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Returnal |OT| Live. Die. Repeat.

Mr Hyde

Member
I really wanted to platinum this and see the true ending but I'm truly done with this for a while now until Housemarque sorts this issue out. It's not worth it grinding out and then it goes to shit. Takes the enjoyment out of it. Such a bummer a great game have to suffer from this. Could legit be one of my favorite games of all time. I really hope Housemarque finds a solution to this issue.
 

drotahorror

Member
I've been waiting to post til I maxed out all the guns but it's going to take a while. There are 270 levels of weapon traits (9 traits per weapon x 3 levels) (10 weapons total, + alt abilities, so close to 300 levels total).

I'm about 235/270.

Maybe this was expected, maybe everyone knows this by now, I've known it for a while but just didn't bother but....

Say you have all traits on the Hollowseeker maxed out, I have everything level 3 but Retarget is level 2. Even if you pick up a level 30 Hollowseeker you could still roll Level 1 Waves. You could pick up a level 30 hollowseeker with full level 1 traits.

Really sort of sucks the life out of leveling the traits. I was really hoping that atleast around proficiency level 25 (where you will always roll 4 traits), that I would atleast have my leveled up traits. Sure, I don't have to relevel or unlock them again, but atleast give me Explosive Spit 3 and not level 1.

I'm hoping it's changed or a new mode is introduced to really take the weapons and their traits into consideration. As it is, all you can do is play for 30-45min with a great gun before it's over.

Leveling the traits is super tedious but you can do it infinitely and keep spawning guns in Biome 6. The game will eventually crash though so keep that in mind. It will save progress on traits though.
 
This game has been a double-edged sword for me so far.

It has a really good balance between challenge and reward, the gameplay is fun, controls are tight. Particularly I had zero crashes even after 50+ hours of gameplay, so from what I'm reading I've been lucky in that regard.
Enemy variety is great and each one feels really different to fight, worlds are well designed, sound is impeccable on headphones. I had a blast beating it and finding the true ending.

I had so much fun that I decided to go for the platinum trophy. Big mistake.

Currently I'm missing 2 ciphers on Biome 2, and 2 more on Biome 3. The game simply won't spawn the rooms I'm searching for. Right now, I probably spent the same amount of time searching for these missing collectibles that I took to beat the game. It's not fun anymore, the challenge is gone because I know how to approach every situation, so I just kill everyone easily (except those flying robot things which are a pain in the ass with those missiles), and search in vain. The only thing preventing me to reach my goal is luck... RNG. I feel like I'm wasting time and getting nothing in return. I know the whole concept of the game is to be procedural... but these are collectibles. Make the remaining ones spawn in every room once you reach the true ending, or put them all in the boss room just to make it a challenge, I don't care. It's so frustrating right now.
 

drotahorror

Member
xPhuD2w.jpeg


My first max trait weapon. Didn't do it on purpose, honestly would rather use plenty of other guns over the Hollowseeker. I'm one away from Shotgun maxed and grenade launcher.

I'm 243/270 trait levels now.

With patch coming Thursday I'd like to get those done.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
I really wanted to platinum this and see the true ending but I'm truly done with this for a while now until Housemarque sorts this issue out. It's not worth it grinding out and then it goes to shit. Takes the enjoyment out of it. Such a bummer a great game have to suffer from this. Could legit be one of my favorite games of all time. I really hope Housemarque finds a solution to this issue.
I think they will, they are certainly technically competent and dedicated. It is likely not an easy thing to fix without potentially breaking others, but 🤞 fingers crossed.
 

