the real world abandoned workshop equivalent of the hunter's dream. I will let you explore, but make sure to get the doll's set, the old hunter bone, one third of ubmilical cord, and the doll's hair pin.

It is here that I used the lantern in this real world workshop, did some things, and then ended my game for the evening, but I'm going to type a bit more and explain some of what I just did.

First things first, I finally had the spare souls to Yolo (kind of) with a dew and level my hunter pistol up to +3. This opened up a gem slot, in which I put our newest blood gem. You see, giving the hair pin to the doll gives us her tears of joy which we can use to get the 2nd of 3 blood gems in the game. Now let us examine the other items we got from this workshop.

The old hunter bone is our first magic item and experience with anything that makes arcane more useful than resistance. 15 arcane needed, but your roll and sidestep RECOVERY is severely severely reduced. Your actual i frames are not, so don't be fooled by the cool effect. But your time invicible over all is increased because you don't have any recovery frames after a roll where you are vulnerable. Instead you do this fog dash which you can easily chain as long as you have the stamina.

The doll's set is the 2nd worst armor in the game. But it's not there for armor so much as ... people like wearing it? It's FASHION SOULS. And on a female character model it actually looks kind of bad ***. Which means I'm going to wear it for a while because I'm using one (don't judge) and I don't care about the armor that much? Let's see. Over the best choice for right now we would lose 140 phys defense, 120 blunt, 120 thrust, 70 blood, 80 arcane, 120 fire, 148 bolt, and..... okay so Jack likes a bit of a challenge? Sigh.... I want to use this but it's really just that bad. Which means we'll keep it and wear it in areas where we are going to get one shot anyways lol. Um....... so this is where I'm going to repeat myself. DONT SELL ANYTHING YOU CANT GET ANOTHER COPY OF IN BLOODBORNE. This set is worth 35K sold. You are going to be tempted to sell it. Don't do it. Those blood echoes are stupidly easy to come by, while this is one of a kind. You can sell the copy you get on your second playthrough. Leveling up 4 times is not worth it, because you no longer get to read the lore at your leisure or play around with what is essentially a unique item you would be trading for leveling up 4 times.

Moving on.... the last of the 4 items we got is 3rd of umbilical cord. There are 4 in the game. You need 3 to get the true ending. I would advise not using any you find until you get to the end of the game, when you will be able to choose which ending you want.

Well I have done the ENTIRE cathedral ward except for the boss. I've also managed to get to the lantern in hemwick. True to my word, I'm only going to touch on the imporant points here.

Leaving the cathedral workshop tower, you enter some alleys. Hugging the left wall brings you to the elevator that will come out near the gate that opens up access to oedon chapel and lets you use that lamp. Across from this elevator is a brainsucker guarding a fire gem. I recommend spending all your insight before trying to go for that, as it turns out (after I lost 3 to it) that the doll can still be used to level up at 0 insight by inspecting it. After making sure I KNOW where the other one in the cathedral ward was, and getting the loot past it, I did pop one knowledge to get the doll moving again (the hub is just cooler that way).

The main enemies in these alleyways are the dogs, crows, and yharnumites (the tougher versions). However, taking the right path leads to a kidnapper. Um... don't take the right path. The fire gem is the only item really worth it down here.

Now, let's assume we've opened the gate to the Cathedral ward so we can come from Oedon Chapel. What can we expect in this area?

Well, to begin with let me explain a little bit about the topography here.

Let us say the cathedral ward looks like this.

X1 X2 X3


X4
X8 X5
X7
X6

Edit: You might have to copy my post to see this map? This forum acts weird for this.

This place is sort of mapped like a hub. X5 is the Oedon Chapel, and X6 is obviously Old Yharnum. If we move upwards towards the boss, we will encounter Vicar Amelia at X2. To the left of her is the path to Hemwick Charnel Lane, while to the right of her is the path to Yahargul.

Following all this? Well here's where it gets **** up. Jack has a bad sense of direction. There are two npc's around the area of X4 OR X7 is the alleyways. Talking to the one in the window, then the lady across from him until she goes to the chapel, and then him (he will go opposite of where you tell him to while the lady goes where you tell her to) will save both of them. Down near X7 or X4 (whichever is opposite) is where the entrance to the Forbidden Woods can be found, and on the path to it is a second Bloodsucker. Somewhere around X8 are the two giant squares, and the black church attire is found somewhere in the center of this map?

^^ Do not quote me on any of that. Anywho, the enemies will be described and then I'll talk about each of the above mentioned areas.

This place has 4 enemy types.

1) Crows. Take 1 or 2 hits. Easy.

2) Bloodsuckers. Once you have the loot they guard avoid them. They can be easily outrun and don't drop anything worth fighting them for. It should be noted that this enemy is particularly annoying and dangerous because it has a stunning spell that can paralyze you at range long enough for it to eat half your health and two insight.

