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Returnal |OT| Live. Die. Repeat.

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
If you are too desperate and willing to raise the white flag:



WORKS 1.00 - 1.03

Press & Hold shift, control, alt 1 to 0 drops your current level weapons.
Press & Hold shift, control, 8 instantly takes you last place ( First Cycle)
Press & Hold shift, control, 4 instantly takes you back to ship.
DO NOT USE 3 or 7 freezes.
1,2,5,6,9,0 Doesn't do anything.

This will only warp you to biome 3 i think 🤣
I need to try this later
 
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DonJorginho

Banned
This will only warp you to biome 3 i think 🤣
I need to try this later
Fuck going back there again

Youll Be Fine Mv Dragging GIF by Anthony Green
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Omg this is so bad so shift control 8

warps me to biome 3
And keeps respawning the health pickup.

qEfREWo.jpg

I can just keep going on 🤣🤣

15 of em

wow i can not believe this was the devs vision. Gotta respect it i guess

hmm i max out at level 15 for weapons.. 😀
 
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Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
I need tips for biome 3. Robots are destroying me. Best weapons?
Which ones?

Drones?

Just fire from the hip so you can see more through the better field of view.
A steady flow of shooting one down and killing the next with a melee attack helped me alot. All this while you keep moving.
Learn to dodge either their ranged attacks or their kamikazi. Both can be avoided if you dash away quite late. It takes some time to get used to it.
If you have a door nearby you can cheese them a bit. But it is risky.

The crawling one?

He can be avoided by just running away. He also can not follow you to higher places i think.

The walking one?

Just strafe around him to avoid being hit by projectiles. When he jumps at you dodge away before he lands.
It helps to get a pillar between you and him. Most of the time he tries to walk around it, so you can wait for him to finish shooting or get your alt fire reloaded.

As for weapons i think it is really up to your personal preference.
Try at least to upgrade the traits for most of them and see what you like.
It definitely makes a difference once their upgraded.
 
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Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
ncQTryP.jpg

Soo all pickups respawn.

about 30 resets in.. sometimes the initial health pickup won’t spawn.

rekt that biome 3 boss.
biome 4 is piss easy compared to 3
What a surprise

Here comes the real question.
Did some reviewers of this game used this cheat to go faster through this game😂

we will never know
 
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40 hours and he still can't beat the first boss. lol



We can't all be Bo_Hazem Bo_Hazem :messenger_beaming:

Housemarque should seriously consider tweaking a couple things. We're not gaming in the age of Ghosts 'n Goblins three lives and you start over anymore. A lot of people are not expecting a $70 Sony exclusive to be so punishing. Lowering the chance for malfunctions after death or permanently adding even 1% protection after each death would go a long way for some people. Even Souls games allow for permanent weapon and character upgrades, summoning, etc. Just a bit of meta-progression could really give this game some legs.
 

Haggard

Banned
We can't all be Bo_Hazem Bo_Hazem :messenger_beaming:

Housemarque should seriously consider tweaking a couple things. We're not gaming in the age of Ghosts 'n Goblins three lives and you start over anymore. A lot of people are not expecting a $70 Sony exclusive to be so punishing. Lowering the chance for malfunctions after death or permanently adding even 1% protection after each death would go a long way for some people. Even Souls games allow for permanent weapon and character upgrades, summoning, etc. Just a bit of meta-progression could really give this game some legs.
absolutely disagree.
The game is already very easy as is for a bullet hell/rogue lite game.
 

xrnzaaas

Member
We can't all be Bo_Hazem Bo_Hazem :messenger_beaming:

Housemarque should seriously consider tweaking a couple things. We're not gaming in the age of Ghosts 'n Goblins three lives and you start over anymore. A lot of people are not expecting a $70 Sony exclusive to be so punishing. Lowering the chance for malfunctions after death or permanently adding even 1% protection after each death would go a long way for some people. Even Souls games allow for permanent weapon and character upgrades, summoning, etc. Just a bit of meta-progression could really give this game some legs.
The problem here is that for many people this can be the first roguelite or bullet hell game. Obviously you should do some research before purchasing stuff, but I can understand people being upset.

