Bloodborne: explore Yharnam, Hunter Badge Key location and Bold Hunter's Marks

This article explains how to explore Yharnam, Hunter Badge Key location and Bold Hunter's Marks in Bloodborne, following on from the Cleric Beast and survive the creature's enrage mode.

If you're interested in more advice, our complete Bloodborne walkthrough and for the DLC our The Old Hunters guide and walkthrough can help.

That doll from earlier on is now standing upright. Talk to her to level your character with the Blood Echoes that you collect during your adventure. You'll also find another Messenger gift to the doll's right - a Beckoning Bell and a Silencing Blank so you can call in other Hunters and send them on their way when you're done with their services!

Next, go into the upper building to perform any weapons repairs or upgrades that you wish to undertake. When you've finished up all your business in the Hunter's Dream, make your way to the Central Yharnam Lamp.

We made a Pungent Blood Cocktail from Bloodborne

Explore Yharnam and gather Blood Stone Shards

Go through the gate on your left, then head down the two sets of stairs. Next, go down the stairs in the left-hand corner to encounter a pair of Brick Brutes. Pick them off one at a time by luring them back up the stairs, and don't forget to take your Shining Coins reward, which helps you light up a dark area so you can enable lock-on.

You can't use the switch down here just yet, but make a note of its location as you'll be coming back here later on. Right now, you should go up the stairs on your right. To aid your bearings, make a mental note that you could take the stairs on your right to make it back to that room with the Wheelchair Blunder in it from earlier.

Kill the Brick Brutes, Caged Hounds and Henchmen

Our next goal lies elsewhere, however. Take a left and go up the stairs on your right. You can get a Coldblood Dew from the corpse at the very end of the broken staircase. Go back downstairs, then carry on down the next set of stairs in front of you. If you go down the stairs to your left, you'll see a load of Hounds in cages. Attack them immediately - if you wait, they'll bust out of their cages and make the fight much tougher for you.

When they're all dead, carry on along this lower area, and keep your eyes peeled for a path on your left that's just ahead of the bridge. Kill the Hound you encounter on this path, and take the Coldblood Dew from the nearby body. Cross the bridge completely, kill the beast a little further on, then rap on the left-hand door near the red lantern. You can't help the lady here just yet, but make a note of where this door is for later when you need to complete a task.

Go down the stairs on your right, then carry on down the next stairway ahead of you to reach a Hunchback. This monster can fight you from some distance, and do so with a succession of assaults. Wait for your opponent to finish brawling before you head in for the kill.

Keep working your way along the stairs until you come to a new room. Take a right and head towards the Hunchback that's currently looking away from you. Sneak up quietly and you'll be able to use your Charge Attack to land a critical hit and help you deal with the enemy nice and quickly. Just be aware of the Henchman to the left of the Hunchback. When you start attacking the latter, the former will also join in the fray. Just deal with your current target, then turn your attention to his friend.

Take the Coldblood Dew from the corpse near the Henchman, then kill the other nearby Hunchback before passing through the door that's at the end of the path. There are two more rifle-wielding Henchmen up ahead. Kill them both, then deal with the Hunchback who's also mooching about. When he's dead, go to the left-hand side of the room and take another Coldblood Dew from the corpse. Now, go down the path just across from where you entered the room and follow it all the way along.

As you travel you'll have to deal with another pack of Crazed Crows who are blocking the bridge. Take a look below you and over to the right where you'll see a corpse. Line up nicely with the body and then drop down to get another Blood Stone Shard. Head back to where you were a moment ago.

Go across the bridge on your left and get back to the side you began on. Take a right until you see a pair of Crows by some boxes and crates. Smash 'em all up to get a pair of Oil Urns. Now go back to the ladder that's by the entrance to this region and go down it.

