Bloodborne Blood Starved Beast Comprehensive Guide

Bloodborne Blood Starved Beast Comprehensive Guide by MagicTaco1997

I’m sure there’s plenty of places and videos to look for a guide regarding our dastardly, poison-happy boss, but over the past few days I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the Blood-Starved Beast, so I figured, as someone who just recently managed to defeat the bastard, I’d share how I did so after only a few attempts.

Preparation

Now, throughout your encounters in Old Yarnham, you’ll be spotting quite a few antidotes scattered around. These are there for a reason, because of their effect to cure poison in all forms. Besides just being a cautionary measure against the large Cloaked Beasts who can deal poison damage, the main purpose is for use during the Blood-Starved Beast encounter. He has quite a lot of nasty attacks, and as the fight progresses, more and more poison is implemented into his moveset. But we’ll get to that.

Stock up on as many antidotes as possible. Quite a few bodies around Old Yarnham have antidotes on them; don’t be afraid to stray from the path to go treasure hunting! If you can’t seem to find enough antidotes to feel comfortable (I know I couldn’t), then stock up on some extra blood echoes and stop by the Hunter’s Dream. The shop there sells antidotes for a somewhat pricey 300 Blood Echoes a pop, but they’re well worth it.

The Blood-Starved Beast can be a troublesome boss depending on your skill and player level, so don’t be afraid to grind a bit in the area for blood echoes to upgrade. By the time I beat him, I had a level 3 Saw Cleaver and Hunter Pistol (Although I never actually used it in the fight), and I was around level 19 or so. But once again, it’s really dependent on your individual skill as a player. Now, with the method I used to fight BSB, all I needed was antidotes and full blood vials (You can have less, but if you splurge on them in battle, I’d go for a full 20).

Fighting The Bloody Bastard

Luckily for you, Blood-Starved Beast has a rather large arena to fight him in, as opposed to the last two battles with Father and the Cleric Beast. The only obstructions are the many pillars lined up on either side of the main pathway, but those won’t be too much trouble.

The first thing you’ll notice is just how fast his attacks are. In his first phase, which is going to be roughly the first quarter of his health, BSB will go for three main attacks.

*Long Swipe*

All of his moves have quite a bit of range and speed to them, and while the majority can be dodged and countered, the long swipe should be dodged all together. BSB will rear back rather far with his right claw before lunging forward, going in for a slash and easily going out of your range in the process.

He’ll follow that with a rounding dodge of sorts to further get away from you. There’s no good way to get attacks in with this, so I just do a dodge towards him when he swipes. Get your footing again and get ready for the next attack.

*Short Swipe*

Like the long swipe, BSB will rear back and go in for an attack with his right arm. However, this move is different in the fact that he doesn’t lunge nearly as far, and doesn’t jump away immediately after. Dodge this move like the long swipe, and get in a few hits or go for a backstrike and a visceral if you’re able to get the positioning right.

*Poison Bite*

This is the first poison move of the fight you’ll see, and good lord does it do a lot of damage. If BSB manages to get the move in, it will get you fairly close to if not to full poison depending on your resistance to it. If you don’t backstep or roll immediately after the first bite, he’ll keep going, and it’s a guaranteed death at this point in the game.

So, dodge to either side of him when he rears back and goes for the bite. He’ll try and follow up with a quick swipe, but it always misses if you get behind him, so you have plenty of time to punish him.

2nd Phase

Once about a quarter of his health is done, BSB will berserk a bit. His speed increases slightly, and there’s less delay between attacks, though the opening you have after each attack you dodge is roughly the same. He’s just more aggressive in general. The biggest difference is his monstrous swiping combo. BSB will get back on his hind legs and start to madly swipe at you.

This move has a lot of reach and a lot of range, but luckily, dodging to his side and then behind him works just as well as before. Do a few sidesteps (He’ll try and follow you as you move, but stepping prevents that), and wait for his delayed last swipe before going in for a backstrike punishment. This is definitely another one hit combo if he catches you, because it’s his second poison-based attack, and if you don’t get out, you’ll more than likely die and have to restart.

Use an antidote if necessary, along with a blood vial or two. Besides the long combo, nothing is different in this phase, so keep up with countering and hope to god his last phase has mercy on you.

3rd Phase

This is the point where the developer’s just decided to fuck every Bloodborne player over. At this point, at around half to a quarter of his health remaining, BSB will truly berserk. Back up IMMEDIATELY upon seeing this happen, because he’ll rear back on his hind legs and let loose a massive cloud of poison gas, which will fully poison you within seconds if you’re close enough. Throughout the rest of the fight, or at least most of it, his body will secrete that noxious gas, so be careful with each approach. Don’t get greedy at all. His moveset is once again the same besides a more aggressive and speedy approach towards you. Keep your distance, and only go in for counters on the short swipe, the bite, and his swift combo. It’s the best position to be in. If you find yourself running low on items at the end of the fight, I opted to picking off the rest of his health with my pistol.

TL,DR; Stock up on antidotes, sidestep all of BSB’s attacks, and I do mean all of them, and pray that he doesn’t suddenly decide to gain peripheral vision.

More Tips from ZenithDawn

• Against BSB, going for transformed heavy attacks with most weapons is going to get you killed very, very quickly. BSB is a fast opponent so you’re going to want to fight fire with fire and stick to the fastest version of your weapon available to you at the time. For what its worth, the sword form of the Kirkhammer works quite well because of how it can deal 2-3 quick slashes and leave you with the stamina to get away when he retaliates.
• Similarly to other FromSoft titles, most enemies and bosses have an elemental weakness and BSB is no different. Tactical use of molotovs and oil urns can give you a lot of opportunity to get in close and dish out more damage, but it should be noted that these items are in limited supply and end up being costly, not to mention BSB is quite fast, so its best to practice against him first and learn his patterns before you start throwing away resources.
• Similarly, if you managed to meet with Alfred before you entered Old Yharnam and agreed to cooperate with him, he will reward you with 3x Fire Paper, which allows you to apply fire to a weapon of your choice. These are likely to be the only three fire papers you get before the BSB fight so use them wisely. (if you haven’t found him, backtrack to the area where you initially opened the tomb/underground area that leads to Old Yharnam with a lever, exit the room and go to your right as you’re leaving. Ascend the set of stairs that took you to the lever but instead head straight on, he can be found praying at a large statue)
• Finally, there are two armor sets that can be obtained before the BSB fight that offer some level of poison resistance. The first set requires you to have 10 insight to access the bath messenger in Hunter’s Dream, where you can buy Father Gascoigne’s armor set for 6 insight. It provides a nice balance of poison resist and armor and is arguably stronger than the Hunter Set specifically for the BSB fight.
• The second set, should you not have the insight or wish to obtain a slightly stronger and free resist set, can be found in the Cathedral Ward. From the Cathedral Ward lamp, exit left and head down the stairs. Head up the set of stairs that takes you to the giant axe wielding beast, and then run right up the large set of stairs. Assuming you’ve opened this gate with the 10,000 blood echo key purchase from Hunter’s Dream, proceed through and then head left where there is a guy with a flamethrower. Defeat him and continue on down the narrow side path that will lead you to an alley with multiple NPC doors to interact with. Further up the street, tucked in an alcove you can find the Black Church set. This armor set is a little weaker on the armor front but provides higher poison resist than Father Gascoigne’s set and doesn’t cost any insight.