Enemies of Bloodborne – Cleric Beast, Wheelchair Mob, Ritual Masters

Bloodborne casts you as a traveler making a pilgrimage to the city of Yharnam, a place where people go to find cures for whatever ails them.  Unfortunately for you, the city is in ruin and a mysterious plague transformed its inhabitants into twisted freaks hell bent on carving your character into fleshy pieces. The gifted developers at From Software put a greater emphasis on offensive maneuvers compared to their previous Dark Souls games, along with a feature that lets you regain health with counter-attacks, but there’s still a great chance you’ll perish multiple times before seeing the end.

While From Software releases a trickle of new information every week or so, we learned more about Bloodborne’s monsters. With that in mind, here’s a brief look at a few creatures you’ll battle when the game arrives exclusively for PlayStation 4 on March 24.

Hunter Mob

This is essentially the torch-bearing mob that you’ve probably seen in countless horror films. They roam around looking for trouble, and while we’ve yet to run headfirst into the crowd swinging the traveler’s razor-sharp Saw Cleaver, the Hunter Mob appears to be fairly easy to kill, since they neither hit hard or run particularly fast. The danger comes when surrounded, so unless you’re comfortable taking on several foes at once, it is perhaps a better idea to pick them off one-by-one.

You can do this by hiding in the shadows and waiting until the mob wanders past. From there, throw a pebble (pick these up as you go) at one of the monsters and it will turn away from the group. Kill it and then repeat this strategy until a.) you slaughter them all, or b.) you thin the ranks, making it easier to deal with whatever remains.

Wheelchair Mob

These guys (the game describes them as rich elderly men) roll around Yharnam. Killing one doesn’t seem like a big deal because you have the maneuverability advantage, but avoid attacking head-on because they carry firearms and won’t hesitate to fill your character with buckshot.

Werewolves

Lycans are hairy, slightly bigger than you and attack using their jaws and claw swipes; they will also grab onto you and nibble. In previously released footage, a werewolf will approach, swipe and then quickly jump back. Side-step and get in a couple slashes before it recovers.

Darkbeast

This recently unveiled monster towers over you and uses its claws to whittle your health bar to zero. Ideally you want to somehow get beneath the Darkbeast and hack its legs. Doing this causes the creature to fall down, giving you a few precious seconds to deliver critical blows before it gets back to its bony feet and either resumes its attacks or hops backwards to avoid yours. If you have trouble getting close, throw some Molotov cocktails in its direction.

Cleric Beast

You run into this monstrosity during the first 20 minutes of the game. Think of it as a deer gone horribly wrong, with a vertical that would make LeBron James envious. It can leap over 50 feet into the air and land on top of your hunter, and we’ve seen the creature drive its fist into the ground, so you’ll want to avoid that. Ah yes, and the Cleric Beast’s health bar is soul-crushingly long.

Ancient Guard Dog

You can forget about “nice doggie, good doggie” when dealing with this thick-skinned canine.  You’ll find these creatures while exploring the Chalice Dungeons, either alone or with two other brave adventurers.  Not yet sure how to kill them.

Ritual Masters

We don’t know much about these adversaries, aside from the fact that they live in the Chalice Dungeons and carry out rituals, as their name implies.

Protectors

Another Chalice Dungeon monster, your basic Protector roams around feasting on rotted flesh.  We’ll guess they’re not the speediest of enemies in Bloodborne, but can do plenty of damage with the blunt instruments they carry.

Keep in mind this short list barely scratches the surface of what you’ll run into while wandering around. You’ll also contend with oversized rats, crows, dogs and a big guy that’ll try and mash your head with a brick.

Ready to play? We have you covered with free walkthroughs and tips! Check out our Bloodborne hub for more, including five critical tips to survive in Bloodborne, more about those tricky Chalice Dungeons, and how to farm Blood Echoes from werewolves.