Bloodborne

[HandsomeDead]

I forgot the name of the Yahar'gul boss but it's down (first attempt too 🥳) but I hate exploring this place still.  I think I have it mostly combed.  It was after I beat the boss I did lose the most blood echoes I've lost the whole game, and also in the stupidest way so that felt pretty bad.  I fell down an elevator shaft rushing around and lost around three levels and some change worth.  I've been sensible with my souls all this time.

 

I've mostly been trying with the boss at Cainhurst but I'm getting frustrated.  I'm at the point I have the fight down in theory but something keeps going wrong and executing it is proving another matter.  It doesn't help it's a bit more of a trek than usual to get from the lamp to the boss.

 

I've had a look around Nightmare Frontier but I'm puzzled by the enemies that do Frenzy to you.  It looks like it keeps going up after I've killed the enemy causing it.

[shinymcshine]

Frenzy seems a bit like a sanity attack, so once its started building up it continues until the related monster (or any more of type in the immediate area) is dead - so chomp down on sedatives, wear anti frenzy gear, and kill the monsters quickly.

 

I've got addicted to Chalice Dungeons, I still need to go back and do the boss at Yahar'gul, clearly I didn't beat it first time ! 

[HandsomeDead]

Sedatives! 🤦‍♂️

[shinymcshine]

Also - there's a suggestion that frenzy resistance decreases the more insight you've got (which is a bit Lovecraftian, in terms of the more you know about the madness going on around you, the less stable you become).

[HandsomeDead]

So it functions the same as beasthood then, which as I said I looked into.  I was hoping to get an item that gives you full resistance or something but these games never really work like that.  You gotta find that imperfect solution.

[Sly Reflex]

The Tonny is low key one of the best weapons in game imo. You can use the strike mid combo to add more lightning or reapply lightning if it went out so you're using your stamina to the fullest. The range might be short and it might need repairing more, but the things fucks a lot of enemies day right up and there's fuck all they can do about it.

[shinymcshine]

Yahar'gul boss defeated - not sure if I found the knack or if it was a quirk, but after killing the spell casters, I just wedged myself against the side of the boss and hacked away, picking up minimal damage to myself so stayed there & carried on, until it died - so probably the easiest one so far, but not sure if it's a repeatable 'tactic'.

 

Progressing took me through the upper floor of a previous area, and then ran through the first part of the next area and unlocked a shortcut lift:

Spoiler

Nightmare of Mensis - this seemed pretty tough, with big hitting enemies, annoying snakes, and frenzy - so I just ran & rolled, and entered the building. Used bait & lure on the spiders, then plunge attack, from the walkway onto the big spider - all which worked well.

 

Took down the hunter on the next walkway and then found a lift down to a lantern (Mergo's Loft Base) - so a nice time to take a break for now.

 

[shinymcshine]

And that's the next boss down too !

Spoiler

Micolash Host of the Nightmare - that was quite a fun one, running after them, chopping down skeletons, having a mid way chase down, finding the route to the final room etc. Not too much of a problem overall, took it down first go - I actually like this sort of boss rather than the huge beast things.

 

Feels like I'm getting somewhere near the end though :-(

 

[HandsomeDead]

I'm having a hard time with Micolash.  Maybe I wasn't in the zone as I was getting hit by everything.  But yeah, he seems doable but I hate that AoE attack he does, it hits me multiple times most of the time.

Still banging my head against the Cainhurst boss too 🙁  

But I beat the Nightmare Frontier boss which was an easy one and I got a chalice.

Oh and while procrastinating I did that upper chapel area and beat that boss, first time as well but I'm not partying for that as it was easier than giant regular enemies.  The werewolves on the way there were harder.

 

I've been doing the chalice dungeons too but now I'm so overlevelled for them theyre mostly an excuse to farm blood vials but one of the bosses has proved a little problematic.

 

In terms of weapons I swapped out the Axe a while back for the threaded cane.  I have more of a skill build than a strength one, hence why I've not used the Tonny unless there is a strong elemental reason, and the Holy Blade scales pretty well with skill too.  The cane is good for mobs and hunters, I just zone those idiots like the worst Axl user and it's helping me a lot where I was once struggling.

 

The other skill based weapons tend to be guns as well and I've not put enough into bloodtinge to properly make use of that I suspect.  Which is a shame as that gunblade weapon looks tempting to a weirdo FF8 appreciater.

[shinymcshine]

There's 2 bosses in the Upper Cathedral area - if you go to where you killed the big headed alien thing, and break the stained glass window behind the lantern (Lumenflower Gardens)......

 

I'm just trying to beat some Nurse Maid boss - it's fast, and a bit tricky.

[shinymcshine]

Backtracked, and three more bosses down, Darkbeast Paarl, Amygdala and, more 'importantly' Martyr Logarius at Cainhurst Castle - all solo.

