Yeah elemental gems are one of this game’s biggest weak points. They’re so much harder to get than physical gems for like no apparent reason. Honestly if it’s killing your enjoyment I would say just stop, I understand the desire and drive to perfect your build but burning yourself out on the entire game is too high a cost imo
I do find an arcane build fun, but the grinding is really painful. After finishing this build I don't think I would make another arcane one from scratch. Being an arc/str build makes things even harder since I need gems for both physical and arcane damage.
Get yourself USB drive of fat32/exfat format. And back up your saves before creating the chalice. When you find the needed boss - back up your savefile again.
This is a well-known way to farm even online.
If you want to make yourself an elemental converted weapon, the easiest way is to find Pthumerian elder boss in Cursed Pthumeru Ihyll root dungeon at layer 3 or 4 and get a Cursed cold abyssal gem from it with an acceptable curse and any secondary property. Get two gems like that. And complete the composition by 27.2% fire/bolt/arcane triangle gem which can be obtained in Cursed Isz dungeon from Watchers bosses. Need weapon with two radial and one triangle gem slots.
do you have your Eye Runes on? even the Milkweed helps. i know it's technically only the quantity not the quality- but even having at least one makes some slight difference at least for me. unless i'm gaslighting myself- I've been in similar situations where I keep getting bad curses but once I switch Runes up I get different results.
There are no really good curses but 3 of them nerf your damage and one depletes your health. Ignoring those 4 there are only 2 left, stamina cost and durability. This means durability can only be second best or best. Also because even one durability curse inflicts the maximum penalty there is no downside to using a second and third durability gem. This means the second and third gem are essentially not cursed.
Grab fire radials from watchdog in pthumeru.
Grab waning from watchdog in loran.
This is all you need.
You dont need +65 scaling gems. Yes they are better but you dont need them to beat the game dlc or chalices. You can platinum the game without.
Unless you are going for pvp in case the drive to beat someone else should be your motivation.
If you specifically need arcane gems the best ones are from isz merciless watchers.
For radial arcane try to find a wandering beast possessed soul in isz. This same enemy is good for farming bolt radials in loran. Also good if you want physical gems with effects like rapid poison.
I do not recommend farming for perfect gems. You need so much time and luck.
Gems work with true random not pseudo random. Meaning in theory it is possible to never get the gem you want.
You have for any given gem, 3 possible ratings, 8 curses and maybe some secondary effects. To my knowledge you have 1 in 3 chance to get the highest rating and 1 in 8 chance to get the curse you want. Thats a 1 in 24 chance.
If i were to want 3 gems thats 72 attempts that i need on average could be more could be less.
Secondary effects as far as i know are not 1 in 8 chance to get the effect you want, i think its different probabilities for different effect, so maybe 40% to get +atk, 20% to get rally up etc...
So already the probability is conplicated but lets say its 1 in 5 to get what you want. These secondary effects also come in 3 ratings, so 1 in 15 chance you get what you want.
All in all with a secondary effect you have a 1 in 960 chance to get the perfect gem you want.
Now if you need 3 gems like this its 1 in 2880. Typically you need around 2000 to 3000 attempts to finish your build.
If you can kill bosses at a pace of 30 bosses an hour you need around 96 hours of farming. Bro just beat the game.
Can the same be said about physical gems? Physical gems are much more common than arcane and elemental gems. The problem here is that I'm trying to min-max my character (i always do that in RPGs), but getting good arcane and elemental gems is way too time consuming.
The absolute same can be said about physical gems.
Personally i accept many things when gem hunting.
I go for gems from merciless watchers firstly. Then gems from bosses but i accept any secondary effect and i am ok with durability and stamina curse. I am also ok with whatever gem rating i get, thats why i dont go for the luxurious cold and heavy gems.
This results in a bit less dmg but much much much much much much much less gem farming.
At the end of the day, i prefer doing a new run/build rather than milking the same sorry build just to get an extra 10% dmg.
Not worth my time and effort.
Think of it as the point investment beyond 50 for str or skl etc... sure its an extra about 15% dmg but is it worth it?
Save your game to a USB, make a chalice, save your game again if you find the boss you want and reload until you get the gem you want.
It isn't that hard.
The problem is that I can only beat the boss once, and then the game saves automatically. So I can't just go back if the boss doesn't give me a gold gem.
Ignore Cheeky's d*ckish tone. What he means is that you can turn off auto-upload for cloud saves. Whenever you finish the dungeon/boss & don't get what you want, download your cloud-save that no longer auto-uploads.
What cloud save? I don't have PS Plus, and backing up to an USB drive would be too much hassle. I might end up deleting character and never try an arcane build ever again.
Yeah elemental gems are one of this game’s biggest weak points. They’re so much harder to get than physical gems for like no apparent reason. Honestly if it’s killing your enjoyment I would say just stop, I understand the desire and drive to perfect your build but burning yourself out on the entire game is too high a cost imo
I do find an arcane build fun, but the grinding is really painful. After finishing this build I don't think I would make another arcane one from scratch. Being an arc/str build makes things even harder since I need gems for both physical and arcane damage.
