Edit - I have another question below.

I'm just wondering, because I won't, at least at first, want to go through the game twice once I get to it (I'll want to immediately move onto Dark Souls 3), so is it a separate thing, or do I need to buy it and play it on my first time going through? I don't want to go through the game, buy the DLC, and then have to start the game again on a new game plus to play it, so better to enjoy and get it out of the way from the get-go if it's in the main game.

Oh, I answered my own question. It is as I thought it would be, you do have to play through the game a bit to get that stuff.

http://www.polygon.com/2015/11/30/9819308/bloodborne-the-old-hunters-dlc

Sorry, never mind.

@ntm: The dlc is integrated with the game, so it becomes unlocked about, say, 30 percent into the game, and then you are able to complete it at any point until you beat the final boss. It's pretty easy to tell who the final boss is, so you can just die on him and go off to dlc land.

Okay, so I just finished Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin. I have another question about this that's about the DLC: Is it worth getting right off the bat? How does it compare to DS2's added content? I didn't finish them entirely; I just didn't finish the final bosses of each area, but otherwise it was all completed. I just wanted to move onto Bloodborne, and as much as I enjoyed Dark Souls 2, it was getting unnecessarily long for me at the moment. I felt the vital parts of it I saw, and beating the last few bosses wasn't going to change that. Alright, I'm asking here since I don't feel I need to make another thread about it. I want to start playing Bloodborne pretty soon here, just wondering if I should buy the added content right now. And though I can go elsewhere on this site to see what you guys think, if you want to, add what you thought about it. Thanks. On a side note. I'm glad I've finally gotten through these games, and I'm still excited to play Bloodborne, and then Dark Souls 3, but honestly, I'll be happy when it's done. It's a lot of time spent on playing these games solely.

@ntm: The Bloodborne DLC is great. Gives you a bunch of new weapons, the bosses are as good as the best ones in the main game, and there's a good bit of enemy/location variety. I definitely enjoyed it more than DS2's DLC, but then I enjoyed everything about Bloodborne more than DS2 so...

Just be weary, if you go to the DLC area when it first unlocks, you're gonna get bodied. The recommended level for starting that stuff is ~60, which is pretty late-game in Bloodborne.

P.S. Kirkhammer.

@teddie: Good to know. Thanks. Not sure if I can wander into it unknowingly; I did that with one of the DLC's of two and finished almost all of it not knowing it was the extra content. If it's like that, then I'll probably wander into it, then leave soon after if it poses too much of a challenge. I'm guessing it does, but does this game go back to the Demon's/Dark Souls 1 approach with the post game experience, where once the credits roll, it's right back to the beginning, starting a new game plus? I liked that in two, it doesn't do that, so you can keep finishing up stuff you didn't do, even if you beat the final boss. I just want to be sure, so I don't miss out on the DLC through the first experience.

@ntm: Nope, unfortunately it's back to the old system of starting NG+ automatically. Like the other guy in this thread said though, it's pretty obvious when you get to the final boss/point of no return.

@teddie: I'm about to start the game. I just created my guy. So, I bought the DLC, but is it supposed to download/install? I bought it, and it says it's already installed. I was thinking that there'd be a long install for it, at least a couple of hours, and yet there wasn't.

@ntm: The DLC content was included in a patch, so as long as you have the latest patch, then you're good to go. For reference, I believe the patch was around 9 gigs.

Never mind. It was put in with the latest patch, so that's good. I played a bit of it, I like it a lot. Only reason I quit was because I'm quite tired now. I got up to the boss, and died unfortunately after a while. Only got a quarter of his health down. It wasn't much of an issue, but running backwards waiting for him to strike, so I could, once I got to the end, and he got closer, the camera wasn't working very well, so I had no clue where I was and where to evade away. It's not that hard to get into it directly after a Souls game, the biggest difference is that this is about evading, not guarding. I really like the atmosphere, and the enemy set up, where they're just roaming the streets in groups. It's quite different than the Souls games in that regard. I don't find the game as intense just yet, but it is way creepier. I don't quite understand the why's of the story, like why are these people attacking; being violent, and it seems at this specific time?

The enemies seem very cult-like, which I love. It kind of reminds me of the Ganado's of RE4. I do think to some extent, the way a Souls game approaches figuring out enemies is still here, and how to exploit it if possible, but I don't think jives so well in some cases, because it can make guys seem kind of stupid. I stood atop a ledge, and shot at a dude, while the others roamed the street near by; the guy I was fighting, and perhaps the person next time him reacted, but the rest just kept patrolling. It was a bit goofy. I think the sound design is great, and I think the visuals are great as well, though coming off of Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin, while I think this game looks way better in most respects, it does have a less desirable frame rate (though tolerable), and it's kind of blurry by comparison, though only somewhat. It does make me wonder what the Neo could do for it.

