Bloodborne

After hitting a bit of a wall with the Blood Starved Beast, bastard kept poisoning me and I kept dying before I could cure & heal, I finally managed to beat him and now I've moved on to the Cathedral Ward. Where I promptly ran into an absolutely huge fucker with a massive axe! 

I may need to pluck up a bit more courage before venturing further.

Actually had a day off from this , although I'll probably get back to it tonight.

Part of the reason for the break is due to MLB The Show '15 releasing today and the ongoing Ghibli season on Film 4. That said, the main reason was largely due to the game beating the shit out of me over the last couple of days.

As stated previously I've also spent a bit of time unsure of where to go although I think I'm back on track now. One path is still a bit of a no-go area for me at the moment so I spent quite a bit more time in an area I thought I'd explored quite well. Seemingly not, as I managed to locate a couple of short-cuts, thank fuck because I had been having considerable problems with some enemies in this area.

I did stumble across Vicar Amelia but just haven't been able to beat the bitch just yet despite a number of attempts. Due to this failure I decided on further exploration and also eventually stumbled on The Witch of Hemwick. A nice change of pace for a boss, although I did spend a couple of attempts trying to figure out what you were supposed to do. Once I figured that it, it was only a couple of attempts later before the Prey had been slaughtered and truth be told it's a very easy battle.

Unfortunately, beating The Witch of Hemwick just ended up with a dead-end, so I either have to find a way of beating Vicar Amelia (in the hope a new path opens up) or I'll have to take that other path that's seemingly available. Neither of these options look like they'll provide much in the way of comfort .

I'm going to fall so far behind you guys because I'm away for the Easter Weekend

Found this super secret but very familiar area, well I can't claim credit a friend of mine told me how find it. It's in the Healing Church Workshop tower and there's a couple of perilous drops to reach it but it's worth it, there's a Trophy for finding it and some cool pick ups including a hair ornament, which you can give to the girl in Hunters Dream for a special item, and a doll outfit!

megablast16 wrote:Found this super secret but very familiar area, well I can't claim credit a friend of mine told me how find it. 

Gone through the Healing Workshop a couple of times and seen the door both times and on both occasions I ended up taking different drops so I kept missing the door . May need to make more of an effort to actually get to it this time.

In other news, after the day long break yesterday I returned to the game late last night, proceeded to finish off Vicar Amelia on the first attempt, which was a relief after the numerous attempts on the previous day. Unfortunately, that was another dead end and the only other route I thought was available (coincidentally the area further down from that above video) only bought be back to the area I had previously been in, cue another couple of hours searching around wondering where to go.

Finally figured it out and have now moved onto another area although I haven't got around to fully exploring it yet. Seems to be full of traps though, managed to get instant killed by a log embedded with spikes after tripping said trap, almost fell into a cleverly disguised pit but then dropped off a rotten boardwalk (albeit safety) into an area where I got swarmed so that's where I'll be returning to next in a bid to recover my stash of blood echoes .

Before those shenanigans though I decided to play the good guy and helped a couple of other hunters take down Vicar Amelia, who seemed surprisingly easy after all the previous hassles the bitch gave me.

I'm currently traipsing around already visited areas farming blood echoes, there's a nice looking sword that's now available to buy in the store but it costs a whopping 20,000 blood echoes - it better be worth it!

By the way I've collected some runes now but I don't know how to use them, I suspect I need to collect something because there's still an alter in Hunters Dream that says workshop tool is missing. Is that correct?

megablast16 wrote:By the way I've collected some runes now but I don't know how to use them, I suspect I need to collect something because there's still an alter in Hunters Dream that says workshop tool is missing. Is that correct?

Yes, you'll get that item very soon as a reward for getting past a particular boss.

Boss name:

Cool, thought it would involve beating a boss!

Spent the afternoon further exploring The Forgotten Woods and it's a bloody huge area with loads of stuff hidden away. Seriously confusing to find your way around in initially and full of some pretty nasty enemies (and mobs) as well as traps aplenty.

Despite the time I've now spent there and having just unlocked my third shortcut, which again exemplifies the wonderful job FROM do with level design, I still haven't located a single boss down there. I'm assuming there may be a couple hidden away in there somewhere, time and a few more 'You've died' screens will soon tell .

