Bloodborne general discussion

>are blunt attacks just attacks that aren’t thrusts
A physical attack that isn't blunt or thrust deals generic physical damage. I'll call this "slashing" for convenience, but it also includes things like barehand punches. LHB's one-handed form does slashing damage, while the tricked form does blunt damage. Enemies have separate defense values for each of slash/blunt/thrust.

>You mean attacks that splat enemy’s or attacks that stagger heavily?
Anything that knocks enemies around or interrupts their attacks, blunt weapons excel at both. Splatting enemies is an especially satisfying example.

>righteous
Best way I can explain righteous is anti-Cainhurst damage. The only enemy you can encounter outside of Cainhurst and Chalice dungeons that is weak to righteous is the giant tick enemies in the DLC, and they are of course native to Cainhurst. Cainhurst dudes are vaguely vampires or something, I dunno.

>interrupts attacks
Does splat give you enough time to get another hit in? Also does Ludwig’s holy blade 2 handed form R2 do splat on any enemy’s?

Also Paul Allen saw your bloodborne comment on matosis vid and man, didn’t expect to see you weren’t that big of a fan of the combat lol. I think the combat is good for what it is.

>Does splat give you enough time to get another hit in?
Normally yes, but some scenarios maybe not.

>does Ludwig’s holy blade 2 handed form R2 do splat
The first R2 doesn't, the second R2 does.

>R2
Sorry I meant L2!

weapon recommendation: check out the Amygdalan Arm if you have enough Strength. with most of the cool weapons it's obvious that they're cool but Amygdalan Arm is a grower-- it might seem unexciting at first but it's actually really fun and powerful. it has one of the best transformation attacks in the game-- the one from the untransformed mode into the scythe, it's a scythe swing that comes out ridiculously quick (quicker than the scythe mode's R1's). it also has one of the best R2 attacks in the game-- crazy range and hits multiple times (which you if you don't move your character it'll attack by itself again, it'll do it twice if you do a full charged R2). the scythe mode is my favorite scythe in the game, its attacks are extremely horizontal. even the untransformed mode is decent, it's a pretty quick club for how hard it hits, but how i mostly use it is by constantly switching back to its untransformed mode (not with the transformation attack because that one's quite slow) after i'm done attacking with the scythe to take advantage of the transformation scythe attack as much as possible.

>L2
I'm pretty sure it splats in some situations, but I don't recall offhand and the only savefile I've got going at the moment is a Bloodtinge build spamming guns, so that character can't even equip LHB.

Omar:
>my thought on combat
Yeah, it's decent for what it is. It's not very deep, nor complex. It's fundamentally about positioning and spacing with stamina + items and rpg elements. It's fine in Bloodborne, but I don't want every single action game to play like fucking Bloodborne.

I've revisited the game and here are my thoughts so far:

While playing I tried to stay low lvl and upgrade weapons sporadically in-order to force more creative solution. I've picked up class with highest Arcane, died, cane+pistol. Went back to clinic to do Werewolf skip to Forbidden Woods to see if you can open door from Cathedral Ward form the otherside - you fucking can't. Grabbed invatition to Cainhurst and Beast Roar along the way.

Proceed to Yarhnam as usual, killed Elieen by RO her with Beast Roar and then comming down to throw Pungent Blood Cocktail for rats to finish the job. Not enough echos for Blade of Mercy, so I stuck with the Cane.

R2 is all you need. Great reach, thrust dmg and interupts enemies that don't stun with light attacks. I don't even bother with changing to whip for serrated dmg, since it's a joke.

Molotovs are great dmg tool and even crowd control tool early. If enemies are crowded together it can even hit 3 at once. Combined with oil urnes, they make quick work with Gascoigne and with music box he doesn't even have a chance do anything in his beast phase.

After messing around with unupgraded cane in Forbidden Woods to see how far I could go (it wasn't bad, first boss shadows of yharnam NUR perhaps?), I finally got enough echo for Blade of Mercy.

Terrible weapon. Awful, short reach. No bolt or fire paper, beause it already has arcane dmg (which isn't high). Transform state is absolute garbage, while it's quicker, the first two hits do miserable dmg and it practically useless against enemies that don't stun form light attacks. it even bounces off wooden shields! Guess, they made this trash for pvp. Decided to stick with R2 for this weapon also.

