Bloodborne

[Cerveza mas fina]

Just move forward!

Sounds like you are playing with a guide though

[Bebpo]

Nah, not using a guide but I check the wiki occasionally for what items do that I get and boss strategies after dying a few times.

Also using gaf for tips.  People are telling me to do Cainhurst now so gonna do that.  Man I love this game.  Might even beat it before I go on vacation in a week.

[El Babua]

Cainhurst is pretty good. Hell, all the three  main optional areas are.

Really excited for the DLC. Heard it's "longer than people are expecting" according to Sony Japan's streaming show.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

If there's one thing that I love about Bloodborne that's been a constant Souls criticism of mine, its that the game ends strongly instead of fizzling out. The last few bosses in the game are pretty great, especially when compared to Demon's Soils final boss and whatever the fuck was Dark Souls' second half post-Anor Londo.

Cainhurst is great, though I found the enemies in the outside areas to be way fucking harder than anything inside the castle.

[Bebpo]

Nice, yeah gonna do Cainhurst and try to make some more progress in Unseen Village and get my Saw Cleaver to +7 next time I play before doing Byg~~~place I can't spell.

Really enjoy the game, though honestly coming from a bunch of 100 hour rpgs and stuff it feels pretty short since apparently I'm about halfway through the available areas now.  But that's just me being silly since it's so well paced and every area is great.  Just kind of want it to never end and want there to be like dozens of locations since each one has so much character and is a ton of fun to explore.  But I still have most of the area of Dark Souls 1 & 2 to explore after Bloodborne so I guess that's some consolation until the DLC is out. 

[Bebpo]

If there's one thing that I love about Bloodborne that's been a constant Souls criticism of mine, its that the game ends strongly instead of fizzling out. The last few bosses in the game are pretty great, especially when compared to Demon's Soils final boss and whatever the fuck was Dark Souls' second half post-Anor Londo.

Cainhurst is great, though I found the enemies in the outside areas to be way fucking harder than anything inside the castle.

Yeah, just did Cainhurst tonight and it was fine and fun but the spiders in the yard were ridiculous so I didn't fight many.  Flying enemies annoying too.  Got to the boss but had 0 vials so tried a couple of times and died and will head back after farming some vials. 

Also did as much of Unseen Village as is possible at this point and took out Darkbeast Pearl.  Got to the old Abandoned Workshop as well.  All good stuff. 


Would you recommend doing Nightmare Frontier now?  Or should I do Byrgenworth and some more story areas and do Nightmare Frontier more at endgame?  Just hit lvl.60, 27/27/30 VIT/END/STR with +7 Cleaver (2 chunks away from +8).

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Definitely do Nightmare Frontier before Byrgenworth. It'll become incredibly apparent why after doing so.

[Bebpo]

Thanks.  Will do that next time. 

Been reading a lot of the lore stuff for the places I've been, characters I've encountered.  I really like the setting in this one and the way it's all subtly told in the background.  Very cool game.  I think my only complaint at this point is that not giving you access to more weapons early means the weapons kind of get left in the dust because your character build is pretty locked in by lvl.60/70+ so you can't radically change your stats because you like a weapon you got in the last 1/3rd and by that point you may have or already have started spending your bloodstone chunks upgrading one of the weapons you already have available so you're kind of committed to main-ing that one.

Like if I get a bunch of cool weapons at this point I can't really see myself using them since I've already decided I'm getting Saw Cleaver to +10 this playthrough. 

Do you at least get to keep all your weapons for NG+ so you can use the late game weapons from the start?
Also the game needs way more equipment.  Outside of bosses where I need specific resistance, my hunter garb from early on in the game is still the strongest DEF equipment :| 


But yeah the core game is great, great setting, great level design, good combat, cool secrets, etc... I've only played Demon Souls and this (and like 1/4th of Dark Souls) and I'm not sure which I like best at this point.  I think I definitely like the streamlining of Bloodborne into a straight out Devil May Cry action game rpg-version as I'm a bigger fan of character action games than I am of rpgs actually.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Yeah, you keep all of your shit for NG+.

The good thing about going with STR in Bloodborne is that damn near 75% of the weapons you can get early all scale with it. I went with Skill for the first time in a Souls game and used the Threaded Cane, but couldn't get another Skill weapon until super later in the game cause I didn't want to kill Eileen. Meanwhile I had cool shit like the Tonitrus, the Cannon and both Ludwig weapons picking up dust cause I didn't have the STR to use them. I ended up raising it later cause weapons that scale with both stats are really really good (like Ludwig's Holy Blade).

