The Tower of Sisyphus in Returnal is a mysterious and punishing endless mode that challenges players not just with fast-paced combat and increasing difficulty, but also with layers of lore hidden within the Xeno Archives. These archives provide crucial insight into the alien world of Atropos, the mind of Selene, and the history of the enigmatic Sentients. As players ascend the Tower of Sisyphus, they will not only face relentless waves of enemies, but also uncover fragmented memories and cryptic alien messages stored in the Xeno Archives, creating a deeper narrative experience alongside the gameplay. Understanding the significance of the Xeno Archives adds a new layer to the challenge and reveals a hidden depth beneath the action-heavy surface.
Understanding the Tower of Sisyphus
Before diving into the Xeno Archives, it’s important to understand what the Tower of Sisyphus is. This mode, introduced in a later update of Returnal, acts as a survival gauntlet where Selene must climb ever-higher levels filled with enemies and hazards. Unlike the base game’s more exploratory structure, the tower focuses on combat intensity, score chasing, and endurance. Each phase of the tower increases in difficulty, pushing players to test their skill, adaptability, and decision-making under pressure.
While the gameplay is front and center, the Tower of Sisyphus also serves as a vessel for storytelling. Hidden within its structure are fragments of lore, known as the Xeno Archives, that expand the worldbuilding of Atropos and provide insights into the psychological torment Selene endures.
What Are the Xeno Archives?
The Xeno Archives are holographic memory rooms that appear at various stages within the Tower of Sisyphus. They take the form of alien architecture and house visual or auditory flashbacks, strange alien glyphs, and projections of past events. These archives are optional but reward exploration and provide the most compelling lore in the game outside of the main narrative path.
Key Characteristics of Xeno Archives
- They appear as glowing data terminals or alien devices within safe rooms.
- Interacting with them plays a short cutscene or triggers dialogue from Selene.
- Some archives reveal memories tied to Selene’s past, her family, and the crash on Atropos.
- Others provide background on the Sentients, the ancient alien civilization that once ruled Atropos.
- They are not guaranteed to appear in every run, encouraging replay and exploration.
Uncovering Lore Through the Archives
Each Xeno Archive encountered in the Tower of Sisyphus provides a different fragment of lore, and when pieced together, they form a disjointed yet compelling puzzle. Some of the most important narrative moments in Returnal are hidden in these moments, especially as they tie together Selene’s traumatic memories with the alien history of the planet.
Selene’s Psychological Story
Many of the Xeno Archives delve into Selene’s mind, exposing painful fragments of her past. These include glimpses of her childhood, her strained relationship with her mother, and her guilt surrounding a tragic event possibly involving her child. These moments often blur the line between hallucination and reality, reinforcing the theme that Atropos may be a manifestation of her inner torment.
The Fall of the Sentients
Other archives focus on the Sentients, the alien race that once thrived on Atropos. Through cryptic messages and haunting visual representations, players learn of a war, internal division, and the eventual extinction of their civilization. The role of the mysterious White Shadow signal, as well as the existence of the Watchers and the automatons, is hinted at in these entries, offering theories but no clear answers.
The Narrative Function of Xeno Archives
In a game like Returnal, where traditional storytelling is fragmented and non-linear, the Xeno Archives serve as key storytelling tools. They provide context, create emotional impact, and keep players engaged with the underlying mystery of the game. They do not present clean exposition but instead use metaphor, visual symbolism, and haunting audio design to create an immersive narrative atmosphere.
Symbolism and Interpretation
The ambiguous nature of the Xeno Archives invites players to theorize and interpret. Many of the visual motifs such as broken statues, underwater scenes, and glowing orbs tie into recurring symbols found throughout the main game. This gives each archive dual meaning: one within the alien world, and another within Selene’s psyche. Fans have long debated whether Atropos is a literal planet or a representation of Selene’s trauma loop. The archives lean heavily into this ambiguity.
Strategies for Locating Xeno Archives
Since the Tower of Sisyphus is procedurally generated, finding every Xeno Archive can take time and repeated attempts. They are typically found in transition or reward rooms between enemy waves, or hidden in side paths off the main progression route.
Tips for Finding All Xeno Archives
- Explore every accessible side room before continuing upward.
- Look for rooms without enemies archives are often found in safe zones.
- Use the map to identify unusual room shapes or unexplored branches.
- Replay the tower often archives may appear randomly in different runs.
- Pay attention to audio cues some archives are signaled by strange ambient sounds.
Collecting all Xeno Archives may not be necessary for gameplay progression, but for players interested in lore and worldbuilding, they are an essential part of the Returnal experience.
Emotional Impact and Storytelling Depth
The Tower of Sisyphus, though built as a score-based survival mode, becomes something more when viewed through the lens of the Xeno Archives. Each archive adds weight and meaning to Selene’s journey, making the climb feel like more than just a challenge of reflexes. It becomes a metaphorical ascent through trauma, with each floor revealing more about her fractured sense of self and the alien forces she cannot escape.
Blending Gameplay and Narrative
One of the most compelling aspects of Returnal is how it fuses gameplay with storytelling, and the Xeno Archives are a perfect example of that integration. They reward players not just with score boosts or upgrades, but with emotional storytelling and narrative depth. The feeling of discovery, paired with the atmospheric dread of each reveal, builds immersion and keeps players returning to the tower long after they’ve mastered its combat.
The Xeno Archives in the Tower of Sisyphus are more than just lore drops they are the soul of Returnal’s endless climb. Each archive uncovers pieces of a puzzle that is both cosmic and personal, forcing players to confront the mystery of Atropos and the tragedy of Selene in parallel. As players ascend through wave after wave of enemies, they also descend deeper into a complex narrative that rewards attention, interpretation, and patience. For those willing to look beyond the action, the Xeno Archives offer one of the richest storytelling experiences in the game, cementing Returnal as a landmark in atmospheric and emotional design.