I think I might just hate the combat in this game. In Dark Souls I've always played mages, and ideally heavily armored ones. That's how I like to play. And this is making me engage with the melee combat of souls games which I've always thought was not very great.
Obvious advice but try giving it a day, I always found the "out of vials due to boss pain, time to farm" thing incredibly destructive to morale
If I set down the game today after my 30 minute session, I'm setting it down for good. I already set it down the day before because I was getting frustrated and no longer having fun with it. If I feel this way 30 minutes into my "try again" session, I'm just going to play games that I actually enjoy playing in my free time instead.
I figure running out out of blood vials was a way to force players to take a break from a fight if they're having a lot of trouble. It takes a lot of deaths to completely run out of blood vials, and everyone's had those times where they just couldn't beat a boss, so they walked away from it for a while, and then having that time to cool down and think on the boss some let them beat the boss in just one or two more tries. So I think they were trying to have that happen more.
Well, Central Yarnham maybe gives 30 vials the first run through? And if you're not leaning on Rally to regain health you're going to go through those real fast.
Yeah, I'm gonna say FUCK making players farm disposable shit for fights.
There's nothing fun about that.
Yes, yes it very much is.
But there is one way you can never have to farm vials ever again. But it requires a shift in mentality from souls games.
Basically, it's this...
Levels aren't shit, buy blood vials.
Every time you go back to the dream? Buy blood vials. Leveled up and have souls left over? Buy blood vials. Don't have enough for a level but have a stockpile if souls? Buy blood vials.
Blood vials are PROGRESS.
And levels aren't that important early on! I mean, the game abstractly tells you this outright, by making nearly every weapon stat requirement incredibly low. Weapons are the true, primary source of your damage. Upgrading them will always give better returns than stat leveling.
Early on, just level your primarys to whatever weapons you want to use, and put stats into health and stam. Vials are percentage based, so every point of health you gain, makes them better.
Do this and rarely, If ever, will you have to worry about farming vials again. And if you do, you'll be pass the point where it's a chore.
I think I might just hate the combat in this game. In Dark Souls I've always played mages, and ideally heavily armored ones. That's how I like to play. And this is making me engage with the melee combat of souls games which I've always thought was not very great.
There is no real mage in bloodborne like in Souls. The arcane tools are just that, tools. There is magic, but the tools are not complete replacements for melee. At most you can get a 60/40 tool to melee weapon usage. Trust me, I've tried. I built literally every build you can build in Bloodborne.
If you want ranged only combat however, that's 100% possible with a Bloodtinge build, using certain guns. But I highly, HIGHLY do not recommend it for a new player, since their signature weapons are behind a side area in the main game, and the end of a DLC encounter quest line.
However there is hope.
Bloodborne melee combat is very, very different from any Soul's game. Every weapon is perfectly useful for the entire game, their attack strings are longer, and you get the most overpowered dodge in the series.
I know you don't typically like it in Souls games, but Bloodborne does it the best, by far.
The best thing you can do right now is this:
Delete your original character. It's dead. You're only memories of it is pain and failure. And you haven't even gotten to the real wakeup call boss in Gascoigne.
Put the game down for a few days. Maybe weekes, or months. Whenever you feel like giving it a shot again.
Start a new character. Pick the Hunter's axe. Spoil yourself on the wiki as far as weapons you might want.
Level in this priority order
Two points to health till 40
1 point to stam till 30
1 point in whatever primary stats you need for whatever weapons you want to use till minimum requirements
When you're done with that, put points into whatever build stat you want(Probably Arcane, or Bloodtinge if you want true ranged combat)
DO NOT SAVE SOULS. Every time you return to the dream, if you do not have enough souls to level, buy blood vials. Always Always ALWAYS.
You don't have to follow this exactly, save for the blood vial recommendation, but I promise it'll help.
If this doesn't work, then you can feel free to put Bloodborne down for good. This is the best advice I can give.
My advice is to farm for a bunch of blood vials early before they go up in price while also putting points into vitality because that is the most important stat in Bloodborne.
What I ended up doing was taking Transporter's advice and re-rolled a new character. I ended up picking the axe and the blunderbuss (haven't really used the blunder though) but most importantly I swapped from the 7 vitality start to the 14 vitality start. I then created a stable farm loop until I had 30+ blood vials and 20 vitality.
