Should You Kill Alfred in Bloodborne? Wait Until His Questline Ends

You don't have to kill Alfred to get the Radiance rune. Once his questline is done, the rune comes whether you kill him or leave him. Kill him before that and he drops other items, and the rune is gone with him. Kill him at Forsaken Cainhurst Castle and he drops it. Leave him and he returns to the altar where the two of you first met, dies there, and the rune can be taken from his corpse. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki) The full Alfred page covers his whole story, and this one answers the choice.

Should you kill him?#

Once his questline is done, the rune is safe either way. Before then, killing him costs you the rune. My read is to leave him alone. The three Fire Papers he drops if you kill him near the church match the three he gives you for cooperating, so the early kill gains you nothing. Handing him the Unopened Summons is where he gifts you the Wheel Hunter Badge and teaches the Church Bow gesture, and an early kill skips that handover. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)

What happens if you kill him?#

It depends on when and where:

• At his first spot, the church leading to Old Yharnam: he drops three Fire Papers. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)
• At his second spot, near the gate to the Forbidden Woods, before you give him the Unopened Summons: he drops the Wheel Hunter Badge. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)
• At Forsaken Cainhurst Castle: he drops the Radiance rune. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)

If you attack him, he asks what the meaning of this is, asks why you turned your blade on him, and tells you the blood has got the better of you. One of his death lines asks you to pray for Master Logarius in his stead. (Bloodborne)

What happens if you leave him?#

He goes back to the altar where you first found him and dies there. The rune can be taken from his body. The wiki's Executioners entry describes that as the route to becoming an Executioner: finish his questline, return to the altar, and take the Radiance rune from his body. So you don't need to kill him to join them. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)

What does Alfred do to the queen?#

Alfred kills Queen Annalise. When the hunter goes back to the Vileblood Queen's Chamber, Alfred is there, boasting that he has beaten her into pulp. He says his master can now be recognised as a true martyr, and thanks the hunter for making it possible. (Bloodborne)

The queen is not gone for good. The wiki says she can be revived after Alfred's attack if you bring the Queenly Flesh to the Altar of Despair, and that she can be resurrected there once his questline has concluded. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki)

Why did Alfred kill himself?#

The game does not give a reason. The wiki says he takes his own life and gives no known reason. It then assumes that once he had finished his master's mission, which the wiki lists as learning what happened to Martyr Logarius and killing Annalise, he simply decided to pass on. (Bloodborne Fandom wiki) That is an assumption, not something the game shows. My read is that it fits how devoted Alfred is to Logarius, but treat it as a reading, not a fact.

For more on the Church that Alfred serves, see the Healing Church, and for the castle he travels to, see Cainhurst.