Deathloop Important Notes guide screenshot

Important Notes

Important Notes

This section contains critical warnings, pitfalls, and facts that can save you from frustration or permanently missing content. Read carefully before diving into Deathloop.

Warnings & Pitfalls

Time Loop Resets Almost Everything: Each loop (day) resets your position, weapons, and progression—except for permanently infused items (using Residuum). If you don’t infuse a weapon or trinket before midnight, it’s lost forever.

Death Kills Your Day: If you die as Colt, the entire day resets. You lose all uninfused loot you acquired during that loop. However, you keep any infused items and unlocked leads.

Julianna Invasions (Online & Offline): If you play online, other players can invade as Julianna to kill you. This can happen at any time during a level. Offline, an AI controls Julianna but is much less threatening. If you’re frustrated, switch to single-player mode in settings.

Don’t Waste Residuum Early: Residuum is hard to earn early on. Only infuse items you are sure you’ll use repeatedly. Blowing Residuum on a common SMG is a rookie mistake.

Visionaries Can Be Killed Repeatedly: You can kill the same Visionary on different days, but you only get one slab per loop. If you already own that slab, you’ll get a duplicate upgrade instead.

Avoid Killing Everyone Needlessly: Killing non-Visionary enemies doesn’t permanently help; it can alert others or waste time. Stealth is often faster.

Irreversible Choices

Infusion of Items: Once you spend Residuum to infuse a weapon, trinket, or slab upgrade, that Residuum is gone. You cannot sell or trade infused items. Choose wisely.

Story Lead Progress: Once you discover a lead and update it, you cannot undo it. But leads carry over between loops, so this is fine.

Killing a Visionarian in a Specific Way: Some achievements require specific methods (e.g., killing all Visionaries during “The Class” event). If you miss these, you must replay the loop. No way to revert a previous loop.

Character Dialogue Choices: Occasionally you’ll have dialogue prompts (e.g., with Juliana during the ending). These do not permanently affect the story outcomes, but the ending tone changes. You can reload a save before the final choice if needed.

Missable Content

Achievements & Trophies: Several achievements are missable if you don’t complete specific actions in the same loop. For example:

Lore Documents & Audio Logs: Many documents appear only if you follow specific leads or are in certain locations at the right time. If you skip an area, you might miss lore that explains the story. Replayable, but it’s easy to miss.

Special Weapon Variants: Some unique weapons (e.g., “Heritage Gun”) are only rewards for finishing specific side quests or killing a Visionary under special conditions. Check the Arsenal shortcuts.

Julianna’s Drops: If you kill Julianna (AI or player), she drops high-level trinkets. If you ignore her invasions, you lose that loot.

Difficulty Spikes

First Few Loops (No Upgrades): Early game is hardest because you have no powers and weak weapons. Use stealth, avoid unnecessary fights.

Player-Invading Juliannas: If you play online, experienced Julianna players can be devastating. Stick to offline if you’re struggling.

The Final “Golden Loop”: Killing all eight Visionaries in one day is extremely challenging. You must plan a route, use abilities like “Shift” (teleport), and have full loadout. Save often before major encounters.

Boss Battles: Each Visionary has a unique combat style. For example, Egor (if you confront him in his lab) summons Wenjie clones. Learn patterns and use the environment.

Grinding Traps

Farming Residuum on Repeat: You can earn Residuum by killing Visionaries and grabbing their earrings, but it’s slow. A better method is to complete leads that reward large Residuum infusions (e.g., the “Rak” quest). Don’t spend hours killing the same enemies for 200 Residuum.

Over-Farming Weapons: Once you have a solid loadout (e.g., a silenced SMG, a strong shotgun, and grenade launcher), there’s no need to keep collecting new weapons. Infuse your favorites and ignore drops.

Repeating the Same Route: Doing the same area over and over is inefficient. Mix up your objectives—use the map to plan which Visionaries to kill each day.

Online Etiquette & Anti-Cheat

Invasion Respect: If you invade as Julianna, don’t resort to cheap tactics (e.g., camping spawns). It’s more fun for both players if you engage dynamically.

No Cheating: Deathloop uses a modified version of the Void engine; no official anti-cheat is enforced for single-player, but online invasions rely on peer-to-peer connections. Use of mods that give infinite health or ammo ruins the experience for others. Report toxic players via the Bethesda support.

Offline Mode: If you prefer no invasions, go to Settings → Gameplay → “Online Mode” and set it to Offline. This disables player Juliannas but also blocks you from invading others (which is fine).

Save Scumming: You can manually back up your save files on PC to avoid losing progress, but this is not supported officially. Save manipulation may corrupt your game if done incorrectly.

Save Management

Auto-Save: The game auto-saves at checkpoints: entering a new area, opening a safe, after killing a Visionary, and at the start of each morning segment. You cannot manually save the game; you must rely on these auto-saves.

Exiting Without Saving: If you quit the game, the auto-save from your last checkpoint will be loaded. If you die and want to revert to an earlier point, you can’t—you must restart the loop.

Backup Saves (PC): To safeguard against corruption, navigate to your save folder (typically `%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Deathloop\save`) and copy the `save_*.sav` files to another location. Replace them later if needed. This can be used to attempt different endings without replaying.

PS5 Save Restore: On consoles, you can use cloud saves (PS Plus) to revert, but this is cumbersome. Better to be careful with decisions.

Things Players Commonly Regret Not Knowing Earlier

You Can Rebind Powers: Deathloop lets you assign each slab (power) to a different key or button (PC) or controller face button. Don’t keep the default layout; customize it for quick access.

Shift (Teleport) Is the Best Power: The “Shift” slab, obtained from Wenjie, is arguably the most useful for mobility and escaping bad situations. Get it early and upgrade it (e.g., to “Reach” for longer range).

Nerf (Hack) Turrets: The “Nerf” slab lets you hack turrets and mines. This trivializes many areas. Find it in the “Complex” area early.

Sprinter Trinket Doubles Sprint Speed: Equip the “Sprinter” trinket (found on some Julianna kills or in loot rooms) to move faster and cover more ground.

You Can Parry Melee Attacks: When an enemy swings with a melee attack, press the melee button at the right time to parry and instantly kill them. Practice with Wenjie’s Egor clones.

Residuum Can Be Obtained by Sacrificing Unused Items: When you leave a loop, you can sacrifice weapons and trinkets to gain Residuum. Don’t just leave good items behind—sacrifice them if you don’t want to infuse.

The “Class” Ability: Finding Eva L’Étoile’s shared memory can unlock the “Class” ability, which lets you disguise as enemy soldiers. This changes stealth gameplay completely.

Collect All Lead Clues: Ignoring side leads means you might miss important information or weapon upgrades. Even if you think you know the puzzle, explore all leads.

Quick Travel Between Safe Rooms: Each district has underground tunnels (e.g., “Karla’s Door”, “Mineshaft”). Opening them from inside gives shortcuts for later loops. Don’t forget to unlock them.

You Can Fast-Travel the Map: At the start of each morning segment, you can choose where to go. Use the map button to see all possible locations and restrict yourself to a few objectives per day to stay manageable.

The Ending Choice: The final decision (whether to ally with Juliana or shoot her) leads to different cutscenes and achievements. Save before the final area if you want to see both endings without another playthrough.