2AdEPT

Member
One thing I've been thinking about is I wish that atropian keys were a bit more common. I always scour the entire biomes when playing but there's just never enough keys to open all gates or chests. This is especially true on Biome 3. Either I wish they were more to pick up or that there would be an option to trade ether for keys.
Although I agreed with you at first, part of my "new run" assessment of the new version of the randomness includes what I get in the first 10 minutes...if I get a few keys its game on and I play slow and careful. Keys really are the key to the game as you can suffer some bad RNG with crappy container luck only so long befroe the run is a virtual write of and you want to start over. THat said, a couple times I kept goign wit a crappy start and missed keys and all was well int eh end....you usually get stuff to balalnce out over three biomes (either form the start of the game or 4-6).

As others mentioned, it makes the key parasite or the suit upgrade an exciting prize to find.
A big part of what makes this game exhilarating is the high risk vs reward, the longer you play and the more powerful you get, the more tense every near death moment becomes. If you were able to save the game, the risks would be lower and the hole reward feeling would lose it's edge. If they implemented a resume or crash save system it might be difficult to differentiate it from cloud save skumning. So this is likely the reason the devs haven't implemented a mid run save. But I think it's a bit silly, it would be okay to cheat for those that really want to.


This is probably by design, this is a risk vs reward situation, which one of the 2 should you open if you only have 1 key. Also do you open this chest now for a potential early good weapon or do you save it for later for a locked room with potentially multiple items and weapons. This type of RNG with recourses and their stats is basically what makes collecting them so addicting. This is referred to "Intermittent Reinforcement" In gambling:

"In behaviorism, Intermittent Reinforcement is a conditioning schedule in which a reward or punishment (reinforcement) is not administered every time the desired response is performed. This differs from continuous reinforcement which is when the organism receives the reinforcement every time the desired response is performed. For example, on a continuous reinforcement schedule a mouse who pulls a lever would receive food (reinforcement) every single time it pulled the lever. On an intermittent reinforcement schedule the mouse would only receive food every few times (it is typically random and unpredictable). There is an increased likelihood the desired behavior will continue with intermittent reinforcement conditioning and the behavior lasts longer than continuous reinforcement. Gambling is an example of intermittent reinforcement. You don't win every time or win the same amount when using a slot machine- this wouldn't be exciting or fun. The reinforcement is intermittent and causes a positive and euphoric response in the brain that in some circumstances can lead to gambling addiction." source: https://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Intermittent+Reinforcement
Of course this is classic and true, BUT, the true assessment of whether Housemarque has achieved success or not is not whether or not the game is hard and rewards intermittently, its whether in the process it feels like the difficulty is cheap and contrived, vs. intelligent and sofisiticated. There is also the consideration of time...it might be challmgeing and interesting enough for some players to spent the time mastering the game play, but for others if it takes too much time investment, or stress....meh.

I would say that this game, as with the whole soulsborne genre, has hit and miss in this department. Some bosses and situations in this game are too easy and easy to cheese (hello Hyperion, which could have easy been ranked up there among best boss fights of all time given the music and style...but was just too easy), where some are insanely difficult and seem cheap, i.e. sections of biome 3 and 6, and although I died on the final boss once now...limping in with no astro or healing was what killed me, not the difficulty per se...I dont think lobos Jr. took one hit until halfway through the fight, had great adrenaline coming in and used an adrenaline replaceer, plus got great RNG on the damage.....his fight was over in 4-5 minutes and although I survived 2 or three times longer, my damage sucked even though the "trick" was obvious and I had the same weapon, just shitty consumables. Im split on the overall assessment although I have to say I am looking forward to other builds and playing more so it must be good overall.

