Topic: Returnal

I got the true ending. I am not going for the Platinum.

@johncalmc Good one. That's a milestone in itself 👍

Act 3 done. I am going for the platinum, but only possibly for the rest of this weekend!

Well, I learned a difficult lesson. After waiting all week until I could have a handful of hours to try to get that stupid Nemesis down, I put together a pretty good run. I had the resin shield item as well as the item to decrease the resin count needed for a suit upgrade. So I took the time to level up in B2 and had a nice build, and right before teleporting over to B3 I decided to invest in a reconstructor just in case things went south then I’d just have to do B3 again. I made it through relatively unscathed to Nemesis (despite the onslaught of drones in the closing section), went in with a decent health bar, all filled up, and a level 13 Lobber, and 3 silphium’s in the tank to use.

I still didn’t even get through phase 2 😞
…But, I should get another shot from at least the end of B2 …. No! I respawned back at the beginning of B1. I guess the reconstructor only works if you die in the Biome it’s in? That stinks and I wish I’d have known that. Not that losing 6 Ether is the end of the world, but I was feeling so good about my chances and so the disappointment is killing me. These runs are so long at this point and with the weekend coming to an end, it’ll probably be another full week until I get the 4 hour block of time to have another realistic go at it.

As far as the Nemesis fight, I watched several videos before I went in and I’m just not getting as easy time with it. My Lobber wasn’t chipping the health down nearly fast enough, so I had to face several rounds of double red rings and also the fire pit with the sea of orbs coming down all in phase one. Most of the video I see don’t have that happening. In phase 2 I was just really bad at dodging, so that’s on me. Ugh. Not sure if Lobber is the weapon for me. I’ve now tried getting him with a Lobber, a pistol, and a Hollowseeker. I might have to try the launcher next, or if I can get my hands on a good carbine. And the last 5 or so runs I’ve had the astronaut has never dropped in the fabricator store. It’s always the blade enhancer, which does me zero good against Nemesis.

Sorry, not needing any particular advice, I think I know what to do, just sharing in my grief; it’s therapeutic for me. 😅

@Th3solution Ah man, I totally feel for you. It took me a few goes to get Nemesis and it definitely wasn’t pretty when I did. The build up is the hardest part as when you need to gear up across three biomes then there’s a lot invested in the run.

I remember that reconstructor catching me out just like that, and I had the same feeling of being cheated out of a second chance.

From what I’ve seen posted elsewhere it does sound like Nemesis might have been buffed in one of the patches but I don’t know for sure. The longer the fight takes the more likely you will see attacks you’ve not seen before or they will come round again.

If it makes you feel any better I’ve just spent 2 hours getting beaten by the same boss on Demon’s Souls and made zero progress.

@render Well, since I have the game on physical disc, I guess my final recourse would be to delete my game file and disconnect from the internet and reload the original version of the game. I can’t imagine I’ll get that desperate though. 😅

I’ve had Demon’s Souls on the watchlist and now that you can find it for $55 or so, I’m tempted but I’ll not want a difficult game for a while after this. Do you have an opinion on which game is harder — DeS or Returnal?

@Th3solution I also feel for you, man! It’s a tough stretch. Keep at it! I know it doesn’t help at the moment, but in B4 there’s a fabricating station that seems to always stock an astronaut. I didn’t actually know what the reconstructors did so thank you! I’m gonna try and do some runs now. Wish me luck!

@Th3solution That's an interesting option but I think you'd be disappointed with yourself if you had to resort to that! 😉.

It does sound like you aren't too far away from doing it and as you've already noted it's just getting better at dodging and ensuring that you don't get hit. That is a thing I struggled with a lot initially but once I'd stopped panicking so much and started to wait for the right moment it became a lot easier.

The very same thing is what's getting me killed in DeS. It's so slow compared to other games and executing a move at the wrong moment is really punishing as all the animations are slow and play out in their entirety before you can make another move. Through the levels you can unlock shortcuts so it does mean that your journey back to the boss is quicker and easier even though you start back at the beginning of the level. Just like Returnal though if you use healing items then you don't get those back and you don't tend to find that many in a level so you end up having to farm them or farm souls to buy some. All equipment and other items / upgrades are carried over between runs though which means you know what you are going to have through the run, plus because you can farm souls you can buy permanent stat increases that make you stronger, have more health etc.

I am dying a lot more in DeS than I ever did in Returnal though, and boss wise I feel that Returnal was better at making me feel that I'd got a chance and I was able to learn more about their behaviour between attempts. With DeS I'm just getting killed 20 - 30 seconds in and have learnt nothing. Despite that I'm enjoying it and hopefully I'll make some progress this week, otherwise I might be farming for the next month just so I stand a chance 😂.

@Th3solution With Nemesis, are you sure you are hitting it in the glowing red area? If you are struggling avoiding all projectiles, just spend a bit of time concentrating on that and don't fire your weapon. Getting the timing with your dodges is key. Try not to panic when facing it, maybe take a 5 min break just before you face it.

If the Astronaut doesn't spawn for you in one Biome, it will spawn in another. So try getting to the fabricator room in biome 1 and then if it is not in there try Biome 2. I've been doing runs in Biomes 1 - 3 looking for glyphs, and I'm finding it one every run, sometimes twice if I've already used it. It will also appear in locked chests/rooms too, so try opening a few of those if it is not in the fabricator room. I've always got my game online, so maybe turn yours to online if you have it set to online. Not sure if that makes any difference though.

And I looked through the patch notes, there was nothing mentioned about making Nemesis more difficult, only a more general one about making the gamemplay experience more balanced.

