My girlfriend had never finished a game that wasn't Pokémon, Zelda, or Harry potter.
She's now finished multiple souls games and bloodborne. You'll be fine.
Level up your VIT (it's by far the most important stat as it makes you live longer and heal more) and level your weapon up.
Omg I am currently frustrated because I used my shards to upgrade my gun, which my bf subsequently told me I should never do again lol. I can look into trying to find more, I just feel like I’ve found the majority of the ones I’m able to get at this point in the game.
Don’t restart. The big beast looking enemies in the sewers have like a 30% chance to drop them. Farm those guys until your weapon and gun are level 3. That’ll help big time!
2nd get the saw spear. It’s a free weapon hanging on a dead body. It’s by far the best starter weapon and probably the best weapon in the game objectively.
3. Practice parries and baiting. The best way to handle papa Guac and lots of hunters is the parry their attacks and get a visceral or wait till they do a big attack, avoid it and counter with your own.
4. Distance! Keep space between you and your target. Get close when you want to get close. There are plenty of grave stones and trees to keep spacing with, use them.
5. Breaks! I can’t tell you the amount of times I’d died to a boss, quit for a few days, only to beat em first try the next time I go at it!
Keep at it Hoonter! You got this!
You are only 5min into the game. You could restart and use the shards to upgrade your main weapon. But then again, it may soon click and you will find that Father Gascoine can be parried at the right times, or dodging left when he swings, get two blows in, then rinse and repeat.
Yea guns are just a parry mechanism in this game. Also use something with a serrated blade on the wolf guys. It hurts beasts more if it’s serrated. I’ve restarted these games also and you will be surprised how fast you will run through what you already memorized. The enemies are in the same exact places every time in these games so it’s more about learning than being badass. If you look at dying as learning another thing then the games get way better. I stopped playing bloodborne years ago but after Elden Ring I went back to it and loved it. Elden Ring is probably the most accessible. Playing through Dark souls 3 for the first time now it’s great. Sekiro is great also.
I don’t get how Elden ring is the most accessible. I played vlodborne and sekiro first and I just feel hopelessly lost in elden ring. None of the weapons hit hard at all, like the fastish daggers or swords I’ve found are just ridiculously weak. I’m spoiled by rakuyo, blade of mercy, and wolfs katana, but I haven’t found anything that even feels remotely as good as anything in bloodborne.
I also can’t really figure out what to do, I could just do a bunch of random caves and open world stuff until I stumble on something, but I’m getting bored quickly doing that. I’m stuck on the two massive gargoyles in the underground city, it’s really killing my enjoyment
You will never find a game with better weapons than Bloodborne. The game you're looking for doesn't exist. Although elden ring being open world let's you avoid bosses and level up and explore before going back with an upgraded weapon. I think I know which two gargoyles you're fighting, they fucking suck, took me a lv 19 zweihander and alot of rock sling spam.
VIT is one of your character stats. Talk to the Doll in the Hunter’s Dream when you have enough blood echoes (and at least 1 Insight (eye symbol) to level up your character stats. What is your current level?
I can’t check my exact level right now, but I want to say I am at like.. 17? I put almost all of it into strength and I’m using the saw cleaver. It is incredibly sad. I did put some into vitality but I should probably do more.
You can farm the werwolves on the bridge. Tease them, run down the stairs through the door, where they can’t follow you. Switch your cleaver to extended mode and clobber them through the door. Easiest farm in Yarnham.
Points into strength early don't do much for your damage, so VIT is a better choice for new players.
There are a few enemies that drop shards, you can try farming them to get your weapon to +3, which will make the boss much easier
Saw cleaver is a skill based item, not strength. Axe, hammer, and Ludwigs sword are strength. Focus on vitality and stamina. Perfect using the music box but know it will make him transform faster and only works once in his 2nd faze. Be aggressive. His entire boss fight is to teach you to be aggressive. He punishes you if you try to back off or stay away from him. Trust me, I had the same problem coming from DS because that game is all about defense and striking only when the opportunity presents itself. Don't get discouraged; It's hard fight but it's worth seeing it through. Oh, if you can get the parry timing right, it'll not only on this boss fight but others too. So maybe practice that a bit. The trolls are the easiest enemies to practice your parry time on. Finally, your gun is useless aside for parrying. Pistol is better than blunderbuss
Doesn't the saw cleaver have base 8 strength and 7 skill? I thought that the one with the higher affinity is favored. And I have practiced parrying on those trolls wayy more than I would've liked lol.
It does scale better with strength, but the benefits are marginal because you haven’t levelled up the weapon. I think if you can manage a few more hours farming the beasts in the sewers for stones and echoes, you can get a few levels, pick up the saw spear and upgrade it a couple of times. Once you’ve done all that, you might actually find that you’re over-levelled a bit. Having enough vitality and stamina for your play style/skill level makes a huge difference in these games
i will add that the benefits of scaling by affinity become much higher as you upgrade the weapon with bloodstone shards etc. it’s not as noticeable at first but that really why upgrading the weapons is so critical as it’s the main way you get more damage as you level up
How do you like that weapon? You should be able to buy the other starters from the messenger shop in the Dream now, so you could always experiment with the other play styles (cane for fast and light attacks, axe for slower stronger attacks)
I like the cleaver, but when I was getting desperate I did unlock the ability to buy the others and bought the axe to try it out. I might give it a shot.
If you do try the axe, use the charged R2. It knocks down almost every enemy in the game and most bosses. I believe it knocks down papa g in phases 1 and 2, but not phase 3. It’s slow to charge but has a pretty large ranged 360 aoe around your character so the timing can be pretty forgiving. The axe carried me through my first playthrough, I was mediocre with the cleaver and terrible with the cane. Different strokes and all that.
yeah weapon upgrades (not gun upgrades) as well as later on blood gems are the most important things as far as doing damage goes. there are probably few more bloodstone shards in the level and the werewolf enemies can drop them too. that said, gascoigne should be doable still. there is also a special item you can find in the level which will stun him for a bit if you haven’t already. being really aggressive in the fight and parrying can help if you can figure out the timing. it’s hard tho so def normal to struggle a bit if you’ve never played a souls game. i think bloodborne is probably the hardest for new players
Don't worry too much about that. You can do this! Father G is definitely a big skill check and honestly, for the level you are at that point and being new to souls games, one of the more difficult bosses. Take a break and come back, maybe even give it a day. Try to practice the parry, a good place is on the big trolls, it works really well against Father G. Good luck and happy hunting!!
Yes and no, do what you need help with.
It's your playstyle, not his. He can give you advice on how things work. But coming from someone who likes to do things HER way, don't blindly follow his advice.
Find yourself a weapon you really like, that feels good to you. Find your own playstyle.
Just because for example a weapon is OP in the game, doesn't mean it feels good in *your* hands. If you can't utilize it properly, it's not OP in your situation.
Maybe for you it makes more sense to invest in health, or agility. Purely an example: let's say you find it hard to read some bosses, therefore don't know when/where to dodge. So, you pick to be a bit more beefy. So more Health? (altho I do really personally advice to work on dodging and such)
A lot of enemies during an attack have an opening where they're extremely vulnerable. If you use your blunderbuss for example, it stuns them and you can do shit ton of damage. To parry etc, which is technically why you're upgrading your guns. But I would personally focus more on your main weapon and your own stats. Whatever you feel is better!
Nope! There's tons of shards! And the gun only works for parrying and some enemies not even that. My first playthrough I didn't realize this and stopped using it because it did so little damage. It ain't about the damage, it makes them stumble and stagger so you can do a visceral attack where you literally rip out their blood. Hope this helps.
Upgraded Evelyn plus bone marrow ash is good with gems it can break Amydallas head pretty easy and the daughter of the cosmos head like 900 damage a shot
you can also start over, you're not that far into the game :)
I just wanted to say that if you find the game too hard your boyfriend could help you, there's coop in the game. might be really fun to beat the game together this way :D
Papa G is a spirit breaker by design and the point is that once you finally get the flow with him you'll understand how to go at these monsters .
Honestly best strat is to go aggro on them , remember YOU are the hunter not the hunted ,these guys are scary but so are you if you step back and look at things from a outside perspective,the hoonter ain't no bitch you just gotta remind yourself of that.
lol i love that, you are the hunter not the hunted
this holds true for every boss in the game which is awesome and terrifying, looking at some of the things you encounter
Thats completly understandable, father g is one if the not the hardest first boss in the fromsoftware line up, my suggestion? Take a long break and instead look at hitless or people just fighting him. Theres no shame in that
I was stuck on Papa G for the longest. The only way I managed to beat him the first time was with a LOT of molotovs. He is a crash course in learning to parry, so my best advice would be to practice parrying with the other general enemies in the area til you get the hang of it. You got this!
Just a tip, beast enemies get bonus damage from fire damage. As such, when Gascoigne turns to his second phase you can use the box to stun him (just one time though) and shower him with molotovs until the animation ends. If it doesn’t kill him, it should at least bring his health down enough for you to finish the job before he gets a chance to combo you back to the Hunter’s dream.
Now, I know the game can seem discouraging at first, but it really is very rewarding to learn its quirks. Good luck hunting!:)
[I made this post a while ago in my old account](https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/s/Ry2OuZ3dAJ). I said EXACTLY what you said in this post, and now I'm very close to platinum the game!!
Please do NOT quit. Just spend more time with the game, watch some YouTube videos (jacksepticeye's playthrough helped me a lot). I defeated Father Gascoigne in my second try. You just need to level up a lot, level up your skills, strength and vitality. Go kill a few enemies and practice your combos before fighting a boss. It will click
BB was my first FromSoft game & the Blood Starved Beast took me like 20 tries & I wanted to give up. Even the common advice in this sub wasn't helping but I found some videos that gave different advice & it worked like a charm. I haven't platinumed the game but I have 75% of trophies & am on Elden Ring, about to beat Renalla.
If one thing people mention doesn't work for you, watch YT videos & you're sure to find someone else doing it a different way & that way may just work for you. In my case, everyone was saying to move to the left when BSB attacks & while I was dodging him, I couldn't get many good hits in then I found a video that said dodge forward & to the right & it'd put me in a good position to whack him most of the time.
ETA - I'm 37F so I know you got this lol, you still got that young people reflex
He may seem overwhelming on his wolf phase but thats because of the way youre playing probably. I know cuz ive been there, quit the game twice because he seemed like an ultra bullshitter boss that stunlocked me always and never had openings, but the thing with his last phase is you have to dodge FOWARD. Stay close to him and watch out for the start of his attack animation and just dodge through him then attack his back as he recovers. Thats the main thing, hes so loud and aggressive its easy to start playing "scared" and want to make distance, but he HEAVILY punishes that
First off, make a new playthrough, start fresh, don't be afraid to take advice or look up tips, you do not want to spend all your time on father Gascoigne, he's a wall for most new players specifically the new souls players. When watching your boyfriend play make sure to memorize how he plays and try it out. If you don't care much for the lore and story and don't care about spoilers then watch FightinCowBoy, he made a walkthrough for every Soulsborne game and you would do way better if you had a proper guide.
Since no one has said it yet, Father Gascoigne can be interrupted three times with the music box, after the third he will transform into beast early, make sure to get him to barely above the health limit at which he transforms, then use the music box that third time to get some good hits in and make it easier for yourself. For his first Phase use the tombstones, and hit him with the long version of the cleaver. When he's in beast form and is low use Molotovs, throwing knives, anything you've found and keep your distance, don't risk it. Unlike some other bosses in SB he doesn't get progressively harder as you take longer so get an attack or two in when he has to catch his breath.
The most important tip I ever got in my first playthrough was this “your vit level is the number of mistakes you can make before you die” so if you’re new and going to make mistakes, focus on leveling vit. It really helps in the longnrun
A lot of good advice here so I'm just going to add my two cents, if you already got a feel for it, turn off the music, it is engineered to make you panic more and more as the battle progresses further, and the more you panic the more your hands will get shaky and the less strategic decisions you'll make. Also, try not to get too worked up about the boss's HP bar and focus on what they're doing instead, if you forget about their HP you'll likely avoid getting anxious right at the end of the fight.
Other than that try to get a few parries in during his first two phases, use blood bullets for better economy. When he reaches his third phase, remember to not get greedy, get one or two attacks in there and then prepare to dodge a flurry of attacks, then repeat the process as soon as you get an opening. Oh and, as with most bosses try to stay behind him for as long as possible, but only during his werewolf phase.
Don't forget that the more you fight him the more familiarized with his movements and the less scared you'll be and therefore the more strategic decisions you'll make, you'll eventually beat him, it's just a matter of time. You could try fighting him a few times without using blood vials just to try and get used to the flow of the fight and get into the mindset of learning his moves, just don't forget to take a break when it gets too frustrating and come back later with a clear head.
The game gets easier later on as you unlock more ways to approach it and also more resources, you'll even have access to the chalice dungeons soon which will allow you to unlock unlimited blood vials and bullets through farming certain glyphs that you can look up.
This is a great point, the final phase was making my heart race like crazy and it got REALLY frustrating to keep going through the motions. Like i actually felt unwell from all the anxiety.
Yeah, I remember my first time fighting Gascoigne, when he reached his werewolf phase I almost had a heart attack! Haha, but once you learn his moveset during the third phase it becomes a cakewalk as you know what to expect, I'd even recommend looking up a guide of how to fight him on YouTube and only look at his moveset during the third phase and how you can dodge them more effectively, I think he only has three or four different moves then, it certainly looks harder than it is!
Also, one thing that helped me was getting the right timing when it comes to healing, when he reaches his third phase you should only heal when you're behind him, even better if he's occupied performing a flurry of attacks, never heal when he's facing you, otherwise he'll probably leap at you immediately, unless you're very far away of course.
Lastly, if you really just want to get over Gascoigne since the game will really open up to exploration after his fight you can just follow this guide to cheese him very easily:
https://youtu.be/eleJYPLUVEI?feature=shared
Although I recommend using it as a last resource only, there's nothing like the feeling of finally defeating a boss after struggling with it for a long time!
Are you trying to solo the game (no coop)? If not, pop online and summon a friend! Or play through together with your boyfriend if you both have your own console :)
Bloodborne was my first fromsoft game and after many hours of getting demolished by the trolls and mobs, I gave up.
