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Returnal |OT| Live. Die. Repeat.

Bo_Hazem

Banned


The KING himself!

happy birthday mj GIF
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Does anyone have a Xenoglyphs-guide? Like a YT video with timestamps?
You mean ciphers? There is no guide, but I guess one day someone will compile a video with their every single possible room position which I think is possible. They never just seem to appear randomly on a wall, they're sort of tied to specific rooms, and there are more possible room locations than max amount of ciphers per biome - that I know for fact after re-searching 3 out of the final 4 after 1.3.3 deleted my save. So if the correct room spawns - they are there, I think always in the same place of the geometry. The problem is the further you go, the less you have left to find - the more difficult it is to find them, as rooms that contained those you already found are re-used...
You have to run the game and pay extra attention to rooms that don't look familiar, and I don't mean pickups but "new" unseen geometry of the space. Ciphers are also detected at distance (helps a lot in B2 where everything is red...) so make sure to check all the blue downward arrows on the map. Good luck
 

april6e

Member
I'm so happy that my pre-patch god run survived a week of being in rest mode. Was able to beat the rest of the game.

The game was really enjoyable, I would be glad to do some more runs once they add the missing features in the game (avenging scouts) and add mid-run saving.
 

Dibils2k

Member
beat the final boss, my reluctance to loot around in runs cost me so much time in the end, i would usually be like "oh i dont need to go to that world, i am just gonna go straight to the boss world and loot there" and this led to so may deaths

i dont think i will revisit this game tbh, but enjoyed my time with it along with alot of frustrations
 

FrankWza

Member
This being one of my most memorable gaming experiences in the past decade I want either a sequel or at least another AAA third person shooter by HM. Hopefully PS players can make it happen.
Gameplay is very very good. Really responsive controls. The half trigger/full trigger works so well it becomes second nature. That’s a pretty cool advancement that doesn’t really get mentioned. They should do a PvP or 4vs4 in each biome where you’re basically trying to locate the other team and each player spawns at a different location.
 

Valonquar

Member
The sound effects that the PS5 controller makes while playing this game are amusing. I don't mean from the controller speaker either, just all the motors working to make the different rumbles.
 

iorek21

Member
My most perfect build ever was DESTROYED in 2 minutes due to the melee being inconsistent and two malfunctions caused by a purple ball. This is not fun, nor fair.

I doubt they'll ever change this, but it's very frustrating.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I just made a thorough gameplay walkthrough of the 1st biome, exploring every room while at it before wiping the floor with the boss. Took around ~50min. You'll see some sloppy combat while at it due to my daughter at some point decided that my recliner was the perfect place for her plastic vegetables to play in front of me and blocking my vision and the map, before moving to play on the TV stand. :lollipop_downcast_sweat: It's around 17.8GB (4K@60fps HDR) and being uploaded to youtube via PS5. I'll post it when it's fully processed, which takes hours on youtube for some reason.

I hope it helps give an idea of how to react to some situations, like escaping and forcing enemies through a narrow terrain to gain advantage, etc. I'll add captions as well (can be turned on/off) to add some hints and descriptions. Also it shows that sticking to a low level weapon doesn't matter as long as you know what you need (level 2 and avoiding level 6 weapon).
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
Pretty amazing. You don’t need an external HD or anything huh?

Nope, uploading while we're talking from PS5.

image.png


Now it'll take a while to be processed, the shorter once took hours to process so I always keep them in private until they're 100% ready. This being ~50min and around 17.8GB will take some time to have 4K@60fps HDR/SDR versions ready.
 
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2AdEPT

Member
I think it's too late now as most people have beaten the game, was planning to record the 1st biome + boss in 4K HDR and post it on youtube? I see many go straight to fight some enemies while I cowardly use sleazy ways to cover and kill them. :lollipop_tears_of_joy:

Sweet! I think I can easily do it in less than 1 hour (1 hour per clip at 4K@60fps HDR is the limit), and planning to put subtitles (closed captions = CC icon on youtube) that you turn on/off if you need some hints during the gameplay that might be helpful, but no commentary as while playing I'm more than sure my daughter will chime in or shout or jump over me. :lollipop_tears_of_joy:

