Guide: How to Kill the Witches of Hemwick in Bloodborne on PS4

And now it's time for something a little more tedious. If you've made it this far in PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne you'll have had to off some seriously threatening beasts – but the Witches of Hemwick are more annoying than aggressive. You'll find yourself in a rectangular room with two elevated areas on either side. These are great for avoiding the Soot Monsters – the lanky dudes with giant scythes – that will comprise a constant nuisance in this arena.

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It's best to avoid the gangly ghosts, as killing them will only spawn more, and while they're quite easy to deal with individually, they can be a handful in groups of three or more. Our advice is to steer clear of the first one, and just let it chase you around like a headless chicken. It's quite slow, so you should be able to keep tabs on it and keep your distance. If you absolutely have to kill it, a quick combo should do the trick, just watch out for its swipe attacks.

Unfortunately, as already alluded, the Soot Monsters aren't your main enemy here. Look out for hunched up hags that will appear around the map: these are the Witches of Hemwick. The game tries to trick you into thinking that there's only one, but there's actually two at first, so don't worry if it feels like you're not doing any damage – you are. As you progress, a third hag will actually appear, sharing health with one of the other two. It's all quite complicated.

The main thing that you need to think about is hitting the hunchbacks while avoiding the Soot Monsters with the scythes. You can use a torch to locate the witches quicker as they'll randomly appear all over the map. Once one has fallen, you'll need to be quick tracking down the others, as if you don't kill them all within about a minute of each other, they'll come back to life – albeit with less health.

It's a relatively easy fight in all honesty, but hunting for the hidden enemies is tedious, and the Soot Monsters can prove a beyond irritating distraction if you pay them too much attention. Keep moving, searching, and attacking, though, and you'll be out of the Witches Abode quicker than you can break out a cackle.

Have you managed to defeat the Witches of Hemwick yet? Do you have any tips to add to ours? Stir the pot in the comments section below.