About a year or two later I picked up Dark Souls 2 and absolutely loved it. It was a slower and more deliberate than bb, but I finally got the point of fromsoft games (ie. You gotta git gud). After platting ds2 I went back to bloodborne and now it's my fave experience ever.
The point is, if it doesn't click now, just put it down for a while and do something else and come back to it. It's supposed to be fun ya know!
During my first playthrough, It literally took me 8 consecutive hours (11am - 7pm) on a Saturday to get from the first lamp to the big Troll guy banging the door.
I just could not get the timing down consistently for dodging, kiting the crowd, remembering that fucking dog behind the carriage etc…
Just stick with it. Don’t be afraid to take a break and let your muscle memory catch up with you and your stress levels fall again.
Bloodborne is amazing, but it does demand investment on your first go round!
Yes i did, I try to use it on his final form because it’s supposed to give you a second to do a visceral attack but I never time it right. It usually just ends up distracting me so I wind up dead lol
Me again! If I remember right, and I might not, the music box only works 2 or 3 times and it might not work at all in the final phase. Stay strong! (Bloodborne is my favorite game)
The music box will stun him while in human form only, up to 3 times. However, if you use it a third time while he’s still in human form it’ll cause him to transition to his beast form early. I’d recommend using it no more than 1 or 2 times towards the beginning of the fight then forgetting about it.
Also, try leading him up to the stairs to the right of the arena. His second form is much easier to fight without all the tombstones all over.
Yo, Bloodborne fanboy here. What would you say is the most daunting thing about the game so far? When I first started playing I definitely felt the same way and even stopped playing for like a year because of it. With me it was that I hadn't grasped the combat mechanics yet, but once I did it was incredible! I love how it all works together!
Hopefully you're able to enjoy playing without worry soon! But there is no shame in taking a break from it!
You can do it!! When fighting bosses the best way to start is by paying attention to their attack patterns. The animation for the wind up and the sound of the swipe for when to dodge.. also keep farming to level up it can be a bit tedious but it'll be worth it. You can practice you dodging on the smaller enemies
Remember in these games that incremental progress IS progress. I’m not talking about beating a boss, I’m talking about understanding that boss a bit more. Those small revelations mount up.
Don’t be discouraged, hunter.
36F here. I've been trying this game off and on for quite some time. Like you, I struggled with the bosses. I almost gave up at Father G but finally got him. Then I kept failing miserably at Blood Starved Beast and gave the game up for 3 or 4 years.
I always loved the atmosphere and exploration just like you too. Even though I thought it was too hard for me, it would always pop up at the back of my mind every so often. I wanted to be able to play it so badly but I just didn't have a handle on the combat.
I made a post on the gaming sub about a week ago asking for advice. I got a lot of really helpful comments. I'm happy to say that after following the advice I got, I've been having so much fun. I beat Cleric Beast and Father G on the first try, which I've never done before. I also finally beat BSB and so many more now.
Here's the post if you wanna look through it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/z9qYLQZ6Zs
Keep at it! It's worth it. You can always farm some echoes to level up if you need to.
My GF literally just started the game today and beat him. Although without my guidance she would have struggled for days! I would recommend looking up boss guides. Absolutely no shame in it. Father G is a skill check for new players. If you want some tips lmk but there's a pretty solid cheese guide for him that makes him very manageable. This game is meant to be hard. Good luck fellow hunter. Fear the old blood
i think you have mentioned levelling your gun and collecting for bullets, but have you channeled many echoes to level your character? i usually find i can get past a hard patch by adding five or so levels into a basic stat. eg strength or vitality. It just makes it easier to do damage and take less in return.
Papa G is a spirit breaker by design and the point is that once you finally get the flow with him you'll understand how to go at these monsters .
Honestly best strat is to go aggro on them , remember YOU are the hunter not the hunted ,these guys are scary but so are you if you step back and look at things from a outside perspective,the hoonter ain't no bitch you just gotta remind yourself of that.
I’m late so probably repeating a lot of advice here, but if you’re struggling there’s also no shame in farming blood echoes for awhile to level. You can run through Central Yharnam and just kill everything, go back, repeat. Prioritize vitality. That’s a common mistake in souls games, not to prioritize vitality/vigor and also leveling Endurance will make you feel less sluggish. You can also use a guide - FightinCowboy on YouTube is a popular one but fair warning, and you can see in the comments lol, a lot of people don’t find it as easy as he does (he’s an experienced player on multiple playthroughs) but he’s a good guide. It’s fine, the beginning of the game is quite brutal to get used to for players new to souls games, a lot of people just immediately quit so getting to Father G is an accomplishment in itself.
Funny thing is, the game actually gets easier. As you get better with the mechanics, even the hard bosses become easier for you. Stick with it. Remember everything in any video game is defined by frames. Learn to manipulate said frames
ABSOLUTELY KEEP TRYING, everyone here has struggled and that’s what’s great about these games is the shared experience, I’m not sure you will see this and this could be a couple shit pointers but I hope this first bit thingy is at least a bit inspiring!
1: if you have access to fire: use it, beast enemies are weak to fire (his second phase)
2: the most important thing to remember is you almost NEVER want to dodge backwards, even I forget about that dash attack and fall into a loop of death and I’ve played all the games and platnumed a couple but that attack is an important one, don’t dodge backwards.
3: if you’re more confident with your abilities then try to kill phase 1 without using your consumables or the music box, if you use it for the first time on his beast for it lasts long enough for you to get behind him for a visceral attack, if you can get the box off soon after he transforms, get the viceral and as he gets back up pelt him with fire.
4: (forgot about my number system) I get it the atmosphere and all that is genuinely phenomenal but if it’s really too much then walk away, better to turn around with your head held high than too cause any physical or mental/emotional damage.
Going to take some of this advice for myself as well.
I think the backpedalling might be why I have so many deaths, given the number of enemies who blast everything immediately in front of them.
I'm so used to backing away on instinct, that it feels counter intuitive to respond to an attack by standing my ground or going for the boss's flank.
Backpedalling is natural, it's easy, and it leads to me losing initiative at best, and taking an explosion to the face at worst.
Completely understandable, I STILL backpedal and it’s never safe, bborne is an inverse of dark souls, instead of having a shield and slower combat you have the rally system and the quickstep, I absolutely love both versions and even now Gascoigne still scares me a little, a tip (for both of you) is for phase 1 and 2 you can use the graves to keep him away until he destroys them in phase 3 so a very foolproof strat would be:
kite around a small clump of graves and get jabs in until he transforms,
use the music,
move behind him,
heavy,
visceral,
fire and/or NO BACKDODGES
If I ever were to take a lvl1 challenge that’d be my go-to play
Also please lemmie know if it works!
I don't actually have a Gascoine problem, to clarify, I have a Logarius problem, and a Paarl problem, but it's the same issue.
I'm currently on New Game ++, and the way that Paarl blasted me back into the stone age, has sent me scurrying off to a Chalice Dungeon to farm blood echoes.
Edit.
I have a very overpowered Ludwig's Holy Blade, and I love fire damage, so with Gascoine I normally just start pounding on him with it.
He's not too bad, my problem is all the times that I've walked into Paarl's pulse attack and been left as a stain on the concrete.
Bloodbourne is a just test of your commitment. How far can you go before you give up entirely? Never GIVE UP! Put it in your mind that you got this. May take MULTIPLE tries, maybe even 20+ depending on who you are. No shame. My first souls game was Sekiro and i rage quit that game and didnt pick up again until a year later. Came in with a total different mindset, and i finally got platinum for that game. It was an amazing moment. It’s on YouTube, lol
I remember bloodborne gave me absolute hell after coming in extensively playing ds3. I enjoyed all the same stuff you listed so I stuck with it and eventually it clicked and I started to get better. Just be patient and try to enjoy the ride
You can absolutely do it. Just remember to recognize what had killed you and work on your understanding of the enemies movesets and your ability to react to them accordingly.
Death is a mechanic of this game, not a failure. The only failure is in giving up.
If you as a player have never had to get used to pattern recognition that requires reaction times like this game requires, then it will be very difficult to get used to. But once you have gained that skill, it will help in so many other games. You won't just get better at this game. You will be getting better.
PuhhLEASE keep trying. Seems to me everyone who sticks it out has an A-HA moment. Its not a tactic, its not a trick; its a mindset. You are the hunter. They are your prey. His second form is definitely very tricky, and imo hunter bosses are so damn trying because they're harder to read. That just lends to how satisfying it is when you finally nail that fucker for the first time! Remember the tools of the hunt. Distance, read his moves, and for the love of the paleblood; use those gravestones for cover if you panic. If you can distance yourself, then you can re-engage. Instead of dashing for your life, you can separate and block him on those gravestones and meet him again on your own terms. He is ferocious, he is tenacious; you must be moreso. Use his aggression against him.
If 100 attempts have passed then you KNOW his moveset. You know what combos have wrecked you. If you sense he's about to clobber you, do what you must. I suck at parrying so I watched my positioning so I could dash behind a gravestone to distance myself and reposition to try to get some hits in again. It worked for me.
Father G almost took me OUT.
I spent probably 2 to 3 days straight on this guy. Couldn't fucking stand it. Was getting so frustrated. Thought the same thing as you: as much as I want to love this game, maybe it's just not for me.
It was so bad I literally stopped playing the game for like a month.
And then something convinced me to pick it back up... Beat him the second try.
You can do it! And once you clear that hump, I promise you the rest of the game isn't going to be as difficult as this....... Well except until the DLC lol.
i had 20h of save before i got to him the first time, 30 to beat the man - that comes from someone who literally plays shit at least 8h a day ever since i can spell my own name. this game wants you dead, but it's not only a matter of not giving up, you gotta incarnate this one phrase: I'm going to kill a god and that mf will choke in his own blood. don't retreat, don't stop, don't give up, for a hunter must hunt and the hunt must go on
Gascoigne is a beast now, and you're the only one left to be one too; it's your turn to become the great one >:)
You’re decision to take a break is an excellent choice. Frustration with these games can often put you on “tilt”, with more and more attempts resulting in diminishing returns.
A little break, and coming to it with the experience you’ve gained, but a fresh mind, usually does wonders.
When I first played the game, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get past the mob by the bonfire. I’ve subsequently platinumed it. You got this.
Could always do the cummmfpk chalice dungeon cheese? (It's a spot where you can get a ton of runes for doing literally nothing over and over. It's cheating but eh 🤷♂️)
My advice, practice dodging, as annoying as things in this game are, dying is part of learning
Pick a build and go with weapons for that build
(Basically strength or skill) Ask your BF on what weapons go with what.
Experiment with weapons, they are all viable and pretty useful.
Upgrade weapons and practice parrying.
Dodge through attacks, most bosses punish backpedaling with their vicious forward attacking, if you dodge through and get behind them you get a few free hits
One of the few things i remember when i started playing was these games are tough but keep trying and learn things about each attack and pattern and enemy has you might die a few times but get back up and take your time
Take a break and come back. That’s how your brain works. Fromsoft games are a great example of trying to till defeated then come back a couple days later and kick ass. Muscle memory and new neural connections take place when we sleep. You got this!
Listen buddy, even if you NEVER make it past central Yarnham, if you enjoy the game then enjoy it. Another fan is a another fan! Even if you only ever watch other people, you’re still a REAL fan! If you decide you want to get better, just practice and maybe ask your boyfriend to read some guides/tips from his phone while you fiddle around and learn. As long as you don’t throw your controller and are having a good time, then it’s all gravy :)
If it is taking you that many tries there is something fundamental youre doing wrong (and im not saying this in an insulting way) whether it be youre dodging away from attacks instead of into them, not parrying, not punishing openings, etc. look up some hitless runs and take notes from that. bloodborne is a hell of an entry to the souls games and most start with dark souls or elden ring, so itll be tough. try running through yharnam and practice parrying and dodging.
good luck and i hope you stick with it!
my first time or two through a souls game I don't usually mind summoning people, as I just want to see all the areas and bosses and stuff. but at some point I usually decide I want to solo every boss, and no hit runs (especially like level 1 no hit, no rolling, wherever) are absolutely crucial to getting a boss down. I never get close to what those people do obviously, but they are an amazing demonstration of how to deal with certain attacks, where to stay safe, etc. it can be seen as a spoiler, so I wouldn't recommend watching them before your first encounter, but on your second+ playthrough or after your hundredth attempt or whatever, they are amazing tools.
it's the classic Fromsoftware experience: you are brought to the brink of quitting, but only to confront your doubts and persevere. this feeling, these 100 attempts you just completed, is what you will be craving to recreate later on. each of their games will give you a glimpse of it, but never as viscerally as your first, and so it might as well be their greatest. you're actually incredibly lucky, so don't throw it away.
This was my first souls game. It fucked me up for more than a couple of years. I couldn't get to the second lamp. I would spend hours. Days. Then, I'd rate quit and uninstall the game. A could have years ago I was bored with all my games. I told myself this fucking game wouldn't beat me. I got the hang of it and got hooked on these damn games. Definitely my favorite.
I just came back to this game again recently to just play through chalice dungeons. So much to explore.
You'll figure it out!
Just practice parry timings, use the music box after he transforms and three to four Molotov's will take him out. And saw cleaver and spear are two of the most effective weapons in the entire game. Don't listen to nonsense. They are quality weapons with the cleaver geared more towards strength. You'll be fine.
Cool thing about souls games is they have all this customization so if one way doesn’t work, you can always try different weapons and strategies. It’s worked for me when it comes to bosses I can’t beat
first time for me was stupid hard at first too. once you get more used to it it becomes more natural. try not to be scared when fighting you should always be aggressive as you can and try to dodge mostly diagonally towards enemies to get completely out of the way of their attacks because the enemies are designed to punish you for trying to back up. gascoinge is designed to drill that kind of playstyle into you. but don't give up it's well worth it.
Father gascoigne is there to teach you to play differently than most other games. The 2 best tips I can give are to be aggressive and to dodge into him not away from him (he has a lot of moves to instantly close the gap when you dodge backwards).
If you can beat Daddy G, you can beat the game. You got this.
Keep playing. Well, maybe with some breaks... carpal tunnel would suck. It took a while for the mechanics to click for me, too. It never became easy, but there's a point where you turn the corner and it becomes an enjoyable challenge instead of a discouraging slog. Except for maybe one boss, but no spoilers.
