**The Official Returnal Thread**

How long did it take for people to finish this game?

I am already 26hrs in and only on the 3rd level.

According to this the average is 27hrs.

By the third level with the machines the enemies start getting especially strong and I am just not strong enough to take them on.

What I am currently focuses on is if I find a data cube in biome one I will fight Phrike to bank it.
 
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opethdisciple said:
How long did it take for people to finish this game?

I am already 26hrs in and only on the 3rd level.

According to this the average is 27hrs.

By the third level with the machines the enemies start getting especially strong and I am just not strong enough to take them on.

What I am currently focuses on is if I find a data cube in biome one I will fight Phrike to bank it.
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Took me 38 hours to complete it, I thought after about 20 hours I had completed it but it turned out that I had only completed the first "Act" :)
 
opethdisciple said:
How long did it take for people to finish this game?

I am already 26hrs in and only on the 3rd level.

According to this the average is 27hrs.

By the third level with the machines the enemies start getting especially strong and I am just not strong enough to take them on.

What I am currently focuses on is if I find a data cube in biome one I will fight Phrike to bank it.
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Took me around 24 hours 1st time round. I mainly focused on getting as much health as possible, any respawn items, then find a Hollowseeker with at least the waves trait (melts everything up until the last biome). Also did a run with the Electropylon Driver, so much fun and a lot different to any other guns, really effective too with 2 decent traits :D .

Still hoping for some sort of dlc/sequel for this game as it's one of my favourites from recent years.
 
I did pretty well and cleared all the acts within around 12-14 hours, very few deaths up until the later part of the game and then it was just a case of getting a good run going before I cleared.

I must have been in the zone on that first playthrough because returning to the game to go for the full ending I found it much more challenging. The tower is intense as hell, the music just sends the sense or urgency to an immediate 11.
 
Parky said:
I did pretty well and cleared all the acts within around 12-14 hours, very few deaths up until the later part of the game and then it was just a case of getting a good run going before I cleared.

I must have been in the zone on that first playthrough because returning to the game to go for the full ending I found it much more challenging. The tower is intense as hell, the music just sends the sense or urgency to an immediate 11.
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Is the tower worth playing? Done multiple run through's of the main game and from my understanding the tower was a co-op focused side thing?
 
Wilko_Dog said:
Is the tower worth playing? Done multiple run through's of the main game and from my understanding the tower was a co-op focused side thing?
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I would say so yes. It easily has the most frantic combat situations in the entire game, some of the rooms are nuts after a while and whilst challenging you can still solo it (it took me a number of attempts, probably more than the entire of the main game combined). The weapon levels go all the way up to 50 in the tower so you can find some very powerful combinations, it's probably beneficial that you've completed the main game a number of times already as a lot of the artefacts/weapon traits become even more useful here if they are already unlocked.

There are extra bits to the story as well that add to some of the characters and slightly change your view on the endings again, very cryptic and piece it together like the main game.
 
Parky said:
I would say so yes. It easily has the most frantic combat situations in the entire game, some of the rooms are nuts after a while and whilst challenging you can still solo it (it took me a number of attempts, probably more than the entire of the main game combined). The weapon levels go all the way up to 50 in the tower so you can find some very powerful combinations, it's probably beneficial that you've completed the main game a number of times already as a lot of the artefacts/weapon traits become even more useful here if they are already unlocked.

There are extra bits to the story as well that add to some of the characters and slightly change your view on the endings again, very cryptic and piece it together like the main game.
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Sounds like I'll be loading this back up then :D
 
I must be doing something wrong to be finding this game so hard.

I mean how can you finish it in under 20 hours thats barely enough time to collect any items that might help you in the more challenging biomes.

Like I said I'm 26 hours in and still unlocking things. But biome 3 is super challenging.

Especially with those robots that charge you and have a circle around them and when die attack you with those malfunction arrows!

Also my weapon at best will be like a level 9 or something if I am super lucky that run and usually not of the weapon I want to use i.e the hollow seeker.
 
opethdisciple said:
I must be doing something wrong to be finding this game so hard.

I mean how can you finish it in under 20 hours thats barely enough time to collect any items that might help you in the more challenging biomes.

Like I said I'm 26 hours in and still unlocking things. But biome 3 is super challenging.

Especially with those robots that charge you and have a circle around them and when die attack you with those malfunction arrows!

Also my weapon at best will be like a level 9 or something if I am super lucky that run and usually not of the weapon I want to use i.e the hollow seeker.
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Are you flying through the biomes & taking shortcuts when you start a new run? I found each run you need to thoroughly clear each biome and collect as much as possible & level up your weapon etc.
 
Wilko_Dog said:
Are you flying through the biomes & taking shortcuts when you start a new run? I found each run you need to thoroughly clear each biome and collect as much as possible & level up your weapon etc.
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I try to go through biome 1 thoroughly before I move on to the 3rd level.

