Lantern Engine is free, open-source software (GPL). It contains no game files: no Bloodborne data, no PS4 system files, nothing from Sony or FromSoftware. It is not affiliated with either of them.

To play, you need your own legal copy of Bloodborne, dumped from your own PS4 with your own disc or digital purchase, plus the 1.09 update. Downloading the game from the internet instead of dumping your own copy is piracy, and this project does not support it: nobody here shares or links to game files. Don't ask for them in the Discord.

• Your own legal copy of Bloodborne CUSA03173 with the 1.09 update, dumped and decrypted from your own PS4 (the folder with eboot.bin and sce_module). No game files come with Lantern Engine.
• Windows 10 or 11, or Linux (Ubuntu 24.04 or newer, Arch, Fedora, SteamOS, Bazzite and similar).
• A Vulkan graphics card with a current driver. Players run it on NVIDIA GTX 10 series and newer, and AMD RX 400 series and newer.
• The game takes about 6 GB of memory (RAM plus page file), about 10 GB above 1080p. 16 GB of RAM is comfortable.

1. Get the latest package from Releases and unpack it somewhere you can write to (not Program Files, not a OneDrive folder).
2. Open Lantern Engine.exe (on Linux: Lantern Engine).
3. On the Play page, choose the game folder.
4. Accept Settings for this PC when the launcher offers them. You can get them again later from Graphics › Best settings for this PC › Recommend…
5. Press Play.

The launcher updates itself and the engine: Settings › Updates. Your settings, saves, mods and logs are kept. To get test builds early, see the Beta guide.

If the Play page shows Engine update available, press Update engine. Playing on an old engine means the crash fixes since then are missing.

On Linux the launcher updates itself too. Packages older than 0.9.37 beta 7 are updated by getting the new one from Releases.

Yes. Get the linux-x64.tar.gz package, unpack it, and open Lantern Engine, or run ./lantern.sh /path/to/CUSA03173 from a terminal. It runs natively on Wayland and X11.

DLSS Super Resolution works on Linux on RTX cards with NVIDIA's driver. DLSS Frame Generation is Windows only.

Graphics › Upscaler. The upscaler renders the game below your screen's resolution and rebuilds a sharp image, which gives you more FPS.

Graphics › Quality preset sets how far below your screen the game renders.

• Native AA: no upscaling, only anti-aliasing (with DLSS this is DLAA). Best image, lowest FPS.
• Quality (x1.5) and Balanced (x1.7): a good mix for most PCs.
• Performance (x2) and Ultra Performance (x3): for slower cards, or 4K screens.

Display › Output resolution is the size of the finished picture, usually your screen's. The upscaler renders below it and fills it in. On cards with 3–4 GB of video memory, 1080p is the safe choice.

Display › Frame rate. 30, 60, 90, 120 and 144 are the game's own frame-rate patches. Pick the one your PC holds steadily that is not above your monitor's refresh rate.

• Uncapped has no fixed rate, but it never goes above your monitor's refresh rate: on a 60 Hz monitor it stops at 60. To go past it anyway, add BB_CAP_TO_REFRESH=0 in Settings › Extra variables.
• Uncapped can freeze at the end of a boss intro (Vicar Amelia's). 120 and 144 use another patch and don't.

On the Display page, Presentation mode:

• Mailbox (default): low latency without tearing.
• FIFO (VSync): classic vertical sync. On a 60 Hz monitor at 60 FPS it can be smoother than Mailbox, which drops a frame now and then.
• FIFO Relaxed: VSync that tears instead of stuttering when a frame is late.
• Immediate: lowest latency, may tear.

Graphics › Frame generation adds generated frames between the game's own. It needs an upscaler (or TAA) on.

• DLSS frame generation: NVIDIA RTX 40 and 50 series, with Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling on in Windows. RTX 50 can generate several frames, and dynamic frame generation picks how many for your refresh rate.
• FSR 3.1 frame generation: any GPU. Not in menus or movies.
• NVIDIA Reflex lowers input lag, and also keeps NVIDIA cards at their boost clocks.

Frame generation feels best when the game already runs at 50–60 FPS or more.

Display › HDR output. Windows HDR has to be on (Windows Settings › Display › Use HDR). Turning it on or off applies after restarting the game.

