How to Beat Returnal (PS5)

Returnal is a 2021 roguelike third-person shooter video game developed by Housemarque and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The game was released for the PlayStation 5 on April 30th, 2021 and for Windows on February 15th, 2023. Roguelike is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. For example, if you made it through 75% of the game without dying and you die at that moment, you have to start ALL the way over. This makes many people frustrated and many people quit because of that. Today, I will show you tips on how to beat and progress through the game.

1. Your weapon is only strong if you unlock the traits. Unlock all traits, even for the pistol. When you begin a run, run past all enemies until you find a weapon chest that gives you a weapon that needs a percentage trait improvement. Then reverse course and go backwards and kill the enemies you skipped. You get about 7% per kill. Save enemy kills for trait improvement. And that weapon improvement is permanent. You don’t lose it when you die. Resist the urge to open chests, and pickup another weapon. just grind your current weapon to 100% trait unlock.
2. The key is to focus on avoiding damage, not dealing damage. Grappling away from enemies and dashing through particle attacks are key to beating enemies. Also, strategically avoiding combat encounters can save a run. If you move quickly, you can run past most rooms. That’s very important for the last combat room before Nemesis. It usually spawns a ton of difficult enemies, but running/grappling past avoids that.
3. Remap your controller so dash is R1.  Switch on always run, increase the size if your on screen reticle to large/thick (makes hitting overload easier).  You have an option risky encounter- default is press and hold, change to press. This makes picking things up much easier without having to stop.   Theres an option to increase aim assist…
4. Spend Ether in first room to unlock new items into loot pool (it maxed out at 12 or 15).    Weapons increase in strength per proficiency so if you are almost at a new level wait before opening a chest incase it has a better level weapon.
5. Challenge room Biome 1 – wait until you have a decent weapon before trying it and especially before avenging any corpse.
6. Don’t ADS small creatures , hip fire and don’t stop moving.   Try all the weapons to find one that suits your game style.   Bigger bosses have a red patch which you can do extra damage by shooting.
7. Dying is part of the game, do not be discouraged.
8. Malfunctions in Biome 1 are relatively simple to fix so don’t be afraid to try some malignant chests etc.  Parasites can really help your game.
9. Also change your ‘risky interactions” to press instead if hold, this means you can quickly pick items up without having to stop.
10. When you fall always dodge before landing making the parasite that causes damage on long fall an instant bonus.
11. Struggling with weapon choices a carbide can work against every enemy and boss.  High calibre is a strong trait.
12. The ‘translocation sphere’ consumable is badly explained in game- it takes you to one of the hidden/bonus rooms.  When your done it takes you back to where you were when you used it.
13. You are immune to most damage when in dodge movement (purple lasers still hit)

These are a few pictures of the enemy types you come across throughout the game. I hope you all can use my advice!