The Tomb Prospectors Discoveries

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page revision: 72, last edited: 01 Feb 2024

Table of Contents

Basic Information

The Tomb Prospectors Wiki Pages

Wandering bosses

Rare enemies

Noteworthy Architecture

Glitches

Unusual enemy placement, formation or behaviour

Myths

First Documented Roaming Boss in Isz Gravestone

Skeletal Puppets found in Chalice Dungeons

Galleries [Old Archive]

Basic Information

The Tomb Prospectors seek the nether reaches of Bloodborne's chalice dungeons, in order to find the strange, the weird, the undiscovered. You can read more on the group in this article from Kotaku: Bloodborne Players Are Still Looking For Secrets In The Chalice Dungeons

Update: As of 17th November 2019, all 2300 Root dungeons have been mapped and explored by the Tomb Prospectors community. While everything in the Chalice Dungeons has been found and documented, it doesn’t mean players shouldn’t continue creating dungeons and exploring them and finding these oddities on their own. This page includes things to keep an eye on if a player chooses to delve into the root dungeons.

Useful Links: Chalice Atlas, The Tomb Prospectors Sheets, Tomb Prospectors - Hex Research Central, Layout mapping and exploration & Chalice Dungeon Screenshot Database

The Tomb Prospectors Wiki Pages

►	Chalice Dungeons Rooms Structure of Chalice Dungeon documented from doors, canyons, swamps to boss arenas by KitPes from Tomb Prospectors.
►	All 2300 Root Dungeons Explored The Tomb Prospector community has mapped and explored all 2300 different Root Dungeons in Bloodborne!
►	Chalice Dungeons Treasure Placement The many errors of chalice dungeon treasure placement by KitPes.
►	Tomb Prospector Research - Editing dungeons Editing dungeons and their limitations, Gem pools of different chalices and Bloodtinge gem farm analysis by DrAnger90.
►	Item Discovery in Chalice Dungeons An undocumented feature of Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons is that the Curse rite applies an invisible modifier to the player character's Discovery.

►	Report on Random Effects Tomb Prospectors Report on Random Effects in Chalice Dungeons by DrAnger90.
►	Isz Glitch The Isz Glitch is a bug that prevents certain characters from creating all possible Isz dungeons (there are 200 unique Isz and 200 Sinister Isz dungeons) and reduces the number of dungeons you can generate from the entire pool to mere 32.
►	Chalice Dungeon Generation System - How It Works This is another test Tomb Prospectors done to find out how chalice dungeons generation behaves in relation to unique coffin items you can loot in them..

Wandering bosses

Wandering (or roaming) bosses can be rarely found in Depth 4 and 5 dungeons. They are mob versions of bosses with less HP that act like strong enemies on your way through the layer. The main defining feature of true wandering bosses is that they don’t respawn once killed, and they always drop a gem. There are only 5 true wandering bosses: Abhorrent Beast, Blood-starved Beast, Pthumerian Descendant, Pthumerian Elder, Watchdog of the Old Lords

Wandering bosses can be most frequently found on Layer 2 - 4, but in very rare cases on Layer 1 as well. The only wandering bosses that can be encountered on Layer 1 are Abhorrent Beast and Pthumerian Elder.

Rarity of wandering bosses
►	Pthumerian Descendant is the most common wandering boss. Occasionally, you can even encounter a double Descendant spawn in garden area, or find multiple wandering Descendants in different parts of the dungeon layer. It’s the only wandering boss that can be encountered in Sinister Isz. Areas: Pthumerian Defilement, Pthumeru Ihyll, Sinister Pthumeru Ihyll, Sinister Isz Count: 24
►	Pthumerian Elder is a close second. In rare cases you can find wandering Pthumerian Elder and Pthumerian Descendant on the same dungeon layer. Areas: Pthumerian Defilement, Pthumeru Ihyll, Sinister Pthumeru Ihyll Count: 18

►	Abhorrent Beast is the most common wandering boss in Loran dungeons, with one unique instance in Sinister Ihyll. Areas: Ailing Loran, Lower Ailing Loran, Sinister Lower Loran, Sinister Pthumeru Ihyll Count: 12
►	Blood-starved Beast is a surprisingly rare wandering boss found exclusively in Loran swamps. Areas: Ailing Loran, Lower Ailing Loran Count: 3
►	Watchdog of the Old Lords while equally rare as wandering Blood-starved Beast, is much more significant encounter due to him being exclusive to Pthumeru Ihyll, and most of them being on Layer 4. Since there’s only 20% chance Layer 4 will be opened for the player when creating the chalice, it lowers the chance players will discover this wandering boss. Areas: Pthumeru Ihyll Count: 3

For glyphs and screenshots please visit the Roaming Bosses in Chalice Dungeons page.

