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Welcome to the How to Get a Second Life how-to page of the official IGN Wiki Guide and Walkthrough for Returnal on PlayStation 5. Here, we’ll break down everything you need to know about the unique and bizarre ways to obtain an extra life in the game.
Returnal is a rogue-lite game in nature which means that every time you die, the layout of the biome you’re in will change. This is literally what happens — when you die, you’ll be brought back to the very beginning and the next sequence of rooms and hallways you go through will be completely different from the sequence in your previous run. It’s absolutely ok to die (and it’s part of how you uncover more of the story in Returnal), but there will be times when your death comes cheaply or at a very untimely moment.
It’s in those moments that you’re going to wish you had a second life. Fortunately, that’s an actual possibility. You need what is essentially a memento from one of the mysterious houses found in the biomes of Returnal. We won’t spoil anything that can or might happen in later parts of the game, so we’ll stick to the first biome of the game, the Overgrown Ruins, for now.
In the Overgrown Ruins, you’ll come across a strange ranch-style home. You won’t be able to enter it until you have the House Key, which can be found elsewhere in the biome.
Once you have it, head to the house and complete the sequence that takes place inside. Upon completion, you’ll end up outside the home. Right beside you will be a new “collectible” as it were. In the Overgrown Ruins example, this memento will be a small figurine of an astronaut. Pick it up and you’ll now have a second life. The game doesn’t necessarily tell you this, but that’s what picking the memento up does for you.
We recommend saving this pick up for when you’re taking on the boss because a second life likely won’t be more useful anywhere else in the game than during a boss fight. When you die in the fight, or in general after picking up the memento, you’ll be brought back to life quite quickly, given another chance to fight.