It involves using a glitch, but there's a skip you can do really early in the game that jumps you right into the Forbidden Woods, thus giving you earlier access to some of the later weapons. I'm doing that if I ever want to change things up for later runs. I already did it for NG+, fighting Shadow of Yarnaam as your first boss in the game is really intense.

[Bebpo]

Ok, I'm super freaking frustrated right now with Nightmare Frontier. First time the game has been way more frustrating than fun.  There's so much bullshit here:

-First the PVP which was the first time in the game I had to deal with never ending hunter attackers. Finally killed bell girl and stopped that.

-Huge ass poison lake, burning through all the blood vials & antidotes I don't have and farmed right before I got there. Hate moving slow through the lake since it's big.

-Boulder guys 1 hit killing me from above while running through the lake.

-FRENZY EYEBALL BRAIN which I am completely stuck at because if I kill him I still die from frenzy in 1 hit all my HP gone one-shotted even with the best Frenzy DEF gear I have right now. If I sprint past him my frenzy bar still maxes and I die in 1 hit one-shotting. I read you need to use sedatives...I don't have any (never found any) and the shop in hunters dream doesn't sell them. I just...can't get past this right now. Been wasting my night and my blood vials & antidotes and keep dying over and over. So frustrating. I don't have any frenzy defense runes fwiw.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Just make a beeline past the main lake area and don't look back until later. There's only one right path, with the others leading to item collecting. Do look around for a shortcut before you get to a spot that looks like a boss area though.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Your Insight total reduces your Frenzy resistance in general, so even High Frenzy RES gear doesn't  protect much if you're walking around with large amounts. It's pretty much over in general if he grabs you though.

[close]

[Bebpo]

Doesn't work.  I spent all my insight and brought it down from 30 to 4 insight.  Hunter gear is the highest frenzy def stat equipment I have.  27 VIT.  Full HP.  I run past the eyeball guy at full speed and the meter still maxes and I instantly die in 1 hit.  I kill him in a combo real fast, even after he's dead my frenzy meter keeps rising and maxes and I die instantly in 1 hit. 

Spent 3 hours and didn't gain a single level.  Got past the boulder guys area which was super annoying with their instant 1 hit kills from the boulders thrown from a distance while you're fighting other boulder guys up close, but just got some more useless runes and items.  Could never make it past the eyeball guy. 

Pretty much went from loving the game to wanting to throw it in the trash and never touch it again.  Really burned out on it, that area was beyond abysmal. 


Googled a bit and everyone says not to touch this area until later in the story when you can buy sedatives to make it past the eyeball guys.  Guess I'll come back to this later, but I think I'm gonna take a break from the game for a week or two.  This area was that bad.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Weird, that guy wasn't THAT troublesome when I did that area. You can farm Sedatives from the Slime Students in the lecture building, btw. Not a super common drop, but you just need one of them to get rid of Frenzy after killing it. Plus killing all the slime students in that one hall is like a gazillion easy Blood Echoes.

[Bebpo]

Hmm, you're right about that room being a good place to farm blood echoes.  Get about 15k per run.  They rarely drop anything though, maybe 1-2 drops per entire room and so far I've just gotten quicksilver bullets.


I need to find a good place to farm blood vials, its annoying always running out.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Like I said, they aren't a common drop. They drop them though, that's where I got my stash.

I do a farm run of either Central or Old Yharnam to stock up on blood Vials. The Nether Beasts are trivial to me now and they always drop 1-2 vials when killed.

http://www.primagames.com/games/bloodborne/tips/bloodborne-farm-blood-echoes-blood-vials-quicksilver-bullets-and-sedatives

This has a good farm route for Vials in Central Yharnam that you can do early on.

[Bebpo]

Hmm, ok.  Farming lecture hall room to make me feel better about losing all my souls in stupid nightmare.  Gained 5 levels so far.  Just hit 30/30/30 on VIT/END/STR.  I was reading you don't really need more than 30 for END so I'll probably just alternate VIT/STR back and forth for the rest of the game.  Probably no point in investing into Skill/Bloodtinge/Arcane at this point, right?  Those are 12/6/7 respectively for me right now at lvl.65.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Skill is good at a certain point cause you start getting a bigger damage boost from it than STR on weapons after a while due to diminishing returns. Bloodtinge you can leave alone unless there's a fancy new gun you wanna try out.

