Go near one and it'll grab you, gradually pulling you up into the air. Some of them are genuinely unreachable, but some of them you can actually get to in the early game with the use of the red vines you see around the place. Red tentacle vines can be used to help you get to out-of-reach platformsĮarly on, you'll notice quite a few platforms in Returnal's first biome that are purposefully out of reach, normally with an orange glowy bit on them suggesting some kind of future skill could help you out. Against more static bosses it's incredibly powerful, especially if you're prone to getting flustered or failing to dodge. The other things we found very useful for bosses are the barrier consumable (the symbol looks like an on orange oval shape with horizontal lines through it), which places a static barrier for you to stand behind that blocks all enemy projectiles, while amping up the damage of yours that you shoot through it.

It's a boss-melter, especially if you hit a weak spot (these are somewhat hard to pick out in the carnage of a boss fight but they're normally glowing red in some way). It's a continuous beam that deals gradually increasing damage to an enemy the longer you keep it focused on that one foe.

One of them in particular is great for bosses and mini-bosses alike: Voidbeam. Some are good for crowd control, and most are pretty versatile. Weapons in Returnal all come with an 'Alt-Fire' capability, which is a single shot that goes onto a many-second cooldown after use. Don't let them go to waste! Voidbeams, barrier consumables, and a tiny astronaut are best for bosses This isn't like your fantasy game potion horde where you can just cram a hundred of them into storage and get away with it.Īnd it's not just the ones that let you restore health that can be useful an Alt-Fire (basically your super) cooldown being instantly reset by a consumable can keep you alive in a clutch moment, as can weird electro-shocky jumping shoes when enemies get close. It's smart to save certain ones for bosses (more on that in just a second), but generally, put them to use. Early on you'll only have one slot, then just two, and eventually three, but even then you'll still have the option to pick up a deluge of consumables if you go for a comprehensive run through a biome. We won't do that, but what we will say is, seriously, use your consumables. There are a lot of item types in Returnal, if you actually sit down and list them. Watch on YouTube You can find even more Returnal tips here in Aoife's fantastic video! Use your consumables

Returnal unlock time