Already beaten the game on release day but planning to give each biome 1 video (2 if it takes more than 1 hour) with thorough exploration. It's not a fair comparison for starters as I have all of the suit permanent augments which give me access to inaccessible areas to new comers.
Im pretty sure my Ps5 twitch/you tube output is just 1440 as I fill up space too quick otherwise, but it does 60 FPS ok ...again I would love to see your video, cant see why others wouldnt and if they dont want it they dont have ot click on it :p ......here is my footage of the Ixion boss fight last night on a 5 hour run. It was my second attempt....forgot to change to "always sprint" in the menu and fell off the cliff twice...didnt do that on my first attempt, but managed to pull it off with the electro pylon driver and hardly used the alt/fire neon cannon or whatever. Didnt use the astro like the first attempt either.

 

saintjules

Gold Member
Im pretty sure my Ps5 twitch/you tube output is just 1440 as I fill up space too quick otherwise, but it does 60 FPS ok ...again I would love to see your video, cant see why others wouldnt and if they dont want it they dont have ot click on it :p ......here is my footage of the Ixion boss fight last night on a 5 hour run. It was my second attempt....forgot to change to "always sprint" in the menu and fell off the cliff twice...didnt do that on my first attempt, but managed to pull it off with the electro pylon driver and hardly used the alt/fire neon cannon or whatever. Didnt use the astro like the first attempt either.



Nice. I told people here that the Driver basically wipes down the health bar. I want my revenge soon at the 3rd Biome.
 

Jebron

Member
Just spent another 3 hours tonight on Biome 2 and beat the second boss on my second attempt. I think I'm definitely getting the hang of the gameplay now, Ixiom was significantly harder than Phrike but Phrike took be 6 tries.

What's a good strategy for maximizing artifacts? I've gotten good at maximizing weapon proficiency and suit integrity, but I feel like I'm really lacking on the artifacts most runs.
 

skit_data

Member
Just spent another 3 hours tonight on Biome 2 and beat the second boss on my second attempt. I think I'm definitely getting the hang of the gameplay now, Ixiom was significantly harder than Phrike but Phrike took be 6 tries.

What's a good strategy for maximizing artifacts? I've gotten good at maximizing weapon proficiency and suit integrity, but I feel like I'm really lacking on the artifacts most runs.
My strategy has been

-Always make sure to pick up the obolites from fallen enemies before they disappear, this assures you have enough when you come across fabricators etc.
-Before moving on from the first biome, check all blue doors and buy an artifact at Helios for ether.
-Chests that are locked almost always have artifacts in them

Those are the ones I can come up with now, I really wanna emphasize the first point, it is crucial to pick up obolites fast to get that obolite snowball going. But take care, don’t do it if you risk taking heavy damage. As you get better and your skills improve, your obolite collection in each biome will start skyrocketing compared to early runs.

Also, make sure to clear all blue doors in biome 1 and 2 before moving on to biome 3. Biome 3 is a real steep one, there are barely any health pickups anywhere and the enemies hit hard
 
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2AdEPT

Member
Why is melee inconsistent?
The only time it has been for me is when I got a cooldown malfunction for melee. When you are used to your sword being part of you and all of a sudden it isnt....its game breaking....same for dash. Alt/fire is less of a concern but if I get either melee or dash cooldown malfunctions I get rid of them asap. I've started gamblng less on malfunctions in general. if I dont have an obvious way to get rid of potential threats I dont roll the dice on malignancy much anymore.
Just spent another 3 hours tonight on Biome 2 and beat the second boss on my second attempt. I think I'm definitely getting the hang of the gameplay now, Ixiom was significantly harder than Phrike but Phrike took be 6 tries.

What's a good strategy for maximizing artifacts? I've gotten good at maximizing weapon proficiency and suit integrity, but I feel like I'm really lacking on the artifacts most runs.

My strategy has been

-Always make sure to pick up the obolites from fallen enemies before they disappear, this assures you have enough when you come across fabricators etc.
-Before moving on from the first biome, check all blue doors and buy an artifact at Helios for ether.
-Chests that are locked almost always have artifacts in them

Those are the ones I can come up with now, I really wanna emphasize the first point, it is crucial to pick up obolites fast to get that obolite snowball going. But take care, don’t do it if you risk taking heavy damage. As you get better and your skills improve, your obolite collection in each biome will start skyrocketing compared to early runs.

