How to unlock permanent weapon traits in Returnal

 

IN Returnal Most of your progress and equipment is lost when you die, but you can unlock permanent weapon traits (mods) that will help you on future runs.

First, it's worth noting that all weapons in Returnal drop randomly. You always start with a weak pistol, and you can find other weapons in chests and defeating mini-boss enemies (or main boss ). But it is always unknown in advance what kind of weapon you will receive. Each type of weapon also has two shooting options and they have different features and parameters. For example, the first option can shoot faster but does less damage per hit, while the second option can fire slower but does more damage per shot and the like.

Once you find the weapon, pay attention to the indicator in the lower left corner of the screen, which is located above the health bar. It shows how close you are to unlocking a permanent weapon trait. To fill this strip, simply defeat enemies with this weapon. It takes about 10-15 kills to unlock the tier 1 weapon trait. Higher tier weapon traits will require more kills, but they are not available until biome 5.

The skill also rises with the killing of opponents and allows you to find more powerful weapons. You can also find calibrators that upgrade your weapon skills.

You can view the weapon features in the gear section. Scroll down to the features, they are located under the characteristics of the weapon.

As you reach new biomes, new weapon traits become available. Each weapon will not only have more traits, but they will also become higher levels, increasing the power of the effects. This happens automatically, just progress through the plot.

Keep in mind that each weapon has 2 variants with different permanent stats. For example, if you found the first shotgun variant and unlocked its permanent traits, you can find the second variant the next time you run, but to your surprise, none of its traits will be unlocked. This is because this is a different variation of the same weapon. This can be a little confusing at first. Unfortunately, there is no way to swap weapon options, you have to hope for luck to get what you want.