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

[Bjorn]

After getting to Depth 3 dungeons last night, I can see why co-op would be useful though.  The difficulty spiked a bunch going from 2 to 3, and I'm guessing it will be similar going to 4.  The fight against Undead Giant v2 was actually really useful to me though.  A big problem I have with all the Souls games is having patience (see my repeated frustrations with the Martyr).  You would think after four games I would know this.  UGv2 had an attack that could one-shot me after his halfway point, which left me no option but to be careful and patient with approaching the battle.  A couple of my favorite fights have now happened in the Dungeons, I'm really warming up to them.

 

 

Things I learned last night:

 

1.  Illusory walls do exist!  But only in dungeons

2.  Worn out weapons do less damage.  I usually repair all my stuff every time I'm back in the garden, but I was farming some vials/bullets/echoes to restock (the Cannon chews through bullets!) and noticed that my damage rating on both my weapons had dropped ~40 points or so on my status screen. 

3.  Blood bullets stay on you when you warp from the Garden to a new location.  I usually just give myself 5 bullets right before the first enemy of an area, then attack to get most of that health back.  But if you're going into an area where that isn't easy, or you're sprinting for a boss, you can get the blood bullets, heal, grab a vial from your chest, and start an area with full vials, full health and full bullets. 

 

 

I went back to my Str build last night to mess around with the Wheel.  I want to like that weapon, I really do, because I've loved my big dumb strength builds in every Souls game.  But big, slow weapons just don't have a good role to play in Bloodborne.  Messing around with it, the Axe and the Tonitrus each at +6 with a 35 Str, there were just no advantages to the Wheel.  The Axe does slightly less damage, but it's range and diverse moveset completely make up for that.  And the Tonitrus has the same range, but is faster and does more damage when charged (plus has the bonus of hitting hard against physically resistant enemies). 

[Twig]

Last night I explored the forbidden forest for about an hour before I FINALLY found the fucking shortcut. Man that was nervewracking. I had over 40k souls at that point. And to top it all off, I decided it'd be a good idea to fight

 

that creepy dude who was eating a dead kid and wow he turned into a giant lightning beast thing what

 

I totes cheesed the fight, though. I initially just jumped off the roof hoping he'd follow me so I'd have more room to maneuver, but he didn't. So I ran all the way back up and... he couldn't fit into the door. Haha get fucked weirdo cannibal dude. I still almost died cause he had that ridiculous tornado attack thing after getting below half health. Buuuut he was weak to fire I guess so I launched all my molotovs at him ehehehe. Then I leap-attacked with my sword (oh I got ludwig's sword it's p boss) a couple times... and then shot him with my pistol a few times. Get fucked!

 

Also I spent like half an hour before all that trying to get through that stupid cave with the shitty lake and made it back

Iosefka's clinic and killed her I guess 'cause fuck her ehehe

 

Although I'm sort of curious now what would've happened if I'd sent lightning beast dude to Iosefka...

 

OH! Also I jumped into a chalice dungeon for the first time and killed Undead Giant. So... that's how far I am in there.

 

I have like 37 or 38 strength now. It doesn't seem to be capping out yet. I heard 40 is the max soft-cap for a stat? EDIT: Here it says 50?? That's gonna take a while. I might need to start pumping more into vitality, though... I have 15 right now and the spoiler-mentioned dude could almost one-shot me...

 

One thing I really really like about this game that I feel like no one talking about weapon variety ever makes a point to mention is that every weapon is a trick weapon with two separate modes. It really allows me to switch playstyles on the fly, even with a single weapon. I like it a lot.

[eot]

Iosefka's clinic and killed her I guess 'cause fuck her ehehe

 

Although I'm sort of curious now what would've happened if I'd sent lightning beast dude to Iosefka...

You dun fucked up

Potentially

[Bjorn]

You dun fucked up

Potentially

 

I'm guessing this isn't what he meant, but...

 

Most people probably kill the real Iosefka, because she's the blue alien thing by the clinic door (it drops her blood vial).  The choice is whether or not you kill the fake Iosefka.

 

 

Also, if you use the Forbidden Forest skip like I did with my third character, you can actually get to the clinic before the real Iosefka is replaced, and you can see her standing at the door.  You can't talk with her or interact at all, but she's there.

