Malfunction and Parasite Effects

Explore Malfunctions and Parasite effects in Returnal, including buffs like surviving a killing blow and debuffs like suffering damage when using keys.

Malfunctions

• While in midair, -50% Weapon Damage
• Suffer damage when using keys
• Hostiles counter on hit (red bullet shoots from enemy when hit)
• Hostiles leave behind acid pools upon death
• At Full Integrity, -50% Weapon Damage
• Random Artifact disabled
• Overload disabled
• Suffer damage on Overload
• Fabricator costs increased by 25%
• Suffer damage when collecting items
• Protection reduced by 20%
• Obolites disappear 1.5s faster
• Map is scrambled
• Reduced Repair Efficiency by 30%
• Lose Obolites when suffering damage
• At Low Integrity, -30% Weapon Damage
• Reduced Max Integrity (around 30% lost, does not restore automatically on cleanse)
• Alt-Fire Cooldown increased by 10s
• Increased Dash Cooldown by 2.5s
• While stationary, -75% Weapon Damage
• Cannot pick up new weapons
• Proficiency gain disabled

Parasites

Parasites can be picked up in Returnal, offering buffs in exchange for debuffs. It is recommended to examine the debuff first to determine if the trade-off is worth the potential handicap for the rest of your run. Parasites can be removed.

Buffs

• Greatly increases Max Integrity (+25% Integrity gain likely)
• Fabrication costs reduced by 15%
• Fixes or prevents x1 Malfunction, detaches afterwards (can have a sneaky debuff like 'Greatly reduce Max Integrity on detach')
• Discounts one item by 30%, detaches afterwards
• Increases Repair Efficiency by 20%
• Survive a killing blow, detaches afterwards (always worth taking)
• 1 fewer kill required to increase Adrenaline Levels
• Doubles Obolite collection radius
• Autorepairs while at Low Integrity
• Find Salvage from hostiles more often
• Increases Proficiency Rate by 20%
• Increases Protection by 15%
• Allows a Key to be reused, detaches after first use
• Melee kills repair Integrity (always coupled with 'Inhibits the use of Silphium resources' debuff; restores a surprisingly small amount)
• 25% chance to not lose a Consumable on use
• Reduces Malfunction probability
• 50% chance to find better Salvage from hostiles
• Reduces Alt-Fire Cooldown by 3s
• Allows a Consumable to be reused, detaches after first use

Debuffs

• Suffer damage when using Atropian Keys
• Reduces Repair Efficiency by 30%
• Reduces Protection by 10%
• Melee damage reduced by -50%
• Hostiles leave behind a pool of acid upon death
• Suffer damage when picking up items
• Suffer damage from long falls
• Dropped Obolites disappear 1s faster
• Greatly reduces Max Integrity on detach (saps about 25% of Integrity bar)
• Suffer damage to Integrity on detach
• Triggers a Critical Malfunction on detach
• Triggers 2 Malfunctions on detach
• Increases the chance of finding Malignant items
• Alt-Fire Cooldown increased by 5s
• 1 additional kill required to increase Adrenaline Levels
• Upcoming Malfunctions have harder fix requirements
• Upcoming Malfunctions have more severe effects
• Increases Malfunction probability
• Reduces Proficiency Rate by 15%
• Greatly increases Melee Cooldown & Dash Cooldown (Dash cooldown increases from 1s to 2.5s; Melee cooldown increases from 1s to 5s)
• Inhibits the use of Silphium resources (always coupled with 'Melee kills repair Integrity' buff)