Housemarque is not a new developer and this is the first and only title of theirs I ahve played, but they have room to grow with this kind of game and I think they really have something special here. It was insanely difficult to please everyone in soulsborne genre after Demons and the first Dark Souls as the vets wanted more intelligent challenges to keep them interested where it weeded out a lot of new players if they tried DS2 first or DS3 in particular. Sekiro was crazy difficult for a random new player of the genre to stumble into and even though I know I could do it given enough practice, I didnt bother beating the final three phase boss and just watched streamers do the various endings. It took lobs Jr. 3-4 hours for cripes sake...that would have been 11 or 12 for me...just for one boss! It took me 3 hours for the mid tier bosses, the gorrilla, and the Samarai and the Dad guy come to mind. Yes there was great reward when I FINALLY beat these bosses, and like most of them, once you learn the atacks they become easier for the rest of the playthroughs....but geez, lots of stress, swearing, and ssweaty palms isnt always as "fun" as doing something more relaxing.
I would suggest not using the keys for the chests, the loot is usually garbage compared to red gates (closed blue gates).
A minor point but I have played close to 8 times more hours of this game (owing to sucking of course) and I have been burned on both and found good shtuff in both. Just last night I had already burned an astronaut on a stupid mid tier enemy (I didnt even notice losing it) and then found a new one in the red locked chest to replace him. You just never know what you are going to get!!! Twice last night I took blue doors and got the friggin random item generator fabricator...thats the definition of gambling...NEVER use that thing unless you are desperate, or have everything you need and are ready for the final boss on level 3 or 6 and its the point of no return. Yes I realize you can get great stuff for cheaper than what you would pay otherwise....but come on...save that coin for planning what you want to get at the end of each level...carry any savings on to the next level.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
I really wanted to platinum this and see the true ending but I'm truly done with this for a while now until Housemarque sorts this issue out. It's not worth it grinding out and then it goes to shit. Takes the enjoyment out of it. Such a bummer a great game have to suffer from this. Could legit be one of my favorite games of all time. I really hope Housemarque finds a solution to this issue.
Which issue needs to be sorted? Is your game crashing?
 

Bartski

Gold Member
Yes. Game is crashing frequently. It all started with the latest patch.
That's right. I've had ZERO issues on the day one patch beating most of the campaign, not a hitch but it clearly got worse in 1.3.4... I've had a crash recently in B6, which is my third crash in total @ over 90 hours of playtime but this one was bad, the sound cut off and after a while, it crashed the console and I had to restart using the power button. Let's hope the next patch tomorrow does the job.
 

Mr Hyde

Member
That's right. I've had ZERO issues on the day one patch beating most of the campaign, not a hitch but it clearly got worse in 1.3.4... I've had a crash recently in B6, which is my third crash in total @ over 90 hours of playtime but this one was bad, the sound cut off and after a while, it crashed the console and I had to restart using the power button. Let's hope the next patch tomorrow does the job.

I had the sound cut off too. And about 5 crashes since the latest patch. I've played around 40 hours so far. Before that it was all fine and dandy. A patch tomorrow sounds nice but I'm gonna hold off playing the game until Housemarque fixes some sort of save state. It sucks because I love the game but I can't be bothered playing it right now with so many issues floating around.
 

drotahorror

Member
Probably 50 or more guns in this room with no traits to level. Very rough getting 1 gun to drop to level now. I have about 20 levels to go. Expanding Shard and Explosive Shard on Dreadbound is beast.

qiAg17H.jpg

^Look at minimap.

Honestly I'm bored, I want to play TLOU2 now.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
Returnal Patch 1.3.7.jpg

Get ready for Patch 1.3.7, releasing tomorrow at 2PM (GMT+3)

Reminder that if you have the automatic updates turned on, the game will close while in rest mode in order to install the update.

Patch Notes:

• Fixed an issue with Deceased Scouts not appearing as often as intended.

• After having one of their Deceased Scout corpses scavenged, players will no longer receive a negative-effect parasite on startup.

• Fixed an issue where the Ophion boss might disappear after a player uses the Reconstructor during the fight.

• Fixed a rare audio bug causing loud noises during combat.

• Fixed a small number of issues where players might become stuck in various rooms.

• Fixed several issues where the player might encounter a black screen during the credits or whilst playing.

• Multiple fixes for rare crashes during gameplay.

RETURNAL PATCH 1.3.7 — Housemarque
 

Bartski

Gold Member
one thing I'm not getting is why they keep on bullshitting everyone with
• Fixed an issue with Deceased Scouts not appearing as often as intended.

