As a Bloodborne fan, you must consider the Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast the Holy Grail of speedruns. Who wouldn’t? It’s quick. It’s smart. It’s as good as it gets. However, if you’re just getting into this gothic-inspired game, you must wonder what’s so great about this speedrun. Why does it have 1.5 million views on YouTube? We’ve got the answer for you below. Keep reading to immerse yourself in the endemic-ridden world of Yharnam and learn how to avoid the madness lurking around every corner.
What Is Bloodborne?
Bloodborne is an action game from FromSoftware, a well-known Japanese developer who also created Dark Souls and Elden Ring. In 2015, the game was released exclusively for PlayStation 4. The game is set in the city of Yharnam, which faces an unknown endemic illness spreading across the region at the speed of light. Besides disease, the city is also ridden with death, grief, and horror.
You must be familiar with the game’s plot to understand what’s happening in the Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast. We’ve already mentioned the ancient Victorian city of Yharnam. Yet why is it so special?
The Healing Church is situated in the city. It’s a religious organization pioneering “Blood Ministration,” a process in which the church administers blood that can heal any ailment. As the player, you’re one of the many travelers who come to the city for this blood to cure their diseases. Your purpose is different from the other seekers, however. You’re looking for an obscure and mysterious object called Paleblood. When you arrive at the Healing Church, the blood minister injects you with blood, starting your journey in the city.
When you awaken, you realize the presence of an endemic in Yharnam. The disease has converted most of the city’s residents into feral creatures. Meanwhile, the remaining population hunts these creatures. You must navigate through the city streets, avoiding both types of people. As you go deeper into the game, you uncover the dark and horrific secrets of Yharnam. For example, the people there worship blood and strange gods. With a bit of exploration, you also come across the origin of the endemic currently erasing the city’s population.
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Overview of the Bloodborne Speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast
A speedrun is gameplay in which the player attempts to finish the game in the shortest time possible. The Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast is such a speedrun, spanning 47 minutes 59 seconds. He did this speedrun in 2019.
heyZeusHeresToast is a popular gamer and streamer who previously made a speedrun of the game in 2018, completing it in 1 hour, 37 minutes, and 49 seconds. Both these speedruns were done at Awesome Games Done Quick events. The AGDQ is a week-long charity marathon for speedruns where the organizers collect money for the Prevent Cancer Foundation.
In the YouTube video of the Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast, the player narrates his gameplay throughout the speedrun. You can watch that below. Let’s look at some key takeaways from this speedrun and how you can implement them in your gameplay.
Collecting BloodVials
Right off the bat, we can see that heyZeusHeresToast collects every BloodVial he comes across. He mentioned that these would help him against the boss.
BloodVials are consumables for health regeneration. You can buy them from merchants or find them around lootable corpses and defeated enemies.
Knowing the Boss’ Weaknesses
heyZeusHeresToast encounters the first boss at around the 5:30 mark. From his initial attack, you can tell that he has identified his enemy’s weakness — the boss cannot shoot at a target.
He uses this weakness to kill the boss by moving around a lot and not staying in one place for too long. At the same time, he also identifies the boss’s strength: transformation.
By punching and shooting the boss continuously, he ensures that the boss does not transform into something more harmful. He kills the boss by removing the visceral from its chest.
Leveling Up Weapons
While he’s navigating the game, heyZeusHeresToast makes sure he levels up his weapons. He mentions that this will help him fight off enemies.
You can upgrade your weapons in Bloodborne using Blood Echoes and upgrade materials. Get the Blood Gem Workshop when passing through the Cathedral Ward. You should also have at least one Blood Gem to customize your weapon.
Loading the Right Weapons
Since heyZeusHeresToast has played this game for a long time, he knows which weapons to use against his enemies. The key to being successful at a kill is to use the right weapons. We’ve got some tips:
- Righteous Weapons: These are the best against ghost types and Cainhurst monsters.
- Serrated Weapons: Use these against beast-type monsters or enemies with a lot of hair.
- Bolt Damage: It works against metal armor and Kin.
- Fire Damage: It can also kill beast-type monsters.
- Arcane Damage: Use this against Pthumerians.
- Blood Damage: If you encounter NPC hunters, use blood damage to weaken or kill them.
For typical gameplay, trial, and error is the way to find the best weapon for each enemy type. But if you’re stuck, you can use one of the many Bloodborne wikis online.
