Board 8 > So I am about to start Bloodborne

(+) Yeah! (+)

chaingun out of nowhere!

edit: I checked a little beyond the hunters (both are dead), but it was full of executioners, so I didnt feel much for it right away
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Then I think you're good to go apart from Old Yharnam. I always check out the area with those executioners, but the only other things there (for now) are two scurrying critters that drop 2 twin blood shards each. I like to get those 4 extra shards before fighting the chapel boss, but that's just me.
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if you get killed by the really tall bag holding guy outside of cathedral ward, he'll kidnap you and take you to an optional zone. clearing this area before going to the cathedral will allow you to find a few more twin bloodstone shards if you need them, as well as a few other things.
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saw cleaver is already at 5+ anyway

also I didnt see any bagholding guys yet
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htaeD posted...

saw cleaver is already at 5+ anyway

also I didnt see any bagholding guys yet

To the right of the chapel where vicar is by the cliff.
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You unlock the zone later regardless think going there optionslly forcrs you into bloodstarved beast
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Blood Starved Beast is still alive you guys
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I figure I should go to him next before he stops being a challenge
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I think Old Yharnam is usually done before the chapel boss, but the area is optional and I honestly feel like it's tougher than the chapel (boss included). I try to do it as early as possible because it opens a cool optional area which leads to arguably the game's most broken PvE weapon.

But I feel like with a +5 Cleaver, the chapel boss won't be a big challenge right now regardless. What level are you?
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32
mostly str and vit raises
added a little to skill just so I could wield a kirkhammer
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If you don't kill the cleric beast, then you need to kill bsb to get past the gate in central yharnam. So you'll definitely be overlevelled for the area.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

I think Old Yharnam is usually done before the chapel boss

this is correct. normally you have to clear old yharnam to be able to go up to the hunter's workshop and enter the upper cathedral ward that way. it seems htaed used the alternate method of simply buying the key and proceeding to upper cathedral ward on his own through the gate.
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Hmm at 32, the chapel boss might still pose a challenge, but I doubt it. I've fought it at 40 with a +6 weapon and it becomes a joke.

The Old Yharnam boss, however, gives me more trouble. I always feel nervous approaching that bastard the first time.
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yeah area-wise, it feels like Hemwick was more tense (dickhead hunter notwithstanding)
oh well at least BSB might still be tough
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If you're still using the saw cleaver, neither boss should give you much trouble.

The chapel boss isn't even that difficult, but for some reason I had the hardest time with it whenever I didn't use the saw cleaver.
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This topic convinced me to replay the game btw

Papa G still takes me a few tries to beat, but I try to be too fancy at times. Riposting him is the way to go, even in his beast form it does a ton of damage.

I'm now at Old Yharnam.
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I do wish I could play it all the time
damn job
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also there is an item that's taunting me in Cathedral Ward
up on a ledge/balcony near where you can summon the NPC Hunter henrietta
how do I get that?
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shortcut porn you'll open up after Old Yharnam
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Oh yeah that item tormented me for a long time

it's not that worth it
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damn it
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Bloodstarved is harder than Vicar
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I dont think Ill miss anything by doing those two bosses in any order, right?

anyway, dickhead on the tower cost me another four lives.
mostly because of that chaingun above/hunter below combo. and after I got rid of the hunter on the ground, he surprised me with exploding jars and not shooting for a while (his gun also reaches corners that seem safe at first)
clever dick
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You there, hunter. Didn't you see the warning? Turn back at once.
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htaeD posted...

anyway, dickhead on the tower cost me another four lives.
mostly because of that chaingun above/hunter below combo. and after I got rid of the hunter on the ground, he surprised me with exploding jars and not shooting for a while (his gun also reaches corners that seem safe at first)
clever dick

Yep, I think Old Yharnam is the toughest early area in the game (ahead of both the Chapel and Hemwich Charnel Lane). The chaingun can kill even a decently beefy player in a second, and poison introduces a new element to worry about. And again, I've always had a tough time with its boss. Some people find it easy but it handed me my ass more times than un-cheesed Gascoigne.
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also the enemies do love to alternate their punches to try and stunlock me

oh and there's a whole are down below I didnt even see yet
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Did you kill said dickhead on the tower?
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But man, the weapon you can get shortly after this area is so worth the aggravation. It's like the Kirkhammer on steroids.
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nah I know at least not to even bother with the tower
also I might be able to befriend him later???
(sources are unclear on this)
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Oh I forgot you could befriend him...

I always kill him
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htaeD posted...

nah I know at least not to even bother with the tower
also I might be able to befriend him later???
(sources are unclear on this)

I think if you even so much as damaged either hunter or climb to the top of the tower it won't work. Definitely not if you kill either one.
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That's right, you have to enter through the back of Old Yharnam to befriend him

You came through the front and there's no turning back
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kevwaffles posted...

I think if you even so much as damaged either hunter or climb to the top of the tower it won't work. Definitely not if you kill either one.

I think you can kill his nameless "friend" hunter and still befriend him later. Just don't climb the tower and miss with him right now.
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yeah I've cleared the area as normal and then come back later on and befriended Djura. I'm not sure exactly which actions turn him into permanent aggro mode but just entering the area and triggering his normal chain gun attack is not one of them.
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

kevwaffles posted...

I think if you even so much as damaged either hunter or climb to the top of the tower it won't work. Definitely not if you kill either one.

