Bloodborne: fun builds?

[DaCosta]

I've finished the game three times, one of those on NG+, enough for the Platinum Trophy. Felt like playing the game again after a year, but doing the same thing again would be boring.

What are some fun builds that I could make to spice up the next playthrough?

I did my first playthrough on a standard Skill build. Started with the cane, switched to the Blades of Mercy early on. On the NG+ I used the Chikage. On the third playthrough I did a Strength build. Started with the Axe, switched to Ludwig's Holy Blade. Might have switched again to the Holy Moonlight Sword in the DLC, not sure.

The first ideas that naturally come to my mind are a Bloodtinge or an Arcane build. Bloodtinge doesn't feel very viable, guns never felt very powerful and ammo is very scarce, it looks like a pretty gimmicky build. Arcane seems kind of interesting, but I hear it takes a long time to get weapons that scale well with Arcane, and the spells only become really powerful after spending a good 50 points in the stat. The Arcane build seems like it would really only come into its own on a NG+, and I don't feel like doing a warm up playthrough to the get to the really interesting one.

I was hoping to get some opinions from the real Bloodborne veterans. What builds do you like to run? Is a Bloodtinge or Arcane build worth it? For the Strength and Skill ones what would you recommend? I went with some standard big DPS weapons, are there any others you really like that would make a new build interesting?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Bloodtinge can be fun and worth it, but the problem is that all of the good bloodtinge weapons are acquired pretty late-game.

That's a big problem with Bloodborne, in terms of weapons and spells it's pretty back-loaded. You have to get to at least mid-game or later to get the weapons you want in order to make some of the specialty builds viable.

For example Simon's Bow Blade is one of the most fun bloodtinge weapons in my opinion, but it's literally the last weapon you get in the DLC, so by the time you get it you can pretty much walk through any enemy left in the game without breaking a sweat anyway. If you really wanted to you can rush the DLC as early as possible after beating Vicar Amelia, sprint past all the enemies until you find Simon (past the licker bridge), and kill him for the Bow Blade, and that would let you use it for the rest of the game. Even if you do that though it would still take you a while to get the requisite bloodtinge stat to make it worthwhile.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Yyyyyeeaah... Arcane and Bloodtinge both are endgame stats, and builds around them only come to fruition in NG+.

The thing is, Bloodborne's RPG mechanics are so streamlined and superficial they almost don't matter, hence why I'd hesitate to even call character setups in it "builds". It mostly just comes down to your weapon of choice. The Amygdalan Arm is IMO one of the most fun weapons in the game, since it has both range and crowd control in the whip state, and stagger for up close clobbering in the club state.

 

[Wrex Brogan]

Christ, it's been a while since I've played Bloodborne, but uhhh... what was the name of the big fuck-off cannon? That was a fun weapon to try and use, since it was so damn hungry for bullets and so slow to fire. Made some of the quicker boss fights pretty interesting trying to land hits on them while also avoiding damage so you could maintain enough rounds to keep the thing loaded without dying. Pairing it with a smaller parrying pistol was also a lot of fun, though that made fights against other hunters super easy since the cannon tended to one-shot them.

Oddly effective against Maria as well...

Arcane is fun but yeah, it's Late game/New game+. I think you only really start getting you hands on the good Arcane stuff around Micolash? I remember it being far too late in the game to really invest in it properly, since to get through the bosses to get my hands on the good Arcane stuff I'd had to invest in Strength or Skill so I could actually beat them.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

I did a Cairnhurst Knight run recently that I have yet to finish.

Though it was basically a skill run up until post-Amelia at which point I made a bee-line to Cairnhurst and sprinted through the castle raiding chests as I went. After that it becomes a skill/bloodtinge run with no armor because the Cairnhurst Knight set has terrible stats and just the Reiterspalach and that gun I forget the name of.

Fighting Ludwig with no armor and a weapon with fuck all reach was great fun.

 

[Dalisclock]

Yyyyyeeaah... Arcane and Bloodtinge both are endgame stats, and builds around them only come to fruition in NG+.

The thing is, Bloodborne's RPG mechanics are so streamlined and superficial they almost don't matter, hence why I'd hesitate to even call character setups in it "builds". It mostly just comes down to your weapon of choice. The Amygdalan Arm is IMO one of the most fun weapons in the game, since it has both range and crowd control in the whip state, and stagger for up close clobbering in the club state.

