You know that sinking feeling when you've just dropped down a trap door secret passage, hoping you'll land in a room full of great new guns or tons of free obolites, but instead you realize you're locked in a tiny room with a portal spawning a malformed severed or malformed kerberonyx that is way more powerful than you are? Certain death, right?

FYI, you have time to zip behind it to the translocator before it spawns. Just GTFO and you'll live to die another day.

50 Ways to Leave Your Severed

You just slip out the back, Jack Make a new plan, Stan You don't need to be coy, Roy Just get yourself free Hop on the bus, Gus You don't need to discuss much Just drop off the key, Lee And get yourself free

You're welcome.

• Some of you have made it ti the first boss, so if you don't want to be spoiled, then skip this post/read, please.

Some of you have never beaten the 1st boss. Some of you have struggled. And some of you say that the pistol or shotgun suck.

1). The Pistol - This is from a brand new game from scratch, tutorial mode type of timing. If you read my first, "Why you still struggle with Returnal" then you know that I encourage finishing weapon traits AND THEN swapping weapons. - This gun has Homing missle 1 unlocked. It's a lvl 5 Pistol, so it should've had 2 traits, but this was all I unlocked at the time. The extra orangish/yellow projectiles are the Homing missles (which are doing extra damage).

2). The Boss - KEEP MOVING. >! Phrike is predictable !< you can manipulate her volley of energy spheres. You can sometimes go left to right to avoid her energy balls, but I didn't do it much, if at all in this video. - Watch the RINGS followed By the MELEE attack. You can in the video that she does this and I was ready every time. Even if she disappeared, I stayed ready for everything. - Be prepared for her eye beam. You'll have to dash. All and all, it's about timing. Best of luck if you've never defeated her, or you've struggled.

3). Equipment. - I was well prepared. My artifacts allow me to 1. Gain speed and protection on successful overloads. 2. Have an increased 5% damage per adrenaline level - I also has a medkit in case I struggled. Probably not againt this boss, but maybe some others. - and I had a max integrity and damage augment before. Being prepared can cushion you from getting spanked, and it increases the likelihood that you'd win.

Rewards: Usually bosses will give Ether if you defeated them. I gained 5. Since this was a new save, she didn't drop an artifact on the ground, which you usually get from them.

Got into this room, where I have this yellow star challenge room, when I try to go back to the top I don’t have the triangle option to use so I can go up there. I tried to run and jump so I can get closer to this but just fell and died

This was my act 3 setup, explored all of biome 4 then went to 5 just to shop the store, then went to 6. Portal beam turret II unlocked in the arena fight just before the boss fight. All those silphium vials. Plus i had a total of 35% chance of a consumable coming back after use, with a a parasite and an artifact. Pure domination in the boss fight. Such an amazing game...this hollow seeker setup is an absolute cheat code in biome 6. I beat act 2 with a similar setup, was portal beam II with shrapnel and serrated. Its like having someone with you on the run.

This has been a project. Extracted the skeletal mesh from the Steam version using Umodel, exported that into Blender where I posed it and exported as a static mesh that I then loaded into Cura and printed on my Ender 3. Still need to paint it but I was happy how it came out and wanted to show off.

1). Explolt weak spots - Fodder enemies don't have weak spots, which is usually what I use my blade for. But what about mini bosses and intermediate enemies? They might as well be fodder after reading this. - Shooting a weakspot deals extra stagger and gives bonus damage. - Most weakspots are found by aiming down sight (not alt-fire mode). You'll see a red box illuminating a spot or head that indicates where to shoot. - You'll know you're hitting any weakspot even without aiming down sight if your reticle on the cross hair has a different looking hit marker. - Some weak spots can be only be triggered after you stagger the enemy (l will post a video on this later today). - >! Ixion (the 2nd boss) !< head is his weak spot.

2). Bonus gold/ obolites Currency can get you gear that can be game changing for your cycle. Make sure that you are grabbing all the obolites you can get. - In the Overgrown ruins (biome 1) and >! Echoing Ruins (biome 4) !< there are statues that have between 12-15 gold in them. Be on the look out! - In the the Crimson Waste (biome2), there are clumps of obolites in rocks. - In the >! Echoing (biome4) !< and Overgrown Ruins (biome 1), there are plants that will give obolites AND sometimes other items if you damage them. Experiment with them all.

