Returnal update adjusts difficulty

Housemarque has released a new update for Returnal that fixes a number of issues and makes some balance adjustments.

Starting with balance, difficulty adjustments have been made to all biomes “for a more balanced gameplay experience,” according to the developer. Parasites will also no longer be rewarded to players when avenging their corpse.

There’s also a couple of fixes for the game’s Platinum trophy, including support for replaying Act 1 and 2 trophies, retroactive awards for trophies that cannot be replayed, and new locations for several Scout Logs. Read the full patch notes below:

Highlights

• Platinum: Added support for replaying certain Act 1 & Act 2 Trophies
• Platinum: Added support to retroactively award Trophies which cannot be replayed
• Platinum: Added additional locations for Scout Logs 9, 34, 35 & 46 to appear more often
• Platinum: Fixed an issue where 1 Cipher was sometimes unobtainable for Biome Survey Trophies
• Platinum: Fixed an issue where some Activity Cards displayed an incorrect count

• UI: HUD labels for items are now hidden when Selene is firing a weapon
• UI: Fixed an issue where 2 actions could be mapped to a single button after switching controller presets

• Cinematics: Fixed a rare audio sync issue in the secret ending
• Audio: General mix improvements across the experience
• Audio: Improved surround sound setup support across the experience
• Audio: Added more DualSense haptics across cinematic moments for deeper immersion
• Audio: Added DualSense haptics when using the Icarian Grapnel
• Audio: Improved the dynamic range recommendations system
• Audio: Allow users to override the dynamic range recommendations
• Audio: Allow users to change audio output from the game menu

Game Balance

• Balance: Various bug fixes to certain artifacts, parasites, consumables, and when certain malfunctions can occur in the early parts of the game
• Balance: Players no longer receive parasites as rewards when players avenge their corpses
• Balance: Enemies, Weapons, and Bosses – difficulty adjustments in all Biomes for a more balanced gameplay experience

Misc Bug-fixes

• Fixed an issue where Hyperion may drop the Key out of reach
• Fixed an issue where Ophion may become invisible if the player uses a Reconstructor during the fight 
• Fixed weapons not being found in Biomes after scanning but not collecting them
• Fixed an issue where Selene could jump impossibly long distances 
• Fixed multiple issues where Selene may become trapped in a room
• Fixed a rare freezing issue when teleporting in Crimson Wastes
• Fixed occasional frame rate drops when using the Electropylon Driver
• Performance improvements, crash fixes, and multiple minor bug fixes

Returnal is available now on PlayStation 5.