Bloodlines (VtMB) : First Play-Through? Character Build Tips (NO Spoilers)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2024
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Always Remember the 4 Fs: Feeding, Fighting, Fleeing, and Mating.
You just couldn't bring yourself to do it right, huh.
This post was made by a Malkavian, apparently.
Either that, or just a Toreador with a fun sense of humor.
@@heyfell4301Frolicking!
@@heyfell4301 Ask Jeanette. She''s both and even will do it with a Nosferatu.
“You’re a vampire, why would you want to punch people?” I don’t know, maybe because Vampires are supposed to be super strong or something? Kinda goes to waste if you’re just going to shoot your enemies with a revolver like a puny human.
I'd say more like the Terminator, since you can also eat bullets like a robot. Just thinking about the "I'll be back" scene o/c
In answer to your question, Gopher: yes.
What question???
@@elkudos6262 "does anyone read these?"
Yes, we do.
It's adorable how much Gopher like this game.
There's a lot to like about it, despite its rough edges.
The most important thing to understand making a character is that in the character creator every level of every skill costs the same whereas ingame the higher the level the more it costs. So you will end up saving lots of XP by putting all points you have in a section into just one skill. Dont divert them between skills. Thats literally costing power.
Once you understand that i would suggest opening the wiki and check what skillbooks and teachers can give you. If you factor that in 80% of your caractersheet at start is sorted basically.
The design of it surely sucks but that is how it is. 😉
Playing a seductive Toreador at the moment (about to head to Chinatown) and I'm really enjoying it. He has almost maxed out Seduction and Charisma (9ish) and kinda mid ranged ranged combat skills (5ish). Its working out pretty well so far. One thing I would note to people playing is to feel free to spread out your points in disciplines, stacking them is a lot of fun and works well. Have 3 points in Auspex, Celerity, and Presence, and I'll pop them all off before a boss fight and I feel like its just as powerful as maxing one of them. Plus then for the lesser important fights you can always choose just to activate the one that is the most useful at the moment.
Hey Gopher, I'm well late to the party, but thank you for making this vid and the clan advice video for new players. Your VtM:B playthrough has brought a bunch of new players to the game, and I'm pleased to find many in my group of friends - a lot of them Zoomers, who haven't really ever played this game or "old janky games" like it.
These vids of yours do such a fantastic job of easing completely new players into both the lore of the series and the franchise and also helping new players navigate the "logic" (used loosely here...) of the game - a lot of the people picking VtM:B now for the first time have never seriously played an RPG that's newer than Skyrim/Dragon Age Inquisition, and find themselves intimidated or put off by it all, not having the mechanics and internal ludologics we're all used to now.
This is really important stuff you're putting out there, and it's much appreciated. It helps new people pick up the games we've grown to love, and that is really, really precious.
"Fire axe is viable" Hehe I remember a certain Malkavian who would agree.
I preferred smacking people with someone else's arm. Such a troll win.
Free axe on top of the falling elevator
the first situation you really want a bit in ranged. Doesnt need to be high but getting ranged up to 3-4 is a good benchmark i' d say is when you get to grouts mansion (definitly earlier than middle of the game).
SPOILERS: In the second stage of the mansion your will be fighting burning enemies and when you fight them in melee they will set you aflame and you wont be able to handle that all the way through. The shotgun is your friend here, trust me. Even if you got no points in ranged its still the way to go. If you have sold off your ranged weapons before going to the mansion (you wont get any there) you will have to just run and ignore the enemies. Definitly the hardest way to deal with this particular situation but hey. Its what gopher said: having a bit in ranged is a good idea for a couple of situations. END SPOILERS
there are a couple of situations where not having ranged or not having melee/brawl* is a bit tricky. What i like to do (in general) is get the most out of teachers and skillbooks. In case of firearms you can get 3 points (either second, third and 5th OR second, fourth and 5th, depending on patch), which means that its actually fairly cheap to max out. Perception, the attribute that buffs ranged skill is fairly useful aswell as it buffs inspection. Especially if you are new to the game and dont know yet what to find where etc. I' d say 2 points in perception is never a bad idea. So you can get to 7 ranged (which is more than enough for a second combat option (your first you should definitly max out) with just 22 - 28 XP or something, which is dirtcheap, really. Add to that that some clans ( Malkavian, Toreador and Tremere) can buff perception ontop of that with the Auspex-discipline.