Beat the Cleric Beast on my second attempt on this character with 10 vials still in the tank.
It turns out going from 511 HP to 793 HP is a pretty huge deal, especially when healing items heal a fixed 40% of your max life.
at launch every boss entry on the wiki had an entry like "if you have the axe just do this and you will win" and it was always shorter than the rest with rare exception.
and then i went strength arcane, and got fucked up until the dlc.
Yeah, I'm gonna say FUCK making players farm disposable shit for fights.
There's nothing fun about that.
Yes, yes it very much is.
But there is one way you can never have to farm vials ever again. But it requires a shift in mentality from souls games.
Basically, it's this...
Levels aren't shit, buy blood vials.
Every time you go back to the dream? Buy blood vials. Leveled up and have souls left over? Buy blood vials. Don't have enough for a level but have a stockpile if souls? Buy blood vials.
Blood vials are PROGRESS.
And levels aren't that important early on! I mean, the game abstractly tells you this outright, by making nearly every weapon stat requirement incredibly low. Weapons are the true, primary source of your damage. Upgrading them will always give better returns than stat leveling.
Early on, just level your primarys to whatever weapons you want to use, and put stats into health and stam. Vials are percentage based, so every point of health you gain, makes them better.
Do this and rarely, If ever, will you have to worry about farming vials again. And if you do, you'll be pass the point where it's a chore.
I was talking in general.
I don't own a PS4 and will probably never play bloodborne until maybe if/when I'm living with my GF who owns one.
Edit: On a pedantic note, I'm slightly weirded out by your use of "is" in your opening line there and am not entirely sure what you're communicating.
I figure running out out of blood vials was a way to force players to take a break from a fight if they're having a lot of trouble. It takes a lot of deaths to completely run out of blood vials, and everyone's had those times where they just couldn't beat a boss, so they walked away from it for a while, and then having that time to cool down and think on the boss some let them beat the boss in just one or two more tries. So I think they were trying to have that happen more.
Yeah, see, that's the problem. It ceases to be a choice.
I can't speak for anyone else, but my feelings towards a course of action get negative pretty damn fast when I don't really have much choice in the matter.
My response to something like this is to just avoid things that will result in me being pushed into using vials. That's just how I operate, because I am not keen on taking risks with lasting consequences.
And that's very much not what I associate with soulslike games.
It's one of those thing though where if you give people a choice, most of the time they'd go for the wrong one. And it's not a choice where taking the wrong one leads to anything interesting, it just prolongs frustration. So better to not give it at all.
i think i ran out of blood vials twice in bloodborne. once at father gascoine and another at the shadows. for the most part they drop rapidly enough that it doesn't really become an issue.
but i was using the hunter's axe, so, i was on easy mode.
I had a lot of fun with the hunter axe move set, but I put a limit on how much I'd use the charged spin cause that shit was ridiculous (I don't like using stuff that trivializes encounters too much)
So I’ve only played bloodborne but saw that DS3 is still in redbox for $5.
How much would I miss out by playing 3 without the first two? Or should I just wait to get to them in order eventually, or an amazon/digital sale?
they pretty much stand on their own. DS3 relies heavily on the imagery of DS1, but its still a good game ignoring that entirely.
I started the series with DS3, and while DS3 does rely a bit on callbacks to DS1 that a newbie wouldn't really get, going to DS1 and 2 afterwards (which anyone who starts with DS3 should absolutely do) gives you a similar feeling to seeing the callbacks in DS3, but from a different angle. It still closes the loop in a satisfying way.
Nowadays my time spent in DS3 is dedicated almost solely to invading. I'm thoroughly mediocre at it, but I can still spank ganks untwinked and despite the roll spam, I posit that it has the best PvP of the series, even with DS2's ballyhooed build variety.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
To be clear, the kirkhammer is a light double edged sword that you swing around accordingly, the scabbard being an enormous tombstone that you swing around like a cartoon mallet
Wow this really is a different game when you pump vitality. Took down the Father on my first try. It was certainly sloppy, and I chewed through more vials than I ideally should have, but, having vitality meant I actually had time to learn and practice his patterns without dying instantly.
