Bloodborne - The Old Hunters DLC

[henke]

Bloodborne's DLC got released today. Reviews are good(87% currently).



GiantBomb Quicklook

Not really feeling an urge to get back into Bloodborne right now, so I might wait for a sale on this one. I'd love to hear impressions from fellow TTLGers tho. Anyone gonna play this?

[salass00]

I've bought it but it may be a while still before I begin playing it as there is still some stuff I want to do in the regular game (some things I missed in NG as well as chalice dungeons). Also I'm debating with myself whether or not I should do the DLC first in NG (using a fresh character) or using my current NG+ one.

BTW not sure if it's new content but while in Forbidden Woods I met an NPC who I don't remember meeting before who seemed to want me to join some kind of beast hunter covenant. I declined though because I'd like to turn in my blood dregs before I switch to another covenant.

[Malleus]

in Forbidden Woods I met an NPC who I don't remember meeting before who seemed to want me to join some kind of beast hunter covenant.

You mean this guy? He (and the associated covenant) was added in the patch that came before the DLC.

[salass00]

You mean this guy? He (and the associated covenant) was added in the patch that came before the DLC.

Yes, so I was right that it was new content at least.

[Shinrazero]

The DLC has been excellent. Very challenging. PVP, weapons, bosses, and environments are really well done. I have one boss to finish but I've found all the new weapons and attire. With the weapons and items available in the DLC, you can do a really kick ass arcane build. The environments really stand out and are packed with detail. I found this little guy and felt sad. Oh, if there any Lovecraft fans playing BB, one of the areas could have been lifted from Shadow over Innsmouth, I thought that was pretty rad.

[salass00]

The DLC has been excellent. Very challenging. PVP, weapons, bosses, and environments are really well done. I have one boss to finish but I've found all the new weapons and attire. With the weapons and items available in the DLC, you can do a really kick ass arcane build. The environments really stand out and are packed with detail. I found this little guy and felt sad. Oh, if there any Lovecraft fans playing BB, one of the areas could have been lifted from Shadow over Innsmouth, I thought that was pretty rad.

Sounds promising. I'm doing the chalice dungeons right now though. Just defeated the first two bosses of the Cursed Pthumerian Defilement dungeon (Watcher and Watchdog of the Old Lords) yesterday.

[Shinrazero]

I love the chalices so much. I wish they would have added some new ones for the DLC. That hotdog is a really tough fight with half health, congrats! I spent 6 hours trying to defeat him but it was worth it. Doing the chalices has made me much better at the game.

If you find any of the new weapons in the DLC and would like the Lost or Uncanny versions, check out chalice 56ntxh2w. This chalice is a cursed pthumeru ihyll root with Fetid/Rotted/Cursed offerings. On the second layer, in the big room you enter from the lantern, is a bath messenger that will sell you the weapons. My friend found this one and we were pleasantly surprised.

[salass00]

Just defeated the third and last boss of Cursed Pthumeru Defilement, Amygdala. I lost count of how many times I got this guy down to just a few % health left only to get one-shotted by a leaping attack.

Doing Lower Loran next as I didn't have enough Red Jelly and Arcane Haze for the Great Pthumeru Ihyll Chalice.

[Shinrazero]

In the third phase, Amy likes to jump around a lot, especially if you tend to whittle the last bits of health by attacking it from behind. When it leaps, do not move at all. It will land facing a different direction and you will take no damage. While it is in the air, I try to turn in the opposite direction it is facing and try to get off L2 attacks.

Congrats on your victory, it's pretty much downhill from here on out. Oh, after you place your next chalice, you'll be able buy red jelly from the insight vendors.

[242]

I hoped there would be discount on BB GotY amongst the "12 deals" but no.

[salass00]

Just beat Queen Yharnam on my first attempt. Next I will be doing the Great Isz Chalice dungeon.

[salass00]

FWIW I decided on doing the DLC first using my existing NG+ character.

I just defeated the first boss, Ludwig, and I'm quite enjoying the DLC so far. It's very nice to have some entirely new areas again to explore.

[salass00]

Defeated two more DLC bosses yesterday evening.

