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Returnal Guide

Groundhog Day Returnal Guide contains complete walkthrough, Beginner's Guide and best tips for boss fights, exploration, character development, crafting, weapons, death and combat. We describe trophies.

Last update: 29 April 2021

This Returnal game guide is a great compendium of knowledge about this original production. The detailed information and tips contained in our walkthrough will teach you all the most important game mechanics, the basics of combat and the art of survival, as well as help you defeat all the bosses of the game Returnal and get all the achievements.

The first big chapter of this walkthrough is somewhat of a guide to the basics of the game Returnal. This chapter starts with a page listing useful begginer's tips that everyone who is just starting their adventure with this unusual TPP game with roguelike elements should know about. On separate pages of this chapter, we discuss such important issues as combat, exploration, character advancement and statistics, the challenge terminal, crafting and the biomes on the planet Atropos.

The second, very extensive chapter of this Returnal game guide is an FAQ that answers frequently asked questions. On separate pages, we explain in detail topics such as: how to unlock melee weapons and hand-to-hand combat, what is Ether for, what are Parasites for, how not to lose game progress, how to open locked boxes, how to get items located behind bars, how to open the Crimson Gateway, what is the Datacube, whether you can change the difficulty level in the game Returnal, how to increase inventory space and how to die less often.

While playing the game Returnal, you will have to face some especially strong opponents, so we have described all the boss fights in detail in a separate chapter of our guide. On separate pages of this chapter, you will find tips explaining all the important mechanics of each boss in Returnal to ease the difficulty of these battles.

Separate pages of the Biomes chapter contain descriptions of all areas of the Atropos planet that you will visit during your playthrough. Our guide to Returnal is concluded with the Annex chapter, which contains a list of controls as well as a trophy guide, thanks to which you will be able to get the highest award - the platinum trophy.

• Returnal: Quick beginner's guide
• Returnal: All bosses
• Returnal: All biomes
• Returnal: All endings
• Returnal: FAQ - I have a problem and I'm looking for an answer
• Returnal: Game guide
• Returnal: Game editions
• Returnal: Language versions
• Returnal: Trophies and platinum

Returnal: Quick beginner's guide

1. Constantly keep moving: every fight in the game Returnal is quite a challenge, so you need to quickly learn how to efficiently move within the available space and how to use dashes effectively;
2. Dash: Selene becomes temporarily invincible while dashing, which means she can avoid taking damage from enemy projectiles, lasers, and other traps;
3. Enemy weak points: the aliens inhabiting the particular biomes of the planet Atropos have weak points, which are marked with a red square. Hitting these points greatly increases damage and leads to stunning the enemy faster;
4. Exploration: not all areas of the particular biomes will be available from the very beginning, so don't worry if you can't destroy the red vines or jump onto high platforms at the start of the game - you will get this chance later on;
5. Map: familiarise yourself with the map legend to quickly distinguish side locations and optional secrets (items located behind bars, hidden treasures) from the main paths leading to major, plot-related locations;
6. Weapons: throughout the game you will find many different weapons and you should try them all out to find the one that best suits your personal battle style;
7. Destroying the environment: a lot of the smaller elements of the environment can be destroyed, so they don't provide the best protection when fighting against a large number of opponents. Yellow-eyed statues leave behind some Obolite;
8. Fall damage: usually, Selene does not take damage when falling from great heights, but this may change if you attach a certain Parasite to the suit;
9. Healing: constantly keep an eye on the main character's health, because Selene isn't able to cure herself. In the game Returnal, you can heal the character by, for example, collecting Silphium or using consumable items (First Aid Kits);
10. Damage: contaminated objects (keys, containers, consumables) cause damage to the suit. Certain types of damage don't have a big impact on the gameplay, but others can make it much more difficult to survive.

For more advice about the game Returnal, check out the Beginner's Tips page.

