Feel free to check out my short series on Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon if you enjoyed this! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpeEqpar1qeVf3k.html

The first time you prepare and consume a food, they give you a permanent upgrade to stats. Some even boost your xp gain.

11th thing: DISMANTLE ONE OF THE UNI RICE BOWLS YOU GET IN A QUEST EARLY ON. This gives you easy access to soy sauce at the start of the game, as opposed to basically at the end.

I wish I would have known that fully upgraded yellow shards are ALWAYS enabled even if you don't have them equipped.

Don’t buy potions. Farm the crafting materials from the morte and the bat right outside your home building in town. This is especially efficient later in the game after you’ve acquired a much better weapon.

“I stuck with the first shard I got...well because I liked it and also because change is scary” lmao that’s how I felt at the beginning of this game.

10 hours in and i didnt even know there was a farm

A lot of dead ends have breakable walls with good loot inside

Collecting other copies of one shard improving the 'grade' was one I figured out way too late, selling seemingly excess copies for a while before realising 'oh shit'.

1. Farm enemies until you get all the shards and items at least once. Helps finding items later and gives you more options. 2. Having more than one /duplicate/ shards increases damage or other effects depending on the shards. 3. Invest a build for luck while playing the game to get more shards and items and another for bosses focusing on DPS 4. Food PERMANENTLY increases stats for player. 5. Familiars are very subjective but the fairy is best for healing 6. Some weapons types are actually useless. Worst to best /Dagger, whip, gun, katana, lance, G sword, short sword/ 7. Don’t be ashamed for not researching spawn item and locations /this game fails to give players directions IN ORDER/ 8. Archers are best directional shard that can easily be upgraded by farming in early/mid game 9. Make sure to speak to all NPCs just in case 10. Make a build for a specific weapon type early on to maximize weapons /short sword is good for early/mid game 11. Save Save Save 12. Techniques are NOT WORTH IT 13. NEITHER ARE QUESTS

One obscure tip I can give is to craft the "Gondo-Shizunori" Spear as soon as possible, as it has a technique that works wonders for getting places quickly before you get Accelerator.

My tips are: Shards: You level up the effects in two ways. By levelling the shard with items at Johannes and by having more of the same shard. The one you get from the cannon enemies in the galleon at the start can be made v potent for the early game. Boss doors. A red door with a sort of spiky appearance is a boss door. Don't blunder in when you are not well prepared. ;)

Yellow shards change to white category at rank 9. Just now found that out with kick expertise. That means you unequip it and move onto a new yellow shard while still maintaining the bonus. This is huge because all of the bonuses look trivial and pointless by themselves (like con up and mnd up) until you realize they can all stack at once. I'm not 100% sure how this works but since the yellow "version" of the new white shard still exists, i believe that means you can also still increase the grade afterwards if for example you maxed a rank on a yellow shard before maxing its grade. But again, i didnt test or research that so i'm only assuming its the case.

Step 1: grab a 2 handed weapon Step 2: jump Step 3: attack while falling Step 4: press the dodge button as you touch the ground Step 5: immediately jump again Step 6: rinse and repeat Congratulations, you are now attacking stronger, faster, and staying Mobile at the same time. This literally carried me through the beginning of the game.

If you find yourself running into opponents and taking damage bcoz you're using a short ranged weapon, try sliding into them (down+jump). The slide move will hit the opponent and make you stop just outside their hitbox

Best tip: Do not waste this awesome game by watching a walk through. Explore!

Of the PS4 games I have, Bloodstained is my favorite. I look forward to the sequel.

One thing that hangs a LOT of people up: Swimming in this game is tied to a Shard, and it's NOT from a Boss. So be extra sure to kill anything that swims when you encounter it until it drops a Shard. It's real easy to miss this key ability and be stuck in "Bad Ending Land".

In the same method of bookshelves, the warp room paintings also mean something as well. I forgot exactly which one was which but they will indicate a boss battle coming up story progress or just a connection I think

A little add on to one of your tips, if you get a shard that changes how you can explore things, it may be best to go back and use those abilities youve gotten

Well structured and informative. I found this really helpful, thanks.

You forgot to check all the walls trying to destroy them because sometimes they're destructible and have high level weapon and hp and mp upgrades and until later in the game you get the shard to see breakable walls but by that time you already miss a lot of weapons and armors that would have been helpful in the beginning of the game

Welcome Company is a great shard for exploring and looking for hidden walls.