Rare enemies

Generally, rarity of enemies can be judged depending on two factors: what kind of enemy it is and what area you find them in. For example, Cramped Caskets are very rare in Pthumeru Ihyll but fairly common in Sinister Isz. It is still considered a rare enemy, but finding them outside of Sinister Isz is much more noteworthy.

The following list includes all enemies that can be considered rare or unusual in any chalice type, with additional notes specifying their rarity. Wandering bosses are not included.

►	Flaming Undead Giant This variant exists in Defiled Pthumeru as only one exemplar in all 2300 dungeons. It was first seen at PS Experience in 2014, and was thought to be unused in the final game until it was found and documented in November 2017. [video]
►	Large Snake Ball 3-headed variant is significantly more rare than 1-headed variant. Extremely rarely you can encounter a Small Snake Ball that’s able to spawn a Large Snake Ball. Appears in Loran and Lower Hintertomb. [screenshot1, screenshot2, video]
►	Large Nightmare Apostle You will always find this spider at the bottom of the large 3-floor room with big chandeliers. Mostly encountered in Sinister dungeons, extremely rarely outside of Sinister dungeons. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Hole Digger Also known as Labyrinth Mole. Can be only found inside a mole tunnel. Most common in Central Pthumeru and Sinister Isz. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Fluorescent Flower The rarest variant of this enemy is the ceiling variant, found exclusively on the 2nd floor of garden areas. All variants are also rare in Loran dungeons. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6]
►	Shadow of Yharnam Can only be encountered in depth 4-5 Pthumeru dungeons. Mace variant is slightly more rare than sword variant. The candle variant doesn’t exist in chalice dungeons at all. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5]
►	Garden of Eyes Enemy exclusive to Isz dungeons. The maximum number on a single layer is 3. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]

►	Cramped Casket Rare outside of Sinister Isz. Does not appear in Loran dungeons. Ranged variant is significantly more rare than melee variant. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6, screenshot7, screenshot8]
►	Wandering Bloodlickers These are naturally occurring Bloodlickers, spawned without the player performing any visceral attacks. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, video]
►	Children of Rom Children of Rom scattered throughout the layer are a clear indication the layer boss will be Rom, with the exception of one unique occurrence in Ailing Loran dungeon which contains Children of Rom without Rom being the layer boss. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4]
►	Pilgrim Appears in Pthumeru and Isz dungeons only. Pendant variant is slightly more rare than cane variant. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Rare Labyrinth Watcher variants There are a couple of basic Pthumerian variants that are in fact way more rare than others; • Hook variant of Watcher’s Gravedigger with hidden fire buff (the weapons makes a fire effect when the player gets hit) • Double dagger variant of Labyrinth Watcher (this variant has 3x more HP than any other variants) • Lantern and Dagger Labyrinth Watcher (this variant can be only summoned by bell maidens) [screenshot1]
►	Patches the Spider In order for Patches to be able to spawn in a root dungeon, you need to finish his quest in the main game and make him leave the Lecture Hall. After that, there’s a 9% chance for Patches to appear in your dungeon as a merchant as a replacement for Bath Messenger. Be careful though, if you kill him he won’t spawn in your dungeons anymore (unless you complete his quest again in another NG+ cycle). Although other enemies in the dungeon are not aggressive towards Patches, they can still hurt and even kill him if he gets in the way of their attacks - be mindful of this when kiting enemies around him. [screenshot1, video]

