PowerPyx

Home » Trophy Guides » Returnal Trophy Guide & Roadmap

Returnal Trophy Guide & Roadmap

by 187 Comments

Returnal Trophy Roadmap

  • Estimated trophy difficulty: 8.5/10 average (entirely skill-dependent, experienced players might find it to be a 7/10, some won’t beat the story and will find it to be a 10/10)
  • Approximate amount of time to platinum: 50h-100h+ (unpredictable, hard to even rate this because the game is randomly generated and entirely skill-dependent, so will vary widely. Average of about 30h for story and 40h for grinding out the gold survey trophies. Fast players can do it in under 70h, some players might need 100h+. The game isn’t very long but needs lots of retries. Also, the required collectibles for the survey trophies are randomized and it comes down to pure luck to find them all, hence the time requirement can vary greatly from person to person. Some players are beating the story in 10 hours, others are still stuck in the 2nd world after 20 hours. One player might have plat in 50 hours, another might die twice as much and has half the luck so could be double the time. If you consider yourself an experienced trophy hunter and you aren’t terribly unlucky with collectibles, expect around 70ish hours).
  • Total Trophies: 31 (1trophy, 7trophy, 5trophy, 18trophy)
  • Offline Trophies: 29 (7trophy, 5trophy, 17trophy)
  • Online Trophies: 2 (1trophy, 1trophy) – trophy In-Field Training, trophy Helios –> always be connected to PSN while playing this game! It tracks your progress through the Activity Cards (particularly Survey trophies) and if you’re not online it can glitch out many trophies due to faulty tracking!
  • Number of missable trophies: 0 since patch 1.4.0
  • Glitched trophies: 0 since patch 1.4.0 (before the patch some story trophies would randomly not unlock but this was fixed with the patch and they should unlock retroactively if they glitched on you before)
  • Does difficulty affect trophies?: No, there are no difficulty settings (it’s the same difficulty for everyone).
  • Minimum Playthroughs: 1, but you’ll have to replay each biome (region) many times to get the randomized collectibles.
  • Free-Roam / Level Select after Story?: Yes, Free Roam unlocks after Act 2. You can continue to Free Roam after Act 3.
  • Release Date: April 30, 2021

Introduction / What is Returnal

Welcome to the Returnal Trophy Guide! It’s a “Get Good & Get Lucky” type of platinum. First, let’s start by going over what Returnal actually is. It’s a game of the “Roguelike” genre, and odds are you’ve never played a game like this before, because there has never been an AAA game like this before.

  • The game is randomly generated. Getting all collectibles (needed for gold survey trophies) comes down to luck.
  • It’s a game of the roguelike genre. If you die, exit the game, or turn off the console you basically lose your progress, with the exception of a handful of permanent unlocks.
  • You can’t “cheat” it by backing up your save game, because it requires you to close the application and the game wipes you out when you do this (when you go to back up your save you will respawn at the start of the act). However, you can skip bosses / regions you’ve already finished and head straight for the next boss.
  • There are no difficulty settings, it’s the same hardcore experience for everyone. The story is quite challenging. A test of skill and patience. It’s definitely not a game for everyone.
  • There are 6 Worlds (Biomes) & 5 Bosses in total & 3 Acts in total. Act 1 = Biome 1-3 / Act 2 = Biome 4-5 / Act 3 = Endgame Free Roam.
  • There are 2 checkpoints during the story. One after act 1 (after 3rd boss), one after act 2 (after 5th boss). There are no checkpoints in between. The game is very punishing. If you die, you respawn at the start of the act. The game works similar to Wolfenstein 2 “Mein Leben” difficulty. If you die you lose your progress and respawn with practically nothing. You lose all your health upgrades, all your weapons, all your weapon proficiency, all your inventory etc. There’s also no character leveling system in the game, no way to permanently boost your stats between deaths. See Overview of What You Lose & What You Keep after Dying.
  • After you die the world gets randomized again. This means you can’t just memorize it like other linear games because it’s different each try. The only thing that’s scripted is the boss fights. You can skip the bosses you’ve already defeated. E.g. you die during the 3rd boss, you will respawn at the start of Act 1 (1st world where the game started), but you can head straight for the 3rd boss and completely skip the 2nd world. You still need to run through world 1 again where you respawn and then through world 3 where the 3rd boss is. After the 3rd boss you get a checkpoint at the start of the 4th world. So if you die during the 4th boss, you can replay from the 4th world and don’t need to run through world 1-3 again.
  • If you’re looking for a quick, easy and fun platinum this game isn’t for you! If you don’t like repetition (repeating the same level 100+ times) this isn’t for you! If you don’t like random luck-based trophies, this game isn’t for you!
  • If you are looking for a challenge, have patience, and want to test your skills in a game unlike anything else, this game is for you!

Step 1: Finish Story until end of Act 2 (the main story)

The first step is to simply play through the story. Pick up any Collectibles you find along the way because you need them for the survey trophies.

Step 2: Collect 6 Sunface Fragments (1 per Biome) for the last House Sequence & Finish Act 3

After defeating the 5th boss “Ophion” (the endboss), you will enter Act 3 in free roam. The main story is practically done at this point but there’s a secret third act. You can now go back to all areas.

Make sure you’ve watched the first 5 house sequences, see :silver: Sins of the Mother.

Then start searching for the 6 Sunface Fragments. There is 1 per Biome. Just replay all Biomes back to back and search all main- and side rooms carefully. You will need to get lucky because it doesn’t necessarily spawn the Sunface Fragments on each run. After you’ve been through everything just let yourself get killed so the world gets randomized again, thus giving you a new chance at finding the Sunface Fragment.

Here’s what the Sunface Fragments look like:

After you get all 6 (1 per biome) bring them back to the house to trigger the 6th (final) house sequence. This will give you a car key. Use the car key on the car after the Ophion endboss to finish Act 3.

Step 3: Survey Trophies

This is the big endgame grind. Your goal here is to find all Collectibles. See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins for what each of them looks like.

Just replay all biomes back to back, again and again, and hope to get lucky with the collectible spawns. Because the Collectibles are randomized it can take a while. It’s pure luck. You basically have to do like 5-20+ playthroughs (technically it’s free-roam after the story) to get all this stuff. Very highly luck-dependent.

Useful Tips, Tricks and Guides:

Returnal Trophy Guide

Helios
Collect all trophies
Earn all other trophies in Returnal to unlock Platinum (DLC not required).
Atropian Survival
Learn the basics of survival on Atropos
Automatic story-related trophy, cannot be missed. Unlocks after finding the Atropian Blade in Overgrown Ruins.
Past the Ruins
Finish Overgrown Ruins Survey
To get all the golden “Survey” trophies you must find all randomly generated collectibles in each region. It’s complete luck.

You can track your progress via the “Survey” Activity Cards (press :ps: – must be online and connected to PSN to see them). It will show your progress with a % counter and each task you need to do per region.

This requires you to complete the following in each region:

  • Find all Scout Logs – they are white glowing dots on the ground, usually near a corpse
  • Xenoglyph Ciphers – red scratches on walls – they are fixed to specific rooms but it’s random on each playthrough what rooms you get. So you must get lucky to get rooms you didn’t get on previous playthroughs and check all walls
  • Xeno-Archives – they are usually behind blue doors on the minimap, they are like museums with some hologram figures in them.
  • Containment Areas (sometimes they show up on the activity cards, sometimes they don’t, but they appear to be needed for the trophies) – they are the yellow/golden gates with a star over them on the minimap. They will lock you in and spawn several waves of enemies when you enter. It’s random where and when these rooms spawn, just check for them on your minimap.

All of this is the big endgame grind. Just replay all biomes back to back. Once you got one complete you can skip it on future runs. You basically have to do like 5-20+ playthroughs (technically it’s free-roam after the story) to get all this stuff. Very highly luck-dependent. Try to pick up what you can during the story already so you can save some time during the endgame grind.
Ascending the Mountain
Finish Crimson Wastes Survey
See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins above.
Through the Forgotten City
Finish Derelict Citadel Survey
See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins above.
Echoes of the Past
Finish Echoing Ruins Survey
See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins above.
Frozen in Time
Finish Fractured Wastes Survey
See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins above.
Submerged in Memories
Finish Abyssal Scar Survey
See trophy :gold: Past the Ruins above.
A Shadow in the Fog
Defeat Phrike
» Returnal Boss Guide (All Bosses)
Ascension
Defeat Ixion
» Returnal Boss Guide (All Bosses)
Trial by Judgement
Defeat Nemesis
» Returnal Boss Guide (All Bosses)
Silence the Song
Defeat Hyperion
» Returnal Boss Guide (All Bosses)
Inner Darkness
Defeat Ophion
» Returnal Boss Guide (All Bosses)
Failed Escape
Finish Act 1
Automatic story-related trophy, unlocks after defeating the 3rd boss / 3rd Biome, when you enter the 4th Biome.