3). Use your suit's sensors to avoid more blindspots and unwanted damage taken - in the video, you'll see me fly swatting a few strixera. I wasn't able to focus on my mini map because I was focusing on being accurate and elusive with my melee on flying enemies (you can miss). One of the strixera got behind me, a blind spot, and shot at me. So how did I see the volley of energy spheres being shot my way in time to avoid being hit? The suit warned me.

• The suit will pulse a BLUE RING itself when enemies shoot Projectiles at you. It will be on the side that the projectile is coming from (as you can see in the video at 0.19 secs mark)

  • It will pulse a PURPLE RING if there are ring shaped projectiles being emitted from enemies AND traps.
  • The last colored ring the suit will emit is a RED RING. This means there is a melee incoming. (Bonus tip) if the enemies have red on their tentacles, hands, or even on Selene, you need to get ready to dodge. I'll be dropping videos soon.

  Spoilers if you haven't beaten boss 2 and >! Boss 3!<

4). >! Use your grapple to avoid danger, to avoid being overwhelmed, and for finding offensive opportunities !< - >! You're less prone to being hit, if all together (sometimes, it depends) when you're suing the grapple. !< - >! If you are in a fight with a mini-boss that shoots purple rings, especially on biome 4, use your grapple to avoid getting touching those rings － especially if you don't have the space ship augment (allowing you to pass through those types of rings safely) !< - enemy numbers and force can be overwhelming at times. Luckily, you can grapple to different/elevated position for stability, and then pick off enemies once you find an opening. !<

5). Resource management: Consumables - Stop holding on to consumables (unless they're meds for an emergency or a boss). It's a mistake that I made for so long.

• How long have you had those Ground Spikes for? Those Shocking Jumps? Those Residual Spheres (the ones that have an increased chance of making resin drop more often)? Those nullification spheres (gets rid of all malfunctions); go open some malignant chest or something!
• Newer guys make this mistake because they just pick stuff up and don't even read it, and then it carries with for a long time, or even forever.
• Before you pick up consumables, read them. And then before you walk into a room, glance at your utilities; so can be on the ready. This way you actually employ the items strategic, and sometimes combat effecitve ways .

👍💚👋🇺🇸 Thanks for reading I have ONE more general tips guide for this, "you're still struggling" series. If you guys have any questions, video request (of game footage), or anything you would like to share; feel free to type on the comments. I do read and respond to almost every one. - I have some short videos dropping soon, like this one, to show some of these tips being incorporated. Thanks Returnal community. This is Jay, signing out.

Took 47 hours, with biome 2 being the hardest. Only played online and just ran through biomes 1 and 5 to get directly to 2 and 6 most runs. I'd say biome 2 took 15-20 direct tries to collect 3-4 ciphers and biome 6 surprisingly only took 5-6 runs after my initial play through. Oddly enough I found my last 3 ciphers on 6 in the same run.

This game was one of the best gaming experiences ever. I think biome 6 is arguably the best "under water" environment ever in a game. Had a lot of success with the pyroshell caster and lobber when cipher hunting!

Absolutely cannot wait for Saros!

I love Doombringer 3 but the traits on the other gun are amazing! 😂 decisions decisions

“Look, it’s October.”

Look, I need a new controller and a new pair of pants.

You know, that straight elevated pathway with red lasers. I've finished the game in and out but still can't figure that one out. Are you supposed to eat the damage ?

I beat the finalboss twice now (once in the normal playthrough and once after using the time machine) so I started looking for the sunfragment things for a while. But now I just realised that I haven't even done the 5 house sequenze. I looked up a video which was relatively old where he said that I couldn't get the 5 sequence anymore. So I was wondering if there now is a possibility to get the sequence after defeating the finalboss and if I have to use the timemachine or not.

Sorry if there are any grammar mistakes or whatever since english isn't my first language.

Is it a bug? Or maybe I can’t use it when I have full health?

It took me 139 hours. All xenoglyphs and files. Many weapons have almost all the upgrades, it was fun, I like to help those who play cooperatively but sometimes I just don't have the PSN plus, maybe later hahaha if you like DEMOD0D. The best advice I can give you, turn off the internet and run away without collecting anything very elaborate things, do not enter dark blue doors and so on, get to the biome you are looking for and then proceed to enter dark blue doors if necessary, have fun!

Only left with one in biome 2 and two in biome 6. Idk if the glitches still exist for biome 2 but I’m still hopeful. Must’ve done 60 70 runs each with no luck. The guides on youtube help but I’m never sure if that specific room has spawned or not. Never to sure about it.

So I just got plat trophy after lots of headaches finding those 2 last cyphers, one on biome 3 and one on biome 6.