I'd get Arcane to at least 15. It lets you use the Empty Phantasm Shell, which is an Arcane damage buff to your right hand weapon, increases your item discovery stat and the Old Hunter's Bone, which temporarily buffs your dodges.

[Bebpo]

I see what you mean.  STR only adds +1, SKL+2 at this point for Saw Cleaver D/D damage.  If I want to get Arcane to 15, that's 8 levels yikes.  Is that stuff really worth it? 

I still probably want to be upping my VIT ever 3 levels or so, so it'll take me a long while to get to Arcane 15 and start pumping into SKL.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Up to you really. The old Hunter's bone is kinda whatever, but the Empty Phantasm shell is straight bonus damage to your weapon for a few QS bullets. The same as Fire/Bolt paper except you don't need to restock on them afterward. I use it a lot on my NG+ run.

If you just wanna get beefy and steamroll just, ignore Arcane and pump all your other stats up.

[Bebpo]

Gotcha.  Final got some sedative drops.  Didn't see any until about an hour+ in of farming, then got like 5 all at once.  Might give Nightmare another shot...maybe. 

[Bebpo]

Man, I'm starting to fall in love with the Tontirus bolt mode (using it to clear the lecture building with jumping R2 bolt damage to take out groups in 1 hit).  If I hadn't started using bloodchunks to upgrade the Saw Cleaver, I might have gone with Tontirus as my main (although I guess I'd be fucked if I ran into bosses that were strong against bolt damage).

[The Legend of Sunblade]

You'll get more than enough chunks post Byrgenworth to get another weapon to +9. Its only the Rock needed for the final +10 upgrade that only has a single spawn point per playthrough, unless you do chalice dungeons.

By the end of my first run, I had a +10 Threaded Cane, a +9 Blade of Mercy, a +7 or 8 Ludwig's Holy Blade and a +5 weapon you get from beating the final boss.

[Bebpo]

Sounds good.  Used a sedative, got past eyeball dude and opened up the shortcut in Nightmare.  Got a couple more chunks so upgrading my cleaver to +8 before trying the boss.

[Cerveza mas fina]

I sprinted through Unseen Village and Nightmare Frontier

 

[Bebpo]

Nightmare Frontier boss was super easy.  Went back and tried Matyr Logarius again now that I'm lvl.75 with 34 VIT, 30 END, 34 STR and a +8 Cleaver.  He still wrecked the shit out of me.  After a few tries eventually beat him but just barely in a really close fight.  I feel like the camera sucks in that fight for keeping track of a fast moving dude (him) and flying swords and shit in the 2nd half.  It was just extremely chaotic.  The first half is fine cause you can just parry -> visceral, but I found it really freaking hard to lock on to him and parry in the 2nd half with his movement speed and the sword stuff.  At least that's done.

Now can finally get back to the story areas and finish the game up this weekend.

[Bebpo]

Making a lot of progress now that I got back to the story and am super OP.  Just gotta do upper cathedral and 2nd half of Menises.  I feel like investing heavy in Vit actually makes you play worse since you can almost always play sloppy, back off and heal.  Story bosses are kind of a joke now :\

[Bebpo]

My experience:

Celestial Emmisary lol
Ebriates - tough, died a few times then I ate a blood pellet and mashed R1/L1 with my saw cleaver and killed her in like 20 seconds
Micolesh - neat
Wet Nurse - good fight but over real quick with a blood pellet
Final boss - good fight, kind of annoying until I got the hang of the patterns but then good
Best ending boss - dunno, just blood pellet and mashed after dodging a big attack

In the end I was lvl.94, 40 VIT, 40 STR, 30 END, 19 SKILL and only was using my Saw Cleaver + 10 with 414 damage after gems.  Like I had so many blood chunks at the end I don't know why I was so worried about using them.  I must have had 20+ chunks and I never used any because in the end my Saw Cleaver was destroying everything so no point in using other weapons.

Other than kind of breaking the game, really really liked it.  Gonna get back to reading up on the Lore cause the story seems great.  I think this and The Evil Within are probably the most interesting game stories so far this gen.  I liked how Bloodborne is basically a Resident Evil game (like RE4) in terms of atmosphere.  It's horror but not particularly scary, but just kind of messed up and unsettling.  Gave it a nice change from the Dark Souls and even Demon Souls though Demon had a good deal of this type of lovecraft to it.