Noteworthy Architecture

►	Large gate Huge empty doorway connecting two rooms together. At one point in the development, this doorway contained an actual gate that could have been opened with a lever. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Broken bridge A rare variant of common architecture piece, bridge made of wooden planks and dark fabric. This one is broken, often with cages hanging in the middle. [screenshot1]
►	Lost ladder Unusually placed ladder at one end of the Arena room, providing a fast way for the player to get to the 2nd floor. [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Yahar’gul bonfires Circular room with unlit, petrified corpses from the main game area Yahar’gul. This room always contains Cramped Caskets. [screenshot1, video]
►	Barbeque room Room full of small bonfires. [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Haunted chest A rare type of stone chest that spawns 2-3 Evil Labyrinth Spirits when opened. Some of these chests are broken due to an error in the loot code and the Labyrinth Spirits are already spawned when the player enters the dungeon. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4]
►	Hanging item An item inside a hanging corpse. The rope can be cut, allowing the player to loot the item. [screenshot1, screenshot2, video]
►	Double/triple chest Two or three chests placed right next to each other. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, video]
►	Dupe chest A special kind of big stone chest associated with the Rotted rite. While this chest looks exactly the same as a normal stone chest, there’s an exploit you can use to get more items from it; when you stand in front of the chest, quit the game and log back in, the chest will break and you’ll be able to loot 4 additional items. There are only 2 locations where you can find a dupe chest - inside a treasure room and on the bottom of a large 3-floor room. How exactly this exploit works is explained on this page. [screenshot1, screenshot2, video]
►	Mole tunnels Not all mole tunnels contain a hole digger. There are lots of empty mole tunnels of varying length, some being just a shallow hole in the wall, some very long and connecting different rooms. [screenshot1, screenshot2, video]

►	Four bells room Square room with short staircase and 4 big bells in each corner. All bells can be rung at one with the Small Music Box or A Call Beyond. [screenshot1, video]
►	Narrow tunnel Extremely narrow and long tunnel, either straight, L or Z shaped. [video1, video2]
►	Ledge with swinging axes In some cases the ledges above a stone bridge with swinging axes are accessible. It either connects two different parts of the dungeon or leads to lever room (often in Loran dungeons). [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Drawbridge balcony Small accessible balcony in drawbridge area. Sometimes contains chest or enemies (Merciless Watcher, Labyrinth Watcher). [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Unique treasure room Peculiar treasure room that usually contains a large amount of statues, pots and a few chests (never a golden coffin). Fairly common in Pthumeru dungeons. The rarest variants have a second exit/entrance, contain enemies or are entirely empty. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, video]
►	Isz swamp A very rare room type in Isz. [video]
►	Iron man room Circular room in Isz containing 3-5 Brainsuckers and 3-4 Scourge Beasts. [screenshot1]
►	Statue trap rooms Small square room lined with shooting statue traps or a double staircase room with shooting traps scattered on the bottom floor. [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Oil jars in corridors Unusually placed oil jars. [screenshot1]
►	Loran-style rope bridges Uncommon to rare outside of Loran dungeons. [screenshot1]
►	Blade-less guillotine Empty wooden frame inside a corridor that usually contains one or more guillotine traps. [screenshot1]
►	Lever skip Sometimes the layer rooms are connected in such a way that it allows the player to access the pre-boss bonus room and the lever gate from behind. The door can be opened this way even if the player didn’t pull the lever.

