Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: FAQ
Introduction
Metroidvanians everywhere are enjoying the spiritual successor to Castlevania, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. With its RPG elements, secret endings, bestiaries, and secrets, players have plenty of questions. After browsing several forums discussing the games, this guide is compiled of the most frequently asked questions about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. We’ve already covered how to get 100% map completion, 100% weapon completion, and 100% achievement completion. If there’s any other questions you have that aren’t covered here, comment below and it’ll be answered! Please enjoy our Bloodstained FAQ!
#1: How long is it?
The game’s castle has been described as being bigger than Dracula’s in Symphony of the Night (which it is, not including the inverted castle). However, players still want to know how many hours they can expect to put into the adventure. Most players can expect to finish the game, including the true ending, in between 10 to 12 hours.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – If you stop after the first bad ending, you won’t get to see the Bloodless!
Your mileage will vary depending on how hard the game is for you. If you’re looking get 100% in all categories (map, bestiary, item list, shard collection), then expect to get around 25 to 30 hours. Of course, there is also NG+, if you feel like demolishing the game with your newfound godly gear combinations.
#2: Which weapon is best?
A hefty question to ask, but one that’s asked a lot. People are still putting time into finding out exact numbers and DPS rates for the shards and weapons, but some standouts have been made known.
In general…
For weapons, a lot of it comes down to personal preference. Daggers are fast, but have a short range and lower base damage. Conversely, great swords hit the hardest, but are slower than most weapons. Swords/clubs are somewhere in the middle, offering a good balance of speed and damage, but not excelling in either category. Whips are something of an oddity. They offer great range and moderate damage, but are somewhat slow. Rapiers and spears are the thrusting weapons of the game, and are similar in their speeds to swords and great swords, respectively. As for guns, well they’re a niche use. Ammo is expensive, and often not worth it unless you’re facing a boss you are struggling to avoid attacks from.
…but the “best” are…
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – A powerful and easy to obtain early weapon is The Deathbringer
Great swords also have the benefit of being able to strike in a small range above Miriam’s head. With a proper expertise or Optimizer shard, great swords can be fast enough to be effective, so overall great swords are probably best. Of the ones available, The Eternal Blue hits the hardest. However, it’s an endgame weapon, so don’t expect to handle it anytime soon. The Deathbringer is a weapon you can craft with an 8-bit coin, a material you can find early on, and will deal a lot of damage early on.
A great early game weapon is the Rhava Bural. Found off Killer Barbers in the Cathedral, the Rhava Bural is unique in that it attacks is rapid slashing motions. You can even attack while running! Its considerably low damage means you want to use this as a spamming weapon. Its upgrade, Rhava Velar, is only moderately better, but when used in a crit build, can be devastating.
#3: Which shard is best?
Another area that’s still being debated and researched, but there have been some clear top tier choices.
Conjure Shards
For Conjure shards, Welcome Company can carry you to the end game. Found on Poltergeists, the Welcome Company surrounds you with paintings that can block projectiles and deal damage to enemies they come in contact with. The shield lasts for the entire room you cast it in, and is fairy cheap. It’s a great shard for shrugging off weaker enemies like bats and dullahammers as well as dealing some extra damage to bosses. Later in the game, the Summon Hellhound spell can deal massive damage, though it does obscure your screen somewhat.
Manipulative Shards
You probably wont use Manipulative shards much, as they’re primarily utility and often niche. Two standouts are Accelerator and Bunnymorphosis. Accelerator is a late game shard, won by beating a blue ninja in a foot race. Bunnymorophosis will transform you into Lili, turning all your attacks into kick based moves. This shard can be great for bosses if you can get above them and rain on them with drop kick attacks. It does drain MP overtime, however, so it’s not infinite unless your MP/s is higher than how much it drains.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – Plus, you can make yourself look like a demon bunny girl in cutscenes!
Directional Shards
Directional shards are a bit more balanced in which are good to use. Nearly all are perfectly acceptable and usable throughout the game. Riga Dohin, a crafted shard, makes for a great fireball spell that also leaves behind a persistent field of damage. Directed Shield, from Shield Outsiders, can be used for tougher boss fights where it’s harder to dodge attacks. 8-bit fireball is probably the hardest hitting directional spell, but it’s slow movement and high upgrade cost makes it less appealing.
Passive Shards
Passive shards really come down to what you’re using. Whatever weapon you’re using, use a shard of that expertise type. When you find an Optimizer shard, that will really take your damage to the next level! Resistance shards aren’t too attractive. There are other shards in that category that fit more niches roles, such as causing more items or money to drop, increasing chances of getting double items during crafting, etc. Swap them in and out as needed. It should be noted that when you get a Passive shard to rank 9, you’ll get a Skill shard of that shard. So if you get Augment STR to rank 9, you will also have an Augment STR skill shard, which are always on unless you turn them off manually!
