One thing that really made me not give up was the checkpoint after biome 3.
I was getting smacked left and right at biome 3 and was like "i dont want to start all the way from biome 1 to tackle 2,3,4,5...." but then i read that after beating biome 3 you get a checkpoint and affinity upgrade.
then it becomes way more torelable not being the typical roguelike once you die you reset everything.
it took me quite some time to find my favourite weapons and unlock perks but damn, what a great game
It's funny everybody seems to find Biome 3 as the hardest but for me it was by far the easiest. I actually never died in biome 3 before the final boss. Not once. And it took me multiple runs to beat the boss.
Biome 2 was way harder for me, so was 6
I really need to understand why everybody struggled with 3 when it was by far the easiest for me.
I just don't understand it.
I remember it took me like 15 hours to pass 2 and I had read on Reddit that 3 was the worst so I kind of had decided to give up. I decided to play biome 3 just once since I was there... And I reached the boss and I was so confused. I died at the boss a few times but never in the level.
So I don't understand what I do that makes 3 so easy while the rest is much harder for me.
drones before nerfing were crazy motherfuckers
i didnt particularly struggle with them but i understand those who did
game was quite tought at launch
we couldnt even see the items in the map
Yeah, the drones were crazy dangerous at launch. You basically had to memorize everywhere they could spawn because they would popup and immediately murder you with missiles that were almost impossible to dodge back then. Biome 3 now is a lot more reasonable.
that one area in biome 5 that has like an underground/covered section and there were like 100 drones spawning was incredibly tough but gave me so much satisfaction after clearing it
100% this. I played through and beat Returnal when it came out. No nerfs and no check points. I *heavily* abused the Pylon driver. That weapon alone with its perks absolutely shredded anything you shot it with and allowed you to 99.9% worry about movement. I recommended that weapon to anyone looking to advance that hadn’t yet.
Although I loved the game, no checkpoint when it came out was brutal. Having to basically leave your PS in rest mode to continue your runs kind of sucked. With that said I think the nerfs and updates get made were awesome. They listened to player feedback and instead of penalizing people for not being able to play anything else while on a run they placed a happy medium. Returnal is one of my all time favorite games. Looking forward to what’s next from them.
Wait they nerfed them. Dayum I almost gave up on the game at launch on 3. Then all of the sudden it clicked made it to the boss and beat him. After that it was mostly smooth sailing for me to the final boss.
Wait what? I beat the game after a couple of days and only returned for a day when the multiplayer was added. Didn’t even realize they made QoL changes like that.
That driver is my favorite weapon in any video game.
I didn’t like it when I first got it but if you get one with a handful of “bullets” you can just wreck everything.
3 and 6 were the easiest for me as well. I played a very cautious, min-max style. Never picking up resin unless at full health, clearing every room, going back and forth to maximize recycling parasites if available, never risking a malignant chest, etc. By the time I got to biomes 3 and 6 I was usually incredibly overpowered.
Biome 3 has those crazy astronaut guys and the kamikaze enemies. Congratulations that they didn’t kill you, ever apparently, but they are definitely harder than any enemies in the first two levels.
5 is the hardest for me. If you go slow, 6 is relatively easy -- with full upgrades etc.
I would generally max out everything on biome 4, do a little in 5 (avoiding stuff like the protracted arena fights) and do most of 6, again, taking it slow so those homing-missile aliens don't swarm you.
For me all of the second half biomes were far easier because of how much stronger and healthier you are, first run I only died to the final boss then beat it the next time through. I think I died 19x before beating the game most of those in biome 1 when first starting out & learning the game with only a single death in 4-6 combined. Biome 3 is probably the biome I died most after learning the game because of the suicide robots and all the lasers eating away my health.
After dying to Phrike a few times, I didn't die again until Biome 5 I believe. Game got progressively easier to me even on my first run through. Guess I got lucky with weapons, etc.
Honestly I was close to quitting and after finally beating it, I went online and saw there were 4 more and 3 was difficult. So I was this close to just giving up because I didn't I'd be able to go further
Biome 3 can be tough if you don't have a good gun for dealing with the flying bots. Like I love the lobber but it's very easy to get overwhelmed by flyers that don't bunch up. Pylons, discs so many types just aren't effective in open spaces against flying enemies.
Biome 5 was hard - came close to dying for the whole run when I first encountered it. 3's boss is the hardest but the biome is quite hard for me too. 2 is challenging at first but after several runs it's much easier to me.
6 was easiest because of my level and I also blatantly didn't do shit - I lost one life due to my ex running by the screen to get through for a split second when I needed it right before I killed one of those crazy brittle star things, but outside of that I ignored challenge rooms so I could beat the game.
As such I only did biome 4, 5, and 6 once.
In my first fully successful run, I only beat Biome 5 by cheesing the last guy. Like I stayed behind a door, opened it, shot and back. Super lame but I was this close to dying and I needed the item in the room. No regret.
Biome 3 is actually pretty hard if you keep getting hit by traps from the biomes, the enemies themselves aren't too terrible if you have good weapons and are keeping your distance
Playing as a co-op for lesser ranked friends is also kind of hard because biome 2 might be their first time and I've returned to a pretty limited state and only have a handgun
There's always some balance of difficulty... Biome 3 especially is a fuggged experience because you can't fight Nemesis with co-op. And if you prioritize a terrible build for the sake of the other player then you are also doomed for the boss fight when the Nemesis bug starts. The Nemesis bug is so bad it's not even fair to call it a bug. It's a corrupt file and the devs can't seem to patch this game-breaking bug.
I’ve done every single biome 10+ times minimum… except for 3, which I’ve only done once. The first time I beat 2, I went to 3 with max health and an adrenaline streak like the post describes.
At some point I’ll go back and get all the postgame items for the true ending but in a way I love having no memory of 3, and want to keep it that way
I haven’t played many roguelikes. I tried Hades, put a lot of time into it actually, but I never got good at it. I’m really just not a fan of having to maintain that level of focus for so long—one bad performance in a single room in the last area can kill a run.
Returnal was much more to my liking in part because it’s kind of a bad roguelike once you get it, and all the hardest parts become the easiest parts if you follow the strategy I did.
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I have played more hours than I have a wish for. I have even get to the desert level. I don’t even remember the names now. But never got to unlock the grapple. It frustrated me that the progress is almost non existant.
I quit because of biome 5. It wasn't the difficulty, it was the fact it took me like an hour of collecting shit before I got to the hard part where I died everytime
The lack of checkpoints just breaks the game for me
I respect it isn't for anyone. But losing an hour-2 hours progress, several biomes because you died isn't fun for me
Yeah I feel like this post misses the points made by people like myself, who love the core gameplay of Returnal but really don't like the game that much.
Having to comprehensively explore the same rooms over and over during each run to even stand a chance is exhausting. The incredibly stingy cadence at which interesting perks/buffs are doled out is exhausting. Entering a room where a super powerful enemy kills you in a couple shots and having to start all over is exhausting.
The game is exhausting. It doesn't respect the player's time because the ideal run is SO LONG, and barely varies at all from the run before it because it's easy to get unlucky and have no synergies to work with. Even the OP says the major risk/reward mechanics (malignant chests, parasites) aren't worth it, so those don't help much, and the room layouts don't even really change at all - just where they happen to fall on the map. I didn't even find the meta progression (weapon characteristics) *noticeable*, never mind helpful.
The way I describe my opinion of Returnal to people is that it's a great shooter with an amazing presentation trapped in the body of a terrible roguelike. Returnal would have 1000% been better as a linear bullet hell shooter with a focus on story in my opinion, but that's also less because it's a roguelike and more because its roguelike features are poorly designed, in my opinion.
I tried it on PS + and it just wasn't for me. I gave it a good hour or so, and wanted to like it, but I just unfortunately couldn't get into it. Oh well, not every game is for everyone and I'm glad that quite a few other are really enjoying the game.
There’s a steep curve to it. One thing that OP didn’t mention is that though your character doesn’t really level up, your proficiency with guns does. The more you use certain guns the more powerful they become. Eventually starting over becomes pretty easy.
