Blood Gems (2024)

Blood Gems

Blood Gems are a type of item in Bloodborne.

Description[]

Blood gems are a special item that can be imprinted on an upgraded weapon in order to boost its damage, its scaling, or its effects further.

Blood Gems can be swapped at any time to promote experimentation of different Blood Gem setups in a player‘s arsenal in order to figure out what works best in their particular playstyle.

Availability[]

Though there are some Blood Gems laying in the land of Yharnam and some enemies can even drop them, they are almost exclusive drops to enemies, bosses, and chests found in Chalice Dungeons.

Shapes and Imprints[]

Blood gems exist in five different shapes: Radial, Triangle, Waning, Circle, and Droplet. Each shape offers a different type of enhancement or buff, which is then imprinted on a weapon's corresponding Imprints.

Imprints are blood gem slots found in most weapons. There are four types of Imprints, directly related to the blood gem shape that will fit in it: Radial, Triangle, Waning, and Circle. Note that Droplet shaped blood gems will fit in any type of Imprint slot.

All Right Hand Weapons include three imprint slots, which can include any combination of Radial, Triangle, or Waning Imprints. All Left Hand firearms include only one Circle Imprint slot.

Radial[]

• Radial gems are doubtlessly the most important shape that players can acquire, this stems from the fact all Trick Weapons have two radial slots in every regular variant of any given weapon, which makes radial imprints two thirds of all existing imprints.
  • Because of this, the best kind of Radials will be the ones that boost damage, usually Physical.
• Radial gems appear to crystallize from a core and then branch in multiple straight lines, which themselves branch off once more to form a circle, halfway at a specific distance.
• In Chalice Dungeons of Pthumeru, all bosses will drop Radial Gems.

Triangle[]

• As stated by the description, they boost mostly attribute.
• In Chalice Dungeons of Isz, all bosses will drop Triangle Gems.

Waning[]

• As stated by the description, they provide fire and bolt damage, as well as healing.
• In Chalice Dungeons of Loran, all bosses will drop Waning Gems.

Circle[]

• Essentially used for firearms, except the "Lost" variants of the Chikage and Simon's Bowblade.
• Similar to Radial gems, but inverted, it is as if the crystal grew as a circle and then branched into the center.
• Gems of this shape are nearly always related to the Bloodtinge stat, which by no mere coincidence, governs the damage and efficiency of Firearms.
  • Due to the fact that so little weapons will ever be able to use them, only the two mentioned above, they make for curious yet useless Out Of Shape gems.
• They will drop from enemies that have a heavy relation with blood, such as Bloodlickers.

Droplet[]

• Essentially a category of their own, they will fit in every imprint slot.
• Their appearance resembles that of what can only be described as "viscous crystal".
• Can only drop from Winter Lanterns or from chests that are exclusive to the main game.
  • These gems cannot be found in Chalice Dungeons.
  • These gems can never drop as out of shape, meaning enemies that would drop any other shape of blood gems cannot drop their usual blood gem in a droplet shape.

Blood Gem Rating[]

Blood Gem Rating determines the rarity and quality of a blood gem, and provides a means of visual comparison between Blood Gems of the same kind.

For every increased Tier, Blood Gems will become increasingly larger, more vivid and with a much deeper color. Abyssal Blood Gems, however, have no tier as they are essentially a tier of its own, and take up a deep black hue, rather than its usual color.

• Blood Gemstones (1) - (3) have a Rating of 1 through 10.
  • They are very small and have a bright and faded color.
• Damp Blood Gems (4) - (6) have a Rating of 11 through 19.
  • They are larger and more intricate while also appearing to ever increasingly drip with blood.
• Abyssal Blood Gems have a Rating of 20.
  • They acquire an extremely dark hue having only a slightly shimmering colored glow to them.

Tier	Rating
Blood Gemstones
(1)	1 - 4
(2)	5 - 7
(3)	8 - 10
Damp Blood Gems
(4)	11 - 13
(5)	14 - 16
(6)	17 - 19
Abyssal Blood Gems
-	20

Blood Gem Types[]

Prefixes[]

Prefixes are words that come before the actual name of the Blood Gem and will change how it works.

• Cursed - Has multiple effects, including negative effects. Higher tiers of Cursed Blood Gems have both more and better effects, while the same being true for the negative effects.
  • List of negative effects:
    • Stamina cost Up (2.8-3.5)
    • ATK vs Beast Down (-5.5-12%)
    • ATK vs Kin Down (-5.5-12%)
    • Weapon Durability Down (-58.5-63)
    • ATK Down (8.2-8.8%)
    • HP depletes gradually (1-9)
• Odd - Adds flat damage to a certain damage type.
  • Add physical ATK +X.
  • Add blood ATK +X.
  • Add Arcane ATK +X.
  • Add Fire ATK +X.
  • Add Bolt ATK +X.
• Cursed Odd - Has both characteristics of the above prefixes.

