BloodBorne - Might be the game that make me buy a PS4

[mnewsham]

From my understanding, more frequent but not any better.

yes quantity not quality. Though if your chances of getting a drop go up, so do your chances of getting that rare drop. So it works out, I end up selling most of what I collect (blood stone shards, bloodvials, quicksilver bullets) for blood echoes to level up, the rare times I get something I can actually use (blood stone chunks mainly) I keep and use for upgrades.


I also seem to find bolt paper and fire paper somewhat regularly so that I always have a steady supply for bosses and such.

 

[Rage187]

How are your item drops? I know the arcane skill influences discovery which in turn is how often you get a drop from an enemy. Since my Arcane is fairly high I have been getting bloodstone shards, twin shards, as well as bloodvials and quicksilver bullets. I usually end up filling my storage of both bloodvials and quicksilver bullets fairly quickly and end up selling a good number of them to the shop just so I can keep looting more without it yelling at me that my storage is full. at one point i had over 350 blood stone shards that I sold about 300 of just because I didnt need any and it only takes 16 to upgrade a weapon to +3 anyway.

Also what runes are you using?

I am level 104

Vitality 35
Endurance 33
Strength 20
Skill 20
Bloodtinge 5
Arcane 40

Using the following runes
Clockwise metamorphosis +10% HP
Anti-clockwise metamorphosis +10% stamina
Lake +3% physical defence

Though if I am specifically grinding for levels I will switch one of the runes out for the Moon rune which gives an increase to blood echoes dropped by enemies.

An upgraded Moon for even more echoes
10% HP
15% stamina
Continue to heal near death +1

The last one is because I joined the queens coven.


I get amazing drops. Occasionally, I'm maxed on bullets and vials 90% of the time and I have some crazy gems, like +20.6% more physical damage.

Using a +10 Holy Sword

 

[sze5003]

I almost fainted when I racked up 15k echoes and then put the system in rest mode to eat dinner. I came back and turned it on and I was right where I left it, in hunters dream but a pop up came up and said lost connection to servers returning to title screen.

Luckily when I got back in the game the echoes were still there. I got to level 36 or I may be 34 now, not sure.

Is the blood beast in the room with a huge steak with something hanging on it? That's as far as I've got after avoiding the one hunter by the tower and going past the wood bridge area to the left of the tower ladder.

If this boss is optional, how do you get to the grand cathedral without buying a key?

 

[Demo24]

Yea I've got about 8 insight and a bunch of madman's knowledge which you can use to turn into insight. You use that to summon NPC characters to help you with bosses. I still have not gotten the small bell that calls other players to help out. The more insight you have, I hear the harder enemies can get.

I see, well I've yet to do it. I kinda like soloing them. I believe that bell is in the insight shop, little surprised you don't have 10+ yet. Either way just use some knowledge to get access. The insight difficulty increase has been mostly debunked, it seems to add in some random stuff here and there but not necessarily increase the game in difficulty as your insight goes up. There's no issue going to 10 BTW.

I almost fainted when I racked up 15k echoes and then put the system in rest mode to eat dinner. I came back and turned it on and I was right where I left it, in hunters dream but a pop up came up and said lost connection to servers returning to title screen.

Luckily when I got back in the game the echoes were still there. I got to level 36 or I may be 34 now, not sure.

Is the blood beast in the room with a huge steak with something hanging on it? That's as far as I've got after avoiding the one hunter by the tower and going past the wood bridge area to the left of the tower ladder.

If this boss is optional, how do you get to the grand cathedral without buying a key?

No, you'll know it cause it basically all leads down to

Spoiler

the valley with a bunch of fire to the church, which loads the boss right as you cross the threshold

. I think I know where you are, and you've still a decent bit to go before getting to that boss.


Ended up with a good amount of time to play it this weekend and explored all over. Found the next 2 bosses, and a woman of the night :sneaky: . I think I'm level 44 now. Not sure what I did to trigger it but

Spoiler

I died and got transported to yahar'gul. Which was loads of fun!

. Really really loving this game, a lot more than I thought I would. If I could take a couple days off work I would.

 

[sze5003]

http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2015...pdate-reduce-load-times-optimise-performance/

Nice glad the load tomes will be addressed. Will make leveling up more bearable as well as dying.

 

[Fulle]

Been thinking about this for a bit now, and I'm certain that Bloodborne would be more fun if From Software hated the players a little less.

