Brador, Church Assassin

Brador, Church Assassin
Information
Appears In	The Old Hunters
Gender	Male
Race	Human
Affiliation	The Healing Church
Health
Level
Drops
Status	Deceased (consciousness trapped in the Hunter's Nightmare)
Location	Within the deepest dungeon beyond the Underground Corpse Pile. Fishing Hamlet.
English Voice	Neal Barry
Japanese Voice
Brazilian Voice	Henrique Terra

"Nothing changes, such is the nature of man..."

— Brador, Church Assassin

Brador, Church Assassin is a character in Bloodborne's The Old Hunters DLC.

Description

Brador is a mysterious character that lies in a cell, locked away out of his own volition, ringing a soundless bell.

He has a rather imposing and intimidating tone, but in a way that does not show lack of temper. His only mission is to keep players from venturing further into the Hunter's Nightmare and uncovering secrets that are "better left alone", as he says.

He dons his own unique clothing, the Brador's Set, an attire that resembles the Foreign Set, except that it is covered with blood, has a hood and cloak that was made from a smaller Cleric Beast scalp, and gloves that are exactly like the ones from Gascoigne's Set, but bloodied.

His weapon of choice is a spiked mace, covered in blood, called the Bloodletter. Curiously enough, he also has a Ludwig's Rifle, although he never makes use of it, always preferring to use the Bloodletter's transformed state instead.

Location

• Underground Corpse Pile:
  • In the lowest level of the Underground Dungeon that comes before the Surgery Altar of the Research Hall.

Lore

Brador was once an assassin for the Healing Church. However, after killing a compatriot, Brador wore his scalp and hid himself away in the cell where he currently resides, right after the Ludwig boss arena, in the deepest dungeon cell. This character is shrouded in mystery and it is at least certain that he knows secrets of the Healing Church which must not be unearthed.

He will invade the player throughout the Fishing Hamlet, with brutal determination.

Questline

Brador can be interacted with after defeating Ludwig. He will be resting in the deepest cell past the boss arena behind a locked door. He will ask the player if they can hear his bell, but the answer that the player chooses is irrelevant to his questline.

Upon reaching the Lighthouse Hut Lamp, players who did not kill Simon the Harrowed will find him mortally wounded at the door of the hut. From his dialogue, it is clear he has been attacked by Brador. He asks the player to redeem the hunters, and passes away, giving the player both his weapon, Simon's Bowblade, and the Underground Cell Inner Chamber Key, the means of unlocking Brador's cell.

Brador will begin invading the player in the Fishing Hamlet as they explore beyond the Lighthouse Hut Lamp. He will invade a total of 4 times with one instance being located in the Underground Cell and drop a part of his set every time he is defeated. He will invade consecutively, meaning that players can be invaded a total of 4 times without dying or warping back to the Hunter's Dream.

Invasion Zones

• At the end of the bridge after the second Lamp of the Fishing Hamlet - the Lighthouse Hut. Drops the Bloodied Armbands.
• After the first invasion, going along into the village, beneath the building with the villager with large staffs that uses lightning to attack, his invasion will trigger near the staircase into the building at ground level. Drops the Beast Hide Garb.
• After unlocking the shortcut that leads into the caves filled with white slugs and women in shells, progressing further will eventually lead to some women who lack shells, and at the dead end of the tunnel, once the player gets to the item that lies ahead, Brador will invade. Drops the Bloodied Trousers.
• The final invasion is located in front of his cell at the top, where the enemies there will be found slain by him. He will drop Brador's Testimony.

His invasions are constant, meaning that Brador will not stop invading players in these set paths. To stop his invasions, open his cell and slay him where he stands. While in his cell, Brador will not fight back. Upon his death, he will drop his weapon of choice, the Bloodletter.

Any piece of attire that had not dropped from him will be in its specific invasion spot. It is possible to simply kill him in his cell. This ensures the player only needs to fight Brador once and his attire will still be available and can be found at his invasion zones.

Strategy

Brador is a powerful opponent, capable of dealing massive damage, and withstand hits rather easily.

What makes the fight hard is the fact that he always wields the Bloodletter in its transformed blood state, which deals massive damage, while also making constant use of Lead Elixir, which turns him incredibly resistant to damage as well as essentially unstaggerable.

The Lead Elixir is also very dangerous as it means that most attacks dealt to him will just bounce off Brador making it seem like the player is striking a metal wall.

However, his strategy is fairly straightforward, raw damage and high defense. The ability to constantly dish out damage all the while being impossible to trade hits with or even find openings in his attacks, as such, all that needs to be done is to simply wait for the Lead Elixir to run out, and to make sure he never uses it again.

This will make the fight much easier, and players need not worry about healing as Brador never heals.