 

Even helped another player at Cainhurst take the boss down afterwards too.

 

Spoiler

There's also a bit you can do after the Cainhurst boss with another Summons Letter and a certain NPC Hunter, which was quite fun.

 

Also had weird sequence in the Mergo area with a hanging brain - which is now ...... brain ..... dead !!

 

So it's just main story to go I think.

[HandsomeDead]

Micolash down, no idea why I was struggling but he's grounded.  

 

And so is Logarius who I managed to finish in a satisfying way.  Got to really say 'fuck you' after all these attempts

Spoiler

 

 

I also got to 'The Nurse' and yeah... I get a feeling this is gonna take a while.

[HandsomeDead]

So, I don't think there's any areas left to explore and looking at the trophies I guess I'm pretty close to the end which is annoying as it's finding the next area that is a good motivation and going away and doing something else for a bit helps when I've hit a wall with a boss.  The only options I have now are The Nurse and that creature under the cathedral ward (which I can't find a good approach for, I had one good attempt but got blasted by lasers when I thought I was safe behind it).

 

I also hit a wall in the chalice dungeons with an undead giant who is bullshit with his sweep that has active frames that last all day.  Advice for it is just 'be patient' which I now just read as be a dullard and take 30 mins chipping and rolling away.  

I'm not a patient player, I have been more so than usual out of necessity with some of these bosses but I have my limits and I'm not doing that nonsense.  

 

So all this means I've been eyeing up the DLC for something else to do while I tackle these final bosses.  I'm level 90 so I'm at a recommended level.

But I'm a bit annoyed because I'm currently playing the vanilla version that they put on PS+ at some point but I had the physical version with the DLC.  They should just let me have it, I think 😌

[Maf]

Is the boss under the cathedral ward the first born emeritus or something? It has it’s back turned to you when you enter and it spits poison and lasers?

 

That was the hardest boss in the whole game for me. At least it took the longest. In fact I would probably have it down as top 5 hardest bosses in the whole SoulsBourne series

[HandsomeDead]

That's the one.  I've found these big, slow bosses the easier ones but this one is catching me out a lot.

[Maf]

It’s because when the poison starts you die for standing next to it and when forced to move away it shoots undodgeable lasers as punishment for not standing there and getting poisoned. 
 

When I beat it I don’t think I did anything different to the previous 700 attempts. It was a fight where things fall the right way and it goes the way you want. I didn’t change my strategy (Which was get in between it’s two tails and hit it really hard, really fast) 

[shinymcshine]

I used an NPC summons for Ebrietas, which drew her attacks from the front whilst I stayed behind, in the v of her tail and hacked away too.

 

Having trouble with the Wet Nurse though, best I've done so far is taking away half her HPs, but she has a very annoying attack that one shots me.

 

I'm at Lv 84, so maybe a bit of grinding might help me - mostly I've focussed on STR (45) with VIT (28) so maybe more HPs could be good.

[shinymcshine]

Oh well, that worked - Wet Nurse = Nightmare Slain !!!

 

Spoiler

Wet Nurse - went full on, Bolt Paper, Poison Knives, Molotov's, and just chucked everything at her, circle strafted around her, and just occasionally ran in for a flurry of hits. Used lock on for the first time in ages on a boss (as I was throwing things) so maybe that helped too. Plus, she didn't really use that fog summons thing much either this time around. Importantly I was just a bit more patient in taking it slower, dodging/rolling and only striking when safe, and not getting too carried away - I'm still talking less than 5 minutes, not overly slow.

 

Onwards !!!

 

Oh..... the guy in the chair is pretty sprightly after all....

 

So the endings, and I did look this up, as I'd got 3 parts of the Umbilical Cord, and really didn't know what to do with them :

Spoiler

So when I returned to the Hunters Dream, post Wet Nurse, and the building was on fire, I ate the Umbilical Cords, prior to talking with Gerhman, as it supposed to trigger another boss fight after Gerhman (who is optional too).

 

Well maybe that'll be the 'best' ending - just 2 bosses to go 

 

[one-armed dwarf]

btw, if people do check out the DLC, if I remember correctly when you beat the final boss of the main game it locks you into NG+, where the DLC will be a real nightmare to beat. Just to be aware

[shinymcshine]

1 hour ago, one-armed dwarf said:

btw, if people do check out the DLC, if I remember correctly when you beat the final boss of the main game it locks you into NG+, where the DLC will be a real nightmare to beat. Just to be aware

 

That's good to know, cheers - I still think I'm currently free to use the lanterns to move areas, so I'll see about finding the access point for the DLC before doing the final bosses (pretty sure we've got the GotY version downloaded, rather than the PS+ one).