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    #92
    LauraW7746
    Registered Users Posts: 399 ✭✭LauraW7746


    Guys I have done 3 runs, only in Biome 1, I cant seem to find the sword to melee anywhere or else im just not getting far enough haha
    Any tips to find it or is it just completely random because of the map changes on starting a new game?

    I think I like the game, im just crap at it haha


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    #93
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    LauraW7746 wrote: »
    Guys I have done 3 runs, only in Biome 1, I cant seem to find the sword to melee anywhere or else im just not getting far enough haha
    Any tips to find it or is it just completely random because of the map changes on starting a new game?

    I think I like the game, im just crap at it haha

    Just googled it (because I couldn't remember from my own playthrough), and the sword should be a guaranteed find in Biome 1. Should be located in the room which leads to the next Biome, a room which has red sand in it and is a dead end (the door on the map should have a circle on top). You need to beat the boss of Biome 1 to get the key to actually unlock the gate to the next Biome, but you should still be able to enter that room and get the sword.

    As the room contains the gate to the next Biome, it is a guaranteed room somewhere in Biome 1. It could appear anywhere along the Biome though.


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    #94
    LauraW7746
    Registered Users Posts: 399 ✭✭LauraW7746


    Penn wrote: »
    Just googled it (because I couldn't remember from my own playthrough), and the sword should be a guaranteed find in Biome 1. Should be located in the room which leads to the next Biome, a room which has red sand in it and is a dead end (the door on the map should have a circle on top). You need to beat the boss of Biome 1 to get the key to actually unlock the gate to the next Biome, but you should still be able to enter that room and get the sword.

    As the room contains the gate to the next Biome, it is a guaranteed room somewhere in Biome 1. It could appear anywhere along the Biome though.

    Cheers I did come across a room on the map with a red outline rather than a blue.... I assumed this was a challenge area where it would lock and have to fight waves of ememies so avoided it

    So that is the room where its at?


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    #95
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    LauraW7746 wrote: »
    Cheers I did come across a room on the map with a red outline rather than a blue.... I assumed this was a challenge area where it would lock and have to fight waves of ememies so avoided it

    So that is the room where its at?

    No, there's a few different types of doors

    Light Blue doors are generally the main path doors
    Dark Blue doors are optional side paths
    Light Blue Doors with a circle over them are doors which lead to the next Biome (which once you defeat the boss of the Biome you'll unlock a key or ability which allows you to go to that next biome)
    Yellow doors (will have a star over it) are the Challenge rooms with waves of enemies
    Red door leads to the boss of the biome

    In Biome 1, there'll be two Light Blue doors with circles over them, one going to Biome 2 and one going to Biome 3 (so you can shortcut to either biome without having to keep fighting the boss of Biome 1 each time). The sword (again, going by Google) should be in the light blue door with circle which leads to Biome 2. There'll be red sand in it and a platform at the end of a short tunnel. Apparantly the sword is in there.


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    #96
    LauraW7746
    Registered Users Posts: 399 ✭✭LauraW7746


    Penn wrote: »
    No, there's a few different types of doors

    Light Blue doors are generally the main path doors
    Dark Blue doors are optional side paths
    Light Blue Doors with a circle over them are doors which lead to the next Biome (which once you defeat the boss of the Biome you'll unlock a key or ability which allows you to go to that next biome)
    Yellow doors (will have a star over it) are the Challenge rooms with waves of enemies
    Red door leads to the boss of the biome

    In Biome 1, there'll be two Light Blue doors with circles over them, one going to Biome 2 and one going to Biome 3 (so you can shortcut to either biome without having to keep fighting the boss of Biome 1 each time). The sword (again, going by Google) should be in the light blue door with circle which leads to Biome 2. There'll be red sand in it and a platform at the end of a short tunnel. Apparantly the sword is in there.


    Ok great, I must not have made it that far, ill just have to presevere so! 😂


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    #97
    weiland79
    Registered Users Posts: 3,307 ✭✭✭weiland79


    Made it to the final boss last night, bloody hell it's some journey to get there. Those drones that just appear out of no where and blast you with rockets and lasers and every other kind of weapon.

    Fvck those drones

    And those teleporting blade wielding dudes that appear behind you and crush your will to live.

    Fvck those guys too.


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    #98
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    New patch will increase locations for some of the rarest Scout logs, making them more likely to appear. Might make me return(al) to the game and go for the platinum (after Ratchet & Clank).