When I got to the Cathedral Ward, I've realized that enemies don't have all that much tracking - positive suprise. There are large amout of enemies' attacks that can be walked to the side, which give perfect opportunity for charged R2 backstab. Church giants are the funniest. When you're upclose all you have to do is walk left to avoid their attacks. Though, I like exposed bone weaks spot.

Enemy AI is fucking stupid too. It's so easy to bait attack by walking around their attack range area and then doing few steps back to whiff punish them. They're not very agressive too. The way they slowly walk toward you and they enter passive mode when you put some distance. They're very exploitable. People consider this one of the hardest games there are?

>came whip form
I mainly use the Cain whip form for crowd control since it’s very good at that, and it’s just so cool in general. The transformation attacks are also really good try them.

>blade of mercy
Very disappoint yeah. Only thing I like abt it is the L2 attack but that’s it. Very boring weapon otherwise.

>hardest game ever made
I’d say the challenge is fine. Not piss easy nor hard as balls, more so in the middle.

>Enemy AI
Something I do like about the AI though is how you can bait them into a parry by attacking them which will make them do an attack back which allows for a EASY parry. Really cool tech.

>hardest games out there
I've played enough classic arcade games to know not to take people seriously when they say some modern console game is mega hard, lol. Bloodborne is probably the hardest FromSoft game, to be fair.

>stay low level
If you want hard, do a dreamless run. You even get a slightly different cutscene as a reward :^)

>Threaded Cane
The whip form's insane reach, apart from crowd control, is also good for attacking enemies without letting them get close enough to attack you. Cane is one of the more defensive weapons in that way.

>Blade of Mercy
Blade of Mercy is one of my favorite weapons, both fun and effective. BoM revolves around its powerful evade atttacks. That includes running, backstep, roll, and quickstep. It's not unusual to OHKO random mooks with these attacks, they are the meat and potatoes of BoM's combat. You aren't supposed to attack a shield head-on with this weapon, you're meant to quickstep around and attack from the side/back.

It's standing R1s fill a different niche. In the untricked form, standing R1s deal subpar damage but are the fastest of any weapon and tied with Beast Claw for lowest stamina cost. Their function is safe, fast filler attacks that can easily combo to and from your evade attacks. In the tricked form, the standing R1 is a specialized combo. The first 3 hits are slow and weak, unsuitable for normal use. After the first three hits, the damage and speed both rocket up, and the combo becomes one of the most damaging attacks in the game, shredding lifebars. The example that sticks in my mind is wiping out a third of Ludwig's life in one R1 string, and it would have been more but I got interrupted by the cutscene.

Untricked form has the fastest charge R2 in the game, a minor detail, but makes backstabs just that little bit easier. Tricked R2/L2 deal good damage and have some useful properties, but again, their role is to supplement your evade attacks.

Omar:
>crowd control
I tend to wait for enemies untill they separate or throw a pebble to aggro one of them - it makes the game feel more like a stealth game than action game in this regard hah. Alternatively I parry one of them, not only parry animation has I-frames, but it pushes surrounding enemies a bit, or I throw molotovs (sidenote: have the lore guys made video about soviet foregin minister's existance in a game?).

In Old Yharnam , I also found Hunter's torch and Flamesprayer to be effective. Flamesprayer is great at dealing dmg with Arcane build and has wide spread, but the flames don't stun, so you still have to space yourself out.

Torch is interesting. It repels beasts (doesn't work on the veild ones tho) making it good crowd control. It even work when you have your weapon in two hands. It looks funny when your unlit torch on the back still makes beasts frightened. You can even switch to different firearm and beasts will stay in this state for a while.  

It also has nice reach and B scaling in Arcane.

>challenge
I feel the game is rather easy to optimize. AI is very abusable and it depends on how prepared you're. Maps' layouts and geometry generally work in players favour and you can use it in a many instances to win a fight before it starts. You can gather a lot of upgrade materials early on. It's one of those games that are only as hard as you make it for yourself imo.


Rorc:

>hardest FromSoft game
I don't think main game is too hard. DLC certainly ups the difficulty. Later chalice dungeons are adequate for that title for sure.  I found Elden Ring to be the hardest, mainly due to how the game's bosses exploit player weaknesses, but on the other hand, game has alot of ways to trivialize its challenge, so a lot it depends on playstyle.

>dreamless run
It's no-death run of sorts?

