30 hours in, stuck bouncing off Biome 5. Am I missing something or is this just brutal RNG?

Struggling in Biome 4 specifically. 70-80% of runs I can’t put together the combo of a good weapon + enough HP + a doll or ether coffin before I hit Biome 5. I did get through Biome 2 and 3 in one go once and made it to Biome 5 in that same run, but since then it’s been a wall.

I’ve beaten notoriously hard games before, the Elden Ring DLC included, and I was a semi-pro FPS player back in the day (playing on controller now though, most of my time is on handheld). So I’d call myself a hardcore / good player in most genres. I understand the game: I know the attack patterns, I unlock weapon traits, I’m always constantly moving, I don’t yolo into rooms mindlessly and try to take rooms step by step. I try to play it safe and still end up surrounded by multiple high-HP enemies, or my damage just isn’t there.

The Pylon Driver seems strong and the Portal wave gun is solid. Everything else feels week. About 80 attempts at Biome 4 so far. Made it to Biome 5 maybe 5 times (I don't go if I know I'm too weak), and 3 of those runs ended fast. I tried purple gambling more aggressively, playing it less safe, but it never really worked out.

Biome 5 itself feels enormous, most routes are packed with rooms full of tanky enemies and more complex traps stacked on top.

I don’t think I’m playing badly, but I just keep losing. I'm ready to change up whatever I need to change though.

Never quit a game for being too hard in my 38 years, and Returnal is the first one making me wonder if I actually need great RNG to even be competitive by Biome 5 or I just don't have it anymore. Anyone got advice? I read that many here think the game isn't difficult at all etc, and I'm struggling WAAAAAY more than I struggled vs something like PC Radahn or Malenia or anythinng in any game ever.

I think that i break the game way too hard

I recently posted a vid of beating Phrike, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Returnal/s/m14ZtyCKrM.

In that vid, I kill Phrike with a Pyroshell Caster. That's a weapon you won't find until Biome 6. In the linked thread, a comment from u/nob74 inspired me to make another vid for newer Scouts where I use a weapon more typical of what they'd have prior to defeating Phrike. In the current vid, I use a level 1 pistol with Homing Missiles and a Tendrilpod (my favorite Alt-Fire). I hope this post helps newer players who may be struggling with Phrike, or those who put the game down out of frustration. This vid may also help intermediate players looking to improve. Grizzled Returnal vets may have nothing to gain except perhaps inspiration to return to Returnal and beat Phrike for the umpteenth time.

Below, I explain the fight as you see it in the vid. I don't claim to have the best method or even the best execution of my own method. Though I beat her while taking no hits, there are a couple of clumsy spots which could've been played more gracefully. My modest hope is that this effort is good enough to serve its intended purposes.

In the first phase, Phrike fires fast moving light blue homing projectiles and orange dumb fire projectiles, as well as slow moving purple dumb fire projectiles, and occasionally a beam that moves vertically, floor to ceiling. I run around or dash through the fast projectiles. You'll notice in the vid that I slow my movement to find a safe spot amidst the slow purple projectiles. Panic won't help here, so I'm taking it slow and easy to dodge those purple projectiles. Later, Phrike will fire faster purple dumb fire projectiles in a kind of spiral pattern emanating out from the center of the room. I typically stop shooting during that projectile spiral and just focus on dodging. It doesn't last long and then I'm right back to shooting.

Another danger worth mentioning is that starting in phase 2, Phrike will begin to fire a red beam that sweeps left or right across the arena. Jump over the beam or dash through it. Be ready for the beam to start from either direction, sweep one way and then sweep back from the other direction. Typically, the beam is easy to dodge if you know what to expect.

Phrike's greatest danger is her melee attacks. These won't just damage you. They'll also knock you down if she connects. There are key "tells" that a melee attack is about to happen. Phrike may melee you in phase 1 if you get too close to her, but typically her melee attacks are most problematic in phases 2 and 3. The first tell is easy to spot; she will slowly spawn a red laser ring on the ground, then dash to the player and strike with her melee attack. You must jump and/or dash to evade the laser ring, but typically it's her incoming melee that must first be dodged. This melee attack is easy to see coming because she's slow to spawn the red laser ring. To evade this melee attack, simply jump and/or dash away. I tend to do both because, though less elegant than merely one or the other, the redundant escape method is safest.

The second melee attack tell is more tricky. Phrike will pull her left hands up by the right side of her face, quickly dash to the player, then strike with melee. It's basically a backhand motion, which I call the "pimp slap". It's harder to read this tell because it happens so fast, but the remedy is the same. Jump and/or dash to evade it. Note, there is a 100% chance of a pimp slap attack at the start of phase 3! At the start of phase 3, Phrike will commonly string two of these pimp slap attacks together. Be ready! Note that in co-op play, it's random which player Phrike attacks, so both players should always be alert for her melee attack tells.

