As players will know, Bloodborne is no cakewalk. This Dark Souls spiritual successor is as unforgiving and relentless as the main series itself. If you’re unable to ‘git gud,’ very good very quickly, you’re going to have a super rough time on the streets of Yharnam.
The fact is, though, Bloodborne released over five years ago. The faithful have muddled their way through by now, probably countless times. Even so, the optional Chalice Dungeons remain unexplored by many, out of fear of their difficulty and complexity. If you’re brave enough to perform a ritual and dive in alone, here are some tips to try and help you along your way.
10 Understand That It’s Worth The Slog
Before tackling this most mysterious area of Bloodborne, there are two crucial things you’ll need to know. Firstly, the dungeon stages are large, sometimes involving confusing backtracking through dark, samey corridors and tricky puzzles. Secondly, it’s completely worth the effort.
In the Chalice Dungeons, players will find a heck of a lot of exclusive gear. From armor like the neat Bone Ash set to weapons like the Beast Claws (and Lost/Uncanny versions of familiar weapons, which offer different slot setups for Blood Gems), there’s equipment down here that makes the trips more than worthwhile.
9 Try To Play Through The Dungeons Alongside The Main Game
Progression through the main game is relatively open-ended. There are areas, like Hemwick Charnel Lane and Old Yharnam, which can be skipped entirely. As with the dungeons, there’s some neat equipment in these areas (the Rune Workshop Tool from Hemwick is very important), but one of the major things they offer is extra experience.
In Bloodborne, it’s understandable that players will want all the help they can get. The Chalice Dungeons’ difficulty starts off relatively gently (if tackled as soon as you grab the first chalice from the Blood-Starved Beast in Old Yharnam), but you could find yourself out of your depth soon enough. Blood Stones and Blood Echoes themselves can be easier to come by in the main game, so hop between both for the best experience.
8 Use More Than One Weapon If Possible
Bloodborne doesn’t offer as wide and wacky a range of weapons as the Dark Souls games proper. Its arsenal is just as powerful as in the main series, though, and often more fun to use thanks to the transformation mechanic. Lots of players pick a favorite and stick with it, but it pays to be a little more versatile in the Chalice Dungeons.
Even if you’ve played through the main story several times, there’ll be enemies and bosses down in the dungeons you’ve never seen before. They have their own weaknesses to particular damage types, such as Blunt and Thrust, which you sometimes won’t be able to cover with just your favorite weapon. It costs a lot of resources to keep more than one Hunter Weapon upgraded, but you’ll be glad you did.
7 Take Your Time To Learn How New Enemies And Bosses Behave
This is also solid general advice for anybody newly tackling any unfamiliar content in the Soulsborne games, but it certainly bears mentioning here. As we’ve said, the Chalice Dungeons contain bosses and enemies that don’t appear anywhere else in the game, so remember the golden rule of FromSoftware games: don’t be reckless.
Down in these tight, confined corridors, the most seemingly insignificant enemies can tear you several new bodily orifices, so be vigilant, observe, dance around them, always give yourself room to evade attacks. This goes double for boss battles. You don’t have a co-operator to share the burden if you’re going it alone.
6 Consider Playing Online And Reading Every Note You See
On the face of it, enabling online play might seem a little moot if you’re running through the Chalice Dungeons solo. Even without help for tougher bosses, though, it definitely pays to have online functionality enabled.
The game’s note system allows players to pass on simple messages to the community, to be found in the very same spot in other players’ games as they were placed in the note-maker’s. That Notebook can be a crucial tool. Hints to boss weaknesses and strategies, the location of hidden treasures, directions… all of these sorts of things. Some players will be trolling, but nearby notes also try to counteract these with their own messages. These notes can be lifesavers.
5 Explore EVERYWHERE
With no sequel to Bloodborne in sight (at least for the moment), lots of players are opting to dive into yet another playthrough of the game. There’s always something new to see, especially if you haven’t done much dungeon delving before.
The key to making the best of the dungeons is to search everywhere. Some valuables lie off the beaten path or behind a door hidden in a corner. As you advance through the dungeons, the stages get more open-ended, so check things out while balancing risk and potential reward when it comes to lurking enemies.
4 Have An Ultimate Goal In Mind…
The thing about the Chalice Dungeons is that there isn’t, technically, an end to them. There’s a series of pre-determined dungeons, though glyphs (the game’s equivalent of seeds) allows players to share different challenge dungeons besides. If you’re in it for the grind (more on that later), you could be here forever.
What you’ll need to decide before really setting out, then, is why you’re playing through the dungeons. Is your endgame to grab a lost or Uncanny version of a certain weapon? Is it to take on the optional boss Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen? Is it to farm Blood Gems for the ultimate build? If you want to find a guide to help you get what you want down here, you’ll need to decide what that is first.
3 …And A Route To Reach It
In the absence of jolly cooperation with fellow players, the dungeons can be treacherous, tedious and super frustrating. What’s spurring you on? The fact that it’s only so many floors until you get the valuable loot you’d wanted, or that the very next slain Watcher could drop that gem you’ve been farming for.
Luckily, many players have journeyed through these depths before you and published super useful guides to achieving your goals. IGN, for instance, explains the path to reach the boss battle with Queen Yharnam: from the Blood Starved Beast’s Pthumeru Chalice, it’s three layers to the boss that unlocks the Central Pthumeru Chalice, then three more layers to the Lower Pthumeru Chalice. Those four layers will give you the Defiled Chalice (three more layers), followed by the Pthumeru Ihyll Chalice, with the boss battle with the Queen waiting at the end of layer 3.
2 Prepare Yourself For Farming And Grinding
Much of the time players spend down in the Chalice Dungeons is dedicated to the grind. Even if you’re simply trying to reach the next depth or chalice, Ritual Materials are needed to access the next area from the Hunter’s Dream, and the various ‘strengths’ of Ritual Blood and other materials don’t come easily.
Even if you’re exploring everywhere, there are some rare drops you’ll neeed to farm for. Ritual Blood (3), for instance, can be farmed from the Watchers in the open area of Layer 3, Central Pthumerian Chalice. Once you get into the specifics of Blood Gem farming, suffice to say that you’ll be in it for the long haul.
1 Make Sure You Keep Track Of –And Equip—Those Blood Gems
The Blood Gems in the main game tend to be rather rudimentary, offering only slight boosts to a weapon’s potency. If these are the ones you’re used to, you’ll want to pay very close attention to the ones you pick up in the Chalice Dungeons, whether dropped by bosses or otherwise.
Even the comparatively early ones are much stronger than those you tend to find elsewhere. On returning to the Hunter’s Dream, check out their effects and make sure to equip them. You don’t need to dedicate hours on end to farming for the very best Blood Gems to notice an enormous difference. The boost should help you make it through some of the tougher bosses in the later dungeons, too!