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FromSoftware’s Bloodborne is regarded as one of the strongest of their groundbreaking Soulsborne titles. Its gothic atmosphere, aggressive combat balancing, and intricate boss designs make it one of the most engaging and mysterious gaming experiences. Working through its combat encounters and exploring the streets of Yharnam as one pieces together, the twisted story of the proud city’s downfall is a mixture that has struck a chord with many of its players. Even better, then, is that Bloodborne also has a DLC available for any players who can’t get enough.
Key Info Up Front
Bloodborne DLCs: The Old Hunters
Price: $19.99
Release Date: 11/24/2015
Versions DLC Included: Bloodborne: Game of the Year Edition
The Old Hunters
The Old Hunters expands on the world of Bloodborne and gives players more of what they enjoyed in the base game. It sends players to a realm known as Hunter’s Nightmare, a cursed prison that holds fallen hunters from Yharnam’s past. It provides loads of new enemies to face, gear to collect, characters to meet, and an even more hellish look at Yharnam and the corruption that has befallen it. So, if you’re planning on picking up The Old Hunters, here is everything you need to know about it.
Starting The Old Hunters
Like most DLC in Soulsborne titles, however, The Old Hunters has to be found in the game’s world and be entered rather than just selecting an option from the main menu or fast traveling to the area. To access The Old Hunters, a few steps have to be completed. First, you’ll have to defeat Vicar Amelia, a required boss in the main progression line of the game. This will allow you to activate the Cathedral’s skull to send Yharnam into the night. Afterward, you can travel back to Hunter’s Dream to be given the Eye of a Blood-Drunk Hunter item.
Once you have that item, you need to go to the Cathedral Ward and the square there. On the right side of the square, you will be grabbed by a Lesser Amygdala, transporting you to the new Hunter’s Nightmare. However, when you first go there, you’ll need to progress through the area until you light a lamp to fast travel back to it whenever you want. Fast traveling to Hunter’s Nightmare is easily done from Hunter’s Dream by using the Hunter’s Nightmare Awakening Headstone located by the Insight Shop near Doll.
The Old Hunters Locations
While The Old Hunters is concerned chiefly with the Hunter’s Nightmare, there are three other main locations that players visit during the DLC. There are the Research Hall, Fishing Hamlet, and Astral Clocktower. Below is a description of each area and what you can expect from them without getting into any spoilers.
The Hunter’s Nightmare
The Hunter’s Nightmare is a corrupted version of Yharnam designed to torture the hunters stuck in the realm. As you travel through this area, you will recognize architecture and certain areas from regular Yharnam, but with some key differences. These differences help make the area feel like a nightmare as they are unsettling for players familiar with how Yharnam should look while also adding some creepy details like a river of blood.
Research Hall
The next area you will go to in the DLC is the Research Hall, which is a great place to farm for Blood Echoes if you have to. The area is built vertically with the player navigating convoluted floors that are interconnected with confusing staircases and filled with captive patients that have been driven insane by the experiments they have been subjected to. Navigating this area can be tricky because of how confusing its layout is, but if you spend enough time in it, you’ll figure it out quickly enough, and you’ll be able to open up the way to its main boss.
Astral Clocktower
This area sits at the top of the Research Hall and is made up of just the room for a boss fight.
Fishing Hamlet
After finishing Astral Clocktower, you’ll move on to the Fishing Hamlet, a recreation of a pivotal moment in Bloodborne‘s lore. In the Hunter’s Nightmare, the Fishing Hamlet is a dilapidated area where innocent citizens were slaughtered after being corrupted by the Great One Kos. This is also how the Fishing Hamlet is supposed to look in the real world of Bloodborne. Still, its representation in this DLC may be in worse condition than the real one to distress the imprisoned hunters, similar to how its rendition of Yharnam is.