Because the story trophies can be a bit buggy it’s highly recommended you back up your save before going to the 3rd boss (PS5 Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS5) > Console Storage > Returnal > Upload to Cloud Storage – requires PS+ subscription on your account).
Last Drive
Finish Act 2
Automatic story-related trophy, unlocks after defeating the 5th boss / 6th Biome, when you enter “free roam”.

Because the story trophies can be a bit buggy it’s highly recommended you back up your save before going to the 5th boss (PS5 Settings > Saved Data and Game/App Settings > Saved Data (PS5) > Console Storage > Returnal > Upload to Cloud Storage – requires PS+ subscription on your account).
White Shadow
Finish Act 3
After beating the 5th boss “Ophion” you will enter Act 3. This is a bit of an easteregg Act as there are no more bosses and the main story is practically done.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Make sure you defeated the endboss “Ophion” in the 6th Biome. Also make sure you saw the first 5 House Sequence (see trophy :silver: Sins of the Mother). After these requirements are done it will spawn 6 “Sunface Fragments”.
  2. There is 1 Sunface Fragment per Biome. They are found in randomly spawning rooms, so it comes down to luck. Just replay each Biome and search every main- and side room carefully! Also write down in which biome you already found the Sunface Fragments so you don’t end up repeating the same one. You can see how many you have in the “Status” Screen > Permanent Equipment (bottom right corner of Status Screen) > Items (where it also shows the House Key, Crimson Key, Fractured Key). Here’s what a Sunface Fragment looks like:
  3. Once you brought back all 6 sunface fragments to the house, the final house sequence will begin. After this you get the car keys, which you must use on the car after beating the endboss (Ophion) to finish Act 3.

You can also tell which Sunface Fragments you already got by looking at what direction their icon is facing in the inventory (Status Screen > Items):

  1. Overgrown Ruins = 
  2. Crimson Wastes = 
  3. Derelict Citadel = 
  4. Echoing Ruins = 
  5. Fractured Wastes = 
  6. Abyssal Scar = 
Second Chance
Returned by an artifact
Immediately after completing the first house sequence (see :silver: Sins of the Mother) you should get a purple item pickup in front of the house, which is the Astronaut Figurine. Pick it up. This is the artifact that instantly revives you when you die. Now the next time you die the trophy will unlock. Alternatively, you can sometimes craft the Astronaut Figurine at Fabricator (Crafting Stations), and sometimes it’s randomly found if you’re lucky. Regardless of how you get it, just die with this item in your inventory and the trophy will pop. Should happen naturally as you play through the game.

Here’s what the Astronaut Figurine looks like:
Cryptic Messages
Scan a Xenoglyph
See trophy “Cryptic Translations“, you’ll get it automatically while going for that trophy.
Cryptic Translations
Unlock all translation tiers of a Xenoglyph
Xenoglyphs are big stone tablets (looking like large gravestones) with some red glowing alien symbols on them. You will occasionally come across them throughout the game, pretty much in plain sight and marked on the minimap. You can interact with them to scan them.

Here’s one of them in the “Overgrown Ruins” region:

To unlock all translation tiers you must find a few Xenogylph Ciphers and/or interact with other Xenoglyphs. Each of these Ciphers increases your knowledge of the language until you can automatically decode it. They look like red glowing scratches on walls.

It’s not necessary to find all Xenoglyph Ciphers in a world. In my case I found only 4/10 Ciphers in the first world “Overgrown Ruins” and got 78% Translation Accuracy when the trophy popped. It unlocks when interacting with any Xenoglyph after finding a sufficient number of Ciphers. Your progress on this stays between cycles (between deaths).
Surgical Precision
Perform 5 successful Overloads in a row
An “Overload” is when you press :r2: with perfect timing in the middle of reloading a weapon. Upon reloading a weapon you can see a timer in the center of the screen. If you press :r2: at the right time it instantly reloads your magazine. Do this on 5 reloads in a row with any weapon. No need to hit any enemies in between, you can simply shoot in the air.
Adapting to Circumstance
Achieve Weapon Proficiency level 30
This is quite easy in the late game / endgame because you will respawn with much higher weapon proficiency already unlocked. You also gain a boost in weapon proficiency whenever you pick up the blue item at the start of a biome.

The easiest way to get it is to beat Act 2, and if you still need proficiency farm out the rest by killing enemies and crafting proficiency boosters (at fabricators / crafting stations). There’s a white bar in the bottom left corner of the screen that shows your progress to the next proficiency level. Each enemy you kill gives you some XP to the next level.

Your weapon proficiency gets lost when you die. However, in the late game you always respawn with a fixed minimum proficiency so you won’t have to restart from level 1 each time.
In-Field Training
Complete a daily challenge in Simulation Mode
*Online Trophy*

Over the course of the story you will automatically unlock a 2nd terminal in your drop ship (where you respawn in 1st/4th biome). Interact with it for the “simulation mode”, which is an online-only mode. Then accept and complete one of the daily challenges. You must be signed into PSN for this.

These challenges constantly rotate and change so you might have to beat a boss or just get to the end of an area. It is completely random how easy or hard it will be. So, if you are struggling, try again another day to get a different challenge.
Hardened Shell
Achieve 200% Max Integrity
This is best done after having at least finished Act 2. At this point you will enter free roam. Now just replay all biomes and pick up all health items along the way (clear out all rooms of enemies). Try to not lose any health, because when you’re at full health all green healing items turn into health upgrades. You can bring your Integrity up to 300% but for this trophy you only need 200%, which means doubling your health bar.

If you die it resets your health bar. There are also some parasites that give big health boosts, so always check out the purple Parasites when you see them.
Risk Assessment
Finish Calculated Risk
For this you must pick up 3 spoiled resins, 3 malignant resins and 3 malignant silphiums, which you can keep track of via the trophy tracker.
Adrenaline Spike
Achieve maximum Adrenaline Level
For this you must reach Adrenaline Level 5. Your Adrenaline Level is raised for every 3 hostiles you eliminate. Upon taking any damage, however, your Adrenaline Level will reset. Use jump :x: and dash :circle: to dodge enemy attacks.

This will likely be one of your first trophies and should come naturally, so don’t even worry about it.
Irreversibly Contaminated
Have 5 Parasites simultaneously
Parasites are purple-colored pickups. They are randomly generated and found in random places. Most often they are found in small side areas indicated by a blue gate on the minimap and in underground sections after you step on flooring with a yellow glow that then cracks and makes you fall down. It’s just pure luck though because of how randomly generated the game is. Parasites add positive and also negative effects to your suit. Always pick up any you find until you have this trophy. When you die you lose them all and must find new ones.

Here’s a picture of a parasite:

You can keep track of how many parasites you have by looking at the “Status” page:

Don’t worry too much about this trophy, you should get it naturally over the course of the game if you explore each area carefully and always pick up any parasites.
Eternal Return
Die for the first time
Self-explanatory. Die whichever way you like, this will trigger a cutscene and you get the trophy. You can make this your first trophy in the game by dying at the first enemy encounter.
Alternate Fates
Retrieve 10 Scout Logs
Scout Logs are randomly placed Collectibles, they look like glowing white dots on the floor. Because they spawn randomly it’s impossible to list any specific locations. Getting 10 of these is very easy though and should happen naturally over the course of the game. It will probably be one of your first few trophies without any trouble. Just pick up any of the glowing white dots you come across. There are far more than 10 and each time you start a new cycle (each time you die) it will respawn them in different places.

Here’s what a Scout Log looks like:
Welcome Home
Complete the first House sequence
See trophy “Sins of the Mother”.
Sins of the Mother
Complete all House sequences
There are 6 House Sequences. Throughout the game you will randomly come across a room with a house. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s only found in Biome 1 (Overgrown Ruins) & Biome 4 (Echoing Ruins). It cannot spawn in other Biomes. However, it won’t spawn in each playthrough, it’s just random luck. If the house has its lights turned on, you can enter via the front door. If the lights are off you can’t enter. The first time you want to enter it you must find the house key from one of the nearby side rooms (blue gates on the minimap). Just search all rooms near the house carefully until you get the house key, then backtrack to open the house door. In my case it was in a blue side room a few main rooms after the house, in a big chest made out of stone.

