Bloodborne Every Weapon Playthrough.

I want to play through this game with basically every weapon/playstyle. Always from NG if it's easy to get to, but if it is buried in late game or DLC then I'll do it as a NG+. Reviewing them as I go along.

Goal is all bosses on each run.

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AMYGDALAN ARM - Weird hitboxes galore. Hammer state has deceptively short range but can sometime hit further then you think. Both forms are pretty weak, and the delay on the long form make it bad for running around with, but long form is great for cheesing, due to it's length. Despite short range, hammer form is great for staggering human sized enemies, made short work of Maria for example. Overall pretty meh and difficult to use sometimes, patience is required. 36 Deaths, NG, 5th weapon.

BEAST CLAW - Pretty unstoppable. Highest DPS of any weapon. I didn't use much of the 1 handed move set, but there is little need to parry. As long as you're always going balls deep you'll kill anything before it can kill you. Melted most bosses. My only annoyence really is constantly having to spend insight to keep the damage as high as possible. Has no great crowd control options, but its pretty fast, when shit goes bad you can still get away. Wouldn't use it without high stamina, the never ending stream of attacks makes this weapon amazing. Doesn't need buffs but has them anyway, if nothing else they are pretty stylish. So long as you know the game pretty well, nothing is much of any issue. If you want to one hand it is more then viable as it's also a quality weapon, so viscerals are still good damage. 17 Deaths, NG+, 26th weapon.

BEASTERHUNTER SAIF - Probably one of the best weapons. Small form has amazing speed, damage and stagger, not to mention a great step in on it's first attack in a combo. Works well with its transform attack, as this allows you to back step immediately with a broad swing. The transform attacks build a lot of beasthood, so bosses like Ludwig and Lawrence just get deleted, since it is also buffable and has the +20% to beasts. Speed and stagger of small form and the step in makes it ideal for enemy hunters. No hunter in the game was difficult with this weapon. On top of all this it is a quality weapon, so you still get great visceral damage. Large form is ok, its slow but has great range, but once you have the stamina for a long series of attacks with the small form it is all I used. Pretty fucking good. 14 Deaths, NG, 25th weapon.

"I TOLDCHU NIG" - Andre, reminding me when he told me how good it was.

BEAST CUTTER - Easy to get but not all that great, range on transformed mode is great for crowd control for weak enemies, but not much else. Weapon is super slow in general and damage in late game is pretty bad. 36 Deaths, NG, 8th weapon.

BLADE OF MERCY - Hard to get and hard to start, good idea to farm the DLC area and get it to +7 ASAP. Then the weapon gets really good. Transformed R1 is good for staggering, using dash attacks and running heavy attacks are also very good. S skill scaling is also very nice. 32 Deaths, NG, 4th weapon.

BLOODLETTER - Wasn't expecting this weapon to be this good. The health cost of the transformation is low, and the range, damage and stagger of the transformed mode is great. Charged attacks with it aren't amazing but transformed has good range and knockback. Wouldn't use this weapon for the base form though, once you have the bloodtinge you probably always want it transform. Excellent rally, but no buffs available. Goes well with lead elixir, just as Brador uses it so you can always get your health back. Very good for taking out hunters. 17 Deaths, NG+, 24th weapon.

Might help if you remember to put gems in it before you get to Micolash...

BOOM HAMMER - Really limited moveset, and very slow. Free fire buff is nice, but annoying to reapply after every attack. Good damage and buffed R2 is amazing, almost as high in damage as fully charged R2 but a lot faster and great for crowd control. Weapon in general is great for ambushing groups. Managed to ragdoll beast boi OoB with a full charge R2. For some reason has low durability and I accidently beat Mergo's Wet Nurse and Ludwig with a half broken weapon. Praise the R2, good weapon. 27 Deaths, NG, 15th weapon.

BURIAL BLADE - Stylish af, I don't think another weapon has animations better then this one. Damage to stamina use on base form is great and it has a lot of wide sweeping moves. Dash attacks have a lot of reach and are quite fancy. Scythe form has great reach and spin to win R2. Pretty fast with decent stamina use, but late game it was never worth the trade off against the base form. In NG+ plus the damage is probably considered average though. 10 Deaths, NG+, 19th weapon.

CHIKAGE - Good weapon with great damage output, no good for staggering enemies though, and uses a lot of stamina per swing, with super average range. Good build to use guns with, finished OoK and Maria with Evelyn (lol). Bloodstate is great for when you know you can't parry and only killed me twice! 77 Deaths, NG, 6th weapon.

CHURCH PICK - It's pretty good. Good damage on top of hidden buffs and is buffable. Transformed full charge R2 is good but the follow up is better, more then viseral. Both states first move is not great for crowd control, but the follows are "ok". Range on transformed state is great. Both have good move sets for 1v1 fights, transformed is actually faster then some other hunter weapons in their base state. Overall really good, but hard to judge as it's the first NG+ run. Sleeper hit, wasn't expecting much from it. 9 Deaths, NG+, 17th weapon.

HOLY MOONLIGHT SWORD - Slow but great damage, transformed mode novelty wears off, but good damage for the bullet use. Normal form R2 into follow up instead of viseral is incredibly good (2700 total damage on OoK @ level 90~). R2 poke destroys everything and stagger most human sized enemies consistently, because of high scaling with 3 stats the attack gets very high. High stamina use is a big downside, but towards end of game all I used was the R2 poke. 23 Deaths, NG, 9th weapon.

HUNTER AXE - Spin 2 win. Great damage and great rally, but uses a lot of stamina. A decent bully, but not quite the bully of the Ammy Arm. Overall the easiest playthrough by far. 19 Deaths, NG, 7th weapon.