- Created by Dark Souls and Elden Ring developers FromSoftware
- Discover the dark and horrifying secrets of the gothic city of Yharnam
- Stunning visuals and atmospheric lighting
- New online experiences
What Makes Bloodborne Speedrun So Challenging?
Bloodborne isn’t an easy game to play. It’s quite the opposite. The game is so complicated that Forbes wrote an article explaining how it can be made easier. Be sure to check it out for gameplay tips.
Since the game is too complex, completing its speedrun is a feat in itself. It usually takes anywhere from 33 to 76 hours to complete. Here are some other reasons Bloodborne speedruns are hard to accomplish.
Little to No Sense of Direction
It almost seems like the developers did this on purpose. However, the game does not have any sense of direction — quite literally. There are no objective markers, compasses, or minimaps to help you navigate the ancient city.
The only location hints you get are from the game’s NPCs (non-player characters). So, you must keep an eye out for them. Similarly, there’s not much of a story to follow either. The story can sometimes be vague, requiring much effort from the player.
Brutal Enemies
Your enemies in Bloodborne are brutal, to say the least. The enemies range in abilities and sizes, with some being quite formidable. They use several tactics to stop your progress. For example, they may use traps or poison you. Some can teleport, making it impossible to find and kill them.
Some of the nightmarish creatures players come across in their gameplay are giant crows, lycanthropes, and demented townsfolk. All your in-game enemies have advanced AI. So, they can patrol different areas, wander the town, form mobs, and hunt you in every way possible. For instance, demented citizens can talk to each other to form strategies against you. Besides your regular enemies, you’ll also have to fight against bosses in the game.
It’s not possible to avoid enemies altogether. For example, you have to earn checkpoints in the game, which are placed close to lanterns. The catch? Enemies are placed here strategically to lower your chance of survival. The game’s day and night cycle impacts your enemies’ abilities and behavior. Sometimes, your enemies might attack at once, giving you no room for escape.
One of the reasons for the Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast being so special is that the player barely lets himself get cornered by a bunch of enemies. He’s just as strategic as they are, and his movements are almost always perfect.
No Pause Button
Another thing that makes Bloodborne speedruns difficult is the lack of a pause button and difficulty settings. For one, the difficulty level is the same for everyone. You cannot lower it simply because the in-game creatures give you a hard time.
Secondly, there’s no pause button. You cannot stop at any point in the game. If you pause, you’ll go back to the previous checkpoint. Plus, you’ll have zero echos (in-game currency) to work with, which can set you back quite a bit.
Bosses
Possibly the hardest enemy to get through in Bloodborne is the bosses. There are 43 bosses in the game with unique kill styles and fighting patterns. Think of a ‘boss’ as a giant creature that is much stronger than the normal enemies.
It’s evident that the developers have made the bosses extra hard to kill. While playing, you’ll often feel like the boss can kill you with just a single hit. But you could be attacking it for ten minutes without even as much as scratching it.
How do you even kill a creature like this? The key is to study this enemy rather than attack it blindly. All bosses in Bloodborne have certain flaws. You need to find these flaws and attack the boss accordingly. Since learning these flaws can take a long time – and a couple of deaths – it’s hard to create a speedrun of the game.
However, the Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast is an exception. The player already had experience playing the game before he did this speedrun. So he was able to finish it in a short time without having to spend hours learning how to go around a boss.
Wrap Up
The Bloodborne speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast is undeniably one of the best displays of the Bloodborne gameplay. You can learn a lot about the game from this speedrun. For instance, you can learn about different pathways, types of tools, weapons, bosses, and fighting strategies. What makes the speedrun even better is that it aims to collect money for cancer.
You can follow him on YouTube and Twitch if you want to see more of heyZeusHeresToast’s gameplay. Likewise, if you want to watch more speedruns of Bloodborne, search for them on YouTube. While you’re at it, don’t forget to mentally note all the tips and tricks you learn from these speedruns.
Check Out Bloodborne Speedrun by heyZeusHeresToast Here!
- Bloodborne - Game of the Year (PS4)
- Created by Dark Souls and Elden Ring developers FromSoftware
- Discover the dark and horrifying secrets of the gothic city of Yharnam
- Stunning visuals and atmospheric lighting
- New online experiences
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