Quick Links
There are six biomes in the main story of Returnal, and each one of them has a unique set of enemies that have a unique set of abilities and attack patterns. Most enemies are exclusive to a certain biome, and the player has to adapt constantly if they don't want to start the entire run all over again.
Crimson Wastes is the second biome in the game, and you have to beat the final boss in Overgrown Ruins to get here. This desert area is filled with trap rooms and strong enemies that can corner you in the tiny pathways and easily get rid of your health. With that in mind, it's important to know how to counter them.
How To Defeat Crimson Turret
Turrets are a common sight in every single biome of Returnal, and the species of turrets found in Crimson Wastes are known as Crimson Turrets. They might look a lot like the Atropian Turrets in Overgrown Ruꦡins but their attack differs massively. The Crimson Turret is esse▨ntially a machine gun.
Whenever it detects you, the turret will face you and start shooting tons of red bullets in your direction. These turrets aim at your current position and don't predict your movement, so you'll only get hit by these bullets if you're completely still, running slowly, or if you backtrack on your path.
Some of these turrets will not be active until you get close to them. They'll be in an inactive position with their head close to the ground, and you can't deal damage to them in this form. When you get close to them, they'll activate and you can defeat them.
These turrets can also have a red shield on them, which can only be destroyed with a melee attack or if you have the Shieldbreaker alt-fire on your weapon. The constant fire from the shielded turrets can be lethal since you have to get right beside them 💟if you wan🦂t to defeat them.
How To Defeat Aetheract
Aetheracts are the most common type of enemies you'll encounter in Crimson Wastes, especially until you get inside the mountain. These enemies have cube-like heads with a bunch of tentacles below them. They're always floating in the air, and you'll find them in a group of three or above most times.
Since they can usually be far away from you, the Aetheracts don't have a close-range attack. Moreover, the two ranged attacks that they can perform are quite easy to dodge if you're attentive. Here are the attacks they can perform:
- Firstly, most Aetheracts will shoot a bunch of blue orbs in your direction in a rectangular shape. You can usually get behind an object or simply dash through these orbs at the right time to avoid them.
- The enemies will rarely perform a secondary attack where they shoot three lasers in a triangular shape. They'll first shoot these lasers at the ground and then quickly turn their head up, making the lasers get past you quickly. Normally, these lasers can't hit you unless you get unlucky.
Aetheracts exist in great numbers in Crimson Wastes, but their health is quite low. Moreover, they can't launch an attack if you're currently shooting at them. If you're fighting multiple enemies at the same time, it's better to get behind an object and tackle them one at a time.
How To Defeat Gorgolith
Gorgolith is a special enemy that you'll only find once you enter the mountain in Crimson Wastes. As you're ascending the mountain, you can come across this turtle-like creature with a hard shell. You'll hardly deal any damage when you're attacking its shell, and you have to attack its head whenever it's visible.
When the turtle spawns for the first time, it will stay inside the ground with only its shell on the surface. It will constantly shoot blue bullets from its shell that will follow your character as they drop. It's easy to dodge all the attacks performed by this enemy, but it can take a while to defeat it.
How To Defeat Waste Kerberonyx
You've known the Kerberonyx enemy already since you first encounter them in Overgrown Ruins. Though there are some differences between these enemies in the two biomes.♎ Waste Kerberonyx is giant lizard-like enemies that have many tentacles on the back side of their body along with a blue-colored head.
Apart from the difference in the color of their head, Waste Kerberonyx also have a completely different set of attacks. Here's every attack you'll see from this enemy:
- The most common attack done by Waste Kerberonyx is the one where they fire a bunch of blue orbs at Selene. These orbs fly toward your character at high speed, and they can easily hit you if you don't time your dodge or move out of the way in time. The enemy can also perform this attack in quick succession.
- As the second attack, this enemy spawns a circular laser around its body that slowly expands its radius. If you get hit by this laser, you take quite a lot of damage. Though it's an easy attack to dodge since you can jump over it, dash through it, or simply run in the opposite direction.
- During the battle, Waste Kerberonyx will constantly keep trying to get close to you. If they get in range, they'll jump and bite your character after a short charging time. This bite packs quite a punch and it deals the most damage out of the three. It also knocks your character back.