Getting hold of a Madmen's Knowledge

When you get to the bottom, take a right (as you face the ladder), then go down the first corridor on your left. There are lots of Giant Rants down here, and they represent about the same challenge as the Crows, although these little buggers can leap at you too. Further down the corridor is another small pack of rats guarding a corpse that contains a Madman's Knowledge.

When you're done, go back along the corridor towards the ladder, then carry on forwards. When you get to the end of the path, look right where a pair of ladders are. Go up the one on the right and kill the Crazed Crows when you get to the top. Now take the Madman's Knowledge from the body towards the end of the balcony.

Next, head off in the other direction until you find a Club Brute. This enemy is quite similar to the Brick Brute, but it's weapon is a little more powerful. Sneak in behind, deliver a Charge Attack from behind, then follow it up with more damage to take the Brute down nice and quickly.

How to get the Tiny Music Box

There's a door on the other side. Knock on it to listen to the woman's words, then go up the ladder to the right of where the Brute was and interact with the lever at the top to open up a gate. Just left of that lever is a window by a red lantern. Interact with it to talk to the child, and agree to locate her mother in exchange for a Tiny Music Box.

The gate you've opened links you to the courtyard with the first Brick Brute fight. Go back down the ladder, head over the bridge, and then take the ladder to the right all the way down. This will bring you back to that area with the dual ladders, mentioned just a little further up the page.

Go up the second ladder on the right, then use a Molotov Cocktail to deal with the Undead Crawlers up here. You should get a Bold Hunter's Mark from one of the Crawler corpses, and there are some Quicksilver Bullets to be taken from the body up here.

Carry on along the waterway in the opposite direction to come to some Crawlers and Crows around the water. Shoot the Crawlers to make them drop down. Next, go down the staircase at the end until you come to more Crawlers. Kill them all, then look down the right-hand hallways to see another one. Kill it so you can loot the corpse it's near to get another Blood Stone Shard.

Keep heading forwards until you come to another pair of Crows. Kill them, and keep your eyes peeled for a ladder ahead of you and on your right. Don't worry about the tunnel in front of you for now - we'll be returning to this later.

Take the ladder to find a new stairway ahead of you and a door on your left. The door on your left leads you to a lever which you can use to operate the lift up ahead. If you don't see the lift, interact with the lever to call it back, providing a method of getting back to the balcony where the pair of Brick Brutes were.

Find the Hunter Badge Key and the Bold Hunter's Marks

These stairs will ultimately take you to the fight with Father Gascoigne, but if you follow it you'll miss out on getting the Hunter Badge Key and a Coldblood Dew. If you choose not to worry about getting these items, you can skip straight to the fight, but just watch out for the boulder up ahead. The Henchmen on the bridge will charge up to fight you, but after the fight starts you'll have to deal with flaming barrels being flung across the bridge at you. You can go back to the start of the bridge and dodge them if you wish, or use the small alcoves as protection.

Assuming you want to pick up the goodies before dealing with the boss, make your way back to the ladder and then climb down until you're back where that tunnel lies. Head slowly down it, but be ready to fight the Crazed Pig at the end of it. It charges from distance, and can give you a nasty bite. Let the pig charge out, and fight it where you have a little more room to manoeuvre. Ideally, get into position behind it after a charge, then hit it with your Charge Attack.

You'll get a pair of Blood Vials for killing the pig. Take them, then go back through the tunnel. At the halfway point is a room with two corpses in it. Search them to get the Saw Hunter Badge item we mentioned earlier, then keep going down the waterway until you come to an opening on your left. Go through it, then take the ladder up on the right.

You're at the spot now where the Brick Brute and the Henchman drop a fiery boulder onto the bridge. It's on your right, but kill the enemies if necessary and then go up on the stairs to your left to find two Hunchbacks. Kill them, then take the Bold Hunter's Marks. Go up the stairs on the other side and carry on forwards to start a cut-scene which precedes the fight with Father Gascoigne.

- Read on for our essential guide on how to kill Father Gascoigne.

- You can find the rest of our Bloodborne guide from the index page of this article.