>Blade of Mercy
It grew on me a bit. I've been mainly using it as backstabing tool. It feels good to use against beast in Old Yharnam. Transformed slashes are quite wide so it's possible to catch several enemies, especially with R2 and L2 adds that evasiveness. Haven't explored quickstep attacks all that much, as I loosely imposed on myself challenge of avoiding quickstep and using spacing and positioning to avoid attacks as much as I can.


With correct gems, tricked form can be good at applying status affect due to its speed, no?

>It's no-death run of sorts?
No Hunter's Dream. So no deaths, no upgrades, no shop, and no item storage. The mark of a successful run is when you enter the Hunter's Dream for the first time and the intro cutscene plays, the workshop will be on fire during the cutscene, because Mergo's Wet Nurse is dead.

>tricked form can be good at applying status affect
Yes, BUT the only status effects to speak of are slow/rapid poison, and most bosses have 999 resistance against both. Micolash and Mergo's Wet Nurse are the two exceptions I can remember offhand, both die pretty easily to poison. There's also Beasthood, but Beasthood favors damage-per-hit and R2/L2 attacks to fill the meter, so Blade of Mercy isn't the greatest at maximizing it.

Ludwig is pretty fun but the camera is ASS.

Defeated Ludwig and am at Maria now, Ludwig was a REALLY good boss with my only big issue being the scripted nature of his second phase when it comes to being open to visceral attacks, other than that had a lot of fun(took me 3 days to beat him). The research lab was GREAT, love the geometry of the level and look of it and it was pretty decent story wise(for whoever cares about that). On a replay I may spam ringouts and I just love the idea of ascending a clock tower, just badass and intense. The living failures were a very mediocre boss though.

I've beaten Bloodstarved Beast without using dodge. It was fun and not too hard. The key was staying agressive and using running to gain positional advantage, since so many of its attacks are linear. Once behind, I would go for a backstab. I also like when it goes to the next phase, you can go for free backstab if you position yourself correctly. Overall, it's a boss that fun to play with, that has really distinct weakness that can be exploited. I also love the weakness to fire and pugent blood cocktail,


Rorc:
>no item storage
Oh yeah right, items only refill after death, so it'll involve some item routing to not waste too much resources. It'll be rather curical due to inablity to upgrade weapons.

You also loose access to most firearms IIRC. How many firearms can you find on the map and let alone use? Not that many I think, assuming you can choose any class you want, you can only use rifle spear or flamesprayer.

Sounds like interesting run. Just wish it was easier to practice shit in this game, since having only one save file and having it to copy to usb drive and then storing it elsewhere is annoying.


>resistance
That fucking blows.

>BoM
Still mixed on the weapon. Feels great on the enemies that stun easily and attacks form evasion are great at gap closing. Enemies who don't flinch and have amrour on attacks annoy me however. They don't give you that much opportunity to use to use tricked version to its full strenght and I always end up just backstabing them, because it's the most efficient solution.

Also, I've noticed that hairy dudes before Tomb of Odeon flinch from light attacks, but the same enemy in Forrbiden woods only flinch from R2 attacks. Same deal with brick guys in Yarhnam, they can be CH with R2, but in Hemwick, they can't interrupt them at all. It seems that they way that the game ups the challenge is by making enemies less interactive.

>blood starved beast
A really cool boss yeah. Also love he/her/them design a lot.

>BoM
I never really liked it since it always felt bad to use. My main weapons now are: Ludwig’s holy sword due to its staggering and damages potential(the L2 attacks are baller) and it also has a great thrust attack, whirligig saw since I love the saw so damn much and it’s moveset outside of L2 is fun(like the charge move especially since it splats enemy’s) and church pick due to its versatility and me actually loving both forms of it and not just one being cool and the other being lame(whirligig saw base form is a generic club with nothing that stands out and lidwigs holy blade base for is better than the saws but still not fantastic). Threaded cane I stopped using but it’s fine to use mid game.

>How many firearms can you find on the map and let alone use?
You can use Saw Spear, Tonitrus, Wooden Shield, the Torches, and Flamesprayer. Possibly I'm forgetting something, but most of the run is Saw Spear and consumables and a lot of running past enemies. Rifle Spear tragically requires 1 stat point more than any class starts with.

>ups the challenge by making enemies less interactive
FWIW they still have varying amounts of poise depending on which attack they're doing, it's just a greater baseline number. The big weapons like LHB will smash through the poise regardless and not notice the difference, while smaller weapons will have limited options for poise-breaking. BoM's tricked R1 combo is surprisingly good at stunning enemies, but only after it gets up to full speed, so being daring with it can sometimes pay off.