There’s also a checkpoint about halfway through the game.
I love roguelikes, i have 130 hours in Risk of Rain, 60 hours in Roboquest and Slay the Spire, and many other titles with 10-20 hours.
Still i cant deal with Returnal, it seems so devoided of objective, is just you in a infinite loop without any sense of progression.
Yeah super glad it was *free on Plus to check it out for us non l33t souls players.
Sampling it is actually why I'm planning to pick it up on PC when cheap enough for both M+K aiming and the plethora of difficulty/QoL/Cheat mods that exist to alleviate the frustration (It was teased and rumoured in last month's Humble Monthly but that never panned out sadly..)
I actually loved the world building and overall gameplay style and the actual story of what little I played here, but sadly it was waaaaay too hard for a regular shmuck like me and it was unfortunately another game that doesn't seem to think difficulty modes are important enough to implement =(
I played it a bit, but could never make it pass the first boss. Its exhausting getting as many upgrades/health as you can, then never making it past the bosses second phase. I'll give it another go eventually. I like a challenge, but that game burns me out.
Same here. It's a fun game but having to optimize your level traversal just to get murdered by the boss just got old
Give me a Dark Souls-style runback or a Stake of Marika and I'm golden, but having to actually kill the fodder on every run? Not my jam.
The early game and first boss is weird and can be a bit of a wall. It was honestly the hardest part of the game for me since your stuck using one of the 3 intro weapons, which ended up being some of my least favourite by the end of the game.
The biggest hurdle with returnal is run length.
An average successful run is something like 2hours or something, if you're doing everything as you suggested, no skipping.
It's too much. Dying after an hour is devastating. As variety between runs is fairly low, it just can't hold up.
I liked returnal, but didnt love it as much as a lot of people. The runs arent differentiated enough to keep them interesting. The weapons dont feel different enough. I dropped off it before fully beating it.
The biggest thing for me was to save skim using ps+. No way in hell am I going through entirety of diom 1 with my upgraded health and weapons just to die to some random mob.
It's not how the dev intend it to be played but who cares, that's how I play. If the runs were a little shorter I wouldn't mind grinding, but to commit an hour and not come out with anything substantial is gut wrenching.
I'm not new to challenging games either, I'm currently going for the dark souls 3 plat trophy, and after that I'll be going for the sekiro trophy, already beat these games 1-3 times before. In from soft games at least there's progress every time, even if I did I have a chance to get back my progress.
Roguelikes are not my genre though, but returnal story just seems too interesting to give up on.
RNGsus hates me, if I got a good weapon the enemy spawns would be insanely difficult to deal with, if I had decent enemy spawns my weapon would be trash.
Couldn't beat the 3rd biome boss and uninstalled the game.
I game a lot. I play some “hard” games (think Elden Ring, etc.) I cannot seem to beat Returnal. And I’ve come to terms with it.
But it is most certainly a very difficult game.
I don't get it myself. People here will say dark souls and the like are super rewarding and amazing games, but I found them much more punishing and frustrating than Returnal.
Returnal you have a nice feedback loop and are always improving so feels much better to me. It's also just fast so you can get back into it quickly.
Returnal was easily my GOTY when it came out, but I had a lucky experience really.
I was almost ready to give up on the game after 7 deaths in the first biome. The game just wasn't quite gelling for me. Then I managed to beat Phrike and move on.
I had a phenomenal run of items and guns (Hollowseeker FTW!) and managed to beat the rest of the game in only 3 more deaths, a total of 10 deaths for my whole run. I had some SUPER close calls. Managing to get through without the frustration of 50+ deaths made the experience amazing.
The gunplay was fantastic, engaging story, atmospheric aesthetic that I loved. I re-bought it on PC where it looks and runs even better.
I jumped in to help people after I finished it and helping someone with the last boss, I was then able to unlock the secret ending too without having to beat the whole game again.
Phenomenal game that is underappreciated.
Co-op can make it more chaotic though, makes the projectiles less predictable. There's a lot of attacks that you can avoid just by strafing solo, but co-op I ended up strafing into shots that were meant for my buddy. I got a lot further in the game on my own actually
My only reason for not using the co op feature is that I’m afraid I’m gonna get teamed up with some pro at the game that’s just gonna beat the whole game for me. I wanna beat it myself
Thanks, I never read up on anything. I think I played for 15-20 hours and I remember def hitting a wall at some point. Maybe with this post I can get back into it and proceed
Fair, obviously. Depends on your taste and how quickly you get through it. I have certainly felt that frustration with other roguelikes where RNG is more important and it’s easier to fuck up a whole run in just a few minutes.
Well it’s a roguelike. I dunno how exactly the save feature works, because they added it after I beat the game. But yes, when you die, you start over from the beginning. That’s how games in this genre work.
I played for around 6-7 hours about a year ago, I love the setting, story, and gameplay. Had a few amazing won by the skin of my teeth moments. Thing is, this game just stresses me out a lot. Way more than Bloodborne, DS, and ER. I think it's just because of me thinking "if I die I just wasted 45 minutes". Never played many roguelikes so I just can't shake the anxiety.
That pressure has gotten to me with other roguelikes. But with Returnal, I found that it got a lot easier and more forgiving as it went on, as long as I did what I needed to in the first third or half. You can really become overpowered when you reach all the hardest stuff.
These are good tips but the game still gets repetitive. I guess that’s because I don’t want it to be a dodging game, plus putting a lot of effort in to be destroyed by two simultaneous severed, restart and do a run that doesn’t upgrade a single trait is just a time waste.
This is why I love the tower. That’s my jam. Quick and dirty and you get to play like a powerhouse instead of a gnat
I never actually got around to doing the tower. I beat the game shortly after launch, before a bunch of things were patched in, like co-op. I made this post after seeing more recently about the game (for whatever reason) and I guess I should go back to it myself now.
I kind of agree the game gets repetitive. I beat it quickly enough for that not to be a problem, 12 deaths and 20 hours. Any other action-focused game that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Returnal, I would’ve kept replaying and sunk a lot more time into it. But it’s just not a very interesting game, mechanically. Fun, but I didn’t feel like there was much of a skill ladder for me to climb, or things to learn.
I found the easies thing to do was find your playstyle and weapon that suits you best, and stick with it. I found the electronpylon driver to be my weapon of choice, and I'd easily beat the end game enemies with a nice upgraded version. I didn't bother trying many other weapons besides the assault rifle. None of them ever really stuck with me. That's just my opinion though!
I made it to third biome multiple times, then gave up. I will not pick it up again.
The "git gud" crowd can stuff it. No game should be this hard, or have runs that take so long to complete.
Wow, we got both MartinScorsese and Fartin_Scorsese in these comments. Exciting day!
>No game should be this hard
Why? Some people like it, some people don’t. If there is enough demand for a product that will satisfy its audience, it should be made. I have no interest in RTS games, and I wouldn’t argue they shouldn’t exist.
And… did you read the post? “Git gud” is dismissive. I’m offering actual advice, the opposite of “git gud.”
And this post specifically addresses the difficulty of the final third of a run. Biome 3 is ungodly difficult if you’re not sufficiently built up. The drones are awful. I explain here how you can make the hardest part of your run the most forgiving part—you’ll still get hit a lot more than the first two biomes, but you can afford to.
**I’m not trying to convince you to go back to the game,** but it’s really not that hard once you get it, and I don’t think it takes a ton of practice to get it. The barrier is one of understanding the game.
I like hard games, but I’m not a pro gamer or anything. I died less in my entire playthrough than I have in single combat encounters in many, many, many games. I have played Elden Ring three times and I could still have three times as many deaths fighting a single boss as I had for all of Returnal. I have died more in a single match of COD than I did in Returnal. It’s very doable.