KIRKHAMMER - Good for stringing together light attacks, low stamina use. Hammer is almost useless but good for surprises. 94 Deaths, NG, 3rd weapon.

KOS PARASITE (NG+) - Probably the hardest weapon to use? Attacks are slow and weird, damage isn't great, despite S scaling, probably due to only having 1 stat to scale on... AoE attack is great, especially for mobs, but against bosses, not so great, but really easy to hit with, the range on it is good. Very little rally and damage output, almost impossible to kill lawrence and one reborn. Was looking forward to using it but it doesn't hold up well in NG+. Once is enough. 25 Deaths, NG+, 20th weapon.

LOGARIUS WHEEL - Amazing damage, at the cost of high stamina use. Hitbox is better and worse then you think at times. Generally short, but can hit very wide. Rally is terrible, but it has really good stagger, if you can keep it up. If you're getting hit through your attacks then you will need to back off to heal. Charged R2 has insane knockback which is fun, but the weapon overall is slow, it's easy to get hit in your combo, even if you are staggering what you're hitting. Transformed state is not great, at 4 revs an ok damage boost, but my arcane was low (~22). In this run it wasn't worth it since you have to split your stats so much if you're not grinding. Overall really good and definatley fun. With high arcane, probably OP. 29 Deaths, NG, 22nd weapon.

"if you arent good, dont bother with arcane, or maybe not. We arent good with numbers" - Norgath

LUDWIG'S HOLY BLADE - Super strong, similar to Moonlight Great Sword. Because it has high base damage and good scaling the damage is amazing. Normal sword form has good stamina to damage ratio and you can get in a lot of attacks. Great form has high stamina use, best use of this form is the fully charged R2 if you can get it off along with the follow up. Jumping heavy attack with the Great form is also worth a mention for the damage. All in all good but really cumbersome and the Ludwig rifle is terrible. 27 Deaths, NG, 18th weapon.

RAKUYO - Probably the best weapon in the game. Spin to win is great, regular R1 spam when transformed is great. On top of great damage for stamina, it's also buffable. Untransformed moveset is not as good as transformed. Skill build means it is amazing for viceral attacks as well. It pretty much as everything. The only problem is fucking getting it... 10 Deaths, NG+, 23rd Weapon.

REITERPALLASCH - Fancy af, skill weapons are nice for the good visceral damage. Low stamina use, handy to have thrust and slash on the different modes. Goes well with Evelyn. Low range on gun form, and sometimes rapier form will miss up close. 32 Deaths, NG, 11th Weapon.

RIFLE SPEAR - Pretty terrible in general, but the thrust is good against some enemies/bosses. Truly average at +10, +60% damage and 50 skill. Gun is useless. All quick attacks are low powered, transformed charge attack has massive charge time and good damage but alerts enemies when stepping towards them. 14 Deaths, NG, 13th weapon.

SAW CLEAVER - Decent, but rarely used transformed state, but sometimes good for poking. 122 Deaths, NG, 2nd weapon.

SAW SPEAR - Saw Cleaver clone with a few new moves, transformed state is sometimes "ok" for poking but too slow otherwise. Transforming attacks are the best way to use it. Nice low stamina use on base state, and 1 handed in boths forms. Without transforming attacks it has pretty low damage, and terrible scaling. Very nice serrated damage. 16 Deaths, NG, 12th weapon.

SIMON'S BOWBLADE - No complaints, good range and damage. Bow form is pretty strong, nice to have a good long range attack. Sword form has fairly wide attacks for good crowd control. Disappointing L2 in bow form. Pretty terrible rally, really can't be relied on to regain HP. Damage on the weapon is good despite the split build, but I'd have liked to get to a higher level with it. Chews through bullets (and thus blood vials) really quickly, a lot of souls spent keeping these up, which would have been better spend on leveling. Don't know why it isn't buffable... Despite complaints, still really good. 35 Deaths, NG, 21st weapon.

STAKE DRIVER - Meme punch is situational, can never follow up and sometimes damage is terrible, especially compared to viceral. Low damage across the board until late game when it becomes good. Despite scaling, may as well spec for skill. It's buffable which is nice (and kind of surprising). Almost 0 range, which is fustrating at times, but good for bully at end game (RIP Maria). Each form has its own uses, unlike other weapons, even if the meme punch isn't always useful. 34 Deaths, NG, 14th weapon.

THREADED CANE - I thought this was going to be worse then it was. I used this before when I rushed through trying to get the Chikage and didn't really enjoy it, but actually it's pretty decent. Chain form is great for bully and crowd control and normal cane form has low stamina use. Being buffable saves this weapon IMO. Pure skill weapon means it's great against enemies you can parry, and you can pour all your stats into skill and HP. 18 deaths, NG, 10th weapon.

TONITRUS - Surprisingly good, shame the buff doesn't last longer, but at least you don't have to buff constantly like the Boom Hammer. What it lacks in different moves, it makes up for in damage. Transform attack is good, but pretty slow. Range is a little short but alright. All in all pretty top tier and lets you use hunter tools as well :ok_hand:. 23 Deaths, NG, 16th Weapon.

WHIRLIGIG SAW - First weapon I mained, seems amazing? Great damage output. All hail the pizza cutter. ~200 deaths, NG, 1st weapon.

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Hunter tools and guns only really get use if they match the build with the weapon. I will probably never use them on their own.

As a side note, I did want to learn the all bosses speedrun of this game. As of writing this should help with that, but I would not be surprised if it doesn't end up happening. I should stop the above project too if it stops being a labour of love, but I had such a good time with the game the first time around, I wanted an excuse to play it for a long time.

Let me know if you think there is something I need to add/clarify/consider.

Thanks for reading!

Cerb.