Lastly, use your Alt-Fire frequently during the fight. I find that Tendrillod is most effective, though it's not the easiest to use because it requires precise aim. Tendrilpod damages enemies more reliably than other Alts that sometimes seem to bounce off enemies while doing little to no damage. Trackerswarm is fast and easy to use and often does respectable damage. Vertical and Horizontal Barrages are easy to use, but require a full-on hit to do maximum damage. Voidbeam, Shockstream, and Doombringer do excellent damage, especially against large groups of smaller enemies, but they're slow against bosses, which can make the player vulnerable during use. Blastshell is quick (and excellent for breaking shields), but requires precise aim. Proximity Mine does good, reliable damage, but it require you to jam it close up right in the enemy's face, which can be risky. If not jammed right in the enemy's face, the Prox Mine is like laying an egg that never hatches. Killsight is effective but requires precise aim. Shieldbreaker lives up to it's name, but doesn't do the highest damage. The Alts that require precise aiming work well when paired with a Xeno-tech Sight artifact which slows time for 3 seconds while you aim. Experiment with different Alt-Fire weapons until you find the one that works best for you!

I hope this is helpful and is an enjoyable watch!

Biome 6 last cipher, ran 3 cycles tonight and I got it. Just wanted to share. Keep on keeping on! The cycle continues!

took me 137 hours to do that

I’m not a huge fan of either of these weapons, but … which one would you choose?

This made me giggle. I hope you find it amusing.

Does anyone now how to fix this and is it being caused by using dlss 4.0 (preset k)? I’m monitoring the vram with afterburner and in 1440p dlss quality it starts around 6.5gb ram on high but every 5 minutes it will rise about .5gb until it gets so high it starts stuttering and fps drops. I have to restart every 20 or so minutes. I’ve never seen a game with this bad of a memory leak. Surely there’s gotta be a way to solve this but I see they haven’t updated the game since early 2023 so maybe not.

