You missed the window to fight him but he was back where Gasciogne was.
The trick to beating the One Reborn is to realize there's a set of steps on the right side of the arena and then you can deal with the Bell Ringers first. After that, they can't heal him or blast you.
That should help if you want any tips.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Yep, I realized that afterwards.
Doesn’t make the fight easy exactly (all those limbs make it hard to find safe openings), but a lot more manageable.
That’s strange, I returned there several times at various points, mostly to look for Gascoigne’s daughter, but I never saw him…
I also feel like I have successfully figured out the entire Bloodborne plot.
Here's some of my thoughts:
SPOILERS!
- The Pthumerians are a race of ancient kind of Hyborian Age beings that lived in Yharnam's distant past like the Atlanteans or whatever. They worshiped the Great Ones and got closer to them through faith than later people would get through science or magic. However, they still had their own problem understanding the gods as eventually Oedon impregnanted her and created Mergo. Somehow Mergo's birth spelled the end of their civilization. The catacombs is where they locked away all of the horrors at the very end and threw away the key.
- Yhanam was built over the ruins of the civilization in the "modern" era. Its fictional but I'm guessing somewhere in Eastern Europe (like Latveria or Sokovia in Marvel). Byrgenwerth College starts exploring the ruins and finds Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos plus a bunch of other freaky shit down there including the medium. No idea what the medium is.
- Byrgenwerth forms the Old Hunters with the help of Gerhman. They proceed to track down the Fishing Hamlet where the locals worship the Great Ones and have achieved some sort of communion with Kos. They either kill Kos or defile her body to get some half-human-half-fish god samples. It's very much a reverse of the Shadow over Innsmouth. Maria is disgusted by this. Kos somehow curses the Old Hunters.
- Byrgenwerth does a bunch of inhuman evil experiments (which will be a running thing) and eventually Master Willem decides that using the blood is a bad idea, literally the only good idea any of these people get. They do, however, create Rom the Vacuous Spider and stuff her in the Lake, though. Willem can't persuade Micolash or Laurence to go along with his plans, though, and both of them leave to form the School of Mensis and Healing Church.
- Lawrence actually has some noble motives for all their eldritch research but is already infected by the Old Blood and turns into the first Beast Clergyman that gets burned to death. Unknown to him, he's just the first to get sucked into the Hunter's Nightmare due to the curse of Kos upon death. Some believe the Hunters aren't dead but we know there's ghosts in this game and Lawrence was decapitated so he's absolutely 100% dead. The Healing Church is formed after his death based around his "martyrdom."
- The Healing Church is controlled by the Illuminati-esque Choir that is still on the experimentation bullshit and ignores Lawrence's promise to fear the old blood. They make some kind of deal with Ebrietas as well. They start the blood ministrations to cure the Ashen Plague which is actually just them having created the plague in the first place because Antidote cures it (this is confirmed in the comics). Because, universally, everyone in the church is an enormous asshole. Their real goal is just to see what happens when Old Blood is given to mass numbers of people.
- The School of Mnesis is formed by Micolash and makes the Unseen Village where they conduct, yes, more evil experiments with kidnappers employed to do their evil shit. This includes the One Reborn and other horrors. Eventually, they get an umbilical chord from one of the women assaulted by Oedon and make contact with Mergo. Mergo is still a baby Great One millennia later and guarded by the Wet Nurse who is probably another of Oedon's spawn. This sucks up most of Byrgenwerth college into the nightmare and kills 99% of the student body in their chairs or makes them slime monsters. Micolash is the only "survivor" and is now a kind of Freddy Krueger-esque ghost in the dream. Again, like Lawrence, he's dead in the real world but a ghost in the Nightmare.
- At some point, the Cainhurst bloodline have taken to doing their own blood magic and may have always been doing so as descendants of the Pthurmerians. The Healing Church sends the Executioners to slaughter them all because they're the only people allowed to deal evil blood magic. They were assholes who probably didn't get their blood willingly but it was still awful. The Queen is truly immortal, though, so Logarius decides to lock her up rather than keep trying to kill her.
