Bloodborne

[dubbs]

And he's down! Spent a bit of time leveling up and went back to him today.  Onwards and upwards!

[dubbs]

Rom down now too.  Fairly easy that one tbh.

[dubbs]

How hard it's Amygdala?  The swine took a few attempts , especially when he rips his arms off but managed to do it after several goes. 

[Chindie]

Not as hard as he is in the Cursed Defiled Chalice dungeon

[dubbs]

Gee thanks for that info,  although im not sure if I'll do the dungeons once I've finished the main game.   It's been infuriating as hell sometimes,  but you also get a huge sense of satisfaction when a boss goes down.  So you never know!!!

[dubbs]

Just got Moon Presence to defeat and im done - so apart from chalice dungeons.  Is it best to do the dungeons first or doesn't it matter?

[Chindie]

39 minutes ago, dubbs said:

Just got Moon Presence to defeat and im done - so apart from chalice dungeons.  Is it best to do the dungeons first or doesn't it matter?

Nice work.

Do them now if you're going to.

Also do the DLC if haven't already. It's really, really good. If you don't do it now you have to pay through to Amelia in NG+ as when the game ends it immediately puts you into a new run.

[Designer1]

14 hours ago, dubbs said:

Just got Moon Presence to defeat and im done - so apart from chalice dungeons.  Is it best to do the dungeons first or doesn't it matter?

Make sure you do the DLC. As @Chindie says, it's really good.

[dubbs]

I've not purchased the DLC yet, wasn't sure if it was worth it but the comments on here suggest it's worth getting. 

[Delphouneso]

Had this a while but finally got round to playing it this week. I like some things, I don't like some things.

I almost put the game down because I just couldn't take down Cleric Beast, must've taken 30 attempts to beat it and it wasn't even satisfying when I did because the whole episode felt like I was fighting the game with its janky camera angles and awkward hit boxes rather than fighting the boss. Nonetheless I persevered and next thing I know I've made light work of Father Gascoigne in 3 attempts (which should've been 1 or 2 if not for some fumbling with ammo conversion) and lo and behold it was challenging, but fair, enjoyable, satisfying..  just what I'd been promised. I guess me and the Cleric Beast just don't get along.

SInce then the game's kinda clicked, you pick up some quality of life improvements and combat mechanics the game doesn't tell you about (jump attacks have been a game changer for me, when they work), find some short cuts etc (actually more satisfying than beating a boss I think). But it's still got it's annoyances, the camera has yet to annoy me again quite like it did for Cleric Beast but it's still far from perfect, getting hit through walls/pillars/floors is never not going to be annoying, and there does seem to be a decent amount of luck/RNG involved. I don't know whether this is just how the game is now I'm out of the starter area but prior to Gascoigne I generally had more blood vials than I knew what to do with, and if I did run out there were reliable farm spots, since Gascoigne (up to Blood Starved Beast now) I've barely been dropped a single blood vial, and no ammo at all from enemies other than a stack hidden in a corner. I don't find that challenging so much as frustrating, when I finally get to a boss after fighting through an entire area to find I've no pots and have to go all the way back to buy some and go again, really disrupts the flow of the game.

As for Blood Starved Beast, nearly took it down first attempt and thought it would be a gimme after that, but it's proving a tad more difficult than that, mostly because it seems to have a disproportionately small hitbox. I've no problem dodging its attacks, get myself into great positions to strike, and then I can't hit the fecking thing, my attacks seem to just go straight through it half the time, which frustrates me so I get sloppy and it gets some hits in/poisons me. I'm only about 5 attempts in and I've not been using consumables either (like to save them until I feel I'm on a good one) so I've no doubt I'll get it soon, might even have a crack with the extended reach of the whip see if that helps.

 

Edit: Forgot to mention that sodding gattling gun with it's nonsensical LoS! And is that hunter (the ground level one not the big boy) by the church supposed to behave like that? Kept running at me then running away, then when I got him into melee he kinda just seemed to get stuck and didn't even try to hit back, felt like he was bugged out.

Edited December 17, 2020 by Delphouneso

[dubbs]

Your experience seems in line with most people's first attempt.   I put the game down when the Cleric Beast kept kicking my arse, but went back to it when lockdown started and found myself really enjoying it.  

