Board 8 > I am not done talking about Bloodborne (Post-Defiled Chalice edition)

(+) Yeah! (+)

for those who might remember my first topic, which ended at about the end of the DLC
youll be happy to know that I Just cant put this game down
despite its headaches

as indiciated by the title I have cleared the Defiled chalice now
had to make liberal use of my HP/heal-up runes, vitality stat and for a certain boss, max arcane resistance (which somehow did more than max fire resistance)

Watchdog of the Old Lords Redux was pretty tough. not because of that instakill charge though, could avoid that pretty easily.. after the first few rounds.
it was that fire-creating claw swipe that got me a lot of times, he likes to use that up close and I couldnt always dodge it in time
also since I was going for the 'bait its bite and strike the head' tactic. I usually took a lot of damage when he made two bites in a row (I feel sawspear would have been better here than sawcleaver or ludwig blade, but whatever)

Defiled Amygdala was a different kind of challenge. No instant kills except for that jump. But I knew never to move once he did the jump, since he would never land where I was standing. Didnt always work, sometimes I wasnt standing in the right spot or I was still moving when he did the jump. and in my final run I didnt even get to abuse his AI that way. rather I kept attacking the head once I got to the final phase until a visceral opportunity presented itself, and after that I just shot away at its health with optic laserblasts!

since things are going so well, I might just do a new game + too
(otherwise I probably wouldnt have made this topic)
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Congrats! Watchdog is a brick wall for sure.
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meanwhile I am not a fan of Pthumerian Descendant
or rather the arena in which I fight him. Kept backing into pillars and what not and I never knew how many attacks that old geezer was gonna swing at me
got impatient so I just chugged a lead elixer for the final phase and tanked his hits and staggered him to death with a Ludwigs blade
getting a quick Ebrietas visceral in helped too
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Chalice ebrietas is so good against me
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guess bloodborne is deader than I thought
ah well
bumping anyway
kinda not sure why those witches on floor two can kill me in one hit
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or maybe nobody plays bloodborne anymore

should I blame Dark Souls 3?
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I still play Blooddborne
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Bloodletting Beast
more like annoying camera/annoying to hit Beast
but there was a trick to it that made the battle go over pretty quickly, those beasthood pellets

Where have they been all my life for me to use them only now?
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Beasthood pellets are what got me through the orphan of kos, the chikage hunter in the church, and a few other bosses in my first run.

In my current playthrough i got the beast claw as soon as i could (rush to forest to get the item from patches, then amygdala for the chalice, then pthumerian dungeon level 3 to get the materials needed for ailing loran, then loran level 2 for the weapon, and be super overlevelled when i got back to the forest). And it's got innate beasthood when transformed. It doesn't have as great burst as my kirkhammer, but if you give me even 3 hits, it out damages the hammer because beasthood is so good. It might be one of my favorite weapons now, after blades of mercy, church pick, and amygdalan arm. And i haven't even gotten the rune to change its moveset yet!
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I know beast blood pellets are used for a lot of top end/optimized type strategies since you can get your damage insanely high and just kill stuff very quickly and/or stagger lock them... including bosses.

it's not anything I ever really bothered with myself but I've seen some pretty neat videos that make use of it
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It always just goes against my nature to use consumables in a game like this unless it's a core mechanic (so blood vials and bullets are fine despite technically being consumables). I might do it early-ish on to compensate for low levels (Fire Paper on BSB), but if I die repeatedly and lose them all I'd be back to square one anyway. Then I'll replay the game and then have the attitude that I'm too good for this and not use it for that reason.
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yeah they arent as easy to come by as Fire Paper I noticed
I just didnt feel like spending much time with Bloodletting Beast (also ew)

anyway probably gonna get that platinum trophy tomorrow
unless I missed something
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The ending chalice boss sure is something.

Bloodborne was my very first platinum.<3
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its only my second PS4 game

*checks Persona 5 trophy list*

oh right the Twins

I accidentilly got Passionate Listener without even trying
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Yeah same. I doubt I'll be trying to get the plat on p5 though.
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Peace___Frog posted...

