Hey guys, started Returnal today. Awesome fun, got my backside well and truly kicked at times. But I am going to love this game. The mechanics are amazing, very satisfying combat.
@NedStarksGhost Glad you like it so far. It’s an addictive gameplay with satisfying yet difficult combat.
There is a steep learning curve as you figure out how to play in the very kinetic fashion that the game uses. It’s definitely a ‘push forward’ type of combat, but there are times I can still sit back and shoot from a distance. Maintaining integrity is pretty key early on. You may have discovered that the silphiums restore some integrity (basically like a health pack restoring health) and that resins go toward building the max integrity. If your integrity bar is full then the green drops will
default mostly to resins rather than silphium. So the key in the early biomes is building the max integrity to make bosses easier, so you do this beat by not taking damage and trying to keep that bar full as much as possible during your run. Easier said than done 😅
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As for me, I’m struggling to make it through Biome 6. I can get about halfway through before the enemy encounters coupled with the environment make it really difficult and I die. I can usually breeze through Biome 4 but then I eventually hit a wall.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@NedStarksGhost Hey welcome to the fold. Sounds like you are already enjoying the experience plenty but totally agree with @Th3solution, to make the most of it you definitely need to be aggressive and push forward. That way you get chance to pick up as many obolites as possible and maximise what you can buy from the fabricators.
There’s plenty of people on here that can offer advice though so let us know if you get stuck with anything.
@Th3solution B6 is definitely a weird one and feels quite different to the others. That was the one biome where even after completing the game I was hanging back a bit and taking things out from a distance. By that point I’d bought about all I needed so wasn’t so worried about picking up obolites.
@NedStarksGhost I’d advise that in the first biome, melee is a really useful skill. It’s a one hit kill on the smaller enemies (and gets you the obolites as you’re so close to them) and it’s also very useful against the bigger enemies to either stun them or take off a good chunk of health once you have.
@Th3solution I was lucky to get through B6 first go but I think I had the artefact that gave health based on damage and adrenaline level. Seeing as there’s the enemy that spawns those easy to kill jellyfish type enemies, you could spam those to get health back quite easily. Those malfunction hits from those other enemy types can be a killer though. The boss at the end is probably middling for difficulty so good luck when you get there!
@Th3solution that's really helpful to know about the health pick ups. I attached a parasite which let me heal on enemy kills but couldn't use silphium pick ups. I thought oh cool that seems helpful, probably won't need whatever that silphium is... forgetting what the silphium stuff was... I regretted that pretty quickly!
@render I'll be sure to follow your guys advice on the aggression. I have been a bit more stand back and shoot from distance, probably a confidence thing!
@Thrillho I didn't even know you could melee! I'll try that out when I get round to using it. Definitely sounds helpful early on against the weird blue tentacle monsters
Thanks all for the tips, I'll be sure to post regularly about my progress and thoughts!
@Thrillho@render Yeah, I found that my first run through B6 was one of my best because I was fairy buffed from having run through B5. I have been totally skipping B5 and perhaps I’m just a little too weak when I arrive, but I don’t think so. It’s the tracking malfunction-causing projectiles that are a killer. And the globes that send out orbs and tons of perpendicular red rings. They seem to always be in groups of 2-3, along with the suicide bombers coming at you from all directions, then the terrain is tricky because a couple of my deaths have been while dodging all the incoming attacks and I dashed right off into the abyss. And those blasted eyeball columns shining spotlights everywhere. There’s not even any place to stand that you’re not exposed to something.
Overall the map and terrain is visually and thematically interesting but a nightmare to navigate. Each section is like a miniature maze of layered paths to even find the exit door, much less try to mop up all the pick-ups.
The furthest I made it is to what appeared to be a mini boss and it was really tough too. Wiped me out in nothing flat.
I’ll take any tips or advice anyone has, especially on how to deal with the malfunction torpedos and the enemies that vomit rings and orbs in every 3-dimentional position imaginable.
But B6 is a good place to level up weapons, (for the same reason @Thrillho that the ‘restore integrity per damage dealt and adrenaline level’ is a great item to have; I need to keep that in mind) — you can spam dozens of those suicide dive-bombers and unlock a new trait in just a few minutes if you can just park at one of their infinite spawning points.
I will say too that my favorite weapon is probably the Dreadbound but it’s completely useless in B6. If you don’t hit the target then it takes forever for your shard to come back and your stuck with no offense for what feels like an eternity. The Hollowseeker and Carbine have seemed to work best.
Speaking of weapons, I had a weird thing happen today where I unlocked the Coilspine Shredder randomly at the beginning of a run. I had thought the weapons were placed at certain key map points to unlock during progress (at least that’s what it seemed like with all the other weapons) but after I died I noticed a gun icon on my map in the corner of the beginning respawn area by the Helios, and it turned out being a Shredder just sitting there in the foliage. I had to scan it of course as a new item, but i thought it strange that the game just gave it to me at the respawn point without really ‘earning’ it at some point in Biome 6.
Which, by the way, the last two weapons are probably the worst ones in the game. The Shredder and the Pyroshell Caster - both are so slow. Slow to fire, slow to reload, and don’t seem to do as much damage as the other slow firing weapons like the Lobber and the Thermogenic Launcher. Or the Dreadbound, which is so satisfying to fire - it packs such a punch and if you can get in close to the enemy it both fires quickly with virtually no cool down necessary and each shard just tears the enemies up. It just sucks from a distance.
