HERE, READ THIS:

First, choose a primary stat other than Vitality or Endurance (they will be leveled as needed). This will be your damage stat and will widely afect how you play the game and upgrade your weapons. Here's a breakdown of the pros and cons of each stat:

STRENGTH
+Heavy weapons that are slower in general but hit very hard
+Said heavy weapons tend to wound large targets better than others (cause a stagger that leaves them open)
+Smaller enemies can often be killed in one hit with high scaling Strength weapons
-Slower attacks in general
-Stamina costs tend to be higher
-Transformed Strength weapons are almost always two-handed, leaving you without the option to Counterattack
-Wind-up for Charge Attacks tends to be longer

SKILL
+Fast weapons
+Scaling is generally better, Skill weapons tend to have high DPS
+Efficient Stamina usage
-Low wounding power, won't cause a lot of stagger states in large foes
-Knockdown is almost nonexistent in Skill weapons
-Range tends to be shorter, can be a detriment to facing large foes
-Durability is generally weaker, some Blood Gems that lower weapon durability as a side effect can effectively cripple a lot of Skill weapons

BLOODTINGE
+Powerful Guns
+VERY strong Bloodtinge-based weapons
+Not a lot of enemies are resistant to Bloodtinge damage, making it universally good
-Bloodtinge melee weapons are few
-Build takes a while before it gets good
-Enemies that are resistant to Bloodtinge damage can really screw you over

ARCANE
+Spells that can scale really well
+Powerful elemental attacks
+Wider viability of secondary weapons that scale off of Arcane damage
+Higher Item discovery with more Arcane points
-Physical damage is low
-Requires knowledge of enemy weaknesses in order to know how to exploit them
-Quicksilver Bullet consumption is brutal
+/-Build doesn't kick into high gear for a bit, but it goes into overdrive when it does

Pick one of these as a primary damage stat and another as a secondary. You'll put a lot of points into the primary stat to begin with and then put points into your secondary along the time you need to start pumping Vitality and Endurance. The most efficient way to increase your survivability is to level Vitality, as you gain physical defense with every level up and adding health on top of that makes it all the better. Endurance hard caps at 40; after that point you only get 10 points of Stamina between 41 and 99.

Blood gems can massively improve your weapons, but the best gems are not found in the game world. They are hidden away in Chalice Dungeons. They're a pain to start but once you get rolling they start dropping super good rewards. Some bosses are only in Chalice dungeons. If you're lacking for damage and/or need to level in a way that gets you good rewards, hit them up.

Another post due to this one being long, just some pointers:

-For guns, a Pistol is faster, more precise, and can counter from a safe distance. They tend to be inaccurate on foes that move around in eccentric patterns. Blunderbusses fire a little bit slower and have less range, but they can catch squirrely targets easier. Damage on a Blunderbuss is better at point-blank range.

-Rune choice comes down to preference, but it helps to pick runes that benefit your playstyle. You won't be able to use runes right away, as you'll need the workshop rune tool before hand. Runes have three tiers of potency, and two runes equipped of different tiers will stack entirely (i.e. Communion rune that gives you +1 Blood Vials and another that gives you +2 will give you +3 overall). The best Runes will be found in Chalice Dungeons.

-Spells are a ravenous consumer of Quicksilver Bullets. To use a spell you need the appropriate Arcane level and have to equip them as items. If you are going heavy into Arcane, get in the habit of using your Emergency Bullets (Up on the D-pad) to give yourself five bullets as often as possible. You're essentially trading a blood vial for 5 bullets, which is a modest trade.

-Upgrade your weapons at the earliest opportunity. The jumps in weapons every level are significant. A weapon that looks like trash unupgraded can easily become a ridiculously powerful death dealer later.

-Insight does you little good sitting in your inventory. At 40 Insight you see the world for how it really is. The higher your Insight, the lower your Frenzy Resistance and Beasthood is. Frenzy is a debuff that, when the meter fills, will instantly damage you for about 80% of your OVERALL HP. If you are below that point when the meter fills you will instantly die.

-Besthood is a mechanic that increases damage done and taken depending on how full your Beasthood meter is. To get Beasthood running, consume a Beast Blood Pellet and start hitting enemies. There exists a weapon called the Beast Claws that give you a permanent state of Beasthood meter in their transformed state.

-Physical defense on clothing is mostly negligible. When selecting clothing, look at the elemental and debuff resistances. They will help you more than physical defense in most cases. Always dress fashionably.

