There’s no way around it, this addition to the guide is going to show me up as hypocrite.
You see, when I got to Gehrman… I did… I’m ashamed to say… Git (a little bit) Gud.
I know. I know. The point of this guide is that anyone can take on Bloodborne because I managed it and I’m neither skilled, nor am I quick, nor am I attempting anything except hacking-and-slashing. The more you play a game, the better you will get, but my Soulsborne experience has lacked any finesse until I got to Gehrman.
So, this unskilled guide is going to talk about parrying. But it’s okay. This is the only time I ever parried on my first playthrough, which meant I only had to figure out his moves. And Gehrman makes it quite obvious when he’d like you to parry.
Preparation
SPOILERS: Of course, it is worth knowing before going in that there are multiple endings. If you’ve got to this point in the game by the skin of your teeth and you just want it over, you can make the credits roll before Gehrman gets rowdy.
If you want to skip, accept Gehrman’s offer. I can’t promise that not fighting him won’t bug you though. SPOILERS OVER.
The Parry Guide – okay, so we’re doing this? Okay. You need to make sure you have a gun. I recommend the Hunter Blunderbuss because it’s going to require the least from you in terms of accuracy and timing. It doesn’t need upgrades, it just needs to be ready and in hand. And full of bullets.
Now, if you’re like me and you usually go two-handed, have a practice switching to melee-and-gun mode and back again. When you’re happy, let’s go practice parrying.
Use your first few goes at Gehrman as practice, rather than thinking you’re going to beat him.
Tactics
Gehrman, like yourself, will go two-handed or one-handed-with-gun.
He will start moving from his chair down to you, two-handing his scythe. He likes to zig-zag dash towards you, or hook you with the scythe. We don’t want either, but we really don’t want the latter as it leads to more hurt almost immediately. So, we are going to stay with Gehrman but keep our distance. A couple of dodge-moves back from him. Avoid backing up to an edge as well.
Keeping him at several arms length will make him come to you. Practicing your parry also involves figuring out the distance where he’s most tempted to charge you.
He’s either going to zig-zag-dash up to you, or he’s going to wind the scythe back slowly then launch. In either case, pulling the trigger may shock him out of what he is doing but won’t stun him. If it’s the zig-zag, pull the trigger late when he’s closed the distance. This is actually easy to do if you’re unskilled like me; use your poor reaction times to your advantage.
If it’s the wind up, wait a beat and shoot him on the charge. Again, if you get it wrong he may stagger and you avoid pain, but you need to pace back and try again.
It’ll take some time, but to me it felt like he telegraphed so hard that he made it easy to stop him. If you get it right, he’ll drop to one knee. Run forward, wiggle/strafe until you’re in front of him and hit light attack once. If you don’t immediately see your hunter put his hand all up in Gehrman, back away – you missed the window. If you’re too left or fight from center mass it won’t connect.
When he switches to two handed… just keep doing the same thing. His attacks are smaller, less flashy, but he’s still rushing forward and he’s doing more swings in one combo which makes tripping him up more likely.
Watch Out For
Gehrman is going to take a break twice in this fight. When he is injured enough, he’s going to pause to power up, giving himself a light, Super Saiyan kind of glow. When he does this, Wail. On. Him. It’s only a second or two but he’s not defending himself. Switch to two handed if you feel confident, then dodge back and get the gun out again when he’s done.
Later on, (or a few moments from now if you’ve been putting the hurt on). He will raise his arms to the sky, and a few seconds later he will explode with energy. When he does this, Wail. On. Him. I know it’s going to hurt when he pops but he spends so long doing this that you get so much free damage in. But then you’ll need to dash-dash-dash away and heal. Then continue doing the same as above.
In this stage of the battle, if things go on long enough, there’s one move that I never fully figured out. He’ll fly up into the air, then come down like a missile a few seconds later. All I learnt to do was panic dodge and hopefully avoid him.
However, if he starts pulling this move, to me this signaled that I wasn’t going to win. He’s been a long time in his powered up form, I’m out of bullets and we’re both flailing desperately. The times I did beat him, were because I’d figured out the parry (or I’d got fortunate – the blunderbuss really did make catching him easy). The visceral hurts him so much that, if you can figure it out, makes this a very short fight.
Taking your time is important in Bloodborne, but with Gehrman it’s more important to avoid panic firing. If you do that, this fight is over quickly. Being too cautious allows him to show off his tricks.
In Other Words
- Dust off your blunderbuss.
- Treat your first few goes as timing practice.
- Step back, let him run into your bullet.
- When he goes to one knee, line up in front of him and punch.
- Whenever he pauses to power-up, WAIL. ON. HIM.
If you’re disappointed by this guide, I’m sorry. It requires a miniscule amount of skill. You could probably beat him in the same way but dodging forward instead of parrying and bopping him that way, but parrying Gehrman felt right even for a dummy like me.
Keep on Hunting!
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Gamer Peak 