Also, make sure to clear all blue doors in biome 1 and 2 before moving on to biome 3. Biome 3 is a real steep one, there are barely any health pickups anywhere and the enemies hit hard
Locked chests are one thing but that whole locked mosoleum in biome 2 usually has a tonne of artifacts. Always save a key just for that place alone. It usually pops up on one side or the other even if its not the smaae each time.

Only other thing I would add is to stockpile Obolites and do not take the first offer on power upgrades, even though you might use them for the boss. try to recall where you left things to buy before the boss and then you can better manage your spending. Depending on the type of penalty you get for the parasite in question (i.e. do not take it if it gimps your health for picking up an item for example) the parasite which reduces obolite costs by 15% is huge over an early biome 1 and 2 run.

edit: almost forgot, although technically not an artifact they give the same effecet - datacubes...possibly permanent? LOL I keep dying whn I have them and the time I did eat Ixion I had none ;( You can actually re-fight Phrike or Ixion if you die and have to start over, but didnt get a datacube right away. If you find a cube after dying make sure to consider refighting the boss instead of just going on to biome 3 ...havent been there yet but heard its punishing. Put the cube in the machine. The two places I get cubes in biome one so far are that hidden wall with red blemishes and the merging floor room where you have to jump to one side or the other. If you are desperate for health you can choose the green one, but generally speaking the others are usualy worth it. You can get an artifact straight out, but also a data cube. HInt: cheese the room and look inside before rushing in. I looked at the map once and it isnt detailed enough with the purple ones if you are looking in plain sight, on the map they are all yellow triangles or whatever and I couldnt get an idea of which way to go from the map. The purple has been ether for me as well so not all is lost on purples in that room.
 
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bargeparty

Member
Why is melee inconsistent?

I personally melee a lot and found that it will seemingly at random either snap to a close enemy or not. It will sometimes snap to an aerial target several feet away and higher than me and then not snap to an enemy just a couple feet away.

Some enemies like those flying robot fuckers will dodge just enough to cause a miss. Even when they've stopped their momentum there's a little dodge they do which is very annoying.

I was playing through the first biome a lot tonight and noticed those basic squid guys do something similar with their melee attack. They always have just enough reach to get you and the "wind up" for a melee attack is very quick, quicker than you would expect.
 
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TheTurboFD

Member
Finally beat the game! All I can say is that HollowSeeker with Serrated blade III, Waves and whatever skill allowed a little laser ball to attack my enemies, is the best thing I've used. Made short work of bosses from 4th biome to the final.
 

bargeparty

Member
Finally beat the game! All I can say is that HollowSeeker with Serrated blade III, Waves and whatever skill allowed a little laser ball to attack my enemies, is the best thing I've used. Made short work of bosses from 4th biome to the final.

Portal beam or portal turret, probably beam.
 

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
The only time it has been for me is when I got a cooldown malfunction for melee. When you are used to your sword being part of you and all of a sudden it isnt....its game breaking....same for dash. Alt/fire is less of a concern but if I get either melee or dash cooldown malfunctions I get rid of them asap. I've started gamblng less on malfunctions in general. if I dont have an obvious way to get rid of potential threats I dont roll the dice on malignancy much anymore.
I personally melee a lot and found that it will seemingly at random either snap to a close enemy or not. It will sometimes snap to an aerial target several feet away and higher than me and then not snap to an enemy just a couple feet away.

Some enemies like those flying robot fuckers will dodge just enough to cause a miss. Even when they've stopped their momentum there's a little dodge they do which is very annoying.

I was playing through the first biome a lot tonight and noticed those basic squid guys do something similar with their melee attack. They always have just enough reach to get you and the "wind up" for a melee attack is very quick, quicker than you would expect.
Apart from the malfunctions changing the cooldown time i really have no problems with the melee attacks.
As long as you are in a specific range it draws you to the enemy. Always to the one i'm aiming at, or pointing with the analog stick to.
Of course if you are still in the cooldown phase it won't work.

Was just curious since iorek21 iorek21 said it was inconsistent without mentioning why although i don't have problems with it.
 