Each time you enter the house you will see a flashback scene. These are basically Returnal’s “story cutscenes”.

Below is a list of the house sequences and how/when to get them.

  1. Act 1 / Biome 1 – First time you see the house you will need the house key to enter. Search all side rooms (blue gates on minimap) near the house. There should be a big stone chest in one of them with the key. In my case it was a few rooms after the house. Once you have the key, backtrack to the house to open the door. In this sequence you roam around the house and it ends with you looking out the window upstairs and seeing an astronaut outside.
  2. Act 1 / Biome 1 – Second time you see the house you should be able to enter it again, no key needed. I hadn’t killed the first boss yet and could already revisit the house. But if the lights are not on for you, just try to advance the story (kill 1st and 2nd boss) and it should become accessible. In this sequence you will roam around the house and it ends with you finding a piece of paper on the upper floor.
  3. Act 1 / Biome 1 – Third time I visited the house was after having unlocked the 3rd biome (after 2nd boss), no key needed. It’s possible that it can be revisited earlier than that, but if the lights are off for you then try again after having reached the 3rd world. In this sequence you watch TV, an astronaut shows up on the TV and then you find the same astronaut standing in the hallway of your house.
  4. Act 2 / Biome 4 – Fourth time you can enter the house is in Act 2 / Biome 4. Whenever you see the house for the first time in this Biome you should be able to enter it. In this sequence the little girl plays with a PS5 controller and then goes to the kitchen to eat cereal and tells the astronaut a story.
  5. Act 2 / Biome 4 – Fifth time you can enter the house is after having unlocked Biome 6 (Abyssal Scar). When you pass by the house the next time the lights should be turned on. It’s a sequence where you play as a little girl, she searches for her octopus plush toy and then she gets trapped inside the television.
  6. Act 3 / Biome 4 – After having seen the first 5 sequences and after having defeated the 5th boss (Ophion), a total of 6 sunface fragments will spawn. There’s 1 per region. You need to get lucky that they spawn on your run. You must collect all of them and bring them back to the house. Just keep replaying all biomes a few times and clear out all rooms carefully. You can see how many you have in the “Status” Screen > Permanent Equipment (bottom right corner of Status Screen) > Items (where it also shows the House Key, Crimson Key, Fractured Key). Once you brought back all 6 sunface fragments the final house sequence will begin. After this you get the car keys, which you must use on the car after beating the endboss (Ophion) to finish Act 3.

Here’s what the Sunface Fragments look like for the last House Sequence:
Visions of the Past
Complete a Xeno-archive set
Xeno-Archives  are some “museum” rooms you come across that have hologram figures in them. You look at the holograms and activate them with :triangle: .

Some can be in side rooms (blue gates on minimap) and can be found randomly across the different worlds in the game. Others are a bit more scripted. You will automatically come across one such room in World 3: Derelict Citadel during the objective “Ascend the Broadcast Tower” (just after entering the Broadcast Tower). Activate all 5 hologram figures (also called “Tableaus”) in the room and the trophy will pop.

You can see them under Databank > Xeno-Archives.

Here’s what a Xeno-Archive room looks like (example from World 3: Derelict Citadel – see the hologram in the middle and in the back left/right):

Here’s what the Xeno-Archives look like in the Databank Menu (you should have 5 from one room to pop the trophy):

 

Share
Shares 0

Comments

  1. Guide is all done, good luck to everyone!
    Very interesting game, unlike anything before it.

    I talked to players who are still stuck at the 2nd boss after days of trying and I talked to others who blazed through the story without too much difficulty. This game won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and not everyone will be able to beat it, but it does feel nice whenever you finish a boss and move up one world 🙂

    The trophy bugs are a bummer. Literally every story trophy after the 1st boss bugged out on me. Others I talked to also had issues with at least 1 story trophy not popping. But once you know how to beat a boss you can redo them quite easily.

    The hardest part is the story itself. After that the grind gets easier, just repetitive. It’s quite a long grind for Collectibles (also one of the biggest time span estimates I ever had to do on a guide because of how random + skill-dependent it is). I could see the story taking some players 20-ish hours and the next person needs 50-ish hours depending on how many retries you need. And for the Collectible grind there’s no telling, because often you end up with a “needle in the haystack” situation where you need one more collectible but it just won’t spawn. You might finish some biomes in 5 replays and another might take you 20 replays or so.

    Looking forward to seeing people’s thoughts over the next days/weeks.
    I encourage you to leave your plat difficulty / time ratings in the comments when you got plat. I’m sure it will be a divisive game with a lot of variance between players due to the skill/randomness aspect.
    Personally I’d rate it 7/10 difficulty and I put in 60h with still several survey trophies missing. But for those still stuck at 2nd boss after 20h it would either not be completable (10/10) or take a tremendous amount of time (hence I went with 8.5/10 average to factor in players who will find it undoable). For time estimate, I talked to some people in the ranges of 50-70h playtime and still nobody has platinum at the time of this writing (at this point, reviewers / content creators have had it for 10 full days and less than 10% even finished Act 3 in that time). If the average person takes like 80h to plat this, assume someone dies twice as much and has half the luck it could take them well over 100h. Odds are, if it’s that difficult/long for a player they will never attempt the plat, but I decided to go with a long time span anyway to account for players of all skill levels and luck levels. I’m sure a small subset of players can do it quicker but that won’t be realistic for most, so plan in more than 70h for this.

    Reply

    • Thanks for your hard work dude. I was excited to get this game, but seeing this guide, it actually made me preorder it few hours ago. Seriously looking forward to this,

    • This game actually looks alot like Metroid from Nintendo. Like the map layouts, getting weapons/upgrades to open doors. Going back to ur ship to rest and heal. Except in Metroid u could save the game in ur ship and it’s 1st person except for when u morph into a ball.
      Metroid also had no checkpoints at that time on gamecube.
      But overal a nice game and the randomizations are a nice addition.

    • Are certain collectibles lock unless you complete ACT 3? I can’t find one scout log to save my life in overgrown ruin

    • Just finished up Act 3. Was lucky enough that all of my story trophies worked properly. My only real bug has been becoming unable to interact with things and having to reset the cycle to create a new run. So far my in game timer says 21 hours. I’ve finished 1/6 biome surveys so, fingers crossed I’m hoping to finish the platinum in ~50 hours but like you mentioned that could all go horribly wrong if I don’t get the right rooms.

    • I finished my play through after 14 hours, would’ve been sooner If not for the two runs I lost due to crashes which inflated the time by about three hours.No way am I doing a platinum run from the guide seems like an insane grind. Do you guys think dsp will be abke to beat this game lol?

    • what if your activity cards dissapear. I put the save on cloud and deleted it they reappeared. Problem is it says survey 0%, so i guess that means i have to start over??

    • Cant edit or delete my old post so here is the update.
      Just finished the platinum and my in game clock said 1 day 12 hours and some change so ~36 hours for me. The last survey trophy took me around 6 of those hours because I couldn’t find the final cipher. Hopefully they make the survey missions a bit more guaranteed because otherwise it was a fantastic game.

    • I think for the Calculated Risks trophy it has to do with the Spoiled Resin item. (Not sure on the name) but it’s the one that either fills 1 slot towards your max integrity or causes harm. You first come across them in biome 2. I got the trophy after picking up 3-4 of those.

    • I still have Sins of the Mother glitched. Pre patch 1.4.0 I deleted my save and went completely through Act 1 and 2 again essentially replaying the entire game and it still didn’t pop. Post patch 1.4.0 I launched my game with the house sequences complete (car key in inventory) and it still didn’t pop. I went to the house in Biome 4 to check it and was still stone. Is there a trigger for this glitched trophy to retroactively pop? I have the Act 3 trophy… What do I need to do?

    • After I finished act 3 my health bar back to normal and I can’t upgrade it anymore. I have to do free roam with basic health bar, is that normal or it’s a bug?

  2. With glitched trophy potential. It’s a bummer to even back up the save you will lose the current playthrough.

    Reply

    • If you’ve already mastered the game (know exactly how to beat all bosses etc.) you could probably rush through the story in 1 life within 2 hours. The game actually doesn’t have that much content, it just seems so long because it’s so punishing and requires many retries.
      On the first platinum run it’s absolutely impossible in 30-40h. If you’re in the fastest 5% you can maybe do the story in 20h first time around. If you are in the average 50% the story will take you 30-40h. If you’re in the slower half it may take 40h+.

