Board 8 > So I am about to start Bloodborne

(+) Yeah! (+)

eh I will always try the normal route first
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Well yeah, when you try to cheese a boss, it won't help you get any better.
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The saw cleaver is like the best weapon to use against him anyway. Once you learn his patterns and how to dodge his attacks, the cleaver is so fast that you can easily punish the boss.

A tip for dodging (if you didn't already know): fight the urge to dodge backwards, quickstep toward enemies instead
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Papa G is a good place to practice and play around with parries. Parry cheese can obliterate him. YMMV on how fun that is, but it's worth doing at least once for how amusingly fast it can go.
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Cleric Beast beaten
died only once to him because he got me with a string of hits
had to get used to the camera
but in the end what worked was getting up right into his grill and hack/slashing to offset his damage
didnt even need the cocktails
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If you only died once you're better than you think
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CeraSeptem posted...

If you only died once you're better than you think

This

also, the lesson that cleric beast is supposed to teach is that sometimes you'll be much better off without locking on. Large beasts with wild movements tend to fuck with the camera.
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yes,

you are not bad at games
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Yeah, I died to Cleric Beast a ton, and that was with Souls experience.
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dont hype me up yet
I might die a ton to sir Gascoigne
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Most do. Guy's responsible for a ton of people quitting the game.
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The struggle must be happening now...
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htaeD posted...

dont hype me up yet
I might die a ton to sir Gascoigne

oh, it's not just that you beat the cleric beast. more based on other stuff from reading this topic. you're taking time to explore each area and making an effort to learn the gameplay mechanics. these are not things that everyone does, and the game goes out of the way to reward people who play it "properly" like this.
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htaeD posted...

dont hype me up yet
I might die a ton to sir Gascoigne

You will die a lot
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I died three times. Shit was tense.
But to be fair, I did eventually resort to the musicbox

First time I was just not used to him getting so many hits on me in a row
Second time I was getting too greedy and forgot to use a vial when I should have, but I did start to get the hang of parrying him
Third time I learned the best way to attack for me was to just back off a lot, maintain distance, and wait for him to make a move. But then he transformed, I thought I could get some hits in, he quickly mopped the floor with me.

The fourth fight was about the same, steady vial-ing, steady back and forth attacks and defenses (I even managed to do a proper dodge roll). Didnt stay too close when he transformed. Then I ran like mad, all the way up and down the stairs, and used the music box while he was in mid-leap.
That stunned him long enough for me to get enough hits in that it didnt matter anymore if he could strike back.
Agressive, but fun fight. Definitely tougher than the Beast.

Wish I could say I did without the music box though.

Also I wish I knew I could have grabbed a Hunters outfit a lot sooner!
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also I am not sure if level 20 is overpowered for that fight
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htaeD posted...

I did eventually resort to the musicbox

Aww
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its Gascoigne's own fault for doing such a massive jump that gave me a few extra hits once he landed and missed
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Less than ten tries on papa guac? You're a goddamn pro, dude.
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yeah gascoigne punishes you for dodging "away" from him. most of his attacks are forward lunges with hitboxes that persist for longer than a typical immunity frame window of your dodge. that means if you try to dodge backwards and get away he'll always catch you at the end of your dodge.

it's a fight that teaches you to dodge forward, through his attacks... or to run away like a madman and throw firebombs at him. whatever works for you. hahah.
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eh I just dodged a few extra steps each time
it was a battle of attrition. I get dodging forward, just need to practise that a bit

didnt even get a chance to throw cocktails, I assume those would have helped for his beastform
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You assume correctly. Beasts are weak to fire and serrated weapons.
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htaeD posted...

I died three times. Shit was tense.
But to be fair, I did eventually resort to the musicbox

First time I was just not used to him getting so many hits on me in a row
Second time I was getting too greedy and forgot to use a vial when I should have, but I did start to get the hang of parrying him
Third time I learned the best way to attack for me was to just back off a lot, maintain distance, and wait for him to make a move. But then he transformed, I thought I could get some hits in, he quickly mopped the floor with me.

The fourth fight was about the same, steady vial-ing, steady back and forth attacks and defenses (I even managed to do a proper dodge roll). Didnt stay too close when he transformed. Then I ran like mad, all the way up and down the stairs, and used the music box while he was in mid-leap.
That stunned him long enough for me to get enough hits in that it didnt matter anymore if he could strike back.
Agressive, but fun fight. Definitely tougher than the Beast.

Wish I could say I did without the music box though.

Also I wish I knew I could have grabbed a Hunters outfit a lot sooner!

Used music box. Invalid kill. Untag.
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I used the cleaver until I got Ludwig's Holy Blade. I've continued to use that exclusively for both NG+ and NG++.
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Could not get into Holy Blade. Useless tranformation attacks
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Anyway
went further
explored the cathedral and met the 'spider'guy
probably should backtrack to talk to those villagers again about safe places
first I went ahead though, into the fun area filled with big guys and even bigger guys
died twice to them, but I succeeded in breaking through the third time (I even thought the final ball and chain man killed me, except he left me alive with a sliver of health and didnt finish me off for a good few seconds, his mistake)
Then I found some tempering bloodstones. Should I use these yet?
Upgraded Saw Cleaver to 3+
Then I explored the other path behind those tall gloomy fellows, which led to another church and an everdeepening basement which made me increasingly paranoid.
So I was surprised to see another lantern so soon, and I entered upon Old Yharnam. And immediately un-entered because some guy gave me a stern warning not to go further and I felt I probably should listen for now.
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Ill take that as a no for the tempering bloodstones
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I assume you're talking about a blood gem, not a blood stone. a blood gem can be inserted and removed freely into your weapon at the workshop. there's no reason not to use it, although I doubt it will increase your damage by very much since I think the first ones you find are all pretty weak.
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You're better than me if you only died three times to Father Gasciogne. Granted I didn't know about the music box trick at the time.

