Earlier this week, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan updated the Bloodborne Japanese website with details about its online gameplay. Today, Sony Computer Entertainment America updated the official English website for the game with details in English about the online game modes, as well as some new screenshots.
Chalice Dungeon
Underneath Yharnam there is a vast underground ruins spread wide and deep across multiple floors. Horrifying and ancient, it appears to have been created by something not quite human. It’s at once both a graveyard, and a place of slumber.
What’s more, these ruins change their appearance for each visitor.
The seal to these underground ruins can be broken by conducting a special ritual using a holy chalice. Every time the ritual is performed, the dungeon’s structure changes.
This is what the Chalice Dungeon feature is all about; delivering a constant stream of content to explore and conquer alone or with fellow Hunters, and the freedom to share these dungeons with friends and the world.
Dungeon Features
- Traps – Both a grave and a place of slumber, these dungeons are not a place where visitors are welcomed. Those who venture here quickly find this out thanks to the many fatal traps hidden throughout the tunnels and halls, such as these guillotine blades covered in the blood of unsuspecting Hunters.
- Architectural Variety – The sheer size and adaptibility of the Chalice Dungeons are what makes them so alluring to hunters – that and the promise of treasure and newfound challenge. Not limited to simple rooms or hallways, Dungeons can contain murky swamps, narrow rocky corridors, or even grand, ornate halls teeming with rich detail.
- Create and Download New Challenges – The Chalice Dungeon feature includes both standard dungeons as well as procedurally-generated dungeons. Both types of dungeons can be played offline or online with other players, but generating new dungeons requires connecting the game online once to download required data. You can also publish your Chalice Dungeons online to share with other players, and download dungeons created by other Bloodborne players.
Dungeon Threats
- Protectors – Some say these ruins are the tombs of inhuman creatures, and some say they are more a place of slumber. Protectors roam the depths, keeping guard over the quiet. Born in the depths and living off of blood and rotting flesh, they are cold and damp, with bluish-white skin that has never been touched by sunlight, and devolved eyes that are pitch black and sunk deep into their sockets.
- Ritual Masters – Whether the ruins are tombs or a mere resting place for something dark and foul, or both, one thing is true: Someone or something lies asleep here. The Protectors also worship what lies beneath, and among the Protectors are a special class of ritual masters that carry out horrific and detestable ritual rites.
- Ancient Guard Dog – This gigantic guard dog watches over the underground ruins. Covered in a petrified body hard as stone, clad in a rich cloud of flames, and left directly by the inhuman inhabitants slumbering in the ruins, these special guards are said to be enveloped in these dense flames in order to better carry out their duties through the ages.
Online Multiplayer
Cooperative Play
Bloodborne‘s sense of reward and accomplishment upon overcoming difficult challenges is central to what makes it so unique, but that doesn’t mean hunters have to go it alone. Up to 3 hunters are allowed to join forces online to tackle challenges that may be too great for a solo player. The player initiating the cooperative session is the “host” and players who respond to that are the “guests.”
- Cooperative Play rules – The goal of cooperative play is to join forces and work together to defeat enemies, and ultimately the boss enemy in that level.
- Initiating cooperative play
- Host uses the Beckoning Bell item
- Guests use the Small Resonant Bell item
- Host and guest (up to 2 guests) are connected, and play within the Host’s game
- Cooperative Play Completion – Once players successfully defeat the boss enemy in the area they are joined to, the guests receive a bonus reward and are returned to their own game.
- Cooperative Play Incompletion – If the host or guest(s) die, or a guest uses the Silencing Blank item, the guest(s) are returned to their own world/game, and do not receive the bonus reward.
- Password – Multiplayer matchmaking for cooperative play is automatic and random. However by setting a password for your session, other players can enter the same password and be joined to your game. Passwords can be up to 8 letters long.
Versus PvP Play
Hunters don’t always have to work together. Versus PvP allows players to face off against one another in combat, using their various weapons and accrued skill to best each other by invading another player’s game. In the below outline, the player that gets invaded is the “Host” and the invader is the “guest.” Also note that in certain areas within the game, there can be up to two invaders within a host’s game.
- Versus Play Rules – When a host is in an area where a “bell-ringer woman” is present, Versus PvP invasions are possible.
- Initiating Versus play
- Guest uses the Sinister Resonant Bell item
- Host begins cooperative play, or uses Sinister Resonant Bell to summon the bell-ringer woman
- Guest is transported to host’s game
- Host and guest play in Host’s game
- Versus Play Completion – If the guest is able to defeat the host, s/he will receive a reward and be returned to his/her game/world.
- Versus Play Incompletion – If the guest dies, or the host makes it to the boss fight area, or if the guest chooses to use the Silencing Blank item, the guest is returned to his/her own game without receiving a reward for completing the versus play session.
Asynchronous Gameplay Features
- Notes – Using the Notebook item, you can leave hints, messages, and gestures for players to discover within their own game via the Messenger creatures that appear on the ground. You can also interact with Messengers you find to read notes left by others, and can votie them as Fine (helpful) or Foul (misleading). Just because another hunter has left advice behind, that doesn’t mean they’re being truthful; ambushes and pitfalls abound in Yharnam, even from other players, so beware.
- Specter – Players will leave behind a tombstone when they die that appears in other players’ games. If you touch one of these tombstones within your game, you can view a sort of replay of their final moments, and hopefully get a hint as to how they met their end so you can avoid the same fate.
- Player Ghosts – You may see player ghosts – white phantoms of other players currently playing the game in the same area as you – which may give you hints as to how to proceed.
Game Updates
As of launch day, March 24 (Tuesday) at midnight, there will be an online update to the game that provides for a better gameplay experience. The main contents of the update are as follows:
- Online Play Optimizations
- Game performance and usability improvements, etc.
PlayStation Plus Requirements
- Certain online elements require a PlayStation Plus subscription in order to enjoy:
- Online Multiplayer – Requires PlayStation Plus
- Asynchronous Online Features – Requires PlayStation Plus
- Sharing Generated Chalice Dungeons – Requires PlayStation Plus
- Installing Game Update – PlayStation Plus not required
- Downloading Chalice Dungeon Data – PlayStation Plus not required
Bloodborne is set to be released for the PS4 on March 24 in North America and on March 27 in Europe.
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