    They've also fixed framerate drops for the Electropylon Driver, so that weapon is in play for me again. Was wary of it causing game to crash too far into a run so have been mostly skipping it.


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    #99
    Mr.Fantastic
    Registered Users Posts: 733 ✭✭✭Mr.Fantastic


    Got this for 46 off amazon.de and had some Amazon vouchers from work.

    Will give it a go but is the lack of a save mechanic a big deal?

    I adored Hades and dead cells so it's not my first roguelite.


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    #100
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    Mr.Fantastic wrote: »
    Got this for 46 off amazon.de and had some Amazon vouchers from work.

    Will give it a go but is the lack of a save mechanic a big deal?

    I adored Hades and dead cells so it's not my first roguelite.

    It's not a huge deal, it's just an unnecessary pain. It depends how much time you can devote to a run. If you find yourself on a decent run, it could take over 3 hours to finish it.

    The more you play you unlock weapon upgrades and shortcuts that can help you get through areas quicker, plus just knowing what to do, what types of rooms you can skip etc. But most of the time it's not a game you play if you only have an hour to spare, because you could be on a hell of a run with no way of saving your progress, even though there are fairly obvious areas where they could easily introduce a save point without breaking the game.


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    #101
    Mr.Fantastic
    Registered Users Posts: 733 ✭✭✭Mr.Fantastic


    Penn wrote: »
    It's not a huge deal, it's just an unnecessary pain. It depends how much time you can devote to a run. If you find yourself on a decent run, it could take over 3 hours to finish it.

    The more you play you unlock weapon upgrades and shortcuts that can help you get through areas quicker, plus just knowing what to do, what types of rooms you can skip etc. But most of the time it's not a game you play if you only have an hour to spare, because you could be on a hell of a run with no way of saving your progress, even though there are fairly obvious areas where they could easily introduce a save point without breaking the game.

    Yeah 3 hours is quite a bit ! Prob reserve it for weekend play. Never know they might introduce it.


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    #102
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    Mr.Fantastic wrote: »
    Yeah 3 hours is quite a bit ! Prob reserve it for weekend play. Never know they might introduce it.

    For a while starting off you can play in hour chunks as it'll take a bit to get used to the game mechanics and you'll probably die a good bit early on. Just don't get too attached to a run until you have more time to spare.


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    #103
    Xenji
    Registered Users Posts: 11,505 ✭✭✭✭Xenji


    As Penn said take your time to get used to the game but when you do don't try and rush to the first boss, wait till you can play for a good two hours uninterrupted before taking her on.

    Just a few tips for the first biome.

    Shoot statues with yellow eyes for obolites.

    You will get a second weapon and it is far more powerful than your gun if you keep dashing and attacking.

    If you see any enemies with a red shield use your second weapon to destroy them.

    If you enter a room that is glowing green make sure you destroy the pillar emitting the green light before dealing with other enemies.

    Don't use any health items unless you really need to, it's best to leave a few and come back and get them before the boss.

    Try and increase suit integrity as much as possible and use parasites early in the run for this.

    Make sure you have your weapon proficiency to at least 4 before facing the boss and the carbine for me was the best weapon due having to keep your distance the majority of the fight.

    Make sure to keep enough obolites to buy a health item or the little spaceman just before you are ready to take the boss on.

    Locked gates can be opened by shooting what looks like a yellow button which is usually hidden above you but very close to the gate.

    If you enter a room with enemies that are glowing yellow attack them straight away for obolites.

    Blue doors are like treasure rooms, yellow doors hold a mini boss and 3 waves of enemies and the red door signifies the boss.

    Do not fear the vines, they are really more like elevators that can bring you up to higher levels, you only take damage if you let them drag you all the way up.


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    #104
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,116 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Haven’t been playing this much recently just because I like to have a few no-pressure hours free to commit to a run. Also HATED the bloody drones in biome 3 - their missiles would more often than not immediately mess up what had otherwise been a great run.

    Anyway, finally got through biome 3 tonight. Had a near ideal run through the first level, and with a few nice bonuses from the second. Alas, the drones again left me with but a sliver of health for most of biome 3. But fought through, and got through the boss thanks to one invaluable tool: the Rotgland Lobber. I’d fought the boss once before and the weapon I had (either a carbine or hollowseeker IIRC) was like a peashooter. Lobber was a godsend in comparison - hacking away at the health bar while having more concentration to commit to dodging. Was a breeze of a fight in the end thanks to, after a gruelling first attempt.