[Cerveza mas fina]

There are some great videos explaining the lore

Being lvl 94 was prob a bit too high for the last boss

[Rahxephon91]

I was around level 110 towards the end. Really kind of demolished everything. Though I wish I had done more chalice dungeons before a restart.

I also felt the Wet Nurse was an enjoyable boss battle.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

My favorite area, both thematically and involving actual content, is probably the Nightmare of Mensis. It's the culmination of all the fucked up things the cult of Mensis did in their attempt to follow Wilhem's teachings, with Micolash himself still wandering around inside the dream long after his physical body's wasted away.

Content wise, its the best form of asset re-use I've seen in the series. I'll slam Dark Souls' Demon Ruins and Lost Izalith any day for being the laziest form of it, with a super sloppy copy/paste job of previous bosses and dumb enemies that are virtually unchanged from before. In NoM, even though I'm still fighting dogs and crows and boars, the things done to those poor things make a world of difference in how I perceive the content. Plus it DOES have new things scattered in there despite being a familiar area (cause of Nightmare Frontier), so I does keep things fresh.

Micolash is one of my favorite bosses by virtue of being so chatty. It felt really weird fighting against a boss in a souls game that actually talks to you. His "grant us eyes" plea helps the player understand the underlying motivation for what the hells happening if they haven't been diligently reading the item descriptions to understand the lore.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Popped this back in cause talking to Bebpo made me wanna play it. Chalice dungeons are a lot more manageable now that you get Blood games out the wazoo, plus I think the Blade of Mercy got a damage buff cause I don't remember it doing this much damage before.

Himtertomb Chalice - Super easy. First time I played a dungeon with those super huge rooms with empty floors and long suspension bridges. Got scared when I saw Undead Giant as a boss again, but the Cleaver/Cannon variety is super easy and not hard at all.

Lower Hintertomb - I didn't think they'd make those dumb Brainsucker enemies and turn one into a boss.  Was even easier than the normal enemies cause he wouldn't simply spam paralysis spells forever. Forgotten Madman was a neat Hunter vs Hunter boss, Pthumerian Elder was basically a Fire elemental Martyr Logarius.

Ailing Loran - I like the desert theme in this one. Got to the first boss (Blood Starved Beast) who is a lot more difficult than his original version, but the power cut out when he was at like 1/4 health.  Didn't feel like playing more after that.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Power cut out? Wtf

[Bebpo]

Popped this back in cause talking to Bebpo made me wanna play it. Chalice dungeons are a lot more manageable now that you get Blood games out the wazoo, plus I think the Blade of Mercy got a damage buff cause I don't remember it doing this much damage before.

Himtertomb Chalice - Super easy. First time I played a dungeon with those super huge rooms with empty floors and long suspension bridges. Got scared when I saw Undead Giant as a boss again, but the Cleaver/Cannon variety is super easy and not hard at all.

Lower Hintertomb - I didn't think they'd make those dumb Brainsucker enemies and turn one into a boss.  Was even easier than the normal enemies cause he wouldn't simply spam paralysis spells forever. Forgotten Madman was a neat Hunter vs Hunter boss, Pthumerian Elder was basically a Fire elemental Martyr Logarius.

Ailing Loran - I like the desert theme in this one. Got to the first boss (Blood Starved Beast) who is a lot more difficult than his original version, but the power cut out when he was at like 1/4 health.  Didn't feel like playing more after that.

I can't really get into chalice stuff for some reason, although I only did the very first chalice since I couldn't find ritual blood (1) to open the second one.  The first chalice was ok but I just found the level design kind of boring compared to the main game areas and lack of story/lore I guess is less compelling to me.

Started a new game+ run and went through Cleric Beast and Father G.  I actually liked the fights more this time around since I could take a few hits and so could the bosses.  Plus I knew what I was doing so the fights became a lot less frantic "oh shit oh shit dodge dodge dodge please don't take a hit" than the first time.  Also running through the areas is super quick since I know where I'm going and everything dies pretty easily.

