Spitmaw i thought was a 1 star weapon but after the tower dlc i gave it a shot again it is absolutely cracked now explosive spit is insane its crazyyy also pylon feels way weaker now best weapons imo now for the tower atleast would be a launcher with full auto a spitmaw a dreadbound and rotgland would be the gun you take if there aren't other 3
Yesterday I thought "gonna do one or two runs after playing something else". Ended up with a 3h30 hours amazing run were I managed to beat Boss 2 and 3 and max out my health (for the trophy) Nemesis was one of most epic and craziest boss fights I think I ever played Then I ended up dying falling on an abyss LOL Amazing content
The Tendril Pod is very underrated. It really shines when used against bulky and difficult enemies like the Titanops variations and the Severed as well as some of the bosses like Ixion and Hyperion. I'd personally give it 4 stars.
Great video. I’d like to add some things you missed. The level of traits for alt fires like say mine or the tendralipod gives you the number of mines or tendrils you’ll get. So level 2 you’ll get 2 mines. Or two tendrils. Level 3 for them is the same. You’ll get 3 for each. This also can be said for level 3 traits for coilspine. You’ll get 4 discs in some instances instead of 3. Spitmaw and carbine level 3, rapid spitter or rising pitch enhances the gun to a new level much better than level 1 or 2’s. The spitmaw on level 3 rapid spitter is crazy fast and quick reloading. The modified sidearms with level 3 traits is a God tier gun. Level 3 burst fire, ricochet and shrapnel will destroy anything easily. The ricochet shots bounce off walls and surroundings while the shrapnel explodes in hundreds of pieces. One of the best guns to use and a lot of fun. Rotgland can also be 4 shots with level 3 traits. Level 3 Tendril on that gun will amaze you how good it is. It’s worth upgrading Also on the dreadbound. Level 2 and 3 traits will make this gun unstoppable and fire much faster with no need to reload this gun is my favorite gun to use with high level traits. Expanding shards is one to look out for on level 3 traits. Fourth shard level 3 is faster and return damage is great. I never not pick up this gun after upgrading the traits. In the first 2 biomes this gun is hard to use because it is too slow. Biome 4 and up this gun is my favorite. The level 3 traits add a ton of more details you missed that make all the rest of the guns crazy good. Can turn most guns automatic and fast firing and completely change your rating system you have now. Love this game it’s super addicting. Hope there is a second one or at least dlc.
For Tendril Pod you get 3 at level 2 and 4 at level 3! If you couple tendril pod with any kind of leech effect, it is amazing at regen-ing your integrity back as it is dot if you stick it on a big enemy.
Strong disagree on the Hollowseeker... In my experience the rounds are highly inaccurate and have as wide a spread as the wide maw spitmaw blaster. It takes forever to take down even the weak enemies. It doesn't matter much that it has a long range if it's taking 4-5 times as long to kill enemies as it does other weapons.
Shit, gotta disagree with you on that. Maybe a base build but I breezed through my first run with Serrated Rounds III, Portal Beam II, and Portal Turrent. Game literally became a piece of cake after
Got to agree, I find Hollowseeker medio chore, at best, but I acknowledge that is my opinion. I wont pick up unless I have something worse. Dreadbound with expanded and explosive shards, Ill pick up over any gun. On last boss Ive taken down in 20seconds or less with Dreadbound. My List would be 1. Dreadbound (with explosive and enlarged shards) 2. Electropylon Driver (any traits apart from web as I dont like it) 3. Everything else. I would also say that a person should pick a weapon with traits you like over the level of the weapon. I've done Biome 4-6 with a level 15 weapon, simply because it was a Dreadbound with explosive and enlarged shards and have picked it over level 30 weapons simply because of the traits and how good the combination is.
Nah, I picked up a hollowseeker, ram through biomes 4 and 5, then picked up another and took down biome 6 including the final boss in one great run. It’s a great weapon if it has the portal beam along with waves.
I've been using the hollowskeeker, I'm on biome 3 almost to the boss, I thought it was best gun tbh, I only died once with pistol, one the first biome; I managed to to beat close to three with it. I got lucky I got good parasites as well, I've heard that I'm supposed to die to get the secert ending. But I've only died once, should I take multiple L's or naa?
You’re giving me vibes of someone who never gave hollowseeker a proper chance, and probably doesn’t have many traits unlocked, just ignores the gun everytime you find it
Finally. A Returnal video that covers more than the first two biomes. This was such a great breakdown. Made everything very understandable. Thanks dude.
Amazing vid, I was looking everywhere for general info so I didn't keep having "WTF am I holding" moments when I picked up a weapon. This video had every bit of information I wanted - visual guides to guns & alt fires, practical strategies for use, rankings with fair pros & cons, ect. Even the the part of boss strategies was a nice touch. Gold standard for an informative video, keep up the great work.
Thanks a lot for this excellent video! I generally wasn't paying attention to alt-fire or traits when choosing a weapon, and it's definitely held me back. Time to go grind out some traits! ;)
I’m not sure if all of these weapons were reworked, or if you just didn’t bother to read the weapon trait descriptions when you made this video. Ie; Sticky bonus doesn’t make your bombs stick, they’re sticky by default, it just adds extra damage to direct hits. Simmering shot doesn’t give your bombs a DoT attack, it gives unexploded bombs a damaging area of effect. Leech rounds is a percent chance to proc with each shot, not “every single bullet heals you” Among many others, this info is all immediately available from the equipment screen
i dont agree about the carbine, rising pitch 3, leech rounds 3 and hyper accurate doest more than enough damage and the sustain is nuts without depending on no getting hit for adrenaline leech, to me its one of the safest weapons for bosses and pretty good for clearing levels even though its not the best in terms of dps or raw dmg
Got this game from ps plus extra and I'm loving it. I do suck tho and since I just started I find myself lost most of the time and I can't find my way back to bosses and biomes
great breakdown but only for people that don't play aggressive and play a more standoff playstyle of stay back and shoot. The perks and weapons you don't like are actually great for other players.