The ending chalice boss sure is something.

Bloodborne was my very first platinum.<3

Probably one of the most unique bosses in Soulsborne that isn't a straight up gimmick fight. Shame I didn't like it more.
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i don't think i used the beast blood pellets until the dlc. that with the whirlgig saw made real short work of laurence!
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yeah I wish I had known that
so far I only upgraded the saw cleaver, ludwig blade and whip to max
blades of mercy and simons bowblade are high up as well for funsies

getting the bloodstone chunks is annoying than getting rocks
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Goddamnit PS4
I wanted that battle saved
I pressed share
why didnt you save it?
augh
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still
interesting fight
little hectic but as annoying as the descendant or as dangerous as the defiles bosses
kinda a Witch of Hemwick VS Bloodstarved Beast feeling

no platinum tho
need to see all three endings first I realize
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getting all three endings is pretty easy. I think I can beat bloodborne in a solid 5-6 hours at this point and that's without even really trying to go fast. I beat it twice already this year. eight times total now. I'm almost done with another challenge run too, although I haven't had much time to play in the last week so the challenge run sort of stalled out.
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also wonder if any other game after this will scratch my BB itch
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I know that for me, none have really come close. It's holds its own very special place.
But yeah the three endings isn't hard, you should be able to plow through most of the game at this point. It gives you an excuse to try a new weapon if you want to ng it, or an excuse to blaze through ng+!
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took the plunge into ng+
between the DLC and the chalice leveling, I might be a tad overleveled

made a beeline straight for Cleric beast and killed him with ease

at least this is giving me a chance to test out other weapons like the Blades of Mercy
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It might be more difficult later on, i don't recall. In any case, you don't want to fight the moon presence and you don't need to explore for weapons or anything, so the critical path really shouldn't be an issue. You have gascoigne, amelia, shadows, rom, the monster from the moon whose name escapes me, micolash, mergo, and gehrman.

Unless of course you want to make it a point to defeat all bosses in ng+ as a personal achievement. In which case... good luck with the orphan.
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micolash on NG+ is the first part where it gets significantly harder

mainly because he can probably oneshot you with A Call Beyond
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well I would like to reopen as many areas as possible eventually
and for Micolash I hear the trick is to never stay far away from him
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Update
Gascoigne and BSB dead (felt like taking the long way around in cathedral ward this time, so I didnt buy the gate emblem yet)
sadly not much of a challenge either
allthough it was the most I ever saw of Gascoigne's second form since I didnt musicbox him this time

gave the whirligig a whirl, and its pretty fun
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I need to replay this sometime. Been close to a year since my last one.
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can confirm that whirligig saw is amazing

and also that everyone needs to play and/or replay bloodborne, and the set of everyone includes tazzyboyishere
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well opened the Hyperbolic Gaolchamber area
and killed Vicar Amelia
heading for the hemlock area, and because of my insight those witch summons now show up everywhere
makes the trip there a little different
also seeing the hemlock road area at night isnt as cool as seeing at at dusk
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also killed the witch
and attacked the starving beggar this time
wish I didnt get spoiled on what he turns into, but at least hes not as big a pain as his chalice counterparts

and also I tango'd with Fake Iosefka
I figure I dont need her umbilical cord this time around
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bump
paarl, watchers, amygdala dead again
You'd think I would have less trouble with regular Amygdala after defiled chalice
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so a thought
if I wanted to share some vids of my exploits
should I just bite the bullet and make a youtube account?
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for instance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-teglxPhQpo&feature=youtu.be
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youtube is the best way to do it, yeah.
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well then
enjoy my final encounter with the Orphan of Kos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM1zbb71TDk&feature=youtu.be

also still NG+ ing
how the hell did Rom kill me more than Martyr Logarius?
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because those spiders in ng+ don't fuck around
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I am guessing later bosses dont scale as much as earlier ones
I tried to get to Ebrietas as quickly as possible and I still beat her in one try
(at least I got to see her lasershow this time)
embarassingly, One Reborn killed me once because I was too distracted/fascinated by his shiny mud to notice how much those bone spears hurt