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GymWolf

Gold Member
I fully finished the game and still not totally sure what's going on.

giphy.gif

I prefer that to get everything narratively solved. Think Silent Hill 2. Obscure narratives last longer.
There is a difference between leaving some minor details to the imagination and not explaining jack shit and having the entire plot open to interpretation, in sh2 you know 90% of what happen, in returnal you can play 100 hours and still being completely unsure of what is real or not or what the hell a lot of things even are...
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Im pretty sure my Ps5 twitch/you tube output is just 1440 as I fill up space too quick otherwise, but it does 60 FPS ok ...again I would love to see your video, cant see why others wouldnt and if they dont want it they dont have ot click on it :p ......here is my footage of the Ixion boss fight last night on a 5 hour run. It was my second attempt....forgot to change to "always sprint" in the menu and fell off the cliff twice...didnt do that on my first attempt, but managed to pull it off with the electro pylon driver and hardly used the alt/fire neon cannon or whatever. Didnt use the astro like the first attempt either.



Sweet! The Driver weapon is neat! Still prefer my Hollowseeker as it's much better in crowd control while still very powerful against single enemies.

My video is still processing since yesterday on youtube, only 360p available! Now I understand why Sony forces an embargo, it assures that when people watch your content it's not at 360p, but already processed at the highest possible quality.

From what I've see that was a stream quality, right? Also it's better to just delete the clips when you finish uploading them, gaming doesn't need to be archived and Youtube works like a perfect, safe cloud save as you can redownload them back again:

image.png


It downloads separately (video/audio) with this app then they get combined when completed. You need to add some files into your PC system though for it to do so but they have that explained in the firfox apps.

image.png


I'll add captions to the video so it'll be ready to share when done processing.

unknown.png
 
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Used-ID

Member
Finally got data log 9 last night!

Skipping going through biome 2 this run and going for the boss of 3 since I have a "decent" weapon against the enemies there, though it seems I'll have the find something different for the boss....

....and how I've managed to avoid story spoilers for this game I may never know.....
 

McCarth

Member
Man alive I keep getting decimated in Biome 2 as soon as I enter the mountain. I've only had the patience / time the last couple days for two runs each night, so it's a little depressing when both go poorly.

Please don't hate me guys but I would love just a little bump on subsequent runs to help me over the edge, like a far more lenient RNG bump to helpful artifacts or whatnot. I want to see more of this game!
 

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Man alive I keep getting decimated in Biome 2 as soon as I enter the mountain. I've only had the patience / time the last couple days for two runs each night, so it's a little depressing when both go poorly.

Please don't hate me guys but I would love just a little bump on subsequent runs to help me over the edge, like a far more lenient RNG bump to helpful artifacts or whatnot. I want to see more of this game!
With which enemies you struggle the most in biome 2?
 

iorek21

Member
Why is melee inconsistent?
I've done some tests with it and I concluded that it is very inconsistent, I wish I had the editing skills to make a video out of it, but you can test it in-game.
It seems that what determines the melee hit/miss is your camera angle rather than Selene's or the enemy's position. If the enemy is in front of you, the melee attack will usually work, but this becomes very inconsistent when the enemy is above, below or beside the camera; sometimes you'll miss the hit despite being 2 inches away from an enemy. It seems that this happens mostly with flying aliens, but I've also seen it happen against those gorilla creatures; the ray fish from Biome 1 and the flying drones from Biome 3 are the greatest offenders of this inconsistency, since in 40% of the melee attacks against them will show the animation connecting but not dealing any damage.
Melee's inconsistency can also be noticed in its range; sometimes Selene will automatically move 2 meters to hit an enemy, but sometimes will miss an enemy 2 inches away.
This can pretty often ruin your run since some combat situations require you to get close range.

Speaking of flying enemies, the drones and ray fish are very unbalanced. There are rooms in Biome 3 that can throw something like 10 of those drones + 5 kamikaze robots; I think it's almost humanly impossible to dodge everything that's thrown at you, especially because of the drones's hitbox issue and their missile attack, which can be pretty unnoticeable since it doesn't have a distinct color like other attacks. The ray fish, on the other hand, has a charge attack that sometimes makes them pass through walls or trees and hit you.
 
Anyone else hunting for stuff for the platinum?

