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Houndskin

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“ The hide of a demonic dog. „

The Houndskin is a Material in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Description[]

The Gieremunds that will charge toward you in the early Entrance and Dian Cécht Cathedral zones drop Houndskins at a 10% base rate; this material is used in the crafting of a fairly large number of early-game weapons and armor. However, several of these items only prove much more important to craft in multiple numbers much later in the game. One clear exception is the Leather Chestguard; though that only takes one Houndskin to craft, it is an especially worthless way to use a Houndskin because one completed copy of that armor can be found in the Entrance, and it offers fewer stats than the Country Dress you can find earlier.

One of the weapons you literally start the game with, the Kung Fu Shoes, can be crafted out of two Houndskins, thus saving you 600G buying it at the supply post. Once you have found Damascus Equipment/R in Underground Sorcery Lab and gotten Kick Expertise to drop from the Gamigin found in areas like Hall of Termination and the upper reaches of the Cathedral, you become capable of elevating Kick Expertise to Rank 9 with the help of two crafted Steam Boots to top it off. This creates its skill shard clone to enhance the damage and attack speed of all your kick weapons regardless of the shard equipped in your passive slot. The first three ranks of Kick Expertise each require one pair of Kung Fu Boots, so if you don't want to spend 600G on at least two more boots by that point, you can use four Houndskins total to create your second and third pairs of Kung Fu Shoes.

The middle three ranks of Kick Expertise, meanwhile, happen to each require a pair of Lethal Boots, which can be bought for 2,700G (without needing to craft it first) or alternatively crafted by "fusing" a Baselard with a pair of Battle Boots. These precursor boots are sold for 1,800G, and if you want to dodge those expenses, they can be crafted using three Houndskins, three Cottons (such as those found in the earliest blue chests and dropped by Moco Weeds), and a Lion Mane dropped by the early Sabnock.

There should be no need to spend three Houndskins, four Bat Fangs (dropped by the common Bats populating early areas), and two Lion Manes on a Thorn Whip because one will be given for completing Susie Quinn's very first cooking quest, which requires submitting one Rice Ball.

Similarly, there is little need to craft your own Ulfberht Sword (an Obsidian Equipment/R recipe using Obsidian to upgrade a Long Sword) because one can be found in a hidden area shortly after the Zangetsu boss battle in the Entrance (to say nothing of the Gieremund's extremely rare 1% chance to drop it pre-crafted); you should only craft this sword if you want it in time for the boss battle and don't want to farm the Gieremund for the drop. Though this sword can be upgraded into a Harpé using two Steel and Steel Equipment/R from the earlier, eastern areas of Forbidden Underground Waterway, you are better off trying to get it to drop from the Malediction enemies swarming areas like the upper reaches of the Cathedral (which can be reached "early" with Double Jump's dive kick), as well as said earlier areas of the Waterway on Hard difficulty. The Harpé does not go into any further crafts or shard enhancements.

The Whip Expertise passive shard is only dropped by the Lamashtu quite late into the game, in the Secret Sorcery Lab. By then, you can attain all the basic Whips, Flame Whips, and Snakebites you need to reach Rank 9 with it and create its skill shard clone. You will already have found a basic Whip in Galleon Minerva at the start of the game; if you want to save 1200G crafting two more, you will only need four more Houndskins and two more Cottons total.

In terms of more immediately useful crafts, when you first enter the Cathedral zone somewhat early in the game, the Buers in the area can drop the Leonine Pelt needed to turn a Houndskin into a Beast Beret, a 5-DEF headgear that also adds 1 STR, 1 CON, and 5 Slash Resistance (though the Pirate Hat is arguably still useful for providing 2 LCK alongside its 1 STR). Note, however, that once you are able to explore the rest of the Garden of Silence, you can find a free Beast Beret. Much later in the game, when you can start getting the Faerie Wing to drop from the Sidhe in Underground Sorcery Lab, you can use that in conjunction with a Lili Tail from the Lili in order to "upgrade" it into an 8-DEF, 3-STR Cute Beast Beret. This is largely redundant with the Wolf Hood you can get the Wolfman to drop much earlier in the game.

One of the most relevant long-term functions you would want to gather a large stockpile of Houndskins for is ranking up a series of three passive shards that vaguely improve survivability via bestowing resistance bonuses. These are the Resist Strike shard, dropped by the Puppy in the west station of the Bridge of Evil; the Resist Slash shard, dropped by the Scylla in the underwater portions of western Forbidden Underground Waterway; and the Resist Thrust shard, dropped by the Living Fossil in Hidden Desert. For the sake of creating their Skill Shard equivalents, each one requires three Bronze Chestguards to rank up to 4 (as well as three Iron Breastplates to rank up to 7 and two Steel Breastplates to rank up to 9, and Steel Breastplates can be crafted as early as the eastern, early portion of the Waterway). This will require creating a total of 9 Bronze Chestguards out of a total of 9 Houndskins and 18 units of Bronze, unless you are okay with spending 400G on each chestguard.

Availability[]

Usage[]

Usable only by speaking to Johannes. Houndskin is one of the Materials required for crafting:

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