Returnal

Hey there, welcome to Returnal! I'm excited to guide you through this challenging game. This is my first guide in a while, and I'm still getting the hang of this HTML format, so thanks for your patience. I decided to write this because there wasn't a full FAQ out yet. While the community is great, I wanted to put all the essential info – artifacts, weapon perks, tips, and more – into one place to make your trip through Atropos smoother.

Now, Returnal is a Roguelike, so a traditional step-by-step walkthrough might not be the most useful thing. Instead, I'll focus on what really matters: solid boss strategies, advice on which weapons and artifacts to prioritize, and general gameplay tips that have helped me conquer this tough world. I've poured about 90 hours into Returnal, earned the platinum, and I'm confident in the advice I'm giving. My opinions on gear might differ from yours, but I know how to play this game well. I'm always open to feedback, so if you spot a mistake or have a different take, please let me know!

Ready to dive deeper? We'll cover the basics next.

Blast Shell
Fires an arching explosive shell that damages all enemies in the blast radius. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 3/5.

Doom Bringer
Fires a large energy ball that slowly travels in a straight line, damaging nearby enemies. Can be charged for more damage. Cooldown = 40 seconds. Priority: 2/5.

Horizontal Barrage
A flat, horizontal volley of bullets that travel in an arch and bounce around the room upon hitting any surface/enemy. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 4/5.

Killsight
A high-powered sniper blast that zooms aim in when holding L2. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 4/5.

Proximity Mine
Plops a small mine in front of you. Cooldown = 6 seconds. Priority: 1/5.

Shieldbreaker
A fast railgun-like bolt that does significant damage and can destroy enemy shields. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 4/5.

Shockstream
Fires a sustained mid-range blast of electricity. Holding R2 maintains Shockstream, which can be reapplied after moving as long as it's not on cooldown. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 3/5.

Tendril Pod
Lobs a projectile that does damage over time to any enemy it latches onto, or to enemies near a surface it's stuck to. Two pods can be fired as the cooldown bar is split in half. Cooldown = 12 seconds. Priority: 3/5.

Trackerswarm
A volley of homing bullets that lock onto and damage the targeted enemy. Cooldown: 20 seconds. Priority: 5/5.

Vertical Barrage
Shoots vertically, with bullets ricocheting off surfaces. Cooldown = 20 seconds. Priority: 3/5.

Voidbeam
A sustained beam of energy that must be held down with R2 to do damage. Similar to Shockstream, it can be reapplied after letting go of R2 as long as it doesn't go on cooldown. Cooldown = 55 seconds. Priority: 3/5.

Modified Sidearm SD-M8

Traits:

• Homing Missile ♥: Fires homing missiles in addition to normal projectiles
• Ricochet: Projectiles will ricochet off surfaces and angle towards nearby targets
• Piercing: Projectiles will pierce through hostiles and angle towards nearby targets
• Snubnose Barrel: Deals more damage at the cost of accuracy
• Serrated Projectiles ♥: Projectiles cause additional damage over time
• Shrapnel ♥: Projectiles may explode into multiple shards on impact
• Burst Fire ♥: Fires multiple projectiles in a single burst at a penalty to recoil
• Charging Shot: Projectiles require charging, but are more powerful
• Hit Reload: Successful hits may instantly reload the weapon

Ranking/Priority - 2 out of 5

The pistol is the only gun that you would actively ignore. There are a handful of traits that make this weapon viable and in some cases, actually pretty good, but the other guns outshine the pistol in almost every way.

Tachyomatic Carbine

Traits:

• Hyper-Accurate ♥: Accuracy and recoil are greatly improved
• Armor Piercing: Projectiles will pierce hostiles and ricochet off surfaces
• High Caliber ♥: Higher damage at the expense of fire rate
• Rising Pitch ♥: Fires faster the longer the trigger is held
• Payload Rounds ♥: Killed hostiles drop clusters of miniature bombs upon death
• Critical Hit: Projectiles may deal additional damage
• Hardened: Increases Protection
• Accelerated: Kills decrease Dash cooldown and increase firerate
• Leech Rounds ♥: Successful hits may repair your Integrity

Ranking/Priority - 4 out of 5

The Carbine is a fairly basic, easy to understand weapon. It's a pretty stock standard machine gun and most of the traits are nothing exceptional either. Despite that, this gun can melt enemies at a surprising rate. Leech Rounds is also the only weapon trait that can restore health, so that's a big bonus. This is also a great gun for your early runs since until you finish the first biome, your only other options are the sidearm and the shotgun.

Spitmaw Blaster

Traits:

• Slug Shot ♥: Fires an additional high-damage, high-speed slug shot
• Rapid Spitter ♥: Fires at full-auto mode
• Piercing Spit: Projectiles will pierce through enemies and explode on delay
• Wide Maw: Projectiles deal additional damage, but have a wider spread
• Acid Clouds: Hostiles leave acid clouds behind upon death
• Narrow Maw ♥: Projectiles have a tighter spread
• Critical Stagger: Projectiles may deal additional damage to staggered hostiles
• Backsplash: High chance to regain a projectile if all pellets hit a target
• Explosive Spit ♥: Projectiles explodes on impact or after a set distance

Ranking/Priority - 2 out of 5

Ok, this is more like a 2.5, as it is better than the pistol, but you are personally not a huge fan of the shotgun. It can absolutely destroy regular enemies, but you would be scared to bring this into a boss fight, since most of the bosses tend to operate far outside the range of a shotgun.

Pyroshell Caster

Traits:

• Streamlined Chamber: Increased firerate
• Secondary Explosion ♥: Projectiles explode twice
• Bouncy Projectiles: Projectiles bounce before exploding
• Sticky Bonus ♥: Attached projectiles deal more damage upon exploding
• Enlarged Chamber: Overhead limit increased
• Seeking Flares ♥: Primary explosions generate homing flares that seek out additional targets
• Auxiliary Projectiles ♥: Auxiliary projectiles are fired alongside the main projectile
• Anti-Gravity Projectiles: Projectiles defy gravity, traveling farther and faster
• Simmering Explosion ♥: Projectiles deal damage to nearby hostiles before and after exploding

Ranking/Priority - 3 out of 5

The Pryoshell is an odd weapon to you. Sometimes, you'll get a Pyroshell that completely obliterates bosses, regular adds, and anything inbetween. Then, on that very same run, you'll get a different Pyroshell that struggles to even take down a Drone. The wild fluctuation in damage can probably just be attributed to what traits you roll. Having a weapon be that reliant on traits can be a hindrance, but if you get a god roll on this gun, have fun dismantling whatever crosses your path.

Coilspine Shredder

Traits:

• Adrenaline Discs: Each hit has a chance of awarding extra Adrenaline
• Shattering Discs ♥: Projectiles explode after reaching max targets/bounces
• Alt-Fire Cooling: Successful hits reduce Alt-Fire Cooldown
• Retarget ♥: Projectiles seek out additional hostiles upon hitting the initial target