@Thrillho I'll be sure to look out for it. I've done biome 1, 2, 3, and 4 so far. 5 sucks so hopefully it isn't too hard to find.
Oh and I seem to have happened upon a crazy glitch. I cleared out all three of the first biomes and hit maximum integrity just before the boss in 3. After I killed it and did the transition I'm back to normal health but it still says I'm at maximum integrity. Now no matter how many times I restart the cycle I can't upgrade my integrity at all. Uh oh.
Woohoo! Found the last cipher I needed, and got the platinum at last!
6 days 9 hours and loose change of suit time, and 172 deaths.
I can't remember a game I've been more pleased to get the platinum for, as there were quite a few stages along the way where I thought "ah, that's it, I'll never get past this bit". Definitely my favourite PS5 game so far, and all credit to Housemarque
@JigsawPieces Oohhhh yeah, nice one! I still remember the day when I got the platinum so I can imagine you are basking in the glow of your victory. My wife, who is sitting next to me searching for a cipher in B5, just said she's jealous 😀.
It's going to take an amazing game to beat Returnal and looking at the number of people who cite it in their best games of 2021 article it seems like plenty would agree!
#%&$!!! Barely missed out on beating Phrike again. This time I had the perfect set up, power ups I liked, no annoying malignancies, had saved to spend my ether on a reconstructor and all my olibites on the extra integrity and the large med pack consumable - went into the fight with full adrenaline level, and a level 4 carbine that I liked …. Got him to within probably an eighth of his health left in the third phase and he stupid melee attacks got me. Grrrr….!! So frustrating. My second chance with the reconstructed life was less successful because apparently your consumables don’t regenerate with you, so I had to try to get him with just one health bar and I couldn’t get to the third phase even.
I watched the video and tried to study his moves beforehand. I just had a few poor judgements I guess. I felt like if I could have had just one more go at him maybe I could have got him, as I was just started to get a feel and a rhythm for his attacks. 😩
Then tried a few more runs but I was beat down by then.
I think I’m up to about 25 deaths
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@JohnnyShoulder@render Ha, thanks I'm sure I'll still be dabbling with it a bit more still, I feel a bit sad it's over.
Good luck to your wife @render in finding those ciphers. I'm pretty sure she's romped through the rest of the game compared to me!
@Th3solution Argh, unlucky! Sounds like you'll beat Phrike really soon though - maybe have another look at the video to see the melee attacks again, because once you get the hang of avoiding those you're all set.
One of my favourite experiences playing this game so far has been revisiting the early areas in the game after beating it and going through parts that gave me an incredible amount of trouble before without any issue now. When going for the special ending, I did biomes 1, 2, 3, and 4 in one sitting, and I didn't really have any problems, and I beat the second and third bosses too because I'd picked up a datacube and wanted to cash it in. It's really something.
I think when I get in I'll get back on this and go for the last two special itemy things - only got biomes 5 and 6 to go. I don't know if I'll bother with the Platinum though. There's a lot of randomness involved and I'm not sure I'm mentally prepared to deal with it.
@Th3solution That’s the hardest part of the game I thought. Finding the energy and enthusiasm to battle your way back through to the boss again and undoubtedly have a couple of rubbish runs before you do.
But keep going as that adrenaline rush when you finally beat the boss is all worth it!
@Th3solution Bad luck! @JigsawPieces and @Thrillho are right though, I bet you are pretty much there. It often just takes one thing to break through so it might just be working out how to avoid that melee attack and you are there. I didn't beat any of the bosses first time I don't think but each encounter I learnt a bit more and eventually did it. It's one hell of a rush when you do. I think first time through on any boss fight my hands were shaking and I was just so pleased to have done it. It's totally worth it!
You've found the generally annoying thing about the reconstructor though, that you don't get to keep the consumables that you had when you used the device. Even though you've got that little bit of extra knowledge you are slightly less tooled up when you go back in again.
@JigsawPieces She's really come good on this game. Watching her yesterday it's like watching a completely different person play as she's now got full command of the camera and doesn't panic and completely lose her head in those challenge rooms. This game really teaches you a few things about playing games in general. I was also sad when I was done though but I still dip in here and there. I might be tempted at some point to disable auto-sync and delete my local save to start again but it's never going to be the same as starting from scratch. I still know what's to come.