Glitches

►	Overlapping layers Glitch that only seems to appear in Loran, occurring when the architecture of two different layers overlap in certain spot on the map, allowing the player to “jump” between the two layers to a certain degree. It’s even possible to summon a cooperator on the layer below this way. [screenshot1, video1, video2]
►	Overlapping rooms Architecture of one room glitching through and into an adjoined room. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Misplaced archways / doorways Fairly common glitch especially in Loran and Hintertomb - a stone archway or doorway nonsensically placed in open space, often lacking collision. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6]
►	Misplaced illusory walls Very rare glitch - illusory wall placed in open space, not covering any doorway or hiding any treasure. [screenshot1]
►	Fake illusory walls Very rare glitch. Misplaced texture for a doorway, visible only from a certain distance. [video]
►	Misplaced ladders Common glitch that can be often found in swamps. The ladder is not properly connected to the platform, often cutting off the only way the player can progress to the bonus area or get back to the lamp. While tricky, it’s still possible to get back on the platform using the misplaced ladder. [screenshot1, video]
►	Misplaced lever A unique glitch so far only found in one dungeon (Pthumerian Defilement Root). An elevator lever placed in a weird spot, serving seemingly no purpose. When pulled, this lever actually opens special door hidden behind solid wall nearby. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, video1, video2]
►	Self-parrying bosses Rare glitch that can be sometimes encountered in Defiled and Pthumeru Ihyll dungeons. As soon as the player enters the boss room, the boss’ head breaks on it’s own, often repeatedly after the boss heals it. The only known boss fights where this glitch occurs is Amygdala, Watchdog and Bloodletting Beast. It’s still not known what exactly causes it. Curious is that glitched bosses do not take bonus damage to their broken head. [video]
►	Disappearing bosses Rare glitch that happens seemingly at random or when a cooperator enters your world, or when you manage to kill the boss but die in the process. The layer boss either dies on its own before you even enter the boss room (in which case you receive the reward as if you’d kill the boss normally) or disappears from the boss room with only its HP bar visible (in this case the boss can’t be killed). [video1, video2, video3]
►	Mute bosses On rare occasions, some bosses will be missing their sound effects; so far the only two documented bosses with glitched sound are Beast-Possessed Soul and Abhorrent Beast. [video]
►	Misplaced / glitched teleporter traps Teleporter / messenger trap only appears in Isz. Observant players will notice it by a circle of small candles on the floor. If the player enters the circle, the candles light up and a group of messengers will pull them underground, teleporting the player to a different area in the dungeon. It can be harmless, annoying or dangerous depending on where the teleporter ends. Some of these traps have a broken exit point, in which case the player gets teleported back to the layer lamp or no, and some traps are misplaced and are hovering in the air. [screenshot1, video1, video2, video3]
►	Glitched black architecture A glitch that can be mostly encountered in Sinister and Ailing Loran. It’s a pitch-black texture with no collision, appearing in seemingly random places in the dungeon, often near doorways and in corridors. It always shows up when the player is standing in a certain spot, and disappears when the player gets too close. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, video]
►	Floating or misplaced objects This can include floating or misplaced chests, doors, Bath Messenger, pressure plate traps or cannons. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6, screenshot7, screenshot8, screenshot9, video]
►	Floating notes and bloodstains Rare glitch that has not been explained yet. Sometimes notes and bloodstains can appear in the air or in inaccessible areas, even in non-shared dungeons. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6, screenshot7]
►	Firewisps and smoke balls A phenomenon that hasn’t been explained yet; small, quickly disappearing fires and orbs of smoke in random places in the dungeon. Upon appearing, they sometimes make a sound similar to sound effect of tentacle celestial emissaries. [video1, video2, video3]