and some more uploads, my defiled victory laps with watchdog and amygdala

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zuGC_Bmtmc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ83tq7FeKE&feature=youtu.be
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I probably have more stupid deaths against One Reborn than any other boss. don't feel too bad. he's definitely one that both fosters the attitude of not really paying full attention to the fight, while also having the power to punish and quickly kill you for not paying attention. whoops.
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I also think chalice-ing prepares one a lot for ebrietas' tricks
the charge is easier to dodge now and her tentacles feel a lot like amygdala's armattacks
oh well, I am sure the DLC will still be a challenge
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didnt get much playtime today

and slow at uploading
but there was one foe I could not beat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5kcpFLXDwI
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wow
even NG+1 Ludwig went down in one try
chalices leveled me too much
is there anyone who can even challenge me?
...
yes
yes there is
Bloody Crow of Cainhurst
eff that guy
never know when he will get a visceral off
at least I beat him without the stairs
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Tonitrus is
kinda nice
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I liked Tonitrus the first time I experimented with it, but the novelty wears off very fast. it is a powerful weapon but the moveset is SO boring I could not continue to use it. probably my least favorite moveset in the game.
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yeah I am just trying out whatever

Simons Bowblade and the Whip are also fully upgraded, but they dont grab me very much
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saw spear, rifle spear, reitterpallasch are in the category of weapons that I found myself surprised by how much I liked them. they all seem like pretty "simple" concepts for weapons so it felt like they wouldn't really be too special. but once I started using them I fell in love with the movesets. saw spear especially, for a long time I had this idea that it would be the same as the save cleaver because I was expecting a lazy Dark Souls style moveset cut and paste. but actually it's different enough to really be its own thing and it's definitely superior to the saw cleaver. both are great, though.

whirligig saw I think you mentioned using already. it's definitely another top tier one in terms of "feel."

burial blade is "fun" but I don't consider it "viable" for PvE. some aspects of the moveset are a bit too clunky which is pretty sad.
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well good thing I dont care about PVE much
Burial Blade does look cool
coolness factor is also tempting me to try out the Chikage
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chikage is very cool. I highly recommend it.

I will say this... the most fun I've EVER had was when I did a gun only run and when I did an arcane tool only run. those things fundamentally change how you play the game and they give you a huge and new appreciation for the level of quality that the design team put into this project.

not only because these runs are possible, but because of how your experience with the game can give you an edge while you're still forced to adapt to an entirely new style of play. this speaks mostly to the arcane run; each of the sub weapons are designed to have certain advantages and disadvantages. through the run I found myself swapping between different tools often to use whatever the situation required. it was actually a lot more diverse, skill intense, and engaging than a normal weapon run because with a normal weapon run I just spam R1 with my weapon most often. or whatever the optimal combo is based on my moveset. for gun only; this is just fun because it increases the level of challenge in ways that are different from a normal run. it's all about pushing yourself to the limits and can turn each boss battle into a test of endurance AND skill rather than just skill. yeah dodging paarl's attacks and killing him quickly can be difficult. but imagine having to dodge his attacks over and over again while slowly whittling away at his health with a gun. and each time you get hit that causes you to need to use a blood vial to heal yourself... which cuts into your ammo supply.

anyway I would probably not recommend either of those runs for a new player but there's definitely good halfway points. you can do a bloodtinge character and work your way up to using the chikage and evelyn. chikage is one of THE optimized weapons in the game so you do eventually become a badass. you'll likely get very good at parrying but who knows, maybe not. similarly you can do an arcane based character who just uses normal weapons and scales them off of the arcane stat. unfortunately this doesn't feel TOO different from a normal run but it is still a somewhat unique experience -- particularly if you do get your hands on the hunter tools and start experimenting with them to familiarize yourself with each. although I will say there are some tools I NEVER used or appreciated before doing a very strict 'arcane tools only' run.
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(specifically because there are some difficult situations you will never find yourself in while you have a weapon in your right hand to rely on)
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