In case of melee/brawl*: When it comes to melee- and brawl- ablities its fairly similar to firearms in that you get lots of "free levels" on them (edit: just checked: for melee you can get levels 3, 4 AND 5 for free making it the cheapest combat stat to push BUT pulling that off is a bit tricky; it requires lockpick 10 for starters and you need to know exactly what you are doing; Brawl* you can get levels 3 and 4). Add to that bloodbuff which increases strength by either 2 or 4 points, depending on patch. So again you can get to 7+ fairly cheaply in the situations where guns are not a good option and that is, once again plenty.
So i am inclined to skill both BUT make a clear distinction between primary and secondary weapons, definitly maxing primary and definitly not maxing secondary as going from 7 to 10 is very expensieve and you probably want those XP-points in something else and its jsut excessive for the 3-4 times you are gonna be using it (although in those situations you will be glad you have it).
*brawling as a combat stat is only viable if you have Protean-discipline (in other words be a Gangrel or manipulate your game accordingly). As for brawling to have an easier time feeding: That strongly depends on your build. If you have a build that does not have a high blood-throughput you really dont need to feed on enemies. Also keep in mind that Ventrue is more susceptible to this problem as they cant feed on rats or bums. Thats where you have to figure out for yourself if putting points into brawl is going to be helpful but then again you can get brawl 3 and 4 for free so if you are in doubt i would recommend investing 7 XP to get to lvl 4.
THANK YOU!
Ive been trying to start the series and i couldnt find anything that wouldnt spoil the game.
"Does anybody read these things?" Is there any other reason to WATCH the rambles or the tutorial (?) vids than to read the Gopher's brain notes? The notes are brilliant.
I read those things, yes.
That "character power" formula is hilarious, yes we read those notes.
re: investing in more than 1 combat style, it depends more on your clan than the game's enemy and level design; some clans are better off putting points into Stamina or a defensive discipline than trying to be decent at both ranged and melee. for example a Ventrue can level Fortitude and shrug off the late game's more "annoying" enemies while chasing them down or lining up shots (but not both). whereas a Toreador, with both Auspex and Celerity, would definitely benefit from leveling Firearms and Melee/Brawl, favoring one or the other depending on the enemy/level.
becoming a jack of all trades is still this game's biggest trap for new players imo.
Not really. The biggest trap for new players is the desire to max one thing at a time and saving up points for that, rather than spending them on the basics early on. You can start as a jack of all trades early on, and then specialize later on when the game requires it. Even on my gun specialist builds, I am probably as competent with melee as ranged weapons until about Hollywood where I really start to put more points into it as the firearms become far more powerful.
@@GophersVids that's quite different from what I've seen of/heard from new players, but maybe you have a larger sample size than me. in my experience players will get rewarded early on for spreading points around, as you say, only to eventually be put off by increasing exp costs, the logic being "why spend a dozen points to get rank 4 in this when I can spend half that to get another rank 3?" but then they arrive in Hollywood underpowered and unable to clear the second half of the game's much higher skill checks, or worse, unable to deal with the game's combat sections at all.
@@wrwinter Oh, you do benefit from specializing later on. And I am talking about the plus patch that does have more sidequests and thus more EXP potential. It's just that I generally find certain basic essentials early on to be very helpful all the way through the game. So melee for example. Even on a 10 ranged weapon character I'll still whip out the axe on some creatures just because they are easier to kill that way unless you have Celerity.
@@GophersVids might be talking past each other a bit; we agree completely that generalizing early and specializing later is the way to go, I just think that new players tend to make the mistake of never getting around to specializing (as opposed to the mistake of trying to specialize early). it's kinda annoying to see people complain about the game's combat after making characters that try to be really persuasive, really intimidating, really seductive and really sneaky all at once while investing in both guns and melee. they don't have enough points to have a 10 in ranged, let alone anything else.