As an example, to beat most bosses it takes a couple of attempts. You're expected to die a few times, in fact. You need to learn what the boss does in different phases, learn its movement patterns a bit, adjust your strategy, and try again. That's cool, I personally have less fun if I can just walk in and kick a boss' butt on the first attempt... BUT, if that's what the devs expect to happen, then WHY do they put the lanterns INSIDE the boss mist, instead of just outside of it? That means they're INTENTIONALLY making you drudge through trash mobs on the way back to the fight.

This is just unnecessary dickary, and it's present throughout the whole game design. Want to reset the zone so you can farm some more echos? Lol, no. From wants you to go back to the hunter's dream, then back to the lantern. Want to go to another lantern? Nah, you gotta go to the dream, then the other lantern. The starter armor you can buy with echos? Decent poison res, but defense stats overall worse than the sewer armor against the stuff you fight around Central Yharnam. Then you get the Sewer Amor, with decent res against most of the central yharam stuff, but crap poison res, and then they give you the first mob that poisons you.

A few times with this stuff, and I'm like "eh, maybe it's not intentional dickary, maybe that was a coincidence", then further in, I'm telling myself "Nope, intentional dickary. From hates us. They totally did that on purpose."

Then they'll randomly do something nice, like start giving me antidote drops before a boss mob that poisons. And I'm left confused, thinking to myself "the guy that designed that part of the level must be new to the company or something."

Then there's the multiplayer. Seriously, why do they hate us so much? We gave them money! It's ridiculous. Insight is rare early on, so having a newer player have to spend insight points to play with their friends is stupid. Also stupid? Needing 11 to buy a bell. Also also stupid? Having insight get used up by connection drops.

As far as a lot of the rest of it goes, I'm totally digging the game. Combat mechanics are pretty tight, the level design is great, and it feels like they deliberately placed every single mob. The boss fights have been great so far, and with some of the early bosses they seem to intend to teach you things about the game.

So it's an awesome game marred by, "Lol, we started you with such crap vitality half the mobs 1 shot you!" That's not "difficulty". That's the devs being jerks.

 

[sze5003]

Been thinking about this for a bit now, and I'm certain that Bloodborne would be more fun if From Software hated the players a little less.

As an example, to beat most bosses it takes a couple of attempts. You're expected to die a few times, in fact. You need to learn what the boss does in different phases, learn its movement patterns a bit, adjust your strategy, and try again. That's cool, I personally have less fun if I can just walk in and kick a boss' butt on the first attempt... BUT, if that's what the devs expect to happen, then WHY do they put the lanterns INSIDE the boss mist, instead of just outside of it? That means they're INTENTIONALLY making you drudge through trash mobs on the way back to the fight.

This is just unnecessary dickary, and it's present throughout the whole game design. Want to reset the zone so you can farm some more echos? Lol, no. From wants you to go back to the hunter's dream, then back to the lantern. Want to go to another lantern? Nah, you gotta go to the dream, then the other lantern. The starter armor you can buy with echos? Decent poison res, but defense stats overall worse than the sewer armor against the stuff you fight around Central Yharnam. Then you get the Sewer Amor, with decent res against most of the central yharam stuff, but crap poison res, and then they give you the first mob that poisons you.

A few times with this stuff, and I'm like "eh, maybe it's not intentional dickary, maybe that was a coincidence", then further in, I'm telling myself "Nope, intentional dickary. From hates us. They totally did that on purpose."

Then they'll randomly do something nice, like start giving me antidote drops before a boss mob that poisons. And I'm left confused, thinking to myself "the guy that designed that part of the level must be new to the company or something."

Then there's the multiplayer. Seriously, why do they hate us so much? We gave them money! It's ridiculous. Insight is rare early on, so having a newer player have to spend insight points to play with their friends is stupid. Also stupid? Needing 11 to buy a bell. Also also stupid? Having insight get used up by connection drops.

As far as a lot of the rest of it goes, I'm totally digging the game. Combat mechanics are pretty tight, the level design is great, and it feels like they deliberately placed every single mob. The boss fights have been great so far, and with some of the early bosses they seem to intend to teach you things about the game.

So it's an awesome game marred by, "Lol, we started you with such crap vitality half the mobs 1 shot you!" That's not "difficulty". That's the devs being jerks.

I totally understand the lamp and hunter dream thing. Its so annoying to farm and go through the loading screens. Hopefully this next patch will help. I still have not got that small bell to ask other players for help.

I've got 8 insight and about 4-5 madman's knowledge that I haven't converted over.