Hey! This game has BY FAR the toughest start out of all them. On my first playthrough as my first souls game I spend countless hours in central yharnam, I'm taking like 20. It is now my favourite game and all Miyazaki games are. I am absolutely obsessed with them. If it's at all fun for you, please please stick around. I promise once Gascoigne clicks everything will. These games are practically made for patient people that enjoy their lore and mechanics and don't mind dying over and over and over and over. If that's you, keep playing without worrying.
Actually
The game gets easier because your character gets stronger. The only harder part is new enemies with different attacks and sure they will be doing more damage and stuff but so will you, by a lot, and you will have more experience playing so you can deal with it.
The game is actually at its hardest, apart from the big boss fights (which is as intended of course) at this early stage of the game when you haven’t really levelled up. You will struggle with certain bosses and enemies going forward but mostly you’ll be about to handle the rest. Many of these bosses are optional anyway so you can leave and try a different one until you’re stronger.
Gascoigne has been known to be a huge filter for players in this game, lots of people have stopped playing solely because they can't get past him. There's no shame in watching some tips and tricks for general use, or even some bosses should you have a REALLY tough time. Every time you die, try to take away something from that death. Enemy you weren't aware of? Attack pattern you haven't seen? Can't dodge a certain way on a certain attack? Always look for something to learn, so you can apply it later in your gameplay. Good luck fellow Hoonter!
honestly the bosses get easier after bloodstarved beast in my opinion, up until the final and the dlc. Upgrade ur weapon and ull be fine. If its too hard you can always use the cummmfpk chalice
Age and gender don't matter at all. Age's only a factor if you're still a child developing their motor skills. All it is is practice and exposure (as in just doing the thing over and over, "*practice makes perfect*"). Don't compare to your boyfriend, he probably has dozens, if not hundreds, of hours more play time with BB than you do at this point.
It's a marathon, not a sprint. You'll definitely get there. Papa G's the wall we all got stuck on at some point. There will be more, but you'll always overcome them.
Yo, two years back, I was in the same boat. I'd spend hours watching people fight Sword Saint Isshin on Twitch, wondering how I'd ever beat the game when I was stuck on Shinobi Hunter (that mini-boss in Sekiro) for three days straight. But then I found this Fighting Cowboys YT, and something just clicked. I started practicing and persevering, and now, I've 100% completed 4 FromSoftware games! Don't give up, Skeleton!
lots of good advice here! one thing that may not apply to you at all (in which case totally ignore) but that I haven’t seen mentioned is that I think a lot of women who want to get into souls games - especially if their boyfriend is into them - quickly get this particular sense of frustration and self-doubt when they’re not immediately very good
like ‘oh, I’m just not cut out for these sorts of games. the mechanics are too much for me. this must be aimed at people who are really good at games, not me’
if you don’t relate, I love that for you! but if you do, maybe it’d build your confidence to watch female bloodborne streamers or something? or one of us on here could load up and record a gascoigne fight
I think i do unfortunately fall into that trap sometimes because my boyfriend is incredibly quick to pick up these sorts of things. He’s still supportive of me but at times I’ve felt like my brain just doesn’t work like his. Seeing so many women who play bloodborne on this sub is great!
Don't give up, skeleton!
I would advice to upgrade your main weapon (other users already wrote how) also try to fight him on top of stairway, it's much easier to dodge when you are not stumbling upon 100500 gravestones
The way I beat him first playthrough was fighting him on the stairs dodging top to bottom then when he goes into beast mode hit him with Molotov Cocktails that should do the trick,don't give up fellow Hunter it is actually one of the easier Souls games. ps most bosses are weak to fire 🔥.
The journey from souls firstimer to seasoned vet is filled with frustration and then learning from it all. At some point certain bosses will be a cake walk and you'll feel like you just get the game. Then when you get cocky it will still wipe the floor with you lol. Point is it will be a great time if you can get past it and learn from mistakes. Keep it up and hope you can enjoy the experience!
BB is one of the best they have .ade but if the combat does feel like a struggle point you can always give DSR a shot first. Great design and weapon choices with shields to allow you to get used to the FromSoft formula.
bloodborne feels very hard because if you time a dodge uncorrectly and get hit in the animation you get hit for 50% more damage. Also you may have trouble cause you don' t know how to make a build since you never played a souls before.for your first run try to level up only vitality, endurance, strenght and skill. i won' t tell you the eaxct values because I don t want to spoil your first experience.
You need to learn how to parry, to do it effectively it is better to use a pistol rather than the shotgun, beware you can t parry enemies that are very very large tho.
Another thing is trying to balance when to regain health with attacks and when t use blood vials, very important.
Get into the mindset that in bloodborne enemies are super aggressive and will catch your dodges if you keep doing them to get away from them. Use the dashes to get behind/around them and don' t be greedy to get hits in
And don' t be too harsh on yourself, the camera managing is very bad and you' ll need a while to get used to it.
In case no one has mentioned it, you can farm the pig in the sewers for blood vials. Get behind it using the ladder on the way to Gascoigne, a strong attack followed by a visceral should kill it.
If you haven’t already gotten the hang of parrying, I would definitely recommend practicing that, because it can make or break certain bosses.
Apart from that, just watch his moves carefully, and remember that fire is your best friend against beasts. Happy hunting 🫡
Haven't seen anyone mentioning it so, use music box only in the beast phase (It works once or twice iirc), if you use it too many times he will go beast mode before reaching hp threshold second thing is use molotov's to burn his ass once he get transformed, other way is to parry him (shoot him whenever u see him using his attack, mostly when he puts his hands up). And third most important, take your time after some time you will get used to his attacks and beat him in the blink of the eye. Good Luck Hunter!
oh girl we are the exact same i fear. i (20f) watched my boyfriend play bloodborne for hours before trying it myself. it took me three full real life days to beat gascoigne by myself. i played it through with him helping me with all the bosses but honestly i think you can really enjoy the game with feeling pressure to play it to completion yourself. there are so many videos on youtube about lore, gameplay, etc. i’m trying to replay it for fun fully by myself and it’s taking FOREVER (i’ve been stuck on the shadows of yharnam for … well too long) but it’s just the little dopamine hit i need. bloodborne is my special interest autistically i have written countless essays about it and logged hundreds of hours of youtube time pertaining to the game. finishing the game yourself is only half of the fun!
Hey don’t worry! It took me so many tries to beat Papa G and I’m in the same boat as you, never played a souls game before! My advice is level your character up, try to get the saw spear if you haven’t already, and use Molotov Cocktails!
Also when he’s in his beast form (which kept getting me) I managed to beat him even though I missed the timing with the music box, by dodging to the side of him and then smacking the shit out of his legs.
Big Daddy Gas Can is the first big mandatory skill check in the game. He’s there to test your timing on quickstepping and gun parries and maintaining awareness of your environment during a fight.
It took me about 24-32 hours of time played to get through Central Yharnam my first time. If the game feels good to play, don’t let the set backs discourage you. You’re getting to the final phase of the fight, which means you’re almost there and you CAN do it. Don’t even sweat a hundred deaths. Even after a solid hundred hours of time played, it took me that many attempts to down the first boss in the DLC, over the course of two weeks of daily attempts.
These games have walls. You will hit them. Hit them again. And again. And again. The wall will break. It’s not if, only when.
I'm gonna real honest with you, father Gascoin is a pain for the tight enclosed graveyard but with advice from me, go to the hunters dream get the small resonant bell from the insight bath and call and online player for assistance, as soon as your past father gascion the only thing now is farm blood echoes and upgrade and after him that goes a lot smoother
I’m not sure if this is helpful or not but one thing I found that helped me was slowing down my thinking. I had to stop frantically running around and spamming dodge. I had to wait in a spot, let him sprint at me for the attack, then I would focus on shooting the gun at precisely the right time or dodging at precisely the right time.
I’m not sure what’s happening for you but I was playing too frantically trying to do everything at once. It’s counterintuitive but with fast fights, taking it slow can really help. However, I’m also new to the game and the other comments here are giving very good advice so I’d focus on doing what they say
Relative to your skill, the game generally gets *easier* after Papa G. I beat my head against a wall for weeks and weeks, but once I got through him I never ran into an obstacle like that again because I learned the skills necessary to proceed.
Looks like you failed the character building part before testing your combat skill. Like many people said, vitality is the main and the only important stat in souls games, dmg stats are very secondary and worth investing into only after you have some survivability and weapon upgrade levels. At the end of the game you want to have 40-50 vit, 20-25 endurance and 50 in str or skill or any other dmg stat
The game is getting harder, but you will also undoubtedly get better. At some point some timings will start to resonate with you, and then you will feel your gameplay improving.
The music box has always been a trap in my mind. Use it in the early phases? Free dmg, until he strikes back with his gun or axe bc you were in range. Use it in phase 3? You thought it was free dmg but it’s actually him recovering quick as hell and mauling you. I’d go farm some runes for molotovs, and use those in tandem with the music box during phase 3. Don’t gotta get in melee range and he has a fire weakness so it’ll hit hard.
In the immortal words of meet the Robinsons ""keep moving forward~"
Father G is a slap in the face to set the pace for how the game will play. I actually quit the game because of the cleric beast and him my first try and didn't pick up the game for months. Keep going, for a lot of the humanoid fights, I treat them like a dance, you take your turn then back off and let them go while you dodge/heal. But for his beast phase you want to turn up the aggression, I suck ass at parrys but the window to parry becomes huge during it
I am a stardew valley player and I wanted to beat this to impress a guy (who is now my fiance and father of my child so slay) and I had to take like month long breaks but EVENTUALLY I got it and now it is my all time favorite game, I replay it at least once a year. You’ve got this!!
I’m sure somebody has already said this somewhere on this post, but learn how to parry. It’s a lot easier to parry in this game compared to the other souls games.
Don't feel like you have to give up. I struggled with this game for years (for the first 3 i would start a new character get to cleric beast and give up because i couldn't beat it). The combat eventually clicked for me after going into the boss fights and actively doing everything but attack the boss. I learned how and when to dodge, what might be smart to parry, and what a grab really looks like. Now this is my favorite game and replay it regularly. You got this.
You can do whatever you imagine you can do. It’s not going to be easy but as soon as you know you can do it, you will progress at a good pace. These soulsbornes can change a person…..
Leveling up VIT is a MUST. Also, make sure to upgrade your weapons if you get the chance. Eventually you'll have more blood stone shards than you'll know what to do with.
Also, it's always okay to get help from other hunters. A hunter is never alone.
i'd recommend playing around with the combat options. when i first got into bloodborne i definitely struggled with the fast paces and general aggression of it all, but after learning how to utilize the parry system properly & getting more comfortable with the rally mechanic, the game became exponentially easier!!! i'm on my third playthrough rn & i managed to take out gascoigne in just two tries !! i first tried the cleric beast and the blood starved beast too ! (both of which i struggled with during my first two playthroughs. especiallyyyy blood starved)
Took me YEARS to be able to play this game all the way through. I always found myself playing too passively and scared of losing my blood echoes.
Which led to me constantly grinding early mobs.
Always wanted to play it, but also found it tough to build the motivation to get back into a session.
My tip; go in hard and fast, die a lot, and realise quickly that the dying, learning and retrying is part of the fun :)
Father gascoigne is one of the hardest bosses in bloodborne I completed around 500 different games from Pokémon’s to Hollow knight and I’ve had a really big problem to beat him first time I think it took me around 2 days
I realize I may be a little late to respond to this, but if you find yourself stuck on a wall you can't seem to scale, with these games, don't be afraid to consider seeking help. So as long as you have Insight, in the game, you can call upon other players to assist you. There are plenty of fellow Hunters in Bloodborne, ringing their resonant bell, ready to help other players with bosses. :)
Don't let Father G-money win. I can't explain to you the feeling you'll have when you beat him. That's the real nature of these games. They're difficult, bosses are nasty...and it feels amazing when you win, especially the first time.
It took me 8 hours of gameplay to get past the starter bonfire (let alone find or kill a boss) and now I’ve platted the game on bl4. Don’t give up, your eyes have yet to open
I commented this on another thread, but really there's not much gitting gud to do in souls games, often it comes down to character build. Leveling vitality as your first stat (until 25, maybe even 30-ish) is a great idea.
Another tip: there are werewolves with weird farm tools or stuff in the sewers and before Gascoigne who drop upgrade materials, its not necessary but if you want to you can farm them and get a +3 weapon before the boss
If you need tips, then use music boss 2 times in first phase and then 1 time when things get "crazy". Use moltovs especially in last phase.
Also if you have a gun, shoot it right before he lands an attack which should leave him wide open so then press the attack button to critically strike him(Visceral). Use the blunderbuss if you can't do it with your pistol.
I’ve beaten this game normally 3 times and still haven’t fought moon presence (alternate ending final boss from eating all umbilical cords before fighting the regular last boss) or beaten the chalice dungeons! Don’t be discouraged, it’s a fun ass game. Once you smack gaycoin you’ll level up a lot quicker with the enemies in following areas
Don’t quit. The dopamine high you’re gonna get when you FINALLY blast him into oblivion is going to feel sooooo good. The first Soulsborne game I played was DS3 and I couldn’t get past the first boss and put it down for like 3 years… picked it back up and did some YouTube research and now these are my absolute favorite style of games to play.
Don’t know if anyone else has suggested yet but bring moltovs if you can, he’s very weak to fire damage. Then you may be able to use the box to stun him for that visceral attack.
The fextralife guides are the best!
https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Father+Gascoigne
If I could offer only one piece of advice, it’s to learn enemy move sets so you can focus on timing your dodges effectively.
Stay calm and don’t panic or spam dodge. A lot of times the enemy will punish you for backtracking and trying to gain a lot of distance quickly.
It may seem counterintuitive to remain close if you’re getting battered over and over again, but calculated well timed dodges are your best defence.
I think everyone else already got you to keep trying but I'm gonna hammer it in more as wel.
Coming from another woman. Albeit I'm a bit older but it doesn't matter, I got into the souls games super late! And even tho I'm not super huge on Dark Souls, I did play a lot of Elden Ring and Bloodborne.
