The Tower of Sisyphus is Returnal’s ultimate score-chasing challenge—a fast-paced, increasingly difficult gauntlet that tests your reflexes, loadout choices, and decision-making under pressure. Whether you’re aiming to climb the leaderboard or just survive longer with each run, this guide breaks down the most effective strategies, loadouts, and scoring mechanics to help you go farther and score higher.

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Optimal Settings for Success

Before starting your run, adjust your settings for better control:

• Enable Auto-Run – Keeps movement fluid and frees up focus for aiming and dodging.
• Set Crosshair to Large – A bigger reticle makes overload timing and target tracking easier.
• Turn Aim Assist to High – Helps maintain accuracy under pressure.
• Optional: Remap Dash to L1 – Improves accessibility and responsiveness for advanced dashing techniques like DMJ.

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Understanding Score Multipliers

Scoring well in the tower hinges on maintaining and growing your multiplier:

🔹 How It Works

• Each enemy kill increases your multiplier slightly (0.01 per kill).
• Mid-air melee and weak spot kills offer larger boosts (~0.03).
• Your adrenaline level multiplies this even further—staying at max adrenaline is key.

🔹 Maintaining It

• You have a short grace period when entering new rooms before your multiplier decays.
• Reset the timer by:
  • Shooting (even just once),
  • Picking up items like resin or obolites.
• Clear entire rooms quickly for a +1.0 multiplier bonus.

🔹 Obolites and Value

• At high multipliers (50x+), 100 Obolites can be worth tens of thousands of points.
• Prioritize turrets and flying enemies with mid-air melee for big score jumps—up to 275k points at max multiplier.

💡 Tip: Bring keys into later floors—after Floor 6, Algos starts breaking your artifacts. If you carry extra keys, they’re more likely to be sacrificed instead.

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General Tower Strategy

🛡️ Prioritize Shields Over Health

• Aim to stack 5+ shields by Floor 4.
• Shields are invaluable in later floors where a single hit can be devastating.

💰 Use Obolites Smartly

• Buy Shield Vials every chance you get—they’re cheap (100 Obolites) and essential.
• Target orange-bar enemies—they often drop full Integrity Silphium.

⚔️ Combat Tips

• Avoid ADS unless targeting a single enemy—hip-fire improves awareness and movement.
• Stand near teleporters when finishing rooms quickly—this grants bonus Obolites (50 for fast clears).

🦠 Parasite Tricks

• Use Parasite Removal Stations for free resources.
• Trick: Pick up a nearby parasite just to remove it for instant integrity or Obolites.

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Best Artifacts to Prioritize

💥 High-Impact Artifacts

• Disrupting Overload – Breaks enemy shields on perfect reloads; excellent with the Thermogenic Launcher.
• Resinous Shield – Grants a shield when collecting resin. Costly, but powerful.
• Fractal Nail – +10% damage when you have a malfunction—pair with damage-to-heal strategies.
• Phantom Limbs – 10% chance to recover integrity per kill.
• Golden Coil – Up to +15% weapon damage based on Obolite count.

🧬 Parasite Synergy

• Pulsating Mass / Progenitor Egg – Add/remove parasites for extra integrity or healing.
• Murmuring Cocoon – Enhances positive parasite effects.

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Top Weapon Picks

1. Thermogenic Launcher

• Traits: Full-Auto, Replicating Hits, Thermite Rockets
• Massive damage, especially with Disrupting Overload.

2. Dreadbound

• Traits: Expanding Shards, Explosive Shards
• Extremely high damage—just be mindful of the return-fire timing.

3. Pyroshell Caster

• Traits: Secondary Explosion, Seeking Flares, Anti-Gravity Projectiles
• Great AoE weapon for mob control.

4. Coilspine Shredder

• Traits: Negating Discs, Shattering Discs, Retarget
• Effective against bullet-hell rooms; destroys enemy projectiles.

5. Tachyomatic Carbine (Great for early floors)

• Traits: Rising Pitch, High Calibre, Leech Rounds
• Consistent and fast; swap out as enemies scale.

6. Spitmaw Blaster

• Traits: Slug Shot, Piercing Spit, Rapid Spitter
• Riskier, but rewarding if you favor up-close aggression.

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Final Tips to Climb Higher

• Master the Multiplier – It’s your best path to high scores.
• Stack Shields Early – Health won’t save you like shields will.
• Experiment with Builds – Some parasite combos are unexpectedly powerful.
• Practice Weapon Synergy – Learn which traits pair with your favorite artifacts.
• Don’t Panic – A single bad room doesn’t end your run. Recover, adapt, and push forward.

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🎯 Wrap-Up

The Tower of Sisyphus is brutally tough but deeply rewarding. Every mistake teaches you something, and every run is a chance to climb higher, unlock more, and find your rhythm. With the tips in this guide—and a little practice—you’ll be well on your way to dominating the leaderboard.

Good luck out there, Scout—and remember, if you beat my score, don’t tell me. I’m fragile. 😅

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