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Bloodborne is a spectacular example of a game that keeps on giving. From thrilling boss encounters to the ominous feeling of danger when exploring the decrepit streets of Yharnam, the Hunter will be thoroughly entertained on their journey towards enlightenment.
And this journey is no joke and will take some serious dedication from the player to finish. Reaching the end of the game in Bloodborne will require complete commitment from the player. The time it takes to complete the game could vary from player to player.
To put it simply, Bloodborne is a notably long game compared to others on the market. It will take hours of practice and perseverance from the player to get used to the evil twists and turns that this game throws at you.
Especially for new players, the hours in a playthrough can increase rapidly if the player takes a long time getting used to the controls.
For those that just want a quick and easy answer, take a look below:
- Total Length by Section:
- Base Game: 35-40 Hours
- Old Hunters DLC: 10-12 Hours
- Chalice Dungeons: 1-30 Hours
- Platinum (All Achievements/Trophies): 80-100 Hours
If someone focuses on the main objectives and gets a hold of the controls and mechanics quickly, you could complete the whole story in around 35-40 hours. However, this will not be the case for many players, as there are many speed bumps that will slow you down along the way.
If fully explored, the playtime of the first game cycle can reach up to 60 hours. Below, I will cover each significant section in the game and how long it should take to complete it.
Central Yharnam
Total Playtime: 6-7 Hours
Bosses
- Cleric Beast (Great Bridge)
- Father Gascoigne (Tomb of Odeon)
NPC’s
- Iosefka
- Gilbert
- Alfred
- Eileen the Crow
- Viola
- Lonely old woman
Central Yharnam serves as the training ground for new players and features a stretching landscape that connects to many other parts of the map.
This is where players will hone the skills required to hunt the beasts and bosses that lie ahead, so players should take their time here mastering the basics. This area is an essential part of your journey, as this area is where you will first encounter a steep difficulty curve.
Your time may fluctuate in this area due to the vast number of NPCs, bosses, and other secrets Central Yharnam is home to. Interacting with all the NPCs is unnecessary but will result in the Hunter missing out on unique questlines. However, you will want to defeat both bosses to advance to the next area, which may take most of your time.
Cathedral Ward
Total Playtime: 3-4 Hours
Bosses:
- Vicar Amelia
NPC’s
- Skeptical Man
- Alfred
- Odeon Chapel Dweller
- Arianna
- Eileen the Crow
- Lonely Old Woman
The Cathedral Ward will be an area where Hunters who have mastered or near-mastered the basics will find themselves. Vicar Amelia is a giant beast boss at the top of the Cathedral, likely taking up the bulk of playtime in this area.
This area is also connected to many other regions of the game, but getting through Cathedral Ward itself should not take too long for the player to complete.
On top of this, you will frequently travel back here if you have been housing NPCs there, as a storyline follows them. While you may not be spending all of your time in this area, the Hunter will come to love the hours they do spend within the Cathedral Ward.
Old Yharnam
Total Playtime: 3-4 Hours
Bosses:
- Blood-starved Beast
NPC’s
- Old Hunter Djura
Old Yharnam is not the most time-consuming area in the game; however, it features a gimmick that will take multiple attempts and failures to understand fully.
As you enter, Old Hunter Djura will warn you against killing beasts, and once you do, the player will be met with constant turret fire. This causes panic and requires you to take on the area slowly, which helps because of the massive hordes of enemies here.
For a keen Hunter looking to save time, you can get Djura on your side. At the start of Old Yharnam or the Blood-Starved Beast lantern, make your way atop the castle to meet Djura, but do not kill any beasts this time.
This will allow you to approach and get his items instead of fighting against him. With this tip, players can save themselves a lot of time in this area.
Forbidden Woods
Total Play Time: 4-5 Hours
Bosses:
- Shadows of Yharnam
NPC’s
- Valtyr
- Suspicious Beggar
- Young Madras Twin
- Beast Patient Villager
The Forbidden Woods is a long, winding, and confusing area to navigate. The pathways all look similar, have little visibility, and feature some of the most demented enemies in the game.
Regular human enemies will shoot snakes out of their heads, and giant balls of snakes block the way to many essential items. It will take players a while to navigate the terrain until they activate the elevator to the right of the first lantern, which will help you efficiently travel to the Shadows of Yharnam boss fight.
While you are about halfway through the game, and your armor and weapons are upgraded significantly, this area will still take a while to navigate, as the many branching paths and secrets are hidden in the corners of these forsaken woods.
The Shadows of Yharnam will also take a bit for players to beat. Still, it is worth it, as the Shadows are revered as one of the best multi-enemy boss battles in the franchise.
Hemwick Charnel Lane
Total Play Time: 1-2 Hours
Bosses:
- The Witches of Hemwick
This area is one of the shortest ones I will cover. It is an optional area and is only home to a singular boss, however, there is an item here that makes this stop mandatory for me.
