How are Blood Gems Determined? Bloodborne Wiki » Upgrades » Blood Gems » How are Blood Gems Determined?

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Table of Contents

How are Blood Gems Determined?

Primary Bonuses

Secondary Bonuses

How are Blood Gems Determined? [source]

This is a big question, one that's asked pretty often round these parts. The issue being, the item descriptions on blood gems don't actually jibe with how blood gems work. There are a lot of mechanics at work here, and they differ somewhat between the main game and chalice dungeons. For the purposes of this note, we're going to be talking about chalice blood gems exclusively, and with a focus on Depth 5 Cursed gems. Some of this information may change when the DLC drops, but if you're like me and you're scrambling to get nice gems for your shiny new DLC weapons, this might be helpful! You guys know how much I love lists, so here's one for you. A list of general facts about blood gems to get you started. Some of these have exceptions, which I'll make a note of. I'm not going to go into specific values and bonus pools, because I think half the fun is discovery, and no definitive list of these exists. But the notes I'm going to make here should get you started. After examining a few gem drops, it should all fall into place for you in terms of what you're looking for and where you can find it. Shape is determined by Chalice type, with some exceptions Pthumeru = Radial Isz = Triangle Loran = Waning Some enemies, particularly NPC Hunters, Hemwick Witches, Beast-Possessed Soul, and perhaps others, override the shape rule and usually drop the same shapes no matter where you find them. Their bonus pools might differ in different Chalice types, though! Most Blood Damage and Bloodtinge Scaling gems you'll find will be Circular no matter where they appear, unless they're a rare off-shape drop Note that many enemies are absent from one or more of the Chalice types, which is the real issue in the "ideal imprint" discussions for weapons. The bonuses themselves are not functionally linked to the shape. For example: Watchers appear in Pthumeru and Isz, but not Loran, which is why people recommend 2x Radial 1x Triangle imprints to make use of their 27.2% Physical gems. Getting these gems in Waning is possible, but only as an extremely rare off-shape drop There's always a very small chance for any gem to be the "wrong shape" Rating is determined by Depth Depth 5 starts at 15 to 17 Enemies with red auras, roaming bosses, and NPC Hunters have +1 rating Bosses that are restricted to Layer 1 and 2 have +2 rating Bosses that can appear on Layer 3 and 4 have +3 rating Primary Bonus is determined by Chalice type, and the enemy Most enemies within a given location will have the same Primary pool, so you can reasonably know what you're going to get where, unless the enemy in question overrides the Primary bonus, for example: Undead Giant drops Adept (Blunt/Thrust) Headless Bloodletting Beast drops Heavy (STR Scaling) Keeper of the Old Lords drops Sharp (SKL Scaling) Pthumerian Elder drops Cold (ARC Scaling) Amygdala and Rom drop Nourishing (All ATK) Watchdog of the Old Lords drops Fire Loran Darkbeast and Abhorrent Beast drop Bolt Ebrietas and Celestial Emissary Boss drop Arcane There's always a very small chance to get something completely unexpected Secondary Bonus, if present, is determined by Chalice type, and the enemy Like primary bonuses, most enemies will drop the same secondary bonuses in a Chalice type, unless they override it, for example: Brainsucker always drops huge Flat Arcane as a secondary bonus Loran Cleric always drops huge Flat Fire as a secondary bonus Evil Labyrith Spirit always drops huge Phys. Up Near Death as a secondary bonus Technically, these "secondary bonuses" have values consistent with what you'd see as a primary bonus, but they take the second slot. Like Primary bonuses, there's always a small chance to find something you wouldn't expect otherwise Cursed gems are more powerful, but come with drawbacks Obviously most Cursed gems come from Cursed dungeons, but some rare exceptions exist. Even so, it's probably better to just farm gems in Cursed dungeons. Possible Curses are as follows: Increases stamina costs ATK vs the kin DOWN ATK vs beasts DOWN WPN durability DOWN (increases durability degradation per-hit) HP gradually depletes ATK DOWN Bonus and Curse Multipliers are determined by enemy Some weak enemies have decreased Primary bonuses for no apparent reason, for example: Wandering Madness, a.k.a. "Loot Enemies" Small Celestial Emissary Labyrinth Watchers (the skinny fellows, not the Merciless/Chieftan) Female Beast Patients (the ones with the cloaks) Having a Secondary bonus decreases the Primary bonus Secondary bonuses can be higher on some enemies, at the cost of even lower Primary bonuses. For example: Labyrinth Madman Watcher's Gravedigger (note that these have lower Primary than Labyrinth Madman) Abhorrent Beast Curses can also come in lower values, with a cost to the Primary bonus, on top of the potential cost of having a secondary effect. For example: Celestial Emissary Boss Rom, the Vacuous Spider Pthumerian Elder

