Bloodborne is one of the most popular Souls for only one reason: its difficulty and its bosses. His environment is gory, gloomy and very dark, so it contributes greatly to this appreciation, but the game mechanics against the different monsters made Bloodborne the Souls par excellence. So here’s our pick of the hardest bosses in the game, at least the ones that made me question buying the game because they were so complex.
Our top hardest bosses in Bloodborne
Against all odds, I’ve noticed that the bosses that have given me the most trouble are the ones from the expansion The old hunter. The difficulty kicks up several notches and our little health journey turns into hell… But how exhilarating it is to defeat them! So, without further ado, here are all the bosses we’ve had the most trouble with in Bloodborne.
Father Gascoigne
Father Gascoigne is the first boss you meet and I was amazed by his speed, his arrogance and his punch. The arena is dotted with gravestones, which is usually a godsend for avoiding hits. It just didn’t help me much, on the contrary, I kept getting stuck which left a huge window of attack for my dad. I don’t count the number of idiotic deaths I could have faced with him… Too many I think, because he’s the only one that comes to mind every time I think back to Bloodborne.
His first transformation (about 75% of his life bar I’d say) created a sense of dread in me, as I didn’t think he would change so quickly. While this change was benign compared to his animal form at a third of his life bar, his charged attacks were awfully awful to me as I hadn’t quite gotten to grips with the game at the time. If I could confidently execute the perfect blunderbuss counters, perhaps this boss fight would have been much easier, but no. A real purge that made me put the controller down multiple times.
Its latest form, therefore in animal transformation, it was unexpectedly easier for me. I only saw him once, as I would have died fast enough without having time to reduce his life bar enough to see this last form.
It was only after defeating him that I realized he had a weakness: the music box. The boss then becomes terribly easier… I almost shed tears of blood after this news.
Louis the Cursed
The size of this boss is actually a bait: while we think we can dodge him very easily if we place ourselves at “his belly” (complicated to explain with discernment how to position ourselves given his strange shape) everything rolls towards him. .. It turns out to be as fast as hunters and its prominent shape, which usually gives us a great advantage for missing shots, proves to be a real problem here; it can touch us very easily and thus nibble at our life bar.
If we stay close to him for too long, he will use all his legs to carry out a wide area attack and our life bar will drop at a dizzying speed. If, on the other hand, we stay too far away from him, he won’t hesitate to jump on us or use his ranged attack which covers a large area of the arena. Clear, it will leave us very little respite.
When he uses his sword, it will be gigantic: it will cover a large part of the arena! She will be able to reach you whether you are in close or ranged combat. If you are too greedy, especially when he launches his area of effect attack with his sword, you will take damage equal to that of his sword. Especially since it’s the first of The Old Hunter DLCs, so it was already announcing the color of the other upcoming bosses.
Lady Maria of the Astral Tower
This opponent is also found in the Bloodborne DLC.
In her first stage, Lady Maria is pretty straightforward. The combat mechanics are quickly taken in hand and we let ourselves be lulled by the soft music. As many think, looks a lot like Father Gascoigne, but a little faster.
Except we’re very quickly caught off guard by his second phase: when he infuses his two blades with his own blood. The fight takes a completely different turn: she is faster, inherits a new set of moves, and has abominable reach. Her bleeding blows are devastating, dealing damage over a large area. Chain together several hit combos and one bad dodge sends you back to square one. He’ll use her fast pace too often, so we’ll logically go towards her, only it’s a “ploy”; she will attack you as soon as you are in range of her. And finally, some of these blows are “guided at a distance” … Even if you are in a blind spot, she will always manage to plant you with her combination of the two “spear” blades.
Besides being elegant, this fight is very complex as Lady Maria is unpredictable and deceptive.
Lorenzo, first vicar
Chances are you’ve never seen this boss, as it’s part of The Old Hunters DLC and appears to be optional. Meeting him bears no relation to the main story of the set.
The first stage is quite simple, looks a lot like the clerical monster found on one of the ramparts of Yarhnam, so nothing scary, except that it produces fire zones after each hit. Well it’s quite easy to dodge especially with the arena featuring pillars that allow you to take cover.
Only that we are surprised by its second form; he suddenly starts using other skills that we don’t know about and really gets more aggressive. His movements are so unpredictable that it is difficult to reach his back to attack him safely. However, after a little sleight of hand, we finally come to understand our fathers, so the battle seems won if we continue with this good momentum. But hey, nothing ever goes as planned, because with FromSoftware we are not at the end of our surprises…
Now a third form appears, but strangely looks very vulnerable. My word, it was just an illusion, why he finds himself even harder to beat while down. As it crawls, it produces trails of fire and once again inherits a different moveset. Each of his attacks is flammable and mostly hits a large area on the ground, which makes this fight even more difficult. The surprise effect and zone attacks are the real difficulty of this fight.
Kos orphan
He is also a boss that comes from The Old Hunters DLC, but it looks like he is one of the final bosses of this special chapter of Bloodborne.
The first time we see the Orphan, we tell ourselves the fight won’t be so bad… Except for that his feverish appearance is just a decoy. The latter has a fairly impressive impact force and great mobility. To believe that he has a fast pace, he rushes at us to strike us with his enormous club of placenta. He jumps, attacks fast and with longevity, uses ranged round attacks. Overall it’s hell.
Only its second phase is even worse, because grows bigger, inherits new moves, and combines its old attacks with new subtleties which are amazing. He becomes even more mobile and fast, so analyzing his moves becomes really complex. He even leaps into the sky to throw explosive placenta balls. He’s so unpredictable that it’s not easy to attack him without taking a stray hit. We don’t know where to dodge to avoid the blows, we don’t know how to get close, even if we manage to reach it.
On the other hand, a dodge is likely to always work – the right shot. Since he holds his club in his right hand (so left for us), he will be much more likely to strike to our left. So, dodging right is a safe bet, unless he decides to leap into the air to chase his club at us.
