Bloodborne on Android goes native: ducvd89's port now runs the game as ARM64 code

Developer ducvd89 has pushed the biggest update yet to Bloodborne-Android, an unofficial port of the PS4 version of Bloodborne (v1.09) to Snapdragon phones and handhelds. 2.0.0 Beta 1 landed on October 24, and 2.0.1 Beta 1 followed later that day. The project is open source under the GPL and has shipped more than 20 releases since it appeared on GitHub earlier this month.

What changed in 2.0

Earlier versions ran the game's x86-64 code through the FEX translator while you played. From 2.0 that's gone: the game's code is compiled ahead of time into native ARM64 code, so nothing is translated during play. The developer says that means no translation stutter when you reach new areas and less work for the CPU. There's no emulator fallback any more, so the game won't start without that native code. Graphics still go through a Vulkan renderer derived from shadPS4 by way of the bloodborne_pc Linux port.

2.0.1 Beta 1 always enables The Old Hunters. Its data is already in the 1.09 game, so the DLC areas and saves that use it now work without extra setup. 2.0 also fixes two crashes during the opening movie and adds button remapping, controller vibration and a game language setting.

What works

• Upscaling with Snapdragon GSR 2 (the default) or FSR 3.1, and presets down to a new Potato mode for the weakest devices.
• Frame generation (2x to 4x) through the port's Bloodframe engine, which uses Lossless Scaling's LSFG and needs Lossless.dll from your own copy of Lossless Scaling.
• Turnip GPU drivers included, with StevenMXZ's Turnip Gen8 V37 picked automatically. The phone's own Adreno driver doesn't run the game yet.
• On-screen and physical controllers, any aspect ratio from 4:3 to 32:9, mods and cheats.
• Online play (co-op, PvP, notes and bloodstains) through the community servers Seamless Hunt and The Hunter's Dream.
• Hunter's Atlas live map with route finding, on the AYN Thor's second screen or as a floating mini map.

What you need

An Adreno 6xx, 7xx or 8xx device on Android 9 or newer; Mali GPUs aren't supported. The developer tested on the AYN Thor (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) and Oppo Find N5 (Snapdragon 8 Elite), both with 16 GB of RAM, and the 2.0 native code has only been tested on the Thor so far. You need your own copy of Bloodborne updated to 1.09 with the original eboot.bin; pre-patched 60 fps eboots crash. Then you run the free Rebuild Tool once on a Windows 10/11 or Linux PC with an AVX2 processor and 8 GB of free RAM. It builds the native code from your game files and you copy it to the device. The developer says that code is made from your game, so it can't be downloaded and you must never share it. The app contains no game files, and Overclocked doesn't host or link them.

Beta caveats

The in-app updater only offers final releases, so you install the 2.0 betas by hand. Updating keeps your saves, settings, mods and game folder, but coming from 1.2.0 or older you'll need to build the native code before the game starts. If you'd rather skip the PC step, 1.2.0 is the last version that runs without it.

Grab the APK from the project's GitHub releases, and check the Overclocked GPU drivers page if you want to try another Turnip build.

Sources: ducvd89/Bloodborne-Android on GitHub, Bloodborne Android Rebuild Tool on GitHub. Facts verified against the original reports; written by Overclocked.