I might be a bit late to the party, just finished the game on pc, i personally love the spitmaw, I used it up until the last boss, slug shot is a must for me and combined with a lot of stagger power I dont have to worry about any enemies attacking me back its just great
Hands down the best Returnal instructional video on RUclips. Keep coming back to it the further i progress to research new traits/weapons/Bosses etc. Thank you!
Just started playing Returnal, thanks for guide! A few questions: - the traits are random right? you can pick up the any weapon with any alt fire and traits? - how many maximum traits per weapon? - what affects how many you will have on the weapon? - is there some kind of weapon development? I saw if you kill enemies with weapon your improve this weapon but how it works? thank you ! :)
Its been a long time but I'll try to answer from what I remember: - traits are random - I'm not sure on the maximum anymore, but I know it increases the higher the level of the weapon - the more you use/kill with a weapon the more the weapon improves Sorry I couldn't be more help, it's been a looooong time since I made this guide lol.
Small correction on the Pyroshell Caster's Seeking Flares: it doesn’t add seeking to the main shells, but adds multiple small flares after the first explosion that seek out the enemies :) it’s pretty great for crowd control!
Great video thank you. Still plugging away on Biome 3, game consistently kicks my ass, just getting to Nemesis with decent integrity can be a challenge. Have the reflexes and timing of a bowl of molasses. Going to try unlock a few more traits. Glad Housemarque won those BAFTA’s, well deserved.
I definitely prefer carbine and hollow. I learned yesterday how great the rotgut can be when I played the daily challenge so I'll try that. I beat the game with the hollow though and the void beam, so I'm partial to those bad boys
this game was great. the first boss seemed to be the hardest for me. took forever and nearly wanted to give up. but once it got past I was able to kill each boss on the first try. and once I found the lobber it was happy days.
Excellent ***ALTHOUGH - I'd like to make one suggestion for your future videos that are similar to this one. I'd recommend not showing too far into the game. The info is awesome, but I'm only in the 2nd biome and I constantly had to look away as I was seeing enemy's and bosses but still wanted to read the stats. There were a lot of times I saw things (or cut scenes) that I really felt like were ruining the element of surprise in discovering those crazy bosses and enemy's while playing the game. Maybe for future videos stay within the first 25% of the game for background footage. Really great work and I'd like to continue watching your videos... this one element was the only thing that I thought others may have felt as well. Thank you for your content.
Yes. I wasn't even watching the video just reading comments because i saw areas never seen. My eyes were going back to video and didn't finish this spoiler video. So didn't finish video. Sad
As an alternate opinion I've seen so many videos of Returnal that only pertained to the first two biomes. The breath of detail in this one made it very clear this is exactly what I needed now that I am late game. Thanks dude. This was a great breakdown.
Thank you for putting this together! I have a super noob question. Does the weapon level only effect how many points the weapon gets across the three traits? (This is my first day playing, but it seemed hard to believe that a level 2 and 11 sidearm could have the same base damage if they only have 1 point in Bonus Damage)
Excellent in-depth guide. Only in Biome 3, yet to defeat Nemesis, love the Rotgland Lobber. Perfect for my, couple pew pews, then run for the hills play-style…;) I have a Carbine with Killshot at the door to the boss, so will give that a try, the Lobber as you said did not work, and the Launcher requires too precise aiming. Would be great if you could do a vid on consumables and artifacts. Subscribed, Thanks.
Thanks bud! I was really looking for information on the traits but getting a rundown of all the guns was a nice bonus. I've only had the game for about 2 weeks and watching your video I realized i'm in biome 6 right now, wasn't really keeping track. Hyperion is also my favorite fight so far. Loved how the music got so dramatic as I got closer and closer to her. Favorite gun is definitely the carbine with Leech Rounds II but I am starting to really love the Rotgland Lobber (spelling?). Thanks again and I'm adding this video to my favorites. I guarantee I'll be rewatching as time goes on.
My pleasure! I'm so glad it was helpful!!! The Rotglad was super underrated but it's fantastic. I'm glad you're enjoying the game, it's a masterpiece. Thanks so much for watching!😄
Great Video! My first playthrough I used the Carbine quite a bit, until I found the Pylon Driver. I used the Driver probably more than any other weapon, but after beating the game 4 times and spending many more hours just grinding and playing for fun to unlock traits, I have to say the Coilspine Shredder is one of my new favourite weapons. Initially i didn't like it much, but as you say it has a rhythm to it, and if you have good traits, and aim for headshots, it can finish off tough enemies, and small enemies quite fast. Also I love the Dreadbound! Really all the weapons in this game can be really good with the right traits and knowing how to use them properly. I've rolled a Sidearm with Charging Shot, Homing Missile, and Burst Fire that absolutely wrecked everything in B5.
Thanks for the informative video. Very well thought out and helpful. Eventhough I agree with most of what you are saying, I think every weapon in this game feels amazing and powerful. Depending on your playstyle of course. Dreadbound-Hollowseeker-Electropylon are my go to guns, when you play for a certain amount of time you just take your gun and go with it because it feels great. But not a single weapon let me down in this game. Excellently designed and unique guns over all. I am so hooked, now that I finish i don't know what to do 😂 it's like sissyphus's story. When you are used to carry the boulder(die over and over again) you don't know what to do anything else. There is this familiar feeling of loneliness, isolation and fighting everything with Selene with dark/hopeless rooms, It portrays almost nothingness and hopelessness of existing. In this vast and unexplored world, even if you finish the game, the feeling never stops. And you begin at Helios again. Unbelievable game, this feeling I didn't get from any of the games I played before.
Which weapon to use in every boss fight Phrike - Rotgland lobber ixion - Rotgland lobber Nemesis - Rotgland lobber Hyperion - Rotgland lobber Ophion - Rotgland lobber
Very nice video man love the info because I am obsessed* with this game right now but I gotta say watching your gameplay you are not dashing around enough you could avoid so many hits and adrenaline resets if you just dashed through one of those projectiles or rings.
