Bloodborne - PS4

[AcidCat]

Yes you have to kill the first boss. A lot of people won't get that far before quitting

I think you only need to have one insight.  There is a consumable one you can get to before you have to fight the boss.

Yep, I found two of those things, so I was able to level up a few times before I encountered the first boss.

The second boss is the real first roadblock. He had his way with me last night, attempting again tonight.

[Trippy]

I predict I will stop playing after failing to kill that big dude with the axe hiding behind the crates.

That's assuming I can even get past their fugly face creator. You would think From would be able to afford some decent face modelers after all this time.

[Yegolev]

You just need to cross the bridge and die, not even enter the boss room, in order to start leveling.  I don't think killing the sewer pig is part of it.

If you have a lot of blood vials like me, you can sell them.  I also sell off extra bullets.  14 Arcane seems to be why I have so much crap.

The axe guy behind the crates is kinda tough since he seems to be the one thing that is fire-resistant.  I managed to slap his ass with the cane enough to do the job, and got a blood gem for my trouble.  It's a random drop, so good luck.

I still haven't entirely explored the first area, but I'm almost done.

[schild]

Yegolev, folks.

Posts in one thread how he has a young ringer for a shooter.
Posts in another thread how you're all pussies and Bloodborne is easy.

#blessed

[Velorath]

Boss five down and was the easiest one so far. Also did some backtracking through the first few areas and apparently there are at least a couple good reasons to go back though some places later on.

[Nija]

Fuck shields, fuck dodging. Get up there and chop chop chop.

[Cyrrex]

I was starting to get REALLY pissed at this game...making no progress, losing all my souls (blood thingies).  Decided to try two handed, which I initially thought was too slow.  And surely you need to use the offhand pistol or torch?  Turns out I am way better at two handed.  Figured out how to bypass those two werewolves and finally make it to the first boss.  And yeah, he killed the shit out of me, but that indeed opened up the Doll back at the homestead for leveling.  Now I can grind levels, and feel like I am no longer wasting my time.  You really have to get to this point before this game is any actual fun. 

[Falconeer]

Let's talk about Chalice Dungeons.

Apparently you after you beat the third boss you can create your first chalice dungeon.

What is a chalice dungeon, you ask? I'd like to know it myself!

IF I got this right, a Chalice Dungeon is a randomly generated dungeon that you can create given you have certain items. There are 4 "biomes" and every dungeon you spawn can have up to five floors, but i am pretty sure you can generate more floors if you "craft" a dungeon with more unique ingredients.

Now, the idea is kind of amazing: as in a roguelike, endless procedurally generated dungeons for you to explore and loot, and the best part is that you can share them with other players, so you can give it to your friends and see how they do in it, and they can send you yours. Not to mention you can totally co-op them with a specific friend, not a randmoly summoned ghost. Also, at any time, you can just join a random dungeon by using the appropriate search tool, specifying what bionem difficulty and other things you want.

So yes, basically it seems like From Software injected more Rogue into their *Souls game. But the questions I have are:

- What is the point? Is this supposed to be something you start doing when you have finished the game, or are there good reasons to start running them whenever you want? I am asking this because you never know where the people at From want you to go in their games, so I wondered if I were supposed to complete my first Chalice Dungeon (I only cleared the first floor so far) or it's an extra thing that I can do or not and it doesn't matter?

- What are the rewards? Are there special rewards, or it's just to grind, get some consumables, and break the monotony assuming you have already finished the game?

- Is there anything else you know about Chalice Dungeons that I don't? Sure I could look up a guide on Google, but I would prefer if we shared what we know here.

[schild]

576 pages of strategy guide is gonna clear up a lot of shit.

We can talk about all the shit stripped out from the previous games, but chances are we know precisely nothing about Bloodborne right now. Hell, it took us months to "solve" demon's souls. And a massive faq that was updated constantly.

[Falconeer]

So true. Apparently the NPCs have a ton of potential branched "quests", that change based on what you are wearing, when did you talk to them, how much insight you have, and what did you do with the other NPCs. So yes, we know nothing. But to be fair, there's a chance all these info are already just a google away. So while I wait for the official guide, I'd just prefer to trade knowledge than read bad walkthroughs riddled with ads.

