Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines Complete Guide (4 Sections) | AntMag

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Welcome to the dark, atmospheric streets of 2004 Los Angeles. In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, you play as a newly embraced vampire navigating a treacherous world of ancient clans, hidden conspiracies, and brutal supernatural conflict. You'll master potent vampiric Disciplines, customize your character, and make choices that shape your destiny across the city's distinct districts.

This guide is your essential companion to surviving and thriving in the World of Darkness. We’ll help you conquer challenging encounters, understand the nuances of character customization and clan selection, and uncover every secret this cult classic RPG has to offer, from mastering combat to unraveling the deep conspiracy at its heart.

Abilities

Alright, let's talk about how to get the most out of your character's abilities in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Think of these as your core skills – everything from how well you can shoot a gun to how sneaky you are. The game gives you a starting pool of points to spend, and later on, you'll find special skill books that can boost these even further, sometimes for free if you meet the research requirements!

The key to getting really strong, balanced stats is often found in those skill books. If you can get your 'Research' stat up to 6, you'll be in a fantastic position. Plus, using the 'Scholarship' skill book not only boosts your Research but also raises your 'Persuasion' (or 'Intelligence' if you're playing as a Nosferatu). This is a huge advantage!

Here's how the skill book system generally works: NPCs can give you skill points (dots) from 1 to 5. Skill books, however, can grant you all available dots for a specific skill. Let's take 'Brawl' as an example. If you start with one dot in Brawl, you can get the second dot from Nines when you reach Downtown. The third and fourth dots come from the Brawl skill book you find in the Empire Arms Hotel. To get both the third and fourth dots from that single book, you actually need to sell it to a merchant and then buy it back, so you end up with two copies. This way, you can get an excellent unarmed stat without spending any experience points, just by investing in Research up to level 5 to use the book. Getting your Research up to 5 also lets you max out your 'Melee' skill the same way. If you push your Research to level 6, you'll even get access to the 'Security' book.

Keep in mind that the cost of adding skill points increases as your skill level gets higher. Here's a general idea of the costs:

Stat Type	Cost for 1st Dot	Cost for 2nd Dot	Cost for 3rd Dot	Cost for 4th Dot	Cost for 5th Dot
Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina, Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance, Perception, Intelligence, Wits)	0	4	8	12	16
Abilities (All other stats like Brawl, Firearms, etc.)	3	3	6	9	12
Disciplines (Your clan's spells)	0	5	10	15	20

Remember, your Attributes and Disciplines all start with one dot when you first create your character. Your clan also influences your starting choices. For instance, if you're creating a Malkavian, Nosferatu, or Tremere, you can start with two dots in Scholarship and two in Intelligence, giving you a Research of 5 right out of the gate. You can even snag a third dot of Scholarship for free from the 'Patron of the Ancient Arts' quest (DT.MQ.3), pushing your Research to 6 and giving you Persuasion 4 from the start!

To help you get going, here's a recommended dot distribution for a starting character:

Attributes

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 features a robust character customization system, with Attributes playing a crucial role in defining your vampire's capabilities. These core stats influence your effectiveness in combat, social interactions, and your overall survival in the unforgiving world of Seattle.

Understanding and strategically allocating points to your Attributes is key to building a powerful and versatile vampire. Each Attribute governs a set of related skills and abilities, so choosing wisely will shape your gameplay experience significantly.

Key Attributes include:

Strength: Governs melee damage and carrying capacity.
Dexterity: Affects ranged weapon accuracy and stealth capabilities.
Stamina: Determines health and resistance to damage.
Celerity: Influences movement speed and attack speed.
Presence: Enhances social skills and intimidation.
Manipulation: Affects persuasion and deception.

As you progress, you will have opportunities to increase your Attributes, allowing you to further specialize your character or round out their weaknesses. Consider your desired playstyle when making these crucial decisions.

Abilities (2)

This guide provides an analysis of the abilities in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, focusing on their return on investment (ROI) and offering advice on how to best allocate skill points. The effectiveness of certain abilities can be significantly boosted by free points gained from skill books and character creation choices, as well as temporary buffs like Bloodbuff.

Key Ability Recommendations:

Brawl: Avoid investing more than one dot, as you will receive 2-4 points for free from Nines and Skill Books.
Computer, Dodge, Firearms, Stealth: Do not start with any points in these, as you can gain 0-2 points for free from Skill Books.
Other Abilities: Maximize points in other abilities as the second dot costs 8XP instead of the usual 4XP. Investing 2 dots in an Attribute like Intelligence can save 12XP compared to splitting points between Intelligence and Wits.

The following table details the return on investment for specific abilities, helping you plan your character's development. For example, gaining 2 dots of Security from skill books and 2 dots of Dexterity during character creation, combined with Bloodbuff, can result in a lockpick rating of 5 without spending experience points.

Ability Return on Investment:

Lockpick: Investing up to 2, 3, or 5 dots can yield significant XP returns (5XP, 4XP, 4XP respectively) with 0XP cost.
Persuasion: Investing in Persuasion offers increasing XP returns at higher levels: 3 dots return 5XP (cost 6XP), 4 dots return 7XP (cost 4XP from 3), 5 dots return 3XP (cost 6XP from 4), and 9 dots return 2XP (cost 41XP from 5).
Hacking: Higher levels of Hacking also provide XP returns: 4 dots return 3XP (cost 10XP), 6 dots return 2XP (cost 14XP from 4), and 8 dots return 2XP (cost 21XP from 6).

While these details may seem complex at first, they are invaluable for players who wish to meticulously plan their character's leveling path for maximum efficiency.

Abilities (3)

This guide details the abilities available in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines. Abilities can be improved through skill books (K), NPC interactions (N), and character creation choices (▓).

Abilities:

Brawl
Firearms
Computer
Dodge
Melee
Finance
Intimidation
Security
Investigation
Subterfuge
Stealth
Scholarship

Key:

N = NPC (free dot given in dialogue)
K = Skill Book
▓ = Point which can be taken in character creation

Tutorial Walkthrough:

Follow Jack's instructions. Feed on the first person without killing them (press any key during feeding to stop).
Lockpick the door and retrieve the key from the safe. The password for the computer is on a nearby paper, or you can hack it (Ctrl+C) to open the safe. Both lockpick and hacking require 1 point.
Sneak past an enemy by crouching and moving in shadows. An explosion will distract the enemy, allowing you to proceed through the door. Note that distance from enemies is more important for stealth than lighting. You can jump while crouching to maintain stealth and fit into tight spaces.
Perform a stealth kill on the next enemy. You must have a melee weapon equipped (including unarmed) for a stealth kill.
In the subsequent rooms, you will practice using disciplines and a gun.
In the final room, you will fight several enemies. These are humans, so you can feed on them to regain blood used for disciplines. This is a combat area, so feeding to kill will not result in humanity loss.

Santa Monica Area:

You begin in your apartment. Interact with your desk to read the Regent's Riddle (earning experience points). Collect the Money Envelope from your drawer, blood bags from your fridge, and the Pill Bottle from the bathroom cabinet. A Normal Watch can be found next to the toilet. Items like pill bottles, watches, jewelry, and car stereos can be sold for money. It is advisable to sell all guns you find to maximize income, as enemies will drop more sellable guns instead of ammo. Unarmed combat is the strongest in Santa Monica; the shotgun is the only other recommended weapon until Downtown. Your computer will display emails with quests, and a password ('sunrise') is on a paper next to it.

Outside, speak to the beggar. If you have the Money Envelope, you can give him a dollar, which introduces the game's moral ambiguity.