Press Insert on the keyboard, or L3 + R3 on a controller, to change graphics settings while you play: upscaler, sharpening, the FPS counter and more. Most changes apply at once.

The first time the game shows something new, the engine builds its shaders, which can cause a short hitch. It only happens once: shaders are saved and built at the start the next time.

• After an engine update the first start takes longer: it rebuilds the saved shaders before the game starts, so you don't get them as stutters in play.
• A small Building shaders note shows in the corner while it happens. A stutter with the note is shader building; one without it is loading.
• You can share shaders: Settings › Shader catalog › Export catalog, and a friend with the same kind of graphics card adds it with Add catalog.

Usually not. A new engine version recompiles it by itself. Clear it (Settings › Shader cache › Clear) only if something draws wrong in every save, such as missing skin or hair. The next start compiles everything again and stutters for a while.

Your shaders go into the next release, so players with the same kind of graphics card stutter less the first time they visit an area.

1. Play for a while first: the more areas you have visited, the more your catalog holds.
2. In the launcher: Settings › Shader catalog › Export catalog, and save the .zip.
3. Send the .zip as a DM to awakenkn on Discord, and say which graphics card you have (for example "RTX 4070" or "RX 7800 XT").

Catalogs from AMD and Intel cards help the most: Intel cards don't have one yet.

Yes. The launcher backs up your saves at each start, and every 10 minutes while you play when they changed. Find them in Play › Save backups.

1. Both players: in the game's Settings › Network, set the same Password Matching, and Matching Regions to Worldwide.
2. The host rings a Beckoning Bell, the helper rings a Small Resonant Bell. Both can be bought in the Insight shop.
3. Wait for the bells to resonate. It can take a while.

1. In the launcher open the Online page. If you have no account yet, press Open website and sign up on The Hunter's Dream.
2. Connect your Hunter's Dream account on the Online page.
3. Start the game and choose Play Online. A welcome message appears when you are connected.

Server problems go to The Hunter's Dream's own Discord.

Seamless co-op lets up to 4 hunters play the host's world together in a private, encrypted room. Nobody is sent home after a boss or when someone dies, and you don't need The Hunter's Dream or open ports.

1. Everyone: in the launcher open the Online page, turn on Play online and Seamless co-op, and set your Plate name, the name the others see above your hunter (up to 16 characters, spaces and symbols allowed).
2. The host picks Host, presses Copy invite code and sends the code to friends.
3. Friends pick Join, copy the code and press Paste invite code.
4. Start the game. The host picks Start summon in the co-op menu (F2, or L3 + D-pad Up) and friends pick Send sign: no bells needed. The bells still work too: anywhere, even after the area boss is dead, and need no Insight. The screen shows how the summon is going: looking, found, connecting, connected.

In the game, F2 (or hold L3 and press D-pad Up) opens the co-op menu. The host can start a session without ringing a bell, bring or kick each hunter, bring everyone and end the session. A guest can start a summon, ask the host to bring them and return to their own world. Bring works within the same area. The list shows each hunter's ping and connection state; the Co-op tab of the in-game menu can turn off connection status, join and leave notices, and requests.

Voice chat is in the same menu: turn it on or off, mute your microphone or a single hunter, pick push to talk (V by default, or any key or mouse button) or talking, and set the voice volume up to 500%. Voice goes through the room's encryption on its own connection, sent only while you speak, so it never slows down the game.

Rooms are private unless the host chooses otherwise. Open my room to visitors is off by default. While it is on, the host's game gives the room's invite code to Lantern's co-op server, and the Lantern event team can see it in Discord and join for surprise events, so that room is not private from them. Everyone in the room sees a line when a visitor joins, the host can Kick them, and nobody is moved: guests keep control of their own summons. Turning it off or leaving takes the room off the list at once; New room retires a code they already saw.

Guests keep their own stats in the host's world. A guest's lamp takes only that guest home and on to the lamp; the host's world stays put.

With Play online off the game is fully offline: no seamless room, and cheats work.

Your room and invite code stay the same through updates. New room makes a new code and the old one stops working.

Guests keep the progress made while they were in the host's world (bosses, lamps, shortcuts, story and NPC steps) in their own save, never the host's earlier progress. Chalice dungeons work with the party too. Everyone needs the same Lantern Engine version.