As for the lamps being inside the boss area, I think they designed it like that so you can open up shortcuts to the boss. Which can be tough some times if you are constantly wondering what's going to happen around every corner but you get used to it.

One thing I don't like is the weapon stats, well at least for my weapon. I don't like using the Axe, I'm a skill based player so I use my cane and even with some upgrades it still doesn't do as much damage as I would like. The saw spear is alright but I can't get used to anything else that doesn't move as quick as that cane. I feel like there should be something better. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough yet. Still need to make my way to the blood beast.

 

[Fulle]

I totally understand the lamp and hunter dream thing. Its so annoying to farm and go through the loading screens. Hopefully this next patch will help. I still have not got that small bell to ask other players for help.

I've got 8 insight and about 4-5 madman's knowledge that I haven't converted over.

As for the lamps being inside the boss area, I think they designed it like that so you can open up shortcuts to the boss. Which can be tough some times if you are constantly wondering what's going to happen around every corner but you get used to it.

One thing I don't like is the weapon stats, well at least for my weapon. I don't like using the Axe, I'm a skill based player so I use my cane and even with some upgrades it still doesn't do as much damage as I would like. The saw spear is alright but I can't get used to anything else that doesn't move as quick as that cane. I feel like there should be something better. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough yet. Still need to make my way to the blood beast.

Yeah, fully exploring the area and opening up shortcuts definitely helps. But even with the shortcuts found, there's a very intentional "walk of shame" for the boss fights, that I'm not sure I agree with, considering the bosses are built in a way where they expect you to die to them at least once while learning the fight.

I'm at a similar part of the game as you are, actually. In Old Yharnam I found 3 notable items. There's a Rifle Spear, a Fire Resistance Armor set, and a Hunter torch. The Rifle Spear has really good reach on it's transformed R2, and its skill scaling, so maybe you'll like that. The skill scaling is bad tho (D until +5 where it's C). The Cane is currently my favorite weapon still, because the non-transformed form is fast and uses very little stamina, it has B skill scaling at only +3, and it's whip form has good distance and crowd control. I keep trying to switch to other weapons, and feeling like its a downgrade. The Hunter Torch goes in your offhand slot (where the guns are) and causes some of the beasts to cower a little and cover their eyes.... doesn't work on ones with hoods.

Good luck on BSB. Fought em' at a friend's house (because he's incompetent), and it wasn't that bad. Seems like BSB's attack patterns all telegraph straight forward, so you just need to dodge forward and to the side. Forward and to the my left aka his right worked well. Causes em' to miss most of his attacks and puts you to his side or behind him, to deal damage without taking any back. He's a beast, so he's weak to fire, and you should be able to find some fire paper around Old Yharnam. Fire paper makes your weapon do fire damage for a little while. He seems to react to 'Pungent Blood Cocktail' and takes good damage from moltovs. Final form poisons you, but he only took 2 full combos from the kirkhammer sword+fire paper before going down, so I didn't really notice much on it. Was wearing Yharnam Hunter armor, but Garham's set might be slightly better for the situation. Haven't compared the poison res stats that closely, but Garham's might be slightly better, although it uses insight points to buy.

Going to be getting my own character to BSB probably tonight or tomorrow night. Hope it doesn't pull some BS and make me summon Alfred.

 

[Rage187]

Sadly, all the hard bosses show up as bosses at the end of chalice dungeons once you are further you are into the higher grade ones.

Also, the harder mini bosses from the earlier dungeons return and have become hallway fights. The old guy with the whip and the one with dual swords are just roaming around. They are about 50-75% easier than their boss form and it is cool they are reused. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something when I take them down again.

The chalice dungeons are huge in the higher grade unlocks. I've been lost in one for well over an hour before I broke out the shiny coins and used this to mark the ground in front of dead ends and round abouts. You should be able to find a rune that lets you see a trail of where you've been. With it slowly cooling over time.

 

[Demo24]

Sadly, all the hard bosses show up as bosses at the end of chalice dungeons once you are further you are into the higher grade ones.

Also, the harder mini bosses from the earlier dungeons return and have become hallway fights. The old guy with the whip and the one with dual swords are just roaming around. They are about 50-75% easier than their boss form and it is cool they are reused. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something when I take them down again.

The chalice dungeons are huge in the higher grade unlocks. I've been lost in one for well over an hour before I broke out the shiny coins and used this to mark the ground in front of dead ends and round abouts. You should be able to find a rune that lets you see a trail of where you've been. With it slowly cooling over time.