I just started playing the game a few weaks ago and it took me a bit to realize that the origin I chose, the "Miserable Childhood"(?) one, was apparently supposed to be the Arcane one(and I don't normally pick a magic user the first time out). But by that point I didn't want to start a new character.

Despite that, I'm doing about as well as I do for any given Souls game, once I have the new mechanics down. So far the only part I've had any real frustration with has been father Gascoigne(and apparently that's expected).

 

[Kreett]

Yyyyyeeaah... Arcane and Bloodtinge both are endgame stats, and builds around them only come to fruition in NG+.

The thing is, Bloodborne's RPG mechanics are so streamlined and superficial they almost don't matter, hence why I'd hesitate to even call character setups in it "builds". It mostly just comes down to your weapon of choice. The Amygdalan Arm is IMO one of the most fun weapons in the game, since it has both range and crowd control in the whip state, and stagger for up close clobbering in the club state.

I just started playing the game a few weaks ago and it took me a bit to realize that the origin I chose, the "Miserable Childhood"(?) one, was apparently supposed to be the Arcane one(and I don't normally pick a magic user the first time out). But by that point I didn't want to start a new character.

Despite that, I'm doing about as well as I do for any given Souls game, once I have the new mechanics down. So far the only part I've had any real frustration with has been father Gascoigne(and apparently that's expected).

Gascoigne is supposed to be the wall you bash your head against while the game shouts "HAVE YOU LEARNED YET?!" down at you from the heavens

 

[Casual Shinji]

Builds? In Bloodborne?

Pfffft, HA!

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I did a Cairnhurst Knight run recently that I have yet to finish.

Though it was basically a skill run up until post-Amelia at which point I made a bee-line to Cairnhurst and sprinted through the castle raiding chests as I went. After that it becomes a skill/bloodtinge run with no armor because the Cairnhurst Knight set has terrible stats and just the Reiterspalach and that gun I forget the name of.

Fighting Ludwig with no armor and a weapon with fuck all reach was great fun.

I'd say the reiterspalach is one of the best weapons in the base game. It's "transformed" moveset is super fast and the sword can be buffed with fire and bolt paper making it incredibly powerful against certain enemy types. I was rushing through the DLC with it and beat Ludwig and Maria with a +6 reiterspalach because I didn't want to waste chunks upgrading it (was saving materials for Simon's Bow Blade).

 

[cleric of the order]

I'll leave these here

 

[gigastar]

For example Simon's Bow Blade is one of the most fun bloodtinge weapons in my opinion, but it's literally the last weapon you get in the DLC

Not true, you can kill Simon when you meet him the first time for the weapon. This actually makes the Bowblade one of the earlier weapons you can get in the entire game.

 

[sageoftruth]

Bloodtinge can be fun and worth it, but the problem is that all of the good bloodtinge weapons are acquired pretty late-game.

That's a big problem with Bloodborne, in terms of weapons and spells it's pretty back-loaded. You have to get to at least mid-game or later to get the weapons you want in order to make some of the specialty builds viable.

For example Simon's Bow Blade is one of the most fun bloodtinge weapons in my opinion, but it's literally the last weapon you get in the DLC, so by the time you get it you can pretty much walk through any enemy left in the game without breaking a sweat anyway. If you really wanted to you can rush the DLC as early as possible after beating Vicar Amelia, sprint past all the enemies until you find Simon (past the licker bridge), and kill him for the Bow Blade, and that would let you use it for the rest of the game. Even if you do that though it would still take you a while to get the requisite bloodtinge stat to make it worthwhile.

I decided to be a jerk and get the bow nice and early by killing Simon. What a fine weapon.

 

[sageoftruth]

I went with the Chikage by specializing in Skill and Bloodtinge. What a fun weapon. I love the challenge of killing my opponents as quickly as possibly with the transformed version to minimize health loss. When done right, it looks so samurai. Sheath the sword, quickdraw it by attacking right afterwards, slay the foe with a single combo and flick the blood off. I feel so badass, and the damage is impressive. I was able to skip Rom's third phase thanks to the damage from this weapon.

 

[sageoftruth]

I did a Cairnhurst Knight run recently that I have yet to finish.

Though it was basically a skill run up until post-Amelia at which point I made a bee-line to Cairnhurst and sprinted through the castle raiding chests as I went. After that it becomes a skill/bloodtinge run with no armor because the Cairnhurst Knight set has terrible stats and just the Reiterspalach and that gun I forget the name of.

Fighting Ludwig with no armor and a weapon with fuck all reach was great fun.

