Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night offers players an avalanche of gear, crafting options, and shard combinations—but the game’s often vague item descriptions can leave you scratching your head. This guide aims to cut through the ambiguity, focusing on must-have weapons, essential crafting, powerful shards, and underappreciated familiars. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your endgame setup, this comprehensive breakdown will steer you toward the most rewarding gameplay experiences.
Craft Everything—Especially Food
Let’s get this out of the way: crafting is not optional—it’s vital. Particularly, make sure to cook every food item at least once. Why? Because the first time you eat a food item, it provides a permanent stat boost. This mechanic is easy to overlook but creates a long-term advantage you can’t afford to miss. Once you’ve crafted an item, it’ll appear in the shop, so you can buy it again without needing to gather the ingredients. Some items, in fact, are only available after being crafted, making experimentation in the kitchen a strategic must.
Bitcoin Weapons: Experiment and Reload
The 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit coins open the door to some unique and powerful weapons. Not all of them are top-tier, and you won’t have many coins early on, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Craft a weapon, try it out, and if it doesn’t click, simply reload your last save. Some of the coin-crafted gear offer insane utility or hidden potential, but others are surprisingly mediocre, so trial and error is your best friend here.
One such weapon worth the detour is the Flying Edge, a ranged blade that changed the game for early survival. You can nab it from a chest in the tower section using just a double jump. It’s not the strongest weapon on paper, but its range allowed me to keep enemies at bay during my entire first playthrough. Later, it can even be upgraded into the Oracle Blade.
Another wild card is the Red Beast’s Edge, crafted with an 8-bit coin. It begins looking like a dagger—possibly a bug—but if you pause and unpause, it transforms into a vicious sword. Its hidden bonus applies only to the base version, so don’t upgrade it with higher-tier bitcoins unless you’re ready to lose that edge. That said, weapons like Rava Veller and Eternal Blue eventually outshine it.
Gear Farming and Passive Item Growth
When you’re hunting for materials or rare equipment, find the enemy that drops what you need and abuse the closest entrance. It’s grindy and dull, sure, but pair this with luck-boosting gear and items that improve drop rates, and you’ll slash that time significantly.
Also, keep an eye on items that grow passively like the Traveler’s Ring. You don’t even need to equip them—just having them in your inventory lets them grow. When they’re finally beefy enough, slap them on and enjoy the benefits.
Shards: Power, Utility, and Passive Brilliance
Shards are the heart of Miriam’s arsenal, and the early-game warning about over-collecting shards causing corruption? Completely empty. In fact, collecting every shard unlocks a secret item—Jeeble’s Glasses—if you talk to Johannes after getting one of each. To do this, you’ll need to fight every monster and craft shards not found in the wild.
Let’s break it down:
- Grade increases by collecting multiple copies of the same shard. More grade = better performance.
- Rank boosts are done at the crafting station and require materials. Getting a passive shard to Rank 9 means it becomes always active, even if not equipped. Yes, this stacks with equipping it too. Prioritize ranking up your best passives.
Familiar Breakdown: From Fairy to Bloodbringer
Familiars add a companion to your fight, but not all are made equal. Early on, the Carabus can reveal secret walls—handy, though her attack is weak. She also auto-uses fairy potions if your health dips dangerously low, which can be a literal lifesaver.
Bloodbringer, however, stole the show for me. Not only does it morph visually as it levels, but it hits like a truck. Though you can’t use it as a weapon if it’s active as a familiar, there’s a clever exploit: equip it as a familiar first, then switch to a shortcut where it’s your weapon.
Silver Knight stays glued to your side and gets more powerful with increased rank—new moves, ranged spear attacks, and even the ability to block enemy projectiles. Just know you’ll need a second playthrough to max out his grade.
If you need a little strength boost now and then, the Dandelion familiar will buff you, and the buff persists even after you swap him out. It’s subtle, but can be tactically useful.
Dollhammer Heads are hilariously chaotic. For every additional shard you collect, you get one more head in the attack, capping at five. It’s a fun spectacle and a legitimate DPS strategy.
Avoid the Viewer unless you want the headache of micromanagement. It often gets stuck, but it has niche use if you can trap it between you and a boss while using a high-speed weapon.
There’s also a secret archer familiar, unlocked through a different path (explained in another video), who, while not high in damage, relentlessly pressures enemies.
Final Tips and Magical Quality of Life
Two final nuggets of wisdom:
- Chairs Matter – Sitting in a summoned chair actually increases your MP regen significantly. A few seconds of rest can swing the momentum in a magic-heavy fight.
- Shard Upgrades Unlock High Jump – Once you acquire the Invert shard, combine it with Double Jump and Bovine Plumes to create the High Jump shard. This doesn’t consume your Double Jump—it simply requires having it.
Mastering Bloodstained means mastering its layers. Dig into crafting, abuse shard mechanics, and make smart weapon choices. The game rewards you for experimenting, even when it hides the rewards behind vague text. Whether you’re leaning into passive shard builds or wielding the Flying Edge like a boomerang of death, the key is to keep tinkering and enjoy how wildly powerful you can become.
Now go out there and break the game open—one flying blade at a time.
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