The Rune Workshop tool is awarded to the player after the Witches of Hemwick boss fight, which allows the Hunter to use the runes they have been collecting. This area should not take much time to complete, and the boss of the area is regarded as one of the easiest in the Soulsborne franchise.
Cainhurst Castle
Total Playtime: 2-3 Hours
Bosses:
- Martyr Logarius
NPC’s:
- Queen Annalise of the Vilebloods
- Alfred (optional)
Cainhurst Castle is another optional area in Bloodborne, but I view it as one of the main areas. This comes down to the castle’s beauty, and the exciting enemies inside will be sure to catch the Hunter off guard.
The fight with Martyr Logarius is where you will be pouring most of your time in this area, but it is worth it, as the battle atop the snowy castle is breathtaking. The enemies are interesting and quite annoying, however, they are not overly punishing, so players should be able to breeze through this section of the game with few issues.
Byrgenwerth
Total Playtime: 1-2 Hours
Bosses:
- Rom, the Vacuous Spider
NPC’s
- Master Wilhelm
- Hostile Choir Hunter
Byrgenwerth is a mystical area of the game, and an immense amount of lore is attached to this place. The size of it, however, is somewhat underwhelming. It is a large house plated on the side of a lake, and the view is stunning, however, the central area doesn’t extend past this much.
The inside of the house may be where people spend the most time, as the Hostile Choir Hunter is viewed by many as the real boss of Byrgenwerth. Outside on the deck, we find Master Wilhelm on the verge of death, and jumping off the deck into the moon’s reflection in the water will throw the Hunter below the lake into a boss battle with Rom.
As I said, this area is minimal and should not take up too much of players’ time. Rom is a fun boss but not the most difficult, and at this point in the game, you should be able to handle her with minor issues.
Again, the primary time consumer in this area will be the fight with the Hostile Choir Hunter, as they have spells with one-shot capabilities and a large health pool.
Yahar’gul, Unseen Village (Hypogean Gaol)
Total Playtime: 3-4 Hours
Bosses:
- The One Reborn
- Darkbeast Paarl
NPC’s:
- Adella, the Nun
The Unseen Village is an area that players who encountered the Snatchers earlier on will recognize. Before beating Rom, if a Snatcher kills you, they will bring you here to their prison. Later on, after killing Rom, the Blood Moon begins to show the reality of the situation, which was can now call Yahar’gul, the Unseen Village.
This area may take players a little time to get used to, as there are many threatening foes to deal with now. Respawning humanoid enemies, bell ladies, Amygdalas, and more will prevent you from efficiently exploring this area.
The boss at the end, The One Reborn, is somewhat of a pushover, despite their grotesque-looking appearance. The real challenge that took me forever in my first playthrough was the three-on-one ambush attack, where three NPCs fight you at the same time.
This fight was brutal, but one saving grace for time will be that the NPCs don’t respawn once killed, potentially allowing you to pick them off one by one. Even though the Hunter has experience at this point, increasing difficulty in the Unseen Village will cause players to spend more time than anticipated in this area.
Upper Cathedral Ward
Total Playtime: 2-3 Hours
Bosses:
- Celestial Emissary
- Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos
The Upper Cathedral ward is one of the creepiest areas in Bloodborne and offers us one of our first looks at the alien element of the game. Exploring this area won’t take players too long, but it will undoubtedly cause jump-scare deaths.
Wolves are everywhere, and their aggressive nature and pitch-black surroundings will certainly cause you a few resets. After clearing this area, the Hunter is about halfway through.
The bosses in this area are opposites. The Celestial Emissary fight will take the player no time to beat, as once the gimmick is recognized, the fight goes by in the blink of an eye.
The next boss, Ebrietas, is an entirely different story. She extended my time in this area by hours, as I initially could not handle her speed and damage output. Skilled Hunters will undoubtedly struggle with this boss, so do not be discouraged if you take a long time in this area.
Nightmare of Mensis
Total Playtime: 3-4 Hours
Bosses:
- Micolash, Host of the Nightmare
- Mergo’s Wet Nurse
NPC’s
- Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen
This Nightmare of Mensis will take players by surprise at first due to the difficulty spike. Frenzy is a primary weapon of choice for many enemies here, like the Mother Brains, the Winter Lanterns, and the enemies scattered along the path to Mikolash. The part of the game that will take most of the Hunter’s time is Mikolash, Host of the Nightmare.
This is due to the layout of his fight, as he forces the Hunter to chase him throughout the maze-like halls until we can corner him in a room to fight. Players unfamiliar with this fight will seemingly be running in circles for longer than they fight each time, which certainly will increase the amount of time spent in this area.
