Few games manage to engage and terrify the imaginations of its players like Bloodborne does. FromSoftware’s magnum opus creates a Gothic world, and then spins an eldritch yarn in it. And the results are spectacular, to say the least.
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Bosses are always a standout feature in FromSoftware games, and Bloodborne delivers in spades. The bosses in this game range from extremely skilled Hunters (like yourself) to giant deformed beasts and to monstrosities straight out of a Lovecraft book. Ebrietas falls in the final category. A mass of spindly tentacle-wings and eyes framing a giant head and a slug-like body, she intimidates from the moment you walk in. And though she is an optional boss, she is very important to the lore of the game, and here are ten things you should know about her.
10 She’s Not Actually A Great One
Bloodborne splits its monstrosities between Great Ones and the Kin of Great Ones. A Great One is a multidimensional being born as a Great One and can access multiple planes of space-time. The Kin, on the other hand, are humans or other races that, through contact with a Great One, ascend beyond humanity. Doesn’t matter to our Hunter though. The Hunter will kill them both.
9 Micolash Summons Her
And you can too. Well, parts of her. The tentacles that Micolash throws out are a manifestation of the body of Ebrietas. These are brought about by a hunter tool called the Augur Of Ebrietas.
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This tool scales with Arcane and deals Arcane damage, and throws out tentacles from Ebrietas’ body to deal damage to and knock over opponents. It is an excellent tool for Arcane builds and can deal a lot of damage while giving opportunities for backstabs and parries.
8 She Doesn’t Actually Die
One of the many theories around the Great Ones and the Kin in Bloodborne is that the player doesn’t actually kill them, but displaces them to a higher plane of existence. This theory is based on the continuing existence of nightmares after their hosts are killed. In the case of Ebrietas, even after Ebrietas is defeated, the Augur of Ebrietas and A Call Beyond exist and work fine. And since the Augur works by summoning her, the reasoning is that she has to exist somewhere, even after the Hunter defeats her.
7 She Still Has Human Emotions
Rom, The Vacuous Spider is also a Kin that the Hunter fights in Byrgenwyrth. Rom is one of the turning points in the game’s storyline. After the fight with Rom, the eldritch parts of the story really start to kick in. The blood moon appears, the Amygdala appear and things get a lot weirder. When we do find Ebrietas, she is found mourning over the corpse of Rom and does not aggro until the player attacks her. She is also known as the Abandoned one, possibly referring to the Great Ones ascending and leaving her behind.
6 Even Though She May Not Have Been Human
Continuing with the idea that she is a Kin, it follows that she turned Kin from something. Yharnam, the world of Bloodborne, is built on the ruins of Loran, but further down are the Pthumerian Dungeons. The Pthumeru are presented as an ancient civilization that lived alongside the Great Ones and eventually left when the Great Ones ascended. Considering that Ebrietas was found in one of the Dungeons as a Kin, she might have been a Pthumerian. Her being referred to as the Left Behind or the Abandoned One would also work well with this.
5 She Can Be Fought Again
Upon defeating Ebrietas, she drops the Great Isz Chalice. This opens the doors to the Great Isz Chalice dungeons. The Great Isz dungeon holds a lot of lore significance. This Dungeon is where the Healing Church made contact with Ebrietas, and the experience lead to the split between the Choir and the School of Mensis.
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You can use the chalice to open the Great Isz Chalice Dungeon and fight through it. The final boss of the dungeon is Ebrietas, among other Kin like the Celestial Emissary or the Brainsucker.
4 She Hits Hard
Saying that a boss fight is challenging in a FromSoftware game seems a bit redundant. However, Ebrietas is pretty challenging, even by Bloodborne standards. Her many appendages flail around while her head smashes into you if you get close. Add to that a devastating charge attack that can kill you in one hit and a flying smash that can annihilate your health. But if you decide to stay at a range, she can fire lasers or shoot tainted blood that induces Frenzy. For a boss that’s initially peaceful, she puts up quite a fight.
3 She Is Weak To Bolt
Like the other Kin you face, she takes a lot of damage from Bolt and Thrust attacks. Her head is also vulnerable and takes a large amount of damage. She can be baited into attacks where her head is close to the ground and doing a certain amount of damage to her head will stagger her and open her to a visceral attack. The visceral also locks her in a long recovery animation, which leaves her vulnerable to a lot of damage. So whip out your Tonitrus and Rifle Spears for this one. Or just take cannon shots to her head.
2 She Communes With The Choir
The Choir is an elite branch of the Healing Church. They are responsible for originally finding Ebrietas in the Dungeons, and making contact with her. All of the members of the Choir you meet use Augur Of Ebrietas and A Call Beyond. The game also talks about the Great Ones communing with those who pray to them, and that the highest members of the Church are somehow in contact with Ebrietas.
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Our first contact with Ebrietas is also below Upper Cathedral Ward, near the area where the Church carried out their experimentation. All of this points to a close working relationship between the Choir and Ebrietas.
1 She Might Be Responsible For Everything Wrong In Yharnam
The origin of Blood Ministration and the Church is unclear, but Ebrietas is a very important part of it. The few things we know for sure are that scholars from Byrgenwyrth found Old Blood in the Chalice Dungeons. After the Church was separated from Byrgenwyrth, the Choir made contact with Ebrietas. Her blood was used in the ministrations after the contact though. It is also never made clear which Great One the Byrgenwyrth scholars got their Old Blood from, and it is pretty likely that it was Ebrietas too. And the Scourge of the Beast is tied very closely to the Blood. So yeah, Ebrietas might have been the catalyst that sped up the Scourge in Yharnam.
Next: Bloodborne: 5 Reasons Why It’s The Best Exclusive On PS4 (& 5 Exclusives That Are Better)