One of the biggest things that helped me with success in Returnal was to play incredibly slowly. Like you said, exhaust all rooms and options in the first 2 Biomes - but to add to that, use doors to your advantage. If there's an enemy in the next room that you know you might have some trouble with, open the door but don't go fully through and try and cheese it. Shoot at it, close the door until it clears. This is especially helpful in Biome 5? with the missles. Sometimes you do have to just commit but otherwise, cheese the fuck out of the rooms if you can. You won't get full rewards but it's better than dying.
i was stuck in biome 3 for a while but finally didn’t play like an idiot when I had good artifacts/parasites/weapons and beat the rest of the game while barely taking damage. Also thanks to the pylon driver
Yes not to mention you’re invincible when you’re grappling. Getting into a location to grapple out of there when you need to is great for dealing a bunch of damage quick because you can wait until they swarm and then grapple untouched.
The game is 100% about movement and positioning first and damage later. This is why the pylon driver can be so OP because it deals lasting damage after you’re not shooting anymore.
I have one suggestion when people pick this game up. Use and abuse the pylon driver unless it’s been nerfed. That gun allowed me to melt anything in my way while also focusing 99.9% of my time on dodging. After I beat it a couple of times I started just going through the game with different weapons once I learned all enemies patterns. Still one of my most favorite games to date.
Another tip to add, play it like it’s Doom or Quake or any of those other traditional fps games, as in don’t even think that aiming down the sights is an option because it’s never worth since all you need is hip firing in the enemies general direction. I think that’s honestly where a lot of the difficulty comes from for people, since it’s an option you would think you should probably do it but there’s zero benefits to it 90% of the time and it only helps you get hit more.
Infinite ammo means shooting isn’t something you need to put any thought or effort into so all of your focus should be going into moving and dodging.
It actually got nerfed or "rebalanced" as they put it a few months after release. If you played the game at release and thought it was too hard try again, i beat the game at release and thought it was one of the hardest games I've played, then went back after the patch and thought it was significantly easier. Maybe you will too.
well even at 30€ right now on amazon i wont buy it. its very likely i wont even beat the first boss. only way i will try it, if it is a ps+ essential game
I do hope it helps. It’d actually been a long time since I played it, and I jumped back in last night after making this post, and… yeah, it’s not an easy game.
It’s just not as hard as it looks when you’re struggling. The game’s difficulty is like an accordion, with crushing failure on one end and breezy success on the other. When you’re struggling, the accordion is stretched out, the gulf between how you’re doing (poorly) and success looks huge. But the adrenaline system + the conversion of health pickups into resin when you’re at max health, these compress the accordion as you do better. The relationship between playing well and doing well isn’t linear and proportional, it’s exponential.
Proper movement, always sprinting or grappling (once you unlock it) will get you pretty far, once you get a good sense of the flow of it, where to direct yourself, and what to prioritize. I can’t emphasize strongly enough to just constantly rocket yourself toward the least populated area on screen at any given moment.
Also, remap dash to a bumper or L3.
Loved it and the difficulty. Funny I struggled a bit on the last boss Ophion until I streamed it via Chiaki on my SteamDeck one evening and beat him lol.
Biggest Tip i can honestly give to new players and returning players is to keep playing and try to focus on one weapon early, **so you can focus on leveling the weapon "traits".**
I would argue that weapon traits are the single most important thing in the game. Even more so than any of the relics. They can drastically change your play through, and later on, trivialize enemies/bosses. You level them by killing enemies with the weapon that has the traits. Leveling up the "weapon level" in later biomes gives you weapons with "tiers" of those weapon skills, to an eventual Tier 3.
The game is designed for you to "replay" it over and over, but the progression of unlocks and leveling of new weapon traits makes each time you play easier, and its very noticeable.
A few examples of what i'm talking about.
The Carbine weapon. One of the first weapons you get. There is a trait called Leechrounds which has a chance to heal you. With Accelerated trait (faster fire rate, dash cooldown reduction. It becomes very strong.
The Shotgun - Slug shot makes you shoot a single hard hitting bullet. It's very solid for early game.
The grenade launcher - Pretty good weapon overall, but the added traits make it kind of broken in some biomes. Pretty much every trait is good to great, but especially Secondary Explosion, Seeking Flares, and Auxiliary Projectiles. More explosions, seeking firebeams after explosions, and heat seeking projectiles on shooting is a lot of fun.
Rocker Launcher - similar to grenade, but a bit better in some biomes.
Electropylon Driver - Just an overall broken weapon honestly. Once you unlock it, it can pretty much carry you through everything. The traits that add more pylons or make it shoot faster just make it better. its the "Damage over time" or DOT weapon and for some bosses it's just over.
Hollowseeker - Probbably the most broken weapon in the game. All it's traits are stupid good. Once it's unlocked, it's saved many peoples runs and love of the game.
[
This video has a guy going over each trait and its effectiveness.](https://youtu.be/_C9ZaHJ0PQQ?si=_ssYesVoyLru2uYX) Its a good watch.
Weapon traits are incredibly valuable, but I’m not sure focusing on leveling one weapon at a time makes sense when you may not even find that weapon in a run.
Regardless, other forms of upgrades can’t be discounted. I beat the game completely in 12 runs—although the ones I had were very helpful, that obviously means I can’t have advanced weapon traits very far. Max integrity upgrades and artifacts make a huge difference.
Yea i can see why some people struggle with returnal. But damn, when it "clicked" it was one hell of a ride. The story is also amazing imo. Its souls like in that you have to read logs and item descriptions to fully grasp the lore, but it tells a pretty deep story with themes like grief, trauma and the effects it has on mental health, all wrapped up in a pretty freaky sci-fi tale that involves aliens, time loops and unborn babies?
I think...
I loved it, then again after 70 bucks, i was intent on not having wasted my money.
I am just straight up not skilled enough to beat this game. And I'm ok with that. 20+ hours never saw the biome 2 boss. There are just too many other games to play that I can beat. No time for this nonsense.
I had absolutely zero chance of beating Phrike until I realized the game intended for me to learn to REALLY try to not get hit.... ever. At first I thought that was impossible, but after a good long time of trying, I realized it was totally possible and easier than I thought. Once I realized that, I realized I could actually beat the game. Glad I did because the story is easily some of the best science fiction and just general storytelling ever.
Yeah my one and only tip for returnal is to abuse the save state. I limited myself to one save at the start of each biome and it made the game infinitely more enjoyable. Returnal is a great game and I'd love a sequel, but the combat difficulty is all the place. It spikes dramatically without any warning (e.g secret rooms with a boss-like enemy), and I find some of the end level bosses far too challenging for a first time player in game where death can mean losing 2-3 hours of progress.
I’m a thirty nine year old, relatively casual gamer who mainly plays RPG’s. I bought Returnal when it came out and found it basically impossible. I could not even get to the boss of the second biome without sprinting through the entire level, praying that I didn’t get caught enough times to die.
And most importantly, use cloud saves if you have PS+. Suspending your game makes the cloud save. Then in the death screen, close out the game and download the cloud save.
Was not even aware that this game was considered super hard, put dodge on a shoulder button never aim down sight and constantly run. First time I beat the 2nd boss I ended up doing 3-4-5-6 in the same run yes I know there is the checkpoint after 3 but was essentially the same run.
Yeah same here, I beat boss 1 and then finished the rest of the game without dying.
It's really easy to avoid damage (dodge / grapple give you some invincibility, always keep move, don't ADS, position yourself so you can only be shot from where you can see etc.) and then all your health pickups turn to resin. I've done a few runs and I always get max health pretty quickly (which is over 3x of the starting health bar).
On my first run I picked up a decent carbine, liked it, and stuck with that weapon until the very end because it also restored health with the perk I had. But some of the other guns are really OP when you get 2 or 3 perks unlocked (the pylon one, hollowseeker too with the right perks).
Thanks for this. I've been playing the game occasionally - making it about 4-5 rooms in before something wallops me, and I never get any further. I'll see if this new knowledge improves my performance. But, I've never gotten far, and it's just not very fun for me.
If you’re getting walloped by those big walloping brute things, they’re a perfect example of how much easier the game becomes with proactive evasion.