Despite the unforgiveness of the genre Returnal is representing I think the devs should offer more to keep the player motivated and coming back. There's not enough perm upgrades available for future attempts and many runs end without finding or learning anything new (partially also because of the RNG being very unfair sometimes).
 
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Interfectum

Member
40 hours and he still can't beat the first boss. lol


We have generations of gamers who have been trained to wait for the game to help them if they fail. This game will not go over well with those people... there really is no way to grind XP / abilities / whatever to brute force your way through you actually have to get better at it. Even the souls games you can call on a buddy or stranger to just beat the boss for you.
 

Interfectum

Member
The problem here is that for many people this can be the first roguelite or bullet hell game. Obviously you should do some research before purchasing stuff, but I can understand people being upset.

Despite the unforgiveness of the genre Returnal is representing I think the devs should offer more to keep the player motivated and coming back. There's not enough perm upgrades available for future attempts and many runs end without finding or learning anything new (partially also because of the RNG being very unfair sometimes).
The permanent upgrade route will just eventually make this game like any other though. If you spam enough runs and gain enough upgrades you've made the game easier for yourself. When enough people are forced to do that the entire idea of a roguelike (you lose all shit and start over) seems to be pointless and they may as well have made it another genre. I'm like a lot of people here that I wish there were more upgrades so I could chill my way through the game but since there is not I'm actually working for it and it feels good.
 

Darak

Member
Housemarque should seriously consider tweaking a couple things. We're not gaming in the age of Ghosts 'n Goblins three lives and you start over anymore. A lot of people are not expecting a $70 Sony exclusive to be so punishing. Lowering the chance for malfunctions after death or permanently adding even 1% protection after each death would go a long way for some people. Even Souls games allow for permanent weapon and character upgrades, summoning, etc. Just a bit of meta-progression could really give this game some legs.
I agree 100%. The existing meta-progression is not enough IMHO and if you get stuck in a death loop, every run feels like a big waste of time. The long prep time grinding previous biomes just to have a better chance later is not fun at all. In comparison, Souls games are far more approachable. I don't think they are any easier, but they always feel fair. There is a ton of unfair BS in Returnal, especially in the random malignant stuff.
 
absolutely disagree.
The game is already very easy as is for a bullet hell/rogue lite game.

Sure, but this isn't exactly like other bullet hells/rogues lites. This isn't Resogun, where you aren't going to miss out on half or more of the experience/story because you lack the skill to complete it. If this were a $20-30 bullet hell where you ran into one of a handful of giant arenas and fought waves of enemies until death, that would be a different story. There are no bullet hells like Returnal.

People should do their research before buying a game, but if your average casual sees this:



glances at Metacritic, and watches a couple of positive reviews, I can't really blame them for not knowing exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Again, I'm talking about adding a tiny bit of progression. 1% added protection after each death, for example, would do very little to change the experience for us, but that guy who's been stuck in the first biome for 40+ hours would probably be enjoying the game quite a bit more right now. They could always include the option to disable the progression.
 

Interfectum

Member
Sure, but this isn't exactly like other bullet hells/rogues lites. This isn't Resogun, where you aren't going to miss out on half or more of the experience/story because you lack the skill to complete it. If this were a $20-30 bullet hell where you ran into one of a handful of giant arenas and fought waves of enemies until death, that would be a different story. There are no bullet hells like Returnal.

People should do their research before buying a game, but if your average casual sees this:



glances at Metacritic, and watches a couple of positive reviews, I can't really blame them for not knowing exactly what they were getting themselves into.

Again, I'm talking about adding a tiny bit of progression. 1% added protection after each death, for example, would do very little to change the experience for us, but that guy who's been stuck in the first biome for 40+ hours would probably be enjoying the game quite a bit more right now. They could always include the option to disable the progression.

I think it's a double edge sword.... maybe the gamer who bought it thinking it was going to be The Last of Us in space was disappointed at first but then worked to beat it anyway. This is the type of game they will never forget and could open them up to other games.