The Lobber quickly has become my go to weapon. I like to play cautiously so I just do the whole pop and shoot and let the rot do the damage from the distance.
fyi you are straight up wrong about some of these traits. for example seeking flares doesn’t add homing to the projectiles, it makes it so when they explode they spawn additional projectiles that seek out nearby enemies
Outstanding work on this video bro. Well done. The Tower Sisyphus is loads of fun and is a game changer for the weapon trait grind. Props to anyone who did it through the main game. Honestly, I'm impressed at the variety of traits and creativity that went into them. It really adds to the replayability of the game, which is already above average just on the strength of the combat itself.
Hollowseeker is definitely the best gun in the game. But I'm shocked you didn't choose serrated projectiles for yours. That's my favorite trait for that gun!
I know how loved the Hollowseeker is from seeing it appear in many "best weapons list" but I definitely dispute the idea that it's definitely the best. The Rotgland Lobber with just one trait, explosive rot, one shots the majority of enemies in the entire game. Even with a fairly low level Lobber with like 2 bars of damage, it literally one shots almost all the enemies in biomes 1 to 3 without having the damage over time effect even come into play. From biomes 3 to 6, and with a higher level Lobber, it's just one blast and some DoT, or two or three shots and some DoT. And because of the DoT which disables most enemies from attacking, once you tag them, even if they survive the insane one shot damage of lobber with explosive rot, you don't have to worry about the enemy at all with very few exceptions. Dodging becomes easy. A Hollowseeker needs serrated projectiles, portal beam, another trait like waves, and high damage stats to do what the Lobber does with just explosive rot, or even just one of the lesser traits like durable rot or caustic rot. And because you can fully charge up the gun in just over a second, even mobs of flying enemies like the ones in biome 5 melt just with the simple tactic of charge, shoot, dodge if needed, charge, shoot, and rinse and repeat. If the lobber had decent enough stats for splash radius, like four bars which really isn't a lot, trash mobs of even 6 or more all bearing down on you at once just melt in a hilariously short amount of time. This gun is hugely underlooked by a sizeable amount of the player base. I haven't played around with Dreadbound, which as I understand is regarded by speedrunners as the highest DPS gun, as much as the rest of the guns. But of the ones I've tried extensively, which is everything else, I'd say the Lobber combines low skill ceiling and extraordinarily high initial damage, followed by great DoT which most guns either lack or need a trait for, better than any gun and makes it an easy candidate for the best gun in the game barring the Dreadbound.
Earned a sub. Great stuff, mate! I really want to master Dreadbound for the Tower. Shit is just so hard to grasp with it's high risk-high reward system.
I'm surprised how much i don't agree on almost anything past the alt-fires in this video. The pistol's advantage is the ability to spam fire to burst out a LOT of damage, which means enemies down faster. You won't be constantly firing, so it doesn't matter. I'd highly recommend Snubnosed/Charging shot as that allows said high fire spamming to just be maintained. It's a weapon that opens up the more one gets experienced with the game and comfortable with the tempo of the field. The rifle is almost hitscan, and can target weakspots much better than other weapons (like the very popular hollowseeker). Rising Pitch, High Caliber and Leech rounds can exceptional, with Accelerated being the cherry on top. A high bonus damage High Caliber can one-shot smaller enemies which is a big thing. The rifle is absolutely the newbie-friendly/safe choice, with options that empower non risky plays, but i've been known to drop 'better' weapons for a straight up 'good' rifle just to use that mental bandwidth in dodging instead of fiddling with leading or range. The hollowseeker is only above the shotgun in 'meh' for me. The travel time makes me hard to judge when something is/will be dead, and the autoaim i find to be unreliable, especially for weakspot hits. I'm usually doing damage, but i feel like i'd do more damage with the pistol or rifle and be able to distribute it better too as i can switch targets exactly when i need to. It has great damage increasing traits though, but i feel somehow the damage always felt 'floaty, maybe due to the projectile speed and 'somewhat' tracking. There's just so many fast enemies in the game that also jump and dodge and stuff, that having 20 projectiles in the air suddently going nowhere feels like i wasted my time firing them. The only time i'd seriously consider it is when it's paired with higher auto-aim, so i can at least stop focusing on properly aiming and redistribute that to dodging. Same deal with the shotgun i find most useful in the ability to just run and gun, wide maw, piercing etc. Especially with areas with a lot of smaller dudes, when you're focusing more on range keeping and avoidance than taking down high priority targets... it's just irreplaceable minus a lightning alt-fire. Usually i tend to try to voidbeam or doombringer to it in that case so i have an answer to long range tough targets that i can't afford to spam shots into. The Coilspine is not really meant to be a primary weapon per se, as much as a very supporting alt-fire reduce/boosting weapon. The kind where you're at adrenaline 5 shooting off killshot after killshot nonstop. The rocket launcher's special oblite magnet does NOT automatically gather killed resources, it just gathers them from a larger range than the default. Also, very important, it has no self-damage, so using it in point blank is as useful as ranged. My favorite setup has nothing to do with the rockets and i pick thermite and autofire (or mega worst case), which makes it easy to lay down a lot passive damage on enemies while taking cover. Same deal with the electropylon, the most USEFUL thing about it is the ability to enhance melee and control areas with the damaging aoe as well as protection when going into melee. Melee is super strong and not that dangerous in Returnal, so with the blade boost and harmonizer+prot, you can shoot a pylon, go in for the kill and just eradicate anything around you while taking much less damage. It deals just fine when used 'normally', but i feel that's more about the strenght of the damage than the fact, like you said, meshing with any other traits. The Dreadbound is exceptional and almost top for me in situations where you can't rely on keeping up adrenaline or not getting shot. The returning magazine means that you can't afford to miss, and you get 'variable' damage in regards to how far you are from something. The fourth shard i find OPTIONAL due to the fact that you get stuff back so quickly in close range, all it means is that you can sustain better dps at medium range. Between both of the steals, the gun basically tells you "keep shooting me in close range and you'll be protected and do crazy damage".
