Returnal’s First Boss Is Also The Deadliest In The Game, According To Housemarque

Returnal has been out on PS5 for nearly a month, and developer Housemarque has plenty of data regarding players’ behavior in the unique arcade shooter-style roguelite. Just how many times have players died, how many enemies have been slain by Selene, and how many hours have been played overall? Unsurprisingly, the numbers for all of those and more are pretty high. What’s a little more surprising, at least at first, is what killed so many players.

Over the past month, players have racked up nearly six million collectively hours of Returnal runs, which roughly translates to 684 years of gameplay. Throughout those runs, players have slain over a billion enemies, while Housemarque’s enemy AI has bested players over nine million times.

Perhaps the most surprising stat that was shared concerns the game’s first boss, Phrike. It turns out this is the enemy that has killed players the most, which drives home just how challenging Returnal can be before you’ve unlocked a couple of weapon mods and found your groove with its action. Less surprising is players’ favorite weapon, with the Hollowseeker and its ridiculously powerful modifications coming out on top.

Returnal is regularly receiving updates that continue to balance the game’s exhilarating gunplay and fix persistent crashes and other technical issues, while Housemarque has stated that it is actively looking at addressing the game’s lack of a save system. It’s still one of the best games of the year despite that, with GameSpot’s Returnal review reading, “Returnal’s many moving parts coalesce into a rare shooter that grabs you with its mechanics and its story and never lets go, seducing you with its challenges and a foreboding sense of dread every step of the way.”