Edit - Oh, the site says it about the mob. Not sure if the game already did, and I just wasn't listening well enough. Though I don't really know what the scourge is.

"Due to the infestation of the scourge, this is what the mob that has risen for the beast hunt have become. The fever-like urge to hunt remains, but they themselves have already been infested with the scourge of the beast. Unaware of this fact, they continue to search for prey to hunt and kill. Perhaps through their murky eyes, humans are seen as the true beasts."

@militantfreudian: Thanks. I know now though. I guess it took me eleven minutes to post that message, ha ha.

Enjoy it! Bloodborne is a fantastic game and the DLC is some of the best content - it has some of the best weapons in the game, some incredible boss fights, and adds a ton to the core story and lore of the world whilst also functioning as a relatively stand-alone tale.

@ntm: This is kind of off-topic, but did you beat Elana in the Dark Souls 2 DLC? She's... uh... not the last boss of that DLC.

@y2ken: Thanks. I haven't played more of it yet, but I am enjoying it so far. I'll play more later, or will probably have done so by the time you read this message.

@justin258: Yeah I did, I beat Elana. I know she's not the end boss. I thought I said I fought the dragon, Sihn. Oh, that was another thread. I fought him a couple of times, but didn't beat him, which is pretty much in the next room. That's hard to miss. He was the end boss of that place correct? That said, there are also a trio of optional bosses, which I didn't fight. I didn't beat the end bosses of each area, other than the Fume Knight, which isn't necessarily the final, but is the mandatory one, nor some of the optional. In all, when it comes to the DLC bosses, I have more to beat than I actually beat; six in all. I beat Elana, Fume Knight, and Aava. Also, unbeknownst to me, though I love taking my time, and exploring every nook and cranny of these games, I somehow missed the Executioner's Chariot. I'll try to go back at a later time, but currently I'm playing Bloodborne now. I wanted to move on. I feel like I saw just about everything vital there was to do in the game, and actually beating the DLC bosses won't change that, but I'll definitely go back and try them again later.

I enjoyed Bloodborne a lot, unfortunately I played it to my own detriment it seems as I beat the game three times over on the same character. From what I gather that DLC area scales with NG+ playthroughs so in order to play it I'd need to either start a brand new character and level up to about 60 which means almost beating the entire game again - or I start a 4th NG+ and get up to the DLC part but be faced with enemies and bosses that nearly one shot you with every attack. Neither option sounded especially inviting so I resigned myself to simply not playing it.

Oddly enough, as much as I enjoy these games I never played any of their DLC. Not DS1, not DS2, nor Bloodborne. I suspect I will probably not play the DS3 DLC either. The main game is usually so satiating that I don't ever feel the need to go back for more.

@humanity: Yeah, that's understandable. And that's too bad about the scaling, making it so you don't want to wade through all of that again. I get that.

I beat the Cleric Beast, and Father Gascoigne last night, and got down to the Cathedral Ward and Old Yarnham. I was wondering if I should go back up to Cathedral Ward. You know, I have to look at wiki's a lot for names of places and bosses in these games, because it's kind of hard to memorize their names to me, so now that I am, it seems Cathedral Ward has a boss. Though the enemies were easy enough there, it seemed the Old Yarnhim enemies were slightly easier. I don't know though, I'm only near the beginning of both areas. This game is great. I really liked the Father Gascoigne fight, as he changed form, and the music dynamically changed. What I found weird, and perhaps there's a story behind it, is that I had him help me fight the cleric beast through whatever this game calls the phantoms. He didn't help much in that fight, but it was nice to have as a way of not getting attacked myself. The sound design is great in this game, and I think the visuals are superb as well, though a little better anti-aliasing, and a somewhat smoother frame rate would be nice. The visuals are also slightly blurry, so it makes me wonder whether it's 1080p. Then, I also think the sky box is kind of ugly in the first area (you can even see the seems of textures come together), though the setting sun looks nice. I can't tell as I just started playing it, but it seems that the loading times everyone talked about was fixed, because it's really quite alright. All of the technical side, while the cons side of it is very tolerable, makes me wonder what the Neo can do with this game.

@ntm: Old Yharnam is a dead end, but beating it will open up the rest of Cathedral Ward. You could bypass it entirely if you buy the emblem for 10,000 echoes, but it's worth doing. anyway

@milijango: Really? Oh well, it may be optional, but it's a location to see anyways. The wiki says there's two bosses. Also, that's a lot of echoes for what I can get right now (or, it'd just take a bit of time to get that, and if I did that, I'd just spend it to upgrade), nor do I know what emblem you're talking about. I'd rather explore the place anyways though.