That being said I agree that progression would help those people but that stuff should have been built in at the core of the game. To add it on now feels to me like its going against the design of the game and it still won't be enough for some to not be frustrated. If they listen to the angry gamers and patch accordingly we are going to have weapon selection and invincibility upgrades by the time we are done.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
I agree 100%. The existing meta-progression is not enough IMHO and if you get stuck in a death loop, every run feels like a big waste of time. The long prep time grinding previous biomes just to have a better chance later is not fun at all. In comparison, Souls games are far more approachable. I don't think they are any easier, but they always feel fair. There is a ton of unfair BS in Returnal, especially in the random malignant stuff.
I like this game for what it is. But it's a very bad roguelite game. The meta progression is lacking. And the rooms do not feel diverse enough. I basically know every room there is so far in act 1 2 and 3
3 being the most bland one. And flat out feels rushed and unfinished in the way they designed it.

Act 4 is so so much better then 3. But my bet is many people will just stop at act 3. And be very careful with the next $70 title on ps5.
Fix the rocket guys in act 3. And fix the risk reward balance. Add more meta progression and you got the groundworks for a good RL game.
The main tip to just ignore all items that add risk can't be the developers intention.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
The permanent upgrade route will just eventually make this game like any other though. If you spam enough runs and gain enough upgrades you've made the game easier for yourself.
I disagree. Souls games have never felt like any other games just because they allowed shortcuts to bosses or let you level up your weapons. Other rougelikes have progression systems too.

Returnal is different in the sense that there is literally nothing else out there like it. At least not in the AAA space. I have played FTL for something crazy like 250 hours. hundreds of runs, but it isnt a twitch shooter that requires all my concertation. a 2 hour, hell even a 1 hour run in Returnal is far more brutal than anything in smaller PC rougelikes. They didnt have to follow all the rougelike rules imo.
 

Used-ID

Member
So this game has "cheats" if you hookup a keyboard?

I think that's actually kind of smart.

I can continue to play as-is to finish the game, but if I ever want to go back through for some of the collectibles I have an easy/fun way to do it?

I'm all for that - and think more games should have it.
 

JusticeForAll

Gold Member
Just finished the boss of biome 2, first try. Getting to him was harder then the boss fight itself. Died as soon as I got to the third biome though. :-D

Question: do I go immediately from the first one to the third from now on? Is there any point in visiting the serving one?

Also, something that bothered me: how come you don't just fully heal when resting in the Helios? Everybody who uses this mechanic will go to sleep until fully healed anyway?
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
The main tip to just ignore all items that add risk can't be the developers intention.
This. I NEVER even picked up the malignant health packs, let alone the chests or obliote rocks. When I'm leaving half of the loot, I am essentially limiting half of the loot pool.

Then there are parasites with negative buffs that discourage you to pick them up as well. Like why? Why did the parasites need debuffs? They are literally supposed to be buffs.

Maybe this game needed a hard more that had all these negative buffs, and malignant items. The default mode didnt need any of this malignant shit. I was always short on orbs, fought many bosses with a pistol because RNG fucked me over and no chests spawned without being malignant. And found it pretty much impossible to get rid of the malfunctions. A machine that removes malfunctions at the store or at the ship wouldve helped a lot, and made me take that risk to break those items.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Just finished the boss of biome 3, first try. Getting to him was harder then the boss fight itself. Died as soon as I got to the third biome though. :-D

Question: do I go immediately from the first one to the third from now on? Is there any point in visiting the serving one?

Also, something that bothered me: how come you don't just fully heal when resting in the Helios? Everybody who uses this mechanic will go to sleep until fully healed anyway?
I am guessing you meant to say that you beat the boss of biome 2? not 3?

Biome 3 is rough. I'd say skip biome 1 and head out to biome 3 and do the mission objectives until you unlock the boss run. Once you have done that, do a full run of Biome 1 until you hit the store, stock up on med packs, figurines and integrity upgrades then head on over to biome 3's boss which does not have a shortcut. the game might take you to biome 2, but you can skip it by taking the second boss shortcut portal and go straight to biome 3.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
This. I NEVER even picked up the malignant health packs, let alone the chests or obliote rocks. When I'm leaving half of the loot, I am essentially limiting half of the loot pool.

Then there are parasites with negative buffs that discourage you to pick them up as well. Like why? Why did the parasites need debuffs? They are literally supposed to be buffs.

