Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

299 ratings
What I Wish I Knew Before Starting Bloodlines
By LunaNightbird
I started playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines way after it was released. It has become my favorite game even with its difficulties. I am starting to get friends into it so I feel I should share knowledge with new players.
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Download the Unofficial Patch
You have probably heard this a lot but I cannot stress this enough! The unofficial patch fixes bugs and adds content to the game. I have played with the unofficial patch and without and the better experience is to get it. Put in that time to download it.
The website may look sketchy but all of the VTMB community vouch for it so do not be afraid,
Link to unofficial patch: Unofficial Patch Link Click Here
Choose your clan wisely
Bloodlines has an amazing array of different characters to play and they can change how the story runs. The quiz is a good start to finding out how you want to play but for a first run-through, you want to be picky about especially clans.

Easiest clans: These clans make the game fairly easy. There is one. It is Tremere. They are overpowered and have always been even in the regular RPG. Thaumaturgy makes combat easy and Dominate can help with dialogue.

Easy but not Tremere: If you are starting but don't want to do Tremere (maybe for reasons to do with their history) you should go for Toreador or Brujah. Celerity and social disciplines make the game easier. There are even some side missions that are almost impossible without high Celerity.

Medium: These clans are Gangrel and Ventrue. They are fine but do not have as overpowered powers as the ones above. The Ventrue's weakness can be hard mid-game with sewer missions since they won't drink low-quality blood.

Hard: DO NOT PLAY THIS CLAN FIRST TIME UNLESS YOU WANT A FULLY STEALTH GAME! Nosferatu are so ugly that a mortal just seeing them is a masquerade violation. Obfuscate does make stealth missions easier but the fact that you cannot be seen makes the game so much harder. Also, they cannot have high seduction so options become out of the question.

Easy but oh boy spoilers: Malkavians are known for telling the future in crazy ways and this game is no exception. They say spoilers in weird ways so you may not know it was a spoiler until after it has come to pass. This was my first clan and I do not regret it. It can make it hard for dialogue too because you may not know what you are saying. Obfuscate and Dementation makes this an easy clan but a weird first play.
Update: Malkavians also may be unintentionally rude to NPCs and that can change how the NPCs feel about you. Be very careful with Malkavian dialogue!
Doors are your enemy
I can get very frustrated in games and Bloodlines is no exception. If you try walking through a door while opening it it will glitch and try to both open and shut at once. This is very annoying. My favorite thing to do to make these glitches and bugs better is yell at my screen. This relieves stress and takes very little effort. I wish younger me knew that rage can be good in games so long as you cause no harm.
Check your computer more than once!
It took me a long time to know that there were quests attached to the email! It has some very fun side quests and dialogue. Try to catch up at your apartments every so often for computer updates.
Fighting is not always the answer
In most games, fighting is almost always the answer. This game will punish you if you choose to go in guns blazing 24/7. You will want to figure out how to utilize dialogue options and stealth early on. The late game has a lot more fight-or-fight options but in the early game, it can be better to understand that you have options and that you need to treat people nicely so they don't try to kill you.

I am sorry to the character I was rude to in my first playthrough and ended up killing even though they are usually a nice character!

Anywho, be nice and stuff I guess.
Follow Mortals
Learn certain mortal movement patterns in the various locations. This will make feeding much easier. Try to find the higher quality blood humans and make sure not to drink too frequently so you don't accidentally kill them.
Choose either Melee or Ranged and do not Change
When starting, you may be tempted to change weapons for different situations. I recommend against this play style for this game since it switches you to and from 1st person and 2nd person. It can make you dizzy and have to change strategies. Choose one fighting style and put points into it.
Dance for an Hour (Or 5 Minutes)
This may sound funny but it is a good hint for those wanting high or max humanity.
At every club, you can find a dance floor. Click to dance and let your character dance for a real-time hour. Each time you do this, you gain a humanity point. You have to do this at a different club each time as you can only do it once at each club.
Take the time of the hour to clean or play on your phone. It will be a while. Luckily, the music is good and the dance moves are iconic.

Update: I have been informed by the comments that You only have to dance for 5 minutes. I am unsure if this is just for unofficial patch.
Romero's Quest
When you reach Hollywood, you will most likely come across Romero. He has a task for you but DO NOT DO IT! If you are female with high enough seduction, seduce him for the rewards. Otherwise, DO NOT ACCEPT THE QUEST! It is a pain and its rewards are not worth it.