I'd been wondering when I would ever use those coins. I spent sometime going through some dungeons last night, but only depth 2 so I can easily get back to where I started. Wish I got more echoes though, apart from the occasional loot item, which is mostly for chalice related functions, there's not much down there apart from just something different. I got more echoes and useful loot stepping into yahargul streets (found a fun item to ) for like 10 mins, versus my hour+ in the dungeons. The boss fights are fun though since they vary quite a bit, and its nice that the lantern is often quite close to their entrance.


Its certainly a great game overall, but I can feel I'm areas some of it just seems designed to be detrimental to the player with no valid reason. The echoes retrieved thing annoys me when it darkens the whole screen.

 

[mnewsham]

The echoes retrieved thing annoys me when it darkens the whole screen.

This is actually a problem for me as well, when I just died with 100K+ blood echoes, do I really want to be weighing the pros vs. cons of picking up my dropped blood echoes? I find myself sometimes ignoring dropped echoes if it wasn't that much (under 50k), at least until I clear the area and can retrieve them safely. Or worse, if you drop them in a boss fight. I have to decide between trying to finish the boss, or try and get the blood echoes back because the boss is going to kill me anyway, at least I can try and save the blood echoes that I dropped before they are gone forever.

Would be nice if that black screen didn't pop up though, it would make running in grabbing the blood echoes, and then running back out without getting hit much easier. As it is, the black screen really hinders you.

 

[Demo24]

This is actually a problem for me as well, when I just died with 100K+ blood echoes, do I really want to be weighing the pros vs. cons of picking up my dropped blood echoes? I find myself sometimes ignoring dropped echoes if it wasn't that much (under 50k), at least until I clear the area and can retrieve them safely. Or worse, if you drop them in a boss fight. I have to decide between trying to finish the boss, or try and get the blood echoes back because the boss is going to kill me anyway, at least I can try and save the blood echoes that I dropped before they are gone forever.

Would be nice if that black screen didn't pop up though, it would make running in grabbing the blood echoes, and then running back out without getting hit much easier. As it is, the black screen really hinders you.

Yeah, I'm fine with the banner but not the darkened screen. Although I've upped my brightness (plasma in a sunny-ish room :\), and that makes it less of a problem. The biggest issue is really killing the enemy that has your echoes if it's in a mob.

 

[Rage187]

Beat the game tonight. "Good ending " apparently.

I was level 169. The last 4 bosses were nothing.


Ok, NG+ is crazy. Not because it is harder, but because you know where everything is. In a hour or so, I was all the way to the Forest.

 

[sze5003]

Beat the game tonight. "Good ending " apparently.

I was level 169. The last 4 bosses were nothing.


Ok, NG+ is crazy. Not because it is harder, but because you know where everything is. In a hour or so, I was all the way to the Forest.

Wow it didn't really take you that long I suppose. I still have a way to go so I can't see myself finishing it anytime soon.

 

[mnewsham]

Beat the game tonight. "Good ending " apparently.

I was level 169. The last 4 bosses were nothing.


Ok, NG+ is crazy. Not because it is harder, but because you know where everything is. In a hour or so, I was all the way to the Forest.

at level 169 you're certainly levelled enough for NG+ so i'm not surprised since this isn't your first play through. Will have to see when I get there, im still around 110 right now.

 

[Demo24]

Spent sometime in the actual story mode lastnight, got through 2 bosses (witch, Amelia) and then just started the forest. I guess I was a bit over level, around 50+, as they weren't any problem this go around. Took me awhile to figure out where to go next, plus I like to go back to the windows and talk to people again (their responses change sometimes). Also I seem to just be randomly gaining insight, up to 27 now. I have noticed a couple new attacks from some enemies, but its not any harder.

I guess I must be about 75% done? Probably play a lot this weekend so I may finish it, although I kinda don't want to yet!

 

[Fulle]

I was exploring the area around Hypogean Gaol trying to find the shortcuts, and accidentally walked literally almost standing on top of Darkbeast Paarl, when it stood up and scared the hell outta me! I was wearing some armor I found in the zone, which had weak arcane resistance (should have known better than to try on the set), and Paarl just basically destroyed me. Wasn't so much of a fight as much as me eating a lightning AOE and going down immediately.

The area seems great for farming some echoes at my level though. The 2 pigs are easy to kill, and drop a decent amount.