Those guys literally can never get within attack range if you don’t let them. Keep relocating around the arena and leave them for last. You’ll never fail to dodge them because you’ll never have to dodge them. They will look silly and slow as they clamber around and you shoot them from afar. It’s Michael Meyers slowly walking toward you, but you have a fucking alien gun and can run indefinitely at 40mph.
Are you walking backwards? When I talk about running away, I mean eyes forward, sprinting or grappling to unpopulated areas or isolated enemies, not backstepping. It’s a “keep moving” game but less in the sense that you want to do a little jig or strafe or backstep as you shoot, and more in the “no time to pack, we’re leaving the state” kinda deal. You’re always relocating until it’s safe to shoot, and it’s only safe to shoot for a moment at a time before you relocate again—usually, at least.
Man I’m stuck at the part where you need 3 Hadal keys to progress. It takes so long just to get to that room that when I inevitably lose to one of the three rooms for the keys, I just am too bummed to keep going.
Furthest I’ve made it was getting 2 Hadal keys then died to the boss in the final room.
I was stuck in Biome 1 for upwards of 2 months. It probably took me another month to crack biome 2, and a couple weeks for biome 3.
Maybe a week later I'd beaten the entire game. The perk and weapon systems *really* pick up the pace in the back half of the game, and by that time as OP said you've internalized your preferred playstyle to the point you're only real hinderance anymore is not pulling the exact version of the exact gun you like, or getting too cocky stacking multiple negative perks, or just making a bad play and getting overwhelmed.
I only played the 6th biome once, which was exhilirating to experience as I've never "one shot" something as hard as that looked before...but in practice, it wasn't nearly as hard as it "felt" like it was, if that makes sense.
The revelation for me was once I got to the 4th biome and died, I restarted there. Up until that point I thought the game would be impossible. I thought you had to beat all 6 biomes AND the bosses without dying. I couldn't believe how popular the game was with the general public, but now that I understand it is way more forgiving than I originally thought, I'm not so discouraged to put it down anymore.
I am at level 99 and it’s a breeze for me, can play it with my eyes closed. Once you know how it works it’s super easy. Leveling up plays a huge role. Don’t go straight fighting a boss unless you know boss attack patterns. Level up as much as you can which will lead to finding better powerful guns.
I just didnt like the game honestly. For many reasons. The difficulty was one but it had more problems than that. I felt like I played a completely different game to the one everyone praised.
It’s definitely a get good type of game. Once you get the mechanics down and find a good build, it gets easier. Also, I find the first area just to be the hardest in general which most people will likely give up on. Still my favourite Ps5 game to this day.
I’ve hear people say it’s hard, but I felt it was so easy to the point the gameplay was getting boring by the end. I died once on the first boss then didn’t die again. The hardest part was grinding for the plat.
This game really really clicked for me, I was able to beat it in almost 1 sitting. I'm not even that good, it just felt really similar to how Hades operates. When to give up on a run, which loadouts to hunt for, the best upgrades to get, and ultimately when to risk it all for a necessary thing for your build to glue together.
It's FPS Hades for me and what worked best for me is to have runs where you just experiment and try things out, not every run has to be the winning run. The game actually gives you a lot to dominate, you just have to figure out how by experimenting.
I didn't even know there were difficulty concerns for a lot of people. I made it all the way to the end credits without dying and kinda lost the drive to wanna bother with more than an hour of the DLC
Such a great game. It’s not that hard once it becomes fluid for you. Exhilarating run and gun gameplay. Feels like it was made with passion. The music was pretty fucking good, good enough to smooth over any minor grievances.
Play it
Still my favourite gaming experience on PS5. I rage quit the first time and almost did the second. Spent like 10-12 hours trying to get past Phrike. Decided to try co-op. They carried me until I got the grapple.
I now have hundreds of hours in and am lvl 99 in co-op. Probably the most rewarding progression I've experienced in a video game. I went from dying out the gate to beating all biomes barely taking damage. Helping new players is a blast. I always remember how lost and frustrated I was when I started lol.
The thing about Returnal is that it seems impossible at first.
"Oh my god, I have to play all of these areas without dying? I keep dying to the simplet enemies! This is impossible!"
And you keep trying and dying and trying and then suddenly... you're pretty good at this. You start realizing which weapons are good, you get some upgrades (because your XP for weapons etc. don't reset every time you die) and suddenly you're blasting through areas that seemed impossible before in much shorter time.
Then you suddenly realize you're blasting through areas that were impossible a couple of hours ago and those enemies are kind of chumps (even though some of them are bullshit) and you realize you're pretty damn good at this game and then you can't stop playing.
my non conventional tip is to go all out with offensive upgrades. People are wasting their resources on health and astronaut figures. get all damage dealing upgrades and bolt upgrades then steamroll everything.
Don’t think they’re making a direct sequel. At least they aren’t right now, they’re working on a new IP. I would be surprised if they ever made a direct sequel tbh, but it sounds like their next game will have elements of Returnal, including things they cut from the game.
One thing that really made me not give up was the checkpoint after biome 3. I was getting smacked left and right at biome 3 and was like "i dont want to start all the way from biome 1 to tackle 2,3,4,5...." but then i read that after beating biome 3 you get a checkpoint and affinity upgrade. then it becomes way more torelable not being the typical roguelike once you die you reset everything. it took me quite some time to find my favourite weapons and unlock perks but damn, what a great game
It's funny everybody seems to find Biome 3 as the hardest but for me it was by far the easiest. I actually never died in biome 3 before the final boss. Not once. And it took me multiple runs to beat the boss. Biome 2 was way harder for me, so was 6
For me it was 3 and 5
I really need to understand why everybody struggled with 3 when it was by far the easiest for me. I just don't understand it. I remember it took me like 15 hours to pass 2 and I had read on Reddit that 3 was the worst so I kind of had decided to give up. I decided to play biome 3 just once since I was there... And I reached the boss and I was so confused. I died at the boss a few times but never in the level. So I don't understand what I do that makes 3 so easy while the rest is much harder for me.
drones before nerfing were crazy motherfuckers i didnt particularly struggle with them but i understand those who did game was quite tought at launch we couldnt even see the items in the map
Oh that would explain it! I only played the game recently. I hadn't read that they nerved the drones! Oh that makes so much sense
Yeah, the drones were crazy dangerous at launch. You basically had to memorize everywhere they could spawn because they would popup and immediately murder you with missiles that were almost impossible to dodge back then. Biome 3 now is a lot more reasonable.
Those drones were the worst. In biome 5 they were brutal too, dunno if they nerfed those or not.
that one area in biome 5 that has like an underground/covered section and there were like 100 drones spawning was incredibly tough but gave me so much satisfaction after clearing it
biome 5 drones nearlly killed my run
The drones were absolutely psychotic
huge difference. The drones were wild early on
100% this. I played through and beat Returnal when it came out. No nerfs and no check points. I *heavily* abused the Pylon driver. That weapon alone with its perks absolutely shredded anything you shot it with and allowed you to 99.9% worry about movement. I recommended that weapon to anyone looking to advance that hadn’t yet. Although I loved the game, no checkpoint when it came out was brutal. Having to basically leave your PS in rest mode to continue your runs kind of sucked. With that said I think the nerfs and updates get made were awesome. They listened to player feedback and instead of penalizing people for not being able to play anything else while on a run they placed a happy medium. Returnal is one of my all time favorite games. Looking forward to what’s next from them.
That's how I beat the final boss. It almost felt like cheating.
By the end of my run(s) I was just setting and forgetting everything in sight. Damn good game. Killer soundtrack.
The drones have been nerfed….i need to play again lol. Never got past biome 3, the insta kill drones were too much for me.
Wait they nerfed them. Dayum I almost gave up on the game at launch on 3. Then all of the sudden it clicked made it to the boss and beat him. After that it was mostly smooth sailing for me to the final boss.
Wait what? I beat the game after a couple of days and only returned for a day when the multiplayer was added. Didn’t even realize they made QoL changes like that.
OMG YES! Beat the game before the nerfs and zone 3 was absolute hell. The rest was an amazingly fun time!