      Then you still have the endless luck based grind for collectibles. No way of telling how long it takes but 30h-40h plat is impossible first time around. Maybe with a lot of luck if you platinumed the game before and know exactly how to beat each type of enemy etc. but even then it’s highly unlikely due to the luck component.

    • Thank you for answer and guide powerpyx! One last question if i can, dont you think some day 1 patch could fix trophy glitches?

    • The Day-1 patch hasn’t fixed it.
      Impossible to say when (or if ever) they will fix it. The good news is that I haven’t encountered any gameplay bugs. It’s just the general buggyness with trophy tracking and the activity cards often being bugged (e.g. survey trophy cards show different requirements sometimes or they don’t show up at all). From all the people I’ve talked to who finished the story, every single one had at least 1 trophy glitch out. For me personally more than half the story trophies bugged out.
      Each individual trophy I’d estimate has a 20% chance to bug out. But there are 11 story trophies (counting house trophies) and odds are that you won’t get lucky 11 times in a row. The chances of at least 1 in 11 bugging out is actually quite high.

      I think there is a fundamental issue with how the trophy tracking works in this game. The trophy trackers are also a letdown, e.g. for house sequences it shows 0/1 even though there are 6 of them.
      Usually the type of trophies that only glitch on some but not all players are more tricky to fix because it’s harder to determine what line of code causes the issue. But there are no other major bugs so this will hopefully make it to the top of their to-do list soon.

  4. 150+ hours? 8.5 difficulty?! Ouch…

    Was debating wether to check this out before RE8 but now I think my mind has been made up.
    I take it this game has a similar difficulty to the Dark Souls games, do you lose progress when you die?

    Reply

    • Well Souls and Souls-like games are easier than this game by comparison. You can always overlevel if youre having trouble with those games but in Returnal you lose everything except some permanent weapon upgrades and key items, among other small things. Not surprised if people give up on this game because it really isn’t for everyone.

    • Honestly I find the game to be incredibly easy, I’ve died 3 times and gotten all but 4 of the survey trophies and I’m about 24 hours in. Dodge is everything in this game

    • I just got it and I’m mad at myself for not spending the $90 it cost here to support this.

      Excellent game.

  5. Thank you for the trophy guide. Sony are stupid charging £69.99 for this game and with a Platinum trophy difficulty as high as this, I’ve lost most of my interest in Returnal.

    Reply

    • I’m exactly in the same boat as you are. I was on the fence but now, I’m leaning toward opting out until huge, huge sale + patches arrive before getting it for non-plat playthrough.

    • Actually, Returnal’s platinum isn’t that hard for players familiar with this genre 🙂
      And, really guys, it worth its price (if we consider that a PS5 game is worth 80$) ;)
      Awesome job from the Finnish studio ?

  6. Ok so this may sound dumb but if you want to take a break you can’t just exit the game as it kills you? Do you just need to leave the PS5 running while you sleep?

    Reply

  7. I was really looking forward to this game but because of the potential glitches and the difficultly of the game, I think I will pass. I hope this gets a future update with difficulty options. Thank you so much for your incredible work, as usual.

    Reply

  9. So once you turn off the PlayStation the progress is wiped forever so you can’t save it and then continue off with the game another day

    Reply

  11. a game that punishes you for turning off the console, coz you know, its not like we are already over consuming energy/electricity for the past 15 months…..no thx…hard pass! Thx for the heads up tho. Im already pissed that I wasted top price on the garbage that Outriders is. Wont do the same mistake in a row. I can wait till next year when its gonna be free on PSPlus.

    Reply

    • You can put the console in rest mode and get back in ur game without any issue. Or just take it 1 boss at a time and close it then speedrun past the first part again to get to the second area and pick it up from there.

  12. Great work as always, but I think the luck component and the bugs are big bummer. Guess I’ll just play the game normally and try to platinum it if they ever release some kind of patch to fix the bugs

    Reply

    • Sort of… you will respawn at the start of the game, but you don’t need to redo the bosses you already defeated. There’s a checkpoint halfway through the game.

  15. So basically you have to finish the game in one go? if I “git gud” at this game, I have to play for 40 straight hours to finish the game? Because if I turn off my console – I start from the beginning? Or I’m missing out something? Can someone answer, thanks.

    Reply

    • Putting your console in Rest Mode won’t wipe you but actually turning it off will. Which means you’ll die and will have to start over.

    • The 30-40 hours estimation is taking into account the many deaths and retries you’ll endure. I believe PP said in another comment that once you’ve “gotten good”, the story takes around 2 hours.

  17. was looking forward for this game but Oh my god…….definitely buying it much later for max 30. sounds horrible! Will wait for RE 8 instead

    Reply

  18. The cowardly comments are hilarious lol. Guys, maybe just not obsess about trophies or plat in every game. Sometimes it’s ok to just PLAY the game and experience something new and TRY and take a risk sometimes. Geez. Or stick to cod n fortnite.

    Reply

    • I am playing it for fun right now, but it is really annoying that trophies don’t unlock at no fault of your own. I am thinking about playing something else until it gets patched.

  19. I’m playing this tonight after work… how long do I have to play to reach my first PERMANENT checkpoint? i.e. when can I safely turn my console off and save my progress?

    Never played a roguelike before so this is all a bit confusing.

    Reply

    • Someone who already knows the game could speedrun there in 1 hour. But I also know people who’ve been stuck at the 2nd boss for a week. Could be 10h counting retries, could be 30h counting retries, all depends on how often you die. Once you defeated the 2nd boss you won’t need to defeat him again when you die and can rush straight for the 3rd boss. Then you need to replay 1st world & 3rd world + 3rd boss, which takes like 15 minutes per try.

    • Played for 4 hours last night. Beat the first two bosses without dying. Didn’t even put my console in rest mode because I’ve heard reports of it bugging out, so I just left it on overnight!

      Just a few tips in case anyone happens to read this comment in future…

      The bosses were a little tricky, but I feel the reports of this game’s difficulty have been greatly exaggerated. I know everybody is different, but that’s just how I feel right now. Like I say, I haven’t died once. With most areas you can enter them, spawn in the enemies, and then leave the area and use the door as cover. With both bosses, a long dash will stop you taking damage from all of their attacks (just make you don’t have any negative dash cooldown effects).

      Also, the astronaut figurine brings you back to life (you get one for free as part of the story) and you can craft more. There’s also a parasite that grants an extra life, if you can find it. I would advise people to carry two health consumables (most other consumables are useless IMO), and, if you can, craft the artifact that regens your health when it’s low.

  20. Just got to the first boss. As a slightly above average gamer this game is awesome! Frustrating, already had four deaths just enjoying it. Feels worth the money!

    Reply

  21. One think you should mention in your guide. Once you hit Act 2 you wipe clean as well. Had my gun and 20 artifacts taken when began Act 2. Which sucks cuz after touring dying in first biome I got awesome set up and did whole first act in one run all 3 bosses. So yeah game tough but you find right gun artifacts and parasites you can be Op

    Reply

  22. Hello I have a question and I can’t find the answer anywhere. I reached act 2. I know I got a checkpoint as I read everywhere if I die I restart here. But the question is can I end the application or turn the ps5 off? What kind of checkpoint is it. And if not, is there a way to go to act 2 fast and do i have weapon proficiency 15 still? Btw, the game is perfect as it is. I hope they will never change it for the easy platinum hunters. That would ruin the game. This is my 3rd run, it’s not that hard at all if u take your time and learn of your mistakes. This is 1 of the best games I have played in a long time. And I played every game there is. Also thanks for all the info about the game Powerpyx!

    Reply

    • After finishing act 1, you always spawn in the new area. You can turn your ps off no problem. After act 2, you can use a device in the ship to return to the previous 3 biomes

  23. I’ve just beaten the 1st and 2nd boss in one run then died before reaching the 3rd boss because of a stupid mistake.
    Its not that hard you just have to make sure you keep your addrelanile at 5.0 and dodge and jump alot.
    Make sure to visit every room on each biome it really helps to stack up with upgrades, parasites, items etc.. keep some Large health packs in your inventory just in case.
    I havent gotten pretty far in the game but I think its more like an 6/10 plat difficulty for me and maybe less I havent played that much.
    Its definitely doable gonna try to get the platinum before RE8 comes out 🙂

    Reply

  26. Game is interesting but feels unbalanced, some OP enemies and guns feel like pee shooters most of the time.

    Reply

  27. Stop saying the game it’s no that hard before entering Act 2

    I beat the full first ACT on my second run without problems

    In Act 2 the difficult becomes crazy

    Reply

    • I on the other hand struggled during act 1, then rushed straight through until credits rolled on a single run. IMHO the second half is a lot easier because you start with beefed up weapon proficiency and have some really good weapon traits and artifacts unlocked.

