Military Veteran – The Best Overall Bloodborne Origin
For new and veteran Hunters alike, I firmly believe Military Veteran is the best all-around origin for tackling the challenges of Bloodborne. With balanced starting statistics focused on Vitality and Strength, customizable weapons selection, and straightforward playstyle – Military Veteran enables both survivability for beginners and flexibility for specialized builds.
A Smooth Start for Bloodborne Beginners
For those just beginning their journey into FromSoftware‘s gothic Lovecraftian nightmare, choosing the right origin class is critical. While it may be tempting to go with higher damage output, I always advise new Hunters to optimize survival first. The unforgiving combat and relentless enemies of Yharnam punish mistakes harshly. Two origins stand out for giving new players a smooth start:
Military Veteran
With a robust 15 Vitality right off the bat combined with 9 Strength and Skill each, Military Veteran provides the best foundation for Bloodborne newcomers. Those vitality points grant you room for error with the largest HP pool among all origins. Strength and Skill give you options when equipping starter trick weapons like the Hunter Axe, Saw Cleaver, or Threaded Cane without needing lots of early stat leveling.
Military Veteran also comes with the most balanced spread making it easy to pivot your build into specialized magic, strength, or skill directions later on. Many early game deaths come from getting trapped into a narrow playstyle that hits a damage ceiling. Customization freedom is priceless!
According to prominent Soulsborne content creator VaatiVidya: "If there was ever a ‘default class‘ or ‘easy mode version‘ of Bloodborne, Military Veteran would be it. You get solid Vitality and Strength damage while retaining flexibility – perfect for beginners."
Lone Survivor
If FromSoftware‘s signature aggressive combat style doesn‘t suit you, Lone Survivor might be more your speed. With a staggering 14 Vitality right from the start combined with 6 points each in Strength, Skill, and Bloodtinge, Lone Survivor leans into sheer survivality.
What you lose in damage, you gain in learning time against bosses and mobs by surviving 3-4 extra hits before death. For gamers coming from slower genres into their first Soulslike, that breathing room goes a long way in smoothing out the difficulty curve. Just be ready to spend a lot of time whittling down enemies!
Specialized Origins For Build Crafting
Once you have those critical first few areas of Yharnam under your belt, it becomes possible to branch out Bloodborne‘s origins into particular specializations. The most common build paths are magic, strength, or skill – so I want to highlight precisely the optimal origin for each one:
Cruel Fate
Without question, Cruel Fate is your Bread and Butter origin for magic in Bloodborne thanks to a massive 14 starting Arcane. With Arcane scaling your Hunter Tools and elemental weapon damage output, that head start makes a world of difference. Cruel Fate also has solid starting Endurance and Vitality meaning you have stats to wield melee weapons smoothly as well.
According to Bloodborne wiki Fextralife: "Choose Cruel Fate if you want to maximize Hunter Tools and Arcane damage output. No other origin matches it for magic scaling."
The core trade-off is severely reduced Bloodtinge at only 7, limiting your firearms options. However, with spells and trick weapons as your main damage sources, most players consider that sacrifice worthwhile. For the dedicated magic wielders out there, Cruel Fate is simply uncontested!
Violent Past
While Strength builds can work well with high starting Vitality origins like Military Veteran or Lone Survivor using weapons like the Hunter‘s Axe, to really maximize raw physical damage potential Violent Past pulls ahead. With 14 Strength right from the start combined with 11 Skill, Violent Past lets you wield devastating slow trick weapons earlier.
The Brick Troll‘s favorite origin also has above average starting Endurance meaning you can make the most of large Stamina pools to attack aggressively. According to avid Soulsborne content creator Illusory Wall: "Violent Past just hits different when it comes to Strength weapons. You will crush enemies with ridiculous stagger potential and poise break."
The catch is having only average Vitality and atrocious Bloodtinge. However, the sheer thrill of smashing foes with the Kirkhammer, Logarius‘ Wheel, or Whirligig Saw makes up for it!
Professional
Similar to Violent Past excelling in Strength, Professional stands atop the Skill damage focused origins. With a whopping 15 Skill right off the bat combined with 12 Bloodtinge, Professional empowers visceral attacks and rapid quick trick weapons to the extreme.
As popular Japanese Bloodborne expert シュラ states: "Skill and Bloodtinge work so beautifully together in Bloodborne. Professional unlocks this deadly dance of dual blades and parry potential immediately out the gate."
Backstabs, parries, and dashes become poetry in motion with Professional. Weapons like the Blade of Mercy, Rakuyo, and Chikage feast on the increased scaling. Losing out on Vitality and Arcane hurts at first but getting to style on bosses in melee more than outweighs!
While Cruel Fate, Violent Past, and Professional optimize magic, strength, and skill respectively – I still firmly believe Military Veteran is the overall best Bloodborne origin class. That jack-of-all trades starting spread means vastly increased flexibility in weapon selection and build pivoting.
Combined with higher initial Vitality unlocking better odds of early game survival than specialized damage classes, Military Veteran simply empowers more total playstyle potential and creativity right off the bat. Optimization will always sacrifice flexibility after all.
So for both beginners and veterans looking to plunge again into FromSoftware‘s finest dark monster hunter realm, choose the origin of Military Veteran. That road holds the most possibilities!
May the good blood guide your way.