►	Holes in walls/ceiling Missing textures or pieces of architecture, often in underground tunnels. [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5]
►	Empty treasure room Very common in Isz dungeons. A treasure room (often hidden behind an illusory wall) with absolutely no treasure or enemies inside. [video]
►	Hidden door leading out of bounds Unique glitch in Hintertomb - hidden door that traps the player in unfinished area out of map bounds when opened. [video]
►	Glitched / unreachable items Items stuck in wall (some can still be looted), inside an object or in unreachable area. [screenshot1, video1, video2]
►	Invisible architecture or objects Invisible architecture (can’t be broken) or objects (e.g. crates, can be broken). This includes invisible stairs in the garden area or architecture in the boss room with a small altar. [video1, video2, video3]
►	Misplaced loot ID Corpses with “Search Chest” or big chests with “Loot Coffin” text prompt. Corpses with chest loot ID often provide an unusually high number of materials (e.g. 5 Sage’s Hair). [screenshot1, video]
►	Doors that open twice / close upon reloading the map This often happens with doors under wooden bridges, or red bonus area doors in underground tunnels. [video]
►	Wrong door template Generally, all dark doors mark main areas in the dungeon and lead the player to the lever, and all bronze doors mark bonus areas. Sometimes a wrong door template is used to separate dungeon areas, most notably bronze doors leading to the lever room. [video]
►	Chests and ladders blocked by wagons Blocked ladders are usually still climb-able from a certain angle, but blocked chests often can’t be looted, even after you break them. [screenshot1, video]
►	Backward chests A chest in dead-end corridor positioned backwards towards the player along with the enemy guarding it. In most cases the player needs to break this chest in order to loot it. [screenshot1]
►	Crumbling floor glitch A glitch that can occur in a big rectangular room with two gnarled trees - this room frequently contains a crumbling floor trap, however in this case the part of the floor that’s supposed to break after the player steps on it is in the wrong place, on the opposite side of the room. When you step on the spot, the crumbling effect will occur, but the floor stays intact. [video]
►	Automatic cannon Randomly occurring glitch that can happen when a Labyrinth Watcher or the player uses the stationary cannon. The cannonballs are fired multiple times in quick succession. [video]
►	Pthumerian Elder AI glitch Extremely rare glitch which makes Elder use Pthumerian Descendant's moveset. It's still unclear what causes this to happen but it's speculated there could be a mistake in its AI script that can be triggered in rare circumstances. [video]
►	Pthumerian Descendant name and gem drop glitch In a couple dungeons on layer 1 - 2 you can encounter a Pthumerian Descendant named Pthumerian Elder. This might have happened because the developers were replacing some Elders with Descendants after generating map events and the boss ended up with a wrong name. [video] Furthermore ,there are two mistakes related to gems for the Pthumerian duo: Pthumerian Descendant on layer 3 - 4 in a cursed depth 5 dungeon will never drop an abyssal gem. Every boss is assigned multiple drop tables that change depending if the boss is located on layer 1 - 2 or layer 3 - 4, and if they are in a cursed or non-cursed dungeon. This should normally ensure that every layer 3 - 4 boss drops a gem that’s one rank higher than the previous layer, and in depth 5 dungeon gives the boss a 33% chance to drop a rank 20 - abyssal - gem. For Pthumerian Descendant however, there’s a wrong entry for his layer 3 - 4 drop in cursed dungeons preventing him from ever dropping an abyssal gem there. This entry is correct in his non-cursed drop table and therefore he can drop abyssals in non-cursed depth 5 dungeons, but as with most non-cursed gems, their values are very low. Pthumerian Elder or “fake” Elder can in some dungeons drop tempering abyssals on layer 1 - 2. The root of this bug is the same as what prevents Pthumerian Descendant from dropping abyssals on layer 3 - 4; wrong entry in their drop table. These tempering abyssals are not worth farming as they cap at 22.5% physical with +15 physical secondary which makes them worse than gems from regular enemies.

Unusual enemy placement, formation or behaviour

►	Undead Giant on drawbridge (both Cannon and Double Sickle variant) [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Unusual enemies spawned form a pressure plate trap (double dagger Labyrinth Watcher, Ritekeeper, Gravekeeper Scorpion) [video1]
►	Naked Merciless Watcher double spawn [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Loran Silverbeast with Keeper's Hunting Dogs (instead of Keeper of the Old Lords, Loran Silverbeast serves as the dogs’ “leader”). [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Labyrinth Madman in 3-floor room or in well [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Patrolling Merciless Watcher [video1]
►	Patrolling hunter NPC [video]
►	4-5 Labyrinth Ritekeepers in circular elevator room [screenshot1, video]
►	Tomb Prospector hunter NPC near lamp/lever gate or on bridge [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Rotted enemies (NPC hunter, Eyecollector summoning Mad Ones, Ritekeeper with patrolling pthumerians) inside treasure room (a treasure room with these enemies will always contain a Dupe Chest).
►	Gravekeeper Scorpion as chest guardian [screenshot1]
►	Scourge Beast as coffin guardian [screenshot1]
►	Large Wandering Madness in unusual places (under drawbridge, near drawbridge lever, rafters). [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Rotted Labyrinth Ritekeeper with pthumerians in circular formation [screenshot1]
►	Labyrinth watcher sleeping inside boss room [screenshot1]
►	Maneater Boar in underground sewer area with pig corpse piles [screenshot1, screenshot2]