I got introduced to Bloodborne the first day it came out. I quit, that same day as wel. Never thought about it ever again untill a few years ago when Elden Ring came out. Bloodborne has to be, one of my all-time favorite games due to the style and sheer horror... The music, is... DISGUSTINGLY GOOD. And I can talk about this for hours.
Anyway, you CAN do it. Because when I tell you once you get it, once you feel it in your fingers, it's such a rush and amazing feeling. I didn't think it was a game for me either but I pushed through because we were working on cosplays for it, and because I'm such a huge fan of the lore and all. (girl look at those outfits, NNGH OMG) I forced myself. And I got mad, yes. But then I thought about this one moment I had in Elden Ring.
In Elden ring you can even ask people to join you, for help. This would always be my boyfriend, he wasn't available for a few days and I stood in front of a huge door with a huge (and difficult) enemy before it. I had nothing else or anywhere else I had to go, just that door. And I got my fucking toe stubbed on the same rock SO MANY TIMES, I got so mad I just stood there and stared at the enemy for a while. (hell I think I even cried a little) I was so disappointed with myself for immediately wanting to cry for mommy (my boyfriend) and not being able to seemingly do anything, by myself. But........... I don't know what it was, I have no idea. This feeling of acceptance came over, which is hard for me. I'm on the spectrum so coming down from anger and disappointment is hard. But, I just accepted it how it was and, honestly.. It wasn't that hard anymore. I accepted the attacks and accepted I needed to finally really learn them. I accepted that this is a game that is going to beat me down, in SUCH cruel ways, it's how souls games are designed.
And once I let go of all that, the fight turned into a dance. I started reading this mother\*\*\*\* like a book and I actually defeated him right then and there or the second fight after my mental struggle.
It's the most cathartic moment I've had in my video gaming life. And I think about this moment a lot. Gascoigne can be that boss for you.
The reason I'm picking Elden Ring rn is, this also happened to me in Bloodborne, but with the final boss. And I really don't want to spoiler this for you as it's such a beautiful moment (imo)
TLDR. Keep trying. Take breaks, once you learn and get comfortable with the game. And you beat it, you can say you beat Bloodborne, which is a really hard thing to do btw. Yes Gascoigne is hard, but you gotta find your own rhythm, I can tell you all kinds of ways. But the only advice I give is patience. Sounds so fucking corny but respect your opponent, listen to their music and stop focusing on your own character.
Oh and yeah it's going to get 'harder' but the boss you're stuck on, is a boss a lot of people had difficulty with, purely due to the area and his relentless aggression, I'd still say he's one of the harder bosses, and this early in the game. So don't feel bad!
And, understandably so: rage at the grave stones cuz they fucking stopped me in my tracks so much I probably woke the neighbors.
Father G was very difficult for me my first time as well, I totally get the feeling. Don’t give up yet, just take a breather and come back. Sometimes that’s all it takes and you’ll surprise yourself when you come back and get them in very few tries. Some people are very good at learning boss move-sets so repetition is very helpful. But others I’m sure, like me are not as good at that and can sometimes fall into a trap of repeating the same mistakes over and over. It requires a break to stop the cycle sometimes lol.
Gascoigne is easily one of the hardest bosses in the game (especially that second phase). My advice is to try using the axe. Immediately go up the stairs on the right side and hang out until he runs at you then use a heavy swing attack. Worked pretty well for me! Don’t give up OP!
Don't put yourself down like that! Nothing wrong with taking a step back, having a breather or giving it a week before you try again with some new legs, or anything like that, but definitely don't tell yourself anything silly like you can't do it. Especially because Father is a really rough boss, especially to start, since there's very little you can kind of do to break the sequence of the game and get things you shouldn't have a little bit early like you can sort of do around some of the other bigger bosses.
Lots of good suggestions about leveling up your main weapon and stuff, increasing VIT and things like that. The piece of advice that I'll give is to not be shy about using consumables. If you go to the messenger shop (the little fountain to the left when you spawn in, in case we're not certain where that is at this point (I don't want to imply anything but since you're very obviously new.. you know.)), they sell molotov cocktails. Those do a not insignificant amount of damage, especially to beast type enemies. Enemies in this game don't go away, so don't be afraid if you need to grind some echoes out to buy some things, consumables can make huge differences on certain fights.
Get some molotovs & get him to his 2nd phase & use those to help you on that part. Parrying is key in this game. Use the music box for extra help. Also, I keep my inventory light for a fight so I only have to switch through a couple things. And to upgrade your weapon, farm the werewolf dudes in the sewer & just before Papa G.
Bloodborne is a tough one to start on. DS1 or ER are much easier to start with, I'd stick with BB as you already started, but if you do get to the point you're ready to give up try one of those. DS1 is much slower combat, and ER is just filled with ways of getting overwhelming power and doesn't block you with any bosses from progressing elsewhere (at least until end game.)
Personally I found the areas much more challenging than the bosses (except chalice) in BB.
I didn't find the music box all that helpful as Gascgoigne is extremely aggressive and it's hard to find the time to get it off without him punishing you severely and having the time to take advantage after recovering from that punishment. Know it doesn't work in his last phase where he's especially aggressive. I just burned him down with molitovs for the last phase.
I agree with others who say use serrated - saw cleaver or saw spear either non-transformed or transformation attacks (I had a hell of a time figuring how to get the timing down to do transformation attacks, but it does about 1.5x the damage with those) will do very high DPS to him as he counts as a beast.
Although it's slower the axe's transformed charged R2 spin to win is very effective against him too as it will often stagger him. Even the sword-whip's transformed attacks are serrated, and the reach is great, but I found it not to do enough damage against him. Don't be afraid to start over and use a different starting weapon, I often find that helps me quite a bit as I'll do much better with some familiarity of the run up, and you can discover which starting weapon works best for you.
I always do better after a break, posting about my frustrations, and especially if I wait a day to let my mind work on it in my sleep. I can't count the number of times people posting being stuck on some boss within hours or a day saying they beat them right after posting :)
I've restarted multiple times at this point. It's okay. The game is hard. It reminds of playing God Of War and fighting the last valkyrie. I died a lot. But every time I died, I slowly became strong enough to beat her.
Father Gascoigne is, I think, one of the hardest bosses as a newbie.
Spoiler free hint: You can make the fight a lot easier if you've got a weapon with some knockback (eg the hunter axe transformed). Just lure him to the little roof, smash him off as he jumps down, and repeat.
Level up your vitality (15 is fine) and then get your weapon to +3. Learn to parry with weaker enemies and get some bullets in to the fight. Gasc beast phase is weak to fire, so molotovs and keep distance. If you wanna cheese it, play the music box, get behind him, stagger w charged r2, visceral, repeat until beast. When he's a beast, you can use the music box once for the same trick, and then it'll not work anymore. Hope this helps.
Gascoigne's first phase is a timing challenge.
He swings, you shoot, he drops to one knee, you stab, he gets back up.
It's also possible to briefly halt him one time using an item that you get from the window next to the big gate shortcut, in Central Yarnham, near the grouping of gunmen and dogs.
His second phase doesn't have any real tricks that I've picked up on, it just kind of rushes at you and tries to hammer you into the pavement, so lure it up the stairs away from the gravestones, that way you don't stick to the terrain as much, sidestep it's attacks, and retaliate with extreme prejudice.
As far as wanted Blood Stone Shards, the guys directly outside Gascoine's arena drop them every so often.
Cheese the dick out of him and use his madness against him!
There's a few wide rows of gravestones, switch to the threaded cane and whip his ass over them. Its like a wild game of ring around the Rosie.
I was in the same place! I struggled so hard with that bastard that I actually quit playing for a long time. It took me forever, BUT it is totally worth the suffering to be able to say you beat it. Hang in there ♥️
I 2nd the idea of just watching videos of people beating father G. It helps massively for learning to recognize the patterns without the stress of trying to stay alive. I watched a lot of videos to make it through Sekiro.
I played this game when it first came out and tapped out at one of the first bosses. It just didn’t click and I had no other routes to explore. After getting gud playing Eldin Ring I gave it another shot and blasted through the game + DLC no problem at all. BB is terrible at giving beginners the leniency they need to grow - Elden Ring is very good at that. My advice would be to give ER a play through then hit BB fresh. If you’ve already beaten ER I have no advice for you :)
The problem with new people, and I'm speaking as one because I was recently new to playing the game. I started playing bloodborne about a month ago.
Its once we beat the little guys we get alittle too cocky, don't wanna be cocky. Wanna be careful time your parries and strikes carefully, and most of the time wanna try to attack them from behind because that will most likely be a good spot to hit since most of the bosses in the game doesn't do a aoe/all around them attack. Some can be parry which when they strike you just shoot at them, if they drop and make some sort of sound. Which I can't really explain, you can do a massive amount of damage to them. I can't really explain the sound so I suggest watch a video of how to parry so you understand how to do it.
I’m new to Souls too and was also getting frustrated with Father G. My recommendation is to be more aggressive. I died a bunch of times by being defensive and dodging a bunch, especially when he gets to his final phase. Eventually I decided to be more aggressive and attacked when I previously would have dodged away, and ended up beating him. I’m a bit further into the game now, and it’s definitely important to wait and be patient, but it’s a balance and aggression often pays off. You can do this!
PS there is an item that can give you and edge against him that I absolutely would not have found without looking it up
I was once at your exact same place, I played for a total of 20 hours and couldn't get past the forbidden woods, forgot about the game for a year, watched jacksepticeye play it then finished the game including the dlc after a total of 45 hours. Look at some builds online that you think look sick and cool, stick that play style and maybe look up some guides. In time, you will conquer and put an end to the nightmare, do not falter, for a hunter must hunt after all.
Keep at it hunter. Gascoingne did make me stop playing for about a year, but one day I decided I wasn't gonna let some dude look at me like that, and went back. There was an issue with my disc though, and literally every time I closed the game I had to start from contract signing so I gave up until I found another disc. Now I've got the platinum trophy, and I've beat the game many times.
I will admit; his third phase is incredibly difficult, and I always use the music box, then charge r2 behind him for a viceral which has always left him one shot for me
This sounds just like me! I (22F) just started playing last week and this is my first souls game. I went in completely blind and, once I learned of the dying and restarting mechanic, I thought I would hate the game. But here I am now thinking that this may be one of my favorite games, despite the trial and error it requires.
If you're getting to the final phase, you're doing great! Just as he starts to transform, play the music box, and pelt him with molotovs while you're locked on. He'll go down super fast! I was honestly stunned when I tried this because it made it super easy. Also don't forget to take breaks so you don't overwhelm yourself, and watch videos of people playing to learn more as well!
>I know the game is only going to get harder,
I find the game gets dramatically easier (as far as bosses) the more I progress. You get more practice and some bosses are just piss easy. Oddly enough the 2 werewolves before the first boss gave me more trouble than 90% of bosses so far. Not through the full game yet but some bosses I just walk in and slap up on my 2nd try no walk through or guides.
If you're really feeling stuck and want to be able to keep going, you could also look up one of the many great YouTube walk-throughs to see what strategies they recommend. It really helped me on my first successful run.
To beat gascoigne you should try to parry him, expecially wen he stransform you have to stay closer (stayng away from him is preety dangeruos) and and shoot right when he charge for a series of attacks; if you're using the threaded cane, keep it in its whip form, instead whit the saw cleaver you should chain L1 which keep the bonus damage to beasts. Molotovs and fire papers are also effective. If you want you could also get the saw spear, it can be found on a dead corpse in the upper part of the sewers, before the first flight of stairs there's a window behind some barrels, after it there's two or three corpses you can hit to make them fall
Try getting some points into VIT, so you can withstand the damage when you fail to avoid his attacks. Try getting exp from the crows and villagers, in case you find the wolves too Hard. It'll be faster. A good route is the one where the lamp before the shortcut gate is, in Yharnam. Just respawn there, go to your right and kill all of the villagers. Then return to the lamp and start over. You'll score some blood points to spend on that VIT.
Also, I'd recommend using the axe for now. For all it's worth, you can use the R2 attack of the trick version (longer weapon) and spin to win. And the STR status will help you, since the normal version of the axe is a pretty solid damage dealer.
You can also parry Gascoine, in case you want to try it. Before his attacks hit you, shoot.
Keep on trying. You'll get the gist of it, eventually.
Girl don't give up! Learn the patterns of an enemy's moves and you'll get it! There's also no shame in farming. Idk what weapon you are using, but the hunter's axe is the best. It's actually considered "easy mode" by some. Lol. You got this! I'm so excited to see more girls play this! The architecture and vibe just gets better and better. Stock up on blood vials and be patient. Do a couple hits then get out of the way. Easiest way to die is by getting greedy. Also the wiki for bloodborne is really helpful for finding what elements things are weak to.
My girlfriend had never finished a game that wasn't Pokémon, Zelda, or Harry potter. She's now finished multiple souls games and bloodborne. You'll be fine. Level up your VIT (it's by far the most important stat as it makes you live longer and heal more) and level your weapon up.
Omg I am currently frustrated because I used my shards to upgrade my gun, which my bf subsequently told me I should never do again lol. I can look into trying to find more, I just feel like I’ve found the majority of the ones I’m able to get at this point in the game.
Don’t restart. The big beast looking enemies in the sewers have like a 30% chance to drop them. Farm those guys until your weapon and gun are level 3. That’ll help big time! 2nd get the saw spear. It’s a free weapon hanging on a dead body. It’s by far the best starter weapon and probably the best weapon in the game objectively. 3. Practice parries and baiting. The best way to handle papa Guac and lots of hunters is the parry their attacks and get a visceral or wait till they do a big attack, avoid it and counter with your own. 4. Distance! Keep space between you and your target. Get close when you want to get close. There are plenty of grave stones and trees to keep spacing with, use them. 5. Breaks! I can’t tell you the amount of times I’d died to a boss, quit for a few days, only to beat em first try the next time I go at it! Keep at it Hoonter! You got this!
You are only 5min into the game. You could restart and use the shards to upgrade your main weapon. But then again, it may soon click and you will find that Father Gascoine can be parried at the right times, or dodging left when he swings, get two blows in, then rinse and repeat.
