How to Bloodborne: Defiled Chalice Amygdala for Noobs
If you can’t kill it with fire, kill it with bolt. This sums up the idea behind Bloodborne. That being said, if you can’t kill it with melee then choose long-ranged. For this video, I chose Simon’s Bowblade.
When you are setting up for bowblade, care less about bloodtinge but more about damage per bullets. There is a limit to amount of bullets you can carry with you. Normally and realistically, that would be 100 (from blood bullets) and 20 (from quicksilver bullets). With the boss’ health of 22,000, it takes at least 184 per bullet to kill it. If your damage output is somehow lower or likely to miss much of the time, you may as well amend the tactics.
My setup had 41 skill and 39 bloodtinge.
General Rules
Don’t underestimate the slowness of Amygdala. You read it right. Amygdala is basically a solitary turret. All it ever does is sitting on a one spot and move its top and arms around, until it hits 3rd phase. When you move around, either to lure or to evade, make sure you don’t move too much. If Amygdala cannot chase you, it will jump. Don’t let it jump.
Jumping is something that has been recently patched. Simply staying where you were doesn’t work anymore. Besides, it should raise some red flags as to “why” it jumped. It means it has to restart the entire pattern thanks to the distance between the boss and you. Don’t let it jump, keep it cool, and play along within its arm’s length.
If you must run, run toward the edge of the arena. There are roofings around the arena, which can be used to avoid literal head of Amygdala. In most cases, I was crushed by its head part. The easiest way to survive the jump is to run towards the roofing. In fact, just stay under the roofing, but keep in mind about those columns. This can eliminate any chances of accidents, especially arms unexpectedly hitting you.
Save quicksilver bullets for the third phase. In fact, if you can, just stick to blood bullets unless absolutely necessary –which is almost none with this boss. And, when you HEAL, don’t just hit heal soon as you have space in your health bar. Give it some time to observe the pattern. Blood vials heal you more than making blood bullets as well. So try to use only blood bullets and keep your health at mid point. In the 3rd phase, you won’t have time to make blood bullets anyway.
I wouldn’t recommend R2 charge attack. It’s a lot harder to aim, and in fact, saving some stamina to run and quickstep (rolling). If your damage output with R1 is barely making 184, you could make some breathing room in the first and possibly second phase with R2 charge attacks, but not in the third phase. You simply don’t have time to draw.
Should you choose to change some runes, have more vials than bullets. This is rather self-explanatory. As for the equipments, especially clothings, don’t bother. You are lucky if you have survived a single hit; don’t look for miracles in armors. Half the health with usual damage output dictates you should be looking for attire that protects you against either physical or arcane damage.
And last, and the most important, don’t call for help. I’ll explain it further at the end.
The First Phase
1st Phase is relatively easy. No extensive arcane is involved. All it ever does it reaching out and occasional laser beams. Keep yourself in diagonal position from Amygdala so that you can still aim its head, but it can’t hit you within arm’s length.
If you are lucky, you might get a chance to do visceral attack, saving some bullets for future. In the video, I had around 2400 damage with visceral, meaning I saved about 8 shots.
If you are unsure when to shoot the arrow, wait until its head hits the ground with all the arms reaching forward. You would have enough time to shoot at least 2 arrows. Remember this takes time and patience. It is important to make the shot counts. Losing a bullet is never an option.
You can be more creative and stay within the arms while not getting hit. While it is entirely doable, the space will get smaller in the second phase, and it will practically disappear in the third phase. This also means you can try saving some bullets using a melee weapon in the early stage.
The Second Phase
After a roar, Amygdala will start to use all of its arms with its hands wrapped in spherical arcane effects while stumping. Rules are still the same, don’t get hit by its hands. Lasers, on the other hand, will be different. Now it will be sporadic time to time.
As for the sphere itself, be careful not to be too close to it. I had moments where I was good couple of inches away from the hand itself, but not from the sphere. It may not kill you, but will cost you at least 2 vials.