Just got the game yesterday. Very excited to figure out what I'm doing. The galleon seems massive, but knowing Iga, I've barely scratched the surface

I’m 90 mins into the game and very glad I came across this video! Thank you for making it. I’m confused as to what to do with the alchemy (making and breaking apart stuff) but I guess that’ll become more clear as I go through the game.

Just started playing the game and this video helped a lot, thanks! Here's a time stamp for the tips : 1:23 ATK speed is more important than DMG 2:34 Crafted items are purchasable 3:28 Try something different 4:12 Exploration is key 4:51 No skipping 5:31 Save file names 6:13 Is that a JoJo reference? 6:52 Unlimited blue chest!!! 7:42 Portable warp points 8:25 Bookshelves

I really love this game so far. I just started playing it again after starting a year ago. This is helpful, I appreciate it!

Thanks, i'm just about to play this (I bought it on release day ps4 ) and have yet opened it. I have been binging out on all the metroidvania gba and ds titles. I'm about to jam out this weekend.

i still dont use healing and i came back to the town by an item so do i have to run all the way to the point i was at?

This may not be groundbreaking KZfaq content, but since I just got this game, am starting a blind playthrough, and am trying to remain spoiler free, I really was happy that I came across this. I beat everything in the Minerva ship starting area, but couldn't figure out some jump / map filling so I came to youtube to try to find the info, but spoiler free and this was a suggested video. Thanks for making it. The Blue Chests refilling and starting with a different name can net you different starting items will help. Now to start over again. RIP my last hour of grinding shards and drops from all the enemies on the ship.

Such a spectacular game, and i keep discovering more. Thanks so much for the video, and the comments here are so helpful as well ❤🖤

I did my first playthrough blind, accidentally sequence broke my way to Bloodless after getting the double jump, forgot all about the Tower of Twin Dragons and got stuck for a while when I saw narrow passages I needed Ray Reflector to get through. I also damage boosted my way into the Oriental Sorcery Laboratory, used pretty much all my healing items in the process, and didn't find the Aegis Plate until much later on when I was using the Accelerator and High Jump to fill in the map.

Omg. I didn't think you'd tell me anything new lol. Can i drop a few tips? 1. Test every shard until you get a feel for your style. 2. Don't be afraid to enter and leave a room to kill an enemy by the door for shards or materials (like beast milk). 3. Some shards can be upgrades into new shards without losing the old ones. Make sure to check the last tab at your Alchemist. 4. Once you get the Shortcut shard, you can build loadouts (by going into your menu and using the new option). Once you have 2 or more you can multi-conjure. Press triangle to cast and immediately change loadouts. If the new loadout has a different Conjure, you will cast it as well. The only limit is the number of loadouts. 5. Some weapons teach techniques unique to the weapon type. Once you master it, the ability is available for all weapons of that type. Try every Street Fighter special you know. 6. This game is a spiritual successor to the Symphony of the Night series. There are homages everywhere, like the background music for one place being from Zelda.

Great vid, just started today!

A lot of people get stuck in the water area, (including myself) and the game doesn't really make clear that the only way to progress is to get a shard from a fish enemy to navigate around.

Well even though the extra character modes aren't released yet, there's always Shovel Knight Mode, a Game mode where you must use The Ex Shovel Armour to play it properly, but there's blocked paths so switch armours using shortcut. Even though the cutscenes are somewhat A Godly Sight, like the First Boss cutscene (Shovel Knight On Ice)

I wish I knew how important techniques are. I had the same problem with spells in SotN. I try to focus too much on melee combat, for better or worse. I blame it on starting with Castlevania 1. Same thing with using shard attacks; I try to be conservative with the “special “ attacks in games.

When in the game are you able to get various weapons and even increase your hp?

1:26 you can actually have the best of both worlds, when Landing after being airborne your animations are canceled which means you can rapid attack by bunny hopping, whips are the best to use with this strategy because they come out instantly with high damage.

A few of these things I learned when playing the game, but I didn't know about the name thing, and also skipped enemies( I'm at the last boss without enough healing items and now I need to grind for food). This is my favourite game at the moment😁

If you stand on the roof of the train with welcome company activated, you will break the lanterns you pass and most of them drop 100g coins. You can make a lot of money just by staying there.