His set has low thrust, Fire, and Arcane resistances, as well as low Rapid and Slow poison resistances, thusly while his Lead Elixir is in effect, Poison Knives can prove effective.

Dialogue

Click to see dialogue

Introduction "Are you a hunter? Well, that's very odd. Do you hear the toll of the bell?" Claiming to hear the bell or not "Hmph. Liar. Such pettiness will be your undoing. The beasts you seek will not be found here. Go back to your hunt, and if you have the chance, put this night behind you. ...places better left untouched, secrets better left alone... ...only a fool would so brazenly roam..." "Very well. The beasts you seek will not be found here. Go back to your hunt, and if you have the chance, put this night behind you. ...places better left untouched, secrets better left alone... ...only a fool would so brazenly roam..." Speaking again "Bear in mind. Some places are better left untouched, and some secrets are better left alone. ...only fools do brazenly roam..." Speaking after finding the Fishing Hamlet "Do you hear this? Fear the bell's toll. For only death awaits prying eyes, and the Church assassins are never far behind." Dying to Brador's phantoms "Unending death awaits those who pry into the unknown..." Entering Brador's cell "Well, well, look who's here. Welcome to my quarters. I've never entertained a guest before. Are you going to kill me? After all you've done, kill me, as if to right your wrongs?" Speaking again after entering his cell "What is it? Aren't you going to kill me? Or perhaps, beg my forgiveness? Well, leave off. What's done is done." Slaying Brador "Nothing changes, such is the nature of men..."

Unused Dialogue

Click to see dialogue
Unknown Occasion "What is this, some petty revenge? You would kill for secrets, and still think yourself good of heart? What a joke, you filthy hypocrite! It'll be my pleasure to finish you off!" ”What a sham you were, from beginning to end.” Unknown Occasion "...You're no different... Another blood-stained, wretched hypocrite."

Notes

• The quickest way of dealing with Brador is to go back to his cell as soon as players acquire the Underground Cell Inner Chamber Key. This will trigger his invasion, but players can rush past him and head towards his cell, speak to him and kill him, thus putting an end to his invasions permanently, causing him to drop the Bloodletter on the spot, whereas every piece of his attire will be at the site of his respective invasion.
• Brador's phantoms do not count as "actual" Hunters, meaning that they will not drop Blood Dregs when the Corruption rune is equipped. Only his true self will.
• When Brador invades, he will immediately transform his Bloodletter, dealing damage to himself.
• Brador actually has a Firearm equipped, a Ludwig's Rifle, which does indeed confirm that he is a member of the Healing Church. However, as most players will experience, nothing will make him shoot it.

Trivia

• Though Brador appears to be an old man, when he invades the player, his model turns younger. This appears to be deliberate, as Brador's Testimony, when worn by Brador, appears to have its right horn broken in half when players meet him in the cell. However, whenever he invades the player, this horn is intact. This seems to point that the Brador players fight is truly Brador in his prime.
• Brador's Set is a mix between the Foreign Set, and a Cleric Beast's hide/scalp serving as a cloak. This makes it one of the most singular attires in the game, not only from a design perspective but also symbolically. Perhaps the player character came from the same place as Brador himself.
  • Another interesting thing about this set is how this scalp belonged to not just some beast, but "a" Cleric Beast. This means that Brador slew a compatriot, and what most of the community agrees with is that this compatriot was none other than Laurence, the founder of the Healing Church himself. Not only because Laurence becoming a Cleric Beast meant that the Old Blood was potentially dangerous, and this was a secret that should be kept unknown, but also because his weapon itself is called Bloodletter, thus making an allusion to the Bloodletting Beast, a beast whose skull is cracked on the same spot as the beastly skull of Laurence ^{(not to be confused with Laurence's Skull, which is clearly human)}, in the Grand Cathedral.
• The Bloodletter, Brador's weapon of choice, is a very obscure and mysterious item. It is a "blood weapon" like those of Cainhurst, but there is no mention about where it came from or how it was made.
  • Coincidentally, Brador's personality seems to fit this weapon rather well. Both have mysterious origins and also, in a way, frown upon the curiosity of mankind. This aversion to the curiosity of men manifests in Brador telling players to leave the nightmare, while the Bloodletter will be quite dangerous with high Insight due to its Frenzy affliction on the user when using the special attack.
  • An interesting theory suggests that the Bloodletter may have been Laurence's weapon.
• Brador's bell was given to him by the Healing Church to invade anyone who could uncover the secrets of the Church. This bell is very similar to the Sinister Resonant Bell in terms of shape and design.

Gallery

Brador concept art

Brador's Facedata. Datamined by Zullie The Witch!

Brador's bell