    Onwards, anyway, but glad to have some permanent progress now as I push forward.


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    #105
    weiland79
    Registered Users Posts: 3,307 ✭✭✭weiland79


    johnny_ultimate wrote: »
    Haven’t been playing this much recently just because I like to have a few no-pressure hours free to commit to a run. Also HATED the bloody drones in biome 3 - their missiles would more often than not immediately mess up what had otherwise been a great run.

    Anyway, finally got through biome 3 tonight. Had a near ideal run through the first level, and with a few nice bonuses from the second. Alas, the drones again left me with but a sliver of health for most of biome 3. But fought through, and got through the boss thanks to one invaluable tool: the Rotgland Lobber. I’d fought the boss once before and the weapon I had (either a carbine or hollowseeker IIRC) was like a peashooter. Lobber was a godsend in comparison - hacking away at the health bar while having more concentration to commit to dodging. Was a breeze of a fight in the end thanks to, after a gruelling first attempt.

    Onwards, anyway, but glad to have some permanent progress now as I push forward.

    I learned to cheese those drones. Lure them to a door which they generally dont pass through and let the door open and close and take them out with cheap shots.


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    #106
    weiland79
    Registered Users Posts: 3,307 ✭✭✭weiland79


    Is there much to do after the final boss? I finished it but thought Ratchet might be a nice pallete cleanser for a week. Still have it installed.


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    #107
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    weiland79 wrote: »
    Is there much to do after the final boss? I finished it but thought Ratchet might be a nice pallete cleanser for a week. Still have it installed.

    There are items (Sunshine Fragments) to collect in each biome (one in each biome). Collecting them all, doing a final house sequence and then beating the final boss again gives the true full ending.

    I switched to Mass Effect 1, then Ratchet & Clank. Now I've started playing Returnal again to go for the platinum. Latest patch makes it easier to collect some of the rarest audio logs & glyphs for the survey trophies, they're more likely to spawn in different rooms etc. I just enjoy the gameplay of the game as a whole and wanted to play it for a while probably before jumping into Mass Effect 2.


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    #108
    Potential-Monke
    Registered Users Posts: 13,828 ✭✭✭✭Potential-Monke


    Ok, so I haven't read or looked into much about this. Would ye recommend? I'm aware it's a 3rd person bullet hell rougelike, but is it fun? I find most rougelikes get samey or have huge difficulty spikes out of nowhere that usually stop me playing.


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    #109
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    Potential-Monke wrote: »
    Ok, so I haven't read or looked into much about this. Would ye recommend? I'm aware it's a 3rd person bullet hell rougelike, but is it fun? I find most rougelikes get samey or have huge difficulty spikes out of nowhere that usually stop me playing.

    I'd nearly be reluctant to use the word "fun". The enjoyment comes from the challenge, the frantic gameplay, the ebb and flow of the randomness going your way or not going your way, and the tense nature and general unease of the world around you.

    Some runs, you get good item boosts, weapons and you're generally smashing everything in your way. Other runs, it's like the PS5 walks over to you and kicks you in the shin.

    I'd say check out some gameplay videos. It's not going to spoil anything, but it's also not going to do it complete justice either as playing it and watching it are very different beasts, but it'll give a decent overview of what most of the game is like, as the majority of the gameplay is pretty static throughout (though different weapons etc can change your playstyle a bit).


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    #110
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,116 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    Pushed through to Biome 6 tonight before having to throw the PS5 into rest mode for the night (boo, let me save!). Not a game to play before bed as it gets the heart pumping something fierce :pac:

    Biomes 4 and 5 seemed like relatively easy challenges after what had come before, will see now if the difficulty jumps for the last stretch. But absolutely loved the whole atmosphere around the fourth boss - the bone-rattling music matched with the beautiful horror of the bullet patterns was really a sight to behold, with some serious build up as you made the ascent towards the arena.


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    #111
    Potential-Monke
    Registered Users Posts: 13,828 ✭✭✭✭Potential-Monke


    I took a chance and got it. Put about 4 hours into it last night, got to the biome 1 boss, and thought I had him beat until I copped he has 3 or 4 health bars. He killed me on his last life.