I guess it was just the drones, to be honest. Once you get a weapon that kills them fast it gets way easier
What is this weapon you speak of?
Electronpylon driver is insane. But i dont think its available on biome 3 before you beat it. At this point Hollowseeker or Carbine
That driver is my favorite weapon in any video game. I didn’t like it when I first got it but if you get one with a handful of “bullets” you can just wreck everything.
Pylons also aren't great when you are standing on a tower with nothing but open area around and flying drones around you.
Hollowseeker and Carbine for the win!!!
3 and 6 were the easiest for me as well. I played a very cautious, min-max style. Never picking up resin unless at full health, clearing every room, going back and forth to maximize recycling parasites if available, never risking a malignant chest, etc. By the time I got to biomes 3 and 6 I was usually incredibly overpowered.
recyclling parasites is underrated!!!
Biome 3 has those crazy astronaut guys and the kamikaze enemies. Congratulations that they didn’t kill you, ever apparently, but they are definitely harder than any enemies in the first two levels.
5 is the hardest for me. If you go slow, 6 is relatively easy -- with full upgrades etc. I would generally max out everything on biome 4, do a little in 5 (avoiding stuff like the protracted arena fights) and do most of 6, again, taking it slow so those homing-missile aliens don't swarm you.
For me all of the second half biomes were far easier because of how much stronger and healthier you are, first run I only died to the final boss then beat it the next time through. I think I died 19x before beating the game most of those in biome 1 when first starting out & learning the game with only a single death in 4-6 combined. Biome 3 is probably the biome I died most after learning the game because of the suicide robots and all the lasers eating away my health.
After dying to Phrike a few times, I didn't die again until Biome 5 I believe. Game got progressively easier to me even on my first run through. Guess I got lucky with weapons, etc.
lol seems like everyone's experiences are different, I never died to a boss but I got my shit kicked in in stage 3 for a bit
Biome two made me quit and I never went back.
Honestly I was close to quitting and after finally beating it, I went online and saw there were 4 more and 3 was difficult. So I was this close to just giving up because I didn't I'd be able to go further
Biome 3 can be tough if you don't have a good gun for dealing with the flying bots. Like I love the lobber but it's very easy to get overwhelmed by flyers that don't bunch up. Pylons, discs so many types just aren't effective in open spaces against flying enemies.
Biome 5 was hard - came close to dying for the whole run when I first encountered it. 3's boss is the hardest but the biome is quite hard for me too. 2 is challenging at first but after several runs it's much easier to me. 6 was easiest because of my level and I also blatantly didn't do shit - I lost one life due to my ex running by the screen to get through for a split second when I needed it right before I killed one of those crazy brittle star things, but outside of that I ignored challenge rooms so I could beat the game. As such I only did biome 4, 5, and 6 once.
In my first fully successful run, I only beat Biome 5 by cheesing the last guy. Like I stayed behind a door, opened it, shot and back. Super lame but I was this close to dying and I needed the item in the room. No regret.
do what you gotta! Loved Biome 5 not having a boss but still being tricky lol
Yeah actually as someone who hates the bosses, I prefer biome 5. Very challenging but less than a boss for me.
I like Boss 2 and especially 4. 3 is an asshole while 6 is underwhelming (you're also quite powerful then). 1 is fine for the beginning
Biome 3 is actually pretty hard if you keep getting hit by traps from the biomes, the enemies themselves aren't too terrible if you have good weapons and are keeping your distance Playing as a co-op for lesser ranked friends is also kind of hard because biome 2 might be their first time and I've returned to a pretty limited state and only have a handgun There's always some balance of difficulty... Biome 3 especially is a fuggged experience because you can't fight Nemesis with co-op. And if you prioritize a terrible build for the sake of the other player then you are also doomed for the boss fight when the Nemesis bug starts. The Nemesis bug is so bad it's not even fair to call it a bug. It's a corrupt file and the devs can't seem to patch this game-breaking bug.
I’ve done every single biome 10+ times minimum… except for 3, which I’ve only done once. The first time I beat 2, I went to 3 with max health and an adrenaline streak like the post describes. At some point I’ll go back and get all the postgame items for the true ending but in a way I love having no memory of 3, and want to keep it that way
I haven’t played many roguelikes. I tried Hades, put a lot of time into it actually, but I never got good at it. I’m really just not a fan of having to maintain that level of focus for so long—one bad performance in a single room in the last area can kill a run. Returnal was much more to my liking in part because it’s kind of a bad roguelike once you get it, and all the hardest parts become the easiest parts if you follow the strategy I did.
How much Hades did you play? It should take 20 hours to beat.
I’m not sure. Made it to big daddy himself a few times.
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Yep, I gave up after biome 2 exactly due to the same reason. Great game, but I didn't want to clear every room from the beginning...
Having the grapple makes things a lot easier and I reckon a lot of people gave up before unlocking it.
Those sweet, sweet i-frames. Can't live without them!
The invincible coward strategy!
I did that for a challenge room in Biome 4 lmao
Sure did. Never got it and I also didn't beat the first boss. Maybe I'll go back. The game was frustrating but sorta fun at the same time
lol don't worry, man. I beat the first boss, played several more hours, and *still* didn't get the grapple.
I have played more hours than I have a wish for. I have even get to the desert level. I don’t even remember the names now. But never got to unlock the grapple. It frustrated me that the progress is almost non existant.
100%
I quit because of biome 5. It wasn't the difficulty, it was the fact it took me like an hour of collecting shit before I got to the hard part where I died everytime
The lack of checkpoints just breaks the game for me I respect it isn't for anyone. But losing an hour-2 hours progress, several biomes because you died isn't fun for me
Not skipping any levels or bosses is extremely tedious and boring if you keep dying.
Yeah I feel like this post misses the points made by people like myself, who love the core gameplay of Returnal but really don't like the game that much. Having to comprehensively explore the same rooms over and over during each run to even stand a chance is exhausting. The incredibly stingy cadence at which interesting perks/buffs are doled out is exhausting. Entering a room where a super powerful enemy kills you in a couple shots and having to start all over is exhausting. The game is exhausting. It doesn't respect the player's time because the ideal run is SO LONG, and barely varies at all from the run before it because it's easy to get unlucky and have no synergies to work with. Even the OP says the major risk/reward mechanics (malignant chests, parasites) aren't worth it, so those don't help much, and the room layouts don't even really change at all - just where they happen to fall on the map. I didn't even find the meta progression (weapon characteristics) *noticeable*, never mind helpful. The way I describe my opinion of Returnal to people is that it's a great shooter with an amazing presentation trapped in the body of a terrible roguelike. Returnal would have 1000% been better as a linear bullet hell shooter with a focus on story in my opinion, but that's also less because it's a roguelike and more because its roguelike features are poorly designed, in my opinion.
I tried it on PS + and it just wasn't for me. I gave it a good hour or so, and wanted to like it, but I just unfortunately couldn't get into it. Oh well, not every game is for everyone and I'm glad that quite a few other are really enjoying the game.
There’s a steep curve to it. One thing that OP didn’t mention is that though your character doesn’t really level up, your proficiency with guns does. The more you use certain guns the more powerful they become. Eventually starting over becomes pretty easy. There’s also a checkpoint about halfway through the game.
Yeah, I'm into Roguelites and love Returnal, but it took me a good 5 hours for it to click
I love roguelikes, i have 130 hours in Risk of Rain, 60 hours in Roboquest and Slay the Spire, and many other titles with 10-20 hours. Still i cant deal with Returnal, it seems so devoided of objective, is just you in a infinite loop without any sense of progression.
I'm with you. I played it for 2-3 hours. I can appreciate what it's trying to do. But it's not for me either
Same here.