I upped my Arcane to 15 and messed around with some of the tools, also got some more weapons and messed around with them at lvl.6/7.  I gotta say though, it's hard for me to stick with any weapon that isn't the saw cleaver at this point because the rest all feel slow and weak in comparison to the short form Cleaver at +10 with the best gems on it.  Yeah some have better range or do stronger damage with charge attacks, but I'm just too used to the feel of the Cleaver so I keep going back to that one. 

Probably not gonna play it anymore just because I'm over the new game+ run and can't access further Chalice dungeons.  Definitely feel like I got my time's worth of enjoyment.  Still reading up on the Lore theories and liking it a lot.  I gotta read up on the Demon Souls story because it's been a few years and I'm curious how DeSo compares in story to Bloodborne.  I just remember some blind girl and a giant continent falling or something. 

Now I'm really looking forward to getting back to Dark Souls at some point this year.  Love these Miyazaki games.  Originally I played through Demon Souls as basically a 0 VIT (1 hit kills) MAX magic dodge shit and shoot soul arrows from afar build.  That's also how I did the first 15 hours of Dark Souls (Capra Demon was such a bitch in that tiny room running and shooting a shot and then running and shooting a shot).  But now that I've experience the TONS OF HP TANKING MELEE MASH MASH MASH build of Bloodborne, I think when I restart Dark Souls I'm gonna go melee and do an HP/STR heavy tank build.  Had a lot of fun with it here.

Bloodborne was really great though.  I'd give it like a 9.5/10 or something.  Went back to playing GTAV and I still like that a little bit more, but Bloodborne is definitely the 2nd best game I've played so far this year.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

Power cut out, power surge, whatever. The lights went out and my PS4 turned off. :/

Your experience with the cleaver is basically mine with my spread of Threaded Cane / Blade of Mercy / Ludwig's Holy Blade. All of them deal monster damage and cover every situation I'd need, so I never feel the urge to try out a different weapon. My left hand is always the pistol with a the HP regen gem equipped and the torch. Because I'm almost always two-handing the Blade and Holy Blade, the regen effect stays active even if I'm not actively using it.

The level design for Chalice dungeons is pretty boring, yeah, but the boss fights themselves are harder than all of the ones on the game (for the most part). At least 1/4 of all the bosses the game has can only be fought inside them.

Also don't forget that we're still due for a Bloodborne expansion. You'll be back to Yharnam soon enough.

[Bebpo]

So I've been sick with a cold for the last bunch of days and too exhausted to really write anything in-depth about Bloodborne.  I did read this 90 page story analysis though:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k7ST7Ysc9I3s6zLXr-DOzWjoAtu6afOOCaU3ucCdBDk/edit

and while I don't know if he's on base with a couple of theories, having all the quotes from items and dialogue all together grouped by subject is really helpful and added a lot.  While I need to read some more theories and think more myself on the various aspects to fill in some of the missing mysteries, I'm extremely impressed by how the story in Bloodborne is presented.  In the essay he compares it to the old Silent Hill games where there's so much thought going into every single enemy design, area design, item description in terms of how it all relates to the narrative and instead of telling the player the story, the game gives you all the pieces and it's extremely fun putting them all together into some sort of sensical logical narrative.

So yeah, while I probably won't play much more of the game, I'll probably keep reading and thinking about it for weeks to come.  Between the story and the gameplay, the gorgeous visuals and art design and the combat, the secrets and the chalice stuff; I definitely agree it's pretty masterpiece-worthy.

[El Babua]

New expansion coming this Tuesday.

GOTY just got even better.

[Bebpo]

I was kind of bummed because to access it you need to be like 1/3rd of the game in and since the game forces you into new game+ when you beat it, I'm stuck in new game+ with my character and the expansion will be even more difficult new game+ version.  (I know Dark Souls I/II expansion stuff was like this, but I never finished DS1 and never played DS2 so this is the first time it actually effects me).

Then I popped in Bloodborne and played a bit of new game+ and remembered how damn fun the game is to play and I still remember like all the enemy patterns and stuff, so I guess I won't mind getting to the expansion.  Looking forward to it.

Also reminds me I need to go back and play DS1/2 next year.

[El Babua]

I made a new character in NG months ago specifically for the DLC (Bloodtinge build). Got her up to level 55 in Byrgenwerth. Still a bit too low for the DLC probably, but I'll manage.

[Bebpo]

Yeah, played a couple of hours, got past Vicar Amelia.  All ready for the dlc with my lvl 105 character.