Today, a mob killed me and instead of the usual respawn I got a short cutscene where that mob throws me in a prison. The place itself is cool and took me a while to get to an exit point. Clearly, I hadn't really finished to explore it and now I don't seem to be able to go back to jail. So, no idea what triggered it and no idea if I can eveb go back there before NG+, but it's stuff like this that makes me love these games.

[Velorath]

Let's talk about Chalice Dungeons.

Apparently you after you beat the third boss you can create your first chalice dungeon.

What is a chalice dungeon, you ask? I'd like to know it myself!

IF I got this right, a Chalice Dungeon is a randomly generated dungeon that you can create given you have certain items. There are 4 "biomes" and every dungeon you spawn can have up to five floors, but i am pretty sure you can generate more floors if you "craft" a dungeon with more unique ingredients.

Now, the idea is kind of amazing: as in a roguelike, endless procedurally generated dungeons for you to explore and loot, and the best part is that you can share them with other players, so you can give it to your friends and see how they do in it, and they can send you yours. Not to mention you can totally co-op them with a specific friend, not a randmoly summoned ghost. Also, at any time, you can just join a random dungeon by using the appropriate search tool, specifying what bionem difficulty and other things you want.

So yes, basically it seems like From Software injected more Rogue into their *Souls game. But the questions I have are:

- What is the point? Is this supposed to be something you start doing when you have finished the game, or are there good reasons to start running them whenever you want? I am asking this because you never know where the people at From want you to go in their games, so I wondered if I were supposed to complete my first Chalice Dungeon (I only cleared the first floor so far) or it's an extra thing that I can do or not and it doesn't matter?

- What are the rewards? Are there special rewards, or it's just to grind, get some consumables, and break the monotony assuming you have already finished the game?

- Is there anything else you know about Chalice Dungeons that I don't? Sure I could look up a guide on Google, but I would prefer if we shared what we know here.

I finished the Chalice Dungeon you get access to by beating the boss. There seems to be a bit of a progression with the dungeons so you might as well clear them out whenever you are able otherwise you'll probably outlevel the early ones a bit. By progression I mean that it appears that killing the second boss in the dungeon will get you the root version of the chalice allowing you to make random versions of what I'm assuming is the tile set of that particular dungeon. You also seem to find the other materials you need off various enemies in the dungeon. Killing the third boss gets you the chalice for the next dungeon.

I'm sure going through all of them will probably net you something in the end. Otherwise I assume they're for farming blood and items if you're doing chalices that are level appropriate. This first Dungeon was only giving me a trivial amount of blood. Also Chalices appear to have a depth rating next to their listing which is what I assume determines how many levels its dungeons have.

[Falconeer]

More important things that you might want to know:

If you are playing online, you will sometimes hear a bell in the distance. The bell you hear is the sinister bell ringing lady. Find her, end her, and you end the matchmaking for invaders. The louder the bell, the closer you are to her.

[Velorath]

576 pages of strategy guide is gonna clear up a lot of shit.

We can talk about all the shit stripped out from the previous games, but chances are we know precisely nothing about Bloodborne right now. Hell, it took us months to "solve" demon's souls. And a massive faq that was updated constantly.

Demon's Souls had a shit-ton of replayability that made all the hidden stuff fun to do. I didn't feel the need to do everything in the Dark Souls games and after beating them messed around with NG+ for a couple days and then never went back. I don't feel like I'm going to need 576 pages of information on a game I'll probably play through once, especially since it doesn't sound like a particularly hard game to beat.

[Falconeer]

Not sure what you take the lack of replayability from in this case. I actually heard (that's it, just heard) that this is the most replayable of all the four games. Can't say if it's true, just curious what you take your impression from. I heard there's lots of hidden bosses for example. And as in Dark Souls 2, lots of things change in NG+, on top of all the "quests" you could have done differently.

Seems to me you are subtly kind of talking the game down just to counterbalance Schild talking too high. The 576 page thing is probably a big deal because, simply put, thnk about how much money Double Jump just lost to add those 130+ pages. Countless people will cancel their preorders since they will have beaten the game by the time the guide gets released. So I doubt they would throw that money away (not to mention that they had to pay to add 130 more pages but the cover price is unchanged) if it weren't for the fact that they contain valuable information. Not sure if you have seen the previous guides, but they are packed to the brim and it's not fluff.

Playing after the end of the first playthrough is a personal thing. For example, there were plenty of good reasons to go through NG+ In Dark Souls 2 but it doesn't mean you are doing it wrong if you don't want to. In Bloodborne it looks like there is tons of stuff to do after you beat the game, and a proper guide usually makes it even more fun.

