All Three Bloodborne Endings Explained: Yharnam Sunrise, Honoring Wishes and Childhood's Beginning

Bloodborne, released in March 2015, ends on a choice. Once the hunter has killed Mergo's Wet Nurse in the Nightmare of Mensis, the Hunter's Dream starts to burn, and Gehrman, the old hunter who has advised the player all night, waits under the great tree with an offer. Say yes and you get one ending. Say no and you get one of two others, depending on whether you've eaten enough of a rare relic. This page explains how to get each ending and what each one means. Full spoilers follow. For the plot that leads up to it, see Bloodborne's story explained. (Bloodborne)

Before the endings: Gehrman's offer#

Three things set the stage. Gehrman is the first hunter, and he never leaves the dream. In his sleep he begs Laurence and Master Willem to unshackle him, saying he's had enough of this dream. A note in the Lecture Building names the nameless moon presence beckoned by Laurence and his associates as "Paleblood". And the Third Umbilical Cord's description says the cord brought about the encounter with the pale moon, which beckoned the hunters and conceived the Hunter's Dream. (Bloodborne)

When Mergo's Wet Nurse dies, the workshop catches fire. The Doll tells the hunter that dawn will soon break, that this night and this dream will end, and that Gehrman waits at the foot of the great tree. He tells the hunter they have done well and offers mercy: die in the dream, forget it, and wake under the morning sun. (Bloodborne)

How to get each ending#

• Yharnam Sunrise: Accept Gehrman's offer. No fight. (Bloodborne)
• Honoring Wishes: Refuse the offer and defeat Gehrman, having consumed fewer than three One Third of Umbilical Cord items. (Bloodborne)
• Childhood's Beginning: Consume at least three One Third of Umbilical Cord items before the Gehrman fight, then refuse and defeat him. The Moon Presence becomes a final boss. (Bloodborne)

Every ending rolls the credits and starts New Game Plus straight away. (Bloodborne)

Where to find the Third Umbilical Cords#

There are four One Third of Umbilical Cord items in a single playthrough, and you need three. Each has its own description, and together they tell a small story of their own. (Bloodborne)

• Abandoned Old Workshop: On the altar in the ruined copy of the dream's workshop, near the Cathedral Ward. Its trophy calls this place the source of the Hunter's Dream. (Bloodborne)
• Iosefka's Clinic: Dropped by the woman posing as Iosefka, reached through the clinic's back entrance. Her cord's description says Willem sought the cord to line his brain with eyes. (Bloodborne)
• Arianna's child: Send Arianna, a woman in the Cathedral Ward who asks the hunter for a safe place, to Oedon Chapel. After Micolash is dead a trail of blood leads from the chapel to the Tomb of Oedon, where she sits beside a strange infant, the Celestial Child. Killing it gives the cord. Its description names Oedon, the formless Great One, and says corrupted blood began this liaison. (Bloodborne)
• Mergo's Wet Nurse: Dropped when the boss dies. This cord gave Mensis an audience with Mergo, but resulted in the stillbirth of their brains. (Bloodborne)

The usual approach is to pick up the workshop cord, take the false Iosefka's, and let the Wet Nurse's be the third, which avoids killing Arianna's child. (Bloodborne)

Yharnam Sunrise#

The hunter kneels. Gehrman rises from his wheelchair and kills them with his scythe. The hunter wakes on the streets of Yharnam as the sun comes up, and a bell rings. In the dream, the Doll kneels at a grave and wishes the good hunter farewell, hoping they find their worth in the waking world. The trophy says you lived through the hunt and saw another day. (Bloodborne)

What the game states: the hunter leaves the dream and wakes at dawn. Start a new game after this ending and the Doll remembers a hunter who was enchanted by the dream but stayed strong and saw the light of dawn. (Bloodborne)

What it probably means: this is the escape Gehrman promised, but only for one person. Nothing about the dream changes. Gehrman is still bound, the Moon Presence still holds the dream, and new hunters will keep arriving. The hunter also forgets everything, so whatever they learned about Yharnam leaves with them. That is the common reading. The game itself is neutral. (Bloodborne)

Honoring Wishes#

Gehrman takes the refusal badly. He says it always comes down to the hunters' helper to clean up these messes, and that tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt. Beaten, he says only that the night, and the dream, were long. (Bloodborne)

Then the Moon Presence descends: a pale, tentacled thing with a long tail. It wraps itself around the hunter. In the closing scene the Doll pushes the hunter, now in Gehrman's wheelchair, past the workshop as the moon turns red, and the hunt goes on. The trophy says you were captivated by the Moon Presence and pledged to watch over the Hunter's Dream. (Bloodborne)

What it probably means: the hunter has taken Gehrman's place. Gehrman wanted out, and the hunter's victory frees him, which is why many read the title as honouring Gehrman's wishes. The game never says whose wishes it means, and the Moon Presence's wishes are an equally common answer. Either way, the dream gets a new keeper, and the cycle continues with the hunter inside it. (Bloodborne)

Childhood's Beginning#

The fight with Gehrman plays out the same, and the Moon Presence reaches for the hunter in the same way. This time it fails. It pulls back and the hunter fights it. With the Moon Presence dead, the screen fades, and the Doll finds a small, pale, tentacled creature on the ground. She lifts it up and asks if it's cold. The trophy describes the hunter as an infant Great One, lifting humanity into its next childhood. (Bloodborne)

What the game states: the cords are relics that every infant Great One carries, and using them is said to give "eyes on the inside". The cord descriptions also say that every Great One loses its child and yearns for a surrogate. (Bloodborne)

What it probably means: the hunter has done what Byrgenwerth, the Choir and the School of Mensis all failed to do. Willem wanted eyes on the brain so humans could match the Great Ones. The Choir looked to the cosmos. Mensis reached for Mergo in a nightmare and lost their minds. The hunter, with three cords consumed, becomes a Great One outright. The opening note told the hunter to seek paleblood to rise above the hunt, and here the hunter literally kills Paleblood and leaves the hunt behind. That is the most common reading. Whether a new Great One is good news for humanity is something the game leaves completely open. (Bloodborne)

Which ending is canon?#

None, officially. FromSoftware has never named a canon ending, and nothing after Bloodborne continues the story. Many players treat Childhood's Beginning as the "true" ending because it's the hardest to reach and the only one that ends the dream's master, but that is a fan view. (Bloodborne)

How The Old Hunters touches the endings#

The Old Hunters doesn't change any ending, but it adds context. After Lady Maria dies in the Astral Clocktower, the Doll says she felt freed from heavy shackles. After the Orphan of Kos dies, the Doll says Gehrman is sleeping calmly for once, as if something has eased his suffering. The common reading is that Gehrman, like Maria, was at the Fishing Hamlet, and that the Doll was made in Maria's likeness. The game never states either outright. Read the full story in The Old Hunters story explained, and see the Bloodborne timeline for how it fits together. (Bloodborne: The Old Hunters)