@ntm:For your first playthrough, I agree that it would be a good idea to clear Old Yharnam. It is optional, likethe other user said, but should you skip it, the next areas will be significantly more challenging.

Don't think too much about Gascoigne being a summon for the Cleric Beast fight. The NPC summon system was actually patched into the game quite late, I believe when the DLC was released. It was not a part of the original release. Many of the NPC summons are pretty insignificant for lore buffs out there and I wouldn't take Gascoigne being one of them as anything more than "yo we needed an NPC that would sort of make sense for this boss to help the player."

@ktargo: Oh, wow I didn't know that was a patch. I did take a peek at the patch notes once it was installed, because I was curious, but didn't notice that. I'm glad it was added. I started using them for bosses for the first time in Dark Souls 3 since I figured out, or more like remembered I could. And no, I just beat the Blood-starved beast, so I am definitely going through it. I loved the chain gun part. I died on the dude that was handling it once, but went up there again, and just with two shots, as its all I had, shot him off the ledge, and that was over. There's a locked door that I ran into when you take a right turn instead of a left with werewolves, that leads to the boss. Right now though, I'm looking to see what the ritual areas are for; the boss dropped a chalice for me to unlock a ritual. I need to know if those are optional, online focused areas (it seems online focused anyways), or if those are the main areas that one can go to next.

If it's a mainline thing, I want to do the other area first. As for the NPC making sense, it doesn't really bother me, I just thought it was weird. I like how this game, like Dark Souls, does the looping around the environments for shortcuts. I won't want to skip any area of this game. I want to see all of these games areas, and bosses. As for a first playthrough, that's all I have planned on doing for now. After I'm done with this game, I'm moving onto Dark Souls 3, and by that time, other times will be out, or have been out that I want to play. Going to new game plus on any of these games will have to wait, even though I really enjoy them. I unfortunately don't feel I have the luxury and time to play it again, if I want to play other games sooner rather than later. So far, though it can of course change, and I still find the game challenging, this is perhaps the easiest game of the bunch so far.

Edit - Oh, and I found the answer as to what the chalice dungeons are. They're optional procedurally generated content. Okay, well that's cool. I don't have much desire to play that right now though.

@ntm: Oh yea I wouldn't bother with the chalice dungeons unless you feel like you could use some easy blood echoes. It's pretty lame content. The dungeons essentially use tilesets, so the reason you play Souls games (the very specific level design and enemy placement) is sort of thrown out the window in favor of repetitive, maze-like corridor crawls. Even a large majority of the bosses are recycled from the main game. If you are desperate to see all the bosses (there are maybe a dozen unique bosses in them) and desire some extra challenging content, then you will have to do the chalice dungeons. If you are looking for unique loot, extra lore, or carefully designed levels, stay far away. It'll really drain your motivation to continue the game, at least from my experience.

Bloodborne is definitely easier than the others once you get a feel for it. It'll make you really miss the rally system when you play DS3 though.

@ktargo: The thing that makes it so my health regenerates after I hit them back in a short amount of time after they hit me? Eh, I don't really think much about that aspect in this game honestly. It's neat I suppose. Currently, now trying to figure out how the Caryll Runes work; if it's automatic, or if you have to equip it somehow. I unfortunately died from one of the enemies, the dude with a sack over his shoulder (oh, they're called Death Dealer's I guess, now that I check). That said, it was meant to be, since it brought me to Yahar'gul, Unseen Village. They're not that hard to kill though. I went back to the dream, but now I can't get back? Do I have to die again? That sucks. Oh well, better spend the rest of my blood echoes. I fought the boss there too, but got killed. And I see that I can't use the Caryll Rune yet. Okay, going to play more now. I want to go die so I can go back to Yahar'gul.

Edit - Oh that was dumb. I just went and died for nothing. I could teleport there from the stone next over.

@ntm: In order to use Caryll Runes you have to loot the Caryll Rune Workshop Tool from a technically optional boss you can encounter soon. It allows you use to use the alter in the Hunter's Dream to slot some extra passive effects on to your character. I say optional since you can still complete the game without access to runes, its just more difficult. Yahar'gul is also an optional area for the time being. You do not have to complete it at this moment to continue.

@ktargo: I know all that now. Thanks though.