 

As near as I can tell, every blue alien in the clinic directly correlates to an actual NPC.  I sent one person there with my first character (the paranoid guy by the prostitute) and there was a blue alien in the clinic for that character that wasn't present for my second character, who sent that guy to the Church.

 

 

I have like 37 or 38 strength now. It doesn't seem to be capping out yet. I heard 40 is the max soft-cap for a stat? EDIT: Here it says 50?? That's gonna take a while. I might need to start pumping more into vitality, though... I have 15 right now and the spoiler-mentioned dude could almost one-shot me...

 

Yeah, 15 Vit is really low, you'll start getting one or two shotted by some stuff pretty soon. 

 

With the Trick weapon diversity, I tend to find myself spending the vast majority of my time in just one form, except for Ludwig's sword.  With my Arcane build I do find myself swapping back and forth a lot with it.

[Twig]

I killed both real and fake I guess. What did I fuck up? I mean I've fucked up like forty times already so it's whatever I'm already committed to this playthrough being the worst.

[pearceshea]

OK, so these are all huge spoilers, but this Kotaku UK article has, as far as I can tell, the most convincing and complete explanation of the game's story. Not sure if anyone is interested.

[Bjorn]

Oooops, I messed up the spoiler in my last post, fixed now.

 

 

I killed both real and fake I guess. What did I fuck up? I mean I've fucked up like forty times already so it's whatever I'm already committed to this playthrough being the worst.

 

I don't actually know, beyond that it changes which item drops. 

[Twig]

Well I got a sweet parry rune so I think I'm okay with that for now!

[eot]

BSB down on my lvl 4 run! I can tell this is going to get rough.

 

 

Oooops, I messed up the spoiler in my last post, fixed now.

 

I don't actually know, beyond that it changes which item drops. 

I was refering to one of the items you need for the secret ending, although there's some redundancy there.

[Griddlelol]

Did fast weapon rule in DS for PvP? I came across a guy using the mercy blade(s) with fast poison on them. I was dead before I knew what was happening. 

The whip with fast poison would be pretty decent too, I need to get them gems!

[Cbirdsong]

Iosefka: 

 

I didn't know she existed until last night when I was poking around the start area after using that poison shortcut. Seems like I accidentally sent the asshole guy from the Cathedral Ward there?

 

Shortly after finding the door right at the beginning of the game, I found my way around the back and into the clinic itself. There were two aliens, one dropped Iosefka's blood vial. After a few tries, I beat the lady (not actually her, if previous posts are any indication?) and got a rune that gives me +2 bullets after a visceral attack. Have I missed something I might need for the secret ending?

 

Also: What happens if you send the bandaged murderer-beast there?

[eot]

@Cbird

The item you need is called

Third Umbilical Chord

You need three in total and then to do something with them before a certain point (just read up on it when you think you're close to finishing the game). There are four in the game and as far as I know "Iosefka" can drop one if you kill her later on. The first two you can always get no matter what, the third one is also potentially missable.

[Bjorn]

Did fast weapon rule in DS for PvP? I came across a guy using the mercy blade(s) with fast poison on them. I was dead before I knew what was happening. 

The whip with fast poison would be pretty decent too, I need to get them gems!

Poise ruled DS1 PvP. With a high enough poise, it was next to impossible to interrupt someone's attack animation, so you could just swing through their attack and beat the crap out of them if they didn't have enough poise. After that, backstabs. Then fast weapons. DS2 radically changed poise so that it isn't nearly as useful. In my experience, no one weapon class or tactic ruled PvP in DS2 as much. At times there were certainly stupid OP stuff (dual Helix Halberds were like an iWin button).

If you're going to use a slower weapon in PvP in Bloodborne, I think stocking up on Lead Elixir is going to be a requirement. Similar to Poise in DS1, the Lead Elixir prevents you from being staggered (at the cost of some speed).

So I got past Byrgenwerth last night, and that whole thing is pretty neat! Not the boss so much, but afterwards.

And I found Eileen the Crow's final location (because I looked it up, I never would have found that on my own). So any tips for that duel? That guy demolished me three times, and I decided to go continue exploring instead of messing with him more right now. I got really close once, and got Visceraled by him

[eot]

He destroyed me a bunch of times, but when I finally killed him I barely took any damage. I used the thrusting attack on the untransformed Kirkhammer because it's fast and has good range. I'd wait until he was running at me and that was a way to consistently do damage without getting hit. Most of the time was just spent dodging around semi randomly to not get hit. I also did a few parries, but they're hard to get off. You can also cheese it:

Wait for him to the thing where his health starts ticking down and then run out of the building to the point where he stops chasing you.

