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-- Beasthood Guide and Explanation -
+- Beasthood Guide and Explanation 2.0 -
 
-There is currently no "Beast Mode" or way to transform into a beast beyond what you already get with the Beast Claw weapon in trick mode. The trailer for the expansion The Old Hunters shows what is either a beast mode or some other change to the beasthood mechanic, so it's worth knowing how it all works at least.
+So you killed Laurence and farmed your way through chalice dungeons for a shiny new set of Claws, and now you want to know what that little meter at the top of the screen does. Because somehow, despite the game being out for nine months now, the majority of people still don't know how beasthood works. But that's okay, because this guide is here to give you entirely too much information on the subject when you could just be mashing R1 instead for exactly the same effect.
 
-AS it is now, beasthood increases your weapon's physical damage and reduces all your defenses based on how much beasthood you have at that moment. Note that this has nothing to do with maxing out the bar, but at what point the meter itself is at. Filling the bar doesn't actually do anything, and the length of your beasthood bar (equal to beasthood stat) simply determines the highest breakpoint you can reach. As you fill the meter and pass each breakpoint, your weapon's physical damage will increase and your defense stats will decrease.
+First and foremost, let's quell an enduring rumor: contrary to what you've heard, maxing the beasthood meter doesn't actually do anything. Do not pay any heed to how close that bar is to the end, because hitting that point will not affect your damage in any way. Instead, focus on hitting things enough to keep the bar rising, because your physical damage increases and defense decreases as the meter rises and passes certain breakpoints.
 
 Breakpoints are:
 1 beasthood : +20% phys damage, -20% all defenses
 25 beasthood: +30% phys damage, -30% all defenses
 50 beasthood: +40% phys damage, -40% all defenses
 100 beasthood: +50% phys damage, -50% all defenses
 200 beasthood: +60% phys damage, -60% all defenses
 300 beasthood: +70% phys damage, -80% all defenses
 
-All of these changes can be seen in the character stat screen. There are (currently) no further breakpoints after 300. Note that beasthood only boosts physical damage, so it's entirely useless on an Arcane build. Also, since visceral attacks count as physical damage done with your weapon (even though they don't use the weapon's own stats), it'll boost those as well just like the gems do.
+For example, let's say you have 400 beasthood, you've got the claws out, and you don't see the meter because it's currently at zero. So you hit something and a tiny sliver of beasthood goes into your meter. Right at this point, with just that tiny sliver, you now have a +20% bonus to your weapon's physical damage. If you were to claw stuff all the way up to 300 beasthood, you've have the +70% damage boost even though the meter isn't filled. And if you were to completely fill the meter, you'd still have just the +70% damage boost because there isn't anything after the 300 breakpoint.
 
-Before beasthood can be used, you must first "activate" it by either consuming a Beast Blood Pellet item or using the trick mode of the Beast Claw weapon. While beasthood is active, a visible aura effect can be seen around your character that resembles greyish/yellow smoke, and your character will give off a constant hissing noise. During this time, any attacks made with your right-hand weapon will cause a meter to appear at the top of your screen and slowly fill with each hit, much like poison or frenzy. While you have any beasthood in the meter, the aura effect changes to look more intense and grey tufts of fur can be seen coming off it.
+Second: if you're running an Arcane build, stay the hell away from beasthood since it doesn't affect arcane, fire, or bolt damage and using it would only give you the defense penalties. As for bloodtinge builds, I know beasthood doesn't modify bullet damage but don't know if it boosts blood-based melee attacks. This guide will be updated later when I get around to making a bloodtinge build. Basically, beasthood is only really worth considering for strength and skill builds. Strength builds will use it to make their R1 spam disgustingly lethal, and skill builds will use it because the beasthood bonus also applies to visceral attacks and, along with three Clawmark runes and 50 skill, will let them dish out a fucking 5-digit visceral.
 
