Crafting#

First, to correct a very widespread claim: Bloodborne has no crafting system. There are no recipe books and no crafting table in the game, and there is no process for using materials to make a new piece of equipment or a new item. The Bloodborne crafting recipe lists and item crafting checklists circulating online are all misinformation.

The reason this page keeps the title Crafting is to match how people search. The only systems in the game that actually correspond to crafting are two: weapon upgrading at the Hunter’s Dream workshop and Blood Gem socketing. This page explains the criteria for both: how materials are tiered, where to get them, and how to read a gem’s shape and choose its effect. For how to obtain consumables, see Items List.

Weapon Upgrade Chain: +1 to +10 and the Four Material Tiers#

Weapon upgrading is done at the workshop in the Hunter’s Dream; each upgrade level consumes Blood Stone materials of the matching tier and costs Blood Echoes as a fee. The attack rating rises steadily with every level, and +10 is the cap. Materials correspond strictly to level ranges: if the tier is wrong the workshop will not take the job, and low-tier materials cannot stand in for high-tier ones.

Three upgrade criteria:

1. Costs rise with level. Upgrading itself eats Blood Echoes and buying materials from the shop eats Blood Echoes too, so Echoes have to cover upgrading, shopping and levels at once—plan before you spend.
2. Slots unlock as you upgrade. On most weapons the second and third Blood Gem slots open up gradually as you raise the upgrade level, so check which slot shapes and how many are already open on the weapon panel before upgrading, or you may end up with gems you cannot socket.
3. When materials are tight, the main weapon comes first. None of the four tiers is plentiful in its own stage; get one weapon you handle best up to the cap of the current tier before thinking about a secondary weapon.

Who to Feed Materials To: Prioritising Your Main Weapon#

• Starting weapons are nothing to be ashamed of. An opening weapon like the Saw Cleaver is enough to carry a full playthrough, and at +10 its performance is not worse than later famous weapons; let materials follow familiarity rather than restarting from scratch every time you chase something new.
• Fill one weapon before handing out the leftovers. Queue the four tiers in the order of main weapon first, secondary weapon second; feeding two weapons at once just leaves both stuck in the middle tiers.
• Check slots and gem foundation before switching weapons. Greatswords like Ludwig’s Holy Blade have a stable return on upgrading; Bloodtinge weapons like the Chikage also need a stock of Circular gems, so factor in that hidden cost before taking one on.
• Upgrading is a permanent investment. Materials put in are never wasted—even if you change direction midway, a weapon you already fed stays in the bag as power you can swap to at any time.

Where to Get the Four Material Tiers#

Blood Stone Chunks are not sold in shops; there are three verified spots for targeted farming, all low-probability drops, so prepare yourself for a grind:

• The Lost Child of Antiquity gargoyles in Cainhurst Castle;
• The blue-eyed beast patients in the Upper Cathedral Ward;
• The undead beast patients in Yahar’gul.

Three additions:

• Buying from the shop is really trading Echoes for time. Echoes are tight early, so save them for upgrading first; once night falls and Echoes are plentiful, restock according to which badges you have unlocked.
• Blood Rock can be sold to the shop, but never sell it. The sell price is only 1600 Blood Echoes, while the Blood Rocks you can get in the whole game can be counted on one hand—that trade is a terrible loss. Upgrading to +10 takes only one, so give it to the weapon you use the longest.
• Chalice Dungeons are the main source of materials in the mid-to-late game. For the arithmetic on rite materials, depth and returns, see the dedicated Chalice Dungeon page.

Blood Gem Socketing: Shape and Effect Criteria#

The prerequisite for socketing is one key item: the Blood Gem Workshop Tool, found in the library area of Central Yharnam—after Oedon Tomb and right before the Father Gascoigne fight, search the chests along the way and you will get it. Without it, a weapon can have slots and still not start.

Gem criteria come in three layers: look at shape first, then the effect family, and only then the numbers.

Layer one: shape decides whether it can be socketed. If the shape does not match the slot, the gem is scrap no matter how good it is:

Layer two: the effect family decides which direction it scales. The qualitative criteria are as follows:

• Tempering (physical bonus): the default first choice for almost all physical weapons and the most forgiving one; you lose nothing when you cannot work out a boss’s weakness.
• Conversion families such as fire and bolt: convert damage into the matching element, suited to weapons with high Arcane scaling (such as the Holy Moonlight Sword) or weapons with a built-in element; socketed into a pure physical heavy weapon it throws away half the panel, which is a downgrade.
• Nourishing: a small simultaneous boost to physical, fire, bolt and arcane, with a ceiling lower than the specialist families; suited to split-damage weapons that already deal elemental damage as a compromise.
• Bloodtinge: only meaningful for Bloodtinge weapons such as the Chikage; other loadouts can clear it out directly.
• Poison, beast damage up and the like are added effect lines, most often secondary lines attached to a primary effect, and weak as a family on their own.

Layer three: rating decides the numerical ceiling. Numbers within the same effect family rise with gem rating, and high-rated gems come almost entirely from deep Chalice Dungeons—the deeper the dungeon, the higher the rating. For exact numbers, trust the in-game panel; this page does not invent a percentage table—pick the family by direction, match the shape to the slot, farm the numbers in the dungeons, and see the dedicated Blood Gem System page for the full breakdown.

Common Misconceptions#

1. “Bloodborne has a crafting or synthesis system”—it does not. Every Bloodborne recipe list or crafting checklist is misinformation; consumables come entirely from pickups, drops and purchases.
2. “One Blood Stone material can carry you from +1 to +10”—it cannot. The four tiers correspond strictly to level ranges; Blood Stone Shards retire at +3, and Blood Rock only handles the final level.
3. “Blood Rock can be mass-produced”—it cannot. There are only a handful of sources per playthrough, so do not waste it on a transitional weapon, and do not sell it to the shop for a bit of Echoes.
4. “The higher the gem number, the better”—conversion gems rewrite a weapon’s damage structure, so a high number on the wrong weapon is a downgrade; judge the effect family before the number.
5. “Gems and runes are the same thing”—they are not. Blood Gems are socketed into weapons, while Caryll Runes are engraved on the Hunter, and neither replaces the other; see the dedicated Rune System page for the latter.

Wrapping Up#

Yharnam has no crafting table; a Hunter’s strength comes entirely from a weapon you fed by hand. Memorise the chain: shards up to +3, twins up to +6, chunks up to +9, one Blood Rock for +10; with gems, check the shape first and then the family, and go looking for numbers in the deep dungeons. Materials and Echoes are always scarce, so the main weapon comes first—do not sprinkle them around.

Further Reading#

• Weapon Compendium: slot shapes, upgrade returns and transformed-form criteria for each weapon
• Blood Gem System: the full breakdown of shapes, effect families and dungeon farming
• Chalice Dungeon: the main source of deep rites, materials and high-rated gems
• Rune System: passive bonuses on the Hunter, with a division of labour clearly separate from gems