As in not appearing at all 'till now, Deceased Scouts are not in the game. Has anyone ever seen one outside the broken 1.3.3 when they started working for a brief moment? I have seen a body in the daily challenge that had a marker but couldn't interact with it.
 
0l
Returnal Patch 1.3.7.jpg

Get ready for Patch 1.3.7, releasing tomorrow at 2PM (GMT+3)

Reminder that if you have the automatic updates turned on, the game will close while in rest mode in order to install the update.

Patch Notes:

• Fixed an issue with Deceased Scouts not appearing as often as intended.

• After having one of their Deceased Scout corpses scavenged, players will no longer receive a negative-effect parasite on startup.

• Fixed an issue where the Ophion boss might disappear after a player uses the Reconstructor during the fight.

• Fixed a rare audio bug causing loud noises during combat.

• Fixed a small number of issues where players might become stuck in various rooms.

• Fixed several issues where the player might encounter a black screen during the credits or whilst playing.

• Multiple fixes for rare crashes during gameplay.

RETURNAL PATCH 1.3.7 — Housemarq

Yep, experienced it few times.
one thing I'm not getting is why they keep on bullshitting everyone with


As in not appearing at all 'till now, Deceased Scouts are not in the game. Has anyone ever seen one outside the broken 1.3.3 when they started working for a brief moment? I have seen a body in the daily challenge that had a marker but couldn't interact with it.

Yeah, Dead Scouts were there in broken patch. After the patch was removed, dead Scouts was nowhere to be seen since then. But anyway, great mini bosses if you choose to fight with them.

Anyway, now need to complete the surveys, collect the few remained fragments and will platinum the game. Bless the Activity Cards because i can see the percentages.

Anyway, Hollowseeker with Portal Turret, Portal Beam, Waves, damage over time and Thermogenic Launcher with Full Auto ( literally UZI with rockets if it is FA III, LOL) Critical Rockets and Replicating Hits are the best weapons in game IMO.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
I love the game but I am not that good at it. I had a feeling that would be the case going in and i don't regret the decision at all. Great game even though I'm not that far. Atmosphere is so great song with the audio. I love all the Metroid and Alien/Prometheus vibes I'm getting

I sincerely don't think it's that hard if you are a healthy person and have enough experience in gaming and play many games in hard/hardest. There are very few enemies that could be considered hard, and you can make it harder but not being nimble and exploiting the environment to your advantage, or seeking cool weapons that might not workout for your best playstyle.

We are all here to help in case you face something hard.
 

Esca

Member
I sincerely don't think it's that hard if you are a healthy person and have enough experience in gaming and play many games in hard/hardest. There are very few enemies that could be considered hard, and you can make it harder but not being nimble and exploiting the environment to your advantage, or seeking cool weapons that might not workout for your best playstyle.

We are all here to help in case you face something hard.
I appreciate it and will take the offer up when I know it isn't a me issue so much.

It's a mental issue with me. I lost the ability to focus and concentrate and bigger yet is I have memory issues so it makes things a lot more difficult. I'm not in the best state of health mentally you could say. Thankfully my long time of gaming still makes it possible to play most toys if games but I now have to venture away from genres I loved like puzzle games.
 

JeloSWE

Member
I'm 16h in and I'm about to tap out. Only got to Nemesis and he kicks my arse in phase 3. The drones in biome 3 ruin most of my runs and I don't know what I can do to continue. Maybe I'm too old
You must respect the drones but it's nice that there are enemies one really fears, makes the game exhilarating. But here's how I deal with them, backing away continuously behind cover and shooting them one and one, never try to engage too many at the same time, always try to run away to a safe distance once you hear their warning sound. Once you get used to their missile barrage timing, it's generally best to dash towards them or diagonally forward, sideways and backward my not always avoid them, this is dash tactic works pretty well in the open. I would say that Biome 3 is one of the hardest parts in the game except the final stretches in Biome 6. As for weapons, it's best to have long range easy to target with weapons against the bosses, especially Nemesis.
 
