Weapons & Equipment

Learn about Bloodborne's trick weapons, firearms, and attire. Discover how to fortify weapons with Blood Echoes and upgrade materials, and add powerful Blood Gems.

Alright, let's talk about what you'll be using to defend yourself in Yharnam. Bloodborne gives you two main categories of gear: your trusty weapons and your protective attire. Think of it like this: weapons are your offense, and attire is your defense, though it's a bit more nuanced than that.

You've got right-handed weapons, which are your main damage dealers. These are called 'trick weapons,' and the cool thing is they all have two distinct forms. You can switch between them on the fly by hitting the L1 button, which is super handy for adapting to different enemy types or situations. You can only have one right-handed weapon equipped at a time, and you switch to it by pressing right on the D-pad.

Then there are your left-handed weapons. You can equip two of these, switching between them with the left D-pad button. This slot is usually for your firearms, but you can also equip a torch or even a shield. Torches are great for lighting up those dark, creepy corners of the world, but honestly, your firearm is going to be your go-to here. It's fantastic for keeping enemies at a distance and, crucially, for staggering them, opening them up for a visceral attack.

Fortifying Weapons

Now, just having a weapon isn't enough – you'll want to make it stronger. Weapons have basic stats, but you can boost them significantly by 'fortifying' them. This involves using upgrade materials and Blood Echoes. To do this, you'll need to head back to the Hunter's Dream and find the workbench next to Gehrman. Select 'Fortify Weapon' there. Each upgrade level requires specific materials and a certain amount of Blood Echoes, so keep an eye on what you need.

Lvl	Required Materials
+1	3 Blood Stone Shards
+2	5 Blood Stone Shards
+3	8 Blood Stone Shards
+4	3 Twin Blood Stone Shards
+5	5 Twin Blood Stone Shards
+6	8 Twin Blood Stone Shards
+7	3 Blood Stone Chunks
+8	5 Blood Stone Chunks
+9	8 Blood Stone Chunks
+10	1 Blood Rock

Adding Gemstones

Beyond just upgrading, you can socket Blood Gems into your weapons once you get your hands on the Blood Gem Workshop Tool. Again, you'll use the workbench in the Hunter's Dream, this time selecting 'Blood Gem Fortification.' Different weapons can hold different types and numbers of Blood Gems, and these can add all sorts of effects, from boosting your Physical ATK to adding nasty Poison to your strikes.

Attire

Attire is essentially your armor: Head, Chest, Gloves, and Legs. Each piece affects your overall defense, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively. More importantly, some pieces offer resistances to things like Poison and Frenzy. While armor was a huge deal in the Souls games, in Bloodborne, attire is much more about fashion than raw stats, unless you're specifically looking to counter certain resistances.

Items

Items in Bloodborne fall into three main categories: Consumables, Arcane, and Key Items. Key Items are mostly for quests – think keys or special outfits. Consumables and Arcane items are the ones you actually use. You can use them from your main menu or assign them to your hotkey bar. These can be offensive, like a Molotov Cocktail to chuck at an enemy, or supportive, like an Antidote to clear nasty status effects like Slow Poison and Rapid Poison.