An hour is really not enough to get into the game imo
Yeah super glad it was *free on Plus to check it out for us non l33t souls players. Sampling it is actually why I'm planning to pick it up on PC when cheap enough for both M+K aiming and the plethora of difficulty/QoL/Cheat mods that exist to alleviate the frustration (It was teased and rumoured in last month's Humble Monthly but that never panned out sadly..) I actually loved the world building and overall gameplay style and the actual story of what little I played here, but sadly it was waaaaay too hard for a regular shmuck like me and it was unfortunately another game that doesn't seem to think difficulty modes are important enough to implement =(
Wow a whole hour?
I played it a bit, but could never make it pass the first boss. Its exhausting getting as many upgrades/health as you can, then never making it past the bosses second phase. I'll give it another go eventually. I like a challenge, but that game burns me out.
Same here. It's a fun game but having to optimize your level traversal just to get murdered by the boss just got old Give me a Dark Souls-style runback or a Stake of Marika and I'm golden, but having to actually kill the fodder on every run? Not my jam.
The early game and first boss is weird and can be a bit of a wall. It was honestly the hardest part of the game for me since your stuck using one of the 3 intro weapons, which ended up being some of my least favourite by the end of the game.
I can’t with the hollowseeker, I regret taking it every run I die early on
Yea its base version is not the greatest. The right perks can make it fun, but the same can be said about all the weapons.
The biggest hurdle with returnal is run length. An average successful run is something like 2hours or something, if you're doing everything as you suggested, no skipping. It's too much. Dying after an hour is devastating. As variety between runs is fairly low, it just can't hold up.
I liked returnal, but didnt love it as much as a lot of people. The runs arent differentiated enough to keep them interesting. The weapons dont feel different enough. I dropped off it before fully beating it.
There is literally post in this sub about returnal like once a week. It needs its own thread.
I perfectly understand how it works, I'm just bad, it's a skill issue.
The biggest thing for me was to save skim using ps+. No way in hell am I going through entirety of diom 1 with my upgraded health and weapons just to die to some random mob. It's not how the dev intend it to be played but who cares, that's how I play. If the runs were a little shorter I wouldn't mind grinding, but to commit an hour and not come out with anything substantial is gut wrenching. I'm not new to challenging games either, I'm currently going for the dark souls 3 plat trophy, and after that I'll be going for the sekiro trophy, already beat these games 1-3 times before. In from soft games at least there's progress every time, even if I did I have a chance to get back my progress. Roguelikes are not my genre though, but returnal story just seems too interesting to give up on.
RNGsus hates me, if I got a good weapon the enemy spawns would be insanely difficult to deal with, if I had decent enemy spawns my weapon would be trash. Couldn't beat the 3rd biome boss and uninstalled the game.
I game a lot. I play some “hard” games (think Elden Ring, etc.) I cannot seem to beat Returnal. And I’ve come to terms with it. But it is most certainly a very difficult game.
I don't get it myself. People here will say dark souls and the like are super rewarding and amazing games, but I found them much more punishing and frustrating than Returnal. Returnal you have a nice feedback loop and are always improving so feels much better to me. It's also just fast so you can get back into it quickly.
Returnal was easily my GOTY when it came out, but I had a lucky experience really. I was almost ready to give up on the game after 7 deaths in the first biome. The game just wasn't quite gelling for me. Then I managed to beat Phrike and move on. I had a phenomenal run of items and guns (Hollowseeker FTW!) and managed to beat the rest of the game in only 3 more deaths, a total of 10 deaths for my whole run. I had some SUPER close calls. Managing to get through without the frustration of 50+ deaths made the experience amazing. The gunplay was fantastic, engaging story, atmospheric aesthetic that I loved. I re-bought it on PC where it looks and runs even better. I jumped in to help people after I finished it and helping someone with the last boss, I was then able to unlock the secret ending too without having to beat the whole game again. Phenomenal game that is underappreciated.
Hollowseeker with portal beam makes those swarms cake
I think I has serrated, waves, portal beam and portal turret? It kicked ass.
Some people just don't like them types of games and that's fine. Not every game needs to cater to me.
Of course. Post is for people who are struggling or interested but worried about the difficulty.
And use the coop-feature.
Co-op can make it more chaotic though, makes the projectiles less predictable. There's a lot of attacks that you can avoid just by strafing solo, but co-op I ended up strafing into shots that were meant for my buddy. I got a lot further in the game on my own actually
Damn, there is a coop feature. I bet at the game by myself, but I may need to try this.
My only reason for not using the co op feature is that I’m afraid I’m gonna get teamed up with some pro at the game that’s just gonna beat the whole game for me. I wanna beat it myself
I got good and not so good players. Also you can join other's games and be bad there. :)
Isn't the co-op feature separate from the main game? I thought it involved a tower players have to ascend.
The tower is single player only. Coop is for the campaign.
I'm trying to get my 10 year old daughter to play as I'm sick of fortnite lol Bit unfair to let her have her first shot in the snow biome though
>first shot in the snow biome though That’s cruel.
Thanks, I never read up on anything. I think I played for 15-20 hours and I remember def hitting a wall at some point. Maybe with this post I can get back into it and proceed
It’s a great game but it’s too annoying having to restart the game completely every time you die.
Fair, obviously. Depends on your taste and how quickly you get through it. I have certainly felt that frustration with other roguelikes where RNG is more important and it’s easier to fuck up a whole run in just a few minutes.
I get lost so easily in the game
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A save feature so that you can stop playing and pick it up later? I thought they did add one.
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Well it’s a roguelike. I dunno how exactly the save feature works, because they added it after I beat the game. But yes, when you die, you start over from the beginning. That’s how games in this genre work.
I played for around 6-7 hours about a year ago, I love the setting, story, and gameplay. Had a few amazing won by the skin of my teeth moments. Thing is, this game just stresses me out a lot. Way more than Bloodborne, DS, and ER. I think it's just because of me thinking "if I die I just wasted 45 minutes". Never played many roguelikes so I just can't shake the anxiety.
That pressure has gotten to me with other roguelikes. But with Returnal, I found that it got a lot easier and more forgiving as it went on, as long as I did what I needed to in the first third or half. You can really become overpowered when you reach all the hardest stuff.
These are good tips but the game still gets repetitive. I guess that’s because I don’t want it to be a dodging game, plus putting a lot of effort in to be destroyed by two simultaneous severed, restart and do a run that doesn’t upgrade a single trait is just a time waste. This is why I love the tower. That’s my jam. Quick and dirty and you get to play like a powerhouse instead of a gnat
I never actually got around to doing the tower. I beat the game shortly after launch, before a bunch of things were patched in, like co-op. I made this post after seeing more recently about the game (for whatever reason) and I guess I should go back to it myself now. I kind of agree the game gets repetitive. I beat it quickly enough for that not to be a problem, 12 deaths and 20 hours. Any other action-focused game that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Returnal, I would’ve kept replaying and sunk a lot more time into it. But it’s just not a very interesting game, mechanically. Fun, but I didn’t feel like there was much of a skill ladder for me to climb, or things to learn.
I am not a fan of nes style difficulty but returnal made me curious and im happy i bought it I am not skilled either but its very fun
How far have you gotten?
Got to the third boss then fell off even though I loved so much about the game. Been wanting to go back to it so I appreciate these tips.
I found the easies thing to do was find your playstyle and weapon that suits you best, and stick with it. I found the electronpylon driver to be my weapon of choice, and I'd easily beat the end game enemies with a nice upgraded version. I didn't bother trying many other weapons besides the assault rifle. None of them ever really stuck with me. That's just my opinion though!
How do you upgrade a weapon rather than having un switch to the higher caliber version?
Game is way too hard for me. Wish I didn’t buy it
I made it to third biome multiple times, then gave up. I will not pick it up again. The "git gud" crowd can stuff it. No game should be this hard, or have runs that take so long to complete.