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Bo_Hazem

Banned
I appreciate it and will take the offer up when I know it isn't a me issue so much.

It's a mental issue with me. I lost the ability to focus and concentrate and bigger yet is I have memory issues so it makes things a lot more difficult. I'm not in the best state of health mentally you could say. Thankfully my long time of gaming still makes it possible to play most toys if games but I now have to venture away from genres I loved like puzzle games.

I'm sorry to hear that, brother. This game is so reflex and skill reliant, and you can't brute force your way through it like RPG's. More like old school gaming. You can see the frustration around here so maybe you might borrow it from someone if you can first?
 

Rolla

Banned
Someone please tell me that biome boss 3 is the worst? Please.

Haven't been playing much of late but boss 3 is one hell of a pain.
 

Esca

Member
I'm sorry to hear that, brother. This game is so reflex and skill reliant, and you can't brute force your way through it like RPG's. More like old school gaming. You can see the frustration around here so maybe you might borrow it from someone if you can first?
I preorder the game knowing this might very well happen and I don't regret as I loved what I played so far and put an decent amount of time into it.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
I preorder the game knowing this might very well happen and I don't regret as I loved what I played so far and put an decent amount of time into it.

Yup, it's not as crazy as Resogun, it has so much breathing rooms in it. Actually I would've loved some puzzled thrown into the mix to add more variety.
 

Moonjt9

Member
Saw a tip that restarting the console can help missing collectibles spawn. So I tried it, and sure enough after 5 runs of nothing, restarting the console has given me multiple collectibles each run, including the elusive scout log 9 after only two runs. Could be placebo, but it’s worth a shot. Might have something to do with a random number seed for the rooms. I still have a couple cyphers left in each biome, but making quick progress!
 

[Sigma]

Member
Well, turns out Scout log 35 was glitched on mine and since it's story related to the ending, seems that the room(which I don't really remember) 100% will not respawn. The other scout logs respawn but this specific one won't. Looks like I have two choices, either wait and see if Housemarque patches this where it will respawn or delete my save and start over. I'm probably going to wait for the former. Tomorrow's patch won't fix this unforntately for me.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Saw a tip that restarting the console can help missing collectibles spawn. So I tried it, and sure enough after 5 runs of nothing, restarting the console has given me multiple collectibles each run, including the elusive scout log 9 after only two runs. Could be placebo, but it’s worth a shot. Might have something to do with a random number seed for the rooms. I still have a couple cyphers left in each biome, but making quick progress!

No need to restart the whole console, although I shut down my console every time. You can press options then select restart cycle:

image.png
 

2AdEPT

Member
one thing I'm not getting is why they keep on bullshitting everyone with


As in not appearing at all 'till now, Deceased Scouts are not in the game. Has anyone ever seen one outside the broken 1.3.3 when they started working for a brief moment? I have seen a body in the daily challenge that had a marker but couldn't interact with it.
Wow this game cerainly has wide range of proceduralness. I have seen lots of scouts both before and after the patch. Especially at later stages of the level as most players are better than me and actually make it that far ;) If you die early you wont see scouts much. I finally got my best score of 45th last night out of 133 or something...Im just about done the main story bosses though, so I should be better, LOL. You are correct though, either I was dumb and didnt think of it, or I simply could not loot the scouts.
I'm 16h in and I'm about to tap out. Only got to Nemesis and he kicks my arse in phase 3. The drones in biome 3 ruin most of my runs and I don't know what I can do to continue. Maybe I'm too old
Someone please tell me that biome boss 3 is the worst? Please.