[Bebpo]

Yeah I don't know if this is doable in NG+ at endgame NG player levels.  The normal enemies are fine, but the first boss has like 40k HP in NG+ and can kill you in 2 hits and I do 350 damage per hit with a maxed out Saw Cleaver and fire paper.  That means I've got to hit the boss like 120+ times without taking much damage which is ridiculous. 

I'll wait and see if people develop some good strategies (like maybe there's better weapons); otherwise guess I wasted $20 since I don't really want to start a new character and level them up to 60-80 just to do the DLC.

[El Babua]

The scaling on the bosses in the DLC for NG+ is insane, moreso than the base game.

For example, I had a relatively easy time through NG+ at lvl 85 or so. But the bosses in the DLC are at least 3-5x more powerful.

[Bebpo]

Is NG+ that much harder than the regular game? I accidentally beat the game without getting the good ending and have an NG+ file going, but I only played it up to around Father Gasgoine. It was painfully easy as I was just mowing down everyone at that point.

Say this boss has 40k health in NG+, how much health would it have on a regular save file?

Yeah boss scaling in the DLC is stupidly high.  People are struggling at around lvl.130-150 on NG+ on the bosses (normal enemies are fine).

Basically it looks like the DLC was meant to play at the end of your first playthrough (even though you can access it early on) when you have your high level character in the 60s-80s.  Otherwise you're kind of fucked and have to either grind for a dozen hours or start a new character and basically replay the entire game to get back to lvl.60-80 with +9/10 weapons.  Really sucks for everyone who beat the game and stopped playing at the start of NG+.

I'd guess 40k health boss in NG+ is more like 15k health in normal game or something.  Also damage done by the boss is pretty rough.  I'm at 40 VIT and the boss has a move that does 90-95% damage in 1 hit on me, and the regular swipes kill in about 2-3 hits.  I mean I can deal with that, but even smashing and smashing the first boss at 40 STR/25 SKL + 10 Saw Cleaver w/fire paper at most I can't even get the boss down to 50% HP after 20 blood vials and an extended fight.

If I decide to play the DLC I'm gonna grind 30 levels first to 130 and get 50 VIT, 50 STR, 40 END, 25 SKL and try it again.  At 40/40/30/25 it's just not working.

[Rahxephon91]

I was afraid of the scaling.

[Bebpo]

Really, the best solution for From Soft if they want to be more mainstream with games like Bloodborne and have their DLC be maintream for a larger audience is players should be able to play the DLC integrated like how it is, OR they should just be able to select the DLC from the menu and start at either lvl.1 with everything scaled appropriately, or have them start at lvl.60 or whatever is recommended and then let the players distribute the stat points when they start.  It's not perfect but at least it gives the option for everyone to just jump in and enjoy and make it through the DLC areas if they want no matter where they are in the game.

[Bebpo]

Tried starting a brand new character to see if I could speedrun the game and get up to lvl.60+ quickly to do the DLC on NG...you don't level up that fast in NG :|  The enemies give so few souls at the start.  It's basically going to take at least 10-15 hours to replay the whole game and as much fun as the game is to play even on replay, I've got better things to do with my time.  Think I'm just going to youtube the DLC.

[El Babua]

It's is pretty good tho

FROM always delivers on their DLC.

[Bebpo]

I beat the first boss in the DLC NG+ FUCK YES.  Ran out of blood vials about 3/4th through the battle and thought I was dead but managed to dodge all his later attacks and win with 1 hit until I was dead.

LEVELS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

I was lvl.105ish or something with

VIT 40
END 30
STR 40
SKL 25

I went back and just replay the game in NG+, in like 3-4 hours I got all the way up to the Unseen Village after Rom.  Gained about 20 levels.  Went back to the DLC now at lvl.128 with stats

VIT 47
END 37
STR 48
SKL 25

and suddenly the hunters were not crazy difficult and were totally manageable, normal enemies easy, and I was actually doing decent damage to the first DLC boss!!  Plus instead the bosses' charge attack doing like 95% damage to me, it was like 60% all all the damage from attacks were reduced about as much.  Battle only took like 3-4 mins.  So yeah, it was all about the levels.  It's one things I have a love/hate relationship with the series, for a game that should be like Ninja Gaiden dependent on skill, so much of whether you win or lose simply depends on levels and encourages grinding.  Oh well.

