Bloodborne - GOTD edition

[JoeK]

Oh my.

 

My first foray into the city has been fairly fraught  .

 

Aside from some really baffling menu selection processes (which I'm assuming folks who've played the Dark Souls games might be a little bit more familiar with than I am) in which I had to resort to googling how to fucking equip my blade and gun (you can tell I'm going to struggle...), it's been very addictive so far.

 

Although, considering I'm having issues with beating the townsfolk, god knows what state I'll be in if I manage to get to a boss...

 

 

 

 

[Fury4k]

Ha I died a good few times before I worked out how to equip weapons. 

[Jamie John]

I, too, started playing this today, but only for half an hour. I beat the first werewolf to death with my bare hands and even managed a super back attack, entirely by accident, but then I got killed by a man with a torch. I sliced him up a treat upon my return, however, and have now ascended an ominous-looking ladder.

[Davros sock drawer]

That's some achievement, beating the werewolf! Of course it can be done, as you've discovered, but you're kind of supposed to die there. Kudos.

[Jamie John]

The combat so far isn't that removed from the Witcher 3, actually, which I've been playing for the last month. Most of the time you can just sidestep and then attack. I'm sure it'll get more difficult later. I like the fact there's no block button though!

[Minion]

1 hour ago, Jamie John said:

The combat so far isn't that removed from the Witcher 3, actually, which I've been playing for the last month. Most of the time you can just sidestep and then attack. I'm sure it'll get more difficult later. I like the fact there's no block button though!

 

Hmm, TW3 is a button masher. I definitely wouldn't describe this the same, each enemy type has different attacks and sequence of attacks, I won't describe further as like you said, it does get difficult. Or you're just fucking awesome! lol

[Sledge]

How come...

 

Spoiler

Alfred can't climb ladders, the hefting great asshat.

 

I had to...

 

Spoiler

Dust off Djura solo. Humph.

 

Been enjoying this a lot (maybe even more than my previous genre highlight DS2), although fighting the bosses 'normally' seems to be uniformly pants. Far more fun discovering how to cheese them then getting it to work :-)  The bits between bosses, though... wow, just delightful!

[JoeK]

Can I just clarify something?

 

Whilst I'm enjoying the challenge at the moment and each time I'm seemingly getting a little better at it...but when you die, everything kind of respawns and you have to do the whole load again? Because I'm only on the first bit of it and those fucking townies always seem to stick me right at the end of the area...and I have to do it all again!

 

I'm not missing a trick somewhere am I?

[Sledge]

The only trick, there, would be to retreat once you have enough blood echoes to level up, allowing you to push a bit further next run and eventually open up a shortcut to circumvent the route. That seems to be the prevalent structure for each area.

[Minion]

Yes that first bonfire mob is a real challenge and must be dealt with to proceed but as Sledge says some grinding and knowing your limits can lead to enough echoes to level up your character and get a little harder.

[Minion]

What an awful dropper, Rafa!!

 

Oops wrong forum and site! Sorry

[Garwoofoo]

30 minutes ago, Minion said:

Yes that first bonfire mob is a real challenge and must be dealt with to proceed but as Sledge says some grinding and knowing your limits can lead to enough echoes to level up your character and get a little harder.

 

Bear in mind that you won't be able to level up until you've acquired some Insight, which happens well past that mob. 

[Minion]

2 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

Bear in mind that you won't be able to level up until you've acquired some Insight, which happens well past that mob. 

 

Aww yes I forgot! It is a real challenge but teaches you a lot about various aspects of the game.

 

If you want some tips JoeK I would suggest trying to pull a single enemy away from the mob at once, or two and be prepared to back off. Once they are down to a few roll around to escape from the 2 rifle guys and hopefully you will be good. It took me many hours to get past that bit.

[Sledge]

5 minutes ago, Garwoofoo said:

 

Bear in mind that you won't be able to level up until you've acquired some Insight, which happens well past that mob. 

 

Ooh yes, you're right. In that case you can either...

Spoiler

Run past the mob to get yerself some cackling madman's knowledge:

 

 

...or...

 

Spoiler

Draw out hunt members individually by chucking pebbles at them one by one. You can thin their numbers a fair bit like this and decimate the roving mobs very safely.

 

[Sledge]

9 minutes ago, Minion said:

Once they are down to a few roll around to escape from the 2 rifle guys and hopefully you will be good. It took me many hours to get past that bit.

 

Spoiler

I tend to drop down behind the rifleman nearest the locked great gate and stealth him. There's a coach (with a dog down the side of it -- careful!) you can keep between yourself and the second rifleman while you deal with anyone alerted by your attack. I'm assuming we're talking about the section with the massive bonfire here.