Haven't been playing much of late but boss 3 is one hell of a pain.
Nemesis was definitely a tough boss.., the platforming is what got me...still I destroyed it with the electropylon driver and three heals first try so keep trying. The EPD does damage even while you are dancing around. I also had the leisure to stand in and just leave void cannon on him and tank hits as I had the perk that give you extra invincibility for recovery time after taking a hit. This game isnt as mcuh about how hard a boss is vs. how well are you prepared coming in as a tank sometimes? You can definitely git gud and not get hit and have high adrenaline if you choose, but that wasnt me....I went in full tank and TBH I wasnt likley to have lost no matter what happened on that fight as I fell off the ledges twice and tanked hits and still had an astro in reserve:
 
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Jaysen

Banned
55 hours later and the credits are rolling. Outside of the crashes and really stupid save mechanic, this game was awesome. I can’t recommend it to most of my friends though. It’s just too complicated, difficult, and time consuming, and in its current state doesn’t respect the gamer’s time. Hopefully they’ll add a real save mechanism soon.
 

Rolla

Banned
I think boss 3 is probably the most difficult boss. IMO - the levels in biomes 4-6 ramp up in difficulty while the bosses ramp down in difficulty.
Nemesis was definitely a tough boss.., the platforming is what got me...still I destroyed it with the electropylon driver and three heals first try so keep trying. The EPD does damage even while you are dancing around. I also had the leisure to stand in and just leave void cannon on him and tank hits as I had the perk that give you extra invincibility for recovery time after taking a hit. This game isnt as mcuh about how hard a boss is vs. how well are you prepared coming in as a tank sometimes? You can definitely git gud and not get hit and have high adrenaline if you choose, but that wasnt me....I went in full tank and TBH I wasnt likley to have lost no matter what happened on that fight as I fell off the ledges twice and tanked hits and still had an astro in reserve:


Thanks guys. This is something I needed to hear.
 

Bo_Hazem

Banned
Wow this game cerainly has wide range of proceduralness. I have seen lots of scouts both before and after the patch. Especially at later stages of the level as most players are better than me and actually make it that far ;) If you die early you wont see scouts much. I finally got my best score of 45th last night out of 133 or something...Im just about done the main story bosses though, so I should be better, LOL. You are correct though, either I was dumb and didnt think of it, or I simply could not loot the scouts.


Nemesis was definitely a tough boss.., the platforming is what got me...still I destroyed it with the electropylon driver and three heals first try so keep trying. The EPD does damage even while you are dancing around. I also had the leisure to stand in and just leave void cannon on him and tank hits as I had the perk that give you extra invincibility for recovery time after taking a hit. This game isnt as mcuh about how hard a boss is vs. how well are you prepared coming in as a tank sometimes? You can definitely git gud and not get hit and have high adrenaline if you choose, but that wasnt me....I went in full tank and TBH I wasnt likley to have lost no matter what happened on that fight as I fell off the ledges twice and tanked hits and still had an astro in reserve:


Not sure why are you spending so much time not shooting at him. You can shoot at him from very far away. I should make a playthrough biome 3 and that boss probably tomorrow.
 
I'm loving the game but seriously, I'm not playing more until they allow me to save and quit. When the game is this difficult and frustrating to me, I can't commit to one single game.

My girlfriend can't use the console and we can't play games together either, since I always need to keep my gameplay loop in rest mode. Nope, that just doesn't work for me...

And if they choose to not fix it, then fuck it I guess 🙁
 

Bartski

Gold Member
edit:

First impressions 1.3.7 - feels like a better game.

They either altered room RNG or some just didn't spawn earlier, B1 and 3 rooms I have NEVER seen before. Also, they made the game HARDER or maybe that was the run...?
Plenty more buffed big boys, Severed in B3 just as frequent as B2 on top of everything else, drone swarms etc.

Dead Scouts 2 per biome, once spawned a Severed that was like all variations at once with 200% health, crazy...

They nerfed the obolite repository, 100 per 10 resin

also,

crxGWp2.jpg
 
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