Bloodborne Beginner's Guide - Combat Tips and Strategy

Despite being developed by ‘From Software’, Bloodborne is marginally different from ‘Souls Series’.

For more help on Bloodborne, read our Character Origins Guide, Cleric Beast Boss Guide and Father Gascoigne Boss Guide.

Bloodborne Beginner’s Guide

Whether you’re a veteran ‘Dark Souls’ fan or haven’t tried the series, this guide provides an overview of everything you need to understand about Bloodborne.

Creating your Character and Weapons
Identical to ‘Souls Series’, you start Bloodborne with an extension Character Creation screen – it even has shades and beards. After you’re done with creating your character, you’ll be asked to choose your Class.

Ideally, you ought to choose the one which complements your playstyle. If you prefer melee combat, you should definitely consider Military Veteran and if you wish to get a taste of weaponry, make sure to choose the one with high ‘Bloodtinge’ stat.

Once you’re into the game, you’ll have to die once in order to be teleported to the Hub World called the Hunter’s Dream. I highly recommend salvaging the first area for supplies!

Tip: No matter which item you’re holding, simply press ‘Triangle’ anywhere to heal your character.

Similar to your class, choose a weapon which complements your unique playstyle. You’ll acquire your first weapon in Hunter’s Dream – cleaver is has really fast attack speed, axe are two-handed and pack a high damage output, and blunderbuss is ideal for crowd control.

You can also purchase new weapons and armor using Blood Echoes which is Bloodborne’s version of souls.

Combat Tips and Techniques
In Bloodborne, the quicker you get used to your off-hand weapon, the better it is. Since the weapon works like a shield to stagger enemies, as soon as you see an enemy launching an attack, shoot it.

Pay close attention to the game’s sound and animation to check if you’ve staggered an enemy for follow-up attacks. These follow-up attacks deal high damage, but timing the shots requires a lot of practice.

Tip: There’s no pause menu in Bloodborne and you’re always susceptible to enemy attacks.

Every enemy-type in Bloodborne has a unique attack pattern which can be memorized to gain an advantage. Furthermore, always try to thin enemy ranks before engaging them – use a stone and lure them.

Tip: There’s no shame in running if you’re finding an enemy tough to beat – they give up after a short while.

Combat in Bloodborne is all about heading in first – find an opening, dodge, and attack. Dodging is similar to Dark Souls – press Circle to take a step back and press it along with moving left analogue stick in any direction to roll in that direction.

R1 is your primary attack and R2 is your strong attack which can be charged for extra damage. Do note that you can keep 2 primary weapons and 2 weapons at the same time which can be changed using the Directional Pad.

If you’re attacked by a foe, try and deliver a strike which will allow you to regenerate some HP during the process via the Regain System.

Coming to stealth kills, these are different from Dark Souls. In order to perform stealth kills, get directly behind an enemy and hit it with a fully-charged R2 attack followed by an R1 attack.

Every attack that you land depletes your stamina which leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks. A quick tip in this regard is landing an attack using R1, backing off for a while, and hitting again with R1 which should replenish more than 50 per cent of your stamina. Do note that this strategy doesn’t work on every enemy such as Trolls.

Lastly, note that pressing L1 transforms your weapon which can be used to extend combos which can also be done during mid-combos.

Tip: You can wear any armor or equip any weapon with worrying about movement speed.

Exploration Tips and Techniques
Pay heed to the Pink Lights scattered around the game’s world. These lights notify you if there is something of interest in an area.

Collectible items such as ammunition, consumables, and loot can be identified with a glowing light around them. The game’s world is flooded with secret areas and shortcuts behind breakable walls – be sure to find them all!

Friendly NPCs and characters inside houses have some useful tips to share – make sure to talk to tall of them.

Messengers are fun to interact with and contain permanent tutorials and hints left by other players, some of them are trolls from my Dark Souls experience.

Always make sure to exhaust dialogue with other NPCs which may yield some useful items or information at the end. Lastly, you can only hold 20 Blood Vials and 20 Silver Bullets, but don’t constrain from using them as these items can easily be farmed.

Tip: You won’t always be able to retrieve your Blood Echoes from the location of your death – enemies can pick them up.

Do make sure to share your own tips and strategies with us in the Comments Below.