- Unsurprisingly, blood ministration has been turning everyone in Yharnam into werewolves. The Church in denial that their experiments are insane and evil, decide to burn all of Old Yharnam down while blaming outsiders. During this time, Gerhman makes a pact with the Moon Presence (possibly using his umbilical chord at the Abandoned Workshop) to create immortal hunters as well as bring the Doll to life. Yharnam society starts its slow collapse.
- Willem or someone uses the Vacuous Spider to cover up just how bad things are getting. However, Yharnam is doomed as a civilization and the PC arrives during the final night of it as a culture as by the end of it, everyone is going to be dead or a monster.
- Gehrman actually frees Eileen and the Djura as Hunters before the player from their immortality. However, he's implied to have been at this a LOT longer than the actual time of the timeframe. I'm not sure if there's not a kind of "Groundhog Day" reset going on with all the deaths and resurrections in-universe. Either way, the final hunt doesn't end until the PC has slain Mergo's Wet Nurse and either killed Mergo or reunited it with his mother's ghost to leave this plane. Ending the Orphan of Kos' torment also ends the Nightmare of the Hunters as well.
- Yharnam is possibly four or five survivors in the Grand Cathedral church and no one else. However, ending the various Nightmares and stopping the Moon Presence will result in the curse being subdued for awhile. You may also be a Great One yourself. Which seems like learning nothing from the other transhumanists.
I think that about covers it.
There's also a bit of humor that the doll is probably willing to look after you for the thousands or however many years it'll take for you to reach maturity without complaint. After all, she was made to love you.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Resisting the urge to open those spoilers…
Now transported in a literal nightmare, with even more freakish creatures that have a metric ton of hp AND an area that inflicts madness just by existing. Still, I got through somehow, and was rewarded with the most obnoxious boss ever created by From.
Okay, maybe not, it’s not "Bed of Chaos" bad or anything, and I don’t mind it in concept. But it’s just the fact that Micolash will. Not. Shut. Up. It’s cool to have a talkative boss for once, but when it’s two or three lines repeated ad nauseam while you’re running around to find a way to reach him… it gets irritating very quickly. Plus, once you have him cornered he’s got like two moves. Come on.
Moving on, I find a window midway through an elevetor ride… wonder what’s there… There are… things with a lot of… glowing eyes and AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH NOT THE UNTOUCHABLES, NOT THE UNTOUCHABLES, DON’T LOOK AT ME DON’T LOOK AT ME AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
…
Yeah, I’ll visit that area later. Jesus.
So after that I take the normal route instead and at the end of a road… the woman in white with a bloody womb… She stands there, motionless, while a baby cries in the distance… I find its crib, abandonned in the middle of nowhere… Wonder what’s oh hi Mrs. wet nurse, uhm, I didn’t mean to, err… You’re… not in the mood to talk, huh… Okay.
You know, it’s weird but I almost don’t want to know what’s going on. I’m just immersing myself in this horrifying dream.
Mergo is end game.
You can pack it up and finish the game after the Wet Nurse.
But you probably won't want to as the DLC is fantastic and you need to do it on your first run if you're not a god from a country that professionally plays Bloodborne.
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.End game? You mean I’ve skipped entire areas before that?
…It did seem like the enemies had a bit too much HP all of a sudden. >.>
Yeah there's about three hefty optional zones in endgame, not counting the DLC.
Just to be warned, this is one of those games that will automatically kick you into NG+ after the ending, so hold off on talking to suspicious guys in wheelchairs until you're ready.
Edited by Moth13 on Jul 21st 2025 at 11:42:18 AM
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Yes, after Mergo is dead, you'll be told to visit Gehrman and you can end the game there with Multiple Endings.
However, optional areas include:
- Nightmare Frontier
- Cainhurst Castle
- Upper Cathedral District
- Hemwick Lane (WITCHES!)
There's also an extra-boss in the Hidden Village that's made of lightning and gets you to the back route to the Clinic for a surprise revelation.
That's not even including the DLC.
Finding the other umbilical chords is also important (you get one automatically for defeating the Wet Nurse).
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 21st 2025 at 10:38:34 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
A lightning boss? Was that Paarl or whatever it’s called?
Well, it took longer than usual, but I’m finally at the traditional "running around in circles" stage.