[Velorath]

Nah, I don't need to counter-balance schild. When Dark Souls came out he said that From had made a game that was better than Demon's in every way, and then never finished it or even talked about it much.

The replayability in Demon's for me, and I probably mentioned this in one of the Dark Souls threads, is that it had bite sized chunks in the way it's levels were put together. I liked the hub system of Demon's over the open worlds of the Dark games. Going through the Dark games felt more like going through a long RPG. By the time I was through I just felt done with them. It was also partly that I feel like very few areas in the Dark games had been crafted to the extent of those in Demon's, and similarly, however far into Bloodborne I'm in, the environment hasn't really changed much at all.

Basically I feel like Demon's had quality over quantity, the Dark Souls games stressed quantity more, and Bloodborne right now lacks in both. It doesn't have the quality of Demons's and it doesn't have the quantity of any of the games right now, both in terms of environments and gameplay.

[Falconeer]

 

(It's ten bullets each shot)

[Velorath]

Just found that, although I don't have the stats to lift it. Also attacked the NPC nearby since he was gnawing on a body before I talked to him and seemed particularly interested in going to one of the safe areas. His subsequent reaction seemed to make me feel like I made the right call. Also went through the second Chalice Dungeon (not the root version of the first one). 3rd Dungeon seems slightly tough for my level. Picked up Ludwig's Holy Blade from the vendor and I'm liking it so far but after playing most of the game with the axe so far it's a big adjustment switching to a different weapon move set.

[Falconeer]

That's what I always liked about the Souls games as opposed to pretty much every other game where you feel the need to optimise. Even when there were too many weapons, they were all viable. When you start upgrading them, they all do their job, so eventually you can totally play with the one you prefer because of the animations, speed, range and so on. Sure, some weapons are just outright better, but you can do amazingly well with pretty much everything. I gotta give it to the "trick weapon" system for allowing you to practically carry 4 weapons on you at all times instead of 2. Easy to cover all situations and enjoy variation even when you stick to one or two weapons.

I got the Ludwig Holy Blade too and I was underwhelmed at first since it didn't seem as enough of an improvement over the beginner axe. Then again, when you get used to the new moveset (both of them) and you starrt upgrading it, it quickly turns into a beast. This is not to say that the axe from +4 onward wasn't already a monster, but the Holy Sword devastating impacts are simply too good to pass for my tastes. I am tempted to do a whole new playthrough just with the kirkhammer heavy form. But let's face it, I've only seen 8 trick weapons so far and considering how unique they are the whole process of finding new ones is proving to be a huge motivation to progress.

[Velorath]

The Kirkhammer is pretty potent stat-wise but the move set wasn't working for me. Not to say it's bad but it just really wasn't fitting my playstyle. The axe's two-handed charge attack has been a favorite of mine throughout the game because it's good at hitting multiple targets, and the arc also makes it somewhat possible to hit targets around cover.

[Mandella]

Okay so supposing I want to get into this series but I'm limited to PC gaming due to not having the console, should I start with Dark Souls 1 or jump right in to Dark Souls 2?

[Jeff Kelly]

Dark Souls 1. (just to make the distinction clearer)

The "prepare to die edition" is less than $20 on Steam right now. DS is also a vastly better game than DS 2.

If you had access to a PS3 I'd probably suggest Demon's Souls instead but on the PC it's Dark Souls.

[Jeff Kelly]

You'll also need a gamepad.

[schild]

Buy a PS3, get Demon's Souls. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Cyrrex]

You guys are insane.  I have just managed to finish off boss number two, and have managed to upgrade my weapon just a couple of times.  I'm somewhere around level 25 and feeling that I am making fine progress indeed.  And then I read all these things you guys are doing and don't even understand half the words.  Le sigh.

Okay so supposing I want to get into this series but I'm limited to PC gaming due to not having the console, should I start with Dark Souls 1 or jump right in to Dark Souls 2?

Dark Souls 2, I would think.  I have heard lots of negatives about the PC port of DS1, but can tell you from personal experience that DS2 is perfectly good on PC.  And it looks the business.  The games are not otherwise linked in any explicit way that makes you need to play them sequentially.

[Cyrrex]

Heh, I like how he get three totally different answers.

