'Bloodborne: The Old Hunters' Is Coming: What the Hell Do I Need to Do?

Released in March, FromSoftware’s Bloodborne quickly became one of this year’s biggest games, focused on difficult gameplay in a Gothic setting filled with lost Hunters and terrifying beasts. Similar to Dark Souls, the game featured a new, aggressive combat system and quickly became a hit within the gaming community. But, as expected, players have been looking for more content to dig into — and next week that content arrives with The Old Hunters, Bloodborne’s first and only expansion.

Set within the base game, The Old Hunters allows players to explore the nightmare of hunters past, those who once guarded the secrets of Yharnam — ages before your arrival in the main narrative of Bloodborne. These hunters, such as Ludwig, are referenced throughout the entire base game in various areas as some of the biggest and baddest out there, and we’ll be venturing into their nightmare come November 24.

As usual with FromSoftware games, the DLC isn’t going to be immediately accessible to players and requires a short quest before you can proceed into the Hunters’ Nightmare — here’s how it works.

• Defeat Vicar Amelia in the Cathedral Ward and examine the altar located behind her. (This is currently the only step you may complete before downloading The Old Hunters.)

• Return to the Hunter’s Dream hub area and a group of messengers should appear. Walk up to them and take the Eye of a Blood-drunk Hunter.

• Head back to the Cathedral Ward lamp and exit the chapel through the left to enter the square.

• At the right-hand end of the square, an event will trigger with The Old Hunters installed, which will take you to the new area. Once there, light the lamp and you will then be able to travel to the new area using a headstone in the Hunter’s Dream hub area.

And after the event and lamp? You’ll be able to access and progress through the new area added by the DLC as you normally would with all the other areas within Bloodborne.

Although we don’t know too much about the new area, PlayStation has announced that players will have access to new allies, new enemies, and more importantly (for lore-nerds such as myself): more information about the original hunters and how they fought against the plague corrupting Yharnam. They’ve also mentioned that some of these hunters hail from the far East, meaning that we might learn some more about the rest of the world outside of Yharnam — is it just as corrupted?

The expansion also includes a wide variety of new weapons and gear, such as the Bowblade and Gatling Gun, for players to discover and use in their journey. While we don’t know too many details about each individual weapon and gear set, it’s safe to say that we’ll have some fun new toys to play with in The Old Hunters — including a new rune called The Beast’s Embrace, allowing players to transform into a beast themselves.

So get ready to venture back into Yharnam fellow hunters, it looks like the new expansion is bringing us all back into the city for one last ride - and it’s filled with goodies we’ve been craving since the game first released.

The Old Hunters releases November 24 on PlayStation 4.