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Whether the Cannon is worth using is highly dependent on the type of player you are.
If you’re all about fast, quick strikes, you’re unlikely to find the Cannon fun to use.
If, however, you long for the days of Dark Souls Strength builds, or just want to use every tool Bloodborne has to offer, the Cannon may be for you.
What Does The Cannon Do?
As its name suggests, the Cannon strays away from the nimble gunplay of most of Bloodborne’s other guns to instead fire a huge exploding cannonball at the enemy.
Firing the cannon in Cathedral Ward
The Cannon is a slow weapon in a fast game, a status that makes it a unique challenge to use effectively.
If you can figure it out though, it can be a hugely powerful part of your build.
The best way to include the Cannon in your build is to use it as a secondary gun, keeping a traditional gun like the Hunter’s Pistol or Blunderbuss as your primary firearm.
A typical loadout for the cannon: Ludwig’s Holy Blade, Hunter’s Pistol, and Cannon
This is for a couple of reasons, but the main one is the Cannon’s enormous Quicksilver Bullet consumption.
One shot of the Cannon consumes 12 Bullets, over half of your default inventory of 20.
While you can actually up your inventory of Bullets by equipping a Formless Oedon Rune, you’re still only going to be able to fire the Cannon twice before you have to return to a Lamp for bullets.
The level 4 Formless Oedon Caryll Rune, which increases your Quicksilver Bullet inventory to 24 shots
The best way to sidestep this drawback is to only use the Cannon in special circumstances, relying on your other gun for most ordinary enemies.
Save your Cannon for only the largest of foes.
Hitting a colossal enemy with a Cannon opens them up for a visceral attack, and is a great way to deal massive damage on some of the hardest bosses in the game.
How To Get The Cannon
The corpse that holds the Cannon
The Cannon is an easy firearm to find if you know where you’re going.
Here’s a quick rundown:
Warp to the Forbidden Woods Lamp
Travel the main path until you enter the building behind the large stationery cannon
Follow the catwalk around and walk out the door on the opposite side of the room
Drop off of the wooden ledge
Take out the enemy to your left and climb the ladder here
Go back inside and walk onto the gears
Drop down onto the lower walkway to find the Cannon on a corpse
You can find a more detailed look at the route to the Cannon on the Bloodborne Wiki.
Once you’ve found the Cannon, you’ll have to make sure you have the 30 Strength required to wield it.
The Cannon’s stats page, showing damage, stat requirements and scaling
30 Strength is a huge requirement, and is so large that it’ll almost certainly stop any Skill or Arcane players from trying out the cannon.
If you’re running a non-Strength build and still want to try using the Cannon, check out our Blood Echo farming guide to get the levels you’ll need.
So Is The Cannon Worth It?
The Cannon’s item description
If you have the Strength to wield it, the Cannon is absolutely worth it.
Despite its large Bullet and Strength requirement, the Cannon is a great way to deal big damage to the most dangerous of foes.
It may not be suited to everyone, and it’s certainly not suited to PvP. But it’s one of the most fun secondary weapons you can run in Bloodborne. Pick it up if you have the chance.
Jack is a writer from the UK that spends too much time Nuzlocking the Pokémon series. After a crushing defeat, he relaxes by rewatching Attack On Titan in the hope that it'll make the final season come out sooner - It never does.
