Gerhman, The First Hunter | Bloodborne Wiki

Gehrman, the First Hunter
		Location	Drops
14293	128000	Hunter's Dream	Old Hunter Badge
Defenses
			--
150	150	150	--
150	65	70	65
999	999	No	No

[Warning: Ending spoiler ahead]

Gehrman, the First Hunter (最初の狩人ゲールマン Saisho no kariudo Gēruman lit. "Gehrman, the First Hunter") is a Boss in Bloodborne, and one of the three possible final bosses of the game.

"Oh, Laurence... what's taking you so long... I've grown too old for this, of little use now, I'm afraid..."

"Oh, Laurence... Master Willem... Somebody help me... Unshackle me please, anybody... I've had enough of this dream... The night blocks all sight... Oh, somebody, please...

"Hm hm hm ha ha ha... Dear oh dear, what was it? The Hunt? The Blood? Or the horrible Dream? Oh, it doesn't matter... It always comes down to the hunters' helper to clean up after these sort of messes."

"Tonight... Gehrman joins the hunt...."

Gehrman, the First Hunter Information

• You fight Gehrman if you choose the Refuse option when he presents you with 2 options after you talk to him, or if you attacked him in the Hunter's Dream after defeating Mergo's Wet Nurse. 
• This boss is optional: if you choose Submit Your Life, you will not fight him. However, if you choose Refuse, you will have to defeat him to complete the game. Whichever decision you make is final: you cannot later choose to Submit Your Life.
• Dying to this boss will cause you to respawn in front of the headstones. He will be hostile when you enter the arena again.
• Defeating him will initiate a cut-scene. If you have consumed 3x One Third of Umbilical Cord, you will fight the Moon Presence, otherwise the game will end and you will obtain the Honoring Wishes trophy.
• Gain 1 Insight for finding the boss and 3 Insight for killing him.

Locations

• Hunter's Dream, past the gate at the bottom which has been locked until now.

Drops

• Old Hunter Badge
• Blood Echoes NG (128000) (64000 for co-operator), NG+6 and so on (980,480)
• (no blood echoes are dropped if you take on Moon Presence)

Combat Information

• While using his scythe, Gehrman frequently uses a charge move that can be parried while he channels.
• Gehrman can be parried and riposted for the entirety of the fight. Whereas he is very fast and unpredictable in his third stage, he can still be staggered while he uses the charge move on his scythe. (need confirmation on other moves)
• Shoot as he slices horizontally with his scythe for easy parries.
• He usually gives two side-swings to approach you, after which he's open for a quick R1 attack. Immediately move backwards (walking or dodging) after hitting him once.
• When Gehrman switches to the curved sword and blunderbuss, it may be more effective to stay close to him and dash (hit O) around him as he attacks and then get in a quick hit at the end of a combo. This seems to be more effective than hanging back since it is then harder to get in a hit and he can also stagger you with his gun even if you're not attacking. The stagger seems to only occur when he's using his pistol as opposed to his blunderbuss.
• It is also possible that in his powered up form, he will go for a jump attack but get stuck on a ledge if you're close enough to one, giving you free attacks with minimal chance of taking damage.
• In scythe form, a fairly easy way to deal with it is to bait out one of his attacks and walk backwards. His attack will fall short, and you have time to hit him once and repeat. For his curved sword and gun, run towards him and roll right, if he rolls and shoots you'll get two free hits on him. Then back out, because he might retaliate quickly. His long combo ends in a ground slam with his curved sword and then a shoot with his gun, if you stay close, you can roll through the gun shot and get a hit in on him. Take the fight slow, and stay close to max health, as his scythe does massive damage.
• Gehrman can alternate between a blunderbuss and a heavy pistol. The heavy pistol takes a moment to charge before firing, and being hit by it will parry the player even if they are not performing any action when hit.
• Uses Burial Blade and a unique unobtainable blunderbuss.
• Uses "Quickening" to dramatically increase his mobility and deflect firearms. Using the Old Hunter Bone produces the same effect.

Strategies

1. Melee Strategy

Gehrman is a very fast and very aggressive foe. Most of his attacks with do a great deal of damage to a hunter of every level and a couple can even one-shot a player with 30+ vit. To prepare for this fight, equip runes that will give you more stamina, more health and ones that offer a health bonus for visceral attacks. Make sure to purchase Bolt paper/fire paper or level up your Tonitrus.

The key to this fight is patience, observation and persistance. As Gehrman is the first hunter, his fighting style is the same as yours, he has exactly the same mechanics you do, plus a couple more for good measure. When the fight starts, he'll walk slowly towards you and chances are he'll start by doing a charge attack with the Burial Blade. Hit him with your gun or if you have a fast enough weapon, get behind and do a quick charged attack and land a visceral. If you can manage this you're onto a great start.

