Bloodborne

Been wanting to replay this. I was waiting for the inevitable 60FPS PS5 remaster, but I found this video and it looks too interesting to not try:



That's right, a Gun-Only Playthrough. It looked fun and very different from what I did with the game already. I'm going to give this a shot (hee). I guess I'll save my next normal run for whenever the remaster happens.

It takes a little time to get into, but it's worth it. If that isn't a joke, put it (high) on your list. It was my first Souls, and personally the first time I played this game I absolutely hated it. After 4 hours of playing and getting nowhere and not understanding the slow combat (had the axe) I turned it off, ranted about it a lot online, and put it up for sale.

For some reason a few days later I did a little more reading on it and realized it wasn't a normal game where you just slash your way through it. Also found out about some really cool/useful weapons. Like the Saw Spear is a solid upgrade and can be obtained very early. And I wanted a sword so I found out where the Kirkhammer was. Lastly I started over with the Threaded Cane since I read it was a "good crowd control weapon" and all my deaths were to crowds. Started the game over, AOE'd everything with the whip version of the cane, suddenly "got it". Got down to where the Saw Spear was and obtained that, and then the feeling of accomplishment started setting in. This game actually makes you feel something? From then on I was hooked and wasn't gonna stop until I got a Kirkhammer, which took many hours of death, but eventually I did it. Once I had my sword I was happy, and I kept going, and eventually I was able to speedrun the whole game with the Blades of Mercy and the raven armor look like some sort of tornado of destruction.

MrHolland420 said:

You can get some insane damage with guns, but you have to exploit the chalice dungeon bug.

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What bug is that? Is it in the video? I just remember the 80,000 soul bug, but he did a lot in the chalice dungeons.

I'm mostly interested in this because guns are something I always wanted to get more use out of when I initially played the game, and disliked how weak they tended to be. Also I was never that good at parrying (first Soulsborne) so this is a chance to both A) Get good at parrying and B) Use guns.

Araxen said:

If you have a PS5, I would wait till the remaster comes out later this year.

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Wait what? Whoa, I didn't know that was happening any time soon. Looks like the news just leaked a couple days ago and is unconfirmed but likely. September release for Bloodborne Remastered.

Now I'm conflicted on whether to wait for that to do a replay, or do the gun-only replay in the meantime. I'll get more out of the new version if I wait for it and make it a full do-everything run. However the gun-only replay looks like such a fun diversion in the meantime.

Damn Ymfah for making that youtube video that pulled me into this situation. A week ago I would have had zero trouble holding off on a replay until September.

This gun-only run is fun so far, and nowhere near as tough as I thought it'd be. The main issue is running out of ammo/heals and being a sitting duck, so I took some time and grinded that one wheelchair-gunner near the Central Yharnam lamp to get as many bullets as possible in storage.

I'm following that video pretty closely. I wish it told you where all of the weapon upgrade shards are (instead of telling you to grab 9 in the first area, then showing you where like 6 of them are). It's a great video in general but that one detail has caused me some trouble.

Also, anyone else think that the area past the Cleric Beast looks like it was meant to connect to another area? There's a giant gate there that looks like it's supposed to open, plus a door on the side of it that doesn't open either. It really does look like another area was intended to be past that point. Maybe cut content.

Rajaah said:

This gun-only run is fun so far, and nowhere near as tough as I thought it'd be. The main issue is running out of ammo/heals and being a sitting duck, so I took some time and grinded that one wheelchair-gunner near the Central Yharnam lamp to get as many bullets as possible in storage.

I'm following that video pretty closely. I wish it told you where all of the weapon upgrade shards are (instead of telling you to grab 9 in the first area, then showing you where like 6 of them are). It's a great video in general but that one detail has caused me some trouble.

Also, anyone else think that the area past the Cleric Beast looks like it was meant to connect to another area? There's a giant gate there that looks like it's supposed to open, plus a door on the side of it that doesn't open either. It really does look like another area was intended to be past that point. Maybe cut content.