I keep getting up to the same spot and just not having enough in the tank to take them on.

Basically I am crossing the bridge on biome 3 and making it through all the lasers until I get to a big room and get attacked by loads of machines and I just dont have enough health to take down the big one.
 
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opethdisciple said:
I try to go through biome 1 thoroughly before I move on to the 3rd level.

I keep getting up to the same spot and just not having enough in the tank to take them on.

Basically I am crossing the bridge on biome 3 and making it through all the lasers until I get to a big room and get attacked by loads of machines and I just dont have enough health to take down the big one.
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Ah , see now when I played it I didnt skip any biomes, went right through all of them each time, that way I was max geared and pumped by the time I reached my furthest point each time
 
Tombstone said:
Ah , see now when I played it I didnt skip any biomes, went right through all of them each time, that way I was max geared and pumped by the time I reached my furthest point each time
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OK, I just did this. I went through biome 1 and 2 collecting everything I could before I went to biome 3. This time I ended up with a level 15 weapon and made it to the boss.

So progress.

But so painful. To get to the boss again means I have to do the entire run again. Biome 1 and biome 2 and then through biome 3.

I don't know why this game feels so much more of a slog than hades did.

I think it took me about 90 mins to go through biome 1 and biome 2 and then through biome 3 to get to the boss.

So to finish the game means you have to go through each biome in turn to be strong enough?

Dear god. :cry:
 
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MoNkeE said:
Definitely sounds like a game that appeals the grind core generation of games :p
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Game is extremely grindy.

There is almost nothing that you keep from run to run.

At least in a game like Hades you could at the end of each run spend points to upgrade your character so you knew eventually you would finish it.

This game feels like you could genuinely never finish it as there is almost nothing that persists from run to run.

Saying that I am painfully making progress.
 
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I'd disagree. It's the type of game that where the greatest thing you take from each run is the experience, to the point where extra unlocks become less and less relevant the more you play, they're just there to give you a bit more variation and additional options to help the challenge.

I felt it was pretty well designed in that aspect, you have the options to shortcut your way through at a cost of additional challenge, which in time you can overcome with experience & newfound skill, or you can take your time and blitz through once daunting areas at increasing speeds to ensure the challenge of the later areas is greatly reduced.
 
Parky said:
I'd disagree. It's the type of game that where the greatest thing you take from each run is the experience, to the point where extra unlocks become less and less relevant the more you play, they're just there to give you a bit more variation and additional options to help the challenge.

I felt it was pretty well designed in that aspect, you have the options to shortcut your way through at a cost of additional challenge, which in time you can overcome with experience & newfound skill, or you can take your time and blitz through once daunting areas at increasing speeds to ensure the challenge of the later areas is greatly reduced.
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Yes its a good game.

But damn am I struggling.

I spent about 3hrs today playing it and yes I made some progress. I finally got to the 3rd boss.

But its so frustrating to have to do the whole thing again each time until I beat the boss.

As far as I understand it once you beat the third boss the game moves on to chapter 2. So I wont have to keep replaying the same 3 levels over and over.

Its a good game but a little frustrating.

It would be better if you had a points system and you could put points in to your character which would mean that eventually you would just be strong enough to complete the game which is how Hades works.

Even the items you get from the Cthonos aren't permanent.
 
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im on 92 hours finished the game multiple times the secret ending but to get 100% i need to find all the xenoglyph's :( oh and only had one go in tower when i first started playing the game when i had bad frame pacing at the time.
 
Biggest things that helped me early on:

1) Fire and forget damage over time wins most fights. Electropylon driver, rotgland lobber, hollowseeker with serrated projectiles. Get some hits in and focus mostly on moving around more.

2) Melee is actually pretty high damage, but it's not worth overextending to use it. Don't be afraid to use it though.

3) You're invulnerable while using the grappling hook. Abuse that with damage over time.

4) Try to only pick up the silphium when you're on full health for the extra health bar. Use vials or convert corrupted health using ether to get to full health before picking up the silphium.

5) Try to avoid spending money before finding the astronaut figurine for the resurrect, unless it's something you really need.
 
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Hudzy said:
Biggest things that helped me early on:

1) Fire and forget damage over time wins most fights. Electropylon driver, rotgland lobber, hollowseeker with serrated projectiles. Get some hits in and focus mostly on moving around more.
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At first I hated the rotgland gun but it ended up being one of my favourite weapons, partly because it has no maximum range which made it especially good for bosses, cant remember the boss names but the "flying" boss where you end up on floating platforms was so easy once I had a powerful rot gun, I just stayed miles away from the boss on a platform far out of the bosses reach and let the rot do all the damage
 
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