I hope I get to be able to upgrade weapons soon, I'm started to build up a stockpile of upgrade stuff.
It's weird that in the game where being fast is the most important is the one where I actually enjoyed the heavy weapons the most. I never, ever use ultra-greatsword type weapons in dark souls, I can't handle how agonizingly slow they are. But in Bloodborne I ended up using the Kirkhammer and Ludwig's quite a bit. Maybe it was the ability to change them to their faster form at any time that eased the transition.
The other day when I was trying this guy the first time, I took to calling him the Camera Dragon. That by far was the toughest component of the battle, apart from the death laser barrage after heat-up.
Lock-on flat doesn't work. I'd lose lock while attacking his head because a wing or something came into the camera angle. So I eventually had to switch to free-from, which is super hard with a rapier to hit things. The two times I got to his heat up, I died instantly to the laser barrage.
When I came back this morning, I went with higher equip weight to reduce roll distance and add defenses. That actually did help a little with the camera, but I got roasted even more by the fire from above due to the lower roll distance and seeing the tells too late.
First attempt, I got to his heat up with 4 flasks left. Didn't seem very promising, but I figured maybe I'd get another shot at learning the laser barrage.
No such luck, he didn't use it. And I somehow got a stagger and critical hit! Midir down with 1 flask left, first try on the new day!
Frayed Blade seems neat. Mask and dark clutch ring for extra pain probably. Covenant is neat, but I bet summon time for the boss is super long.
And that wraps up Dark Souls 3. What an incredible experience. Ringed City moved it up my personal list; it's now my 3rd favorite game of all time.
I'm sure I'll come back to it again. Still so many toys I haven't played with!
Triptycho: A card-and-dice tabletop indie RPG currently in development and playtesting
Wow this really is a different game when you pump vitality. Took down the Father on my first try. It was certainly sloppy, and I chewed through more vials than I ideally should have, but, having vitality meant I actually had time to learn and practice his patterns without dying instantly.
I hope I get to be able to upgrade weapons soon, I'm started to build up a stockpile of upgrade stuff.
I'm pretty sure upgrading is available as soon as you have materials. There's a desk inside the workshop in the hunter's dream that you can examine to do it.
Posts
If I set down the game today after my 30 minute session, I'm setting it down for good. I already set it down the day before because I was getting frustrated and no longer having fun with it. If I feel this way 30 minutes into my "try again" session, I'm just going to play games that I actually enjoy playing in my free time instead.
There's nothing fun about that.
Yes, yes it very much is.
But there is one way you can never have to farm vials ever again. But it requires a shift in mentality from souls games.
Basically, it's this...
Levels aren't shit, buy blood vials.
Every time you go back to the dream? Buy blood vials. Leveled up and have souls left over? Buy blood vials. Don't have enough for a level but have a stockpile if souls? Buy blood vials.
Blood vials are PROGRESS.
And levels aren't that important early on! I mean, the game abstractly tells you this outright, by making nearly every weapon stat requirement incredibly low. Weapons are the true, primary source of your damage. Upgrading them will always give better returns than stat leveling.
Early on, just level your primarys to whatever weapons you want to use, and put stats into health and stam. Vials are percentage based, so every point of health you gain, makes them better.
Do this and rarely, If ever, will you have to worry about farming vials again. And if you do, you'll be pass the point where it's a chore.
Okay so this is a much bigger problem.
@Inquisitor I'm not going to lie to you.
There is no real mage in bloodborne like in Souls. The arcane tools are just that, tools. There is magic, but the tools are not complete replacements for melee. At most you can get a 60/40 tool to melee weapon usage. Trust me, I've tried. I built literally every build you can build in Bloodborne.
If you want ranged only combat however, that's 100% possible with a Bloodtinge build, using certain guns. But I highly, HIGHLY do not recommend it for a new player, since their signature weapons are behind a side area in the main game, and the end of a DLC encounter quest line.
However there is hope.
Bloodborne melee combat is very, very different from any Soul's game. Every weapon is perfectly useful for the entire game, their attack strings are longer, and you get the most overpowered dodge in the series.