Exception: If you have high Celerity or Thaumaturgy, it may be doable.
Comment Suggestion: There are some skills that are not worth your points.
Some skills, such as Investigation, are not worth the experience points. Here are some of the ones that are practically useless to have or stop having benefits at certain levels.
Investigation: Do yourself a favor and invest your points in ANYTHING else! This only further highlights important items. Items are already easy to find so it makes this skill not worth it.
Haggle: Unless you want to be super rich or have unlimited blood bags and bullets, this skill is not as worth it. It may seem good but chances are that you are going to make a lot more money than you need and will not need to use it until late game for blood bags. If you are a gun build, this is still useful for buying bullets.
Comment Suggestion: Overpowered Powers
There are some disciplines that are a bit overpowered. There are also ones that are hard to use unless you are an expert in the game.

Overpowered:
Thaumaturgy. Blood bullets are an op starting power and as you level up you just start exploding people.
Celerity. As you spend points in it, it gets crazy. It is one of the few powers that makes timed missions possible. If you don't have celerity, DO NOT DO THE ZOMBIE TIMED MISSION!
Obfuscate. It makes sneaking missions so much easier. Grab at least two levels if available so you can move while invisible.

Do not waste points in these unless you know what you are doing:
Auspex. A few buffs and seeing auras. Not as useful in combat and you might as well put your points elsewhere.
Comment Note: Auspex is useful for firearms and hacking. The buffs can be useful but I still mostly just recommend Auspex for more veteran players as it isn't quite as new player friendly as other powers. I also just prefer using the points on the other powers of the clans where Auspex is available.
Finishing comments
I will be updating this with more advice in the future. There is a lot so I started with what I feel is most important.

I would love to see what you guys wish you knew before starting! Please comment if you wish!
35 Comments
nocturox 12 Nov @ 2:15am 
sorry for late reply, thank u :vampirefangs:
crazy warlord frogger 2 Nov @ 12:39am 
dont think the game got cloud save. just copy your save file to keep a backup. according to this picture https://imgur.com/MjrZWjd , unofficial patch has its save files elsewhere, though I dont know if the normal save files will be moved/ignored/deleted/something else.
nocturox 1 Nov @ 3:59pm 
I just have a question. If I play the unofficial patch and I turn the game on through steam is it gonna wipe my progress or is it gonna continue where I saved ?
engie 21 Oct @ 1:37pm 
>Dance for an Hour (Or 5 Minutes)
nonsense. I tried this and my humanity is still 8/10. no change.
looks like a "joke" post. note the quotes.
Niko. :3c 27 Sep @ 2:45pm 
I just wanna mention that the door thing is a high fps problem. You can lock your fps to 60 via console or config to *fix* it.
Crateris 9 Jul @ 4:50am 
Some advice for min-maxing:
Talking to Nines (Melee/Brawl) and Beckett (Research) can grant bonus attribute points. There are certain times and dialogue choices you must pick. The unofficial patch might have added others.
Use attribute books strategically. Each has a minimum and maximum level they can get you, so timing it right can net you a lot of free XP.
Late in the game you get the Saulocept item which grants an extra XP for any quest that gives you 3 XP at once. There are a few side quests in Hollywood/Chinatown you can save until you get it to earn more XP.
This is a bit cheesy, but computer passwords never change. You can avoid putting a lot of points into Hacking by looking up passwords. This might have changed with the unofficial patch and you need hacking just to look at the computer.
crazy warlord frogger 28 Jun @ 1:50am 
I suggest people who are interested in playing a crazy character who can know the future to go and play malkavian as first run, since you know nothing, the nonsensical spoilers are an experience you will never have on a second run.
Babbles 5 Jun @ 4:03pm 
I too find yelling at inanimate objects to be useful :)
Jer Berus 16 May @ 11:42am 
1st Warehouse, Santa Monica: kill no one until AFTER you arm the Astrolite for extra XP. :)
Cardero 11 May @ 4:47pm 
I've played multiple builds/clans. In my opinion, choosing a clan that has access to Presence is easy mode. Max Presence + Melee + Brawl + Strength + Katana is golden. Enemies struggle to score hits, and you can feed on them easily to heal and restore blood points.... even as they are attacking you. It kind of makes the game too easy.

You can also stack Presence (or other blood buffs) by right-clicking to extend the duration as you feed. With a certain trinket [spoilers] in your inventory the buff duration is doubled as well.

I believe the clans that have default Presence as a 'skill' are Brujah, Ventrue, and Toreador.

The only downside to this I have found is for fights where you have to used ranged weapons. Though this can be covered by dropping some experience points into Perception and Firearms.

Anyhow, love this classic game, and thanks to the community for patching it up over the many years.