Bloodborne genius beats the game despite killing just one boss, and all it took was a lag switch, two PS4s, and a faked murder

Bloodborne
(Image credit: FromSoftware)

A Bloodborne player has devised an ungodly strategy for beating the game while only killing one main story boss.

That player would be ymfah, who you might already know as someone who dedicates months upon months to unearthing Bloodborne's wildest secrets. This time, with the help of a friend, they've devised a method for completing Bloodborne while only killing one main story boss, as you can see in the very complicated and lengthy video below.

For one, this method relies upon summoning in an enemy player and having them kill you while a significant amount of lag is present between you two. However, ymfah's internet is just too damn good, considering the other player is literally in the same house as them, so they built their very own lag switch to purposely worsen the connection between them.

They then need to die to their friend in a very specific manner involving a delayed backstab animation so that they can effectively respawn in purgatory and walk through the game as a wandering soul with a disorienting birds-eye perspective camera. This lets them skip bosses in as they go, guided by the other player's instructions and messages purposely left on the ground like breadcrumbs. Honestly, how this pair ever figured out this extravagant method of skipping through FromSoftware's game is well and truly beyond me.

The method of skipping The One Reborn is especially fascinating. The two players work in tandem to get to the boss arena entrance, but then one of them has to jump to their death at a very specific point, which activates the overhead camera. They can then walk straight through the boss arena, under the map, but still be able to touch the 'Mummy' at the end of the arena that activates the final portion of the game.

The vast majority of skips are done this way. But for the Shadows of Yharnam boss, which again involves one player glitching their way through to the other side of the boss arena without activating the boss fight, the main player actually 'kills' the inactive bosses only for them to respawn right after, removing them from the run's tally. Immediately after, they descend to Rom, the Vacuous Spider, which requires an absurdly complicated workaround for a true boss skip. In fact, it's so complicated that me trying to explain it would just make things worse. 

The only boss the player actually needs to defeat is Mergo's Wet Nurse, but thankfully, they can opt to end Bloodborne after this by succumbing to Gehrman's wishes. Until someone figures out how to skip through Mergo's Wet Nurse, ymfah reckons, this as close to killing zero bosses in a Bloodborne playthrough as we're going to get.

Check out the Reddit post below, which links out to things like the full run, the music used, and another YouTube playlist containing every individual boss skip for a slightly slower look at how each one was managed. I will genuinely never comprehend how ymfah managed to pull this off.

How to Beat Bloodborne in 1 Boss from r/ymfah

Head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look at all the new titles and major expansions we can expect to play this year.

Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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