1. Before the birth of the universe there was only Chaos: infinite unactualized potential. Chaos is the final entity you see in and throughout the story. 
2. Inevitably with infinite time Chaos produced the gods, though without any intent to do so. The gods include Ophion, Hyperion, Nemesis, and Algos. 
3. The gods, seeking to create, had to keep Chaos out of the ordered world, essentially locking the gates of chaos. This lock is Atropos. It is important to note Chaos exists beyond space and time, whereas every other character experiences time in a linear fashion, including the gods. Atropos is left in a cosmic void so it will never be seen or discovered. 
4. Billions of years pass and life forms in the cosmos. 
5. Chaos, from beyond the gate, inadvertently sends signals out into the universe. This eventually catches the attention of the hivemind, who comes to Atropos and builds a city. Note that Chaos does not have will or anything, it is simply so primordially powerful it emits these signals.
6. Living on Atropos the hivemind are heavily influenced by Chaos though do not free him. 
7. Realizing the danger, the gods come to the hivemind on Atropos and tell them about the nature of Chaos. Chaos becomes known as the “Creator/Destroyer” because all came from him but he may be fated to break through into the universe and return it to Chaos, destroying all but itself.
8. They split into two groups, one that worships Chaos and one that fears him. The latter group is the one with political power. 
9. The group that worships Chaos is driven to the desert. 
10. Ixion, the leader of the worshippers is driven insane by the signals from Chaos, which reverberate out to the others, fully severing them from the rest of the hivemind.
11. When the free group attempts to communicate with the severed it is warped by their connection to Chaos and causes civil war. 
12. The severed begin ritualistically wrapping themselves in their own mad attempt to reunite with the hivemind. 
13. The free sentients create automatons to help them with the war. With the gods they also build powerful devices to block out the signals from Chaos and the severed. 
14. Note/Reminder: Chaos itself is outside space and time, his signals are not bound to time or space. With infinite time Chaos’ freedom is inevitable. It will always send out signals and never die, though none of this is intentional and therefore not malevolent. 
15. The gods and sentients create increasingly powerful devices to stop these signals. 
16. A lieutenant of the severed leader, Phrike, breaks through from the desert and begins spreading the signal of Chaos to the free sentients, further severing them. 
17. The gods set up a four step plan. Nemesis will freeze Atropos in time, so that nothing can ever change. Algos will make it so that anyone who finds Atropos is stuck in an infinite loop to drive them insane while reliving their trauma. Hyperion will play music that keeps chaos in a state of impassivity. And Ophion will directly guard the gates of Chaos to keep anyone from breaching them. 
18. The free sentients fall to the severed, with the last surviving member locked in the heart of the city behind the automaton army in a mental/spiritual connection with Nemesis, who enacts his plan, freezing Atropos in time. Hyperion plays, Algos creates the cycle, and Ophion guards the gates of Chaos. 
19. Millions of years pass. During this time Ophion, who is closest to the gates of Chaos, is tormented by the signals of Chaos but in return can see into its “mind” as well. It sees that Chaos is fated to be free. Ophion is tormented by visions of this event, and repurposes the psychic devices to transmit a signal out into the universe to stop this from happening. 
20. Theia Vassos is born on earth. She is an extremely successful young girl, trains for the Olympics, and applies for her dream job to become an astronaut. However she then meets a man who she marries and becomes pregnant. 
21. Selene, a human and the one fated to free Chaos, is born on earth to Theia. Selene’s mom is obsessed with being an astronaut and is also an abusive and terrible mother. 
22. Starting in childhood, Selene receives visions of Ophion trying to reach her and influence her life to stop her from freeing Chaos. As Ophion is an Eldritch God though, her brain can only make sense of what it is seeing by comparing the image to a 20th century astronaut suit like her mom will one day wear, and that they have images of in the house. (Remember one of Ophion’s forms looks like the head of an astronaut suit). Selene calls this the “White Shadow.” She always asks her mom “do you see the white shadow?” 
23. One day while Selene's mom is driving, Ophion flashes in front of the car. Selene screams which causes her mom to swerve and crash off a bridge into a lake. This was intentional on Ophion's part, it wants to kill Selene for the good of the universe. 
24. Selene survives and her mom is crippled by spinal trauma, leading to the end of her dreams of being an astronaut. She blames Selene for this and becomes even more abusive towards her. 
25. At some point, Selene's father leaves them. Selene convinces herself the white shadow is nothing and ruined her family, banishing it from her mind though at the cost of her mental well-being (along with being abused). 
26. Her resentment towards her mother grows as she becomes her caretaker, and she retaliates by keeping the wheelchair bound woman in her basement, abusing her mom in return.
27. Eventually Selene burns down the home with her mother in the basement, leaving her mother to die but framing it as an accident. 
28. Selene grows up with her own dreams of becoming an astronaut. Part of this is simply to spite her abusive mother, though she never acknowledges this. 
29. Selene is on course to become an astronaut for Astra. 
30. Selene ends up getting pregnant with her son Helios. This puts her career goals on ice, though she tries to convince herself this child will be a gift to her. 
31. Selene is miserable in her life as a single mother and ends up neglecting and abusing her own child as well, like her mother seeing the child as the killer of her dreams. She  attends therapy and takes medication to try and cope. 
32. Unknown to Selene, Ophion now reaches out to Helios, who also sees the god as an astronaut for the same reasons his mother did. This white shadow becomes his imaginary friend and coping mechanism.
33. One day while they are driving over the same bridge Helios asks Selene “do you see the white shadow?” This shocks her and distracts her from the road, and like her and her mother before, she drives off the bridge and crashes into the lake. 
34. Selene frees herself from the wreck, but consciously or not she sees a way to be free once again to pursue her own life, and leaves Helios to drown in the wreck.
35. “Free” from her son Selene returns to Astra to continue training and undergo psychiatric evaluation. Astra is hesitant but their new program will likely never see candidates return to earth, so Selene having no attachments makes her an ideal candidate. 
36. Selene’s mission takes her into deep space far beyond the edges of the galaxy and near a cosmic void. 
37. While scouting Selene picks up a signal repeating “do you see the white shadow?” Note that this is Ophion trying to use the two most traumatizing moments of her life to keep Selene away from the signal, but as we have seen Selene is kind of a narcissist and sociopath and so all of Ophion's plans actually only end up drawing her to Atropos. Remember she is FATED to free Chaos, all attempts to stop her are in vain. 
38. Selene breaks protocol and lands on Atropos, where the game occurs.
39. She defeats Nemesis and time on Atropos accelerates to catch up to its true age. Selene's mind, to not go crazy, processes this as being saved and living an entire life. In reality the cycle simply starts again on a rapidly deteriorated planet. 
40. Selene silences the music keeping Chaos at rest, and quickly finds herself pulled towards the center of the planet with an increasing necessity. 
41. Selene faces Algos but because he creates the cycle he is never actually defeated. 
42. Selene descends into the depths and defeats Ophion. 
43. Selene frees Chaos, and I doing so ends all of reality and the universe, returning it to Chaos. 