3) Church Servants
4) Church Giants

Church Servants fight with a cane, axe, staff, flamesprayer, or cross? I think that's all of them? Don't quote me on that either. Some of them can be 4 shot while some of them can't. The cross enemy is a two of guarding Vicar Amelia's church, and they can inflict frenzy on you. We are reaching the point in the game where the enemies have enough poise that you have to actually hit them a couple times, dodge, and then finish them.

These enemies are not that dangerous UNLESS you have 15 insight. When you get to 15 insight they receive a HUGE power boost that you should be aware of and look even freakier. Um....... you have been warned?

Church Giants have two types. The kind you can fight, and the kind you should not.
The big ones with the axes are a lot scarier than they look, assuming you are in a one on one fight. They are more dangerous because of their ability to throw a fight with a couple servants completely out of control than they are threats by themselves. Simply put, you can smack them a couple times, then dodge out of their range, and then smack them a couple more times. They never swung more than twice while I was fighting them and the single swing makes a big THUMP. These guys are nowhere near as dangerous as a bloodsucker or executioner enemy.

The one you want to avoid is the sleeping ball and chain guy. He wrecks face. But if you HUG the edge of the path, you can sneak around him to get all the items in the area and then back without waking him up. Thus..... there's no excuse. Just don't screw with this guy (or was this because I had 0 insight? Hmm...... I don't think so?).

Edit: Oh and 5) Big guys. Some exist down in one of the squares and try to double team you. But that's only the one set.




Anyways, Vicar Amelia? That's the boss. You can go fight her now. You should be high enough of a level, and she IS the next required boss. But... it makes the rest of the areas we can access right now harder if you beat her. So it's recommended we go do Hemwick Charnel Lane and the first part of Yahargul beforehand.

Hemwick Charnel Lane is the next area you should go to because A) the boss is guarding the rune workshop tool which gives you a HUGE boost and B) it's the easiest area open to us other than the Cathedral Ward itself. Going into that area, you'll have to fight through the woods with A LOT of gun guys and A LOT of dogs before you get to the first lantern. This is made easier by hugging the left wall of this area, but you can tackle this any way you want. This first main area only has 1 notable loot piece, which is a twin shard in the very back that you can easily come back for after going past this glade and down the path to the lantern.

Yahargul, or the path to it, can be found on the right of the Vicar Amelia boss fight. HOWEVER, you can't actually access Yahargul from this path over here yet, and there are some hard enemies over here (this is the one part of the cathedral ward I didn't go to yet because I didn't want to bother trying right now) so I wouldn't recommend marching down here yet. It's about the right time to come down here if you want to between the time you have finished hemwick and the time you are going to try to do Yahargul.

Yahargul is..... obviously still a little too hard for us? because we are avoiding the kidnapper enemies right now. So again go to Hemwick.

And the Forbidden Woods cannot be accessed until you beat Vicar Amelia. So again. Go to Hemwick.

But first.... there are three things we must do in the next post. Two are quest lines and the third is just because I want to.

Speaking of, I forgot to mention this. The badge we got from the top of the tower? Ludwig's Holy Blade, Ludwig's Rifle, Fire Paper, and Bone Marrow Ash.

Fire paper = obviously useful
Bone Marrow Ash = gun does about 100 more damage for the next hit (it's a lot more the higher your bloodtinge is)
Ludwig's Rifle = okay gun with long range accuracy but crap reload
Ludwig's Holy Blade = good weapon to buff with an elemental gem but you really should not be focusing on arcane enough to make that worth it

Let us examine some more trophies .

Rune Master. I've got this one . 41.6% of players have gotten an extremely precious caryl rune, probably the one from oedon chapel.

The Source of the Dream. 38.8% <- I thought this would be a lot lower since it's easily missable? Anywho it seems 38.8% of people found this place as well.

Father Gascoigne <- Still sitting pretty at 68.2%

Cleric Beast <- Who are the 27.5% who have not done this? did they still get their $60 worth? There has to be at least one person out there who has beaten the game but never done the cleric beast right?

Blood Starved Beast and 1st chalice<- 58.2%. Joy oh joy we lost 10%.

Blood Gem Contact <- 70.1%, I still find it interesting that this is higher than Gascoigne. By A LOT when you consider that 1% of a million (this game has millions of players) is 10K.

Rune Contact <-- 59.1%. I get this one now .




^^ Those are the one Jack has gotten.


Out of the ones I can see the text for, I can guess at the following:

Over 70% of players haven't beaten the game.
4.9% of people have gotten the platinum.
50%, 15%, and 5% seem to be the trophy rarity cutoffs.