The Callisto Protocol: Tips & Tricks to Survive the Hellish Space Prison

by Mike Alexander / Articles, Misc. Guides / 02 Sep 2022

Gamers have gone quite a long time without a sci-fi horror game set on a spaceship full of mutated nightmare monsters, but the end of 2022 brought us The Callisto Protocol, and the beginning of 2023 will bring us a remake of the game that started the genre: Dead Space.

While we wait for Dead Space Remake, we have the new brainchild of Glen Schofield to tide us over. If you haven’t played The Callisto Protocol yet, it is a terrifying, gruesomely violent trek into the heart of an overrun prison ship called Black Iron Prison. Like the original Dead Space, there are plenty of horrific ways for protagonist Jacob Lee (brought to life by Josh Duhamel) to be ripped apart and maimed. However, avoiding these violent acts is the only way to make it to the end of the game, unfortunately.

To help you get there, we have put together this list of tips & tricks for The Callisto Protocol. If you want to help Jacob fight his way to freedom, pick up your electrified baton, and let’s get started.

Get Ready to Move!

Like most third-person, over-the-shoulder action games, The Callisto Protocol has a dodge function that allows you to get out of harm’s way in an instant. This is done by holding the left analog stick in the direction you want to dodge, and then pressing the dodge button. This is good to know, but you should also be aware that you can prepare for a dodge if you can tell an attack is incoming.

If you hold the analog stick in a direction as the enemy winds up for an attack, you’ll be able to react much faster than if you had to do the entire dodge input before you get hit. Enemies will also sometimes go for a follow-up hit, so you can hold the analog stick in the opposite direction to prepare for that as well while they are recovering from the first attack.

Stand Your Ground

Sometimes, dodging won’t be your best option. Later in the game when you’re facing off against 3-4 monsters at once, that dodge you land might just put you in range of another monster’s attack, which will leave you unprepared and defenseless.

To avoid this, it would be better to block enemy attacks in these situations. This can allow you to keep all of your targets in your line of sight, and plan your next moves accordingly.

This Isn’t Call of Duty

The Callisto Protocol is a survival horror game. That means one thing… heart palpitations. Ok, maybe it means two things: heart palpitations and resource scarcity. At the beginning of the game, it might seem like you’re rolling in bullets, and there should be no issue in blasting away at any monster that crosses your path.

However, that will quickly change. At a certain point in the game, ammo will be all but impossible to find, causing you to rely more on melee attacks. But, if you save up your ammo instead of pretending you’re playing an FPS, you’ll be in a better situation later on.

Aim for the Head

One notable enemy type that will no doubt give new players some trouble are the acid spitters. These things will hit you from long range, adding extra stress to encounters with several other melee-based enemies.

However, you can disable their long-range attack with a few well-placed shots to the… head? It’s not really clear what the appendage on their shoulders is, but if you shoot it off, they can’t spit acid at you anymore. If you’re saving up ammo anyways, you should have whatever you need to even up the odds.

Keep an Eye Out for Loot

The path through Black Iron Prison is pretty linear, so it is unlikely that you will get lost at any point in the game. However, there will sometimes be areas that seem like they branch, and if those rooms or paths have something like “storage” or “maintenance” in their name, you might just be able to find some goodies in there.

When you enter those areas, keep an eye out for chests and other pick-ups that can help you progress through the game. If you happen upon a ladder or some other path downward, that means there are extras at the bottom! It is usually clear when you’ll be moving into a new area, so backtracking is possible for most of the game.

Mike Alexander

Mike has been playing video games since he was able to hold a controller, having been fascinated by Sonic 2 on his mom’s Sega Genesis. That fascination and passion for the art form has grown exponentially nearly 30 years later, and he doesn’t see that fading away anytime soon.
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