While their design and attack pattern are different, the two Kerberonyx do share one trait. Waste Kerberonyx also has a stagger bar that fills up when you shoot at it. If the bar fills up completely, the enemy will enter a vulnerable st🐓ate🔯 for a long time.
You can get near the enemy and melee them or constantly shoot at them from far away during this time. If you can make the Kerberonyx enter the vulnerable state, it's as good as dead.
Moreover, these enemies generally don't perform an attack if they're getting shot at. Though there's still a chance they can shoot a quick round of blue orbs even while getting attacked, so you have to be careful and have quick reactions. You can also find a Malformed Kerberonyx in this b🍷iomꦛe, which works the same as the one in Overgrown Ruins.
How To Defeat Archonact
Archonact is one of the mini-bosses in Returnal's Crimson Waste biome, and it's the only boss you can encounter before you enter the mountain. This looks like an upgraded version of Aetheract with a rectangular head and giant tentacles floating below it. This boss flies high in the air if there's space.
It also has quite a variety of attacks, and here's what you can expect:
- Usually, the enemy performs a spinning attack when it detects you for the first time. In this attack, it rotates at the current position while constantly firing blue orbs that slowly descend on the battlefield. This is easy to dodge by itself, but it can get overwhelming with other attacks.
- In another attack, the boss will spawn many blue orbs in front of its face and shoot them as blue bullets slowly. These bullets travel to your character quickly and they can lock onto your character and turn a little as well. It's quite hard to dodge this attack, but you can run in one direction and perform a dash at the end.
- Finally, the boss will spawn some yellow bullets from both of its sides and these bullets will reach you almost instantly. They travel fast and lock onto your character, so you have to perform a dash if you want to dodge this attack.
Upon death, Archonact breaks into pieces while spawning a circular laser at its final position. It also spawns some blue orཧbs that scatter randomly around the area, so be careful of this after you defeat this enemy. Archonact also exists in a Malformed state, which has higher health and more aggressive attack🌌s.
Apart from the attacks mentioned above, Malformed Archonact also has two purple lasers that constantly move around the area. Furthermore, it has a special attack where it shoots three big bullets at your location.
How To Defeat Severed
Severed is quite a special mini-boss in Crimson Wastes, and that's obvious since it gets its own cutscene. When you enter the mountain for the first time, you'll be in the giant room where you'll discover the Severed for the first time. This enemy is similar to Myc𓃲omorphs from Overgrown Ruins in a way.
Talking about Mycomorphs, they're one of the few enemies that are shared between Overgrown Ruins and Crimson Wastes. Since you're in a further biome, the Mycomorphs in Crimson Wastes will be in groups, and sometimes accompanied by other enemies.
Just like Mycomorphs, the Severed can teleport near you if it loses line-of-sight on Selene. This gives the enemy an advantage since it doesn't have to run to a certain position to attack you. Apart from that, heꩲre is a wide range of attacks performed by thisꦚ enemy:
- Severed can shoot a special ball of orbs toward you. This ball will keep going in a circle and spawn yellow orbs around it, which will slowly move in the area and plague it with yellow orbs for a bit.
- It can also shoot multiple instances of red and blue orbs that will accelerate toward you quickly, but you can easily dodge them if you keep moving in one direction.
- When the Severed teleport near you after losing sight, it might follow it up by shooting a round of purple bullets in your direction, and the only way to dodge these is by dashing at the right time.
- Sometimes, the enemy will perform a jump attack where it will smash the surrounding ground as it jumps on you. You can easily dodge this jump by dashing but it's followed up by a circle of laser that expands quickly.
- Finally, there will be times when you'll see a trail of red following your character. After this trail follows Selene for a bit, the Severed will teleport directly to you and slash instantly. You have to dodge at the right time if you want to avoid damage from this attack.
Moreover, the Severed can also perform a melee attack if you're close to it, and it has quite a lot of health. This is the most dangerous enemy in Crimson Wastes, and you'll likely struggle a lot against it.
Apart from all the enemies mentioned above, you can also encounter Proteron and Infected Scout in any biome after you reach Crimson Wastes. Proteron is a giant tower that constantly heals 🐠the hostiles in the room, so you have to break it first.
The Infected Scout only spawns if you scan an entry from dead Selene and you see the body enter its demise location for the first time. This will give rise to an evil Selene with many tentacles around🐷 it.