Maybe this game needed a hard more that had all these negative buffs, and malignant items. The default mode didnt need any of this malignant shit. I was always short on orbs, fought many bosses with a pistol because RNG fucked me over and no chests spawned without being malignant. And found it pretty much impossible to get rid of the malfunctions. A machine that removes malfunctions at the store or at the ship wouldve helped a lot, and made me take that risk to break those items.
the risk reward is a fun take on the RL genre. The problem right now is that the balance is off. I aint risking damage on item pick up for a fucking minor health repair.
I am pretty sure this will get reworked dude don't worry :)
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
For a lot of them I had no issue. Often they are simple tasks like do 3 melee kills or use some consumables. I don’t mind them that much in many cases it enhances play.
Nah, maybe in the beginning. I had perform 12 melee kills which is impossible in latter biomes where everyone is airborne. Collect 2 parasites, open malignant chests, and other RNG stuff that is pretty much impossible to remove.
 

drotahorror

Member
So last night I had a run where I had 2 nullification spheres (gets rid of malfunction item). I also had the parasite that has 25% chance to not use consumable. And artifact that increases the good properties of parasites.

So I had 40% chance to not use consumables. I opened every single malignant thing possible on biome 4 and 5 and most of 6 before my null sphere's were used! At one point I used 1 of the sphere's 5x before it was used. I also had the adrenaline one, so I was capped on adrenaline almost the entire time, I had 2 of those and it wasn't being consumed either.

Also, I believe Ether lowers your risk of getting Critical Malfunctions. A Critical one will most likely delete one of your artifacts. I believe there's a hidden Malignancy meter, you start at none and it builds up as you pick up items that have chance to cause malfunctions. Ether will cleanse that back to zero (but you can still get a malfunction if unlucky the first time you pick up a malignant item).

And last thing. I had the same parasite/ artifact combo again yesterday and it did not provide me with 40% chance to not use consumable. It was either a bug or it's dependant on picking up the artifact first and then the parasite. The artifact won't retroactively benefit positive parasite traits. That's either an oversight or a weird design decision.
 
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SLB1904

Banned
I agree 100%. The existing meta-progression is not enough IMHO and if you get stuck in a death loop, every run feels like a big waste of time. The long prep time grinding previous biomes just to have a better chance later is not fun at all. In comparison, Souls games are far more approachable. I don't think they are any easier, but they always feel fair. There is a ton of unfair BS in Returnal, especially in the random malignant stuff.
Disagree completely with what you said.
Every run feels like progress to me. And the malignant stuff is there for you to gamble.
My last run I got the grappling hook now I can go straight to 3rd biome.
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Disagree completely with what you said.
Every run feels like progress to me. And the malignant stuff is there for you to gamble.
My last run I got the grappling hook now I can go straight to 3rd biome.
just keep playing ;P
 

Darak

Member
I like this game for what it is. But it's a very bad roguelite game. The meta progression is lacking. And the rooms do not feel diverse enough. I basically know every room there is so far in act 1 2 and 3
3 being the most bland one. And flat out feels rushed and unfinished in the way they designed it.

Act 4 is so so much better then 3. But my bet is many people will just stop at act 3. And be very careful with the next $70 title on ps5.
I'm exactly at that point in the game, stuck in biome 3. This is definitively a low point in the game. Sad thing is, the first time I reached the biome I almost finished it in one go, because my character at that point was much better than any other of my subsequent attempts. It's demoralizing. The amount of grinding you have to do only to lose half your resources by a surprise drone attack, is horrible. I'm tired of repeating the same dull content over and over only to have another chance at bad RNG.

I don't know if I'm going to insist. At this point, the game feels like it already has shown everything it has to offer (dozens of times) and I just don't find it very compelling. The moment-to-moment is great, and that's the thing which makes me return to the game, but there is a limit to that.

Disagree completely with what you said.
Every run feels like progress to me. And the malignant stuff is there for you to gamble.
My last run I got the grappling hook now I can go straight to 3rd biome.
You need to be good at the game if you always get real progress between runs. How many times do you die at each stage? At the end of the day, you only unlock each shortcut once, and filling up weapon powers goes out pretty fast too. After 2-3 deaths in a biome, there is nothing else which can give you any sense of progress, and I die like 20 times every biome. Example: at this point, I've faced the 3rd biome boss about 7-8 times, and I've died on my way there about two or three times that number. And I got the grappling hook (and unlocked the boss shortcut) the first time I got there, so I've experienced zero progress for many hours now.