►	Hanging spider above bridge room [screenshot1]
►	Enemies (labyrinth watchers, beast patients) on ledges above bridge room [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]
►	Large Snake Ball behind wall in swamp out of map bounds [video]
►	Small Snake Balls spawning in underground sewer room
►	Enemies healing by eating grass (Merciless Watcher, Labyrinth Warrior, Watcher’s Gravedigger) [video]
►	Regular enemies inside golden door treasure room without coffin (Loran Cleric, Labyrinth Madman and Loran Silverbeast are especially rare) [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3, screenshot4, screenshot5, screenshot6, screenshot7]
►	Undead Giant stuck behind wagons [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Enemies with unusual patrol route, e.g. from main room past layer lamp and into layer elevator or bonus room, or forcing them to drop down a ledge.[video1, video2]
►	“Friendly” enemies whose AI doesn’t work properly due to cramped space or low visibility (e.g. Maneater Boar guarding chest in a cave, Undead Giant in dark circular room) [screenshot1, screenshot2]
►	Celestial larvae hidden on ceiling, falling on the player as they pass through the area [video]
►	Evil Labyrinth Spirit messenger attack [video]
►	Small Celestial Emissary without tendrils casting arcane projectiles [screenshot1, video]
►	Double mob spawn on the bottom floor of balcony room [screenshot1, screenshot2, screenshot3]

Myths

Before the dungeons were explored and game thoroughly datamined, a number of myths started circulating about what else can be found in the dungeons. This lists includes all disproved theories or speculations:

►	Guidance tier 3 and Revered Great One Coldblood do not exist in the dungeons or anywhere in the main game areas. They still exist in the game files though, and can be obtained by save editing.
►	Winter Lanterns do not exist in the dungeons.
►	Yharnamites can not be encountered in the dungeons with the exception of developer/test dungeon accessed via save editing.
►	Boss Rush is a cut mechanic that didn’t make it into the final game. There are a couple of semi-functional developer Boss Rush dungeons that can be accessed via save editing, but nothing that can be generated by normal means.
►	Bell Maiden summoning hostile NPCs instead of players in Offline mode is a cut mechanic that didn’t make it into the final game. A leftover code for it still exists in the game files.
►	Aside from the 5 confirmed wandering bosses, no other wandering boss exists in the dungeons. Bloodletting Beast and Rom are the only bosses that still have a leftover code for a wandering variant in the param files, meaning they were probably once meant to be included as a wandering bosses.

+ First Documented Roaming Boss in Isz, glyph 4m32a9r3 [Reddit, Video]	Click to Expand & Collapse

Another great discovery made by The Tomb Prospectors. An explanation as to why no wandering boss has been documented in an Isz Chalice Dungeon before by MorosNyx:

6 months ago, a prominent Hunter by the name of u/Kazin79 discovered a glitch affecting the generation of Isz Root Chalices. After generating hundreds and hundreds of Root dungeons, he realised that he was only able to get an extremely small amount of unique layouts compared to Pthumeru and Loran. After Zullie's discovery that Isz has 200 possible layouts, a more in-depth research began, only to reveal that most players are only able to generate the same set of 32 Isz Dungeons out of the entire 200 pool.

Further testing indicated that the player gets sucked into the 32 glitch after exploring a certain amount of Root Dungeons. Our current theory is that the glitch happens once the player gathers a certain amount of loot from Isz Dungeons, which seems to be largely true, but we still need to test what kind of loot it is exactly. As far as we know, once a player is stuck, there's no way out of the 32 loop and the only way to generate new Isz Dungeons is to make a brand new character.

Realising this, we started several new characters dedicated to creating new Isz glyphs, and managed to circumvent the glitch by save scumming every time before creating a new set of glyphs, essentially tricking the game into thinking that the character had never stepped foot in an Isz Root Chalice before. Using a screenshot database system of layout trademarks of each dungeon developed by u/Kazin79, we were able to map 198/200 unique Isz Root glyphs (with the help of many dedicated prospectors, most notably u/DrAnger90), making several interesting discoveries. But still, no wandering boss had been found.

Several months later, u/DrAnger managed to confirm that the same 32 glitch also affected Sinister Isz, revealing to us that the majority of Sinister Isz Dungeons had yet to be explored. This gave us hope, and with reignited passion we once again began the tedious mapping process, this time, for Sinister Isz. And today, alas, finally, our long and tedious journey has finally has come to fulfilment!

