Developed by Nimble Neuron, Eternal Return is a multiplayer survival arena game that mixes together elements from the battle royale and MOBA genres. You play as one of the numerous Test Subjects that have been thrown into an experiment on the abandoned Lumia Island with the goal to create a new superhuman population.
The primary game mode sees eight teams of three players fight to be the last one standing. Between surviving, crafting, and fighting other characters, there is definitely a learning curve to overcome. If you’re just starting out, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Do Some Training Alone And Against AI
There are over 60 playable characters in Eternal Return, and it will take some time to learn the gist of what everyone can do. There are a couple of suggested ways to become familiar with a character’s abilities before diving into a real match.
Make sure not to skip the tutorial. Completing the tutorial rewards you with the characters Yuki, Hyejin, and Eva.
Go into training and use the Practice Mode to load into a near-empty Lumia Island, and just test out a character’s kit. You can even try out Test Subjects that you don’t own. This way, you can see if you want to unlock them, and you can also better understand their fighting ability if you encounter them in a real match.
Some Test Subjects are able to switch to a different primary weapon for each match. Practice Mode can be great to see which style of weapon you prefer to use.
You can also use the AI Mode to practice playing a Test Subject in a match with other opponents. You’ll be able to choose between easy, normal, and hard difficulties for the AI matches.
Until account level 20, you can even earn A-Coins and experience from AI Mode.
Fully Prepare Your Loadout Before You Queue Up
Once you’re familiar with your Test Subject’s abilities, you’ll then want to focus on your build for them. There are three areas you will want to keep in mind before diving into a match.
Make A Saved Plan For Items
One of the great aspects of Eternal Return is your ability to pre-decide on an item build for your character using the game’s recommended plan, or even plans from other players. This chosen plan determines what weapon and armor items you will craft during your upcoming match to boost your offensive and defensive stats, respectively.
Stick to using one of the available saved plans while you are coming to grips with the game, then you can experiment with creating your own plans. Make sure to read over the stat buffs and passives for each item, too.
You have the option to build different items during a match other than the ones you added to your saved plan.
Switch Up Your Tactical Skills
Before you enter a match, you will also need to choose which Tactical Skill you want to have. There are 12 different Tactical Skills in total. Some may fit better with the playstyle you are going for, but make sure to try different skills for different matches.
|
Tactical Skill |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Blade of Truth |
Slice around you to deal damage, and increase movement speed. |
|
Blasting Bullet |
Your basic attacks deal damage in a wider range. |
|
Blink |
Teleport toward a target direction. |
|
Electric Shift |
Move a short distance, then your attack range increases for a brief period. |
|
False Oath |
Consume HP to increase your damage for a time, while a portion of the HP is recovered. |
|
Force Field |
You gain a shield that absorbs damage for a short while. |
|
Healing Wind |
You and allies within range recover some health. |
|
Nullification |
Instantly cleanse debuffs and most crowd control effects. |
|
Protocol Violation |
Summon an E.M.O.T.E. drone to a target location. After a few seconds, it explodes, increasing allies’ health while reducing enemy defences. |
|
Quake |
Release a quake around you, slowing nearby enemies for a brief period. |
|
Soul Stealer |
Build up energy from being damaged. Consume the energy to increase movement speed and lifesteal for a short time. |
|
Totem |
You enter Stasis, becoming untargetable and immune to damage. You cannot move during the duration. |
Decide On Your Main And Sub Augments
You will choose passive Augments for your character before heading into a match. These are split into three categories:
- Havoc, which focuses on offensive firepower, dealing more damage.
- Fortification, which focuses on sustain and crowd control, adding to your defensive capabilities.
- Support, which focused on utility combat aid, healing yourself and allies and providing other buffs.
Saved plans will also have Augments saved with them, but you can switch it up if you want to. You’ll always want to play around your character’s playstyle. If you’re playing an assassin type, you’ll want your main Augment to be Havoc, and you likely wouldn’t want to choose Support.
Unlike the items you build, you can’t change your Tactical Skill or Augments during a match.
Always Craft Your Equipment First
Because you focused on planning your build before even getting into a match, you can immediately start searching for materials to craft your equipment once you drop in to Lumia Island.
Crafting your items needs to be your first priority for the first part of a match. There is no point in trying to fight other players when everyone is weak. Being the first ones to craft your Epic, and eventually Legendary, weapons and armor items will give you an automatic advantage in fights.
If you see another player at the start of a match, just run past them. Try and escape if they choose to attack, but if you just run they likely won’t chase you down.
As you run around looting boxes and hunting wild animals, you’ll want to focus on getting materials that have a small yellow triangle on them. The yellow triangle means it is a necessary crafting material for an item that is in your saved plan.
Enable the Auto Loot feature in your settings. This way, required materials will automatically be added to your inventory when you loot boxes and search animals.
Don’t Fight Without Your Team
It can be easy to get ahead of ourselves, but you do not want to start fighting enemies if you aren’t around your teammates. That lone enemy player who seems like an easy target could be one corner away from the rest of their team.
1v3 fights are easily lost, so don’t risk it! Everyone needs a reminder of that sometimes.
You and your teammates will often be in different areas of the map while you search for early-game materials to craft your items. You’ll want to group back up with your teammates as soon as it makes sense.
Keep Track Of Alpha, Omega, and Wickeline
As the match progresses, you will be notified when certain special items and enemies will be spawning on the map. You will notice three names of enemy androids that you will want to know about: Alpha, Omega, and Wickeline.
These are much stronger enemies than the wild animals you will have encountered. These powerful androids will drop special materials that you will need to craft Legendary items. Defeating one of these enemies will also reward you with special buffs.
You will be told which area of the map Alpha, Omega, and Wickeline will spawn into, but they are also capable of wandering around.
Check Out Eternal Return’s Official Stat Tracker
The final tip is something you can do outside the game altogether. There is an official Eternal Return statistics spreadsheet on the game’s website. You can see a full breakdown of each character with a swath of statistics, such as win rates, pick rates, total average kills per match, and more.
If you want to deepen your knowledge of Eternal Return, and see what the possible meta seems to be, you should check this out often. You can even get ideas on which characters to play more often, or which ones to unlock next. If a character has a high win rate, it’s likely for a reason.
The stat tracker also separates each character by weapon type, which leads to different stats. See if a certain weapon type on a character has a higher win rate, then try and focus on using that one.