Had a lot a trouble in Biome 3 (beat Nemesis on my 1st try), but the moment i unlocked Pylon Driver and Adrenaline Leech, the game simply changed and now i’m after the Platinum 😂
First time i fought Ophion, his body didn't spawn... I could only see his eyes when i shoot orbs around. His HP was going doen but at final 40% hp nothing was spawming and I couldn't kill him.... Thankfully I had reconstructor ready and after I respawned, Ophion spawned correctly and I killed him 😁
I messed around for 2 days in first biom got to the boss 2 times and got destroyed. Than I found Electropylon driver with pylon web and that changed game from rouge like to single player. I took it slow grinned as much and listened for advice on boss to prepare myself. Took me 2 days for the run and I have beaten game whole game mostly with Electropylon driver sometimes with magic pixel of health (Ixion) . Namesis killed me cause it bugged at third phase, there was no body to shoot, I had respawn and change weapon to hollowseaker and won. Good guide and great game.
I'd just like to add that doombringer is definitely a reference to DOOM the game and more specifically the BFG. The weapon does exactly the same thing that doombringer does
I defeat 1st boss - 1st try 2nd boss- 2nd try 3rd boss- 1st try basically continuation from 2nd try. The game is not that hard tbh, just keep increase your intergity and use hollow seeker
I'm not sure how it is on controller, but playing on mouse on PC Sidearm has additional advantage of actually firing single shots as fast as you can click the mouse, which generally gives you an effective fire rate about twice as high than advertised which I'm pretty sure references what you get when you just hold the button.
Not a fan of Hollowseeker. Thermogenic launcher, full auto & replicating hits, that's the shit or Rotgland with explosive shots. The key to this game is taking down enemies fast.
I’m way behind but I love this game. The only thing I’m seeing that no one is mentioning is that blast shell does drop shields. I use It as a way to drop them on turrets as I’m working my way close.
This game is Just Way too hard, its taking me Forever to get Anywhere on here, I still have yet to find the stupid sword and I've been playing this for a few months upwards of year, it starts to feel pointless after awhile.
I wish you would go into what each of the traits mean as well for example for the hollowseeker it says "reactivity" or something to that effect which I don't know how that translates for the weapon. There isn't a lot of these strange attributes but otherwise great video.
I realized after the fact that I probably could have gone into more detail of stuff like that. But I was just happy to finally get this beast of a video done, so much work lol. Thanks for watching!
The Launcher with full-auto fire is terrifyingly powerful, and probably my favorite weapon to use on all but several edge-cases. One time I had it in a room against 2 Severed enemies and they were just too maneuverable for me to do significant damage to, and I got my butt kicked, with them teleporting around and whatnot. Other than that, Hollowseeker is of course amazing, though I think serrated projectiles is an amazing trait that doesn't always get the respect it is due, and I also totally agree on the Rotgland Lobber. It's a beast.
I think that Ophion is the easiest boss in the game, the biome leading up to him is by far the hardest, but the boss fight is the easiest in the game. I beat him with just the modified sidearm with no issue.
Timestamps:
Opening: 00:00
Alt-Fire Breakdown: 01:50
Modified Sidearm SD-M8: 12:52
Tachyomatic Carbine: 15:15
Spitmaw Blaster: 17:42
Pyroshell Caster: 20:24
Coilspine Shredder: 22:52
Thermogenic Launcher: 25:34
Electropylon Driver: 27:39
Rotgland Lobber: 30:13
Hollowseeker: 33:04
Dreadbound: 35:26
Boss Strategies: 38:26
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Spitmaw i thought was a 1 star weapon but after the tower dlc i gave it a shot again it is absolutely cracked now explosive spit is insane its crazyyy also pylon feels way weaker now best weapons imo now for the tower atleast would be a launcher with full auto a spitmaw a dreadbound and rotgland would be the gun you take if there aren't other 3
That's great but, Where can i get these weapons,
Most are random drops. Only a few have specific locations, and some unlock in further biomes.
this might be the only content out there that even has all the traits much less packaged in an easy to follow time stamped video! thank you
My pleasure! Glad I could help, thanks for watching
Yesterday I thought "gonna do one or two runs after playing something else".
Ended up with a 3h30 hours amazing run were I managed to beat Boss 2 and 3 and max out my health (for the trophy)
Nemesis was one of most epic and craziest boss fights I think I ever played
Then I ended up dying falling on an abyss LOL
Amazing content
The Tendril Pod is very underrated. It really shines when used against bulky and difficult enemies like the Titanops variations and the Severed as well as some of the bosses like Ixion and Hyperion. I'd personally give it 4 stars.
such a gamechanger. love tendrilpod and doombringer.
This is first class, thanks so much! What a game…
My absolute pleasure! I'm glad it was helpful.
Great video. I’d like to add some things you missed.
The level of traits for alt fires like say mine or the tendralipod gives you the number of mines or tendrils you’ll get.
So level 2 you’ll get 2 mines. Or two tendrils. Level 3 for them is the same. You’ll get 3 for each.
This also can be said for level 3 traits for coilspine. You’ll get 4 discs in some instances instead of 3. Spitmaw and carbine level 3, rapid spitter or rising pitch enhances the gun to a new level much better than level 1 or 2’s. The spitmaw on level 3 rapid spitter is crazy fast and quick reloading.
The modified sidearms with level 3 traits is a God tier gun. Level 3 burst fire, ricochet and shrapnel will destroy anything easily. The ricochet shots bounce off walls and surroundings while the shrapnel explodes in hundreds of pieces. One of the best guns to use and a lot of fun.
Rotgland can also be 4 shots with level 3 traits. Level 3 Tendril on that gun will amaze you how good it is. It’s worth upgrading
Also on the dreadbound. Level 2 and 3 traits will make this gun unstoppable and fire much faster with no need to reload this gun is my favorite gun to use with high level traits. Expanding shards is one to look out for on level 3 traits. Fourth shard level 3 is faster and return damage is great. I never not pick up this gun after upgrading the traits.
In the first 2 biomes this gun is hard to use because it is too slow. Biome 4 and up this gun is my favorite.
The level 3 traits add a ton of more details you missed that make all the rest of the guns crazy good. Can turn most guns automatic and fast firing and completely change your rating system you have now.