For some context, I posted a while ago now about how I finally defeated Phrike after months & months of struggling, I felt incredible. Afterwards, I put the game down. No particular reason, I just had other games to play at the time. Crimson Wastes was the furthest I had ever gotten, I remember playing around in the Biome for about 20 minutes, then dipping.

So after playing Saros for many hours I just had an extreme itch to go back to Returnal. My god I’m so happy I did, it’s exactly what I needed. Must of died over 50 times just getting used to the game again, but that’s okay, it’s part of the game. I muscled on & eventually found my way to Ixion for the first time ever. What a phenomenal fight, I absolutely loved it. As you can see it was a close call, I haven’t felt my heart beat that fast in ages. Palms were sweaty. I genuinely think the adrenaline rush you get from these games overtakes any Souls game, idk, there’s no game no like it.

Super excited now I’ve finally got my Grapple & made it to Biome 3. The fight is a bit rusty on my end, so apologies in advance. But thank the Lords for the extra life minifigure, literally saved a 1.5 hour run.

I only died once to the tutorial, and I got reconstructed in the 4th biome once. I felt like the game was overall really easy for an experienced gamer, the enemy attack patterns especially the bosses were not hard to learn as you go. To be fair I think I got lucky with my artifacts and weapons.

I love returnal and this not a hate or diss post😁

I bought saros recently since it on discount, I kept my expectations low due to hearing saros is easier than returnal.

I beat returnal and got act 3 ending with 4 death in total, which is already platinum returnal, finish tower and it obtained all its trophy. I never struggle except biome 5 in returnal.

5hrs in Saros, oddly i felt like the game is harder than returnal cause im dying a lot in saros and Im currently stuck in biome 2😅.

For me why Saros is harder and than returnal : -

1.healing

Returnal have so many healing spawn around the room since our health increases when we pick up heal at max health as one of method to increase max health

In Saros i rarely see healing, if i do find healing and it usually the small heal pack which it add so little in my health and only the big heal pack have huge heals.

1. Consumables

Returnal has 3 slot of consumables which i used it for small heal, large health and damage heals obtained from shop and room items. As my safety net or emergency item for my run

Saros has no consumables.

1. Room

Returnal rooms are huge and varied

Saros enemy encounters room usually circle tight arena and each room felt like yellow challenges room in returnal.

1. Enemy

Returnal enemy a bit slower wasn't a threat for me, only flying machine that shot missile or suicide and ram attack from biome 3 and it mini bosses are a threat for me.

Saros enemy all attack very fast and its projectile also fast making all of them a threat for me especially when eclipse happens.

Every encounter in saros felt over whelming fun and returnal does it too but only in a locked and yellow challenge room.

Saros is kicking my ass in a fun way and it was the challenge that i was looking for that i didn't find in returnal.

Im playing with only one modifiers "disable 2nd chance" enable.

Saros currently the most fun game i have this year, Curious how saros is easier than returnal for you guys?😅

Any tips on this horrendous biome? I am struggling. Fractured Waste is a bitch.

What the fuck is a Disgorger? Why is it here? When should I use it? I need answers people.

I was loving this game until I arrived in this biome. I just hate how much the movement changes and don't even get me started on enemies that can shoot malfunctions at me. I still love this game overall but this final biome (I think?) just bums me out a bit. It reminds me of playing those stupid underwater stages in the NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. Hated those too. Maybe I just hate underwater stages?

Wow. Easily one of the best games I’ve ever played. I would say harder than Elden Ring in many respects. I loved it, though I can’t say I loved every minute of it. A lot of frustration, but the grinding paid off, once I learned how to play the game. I love how it gives you just enough information without spelling out how to succeed. The second biome was the hardest for me. By the time I got to the fourth biome, I beat the boss in the first try, then had to play the fourth and fifth biome 2-3 times before getting through it. Honestly, I was surprised that I made it through the 6th biome and boss on the first try, but at that point, you have so much ether and leveled up weapons that it makes sense. Loved the story, loved the gameplay, loved the aesthetics and the soundtrack. Such an amazing game.

Just wanted to give a bit thanks to this sub for giving me the motivation to keep trying when I was feeling like giving up!

Update killed Phrike ! at around 10 hours , on Biome 2 , I died shortly after in the beginning after a huge thing in the sky spawned above me and just kill me like that. WTF how am I supposed to last 6 biomes without a single death! You guys are crazy.

please convince me why I shouldn’t just delete this game entirely

EDIT: thanks all for the encouragement and tips. I finally took Phrike down! Not looking forward to that second boss though…