Deathloop, now we strongly support him at every opportunity, is really difficult to explain, one of his concepts more than others: how a time loop works. Let's see it together, with an example.
The basics
It's right to start with basic information: Deathloop's protagonists are stuck in a time loop and Colt, your alter-ego, wakes up on a beach, convinced that breaking the loop is his only way out. To break the loop, Colt will have to kill 8 Visionaries on the same day, ie within the limit of 24 hours passively imposed by the time loop itself. To give him a hand from the beginning of the game there is the "Reprise", a sort of lifesaver that allows Colt two bonus deaths before the final death, ie the one that will cause the loop to restart.
The problem? The 8 characters we were talking about are scattered throughout the 4 districts that make up the game map: sure, we can try to kill them each in a different "place / time combo" of the day, but if the plan to eliminate the VIP fails, or if Colt were to die, the loop would start over. Similarly to the so-called "roguelikes", however, you will not lose everything with each restart of the loop, since, immediately after the prologue, a quest ("Ubiquity") will be activated that will allow you to unlock the possibility of keeping a part of the loop equipment in loop (we will dedicate a separate guide to you).
An essential element of the game loop in Deathloop is its functionality: through it you can in fact discover and accumulate information on the game world, on the various sections of the maps and on the habits of the Visionaries; Colt will find new routes, or smarter ways to kill the 8 goals, but also ways to influence the game environment for your own ends. The sooner you get this information, the sooner you can break the loop and finish the game.
One last note on Julianna's role in all of this: when you play her, that is, in case you want to invade someone else's game, you don't have to worry about the loop; Julianna's purpose, and therefore yours, is solely to kill Colt.
An "example" loop
Let's see together, to make you better understand, an example of a step-by-step loop, as if we were playing it.
It starts from the beach, where you will find yourself if you have just started the campaign, if you died in a previous loop or if you closed the day "manually" in the summary screen; the first goal is to reach the tunnel; if in the first attempts you will have to collect objects and weapons from here every time, as soon as you unlock the possibility to collect and use the Residuum you will already have on the equipment that you have previously infused.
From the tunnel, and then from the menu, you can choose which area to go to (Complex, Fristad Rock, Updaam, Karl’s Bay) and at what time of day (morning, noon, afternoon, evening); this is very important, since the areas change according to the time of day in which you visit them, and with them also the Visionaries that you can find there, but also the information that you can retrieve inside them. From the menu you can also choose Colt's equipment, a maximum of 3 firearms, each with a maximum of 3 perks, and 2 power-ups, also with a maximum of 2 perks; if you have enough Residuum, this is where you can infuse gear.
Once you arrive in the chosen area, do not feel in a hurry, because the time there is "stopped": spend 5 minutes or 2 hours, nothing will change within the Deathloop game world, because the real phase change of the day takes place the moment you exit the map to return to the tunnels; the exploration of the area ends if you voluntarily return to the tunnels or if you die using the Reprise completely.
Considering the 4 zone and 4 phases of the day, you can make a maximum of 4 trips in one loop, but keep in mind a couple of things:
- you do not have to complete the maximum number of missions, that is, if you are following a track (Visionary or Arsenal that is), you can safely skip at the time of day that interests you
- you don't have to choose a different district for each different phase of the day
When you have survived the evening, a summary screen of your activities and achievements will open; here you will have the option to infuse your gear for one last time, as the Residuum you are not using will be lost when the loop restarts. NB: restarting the loop does not result in the loss of the information you have obtained, so you do not have to rush to complete everything before the end of the day.
Another and last essential information: unlike Colt, Visionaries and enemies will not remember the previous loops, therefore, when the loop is restarted, they return to their usual behaviors; this will allow you to train to get to perfect mental form and, consequently, to perfect killing. There is another element at play that, apart from Colt and Julianna, remembers each loop, but we will avoid spoiling it so as not to spoil one of the many surprises of Deathloop.
Obviously our Deathloop guides don't end there, but you can already find a guide to unique weapons and a handful of useful tips to get you started in the Deathloop mindset.
► Deathloop is a Shooter type game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda for PC and PlayStation 5, the video game was released on 21/05/2021
Deathloop is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 83%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Deathloop Review by Maria Enrica.