Just had a pretty intense fight with two giant fishmen at the bottom of a well. This was after getting the second lamppost in fishman town because the first time I attempted to go down I turned around immediately as soon as I heard the singing.

[salass00]

Just defeated Orphan of Kos. Managed to get him down to about 5% health before dying on my first attempt but it still took quite a few attempts before I got him to 0%.

Judging from the trophies I'm guessing that there's only one boss left. There are also a few locked doors I haven't been able to open yet.

BTW the doll in the hunter's dream has some new dialog after defeating some of the new DLC bosses which might be easy to miss if you don't talk to her regularly.

[Thirith]

Can someone tell me if the Beast Cutter is worth upgrading, especially for someone like me who mostly uses the Threaded Cane? They seem to be similarish at a first glance, but I'd hate to sink resources into upgrading the BC only to find out that I should've stayed with the TC to begin with.

[twisty]

Having just conquered BB two nights ago I'm now looking to try out this DLC. For those of you that have played this, how does it compare with vanilla BB in terms of difficulty, lore and atmosphere? While I found most of Bloodborne to have a good balance of difficulty, there were some areas later in the game that I found a real trudge to get through.

[242]

At last, big discounts in the EU PS Store until 4/2. GOTY (~$30) or DLC alone (~12$), even less for plus users.

[TannisRoot]

The shark giants with the hooks are strait up trolls designed to maximize their ability to wreck players. Really hating these guys >.<

Try to run? Slip and slide motha#%!*a!
Stand your ground? Near 360 tracking and range.
And dat grab attack that swallows you whole...

[salass00]

Apart from that one time when you have to fight two of them at the same time I didn't have much problems with the shark giants.

Ironically the hardest boss of the DLC for me was the one I originally thought was going to be the easiest one since it's just the first boss of the regular game but with a new twist to it. In the end I gave up and just the summoned the NPC to help with the fight.

This was on NG+. I haven't played Old Hunters on regular NG yet so I don't know if there is any difference in difficulty.

[twisty]

Finally picked this up today on the latest PlayStation sale. While I was always going to buy this at some stage based on how much I liked Bloodborne, I probably should have researched how to access the DLC before starting a NG+ playthrough after beating the game some time ago. I never progressed any further than the first section or so in NG+ after beating the final boss and clearing out a few additional chalices, and haven't really played it since as unlike the Dark Souls games, I never felt compelled to go through another playthrough.

Unfortunately it now seems like I will either have to 1) start a new game or 2) use my NG+ build, in order to progress through the game until I am able to access the DLC. The advantages of option 1 is that the DLC will probably be a little easier (some of the areas towards the end of the game were just brutal and made me curse my build), however option 2 will probably allow me to get there a little faster as I won't have to go through all of the weapon upgrades.

[242]

The advantages of option 1 is that the DLC will probably be a little easier

Considerably easier. Starting from NG+2 or +3 some DLC bosses kill you in one hit regardless of your level or equipment. Their strenght with each cycle scales faster than protagonist's. Unlike DS series. Here, in my experience, NGs (especially NG+2 and further) don't become easier compared with NG.

[TannisRoot]

NG+1 is tough but doable on the DLC. For one it takes only two bosses, Father G and Amelia to access (with hunter's emblem), so it can be easily rushed. That said, if you don't have 50 in vitality you may run into some problems with the bosses.

[twisty]

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to push ahead with a new game, going for a different build and starting weapon this time. I haven't played much of it yet but so far am finding the saw cleaver much better as a starting weapon versus the Hunter's Axe, which I used almost exclusively on my first playthrough. It pretty much one shots the local goons and is super fast.

[twisty]

One of the best things about starting a new playthrough after all of this time is that refreshing feeling that you get when you realise how much this game kicks ass. As much as I was blown away by my first experience, in a number of ways I'm actually enjoying this a lot more now. I think that this is partially due to me being quite a bit better at it now but also as a result of developing a better build.

While I still haven't reached the part where you can access the DLC yet, I've been getting through the other areas without too much difficulty so far.

[Mr.Duck]

Ugh....but I want to try and beat it with my character in NG+3....plus the chalice dungeons.

Man...this is going to hurt sooooo much.