-Rally potential on weapons is the amount of health you restore on hitting an enemy after taking damage. Weapons with high Rally can often heal you back after sustaining a hit. I can't confirm it but it seems that Rally is directly tied to the amount of Beasthood you get per hit.

-Beasts are weak to fire, slash, and serrated weapons (serrated weapons give a bonus damage modifier to beast enemies. This includes the Saw Cleaver/Spear, Threaded Cane in Whip Form,and Beast Cutter).

-Kin are weak to bolt, thrust, and Church weapons (includes the Kirkhammer, Ludwig's Holy Blade, Simon's Bowblade, Holy Moonlight Sword, and the Church Pick).

-Some enemies are classified as Large. This means that they cannot be counterattacked with a gun, but they can have their limbs wounded. When a limb is wounded, the enemy will recoil and leave themselves open for a short window. A wounded limb takes more damage from subsequent attacks. If enough limbs are wounded, the enemy will be stunned and open to a Visceral Attack. All enemies that can have their limbs wounded can "heal" their wounded limbs, resetting the limbs health but not actual HP. Strength weapons are generally better for wounding limbs.

-There are three variants of every weapon in the game: Standard, Uncanny, and Lost. The damage and appearance doesn't change between the three, but the Blood Gem Imprints differ. All Lost quality weapons have one slot of each Gem type Radial, Triangle, and Waning.

I've put a lot of hours in both DS1 and 2 so im familar with a lot of the mechanics, that said bloodeborne is quite different than the souls games and I appreciate all the tips here. One quick question, how does fire/bolt/arcane damage scale? Is it similar to Dark souls where fire damage=avarage of two stats?(int and faith in that case) Or do those types of damage scale simply with arcane? Like If I were to go full in on bolt damage, would skills would I invest into?

All elemental damage scales with Arcane. Weapons and spells have their own Arcane scaling on them, which amplifies elemental damage Inherent on the weapon. What that means is the weapon must have elemental damage attributed to it to benefit from its Arcane scaling. It's very simplified.

Weapons will either have some elemental damage built in, or not. This next part is important to know, so read it well to avoid confusion.

If a weapon has some elemental damage on it already, it will appear in the weapon's damage stats. This weapon cannot be reinforced with any other elemental damage through blood gems and it cannot be buffed with items that grant bonus elemental damage (like Fire Paper).

If a weapon doesn't come with elemental damage, it can be freely gemmed to support whatever elemental damage you want and it can be buffed with elemental consumables like the aforementioned Fire Paper. However, once you apply an elemental type gem onto a weapon,** it loses ALL of its physical attack and is left with whatever elemental damage it gains**, and no longer can be buffed with consumables.

Now, keeping that in mind, enemies will still be weak to a particular weapon trait and attack type. For example, if you make a Saw Cleaver just fire damage, it will still retain the Serrated Quality and do more bonus damage to Beasts. Similarly, if you make a Bolt Threaded cane, the thrust attack (R2) will do more damage to a Kin enemy, because even though you are not actually doing any thrust attack damage, the weapon still counts as a thrust attack on the damage calculation.

If you were to go full elemental damage, dump everything into Arcane. Once you get a Blood Gem with elemental damage on it, you will see a significant increase in your attack power.

On a side note, all spells scale with Arcane, and Molotovs in all forms scale too, but consumable elemental item damage does not, as far as I can tell. It seems that a Fire Paper will always grant a static amount of fire damage onto a weapon, regardless of what your Arcane level is.

Awesome, great info. I am play through the game with a buddy and he was wondering about this stuff as well, ill be sure to pass it on. Thanks a bunch my man.

No problem. Happy hunting!

Blades of Mercy I think, maybe Rakuyo if you have the dlc. But I like strength builds so maybe I'm not the best to ask.

Blade of mercy is terrible for pve. Its no use to long range melee attackers. Cant add fire or bolt paper on them either if i remember right.

Meh, I've found it to be the opposite.

I do agree that not using any element buffers is ****** , I find the blades SO fun to use, because they are EXCELLENT at quick attacks, especially right after a dodge.

Using the blades really tought me how to dodge effectively, and to predict what an attack is going to be, and when it's going to hit, so I can dodge it.

But, as I've described, blades require a lot of skill to use. But mainly. . DODGE.

I did a Blades of mercy-only playthrough that was fun as hell imo. I guess it depends on the person