A Visceral Attack is defined as the special critical attack performed after backstabbing (using Augur of Ebrietas or a Charged Attack on an enemy’s back to put them into a vulnerable state) or parrying an enemy (using Augur of Ebrietas or gunfire to stagger an enemy during an attack and put them into a vulnerable state), in which the player shoves their hand into the enemy’s torso or head and rips a large hole in the victim. This form of attack has very high damage potential and is terribly deadly.
Visceral Damage is Determined by a Variety of Factors
- Blood Level increases the AR of your visceral attacks at set level-breakpoints.
- Skill multiplies your visceral AR by a factor that scales with your Skill stat.
- Some gem types multiply your visceral AR (Tempering, Nourishing, Adept Thrust, Fool’s, Poorman’s, Beasthunter against Beasts, and Kinhunter against Kin).
- Clawmarks Runes multiply your Visceral AR.
- Visceral damage is reduced by an enemy’s Thrust Defense and Natural Defense (the defense stat that increases when a player levels up)
How Does Visceral Damage Scale With Level?
Here, we have estimated the AR of Visceral Attacks as they scale with level (no increases made to the Base Skill stat of 9, no Clawmarks Runes used, and no Blood Gems equipped):
Blood Level 4-14 = 300AR
Blood Level 15-29 = 381AR
Blood Level 30-44 = 451AR
Blood Level 45-59 = 637AR
Blood Level 60-79 = 712AR
Blood Level 80-99 = 797AR
Blood Level 100-119 = 822AR
Blood Level 120-139 = 848AR
Blood Level 140-159 = 863AR
Blood Level 160-199 = 878AR
Blood Level 200+ = 893AR*
*Viscerals stop scaling with level after Level 200, not including Skill or the effects of scaling gems.
How Do Viscerals Scale With the Skill Stat?
Skill multiplies your Visceral AR by a factor that scales with your Skill Stat. These multipliers may be used to find your approximate Visceral AR without Gems or Clawmarks:
9 Skill = 1.0000*
10 Skill = 1.0123
11 Skill = 1.0325
12 Skill = 1.0526
13 Skill = 1.0728
14 Skill = 1.0941
15 Skill = 1.1142
16 Skill = 1.1344
17 Skill = 1.1557
18 Skill = 1.1758
19 Skill = 1.1971
20 Skill = 1.2172
21 Skill = 1.2374
22 Skill = 1.2576
23 Skill = 1.2777
24 Skill = 1.2979
25 Skill = 1.3191
26 Skill = 1.3393
27 Skill = 1.3595
28 Skill = 1.3796
29 Skill = 1.3998
30 Skill = 1.4199
31 Skill = 1.4412
32 Skill = 1.4614
33 Skill = 1.4815
34 Skill = 1.5017
35 Skill = 1.5218
36 Skill = 1.5420
37 Skill = 1.5633
38 Skill = 1.5845
39 Skill = 1.6047
40 Skill = 1.6249
41 Skill = 1.6450
42 Skill = 1.6663
43 Skill = 1.6865
44 Skill = 1.7066
45 Skill = 1.7268
46 Skill = 1.7469
47 Skill = 1.7671
48 Skill = 1.7884
49 Skill = 1.8085
50 Skill = 1.8287
51 Skill = 1.8343
52 Skill = 1.8376
53 Skill = 1.8432
54 Skill = 1.8477
55 Skill = 1.8522
56 Skill = 1.8578
57 Skill = 1.8611
58 Skill = 1.8667
59 Skill = 1.8712
60 Skill = 1.8768
61 Skill = 1.8802
62 Skill = 1.8858
63 Skill = 1.8903
64 Skill = 1.8959
65 Skill = 1.9003
66 Skill = 1.9048
67 Skill = 1.9093
68 Skill = 1.9149
69 Skill = 1.9194
70 Skill = 1.9239
71 Skill = 1.9283
72 Skill = 1.9339
73 Skill = 1.9384
74 Skill = 1.9429
75 Skill = 1.9474
76 Skill = 1.9530
77 Skill = 1.9575
78 Skill = 1.9619
79 Skill = 1.9664
80 Skill = 1.9709
81 Skill = 1.9765
82 Skill = 1.9810
83 Skill = 1.9854
84 Skill = 1.9899
85 Skill = 1.9955
86 Skill = 2.0000
87 Skill = 2.0056
88 Skill = 2.0090
89 Skill = 2.0150
90 Skill = 2.0190
91 Skill = 2.0246
92 Skill = 2.0280
93 Skill = 2.0336
94 Skill = 2.0381
95 Skill = 2.0437
96 Skill = 2.0470
97 Skill = 2.0526
98 Skill = 2.0571
99 Skill = 2.0627
*We used the data from the lowest possible skill stat as our point of reference, hence the 1.0000.
How Do Viscerals Scale With Gems and Clawmarks?
The answer is simple: Clawmarks, as well as all gems that increase Thrust Attack by a percentage, multiply your AR.
Clawmarks multipliers:
10% Clawmarks = 1.1
20% Clawmarks = 1.2
30% Clawmarks = 1.3
10% + 20% Clawmarks = 1.32
10% + 30% Clawmarks = 1.43
20% + 30% Clawmarks = 1.56
10% + 20% + 30% Clawmarks = 1.716
Gems can multiply Visceral AR in much the same way (Tempering, Adept Thrust, Nourishing, Fool’s, Poorman’s, etc). Striking, Finestrike, Bloodtinge, Elemental, and other such gems DO NOT multiply visceral AR, so only apply the gem formula below to the effects given in parentheses.
