Developer Arkane has always billed Deathloop as a murder puzzle, encouraging (and even requiring) multiple playthroughs as players learn more information and make it one step closer to breaking the loop. Deathloop launched to rave reviews and quickly became one of the best PS5 games out there. If you're just picking it up and struggling to get started, we've rounded up a few tips and tricks to help you find your footing on the island of Blackreef.
Turn off multiplayer if you want
While Deathloop does have a multiplayer component, where one person can play as Julianna trying to stop Colt from completing his mission, this can be turned off so you're only playing against NPCs. Should you want other players to invade your game, you can set it so that only friends can or that any random person can. Though its PvP aspect was marketed heavily, this is a single-player immersive sim from Arkane through and through.
Kill Wenjie first to unlock Infusion
The opening loop of the game acts as a tutorial to familiarize players with Blackreef and what they'll be doing. After completing this, Deathloop allows players to choose exactly when and where they want to go next. I highly recommend completing the Ubiquity quest first thing. You'll be tasked with killing Dr. Wenjie Evans at The Complex during the afternoon. What makes this mission so special is that this is how you can unlock Infusion, allowing you to keep your weapons, slabs, and trinkets between runs instead of losing them upon death.
Though Wenjie doesn't drop a slab for players to pick up, she's not without her own powers. Call her vain, narcissistic, or whatever you want; she's cloned herself over a dozen times. It's best to kill each of these clones before finishing the Ubiquity quest because they'll be crawling all over the area, potentially preventing you from unlocking Infusion.
Infuse your gear
Once you've unlocked Infusion, you'll want to take note of which weapons, trinkets, and slabs you want to keep between loops. Only Infused items will stay with you permanently after you die. Everything else disappears, lost in the ether (though you can always unlock or find them again in-game).
To Infuse items, you'll need to harvest Residuum, which can be found in random items across every map. You'll know an item with Residuum when you see it because it will have this shadowy aura surrounding it. The larger the item, the more Residuum you earn. Julianna and Visionaries also drop a lot of Residuum that can be collected upon their deaths.
While you can collect Residuum in a map, you can't use it until you're between missions and can access Colt's loadout screen. This prevents you from Infusing items on the fly. Also, all Residuum is lost once a loop is reset, so use it or lose it.
Turrets are your friends... when hacked
Turrets in Deathloop can be the bane of your existence, but they don't need to be. Using Colt's Hackamajig (thankfully one of the few permanent items that doesn't need to be Infused), you can commandeer turrets and have them attack enemies. I can't overstate how useful this is, especially when you can carry turrets across the map. Doing this makes missions so much easier, and you don't even have to get your hands dirty yourself. Just let the turrets do all of the work for you.
Other items can be hacked that can distract enemies or open doors, but I found hacking turrets to be the most useful.
Use pistols with a suppressor
The PT-6 Spiker is advertised as a silent weapon that shoots nails, but I've found it's fairly useless in practice. When going for silent kills, it's much more convenient to get a proper pistol with a suppressor attached. Though you can't attach one yourself, you'll be able to find blue, purple, or orange rarity pistols that have suppressors built-in, like the Tribunal. You can headshot an Eternalist without alerting the other one standing five feet away. Pistols pack just enough punch that you can't get with the PT-6 Spiker.
Kill Julianna to earn your Reprises back
Whether controlled by another player or AI, Julianna will only invade your map when a Visionary is present. When this happens, you won't be able to exit the map until you hack the radio towers and unlock your escape tunnels. You don't technically need to kill Julianna, but it's definitely encouraged if you're running low on Reprises.
The Reprise ability is effectively a do-over for Colt, giving him three lives before death instead of just one. If you only have one life left and you see Julianna has invaded your game, killing her will reset your Reprises, granting you those two extra lives back. If you have all three Reprises while Julianna enters the level, it might be best to avoid her for a while; that way, you can kill her when it's truly beneficial to you.
Don't be afraid of death
As the name suggests, Deathloop is all about death. It's unavoidable, and you shouldn't be afraid of constantly dying even without a way to save scum. Death means progression and knowledge in Deathloop. Every time you die, you'll come back with new information that can help you get one step closer to killing all eight Visionaries and finally breaking the loop.
Tips for breaking the loop
If you have any of your own tips that you've come across while playing Deathloop, don't be afraid to chime in in the comments below. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, and given the number of ways you can approach missions in Deathloop, there will frequently be new discoveries. Let us know what works for you.
Die and die again
Deathloop oozes style in a thrilling murder puzzle that won't be forgotten any time soon. Play as Colt on the fictional island of Blackreef as he works to kill eight Visionaries and stop the eponymous time loop.
