Topic: Returnal

@Just_2_milky @render

Safety first on the first phase; keep your distance and just keep firing but the priority is not to get hit (especially by the big stream of orbs!)

Second phase, dash forwards through the blue barriers rather than jump them. The bit where he flies across the screen is actually really easy to avoid once you know that he only enters from one direction. Again, keep your distance where possible so the attacks spread and orbs are easier to avoid.

The third phase, I kind of messed up here. You need to keep your distance but dashing towards the red rings is probably the best technique but be very aware of the melee attack!

@Thrillho @render Thank you both so much! I'll give all of those tips a go next time!

@Just_2_milky It’s easier said than done! When the music and adrenaline kick in, all preparation can go out the window

@Just_2_milky I think with Ixion what I found worked was to just stay as far from it as possible. A lot of its attacks look daunting but don't panic and they're actually not that hard to dodge. You can dash through most if not all projectiles he fires, and strafing left to right means most of his scary looking attacks won't hit you at all. The third phase is the worst as you'll have to jump over some attacks but as long as you have a good weapon and a health pack or two its definitely manageable.

@johncalmc @Thrillho @render thanks so much! I got a large health item & an astronaut in the shop, and didn’t even need the astronaut! On to the drones…

@Just_2_milky Good luck, you’re going to need it!

So… 15 hours of playing the game and I just discovered the breakable walls 😒
So it gives you a data cube that you have to combine with another one?
Are there more than 1 breakable walls per biome?

@Th3solution Datacubes are hidden in each biome, there’s a couple in each. You have to combine them with the data thingy that’s located in that biome which unlocks the item held within.

@Th3solution You need to bring the datacube to a datacube processor. It will give you a new item and add it to your item pool.
In biome 1, the processor is located In Phrike’s room

Once you get a cube processed l, it will no longer appear in that location (a random item will be there instead).

@Th3solution It was ages before I discovered that area in biome 1 as well.

As others have said, you need to beat Phrike to use the processor in that biome. Others are more easily located.

@Th3solution Yeah I didn't notice the breakable walls until about then either. Quite by accident too as I was melee killing a load of flying things, and destroyed the wall as well.

@Just_2_milky Good work, hope you faired well with the Citadel 😀

I always thought it was fairly cruel to have the data cube processor after the boss in B1 as it would be nice to have that item before you take it on. I think I got down to needing 2 data cubes to complete the set but the last two I haven’t found. I sure am glad you didn’t need those for the platinum as they are even more elusive than some of the scout logs.

Alright, I need testimonies about how annoying the save system is. And how long a normal run is. The sale has me tempted, but the save system has me unsure. Any opinions for better or worse?

@Jaz007 If you have less than an hour to play, either be prepared to put it in rest mode or don’t play. Difficulty is alright, it’s not the hardest game I’ve played but can be pretty irritating at times. Runs in general can last up to a good couple of hours if you make progress.

📯 Okay, everyone…. I have an announcement:
(Cue Hallelujah chorus)

I̺͆ h̺͆a̺͆v̺͆e̺͆ b̺͆e̺͆a̺͆t̺͆e̺͆n̺͆ P̺͆h̺͆r̺͆i̺͆k̺͆e̺͆

I have no idea what I did differently this time, other than I felt a lot calmer and “in the groove” so to speak. I was able to beat her with use of just one med pack, and I still had 2/3 of my health bar left at the end. I had a level 5 Carbine. I also had a parasite that would resurrect me on a killing blow (at the expense of taking on a malfunction) but I didn’t even need it. Honestly I feel like I could beat her straight away again if I had to. I’m oozing with confidence now. 😛

Biome 2 is awesome so far. So thankful after about 16 hours of the same environment over and over to finally get something new. The enemies so far haven’t been too bad, but I was shocked the first time I dropped through into one of those crumbling floor secret room and a mini boss was waiting for me instead of a treasure room. But so far so good. I’m using the rest function to pause my run and get some work done and take a breather.

@Jaz007 I am 16 hours of playtime in and my runs last from 15 minutes to 3 hours. I actually am in the middle of a 3 hour run right now after (finally!) beating the first boss and I have a good loadout so I have it in rest mode until this evening when I have more play time.

I wish it had a save function. It’s a little annoying to be honest if you’re a busy person to not be able take an extended break. You can freely pause the game at any time though, even mid battle, if you want to answer a call, visit the John, grab a bite, or just dry your sweaty hands. 😅
So I use pause regularly and I’ve done the rest mode trick about three times when I had a long run of 2-3 hrs going and needed to step away for a while. So far it has worked fine with no crashes or anything. I haven’t disabled auto updates on my PS5, but I need to if I keep doing this. Obviously if the PS5 updates and restarts then the run is gone.

The game is a blast to play, and very well made. Haptics and adaptive triggers are awesome. If you read back you’ll see my frustration has been pretty high at times, but if I’m only 1/5 of the way through after 16 hrs, the game is well worth the $70 I paid, and certainly $55 or whatever the sale price is. You’ve had success with FromSoft games so you’ll handle the difficulty probably better than I have.

@Th3solution Congrats! I really liked the change of scenery to biome 2 but the big open areas means the tactic of using doors to shield yourself goes out the window..

@Th3solution Wooohooo 🥳, great work!! B2 is pretty cool and the wide open areas and change of hostiles makes it interesting.

@Jaz007 I didn’t really find the lack of save a problem but did have a few late nights where I’d still be playing at 2.30am. Usually though that’s because I stupidly went back in again after dying and I should have just given it up.

For me personally the no saving made the game more unique and pushed me to make the most of every run.

@Th3solution Woohoo, congrats!

@Th3solution nice one, great work! 🥳