I’ve scoured the Cathedral Ward and the Forbidden Woods but haven’t found the paths to those areas yet. I’ll find, eventually.
Regarding Valtr’s quest, I wanted to do some online assist but I’m not sure how that works… Sometimes I can ring the bell (but no one answers), sometimes I can’t… And yes, I have plenty of insight.
edit: Ah, wait, I found the key to the Upper Cathedral Ward!
Edited by Lyendith on Jul 21st 2025 at 4:05:22 AM
Congrats on the Upper Cathedral Ward.
There's a couple of twists there once you find the boss there.
If you'd like a bit of direction for that:
The Witch's Lane: Go up the Grand Cathedral's steps and halfway up...turn left. There's a garden cave by the cathedral that leads to a secret area.
The Back of the Clinic and Cainhurst Castle: Go past the Paarth thing and you'll find a backdoor to Clinic as well as the back gate to it. In the clinic you'll find an invitation to Cainhurst Castle and you need to take that to an obelisk at the Witch's Lane's.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 21st 2025 at 7:48:15 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Yes, I already found the Witch’s Lane early on.
As for the other one… the gate after the boss takes me back to Old Yharnam, not to the clinic. Is there another lightning beast I missed?
Anyway, visited the Upper Ward… not much to see there actually, except for a weird gank boss (squashing the mushroom heads with my hammer was pretty funny I must say
) and a weird gesture that kinda looks like a tilted "praise the sun". Tried to do it in the circle in the hope of being abducted by aliens, but no luck.
Little detail, I returned to Yahar’gul to explore a bit more, and this time I took the time to stop and look around… Yeah, whatever the Ritual of Mensis was, I suspect that the population was not given an advance notice. >.>
It turns out I was completely misremembering something but please accept these actually accurate directions. I have steered you wrong, sir.
Once you get the invitation, you should head back to the Witches' Land obelisks by the castle guarded by the Executioners.
Also, a completely bullshit hidden area is in the Mushroom Garden after the Mushroom Boss.
Smash the Window. It's the only place in the game you can.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 22nd 2025 at 8:39:33 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
…And of course, the path was in the one tiny corner I hadn’t looked into in this goddamn forrest.
Then… I laughed a little bit.
"No, Mr. Miyazaki, we’re not adding another poison swamp in this game, everyone hates those."
"Pleaaase."
"No means no!"
"Pleaaase, it’s the last time, promise!"
"…Okay, but just a small one."
"Yaaay!"
Seriously though, coming back to the beginning like this felt really nice. There are no enemies upstairs in the clinic, but some freaky surprises… First I was like "Huh, did Iosefka turn into a mushroomhead?" Of course she didn’t, but she apparenty experimented on them a lot more than she should have. And, err, yeah, I think you’ve had enough Insight for the evening, Ms. Iosefka.
I won’t even be surprised if I find her with… slightly less human proportions the next time I visit.
Hmm… Whoever invited me even prepared a taxi, that’s nice of them… I’m sure the horses being frozen corpses isn’t a bad sign.
I’m surprised that didn’t even cross my mind, considering I spent the entire DS trilogy hitting every wall. >.> And considering the garden was a rather weird, anticlimactic dead-end. I’ll look into that later.
Good to revisit her after the Blood Moon a few times too.
She's a source of umbilical chords if you kill her. Note that there's a new Mushroom head for every person you sent to her clinic.
:)
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 22nd 2025 at 6:00:52 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.Next playthrough I’ll make sure to knock on every door, because there are a lot that I only found later on, when there was no one left to answer. =[ Probably should visit the clinic earlier too.
Though if everyone I send to "safety" ends up like the old crone at the chapel… that’s a burden. At least she was nice to "me" at the end.
Edited by Lyendith on Jul 22nd 2025 at 6:07:56 AM
Cainhurst Castle is one of my favorite parts of the game. I think you'll enjoy it well. There's also a trick to finding its boss as well.
The rooftop needs you to jump onto a ledge beside it and then jump onto other ledges.
After a bunch of werewolf fighting, it's now time for vampires!
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 22nd 2025 at 6:44:12 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

I remember Henryk’s name being mentioned somewhere but can’t remember if I fought him… I don’t think so? Didn’t see Eileen after opening the gates either.