      Guess it’s different for everyone. ^^

    • Depends on your build I think 🙂
      I beat boss 2, 3 and 4 until boss 5 in one run because I found great stuff. But after that , I tried around 10 runs to reach again final boss.

  28. I only saw two house sequences before the final boss. Do you have to beat the final boss again after seeing the first 5 house sequences to get the fragments to spawn, or do they spawn regardless as soon as you see the 5th house sequence.

    Reply

    • In my case I saw the 5 house sequences before the final boss already. But I don’t think you’d have to beat him again. Doing the endboss first and then seeing all sequences should be fine.

  29. How do you increase max proficiency above 15? Is that after Act 1? Act 2? I’m doing quite well in this particular run, and figured I would ask while I’m halfway to the trophy. Thanks!

    Reply

  30. Hi, PowerPyx. Do you know how to reach certain platforms in the game that are either far away or high above but have no yellow light for the grappling hook anywhere? Do we get some kind of super jump or something later in the game? I saw two places while climbing the mountain in the second biome that had items on them but they were high above me, no yellow light. I also saw a very far way platform with items on it in the third biome, no yellow light either. Any ideas? Thank you.

    Reply

    • RIGHT before last boss you get final permanent upgrade. Won’t say what it is or does to not spoil. But I had same problem. But once you get the upgrade you can reach those higher areas

  31. Hey

    I only had 4 house sequences before I started act 3. Will I not be able to get the secret ending now?
    I am at the house currently, but I cant enter it anymore.

    Reply

    • Are you in the 1st or 4th biome? I think sequence 4 and 5 only happen in the 4th.

      I cleared act 2 with missing the 5th sequence because I had a pretty long and successful run. After the credits rolled I found it again in biome 4 and was able to watch the sequence I missed. You should be able to catch up on those.

      You watched the ending without having some info on the story but other than that you’re fine. Just keep looking for the house.

      If it’s one of the first 3 sequences you’re missed you’d probably have to look for it in biome 1.

  32. Just FYI, it appears ‘Calculated Risk’ is for picking up 3 Spoiled Resin, as I picked one up and after I had closed the game out, the activity card for that trophy showed 33% completion, 1 /3 Spoiled Resin picked up. Hope this helps!

    Reply

  33. This is a disaster.

    Saving the game to the cloud doesn’t help if the game has already had an error in tracking your progress and failed to give you a trophy – it’s over and there is nothing you can do but delete the same and start over, other trophies won’t work and replaying sections doesn’t solve it.

    Beat the game yesterday and only noticed when no trophy popped for beating the game… Turns out the game broke much earlier, after the 4th boss.

    I’ve had some remaining collectibles to 100% a biome, saving on the cloud before the trophy event doesn’t seem to help if it already broke.

    Reply

  34. My activity cards aren’t tracking my collectible progress, it just says “start activity” does this mean my game has glitched out and I have to start a new save file for them to track? Kinda annoyed about that if it is the case…

    Reply

    • I had the same issue yesterday. Do you use any preorder suit ?
      I was and I read that is the cause of many glitches, so I took the basic suit back, restarted a fresh cycle and everything’s back to normal 🙂

    • Thank you Arkonite! I was using a DLC suit and rebooting the game has made them all appear again. Sure is buggy with the DLC suits, it seems to be working now.

  35. Hello Guys!

    Just wanted to tell you that apparently, Trophies are glitch if you use DLC outfits
    My last boss and Act 2 trophies didn’t pop yesterday, but I did it again today and both popped, so you can have Act trophies (at least 1 and 2) even if they didn’t pop first

    I really don’t sure it would work for Act 3 tho, since it’s really linked to finish the house sequences, but maybe it would work it you open the Car Twice

    But I’m sure if your surveys trophies didn’t poped you would have to start all over again same for all house sequences… So don’t play with DLC outifts and pray when you do those

    On an other subject, I don’t get how to get Risk Assessment so if anyone can help me 🙂

    Reply

    • I never used DLC Outfits and all story trophies after 1st boss glitched on me. It’s not unique to DLC outfits unfortunately.

  37. saves can be backed up without PSN Plus Subscription!. just from setting backup ps5 and choose returnal save file only.

    Reply

  38. I adjusted the time span estimate to 50-100h. The initial range was a bit too big, some players are already doing it faster, yet still very unpredictable and luck based.

    Many players have also reported issues with the activity cards not showing up or their progress being reset on those cards. May be best to give the devs a few weeks to fix all of the tracking bugs before starting the game.

    Reply

  39. Hey, just finished act 2.
    Where can I choose between act 1 and 2?
    The game also doesn’t show me the activity cards by pressing the playstation button. Any ideas?

    Reply

    • It seems the activity cards have become buggy with the Day-1 Patch. They work for some players, but no longer work for others. Lots of weird trophy issues with this game.

    • As for your question, it’s the 3rd door inside your Helios. The one that doesn’t open with the red lights. It should open after completing act 2. Just start Act 1, go in there, and interact with the thing inside. This will take you to Echoing Ruins.

  40. Hey guys, I had the bug where I was unable to earn the trophy for Act 2, and when I was playing again today, I beat the final boss a second time, and it ended up giving me the trophy for completing Act 2. Not sure if this works for Act 1, but it’s a definite work around for people who don’t want to restart the entire game to get the Act 2 trophy. Hope this helped!

    Reply

  41. Hey 🙂

    Does anyone know how to go back to biome 5 after beating boss 4 ?
    I restarted several times to biome 4 and explore all the map, but I don’t find any portal to reach Fractured Wastes in order to skip Hyperion’s fight.

    Thanks 🙂

    Reply

    • Portals to biome 5 and 6 are at the Spire where you had to climb up to get to Hyperion. There are two corriders going left and right from the main chamber, you’ll find them there.

    • Ok for those who would have the same problem : you have to pass through the red door to reach the mini hub where you have the choice between the portal to go to the Fractured Wastes biome or dive in the well to reach the Abyssal Scar area 🙂

    • Hey MarkThernstrom 🙂
      While your message was under verification, I posted an update, so I didn’t see it.
      Thank you anyway ?

  42. Hello!

    Us anyone have issues with tracking progress of collectibles?

    Survey” Activity Cards (press :ps: – must be online and connected to PSN to see them). It will show your progress with a % counter and each task you need to do per region.

    It was working for me, but today I finished game and don’t see anymore this in activity cards.

    Maybe someone know does to fix it?

    Reply

    • Yup, you have to restart a fresh cycle and it fix the problem 🙂
      But it still can occur sometimes…

  43. I think the Second Chance trophy has glitched for me. I have obtained the artifact but the PS5 updated the game while in rest mode (yep, that hurt) and when I started back again the trophy didn’t pop. Also, it didn’t pop after I died killed by some enemies. Any suggestions?

    PS: As a recommendation, if you are playing this game disable the auto-update for games while in rest mode it will save you a lot of frustrations.

    Reply

    • You have to die with the Astronaut Figurine artifact on you. It will resurrect you without starting a new cycle.

      Since your PS5 updated while you had the figurine, that means that you restarted the cycle and have to find another. Usually the room with the 4 crafting stations has one. It costs 250 obolites to craft.

    • Finally it did pop when I crafted the item again on a Fabricator and then died.

  44. Hi everyone, I’ve got a few questions:

    1. Has anyone encountered a dead scout? You should be able to avenge or scavenge them. I played for ~40h, finished act 1 + 2, collected all sun fragments and even got my surveys to where I‘m only missing a few logs and have yet to encounter one of those dead bodies.

    I saw them in a few previews so they should be there… maybe the day1 patch broke them?

    2. Is there some kind of trick to get certain logs to spawn? I‘m missing 1-3 per biome. For biome 1 it’s log #10. I did 3 complete runs for both act 1 and 2 where I searched every room without finding a single log. I‘m technically in act 3 so progression shouldn’t be the issue. I have yet to watch the final house sequence but I don‘t think watching it unlocks logs? At least those missing in act 1 shouldn’t be affected by completing act 3?