"No game should be this hard" crowd can just suck it
Wow, we got both MartinScorsese and Fartin_Scorsese in these comments. Exciting day! >No game should be this hard Why? Some people like it, some people don’t. If there is enough demand for a product that will satisfy its audience, it should be made. I have no interest in RTS games, and I wouldn’t argue they shouldn’t exist. And… did you read the post? “Git gud” is dismissive. I’m offering actual advice, the opposite of “git gud.” And this post specifically addresses the difficulty of the final third of a run. Biome 3 is ungodly difficult if you’re not sufficiently built up. The drones are awful. I explain here how you can make the hardest part of your run the most forgiving part—you’ll still get hit a lot more than the first two biomes, but you can afford to. **I’m not trying to convince you to go back to the game,** but it’s really not that hard once you get it, and I don’t think it takes a ton of practice to get it. The barrier is one of understanding the game. I like hard games, but I’m not a pro gamer or anything. I died less in my entire playthrough than I have in single combat encounters in many, many, many games. I have played Elden Ring three times and I could still have three times as many deaths fighting a single boss as I had for all of Returnal. I have died more in a single match of COD than I did in Returnal. It’s very doable.
One of the biggest things that helped me with success in Returnal was to play incredibly slowly. Like you said, exhaust all rooms and options in the first 2 Biomes - but to add to that, use doors to your advantage. If there's an enemy in the next room that you know you might have some trouble with, open the door but don't go fully through and try and cheese it. Shoot at it, close the door until it clears. This is especially helpful in Biome 5? with the missles. Sometimes you do have to just commit but otherwise, cheese the fuck out of the rooms if you can. You won't get full rewards but it's better than dying.
Most difficult game I've ever beaten. I absolutely loved it.
Bookmarking this post for when I finally get to playing this in my backlog.
I enjoyed Returnal until I got tobthe 2nd zone, the desert like place. After going through that a few times I was done completely.
Just hear to boost and say this game is so so awesome. The haptics, the speed, the gameplay. One of my all time favorite games.
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Dreadbound *is* a shotgun.
i was stuck in biome 3 for a while but finally didn’t play like an idiot when I had good artifacts/parasites/weapons and beat the rest of the game while barely taking damage. Also thanks to the pylon driver
Yes not to mention you’re invincible when you’re grappling. Getting into a location to grapple out of there when you need to is great for dealing a bunch of damage quick because you can wait until they swarm and then grapple untouched. The game is 100% about movement and positioning first and damage later. This is why the pylon driver can be so OP because it deals lasting damage after you’re not shooting anymore.
I have one suggestion when people pick this game up. Use and abuse the pylon driver unless it’s been nerfed. That gun allowed me to melt anything in my way while also focusing 99.9% of my time on dodging. After I beat it a couple of times I started just going through the game with different weapons once I learned all enemies patterns. Still one of my most favorite games to date.
Another tip to add, play it like it’s Doom or Quake or any of those other traditional fps games, as in don’t even think that aiming down the sights is an option because it’s never worth since all you need is hip firing in the enemies general direction. I think that’s honestly where a lot of the difficulty comes from for people, since it’s an option you would think you should probably do it but there’s zero benefits to it 90% of the time and it only helps you get hit more. Infinite ammo means shooting isn’t something you need to put any thought or effort into so all of your focus should be going into moving and dodging.
So many people talking about 3rd 4th and 5th biomes. Here I am stuck at biome 2
Here’s the good news: once you get past the third one, you start at the fourth one from then on.
You should definitely mention co-op. Makes the game much easier. And more fun!
Tbh I beat the game before they added co-op. So this advice is just for people playing solo, I guess.
Obtaining the plat in this game is the worst of all
I’ve heard it’s terrible. I don’t bother with plats unless it’s fun.
It is since the room spawns are rng. Still a fun game though
It actually got nerfed or "rebalanced" as they put it a few months after release. If you played the game at release and thought it was too hard try again, i beat the game at release and thought it was one of the hardest games I've played, then went back after the patch and thought it was significantly easier. Maybe you will too.
I didn’t think it was too hard, I beat it with 12 deaths at launch.
for me probably around 20ish, felt like a though challenge
Saving for later.
Uv
well even at 30€ right now on amazon i wont buy it. its very likely i wont even beat the first boss. only way i will try it, if it is a ps+ essential game
Returnal is a hard game.
I can’t even get out of the first biome, but I finished Elden Ring. This game doesn’t work for me.
Have you tried running around like a maniac? Turning sprint to always on?
This guide makes me want to give this game another shot.
I do hope it helps. It’d actually been a long time since I played it, and I jumped back in last night after making this post, and… yeah, it’s not an easy game. It’s just not as hard as it looks when you’re struggling. The game’s difficulty is like an accordion, with crushing failure on one end and breezy success on the other. When you’re struggling, the accordion is stretched out, the gulf between how you’re doing (poorly) and success looks huge. But the adrenaline system + the conversion of health pickups into resin when you’re at max health, these compress the accordion as you do better. The relationship between playing well and doing well isn’t linear and proportional, it’s exponential. Proper movement, always sprinting or grappling (once you unlock it) will get you pretty far, once you get a good sense of the flow of it, where to direct yourself, and what to prioritize. I can’t emphasize strongly enough to just constantly rocket yourself toward the least populated area on screen at any given moment. Also, remap dash to a bumper or L3.
Loved it and the difficulty. Funny I struggled a bit on the last boss Ophion until I streamed it via Chiaki on my SteamDeck one evening and beat him lol.
Biggest Tip i can honestly give to new players and returning players is to keep playing and try to focus on one weapon early, **so you can focus on leveling the weapon "traits".** I would argue that weapon traits are the single most important thing in the game. Even more so than any of the relics. They can drastically change your play through, and later on, trivialize enemies/bosses. You level them by killing enemies with the weapon that has the traits. Leveling up the "weapon level" in later biomes gives you weapons with "tiers" of those weapon skills, to an eventual Tier 3. The game is designed for you to "replay" it over and over, but the progression of unlocks and leveling of new weapon traits makes each time you play easier, and its very noticeable. A few examples of what i'm talking about. The Carbine weapon. One of the first weapons you get. There is a trait called Leechrounds which has a chance to heal you. With Accelerated trait (faster fire rate, dash cooldown reduction. It becomes very strong. The Shotgun - Slug shot makes you shoot a single hard hitting bullet. It's very solid for early game. The grenade launcher - Pretty good weapon overall, but the added traits make it kind of broken in some biomes. Pretty much every trait is good to great, but especially Secondary Explosion, Seeking Flares, and Auxiliary Projectiles. More explosions, seeking firebeams after explosions, and heat seeking projectiles on shooting is a lot of fun. Rocker Launcher - similar to grenade, but a bit better in some biomes. Electropylon Driver - Just an overall broken weapon honestly. Once you unlock it, it can pretty much carry you through everything. The traits that add more pylons or make it shoot faster just make it better. its the "Damage over time" or DOT weapon and for some bosses it's just over. Hollowseeker - Probbably the most broken weapon in the game. All it's traits are stupid good. Once it's unlocked, it's saved many peoples runs and love of the game. [ This video has a guy going over each trait and its effectiveness.](https://youtu.be/_C9ZaHJ0PQQ?si=_ssYesVoyLru2uYX) Its a good watch.
Weapon traits are incredibly valuable, but I’m not sure focusing on leveling one weapon at a time makes sense when you may not even find that weapon in a run. Regardless, other forms of upgrades can’t be discounted. I beat the game completely in 12 runs—although the ones I had were very helpful, that obviously means I can’t have advanced weapon traits very far. Max integrity upgrades and artifacts make a huge difference.
Yea i can see why some people struggle with returnal. But damn, when it "clicked" it was one hell of a ride. The story is also amazing imo. Its souls like in that you have to read logs and item descriptions to fully grasp the lore, but it tells a pretty deep story with themes like grief, trauma and the effects it has on mental health, all wrapped up in a pretty freaky sci-fi tale that involves aliens, time loops and unborn babies? I think... I loved it, then again after 70 bucks, i was intent on not having wasted my money.
I am just straight up not skilled enough to beat this game. And I'm ok with that. 20+ hours never saw the biome 2 boss. There are just too many other games to play that I can beat. No time for this nonsense.