I had so much trouble on the final boss and all the optional bosses, then I leveled up the Chisel... whatever knife throwing weapon you get from the carpenter boss. Then for the rest of the game it was Hold zR to win. Was super easy.

For number two: It's not really something you miss unless you skip the dialogue. They literally say that every crafted item is available in the shop, once they have been crafted.

I've been playing this on Switch for over a year, and I'm watching this video amazed that the games textures actually look this good. I think I'm gonna get this on steam too now.

What is the music you used in the video? Its so relaxing, it calmed me down so good.

The tip i "discovered" midthrough the game : cooking and eating a new cooked meal permanently boost your stats. For (fictive) example, with an apple, you can make apple pie, which gives +1 atk, or apple juice, which gives +1% mp regen. You can make as many apple pies or juices you want, you'll get only +1 atk for the first apple pie and +1% mp regen for the first apple juice. Eating / drinking meals already eaten / drunk will only restore some HP, acting like a standard potion. The game show you two pannels when you select food : the benefits of eating / drinking it for the first time, and the total of bonuses you have so far thanks to this system. Personnally i boosted mp regen and luck with recipes (but you can boost all stats). Game went easier.

The weapon shortcut wheel, you could have up to 8 different combinations of shards, items, equipment and familiars on the fly.

Of all the tips on here, I knew them rather quickly or at least by the midway... except the JoJo pose. I like this game all the more now. Obviously not your usual style, but this was an excellent video. Useful tips with some humor without sounding elitist.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THE JOJO REF i was like why does her legs gets closer when i press up so i holded it and awakening started playing XD

Way late comment but I am currently playing it and yes it started slow but now I am doing well. I am just level grinding. I just wanted to know if you have all the shards/weapons transferred over in new game + after you complete the game?

Fast level up: when you are in the 8bit game, theres a place filled with zombies (near the end). Use Invert and farm easily.

Another one i'd say is to read all the bookcase books that you come across, some have special input codes for some weapons and it really helps diversify battles. Some even have REALLY strong moves that you can't really find anywhere else

"This game is influenced by Castlevania and the best Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow,... I mean, Order of Ecclesia. I mean Symphony of the Night." Jokes aside. In my case Symphony of the Night was not the first one i played. I played Aria first, well actually it was Circle of the Moon. Aria and Order of Ecclesia also make important changes and upgrades to the Castlevania formula that Bloodstained continues to build on. I've played 7 Castlevania games, each many times over. So that defiantly benefited my play through. I was able to beat this game without any big confusion or frustration, but even still i had to check the internet twice, once for how to get the true ending, and how to get the armor that makes you invincible to spikes. There are lots of ways to beat this game in terms of strategy and items you use. I used the "corellian splash" for most of the game up until the last 3 bosses, or as i call it, little water splasher, and then i switched to the "massive black lazer" thing. There are so many items i didn't take advantage of on my first playthrough but still highly enjoyable. Zogetsu is a frustratingly difficult boss on your first playtrhough, even if you have lots of castlevania experience. When that happens i just keep leveling up until i can beat him. Super fun game. Still discovering more hidden items and areas. If you have never played castlevania i would recommend checking the internet for where to find good items. i just changed myself because i already get a lot about these games. I used the internet a lot on my second play through on hard mode, which i am enjoying even more, discovering so many hidden items and weapons i didn't know about. my first playthoguh i mostly used the "bloodless" sword. or something like that. at one point i switched to the fire spear. You can beat the game just by leveling up and you don't have to worry about all the items. But yeah you will have to use Carabosa and her potions, or get the Regenerate shard from Johanis. You really need that extra health for the bosses. and the formula for the Ex Potion is in the Hall of Termination, and that was one of the items i didn't even know existed until my second play-through.

Stupid question. On ps4 how do I bring up a keyboard to type a name when starting a new game? I don’t want it to be Miriam but I can’t seem to type a new one

The advice that I would give to a Novice player of bloodstained, is to first complete Castlevania Symphony of the Night.... then treat blood-stained as a sequel...👍

How much it takes from Order of Ecclesia and Dawn of Sorrow games.

What about a bookshelf makes you safe when you have low health?

Small tip, Don't hestate to sell all your items to get your hands on the 16 bit. Fire axe... It, is very good...