The Old Hunters Weapons
The Old Hunters also adds numerous new weapons for players to try out, upgrade, and learn. Each of the weapons introduces an entirely new way to engage with Bloodborne‘s combat and offers players unique options to deal with the DLC’s new challenges. Every new weapon and tool added in The Old Hunters is below.
Accursed Brew
Type: Hunter Tool
This Hunter Tool is a desecrated skull of a citizen from the Fishing Hamlet. It has numerous holes bored all over it and is covered in scratches, seemingly indicating that it was searched thoroughly for eyes that would indicate corrupting from a Great One. When it is equipped, it can be used to hit enemies with a volley of curses.
Amygdalan Arm
Type: Melee Weapon
This weapon is made of the bone from the arm of an Amygdala Great One. It is made entirely of bone and can be wielded like a massive club. Its first form leaves it in the shape of a club that can be used to bludgeon enemies. Its second form sees it unfold into a scythe-like shape that resembles a hand on the end.
Beasthunter Saif
Type: Melee Weapon
This weapon is a classic tool used by the earliest generations of hunters in Yharnam. It is in the form of a massive curved sword but can be transformed into a shorter compact weapon that has a move set similar to the Saw Cleaver.
Beast Cutter
Type: Melee Weapon
The Beast Cutter is another traditional hunter weapon that resembles a more strength-focused version of the Threaded Cane weapon from the base game. Its initial form is a thick one-handed sword that can be transformed into a longer-ranged whip.
Blacksky Eye
Type: Hunter Tool
This tool is an actual eye that has received a blessing from a phantasm. When it is equipped, it can be used to fire a meteor projectile toward an enemy in a linear line. It does not have any tracking but deals heavy damage to any enemies it hits.
Bloodletter
Type: Melee Weapon
This weapon is the trademark weapon of an assassin from the Healing Church that was deranged. Bloodletter’s first form is a close-ranged mace that can turn into an extended morning star to hit enemies from a greater range.
Boom Hammer
Type: Melee Weapon
The Boom Hammer is a brutal weapon forged by an extreme sect of hunters known as the Powder Kegs. It resembles a large hammer that can ignite with an internal furnace to explode in fire damage on the next heat.
Church Cannon
Type: Ranged Weapon
A massive firearm forged by the Healing Church, the Church Cannon fires a cannonball that flies across a curved path and explodes on impact to deal area damage.
Church Pick
Type: Melee Weapon
The Church Pick is an ancient weapon from the Healing Church converted from the picks talked about in ancient beast tales. Its first form functions as a massive sword, while it transforms into an extended war pick that gives it great reach.
Fist of Gratia
Type: Off-Hand Weapon
The Fist of Gratia gets its name from an old hunter named Gratia, who had a hard time utilizing the hunters’ firearms. So, it takes the place of a firearm and resembles a mass of metal that can be used to bludgeon enemies and cause them to lose their footing.
Gatling Gun
Type: Ranged Weapon
This firearm is a modified version of the stationary gatling guns found across Yharnam so that it can be wielded in a single hand. It is a massive weapon that slows down those who use it but can fire a volley of bullets like no other firearm in Yharnam.
Holy Moonlight Sword
Type: Melee Weapon
This sword was originally discovered by Ludwig and can harness moonlight to send a ranged arc of energy to damage enemies.
Loch Shield
Type: Shield
The Loch Shield takes the normal firearm slot to block incoming attacks and stagger enemies. It was commonly used by the Healing Church and is forged from a sturdy blue glass.
Kos Parasite
Type: Melee Weapon
This weapon was harvested from the body of Kos, a Great One that washed up on the shores of the Fishing Hamlet. It is a parasite taken from inside Kos’ stomach and can be used as a dagger that transforms into dual-wielded daggers.
Piercing Rifle
Type: Ranged Weapon
This rifle was created by the Oto Workshop, an entity that eventually formed the Powder Kegs. It cannot properly counter enemy attacks but is instead able to deal piercing attacks that can be lethal in their own right in narrow areas.