Primary Bonuses In general, these are the gems you'll find from enemies in each area unless you've come across something that specifically overrides the area-based primary bonus. Note that you can, rarely, find any primary bonus in any location. Pthumeru Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Adept (Thrust/Blunt), Heavy/Sharp (STR/SKL Scaling), Striking/Radiant (Charge Atk/Stamina Cost) Isz Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Fire, Bolt, Arcane Loran Common: Tempering (Physical) Uncommon: Fire, Bolt, Dirty/Murky (Rapid/Slow Poison) Secondary Bonuses This probably isn't exhaustive, but it should give you an idea of what you're looking for. Remember that some exceptional enemies can override the area-based secondary bonus. These are listed in no particular order. Like off-shape and unexpected primary bonuses, you can rarely find any secondary bonus in any location. These are just the "common drops" so to speak, though some are more common than others. Pthumeru Mostly Physically-oriented, note that Open Foes and Charge Atk apply to ALL damage, but can only be found here outside of rare drops +Physical Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up %Physical Atk Up at full HP %Physical Atk Up near death %Charge Atk Up %Atk vs Open Foes Up %Reduces Stamina Cost Isz Overlaps with both Pthumeru/Loran, with some omissions, only place where Flat Arcane exists outside Brainsuckers and very rare drops +Physical Atk (Flat) +Fire Atk (Flat) +Bolt Atk (Flat) +Arcane Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up +HP continues to recover %Atk vs Beasts Up %Atk vs Kin Up %Reduces Stamina Cost %Boosts Rally Potential Loran Mostly Elemental-oriented, note that Isz and Loran both give Beast/Kin Up +Fire Atk (Flat) +Bolt Atk (Flat) +Rapid Poison +Slow Poison +Weapon Durability Up +HP continues to recover %Atk vs Beasts Up %Atk vs Kin Up %Boosts Rally Potential Click here for a (mostly complete) table of CURSED gem values. Some of these might be off by .1 because I used an algorithm to extrapolate the values from a few examples, and I just didn't have examples of all combinations. Prim. 0 Watcher drops Prim. 1 Chests, trash mobs, Loot enemies Gems with a Secondary effect, Sec. 1 Prim. 2 Gems with increased Secondary effect, Sec. 2 Gems with a normal secondary effect and reduced Curses Note that Brainsucker, Loran Cleric, and Evil Labyrinth Spirit use Prim. 1 values for their assigned secondaries, and Sec. 1 for their random primaries. Note that Secondary effects will randomly roll among the 3 values corresponding to the Rating the gem can be. For example Loran Silverbeast boss can roll the equivalent of Rating 17, 18, 19 Secondary effects on its gems. This doesn't necessarily correspond to the Rating of the gem itself, you could have a Rating 17 gem (and the resulting Primary value) with what amounts to a Rating 19 secondary effect. The Flat Physical (and Heavy/Cold) values here don't reflect the special increase to Abyssal gems that landed with 1.07, I still have to work out the mechanics here. These are the "base" values so to speak. The 1.07 change is extra to the normal algorithm for determining gem values.