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I think its supposed to represent the lock down the church instituted.

Chanur said:

I think its supposed to represent the lock down the church instituted.

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I always had a theory that the cleric beast has one giant arm and one normal arm because...masturbation and sinning?

Gun-only run update: The game really does just kind of break once you get the Root Chalice and can level up from the Cum Dungeon. I used that to get 50 Bloodtinge and 99 Vitality (seemed better than the other way around, given the vastly-diminished returns of 51-99 Bloodtinge) and now I'm plowing. Still need to use Bone Marrow Ash to do any substantial gun damage even with that much Bloodtinge. TBH it's easier than a normal weapon run now. I imagine the second half of the game won't take long. Not doing anything optional, or DLCs. Doubt I'll even do the Heir rune trick with the aliens, don't think it's necessary. Once I get the Repeating Pistol to +10 (it's +5 now) that should be game.

The only hard part of this run was the first 3 bosses (since after that you can seriously power up before you face another boss). Cleric Beast wasn't too bad, Father G wasn't too bad. Both took a few tries. However the Blood-starved Beast absolutely destroyed me and it took HOURS. Not sure why that was so hard. At least half of my gunshots seemed to pass right through him. I don't remember that boss even being much of a threat the first few times I played the game a few years ago. I couldn't nail down the parrying. Ended up sploiting it with a bunch of the pungent blood vials to distract him during the second half, and reloading cloud saves if I lost. It STILL took a few hours and I considered calling it a day on the run.

After that nightmare, the rest has been smooth sailing. You can skip BSB by buying that 10k key from the bath merchant right? TBH I'd actually recommend that to people attempting this run, because everything got a lot easier (and more fun) after that fight with Cathedral Ward etc opened up for blacksmith material farming.

Next thing I'm after is the Cainhurst Summon so I can get the Reiterpallasch and Royal Dress, then after that I'll probably beeline for the endgame and focus on getting both Reiter and Repeating Pistol to +9 and +10 respectively.

GUN RUN UPDATE: Just found out the Reiterpallasch is a sword. I think I might have missed it the first go-around, or more likely just never used it. Not sure why the guy has that included in a gun-only run, even if it's just for parrying. I thought it'd be a mainhand gun that I could parry with, then fire my actual damaging gun. Nope, it's a sword. A sword you can parry with, sure, but I don't think it should be usable in a gun-only run so I immediately shelved it.

Entering the second half of the game now, my main issue is still the Repeating Pistol running out of ammo so quickly (even with liberal use of blood bullets). I just got Evelyn from Cainhurst and I like the feel of that one more than the Repeating Pistol. Only fires one shot, does a lot more than 50% of the damage of the RP, so I'm doing more damage overall for the amount of shots fired.

In other words, if doing a gun run, my advice is: Go from Hunter Pistol to Repeating Pistol to Evelyn (rather than sticking with the RP). Can get Evelyn as soon as you can reach Cainhurst.

Unfortunately I used up all of my tier 1 and 2 upgrade materials on Reiterpallasch before I decided to stop using it, and I used a Blood Chunk on the RP right before I got Evelyn and realized how good it is. Wish I had all of that back so I could +6 Evelyn right out of the gate. All I've got is +3 now since tier 1 materials can be bought. Luckily I didn't use any more Blood Chunks. Now I need to go farm Twin Blood Shards for a while, get Evelyn +6, and blast through the rest.

I imagine the second half of the game will fly by compared to the first (which took 12 hours). Also realized that I like the first half of the game a lot more than the second. The atmosphere and fire-like orange glow on everything are amazing. Once everything turns to night, it's harder to see and significantly less amazing-looking IMO.

EDIT: Nevermind, you can trick-weapon Reiterpallasch into a gun. Didn't think of that right away because this is a no-weapon run and I haven't played in years so trick weapon transformations are a distant memory. Since you only use Reiter for parries, you don't need to level it up and are better off using the Cainhurst/Forest upgrade mats for leveling Evelyn. Any extra mats can go to Reiter, for sure.