Love this game it’s super addicting. Hope there is a second one or at least dlc.
Amazing info!!! Thanks for covering this stuff. I did not know about several of the level 3 trait information. Appreciate the additions my friend!
@@TGWhitta try to get them all took about 180hrs 😸
For Tendril Pod you get 3 at level 2 and 4 at level 3! If you couple tendril pod with any kind of leech effect, it is amazing at regen-ing your integrity back as it is dot if you stick it on a big enemy.
@@donotseemecricket yea I forget which amount you get for the traits. It’s the same thing with the land mine alt fire.
So how do you know if you're leveling up on the level of the traits .
Strong disagree on the Hollowseeker... In my experience the rounds are highly inaccurate and have as wide a spread as the wide maw spitmaw blaster. It takes forever to take down even the weak enemies. It doesn't matter much that it has a long range if it's taking 4-5 times as long to kill enemies as it does other weapons.
Shit, gotta disagree with you on that. Maybe a base build but I breezed through my first run with Serrated Rounds III, Portal Beam II, and Portal Turrent. Game literally became a piece of cake after
Got to agree, I find Hollowseeker medio chore, at best, but I acknowledge that is my opinion. I wont pick up unless I have something worse. Dreadbound with expanded and explosive shards, Ill pick up over any gun. On last boss Ive taken down in 20seconds or less with Dreadbound. My List would be
1. Dreadbound (with explosive and enlarged shards)
2. Electropylon Driver (any traits apart from web as I dont like it)
3. Everything else.
I would also say that a person should pick a weapon with traits you like over the level of the weapon. I've done Biome 4-6 with a level 15 weapon, simply because it was a Dreadbound with explosive and enlarged shards and have picked it over level 30 weapons simply because of the traits and how good the combination is.
Nah, I picked up a hollowseeker, ram through biomes 4 and 5, then picked up another and took down biome 6 including the final boss in one great run. It’s a great weapon if it has the portal beam along with waves.
I've been using the hollowskeeker, I'm on biome 3 almost to the boss, I thought it was best gun tbh, I only died once with pistol, one the first biome; I managed to to beat close to three with it. I got lucky I got good parasites as well, I've heard that I'm supposed to die to get the secert ending. But I've only died once, should I take multiple L's or naa?
You’re giving me vibes of someone who never gave hollowseeker a proper chance, and probably doesn’t have many traits unlocked, just ignores the gun everytime you find it
Doombringer is definitely a nod to the Bfg from doom
Finally. A Returnal video that covers more than the first two biomes. This was such a great breakdown. Made everything very understandable. Thanks dude.
Hardest game ive ever played in my life. 120 deaths and counting and only got to the 3rd boss.
Dayum. I died early on in the game a lot until I learned all of the ins and outs by really preparing for the bosses and didnt find it too difficult
Lmfaooo
You're doing better than me. Can't get past Crimson Wastes
Amazing vid, I was looking everywhere for general info so I didn't keep having "WTF am I holding" moments when I picked up a weapon. This video had every bit of information I wanted - visual guides to guns & alt fires, practical strategies for use, rankings with fair pros & cons, ect. Even the the part of boss strategies was a nice touch. Gold standard for an informative video, keep up the great work.
Thanks a lot for this excellent video! I generally wasn't paying attention to alt-fire or traits when choosing a weapon, and it's definitely held me back. Time to go grind out some traits! ;)
I’m not sure if all of these weapons were reworked, or if you just didn’t bother to read the weapon trait descriptions when you made this video.
Ie; Sticky bonus doesn’t make your bombs stick, they’re sticky by default, it just adds extra damage to direct hits.
Simmering shot doesn’t give your bombs a DoT attack, it gives unexploded bombs a damaging area of effect.
Leech rounds is a percent chance to proc with each shot, not “every single bullet heals you”
Among many others, this info is all immediately available from the equipment screen
never tried playing with rotgland, not anymore after this video. Good vid bro.
I hope you like the lobber. It doesn't seem great when you first find it, but it becomes unstoppable!
Thanks for watching!!
I struggled a lot to beat ixion and I mean A LOT! Then I unlocked the rotgland and finished the game in the next 6 hours of playing! Real story bro
I loved the rotgland when I had to face the automatons. That was the best weapon for them
i dont agree about the carbine, rising pitch 3, leech rounds 3 and hyper accurate doest more than enough damage and the sustain is nuts without depending on no getting hit for adrenaline leech, to me its one of the safest weapons for bosses and pretty good for clearing levels even though its not the best in terms of dps or raw dmg
Got this game from ps plus extra and I'm loving it. I do suck tho and since I just started I find myself lost most of the time and I can't find my way back to bosses and biomes
great breakdown but only for people that don't play aggressive and play a more standoff playstyle of stay back and shoot. The perks and weapons you don't like are actually great for other players.
I might be a bit late to the party, just finished the game on pc, i personally love the spitmaw, I used it up until the last boss, slug shot is a must for me and combined with a lot of stagger power I dont have to worry about any enemies attacking me back its just great
Just started playing Returnal not long ago and having a blast. I’ve been missing out. Thanks for this helpful guide! Well deserved new sub!! 😜
YOOOOOO doombringer is a reference to the BFG from doom that's so fucking cool
Hands down the best Returnal instructional video on RUclips. Keep coming back to it the further i progress to research new traits/weapons/Bosses etc. Thank you!
Just started playing Returnal, thanks for guide!
A few questions:
- the traits are random right? you can pick up the any weapon with any alt fire and traits?
- how many maximum traits per weapon?
- what affects how many you will have on the weapon?
- is there some kind of weapon development? I saw if you kill enemies with weapon your improve this weapon but how it works?
thank you ! :)
Its been a long time but I'll try to answer from what I remember:
- traits are random
- I'm not sure on the maximum anymore, but I know it increases the higher the level of the weapon
- the more you use/kill with a weapon the more the weapon improves
Sorry I couldn't be more help, it's been a looooong time since I made this guide lol.
Excellent write up. Thank you for taking the time. High quality.
