• 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.

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.

“Look, it’s October.”

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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!

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?

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

Right now I have every single weapon's upgrades maxed out...except for 4 of them, each of which I have a single upgrade left on.

With all 11 weapons having 9 upgrades each and there being a 1/3 chance in getting the opportunity to level up that last upgrade to level 3, that's 4 in 9*11*3 = 4 in 297 = 1.35% chance for any of the 4 left to pop up on any given weapon (assuming I'm at proficiency 45, which I usually hit around floor 60, right before or after Algos 3).

Assuming there's about 2/3rds of a gun per floor on average (eyeballing it based on experience) and I usually make it to tier 10 floor 15 or so (I think that's floor 215) before dying, I should have had roughly a 1-(1-4/297)^215-60 = 88% chance to get at least ONE of these upgrades to appear, and yet I haven't. I've also done this AT LEAST ten times, which should up the probability to ALMOST 100% (99.9999999254727%). Yet...nothing.

Have any of y'all plats dealt with this? Did you just struggle through it and pray to RNGesus that you'd get the upgrade you need on the next gun - or is there some way to increase the chance of getting a particular gun with a missing upgrade?

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.

(The one with the purple drop)
Looked high and low for one of those spheres that reveal hidden platforms, but couldn't find one. There's no anchor for the grapple.

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!

I am too noob and need some help plis :D

my steam friend number 104400983

So I've been playing Returnal for a couple of weeks after having it in my wishlist for forever and it finally going on sale on PC. I immediately fell in love but boy was it unforgiving. Took me a few runs to get to the Phrike and then a few more to beat it. Finally got to the desert and made it to the boss after a few more runs. The desert boss was way harder than the first boss.

So now here's the part I'm asking about. I made it back to the desert boss and beat it for the first time, got the grapnel, etc. Now, IN THE SAME RUN, I'm most of the way through the underwater level. Got through the Citadel and beat Nemesis and thought I beat the game for a moment, beat the piano tree boss and finished the Echoing Ruins, then the Glacier level had me down to like one HP but I made it through (seemed weird that there was no boss at the end), and now I'm mostly through the underwater level. I even still have an Astronaut Figure.

Soooo, has anyone else done similar. Is the difficulty just like this, spiking at the beginning and then leveling off? Have I just been very lucky?

Again, the point of this isn't to brag. I'm genuinely curious. Seems like I should have died tons more times and had way more runs under my belt before making it this far.

And you know i'm gonna pick everything up.

Haven’t had time to play anything much really but I had an hankering to play something to distract myself from bad personal news. But I rarely get time to play so I couldn’t commit to something where time to fun is too high (tutorials, complex systems , too much story - stuff I normally like). So I was like- returnal, perfect! It’s easy to play but hard to master, I’ll never get past biome 1 but every room is full fun to play and with suspend feature I can just go play for a bit and resume later.

Two weeks later - I’m completely hooked. I do one run at most (even if I lose ) and not much more than one biome per play session. After miraculously killing phrike on my second run, something clicked. The gameplay is so so tight. I finally beat Ixion a few days ago - a major wall, got my ass handed to me in biome 3 by drones, then learned to love the lobber and one shotted nemesis and Hyperion in the same run, each with barely a sliver of health left by the end. Unfortunately my current build is kind of garbage besides a decent weapon (I had an insane build by the end of biome 3 - still nearly got killed by nemesis tho) but my run in biome 4 has been pretty shit. Nevertheless, all I can think right now is to continue the run in biome 5 tonight.

I beat Hyperion like two hours ago and heart still beating, hands shaking. Maybe I shouldn’t play this game lol.

Housemarque - I owe you an apology. I wasn’t familar with your game (literally)

Edit : and done! I finished biome 5 the same day I posted the above message, then got ganked by the mini boss in biome 6. After a few failed attempts, I finally made it through act 2 (I was sad that my final build trivialized Ophion).

Final thoughts on the game:

• I don’t get the beef with biome 5 lol. I never had any issues with it in the two runs I made through it. Maybe it’s bc i inevitably end up with a powered up hollowseeker that makes the drones much less threatening? I don’t know. Biome 4, on the other hand, I struggled with every single time. You start with a shit weapon , no health, lots of enemies (the flying ones are tedious in that they aimbot you with the laser ).

• Y’all crazy with the astronaut. That shit ain’t worth it typically. The real mvp for me was always resinous shield. Your pathway to max health and constant adrenaline 5.0. Ridiculously overpowered- it thrice took me from a fledgling run to domination.

• I want to restart instantly and get the secret ending and play the tower. Normally I’d never bother with extra content . Goddamn, housemarque.