    3. Does anyone know what‘s the trigger for filling the research percentage of artifacts, weapons, items etc.? I have artifacts I‘ve picked up several times where the bar is still at 1-5% while others are nearly completed. Do you need to find those a certain amount of times? Kill enemies while holding them? Or maybe it’s linked to the amount of time you played while having them equipped? I know it’s not linked to any trophy but I‘m still curious.

    Any kind of input is highly appreciated! 🙂

    BTW: I can confirm that it’s possible to get trophies by killing bosses a 2nd time as well as completing act 1 or 2 again after those trophies bugged out on you. There’s no need to start a new save. I don’t know what Happens once you complete act 3 but I guess whether you interact with the car or not will determine the ending you get. So it should be possible to complete every act at any given time.

    Reply

    • Hey 🙂

      1. Yes, it’s completely glitched… Dev team is aware of the issue and should be patch it soon.
      2. I think it’s completely luck based… For some biomes I almost found every collectibles in one run (around 80%) and for Echoing Ruins, after about ten runs, I only have found one log 🙁
      3. For each artifact you can unlock 2 or 3 parts of its info tab. For each part, the progress bar restarts at 0%. Just check how many paragraphs you have unlocked on an artifact whith a progress percentage you find abnormally low.

      Hold on, plat’s not far away ?

    • You should finish the last house sequence, I was doing runs on 1-3 with no ciphers nor logs to be found as soon as I finished the last house sequence I restarted my cycle and a log spawned right infront of me from the start! Maybe I got lucky I dont know but collectables should be the last thing you do. Goodluck

      I need 1 more log and cipher for biomes 1 and 2 then I will have my Platinum 🙂

  45. looks like the update today fixed some of the card tracking, I managed to 100% biomes 1 and 3 and got gold 100% survey trophies.

    However, on 4 and 5 are now 95% and 97% and say I’m missing scout logs (looks like 1 each?) but I have ALL scout logs in the game menu where I can view them… Does this mean it’s broken and I have to delete my save anyway? WHAT A BUMMER

    Reply

  46. Any idea about some of the scout logs in biome 1? Looks like some need to be triggered by something.

    Scout log 10 only popped for me when I used the reconstructor and purposely died. I can’t get 9 to spawn at all

    Reply

    • I was wondering the same thing. I have logs 1-22 and no trophy pop even though it says the rest is 100%? Wondering if there is any list somewhere of what things you need in what biodome.

      @Faythi: how far are you in the game as you need some items to unlock areas even in the first biodome.

  47. Okay so just started and can say even though its rather novel it doesn’t work that well in practice.Ive never been very good at shmup/bullet hell my favs are Ikaruga and Bangai-o but i think alot of the diffculty is artificial because you can often die as a result of getting hung up on environmental obstructions which wouldnt happen in a 2d bullet hell game.Also id like to note that instead of near nonexistent permenante unlock devs should make it to where every time you do a run in a game like this you unlock a totem/artifact that you could equip on future runs that give passive buffs and if they were worried it then be to easy maybe they would limit you to one or two out of the plethora you have unlocked.I also think some of the effects are hard to ditinguish that red upgrade effect kinda makes you think u been hurt also i dont think shes mobile enough maybe a roll in addition to boost or shoorter cooldown on it but she isnt nearly as mobile as you would be in other shmups i think 1st person woulda worked better for bullet hell u wouldn’t get hung up on geometry so much.

    Reply

    • Hang in there! I usually don’t play shooters so I was worried as well but after a few hours of frustration I got the hang of it. Once you figure it out you’ll be clearing acts in one go besides the occasional death because of your own stupidity.

      1. try clearing whole biomes and gear up in the process. You’ll have a much easier time with bosses.

      2. try memorising enemy attacks. They all just have a few.

      3. If you feel Selene isn’t mobile enough try setting run mode to „always run“.

      4. use invincibility frames and try dodging through projectiles instead of back or towards the side. That way you don’t have to deal with follow-ups most of the time. Also remember you dodge further the longer you hold circle.

      5. in the beginning you might want to avoid challenge rooms (yellow star). Those are pretty tough for beginners.

      6. try different weapons. Once you unlock more traits they really change. The Hollowseeker seems pretty lame at first but becomes a powerhouse with certain traits. In the beginning you might want to stick with something reliable and easy to use like the carabine.

      7. Either stay on the move at all times or try to retreat and leave the room (if it’s not locked) once you get overwhelmed. Standing still in front of enemies while aiming down sights is the worst thing you can do. In most situations it’s better to fire without using L2. You‘re more mobile that way. If you’re having a hard time aiming try setting aim assist to high.

      8. Don’t give up and take a break once you get frustrated.

      Once it clicks you’ll be wondering how you could be having such a hard time in the beginning. I‘m a hardcore noob at shooters and if I can do it I‘m sure about everyone else can.

    • Yeah ill eventually go back to it i know could beat it i beat Ninja Gaiden 2 on master ninja and Lost planet on extreme soldier.I got to the boss down in the water abyss and had to send it back to gamefly a while ago because i needed at least 1 slot open on my gamefly Queue for Biomutant because ive looked forward to its release for years lol.Pretty busy with trying to plat Mass effect legendary collection got Re village plat and Monster Hunter rise June is jampacked to with Scarlet Nexus,D&D,and Ratchet in clank too many great games coming out to plat all of them lol.A few things they coulda done to lessen the tedium without affecting their vision for the games challange.Shoulder swap pretty much all modern 3rd person have it and it would help in some situations.Manual reload.Ps4 controller support(this is sony fault not theirs but i prefer it and think would make returnal easier to play).Enemy attacks are somewhat poorly cheoregraphed/Too many particle effects/Instant closing distance attacking.Enemies blowing up after death is sheer cheese lol.Enemy attacks dissipating after they die instead of for waves of bullets lingering forever lol.Oh and a big one is either you should carry all the guns at once or even better might be if when you die and spawn at ship they are all there either on pedastles near ship or in a weapon locker in ship plus you should be able to equip any weapon modifiers youve unlocked on a certain gun at any time this would be alot funner and far less tedious.Note to devs the world over Time invested/tedium does not in itself equal challange especially when all skill levels can overcome with enough time invested/patience lol!

  48. I’m missing three logs – 34, 35 and 63 – anyone know what biomes these are found in? The activity card tracker isn’t working for me so I have no idea what biomes to search.

    Also, anyone know if all glyphs are found in the main path rooms or open triangle rooms? Or do you find glyphs in locked room and behind yellow energy doors?

    Reply

    • For 34: When the path goes left/right at the beginning of biome 3 when you get outside and start hooking. These HAVE to be a left-side grapple. For me there where too longer bridge-ways with gaps in between. When you open the map you can see teleporter left and right and you can see the log. Now look to the left side grapple up, use the teleporter and get the log.

  49. I think 8.5 difficulty is insane, just finished act 1 and its pretty fair so far, i know act 2 is gonna be worse but hopefully not too crazy.

    I died 3 times in act 1 and there is a lot “permaupgrades” in terms of shortuts, not power.

    When i died in biome 2 i could go from 1 to 2 in three minutes throught portal and when i died in biome 3 i went from 1 to 2 in 3 minutes and then i found portal in biome 2 to 3 in 10 minutes.

    All runs max 1h until act 2 permasave.

    I think people make this game much scarier then it is, i almost didnt buy it because i dont like frustrating games but the game is pretty fair so far. I hope act 2 doesnt destroy me suddenly haha.

    Reply

    • All difficulty ratings are averages. Gotta factor in that many players won’t even be able to finish the story which drives up the average.
      But as explained in the difficulty rating, if you are an experienced trophy hunter it’s probably around 7/10 and not too bad. All depends on general experience level with difficult games, as there has never been a game quite like this before.

  51. Did anyone with a glitched house sequence trophy find a way to get it to pop? I forgot to back up my save and the trophy didn’t pop after returning all of the fragments. It looks like my save automatically uploaded to the cloud so i’m completely screwed outside of replaying the game entirely?

    Reply

    • The trophy pop after you kill the last boss again and use the car key. For me popped after the credits.

    • I think if the developers are little thoughtful they will patch the game so trophies you should have will autopop.

  53. Is there any super secret rooms in second biome? Im missing 3 cyphers there, and I ran like 20 times already and cant see any new rooms, I would understand that if it was ONE that I missing, but three? Last trophy that keeps me from plat :C

    Reply

  54. Hi,
    For the trophy Risk Assessment you just need to pickup a Malignant key thats all.

    Reply

  55. Can u make a boss guide ive been stuck on 1st boss for days. N my consumables tracker says in progress for most . That mean i already got credit or no? N thank u as always cant wait 4 ur village guide.