After Mikolash, players must make their way up to Mergo’s Wet Nurse at the top of the Nightmare. Mergo’s Wet Nurse should not take up too much of the Hunter’s time.
Despite her appearance, her moveset is relatively easy to deal with until she begins to teleport. The Nightmare of Mensis also may take a lot of the Hunter’s time because it is home to the game’s best blood echo farming route.
Old Hunters (DLC) Areas
Total Playtime: 10-12 Hours
Bosses:
- Ludwig, the Accursed/Ludwig, the Holy Blade
- Laurence, the First Vicar
- Living Failures
- Lady Maria
- Orphan of Kos
The Old Hunters DLC is a punishing expansion to the main world of Bloodborne and has been regarded as one of the best DLCs ever made.
The DLC is made up of a bunch of different areas, from the Hunters Nightmare to the Fishing Hamlet. Hunters should take their time exploring every nook of this vast, densely populated section of the Bloodborne world.
This will certainly take players ample time to beat, as the areas are more populated with difficult enemies, and the bosses offer some of the most challenging and engaging battles in the Soulsborne series.
Chalice Dungeons
Total Playtime: 1-30 Hours
Bosses:
- Merciless Watcher
- Undead Giant
- Pthumerian Descendant
- Pthumerian Elder
- Brainsucker
- Maneater Boar
- Watch Dog of the Old Lords
- Keeper of the Old Lords
- Bloodletting Beast
- Beast-possessed Soul
- Loran Silverbeast
- Abhorrent Beast
The Chalice Dungeons serve as a great way to master the skills of a Hunter, as they are filled with difficult enemies and unique loot. Players will need certain Chalices collected from the world in order to access some of these Dungeons, which can be activated on the graves to the left in the Hunters Dream.
Each Chalice has multiple layers, with different bosses and secret pathways to keep the Hunter busy for a while. What is interesting about these Chalices is that they can vary in difficulty, especially if you use a Defiled Chalice to open the Dungeon, as this will decrease your base health by a whopping 50%.
However long these Chalice Dungeons take is completely up to the Hunter, as there is enough content for around 30 hours of exploration, and players could also spend no time at all in the Chalice Dungeons, preferring to stick to the main game.
The punishing difficulty of some of these Dungeons, coupled with the rare loot the Hunter can collect, will be motivation enough for players to test their skill and mastery, pouring hours into these Chalices.
Other Factors to Consider
Above are some essential areas in Bloodborne and how long they should generally take to complete. While that may have seemed like a lot of time already, other aspects of Bloodborne will take up a large amount of your time. Below, I will go over some of the main reasons a playthrough could extend farther past the bosses and areas.
Runbacks
After dying in Bloodborne, you will be forced to run back to the spot of your death to retrieve your blood echoes or continue exploring. This can become rather tedious, as the number of times you die in Bloodborne is relatively high compared to other games.
Especially when encountering a demanding boss, these runbacks can significantly increase the time it takes to complete your playthrough.
Blood Vial Farming
The new healing system in Bloodborne does not automatically replenish your healing items and instead forces you to search for them or buy them from a vendor.
This can become time-consuming for the Hunter when they run out of heals while fighting a boss or clearing an area, and they have to go back and purchase or farm these items. It is bound to happen to every Hunter at least once in their journey and can certainly add time to a playthrough.
Achievement Hunting
For the brave souls looking to ‘platinum’ Bloodborne, or collect all its trophies, will require immense dedication. On top of finishing the game, which is difficult on its own, players will have to collect a total of 34 trophies to complete the achievement hunt.
These trophies are not easy to collect, as a notoriously difficult trophy to get is the Gold ‘Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen’ achievement, requiring the Hunter to beat all of the Pthumerian chalices, and then beat the Queen in battle.
These trophies can greatly extend playtimes, and can take Hunters a total of 80-100 hours to fully complete the game and grab all the trophies. It is certainly a tall order, but a dedicated Hunter can find joy in the hunt for trophies.
How Long Did it Take Me?
My first playthrough of the game took around 66 hours to complete. This may seem long, but I tried to take advantage of everything Bloodborne offers, unaware of the New Game Plus system. I explored every crevice, dove into most of the chalices, and took my time to admire the level design, enemies, and stunning landscapes.
This is certainly not for everyone. Many players will be satisfied with how the game ends, regardless of their completion percentage.
This is where the flexibility in playtime can come in handy for more game cycles because you can choose the efficient route and take down the required bosses quickly, as opposed to taking your time again and again.
New game cycles are where players will most likely pour the most time into their character, so don’t worry about finishing the main story too early. These new game cycles allow you to experiment with builds, dive deep into the chalice dungeons, and focus on the PvP aspect of the game.
There is so much to explore in this game that you could pour endless hours uncovering all the little secrets that Fromsoftware has put into this masterpiece.