I'm trying to get the 3 gold trophies, for the first 3 biomes. In biome 1, I am missing scout log 9. In biome 3, I'm missing scout log 34.

Does anyone know if there are certain things that must be done to trigger these spawning? I've already completed the game.

I'm also missing 3 translation glyphs in biome 2. I've been through these 3 zones so many times now, I'm surprised I never came across any of these.
 

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
I've done some tests with it and I concluded that it is very inconsistent, I wish I had the editing skills to make a video out of it, but you can test it in-game.
It seems that what determines the melee hit/miss is your camera angle rather than Selene's or the enemy's position. If the enemy is in front of you, the melee attack will usually work, but this becomes very inconsistent when the enemy is above, below or beside the camera; sometimes you'll miss the hit despite being 2 inches away from an enemy. It seems that this happens mostly with flying aliens, but I've also seen it happen against those gorilla creatures; the ray fish from Biome 1 and the flying drones from Biome 3 are the greatest offenders of this inconsistency, since in 40% of the melee attacks against them will show the animation connecting but not dealing any damage.
Melee's inconsistency can also be noticed in its range; sometimes Selene will automatically move 2 meters to hit an enemy, but sometimes will miss an enemy 2 inches away.
This can pretty often ruin your run since some combat situations require you to get close range.

Speaking of flying enemies, the drones and ray fish are very unbalanced. There are rooms in Biome 3 that can throw something like 10 of those drones + 5 kamikaze robots; I think it's almost humanly impossible to dodge everything that's thrown at you, especially because of the drones's hitbox issue and their missile attack, which can be pretty unnoticeable since it doesn't have a distinct color like other attacks. The ray fish, on the other hand, has a charge attack that sometimes makes them pass through walls or trees and hit you.
I will definetly look a bit closer now but i seriously haven't had any problems as of now. As long as the animation triggers, the strike hits.
 

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Anyone else hunting for stuff for the platinum?

I'm trying to get the 3 gold trophies, for the first 3 biomes. In biome 1, I am missing scout log 9. In biome 3, I'm missing scout log 34.

Does anyone know if there are certain things that must be done to trigger these spawning? I've already completed the game.

I'm also missing 3 translation glyphs in biome 2. I've been through these 3 zones so many times now, I'm surprised I never came across any of these.
Me too!

It's a slog...

monsters inc disney GIF


But i love the game and i have a wonderful time with it, so i don't mind.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
Hints and captions: Completed!
1080p@60fps: Completed!
4K HDR: in progress...

image.png


Seems like it takes nearly a whole day to process near one hour 4K HDR. That's why embargos make sense if you wanna view them in the highest possible quality.
 
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drotahorror

Member
Anyone else hunting for stuff for the platinum?

I'm trying to get the 3 gold trophies, for the first 3 biomes. In biome 1, I am missing scout log 9. In biome 3, I'm missing scout log 34.

Does anyone know if there are certain things that must be done to trigger these spawning? I've already completed the game.

I'm also missing 3 translation glyphs in biome 2. I've been through these 3 zones so many times now, I'm surprised I never came across any of these.

For scout log 9, this helped me find it within half an hour. Probably extremely lucky but I had spent hours previous to that.

^ Very efficient method.


As for a log in Biome 3. Unless they patched something, I've noticed you can see basically the entire map at one point. You don't even need to explore. If you see the log there, when you open your map at a certain point (you can't see full map at very beginning), then you know it's there. I think I was at the point where I could buy artifacts / 25% integrity room. I looked at my map and sure enough, several rooms and grapple points away was a scout log icon on the map (that you press with the touchpad). Biome 3 is the only biome with a full map presented to you for some reason, if you haven't explored it.

I was missing a few glyphs as well in biome 2. I just ran through until I found them. I don't think there's any glyphs in the locked rooms in the desert part area. But as you get to the mountain explore every side room. Once you get to the final room where it warsp you to the top of the mountain (the same place that you can get a free portal from at the bottom of the mountain), you can restart cycle. The room where there is usually a couple turrets and a set of stairs leading to a warp. There is no change in this room or the top of the mountain and no glyph there. I ran it dozens of times, there's no lockdowns so you can just run through everything. If you come across a lobber, grab it as it one shots most of the annoying enemies from biome 1 and most enemies in 2.
 
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