This is three guides in one to see you through your first playthrough and 100% completion of Blood: Fresh Supply.

Blood is a hard game, and working out the right difficulty setting for you can be a little unforgiving. The first section aims to give a bit of insight into what to expect from each skill level, so as to make it less frustrating for new players to pick up the game.

Secondly, I've seen a lot of posts here on the Discussions board requesting save games for the secret levels and/or map specific achievements, which is entirely understandable given there's no option to choose a map, and using cheats will void achievements for that save file. The secret levels are fun to find but can be easy to miss, so my aim here is not to hand the achievements out on a platter, but rather to allow you to easily access the right spots in the game to earn them legitimately. For this reason, there are no save files purely for the end of each episode, as you'll get these by playing the game as intended!


And finally, a video & guide on beating what is arguably the hardest achievement in the game; 'Chosen-in-Regress'. Warning: this section contains spoilers for the end game!

Put bluntly, it's the hitscanners (aka enemies with unavoidable attacks that hit you as soon as they fire) that can really make this game a nightmare for the uninitiated. Each difficulty will include more monsters per map than the last, but also ups the aggressiveness, accuracy & HP of all foes, as well as the damage Caleb takes from attacks.

Still Kicking
Actual difficulty: Very Easy

Recommended for: People new to real-time gaming / with slower reflexes in general, and not looking for a challenge.

Special notes: There really isn't much of any difficulty here. Enemies numbers are few, and they go down very easily. Axe Zombies might be mildly annoying as they feign death from almost any damage only to resurrect shortly after.

Breezing through the first map...

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Pink on the Inside
Actual difficulty: Easy

Recommended for: As above, but maybe you want to get the thrill of dying a few times and needing to use saves. The Hey Not Too Rough, for Doom fans.

Special notes: None

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Lightly Broiled
Actual difficulty: Hard

Recommended for: Seasoned FPS players who are new to Blood, or veteran Boomer Shooters just looking to blaze through some bad guys without too much frustration. It's Hurt Me Plenty from Doom, but with extra aggressive hitscanners.

Special notes: Things really step up a few notches here. Cultists start lobbing dynamite sticks and their general accuracy/aggressiveness rises sharply, and enemy numbers increase more significantly than at any of difficulty step up. This is the skill level where you'll probably have to pay more attention to self-damage from TNT bundles, too.

A deliberately reckless run through of E1M1...

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Well Done
Actual difficulty: Very Hard

Recommended for: It's Ultra Violence with Fast Monsters enabled too (I'm a Doom fan, ok!). Experienced old school shooter fans who are willing to take on a steep early game difficulty curve only; everyone else need not apply.

Special notes: This is the difficulty level that I personally settled on. I count myself as an experienced and skilled FPS player, having played and mapped for Doom from the mid-90's, but Blood totally kicked my ass at first... Cultists start throwing entire bundles of TNT here, and their reactions/damage become totally unforgiving.

Still, if you count yourself in the same category as me and you're up for a challenge, I do recommend sticking it out - with some grit & determination you'll figure out a groove for the hitscanners (think: peeping around corners and bouncing TNT off walls), and honestly, almost everything else is still a cakewalk to the well experienced. I played the first 2 episodes quick-saving constantly, but once I found my flow I played the latter 4 episodes without saves and died infrequently.

Given this is the difficulty I played, I have a lot more footage of my various shortcomings... enjoy:

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Extra Crispy
Actual difficulty: Very Hard+

Recommended for: The same players as above, but only if you're already played through the entire game at least once on Well Done, or if you're prepared to rely on quick saves consistently...

Special notes: This isn't such a step up as from Lightly Broiled to Well Done, and don't expect any Nightmare-esque nonsense like respawning monsters... Monster numbers will be up again though, and hitscanner reaction times & damage become ungodly high. One significant breakpoint is that Cultists/Fanatics no longer burn up from a single Flare, and you can also expect even more reoccurrences of tanky boss monsters later in the game (spoiler: Literally no one needed another Cerberus encounter on E4M7...)

For me, having experienced the steep curve at the beginning of Well Done the first time through, I wasn't even tempted to try Extra Crispy, but I'll certainly be giving it a shot on my next playthrough.

A few quick deaths...

There's also a custom difficulty setting titled 'Made To Order', which allows you to mix & match settings from the primary 5 skill levels across different categories. If you're looking to have a medium/hard experience but are finding the hitscanners too punishing, I would recommend something akin to the below:


This will reduce hitscanner accuracy and reaction times, whilst keeping enemy damage and threat level (e.g. TNT throwing) middling. Enemy numbers are increased to the highest level to offset this.

My personal preference was to persevere in finding the right official difficult so as to enjoy the balance of the game as intended, but if you're still not getting there then tweak away - do whatever means you can get the most enjoyment from the game! 😊

This section contains a download to save game files, in order to access each of the 6 secret levels in Blood, as well as the 2 level specific achievements ('Watch out for Pedestrians' is excluded as you can immediately access E3M1 from the menu).

By default, the save game files are stored at the location below:

!!! IMPORTANT: Be sure to backup any save files you wish to keep before overwriting with the files from this guide !!!

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Once you've created your backups, overwrite the save files in the location above with the files from this download[drive.google.com]. Full descriptions and notes as below:

There's a fantastic achievement guide showing another method for this achievement here on Steam, and whilst this approach does work, I found the 'keep-your-distance' strategy to be a bit slow & risky, and overall more difficult than the method I've detailed below.

The aim is to target the Beasts one at a time, and stay just outside of melee range to avoid the devastating stomp attack, and drop them as quickly as possible using the Tesla Cannon.

• Leave the starting corridor and immediately turn right to grab the Guns Akimbo.
  
  
• Switch to the Napalm Launcher and unleash a single volley of 2 shots at the Priest. If done correctly, this should force him to transition to his Beast form.
  
  
• As he transitions, get close enough to him to be able to bait his melee attack, without being so close that he hits you, and start laying into him with dual Tesla Cannons.
  
  
• Each time he goes to attack, tap backwards once to evade the melee range. Be aware of your surroundings and don't get backed into a wall! Assuming you entered the map with full Tesla ammo, you should be expecting him to die anywhere from around 80 ammo remaining.
  
  
• Once he's dead, grab the 4 Tesla charges in the opposite corner to the Chrysalid Pod, and then skirt around the outside of the arena on the same side to reach the opposite courtyard. IMPORTANT: do NOT go through the middle area as this will draw aggro from both remaining Priests!
  
  
• Quickly dispatch the Chrysalid Pod and then repeat the above method for the second Priest/Beast - with some luck you'll be able to kill him before Guns Akimbo runs out. Once he's dead, if you have Jump Boots, use them to grab the Tesla supplies on the nearby ledge. If you don't, you can either use the switch on the central area to lower the platform, or rely more on other weapons for the final Beast - either way is viable timewise, but you will have to be more careful.
  
  
• Same method again for the final foe! You'll see from the video that I run out of Tesla ammo towards the end - be sure to have one eye on your ammo and switch to Tommy Gun as you run out, otherwise Caleb might auto-select Napalm Launcher and explosively end your run...!

Thanks for reading – hope this guide is helpful and let me know any comments/suggestions! 😊