Deathloop: Residuum And Infusion Explained

After some significant delays, the highly anticipated shooter from Bethesda and Arkane Studios, "Deathloop," has finally arrived on the PlayStation 5 and PC. Critics have generally been very kind to "Deathloop," despite some review bomb activity from PC players who were unhappy with the game's anti-piracy software. Now that "Deathloop" is out in the world, gamers have begun to dive into the title's stylish time-loop gameplay.

While the main objective of "Deathloop" is to find the perfect sequence for taking out the antagonistic Visionaries, doing so involves a trial and error process. As players navigate the districts of Blackreef, many have begun to notice that there are seemingly unusable objects scattered around the island which glow with an otherworldly sheen.

While it takes some advancement through the story to finally unlock their power, these objects eventually reveal a vital resource, Residuum, which allows players to perform Infusion, an ability that finally provides a bit of much-needed permanence in the narrative of "Deathloop." Here is everything gamers need to know about Residuum, Infusion, and how to use these essential elements.

A key mechanic of "Deathloop" is that if a player fails in their attempt to assassinate each of the visionaries, the loop resets — meaning Colt must begin his campaign from scratch. The game offers little in the way of continuity between runs, meaning that when gamers lose a favorite weapon or item at the end of a run, it could be gone forever.

However, all of that changes after players complete the "Ubiquity" mission by taking out Dr. Wenjie Evans, which is one of the final components of the game's lengthy tutorial section. Once players have defeated Dr. Evans, they will be able to collect Residuum from the glowing objects they have noticed in previous playthroughs and use that resource to perform Infusion on items from the equipment screen. Once Infused with the Residuum's power, weapons and trinkets will automatically appear in the player's loadout in future assassination attempts.

This action essentially gives players a permanent loadout that they can count on having at the start of every run. While fans on Reddit worried that the Infusion process might only carry over until the next run, players soon confirmed that this was not the case. Once an item is infused, it remains in play until permanently replaced by a new weapon or object of the same type.

The ability to keep powerful weapons between runs is a game-changing mechanic, and players should always be on the lookout for more Residuum and items to use it on.

There are three main ways in which players can acquire more Residuum. The resource can be harvested from the glowing objects found around Blackreef. One of the best examples of this is the Updaam Safe, which when opened reveals a flask worth a considerable cache of Residuum. However, players can more consistently earn Residuum by defeating Visionaries — which is already a necessary task in every run. Finally, players can destroy unneeded weapons and items, which yields a small amount of Residuum for each item sacrificed.

Sacrificing items is a crucial method of building up Residuum, because anything that has not received an Infusion will be lost at the end of a loop, as will any unused Residuum. In other words, players need to be mindful of using any Residuum they have before it goes to waste.

It should also be noted that there is one way in which the player can hang on to Residuum during a run, if only temporarily. If Colt dies but has used a Reprise Slab, any lost Residuum will be retrievable at the spot where the player died previously. If the player dies before reclaiming that Residuum, however, it'll be gone from the loop for good.