Fully explored Hemwick Charnel Lane now and defeated the area boss, The Witch Of Hemwick. She was surprisingly easy, the easiest boss so far, and I only died a couple times. The first time because I didn't really know what to do and I was fighting those shambling creatures with the scythes, which you can pretty much ignore, instead of concentrating on the Witches and the second time I got froze by a spell and all the creatures ganged up on me. Anyway now I can equip the runes for extra buffs! 

Next up is Vicar Amelia in the Cathedral Ward, I've already opened up the shortcuts to get to her so it isn't too far from the Cathedral Ward lamp, but there are a handful of tough enemies to get past first though.

I'm getting withdrawal symptoms!

Finished up in the Forgotten Woods last night and managed to beat the area boss on the second attempt. 

Unfortunately (and in an act of utter stupidity/sheer overconfidence) I decided to continue on without bothering to use the lamp after the boss. Of course, I then proceeded to die and lose 43k in blood echoes but worse still, the attempt to recover those echoes failed miserably, there are a couple of really nasty enemies in that next area.

I do plan to return to the Forgotten Woods though as I found a hidden path which leads to a big poison lake containing a few large bastards. Now that I have a rune that boosts poison defence I'm curious to see what secrets that area will give up before continuing along the path that opened up after the previous boss.

I'm on a roll, finished off Vicar Amelia as well today! She was a lot tougher than the witch but not too bad by Bloodborne standards, it took about 7 attempts and I found the best tactic was to be ultra aggressive, keep attacking and dodging a lot and not allow her to heal. Using Fire Papers to imbue my weapon with fire helped deal extra damage too. Now I've just got to work out where to go next, or rather how to get there as I know I'm supposed to go to the Forbidden Woods.

Haven't really managed to progress too far today largely due to spending a lot of time exploring.

Helped a couple of hunters kill the Shadow of Yharnum, found a really nice bloodgem that is perfect for my build (+12 weapon scaling for Skill), killed Iosefka although that could have consequences and found a couple of items that may lead to hidden areas (assuming I can figure out where and how to use them).

I probably should try to continue on in the area past Forgotten Woods but I'm also inclined to just keep exploring further.

Bit of a strange one over the last day or so.

Stayed in the the area after The Forgotten Woods and this new area is not very large at all but does have a couple of troublesome enemies, found the boss but

Boss details:

In fact, despite the number of attempts, only once have I got the fucker to below half health remaining .



I also managed to locate where to use one of the items that I mentioned finding in the above post. That said, the item description didn't make it difficult to work out. On arrival in this new area I was quickly convinced that I really shouldn't be here, there are only 5-6 enemies between the first lamp and the main entrance but they hit hard and fast. On my first few attempts I could not get past these bastards, however I persevered and eventually I made it to the building entrance, albeit with a seriously limited supply of blood vials.

Once I entered the building, things got considerably easier so I made my way nervously through and eventually got far enough to open a shortcut back to the opening lamp. Shortly after this I discovered the boss and holy shit, I was reminded that perhaps I shouldn't have been here after all, I only had a couple of attempts, in neither of which did I get close to dropping him so I've temporarily bailed on that boss too.

The only real bit of progress I have made is that I've got a lot better at killing those massive sack-wielding bastards, the ones that sent me to prison a number of days ago. Inspired by my confidence against them and the rage that the other two bosses were causing me I opted to revisit the prison with revenge on my mind.

That played out nicely and I cleared the area, although there is a NPC down there who I haven't figured out yet, and I promptly stumbled on the area boss but my first attempt wasn't pretty as I got caught out by its attack patterns and elemental damage. A quick adjustment of my gear and the thing was taken down easily on my second attempt, finally a boss I could fucking beat. That didn't open up any new routes, barring a shortcut to a previously cleared out area.

So I have two paths knowingly available, both blocked off by bosses that are giving me serious grief but I may have an idea of where to use another item that I picked up yesterday. So that's probably my next port of call and hopefully it won't lead me to another area with a boss that I can't fucking beat. 

All in all, fun times, although I use that term loosely .

Been exploring the Forbidden Woods today, a very confusing area full of traps, but I did find a cave that leads to a very dangerous cavern filled with poisonous water, nasty snake things and giants! Beyond that though is a passage that leads to some ladders, which when climbed lead all the way back to the game's starting area! Another example of From's incredible level design.

There's another new area near the clinic that's now accessible but I decided to use the lamp in the clinic to use the large number of Blood Echoes I'd collected to level up before exploring that and then making my way back to the Forbidden Forest via the caves.

