Bloodborne Trophies – Platinum Obsession Review

Back to where I left off earlier. Most of the trophies in Bloodborne come from playing the game and beating the bosses. So, two years later, in around late 2017 early 2018 I decided to pick the game up again.  After dipping my toes in to Dark Souls 2 I felt a little more confident. 

I ended up beating the Cleric Beast and moved on. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of things, I ran into a tall, lonesome gravedigger. He didn’t look too bad at first. Oh, how I was mistaken. Enter Father Gascoigne. I don’t think he made me quit playing the game as the Cleric Beast did, but he must have come close on a few occasions. His battle-ax when transformed had ridiculous range and power, as well as knocking you off your feet. When in its original form he could deal devastating combos that ended the fight. Once you got through these phases, comes his beast stage. Well, if you thought the first two phases were difficult you’re in for an entirely different shock. Here, he can end the fight in 2 or 3 seconds by charing, clawing, and pinning you helplessly to awkwardly positioned tombstones. The feeling of finally beating him was one that still lives with me to this day, and I doubt will ever be replicated in any gaming moment.

Few other bosses in the main story came close to causing as much trouble as Gascoigne (the chalice dungeons were something else), but the others that I did find particularly difficult were Vicar Amalia, Rom the Varacous Spider, and Martyr Logarius. Of these 3, Logarius was particularly difficult and in the end, I need to summon another player through the in-game multiplayer system to help me out. Whilst this does make the fight easier, it doubles the boss’s health, so there is a trade-off. It’s funny now, looking back at how much trouble I had with these bosses. When I go back I can often beat them without sustaining many hits at all. Therein lies the joy of these games, the learning curve is immense but highly satisfying when you ‘master’ it.

Similar to Dark Souls, there is no specific build-related trophies, so you can play through the game with whatever character you like. I opted for an arcane (magic) – skill build. This allowed the use of a lot of the game’s faster weapons, but also let me use hunter tools. These are powerful items that act similarly as spells in Dark Souls. Additionally, I wanted to use Logarius’ Wheel as I thought it looked fun, so I loosely followed this guide. It was quite a fun build, and I would recommend it. Although, late game you probably want to swap it out for something like the Holy Moonlight Sword or Ludwigs Holy Blade. 

Most of the remaining trophies in Bloodborne will come from natural progression. You do need to acquire all of the hunter tools. These are periodically located throughout the world so perhaps consider using the mini-guide on psnprofiles if you don’t tend to check every corner. Additionally, there are optional areas in Bloodborne with optional bosses, so if you are not overly thorough with your exploration you may miss them. Again, consider consulting a guide for this.

The real test for the Bloodborne platinum comes when you attempt to collect the Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen trophy. Here, you just traverse the chalice dungeons, Bloodborne’s end game content. These consist of multi-layered dungeons with bosses situated at the end of each layer. To reach the Pthumerian Queen you must make your was through at least 6 chalice dungeons, all with up to 4 layers each. In these it is very easy to get lost, so if you just want to get it over with you could consult a guide, but I recommend playing through at your own pace to get the full experience. It can, at times, feel harrowing and hopeless, but that only increases the sense of triumph when you come out the other end. For the best success rate, I suggest a highly beefed up character and a +10 level weapon enhanced with potent ruins. Whilst the bosses are high in number, some are a lot more difficult than others. Some that caused me immense pain were the Abhorrent Beast, Bloodletting Beast, and Keeper of the Old Lords. 

The Abhorrent Beast caused me so much trouble, that I rage quit the game and gave up on the platinum trophy for the second time. I took an extended break and came back to the game some time in 2019. Here, I pushed back through the dungeons after playing through the amazing DLC to actually remember how to play. The second last dungeon that you need to traverse is called the Defiled Dungeon. In this nightmarish place, you are cursed upon entry and resigned to a max of 50% HP. Whoever though this to be a great idea, I’d like a quiet word with you. It was in this dungeon that I ran across the Keeper of the Old Lords. Whilst she wasn’t as difficult as some of the other bosses mentioned, her devastatingly fast attacks and AOD caused me hours of frustration. Add to that the curse of half HP and you’re not going to have a good time. After this, things didn’t really let up as I ran in to the Bloodletting Beast. A towering figure that just annihilated me over and over again. This time though, I wasn’t going to give up. Instead, I resorted to heading to the Reddit forums again and asked for some help. I mean, the game is designed in this way, so I didn’t feel too guilty. I had put that many hours in I was ready for my platinum trophy.

I finally reached the Pthumerian Queen, and whilst she isn’t exactly easy, she could be considered a walk in the park in comparison to some of the others along the way. The fight took me probably 4-5 attempts, but I finally did it. I had obtained all the trophies in Bloodborne. Platinum completed.