Topic: Returnal

@Elodin Good work, it sounds like you are in a great position to finish this off. It's awesome when you have one of your favourite weapons and then you go and find an even better version of it. B6 is usually the best place to get that, especially with finding stuff like portal beam and portal turret. I'm so going to have to get Returnal on again at the weekend. Reading people getting through it on here makes me want to play it again 😀

@Elodin congrats!! Me too. It sounds like you were a lot more responsible than me though. I’m sporting a bit of a Returnal hangover today as I pushed through and was up far later than I had any right to be. Made it to the end of B6 and walked off a platform with a sliver of health...In reading the comments it looks like we don’t have to collect the keys again so that’s pretty much the best news ever. B5 is quite the test of will. The pylon driver is what got me through it. Good luck! B6 is pretty cool, albeit slightly confusing for me, but it was pretty late.

@Jimmer-jammer Well done! I'm still confused by B6 even having gone through it a load of times. I think it's because there's a lot more places with multiple levels and generally visibility isn't quite as good as the other biomes.

@render thanks! Yeah, it’s a little disorienting and I find enemies coming from below, above, in front, behind, across, inside, outside - every axis in existence. It’s a lot. Yet I’m roaring to go again. What a game.

Cheers to all for the support. Its fun to comment with you all and hear about everyone's journey. At the boss now. I was able to get through 6 with my 25 hollowseeker. The key being rank 2 phase beam. I would just sit behind pillars or doors and shoot though and destroy all the enemies.i picked up a lvl 30 hollowseeker with turret. It should be good for the boss I hope. It also helps that I have triple the amount of integrity and max proficiency and an astronaut in my back pocket. Here goes attempt one...

Beat it! first attempt. Interesting ending...Great game, my game of the year for sure.

@Elodin congrats!! Hoping to join you this evening.

@Elodin Congrats! Yeah that 'ending' was cool, will you go for the other one though?

@Elodin Woohooo great job. Definitely my game of the year too. You should definitely go for the other ending 👍

I've started playing again today after a whole two days saying I was done with it! 😆 I was watching reviews, story theories etc, plus reading people playing the game on here which gave me that itch! Will probably dip into now and again to try and get those last two glyphs in Biomes 2 and 3.

@JohnnyShoulder My wife was playing earlier as well and as I passed through the living room to get a cuppa she was involved in an awesome battle in B4. I wished it was me playing rather than having to work 😀.

I think she actually must have surpassed me in terms of unlocking stuff now as she’s got all the data cubes and has probably unlocked more weapon traits. She’s just happy to keep playing and hasn’t actually found anything else she wants to play instead. I think the only game that she would drop it for would be Hollow Knight Silk Song but that could be a while away yet.

@Jimmer-jammer thanks and Goodluck. That last boss is the definition of bullet hell.

@JohnnyShoulder @render I will go for the second ending for sure. Might take a bit of a break and give plagues tale a try first. Although I could easily fit a run in or two...

Got a couple hours and couldn’t help myself - I had to play some Returnal, even though I knew I’d never get a full run at the B3 boss in my allotted time. But I made it through B1 and half of B2 with a fairly nice build going. So I’m doing the rest mode thing and turned off rest mode internet connection. Maybe I’ll get another 1-2 hour stretch to get that stupid Nemesis over and done.
Now, off to dreaming about dashing and shooting…

@Th3solution Good luck when you resume your run. You've got every chance with a good build!!

@Th3solution all it takes is one good run. Good luck with Nemesis. I fear my second play though and having to overcome biome 3 again.

@Elodin It's not like you're starting over. If you're just going for the sun fragments you hardly have to do anything in biome 3

@Elodin You can start to have a bit more fun with it now as you'll have unlocked lots of traits and things and have that bit more experience from doing the later biomes. I definitely found it easier going through the game after I'd finished it once.

@Elodin A reminder that you need to visit the house in biome 4 before you can find the fragments.

@render @Elodin Unfortunately I’ll have to see how the day goes and it’s possible I may not get back to my run until tomorrow or the weekend.
It will be an interesting experiment on my skill. I fear that since I’m out of the groove that my rhythm will be off and I’ll ruin my good run. Depending on my mood I might run through a little more of B2 to “warm up” before jumping to B3. I have panic attacks just thinking about some of those death rooms in B3 and random drone ambushes.

On a related side note, does anyone have an opinion about the most useful stat(s) to upgrade? The best I can tell they are:

• weapon damage
• protection
• proficiency rate
• repair efficiency
• alt-fire cooldown

I’ve been leaning toward weapon damage mostly, when given a choice. But I realized perhaps I shouldn’t neglect protection, which I assume is the attribute that says how much integrity you lose per hit you take? Whereas repair efficiency says how much health you gain back per silphium you consume? Which of the two do you prefer?
I’ve been ignoring proficiency rate until my current run and we’ll see if it makes a difference. I had always figured it’s a waste to buy an upgrade for it because you get the automatic calculator at the beginning of B2 and B3 that gets your prof rate up to about 5 and 9 respectively without having to use resources on it, so I’m not sure if anyone feels differently. Also the alt-fire cooldown seems less useful to me since I forget to use my alt-fire half the time, and it largely depends what weapon you have as to how useful the attack is.

@Th3solution yeah take your time, many runs I grew impatient and it killed me quick.
My personal preference of importance is integrity then proficiency (with the caviot of what you said about the auto increase at each level.) That said, if you find enough proficiency to top the next levels upgrade id say go for it. I often flipped back and forth between protection and weapon damage as the 3rd option. Alt-fire was at the bottom of my list.. I have found that the overall best thing besides integrity is a good weapon with traits you love. It got me through 3 quick and forsure saved me in 6. Good luck on your next run when you have time.