You'd say at least I'm getting some practice and 'getting gud', but I don't even feel that. I'm just repeating easy content for hours because I need those biome 1-2 stuff to have a chance at the third one, which means I get complacent and bored doing easy, dull rooms I know like the back of my hand for one hour, only to die (or lose precious resources) to some BS I've barely practiced.

In any case, let's agree to disagree. This game is always going to be divisive. If you are good at it, the game rewards you becoming easier. If you are bad (or not good enough), it punishes you becomes harder (and more repetitive/dull). No wonder the game is too easy for some players and too hard to others (not to mention the heavy RNG component on top of that).
 

jeffyjaixx

Member
Does anyone know if the Crimson Key is a permanent? Like after I beat the first boss, I got it but then my game crashed. If I find the Crimson gate before I beat the first boss again, I can just go directly to the second biome? Is it worth to beat the first boss again?
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Does anyone know if the Crimson Key is a permanent? Like after I beat the first boss, I got it but then my game crashed. If I find the Crimson gate before I beat the first boss again, I can just go directly to the second biome? Is it worth to beat the first boss again?
Once the boss killed you should be able to go to biome 2 without fighting it again.
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Does anyone know if the Crimson Key is a permanent? Like after I beat the first boss, I got it but then my game crashed. If I find the Crimson gate before I beat the first boss again, I can just go directly to the second biome? Is it worth to beat the first boss again?
Permanent. You don’t need to redo the boss unless you want access to the nanocube dropbox.
 

Used-ID

Member
For a lot of them I had no issue. Often they are simple tasks like do 3 melee kills or use some consumables. I don’t mind them that much in many cases it enhances play.

I had one malfunction that was:

"Get 4 melee kills with 1 attack"

At least it was the map glitch malfunction :-/
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I'm exactly at that point in the game, stuck in biome 3. This is definitively a low point in the game. Sad thing is, the first time I reached the biome I almost finished it in one go, because my character at that point was much better than any other of my subsequent attempts. It's demoralizing. The amount of grinding you have to do only to lose half your resources by a surprise drone attack, is horrible. I'm tired of repeating the same dull content over and over only to have another chance at bad RNG.

I don't know if I'm going to insist. At this point, the game feels like it already has shown everything it has to offer (dozens of times) and I just don't find it very compelling. The moment-to-moment is great, and that's the thing which makes me return to the game, but there is a limit to that.


You need to be good at the game if you always get real progress between runs. How many times do you die at each stage? At the end of the day, you only unlock each shortcut once, and filling up weapon powers goes out pretty fast too. After 2-3 deaths in a biome, there is nothing else which can give you any sense of progress, and I die like 20 times every biome. Example: at this point, I've faced the 3rd biome boss about 7-8 times, and I've died on my way there about two or three times that number. And I got the grappling hook (and unlocked the boss shortcut) the first time I got there, so I've experienced zero progress for many hours now.

You'd say at least I'm getting some practice and 'getting gud', but I don't even feel that. I'm just repeating easy content for hours because I need those biome 1-2 stuff to have a chance at the third one, which means I get complacent and bored doing easy, dull rooms I know like the back of my hand for one hour, only to die (or lose precious resources) to some BS I've barely practiced.

In any case, let's agree to disagree. This game is always going to be divisive. If you are good at it, the game rewards you becoming easier. If you are bad (or not good enough), it punishes you becomes harder (and more repetitive/dull). No wonder the game is too easy for some players and too hard to others (not to mention the heavy RNG component on top of that).
I was in the exact same spot as you. Biome 3 almost broke me. Those flying robots that crash into you are the worst. And you cant outrun them either.

But all I can say is that keep going. You arent doing anything wrong. Just make sure you have a good build with figurines and parasites that bring you back to life. Try to bring up your protection percentage so you can tank those flying robot hits. You get a health vial when you enter every world. keep that for the boss. also buy large medpacks over health integrity upgrades at every shop.

Worlds 4-6 are far more manageable because of a weapon that heals you so stick with it. Biome 3 is by far the worst.
 
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