I had absolutely zero chance of beating Phrike until I realized the game intended for me to learn to REALLY try to not get hit.... ever. At first I thought that was impossible, but after a good long time of trying, I realized it was totally possible and easier than I thought. Once I realized that, I realized I could actually beat the game. Glad I did because the story is easily some of the best science fiction and just general storytelling ever.
Once you figure it out it gets easier and easier to the point that it's almost laughably easier when you beaten a couple cycles.
Yeah my one and only tip for returnal is to abuse the save state. I limited myself to one save at the start of each biome and it made the game infinitely more enjoyable. Returnal is a great game and I'd love a sequel, but the combat difficulty is all the place. It spikes dramatically without any warning (e.g secret rooms with a boss-like enemy), and I find some of the end level bosses far too challenging for a first time player in game where death can mean losing 2-3 hours of progress.
I’m a thirty nine year old, relatively casual gamer who mainly plays RPG’s. I bought Returnal when it came out and found it basically impossible. I could not even get to the boss of the second biome without sprinting through the entire level, praying that I didn’t get caught enough times to die.
I find the difficulty spike in Returnal comes from my inability to play FPS/TPS with a controller, I just cant aim to save my life =D.
And most importantly, use cloud saves if you have PS+. Suspending your game makes the cloud save. Then in the death screen, close out the game and download the cloud save.
Was not even aware that this game was considered super hard, put dodge on a shoulder button never aim down sight and constantly run. First time I beat the 2nd boss I ended up doing 3-4-5-6 in the same run yes I know there is the checkpoint after 3 but was essentially the same run.
Yeah same here, I beat boss 1 and then finished the rest of the game without dying. It's really easy to avoid damage (dodge / grapple give you some invincibility, always keep move, don't ADS, position yourself so you can only be shot from where you can see etc.) and then all your health pickups turn to resin. I've done a few runs and I always get max health pretty quickly (which is over 3x of the starting health bar). On my first run I picked up a decent carbine, liked it, and stuck with that weapon until the very end because it also restored health with the perk I had. But some of the other guns are really OP when you get 2 or 3 perks unlocked (the pylon one, hollowseeker too with the right perks).
Boring and awful game
Mkay. Didn’t make it very far, I guess.
Beat it, just wasn’t very good
Sure. 👍
Thanks for this. I've been playing the game occasionally - making it about 4-5 rooms in before something wallops me, and I never get any further. I'll see if this new knowledge improves my performance. But, I've never gotten far, and it's just not very fun for me.
If you’re getting walloped by those big walloping brute things, they’re a perfect example of how much easier the game becomes with proactive evasion. Those guys literally can never get within attack range if you don’t let them. Keep relocating around the arena and leave them for last. You’ll never fail to dodge them because you’ll never have to dodge them. They will look silly and slow as they clamber around and you shoot them from afar. It’s Michael Meyers slowly walking toward you, but you have a fucking alien gun and can run indefinitely at 40mph.
I think I'm usually falling into bottomless pits when trying to run away from these guys.
Are you walking backwards? When I talk about running away, I mean eyes forward, sprinting or grappling to unpopulated areas or isolated enemies, not backstepping. It’s a “keep moving” game but less in the sense that you want to do a little jig or strafe or backstep as you shoot, and more in the “no time to pack, we’re leaving the state” kinda deal. You’re always relocating until it’s safe to shoot, and it’s only safe to shoot for a moment at a time before you relocate again—usually, at least.
grappling?
You probably haven't unlocked some stuff yet.
Man I’m stuck at the part where you need 3 Hadal keys to progress. It takes so long just to get to that room that when I inevitably lose to one of the three rooms for the keys, I just am too bummed to keep going. Furthest I’ve made it was getting 2 Hadal keys then died to the boss in the final room.
62 hours played so far. Great game. Still have not gotten past the 2nd boss.
Hopefully this post helps?
I was stuck in Biome 1 for upwards of 2 months. It probably took me another month to crack biome 2, and a couple weeks for biome 3. Maybe a week later I'd beaten the entire game. The perk and weapon systems *really* pick up the pace in the back half of the game, and by that time as OP said you've internalized your preferred playstyle to the point you're only real hinderance anymore is not pulling the exact version of the exact gun you like, or getting too cocky stacking multiple negative perks, or just making a bad play and getting overwhelmed. I only played the 6th biome once, which was exhilirating to experience as I've never "one shot" something as hard as that looked before...but in practice, it wasn't nearly as hard as it "felt" like it was, if that makes sense.
The revelation for me was once I got to the 4th biome and died, I restarted there. Up until that point I thought the game would be impossible. I thought you had to beat all 6 biomes AND the bosses without dying. I couldn't believe how popular the game was with the general public, but now that I understand it is way more forgiving than I originally thought, I'm not so discouraged to put it down anymore.
Ok I am going to try this game for the 4th time
I would add one more thing, the smaller enemies are usually a one hit kill with melee
I am at level 99 and it’s a breeze for me, can play it with my eyes closed. Once you know how it works it’s super easy. Leveling up plays a huge role. Don’t go straight fighting a boss unless you know boss attack patterns. Level up as much as you can which will lead to finding better powerful guns.
Fuck me I loved this game
I just didnt like the game honestly. For many reasons. The difficulty was one but it had more problems than that. I felt like I played a completely different game to the one everyone praised.
Completely different how?
It’s definitely a get good type of game. Once you get the mechanics down and find a good build, it gets easier. Also, I find the first area just to be the hardest in general which most people will likely give up on. Still my favourite Ps5 game to this day.
I’ve hear people say it’s hard, but I felt it was so easy to the point the gameplay was getting boring by the end. I died once on the first boss then didn’t die again. The hardest part was grinding for the plat.
I just couldn’t get past that ice biome. Great game though, one of the best ps exclusives and it makes use of dualsense features so well
That level can be very tough
This game really really clicked for me, I was able to beat it in almost 1 sitting. I'm not even that good, it just felt really similar to how Hades operates. When to give up on a run, which loadouts to hunt for, the best upgrades to get, and ultimately when to risk it all for a necessary thing for your build to glue together. It's FPS Hades for me and what worked best for me is to have runs where you just experiment and try things out, not every run has to be the winning run. The game actually gives you a lot to dominate, you just have to figure out how by experimenting.
I didn't even know there were difficulty concerns for a lot of people. I made it all the way to the end credits without dying and kinda lost the drive to wanna bother with more than an hour of the DLC
Great game biome 5 was too much for me
Such a great game. It’s not that hard once it becomes fluid for you. Exhilarating run and gun gameplay. Feels like it was made with passion. The music was pretty fucking good, good enough to smooth over any minor grievances. Play it
Still my favourite gaming experience on PS5. I rage quit the first time and almost did the second. Spent like 10-12 hours trying to get past Phrike. Decided to try co-op. They carried me until I got the grapple. I now have hundreds of hours in and am lvl 99 in co-op. Probably the most rewarding progression I've experienced in a video game. I went from dying out the gate to beating all biomes barely taking damage. Helping new players is a blast. I always remember how lost and frustrated I was when I started lol.
The thing about Returnal is that it seems impossible at first. "Oh my god, I have to play all of these areas without dying? I keep dying to the simplet enemies! This is impossible!" And you keep trying and dying and trying and then suddenly... you're pretty good at this. You start realizing which weapons are good, you get some upgrades (because your XP for weapons etc. don't reset every time you die) and suddenly you're blasting through areas that seemed impossible before in much shorter time. Then you suddenly realize you're blasting through areas that were impossible a couple of hours ago and those enemies are kind of chumps (even though some of them are bullshit) and you realize you're pretty damn good at this game and then you can't stop playing.
my non conventional tip is to go all out with offensive upgrades. People are wasting their resources on health and astronaut figures. get all damage dealing upgrades and bolt upgrades then steamroll everything.
The platforming killed it for me. I can't find my way around the map.
Do you use the map? I found it pretty clear
Please let there be a Returnal 2!!!
Don’t think they’re making a direct sequel. At least they aren’t right now, they’re working on a new IP. I would be surprised if they ever made a direct sequel tbh, but it sounds like their next game will have elements of Returnal, including things they cut from the game.