This guide will help you skip the cooldown period of your weapons in Returnal by using the Overload mechanism.
Returnal has been pushing the players to be quick on their toes and have good reflexes. When you are fighting an alien civilization on their planet, it is you who is an alien and the civilization may not be welcoming towards you. So to survive, you will need to learn some tips and tricks and use whatever the environment gives you. Some of these hide in plain sight, just like the overload mechanism. If you want to make your weapon a never-ending source of ammo without having to wait out the cooldown period, keep reading this guide. We will tell you how the Overload mechanism works in Returnal and what is the trick to having no cooldown period with instant reload for your weapons.
Overload is a reload feature for your weapon in Returnal that skips the cooldown period after your weapon is overheated from constant firing and gives you an instant reload.
When you are firing your weapon back to back by holding down R2, your weapon will have a second’s cooldown period. In this short time frame, there will be a small white bar that you see loading from left to right in the middle of the screen. This bar has a small rectangular box in the middle of it. If you time it right and press R2 when the bar is in that rectangular box, the bar will turn yellow. This indicates that you have successfully reloaded your weapon with ammo instantly. If you miss this window and cannot press R2 on time, your weapon will have a longer cool-down period. Every weapon has its own reload timer so it is vital that you do not act too quickly or too slowly.
So that is all for our guide on how the Overload mechanism works in Returnal to help you reload your weapon instantly. If you would like to know how to get the Act 3 ending in Returnal, make sure you check that guide out too.