+ Skeletal Puppets found in Chalice Dungeons, glyph 8nyezcys [Reddit, Video]	Click to Expand & Collapse

Discovery made by The Tomb Prospectors on June 21, 2018.
Note that in order to bring these creatures to life, you will have to stand next to them and reload your game. Where exactly you are standing seems to have an effect on the reanimation process (more research needed to find out), positioning yourself in front of the double chest definitely works. Surprisingly, every time you kill them, reloading the game will bring them back to life.

This dungeon originated in the Japanese Bloodborne community. Searching the glyph in Google will tell you that it pre-dates the DLC (and perhaps even earlier) patches, which is an important detail. It has been a dungeon used forever for farming of Labyrinth Spirits on Layer 2, but until yesterday there was, for some reason no mention of the Skeletal Puppets located on Layer 3 anywhere online. This may be due to the reason that you did not have to progress past Layer 2 for the farming purposes of the dungeon.

This is where it gets interesting: there are 2 active glyphs that are identical to this dungeon: bjngfpsj and swjteujh (MorosNyx also remembered running an identical version 2 years ago, but that glyph is no longer active). But all of these glyphs, being identical in every other way, do not have the Puppets! Tomb Prospectors have been thinking about this for a while and have come up with several theories:

Japanese versions of the game may have slightly different root dungeon generation algorithms.

The glyph predating the most recent patch(es), while the other glyphs are almost definitely newer, may have had an effect on the dungeon generation (as the developers have consistently tweaked the dungeons with every patch).

The Rotted rite replaces certain enemies in the dungeon with more difficult ones (NPC hunters, patrolling Ritekeepers with group of Pthumerians, Hemwick Witches summoning Mad Ones). It might be possible that some of the earlier concepts of this additional rite included Skeletal Puppets as randomly summoned enemies as well.

One of the game’s earlier patches may have accidentally introduced these enemies in the dungeon before another patch removed them. This theory has been presented by Jerks Sans Frontieres: “Every region has different patches. they're about 95% the same, but some have redundant / uncompressed data. So my current theory is that the marionettes were patched into that dungeon accidentally and only in the Japanese patch, then patched out again, which is why it's a three year old glyph from Japan.”

UPDATE: Lance McDonald provided additional information regarding these enemies. "By deleting the event file, you can reveal every enemy that has potential to spawn, I spawned in that room and it had the micolash enemies and heaps of other enemies. I can confirm that it's possible for that map to have micolash enemies or to not have them, it is the same map regardless, and it is a toggleable "event" that causes it (probably a rite or something)" [video]

+ Galleries [Old Archive]	Click to Expand & Collapse

Rare Environment


► Two chests next to each other	► Summoning Fires in Ihyll	► Summoning Fires in Ihyll 2	► Rare Place for Fires


► Rare Narrow Long Hallway	► Rope Bridge over Giant Swamp Leading to Dead End with Chest, F_R_C Loran (rare layout)	► Hidden Door In Ladder Room, Downstairs	► Hidden Door in Ladder Room, Upstairs


► Hidden Door in Ladder Room, Upstairs 2	► Hanging Item	► Hidden Door in Big Swamp Area	► Hidden Door in Big Swamp Area 2


► Hanging Item 2	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Blood-letting Beast	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Shining Coins!	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Abhorrent Beast


► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Abhorrent Beast 2	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Abhorrent Beast 3	► 5 Sages hair lying on body outside of chest	► Cannon Unusual Location


► Glitched Ghost Archway (can walk through)	► Messenger Bath + A lot of Items in a dark room	► Illusory Wall in Isz	► Illusory Wall Rare Location


► Rare Chest Guarded by Two Labyrinth Spirits	► Rare Chest Guarded by Two Labyrinth Spirits 2	► How did we get here	► Rare Narrow Bridge with Swinging Axes


► Rare Narrow Bridge with Swinging Axes 2	► Rare Narrow Bridge with Swinging Axes 3	► Rare Narrow Bridge without Swinging Axes	► Rare Narrow Bridge without Swinging Axes 2


► Rare Narrow Bridge without Swinging Axes 3	► Spawning inside Statue Glitch, breaks statue for co-operator, looks intact to Host	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Ebrietas 1	► Big Hole in Boss Room w. Pthumerian Descendant 1