[Griddlelol]

I'm thinking an arcane build would be the best, it'll let you use all those tools (the fast roll is pretty awesome), as well as the fact I doubt many people will be running around with arcane resist on their armor. 

[Bjorn]

He destroyed me a bunch of times, but when I finally killed him I barely took any damage. I used the thrusting attack on the untransformed Kirkhammer because it's fast and has good range. I'd wait until he was running at me and that was a way to consistently do damage without getting hit. Most of the time was just spent dodging around semi randomly to not get hit. I also did a few parries, but they're hard to get off. You can also cheese it:

Wait for him to the thing where his health starts ticking down and then run out of the building to the point where he stops chasing you.

 

Thanks! I suspect I just need to be more patient (like all the fights I find hard), and probably switch over to a faster weapon like the Kirk sword, as you suggested. The Axe is just a bit too easy to Visceral with how fast he shoots.

[Griddlelol]

I love that enemies can visceral attack the player. 

[eot]

I think the 2-handed L2 on the Axe can work too, because it also has fantastic range. It's harder to time though.

Those hunter fights are fun, but I think the damage they do should probably be tone downed slightly.

[Twig]

I beat the shadows! On to Byrgenworth we go!

 

Except I wanted to help some people kill them since I've been wanting to try co-op since Dark Souls 1 and never did except that one time I got help on Artorias!!! D:

 

But I sat there with the small resonant bell chiming for five minutes and nothing? Is that the right bell? Am I too high level (53) to help people? Do I need to run around in the whole area instead of sticking to just outside the boss area? That was sorta disappointing, nothing happening at all. ):

 

EDIT: Or could this be what people are talking about when they say online mode is borked if you use Rest Mode? I still see ghosts and messages all the time, but maybe those are the only things that work?

[Griddlelol]

It's pretty hard to find a coop partner I've found. I normally ring then go off and farm souls for something to do.

So I don't really like the chalice dungeons much. They're kinda boring, and they rarely give you enough mats with one run through to then do the next level ritual, which really sucks. I wonder if there is some place in the main story you can farm the mats for rituals.

[Bjorn]

I have problems summoning help, but never have any problems getting summoned. Usually just takes a minute or two. I actually ended up calling my ISP and having them make some changes to my modem to get it from a Nat type 3 to a type 2, which has seemed to help. Usually you can do port forwarding off your home router, but I run on a fixed point wireless broadband and that's a bit different.

I haven't had any problems getting mats from dungeons, ive Ade it through depth 3 pthumera. I have scoured every inch for hidden doors though, without that I might not get enough.

@twig, you should expire the hypogean gaol before byrgenworth.

[Twig]

Oh yeah I forgot I have that place to explore, too. Yeah I'll do that first.

 

Well first first I'm gonna try port forwarding? I didn't realize that's a thing I'd have to do with consoles. Humph. Oh well, at least I'm familiar with the process.

[Twig]

Yeah either restarting my PS4 fixed it or port forwarding fixed it or I was massively unlucky last night. I just did a whole bunch of co-op.

 

It's immensely and amusingly embarrassing to join someone's game, run into the boss room, and immediately die to the first attack. I knew it decreased your health pool, but not by half. But I helped four people beat the boss to completion! So yay me!

 

I spent all my echoes on buying armor and weapons instead of leveling up for some reason. Also it's nice that dying when helping someone you get to keep your echoes. Hah. There were a bunch of invasions, too, but I guess they didn't have a chance to find us before we got into the boss.

 

Anyway those shadows are super easy with more than one person holy crap.

[eot]

Yay, I killed the Shadows on my lvl4 run. Reminds me a bit of the Throne Watcher / Defender fight, but a lot more forgiving. So far the hunters are worse than the bosses, I've had to employ some creative cheese strategies:

In Nightmare Frontier I let the two hunters chase me into the poison and waited for that to kill them! Whatever works, right?

[osmosisch]

Holy Moly

Ebrietas

was almost Ancient Dragon levels of unenjoyable for me. Took like twenty tries, had to go farm for vials several times. At least she's down now.