I know you don't typically like it in Souls games, but Bloodborne does it the best, by far.
The best thing you can do right now is this:
Delete your original character. It's dead. You're only memories of it is pain and failure. And you haven't even gotten to the real wakeup call boss in Gascoigne.
Put the game down for a few days. Maybe weekes, or months. Whenever you feel like giving it a shot again.
Start a new character. Pick the Hunter's axe. Spoil yourself on the wiki as far as weapons you might want.
Level in this priority order
Two points to health till 40
1 point to stam till 30
1 point in whatever primary stats you need for whatever weapons you want to use till minimum requirements
When you're done with that, put points into whatever build stat you want(Probably Arcane, or Bloodtinge if you want true ranged combat)
DO NOT SAVE SOULS. Every time you return to the dream, if you do not have enough souls to level, buy blood vials. Always Always ALWAYS.
You don't have to follow this exactly, save for the blood vial recommendation, but I promise it'll help.
If this doesn't work, then you can feel free to put Bloodborne down for good. This is the best advice I can give.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to have a cold shower, make myself some coffee, and read a quiet book under a shady tree.
Beat the Cleric Beast on my second attempt on this character with 10 vials still in the tank.
It turns out going from 511 HP to 793 HP is a pretty huge deal, especially when healing items heal a fixed 40% of your max life.
Always be buying consumables
at launch every boss entry on the wiki had an entry like "if you have the axe just do this and you will win" and it was always shorter than the rest with rare exception.
and then i went strength arcane, and got fucked up until the dlc.
I was talking in general.
I don't own a PS4 and will probably never play bloodborne until maybe if/when I'm living with my GF who owns one.
Edit: On a pedantic note, I'm slightly weirded out by your use of "is" in your opening line there and am not entirely sure what you're communicating.
Yeah, see, that's the problem. It ceases to be a choice.
I can't speak for anyone else, but my feelings towards a course of action get negative pretty damn fast when I don't really have much choice in the matter.
My response to something like this is to just avoid things that will result in me being pushed into using vials. That's just how I operate, because I am not keen on taking risks with lasting consequences.
And that's very much not what I associate with soulslike games.
but i was using the hunter's axe, so, i was on easy mode.
is mostly joke, but it was considered the best of the three starting weapons.
its not really a joke, the hunter axe trivializes at least the first third of the game
PSN: Robo_Wizard1
I started the series with DS3, and while DS3 does rely a bit on callbacks to DS1 that a newbie wouldn't really get, going to DS1 and 2 afterwards (which anyone who starts with DS3 should absolutely do) gives you a similar feeling to seeing the callbacks in DS3, but from a different angle. It still closes the loop in a satisfying way.
Nowadays my time spent in DS3 is dedicated almost solely to invading. I'm thoroughly mediocre at it, but I can still spank ganks untwinked and despite the roll spam, I posit that it has the best PvP of the series, even with DS2's ballyhooed build variety.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
I believe you should have gotten the "Eye of a blood-addled hunter" or something along those lines from some messengers in the Hunter's Dream.
That does not happen until a certain boss is defeated
Still though, kirkhammer is a good name.
It is a giant gravestone on the end of a sword that you swing like a hammer.
What's not to like
I hope I get to be able to upgrade weapons soon, I'm started to build up a stockpile of upgrade stuff.
Lock-on flat doesn't work. I'd lose lock while attacking his head because a wing or something came into the camera angle. So I eventually had to switch to free-from, which is super hard with a rapier to hit things. The two times I got to his heat up, I died instantly to the laser barrage.
When I came back this morning, I went with higher equip weight to reduce roll distance and add defenses. That actually did help a little with the camera, but I got roasted even more by the fire from above due to the lower roll distance and seeing the tells too late.
First attempt, I got to his heat up with 4 flasks left. Didn't seem very promising, but I figured maybe I'd get another shot at learning the laser barrage.
No such luck, he didn't use it. And I somehow got a stagger and critical hit! Midir down with 1 flask left, first try on the new day!
Frayed Blade seems neat. Mask and dark clutch ring for extra pain probably. Covenant is neat, but I bet summon time for the boss is super long.
I'm sure I'll come back to it again. Still so many toys I haven't played with!
What a great way to end that fight