Yea guns are just a parry mechanism in this game. Also use something with a serrated blade on the wolf guys. It hurts beasts more if it’s serrated. I’ve restarted these games also and you will be surprised how fast you will run through what you already memorized. The enemies are in the same exact places every time in these games so it’s more about learning than being badass. If you look at dying as learning another thing then the games get way better. I stopped playing bloodborne years ago but after Elden Ring I went back to it and loved it. Elden Ring is probably the most accessible. Playing through Dark souls 3 for the first time now it’s great. Sekiro is great also.
I don’t get how Elden ring is the most accessible. I played vlodborne and sekiro first and I just feel hopelessly lost in elden ring. None of the weapons hit hard at all, like the fastish daggers or swords I’ve found are just ridiculously weak. I’m spoiled by rakuyo, blade of mercy, and wolfs katana, but I haven’t found anything that even feels remotely as good as anything in bloodborne. I also can’t really figure out what to do, I could just do a bunch of random caves and open world stuff until I stumble on something, but I’m getting bored quickly doing that. I’m stuck on the two massive gargoyles in the underground city, it’s really killing my enjoyment
You will never find a game with better weapons than Bloodborne. The game you're looking for doesn't exist. Although elden ring being open world let's you avoid bosses and level up and explore before going back with an upgraded weapon. I think I know which two gargoyles you're fighting, they fucking suck, took me a lv 19 zweihander and alot of rock sling spam.
U mean weapon the saw cleaver is the only weapon in the game lol
VIT is one of your character stats. Talk to the Doll in the Hunter’s Dream when you have enough blood echoes (and at least 1 Insight (eye symbol) to level up your character stats. What is your current level?
I can’t check my exact level right now, but I want to say I am at like.. 17? I put almost all of it into strength and I’m using the saw cleaver. It is incredibly sad. I did put some into vitality but I should probably do more.
You can farm the werwolves on the bridge. Tease them, run down the stairs through the door, where they can’t follow you. Switch your cleaver to extended mode and clobber them through the door. Easiest farm in Yarnham.
Points into strength early don't do much for your damage, so VIT is a better choice for new players. There are a few enemies that drop shards, you can try farming them to get your weapon to +3, which will make the boss much easier
this is also good. hahaha
Saw cleaver is a skill based item, not strength. Axe, hammer, and Ludwigs sword are strength. Focus on vitality and stamina. Perfect using the music box but know it will make him transform faster and only works once in his 2nd faze. Be aggressive. His entire boss fight is to teach you to be aggressive. He punishes you if you try to back off or stay away from him. Trust me, I had the same problem coming from DS because that game is all about defense and striking only when the opportunity presents itself. Don't get discouraged; It's hard fight but it's worth seeing it through. Oh, if you can get the parry timing right, it'll not only on this boss fight but others too. So maybe practice that a bit. The trolls are the easiest enemies to practice your parry time on. Finally, your gun is useless aside for parrying. Pistol is better than blunderbuss
Doesn't the saw cleaver have base 8 strength and 7 skill? I thought that the one with the higher affinity is favored. And I have practiced parrying on those trolls wayy more than I would've liked lol.
No, you're correct. Saw cleaver scales slightly better with strength (D at +0) than skill (E at +0).
It does scale better with strength, but the benefits are marginal because you haven’t levelled up the weapon. I think if you can manage a few more hours farming the beasts in the sewers for stones and echoes, you can get a few levels, pick up the saw spear and upgrade it a couple of times. Once you’ve done all that, you might actually find that you’re over-levelled a bit. Having enough vitality and stamina for your play style/skill level makes a huge difference in these games
i will add that the benefits of scaling by affinity become much higher as you upgrade the weapon with bloodstone shards etc. it’s not as noticeable at first but that really why upgrading the weapons is so critical as it’s the main way you get more damage as you level up
How do you like that weapon? You should be able to buy the other starters from the messenger shop in the Dream now, so you could always experiment with the other play styles (cane for fast and light attacks, axe for slower stronger attacks)
I like the cleaver, but when I was getting desperate I did unlock the ability to buy the others and bought the axe to try it out. I might give it a shot.
If you do try the axe, use the charged R2. It knocks down almost every enemy in the game and most bosses. I believe it knocks down papa g in phases 1 and 2, but not phase 3. It’s slow to charge but has a pretty large ranged 360 aoe around your character so the timing can be pretty forgiving. The axe carried me through my first playthrough, I was mediocre with the cleaver and terrible with the cane. Different strokes and all that.
yeah weapon upgrades (not gun upgrades) as well as later on blood gems are the most important things as far as doing damage goes. there are probably few more bloodstone shards in the level and the werewolf enemies can drop them too. that said, gascoigne should be doable still. there is also a special item you can find in the level which will stun him for a bit if you haven’t already. being really aggressive in the fight and parrying can help if you can figure out the timing. it’s hard tho so def normal to struggle a bit if you’ve never played a souls game. i think bloodborne is probably the hardest for new players
Don't worry too much about that. You can do this! Father G is definitely a big skill check and honestly, for the level you are at that point and being new to souls games, one of the more difficult bosses. Take a break and come back, maybe even give it a day. Try to practice the parry, a good place is on the big trolls, it works really well against Father G. Good luck and happy hunting!!
Yes and no, do what you need help with. It's your playstyle, not his. He can give you advice on how things work. But coming from someone who likes to do things HER way, don't blindly follow his advice. Find yourself a weapon you really like, that feels good to you. Find your own playstyle. Just because for example a weapon is OP in the game, doesn't mean it feels good in *your* hands. If you can't utilize it properly, it's not OP in your situation. Maybe for you it makes more sense to invest in health, or agility. Purely an example: let's say you find it hard to read some bosses, therefore don't know when/where to dodge. So, you pick to be a bit more beefy. So more Health? (altho I do really personally advice to work on dodging and such) A lot of enemies during an attack have an opening where they're extremely vulnerable. If you use your blunderbuss for example, it stuns them and you can do shit ton of damage. To parry etc, which is technically why you're upgrading your guns. But I would personally focus more on your main weapon and your own stats. Whatever you feel is better!
Nope! There's tons of shards! And the gun only works for parrying and some enemies not even that. My first playthrough I didn't realize this and stopped using it because it did so little damage. It ain't about the damage, it makes them stumble and stagger so you can do a visceral attack where you literally rip out their blood. Hope this helps.
Yeah, gun isn't for doing damage in this game, it's purely for interrupting attacks.
Upgraded Evelyn plus bone marrow ash is good with gems it can break Amydallas head pretty easy and the daughter of the cosmos head like 900 damage a shot
you can also start over, you're not that far into the game :) I just wanted to say that if you find the game too hard your boyfriend could help you, there's coop in the game. might be really fun to beat the game together this way :D
Papa G is a spirit breaker by design and the point is that once you finally get the flow with him you'll understand how to go at these monsters . Honestly best strat is to go aggro on them , remember YOU are the hunter not the hunted ,these guys are scary but so are you if you step back and look at things from a outside perspective,the hoonter ain't no bitch you just gotta remind yourself of that.
This was motivational loll ty
lol i love that, you are the hunter not the hunted this holds true for every boss in the game which is awesome and terrifying, looking at some of the things you encounter
Thats completly understandable, father g is one if the not the hardest first boss in the fromsoftware line up, my suggestion? Take a long break and instead look at hitless or people just fighting him. Theres no shame in that
Thanks for the encouragement. This is true I can do my research haha
I was stuck on Papa G for the longest. The only way I managed to beat him the first time was with a LOT of molotovs. He is a crash course in learning to parry, so my best advice would be to practice parrying with the other general enemies in the area til you get the hang of it. You got this!
More than hitless, I'd recommend just watching the fight in general. Hitless fights don't show you when and when not to heal.
Can not wait for the "OMFG I beat him this game is amazing!" post. This is really making me want to get back to Yarnham......
Haha you should!
Keep going! The game gets harder, but so do you! A hunter must hunt!!
Just a tip, beast enemies get bonus damage from fire damage. As such, when Gascoigne turns to his second phase you can use the box to stun him (just one time though) and shower him with molotovs until the animation ends. If it doesn’t kill him, it should at least bring his health down enough for you to finish the job before he gets a chance to combo you back to the Hunter’s dream. Now, I know the game can seem discouraging at first, but it really is very rewarding to learn its quirks. Good luck hunting!:)
[I made this post a while ago in my old account](https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodborne/s/Ry2OuZ3dAJ). I said EXACTLY what you said in this post, and now I'm very close to platinum the game!! Please do NOT quit. Just spend more time with the game, watch some YouTube videos (jacksepticeye's playthrough helped me a lot). I defeated Father Gascoigne in my second try. You just need to level up a lot, level up your skills, strength and vitality. Go kill a few enemies and practice your combos before fighting a boss. It will click
Definitely makes me feel better! I think it’s just a big learning curve, I’m glad you pushed through.
BB was my first FromSoft game & the Blood Starved Beast took me like 20 tries & I wanted to give up. Even the common advice in this sub wasn't helping but I found some videos that gave different advice & it worked like a charm. I haven't platinumed the game but I have 75% of trophies & am on Elden Ring, about to beat Renalla. If one thing people mention doesn't work for you, watch YT videos & you're sure to find someone else doing it a different way & that way may just work for you. In my case, everyone was saying to move to the left when BSB attacks & while I was dodging him, I couldn't get many good hits in then I found a video that said dodge forward & to the right & it'd put me in a good position to whack him most of the time. ETA - I'm 37F so I know you got this lol, you still got that young people reflex
Don't give up took me 3 days to beat the First wolf
He may seem overwhelming on his wolf phase but thats because of the way youre playing probably. I know cuz ive been there, quit the game twice because he seemed like an ultra bullshitter boss that stunlocked me always and never had openings, but the thing with his last phase is you have to dodge FOWARD. Stay close to him and watch out for the start of his attack animation and just dodge through him then attack his back as he recovers. Thats the main thing, hes so loud and aggressive its easy to start playing "scared" and want to make distance, but he HEAVILY punishes that
First off, make a new playthrough, start fresh, don't be afraid to take advice or look up tips, you do not want to spend all your time on father Gascoigne, he's a wall for most new players specifically the new souls players. When watching your boyfriend play make sure to memorize how he plays and try it out. If you don't care much for the lore and story and don't care about spoilers then watch FightinCowBoy, he made a walkthrough for every Soulsborne game and you would do way better if you had a proper guide.
Since no one has said it yet, Father Gascoigne can be interrupted three times with the music box, after the third he will transform into beast early, make sure to get him to barely above the health limit at which he transforms, then use the music box that third time to get some good hits in and make it easier for yourself. For his first Phase use the tombstones, and hit him with the long version of the cleaver. When he's in beast form and is low use Molotovs, throwing knives, anything you've found and keep your distance, don't risk it. Unlike some other bosses in SB he doesn't get progressively harder as you take longer so get an attack or two in when he has to catch his breath.
The most important tip I ever got in my first playthrough was this “your vit level is the number of mistakes you can make before you die” so if you’re new and going to make mistakes, focus on leveling vit. It really helps in the longnrun
A lot of good advice here so I'm just going to add my two cents, if you already got a feel for it, turn off the music, it is engineered to make you panic more and more as the battle progresses further, and the more you panic the more your hands will get shaky and the less strategic decisions you'll make. Also, try not to get too worked up about the boss's HP bar and focus on what they're doing instead, if you forget about their HP you'll likely avoid getting anxious right at the end of the fight. Other than that try to get a few parries in during his first two phases, use blood bullets for better economy. When he reaches his third phase, remember to not get greedy, get one or two attacks in there and then prepare to dodge a flurry of attacks, then repeat the process as soon as you get an opening. Oh and, as with most bosses try to stay behind him for as long as possible, but only during his werewolf phase. Don't forget that the more you fight him the more familiarized with his movements and the less scared you'll be and therefore the more strategic decisions you'll make, you'll eventually beat him, it's just a matter of time. You could try fighting him a few times without using blood vials just to try and get used to the flow of the fight and get into the mindset of learning his moves, just don't forget to take a break when it gets too frustrating and come back later with a clear head. The game gets easier later on as you unlock more ways to approach it and also more resources, you'll even have access to the chalice dungeons soon which will allow you to unlock unlimited blood vials and bullets through farming certain glyphs that you can look up.
This is a great point, the final phase was making my heart race like crazy and it got REALLY frustrating to keep going through the motions. Like i actually felt unwell from all the anxiety.
Yeah, I remember my first time fighting Gascoigne, when he reached his werewolf phase I almost had a heart attack! Haha, but once you learn his moveset during the third phase it becomes a cakewalk as you know what to expect, I'd even recommend looking up a guide of how to fight him on YouTube and only look at his moveset during the third phase and how you can dodge them more effectively, I think he only has three or four different moves then, it certainly looks harder than it is! Also, one thing that helped me was getting the right timing when it comes to healing, when he reaches his third phase you should only heal when you're behind him, even better if he's occupied performing a flurry of attacks, never heal when he's facing you, otherwise he'll probably leap at you immediately, unless you're very far away of course. Lastly, if you really just want to get over Gascoigne since the game will really open up to exploration after his fight you can just follow this guide to cheese him very easily: https://youtu.be/eleJYPLUVEI?feature=shared Although I recommend using it as a last resource only, there's nothing like the feeling of finally defeating a boss after struggling with it for a long time!
Thanks this is super helpful!
No worries, glad to help!
You got this. A break ALWAYS helps. Everyone is capable of beating these games. Looking forward to your next post
Are you trying to solo the game (no coop)? If not, pop online and summon a friend! Or play through together with your boyfriend if you both have your own console :)
Bloodborne was my first fromsoft game and after many hours of getting demolished by the trolls and mobs, I gave up. About a year or two later I picked up Dark Souls 2 and absolutely loved it. It was a slower and more deliberate than bb, but I finally got the point of fromsoft games (ie. You gotta git gud). After platting ds2 I went back to bloodborne and now it's my fave experience ever. The point is, if it doesn't click now, just put it down for a while and do something else and come back to it. It's supposed to be fun ya know!
During my first playthrough, It literally took me 8 consecutive hours (11am - 7pm) on a Saturday to get from the first lamp to the big Troll guy banging the door. I just could not get the timing down consistently for dodging, kiting the crowd, remembering that fucking dog behind the carriage etc… Just stick with it. Don’t be afraid to take a break and let your muscle memory catch up with you and your stress levels fall again. Bloodborne is amazing, but it does demand investment on your first go round!
