When you're playing Returnal, it takes a few tries to beat a certain biome and progress in the main story. If you're defeated in a certain biome, you'll have to restart at the crashed ship again. Even though you lose all your progress, there is a silver lining since you unlock some new artifacts or consumables.

Related: Returnal: Crimson Wastes Walkthrough

These items are usually free when you unlock them for the first time, but they come at a cost if you want to get them again. That's where the currencies like Obolites or Ether come into play, and it's important to know how to find and use them.

Updated February 22, 2023, By Sanyam Jain: With time, Returnal has received multiple updates that changed the way you gather and use Ether and Obolites. The process to earn these items is made easier as more interactions were added to the crashed ship itself.

What Are Obolites

Obolites are orange shards that you will find all across Atropos. These can be used to buy items that will help you on your current cycle. Throughout a cycle, Selene can collect hundreds, or even thousands, of Obolites. However, they will all be lost when you die and the cycle restarts.

You can see the amount of Obolites you currently have by looking to the left of the mini-map. There are three options here and they show you the Ether, Atropian Keys, and Obolites in your possession from top to bottom respectively.

How To Use Obolites In Returnal

Since you'll lose all the Obolites you gain during a run, it's important to spend them when you need to. Though it's also important to save this currency for the right time. There are different kinds of Fabricators spread all across Atropos. Here are the most common types of Fabricators you'll find:

• Before a boss room or any major portal, there's a special room that contains a huge Fabricator. This has four different items that you can select, and you can take all four of them if you have enough Obolites.
• Alternatively, you can randomly find a Fabricator containing two pedestals that usually have items that increase your integrity (health) or weapon damage. These items cost quite a lot of Obolites. You can also find Fabricator with just one item.
• There are some broken Fabricators that you can encounter at random places. These machines create a random item whenever you spend Obolites on it. It's usually not worth spending your currency on these Fabricators unless you're in a dire situation.

Fabricators around the world are marked by a white circle with a line stretching on its top and bottom. The machines with four pedestals have a bigger symbol on them and they're the best places to spend your Obolites.

How to Find Obolites in Returnal

Since it's the main currency in the game that you can lose when you're defeated, there are plenty of ways to get them. Here are some of the common methods:

• Every hostile will drop Obolites when they're defeated. Some golden shiny non-aggressive hostiles drop a ton of shards when they're defeated, but they disappear under the ground a few seconds after being spotted.
• Certain containers reveal a statue of the Severed when you open them, as shown above. These containers can give you useful items, Obolites, or spawn a set of three enemies that you'll have to defeat. While it's a good source of currency, you should be careful with them if you're low.
• Some biomes have their unique way of getting a few Obolites. For example, there are glowing eye statues in Overgrown Ruins and pumpkin-like plants scattered across Echoing Ruins. These items don't give a lot of this currency, but it's worth destroying them for a passive income.

Returnal mostly incentivizes long-range battle since you'd like to defeat enemies without getting close to them, but this can strongly affect how much Obolites you earn. When an enemy is defeated, the shards dropped by them disappear after a few seconds.

If you're having problems gaining shards dropped by the enemies, some items can make them last longer on the field.

What Is Ether And How To Use It

When you start the game for the first time, you might not notice any use or existence of the currency called Ether altogether. This currency comes into play in the later stages of the game, and it'll be quite rare to come across them. Ether is a purple shard that has a distinct purple symbol on the map.

Unlike Obolites, you keep this currency even when you're defeated in a particular run. As mentioned above, your Ether is displayed beside your mini-map and they're used for many purposes:

• You'll encounter Malignant Atropian Keys, containers, and other items from the early game itself. The most common use for Ether is clearing the Malignancy off the item so that it doesn't have a chance to trigger a Malfunction. Though this is a pretty bad use for the currency unless you have loads of it.
• After doing a few runs, you'll activate a mechanism called the Cthonos near the crashed ship. You can spend some Ether in this machine to get a new item every time you start a new run. With this, you can start a run with a free item and enter it into the general pool of items that you can get.
• Finally, you can also spend Ether on Reconstructors. You'll find a room with this mechanism once in every biome, and they can give you a second chance. Whenever you're defeated in battle, you'll spawn back at the Reconstructor you interacted with. Though it takes six Ether to activate this machine.

How to Find Ether in Returnal

In the first three biomes, it'll be quite hard to come across Ether. Whenever there's an Ether in the room, you'll be able to see it on the map. Though you might not be able to reach some of the platforms with Ether at the start of the game. Here are the best ways to farm Ether in the game:

• After progressing through the game a little, you'll unlock a simulation mode in the Crashed Ship that will have a daily mission. Embarking on this mission gives you five Ether when you finish it or get defeated in it. This is the best way to get Ether in the game.
• There are certain Vault rooms in every biome that are marked by a yellow door. Finishing this room by defeating all the waves usually gets you one or two Ethers.
• It'll be much more common to encounter this currency once you reach the Echoing Ruins biome. You might even find three of these items in one room. You won't suffer from a lack of Ether in the game once you reach this part.

How To Exchange Obolites And Ether

If you constantly find yourself with loads of Obolites and no Ether, or vice versa, then you might be wondering whether you can exchange one currency for the other. Luckily, you can.

To exchange Obolites and Ether, you need to find a group of Fabricators with four pedestals containing different items. Near the Fabricator, you will find an Obolites Repository, which can be used to trade in either currency. You can trade in 200 Obolites to get 5 Ether, or 5 Ether to get 300 Obolites.

If you've made it much further in a run than usual, it could be worth trading in some Obolites to gain Ether, which you could then use to activate a Reconstructor. This will give you a second chance if the aliens of Atropos manage to kill you. However, activating a Reconstructor won't make you any stronger.

You might feel safer, but enemies will kill you just as easily. If Obolites are scarce and you are going to a boss fight, it might be worth trading in some Ether to gain some more. You could then teleport over to a Fabricator and buy some items to give yourself a better chance of survival.

Next: Returnal: Can You Save The Game?