Wow, thanks. I only discovered on my own is her pose(hold up button)

omg THAT BOOKSHELF TIP WOULD HAVE BEEN AWESOME HALF A HOUR AGO WHEN I DIED BECAUSE I COULDN'T FIND A SAVE/TELEPORT ROOM >_

Daggers ? Not in Bloodstained, but in Symphony of the Night, the Baselard you get in Alchemy Laboratory is my weapon of choice until the Alucart sword (for luck boost) or Alucard sword (i hate grinding for rare weapons). If i grind it is more for the Werewolf Bane, due to its multi hits special attack (and higher drop chance than Crissaegrim, chakrams, flying blade or whatever strong weapon).

I've played SOTN and these tips are honestly pretty accurate

thank you, started this game earlier :D

Why would I buy / craft more than one of each armour / weapon?

I never played an Castle vania game, and i would realy get into it,should i buy The remastered collection of Symphonie of the night ( and anothet old castlevania game) or should i start with bloodstained?

I have different setups in that wheel based on mobility, speed, strength, and distance

OMG The first frame my nightmare already..... XD this video cannot go wrong :D 10 secs into the vid

Man this game was hard , haven’t died so many times in a game in a long time . Finally reached last boss only to be slaughted because didn’t have enough potions and food .

Should you sell shards in the beginning? What’s the point in keeping them? Two hours in is all.

Can you come back and do another video, I think this game got an update since than

Thanks for this video shame I only realised most of these tips after playing for hours last night and not progressing very much. The only tip that didn't help as much is you never listed the "cheat code" names that you need for the bonus material. Otherwise a great video I wish I'd seen before starting the game ...oh well at least I have another gaming channel I enjoy watching now so that's good. Thanks John.

Lol OK you got me with seed farm bit 🤣

sowrds? daggers? hah casuals XD i use ...feet lul

Will we be able to move more agile in the later stage? This game is hard only because our limited movement, I think. Coming from Ori and the will of the wisps, Miriam moves sooooooooo.... Clunky and awkward..... I know I know they are different genre (git guuuudddd MEH), but still Miriam needs to move more agile to avoid attacks. That samurai early boss can move fast and attack all direction while I beat him while jump and attacking forward in such a mechanical way...

I just picked up the game for the first time today and so far got as far as just beating the second boss (guy with katana). I picked up an 8bit coin and went back to town and did a bit of shopping before the 2nd boss game and saw the list of weapons and thought "Oh cool a shield I've seen there seems to be 2 slots for weapon that would be handy to have a sword and shield", but nope! It's a shield that I attack with. In fairness I destroyed the katana boss because the shield is kinda awesome in early game, fast (but short) attacks that have a block mechanic after, so most of his swings were just completely blocked.

I just downowaded the game last night and it automatically unlocked all the extra modes before I even pressed the out of the title screen

i just got the game now waiting for my game pad before downloading

I’m just about to finish my first playthrough of this with 100% map completion. I think it’s a fantastic game. My only issue is that I had to consult a guide several times to progress. I don’t think I would have ever naturally found my way to the good ending of the game. There’s just no chance. I had to consult a guide like 3-4 times when I was flat out stuck. But hey it’s a challenge I guess. Overall I think it’s a great game

Bloodstained is my first Castlevania style game

thank you!!

I love the castlevania metroidvania games particularly symphony of the night, aria of sorrow and dawn of sorrow those last two make so much of the foundation of bloodstained , gaining abilities from enemies , having diffferent “built” or sets you can use, and different categories that abilities fall under ( these games have 3 an aggressive , a progress and a passive ability where as bloodstained have 5 a lil much IMO but not a gamebreaker) but for some reason bloodstained didn’t just scratch the same itch these games did for me. On paper bloodstained is basically just an improved and enhanced version of these titles , with more weapons, better graphics, a crafting system and more secrets then both games combined but while I 100 precented those games, I only got to fake ending in bloodstained... I’m not sure what it is

Big one: spend time to learn the techniques and try out different weapon types. One thing that wasn't clear to me was that when you master a technique, it *transfers to that weapon type*. This means it will transfer over to the beefier weapon you didn't want to leave, give more variety and options, and is just generally more enjoyable. You will have a wide array of skills to suit a given playstyle. I wish this was better emphasized in the game.