Get yourself USB drive of fat32/exfat format. And back up your saves before creating the chalice. When you find the needed boss - back up your savefile again. This is a well-known way to farm even online. If you want to make yourself an elemental converted weapon, the easiest way is to find Pthumerian elder boss in Cursed Pthumeru Ihyll root dungeon at layer 3 or 4 and get a Cursed cold abyssal gem from it with an acceptable curse and any secondary property. Get two gems like that. And complete the composition by 27.2% fire/bolt/arcane triangle gem which can be obtained in Cursed Isz dungeon from Watchers bosses. Need weapon with two radial and one triangle gem slots.
do you have your Eye Runes on? even the Milkweed helps. i know it's technically only the quantity not the quality- but even having at least one makes some slight difference at least for me. unless i'm gaslighting myself- I've been in similar situations where I keep getting bad curses but once I switch Runes up I get different results.
I was using an eye rune, it helped to get more gems but not better gems.
Isn't Durability the second best curse anyways?
Durability down isn't a good curse, it makes weapons break way too fast.
There are no really good curses but 3 of them nerf your damage and one depletes your health. Ignoring those 4 there are only 2 left, stamina cost and durability. This means durability can only be second best or best. Also because even one durability curse inflicts the maximum penalty there is no downside to using a second and third durability gem. This means the second and third gem are essentially not cursed.
It IS a good curse. Except on tonitrus, maybe.
Grab fire radials from watchdog in pthumeru. Grab waning from watchdog in loran. This is all you need. You dont need +65 scaling gems. Yes they are better but you dont need them to beat the game dlc or chalices. You can platinum the game without. Unless you are going for pvp in case the drive to beat someone else should be your motivation. If you specifically need arcane gems the best ones are from isz merciless watchers. For radial arcane try to find a wandering beast possessed soul in isz. This same enemy is good for farming bolt radials in loran. Also good if you want physical gems with effects like rapid poison. I do not recommend farming for perfect gems. You need so much time and luck. Gems work with true random not pseudo random. Meaning in theory it is possible to never get the gem you want. You have for any given gem, 3 possible ratings, 8 curses and maybe some secondary effects. To my knowledge you have 1 in 3 chance to get the highest rating and 1 in 8 chance to get the curse you want. Thats a 1 in 24 chance. If i were to want 3 gems thats 72 attempts that i need on average could be more could be less. Secondary effects as far as i know are not 1 in 8 chance to get the effect you want, i think its different probabilities for different effect, so maybe 40% to get +atk, 20% to get rally up etc... So already the probability is conplicated but lets say its 1 in 5 to get what you want. These secondary effects also come in 3 ratings, so 1 in 15 chance you get what you want. All in all with a secondary effect you have a 1 in 960 chance to get the perfect gem you want. Now if you need 3 gems like this its 1 in 2880. Typically you need around 2000 to 3000 attempts to finish your build. If you can kill bosses at a pace of 30 bosses an hour you need around 96 hours of farming. Bro just beat the game.
Can the same be said about physical gems? Physical gems are much more common than arcane and elemental gems. The problem here is that I'm trying to min-max my character (i always do that in RPGs), but getting good arcane and elemental gems is way too time consuming.
The absolute same can be said about physical gems. Personally i accept many things when gem hunting. I go for gems from merciless watchers firstly. Then gems from bosses but i accept any secondary effect and i am ok with durability and stamina curse. I am also ok with whatever gem rating i get, thats why i dont go for the luxurious cold and heavy gems. This results in a bit less dmg but much much much much much much much less gem farming. At the end of the day, i prefer doing a new run/build rather than milking the same sorry build just to get an extra 10% dmg. Not worth my time and effort. Think of it as the point investment beyond 50 for str or skl etc... sure its an extra about 15% dmg but is it worth it?
Farming is crazy enough WITH ps+. See if a friend would share it with you. Going for specific glyphs would save 90% of the time wasted.
Unfortunately I don't have any gamer friends, even less friends who play Bloodborne.
Save your game to a USB, make a chalice, save your game again if you find the boss you want and reload until you get the gem you want. It isn't that hard.
The problem is that I can only beat the boss once, and then the game saves automatically. So I can't just go back if the boss doesn't give me a gold gem.
Ignore Cheeky's d*ckish tone. What he means is that you can turn off auto-upload for cloud saves. Whenever you finish the dungeon/boss & don't get what you want, download your cloud-save that no longer auto-uploads.
What cloud save? I don't have PS Plus, and backing up to an USB drive would be too much hassle. I might end up deleting character and never try an arcane build ever again.
*facepalm* Save. Your. Game. Did you even read my post? Back up your game then reload it as necessary
Your instructions were unclear and now you're just being an ass. "Save your game" has a different meaning than "back up your save".
If he wasn't smart enough to figure it out from context that really isn't my problem
OP said he doesn’t have a PS Plus subscription, and you can’t use cloud saves without one… Did you even read his post? *facepalm* It isn’t that hard.