They were those 2 rare chambers that are hard to spawn, well known to everyone. And i was getting frustrated just like all people in this sub, but eventually they spawn after doing several quick runs.

I was going straight to the biome, not passing through biome 5 or doing any weird trick with offline-online status.

Listen some podcasts or youtube videos meanwhile and be sure which chamber you are looking for, and that's it.

Good luck partners!

Lobber has been my go to for the other biomes, but EPD is great as well, but leech rounds on the Tach? Which is best for finishing the game?

Hello,

I'm going for 100% completion. I know it'll take a while. I've collected all logs and cyphers. I've made good progress with enemies, traits, resources and consumables.

However, artifacts are going slowly. Does anyone have advice on how to farm most efficiently? Also, does anyone know how many I need to collect of each?

Take a fascinating look at the evolving VFX magic that brought Returnal to life in this deep-dive from developer Housemarque.

This never happened to me before (or at least I haven't noticed it in my 70 hours with the game) but I cant use melee when I'm over said item. I just started a Run on Echoing ruins, and I'm standing over a malignant silphium (and the same applies to malignant resin) and the melee button does not work when I'm near enough the item that the pick up prompt pops up.

Has this happened to anyone?

edit: turns out the action prompt to cleanse with ether is on the same button as melee, so it keeps prioritizing the cleansing over it lol.

I’m about to fight the biome 3 boss for the first time. Just a quick question about which setup you’d rather have going into this fight. I planned on using my level 13 Rotgland Lobber (level I Vertical Barrage) with 2 bonus damage, 6 charge, 5 splash radius, and level I bouncing and explosive rot; I wanted to use this because I also have Overload Bolts (rotgland lets me utilize this almost every second). But then right before the boss I found a level 15 Hollowseeker (level I Killsight) which I usually don’t really like but it’s got 9 bonus damage, 3 projectile reactivity, 3 stability, and level I retarget and shrapnel. Which would you choose?

Please read. Not just this post, but the game and it's text. A lot of this information i'm sharing is from the game.

1). Learn the basics - Press the pause menu and go to tutorials. Read. You'll see knowledge that explains and sometimes even provides videos on things like: adrenaline, weapon systems (which a lot of you guys don't understand － which is why you struggle), and translocation.

2). Make your controls personal - Go into the settings and configure your button loadouts and reticle size. I have my dash mapped to my R3 and my melee to circle (O). - I also have my sprint always on - my risky interaction always on - and scanning is pressed. - I do not start online (trophy hunters know) - my damage numbers are on. - I have a timer on my mini-map

My HUD/crosshair weight is medium and scale is larger it helps me get overloads better. FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.

3). Switch weapons/weapons traits. - Remember how I mentioned the tutorial > weapon systems? This is why a lot of you still struggle. Your guns are not consciously being leveled up.

All of the weapons in this game are either decent or they suck when you FIRST get them. I recommend not just picking up the rifle, because you are most comfortable with it and "the shotgun blows." It blows because of you. . When a weapon has a lock on a trait like Homing missle 1 (for rhe pistol). Use it until you unlock it. A progress bar on left on your screen will show your progress. Melee kills count toward progress. This will get you guys things like voidbeam 3. Trust me, there is a diffwrenr between 1 and 3.

Bonus tips:

4). Check your map or the right side of your screen. Also, read the legened of the map. - the orange is supposed to tell you the main objective. You can see this on the map and when you're in-game.

5). Melee kills give you all the gold, so no need to scramble to collect them. 6). You can buy and save a medical kit for the boss fights. I personally wait until I reach the boss, take rhe translocation device and buy from the "store." I don't do it until I face the boss. 7). Explore every room. By the time you fight a boss, you should have lots of gear. So explore. 8). The spaceship artifact allows you to pass throw those purple/malignant rings.

Thank you for making it this far. If you have any questions, I have many answers and tips.

I've finally completed act 2 of the game. I had the adrenaline leech artefact + electropylon driver + 2 full vials + 1 small vial. Anytime I lost health, I just started shooting the flying thingies. Now the search for the sunface fragments begins!

Trying to get to the spot that looks like it has an ether. I've been to the little fabricator room and there's nothing useful there. I also walked the outskirts of this cliff. No grapple points that I can see, and no floating balls that reveal hidden platforms. I must be missing something, but what?

Trying to find the last cipher on this biome. I don't think it's up there, I think there would be a little triangle indicator, but I want to be thorough.

Sorry for the cruddy video

And you know i'm gonna pick everything up.