The Gem Multiplier Formula (as applied to Viscerals)
[1+(Gem Effect A%/100)] * [1+(Gem Effect B%/100)]*[1+(Gem Effect C%/100)]*Visceral AR
Ex. Three 10% Tempering gems on the same weapon = 1.1*1.1*1.1 = 1.331
Scaling Gems are rather strange gems in that the damage they offer toward Viscerals is apparently NOT multiplied by the Skill Modifiers calculated above (base skill and 99 skill yielded the same damage increase when a scaling gem was added to a gemless weapon).
Putting It All Together
Say you have a Blood Level 100 character with 50 Skill, a 30% Clawmarks Rune, and three 27.2% Tempering gems and you want to calculate your approximate Visceral AR. The base AR we calculated at 822 AR is multiplied by the factor calculated from the Skill stat (1.8287), the Rune (1.3), and the Tempering gems (1.272^3).
822*1.8287*1.3*1.272^3 = 4821.8
We estimate actual damage in PvP to be about 40% of your Visceral AR on average.
The Maximum Visceral AR that can be attained in the game is about 8856AR, according to our calculations (99 Skill, Level 200+, Full Clawmarks, and Three 25.2% Thrust+12.6% Poorman’s Gems from the Labyrinth Madmen with low hp to make the secondary gem effects activate).
All testing was performed against Celestial Mob, who have negligible defense against Thrust. Damage values were taken for empty-handed viscerals with no Clawmarks runes. Thanks go to all of our supporters, who make this work worthwhile.
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20 responses to “Viscerals: Fully Dissected”
This article has been completely copy and pasted on the bb subreddit. Dont know if you were aware or gave permission for that.
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Philistine! You have no respect for the sciences.
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Jep
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You too!
Cheers!
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hey buddy!
glad to see your doing well
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Jumi!!!!
I’ d rather play the game than read all this
Celestial Emissary mobs actually do have 0 thrust defense, though.
We tested viscerals for every single level of skill, 9-99. For level, we tested all the way up to max level in intervals of 10 and double checked every breakpoint where visceral damage increased (reset level to 1 below the breakpoint to make sure it was correct).
We did not account for beasthood at all in our calculations, but it goes to show how crazy the damage can be. Hitting 15k in a single visceral would be terrifying.
Because nothing in this game truly has 0 defense, we chose the enemy that had the lowest defense against thrust damage (Celestial Mob). For that reason, all of the AR values in this guide are estimates and offer relative numbers to extrapolate from. Obtaining 100% accurate AR values would require use of the actual damage formulas employed within the game.
As with almost all of our guides, it’s a subject we wanted to clarify for everyone. Thanks for reading, everyone.
I tested this vs. a celestial emissary, and it was off by 11%. I had 50 skill, 3x 27.2% gems, and was BL 98.
797 AR * 1.8287 * 1.272^3 = 2999.
When I landed my visceral, I dealt 3002 damage, which means ~3335 AR!
Looks like you forgot to divide your damage numbers by 0.9 to get their AR.
@grehym_black yes, which is one of the reasons why something like Rifle Spear or Church Pick is so strong. If you can load a weapon up with thrust gems, you get some very nice viscerals.
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Pure insanity.
I’ve often thought there had to be more to it than Skill stat, mad props to the research team
I also find the Thrust modifier interesting. Does this mean adding Thrusting adept gems to any weapon increase the visceral attack?
Fantastic research and presentation. We Bloodborne fans are lucky to have you guys around
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They’re crazy enough
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considering they seemingly hit BL200 to discover that Visceral AR capped there, i’d say there was plenty of room for SKL to hit 99 along the way. still can’t be 100% obviously, but it seems logical enough
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You can wear down Amygdala’s glowing arm to stagger as well.
Two additional things:
1) There is a third way to initiate a visceral attack, normally restricted to large bosses or boss-like enemies. Against enemies with breakable parts (always the ones too large to parry or backstab), one or two of these parts will put the enemy into a staggered state and make them vulnerable to viscerals for a few seconds. Usually this is the head, but some exceptions like both of Amelia’s hind legs or the church giant’s exposed shinbones do exist.
2) Beasthood will also boost the damage of visceral attacks when it’s active, as it does with all physical damage. A meter with 300+ Beasthood will increase visceral attacks by a large margin (as I show in this video), and I’ve seen a video where someone managed a 5-digit visceral attack on the Moon Presence. If Beasthood’s 70% boost fully applies to visceral attacks, then your 8856AR maximum could be pushed up to 15,055AR with >300 Beasthood in the meter. I also wonder if serration/holy damage applies to viscerals? I haven’t tested for that, unfortunately.
I also think it’s worth mentioning that visceral attacks don’t use the weapons own base damage or scaling modifiers, since that’s a very common misconception. This would also explain why scaling gems didn’t seem to have any effect on visceral damage.
Side note, I knew visceral attacks counted as physical damage, but had no idea they were thrust damage specifically. Snazzy.
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I’m wondering if this guide actually took data at every level or created a linear prediction formula. If it was actually taken at every level then yes that is nice; otherwise it could diminish if the prediction is wrong.
crazy that there aren’t really diminishing returns on the Skill Multiplier
Yeah the comprehensiveness of these guides always impress me.
Wow, very nice info my friend.
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