A few other little something something: 1: if you're low on cash invest in rice seeds, go to the farmer and plant 1 rice seed, go in and out of the door 4 times speak to him and get 10 rice for 1 seed do this 9 times and sell 90 rice for a small extra amount of money as potatoes and corn sell for the amount you buy of 10G rice will sell for 16g giving almost extra 500g more than you pay for. Not much but it helps. 2: garden of silence kill the cow demon there and obtain "Alchemic Bounty" and rank it up with it as a skill shard at rank 9 each craft is anywhere between 1-3 made but equipped as passive shard auto 3 made so if you're low on money or crafting items auto 3 made then dismantle all 3 then recreate 3 gain 9, dismantle 9 and craft 9 gain 27 wash rinse repeat and for higher tiered weapons and you can sell all but 1 make profit then dismantle the 1 you have and recraft. It helps for financial problems. And if you obtain Money is Power shard and equip it at rank 9 greatly increases selling prices. 3: obtain Shortcuts and make 1 LUCK based shortcut especially if you're wanting good drops of money, shards, or items this is better for at least level 30+ and revisiting areas or NG+ my best recommendation for this shortcut is as follows: Weapon: any, Armor: any (i prefer Apron), Hat: fairy wings, Scarf: Bunny Scarf, Accessories: Cutpure's Ring, Plunderers ring to start then later Gambler's Ring and Solomon's Ring, Skill Shard (auto): Luck, Passive Shard: Luck, Tomes: both Luck based tomes. High luck increases drops in money, items, and shards also increase Critical hits real great on Nightmare difficulty. 4: Save before tackling 8 bit Nightmare also if you have inverse and Dimension shift makes getting to the boss hella easy with very minimal if any damage to you, and with Pickpocket shard and high luck you got a good chance to obtain 8bit nightmare book required to upgrade with 24 bit coins on certain weapons (definitely get the Renee's Requiem first best firearm in the game especially with shadow tracer, firearms expertise, gunslinger's hat, gunman's scarf and diamond rounds makes even hard mode feel easy)

I lost 40 minutes of farming progress because I eventually got what I needed and started wandering. Ended up walking right into a boss room like a dummy and got rekt. Didn’t save so bye bye farming mats

Thanks, John(???). Good video.

Great vid. 7 hours to learn this lol. I didnt want to watch because I didn't want spoil. I was checking this to make sure I'm playing it right. I am lol. I suck. I love it so much though. First game like this since castlevania on snes and the ps1 game. Im old

I'm on my second play-through after taking 2 years apart and I just now realized that if you get level 9 rank of a passive yellow chard that it becomes a permanent buff. My mind was blown

THANKS!!

When you said killing certain bosses it made me realize I could suck up all the blood

The bookshelves might be in front of save rooms because they were crashing the ps version.

im playing this!!!

This game is SOTN with everything it was missing! Amazing!

i didn't even know i could even know i could name miriem they just put it back on game pass i can finally beat the game and finally try make that curry for the old lady

Useful video, even for a person who knows and likes Castlevanias.

If you’re new and having trouble with the game. Get the 8 bit item in the secret wall at the start of the game outside of the hub. Use it to buy the shield. The shield makes this game a joke as you’re pretty much invulnerable during your attack animation because the shield blocks. This makes all the melee bosses easy to beat with just a blind attack spam. Plus you can always change your shield into any other item if it’s getting old or too easy.

I wish I had known how OP rhava bural is so I could have decided not to use it for first playthrough. I got it early, and it made the game a bit too easy imo. I used it throughout most of the game, and upgraded to a rhava velar for the last bosses I think. I'm playing second playthrough on hard and no rhava bural/velar allowed, and it has made me use shards a lot more, which is more fun!

I would have loved a full map minus secret areas

As a castlevania fan, its REALLY GOOD. But it absolutely sucked at helping me know where to go. I went to places WAY TOO many times

Fucking love this game so much....on my switch for portability.....its the first Metriodvania that I've ever completed....and now I'm playing it over with Zangetsu......my Miriam is OP af lol so I'm good with beating it again...which I have three times now.....Zangetsu is Godlike and super fun....oh btw great video but all the things you mentioned I found out on my own just playing and taking my time 🤷🏾‍♂️😂

jardev, I wonder if he notices me?