Bloodborne – Beginner’s Guide

Bloodborne isn’t a game that holds your hand. It throws you in the deepest of deep ends and expects you to learn how to swim. To help you get to grips with the basics of the game, we’ve put together five quick tips that’ll introduce you to the basics of combat and exploration within From Software’s latest brain-melter.

When an enemy is about to attack, shoot!

Your gun isn’t really an offensive weapon, but should primarily be used for counters. If you shoot an enemy at the halfway point of their build-up to an attack, you’ll stagger them, leaving them vulnerable to Visceral Attacks. You’ll know if you’ve timed it correctly because they’ll stop swinging and there’s a very noticeable sound that plays to alert you to run up and hit them. Visceral attacks do much greater damage, but timing a shot with your gun is tricky. It’s the classic risk/reward scenario the Souls series is known for, and learning the timing can take a little while, but it’s well worth practicing for later on in the game.

Look for pink lights

Pink lights alert you to something of note in the environment. In Yharnam, the first location, pink lamps alert you to someone in one of the houses to talk to. Interact with each of them, as eventually you will have the opportunity to save at least a few of them.

Use L1/R1 combos

As well as the traditional light (R1) and heavy attacks (R2), you can also press L1 during a combo to extend or contract your weapon, but as an attack, which can lead to some devastating combos. It’s a really useful way of switching tactics, too, if you’ve whittled down the number of enemies mid-combo or vice versa, pressing L1 can make your weapon more suited to the situation.

Hit. Pause. Repeat

Unleashing a series of attacks depletes stamina. Using all your stamina will leave you vulnerable to hits from enemies. In the early parts of the game, you’ll face enemies that require more than a few hits to go down, but rather than landing a few blows and backing off, there’s actually a way you can cheat the system and regain stamina mid-combo.

Rather than using chained combos, press R1 once, then briefly pause, then press it again, using the same opening attack. This allows you to regain around half the stamina lost for the hit, so you can land more attacks on enemies, and they’ll die much quicker. Only use this strategy on opponents that get staggered by your hits, otherwise you’re still vulnerable. This strategy doesn’t work on trolls in Yharnam, but works on almost everything else. Timing is important, and takes a little getting used to, but it’s a very useful technique that can save your skin an awful lot.

Buy the Hunter Chief Emblem from the Hunter’s Dream

The Messengers in the Hunter’s Dream fountain sell a key for 10,000 Blood Echoes from early on in the game called the “Hunter Chief Emblem”. Once you reach the Cathedral Ward lamp, buy it. There is a locked door at the top of the stairs of one of the exits that requires this emblem to open. Doing this will save you a lot of time feeling lost and with nowhere to go, and open up a huge part of the map to explore.

Can’t find a lamp? Check the other headstones

Sometimes you’ll unlock a new lamp and it won’t be at the same headstone you’ve been using for a while. In Hunter’s Dream, there are four headstones which can take you back to the main game, you’ll know which ones are active as they’ll be surrounded by Messengers. Check the active headstones to see where each lamp is located.