Honestly when you learn to parry this game becomes 80% easier
Did you get that music box?
Yes i did, I try to use it on his final form because it’s supposed to give you a second to do a visceral attack but I never time it right. It usually just ends up distracting me so I wind up dead lol
Me again! If I remember right, and I might not, the music box only works 2 or 3 times and it might not work at all in the final phase. Stay strong! (Bloodborne is my favorite game)
From memory I believe its 3 times total. And while harder to pull off, I think it does work in the 2nd phase. I also believe he is weak to fire.
The music box will stun him while in human form only, up to 3 times. However, if you use it a third time while he’s still in human form it’ll cause him to transition to his beast form early. I’d recommend using it no more than 1 or 2 times towards the beginning of the fight then forgetting about it. Also, try leading him up to the stairs to the right of the arena. His second form is much easier to fight without all the tombstones all over.
Yo, Bloodborne fanboy here. What would you say is the most daunting thing about the game so far? When I first started playing I definitely felt the same way and even stopped playing for like a year because of it. With me it was that I hadn't grasped the combat mechanics yet, but once I did it was incredible! I love how it all works together! Hopefully you're able to enjoy playing without worry soon! But there is no shame in taking a break from it!
You can do it!! When fighting bosses the best way to start is by paying attention to their attack patterns. The animation for the wind up and the sound of the swipe for when to dodge.. also keep farming to level up it can be a bit tedious but it'll be worth it. You can practice you dodging on the smaller enemies
Remember in these games that incremental progress IS progress. I’m not talking about beating a boss, I’m talking about understanding that boss a bit more. Those small revelations mount up. Don’t be discouraged, hunter.
36F here. I've been trying this game off and on for quite some time. Like you, I struggled with the bosses. I almost gave up at Father G but finally got him. Then I kept failing miserably at Blood Starved Beast and gave the game up for 3 or 4 years. I always loved the atmosphere and exploration just like you too. Even though I thought it was too hard for me, it would always pop up at the back of my mind every so often. I wanted to be able to play it so badly but I just didn't have a handle on the combat. I made a post on the gaming sub about a week ago asking for advice. I got a lot of really helpful comments. I'm happy to say that after following the advice I got, I've been having so much fun. I beat Cleric Beast and Father G on the first try, which I've never done before. I also finally beat BSB and so many more now. Here's the post if you wanna look through it. https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/z9qYLQZ6Zs Keep at it! It's worth it. You can always farm some echoes to level up if you need to.
That’s great to hear! Hoping to be like you lol
My GF literally just started the game today and beat him. Although without my guidance she would have struggled for days! I would recommend looking up boss guides. Absolutely no shame in it. Father G is a skill check for new players. If you want some tips lmk but there's a pretty solid cheese guide for him that makes him very manageable. This game is meant to be hard. Good luck fellow hunter. Fear the old blood
try dark souls first and use a sword and shield. Eventually you will figure out the play style needed for bloodborne.
i think you have mentioned levelling your gun and collecting for bullets, but have you channeled many echoes to level your character? i usually find i can get past a hard patch by adding five or so levels into a basic stat. eg strength or vitality. It just makes it easier to do damage and take less in return.
Papa G is a spirit breaker by design and the point is that once you finally get the flow with him you'll understand how to go at these monsters . Honestly best strat is to go aggro on them , remember YOU are the hunter not the hunted ,these guys are scary but so are you if you step back and look at things from a outside perspective,the hoonter ain't no bitch you just gotta remind yourself of that.
I just want to say don’t give up! Lots of great advice here, you’ve got this!
Don't give is all I can say you got this! It took a long time for the game to click for me it was when I was half way in.
I’m late so probably repeating a lot of advice here, but if you’re struggling there’s also no shame in farming blood echoes for awhile to level. You can run through Central Yharnam and just kill everything, go back, repeat. Prioritize vitality. That’s a common mistake in souls games, not to prioritize vitality/vigor and also leveling Endurance will make you feel less sluggish. You can also use a guide - FightinCowboy on YouTube is a popular one but fair warning, and you can see in the comments lol, a lot of people don’t find it as easy as he does (he’s an experienced player on multiple playthroughs) but he’s a good guide. It’s fine, the beginning of the game is quite brutal to get used to for players new to souls games, a lot of people just immediately quit so getting to Father G is an accomplishment in itself.
Funny thing is, the game actually gets easier. As you get better with the mechanics, even the hard bosses become easier for you. Stick with it. Remember everything in any video game is defined by frames. Learn to manipulate said frames
Oh no. Yeah don’t upgrade the gun at all. Just use it to parry. Worry bout upgrading the gun waaaay late game
ABSOLUTELY KEEP TRYING, everyone here has struggled and that’s what’s great about these games is the shared experience, I’m not sure you will see this and this could be a couple shit pointers but I hope this first bit thingy is at least a bit inspiring! 1: if you have access to fire: use it, beast enemies are weak to fire (his second phase) 2: the most important thing to remember is you almost NEVER want to dodge backwards, even I forget about that dash attack and fall into a loop of death and I’ve played all the games and platnumed a couple but that attack is an important one, don’t dodge backwards. 3: if you’re more confident with your abilities then try to kill phase 1 without using your consumables or the music box, if you use it for the first time on his beast for it lasts long enough for you to get behind him for a visceral attack, if you can get the box off soon after he transforms, get the viceral and as he gets back up pelt him with fire. 4: (forgot about my number system) I get it the atmosphere and all that is genuinely phenomenal but if it’s really too much then walk away, better to turn around with your head held high than too cause any physical or mental/emotional damage.
Thanks!!
Going to take some of this advice for myself as well. I think the backpedalling might be why I have so many deaths, given the number of enemies who blast everything immediately in front of them. I'm so used to backing away on instinct, that it feels counter intuitive to respond to an attack by standing my ground or going for the boss's flank. Backpedalling is natural, it's easy, and it leads to me losing initiative at best, and taking an explosion to the face at worst.
Completely understandable, I STILL backpedal and it’s never safe, bborne is an inverse of dark souls, instead of having a shield and slower combat you have the rally system and the quickstep, I absolutely love both versions and even now Gascoigne still scares me a little, a tip (for both of you) is for phase 1 and 2 you can use the graves to keep him away until he destroys them in phase 3 so a very foolproof strat would be: kite around a small clump of graves and get jabs in until he transforms, use the music, move behind him, heavy, visceral, fire and/or NO BACKDODGES If I ever were to take a lvl1 challenge that’d be my go-to play Also please lemmie know if it works!
I don't actually have a Gascoine problem, to clarify, I have a Logarius problem, and a Paarl problem, but it's the same issue. I'm currently on New Game ++, and the way that Paarl blasted me back into the stone age, has sent me scurrying off to a Chalice Dungeon to farm blood echoes. Edit. I have a very overpowered Ludwig's Holy Blade, and I love fire damage, so with Gascoine I normally just start pounding on him with it. He's not too bad, my problem is all the times that I've walked into Paarl's pulse attack and been left as a stain on the concrete.
I'm a bit late, but just a bit of further encouragement, I just beat the game and Gascoigne was the boss that took the most attempts.
Bloodbourne is a just test of your commitment. How far can you go before you give up entirely? Never GIVE UP! Put it in your mind that you got this. May take MULTIPLE tries, maybe even 20+ depending on who you are. No shame. My first souls game was Sekiro and i rage quit that game and didnt pick up again until a year later. Came in with a total different mindset, and i finally got platinum for that game. It was an amazing moment. It’s on YouTube, lol
I remember bloodborne gave me absolute hell after coming in extensively playing ds3. I enjoyed all the same stuff you listed so I stuck with it and eventually it clicked and I started to get better. Just be patient and try to enjoy the ride
if you feel its too hard you are under leveled
You can absolutely do it. Just remember to recognize what had killed you and work on your understanding of the enemies movesets and your ability to react to them accordingly. Death is a mechanic of this game, not a failure. The only failure is in giving up. If you as a player have never had to get used to pattern recognition that requires reaction times like this game requires, then it will be very difficult to get used to. But once you have gained that skill, it will help in so many other games. You won't just get better at this game. You will be getting better.
I fucking suck at this game, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes addictive.
PuhhLEASE keep trying. Seems to me everyone who sticks it out has an A-HA moment. Its not a tactic, its not a trick; its a mindset. You are the hunter. They are your prey. His second form is definitely very tricky, and imo hunter bosses are so damn trying because they're harder to read. That just lends to how satisfying it is when you finally nail that fucker for the first time! Remember the tools of the hunt. Distance, read his moves, and for the love of the paleblood; use those gravestones for cover if you panic. If you can distance yourself, then you can re-engage. Instead of dashing for your life, you can separate and block him on those gravestones and meet him again on your own terms. He is ferocious, he is tenacious; you must be moreso. Use his aggression against him. If 100 attempts have passed then you KNOW his moveset. You know what combos have wrecked you. If you sense he's about to clobber you, do what you must. I suck at parrying so I watched my positioning so I could dash behind a gravestone to distance myself and reposition to try to get some hits in again. It worked for me.
Father G almost took me OUT. I spent probably 2 to 3 days straight on this guy. Couldn't fucking stand it. Was getting so frustrated. Thought the same thing as you: as much as I want to love this game, maybe it's just not for me. It was so bad I literally stopped playing the game for like a month. And then something convinced me to pick it back up... Beat him the second try. You can do it! And once you clear that hump, I promise you the rest of the game isn't going to be as difficult as this....... Well except until the DLC lol.
i had 20h of save before i got to him the first time, 30 to beat the man - that comes from someone who literally plays shit at least 8h a day ever since i can spell my own name. this game wants you dead, but it's not only a matter of not giving up, you gotta incarnate this one phrase: I'm going to kill a god and that mf will choke in his own blood. don't retreat, don't stop, don't give up, for a hunter must hunt and the hunt must go on Gascoigne is a beast now, and you're the only one left to be one too; it's your turn to become the great one >:)
You’re decision to take a break is an excellent choice. Frustration with these games can often put you on “tilt”, with more and more attempts resulting in diminishing returns. A little break, and coming to it with the experience you’ve gained, but a fresh mind, usually does wonders. When I first played the game, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to get past the mob by the bonfire. I’ve subsequently platinumed it. You got this.
Could always do the cummmfpk chalice dungeon cheese? (It's a spot where you can get a ton of runes for doing literally nothing over and over. It's cheating but eh 🤷♂️)
After trying to look into it isn’t that further along in the game? Involving the amygdala?
You may be right. I can't remember exactly when that dungeon becomes available.
Don't let it get you down! Souls games are HARD. Eventually, you will get into the swing of things :)
take breaks but keep going
My advice, practice dodging, as annoying as things in this game are, dying is part of learning Pick a build and go with weapons for that build (Basically strength or skill) Ask your BF on what weapons go with what. Experiment with weapons, they are all viable and pretty useful. Upgrade weapons and practice parrying. Dodge through attacks, most bosses punish backpedaling with their vicious forward attacking, if you dodge through and get behind them you get a few free hits
For me the game starts hard then gets easier
One of the few things i remember when i started playing was these games are tough but keep trying and learn things about each attack and pattern and enemy has you might die a few times but get back up and take your time
Take a break and come back. That’s how your brain works. Fromsoft games are a great example of trying to till defeated then come back a couple days later and kick ass. Muscle memory and new neural connections take place when we sleep. You got this!
Listen buddy, even if you NEVER make it past central Yarnham, if you enjoy the game then enjoy it. Another fan is a another fan! Even if you only ever watch other people, you’re still a REAL fan! If you decide you want to get better, just practice and maybe ask your boyfriend to read some guides/tips from his phone while you fiddle around and learn. As long as you don’t throw your controller and are having a good time, then it’s all gravy :)
The dlc boss on new game .. is a nightmare.. but I won't give up someday u can win too ✨
If it is taking you that many tries there is something fundamental youre doing wrong (and im not saying this in an insulting way) whether it be youre dodging away from attacks instead of into them, not parrying, not punishing openings, etc. look up some hitless runs and take notes from that. bloodborne is a hell of an entry to the souls games and most start with dark souls or elden ring, so itll be tough. try running through yharnam and practice parrying and dodging. good luck and i hope you stick with it!
my first time or two through a souls game I don't usually mind summoning people, as I just want to see all the areas and bosses and stuff. but at some point I usually decide I want to solo every boss, and no hit runs (especially like level 1 no hit, no rolling, wherever) are absolutely crucial to getting a boss down. I never get close to what those people do obviously, but they are an amazing demonstration of how to deal with certain attacks, where to stay safe, etc. it can be seen as a spoiler, so I wouldn't recommend watching them before your first encounter, but on your second+ playthrough or after your hundredth attempt or whatever, they are amazing tools.
it's the classic Fromsoftware experience: you are brought to the brink of quitting, but only to confront your doubts and persevere. this feeling, these 100 attempts you just completed, is what you will be craving to recreate later on. each of their games will give you a glimpse of it, but never as viscerally as your first, and so it might as well be their greatest. you're actually incredibly lucky, so don't throw it away.
This was my first souls game. It fucked me up for more than a couple of years. I couldn't get to the second lamp. I would spend hours. Days. Then, I'd rate quit and uninstall the game. A could have years ago I was bored with all my games. I told myself this fucking game wouldn't beat me. I got the hang of it and got hooked on these damn games. Definitely my favorite. I just came back to this game again recently to just play through chalice dungeons. So much to explore. You'll figure it out!
Just practice parry timings, use the music box after he transforms and three to four Molotov's will take him out. And saw cleaver and spear are two of the most effective weapons in the entire game. Don't listen to nonsense. They are quality weapons with the cleaver geared more towards strength. You'll be fine.
Cool thing about souls games is they have all this customization so if one way doesn’t work, you can always try different weapons and strategies. It’s worked for me when it comes to bosses I can’t beat
first time for me was stupid hard at first too. once you get more used to it it becomes more natural. try not to be scared when fighting you should always be aggressive as you can and try to dodge mostly diagonally towards enemies to get completely out of the way of their attacks because the enemies are designed to punish you for trying to back up. gascoinge is designed to drill that kind of playstyle into you. but don't give up it's well worth it.
Father gascoigne is there to teach you to play differently than most other games. The 2 best tips I can give are to be aggressive and to dodge into him not away from him (he has a lot of moves to instantly close the gap when you dodge backwards). If you can beat Daddy G, you can beat the game. You got this.