When he charges the Burial Blade he will do a wide sweeping two hit combo that has devastating damage, so if you're not close to him when he starts the charge up, back off so you're less likely to take the full whack of the attack. His other attack to watch out for with the Burial Blade has him reaching out past your head and pulling you close into him. This in itself isn't greatly damaging but the follow up combo usually is.

While using the Blade, he will occasionally charge up and leap up into the air, swinging the blade and causing a shockwave to hit the ground. For this attack you want to get underneath him as the shockwave tracks slightly if you back off and has a wide arc of potential damage.

Stick close to Gehrman and bait out his attacks. Make full use of the dodging ability and keep a close eye on your stamina. One or two hits and then a quick escape is the best tactic to use in a straight melee fight as he retaliates quickly and hits very hard. When you've taken a third of his hit points off he'll put the Burial Blade away and pull out a curved sword and a blunderbuss. Now he'll become more aggressive and actively try to stay close to you, no matter how much you back off. He'll attempt to parry you with the gun (which he can do) and he'll unleash several 5 or 6 hit combos with the sword. This is where the battle becomes rather balletic as you need to be quick on your feet, dodging his attacks and trying to land hits where you can. Gehrman will act in exactly the same way and the two of you will end up spending a lot of time in motion trading hits.

Around halfway through the fight he'll get into some open ground, extend his arms and start channelling energy. This wind up takes about 5 seconds, so get in behind him and use this as an opportunity for a free charge attack and visceral combo. Be warned, if you mistime this you'll end up being caught in an AOE blast which does huge damage. If you're across the other side of the arena when he does this, back off and let him do the blast.

In the second half of the fight he'll be using the Quickening buff which acts in a similar fashion to using a Blue Elixir. When he's dodging around the arena he'll become invisible and you'll only see him when he actually attacks you. Lock on is your friend here as when you're locked onto him, you'll remain locked on even when he's invisible. When this phase of the fight starts he'll revert back to using the Burial Blade. When you get him down to his last third of health he'll go back to using the curved sword and this time he'll use a powerful hunter's pistol. Treat the last section the same as you did before, being more mindful of being shot as this will actually stagger you this time. Otherwise, it's a case of rinse and repeat.

Oddly enough, Gehrman himself can be knocked down by Burial Blade scythe charge attack.

2. Burial Blade Strategy / Blood Echo Farming

In order to acquire Burial Blade in the current NG, one must consume three One Third of Umbilical Cords before Gehrman's defeat. Once Gehrman is killed, wrap out from the subsequent fight by using Bold Hunter's Mark. once you acquired the Burial Blade, upgrade it to +9 and insert Blood Gem Imprints for boosting physical damage, the next step will be using Small Resonant Bell to become a co-operator. Once you're summoned, switched the Burial Blade to scythe form and spam charge attack to Gehrman, it'll continuously knock down Gehrman so the others can land their blows, once Gehrman is defeated, each time you can earn 64000 echos for each kill (or 128000 echos in case of Moon Presence)

3. Bowblade E-Z Strategy

Gehrman does not usually rush towards you and there is an easy way to defeat him if you have a decent damage dealing Simon's Bowblade. Simply lock onto Gehrman, walk backwards, and shoot him. Remember to have enough Stamina for a quick, emergency dodge. In his later stages you will likely encounter his airborne attack and a few lunges towards you, requiring you to perform a quick evasive maneuver. Use the Charged R2 Attack often for maximum damage. Bring enough Blood Vials to convert into Blood Bullets when your stock of Quicksilver Bullets deplete.

4. Gatling Gun Strategy

Gehrman can be easily staggered by Gatling Gun during his first phase, as long as one can stop him from buffing with quickening, he can be staggered to death in the entire fight.

Videos

Notes & Trivia

• You CAN co-op & pvp on this area. You must first have triggered Gehrman as a boss and exited the boss arena by being killed or using a Bold Hunter's Mark. You can also co-op the following boss if you have defeated Gehrman and meet the requirements.
• Upon defeating him the Burial Blade can be acquired from the bath messenger shop in NG+ for 60000 Blood Echoes. (NG+ not necessary. If you fight "Moon Presence" after Gehrman you can use Hunter's Mark to return outside the boss area and still purchase this weapon.)
• Both of his forms can be parried.
• During first form, one handed fist light attack can stagger Gehrman for 4 times, any further punch will not stagger him until his moveset is finished.
• Gehrman changes into a Top Hat, Henryk's Hunter Gloves and adds an unobtainable cape onto his Hunter Garb upon initiating the boss fight rather than wearing his usual unique attire.
• If one muted the music and sound but voice, one can record Gehrman's dialogue during the cutscenes without sound, but not his grunt during battle.
• When killed, Gehrman raises his arms in an almost perfect "make contact" gesture, before falling to his knees, looking to his hands and then falling forward. It should also be noted that Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower shares this same action upon death (with the exception of groaning rather than speaking final words).