Whatever.  They are all great games IMO.  If you can get DS1 to work on PC, I suppose.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'd actually agree with Schild that - all things considered - I'd probably recommend Demon's Souls over Dark Souls. Buying a PS3 just for that game seems a bit excessive though.

Going through the hassle of getting to run DS on a PC is worth it IMHO. Get Durante's patch which fixes a lot of issues the game has on PC and you'll be fine. DS is a much better game than DS 2.

[Tairnyn]

You guys are insane.  I have just managed to finish off boss number two, and have managed to upgrade my weapon just a couple of times.  I'm somewhere around level 25 and feeling that I am making fine progress indeed.  And then I read all these things you guys are doing and don't even understand half the words.  Le sigh.

I am right with you, second boss down, one weapon to +3, and working to get to the third boss. Starting to question my stat choices as the level costs get higher, though. Got vitality and endurance to 12, but mostly focusing on Strength at 20 now. Wondering if I should get Arcane bumped up now, or if it's better to focus. Supposedly, respeccing is not an option, so I worry spreading too thin early on could be a bad idea.

I still have nightmares about the swamp in DS1. Overcoming that is something everyone should go through once in their life.

[Cyrrex]

I'd actually agree with Schild that - all things considered - I'd probably recommend Demon's Souls over Dark Souls. Buying a PS3 just for that game seems a bit excessive though.

Well when it comes right down to it, I would agree with that as well.  I mean, surely one can borrow a PS3 from someone. 

[grebo]

Demons Souls = Wacky unbalanced mad scientist random things thrown together type game.  The more you like weird stuff, the more you'll like this.

Dark Souls 1 = Awesome NPCs, best of any FROM game.  Very twitchy gameplay (but not as much as Bloodborne).  Better balance and flow than Demons Souls.  Everything feels like it "fits" better.

Dark Souls 2 = Best story and lore but much weaker NPCs, most areas, longest game experience, more of everything than the other games.  Way less twitchy play, takes a second to do anything so there's more planning and less reflexes than the other games.

I actually preferred Dark Souls 2 over the other 2 because that play style is preferable to me..  I also never signed up for XBOX Live gold and borrowed a PS3 for Demons Souls, so no online play at all for me.

[Mandella]

Heh, I like how he get three totally different answers.

That's why I asked!
 

Somehow we skipped Playstation generations in this household -- went from 2 to 4, but we got XBoxes all the way down (kids). I've always preferred PC anyway, even if I have to hork around with it to get it to run right.

Hmmm. If I can get this Nvidia Streaming Stuff working smoothly, I could shoot Dark Souls from my gaming rig to the big screen downstairs and play with the SHIELD controller, maybe...

Thanks for all the answers guys. The more you know!

[Falconeer]

I am a slow player and I take pride in that. I am at a point in life where all games bore me before I finish them and I believe that the 4 *Souls games are the only one that I enjoyed from the first second to the last. So I might be ahead of (some of) you, but that's because I already put 35 hours in this, and I have only killed 4 bosses! And the reason I mention this is because I've heard from multiple sources that a reasonable time to finish the first playthrough is 40 years hours. Yeah, not me. It took me 90 hours to finish Dark Souls 2 whereas everyone was clocking around 45. It's not that I suck, I just go deliberately slow as a way to prolong the experience and enjoy every second and every nook.

Bottom line, I think I am just a boss or two ahead of you. I have literally seen less than 30% of the game at this point.  

[Trippy]

And the reason I mention this is because I've heard from multiple sources that a reasonable time to finish the first playthrough is 40 years.

Wow this is an epic game.

[Falconeer]

And the reason I mention this is because I've heard from multiple sources that a reasonable time to finish the first playthrough is 40 years.

Wow this is an epic game.

 

My bad.

[K9]

Stuck on the second boss; that enrage phase is some bullshit 

[Falconeer]

The formula doesn't change. Just roll under its armpits and hit it a couple of times and then sidestep-sidestep-sidestep. Rinse repeat. When it phases to beast form you gotta dodge-dodge-dodge until it does something that leaves it open. Use the tombs and trees the best you can and put them between the two of you, but make sure to never trap yourself so pick an area around a few tombs that you are really familiar with. For as much as I am loving the game, the mechanic that always allows you to sidestep even at zero stamina is cheap as ass. Pure cheese. I just downed boss 5 and 6 at my first try and while I am supposed to be happy, I know I am not that good. It must be the game.