Rakuyo
Type: Melee Weapon
Rakuyo is a Hunter weapon wielded by Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower. It is a slender blade with a dagger that extends from its grip and, when transformed, allows the hunter to wield both a sword and dagger at once.
Simon’s Bowblade
Type: Melee Weapon
This weapon is a serpentine sword ironically wielded by Simon, one of the first of the Healing Church’s Hunters. Simon bore a distaste for firearms, so he used this sword, which can be transformed into a bow and arrow.
Whirligig Saw
Type: Melee Weapon
Another weapon forged by the Powder Kegs, the Whirligig Saw, is a mace with a circular saw for its head. Its primary form is its short-ranged mace, but it can transform into a lone polearm with the rotating saw on end for more distant enemies.
The Old Hunters Armors
The Old Hunters also offers players nine new armor sets to customize their hunter with. While they do not have as big an impact as one’s weapon, they still can play a pivotal role in assembling the perfect build.
Brador’s Set
This armor set from a Hunter driven mad is made up of a beast’s bloody flesh and hide. Dried blood days spot its surface and the set covers its wearer with a hood and cloak of raggedy fur complete with a set of antlers.
Butcher Set
The Butcher Set is another armor set from an old hunter, the eldest of the Madaras twins. The twins were renowned for dissecting the beasts they killed to feed their local forest village, and this armor set is well equipped to have covered them while doing so.
Constable Set
A local legend claims that this armor set is from a foreign constable that chased a beast to Yharnam with a group. All but the one constable was slain by the beast, who killed it and ate it all himself.
Decorative Old Hunter Set
As its name implies, some of the first Hunters traditionally wore this armor set. It is decorated with brass medals that could indicate that its previous wearer was quite successful.
Enlarged Head
The Enlarged Head is not part of a set but is just a piece of head armor. It is the deflated cranium of one of the many slain patients in the Research Hall that were afflicted with massive heads as a side effect of the experiments held within.
Harrowed Set
Healing Church hunters originally used this armor set to hide within Yharnam and avoid detection by the angry citizens there. It features raggedy cloth to try and give its wearer the appearance of a beggar to remain inconspicuous.
Maria Hunter Set
Maria was one of the very first Hunters and a talented student of Gehrman. It closely resembles the Hunter garb that the player begins the game with but has a few more flairs and details to set it apart.
Old Hunter Set
This armor set comes from the height of the Hunters when they filled the streets of Yharnam every night to slay beasts. It resembles the starting attire the player begins with but is slightly more fortified and comes with a mask to hide one’s identity.
Yamamura’s Set
Yamamura’s Set is one of the armors with the highest defensive capabilities. However, the set’s appearance is that of an outfit cobbled together from various pieces of clothing and a scarf that Yamamura may have just had lying around.
The Old Hunters Bosses
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Soulsborne game without towering bosses for players to counter, and The Old Hunters adds five new ones for players to challenge themselves with.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Area: The Astral Clocktower
Lady Maria is one of the first hunters who will face the player after they reach the top of the Research Hall and interact with the corpse found there. She is swift and utilizes many of the techniques and tools that the player does. Her fight is split into three phases, a normal phase, followed by one where she covers her weapons in her blood and a final one that begins when she floats in the air and siphons power from the blood coating the arena bestowing all of her attacks with new fire damage.
Laurence, the First Vicar
Area: The Hunter’s Nightmare
Laurence is the only optional boss in the DLC but is worth doing. Laurence himself was once a prestigious member of the Healing Church that was eventually corrupted by its experiments with the Great Ones. This fight is also split into three phases. The first phase functions very similarly to the Cleric Beast from the base game but with fire attacks instead of regular ones. The second phase is a subtle change when he has around 70% of his health remaining and adds new moves to his rotation. The third phase begins when he hits 40% health and is indicated by Laurence’s legs breaking, forcing him to crawl on the ground to try and kill you. Lava leaks from his body as he crawls, making the arena much more hazardous.