    It's good, and a nice variation of the roguelike, I'm liking it. I just hope it doesn't get too hard! Still trying to get me head around everything, do more weapons open up in further biomes? I've only found the pistol, assault rifle and shotgun so far. Do you also get to carry more than 1 weapon at the time?

    One thing I will say is the DualSense implementation. The intro especially. I nearly want all movies to have haptic feedback, it was so good.


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    #112
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    Potential-Monke wrote: »
    I took a chance and got it. Put about 4 hours into it last night, got to the biome 1 boss, and thought I had him beat until I copped he has 3 or 4 health bars. He killed me on his last life.

    It's good, and a nice variation of the roguelike, I'm liking it. I just hope it doesn't get too hard! Still trying to get me head around everything, do more weapons open up in further biomes? I've only found the pistol, assault rifle and shotgun so far. Do you also get to carry more than 1 weapon at the time?

    One thing I will say is the DualSense implementation. The intro especially. I nearly want all movies to have haptic feedback, it was so good.

    The game doesn't necessarily get too much harder, though there are pricks of enemies who pop up later, and the randomisation can work against you sometimes by throwing you into a room that's just going to f*ck you up. But, the more artefacts and boosts you pick up along the way balances a lot of it out. You learn the best weapons to use for different areas as you go (eg. pray & spray for areas with loads of small enemies, or high dps for areas likely to have big slow enemies) or for your own playstyle, but finding those weapons isn't always easy.

    Once you find a new type of weapon (there's about 10 in the game), it gets added to the randomisation, so you might find a new type of weapon in biome 3, then it'll have a chance to start appearing in biome 1 & 2 on future runs. You can only ever carry one at a time though. Plus the alt-fires are randomised too. You upgrade the weapons the more you use them (each have different levels of different traits), and those upgrades are permanent so you might find the assault rifle with some of the upgrade traits you've already unlocked previously.

    Same with artefacts and consumables, once you find one for the first time, it's added to the randomisation pool to appear in the future everywhere.

    At the end of each biome too you unlock a new ability which again is permanent for all future runs, and will unlock new areas for you (like areas that currently seem out of reach).

    So for the most part, no run is ever wasted. You are constantly levelling up permanent boosts in some way.


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    #113
    Arcadeheroes
    Registered Users Posts: 182 ✭✭Arcadeheroes


    Finished the game few weeks ago, Took me 2 days to finish with a total of 20 deaths with most of that being at the very start of the game trying to learn the mechanics and the overall feel of the game .

    Bought the game at launch to support the devs but when I saw the game was facing alot of issues with crashes I stayed away until the game got patched enough for it to be safe to play without having to worry about facing any of these issues and losing progress.

    The game did hard crash on me once resulting me losing few hours of progress and also made my ps5 lock and having to do a hard reset and reboot my system .

    Thankfully I didnt lose my saved game progress even though I got a message saying my save file was corrupt.


    Despite that I liked Returnal but I found it everything outside of its core gameplay hook everything else felt very inconsistent.

    The game is not worth its asking price of 80 euros imo but I was so willing to show full support to a indie dev who finally had a chance to make a game with a AAA budget just to see what type of game could they make.

    from the rouge like games I have played there is a consistency to the build you can get that makes the risk vs reward aspect fair but with returnal I always felt if you had a bad start to the game your entire run was doomed to fail no matter what the outcome was .

    I also was not a fan of the bosses and found them to be very easy. I killed them all on my first attempt except for the first boss which killed me 2 times .

    Level design of the game also I was not a fan of and found the level settings to be very bland outside of the jungle areas.

    Overall I would give it a 7/10 . There is a solid foundation here for a better sequel if the devs were ever to return to this IP . The shooting is really solid and feels incredible to have a high budget arcade game but everything else needs a rework for me with more content to justify the 80 euro price tag.


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    #114
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    It's definitely not a game without its flaws, but having paid full launch price for it, I'm satisfied that I got my money's worth. I'm still sinking hours into the game and enjoying it a lot, because so much of the core gameplay and design is just fantastic.

    I beat most of the bosses on the first go too, but I think a lot of that comes down to how much time you spend in each biome and how powered up you can be when you reach the bosses. There were some biomes I made it through the full way on the first go. But I think it's also a game where the wrong weapon in the wrong situation and you're basically f*cked against basic enemies. While hunting for glyphs I went straight from biome 1 to 3, still had starting pistol but changed it out for a dreadbound in biome 3. Ended up getting cornered and royally screwed by drones. Other runs I could find a hollowseeker or something and blitz most of the biome.