 

Keep at it dude, and yes the lower level hunter is supposed to attack and run away - good hunting!

[Delphouneso]

Blood Starved Beast down. Made harder work of it than I should have but I kept getting poisoned going into the final phase which put me on the defensive and trying to use multiple items whilst fleeing from a hyper aggressive boss wasn't working out well for me. The game changer was accidentally discovering you can backstab/stun it during its transformation, which allowed me to get a visceral off going into the final phase meaning no poison and I only needed a couple of hits to finish it off. Was extra satisfying in the end because my successful attempt was such a clean run, didn't use any consumables and I think I only got hit once.

Didn't really know where to go from there so I wandered back to Cathedral Ward to see if I'd missed anything only to get killed by a new enemy and end up in prison, a lot of beating my head against a brick wall later and I gave in and googled the area to discover the general consensus is I should just run and leave that place, so I did.

Found a lift near the Cathedral lamp that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before, fell down a tower and died but clocked a door on my way down which piqued my interest, some very frustrating parkour and a few more falling deaths later and I'm now dressed like a doll.

Quick question: I'm playing offline, is there any use for Insight or is it just for summoning people online?

[Chindie]

48 minutes ago, Delphouneso said:

Blood Starved Beast down. Made harder work of it than I should have but I kept getting poisoned going into the final phase which put me on the defensive and trying to use multiple items whilst fleeing from a hyper aggressive boss wasn't working out well for me. The game changer was accidentally discovering you can backstab/stun it during its transformation, which allowed me to get a visceral off going into the final phase meaning no poison and I only needed a couple of hits to finish it off. Was extra satisfying in the end because my successful attempt was such a clean run, didn't use any consumables and I think I only got hit once.

Didn't really know where to go from there so I wandered back to Cathedral Ward to see if I'd missed anything only to get killed by a new enemy and end up in prison, a lot of beating my head against a brick wall later and I gave in and googled the area to discover the general consensus is I should just run and leave that place, so I did.

Found a lift near the Cathedral lamp that I'm pretty sure wasn't there before, fell down a tower and died but clocked a door on my way down which piqued my interest, some very frustrating parkour and a few more falling deaths later and I'm now dressed like a doll.

Quick question: I'm playing offline, is there any use for Insight or is it just for summoning people online?

You unlock a shop that uses insight as currency.

It has another 'use' but it's best to notice that yourself as you go through the game.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Chindie

[Delphouneso]

Amelia, Witch of Hemwick, and Shadows of Yharnam down. 

Man Amelia pissed me off. Fight felt like a carbon copy of BSB, only with all the camera wrestling and furry leg hacking unpredictability of the Cleric Beast. I kept getting sort of stuck on her legs, when she wriggles about the back of her legs interrupt your attacks and I kept getting stuck in a series of push-back animations. Glad that one's over The other two were a piece of piss, although the areas leading to both were a bit annoying. And I lost 100k echoes when I went AFK near the Forest lantern forgetting there's a pair of crows there.

Still not really sure where I sit with this game, I think I'm enjoying it? The art style isn't my thing, there's no real story to speak of, the environments are mostly a bunch of copy paste, it's intentionally infuriating, and at times a bit buggy. But I keep playing it, and it's kinda giving me that nostalgia hit of playing a good MMO.

[Delphouneso]

Every time I start to enjoy this game it does something to annoy me. What on earth is Darkbeast Paarl? Luckily - despite my intitial fears - it's not a difficult fight, but man is it an awkward mess. And that whole area leading up to it with the bell ringers and the giant laser beams, hopefully that's not the direction the rest of the game is heading because running around manically looking for one enemy whilst being chased by half the map, being shot through walls and round corners by magic bullets, and trying to avoid being zapped by a giant laser is not my idea of fun, not even in this game.

[Delphouneso]

Do people Google a lot of stuff whilst playing this game? I ask cause I generally like to play games blind, I feel like I get the best experience that way, and then I'll maybe google stuff on a second playthrough to make sure I don't miss too much. But with Bloodborne I'm starting to feel like I'm missing out on a lot by playing blind.