Videos like this are why you're one of my favorite you-tubers. Love the no-nonsense advice.
Well said... the only thing I'd add is that you really don't need any brawl if:
+ You're a Vantrue, Tremere, Malkavian, Gangrel or Nosferatu
-+ And you don't mind using a single blood point to incapacitate the enemy
+ Dominate/Trance, Dementation/Hysteria and Animalism/Nightwisp ravens will incapacitate an enemy it they won't be able to resist your feeding attempt.
+ Just be careful not to touch them. (It takes a little getting used to, but I've never had any problem feeding on anybody.)
But as you said it costs only a few points to raise Brawl and in the long run it doesn't hurt the character that much.
And you don't have to worry about using a discipline to feed.
I went Ventrue and tried to be super charismatic. I was really not expecting to spend so much time sneaking around using dominate.
I like to push security and dexterity a point higher than Gopher has. I'll get security 3 and dexterity 3, which gives lockpicking 6 normally and 8 when bloodbuff is in use. There are very few locked doors that are higher than that (I recall a couple of 9s and one 10). Bear in mind that this is also only true for the unofficial patch. Bloodbuff gives much higher, often OP, boosts in the vanilla game.
Finance is useful for blood packs, but if you're playing Nos or Tremere, they have disciplines that can rob enemies of their blood and you'll rarely need blood packs. Thaumathurgy level 4 for Tremeres is OP against human enemies. You can literally drain-kill an enemy, wait for the blood to come, then drain-kill another. Rinse and repeat. I don't even think the level 4 animalism is as OP.
I would also absolutely recommend putting two, if not three, points into subterfuge or appearance. There are bars in every district in the game and there are walking blood packs in there that can be seduced and periodically drank to restore blood points. Their blood refills way quicker than you'd think and it's a backup for when you simply can't kill a criminal with the above disciplines to get blood.
Other than that, roleplay to your heart's content.
You really don't need more than 2 in dex to max out lockpicking though. I'll talk about that in a the spoiler version of this video :)
Finance for blood packs is OK but it's not too useful in all but a few situations. The only clan I ever found having issues with blood was the Tremere when there were no drainable targets. And that was mostly because I just wanted to use my big attacks for the lolz.
Obviously that means I don't rate seduction either UNLESS you roleplay. It's fun, but really not needed.
Again though, if you WANT to play rich and sexy, you absolutely should :)
@@GophersVids I'm interested to see the spoiler version, then. I know there's a lockpicking book in the museum you can use it for security instead. That and 2 in dex and 5 in security with the book, I'd imagine bloodbuff would see you good for the rest. Fair enough.
Yeah, finance is practically useless unless you're playing a mod like The Final Nights, which adds way more purchaseables.
Seduction is good if you roleplay as being too good to eat rats. :)
I typically just start with two points in brawl and punch my way through Santa Monica. Fists are all you need early on.
"Vampire the Masquerade 1"?!
Gopher! What about Vampire the Masquerade: Redemption?
Well, Part 1 of the Bloodlines series then. 😛
Its not a masterpiece like Bloodlines, and not worth touching.
@@doctrinedoomsday6953 It's different from Bloodlines but arguably better if you're a cRPG fan. I'm not, but I know people who genuinely like Redemption better and have very good arguments for it.
@@doctrinedoomsday6953 It is a masterpiece, but not so knowed as Bloodlines is. That game had a ton of lore from the World of Darkness, and i mean a TON of lore. You see the Prometheans, the conflict that creates the Sabbat, you see and fight the Voiovoides of the Tzimice, you actually see how things were before the creation of the Camarilla and how the Kindred acted during the Dark Ages, you see how a Gargoyle is created by the Tremere. You see and ride along a Capadoccian, you see the influence of the Lasombra on the Catholic Church, you see the Catedral of Flesh, the Inquisition (and later the Society of Leopoldo), you interact with a mage from the Order of Hermes, i can go on and on. Bloodlines is amazing, but Redemption it's just as good (and, in some parts even better), yes the gameplay isn't as good, but the story and the lore behind it surpasses this problem, at least for me
What are the essential mods/fixes?