    Reply

  56. I’ve seen that once you get the house key, it’s permanently unlocked, but is that true? I’ve seen the first house sequence but when I come up to the house the next time, it’s locked. I have made it to the Crimson Wastes so far

    Reply

    • Once you have the key, all house sequences are available, but once you see it once, you won’t see it again since you don’t have to.

  57. got plat in 42 hours based on timer on exophase. Probably real play time is about 30-35 hours because i left game on standby fo long due to lack of save system.
    Game is actually not that hard and if you can master it you can make 3 bioms run in about an hour.

    Reply

  58. Guys, please suggest how you speedrun for collectables? I’m now grinding biom 6, are you cleaning every room and trying pursuit to triangle on map?

    Reply

  59. Finally got the plat, took me 50 hours but I was AFK a lot so it’ll be closer to 40h.

    Reply

  61. My Overgrown Ruins survey was showing 99% and then the activity card dissapeared and won’t show up anymore but I haven’t collected anything since. Does that mean it’s glitched? The card was at 98% and then it went to 0% while I found a log and I thought I might’ve corrupted it but when I restarted the game the progress had jumped to 99% so I thought it was fine but now the card is gone.

    Reply

  62. Looks like my derelict survey trophy bugged, I already got all the xeno glyph, xeno archives and scout log (maybe), and it shows 83% in the activity card. is there any way to fix this? I didnt want to do everything from the start again

    Reply

  63. I cannot, for the life of me, find Scout Log 014. I know what it sounds like from a youtube video and I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere before in biome 6, but I’m missing a scout log in biome 1? I have no clue what room this scout log spawns in and I’ve run biome 1 at least 25-30 times. The name of the scout log is “Mural of Reflection,” if that helps.

    Reply

    • I FOUND IT! It took another 5 attempts, but the room it was in spawned. The room is smallish with a grapple to a shrine, it should have the log on the left side of the shrine and a teleporter in the middle.

  64. Is there anybody who have troubling getting collecting trophies?
    I collected all loots from every acts, and got 5 trophies except chapter 5.
    “Frozen in Time” did not cleared, but I do not know where to ask about the issue.
    No customer survice center on Housemarque, and discord.

    Do I have to restart the game or wait until the bug fixing?

    Reply

    • Just run that biome again. It will appear. It’s random stuff. The frozen time trophy was the third survey trophy I got. I still need biome 2 and 6 survey trophies.

  65. Any plans to do collectible guide?

    Atleats which to which number of logs and glyphs are in what biome and maybe pictures of the places with them? Because they are fixed, only the room spawn is random, it would really help..

    Reply

  66. Well so this is a total bummer and is going to bug the crap out of me..

    Even aftet the update that was supposed to fix the glitched trophies, I was only able to unlock one of them which was the 5 parasites but the all house scenes and act 3 never unlocked and I found the the trophies were glitched when I didnt get the ACT 1 trophy.

    So now my trophy list shows I beat all bosses but only finished act 2 lmao. Apparently their fix is to redo them but that’s gonna be a bard pass from me. Im over 30 hours in with all biomes almost complete but I dont want to keep playing because those trophies are probably glitched as well. What a disappointment

    Reply

  67. All of my collectible cards for each location are between 94%-98%. I spent about 6 hours yesterday running through biomes and only found 2 more runes and 1 log. I really hope they make this easier. Maybe even putting a message at the bottom of the screen when a collectible is in the spawned location? This way you don’t waste time searching every nook and cranny when you’re passing through. I feel this change alone would be a huge improvement.

    Reply

  68. F this platinum.

    Iam about to give up, i finished story in 8h and now i just run biomes over and over and over, i dont even remember the last time i died but biome 5 glyph doesnt wanna spawn.

    Its not fun; its not challenging; its just brainwashing, pure rng trophies…

    Patch it so the remaining rooms where you need collects always spawn and when you have the collects then you can put it back in random rotation.

    I did some hardest platinums like ninja gaiden, vanquish and etc. but there was start and finish, i knew i needed to beat the trial. No rng. That was challenging.

    This is just braindead.. iam close to give up and selling,

    The game is great dont get me wrong, its a 9/10 for me and i dont regret anything but the trophy creator did us dirty.

    I think difficulty is like 5-6 but the rng platinum is absolutely killing this trophy list…

    Reply

  69. Ok I was connected to the internet got all collectibles and no plat wtf. Who’s idea was it to use activity cards? How would offline people get it?

    Reply

  70. I have reached profiency level 30 and didn’t get the trophy, this game sucks!!! What a waste of 70$.

    Reply

  71. After the last update my activity cards for surveys vanished. I did the rebuild database and the cards show now, but they all say 0%. Hopefully trophies aren’t tied to the system UI cards, that just doesn’t make sense.

    Reply

  72. The new patch didn’t do anything for me. I beat Hyperion yesterday and didn’t get the trophy. Activity cards disappeared even though I was online the whole time. No DLC suits or anything.
    I tried to delete the save and downloaded it again but no trophy pop. I restarted the game and the cards started showing again, but now I have 0% in Overgrown ruins that was previously 90+%. This is a complete mess. If I was guaranteed to get the trophy by replaying Hyperion, then I would, but I suspect that this is only the beginning of glitches now for me. Housemarque must address this with an auto-pop solution, anything else is just bad management, especially for a game as hard as this.

    Reply

  73. Just did platinum in 23 hours!

    I cant imagine doing this 50+, i had to run biome 2 like 40 times for survey trophy but it was kinda quick anyway.

    I thought 8.5 50h just feels weird as i said in the first comments when i got the game.

    Reply

  74. 35 hours to get the platinum for me, 5/10 difficulty personally, people who are struggling feels like they just aren’t familiar enough with the genre in the mainstream so it’s unfamiliarity more than difficulty causing people issues. I Played at a leisurely pace, no speed running, no attention to trophies until I only had surveys left to do and I don’t particularly care for roguelites or bullet hells to be considered “generally good” at these types of games to complete it this fast.

    Reply

  75. Where to find cipher number 21 in abyssal scar?? I cannot find it. It is my last one for platinum. And there is a cliff in the air but how do I teach it??? There is a blue triangle on it i bet it is the cipher but I cannot teach it.

    Reply

  77. Adapting to Circumstance (Achieve Weapon Proficiency level 30) did not unlock for me as well.
    You can farm it in Biome 6 very easily by shooting the squid things that never stop spawning until you kill the source.

    Reply

  78. After hundreds of resets, trying to get Log 9 in biome 1, the game crashed hard. Destroyed my whole data. Done with that bullsh*t.

    Reply

  79. Not picking up Scout log 35 in that room at the beginning of Act 2 actually makes the trophy for
    Finish Echoing Ruins Survey missable as that particular room if you go past that biome 4 will not ever spawn again. You’ll then need to delete your save and start over and reach that point again to get it(along with all the other scout logs for Echoing Ruins). Then continue on and beat the game. Get all the sun fragments again and beat the last boss and return to pick up the last Echoing Ruins scout log(66). Or can just wait and hope they patch the game to let that room spawn again.

    Reply

    • Is this 100% confirmed? With how random the game is set up I’d assume it can respawn. This seems like a pretty big oversight by the devs if true. I’ll look more into this. The whole tracking for the Collectibles is a bit of a mess in this game.

    • I added it as a missable for now with warning in Roadmap Step 1.
      Could use additional confirmation if this is 100% missable for others or if anyone got this log to spawn again later on. Due to the randmoness in this game it complicates testing.

      Unfortunately, I don’t have video footage of that part anymore. If anyone can send me a screenshot of this log so I can put it in the Roadmap that’d be great (can use the Contact link here on the website).

    • Wow didn’t know you had reply. But basically once I tried about 50 times to get it to spawn I went to reddit and we found out that way(went to twitter too). No one could get that room to respawn. None could get that room to reappear. At that point we reported it to Housemarque on twitter.

      I’m back to report that as of the 1.4 update today, Scout log 35 is no longer missable. I loaded my save that I couldn’t get the scout log to spawn on to test it out. In fact it spawned in front of me next to that artifact machine at the start of biome 4. I deleted and loaded the save again and it appeared again in the same spot. It could spawn somewhere else in biome 4 but for me it was always the same(did it 5 times). I didn’t do a fresh start to see if it spawns in a story related room on first play through but i’m assuming it will.