Primary Effects[]

The following is a synthesised list of the names used to identify any given type blood gem:

Physical Damage Boost[]

• Tempering - Adds Physical Attack UP (which includes Blunt and Thrust)
• Adept - Adds either Blunt or Thrust Attack Up (never both)

Elemental Damage Boost[]

• Arcane - Arcane ATK UP +X
• Bolt - Bolt ATK UP +X
• Fire - Fire ATK UP +X

All Damage Boost[]

• Nourishing - ATK UP +X
• Striking - Charge ATK UP +X
• Finestrike - ATK vs open foes UP +X
• Fool's - Physical ATK UP/ ATK UP +X at full HP
• Poorman's - Physical ATK UP/ ATK UP +X near death

Scaling Boost[]

• Heavy - Strength scaling +X
• Sharp - Skill scaling +X
• Warm - Bloodtinge scaling +X
• Cold - Arcane scaling +X

Special Damage[]

• Beasthunter's - Adds bonus damage against Beasts
• Kinhunter's - Adds bonus damage against the Kin
• Dirty - Adds Rapid Poison Effect
• Murky - Adds Slow Poison Effect

Special Effects[]

• Pulsing - Add HP regeneration per second
• Radiant - Reduces Stamina cost

Pthumeru Secondary Effects[]

These are secondary effects that can only appear on Pthumeru Chalice Dungeons Blood Gems:

• Add Physical ATK
• Reduced Stamina Consumption
• ATK vs open foes UP
• Phys. UP at full HP
• WPN durability UP
• Charged ATKs UP
• Phys. UP near death

Loran Secondary Effects[]

These are secondary effects that can only appear on Loran Chalice Dungeons Blood Gems:

• ADD Bolt ATK
• ADD Fire ATK
• Boost rally potential
• Add slow poison effect
• ATK vs Beasts UP
• Add rapid poison effect
• HP continues to recover
• ATK vs Kin UP

Isz Secondary Effects[]

These are secondary effects that can only appear on Isz Chalice Dungeons Blood Gems:

• Add Physical ATK
• Add Arcane ATK
• Add Bolt ATK
• Add Fire ATK
• Add slow poison effect
• Add rapid poison effect
• ATK vs Beasts UP
• ATK vs Kin UP
• WPN durability UP
• Boost rally potential
• HP continues to recover
• Reduced Stamina Consumption
• Phys. UP at full HP
• ATK UP at full HP
• ATK UP near death

Secondary Effects[]

The following is a list of effects that can never be a primary effect, and therefore never have a name of its own.

• Dense - WPN durability UP
• Lethal - Boosts Rally Potential

Unique Blood Gems[]

• Gold Blood Gem
• Red Blood Gem
• Tear Blood Gem
• Lethal Damp Blood Gem

Notes[]

• In general, Pthumeru and Hintertomb Chalice Dungeons provide Radial shapes, Loran Chalice Dungeons provide Waning shapes, and Isz Chalice Dungeons provide Triangular shapes.
• HP depletion by cursed effects cannot be regained by Rally and can only be healed via Blood Vials. This makes it one of the worst curse effects to have in your Blood Gems.
  • It can also be countered by Blood Gems that restore the player's health.
• Very rarely (1/500) you can get a gem which has the same power but is a different shape. A good example of this is bloodtinge scaling/blood atk up gems which normally can only be circles. These gems are called OOS (out of shape).
• Additional Rites will increase the chance of getting better Blood Gems.
  • The Rotted offering will make some enemies stronger, and you can notice this by seeing a red aura around them. These buffed mobs will drop better gems.
  • Cursed offering halves your hp and makes enemies drop the cursed gems with better stats and random negative effect. It also increases item discovery when you're in that chalice.
• Not to be confused with "Rating", a "Tier" of a blood gem is represented by the number in front of its name.
  • For every Tier, a Blood Gem will change its icon. The same does not occur with its Rating.

Trivia[]

• Blood Gems are implied to be a by-product of a creature's blood, much like Blood Stones, and Coldblood.
• Cursed Blood Gems have blisters, or otherwise certain imperfections in them that resemble pinkish, oozing bubbles.
• Abyssal Gems are likely called this way due to the fact that they become very dark in the hue of its general type.

Gallery[]