I'd say the reiterspalach is one of the best weapons in the base game. It's "transformed" moveset is super fast and the sword can be buffed with fire and bolt paper making it incredibly powerful against certain enemy types. I was rushing through the DLC with it and beat Ludwig and Maria with a +6 reiterspalach because I didn't want to waste chunks upgrading it (was saving materials for Simon's Bow Blade).

Interesting. In my Skill/Bloodtinge playthrough, I tried it, but lost interest. Got any tips for really using it effectively? To start, I suppose I should have used the transformed version more. I pretty much just avoided it, since I had the Evelyn, and was put off by the weapon's loss of range in the transformed version. Perhaps it was a mistake to treat it like it was just a rapier.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

For example Simon's Bow Blade is one of the most fun bloodtinge weapons in my opinion, but it's literally the last weapon you get in the DLC

Not true, you can kill Simon when you meet him the first time for the weapon. This actually makes the Bowblade one of the earlier weapons you can get in the entire game.

Someone didn't finish reading the post they quoted.

 

[Here Comes Tomorrow]

I did a Cairnhurst Knight run recently that I have yet to finish.

Though it was basically a skill run up until post-Amelia at which point I made a bee-line to Cairnhurst and sprinted through the castle raiding chests as I went. After that it becomes a skill/bloodtinge run with no armor because the Cairnhurst Knight set has terrible stats and just the Reiterspalach and that gun I forget the name of.

Fighting Ludwig with no armor and a weapon with fuck all reach was great fun.

I'd say the reiterspalach is one of the best weapons in the base game. It's "transformed" moveset is super fast and the sword can be buffed with fire and bolt paper making it incredibly powerful against certain enemy types. I was rushing through the DLC with it and beat Ludwig and Maria with a +6 reiterspalach because I didn't want to waste chunks upgrading it (was saving materiaols for Simon's Bow Blade).

It's great but Ludwig is far easier if your weapon has reach because he moves around so much. If I wasn't practically humping him I tended to miss the opening thurst.

On the plus side I could fight Ludwig in my sleep now.

 

[bluegate]

You could always try a low level run on the game.

I had great fun fighting through the game on a level 26 character, cleared the base game, up to Maria in the DLC, and up to the Loran Darkbeast in the chalice dungeons, that's the point where I had to take a break because I was done with being one-shot all the time, lol. Now I often take my character and ring my bells at Gascoigne or The Cleric Beast and curbstomp them for beginners that are having trouble.

 

[DaCosta]

Yyyyyeeaah... Arcane and Bloodtinge both are endgame stats, and builds around them only come to fruition in NG+.

The thing is, Bloodborne's RPG mechanics are so streamlined and superficial they almost don't matter, hence why I'd hesitate to even call character setups in it "builds". It mostly just comes down to your weapon of choice. The Amygdalan Arm is IMO one of the most fun weapons in the game, since it has both range and crowd control in the whip state, and stagger for up close clobbering in the club state.

I know, maybe loadouts would have been a better question? I'm the type of gamer that avoids using resources as much as possible, and that's a problem for Arcane and Bloodtinge builds, or for the Logarius Wheel, so I feel like if left to my own devices I would just drift to the same weapons and playstyle of the last time. That's just no fun,so I'm trying to force myself into something different.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Yyyyyeeaah... Arcane and Bloodtinge both are endgame stats, and builds around them only come to fruition in NG+.

The thing is, Bloodborne's RPG mechanics are so streamlined and superficial they almost don't matter, hence why I'd hesitate to even call character setups in it "builds". It mostly just comes down to your weapon of choice. The Amygdalan Arm is IMO one of the most fun weapons in the game, since it has both range and crowd control in the whip state, and stagger for up close clobbering in the club state.

I know, maybe loadouts would have been a better question? I'm the type of gamer that avoids using resources as much as possible, and that's a problem for Arcane and Bloodtinge builds, or for the Logarius Wheel, so I feel like if left to my own devices I would just drift to the same weapons and playstyle of the last time. That's just no fun,so I'm trying to force myself into something different.

With a bloodtinge build you can rely on blood bullets for your ammo, and use regain to get health back after making blood bullets, thereby having nearly infinite bullets so long as you aren't using something like the cannon.

 

[DaCosta]

With a bloodtinge build you can rely on blood bullets for your ammo, and use regain to get health back after making blood bullets, thereby having nearly infinite bullets so long as you aren't using something like the cannon.

In the Bloodtinge build do you still have the rely a lot on parrying or is just the gun damage enough?