Small correction on the Pyroshell Caster's Seeking Flares: it doesn’t add seeking to the main shells, but adds multiple small flares after the first explosion that seek out the enemies :) it’s pretty great for crowd control!
Great video thank you. Still plugging away on Biome 3, game consistently kicks my ass, just getting to Nemesis with decent integrity can be a challenge. Have the reflexes and timing of a bowl of molasses. Going to try unlock a few more traits. Glad Housemarque won those BAFTA’s, well deserved.
just started playing last night. GREAT vid man
Best returnal weapon vid on RUclips.
Thanks!
We are in complete agreement with the hallowseeker.
Explosive Sharts are deadly…
Pyroshell and Electropylon are the way to go.
This is the best weapon tutorial
TY pal
I definitely prefer carbine and hollow. I learned yesterday how great the rotgut can be when I played the daily challenge so I'll try that. I beat the game with the hollow though and the void beam, so I'm partial to those bad boys
this game was great. the first boss seemed to be the hardest for me. took forever and nearly wanted to give up. but once it got past I was able to kill each boss on the first try. and once I found the lobber it was happy days.
Took down the final boss with 3 Doombringer III shots. Had alt-fire overload cd to be able to do it.
Love this breakdown!
I'm glad 😃
Thanks for watching!
Great. Hollowseeker is my favorite
Good choice!
Excellent ***ALTHOUGH - I'd like to make one suggestion for your future videos that are similar to this one. I'd recommend not showing too far into the game. The info is awesome, but I'm only in the 2nd biome and I constantly had to look away as I was seeing enemy's and bosses but still wanted to read the stats. There were a lot of times I saw things (or cut scenes) that I really felt like were ruining the element of surprise in discovering those crazy bosses and enemy's while playing the game. Maybe for future videos stay within the first 25% of the game for background footage. Really great work and I'd like to continue watching your videos... this one element was the only thing that I thought others may have felt as well. Thank you for your content.
Thanks for saving me I'm not even gonna watch
@@diegoholley5593 I just listened
Some if the guns you don't get in the first 2 biomes.
Yes. I wasn't even watching the video just reading comments because i saw areas never seen. My eyes were going back to video and didn't finish this spoiler video. So didn't finish video. Sad
As an alternate opinion I've seen so many videos of Returnal that only pertained to the first two biomes. The breath of detail in this one made it very clear this is exactly what I needed now that I am late game. Thanks dude. This was a great breakdown.
Thank you for putting this together! I have a super noob question. Does the weapon level only effect how many points the weapon gets across the three traits? (This is my first day playing, but it seemed hard to believe that a level 2 and 11 sidearm could have the same base damage if they only have 1 point in Bonus Damage)
Excellent in-depth guide. Only in Biome 3, yet to defeat Nemesis, love the Rotgland Lobber. Perfect for my, couple pew pews, then run for the hills play-style…;) I have a Carbine with Killshot at the door to the boss, so will give that a try, the Lobber as you said did not work, and the Launcher requires too precise aiming.
Would be great if you could do a vid on consumables and artifacts. Subscribed, Thanks.
Rotgland torches nemesis, just charge shots up. The damage over time can tick the whole fight and it's over fast.
Thanks bud! I was really looking for information on the traits but getting a rundown of all the guns was a nice bonus. I've only had the game for about 2 weeks and watching your video I realized i'm in biome 6 right now, wasn't really keeping track. Hyperion is also my favorite fight so far. Loved how the music got so dramatic as I got closer and closer to her.
Favorite gun is definitely the carbine with Leech Rounds II but I am starting to really love the Rotgland Lobber (spelling?).
Thanks again and I'm adding this video to my favorites. I guarantee I'll be rewatching as time goes on.
My pleasure! I'm so glad it was helpful!!!
The Rotglad was super underrated but it's fantastic.
I'm glad you're enjoying the game, it's a masterpiece. Thanks so much for watching!😄
How the f*** u get to biome 6 in 2 weeks? Have u even come off the game lol
Great Video! My first playthrough I used the Carbine quite a bit, until I found the Pylon Driver. I used the Driver probably more than any other weapon, but after beating the game 4 times and spending many more hours just grinding and playing for fun to unlock traits, I have to say the Coilspine Shredder is one of my new favourite weapons. Initially i didn't like it much, but as you say it has a rhythm to it, and if you have good traits, and aim for headshots, it can finish off tough enemies, and small enemies quite fast. Also I love the Dreadbound! Really all the weapons in this game can be really good with the right traits and knowing how to use them properly. I've rolled a Sidearm with Charging Shot, Homing Missile, and Burst Fire that absolutely wrecked everything in B5.
Thanks for the informative video. Very well thought out and helpful. Eventhough I agree with most of what you are saying, I think every weapon in this game feels amazing and powerful. Depending on your playstyle of course. Dreadbound-Hollowseeker-Electropylon are my go to guns, when you play for a certain amount of time you just take your gun and go with it because it feels great. But not a single weapon let me down in this game. Excellently designed and unique guns over all. I am so hooked, now that I finish i don't know what to do 😂 it's like sissyphus's story. When you are used to carry the boulder(die over and over again) you don't know what to do anything else. There is this familiar feeling of loneliness, isolation and fighting everything with Selene with dark/hopeless rooms, It portrays almost nothingness and hopelessness of existing. In this vast and unexplored world, even if you finish the game, the feeling never stops. And you begin at Helios again. Unbelievable game, this feeling I didn't get from any of the games I played before.
Which weapon to use in every boss fight
Phrike - Rotgland lobber
ixion - Rotgland lobber
Nemesis - Rotgland lobber
Hyperion - Rotgland lobber
Ophion - Rotgland lobber
Very nice video man love the info because I am obsessed* with this game right now but I gotta say watching your gameplay you are not dashing around enough you could avoid so many hits and adrenaline resets if you just dashed through one of those projectiles or rings.
The Lobber quickly has become my go to weapon. I like to play cautiously so I just do the whole pop and shoot and let the rot do the damage from the distance.
fyi you are straight up wrong about some of these traits. for example seeking flares doesn’t add homing to the projectiles, it makes it so when they explode they spawn additional projectiles that seek out nearby enemies
30:13 Finally someone acknowledges the Rotgland! This gun is amazing especially if you're doing an overload build
Agree!