 

[Davros sock drawer]

1 hour ago, JoeK said:

Can I just clarify something?

 

Whilst I'm enjoying the challenge at the moment and each time I'm seemingly getting a little better at it...but when you die, everything kind of respawns and you have to do the whole load again? Because I'm only on the first bit of it and those fucking townies always seem to stick me right at the end of the area...and I have to do it all again!

 

I'm not missing a trick somewhere am I?

 

Bloodborne is all about opening shortcuts. Not far past the bonfire mob you'll be able to open up one such shortcut, meaning you never have to do that bit again.

 

If you want a more specific hint let me know. It's a tough gauntlet for sure, but you can just sprint past it...

[JoeK]

Cheers guys, I had an inkling about all those things to a certain extent, but wanted to make sure I wasn't being a doofus...which is the usual thing!

 

It's really interesting to see how the gameplay works - I definitely agree that it's never unfair - just fucking hard until you do it time (and time and time) again. Think I'll dip my toes in again...I suspect I won't progress much further, but I'm sure I'll get a little bit further along the way! 

[Minion]

Ok my update, I went into the forbidden woods and thought it was all fairly pedestrian until, well, I think I've made a couple of mistakes:

 

Spoilered for those who are not this far yet...

 

First I went through the windmill place, killed two of those snake head dudes and then up a lift and a dude was standing there, I'm really tired and I've been fighting hostiles for so long that I just started attacking and as I got my 3rd or 4th hit in realised that he was friendly, but not anymore! He killed me twice so I've screwed that up, was he important?

 

Then when going back the third time to get him I investigate the upper level of the windmill area, I find a man with bandages on his head and dead bodies around him, he talks and I tell him about the clinic and then I think, hmmm this guy is dodgy and he looks pretty weak so I attacked him, only for him to turn into a giant beast and kill me in two or 3 hits whilst i got stuck against the wall! So now I have two enemies to take down there when potentially I had none. Slightly annoying but it's all my own fault. The 2nd guy is clearly bad but the first I mentioned, have I royally screwed something up there?

 

Cheers,

[JohnnyRyall]

Spoilers re. the Forbidden Woods NPCs.
 

Spoiler

Ideally you wouldn't have attacked the NPC at the top of the lift, but he's not particularly important. He allows you to access a covenant that was added to the game with the DLC, but covenants play a pretty minor role in Bloodborne compared to the Souls games, so I really wouldn't worry. And he'll be back in NG+.

 

You were wise to attack the man in bandages, though he's very tough, so you might want to come back to him later when you've levelled up (or cheese him with poison knives!) The rooftop where he's perched is a dead end so you don't need to get past him to progress.

 

I wouldn't stress too much about NPCs on your first playthrough. I know that I'm always tempted to check a guide when playing these games to ensure I'm not missing anything or making poor choices with re NPCs, but you spoil a lot of the surprise if you do so. Some of the NPC quest lines are brilliant and best experienced blind, though you're bound to miss some things on your first playthrough.

 

 

[Davros sock drawer]

Yep, what Johnny said. First guy not important, second guy...you did right. Here's how my experience with him panned out:

 

Despite him clearly having just murdered his family there on the rooftop, I sent him to the safety of Oeden chapel, where he started bumping off the friendly folk there. I went to deal with him and got the same shock as you, albeit it perhaps in a more convenient arena...

 

 

[Jamie John]

I'm a couple of hours in now. After trying to kill the big hood-wearing axe man down the little alley and repeatedly failing (which I think is a dead end anyway), I managed to do the bit with the bonfire and all the enemies at the end of the road on about my third go. I had near to 2500 blood echoes at that point and spent a sphincter-clenching hour tiptoeing about, desperately trying to find another save lamp before something came and ganked me and I lost all my stuff. I eventually found a shortcut back to the Central Yharnam lamp and breathed a long sigh of relief. After cashing in my echoes for a complete set of the cool-looking armour that's on the front cover and an upgrade for my cleaver saw, I happily set out once more. This time I found a bridge where I came across two werewolves, whom I decided to very bravely avoid entirely, only to find that heading in the opposite direction led to a giant tentacle werewolf boss instead, who proceeded to jump on me repeatedly while I floundered about trying to hit him with molotovs, after I'd thrown about three pebbles off the bridge by accident. Needless to say, I died pretty quickly. I've now spoken to the creepy doll woman who's magically come to life, however, and put two levels into health and one into stamina, so I'm all set to be merrily on my way again.

