So I just got the gun Evelyn, I am level 61 and only have 12 points in bloodtinge, pretty sure I'm playing the game way out of order, but is it worth getting to 18 to use it? I have read it is pretty great but seems like a lot of points. Thanks for the help.

I've heard that at +8 its pretty powerful if you have 25 BT. But other than that I don't know. I never wanted to put points into BT. I only used the gun for parry, not for actual damage.

When you fire it you cock it to the side and shoot like a motherfucking G. So yes. Hell yeah.

I'm going heavy skill and bloodtinge in my run and at +7 with 26 bloodtinge I'm doing almost 200 damage per shot which trivializes most bosses with out of reach weak points. But if you don't plan on going bloodtinge heavy then I think the base pistol does more raw damage so it depends on if you want to commit to bloodtinge or not.

@sterling said:

I have 9 in Bloodtinge and my +9 Hunter's Pistol completely wrecks certain enemies. Dogs pissing you off? Pop a cap in its ass. Crows getting too big for their britches? Pop a cap in its ass. It's actually rather satisfying to take out annoying enemies that way.

To actually answer the OP's question; I've seen chatter around the usual places that Bloodtinge builds are viable. I've only taken cursory glances at it as I'm more of a melee player. If you're genuinely interested I'd suggest asking around the wiki or the subreddit for Bloodborne. Plenty of people deciphering the game and picking apart its mechanics in those places.

Yeah my +9 starting pistol at 10 BT does okay damage to smaller weaker enemies. But its not a viable main attack. My buddy has a +9 Evelyn with 28 or something BT and he can kill most things in two shots late game. He uses it for his main attack a lot. And then just use blood viles to replenish his bullets.

Its scaling outdoes the Hunter's Pistol and I believe also the Repeating Pistol. As far as I've seen it seems to really come into its own around 22 Bloodtinge, after which it just completely outclasses any firearm short of the Cannon, which sort of sets another bar insofar as damage but is very resource-intensive. Even before 22, with a good Warm Gem (which, incidentally, also drop in the area where you find the Evelyn) it will easily be damaging as well as a Repeater without the consumption downside. I highly recommend the Evelyn for its looks and animations alone, though.

I love my Evelyn and was planning on just leaving it at plus six, but thanks to this thread I fully intend to get it maxed out.

As for Bloodtinge builds I go both skill and blood with my main weapon being the Chikage. When I put my Chikage into blood mode I can kill kin type enemies in between one or three hits. Including the enemies in Upper Cathedral.

I just found it today, and was contemplating if I should put the points into Bloodtinge to use it (given that it currently takes over 100,000 echoes for me to level), but HELL YES I WILL now.

I wish I could tell you, but I wasted a bunch of points on Arcane instead of Bloodtinge. Too bad there's no respec.

@spoonman671: Oh man, a respec would be so nice.

@gtcknight Do the squidmen count as Kin?

@crembaw: To my knowledge, yes.

As I understand it anything that is slimy or smooth skinned and generally look alien are kin, while hairy and rough looking beings that appear to horribly mutated are usually beast. There are a few exceptions though like the giants and snakes.

I have bloodtinge at 50 with Chikage, and Evelyn. Insane damage in PvE, and PvP

Thanks for the help! I think I am going to start making the investment into bloodtinge.

The Evelyn is great in a Bloodtinge heavy build if you want to use your gun to actually deal significant damage, but if you just use your gun to parry there's no reason to spend all the points in bloodtinge in order to use the Evelyn, any gun is fine for that.

As far as guns go it has the best scaling with bloodtinge. My Evelyn is at +9 and my bloodtinge is at 25 and I have a ATK value of 263.

Seeing how my main weapon is the Chikage I was pretty happy when I got my Evelyn. It's currently sitting at +9 with 28 Bloodtinge and I'm only level 83. Bloodtinge will be my main stat (VIT and END at 30 with Skill at 26) since I can do crazy burst damage with my Chikage when I transform it during a combo while I PVP. In PVE I can have it transformed most of the time since I can easily get my health back with a gun parry.

@golguin Wait, the Chikage's drain gives you orange-bar instead of flat damage? That instantly makes it a lot more tantalizing an option.

The Chikage's transform mode uses Bloodtinge as it's damage stat and the Kin are weak against Bloodtinge based attacks. For PVP most people don't equip their gear to raise their Bloodtinge defense so it's a great all around weapon.

The health drain mechanic is there to stop you from keeping the Chikage transformed at all times. I have runes that give me back my health whenever I do a successful visceral attack so I don't really worry about the health drain.