Saros: 9 Essential Tips to Improve Your Runs and Live Longer

The main bulk of your time playing Saros will be while you're out in the world, on a run through the game's various biomes and trying to make more and more progress. To begin with, you might come up against some struggles, as this is a challenging game that can be difficult as you get used to how it plays. As part of our Saros guide, we've outlined some tips and advice for beginners to help you improve your runs.

Learn How to Deal with Each Attack Type

Enemies will come at you with various attacks, each a different colour that tells you how you should react to it.

• Blue: Dodge or Absorb with your Shield. Absorbing blue projectiles will give you Power, which is required to fuel your Power Weapon.
• Red: Dodge or Parry. Parrying red projectiles sends a shockwave back in the opposite direction, and can damage or stagger enemies it hits.
• Yellow: Dodge or Absorb. Absorbing yellow projectiles with your Shield also gives you Power, but will build Corruption on your health bar. You can cleanse Corruption by using your Power Weapon.
• Yellow beams: Dodge or dash through. Yellow or orange beam attacks can be dashed through to avoid damage, but they will drain Power if they hit your Shield.
• Red beams: Dodge. You can't do anything with red beams, so simply jump or dodge around them.

If you are finding the colour-coded attacks difficult to follow or hard to read, you can adjust all the colours manually in the Settings menu under Visuals.

Master the Shield and Don't Be Shy with Power Weapons

You use the Shield by holding R1. While the Shield is active, it will gradually drain Power, but you will regain much more when you use the Shield to absorb blue or yellow projectiles.

The Shield not only lets you avoid some damage; the Power you absorb charges your Power Weapon. This is a special attack, used by holding L2 all the way down and pressing R2.

The main tip we have here is that, if you're using your Shield to top up your Power you will always have access to your Power Weapon. This means you can use it liberally, as you can easily regain Power later. Don't be afraid to use your Power Weapon often, as it'll make fights easier.

Pick Up as Much Lucenite as Possible

Lucenite is the yellow crystal you'll find on the ground or dropped by enemies when defeated.

There are two major reasons to accumulate as much Lucenite as possible during a run.

Firstly, collecting Lucenite builds towards your Proficiency level. Your Proficiency level dictates the level of Main Weapons and Power Weapons you find during a run.

The higher a Weapon's level, the more powerful it'll be.

Secondly, Lucenite gathered during a run comes back with you when a run is over. If you die, you lose a percentage, but not all of it.

This resource is the main thing you need in order to purchase permanent upgrades in the hub. The more Lucenite you collect, the more upgrades you'll be able to unlock, making you that bit more powerful for your next attempt.

Make the Most of Adrenaline

Adrenaline is a mechanic Saros has inherited from Returnal.

As you defeat enemies and pick up Lucenite, you will charge up your Adrenaline, up to a maximum level of 5.

However, if you take damage, your Adrenaline will reset.

The higher your Adrenaline level, the more powerful it is. Here are the bonuses it gives you at each level:

• Level 1: Power Boost
• Level 2: Infrared Boost (See enemies through walls)
• Level 3: Melee Boost
• Level 4: Repair Boost
• Level 5: Power Boost+

Understand Your Core Attributes

In Saros, one of the key ways you power up during the course of a run is by improving Arjun's basic attributes.

There are three of them in total:

• Resilience: Increases maximum Armour Integrity (health). The higher your Resilience, the more max health you'll have.
• Command: Increases maximum amount of Power. The higher your Command, the more you can use your Shield and Power Weapon.
• Drive: Increases the rate that your Proficiency level grows from collecting Lucenite. The higher your Drive, the higher your potential Proficiency level can become.

While on a run, you want these attributes to be the highest they can be. There are ways to boost your attributes during a run, such as Artefacts and other items.

Main Weapons also align with your attributes. Certain aspects of each randomly-generated gun are impacted by your attribute levels, and so will be more effective the higher they are.

Study Your Main Weapons

Main Weapons (guns) are your primary offensive tool in Saros, and it's important to acquaint yourself with them.

Press Touch Pad to open the map, then tab over to Equipment to see your current loadout.

Here, you can see which Main Weapon you're holding, as well as which attributes it aligns with, its alt-fire mode, and all its Traits.

As you highlight these, a description will appear in the bottom right of the screen, informing you of what each of these things does. It's important to understand all these different aspects, as alt-fires and Traits can be incredibly useful and may change the behaviour of your Main Weapon considerably.

Don't Be Afraid of Corruption

Corruption is an ailment inflicted by yellow projectiles.

Rather than dealing damage to you directly, Corruption lowers your maximum health amount, essentially shrinking the size of your health meter.

While this sounds bad, it's not as dangerous as it sounds.

You can cleanse Corruption from your health meter and regain some max health by using your Power Weapon. In other words, you can get rid of it pretty easily.

On top of that, in some cases, you might actually want to accumulate Corruption.

Certain Main Weapons you find may be Corrupted themselves; this means that, the more Corruption you have, the more powerful they will be.

Use Carcosan Modifiers

Unlocked after beating the second boss, Carcosan Modifiers are a valuable asset in Saros.

You can use them to make the game easier in some aspects, but to do so you must balance them out with others that make the game a little tougher.

We highly recommend experimenting with Carcosan Modifiers if you're struggling, or even if you want to make the game more challenging. See our Carcosan Modifiers guide for more information.

Pick Up Halcyon When You Can

Like Lucenite, Halcyon is another resource you will find while out on a run.

This material also stays with you when you return to the hub, and it is used to unlock particularly meaningful permanent upgrades.

As such, it's important to prioritise it early on, as you will need to use a lot of Halcyon to get some of Saros' best upgrades.

Each biome only has a finite amount of it, so make sure to grab it when you see it.

What other tips do you have for beginner Saros players? Share them in the comments section below, and check out our Saros guide for more.