When I looked up info on the Darkbeast, people were saying that seeing it would make the gunner guy Djura non-hostile so long as I don't kill beasts. So I made my way to him, and sure enough, he shoots me right in the face, and I fall to my death off the tower. At that point I didn't care about the gesture, and just went back and killed him, and his little friend.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

yes quantity not quality. Though if your chances of getting a drop go up, so do your chances of getting that rare drop. So it works out, I end up selling most of what I collect (blood stone shards, bloodvials, quicksilver bullets) for blood echoes to level up, the rare times I get something I can actually use (blood stone chunks mainly) I keep and use for upgrades.


I also seem to find bolt paper and fire paper somewhat regularly so that I always have a steady supply for bosses and such.

Now that my discovery is much higher, I can say that item drops are in fact better. The irony is that blood vial farming is harder now. But I get twin blood stones about 10-20% of the time from wear wolves in the forbidden woods when it used to be a few blood vials.

 

[sze5003]

I was exploring the area around Hypogean Gaol trying to find the shortcuts, and accidentally walked literally almost standing on top of Darkbeast Paarl, when it stood up and scared the hell outta me! I was wearing some armor I found in the zone, which had weak arcane resistance (should have known better than to try on the set), and Paarl just basically destroyed me. Wasn't so much of a fight as much as me eating a lightning AOE and going down immediately.

The area seems great for farming some echoes at my level though. The 2 pigs are easy to kill, and drop a decent amount.

When I looked up info on the Darkbeast, people were saying that seeing it would make the gunner guy Djura non-hostile so long as I don't kill beasts. So I made my way to him, and sure enough, he shoots me right in the face, and I fall to my death off the tower. At that point I didn't care about the gesture, and just went back and killed him, and his little friend.

I think if you kill blood beast in that area and then go back, the tower guy becomes friendly. I haven't gotten to that optional boss yet.

Edit: I got the bloodbeast down to less than a 1/3 of health thanks to some firepaper I found and my antidotes. Got killed because my view was being blocked as I was rolling around the pillars. The cane in its normal form does good damage now that I've upgraded it with bloodgems. The whip portion is still about the same as before.

 

[Fulle]

Got side tracked taking out some other bosses, but got back to Darkbeast Paarl again. Henryk's armor was a good help, since it made it so the lightning AOE didn't kill me (think it does "bolt" damage, and Henryk's armor is high res to bolt). Had a pretty easy time of things, once I was prepared.

I got Henryk's armor unlocked by following the Eileen the Crow's quest chain.

Fully switched to Ludwig's Holy Blade now. I only switch to other weapons for flavor, but doing anything serious, Ludwig's is my new go to. Really versatile move-set, and great damage on it.

 

[Demo24]

I almost missed paarl until one of you mentioned it and I went back to find it.

Sadly I apparently didn't do Eileen in the right order and have missed henryk, and then had to skip the the end of her quest.

Trying to do logarius at the moment, and its not going well. Also annoying is how far away the lamp is from him.

Unless I need reach or regular damage, I've switched to the tonitrus cause that thing is amazing!

I spent a whole lot of time with it this weekend, knocked out a few bosses, and explored a few new areas. Kinda thought I'd finish it, but can't be much longer now.

 

[sze5003]

Anyone know where I'm suppose to go after blood borne beast? I opened up both shortcuts through the cathedral ward area. Avoided the death reapers and magic guy that steals insight. I also found a cave that leads to some wooden area but I wasn't sure if I was suppose to be there.

Made it to two huge double doors with guys that are wielding crosses. Not sure where I'm suppose to be.

 

[Demo24]

Anyone know where I'm suppose to go after blood borne beast? I opened up both shortcuts through the cathedral ward area. Avoided the death reapers and magic guy that steals insight. I also found a cave that leads to some wooden area but I wasn't sure if I was suppose to be there.

Made it to two huge double doors with guys that are wielding crosses. Not sure where I'm suppose to be.

The wooded area becomes more relevant later, hint get a tonsil stone and then go back down there.

From your point where those cross guys are you've 3 choices: 1) go through the doors 2) go to the right and explore that (sounds like you might have already) 3) go to the left which has the most forward potential

 

[sze5003]

The wooded area becomes more relevant later, hint get a tonsil stone and then go back down there.

From your point where those cross guys are you've 3 choices: 1) go through the doors 2) go to the right and explore that (sounds like you might have already) 3) go to the left which has the most forward potential

To the right are two hunters. I got one of them the other one killed me.

 

[Demo24]

To the right are two hunters. I got one of them the other one killed me.

Yeah, when I first went down there I thought I had been invaded due to how the AI on those hunters acted. It's worth going through that area though.