RetroSpace Beginner Guide: 12 Tips for Your First Shift
RetroSpace drops you into Aurora 5 with very little hand-holding. The developers say so themselves: “We don’t have glowing quest markers that show you the way, but we have detailed objectives and lots of other clues.” These habits come from the developers’ forum answers, the patch notes and the first full-game recordings.
Before you start
1. Pick Classic Horror if you are unsure. It is the developers’ recommended difficulty: tough but fair enemies, normal prices and resources, and a quicksave that your death overwrites. Story mode is the gentle option; 1999 mode and Russ Kurtell are for veterans. All four are explained in difficulty and saves.
2. Decide on protected quicksaves. The difficulty screen has a toggle that stops deaths from overwriting your quicksave. It is allowed on every difficulty. Leave it off if you want the intended tension, turn it on if you like to experiment.
Combat and resources
3. Charge the wrench. Hold right mouse for a heavy swing. A developer says it has a 4x damage multiplier and kills an unaware Mothmanaut with a hit to the head. Early ammo is scarce, so this is your main weapon for the first hour.
4. Use the room before your gun. Explosive barrels, steam pipes, electrical boxes and unstable energy cells all damage enemies. Spray water from the cleaner near a powered box, then hit the box to shock anyone in the puddle. More in environment tricks.
5. Scrap what you do not need. Duplicate wrenches, extra pistols and junk all turn into scrap, which buys tech gadgets and weapon upgrades later.
6. Mothmanauts that run are healing. They go to a light source to heal and are vulnerable while they do. Chase them.
Getting around
7. Read every email and audio log. Door codes are almost always in a message nearby: 0937, 1477, 0451, 1234 and others all are. Keep the door code list open in another tab if you just want to get through.
8. Flip the turrets. Each section has a turret override code. Once a turret is friendly it fights for you.
9. Look up. Vents, hatches and box-stack routes are the second way into most rooms. DJ Charlatan’s audio log tip is literally “stack those boxes all the way”.
10. Darkness is cover. The helmet’s light indicator shows how visible you are. Switch lights off or shoot them out, crouch to move silently, and keep the flashlight off when you do not need it. See the stealth guide.
Death and upgrades
11. Go back for your body. When you die, a Helo Dome chamber clones you with a random cloning error. Walk back to your corpse and extract your genes to remove it for free; paying at the Helo Dome also works but costs credits. On harder difficulties you also drop items there. Details in cloning errors.
12. Choose your first Mutamod with intent. The first one is free. Rhino Body boosts melee (only while holding a melee weapon), Unicellular gives you a decoy clone, and Skunk Bomb is the third early option. See Mutamods.
When you feel lost, the walkthrough covers the opening hours in order.
Thanks, janitor. Logged for the next shift.