I used to play the tabletop. I had a short toreador who used a Thompson machine gun. Club owner. The campaign stalled though. Always liked the game mechanics. The way you spend points lets you backfill more than games with straight leveling systems.
Only the unofficial fan patch, which comes included with the DRM free GOG version, after a couple of playthroughs I'd recommend trying the plus patch which add some cut content
Great video!! I can’t wait for the new VTM bloodlines game! Been playing the original Bloodlines since like 2008.
Sneaking seems a big part of this game so wouldn't more Dex mean that you would spend less blood on things like obuscate and be better at lockpick or any kind of combat?
It seems you need at least 4 sneaking to actually sneak against any real enemy in any proper secluded combat zone VERY early on if you actually want to perform stealth kills!
And let's not forget that all character start with Temposis Discipline maxed out so you wont need to worry about that.
Great advice for new kine. Here's some more good advice. Dont catch a sunrise.
Also make sure you understand what your clan is about.
Current character is a Gangrel and she can take a beating! Fortitude 3, Protean 3, hack and slash indeed! So Melee? Eh! Brawl is where it is, her fists can punch you into the next postal code.
And I have JUST entered China Town.
just started a game. thanks a lot for this.
That moment when you have the Clan Quest Mod, as well as the mods you can download through it
Yes, we want a spoiler filled Character Build Tips video!
Hey your profile pic who is it? I seen that fella in my dreams.
Thank you very much
Roleplay fun > Total efficiency
A lot of min-maxing has already been displayed for this game on TH-cam, and I think some people took that and ran with it, forgetting that RPGs are an experience rather than a strict set of tasks to accomplish in the shortest amount of time, with the least amount of effort. Seduction is okay! Because if you picked it, it's because you wanted to play a suave character who weaponizes their attractiveness. Same with Intimidation, just like you said. You picked it because you wanna play a scary character, there's a rush of empowerment in pushing NPCs around.
But true, there are some tips that can avoid mechanical frustration. Some clans are punished way less for being bad at certain skills. Example: Stealth. A Ventrue, Tremere or Gangrel can use Dominate or Animalism to distract or incapacitate patrolling enemies so that you can zoom by them without being detected. A Toreador or a Brujah don't have that kind of power, so they need a higher stealth level for those moments. Malkavians and Nosferatu have Obfuscate, which make Stealth almost useless, allowing you to improve other things you find cool or useful.
actually when i play first time as a gangrel protean brawl look pretty good then I realise just having 5 point on animalism is op infinite blood easy use skill that lock enemy and 1 shoot any non boss thing beyond amazing actually didn't need any other thing to finish the game with animalism and bloodbuff
07:15 - speaking of finance. In patch+ you get finance almost for free. You can get lvl 4 and 5 for free on basic and on +patch you can even get 3, 4 and 5 which makes finance almost a must to max out. That alone makes a shot of the Glock cost less than 1$. I mean its still noticeable. Firearmbuilds are definitly poorer than meleebuilds but sitting on a lot of cash is also not going to do anything for you. I am sitting on 4 grand with my gangrel atm and i have about half the game still ahead of me.
^^ And being low on cash does add to the roleplay. Its like when you are faced to say, rip off somebody and get a lot of cash from him versus getting more XP or a humanity bonus or something else and you are sitting on a butload of cash there isnt really a descission to make (unless you are just playing a greedy bastard that cant get enough).
I' ve played fullranged builds shooting every single thing in this game with suboptimal cashgain and use (lots of weapons you really dont need to buy as you get them 1-2 missions later for free, for example and some weapons are not worth gaining in the first place) and fairly low ranged stats and still managed to get through with my money. So dont be scared because of the money. Its going to be fine. ;-)
The Anaconda, My god that thing is absolutely beautiful I would say it was on par if not surpasses the Deagle
I still love the Desert Eagle the most. But the Anaconda has been my current Torreador's main weapon.
@@wasienka It carried me through the Kuei-Jin segment
I’ve wanted to play this game for quite some time now and these videos have finally convinced me. However I’ve thought about using mods on the first playthrough, is it a good idea and do you have any must-have mod suggestions?
The unofficial patch is what I'd recommend the most honestly. It fixes a lot of the problems in the base game.