Great video, nicely put together. You need lots more subs; this is good stuff.
Thanks for watching!
Outstanding work on this video bro. Well done.
The Tower Sisyphus is loads of fun and is a game changer for the weapon trait grind. Props to anyone who did it through the main game.
Honestly, I'm impressed at the variety of traits and creativity that went into them. It really adds to the replayability of the game, which is already above average just on the strength of the combat itself.
With Rotgland Lobber you can pretty much cheese every boss fight.
This
Hollowseeker is definitely the best gun in the game. But I'm shocked you didn't choose serrated projectiles for yours. That's my favorite trait for that gun!
I know how loved the Hollowseeker is from seeing it appear in many "best weapons list" but I definitely dispute the idea that it's definitely the best.
The Rotgland Lobber with just one trait, explosive rot, one shots the majority of enemies in the entire game. Even with a fairly low level Lobber with like 2 bars of damage, it literally one shots almost all the enemies in biomes 1 to 3 without having the damage over time effect even come into play. From biomes 3 to 6, and with a higher level Lobber, it's just one blast and some DoT, or two or three shots and some DoT. And because of the DoT which disables most enemies from attacking, once you tag them, even if they survive the insane one shot damage of lobber with explosive rot, you don't have to worry about the enemy at all with very few exceptions. Dodging becomes easy. A Hollowseeker needs serrated projectiles, portal beam, another trait like waves, and high damage stats to do what the Lobber does with just explosive rot, or even just one of the lesser traits like durable rot or caustic rot.
And because you can fully charge up the gun in just over a second, even mobs of flying enemies like the ones in biome 5 melt just with the simple tactic of charge, shoot, dodge if needed, charge, shoot, and rinse and repeat. If the lobber had decent enough stats for splash radius, like four bars which really isn't a lot, trash mobs of even 6 or more all bearing down on you at once just melt in a hilariously short amount of time.
This gun is hugely underlooked by a sizeable amount of the player base. I haven't played around with Dreadbound, which as I understand is regarded by speedrunners as the highest DPS gun, as much as the rest of the guns. But of the ones I've tried extensively, which is everything else, I'd say the Lobber combines low skill ceiling and extraordinarily high initial damage, followed by great DoT which most guns either lack or need a trait for, better than any gun and makes it an easy candidate for the best gun in the game barring the Dreadbound.
I like using serrated projectiles with retarget, DoT for everyone!
Earned a sub. Great stuff, mate! I really want to master Dreadbound for the Tower. Shit is just so hard to grasp with it's high risk-high reward system.
I'm surprised how much i don't agree on almost anything past the alt-fires in this video.
The pistol's advantage is the ability to spam fire to burst out a LOT of damage, which means enemies down faster. You won't be constantly firing, so it doesn't matter. I'd highly recommend Snubnosed/Charging shot as that allows said high fire spamming to just be maintained. It's a weapon that opens up the more one gets experienced with the game and comfortable with the tempo of the field.
The rifle is almost hitscan, and can target weakspots much better than other weapons (like the very popular hollowseeker). Rising Pitch, High Caliber and Leech rounds can exceptional, with Accelerated being the cherry on top. A high bonus damage High Caliber can one-shot smaller enemies which is a big thing. The rifle is absolutely the newbie-friendly/safe choice, with options that empower non risky plays, but i've been known to drop 'better' weapons for a straight up 'good' rifle just to use that mental bandwidth in dodging instead of fiddling with leading or range.
The hollowseeker is only above the shotgun in 'meh' for me. The travel time makes me hard to judge when something is/will be dead, and the autoaim i find to be unreliable, especially for weakspot hits. I'm usually doing damage, but i feel like i'd do more damage with the pistol or rifle and be able to distribute it better too as i can switch targets exactly when i need to. It has great damage increasing traits though, but i feel somehow the damage always felt 'floaty, maybe due to the projectile speed and 'somewhat' tracking. There's just so many fast enemies in the game that also jump and dodge and stuff, that having 20 projectiles in the air suddently going nowhere feels like i wasted my time firing them. The only time i'd seriously consider it is when it's paired with higher auto-aim, so i can at least stop focusing on properly aiming and redistribute that to dodging.
Same deal with the shotgun i find most useful in the ability to just run and gun, wide maw, piercing etc. Especially with areas with a lot of smaller dudes, when you're focusing more on range keeping and avoidance than taking down high priority targets... it's just irreplaceable minus a lightning alt-fire. Usually i tend to try to voidbeam or doombringer to it in that case so i have an answer to long range tough targets that i can't afford to spam shots into.
The Coilspine is not really meant to be a primary weapon per se, as much as a very supporting alt-fire reduce/boosting weapon. The kind where you're at adrenaline 5 shooting off killshot after killshot nonstop.
The rocket launcher's special oblite magnet does NOT automatically gather killed resources, it just gathers them from a larger range than the default. Also, very important, it has no self-damage, so using it in point blank is as useful as ranged. My favorite setup has nothing to do with the rockets and i pick thermite and autofire (or mega worst case), which makes it easy to lay down a lot passive damage on enemies while taking cover.
Same deal with the electropylon, the most USEFUL thing about it is the ability to enhance melee and control areas with the damaging aoe as well as protection when going into melee. Melee is super strong and not that dangerous in Returnal, so with the blade boost and harmonizer+prot, you can shoot a pylon, go in for the kill and just eradicate anything around you while taking much less damage. It deals just fine when used 'normally', but i feel that's more about the strenght of the damage than the fact, like you said, meshing with any other traits.
The Dreadbound is exceptional and almost top for me in situations where you can't rely on keeping up adrenaline or not getting shot. The returning magazine means that you can't afford to miss, and you get 'variable' damage in regards to how far you are from something. The fourth shard i find OPTIONAL due to the fact that you get stuff back so quickly in close range, all it means is that you can sustain better dps at medium range. Between both of the steals, the gun basically tells you "keep shooting me in close range and you'll be protected and do crazy damage".