I think you can kill his nameless "friend" hunter and still befriend him later. Just don't climb the tower and miss with him right now.

Nope, I know for certain that you definitely can't kill the guy. I've made that mistake.
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CassandraCain posted...

That's right, you have to enter through the back of Old Yharnam to befriend him

You came through the front and there's no turning back

isnt it impossible to do that without killing BSB first anyway?
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htaeD posted...

CassandraCain posted...

That's right, you have to enter through the back of Old Yharnam to befriend him

You came through the front and there's no turning back

isnt it impossible to do that without killing BSB first anyway?

It's not, but it's only possible very late game and requires you to miss out on some stuff to do it. It's also incorrect in that it's not the only way to do it.
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Okay
so because Corrik taunted me
I tried BSB first
forget Gascoigne, this guy got my heart still pounding
But..It took me only two tries, (probably because I did him after Hemwick)

I died the first time because I decided I needed to antidote first before healing, but slow poisoning still outruns an antidote!
my major problem was reach, the sawcleaver just didnt get close enough a lot of time, also parrying him was a no-go too. I at least quickly got the hang of dodging him though (to the left/right worked best)

for the second round, I Vial'd up first and cursed the poison second, but at a certain point (after his poison aura kicked in), I just ignored the antidotes
also I used one pungent blood cocktail, but only at the start. after that BSB was just too fast for any tricks

I realized playing defensive/healing all the time wasnt going to cut it, so I went back to aggression and got him to near death.... then I just started firing bullets and dropped him cold

and then I forgot to heal the poison, so i died right afterwards
LOL
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Nice. Reach can definitely be an issue with him, even with a transformed weapon. But now you can do chalice dungeons! A lot of people hate them (they're grindy, repetitive, optional areas you can access from the dream) but i think they're a nice change of pace and have some really cool things to offer.
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yeah I will check those out too
I have no desire to get to the depths of those yet though
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htaeD posted...

also parrying him was a no-go too.

Not sure if you just meant you personally couldn't pull it off, but BSB is actually quite parryable. In fact I think it doesn't have non-parryable attacks not counting transformation/poison aura, though some are definitely easier to do than others. The basic dash in particular is essentially a free attempt because it's really easy to be out of hit range for it (though the farther out of range the harder the parry itself becomes to time).
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I don't know whether you're trying to save them or what, but just to leave you a quick tip, pretty much anything that looks like it has fur is REALLY susceptible to Fire Paper, so don't be hesitant to use those on bosses.
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yeah personally I didnt find the right moment to parry him

and yeah I was trying to save the fire paper, but I assume this means I can buy more later

anyway I met the bagmen
not in the usual spot tho. I wanted to explore the healing church workshop first
and after a few close scrapes I got the badge and then I chased one of those bloodstone shard critters down to another part of the tower
I died a good four times trying to get all the way to the bottom, (and one of those was me trying to jump to that door in the middle of the tower)
and then I reached another part of the ward, and thats where I encountered the Kidnappers (as they are seemingly called)

They hit like a truck and so I wound up inside.. the unseen village
which was a big zone of nope for me. I could handle the prisoners, and killed a couple of kidnappers too
but when i saw that boar just roaming the street, I wanted to get out and ran back to the lamp

anyway, I got me the ludwigs blade
doesnt seem as powerful in practise as the sawcleaver tho (upgrades accounted for), does it scale with something else?
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With Arcane.
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I'm not a fan of the ludwig holy blade, I don't like the moveset very much

it scales very high with strength and skill both. it's easy to get the base damage to a large number. problem is a lot of the basic attacks have a damage multiplier that is less than 1. this is another thing I don't like about it. it kinda "tricks" you into thinking you have a large damage number but then does less than what is listed on a lot of attacks.

MrSmartGuy posted...

With Arcane.

this is incorrect. it doesn't scale naturally with arcane. it has very high arcane scaling if you slot an elemental blood gem into it.

bloodborne has two types of weapons

1. physical and elemental hybrids. these naturally scale with the physical stats and gain a small bonus to the elemental damage from arcane

2. physical only weapons. these naturally scale with physical stats. if you add an elemental blood gem the damage is converted to 100% elemental and it changes to arcane scaling.

Ludwig Holy Blade is of the second type, and it has the highest arcane scaling among these types of weapons in the base game. that makes it a good option for pure elemental damage builds that scale with arcane.
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Hmm, I thought it was something like C/C/D. Maybe I just had that set in my mind as Arcane Scaling, because I slotted something in it for my Arcane character.

E: I just looked it up, it is D/D/D. So it absolutely does scale with Arcane.
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the arcane scaling for weapons is always listed, but it only applies when you slot an elemental gem into your weapon and convert the damage to 100% arcane

try it out yourself

there are very easy ways to check

or just google it
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Huh. I learned something today. So I guess the only naturally-scaling weapons would be the Tonitrus and the Burial Blade? Interesting.
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Boomhammer, Amygdalan Arm, Blades of Mercy also fall into the first category yeah. Maybe a few others I'm forgetting. if I was looking at the full weapon list I could tell you which is which.
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Man, I just replayed this game for the 3rd time less than a year ago, and now I want to start it up again. Get out of my comfort zone and try something other than the Spear/Axe/Holy Blade/Kirkhammer/Moonlight Greatsword for a change.
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