 

It's great, obviously. I'm playing it in the dark about four foot from the screen with surround headphones on and shit is fucking intense. I keep on having to have breaks to give my arse some respite from all the clenching. I'm also on the rum and am a bit pissed, which I doubt is going to be much to my advantage.

 

I take it that you're not really supposed to know what's going on? I get that I'm a 'hunter', so I guess I'm supposed to be hunting the werewolves, but what I don't understand is why the townspeople don't like me and keep calling me cursed, because they obviously don't like the werewolves either, so I'd have thought they'd have been grateful for my presence, if anything. Moreover, some of the townspeople enemies I've killed are a tad...hairy, so I don't know if they've started to turn into werewolves, or what.

[Jamie John]

Also, I don't have PS+ any more and didn't realise you needed it to leave and read messages, and so on. Is it worth shelling out a fiver to get it for a month for the online features? I'm not really into PvP and I want to try to do all the bosses solo, but I wouldn't mind reading the messages that are left and occasionally co-oping in someone else's game to help them out with a boss I've done already.

[Davros sock drawer]

The messages spoil all the surprises IMO. I only play offline, although I might consider going online at some point with the series once I've solo'd absolutely everything there is to see and do. I can see the appeal of helping others with bosses, even though I wouldn't want help myself.

 

I keep getting a prompt for a free 2 day trial when I boot up Dark Souls 3, so why not grab that and try it?

[hereticboy]

14 minutes ago, Jamie John said:

I take it that you're not really supposed to know what's going on? I get that I'm a 'hunter', so I guess I'm supposed to be hunting the werewolves, but what I don't understand is why the townspeople don't like me and keep calling me cursed, because they obviously don't like the werewolves either, so I'd have thought they'd have been grateful for my presence, if anything. Moreover, some of the townspeople enemies I've killed are a tad...hairy, so I don't know if they've started to turn into werewolves, or what.

 

Asking questions like that and thinking will sort of help you to understand what's happening, but in general it's designed to be vague. Everything in the world (architecture, enemy types, item descriptions, etc) tells you a little about what's going on, and you generally have to piece it together yourself. And then after you finish the game watch lore videos on YouTube and read that massive Google Doc that bloke wrote up.

 

The story and the telling of it are, quite frankly, genius IMO.

[Jamie John]

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll stay offline for now.

 

I played for another hour. Decided to leave CB for a while and went in the other direction instead towards some sewers. Killed some rats and some freaky crawler zombies and eventually unlocked a very satisfying shortcut. I've only been playing the game for a few hours but I've already know it's going to be excellent.

[Minion]

Thanks for the advice on the Forbidden Woods NPC's it's appreciated.

 

@Jamie John Sounds like you've got the right approach, I personally turned off all the messages and stuff as they completely ruined the atmosphere, I still don't understand if I need to be in Online mode to summon a friend such as @LongHairStu or whether that can be done when in offline mode? I also play with headphones, the audio is so good and adds to the atmosphere it's bloody brilliant.

[JoeK]

Oh maaan. Got greedy. Reached for an item that was too far out of my reach. 

 

Fell into the sewer where giant rats ate me

 

Always my fault.

[Jamie John]

45 minutes ago, JoeK said:

Oh maaan. Got greedy. Reached for an item that was too far out of my reach. 

 

Fell into the sewer where giant rats ate me

 

Always my fault.

There's a bit near there with 

 

a giant pig thing down a narrow passage.

That was a definite NOPE moment.

[noob]

9 hours ago, Jamie John said:

Thanks for the comments. I think I'll stay offline for now.

 

I played for another hour. Decided to leave CB for a while and went in the other direction instead towards some sewers. Killed some rats and some freaky crawler zombies and eventually unlocked a very satisfying shortcut. I've only been playing the game for a few hours but I've already know it's going to be excellent.

 

if i am correct, you need to chat to the girl in the window there at that shortcut... 

 

will help you later. 

 

 

[Garwoofoo]

11 hours ago, Davros sock drawer said:

The messages spoil all the surprises IMO. I only play offline, although I might consider going online at some point with the series once I've solo'd absolutely everything there is to see and do. I can see the appeal of helping others with bosses, even though I wouldn't want help myself.

 

I like the messages.  The game would feel even more oppressive without them and on several occasions they've saved me, or at least made me laugh.  I read one the other day that said "Beware of blobby things".  I had about two seconds to wonder what that was about before a fucking big pig came out of nowhere and splattered me all over the cobblestones.

 

Also, I'm happy to accept as much help as I can get when it comes to the bosses.  They're the bit of the game I don't really enjoy, so the opportunity to buddy up completely saves this.  Can't imagine playing offline, for that reason alone.