Nightmare Executioner | Bloodborne Wiki

Nightmare Executioner
Enemy Type	Not Beast, Nor Kin
Health	??
Drops	Blood Vials (axe) Quicksilver Bullets (cannon)
Weak	??
Strong	Physical, Thrust, Blunt, Arcane
Locations	Nightmare Cathedral, Nightmare Church

The Nightmare Giant is an enemy in Bloodborne and is part of The Old Hunters DLC. They typically make use of a form of Axe, with the exception of one outside the Nightmare Church wielding a Church Cannon. An incredibly powerful enemy, matched only by the Red-Eyed Hunters in the Hunter's Nightmare. 

Nightmare Giant

These massive creatures, going by their garb (bearing similarities to the Executioner Set) appear to be servants of the Healing Church (willfully or not), armed with heavy weaponry, charged with guarding several sensitive Church Locations, including Laurence's final resting place, and an underground passage to the Astral Clocktower.
The creatures themselves are of questionable origin, and have traits reminiscent of neither man nor beast (Although some parallels may be drawn to the Church Giant). They stand several heads taller than the player, stoat and humanoid in shape with a hunched posture. They appear to wear some variant of Church Armor, with a helmet resembling the Yahar'ghul helm obscuring their faces. A mass of bloodied tendrils sprouts from their backs, resembling hair, and what appears to be a purple flame remains lit perpetually inside their helmets.

There are a total of three, one defends the burning cleric beast (Laurence) and the other two are stationed in front of the Ludwig boss battle. They come in two variations: Armed with an axe and armed with a giant Church Cannon

-Axe-wielder: Despite their heavy appearance they are fast and unpredictable enemies. Once their health reaches 50% they will summon an arcane shockwave and their attacks will then be accompanied by small arcane pulses, increasing their range and damage.

They are also capable of sprouting giant tentacles from their "head" to grab you with. This attack also deals arcane dmg and has excellent tracking.

-Cannon-wielder: More predictable than the axe-wielder and has no access to magical attacks. His Church Cannon does not have the range of the cannon used by the Undead Giants but is still very deadly. When you get close to him he can swipe at you with his cannon.

Strategy

• If the player gets a certain distance away, the Giant will enter a long charge, ending with horizontal, ground level slice that is both long and wide reaching. Attempting to avoid this by dodging into the giant's sides rarely if ever results in success, as the Bell-Holder's tracking will easily compensate for evasive maneuvers within it's vicinity. Instead, try dodging in the same direction as it's charge.
• If one gets too close, the Giant will occasionally perform a quick lunge forward, slamming the player with the shaft of their weapon. This move does little actual damage, but does cause heavy stagger and often serves only as a set-up for a more powerful strike. Unless confident in one's ability to retaliate quick enough, and with enough force to stagger the giant in turn, a wise tactic would be to simply dodge the followup attack and regain one's bearings.
• At approximately half health, the axe wielding giant will perform a self-buff, momentarily raising it's axe vertical to the ground, before slamming it to the down with a loud roar and releasing a damaging purple shockwave. The the giant will then remain standing for a short while afterwards, swaying it's weapon to and fro and emitting a kind of visible, purple sound.
  • The followup waves are harmless, one can take advantage of the giant's short pause to fit in a few strikes, possibly even a backstab if time allows.
• Once buffed, each swing the giant delivers will unleash a shockwave, dealing slash damage on top of the blades base damage, raising the level of danger considerably for those fighting up close. For players who lack faith in their weapon's ability to stagger or their own reaction time, parrying is easily the safest option.
  • Pistols work exceptionally well here, as compared to the blunderbuss, one need not risk placing themselves in the immediate path of a swing to in order to stay within effective parry range. The Giant is also a comparatively large target to many enemies, and the chance of a miss negligible.
• The Church Cannon Variant possess a comparatively simple moveset, retaining a basic 3-hit combo and lunge attack, but lacking the charge and self-buff of the bell-axe version. Instead, this giant acts as an effective mobile mortar, firing long, arched shots which can cover incredible distances and dealing wide reaching, heavy damage.
  • While avoiding getting hit at all is preferable, getting hit directly bears the risk of being struck twice, once by the initial explosion, twice by the followup splash damage. This can prove lethal even for higher-level players, and players with low Vitality will likely suffer a One-Hit kill.
  • Avoid approaching the giant once it has primed the cannon, once the animation has started, it will not cancel willingly, even under threat of attack from the Hunter. The giant suffers no harm from it's own artillery, and will not hesitate to fire a round directly at it's own feet.

Drops

Location
Insert Location	HP	Echoes	(Quantity/Rating) Drop%	(Quantity/Rating) Drop%
Insert Location	HP	Echoes	(Quantity/Rating) Drop%	(Quantity/Rating) Drop%

Notes & Trivia

• A pair of these can be encountered from behind from the "Nightmare Church" Lantern, one touting a church cannon, the other a bell-hammer. If the player is careful not to enter their aggro-ranged, both are capable of being taken down via chain-backstabs with relatively little fuss. If you're having difficulty with Ludwig, on re-spawning you may find it to your advantage to set aside a minute or two to kill them in order to gain some return Blood vials, Quicksilver Bullets and Blood Echoes and compensate your loses. The cannon variety can drop up to 10 QS at once, and the hammer variety 6 BV.

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