After 11 years, 3,500 hours, and an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 kills, Bloodborne’s dedicated Orphan of Kos helper Noahman has hung up his hunter’s hat for good.
Noahman, a Bloodborne player who spent over a decade exclusively helping others defeat the Orphan of Kos, officially retired on May 27, 2026. In a farewell post on the FromSoftware subreddit, the player known as Noahman90 revealed he had accumulated roughly 3,500 hours across multiple characters and helped an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 hunters beat one of FromSoftware’s most punishing bosses. The reason for his departure is straightforward: Bloodborne’s player base has shrunk to the point where nobody summons him anymore.
Why Did Noahman Stop Playing?
In a follow-up Reddit comment, Noahman explained that he was paying for PlayStation Plus almost solely to help people with the Orphan of Kos fight. With summon requests drying up completely, he could no longer justify the subscription cost. “I’m basically paying to sit in a cave and not get summoned,” he wrote. He has since cancelled his PlayStation Plus membership and moved on.
Bloodborne launched on PS4 on March 24, 2015, and remains locked to that console with no remaster, no 60 FPS patch, and no PC port. After 11 years without a modern update, the active online population has dwindled to near-zero for co-op purposes.
Why the Orphan of Kos Specifically?
Speaking to GamesRadar+, Noahman explained that the Orphan of Kos is “easily the highest demand boss in the game for summon requests.” This made it the fastest way to get back into the action, since players struggling with this fight were constantly ringing their Beckoning Bells. Over time, what started as efficiency turned into genuine love for the encounter. “I started to get good, and I liked the feeling of helping people out,” he said.
The Orphan of Kos is the final boss of The Old Hunters DLC, released in November 2015. It is widely considered one of the hardest bosses in FromSoftware’s entire catalogue. Even Elden Ring legend Let Me Solo Her, who has defeated Malenia thousands of times, admitted in 2025 that the Orphan of Kos “took me more tries than any previous boss fight.”
Blade of Mercy, No Guns, No Parries
Noahman’s weapon of choice was the Blade of Mercy, a pair of trick daggers that combine into a short sword. He deliberately avoided using firearms because, in his view, parrying trivialises the Orphan fight. The Blade of Mercy is typically associated with PvP encounters, but against the Orphan, Noahman described the matchup as “a dance” unlike anything in other Souls games.
Bloodborne was actually his first FromSoftware game. Every boss in the DLC initially gave him trouble, but the Orphan of Kos became the one he resolved to master. After the first few years of play, he says there were “very few losses” during his summoning sessions. Even after 3,500 hours, he still felt there were areas where he could improve.
How Bloodborne’s Co-op Summoning Worked
Bloodborne uses a bell-based summoning system for co-op. The host player rings a Beckoning Bell, spending one Insight, while the helper uses a Small Resonant Bell. The game matches players within a roughly 30-40 level range, though an 8-digit password can bypass this restriction entirely. Once the boss is defeated or either player dies, the session ends. There is no persistent co-op: the helper vanishes, and both players return to their own worlds.
For Noahman, this transient nature was part of the appeal. He described the summoner-cooperator relationship as “two ships passing in the night. Except in this instance, I’d help the ship get to port safely and be on my way.” It was the ideal interaction model for someone who played mostly on Fridays and weekends and preferred brief, purposeful encounters over extended socialising.
The Let Me Solo Her Parallel
Noahman’s story draws natural comparisons to Let Me Solo Her, the Elden Ring player who became famous in 2022 for helping thousands of players defeat Malenia while wearing nothing but a pot helmet. Both players devoted themselves to a single, notoriously difficult boss. Both started as struggling players who chose to master the fight rather than walk away. And both became community legends through sheer persistence.
One key difference: Noahman predates Let Me Solo Her by roughly seven years. He started helping with the Orphan of Kos when The Old Hunters launched in late 2015, long before this kind of dedicated boss-helper became a widely celebrated phenomenon in the Soulsborne community.
The Mikato Connection
Among the thousands of anonymous encounters, one name stood out. A player called Mikato fought alongside Noahman consistently for approximately five to six years. In his farewell post, Noahman addressed Mikato directly: “If you’re reading this, I hope you’re doing well, friend.” It is a small but telling detail about the kind of bonds that can form through FromSoftware’s otherwise impersonal multiplayer systems.
Will a Bloodborne Remake Ever Happen?
Noahman’s retirement puts a spotlight on Bloodborne’s uncertain future. According to a February 2026 Bloomberg report by Jason Schreier, Bluepoint Games pitched a Bloodborne remake to Sony in early 2025. Sony reportedly said the numbers made sense, but FromSoftware did not want it to happen. Sony chose to respect that decision rather than risk the relationship with Hidetaka Miyazaki’s studio. Bluepoint was subsequently shut down.
Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida suggested that Miyazaki loves Bloodborne too much to let another studio handle it, yet is too busy with new projects to oversee a remake himself. Combined with reports that Sony is pulling back from PC ports of single-player titles, the prospect of a modern Bloodborne release looks increasingly unlikely. The game remains trapped on PS4 hardware with no confirmed plans for change.
A Quiet End to a Remarkable Run
Noahman also uploaded a farewell video to YouTube titled as a goodbye to the Orphan of Kos. A software glitch prevented him from including footage of his actual final fight, but the video still showcases his mastery of the encounter. Bloodborne has sold an estimated 9.3 million copies since 2015, and The Old Hunters DLC reached approximately 7.46 million sales by early 2022. Those are significant numbers, yet the live co-op community has effectively disappeared.
Noahman’s retirement is not just a personal milestone. It is a quiet, poignant signal that Bloodborne’s online era has come to a practical end. If a remake ever materialises, the Orphan of Kos cave will be waiting. And if that day comes, there is little doubt that Noahman will pick up his Blade of Mercy one more time.
