GLITCHED TROPHIES WARNING & WHEN TO MAKE SAVE GAME BACKUPS:
Because the story-related trophies (act 1, 2, 3 & bosses), as well as house sequences, have a high chance to glitch you should make some save game backups throughout the game.
As a precaution, back up your save game at these points:
- Before going to the 3rd boss (end of act 1) –> in case act 1 trophy glitches out
- Before going to the 5th boss (end of act 2) –> in case act 2 trophy glitches out
- Before returning all 6 sunface fragments to the house which triggers the last house sequence and opens up act 3. –> in case house sequence trophy or act 3 trophy glitches out
Also back up your save when you are close to completing the survey for a region. In case a trophy doesn’t pop you can copy back the save. Unfortunately you only have 1 save slot in this game and there is no manual save feature (only autosaves). Do note that backing up the save game requires you to exit the game which kills you and puts you back to the start of the act! But you won’t need to repeat the bosses you’ve already finished (can head straight for the next boss). This is still better than having to replay all bosses from scratch if a trophy bugs out on you. You won’t lose your survey progress when exiting the game, that progress is permanent even when you die.
To back up save: PS5 Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS5) > Console Storage > Returnal > Upload to Cloud Storage. Requires PS+ subscription on the account you are playing with!
Also make sure you’re signed into PSN (online) while playing. The game tracks most of your progress through the activity cards feature (press
to view the activity cards), which isn’t available offline. Particularly your progress for the survey trophies is tracked there. You can technically earn trophies offline, but they appear to glitch out more often when you’re not online.