Topic: Returnal

@Tatarimokke Good job! Keep it up. Each run you learn something. When you get to the boss it’s possible that you might hit another wall, although some players clear it on the first try. For me I was pretty frustrated for and took several attempts at it. It becomes a matter of pattern recognition once again, and if you’re a Souls veteran, you know the drill.

@Tatarimokke As others have said, there’s no shame in watching videos or reading about boss attack patterns as it can really help figure out attacks patterns.

They all have three stages to them though so don’t think you’ve won when you whittle the health bar down for the first time!

Can anyone confirm the current state of play regarding healing back at the ship? I didn't buy the game at release and I've read it was almost a cheat where you could keep returning to heal, then it got patched out completely? Couple of times I've tried it lately and it does restore a small-medium amount of integrity when sleeping but only once

@MatthewJP I think it only heals once now (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)

@Tatarimokke a beginners tip from a beginner - don't even bother venturing down to the first boss unless you have at least one silphium vial and preferably an astronaut as well. You won't last long.

But you will soon get to the point in the game where you'll be taking the boss on just for fun even though you've defeated him before and wondering what all the fuss was about.

@MatthewJP Yeah, it was patched soon after release (while I was still playing and I started day 1).

@Just_2_milky yeah that's what I'm experiencing. I missed all the patches - early adopters must have loved that option of a free heal at every opportunity!

ooh noo!!! I just made it to the first boss with a vial and figurine and i just died in third phase with around 30 percent left from her third healthbar:((( Now i feel sad and very empty handed... I hope i can keep the sword and house key at least. That was a good run. I should have done it would have been so satisficing .
Thanks for your help again guys!

@Tatarimokke The first boss is the hardest, but it seems like you’ve almost got it! The house key and sword stay with you through deaths, too.

yeah those yellow energy beams killed me at the end. Don't know what should i do with them. Dash through or jump through.. I think i leave it for tomorrow

@Tatarimokke Sounds like you're getting the hang of it, keep it up
You keep the blade and while you won't be able to enter the house again straight away, you also won't need to find the key again.
Also, the boss vault is now permanently open so you can go fight Phrike again as soon as you find it, if you want to.

@Tatarimokke you did great to get to the 3rd phase.
I found this video very useful if you need any tips

@MatthewJP Thank You I'll have a look on it! @Voltan yes probably I'm improved a bit i should get through the 1st biome more easier next time as i can get those healing items behind the red barricade.
How can i get an astronaut again if i can't enter the house? And you mean i have to fight with Phrike if i find her otherwise i can't go to biome 2. Is she going to be that far again?

@Tatarimokke The astronaut figurine is an item you can find randomly once you’ve unlocked it in the house but it is frequently for sale in the room with multiple items for sale halfway through the biome.

You need to beat Phrike once to unlock biome 2. The boss room location is random on the map; sometimes it can even be off the first main area you come to but it’s weighing up how much it’s worth preparing yourself before trying the fight.

@Tatarimokke Anytime you find a new item (like you just did with the astronaut but it applies to all artifacts, consumables and weapons) it is added to the pool of items you can find anywhere in the world. Artifacts most commonly appear as available for purchase in fabricators but they can be found in some other places too.
New items are unlocked by:

• finding them in specific rooms (new weapons are usually found like this)
• completing house sequences
• processing datacubes
• spending ether at the Chtonos (the obelisk kind of thing near your ship - it might not be active for you yet).
  For example - you might not be able to find a specific consumable until you find and process a datacube in biome 3, but once you do, it can be dropped by an enemy anywhere in the game and it stays that way forever.

Once you beat Phrike for the first time, you get a key that opens the portal to biome 2. The portal stays open afterwards so you can skip the boss battle the next time.

@Tatarimokke Great job, bud! You did better than most if you got that far on your first attempt. Yeah; now it’s just weighing the risk and benefit of taking a direct line to the boss when you see it on the map, or spending an hour or so clearing the Biome and buffing yourself first, which will be much easier now with the melee sword. Like I mentioned, if you can at least make it to the fabricator store room first before going to the boss room and afford a large silphium vial, the astronaut (if it shows up there) and the integrity boost, then that should help get you through with enough health to beat Phrike. And yeah, the yellow energy beams are avoidable if you recognize the wind-up. The videos can be helpful, like people have said.

@Voltan @Thrillho @Th3solution thanks I'm getting there I mean now I understand the main mechanism of the game thanks to all of you guys on this forum. If you wouldn't have help me a lot I'm sure I would have given up already. Thanks again for all of your time and effort for helping me out!
I'm going to go back tonight and see what I have learnt so far.

@Quintumply Well done on the plat man! How long did it take you?

@JohnnyShoulder I had a quick look at the in-game stat for this — my runtime is 90-something hours, approaching the 100 mark. That's been inflated a bit by the fact I played it not only to review the game, but also to write a whole bunch of guides. But yeah, quite a lot of time dedicated to this one!

@Quintumply Gives us an appreciation of how much time you have to put into a game to be able to write what you do. Do you enjoy writing guides for games? I know some people do and do it for fun but just wondered if it does become a bit of a chore in general or for some specific games?