Nightmare Executioner

Nightmare Executioner
Affiliation	The Healing Church
Locations	Hunter's Nightmare
Drops	Blood Vial x6 (Axe Variant), Quicksilver Bullets x10 (Cannon Variant)
Health
NG	NG+
3455	???
Blood Echoes
NG	NG+
2366	???
Defenses
???	???
???	???
???	???
???	???
???

The Nightmare Executioner is an enemy in Bloodborne's The Old Hunters DLC.

Description

Hulking brutes that wear the Executioner Garb, their heads are covered by hoods and their faces are obfuscated by a purple glowing haze, resembling the "cosmos" summoned by the Kin. From the haze sprouts a myriad of tendrils and tentacles.

They are without a doubt one of the toughest and hardest enemies to deal with. Not only are they capable of a tremendous damage output from their weapons, but they also have an extremely large health pool.

There are two variants of this enemy (and only 3 are ever actually encountered in-game):

• Axe - The axe-wielding variant is the first one that players can find, and it is by far the most dangerous of its kind. Even players with high stats will struggle against this enemy. His moveset is very unforgiving and he is often relentless in his attacks. He can, however, be parried. Upon dealing enough health, he casts an explosive buff that causes Arcane bursts after every hit, dealing tremendous damage, even if the physical attack itself misses. They also have a grab attack that is telegraphed by them putting a hand on their head as if they had a headache and then grabbing the player with their tendrils to hold them, while they expose them to an Arcane barrage that shoots from their minds.
• Cannon - The cannon-wielding variant is much more forgiving than the axe-wielding one, but only if players are up close and personal as a shot from its cannon has a massive range of explosion and also creates a burst of flame around it, dealing extra damage. Aside from that, it has the same physical moveset as the axe-wielder, but deals less damage and can be parried as well. He also does not apply the buff when his health is low.

Location

• Hunter's Nightmare:
  • Nightmare Grand Cathedral, by the entrance.
  • Nightmare Church, in the giant blood pool, just outside the church.

Strategy

One of the hardest enemies in the game, the Axe wielder is by far the most dangerous due to his weapon buff that creates explosions with each attack. The Cannon variant is actually quite easy to deal with in close quarters.

Regardless of the situation, however, it is always best to run away from these enemies.

Notes

• This enemy is on par with the Giant Fishmen when it comes to difficulty, with the latter still being much harder and unforgiving.
• These enemies drop either 10 Quicksilver Bullets or 6 Blood Vials upon death.
• The Cannon-wielding Nightmare Executioner wields the Church Cannon.

Trivia

• It is unknown whether they have some sort of association with either the Executioner enemies or the Healing Church organization of the Executioners.
• It is curious how they seem to guard the areas that are immediately before the bosses in the Hunter's Nightmare. Perhaps it is because these bosses are important members of the Healing Church.
• The cosmos they have within their minds produce strange, inhuman sounds. They resemble chimings, whispering and moanings.
• One of the most interesting things about these enemies is that upon further inspection, the purple cosmos within their heads are behind a helm, the Iron Yahar'gul Helm. This is easily observable as players can sneak up behind any Nightmare Executioner, from the right, and rotate the camera until their face is up-close. From there, players can see the bars of the helm from where the tendrils sprout, and the metal tab that is also seen on the headgear that stuck it in place.
• In the Japanese version, they are called "Bell Holders/鐘持ち".

Gallery

Nightmare Executioner concept art

They wear a Iron Yahar'gul Helm

They wear bells around their necks, much like the Church Giant

Grab Attack

Cosmic explosion attack

The buffed attacks