I Youtube every boss after I've beaten them cause I like to see how it's 'supposed' to be done, whether I missed any weaknesses or clever strategies - as a side note it's genuinely surprising how many of these 'how to' boss guides are just people eating hits and chugging vials, and even more surprising that it works - but outside of that I've been playing blind, up until Rom the spider thing. I must've spent close to half an hour fannying around at Byrgenwerth, I was convinced there must be a boss because there was a summoning point, I ran everywhere, I went through every item in my inventory trying to find something that might summon a boss, I panicked that maybe the old guy in the chair was the boss and I killed him rather than using an item on/near him, I even took a peek over the edge looking for something to drop down on, until I gave in and looked it up to discover you have to jump in the sea. You know, that thing that kills you instantly anywhere else in the game.

And it got me thinking, surely I'm not in the minority in not being able to find Rom? And if I can nearly miss what - as far as I can tell considering it teleports you to Yahar-gul after - is not an optional boss, what else have I missed? I mean there's so many items in my inventory that I've got no idea of their purpose I wouldn't be surprised if I've missed a boss or two.

Edited December 22, 2020 by Delphouneso
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[Chindie]

On a blind playthrough of all the Soulsborne games you'll miss stuff. There's some very obscure stuff in each game. Dark Souls 3 has a whole ending that requires you to do specific things at specific times (which I somehow managed to fluke doing in my first run). Bloodborne has less I think, but there's 'quests', storylines, an optional area, a few bosses, and an ending that you can miss pretty easily.

[Delphouneso]

I'm not really sure what point of the game I'm at but I've seen people mention doing the DLC before finishing the game, is it quite clear when you're at that point? Seems like a silly question because nothing is clear, obviously. Also seems odd to be trying to avoid spoilers when I have absolutely no idea what's going on story-wise in this game. Nonetheless I've beaten the following: Cleric Beast, Gascoigne, BSB, Amelia, WoH, Shadows, Rom, Paarl, One Reborn, and Micolash. Should I be thinking about the DLC yet? There are definitely a couple of areas I haven't explored, there's locked door at the top of the cathedral tower (although I think I have the key for that now), the area before I got ported to Micolash island, and there's loads of items/keys I have that I haven't used, plus boss names I've seen in this thread that I haven't encountered.

Saying that how do I even access the DLC? Fairly certain I have it seen as I bought the GOTY edition, does it just appear at a headstone in the HD when I'm 'ready'?

Edit: I've done zero chalice dungeons either, should I do those before the DLC? I feel like I'm maybe underlevelled a bit as well cause I've not done any farming really, I watched a video of the One Reborn after beating it and the guy mentioned having like 40+ Vit, I think I'm at 28.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Delphouneso

[Chindie]

The DLC generally gets recommended at level 65+ because it's pretty tough difficulty wise, above even the end game of the main game.

You can access it at any point after Amelia. You need an item, the eye of a blood drunk Hunter, which appears in the Hunters Dream if you have the DLC, next to the doll. Once you have that head to Cathedral Ward.

Spoiler

You need to head to the left, to the small courtyard with gravestones. Stand next to the corpse next to the fence and wait. You'll be taken to the DLC.

After that in the Dream a gravestone next to the workshop entrance in the side by the Chalice Dungeons will warp you back to the DLC like any other area.

Chalice Dungeons is hard to say. You can kinda do them whenever but they do get difficult - I've never been able to finish the 'canonical' dungeons because of the cursed and defiled one being bullshit. But generally they're decent for a few easy levels and they do somewhat tie in to the story (there's a couple unique bosses iirc).

[Delphouneso]

Cheers @Chindie, turns out the eye of a blood drunk hunter was already in my inventory, like I said, don't know what half the stuff I've got does. Also turns out i'd already been to Upper Cathedral Ward, somehow managed to erase that from my memory, but I guess I didn't have the key for the gate back then. Took down Emmissary who potentially receives the easiest boss award, tied with WoH maybe? And Ebretias, who also should've gone down first time but for the one shot laser attack that it suddenly pulled out at 10% HP. Maybe I just play better after a few festive beers.