>Ludwig was a REALLY good boss
The main bosses in the DLC are all awesome. Laurence is good too. Living Failures...well, they're arguably not the worst boss in the game, lol.

Beast cutter is insane holy shit….. also blood chunk farming SUCKS.

Church pick is also fantastic and is my favorite weapon in the game, the dlc weapons blow the base game weapons outta the water aside from Ludwig’s holy blade.

Yeah, I recommend leaving weapons at +6 unless you are really sure you wanna invest in them. There's a glitch to farm as many chunks as you want in the Research Hall, but you can only do it once per save since it uses the non-respawning crawly guys.

Lady Maria was fun but easy, once I used the hunter pistol she became a JOKE. Fishing hamlet is really cool so far though. Like the heavier emphasis on action game like encounters and there are some fun environmentals. Great visually too.

At the orphan, what are his weaknesses?

parries are the easiest way to win, he's weak against backstabs as well-- Augur of Ebrietas will make backstabs easier if you have it. you can study up on Ongbal's video for backstabs and excellent positioning in general:

Thanks, in general fishing hamlet was very good but my main issue is how short it was.

Lauren e is unironically the hardest boss in the game to me due to the camera.

Amelia is trash.

Bitch of Hemiwick is not that bad fight. It's not hard, but there is some crowd management with Mad Ones spawning. The witches themselves are a joke tho and you can avoid Mad ones entirely by having 0 insight.

Camera in Darkbeast Paarl fight is terrible. However, he's easy to loop by breaking his legs and doing it again as he recharges. Door that unlocks after beating him to Old Yharnam is fucking pointless.

You can only get to Dracula's castle after beating witch of Hemwick, at least I tried doing it before the boss and stagecoach wouldn't trigger, but it's still nice that you don't have to beat Amelia.

I've decided to start leveling up stamina while keeping the starting vitality level of 10. With low level, I can't really take full advantage of BoM.

Augur of Ebrietas is amazing.

>Paarl door
The requirement to befriend Djura is to encounter Paarl, then reach Djura's platform without him seeing you. The door behind Paarl is convenient for this, although you don't actually need to use it. Also lore reasons, yada yada.

>befriending Djura
So it's possible to do without beating Paarl? You just use blue elixir then and sprint to him? Somehow didn't think of it hah.

>Paarl door
Now that I think of it, by using you're avoiding necessity of going to Hunter's Dream, but I wish it was more convenient. For the Snatchers to appear you need to kill Bloodstarved Beast, so it's really redundant path of reaching Old Yharnam (unless you decide to do it late in the game). It would be so much better if you could get to Yahar'gul early without this requierment.

Also if you get killed by the Snatcher in Cathedral Ward, do you get teleported the Hunter's Dream or cell?

>So it's possible to do without beating Paarl?
You need to encounter Paarl, meaning get the Insight from entering the boss room. Don't need to kill it.

>snatcher teleport
You go to the cell the first time you die to one, it doesn't matter where as long as you're not in a Chalice dungeon.

The church pick is damn versatile I love it, wish more weapons were like it in the sense of both forms being fun. 2nd favorite weapon is saw whigig but mainly due to its L2, it’s regular attacks I’m not sure how to use them to their full potential.

Amygdala is a really cool boss but the camera is so trash man…… this chalice dungeon in general was fun though sort of. I wish they didn’t have chalice dungeons tho and instead put that time into relishing out the areas like cainhirst castle more which I thought was gonna be this fortress protected by traps and such to an insane degree like send fortress but in reality while the art is amazing there(love the hallway before you get to the queen) the encounters follow the generic “archer on high ground but instead they are small and are on stair cases for books and instead of fighting badass knight themed enemy’s in a knight theme castle you fight generic servants that look and are lame to fight” Schlick, the sirens were really cool I guess but easy as hell gameplay wise.

>Camera
Yeah, it's such a garbage. It annoys me that you can only run forward when locked-on, but when you run without lock-on, then camera re-centres to your back. Running is very strong in the game, but constantly having to re-adjust camera fucking sucks.

I think fishing hamlet is a pretty good location but it’s too short imo, but I always felt like it’s emphasis on more action gamey encounter design was not talked abt enough which is why I wish it was longer and full of more forced encounters with multiple ways to do them.

Fuck whoever thought it was a good idea to make having to get to go to chalice dungeons grindy as ducking hell

Finally got to the great ithyll phtumeru chalice.