Living Failures
Area: Research Hall
The Living Failures are a group boss comprised of numerous failed experiments in the Research Hall. Like other survivors, they are aliens with pale blue skin, massive engorged heads, and exaggerated limbs. More Living Failures enter the boss fight area throughout the encounter, with a maximum of four being present at any one time. At the start of their second phase, at around 60% health, they will raise their arms and summon down a devastating meteor storm attack before sending the room into darkness.
Ludwig, The Holy Blade
Area: The Hunter’s Nightmare
Ludwig was the mastermind behind the founding of the Healing Church’s hunters and all of their specialized equipment. He eventually became corrupted and mutated into a monstrosity like many of his peers. However, if the player wears armor from the Healing Church, they can talk to him at the end of the fight, seemingly indicating that he has managed to keep some of his humanity alive deep within himself.
Ludwig’s fight is also split into three distinct phases. The first sees him acting as a savage beast that crawls across the ground and takes swipes at the player with his massive claws. The second phase begins after a cutscene after half of his health is gone and sees him using an entirely new moveset with his iconic sword. The final phase begins when he reaches only 25% of his health and gives him a new move that sends a shockwave at the player with power drawn from the sky.
Orphan of Kos
Area: Fishing Hamlet
The Orphan of Kos is a disturbing boss that is thought to be the unborn child of the Great One Kos. When Kos washed up on the shores of the Fishing Hamlet, it was savagely killed by Hunters, as was its unborn child, leading to the Orphan of Kos’ soul becoming trapped between the real world and the Great One’s dimension. This trapped it within the Hunter’s Nightmare, where its humanoid form stares longingly at the sea where it belongs until it attacks the player with a club made of its placenta.
The Orphan of Kos’ fight is split into two phases. In the first, the Orphan attacks the player rabidly with a wide range of unique attacks that constantly mix up their speed and range. This keeps players on their toes and can make it very difficult to react to his moves. The second phase begins when the Orphan bites into his placenta weapon, allowing it to draw power and transform into a new form. This makes the boss larger and gives it a new set of moves in addition to old ones while also greatly increasing its movement speed.
The Old Hunters Trophies
Old Hunter’s Essence
Rarity: Gold
Description: This trophy is for collecting all of the new weapons in the DLC.
Orphan of Kos
Rarity: Silver
Description: This trophy is for defeating the Orphan of Kos boss.
Ludwig, the Holy Blade
Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for defeating Ludwig, the Holy Blade boss.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for defeating the Lady Maria boss.
Living Failures
Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for defeating the Living Failures boss.
Laurence, the First Vicar
Rarity: Bronze
Description: This trophy is for defeating the Laurence, the First Vicar boss.
Conclusion
For any fans of Bloodborne or FromSoftware’s Soulsborne titles in general, The Old Hunters is a must-buy. It offers a new perspective on its iconic setting while filling in some pivotal gaps in its intricate story and lore. The new weapons and tools that it provides players are also great at mixing up one’s approach to combat in the game, making a New Game+ run all the more fun, while each of its bosses is as awe-inspiring and fun to fight as the last. While it does not seem certain that fans will ever get a proper sequel to Bloodborne, any that haven’t picked up The Old Hunters at least have somewhere to get some more of the experience that only Bloodborne can offer.
FAQs
Question: Is Bloodborne‘s The Old Hunters DLC free?
Answer: No, the DLC must be purchased separately from the game unless you buy a bundled version.
Question: How hard is The Old Hunters?
Answer: The bosses in The Old Hunters are very challenging, as none of them have any exploits for players to make things easier for themselves. They are all some of the hardest bosses in the game, making the DLC a great trial for experienced fans.
Question: What level should I be for The Old Hunters?
Answer: While you can technically start and beat the DLC at any level, I recommend not starting it until you are at least level 65 or 115 for New Game+. This will ensure that you are leveled up well enough and have good enough gear to make the DLC’s challenges reasonable.
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