@JohnnyShoulder @Th3solution The last time I played, which was after the last patch came out, it did feel like most things were pretty much the same. I didn't find anything that felt it was harder or easier than before but then I didn't play every biome to really compare. I thought that Nemesis was hard but not stupidly so even though it took me a few attempts to get through, then my wife went and did it and made it look easy by beating him first time, and the next boss as well. It should be her on here giving the advice 😆.

@render I beat Nemesis last night again and nothing stuck out at feeling more difficult than when I tried before. I only used one small health vials too, but my health regen was really high so it was like using a large health vial. I would like to think I'm better at the game than when I first took it on though, and I was using the Electopylon Driver which you don't get the first time round until Biome 4.

I've only got 2 glyphs left, both on biomes 2 and 3. Found one in biome 2 yesterday, but that was after several attempts of going through both biomes. Not sure if I can be bothered to go for them at the mo.

@Th3solution Personally, I don’t think the lobber is great for that fight given how far back you are for most of it. The one bonus is that it chips away at health between hits but aiming for that red area on the move is tough.

Hollowseeker with serrated blades or the portal could do the job better but you don’t always have much of a choice in what you end up with! Durable rot and explosive shot(?) are probably the most useful lobber traits.

@Jimmer-jammer In the few times I’ve used the reconstructor it didn’t really make a difference, but yeah — it makes you respawn at that room. However, it’s not necessarily like a save point, since it doesn’t reconstruct you in that exact state at the time you step into it, rather I think it’s in the state you’re in when you die, which I think means you’ll have any additional upgrade in health you obtain afterward, although I can’t be sure of this, but I do know if you’ve used your consumables since then (so like an astronaut) then those will not respawn with you. So you’re coming back a little depleted and the boss will be full strength again as if you’ve never seen it. So it’s a second chance but you’re depleted and usually you’ve already pillaged the Biome by then so you’re not going to be able to gear up any more most likely. But if you’ve got 6 Ether burning a hole in your pocket to spend, then it will extend your run for sure.

@JohnnyShoulder I’m wondering about my aim at the red target area. As quickly as the videos seem to drop the boss health bar, I might be whiffing the spot and not hitting it square on. The lobber I had was decent on the splash attribute, leveled by 4 I think, in fact I think it was balanced with 4 points placed in each category, when I watched the video with the Lobber used it seems people were aiming straight at the red area rather than slightly above but perhaps I need to arc it a little. I didn’t record my video and I should have. I’ll try to do that next time so I can analyze it.
Otherwise the dodge part seems to be the fire section where I took at least 3 hits during that, and just hitting an orb or a laser here and there. Also the red rings, I got hit at least once if not twice on that part. Seems like the sweeping laser hits harder, which I’m decent at dodging through, but one hit drops a big chunk of health.
As far as astronaut, I’m fairly certain I visited both B1 and B2 fabricator shops and both had the blade balancer. Didn’t get to B3’s though. And I tend to not go into every side room or locked path in B2 or B3 since by that point in my run I’m at the risk/reward part when I feel more inclined to not take a chance that the room might have a tough enemy group that will cut my run short. Perhaps I need to try a more thorough clearing of the entire Biome next time, including optional paths.

@Thrillho I don’t remember what traits I had on my Lobber but I don’t think explosive shot was one,. I think one might have been trailing rot which isn’t very helpful in that fight either.

There were so many good weapons you run across in the final stretch to the boss, both in chests and drops from the brute enemies on the climb. But I stuck with the Lobber so as to make an attempt with it. And I mistakenly thought to myself “Ah, here’s a nice level 13 launcher that I’ll leave here to pick up and try on my reconstructor run in a few minutes” 😓

@Th3solution Also, just make sure your other stats have had a bump too. You probably won't be able to increase them all, but by buying some of the stat increases or artefacts from some of the side rooms and locked chests/rooms, you will give yourself a better chance at surviving. You should also come across the odd free standalone fabricator, which are obviously very handy.

@Th3solution I personally would avoid the reconstructor for 3. I used it a couple times and even though it restarts the boss fight, both times the side mobs shooting beams already had their secondary effects from the get go. They took me out fast. The astronaut is the only thing that saved me. I did use a lobber to. I concentrated on avoiding hits and hoped my aim was accurate enough, trying to aim a bit above the red dot to get the lobber to hit it center. Good luck

@Th3solution hm, that’s cool. I’ll need to start using these reconstructors. I also don’t understand exactly what the recyclers do. Hey, if it’s any consolation to your struggles, I’ve hit an absolute brick wall with B5. Good luck with Nemesis!

@Jimmer-jammer The recyclers don't seem all that useful. They take a chunk of your integrity and give you an artefact. I never found an instance where I'd want to do that as it seemed to be such a large chunk it would take a while to get it back and give you a good chance of being killed. I also think it resets your adrenaline to boot.

@render Technically there's a chance you can get the artifact without paying with your integrity - but you definitely do pay more often than not
I had a few instances when I skipped a recycler but then found myself at good health and with a large silphium on the ground in the next area, so I'd go back and use it then. Or sometimes I'd just feel like taking the risk

@render that makes sense, thanks! Yeah, the risk/reward aspect of the game is infinitely interesting to me. I agree it’d have to be a pretty special artifact for me to sacrifice integrity for though. Gambling a few obolites on a random item is one thing, but for me integrity is by far the most valuable resource in the game. Do you happen to know if feeding ether to the crash site obelisk make those items appear more regularly? I haven’t figured out quite how that works either. A lot of mechanics really aren’t explained to the player, which I’m cool with, but with these long runs it’s a little more obtuse feeling to me.