Returnal Actually Has A Few Cheats If You Plug In A Keyboard

It seems Returnal developer Housemarque accidentally shipped the game with a number of active cheats. Cheat commands and debug codes are used in game development all the time, for the purposes of rapid testing and fine-tuning. Usually, however, they are only known to developers. Without a way for players to enter them into the finished game, they remain a secret. Not the case in Returnal, apparently, as YouTube user TheRandomizer discovered this week. The player dug up a number of useful cheats that let you spawn any of the game’s weapons, return to the crash site (while keeping everything earned in the run) and more. You’ll need to connect a keyboard to your PS5 to be able to activate any of them. The bad news is that Housemarque is aware that the cheats are out in the wild, and the developer is fixing that - likely with today’s update, so you may as well try them while you can. We’ve added all the discovered codes below, and you can also watch the video at the top to see them in action. None of those cheats offer invincibility or maximum damage, however, meaning you’ll still need to play the game the proper way even after activating the cheats. This is why Reddit users have come up with a good strategy for incorporating the cheats into your run, for maximum efficiency. Here are the codes so far (just make sure you’re offline):

Press and hold Shift, Control, Alt and pick from 1 to 0 to drop weapons at your current Proficiency level. Press and hold Shift, Control, 8 to return to your most recent point in the first cycle. Press and hold Shift, Control, 4 to return to the crash site at the start of the game (with your current stats and pickups).

A couple of other caveats should also be kept in mind. If you’re in the fourth biome (or after defeating the third biome’s boss), do not use the command that spawns you back at the crash site, because you won’t be able to return to the fourth biome and complete your run afterwards. Using numbers 3 and 7 (while holding Shift and Control) freezes the game. Numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, and 0 don’t do anything.