#4: Which familiar is best?
A far more limited question in that there are only six familiars to choose from. Each familiar gains different abilities as they level up, granting some more utility than just having them deal damage. However, unless you’re using the Dullahammer familiar, you won’t be doing much damage with any of them. The only you’ll likely want to use for most of your travels is Carabosse. Carabosse is terrible in combat, with her slow attacks and low damage output. You won’t be bringing her along for combat, though. Carabosse can do two unique things. One, she can offer up healing potions to you when you’re injured. She only uses fairy potions, but having those on hand basically means you get more healing options than if you didn’t use Carabosse. Addtionally, Carabosse will point out any secret walls you come across.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – Send an army to headbutt your enemies to death!
So what about a combat familiar? While Dantalion can buff your strength, Dullahammer is most people’s choice. At a low grade it won’t do much, but for every two grade it gains, you get another Dullhammer head to follow you, up to five! With their superior tracking skills, a group of five of them can be deadly.
#5: What’s the difference between Rank and Grade?
When upgrading shards, you’ll see they have two values: rank and grade. The game doesn’t do a great job of explaining the difference, so hopefully our Bloodstained FAQ can clear things up.
Rank is increased by enhancing the shard at Johannes. Rank generally increases the parameters of a shard. When you select a shard in the menu, in the bottom right it’ll say what rank does for the shard. It may be something like increasing the range, coverage, or number of projectiles fired with each use. For passive shards it will give the shard a secondary effect, such as giving you faster attacks for Augment STR.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – Both rank and grade are important to your shard’s growth.
Grade, meanwhile, is increased by having more copies of that shard in your possession. Grade will increase the stated effect of the shard. For most spells, this means increasing the amount of damage the spell does. Players may overlook trying to get more copies of a shard, as one is enough to unlock it, and Dominique does discourage you from doing this. However, it’s vital to have high grade to keep a shard relevant.
#6: Where is demon #44?
If you’re trying to fill out the bestiary, you’ll come across a gap in your list: demon #44. The reason most people struggle to find him is that he’s encountered in a unique way. While on the train, in the second car, you can sit down at the window and look out over the lake. When the train passes over the bridge, your character will zoom in on something approaching from the water: kunekune! Kunekune is incredibly deadly and has to be tackled in a certain way.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – When this image appears on your screen, Kunekune is coming…
Basically, if you look at him, he’s likely going to kill you. Kunekunke instantly curse you and deal rapid damage. The best way to deal with him is to immediately start walking over to the previous car and jump up onto the crates. While standing as far left on them as you can, you can turn around and look at kunekune safely. Crouch down and start wailing on him, preferably with a great sword.
#7: Where do I get gold material?
One of the ingredients needed for many high level items is gold. No, not the currency. The material. Problem is, gold doesn’t drop from any demons, so many players are confused on where they can get it. The only place you can find it is within the respawning blue chests in the Hidden Desert. That can be a rather slow method, however. A faster, though still grindy, method is to dismantle Ayamurs. Ayamur is a fairly powerful club that can be found on Glashtyn in the Forbidden Underground Waterway.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – A good spot to farm the water horse for Ayamurs.
The idea is to farm these water horses for the weapon. Then when you’re satisfied with how many you have, you’ll need to dismantle them into gold. It takes 10 alkhests to dismantle these, so either buy those from Dominique or farm them from any of the ghost variants (Amys drop two at a time and can be found in the Hidden Desert). You can also craft gold with 50 mercury and 10 dark mater, but that’s a very expensive and impractical option.
#8: Where is the Valkyrie Set?
Though not the strongest set in the game, the Valkyrie Tiara and Dress boast the most LCK of their respective types. For that reason, Valkyrie armor is great for farming up rare drops, money, and shards. Plus the Valkyrie Dress is one of only two chest pieces in the game that have a visual difference on Miriam. Finding the pieces can be a little tricky and requires late game abilities like Invert and Dimensional Shift.
The Valkyrie Dress
The earliest piece you can claim, the dress can be found in the right tower of the Towers of Twin Dragons area. After exiting out onto the tower from the top, you should see a break above your character. You’ll need to use Invert to get up to that ledge and loot the dress from the chest.
The Valkyrie Tiara
Found in the Den of Behemoths, in the boss room and below Valefar’s stage is a red chest. To the left of that chest is a hidden space you can jump up onto it. In there is the tiara.
The Valkyrie Blade
Back to the Towers of Twin Dragons, inside the rightmost tower is a Shield Outsider standing over a bridge. Using Dimensional Shift, you can get underneath the bridge. You won’t see the chest, but you’ll see the prompt appear when you’re near it. Inside is the sword.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night FAQ – Looking fashionable with the Valkyrie set.
Conclusion
Hopefully you found this Bloodstained FAQ informative and helpful. If you have any other questions, feel free to comment below, and they may even be added to the guide!