@y2ken: @teddie: @milijango: @ktargo: Just wondering guys, did I just find an exploit to the game? I'm not sure if From Software was aware of the exploit I just found and will punish me somewhere down the line for it, but there's an easy way to keep getting blood echoes. I'm not sure why it's there unless there is a limit, unless From just didn't catch it. Every time you go back to the Hunter's Dream, you get all your ammo and health back. Since you can sell it there as well, I just keep going out of Hunter's Dream and back in, and get free echoes for selling the infinite ammo. I don't want to do health in case something happens, though I might start doing that...

Edit - Never mind. I spoke way too soon. It limits the refill. I didn't get any back when I just came back. Well okay.

No, your ammo's being retrieved from a pool. Pick up more than 20 bullets and vials and they'll go into storage. When you spawn back at a lamp, the bullets and vials come from that storage.

@shindig: Okay. I knew it was limited, though didn't know it was coming from the storage. Thanks. Man, I don't know what happened. Currently going through the mandatory Yahar'gul part, and I went back to upgrade, I did so, but had only a few left to be able to upgrade again, and when I went to sell stuff, I'm not sure what happened, but it said too much stuff in my inventory so items will go into storage, and I all of a sudden had only seven blood echoes. Also, I didn't even know I had stuff in my storage. Stuff must go in there automatically when you pick up stuff when you already have a full inventory there. That's a good thing, though I just thought it was unlucky to pick up an already that you're already full on, since it misses the chance to get something else. At least that's not the case. I don't believe I bought stuff; I hope I didn't make that mistake, but oh well. The enemies in this place give a bunch of blood echoes. I keep wanting to say 'souls' instead. Do you know how much more I have to go in the game? I don't want to miss the DLC stuff. I'm wondering when I can even do it, and if that's already that case, or I have more to go. I just got a little bit into the area when you first come to Yahar'gul optionally.

I am fighting One Reborn right now. I died once on him, though I think I need to do a plunge attack on him. I left though in the second battle because I wasn't sure I should try anything yet. Anyways, now that I'm checking how many bosses are in the game, as I'm just curious how much more I have left (it honestly already feels like it's near the end of the game), it shows that I only have three bosses left in the game, including whatever is left in the DLC? Checking here, I beat everyone accept for Martyr Logarius; Micolash, Host of Nightmare, and Gehrman (which, seeing coverage of the game since release, I believe he's the final boss?) Can I do the DLC yet? I guess I'll check. I'm level 69 right now, which people said is when I should do it. I'm surprised at how short this game is. It's really good, but (and not a bad but) it was surprisingly easier than the Souls games, and yes, shorter.

Edit - Oh, okay. I could have been doing the DLC. I picked that thing up and beat that boss two days ago.

@ntm: Yeah, you gain access to the DLC as soon as you beat Vicar Amelia. I tried to go through the first DLC area at level 30-ish and it was excruciating. Enemies take 3-4 visceral attacks to kill, and I go down in 2-3 hits. As for the difficulty, I don't think this game was meant to be as difficult as the Souls games. I believe even Miyazaki said so. If you're looking for more challenge, then you'll find it in the DLC or the Chalice Dungeons. Also, the Nightmare of Mensis has two bosses; you mentioned only one. Have you been to the Upper Cathedral Ward and beaten Ebrietas?

@militantfreudian: I'm not looking for more challenge; it wasn't a complaint, I was simply saying I found it easier for the most part. I feel like mentioning how difficult these games are because it's always a big topic with them. As for the DLC stuff, I just died on Ludwig, the first boss. The enemies are definitely tougher than your normal dudes in the main game, like the blood drunk hunters (at least I can just keep wacking them and they die with about five hits). If they hit me though, my health goes down pretty low even though my health, strength and stamina are all are level 30. I think this DLC is perhaps too much for me right now. Maybe I should come back once I'm nearly done with the main game. As for bosses, I was only going by what I see on the wiki there. I was just checking to see how many bosses are in the DLC, and how long it is. It's much longer than I was expecting I guess. That's both good and bad. Good because that's good, long content for the money, but bad because I honestly want to move on and beat the game now since I feel like I am close, and the DLC is only getting in the way. Maybe I shouldn't look at it that way.

I'm still where I was, by getting to the Ludwig in the first DLC, as well as still trying to beat The One Reborn. I stopped, and found a good place to farm blood echoes. I like the challenge in these games because it makes me have to focus on the game more and not boringly breeze through it, but I also like the feeling of being confident I can take bosses down on the first go after a certain level with a modicum of intensity; normally if normal enemies go down extremely easy, that means I can beat the boss too then. I got my strength to level 40, and I may go to 50 with it, or go with my health and stamina. Does this game remind anyone else, in some way, of Resident Evil 4? Just the enemies and horror. You just make a more linear game, put guns in, and make it 10 to 20 hours shorter, and you kind of have RE4.