Lantern's seamless co-op rooms run on a server in Frankfurt, Germany, sponsored by 1337 Hosting. Thank you to them for keeping co-op free for everyone. It works well across Europe and reaches the Middle East and the US East Coast with decent latency.

Unpack each mod into its own folder inside mods, so that it holds dvdroot_ps4:

mods\Mod name\dvdroot_ps4\chr\…

Then turn it on and set the load order in More › Mods. The lowest mod in the list wins when two mods change the same file. ZIP or 7z archives have to be unpacked first. Mods that replace eboot.bin, DLL injectors and script plugins don't work. Mods work on exFAT and FAT32 drives too.

In Controls, click an action and press the new key or mouse button.

The + next to an action adds another key or a combination like Shift+E or Ctrl+Mouse4, up to five per action. A combination wins over its plain key.

Mouse sensitivity goes down to -10 for high-DPI mice; each step below 0 is 20% slower. Mouse side buttons are bound in the Elden Ring style profile.

The debug menu needs the font files DbgFont14h.ccm and DbgFont14h.tpf in dvdroot_ps4\font, either in your game folder or in an enabled mod (More › Mods). The fonts are on Nexus Mods.

They have to be the packed files. A DbgFont14h-tpf-dcx folder (unpacked with WitchyBND) does not work: repack it. Don't copy them into an out\mod-game-… folder. The engine makes that folder new at every start.

The Trophies page lists them with their pictures. You can use your own trophy sound in WAV, MP3 or M4A, and set its volume.

• Check that the engine is current: the Play page shows Engine update available when it isn't.
• Update the graphics driver.
• An antivirus can block the engine's files. Allow the Lantern Engine folder in it.
• Don't install into Program Files or a OneDrive folder.
• If it started after a beta update, check the Beta guide: it may be a known beta problem, and you can go back to the version before.

The GPU hung or lost the game's memory.

1. Update to the newest version and update the NVIDIA or AMD driver.
2. If it keeps happening, try once with BB_GUEST_IN_PLACE=0 in Settings › Extra variables, and say in your report whether it helped.

• Lower Display › Output resolution to 1080p or less, and use a lower Quality preset (Performance).
• Use fewer texture or model mods: HD texture packs need much more video memory.
• Close browsers and recorders while playing.
• Keep More › Engine › Use more VRAM for textures off on cards with 4–6 GB.

The game needs about 6 GB of RAM plus page file (about 10 GB above 1080p).

• A game left running in the background holds it: end bb-probe.exe in Task Manager (Details), or restart the PC.
• Set the page file to System managed size: Windows Settings › System › About › Advanced system settings › Performance Settings › Advanced › Virtual memory › Change.
• Or choose a lower output resolution or upscaler preset.

If the crash report mentions missing files or FileTransferTask, the game folder is incomplete or damaged. Turn mods off first. If it still crashes, dump or extract the game again (base game plus the 1.09 update), and keep it out of OneDrive.

• Update to the newest version. 0.9.37 fixes shaders reading the wrong buffers, which caused stretched geometry and flicker, especially on older AMD cards (RX 400/500) and on NVIDIA.
• If it happens in every save (missing skin or hair), clear the shader cache once: Settings › Shader cache › Clear.
• Try with mods off, and with frame generation off.
• Still there? Post a short video and your log.

Set Presentation mode to FIFO (VSync) on the Display page. At 60 FPS on a 60 Hz screen, Mailbox can drop a frame every so often, and that feels like a micro-stutter. Stutters the first time you see an area are shader building, see Why does the game stutter.

The game runs slower while its window is in the background, to save power. Click into the game window. FPS staying low after you switch back, or after lantern travel, is fixed in 0.9.37.

The saves folder can't be written, and the launcher now says why. Move Lantern Engine out of OneDrive and other synced folders, and out of Program Files. If Windows' Controlled folder access is on, allow the Lantern Engine programs in it.

This happened on exFAT and FAT32 drives before 0.9.37, which reads mod files in place there: update. Also check that each mod's folder holds dvdroot_ps4 (see How do I install mods?). The start's log says how many game files each mod replaced.

If the log says Wayland display connection closed by server, the compositor ended the connection, a driver and compositor mismatch (NVIDIA 615 drivers on KDE Plasma did this; 580 runs clean). Try another driver version, or start with SDL_VIDEODRIVER=x11 ./lantern.sh to run through XWayland.