The Third Phase, the Last
Amygdala is now fast enough to catch up to you. Don’t expect him to jump just because of the distance. It will actively walk toward you and reach out to you with its arms.
Don’t bother to make blood bullets. If you must, don’t heal right after making some. Take your time and prepare for the right moment. Your movement will slow down and that may be the chance Amygdala was hoping to get. Think twice before you press for bullets or heal.
Don’t give up just because one of the arm –with its hand holding another arm!– hits you. As you can see in the video, it doesn’t one-shot you, and the range of each arms differ greatly. You can still dodge the bullet, find the right moment and heal up.
Creative dodging between the arms won’t work anymore. Now with at least 4 spheres, abandon all hope those who enters under its belly.
Between the second and third phase, it is likely that you will have a second chance to do visceral attack. It’s okay to miss the first one, but not this one. We are counting on quicksilver bullets now, and 20 is not a big number to work with.
Notes on NPC and Co-Op
Don’t get them. It’s a waste of insights. Not that they suck, (I am writing this as a noob, who am I to judge?) it’s simply the question of environment. The dungeon’s health point regulation really kills most people’s sense of playing Bloodborne.
With more than one player in the arena, it becomes harder to trace the pattern of Amygdala. Simply by targeting a different player, it may jump. That alone should raise some red flags.
From my experience, summoning more than one NPC usually resulted in worse outcome. NPC cannot coordinate with each other, at least not against this boss.
As for the actual players, I’ve had several players who said “I’ve beaten it before, I can do this” and dies before the third phase. The extreme change from the third phase requires a lag-free environment, and that just can’t happen. Either they can’t get used to half of usual co-op or the lag. In any case, none of them, in my experience, was accustomed to beating the boss with more than one player in the arena. They come and die in most horrible way possible with so many ridiculous ideas in their mind. Sorry I can’t use Call From Beyond! This ain’t an arcane character yo!
Another thing I’d like to add is trolls. I’m not sure if they are actually “trolling” as in messing with other people or genuinely believe they are being helpful. I’ve seen several who march toward the Amygdala with the fanciest weapon ever and dies in less than a minute, with less than 1000 damages done to the boss. What the hell. Another kind of these people simply used up all the quicksilver bullets they have with magic or guns then die in blood. Again with less than 1000 damages total. At least stay with me till the second phase, folks.
Not only it is harder for co-op player, it will be harder for you to aim the head as well. So far, I haven’t seen that many who understand the mechanism behind the weapon they do not use, especially the bowblade. You want to keep yourself in diagonal location? Fuck you, I have holy blade that needs feeding and moves on to distract the boss. Hitting the body parts, aside from head and arms, will be useless. Doing so usually gave me around 80, a measly number for a giant boss. Unless that co-op player is planning to “solo” the entire thing, –which I can guarantee they can’t– his or her actions will get in to your way.
Ideal solution I found was to summon one NPC and get along with it, recognize how the old hunter interact with the boss. No matter the small damage it does, it is likely to stay with you till it does adequate damage, which can lead to saving some precious blood bullets. I wouldn’t burden myself further with the second one.
Final Notes
I’ve died in this arena probably more than dozen times. You can actually see the pool of blood echos I couldn’t pick up as I move around. Contemplating how to beat the boss was definitely part of the fun. And that is why this is one of the most annoying boss out there. Everyone wants to pursue his or her ways in someone else’s arena. So it becomes harder to get real help. The only real help I can offer is that you have better chance of killing it without other people standing in your way.
Another thing to emphasize is that this is not the only solution. If you wish to pursue arcane, then choose Holy Moonlight Sword, for example. Pure Skill? Threaded Cane is also possible. Again, there are multiple answers to this boss. If you want to test your limits, why not stay with melee weapons and enjoy the dance with a Great One?
updated Dec 12, 2017: edited since for better readability.