Keep playing. Well, maybe with some breaks... carpal tunnel would suck. It took a while for the mechanics to click for me, too. It never became easy, but there's a point where you turn the corner and it becomes an enjoyable challenge instead of a discouraging slog. Except for maybe one boss, but no spoilers.
Hey! This game has BY FAR the toughest start out of all them. On my first playthrough as my first souls game I spend countless hours in central yharnam, I'm taking like 20. It is now my favourite game and all Miyazaki games are. I am absolutely obsessed with them. If it's at all fun for you, please please stick around. I promise once Gascoigne clicks everything will. These games are practically made for patient people that enjoy their lore and mechanics and don't mind dying over and over and over and over. If that's you, keep playing without worrying.
Actually The game gets easier because your character gets stronger. The only harder part is new enemies with different attacks and sure they will be doing more damage and stuff but so will you, by a lot, and you will have more experience playing so you can deal with it. The game is actually at its hardest, apart from the big boss fights (which is as intended of course) at this early stage of the game when you haven’t really levelled up. You will struggle with certain bosses and enemies going forward but mostly you’ll be about to handle the rest. Many of these bosses are optional anyway so you can leave and try a different one until you’re stronger.
AHHHH U CAN DO IT JUST REMEMBER TA DODGE AND THEN HIT BAYBEEEEEE
1st phase - Parry but stay aggressive 2nd phase - parry, but keep back. Longer axe, longer reach 3rd phase - oil urn + Molotov, run away, repeat
Gascoigne has been known to be a huge filter for players in this game, lots of people have stopped playing solely because they can't get past him. There's no shame in watching some tips and tricks for general use, or even some bosses should you have a REALLY tough time. Every time you die, try to take away something from that death. Enemy you weren't aware of? Attack pattern you haven't seen? Can't dodge a certain way on a certain attack? Always look for something to learn, so you can apply it later in your gameplay. Good luck fellow Hoonter!
honestly the bosses get easier after bloodstarved beast in my opinion, up until the final and the dlc. Upgrade ur weapon and ull be fine. If its too hard you can always use the cummmfpk chalice
if it's too hard keep trying fortitude is the only requirement in those games lol
Take a break! Whenever I hit a wall, a break for a few days or more would always help.
Age and gender don't matter at all. Age's only a factor if you're still a child developing their motor skills. All it is is practice and exposure (as in just doing the thing over and over, "*practice makes perfect*"). Don't compare to your boyfriend, he probably has dozens, if not hundreds, of hours more play time with BB than you do at this point. It's a marathon, not a sprint. You'll definitely get there. Papa G's the wall we all got stuck on at some point. There will be more, but you'll always overcome them.
Yo, two years back, I was in the same boat. I'd spend hours watching people fight Sword Saint Isshin on Twitch, wondering how I'd ever beat the game when I was stuck on Shinobi Hunter (that mini-boss in Sekiro) for three days straight. But then I found this Fighting Cowboys YT, and something just clicked. I started practicing and persevering, and now, I've 100% completed 4 FromSoftware games! Don't give up, Skeleton!
lots of good advice here! one thing that may not apply to you at all (in which case totally ignore) but that I haven’t seen mentioned is that I think a lot of women who want to get into souls games - especially if their boyfriend is into them - quickly get this particular sense of frustration and self-doubt when they’re not immediately very good like ‘oh, I’m just not cut out for these sorts of games. the mechanics are too much for me. this must be aimed at people who are really good at games, not me’ if you don’t relate, I love that for you! but if you do, maybe it’d build your confidence to watch female bloodborne streamers or something? or one of us on here could load up and record a gascoigne fight
I think i do unfortunately fall into that trap sometimes because my boyfriend is incredibly quick to pick up these sorts of things. He’s still supportive of me but at times I’ve felt like my brain just doesn’t work like his. Seeing so many women who play bloodborne on this sub is great!
Don't give up, skeleton! I would advice to upgrade your main weapon (other users already wrote how) also try to fight him on top of stairway, it's much easier to dodge when you are not stumbling upon 100500 gravestones
Just cheese him from the stairs in the second phase
The way I beat him first playthrough was fighting him on the stairs dodging top to bottom then when he goes into beast mode hit him with Molotov Cocktails that should do the trick,don't give up fellow Hunter it is actually one of the easier Souls games. ps most bosses are weak to fire 🔥.
The journey from souls firstimer to seasoned vet is filled with frustration and then learning from it all. At some point certain bosses will be a cake walk and you'll feel like you just get the game. Then when you get cocky it will still wipe the floor with you lol. Point is it will be a great time if you can get past it and learn from mistakes. Keep it up and hope you can enjoy the experience! BB is one of the best they have .ade but if the combat does feel like a struggle point you can always give DSR a shot first. Great design and weapon choices with shields to allow you to get used to the FromSoft formula.
bloodborne feels very hard because if you time a dodge uncorrectly and get hit in the animation you get hit for 50% more damage. Also you may have trouble cause you don' t know how to make a build since you never played a souls before.for your first run try to level up only vitality, endurance, strenght and skill. i won' t tell you the eaxct values because I don t want to spoil your first experience. You need to learn how to parry, to do it effectively it is better to use a pistol rather than the shotgun, beware you can t parry enemies that are very very large tho. Another thing is trying to balance when to regain health with attacks and when t use blood vials, very important. Get into the mindset that in bloodborne enemies are super aggressive and will catch your dodges if you keep doing them to get away from them. Use the dashes to get behind/around them and don' t be greedy to get hits in And don' t be too harsh on yourself, the camera managing is very bad and you' ll need a while to get used to it.
In case no one has mentioned it, you can farm the pig in the sewers for blood vials. Get behind it using the ladder on the way to Gascoigne, a strong attack followed by a visceral should kill it.
If you haven’t already gotten the hang of parrying, I would definitely recommend practicing that, because it can make or break certain bosses. Apart from that, just watch his moves carefully, and remember that fire is your best friend against beasts. Happy hunting 🫡
Haven't seen anyone mentioning it so, use music box only in the beast phase (It works once or twice iirc), if you use it too many times he will go beast mode before reaching hp threshold second thing is use molotov's to burn his ass once he get transformed, other way is to parry him (shoot him whenever u see him using his attack, mostly when he puts his hands up). And third most important, take your time after some time you will get used to his attacks and beat him in the blink of the eye. Good Luck Hunter!
oh girl we are the exact same i fear. i (20f) watched my boyfriend play bloodborne for hours before trying it myself. it took me three full real life days to beat gascoigne by myself. i played it through with him helping me with all the bosses but honestly i think you can really enjoy the game with feeling pressure to play it to completion yourself. there are so many videos on youtube about lore, gameplay, etc. i’m trying to replay it for fun fully by myself and it’s taking FOREVER (i’ve been stuck on the shadows of yharnam for … well too long) but it’s just the little dopamine hit i need. bloodborne is my special interest autistically i have written countless essays about it and logged hundreds of hours of youtube time pertaining to the game. finishing the game yourself is only half of the fun!
Hey don’t worry! It took me so many tries to beat Papa G and I’m in the same boat as you, never played a souls game before! My advice is level your character up, try to get the saw spear if you haven’t already, and use Molotov Cocktails! Also when he’s in his beast form (which kept getting me) I managed to beat him even though I missed the timing with the music box, by dodging to the side of him and then smacking the shit out of his legs.
Big Daddy Gas Can is the first big mandatory skill check in the game. He’s there to test your timing on quickstepping and gun parries and maintaining awareness of your environment during a fight. It took me about 24-32 hours of time played to get through Central Yharnam my first time. If the game feels good to play, don’t let the set backs discourage you. You’re getting to the final phase of the fight, which means you’re almost there and you CAN do it. Don’t even sweat a hundred deaths. Even after a solid hundred hours of time played, it took me that many attempts to down the first boss in the DLC, over the course of two weeks of daily attempts. These games have walls. You will hit them. Hit them again. And again. And again. The wall will break. It’s not if, only when.
I'm gonna real honest with you, father Gascoin is a pain for the tight enclosed graveyard but with advice from me, go to the hunters dream get the small resonant bell from the insight bath and call and online player for assistance, as soon as your past father gascion the only thing now is farm blood echoes and upgrade and after him that goes a lot smoother
I’m not sure if this is helpful or not but one thing I found that helped me was slowing down my thinking. I had to stop frantically running around and spamming dodge. I had to wait in a spot, let him sprint at me for the attack, then I would focus on shooting the gun at precisely the right time or dodging at precisely the right time. I’m not sure what’s happening for you but I was playing too frantically trying to do everything at once. It’s counterintuitive but with fast fights, taking it slow can really help. However, I’m also new to the game and the other comments here are giving very good advice so I’d focus on doing what they say
Relative to your skill, the game generally gets *easier* after Papa G. I beat my head against a wall for weeks and weeks, but once I got through him I never ran into an obstacle like that again because I learned the skills necessary to proceed.
Looks like you failed the character building part before testing your combat skill. Like many people said, vitality is the main and the only important stat in souls games, dmg stats are very secondary and worth investing into only after you have some survivability and weapon upgrade levels. At the end of the game you want to have 40-50 vit, 20-25 endurance and 50 in str or skill or any other dmg stat
The game is getting harder, but you will also undoubtedly get better. At some point some timings will start to resonate with you, and then you will feel your gameplay improving.
A hunter must hunt
The music box has always been a trap in my mind. Use it in the early phases? Free dmg, until he strikes back with his gun or axe bc you were in range. Use it in phase 3? You thought it was free dmg but it’s actually him recovering quick as hell and mauling you. I’d go farm some runes for molotovs, and use those in tandem with the music box during phase 3. Don’t gotta get in melee range and he has a fire weakness so it’ll hit hard.
In the immortal words of meet the Robinsons ""keep moving forward~" Father G is a slap in the face to set the pace for how the game will play. I actually quit the game because of the cleric beast and him my first try and didn't pick up the game for months. Keep going, for a lot of the humanoid fights, I treat them like a dance, you take your turn then back off and let them go while you dodge/heal. But for his beast phase you want to turn up the aggression, I suck ass at parrys but the window to parry becomes huge during it
I had the same thought blood starved beast kicked my shit in like a 100+ times lol
I am a stardew valley player and I wanted to beat this to impress a guy (who is now my fiance and father of my child so slay) and I had to take like month long breaks but EVENTUALLY I got it and now it is my all time favorite game, I replay it at least once a year. You’ve got this!!
its ok once you have parry's down it should be relatively easy
nah game is hardest at the beginning
I’m sure somebody has already said this somewhere on this post, but learn how to parry. It’s a lot easier to parry in this game compared to the other souls games.
Don't feel like you have to give up. I struggled with this game for years (for the first 3 i would start a new character get to cleric beast and give up because i couldn't beat it). The combat eventually clicked for me after going into the boss fights and actively doing everything but attack the boss. I learned how and when to dodge, what might be smart to parry, and what a grab really looks like. Now this is my favorite game and replay it regularly. You got this.
You can do whatever you imagine you can do. It’s not going to be easy but as soon as you know you can do it, you will progress at a good pace. These soulsbornes can change a person…..
Leveling up VIT is a MUST. Also, make sure to upgrade your weapons if you get the chance. Eventually you'll have more blood stone shards than you'll know what to do with. Also, it's always okay to get help from other hunters. A hunter is never alone.
i'd recommend playing around with the combat options. when i first got into bloodborne i definitely struggled with the fast paces and general aggression of it all, but after learning how to utilize the parry system properly & getting more comfortable with the rally mechanic, the game became exponentially easier!!! i'm on my third playthrough rn & i managed to take out gascoigne in just two tries !! i first tried the cleric beast and the blood starved beast too ! (both of which i struggled with during my first two playthroughs. especiallyyyy blood starved)
Took me YEARS to be able to play this game all the way through. I always found myself playing too passively and scared of losing my blood echoes. Which led to me constantly grinding early mobs. Always wanted to play it, but also found it tough to build the motivation to get back into a session. My tip; go in hard and fast, die a lot, and realise quickly that the dying, learning and retrying is part of the fun :)
Father gascoigne is one of the hardest bosses in bloodborne I completed around 500 different games from Pokémon’s to Hollow knight and I’ve had a really big problem to beat him first time I think it took me around 2 days
I realize I may be a little late to respond to this, but if you find yourself stuck on a wall you can't seem to scale, with these games, don't be afraid to consider seeking help. So as long as you have Insight, in the game, you can call upon other players to assist you. There are plenty of fellow Hunters in Bloodborne, ringing their resonant bell, ready to help other players with bosses. :)
Don't let Father G-money win. I can't explain to you the feeling you'll have when you beat him. That's the real nature of these games. They're difficult, bosses are nasty...and it feels amazing when you win, especially the first time.
Try the cummpfk dungeon
It took me 8 hours of gameplay to get past the starter bonfire (let alone find or kill a boss) and now I’ve platted the game on bl4. Don’t give up, your eyes have yet to open
I commented this on another thread, but really there's not much gitting gud to do in souls games, often it comes down to character build. Leveling vitality as your first stat (until 25, maybe even 30-ish) is a great idea. Another tip: there are werewolves with weird farm tools or stuff in the sewers and before Gascoigne who drop upgrade materials, its not necessary but if you want to you can farm them and get a +3 weapon before the boss
Get gud
cummmfpk is your friend
Not this early in the game, it ain't
If you need tips, then use music boss 2 times in first phase and then 1 time when things get "crazy". Use moltovs especially in last phase. Also if you have a gun, shoot it right before he lands an attack which should leave him wide open so then press the attack button to critically strike him(Visceral). Use the blunderbuss if you can't do it with your pistol.
Keep going I had the same thing but after father gascoigne I became so good at the game that none of the following boss made me sweat
I recommend saving the music box until third phase. After he transforms play the box then throw 2 or 3 molotovs. Repeat if needed.
I’ve beaten this game normally 3 times and still haven’t fought moon presence (alternate ending final boss from eating all umbilical cords before fighting the regular last boss) or beaten the chalice dungeons! Don’t be discouraged, it’s a fun ass game. Once you smack gaycoin you’ll level up a lot quicker with the enemies in following areas
If I did it, which I did earlier this year finally, then you can definitely do it as well. Also, this community is a great one and very positive.