    Either way, the design of the game is such that you can plug away at it any time you have a few hours spare and have a great ol' time. The RNG gods have been fairly kind to me in my hunt for the platinum, have usually found something on each room (including some rooms I'd never seen before) and only have one glyph in Biome 6 to go.

    It'll definitely be interesting to see how they follow it up. I liked Resogun but never got too far into it. Never bothered with Nex Machina either. But I'll definitely be checking out what Housemarque do next.


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    #115
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,116 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    The Phantom Pain wrote: »
    My only question is, is it too easy to die from silly mistakes like fall damage? I can accept ending a run due to getting overwhelmed by enemies but it would be annoying to have to restart because you missed a gap on the floor or made a bad jump.

    The game's pretty punishing if you fall down a gap. Takes a fair chunk of health and resets your invaluable combo gauge. But you can fall any distance and not be hurt if you land on solid land.

    The main challenge of the game IMO is health management. Every hit you take matters, and managing your health resources is ultimately vital to the moment-to-moment and hour-to-hour flow of the game alike (with some very unusual and specific mechanics attached to health restoration / health gauge extension).


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    #116
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    The Phantom Pain wrote: »
    My only question is, is it too easy to die from silly mistakes like fall damage? I can accept ending a run due to getting overwhelmed by enemies but it would be annoying to have to restart because you missed a gap on the floor or made a bad jump.

    There is no fall damage unless you have a parasite or malfunction that causes damage from long falls, but even then if you dash before hitting the ground it prevents it as it no longer becomes a long fall.

    But like JU says, you can fall into gaps which does cause damage. There's also some areas with kind of lava which causes damage, and you can't go into water until later in the game. Damage by those is easily done if you're dodging attacks. There'll also be some laser type areas you have to try get through (some of which disable your dash) they can take a good chunk if not timed right. I've rarely died from stuff like that though, it takes a bit of health but not much, the reset of adrenaline is usually the big kicker. Either I was close to dying anyway and panicking, or just got greedy seeing something in the distance out of reach.


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    #117
    Penn
    Registered Users Posts: 33,267 ✭✭✭✭Penn


    Got the platinum. Found the last glyph in biome 6 but trophies didn't pop. Turned out I never did the challenge room in biome 6. Died in the last stage, but you only have to attempt it for it to count towards the survey trophy, so job done. Ship's computer says my playtime was about 54 hours.


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    #118
    Potential-Monke
    Registered Users Posts: 13,828 ✭✭✭✭Potential-Monke


    Finally, FINALLY, managed to get out of biome 1. Mainly kept getting killed by that big tentaclely jumpy bastard. He always manages to jump on me while I'm trying to kill those fecking Leshens, or whatever this game calls them. Got a bit into the second biome and got overwhelmed and died. But I'm enjoying it, albeit in short bursts. I'll do a run, and depending on how soon I get killed I'll either do another one or take a break. I think visually it's lovely so far, but that's mainly based on the first biome as it's where I've spent most of my time. The haptics, as I've already mentioned, are amazing in this. Another game to prove that Sony/PS had some actual innovation this gen, and I will find it very hard to play a properly haptic enabled game on anything but a PS5 now. It really does add to a game when done right. Gameplay is smooth and while it can be unforgiving, and the RNG has a lot to say for that, it still seems fair.

    TBH, I don't know if I'll ever finish it, as I don't think I've ever "finished" a roguelike, unless you count getting to 2BC in Dead Cells. But it's another excellent game to showcase the power and features of the PS5. I got it for about €35 traded in, so definitely worth that much anyway. I'll probably trade it in soon while it's still worth a few quid, but I will definitely pick it up again in a sale, or hopefully when it comes to PS+/Now.


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    #119
    Potential-Monke
    Registered Users Posts: 13,828 ✭✭✭✭Potential-Monke


    Also, @Arcadeheroes, 2 days and 20 deaths in total? I'm at about 8 hours and 17 deaths, and just got to the second biome... How?!


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    #120
    jones
    Registered Users Posts: 3,006 ✭✭✭jones


    I was playing this in spurts since it came out love it but could not dedicate a lot of time to it life getting in the way.

    It took me a long time to get past biome 1 I'm talking 10 plus hours long. But then on 1 run I beat the second and third areas without much issue. It's all down to how good of a weapon you have imo and just being in the zone I suspect


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