I would recommend the Unofficial Patch alone for the first playthrough.
I played through it for the first time a few months ago with just the unofficial patch. I had a blast. This janky little game has a special place in my heart.
Is there something like MO that uses virtual folders for this game? I want to be able to remove or swap out mods whenever I want without affecting the original game folder
I've put no point into intimidation, as a Malk I have better tools to deal with annoying people, seduce them, why not, intimidate? Like why? When you can dementiate them? It costs one blood point, but you can get these back from any seduced blood doll. Intimidation isn't needed at all.
To answer your question, yep, some of us read them.
dope thanks
Nice. I'm wondering why is this game suddenly becoming a lot more popular right now?
The sequel is around the corner.
Because a sequel is coming? Though it looks like shit if you ask me.
it's what people wanted though, not very open ended but a semi linear RPG that offer freedom on how you want to play either by experimenting or class based preset, not freedom of mindless grinding crafting survival wave fillers nowadays open world tried to mimic Skyrim, even though Skyrim open world has it own flaws lmao.
@@Mysterialic But there's no release date yet is it?
@@nomad123ad You are correct there isn't a date yet. I think they still say sometime this year but I doubt that. Haven't heard good things about the development so I'm tempering expectations.
10:55 yes
I think my biggest issue with this game aside from all the hurdles it takes to get my pc to run it is the fact that I get lost all the bloody time!
just use the unofficial patch
"You'll need a ranged weapon cause some people move too fast" *laughs in celerity* all kidding aside, I did my nos run with minimal firearms skill. I kept running out of ammo all the time and it was just a money sink
I found this to be true on my latest playthrough - I went *full* firearms and ended up ending the game with 81 dollars and only barely enough ammo.
can you do somehting like this for divinity orginal sin 2, too?
If you mean the second DOS game, DOS2, Gopher has not played it yet, he's only just finishing DOS1. As of today's date, Thurs 23rd July 2020. ☺ If you actually meant the first game, then do reply and if Gopher doesn't see it I can pass on a message and ask him if he would (I'm one of his Twitch mods). Disclaimer: I make no guarantee that he will 😊
@@fkcz76_whisperer oh the series he plays with quarico is the first game? Never realized. I had the second game in my library and never played such games and was hesitant to jump in so was hoping for a guide. Nvm.
@@psd993 yep sorry ☺
Min/Maxers are never satisfied Gopher. There is ALWAYS something they could do to further optimize their build.
False, due to: the concept of optimization.
Guides for a 16 year old game... Is this part of 2020 devils plot too?
Oh and yes, Moar!
I actually came here because I spend so much time trying to do stuff and I get frustrated with the game.
And what Ghopher says a friend told me the same, "Download the Patch" don't use Nosferatu as a first playtrough, and use Melee or the Fire Axe at the start of the game, you don't gonna have a good range weapon at the start, they gonna be good after the middle of the game.
So after like 4 hours of playing I'm gonna do a New Start with all the advice and the Patch
What about just using the "Auto Leveling" on?
Never ever in any rpg do that, it takes alot of the fun of experimentation out of it, especially this game that underneath the hood has alot of combat stat rolling going on
In future, can you make sure that when you put up a math thing like that, there's a warning... I'm having flashbacks now to years ago, and still getting 22/7 wrong ...:/
Watching this because I couldn't kill the last boss.
I played a few hours of it and I got stuck on every fucking door, its was ridiculous. It got so bad that I got stuck in between 2 doors and had to reload. Later I found out the Game really wasn't designed to be played at 144FPS ._.
But so far I feel the Game seems pretty easy, I was focusing on Seduction and Melee and had no problems.
u have any idea how often ive skipped while watching that?
so much talkings around the important stuff ..
-console 1
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I am but a broken man. My wife suddenly decided to leave me months ago and since then I've been completely alone. My only daughter, whom I haven't seen in years, lives far away and never gives any news and never answers my calls or messages. I am a fat, retired and lonely shell devoid of purpose. My breathing problems and back pain are getting worse, and I am now so overweight that even doing groceries has become a torture. My existence is miserable and meaningless.