You might not be as bad as you think in video games so I hope you use that as encouragement to see this through and play the other Souls games as well :)
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ah yeah gems

also I figured that 10k soul gem is leading to a shortcut
should I bother trying to befriend the guy at Old Yharnam?
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well I opened up a few shortcuts above the cathedral anyway
the really tall guys (chapel giants) are unnerving
but I think I found my least favorite enemies
the chapeldude with the flamethrower, that's just plain torment.. can hardly even get close to them
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Approach them at an angle and as soon as the raise their flamethrower, dodge toward them at that same angle (basically ducking under their weapon). We've all harped on it, but the game really does reward proper dodges toward the enemy, straight into danger.

Though given you only died thrice to Gascoigne (I died maybe ten times? I still consider him a difficult boss without cheesing), maybe you should be giving the rest of us advice!

I'm interested to see how you deal with Old Yharnam. It's the first "different" area of the game imo.
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I imagine having the saw cleaver also helped
then again, anyone would have the saw spear by this point

also i bought the Kirkhammer, just because I had some echoes to spare
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htaeD posted...

anyone would have the saw spear by this point

you are vastly underestimating the number of people who wouldn't even find the saw spear
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fair
I didnt even find the hunters garb until right before Gascoigne
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reached the path to the next few bosses
again I know them by reputation, so I am not sure which one to tackle first
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htaeD posted...

reached the path to the next few bosses
again I know them by reputation, so I am not sure which one to tackle first

Witch is the easiest.
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the left path right?

should find Eileen first
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htaeD posted...

the left path right?

should find Eileen first

If I am understanding where you are correctly... you just exited a church. A path to the right leads to Vicar Amelia in another church. A path along that path to vicar that veers left atound the church leads to the witch. And if you go left instead of right towards Vicar then you eventually end up at bloodstarved beast.
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yeah I checked online
and then I did the next leg of her quest, against my better judgment
died a good number of times in that fight because I wasnt fast enough with the vials
not sure why Henryk had to be such a dick, but we beat him

if I were to make a tally it'd be
Executioner: 1
Huntsman Mob: Few times, didnt keep track, impatience was my bane here
Huntsman Minions: 3
Gravity: 1
Sewer Rats: 1
Cleric Beast: 1
Gascoigne: 3
Chapel Giants: 2
Chapel Fireguy: 1
Henryk: 4
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one more death for the Chapel Giant and one more for a quarter of gunmen greedily keeping bloodchunks to themselves

basically I made it down the left road and entered Hemwick's place, jolly ladies over here
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sure hope people still care about this topic

reached the witch of Hemwick and what a strange fight that was, didnt even realize the second witch was in the room until my last round
I dont know if I should be embarrassed that she killed me as many times as Gascoigne
or rather her and her summoned minions did
I kept under-estimating the Mad Ones at first (and second), and ignored them once too many so they ganged up on me
and the third time Hemwick (is that even her name?) killed me was because I didnt expect the witch herself to have close range explosion attack

fourth time went smoothly at least, kept my eye on stamina, found my preferred pattern of dealing with the Mad Ones, and then ran back and forth to find whichever witch I could hit.
she got off one resurrection, but in the end I outdamaged them

I also died a couple of times in the Hemwick area (twice to a Troll, the second one pushed me off the bridge so as revenge I pushed him off when I came back), once to a witch on a rooftop

also also I died to the chapel giant again when I tried to grab the bloodshard-loot critter

finally I went down the left path to tangle with two unfriendly hunters, the one with the spreadgun being less easy to overpower since he kept shooting me :(
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htaeD posted...

sure hope people still care about this topic

I'm trying not to spoil anything or impact your choices too heavily, because discovering things for yourself in bloodborne is magical.
This topic got me thinking that i need to replay it again.


Hemwick is one of my favorite areas in the game. And the tool that you got after beating the witches will help you out a ton. I'm not sure what runes you've discovered so far, but you can equip them in the dream next to where you upgrade your weapons.
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Haha you died to the witch!
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I blame my own impatience!

but yeah it was a cool area, and I always like walking on rooftops

I discovered the Lake rune and whichever one you get from Henryk
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htaeD posted...

I blame my own impatience!

but yeah it was a cool area, and I always like walking on rooftops

I discovered the Lake rune and whichever one you get from Henryk

Farming the witch spawn point thru the gate to the cemetary spawn point for vials and souls is a good idea when you feel necessary. Kirkhammer will crush the big guys in fused form.
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yeah Kirkhammer's blade form doesnt do much more damage then the saw cleaver, but I do like the hammering

is there anything that needs to be done before attempting the Cathedral boss?
besides Old Yharnam?
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htaeD posted...

is there anything that needs to be done before attempting the Cathedral boss?
besides Old Yharnam?

Did you explore the area around those two unfriendly hunters?

And don't feel bad about dying to Witches. Their AOE explosion has caught me off guard before, and it's hugely damaging.
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