bloodborne – Gamer Peak

Celestial Emissary: An Unskilled Guide

Bosses in Bloodborne are hard. Some are very hard. Some are grotesque, eldritch, unspeakable assemblies of warped and elongated limbs.

Very few are actually cute. In my opinion, the Celestial Emissary is too cute to be a boss fight, with his big, bubble head and wobbly body. If you can put aside the harrowing origin of how him and his little marshmallowy minions, then they are actually quite endearing. It’s almost a shame I had to ruin the garden.

This boss can go very very smoothly. It’s a real late-game softball if you follow the short and simple guide below. Even if things start to get out of hand, it’s still easy to take charge; you just have to go for a little jog.

Amygdala: An Unskilled Guide

When my attempts on a Soulsborne boss reach the double digits, I like many, scan the wiki articles for what I might need to do differently. For the most part, these are only so helpful, because my level skill limits how I might implement the friendly advice.

In the case of Amygdala, I actually needed to ignore the guidance I first read, because it was making things more difficult than it needed to be. As with most bosses, I found a clumsy, simple, brute force method that works. It won’t work every time, in this case, but it’ll get you there eventually.

Vicar Amelia: An Unskilled Guide

Seen as Bloodborne is such a windy, optional-routes affair, this could be your second boss, or it could be your sixth. It really should be your sixth. The Witch and the Beast unlock so much useful stuff, and the training they give you will make the Vicar a bit more manageable.

Every experience is different, but I would personally say that Amelia is a ‘middling’ difficulty boss. She’s a heavy hitter, but she doesn’t bounce around like Darkbeast and is not as aggressive as Gascoigne. Most importantly, it didn’t require anything too clever for me to beat her. Dumb, brute force was required.

Darkbeast Paarl – An Unskilled Guide

When you are given advice on a boss in a Souls game, no one ever says how reliable that advice is. You see, some bosses can be definitely and consistently beaten a certain way. Some require a certain method but it is going to take a few goes to get right. And then there are some where the guidance seems solid, but there should be a list of caveats, addendums and warnings attached.

For example, the way I beat Darkbeast Paarl – with my distinct lack of skill – can be replicated. It is however, not necessarily going to be easy to replicate. This boss is a bouncing, trembling, pinballing, camera-shaking, chaos gremlin. The fight can go your way very quickly, but it can just as easily fall apart.

Witch of Hemwick: An Unskilled Guide

This won’t take long.

Seriously, this boss fight barely needs a guide. This fight is easy. And I don’t mean that in the way that a “git gud scrub” kind of gamer would tell you this fight is easy. It really is straightforward.

Even I could beat this first time every time. And not get hit. Not even once. Or ever actually feel in danger. And if I feel like that, it must be very simple.

Blood-Starved Beast: An Unskilled Guide

With Father Gascoigne dispatched, you’ve got a few directions you can head in. You can save up and pay your way into the Cathedral Ward, to take on Vicar Amelia, or go further out to the Witch of Hemwick, but Old Yharnam is definitely my first optional area every playthrough. Good for blood stones and helpful unlocks after beating the boss.

The Blood-Starved Beast at the bottom of Old Yharnam is quite the contrast to the big and bulky Cleric Beast and to the focused fighting force of Father Gascoigne. He’s must more erratic, harder to read at first, comes with very different dangers, and above all else is much, much more gooey.

But like CB and FG, BSB can be beaten, without any major skill. I found this to be a messy fight no matter what I tried, but I could control the fight even with my ineptitude. And without realising the trick that makes the first half very easy.

Father Gascoigne – An Unskilled Guide

Hopefully, this is boss number 2 for your first playthrough of Bloodborne. If not, I highly recommend seeking out the Cleric Beast first. It’s not just because he’s easier (whether a Souls boss is easy often depends on the player, but CB definitely feels more like a training boss). It’s also because a win before Father Gascoigne will give you a well-needed confidence boost.

Gascoigne is a tough boss this early into proceedings, and has turned a lot of players away from continuing the game. But with a bit of confidence, and advice from this clumsy, bumbling gamer, and you can win even if it doesn’t seem likely.

If I can do it, so can you.

Cleric Beast – An Unskilled Guide

If you’ve found this monster, it is either your very first Bloodborne boss, or you’ve found after meeting and/or beating Father Gascoigne. If it’s the latter, hopefully this encounter will be less stressful for you.

Gascoigne is the real test of whether you want to play this game. The Cleric Beast is (a little bit) easier to train your skills on.

As with most things in Bloodborne, this will not be easy, but the Cleric Beast is very manageable, and with a little bit of preparation and planning he can be beaten.

If I can do it, so can you.

Challenge in Gaming: What’s the best way to be tested?

I began playing Wolfenstein: New World Order a few weeks ago. I started the game in the usual way, by selecting ‘New Game’ and then perusing the available difficulties. I was curious to find a whopping five levels of difficulty available to me. It struck me at that moment that it’s been a very long time since I saw a game settle for an ‘Easy-Medium-Hard’ spread of difficulties. I also found it odd that New World Order was eager to throw so many options at me right out of the gate.

Personally, I could never begin a game on anything except ‘normal’. It makes much more sense to me to attempt a higher difficulty on the second play through, when I have the intricacies of the gameplay sussed. Games will often hide their highest settings, allowing them to be unlocked after the player has gone through the game once. I struggle to imagine anyone running headlong into Wolfenstein’s “ÜBER” setting on their first go and then enjoying the experience.

It’s not that I don’t think people would enjoy the most difficult setting. It’s the level of challenge present that I think would turn first-time players away. Playing a games ‘extreme’ difficulty is meant to be taxing, but if a player has mastered a game’s ‘normal’ setting, they can gauge for themselves whether they will be able to take on something greater. Whether or not a Gamer enjoys ‘challenging’ games, every game challenges us in some way and it’s up to us to decide how enjoyable that is.

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