-As a rule, R1 attacks build the least amount of beasthood per hit, and R2, L1 (transformation attacks), and L2 (two-handed special attacks) build more beasthood per hit, often more than enough to make up for the difference in attack speed. Weapons with an uncharged R2 attack chain like the Saw Cleaver in cleaver mode or Threaded Cane in whip mode can build up beasthood very quickly due to this. The Kirkhammer and Ludwig's Holy Blade have a special property where their two-handed R1 attacks build up beasthood as fast as R2 attacks with other weapons, allowing them to generate beasthood at alarming speeds. Weapons with multi-hit heavy attacks like Logarius' Wheel will build up beasthood at a truly preposterous rate, often maxing out a meter of 300 in about 5 seconds, however the Logarius' Wheel does mostly arcane damage while in its trick mode so it won't be able to take advantage of the beasthood benefits until you switch it back to its physical wheel mode.
+So how much beasthood do you want if 300 is the last breakpoint? You actually want slightly more than 300, probably about 350. Since the meter is constantly depleting, if you were to have exactly 300 beasthood then your +70% bonus would only last the half second it takes for the meter to drop from 300 to 299, meaning you'd never really get that sweet 10% more damage. Having the extra 50 gives you time to dodge or recover stamina when you aren't mashing R1, because believe it or not there are some situations where just pressing R1 can get you killed. There is a reason to have more than 350 beasthood if you want it, though; having over 600 is exceptionally useful for PvE when you want the maximum bonus to carry over between enemy encounters. But if you don't expect to need any beasthood after killing whatever's directly in front of you, such as with PvP or if you're using a Beast Blood Pellet, then 350 is exactly enough for your purposes.
 
-Beast Blood Pellets allow you to build up beasthood with any weapon, but only have a duration of 60 seconds. Once the duration ends, the meter will completely empty and disappear, along with any bonuses and penalties you may have gained. When using Pellets, there is very little reason to have more than 350 beasthood since just getting to 300 in the first place will likely take the better part of its duration, and the effect itself won't last for more than one fight. The extra 50 is so you don't dip under 300 while dodging attacks from a boss or something.
+So now that we know why we want the meter to go higher, how do we go about doing that? It's just a little bit more complicated than simply hitting things. How much beasthood you gain per attack depends on what type of attack you use and what type of weapon you're doing the attacking with. Heavy attacks like R2s, L1 attacks, and L2s (for weapons with a two-handed trick mode) will produce more beasthood than light attacks like R1s and dodge attacks, and large weapons like the Kirkhammer and Ludwig's Holy Blade in trick mode will generate more beasthood per hit than smaller weapons like the Threaded Cane or Blade of Mercy. Weapons with attacks that hit multiple times will give beasthood off each individual hit, so something like the Whirligig Saw or Logarius' Wheel can boost the meter at an alarming rate with their multi-hit R2s and L2s. The one exception to this rule is the Beast Claw while Beast's Embrace is equipped: on its own the Beast Claw is pretty terrible at building beasthood compared to something like Ludwig's Holy Blade, but with the new oath rune it gets a massive bonus to beasthood per hit and, combined with its naturally fast attack speed, makes it easily among the best weapons to use with beasthood, second only to the Whirligig Saw.
 
-The Beast Claw is a special weapon that grants an indefinite beasthood effect with its trick mode, allowing the damage boost to potentially last from the beginning of an area all the way through to its boss. The downside to this is that the Beast Claw is kind of a terrible weapon. On the other hand, you can simply use the claws to build up a good amount of beasthood, then switch to a better weapon like the Kirkhammer. You will not continue to gain beasthood while using a different weapon, but the damage gains (and defense drops) will persist until the meter fully depletes, but you can always switch back to the claws and build it up again. While using Beast Claws, it's perfectly reasonable to run around with 500 or more beasthood since, even though there are no breakpoints after 300, filling up the meter past that point gives it more time to deplete without going under 300. This allows you to go from enemy encounter to enemy encounter while maintaining maximum beasthood effects.
+Speaking of beasthood and other weapons, let's briefly go over Beast Blood Pellets. These things will let you gain beasthood with any weapon in the game instead of just the Beast Claw, but their duration is limited to only a minute. Any strength or skill build can benefit from using them though, and even if your weapon is some foppish noble's toothpick like a Reiterpallasch it'll still get a +20% damage boost after just one attack. And if your weapon is something massive like the Kirkhammer, I want you to take a moment and consider what 1,700 AR means against that one chalice boss you've been having trouble against. Beast Blood Pellets can be bought for Insight after you find the Cosmic Eye Watcher Badge, or they can be farmed off Scourge Beasts fairly consistently in the lower half of Old Yharnam.
 
-Note that Beast Blood Pellets and the Beast Claw do not "stack". They won't cause you to gain double beasthood or anything like that, and all that really happens is the Pellet's timer overwrites the Claw's own effect, causing your meter to suddenly disappear after 60 seconds and undo all your hard work.
+Please RHEE responsibly.