Returnal: All bosses

1. Phrike
2. Ixion
3. Nemesis
4. Hyperion
5. Ophion

Returnal: All biomes

1. Overgrown Ruins
2. Crimson Wastes
3. Derelict Citadel
4. Echoing Ruins
5. Fractured Wastes
6. Abyssal Scar

Returnal: All endings

1. First (basic) ending
2. Secret ending

Returnal: FAQ - I have a problem and I'm looking for an answer

If you would like to learn more about the game Returnal, take a look at the following questions, which answer the key issues related to this production. Answers to other important questions can be found on separate pages of the FAQ section.

1. Quitting the game - will I lose progress? - Returnal is an original production that implemented a completely unique system of progressing the game, so it's worth knowing how to exit the game safely, so you can later resume the gameplay at the same point;
2. Healing - how to restore health? - in the game Returnal, there is no automatic healing, so you should learn a few ways to recover lost health;
3. Hand-to-hand combat - how to unlock? - melee weapons are useful not only for fighting, but also to destroy the force fields protecting certain opponents or barriers blocking the passage to further areas of the planet Atropos. On this page, we explain how to unlock the blade - the only melee weapon available in the game Returnal;
4. Alternate attack - how to unlock? - weapons in the game Returnal sometimes have Alt-Fire mode, which can be used in combat. On this page we will tell you how to unlock this mode and how to use it;
5. Fast travel (teleportation) - how to unlock? - teleportation makes it much easier to move around the biomes of the planet Atropos, so it's worth understanding the way fast travel works and how to unlock it;
6. Parasites - what are they? - on the alien planet Atropos you can find many different Parasites, so on a separate page we list the advantages and disadvantages of attaching Parasites to Selene's spacesuit, as well as how to dispose of them;
7. Home - how to get inside? - Selene's house can be found while exploring the first biome. On this page we explain how to open the front door of the house and what you can find inside.
8. Death - how to die less? - Returnal is a very demanding game that doesn't forgive any mistakes and rarely rewards the player. This page will provide you tips how to increase your chances of survival;
9. Shields - are they available? - this page informs if Selene can use protective shields, which can greatly affect your survivability and make fights with more difficult enemies easier;
10. Ether - what is it used for? - you can find many useful resources on Atropos. This page inform what Ether is, why it is worth collecting and what it can be used for;
11. Closed containers and gates - how to open? - while exploring all the biomes of Atropos, you will come across closed containers and gates, multiple times and here you'll learn how to open them;
12. Enemy's barrier - how to destroy? - some enemies in Returnal are additionally protected by a red force field. This page contains tips how to defeat such enemies.

Returnal: Game guide

On separate pages of this Returnal guide you will find information about the most important mechanics, combat system, exploration of the Atropos planet, character development and crafting.

1. Combat - this page contains basic information about combat in Returnal. We discuss weak points of various enemies, stunning, terrain obstacles and healing obelisks;
2. Exploration - this page explains how Atropos changes during each subsequent cycle, what fast travel is, whether you can find any shortcuts in the game, and what to look out for when exploring individual biomes;
3. Adrenaline - this page contains all the most important information about this mechanics. You'll find out how adrenaline affects Selene as well as how to increase the level of adrenaline and how not to lose this effect;
4. Crafting - we explain how crafting in Returnal works. You will learn what requirements you need to meet in order to craft items, where you can produce them and what you can gain;
5. Character development and stats - this page contains the most relevant information about the development of Selene as well as a description of character and weapon stats.

Returnal: Game editions

At the time of writing this guide, there are editions of Returnal available on the global market - a standard edition and a digital deluxe edition.

1. Standard Edition
2. Digital Deluxe Edition

They're described in detail on a separate page of this guide: Game editions.

Returnal: Language versions

Returnal provides dubbing in as many as nine different languages. Read more on this topic on a separate page of the tutorial: Language versions.

Returnal: Trophies and platinum

In Returnal, you can earn 31 trophies: 1 platinum trophy, 7 gold trophies, 5 silver trophies and as many as 18 bronze ones. Trophies associated with the progress in the main storyline are the easiest to earn. The ones associated with conducting research in all 6 biomes of Atropos are the most problematic.

For more detailed information about all Returnal trophies as well as tips on how to get them, see a separate page of the guide: Trophies.

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