@johncalmc That's the only problem with the platinum really, the randomness. Things are slightly less random since the last patch so you might find it easier than some of us that did it before that. I found it still fun to play at that stage though and didn't find it so repetitive.
@render Well, I'm not bored of the game or anything. I'm still finding it fun. I just wonder once I've seen the ending and everything and I'm just running around hoping the game Gods will provide what I need, whether that will just annoy me. If it drags on and on it probably will. I'll still keep it up for a bit though and see how it goes.
@JigsawPieces@Thrillho@render@JohnnyShoulder Thanks for the encouragement. I do fee strangely more confident now, even if that was a heartbreaker. I have a busy day with work today and not sure if I’ll have mental energy for a run tonight. I will admit, that after 10-12 or so hours into the game, I am absolutely on board with a save function. It doesn’t look like we’ll get it and I understand the issue of keeping the integrity of the developer’s vision and all, but it really puts me at a disadvantage in some ways. The first 2-4 runs of the day are warmup runs to get your reaction timing back in rhythm, then you start to put together longer and longer runs, so that by the time you’re in the middle of your good run you’re 2 hours invested and a good run appears to take an hour or two and here we go at 3-4 hours later and … before you know it midnight rolls by. I actually tried the Housemarque midrun save work around and put the PS5 to sleep midway through my good run last night since I knew and had a special one going and had a chance that I didn’t want to abandon and I really had to take an extended phone call. I was nervous for a crash but it worked fine and I was back in the game an hour later without a hitch.
So is it worth it to buy a reconstructor? 6 ether is pretty expensive to me, since I average finding about 1 ether every other run. Should I stockpile them for something else?
I do think I like the idea of saving the obolites for the 25% integrity addition and a health pack consumable. Those are going to be key for getting past Phrike. I did learn that through watching a couple more videos that I should have waited to the very end of my run to buy the 25% increase til after I’ve already found all available resin, since 25% added apparently includes the entirety of your health bar at the time of purchase, so 25% of a bigger amount is going to end up a bigger chunk to add. They little extra health might have been enough last night to get the 3-5 seconds more I needed to finish him off. Also, I think I’ll be more aggressive about saving those early loot boxes until the end of the run too when the proficiency is hopefully around 4. Then I might just get a 5 or 6 level weapon if I’m lucky. (I think it was you Johnny who suggested that) I had sort of waited on a couple boxes if I was close to the next level, but now I think I’ll just save the early ones so long as I’m effective with the starter pistol since I’ve unlocked all the traits available on the weapons and there is no weapon grinding needed right now for my pool of weapons.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I wouldn't ignore all of the chests until after you have cleared biome 1, as if you do all of biome 1 with just the starting pistol you might be making life more difficult for yourself and thus losing more health.
I wouldn't pay too much attention to the different levels of weapons, as i found I'm better off using weapons I'm more comfortable with. Like I didn't like the Spitmaw (shotgun) at first, so if I had a Carbine just one lower level I would leave the Spitmaw as I was more effective with the Carbine. Especially if I was about to face the boss.
I don't remember what I had when I beat him, but as a general rule I always went with the Astronaut and large health pack at least, and anything else was a bonus. You are essentially giving your self three lives that way. I personally stopped using the reconstructor and saved my ethers for the Artefact thing at the crash site. Only used that when I was in biomes 2, 3, 5 and 6 and about to face the boss.
You can also go back to your ship once per run to restore a small amount of health. And those green coffin things you lie in also restore health and increase your max integrity, but not sure if that is unlocked yet. It should be.
@Th3solution That's a good suggestion about the 25% integrity increase. I usually just grabbed it as soon as I saw it thinking that, like in life, I'd just go and blow the cash on something else if I didn't buy it then and there.
I stopped using the reconstructors as there were definitely better uses of that much ether early on and like you've found, it seems to take a while to gather enough initially. I'd agree with @JohnnyShoulder on the weapons front though, it's good to find something that you like and if you've unlocked a few weapons traits on it then you can find something reasonably soon that will work to at least make the biome easier. You can then leave the ones after you find a weapon you are happy with to come back to later. I like how moving on from each biome works in this game where once you've beaten the boss it doesn't automatically take you straight through to the next one, but gives you then a chance to go and grab a few things that you might have left behind.
Credits have rolled. But I didn't defeat Ophion. When I went back after reconstructor brought me back, it wasn't there. So went down the hole where it came, and ended up with a cut scene kicking in eventually.
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