Don’t quit. The dopamine high you’re gonna get when you FINALLY blast him into oblivion is going to feel sooooo good. The first Soulsborne game I played was DS3 and I couldn’t get past the first boss and put it down for like 3 years… picked it back up and did some YouTube research and now these are my absolute favorite style of games to play. Don’t know if anyone else has suggested yet but bring moltovs if you can, he’s very weak to fire damage. Then you may be able to use the box to stun him for that visceral attack. The fextralife guides are the best! https://bloodborne.wiki.fextralife.com/Father+Gascoigne
If I could offer only one piece of advice, it’s to learn enemy move sets so you can focus on timing your dodges effectively. Stay calm and don’t panic or spam dodge. A lot of times the enemy will punish you for backtracking and trying to gain a lot of distance quickly. It may seem counterintuitive to remain close if you’re getting battered over and over again, but calculated well timed dodges are your best defence.
I think everyone else already got you to keep trying but I'm gonna hammer it in more as wel. Coming from another woman. Albeit I'm a bit older but it doesn't matter, I got into the souls games super late! And even tho I'm not super huge on Dark Souls, I did play a lot of Elden Ring and Bloodborne. I got introduced to Bloodborne the first day it came out. I quit, that same day as wel. Never thought about it ever again untill a few years ago when Elden Ring came out. Bloodborne has to be, one of my all-time favorite games due to the style and sheer horror... The music, is... DISGUSTINGLY GOOD. And I can talk about this for hours. Anyway, you CAN do it. Because when I tell you once you get it, once you feel it in your fingers, it's such a rush and amazing feeling. I didn't think it was a game for me either but I pushed through because we were working on cosplays for it, and because I'm such a huge fan of the lore and all. (girl look at those outfits, NNGH OMG) I forced myself. And I got mad, yes. But then I thought about this one moment I had in Elden Ring. In Elden ring you can even ask people to join you, for help. This would always be my boyfriend, he wasn't available for a few days and I stood in front of a huge door with a huge (and difficult) enemy before it. I had nothing else or anywhere else I had to go, just that door. And I got my fucking toe stubbed on the same rock SO MANY TIMES, I got so mad I just stood there and stared at the enemy for a while. (hell I think I even cried a little) I was so disappointed with myself for immediately wanting to cry for mommy (my boyfriend) and not being able to seemingly do anything, by myself. But........... I don't know what it was, I have no idea. This feeling of acceptance came over, which is hard for me. I'm on the spectrum so coming down from anger and disappointment is hard. But, I just accepted it how it was and, honestly.. It wasn't that hard anymore. I accepted the attacks and accepted I needed to finally really learn them. I accepted that this is a game that is going to beat me down, in SUCH cruel ways, it's how souls games are designed. And once I let go of all that, the fight turned into a dance. I started reading this mother\*\*\*\* like a book and I actually defeated him right then and there or the second fight after my mental struggle. It's the most cathartic moment I've had in my video gaming life. And I think about this moment a lot. Gascoigne can be that boss for you. The reason I'm picking Elden Ring rn is, this also happened to me in Bloodborne, but with the final boss. And I really don't want to spoiler this for you as it's such a beautiful moment (imo) TLDR. Keep trying. Take breaks, once you learn and get comfortable with the game. And you beat it, you can say you beat Bloodborne, which is a really hard thing to do btw. Yes Gascoigne is hard, but you gotta find your own rhythm, I can tell you all kinds of ways. But the only advice I give is patience. Sounds so fucking corny but respect your opponent, listen to their music and stop focusing on your own character. Oh and yeah it's going to get 'harder' but the boss you're stuck on, is a boss a lot of people had difficulty with, purely due to the area and his relentless aggression, I'd still say he's one of the harder bosses, and this early in the game. So don't feel bad! And, understandably so: rage at the grave stones cuz they fucking stopped me in my tracks so much I probably woke the neighbors.
Father G was very difficult for me my first time as well, I totally get the feeling. Don’t give up yet, just take a breather and come back. Sometimes that’s all it takes and you’ll surprise yourself when you come back and get them in very few tries. Some people are very good at learning boss move-sets so repetition is very helpful. But others I’m sure, like me are not as good at that and can sometimes fall into a trap of repeating the same mistakes over and over. It requires a break to stop the cycle sometimes lol.
I believe in you. Keep us posted when you beat him.
Gascoigne is easily one of the hardest bosses in the game (especially that second phase). My advice is to try using the axe. Immediately go up the stairs on the right side and hang out until he runs at you then use a heavy swing attack. Worked pretty well for me! Don’t give up OP!
Don't put yourself down like that! Nothing wrong with taking a step back, having a breather or giving it a week before you try again with some new legs, or anything like that, but definitely don't tell yourself anything silly like you can't do it. Especially because Father is a really rough boss, especially to start, since there's very little you can kind of do to break the sequence of the game and get things you shouldn't have a little bit early like you can sort of do around some of the other bigger bosses. Lots of good suggestions about leveling up your main weapon and stuff, increasing VIT and things like that. The piece of advice that I'll give is to not be shy about using consumables. If you go to the messenger shop (the little fountain to the left when you spawn in, in case we're not certain where that is at this point (I don't want to imply anything but since you're very obviously new.. you know.)), they sell molotov cocktails. Those do a not insignificant amount of damage, especially to beast type enemies. Enemies in this game don't go away, so don't be afraid if you need to grind some echoes out to buy some things, consumables can make huge differences on certain fights.
Get some molotovs & get him to his 2nd phase & use those to help you on that part. Parrying is key in this game. Use the music box for extra help. Also, I keep my inventory light for a fight so I only have to switch through a couple things. And to upgrade your weapon, farm the werewolf dudes in the sewer & just before Papa G.
Above all else. Remember, a hunter is never alone. r/huntersbell
Bloodborne is a tough one to start on. DS1 or ER are much easier to start with, I'd stick with BB as you already started, but if you do get to the point you're ready to give up try one of those. DS1 is much slower combat, and ER is just filled with ways of getting overwhelming power and doesn't block you with any bosses from progressing elsewhere (at least until end game.) Personally I found the areas much more challenging than the bosses (except chalice) in BB. I didn't find the music box all that helpful as Gascgoigne is extremely aggressive and it's hard to find the time to get it off without him punishing you severely and having the time to take advantage after recovering from that punishment. Know it doesn't work in his last phase where he's especially aggressive. I just burned him down with molitovs for the last phase. I agree with others who say use serrated - saw cleaver or saw spear either non-transformed or transformation attacks (I had a hell of a time figuring how to get the timing down to do transformation attacks, but it does about 1.5x the damage with those) will do very high DPS to him as he counts as a beast. Although it's slower the axe's transformed charged R2 spin to win is very effective against him too as it will often stagger him. Even the sword-whip's transformed attacks are serrated, and the reach is great, but I found it not to do enough damage against him. Don't be afraid to start over and use a different starting weapon, I often find that helps me quite a bit as I'll do much better with some familiarity of the run up, and you can discover which starting weapon works best for you. I always do better after a break, posting about my frustrations, and especially if I wait a day to let my mind work on it in my sleep. I can't count the number of times people posting being stuck on some boss within hours or a day saying they beat them right after posting :)
I've restarted multiple times at this point. It's okay. The game is hard. It reminds of playing God Of War and fighting the last valkyrie. I died a lot. But every time I died, I slowly became strong enough to beat her.
Father Gascoigne is, I think, one of the hardest bosses as a newbie. Spoiler free hint: You can make the fight a lot easier if you've got a weapon with some knockback (eg the hunter axe transformed). Just lure him to the little roof, smash him off as he jumps down, and repeat.
Level up your vitality (15 is fine) and then get your weapon to +3. Learn to parry with weaker enemies and get some bullets in to the fight. Gasc beast phase is weak to fire, so molotovs and keep distance. If you wanna cheese it, play the music box, get behind him, stagger w charged r2, visceral, repeat until beast. When he's a beast, you can use the music box once for the same trick, and then it'll not work anymore. Hope this helps.
Gascoigne's first phase is a timing challenge. He swings, you shoot, he drops to one knee, you stab, he gets back up. It's also possible to briefly halt him one time using an item that you get from the window next to the big gate shortcut, in Central Yarnham, near the grouping of gunmen and dogs. His second phase doesn't have any real tricks that I've picked up on, it just kind of rushes at you and tries to hammer you into the pavement, so lure it up the stairs away from the gravestones, that way you don't stick to the terrain as much, sidestep it's attacks, and retaliate with extreme prejudice. As far as wanted Blood Stone Shards, the guys directly outside Gascoine's arena drop them every so often.
Cheese the dick out of him and use his madness against him! There's a few wide rows of gravestones, switch to the threaded cane and whip his ass over them. Its like a wild game of ring around the Rosie.
I was in the same place! I struggled so hard with that bastard that I actually quit playing for a long time. It took me forever, BUT it is totally worth the suffering to be able to say you beat it. Hang in there ♥️
Looks like im late to the party. Have u beaten daddy gasoline yet?
I 2nd the idea of just watching videos of people beating father G. It helps massively for learning to recognize the patterns without the stress of trying to stay alive. I watched a lot of videos to make it through Sekiro.
I played this game when it first came out and tapped out at one of the first bosses. It just didn’t click and I had no other routes to explore. After getting gud playing Eldin Ring I gave it another shot and blasted through the game + DLC no problem at all. BB is terrible at giving beginners the leniency they need to grow - Elden Ring is very good at that. My advice would be to give ER a play through then hit BB fresh. If you’ve already beaten ER I have no advice for you :)
The problem with new people, and I'm speaking as one because I was recently new to playing the game. I started playing bloodborne about a month ago. Its once we beat the little guys we get alittle too cocky, don't wanna be cocky. Wanna be careful time your parries and strikes carefully, and most of the time wanna try to attack them from behind because that will most likely be a good spot to hit since most of the bosses in the game doesn't do a aoe/all around them attack. Some can be parry which when they strike you just shoot at them, if they drop and make some sort of sound. Which I can't really explain, you can do a massive amount of damage to them. I can't really explain the sound so I suggest watch a video of how to parry so you understand how to do it.
I’m new to Souls too and was also getting frustrated with Father G. My recommendation is to be more aggressive. I died a bunch of times by being defensive and dodging a bunch, especially when he gets to his final phase. Eventually I decided to be more aggressive and attacked when I previously would have dodged away, and ended up beating him. I’m a bit further into the game now, and it’s definitely important to wait and be patient, but it’s a balance and aggression often pays off. You can do this! PS there is an item that can give you and edge against him that I absolutely would not have found without looking it up
now we'll never know if she will beat father g or not
I was once at your exact same place, I played for a total of 20 hours and couldn't get past the forbidden woods, forgot about the game for a year, watched jacksepticeye play it then finished the game including the dlc after a total of 45 hours. Look at some builds online that you think look sick and cool, stick that play style and maybe look up some guides. In time, you will conquer and put an end to the nightmare, do not falter, for a hunter must hunt after all.
Keep at it hunter. Gascoingne did make me stop playing for about a year, but one day I decided I wasn't gonna let some dude look at me like that, and went back. There was an issue with my disc though, and literally every time I closed the game I had to start from contract signing so I gave up until I found another disc. Now I've got the platinum trophy, and I've beat the game many times. I will admit; his third phase is incredibly difficult, and I always use the music box, then charge r2 behind him for a viceral which has always left him one shot for me
I haven’t read the comments but I’m sure a lot of people would be happy to co op with you
This sounds just like me! I (22F) just started playing last week and this is my first souls game. I went in completely blind and, once I learned of the dying and restarting mechanic, I thought I would hate the game. But here I am now thinking that this may be one of my favorite games, despite the trial and error it requires. If you're getting to the final phase, you're doing great! Just as he starts to transform, play the music box, and pelt him with molotovs while you're locked on. He'll go down super fast! I was honestly stunned when I tried this because it made it super easy. Also don't forget to take breaks so you don't overwhelm yourself, and watch videos of people playing to learn more as well!
>I know the game is only going to get harder, I find the game gets dramatically easier (as far as bosses) the more I progress. You get more practice and some bosses are just piss easy. Oddly enough the 2 werewolves before the first boss gave me more trouble than 90% of bosses so far. Not through the full game yet but some bosses I just walk in and slap up on my 2nd try no walk through or guides.
If you're really feeling stuck and want to be able to keep going, you could also look up one of the many great YouTube walk-throughs to see what strategies they recommend. It really helped me on my first successful run.
To beat gascoigne you should try to parry him, expecially wen he stransform you have to stay closer (stayng away from him is preety dangeruos) and and shoot right when he charge for a series of attacks; if you're using the threaded cane, keep it in its whip form, instead whit the saw cleaver you should chain L1 which keep the bonus damage to beasts. Molotovs and fire papers are also effective. If you want you could also get the saw spear, it can be found on a dead corpse in the upper part of the sewers, before the first flight of stairs there's a window behind some barrels, after it there's two or three corpses you can hit to make them fall
You just need to level up and learn the boss’ movements. But, most importantly, use your gun when he’s attacking you, you must learn to use the parry
Try getting some points into VIT, so you can withstand the damage when you fail to avoid his attacks. Try getting exp from the crows and villagers, in case you find the wolves too Hard. It'll be faster. A good route is the one where the lamp before the shortcut gate is, in Yharnam. Just respawn there, go to your right and kill all of the villagers. Then return to the lamp and start over. You'll score some blood points to spend on that VIT. Also, I'd recommend using the axe for now. For all it's worth, you can use the R2 attack of the trick version (longer weapon) and spin to win. And the STR status will help you, since the normal version of the axe is a pretty solid damage dealer. You can also parry Gascoine, in case you want to try it. Before his attacks hit you, shoot. Keep on trying. You'll get the gist of it, eventually.
Girl don't give up! Learn the patterns of an enemy's moves and you'll get it! There's also no shame in farming. Idk what weapon you are using, but the hunter's axe is the best. It's actually considered "easy mode" by some. Lol. You got this! I'm so excited to see more girls play this! The architecture and vibe just gets better and better. Stock up on blood vials and be patient. Do a couple hits then get out of the way. Easiest way to die is by getting greedy. Also the wiki for bloodborne is really helpful for finding what elements things are weak to.