Great video! Very good explanations on everything regarding the weapons.
Thanks!
Had a lot a trouble in Biome 3 (beat Nemesis on my 1st try), but the moment i unlocked Pylon Driver and Adrenaline Leech, the game simply changed and now i’m after the Platinum 😂
Great video man, you have definitely taught me a lot about the game ! Thanks
I'm glad I could help! Thanks for watching 😃
Pretty cool guide! I wish someone would make one for all the artifacts
If I ever find them all I will 😋😋
First time i fought Ophion, his body didn't spawn... I could only see his eyes when i shoot orbs around. His HP was going doen but at final 40% hp nothing was spawming and I couldn't kill him.... Thankfully I had reconstructor ready and after I respawned, Ophion spawned correctly and I killed him 😁
I messed around for 2 days in first biom got to the boss 2 times and got destroyed. Than I found Electropylon driver with pylon web and that changed game from rouge like to single player. I took it slow grinned as much and listened for advice on boss to prepare myself. Took me 2 days for the run and I have beaten game whole game mostly with Electropylon driver sometimes with magic pixel of health (Ixion) . Namesis killed me cause it bugged at third phase, there was no body to shoot, I had respawn and change weapon to hollowseaker and won. Good guide and great game.
Around minute 39. I don't care bro. I'm still gonna call him Fryke lol.
Thanks for this info tho. Seriously helpful.
I'd just like to add that doombringer is definitely a reference to DOOM the game and more specifically the BFG. The weapon does exactly the same thing that doombringer does
Been playing for years .. coilspine shredder sucks balls
I defeat 1st boss - 1st try
2nd boss- 2nd try
3rd boss- 1st try basically continuation from 2nd try. The game is not that hard tbh, just keep increase your intergity and use hollow seeker
I'm not sure how it is on controller, but playing on mouse on PC Sidearm has additional advantage of actually firing single shots as fast as you can click the mouse, which generally gives you an effective fire rate about twice as high than advertised which I'm pretty sure references what you get when you just hold the button.
You’re incredible thank you so much for taking the time to do this
Absolutely my pleasure! Thanks for watching!!
Not a fan of Hollowseeker. Thermogenic launcher, full auto & replicating hits, that's the shit or Rotgland with explosive shots. The key to this game is taking down enemies fast.
Great stuff, thanks. I thought was watching a channel with like 500K subs until I finished the vid and came down to the comments. Adding sub!
Thanks so much! That's literally the highest praise I could ever ask for 🤣😁 Glad you enjoyed the vid
Finally made it to the third biome and I haven't even seen half the weapons.
I would like to add a very specific kind of God Roll Gun: carabine with leech rounds 3. Each proc heals not much less than small siphilum.
Good vid
I’m way behind but I love this game. The only thing I’m seeing that no one is mentioning is that blast shell does drop shields. I use It as a way to drop them on turrets as I’m working my way close.
This game is Just Way too hard, its taking me Forever to get Anywhere on here, I still have yet to find the stupid sword and I've been playing this for a few months upwards of year, it starts to feel pointless after awhile.
Awesome vid
This game is way too dificult. I cant pass the first boss. Im there forever 😓
Keep trying!
Lmao
Dude look up some Phrike tutorial videos, it helps trust me
Great info, thanks for making this. I am in Biome 5 and have not yet gotten 3 of the weapons.
you could also replace every boss strat with "Use Electropylon Driver" but i forget when it unlocks
dreadbound is only for experienced players, but fully agree regarding rotgland robber - excellent weapon
NICE VIDEO
I wish you would go into what each of the traits mean as well for example for the hollowseeker it says "reactivity" or something to that effect which I don't know how that translates for the weapon. There isn't a lot of these strange attributes but otherwise great video.
I realized after the fact that I probably could have gone into more detail of stuff like that. But I was just happy to finally get this beast of a video done, so much work lol. Thanks for watching!
Phasing rounds with adrenaline 2 is so dope if you don’t care about obolites as much, just shoot everyone before you even enter the room lol
to anyone agreeing to whats been said about the dreadbound here
LEARN TO USE IT
Excellent video.
Thank you so much for this!
You forgot to mention killsight basically needs to hit weakpoints to really fuck someone, it says so in its description :P
What’s happening in my game, I haven’t seen half these weapons and I’m in the ice biome (desert planet second time around)
Doombringer = bfg from doom eternal, which sounds like returnal 🧐
Awesomely done. Greatly lays out all the game has to offer with guns.
The Launcher with full-auto fire is terrifyingly powerful, and probably my favorite weapon to use on all but several edge-cases. One time I had it in a room against 2 Severed enemies and they were just too maneuverable for me to do significant damage to, and I got my butt kicked, with them teleporting around and whatnot. Other than that, Hollowseeker is of course amazing, though I think serrated projectiles is an amazing trait that doesn't always get the respect it is due, and I also totally agree on the Rotgland Lobber. It's a beast.
Serrated Hollowseeker is great.
I need to watch this. People say that weapon level and unlock triats when using but mine don’t level at all. ?
Cant understand how this game works . Still struggling in level 1 i close to quiting.
I think that Ophion is the easiest boss in the game, the biome leading up to him is by far the hardest, but the boss fight is the easiest in the game. I beat him with just the modified sidearm with no issue.
Doom Bringer is basically the BFG from the game DOOM. lol clear reference there
Where's the Coherent Narrative weapon? I've been looking all over for that. :P
I hate shockstream lmao i dont like it cuz you spend too much time aiming down and slow walking
I love using Prox -Mine. Thats one of my fav Alts.
Got the game on steam
Excellent video
The electro is my weapon of choice for all the end bosses
i got ixion on my first try well 2nd after i used the respawn thing and will continue my run tonight
Nah spitmaw is useless for everything, unusable gun in game.
This is what i really was looking for, thanks for the effort.
Some of these cool weapons haven’t appeared in my gameplay 😑😐
2:47 Lol that doombringer is totaly a bfg 9000 reference.