How Bloodborne’s Insight Mechanic Works (& When It’s Useful)

FromSoftware is known for including plenty of esoteric, complex game mechanics with both passive and active effects in their projects. However, few are quite as mysterious as Bloodborne’s Insight mechanic, which is useful in a multitude of different situations throughout the game.

In many ways, Insight is a lot like the Humanity system from Dark Souls. Just like Humanity, Insight can be attained passively by encountering/defeating bosses, entering certain areas or by witnessing certain events. It is more frequently found in “solid” form as a consumable item, usually called a Madman’s Wisdom or a Great One’s Knowledge. Players can keep track of how much Insight they have in the top right corner of their screen, just below their blood echoes counter. Like Humanity, Insight affects the player’s character in various ways, from their stats to the literal way in which they perceive the game world around them. Figuring out how the player’s Insight level affects the current situation can be tricky, but with enough knowledge and experience, Insight can be a valuable tool when overcoming obstacles or trying to unravel the dark mysteries of Yharnam.

As usual, the Fextralife Wiki has a fairly comprehensive guide on all of the ways Insight influences Bloodborne. The amount of “soft” Insight indicated on the player’s counter has numerous tiny affects on the world around them, but there are a few major elements affected by Insight that players should always keep in mind if they want to survive. The most important of these elements is the way Insight affects the player’s Frenzy resistance. The two concepts share an inverse relationship in Bloodborne. The higher the number on that Insight counter, the more Frenzy damage players take. This is especially important during the late game “Hunter’s Nightmare” sections, where certain enemies do high amounts of Frenzy damage simply by looking at the player. Likewise, a high Insight also lowers the player’s Beasthood stat, meaning it will be harder for them to build up beasthood and do high damage if they so choose. So, it may not always be a good idea to have high Insight.

When Bloodborne’s Insight Is Good To Have

If players find themselves at the mercy of Frenzy damage or need a little Beasthood boost, then they can relieve themselves of their forbidden knowledge by spending it at the Insight shop in the Hunter’s Dream. This has the added benefit of giving Bloodborne player access to stylish new armors/weapons and another method of obtaining certain consumables. Alternatively, it takes one Insight to summon another player, whether that be for co-op or pvp. That covers just about all of the practical uses for Insight, but there is one more thing that the mechanic does affect: the player character’s worldview.

As the name implies, Insight is the level of knowledge or wisdom (or madness) a character has jammed up in their head in the context of the game’s story. As the story progresses (spoilers) and the player discovers clues that Bloodborne’s world is actually connected to a race of eldritch, Lovecraftian deities that exist both in the physical realm and the mental/dream realm, the player’s Insight level directly influences how much of this “eldritch truth” they are capable of perceiving. As their Insight level rises, players will see more enemies and messengers in certain areas, and some enemies (like the Church Doctors) will have new attacks or altered appearances.

But the biggest mind-boggle Insight kicks into the player’s cranium is what happens when they reach 40 Insight in Bloodborne. Typically, players do not realize that Insight has this affect until they reach New Game Plus, because it naturally occurs after the player defeats Rom, the Vacuous Spider during Bloodborne’s main questline. Aside from being a gigantic, creepy spider, Rom is also an eldritch deity that has been maintaining a mass-illusion over the entirety of Yharnam. When Rom is slain, the illusion is lifted, and the truth about the eldritch Great Ones is revealed to all, regardless of Insight. The blood moon rises, and humongous, spider-like Great Ones known as Amygdala can be seen perched on many rooftops around Yharnam. At Insight level 40, this illusion means nothing to the player character, and the watchful Amygdala can be spotted from the second the player leaves Iosefka’s Clinic at the very start of the game.

Source: Fextralife

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Jonah Schuhart
(148 Articles Published)

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Jonah Schuhart is a Freelance Writer at Screen Rant. Growing up as the stereotypical gamer, Jonah absorbed everything he could about his favorite video games until adulthood came knocking. He decided to become a games journalist after his dad purchased a subscription to Gameinformer when he was 10 years old. Now, he follows in the footsteps of his early influences, giving his two-cents on the games he loves.

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