Had my ass handed to me by the Blood-Starved Beast twice last night before stopping playing. Even with the clothes I found that offer some poison resistance it can still basically one-hit me if it grabs me!

Not going to be able to play now for pretty much a week too due to being busy every night this week and all weekend! (Stupid International Tabletop Day making me play Boardgames like a mad man this week!

The Blood Starved Beast caused me a lot of grief as well with his slow poison attacks, took me countless attempts before I finally beat him. It is worth it though because you get the rune workshop tool as a reward and you can start equipping runes for added benefits.

Meanwhile I nailed the Forbidden Woods area boss today, The Shadow Of Yharnam. Actually it's 3 bosses, not too bad individually but a bit tricky when you're fighting all 3 at once, and one can shoot fireballs! And they transform when one is low on health with more powerful attacks, so it's best to try and finish one off immediately when they start their transformation. Anyway here's the video of my victory!

megablast16 wrote:Anyway here's the video of my victory!

I can't help thinking that you made rather hard work of that fight , then again, you got the job done so that's all that matters.

I finally managed to beat that irritating fucking boss that had been tormenting me, I did video capture it but it wasn't the most exciting video so I haven't uploaded it as yet, will edit this post later should I decide otherwise.



The following area is an extension of an area I've already been but it's also seriously annoying. Due to the presence of quite a few Chime Maidens there's an near constant supply of respawning AND buffed enemies, I only found that out for the first time when I thought I'd cleared an area and decided to post a screen shot to twitter only to see myself getting attacked and killed as soon as I returned to the game. Valuable lesson there . Also a really annoying enemy that will warp your hunter (albeit not too far) if you get caught in it's attack and usually into areas of danger too, it's certainly enough to throw you out of rhythm.

Also figured where to use that other item and was transported to a new area which was unsurprisingly threatening. It also appears to be an area where PvP is forced on to you and as a consequence I faced my first invader. He didn't last too long so that was a pleasant surprise, I've always struggled to nail the PvP aspect of these games so it was nice to find someone who was worse than me. I haven't explored that area a lot as I wasn't really in the mood to deal with the crap from other players but I'm sure I'll have to return at some point.

Had a brief look at a couple of optional areas, the Nightmare Frontier and Cainhurst Castle. The latter has some big, nasty spider like things with human heads that attack fast and lethally right at the start, so I chickened out of there pretty sharpish. I may need to build up my character a bit first before going back!

megablast16 wrote:The latter has some big, nasty spider like things with human heads that attack fast and lethally right at the start, so I chickened out of there pretty sharpish. I may need to build up my character a bit first before going back!

Those bastards are nasty and it took me ages to get past them, however, if you do, the rest of the area is notably easier so it may be worth persevering. The boss is a different story however and, whilst I've opened a shortcut to him, my couple of attempts at fighting him were pitiful so I haven't tried again since.

The Nightmare Frontier is interesting, have you been there yet PH? It looks very different to the rest of the game - a bright, open almost alien like landscape - that doesn't seem too hostile initially but I soon came across a couple of hunters who attack ferociously with long range attacks. Separately I could take them but they tend to double team, or one joins the fight midway through fighting the other, then they're very tricky. Again, like Cainhurst Castle, it's an area to be continued.

megablast16 wrote:The Nightmare Frontier is interesting, have you been there yet PH? 

I have, although like you, I haven't delved too far into it. Took out the two hunters and explored a little further but then chickened out on further exploration. Funnily enough, it was while I was taking on the hunter pair that I also got invaded and much to my surprise the invader actually waited until I had dealt with them before he attacked me, given how that played out for him, I bet he wish he hadn't .

There seems to be a constant threat of invasion in that area, or at least until you locate the woman with the sinister bell (haven't seen her yet). Did you also get invaded whilst you were there?

I also got invaded but managed to kill the invader, which surprised me. 

Spent most of yesterday exploring the Nightmare Frontier, I covered quite a lot of it but haven't found out how to get to the boss yet. Also cleared that jail place you get dumped by the sack carrying guys, I've been meaning to visit it for a while but hadn't got round to it.

It wasn't too daunting to be honest, although I guess it would have been a lot tougher if I'd visited earlier. It's actually a relatively small area and the enemies aren't that tough apart from a handful of those abductors. The boss is pretty easy too, although it took me a while to actually find him after I'd killed all the enemies.