► Blade Trap and Scourge Beast Guarding Chest- Unusual Formation	► Bridge over Room with Hole in the Floor- 2 story fall (rare layout)	► Doorway behind three Arrow Traps, Rare Layout	► Great Swamp Room in Isz 1


► Great Swamp Room in Isz 2	► Great Swamp Room in Isz 3	► Ladder in unusual location, FRC Loran (very rare layout) 1	► Ladder in unusual location, FRC Loran (very rare layout) 2


► Pig Pile in Unusual Location	► Rare Chest Formation	► Rare Illusory Wall Leading to Room with many Stairways 1	► Rare Illusory Wall Leading to Room with many Stairways 2


► Rare Illusory Wall Leading to Room with many Stairways 3 (from other side)

Rare Enemies


► Flaming Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades) 1	► Flaming Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades) 2	► Flaming Undead Giant (Twin Curved Blades) 3	► Undead Giant in rare location


► Undead Giant in rare location 2	► Sleeping Giant in F/R/C Loran	► Shadow of Yharnam in Dark Ladder Room	► Shadow of Yharnam in Dark Ladder Room 2


► Shadow of Yharnam in Room with many stairways	► Rare Labyrinth Spirit Ragdoll	► Loran Cleric Ragdoll Closer Look	► Child of Antiquity in dark room


► Rare Rom Spider in F/R/C Ihyll	► Cramped Caskets without caskets	► Cramped Caskets without caskets 2	► Cramped Caskets and Summoning Fires


► Keeper of the Old Lords Guarding Lever in Isz	► 6 Scorpions Next to Each Other	► 5 Fire Witches in Elevator Room	► Children of Antiquity interesting Spawn Formation


► Children of Antiquity interesting Spawn Formation 2	► Children of Antiquity interesting Spawn Formation 3	► Children of Antiquity Stuck in Ceiling Glitch	► Hemwick Summoning Witch Stuck in Wall Glitch


► Closer Look Picture at Pilgrim	► Closer Look Picture at Pilgrim 2	► Closer Look Picture at Pilgrim 3	► Man-eater Boar in Tunnel Guarding Chest


► Merciless Watchers Unusal Spawn Formation	► Merciless Watchers Unusual Boss Room	► Pilgrim in Isz	► Pthumerian _Elder_ Glitch- fairly common in Isz


► Pthumerian Knights Unusal Spawn Formation	► Moonflower in Ihyll Great Swamp	► Red Buffed Rom Spider	► Scorpion w. Offspring Unusual Spawn Location (Ihyll)


► Two Snatchers Behind Each other- unusual spawn formation	► Sleeping Giant in F_R_C Ihyll	► Sleeping Giant in F_R_C Ihyll 2	► Wandering Blood-Starved Beast


► Snake Balls In Great Swamp, F_R_C Loran	► Keeper of the Old Lords Guarding Lever in Isz 2	► Keeper of the Old Lords Guarding Lever in Loran	► Logarius Wheel NPC in Loran


► Logarius Wheel NPC with Shining Coins in Dark Room, Isz	► Mad Ones Spawn two floors below Hemwick Witch (Rare Spawn Formation)	► Maneater Boar in Rare Location	► Pthumerian Elder Boss in very Small Room


► Pthumerian Knight and Merciless Watcher with Mace in Rare Location	► Pthumerian Knight Guarding Chest in Unusual Location	► Pthumerian Knight with Morning Star in Rare Location	► Scorpion in Unusual Location


► Shadow of Yharnam, Tonitrus Variant 1	► Shadow of Yharnam, Tonitrus Variant 2	► Shadow of Yharnam, Tonitrus Variant 3	► Shadow of Yharnam, Tonitrus Variant 4


► Silverbeast replaced Keeper of the Old Lords with 2 Hellhounds, and rare missing wall 1	► Silverbeast replaced Keeper of the Old Lords with 2 Hellhounds 2	► Silverbeast replaced Keeper of the Old Lords with 2 Hellhounds 3	► Silverbeast replaced Keeper of the Old Lords with 2 Hellhounds 4


► Two Labyrinth Madmen guarding a coffin- Rare Formation	► Wandering Pthumerian Elder in a Dark Room with Shining Coins 1	► Wandering Pthumerian Elder in a Dark Room with Shining Coins 2