As a professional gamer who has sunk endless hours into Returnal‘s addictive blend of action and suffering, I live for finding and exploiting powerful gear. The Atropian Blade stands out as one of the most hard-hitting melee options Selene can wield once a key step is completed: unlocking this vicious Xeno-tech sword.
Based on mastering this weapon across multiple Returnal runs, I‘m going to fully break down how to add the Atropian Blade to your arsenal as early as possible. I‘ll also provide essential combat techniques and builds to truly dominate with this sword at your side. Fair warning: once you understand its sheer damage potential, you may never want to let it leave your hands!
Who I Am – What I Bring to the Table
Before we delve into xenotech blades, allow me to introduce myself. I‘m Vincent, a professional Twitch streamer and lifelong gaming enthusiast with over 20 years of experience across various genres and consoles. Lately I have been utterly absorbed by Returnal‘s combination of third-person shooting and brutal roguelike mechanics.
With nearly 1000 hours played, I‘ve completed the full Tower climb with multiple weapon loadouts and playstyles. My approach is to deeply analyze gear strengths, enemy patterns, and combat dynamics to push the game to its limits. Through extensive trial and abortion (mostly abortion if we‘re being honest here), I‘ve uncovered optimal strategies for success.
In that vein, I want to share everything I‘ve learned about the Atropian Blade, a sword so devastating that it genuinely alters viable approaches to each run. Let‘s get into the details!
Overview – Xeno Tech With a Vicious Bite
The Atropian Blade, unlocked midway through Overgrown Ruins, is a Xeno-tech melee weapon taking the form of a short energy sword. Despite being classified as a "blade", it functions as a cross between a sword and axe during combos. Available attacks include:
- Standard quick slash combo (3 hits)
- Charged heavy sideways chop
- Downward vertical smash upon jumping
It lacks range, but makes up for this with immense damage per hit. In fact, according to the Returnal wiki, the Atropian Blade has the highest DPS (damage per second) out of all Selene‘s melee options and alt-fires from unlockable weapons.
The catch is that you must get up close and personal with enemies to leverage its brutal strength. But as most creatures in Returnal aggressively close distance anyway, a mastery of timing and dodges transforms this blade into a driver of absolute carnage.
Now let‘s tackle how early on you can grab this beauty…
Unlocking the Atropian Blade – Crimson Gateway Key
It‘s possible to unlock the Atropian Blade surprisingly early into a run by making a specific detour in Overgrown Ruins. I‘d estimate it can be obtained within the first 20-25 minutes reliably once you know the route.
As you traverse the mushroom-laden caves and abandoned infrastructure of the opening biome, keep an eye out for a large, circular chamber with a heavy locked door called the "Crimson Gateway". Veteran players will know this door leads to future biomes, but remains locked without the right key.
However, at the base of this impassable gate lies your ticket to melee supremacy – a destroyed automaton effigy. Interact with this dead machine to trigger a cinematic where Selene retrieves the Atropian Blade, permanently adding it to her weapon wheel!
With this xenotech steel in hand, you can immediately begin carving a path through the alien hordes swarming you on Atropos. It will remain available across any future cycles allowing you to further hone your skills.
Now let‘s explore recommendation techniques to truly dominate while wielding this vicious blade.
Mastering the Atropian Blade – Offense is the Best Defense
While boasting outrageous close-range dps, the Atropian Blade leaves you severely exposed compared to the distance and safety of firearms. Enemies will overwhelm and punish sloppy play.
How then to embrace such a dangerously aggressive weapon? The key lies in positioning, timing your dodges, and capitalizing on adrenaline surges.
Internalize the following strategies from hundreds of hours rotating this blade in real run conditions:
Flank wide during blindfire – Many projectile attacks and spread patterns from hostiles have limited side coverage. Flank them in a wide arc, outside their threat range.
Dash in as bullets end – Instead of dodging through active barrages, dash after the last shot then slash before the next barrage.
Melee during reload downtime – If a turret or shielded enemy has open periods mid-volley, exploit the gap then retreat.
Rush smaller targets – One-hittables like Mycomorphs and Spikers can be rapidlyterrain exploited with the sword to build adrenaline.
Smash jumping enemies – Leapers and aquatic creatures firing mid-air are defenseless against the aerial smash attack.
Save heavy attack for interrupts – The sideways chop can stagger larger enemies, stopping grounded charge attacks for critical damage windows.
Always dash cancel combos – Enemy reactions let you dash preemptively out of a full 3-hit combo while retaining damage.
Abuse Level 3 adrenaline – 50% melee damage bonus at max adrenaline enables melting weak points and bosses.
As your familiarity with movesets grows, your confidence pushing with the blade will enable tremendous run momentum even early on. But the fun doesn‘t stop there…
Advanced Tactics – Essential Weapon Pairings
While already formidable by itself, the Atropian Blade truly reaches insane potential when complemented by certain weapons and artifacts.
Based on my testing, I recommend these perfect pairings:
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Electropylon Driver – Constant electrified trap damage softens up enemies for super quick blade finishers.
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Coilspine Shredder – Alternate between long range radical bursts and devastating CQC shreds.
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Hollowseeker (Portal Beam) – Open portals on enemy flanks then assassinate through the spatial tears.
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Adrenaline Leech – Causes damage bonus to carry between weapons instead of resetting.
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Blade Balancer – Further boosts melee speed and damage by a whopping 50%!
As an example build, combine an Portal Beam Hollowseeker and rising adrenaline to surgically place portals allowing sudden Blade ambushes on priority threats once shields drop. It‘s incredibly fun and keeps you on your toes by dancing between ranged and extreme close quarters tactics!
Conclusion – Risk And Reward Taken To The Edge
While requiring an aggressive shift in mindset, mastering the Atropian Blade provides one of the most unique playstyles in Returnal‘s arsenal across all weapon traits. The risk of powerful melee trades keeps tension high, while unlocked adrenaline potential enables you to deliver overwhelming spike damage against your alien foes.
I highly recommend all Selene‘s add this vicious Xeno-tech sword to their collection once possible and slowwwly ramp up its use as dodging technique improves over time. It remains permanently unlocked across cycles for this purpose until ultimate mastery is achieved. Wishing you the best out there among the time loops!
Let me know which weapon traits you‘ve found combine best with the Atropian Blade against Atropos‘ threats. I‘m always seeking more deadly pairings!
- Vincent
