Bloodless

* Ritual of the Night
* Curse of the Moon

**Bloodless** is a boss in *Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night* and *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon*. She is a vampire who can manipulate blood at her will.

She is voiced by Rena Strober in the English version.

## Description

Bloodless resembles a young woman with pale skin and long black hair. Initially found naked, taking a bath in blood (presumably, to keep herself young), she assembles a red dress made of blood before fighting Miriam. Her dress becomes more and more tattered as Miriam damages her, although she would refashion it after some time. Across her neck is a slash that bleeds down into her dress and fuses her own blood with the blood she forms her dress from.

## Abilities

Bloodless is able to manipulate streams of blood, using it for various purposes, from creating dresses and umbrellas to generating a swirling vortex and localized rain.

## Appearances

### *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon*

*Bloodless reigns over the torture room in the castle's dungeon.
In order to obtain eternal youthful beauty, Bloodless bathes in the blood she obtains through daily torture.
Bloodless attacks as if she's toying with you, all the while clad in a dress made of blood.
She is capable of a final attack, "Bloody Storm", in which she uses her remaining blood to create an immense tornado.
Steel yourself, and give this torture-loving demon something to smile about!!*
—Official description

Bloodless is fought as the boss of Tragedy of Slaughter (apparently reigning over the dungeon there). She hovers along the top of the screen, but she can be reached by jumping on top of the three umbrellas that also hover back and forth in the room.

After a while, she will perform the following steps in the order below:

1. Laughs, just like in her introduction.
2. Drops a spiked ball straight down below her, which creates a wave of spikes along the floor. To dodge it, avoid being under her and instead stand atop an umbrella.
3. Laughs (again).
4. Causes a shower of blood in the entire room. Dodge this by being under an umbrella. After this, she destroys and recreates the umbrellas to start the cycle over again.

Also during the battle, a character-sized ball will fly at the player, but not well. It can be dodged, but can also be distracting as the player tries to deal damage to Bloodless.

Her desperation attack is to cause a sort of tornado of blood to travel along the floor toward the player, before retreating to the other side. An image of Bloodless's true face appears in the tornado just short of the ceiling. Either stand on top of the highest umbrella or use Gebel's Immortal Metamorphosis to get high enough, and time your attack just right to destroy that section and create an opening to dodge the final attack and earn an extra life for not taking damage from the desperation attack.

### *Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night*

Bloodless is one of the two bosses in Dian Cécht Cathedral (the other being Craftwork). She is first found soaking blood in her bathtub behind some curtains. The player is required to press Up (↑) on the directional pad to open these curtains and start the boss fight. Bloodless will usually try to step back from Miriam to dodge her attacks, then proceed to launch bloody streams from a distance. This makes using short-ranged weapons impractical, thus using weapons with longer reach or ranged attacks is recommended.

Bloodless has several variations of attacks in her arsenal, each of them can be dodged in certain ways:

* **Umbrella Swing**: Bloodless will swing her umbrella to damage a very short area in front of her. Just dodge it by jumping or using the backdash.
* **Umbrella Toss**: Bloodless spawns two umbrellas that are similar to her weapon. These will first try to stab Miriam, then float in the air around her.
* **Scarlet Thrust**: Bloodless will send splashes of blood that swirl in front of her toward Miriam. Use the backdash (if within escape range) or jump away to dodge the wave.
* **Scarlet Cyclone**: Bloodless will shoot high-pressure blood that spirals toward Miriam. This attack is marked by Bloodless pulling her umbrella and push it forward in a jousting manner. It can go either straight forward (marked by a longer pull), or upward to the ceiling (marked by a shorter pull). Dodge the straight one by crouching or jumping twice, and the upward one by staying on the ground or crouching if needed.
* **Blood Rain**: Activated if Bloodless has already marked the ceiling with enough blood streams. Rain of blood will fall from any bloodied ceiling area for a few seconds each, inflicting damage over time during contact. Crouch under the floating umbrellas (if available) or stay away from the raining areas to avoid getting damaged by it.