  81. sry if this is already confirmed, but the containment areas ARE required for Survey Trophies, I just got Past the Ruins and had everything else but never completed the Containment Area in Biome 1

    Reply

  82. For Survey trophies you need only 3 things, all scout logs, all glyphs, and clear containment areas once.

    Reply

  83. Finally got the Plat yesterday. Surveys are a nightmare overall. Number of videos out there to help you find the specific rooms you need. They really should have changed the glyph icon from the upside down blue triangle to something else! Same as parasites and proficiency boosts. Game was awesome but the grind at the end was a war of attrition!

    If you are going for the plat I strongly advise keeping a list or screenshot of what glyphs you have so you can narrow down the search area for the remaining ones. Just need to be as efficient as possible. GL!

    Reply

  84. Thx for the awesome guide.

    Ive tried to contact The dev, but nothing.

    On Biome 2 and Biome 6 i am Ive contacted The dev, my game is clearly bugged ?.
    Im stuck at 19/20 on both Biome 2 and Biome 6 and ive done it 20-30times. When clicking on the last xeno tablet near the car so u can see the “real ending” it says im 89/90 ciphers…….. im seriously heartbroken that i have to start over or if they can fix it in a patch. ???

    Reply

  86. Sins of the Mother – is this possible to complete remaining house sequences after beating 5th Boss/in free roam?
    This is how it went for me:
    – Sequence 1 in Biom 1
    – after dying in Biom 2 i returned to Biom 1, entered the house again and had Sequence 2
    – After seeing Sequence 2 i beat Bioms 2 and 3 and their bosses without dying and started in Biom 4.
    Does it mean that i definitely missed Sequence 3 in Biom 1?

    Also, I beat Biom 4, saw Sequence 4 and advanced to Biom 5… I wonder if i should keep playing or is it better to die on purpose to get back to Biom 4 and see Seqence 5 there?

    I hope that makes sense and i hope somebody knows the answer 🙂
    Game is great but i am not sure if i didnt lock my platinium by just… not dying when needed:)

    Reply

  87. Thank you for the great guide as usual PP.

    Also:
    “It’s a game of the “Roguelike” genre, and odds are you’ve never played a game like this before, because there has never been an AAA game like this before.”
    > laughs in Hades

    Reply

    • It should be slightly faster now because some of the hard-to-find collectibles spawn more frequently, which reduces the luck component a bit. How much faster is hard to say, everything in the game is still RNG. Maybe 5-10h faster I would guess.

  89. Guide updated for Patch 1.4.0:

    – The buggy story trophies should be fixed with latest patch 1.4.0 (removed the red warning to back up save before buggy story trophies)
    – Scout Log #35 is no longer missable. The rarely spawning Scout Logs now appear more frequently which should save a few hours on the platinum time.

    Reply

  90. … heading toward 100 hours and still mis sing 4 glyphs, 2 in biome 2 and 2 in biome 6.
    The grind is real, the only reason I keep going is that this game is so good that you wouldn’t want to quit, never…
    Wait a minute… am I trapped in the cycle…? ?

    Reply

  91. This isn’t an easy game but not hardest than from softwares games or both nioh. I think the game itself is like 4/10 or 5/10 difficulty. But the grind for the platinum is insane.

    The glitched glyphs are the worst thing in this game.

    Reply

  92. So how accurate is the estimated platinum time/difficulty now that the game has received several patches that seem to have altered the RNG? I understand that this is still a difficult game, but is this still a potential 100+hr grind, or has the RNG been tweaked enough to make the gameplay loop the most difficult aspect of the game?

    Reply

  93. The sun fragment shouldn’t be unlocked if i hadn’t finished all the house sequences right? Seems my sin of a mother trophy bugged. I already started collecting sun fragments but the trophy hasn’t unlocked yet. What should i do to fix this?

    Reply

  94. Hello all,
    is it possible to screw a haunted house sequence? I mean, i do not remember getting the Spaceship Model artifact. Is there a way to check what artifacts i already have from haunted houses?

    Thank you in advance for your help.

    Reply

  95. Platinum took 2 days 13hours = 58 hours.

    Only thing that took some time was this one cipher in crimson wastes. Took 20+ runs on top of all others to get this one ”common” room to spawn first time for me.

    Reply

  97. Just earned the platinum trophy 37h 52min 10sec Total suit usage. Story took me 18h so it really comes down to RNG and having patience with the right strategy.

    Reply

  99. Got the plat today.
    WIll write a couple words/advice.
    1) Turn on Aim Assist on High.
    2) Learn to dodge, its possible the window for dodge is okay.
    3) Do not get swarmed, if there are too many enemies retreat.
    4) Do not afraid to use Melee and use as much as possible Weapons Alt-Fire Mode.
    5) Save 300 units (Obolites) to check if Adrenaline Leech is available and if it is its a must buy.

    p.s. the collectibles are pain in the ass, especially Scout log 14 in Biome 1 and all glyphs in Biome 2
    p.p.s. even with the ability to Suspend Cycle and to save to cloud the game is pretty chalenging,but dont afraid to use it,
    p.p.p.s. Overall the game is short as shit, if there was something like an easy mode, plat would take id speculate under 20 hours even will all RNG on collectibles.
    p.p.p.p.s. I got the game on 12th of December and today i platinumed it, id guess it took 50+ hours for me.

    Reply

  100. Hey Powerpyx, I don’t know if you have any intentions about still updating this guide. In case you do, here’s some pointers since I’m currently on my 2nd Returnal plat:

    – With the invention of the ‘abandon cycle’ function with the latest patch, it’s technically possible to backup your save and continue where you abandoned the cycle. I wouldn’t recommend this since imo it takes away from the experience, but it might help some people really struggling with some bosses/parts of the game.

    – ‘Calculated Risk’ now has a tracker via trophy card, the requirements are picking up 3 spoiled resins, 3 malignant resins and 3 malignant silphiums.

    – The house sequences are not fixed to either biome 1 or 4. On my current playthrough, I encountered the house in biome 1 for sequence nr. 1,. Then the next time encountering the house with lights on was in biome 4 just a few mins ago. It showed me sequence nr. 2. Sonit seems like it doesn’t matter if you’re in 1 or 4, just enter the house whenever it’s lit and the sequences will happen in order until you’ve seen all of them.

    Anyway good job with the guide, it was a tremendous helo on my forst plat and I’m just using it a again for some reference during my 2nd one.

    Reply

  101. Hello, I’m stuckt!! Got every collectible of the entire game and the last one was on biome 6 but the last trophy didn’t pop! And os card is now missing % does anyone have some idea how to fix this

    Ps. Offline,online, restart possible solutions didn’t work

    Reply

  102. It’s 2022 now, but I started playing this on release, took a break and came back.

    Anyway, I now have 20/20 Glyphs & all Scout alogs on Crimson Waste and no trophy for it. I wrnt back and checked every single glyph one by one to be sure and none of the glow. It is bugged. So this was not fixed. Not for old/legacy save files anyway. My only option now is to do it all again…

    Reply

    • So, i decided to replay the game on a fresh save after reinstalling the game.
      I ran through the whole game again in about 2-3 days, but this time decided to clip a video every time I picked up a glyph, to keep track.

      Once again, i met all the other requirements, and now i’m stuck on 19/20 xenoglyph ciphers. I go through my clips and find which one i’m missing, it’s an ultra rare sideroom on the lower mountain level with a central pillar and two levels. I re-run the level like 30 times and finally find the room with the glyph. And the glyph isnt glowing, I cant interact with it… So i rerun the level another 25+ times in offline mode, and again, I find it, not glowing, non-interactive.

      So i’m sat here on two playthroughs, no Platinum trophy because of a bug I cannot find a solution for.

      Has anyone else had this bug in the newest (2022) patched version of the game, and more importantly did you fix it?

      Thanks if you took your time to read this. I’m just burnt out, and honestly salty, which sucks, because I loved the game until I took this long journey for a single trophy and end up with nothing.

  103. Just got the platinum for this! Managed to do it just under 25 hours which I was not expecting. Fantastic game.

    Reply

  104. I’m trying to beat this game and it’s frustating. Some runs feel quite fun if you find the right artifacts, weapons or parasites. It’s just frustrating when you accidentally die and must start all over.

    For now, I’m not expecting to platinum it, but, hey, let’s give it a try. The new cooperative mode seems pretty nice way to play with a friend.

    Also, with the new updates it is possible to “suspend cycle” which means you can close your game and turn off your ps5. You can continue your run later just where you left it.

    If you have ps plus, I read it’s possible to back up your save in the cloud (once you suspended the cycle) and you can use it to retry from there if you mess up that run, but I can’t confirm this.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *