Hearkening back to the days of the PS1, Signalis is a sci-fi horror game from developer rose-engine that was released this month on consoles and PC. It is set in a dystopian retrotech future and stars Elster, a "Replika" (i.e., an android) who is awakened when her spaceship crash lands on a barren, snowy planet. As she explores the nearby abandoned facility, she encounters terrifying android monsters and a seemingly alien presence.
Taking nods from classic games such as Resident Evil and Silent Hill,Signalis pays homage to its old-school roots with a fixed isometric camera, limited inventory, and text-based decision-making. A game in this style may be foreign to players who aren't familiar with how horror games used to play back in the 90s. Here are the most essential tips for surviving this terrifying adventure.
Updated February 16, 2023, by Evan Regan: As Signalis has steadily gained popularity around the gaming community - in large part due to its unique design and the word-of-mouth promotion from those who've played it - several new factors have arisen that make for important tips in the game's early going. While the fakeout ending has gotten dozens of players to think they've finished the game (when in fact there's a whole story act that comes after), there are some additional tops that simply make the process of getting through the game a less stressful experience. As such, this list has been updated to add more helpful advice for new players.
13 Save At Every Opportunity
Signalis doesn't allow players to save whenever they want. Instead, there are rooms that provide a safe haven where players can save their game, and these rooms can be returned to at any point. It is a good idea to do so.
Saving after clearing an important objective or a difficult puzzle has obvious benefits, but it's also good to double back and save when players pick up a bunch of resources or ammo, or before going into a combat situation. It's never obvious when players may run into a creature that will kill them. Regardless of how ready they think they are, they'll get bounced back to their last save all the same.
12 Don't Rush
As with any survival horror title, it's a big ask when players are told to not rush their way to the finish line. Enemies are scary, the environments are scary, and even just ambient sounds playing in the background are scary. It makes hurrying forward an appealing idea; anything to escape unscathed.
In Signalis, as with many other games that share this genre, rushing is often a bad idea. It makes it far too easy to miss the solution to a puzzle, a key item or collection of resources, or even the next save room. Every single discovery that players make in the game will help them later on, and missing any of them will just make their journey harder.
11 Puzzle Solutions Are Never Far Away
There are some genuinely tricky puzzles in Signalis. It's one of the game's many excellent features, as these puzzles are both pleasantly challenging and very rewarding. There are a few head-scratchers though, and players may find themselves wandering through nearby rooms looking for answers.
While sometimes adjacent rooms are a part of the solution, answers will almost never be found further away than that. Because there isn't anything stopping players from wandering off, they may venture into room after room looking for answers or clues. Rest assured, they won't be there. Puzzles can always be solved in close proximity to where they are located.
10 Aiming Can Increase Damage
While combat isn't always the best route to take, sometimes players will have no choice but to start blasting away at the various zombielike androids populating the facility. Ammo is scarce, but luckily, Elster has a laser sight which can help her accuracy.
When players aim at any enemy, they'll notice a red box appears around their target. The longer they aim, the smaller the box will get. While it's not a hyper-specific indicator, the smaller that box is, the more damage each shot will do. There will be times when players can't wait for it to shrink and need to shoot immediately, but when the option is there, an instant or two longer can save several precious pieces of ammo in the long run.
9 Don't Waste Ammo
Speaking of precious ammo, there isn't a ton of it in the game. Players will need to make each shot count, and when the monsters are closing in fast, that can be a hard thing to pull off. The first rule of thumb is to not miss any shots, but the second rule of thumb should be: if there's no need to shoot, avoid combat entirely.
The best way to know if shooting or stealthing is the best course of action is to go by the size of the room. If it's an enclosed space, like a narrow hallway or a small storage room, shooting may be the only safe way to go. If it's a bigger room with lots of paths to take around the enemies, players can safely stealth their way through without using up any ammo.
8 Push Enemies Away
In those aforementioned smaller rooms, combat can get a little hairy when the enemies get in close. It becomes hard to aim at them, and often they will be able to attack before players have the chance to aim and fire off a shot.
Luckily, there is a solution. If an enemy gets too close, simply press the "Fire" button without aiming and Elster will instead push the enemy away. It doesn't do a ton of damage — it's no Resident Evil knife, that's for sure. But it will create some distance between the player and the creature, at which point aiming and shooting (or running away) will be much easier.
7 Enemies Don't Stay Dead
All that stuff about combat vs. stealth, saving ammo, etc.? It's all temporary. Enemies won't stay dead in Signalis no matter how many bullets get pumped into them. It's not even like a Dark Souls situation where enemies respawn after the player dies or saves. Their "deaths" are on a timer. Spend too long in a room with an enemy's corpse, and eventually, it will get back up again.
This is another reason why stealth is the best option whenever possible. Occasionally, an enemy will need to be killed to acquire resources or a puzzle solution. If that's the case, players can use a Flare to burn the enemy's body, ensuring they stay down for good. Flares are exceptionally rare though, so save them for the most important moments.
6 Try Every Door
There are a ton of doors in Signalis. Some will be wide open, some can be opened by interacting with them, and others will be locked. Those locked doors can be unlocked by solving puzzles, finding keys, or occasionally through more nefarious methods.
The thing is, the only way for a door to be marked on the map as locked or unlocked is if the player has already tried to open it. This is obviously convenient for players who want to fully explore the game, but it's also useful for knowing which areas players can't yet access but will need to later. The map keeps track of unfinished puzzles, unexplored locations, and incomplete objectives, so keeping it updated will be extremely helpful.
5 Enemies Linger At Doors
For seasoned PS1 survival-horror veterans, there is an often-used tactic that can help avoid conflict while making exploration much easier. In PS1 games, when entering a room with enemies, simply run through to the next door and exit the room, then double back. Once players leave the room, the enemies return to their regular positions, allowing the player to freely explore the other side of the room without having to fight their way through first.
In Signalis, this tactic won't work. Instead of snapping back to their starting positions, aggroed enemies will hang around the door that players exit through for a few seconds. This means if that player turns around and comes right back in, those enemies will instantly have them surrounded. Enemies will eventually return to their starting positions, but it's important to give them a few seconds to do so if players plan to double back.
4 Manage The Inventory
As stated earlier, Elster has limited inventory slots at her disposal — six of them, to be exact. Weapons take up one slot, and ammo takes up another. Then there are Utility Items, Healing Items, and Key Items, all of which will take up a slot as well.
The best standard loadout is to roll with one weapon and a second slot carrying its ammo. Then, have one Healing Item, one Utility Item (like a Flashlight or a Flare), and two Key Items. Key Items can be rotated in and out of storage as needed, but storage is only available at save points, so don't rely on it too much.
3 Be Ready For Boss Fights
All that talk earlier about saving ammo was because of this . Despite combat being extremely dangerous in Signalis, boss fights are mandatory and can't be stealthed through or escaped. The only way out is to kill the thing standing in Elster's way.
Interestingly, there is an element of Soulslike gameplay to the boss fights. The best approach is often to stand back and observe the boss before attacking. This can reveal ways to avoid their attacks as well as certain weaknesses the boss may have. Players should bring all their stockpiled ammo and their best weapons into these fights. There will be no better time to use them.
2 There Are Multiple Endings
Players might not expect this from their horrific journey through the facility, but Signalis has multiple endings based on the choices they make throughout the campaign. They're all pretty grim, but each ending does represent a starkly different finale to Elster's story.
This is important for several reasons. First, players should think carefully when presented with narrative decisions in the game, as it will play into how the narrative wraps up. But also, it's worth knowing that there is more than one way for the game to end. It makes jumping back in for a second playthrough all the more rewarding.
1 There Is A Fakeout Ending
Yep, on top of multiple actual endings, Signalis pulls a fast one on everyone who plays it by throwing in a fakeout ending at the closure of the game's second act. After a seemingly unsatisfying conclusion to Elster's story, credits will roll, and the game will take players back to the main menu.
Here's the thing: the main menu has changed in the subtlest of ways at this point. Instead of the "Continue" option that's usually listed, the game provides players the option to "Begin." Selecting this will send players through an intro that is eerily similar to the beginning of Signalis' story, but will quickly reveal itself to be a continuation, rather than simply a replay of the game's first hours. Many players were fooled by this, as the fakeout is almost too good and gives very few hints that there is more story to be played.
Signalis was released on October 27th, 2022, and is available on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.