So uh, if I can beat the 1st boss of the DLC at these levels, I should be able to make it through the rest of the whole DLC?

[El Babua]

Spoiler for difficulty

spoiler (click to show/hide)

From what I hear the last boss is pretty much a highest difficulty Ninja Gaiden fight lol. It's mostly skill based though, so if you can cut it against Ludwig, you should be OK. Just get your attack stats/gems up

[close]

[Bebpo]

One problem I have since I'm entirely dependent on the saw cleaver as it's my only +10 weapon if that sometimes it can't reach.  Like on the first DLC boss there'd be a bunch of times where body parts would get in the way and block me from hitting the main body where I can do damage.  Have this issue on a lot of big bosses, but for everything else the Saw Cleaver short form is great because it's super fast.

[The Legend of Sunblade]

I read a friend say that the DLC gives you access to a second Blood Rock and tons of chunks without having to gruel through Chalice dungeons, so that's at least two +10 weapons you can get per playthrough rather than having to suffer through just one.

[Bebpo]

Yeah there's a blood rock somewhere in the DLC.  Guessing at the end.  I tried getting the new whirlwind saw up to +8 since it's S STR and I'm a STR-based build.  But not really feeling it at +8, does about as much damage as my +10 Cleaver but 5x slower and for whatever reason it's not staggering hardly anymore which is kind of the whole point of big weapons like the Kirkhammar.  Might use the Blood Rock to get Kirkhammer to +10; it was my go to weapon for the first half of my NG run before I switched to fast high damage cleaver combos.

Honestly, maybe I just don't put enough focus on paying attention but all the melee weapons in Bloodborne seem to feel the same in 3 categories (short fast lower damage per hit ones, heavy THUD smashing ones that are powerful but slow as hell, and then whip/distance ones that don't do much damage but I guess keep you further from your enemy so less chance of being hit [I don't really see the point of weapons like that in a game like this that's all about offense]).  Like I never really see a reason to change from one weapon to another.  The Arm is just another Hammer smash, the wheel is a slow powerful hammer smash, the Saw is basically a wider arcing less damaging, less staggering hammer smash, Ludwig is a weaker heavy hammer + weaker short sword but people like it for some reason.  At least I liked the Electric weapon because of the neat electricity effect that was strong on certain enemies.  The new Fire weapon could be ok since it's basically a hammer smash + fire.

[Bebpo]

Beat the expansion, though had to do co-op to take down the optional boss because that was pretty impossible on NG+

It's a good expansion.  A couple of the human-sized boss fights are awesome and intense and feel close to the Ninja Gaiden Black 1 on 1 boss combat.  Actually gotta learn patterns and when it's safe not only to get in and hit, but when it's safe to even heal.  When you win it's pretty satisfying.  Pretty good length too, I'd say it's about 25% as long as the entire game, so 8-10 hours.  Hard as all fuck, but damn satisfying action game dripping with atmosphere.  Totally worth the $20.

Only thing that sucks is waiting for BB2 now!  Guess I'll play Dark Souls 1/2/3 in the meantime...

[Yulwei]

how does the old hunters DLC work? is it all post-game content or is it just integrated throughout the base game?

[Bebpo]

Separate location integrated into the main game.  Tuned for endgame optional area stats.

[Bebpo]

I think my character is around level 80, played NG+ for about an hour.

I didn't mean to actually finish the game. I didn't realize Ebrietas was an optional boss, so I wasn't thinking about the game actually ending as I hadn't fought her yet. Went and fought you know who in the Hunters Dream, and that was that.

Do I want to grind 50 levels to have a shot at this, or should I just start over with a new character? It's been long enough that I wouldn't mind playing the main game again.

I'd say new game+ it and replay the main game if you're having fun.  Starting from scratch really sucks as you're so weak and certain bosses like Father G at the start are a pain in the ass.  Once you get past the first boss of the DLC (probably should try to be at least lvl.120 with 45-50 VIT and 40-50 whatever your attack stat is), the 2nd area is good for leveling up a bunch and the 2nd/3rd boss are doable.  Final boss is really tough regardless and optional boss is nuts.  A lot of people are playing though right now, so co-op if you get really stuck. 

[chronovore]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/midhras/24914694332/in/contacts/

That's gorgeous.

[Bebpo]

Yep, game has nice art direction.  Only downside is the chromatic aberration.