Additionally, Bloodless's blood dress will rip little by little each time Miriam damages her, and she will be forced to restore it by absorbing the splattered blood in her room once enough damage is done. Use this opportunity to land extra hits to her, since she is very vulnerable in this state.

## Playable character information

On later revisions of *Ritual of the Night*, Bloodless became available as a secret playable character regardless of the player's progress in the game. In order to play as her, enter her name in an empty slot on the File Select menu in all caps: "BLOODLESS". Her voice will be heard and an option to pick her will appear. After selecting a difficulty, players are free to navigate their way through Gebel's castle as the vampiric woman.

Bloodless starts off in her boss room and is able to travel through the castle from there. The player must gather "Blood Shards" to unlock her abilities and powers and give her bonus to stats. At the start of the game, Bloodless is unable to enter water without taking massive damage per "tick". As her mana goes down, her blood dress will become less and less sustainable, until left with a body suit. Her basic attack is her Umbrella Swing. She can backdash and slide along the ground forward. Her basic jump is far higher than Miriam's.

#### Move list

* Jump and hold Jump = Umbrella Float
* Jump and hold Jump = Umbrella Guillotine (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* PS4: Circle | NS: A | Xbox: B = Scarlet Thrust (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* PS4: R3 | NS and Xbox: Right Thumbstick = Blood Steal (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* PS4: Triangle | NS: X | Xbox: Y = Blood Pillar (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* Console: Right stick and R2 (PS4) | ZR (NS) | RT (Xbox) = Scarlet Cyclone (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* Console: Up and Square (PS4) | Y (NS) | X (Xbox) = Umbrella Toss (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)
* PS3: R1 | NS: R | Xbox: RB = Blood Rain (once unlocked via "Blood Shard" smashable object)

## Quotes

* *I need more blood...*
* *Blood Steal!*
* *At last! Sustenance!*
* *Blood everywhere!*

## Gallery

*Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night*Bathing in the blood she obtains through torture to preserve her youthful beauty.Bloodless's red dress is actually made of blood.Playable Bloodless.Playable Bloodless in the pause menu.
*Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon*Official profile.Bloodless as she appears in *Curse of the Moon*.Bloodless's "Bloody Storm" final attack.Bloodless in a frozen state.
## Trivia

* Bloodless is based on Countess Elizabeth Báthory, who was rumored to take baths in the blood of virgins to maintain her youthful appearance.
* In an interview, Koji Igarashi stated that Bloodless is a good example of his approach into the Gothic horror concept, which he defines as "a grotesque mixed up with a little bit of erotica."
* At the time of her reveal, Igarashi stated that her appearance could be changed in the future.
	+ In a Reddit AMA, series director CurryTheKid (Shutaro Iida) stated that Bloodless was his favorite boss on a design standpoint, stating that she was a boss he had been thinking of from a while back.
* If the blood color is changed in the Options menu, Bloodless's dress and umbrellas will change to match, even in the middle of battle.

## References

1. ↑ Bloodstained: Voicing The Game - Part 2
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Boss at the official *Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon* website.
3. ↑ Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night brings a bloody new boss to E3.
4. ↑ Special Update - Bloodstained E3 Trailer Released!
5. ↑ I Am Shutaro, aka Curry The Kid, Director / Game Designer of Video Game Developer ArtPlay Inc. My past work includes Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Castlevania and more. Ask me anything about my video game career! at Reddit (September 2, 2021).

## External links

* Bloodless posing in a close-up shot
* Ritual of the Night Gameplay Trailer - Nintendo Switch
* Bloodstained Ritual of the Night Development Update 79
* Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Bloodless Boss Fight
* GameFAQs Bestiary Guide Page 3
* Development Roadmap Update: November 2020
* Play: Bloodstained Ritual of the Night: Dominus Challenge Part 8