@NedStarksGhost Yeah, there is a lot of trial and error in the opening hours playing through Biome 1 and 2. I was doing like you and attaching every parasite and taking on all kinds of malignant items and malfunctions, and over time I learned my playstyle, and end up being much more conservative in general with the debuffs I take. The ones that prevent you from picking up silphium or give you damage when picking up an item - those are just killers. But some of the debuffs are really minor to me. For example the one that gives you damage when you use a key — I figure I only use about 2 or 3 keys max per run, if not less, so I’ll take that on if it’s paired with a decent perk.
And yeah, the melee comes later. You can’t melee at first. And I love the art design of the melee weapon. (Which you could have never guess based on my profile pic 😅)
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution For B6 I definitely found the best weapons to be the hollowseeker with portal beam, the lobber with explosive rot or the pylon gun with some good level 2 traits. The trick is to pop your head in a room and then try and launch some stuff in there while backing off. That way you’ve got a better view of what’s coming and can avoid the rings etc. I was looking at the mini map quite a bit and if I saw anything on it then I’d be making sure that it’s not some suicide squids first. If it was then again edging forward and trying to take some out and just backing off a bit to a point where you could see stuff.
If I was on some ledges then I’d definitely be avoiding using dash if possible. But I’d also avoid getting into the middle of wide open areas if there’s a lot of hostiles in there, unless it’s the challenge room and in which case you’ve got no choice. There are grapple points in there though so if you ever do that you can use those.
For that mini boss I found the trick was to not go into the room with it but try and do as much damage as I could from above, then when it made it up to me I’d just try and back up as much as I could to give myself some space. Hopefully by then you’ve got it down a good amount and can just finish it off.
@Th3solution Like the rest of the weapons, when you first unlock them do seem pretty useless, but the more traits you unlock the more useful they become. I quite liked the Pyroshell Caster in the end but not so much the Shredder. All the weapons have their different strengths and weaknesses which will suit different players with different play styles.
For Biome 6 my go to weapon was the Electopylon Driver for the actual level and Hollowseeker for the boss. I found the best way to avoid the Malignant seeking missiles is either have an substantial obstacle you can hide behind (the tracking will only curve so much), or run and (if possible) grapple back the way you came. If you have a door you can use as cover than great. The glitter balls either keep at a distance or just keep on the move always using your grapple. By that stage they were less problematic for me however, and they would go down quite easily in a few hits.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@render@JohnnyShoulder Those are good tips. Thanks
I do think I need to be more tactical and take it slow and easy through those heavily enemied areas. It’s the old issue of trying to hurry up and get back to where you were before since you’re just so ready to move on.
The enemies in B6 mostly go down fairly easily, it’s just the large numbers and the large amount of projectiles being spewed all at once in the narrow terrain.
It’s true about the weapons and it does take a while to get in the rhythm of each gun. The traits do make a very large difference too, so I try to use and unlock them, even though I’m not proficient. So maybe I’ll warm up the the Caster and Shredder. For now, using them is a quick way to get dead.
@Elodin Wha?! That sounds awesome. I haven’t got that trait yet, so I’ll definitely prioritize it when I see it!
That’s one of the problems — when I come upon a new trait needing to be unlocked on a weapon, it’s hard to know which traits are the really good ones. I mean, they’re all good (well, except for the charging trait on the pistol - I hate the delay before it fires. It completely throws off mg timing) but some traits are just much better than others. Sometimes I’ll look up what the traits do when I have a choice of two weapons, but usually I just pick one that sounds good. 😅. Sometimes the name of the trait isn’t what you think it is though. “Easy to Use” on the launcher doesn’t make the rounds easier to fire or easier to target — it just gives you more proficiency than normal. A fairly low worth trait in my book
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I was always reading what the traits did in the menu if I wasn't sure what they did and comparing it to my current weapon. On their own traits may sound useless, but at the later stages you will have three or four on any weapon so you can kinda live with one duff one. Very rarely I would have a weapon when all the traits were awesome, sometimes you just need to go with the roll of the dice.
There were a couple of alt-fire modes I didn't like using like Proximity Mine I never worked out to use properly, but all the rest I've found really useful and had gotten me out of some tricky situations.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
@JohnnyShoulder@velio84 Did you guys use the pylon for the mini-boss? Typhonops I think it’s called. On my recent good run I had a nice carbine with leech rounds and I still die after about 2 hits from it. The swipe attacks are just so powerful. It feels like a full fledged boss. The game even gives you a large silphium vial right before the fight and I still get wiped out so fast I don’t even have time to use it.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution I agree, those mini bosses are ridiculously overpowered. It doesn’t seem fair that they can pretty much one shot you even with a good level of proficiency. That one in that room is really annoying though as if you get stuck in there with him then you can’t get away from it quick enough.
I’m pretty sure when I did it as part of act 2 I used the hollowseeker with portal beam and it made it a load easier. I just stood at the door and kept firing until a portal spawned and then got back again. Doing that a few times took him down in health a fair way. The pylon gun will definitely work as well 👍
Had a good few hours on it today. Following your guy's advice I managed to do pretty well. I've just finished act 1, was very fortunate at times. Had some useful items, and I used that regenerator machine thing that gives you a respawn in biome 3. I didn't actually know what it did... Thought I'd see, glad my curiosity made me spend the ether!
Safe to say I'm hooked, very interesting story and didn't expect that to happen after biome 3!
@Th3solution Not entirely sure as I can't quite remember, but I've got a feeling it was the Hollowseeker with either portal beam or turret (always get those two mixed up). On higher levels, one of those traits gains a mini secondary portal. Which is all kinds of awesome. That is defo what I had when beat the main boss the first time round.
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
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