Team Asobi launched a new Astro’s Playroom update, with the second of four new Bots available now. Players who unlock these new bots can bring them into the upcoming Astro Bot, which releases on September 6.
What’s in the new Astro’s Playroom update?
Team Asobi’s studio head, Nicolas Doucet, reiterated in Monday’s PlayStation Blog post that the upcoming Astro Bot game sees players rescuing 300 bots scattered across multiple galaxies. Half of them are cameo Bots referencing other PlayStation games. These include Bloodborne and Returnal, from which Astro’s Playroom got the first two new Special Bots. Players have been able to unlock Lady Maria since last month, with the Bot version of Returnal protagonist Selene arriving in the second update.
As with the previous Astro’s Playroom update, the studio tasked the player with finding Selene somewhere in the game and then completing a puzzle to rescue her. According to Team Asobi’s Studio Head, Nicolas Doucet, players found and freed Lady Maria in under three hours. The next new Bot arrives in August, with the fourth coming in September. Based on the trophy names and teasers, they will be based on Gran Turismo and Ape Escape.
How to unlock Lady Maria and Selene
To unlock Lady Maria, Astro’s Playroom players need to head to the Render Forest area in the CPU jungle. Maria’s capsule will appear when players climb to the top of a large plant behind the Bloodborne Hunter Bot. They then need to search the trees above for a clock symbol matching the one on the pod. Standing near the clock and pressing the Options button brings up a screen where players must enter the date 24/11/2015, the release date for Bloodborne’s The Old Hunters DLC. Doing so unlocks Lady Maria and the Hunted Down trophy.
Meanwhile, the Selene Bot is in the Deep Dataspace of Astro’s Playroom’s SSD Speedway. To the left of the buried Ball Shooter chest is a swirling vortex. Players must jump toward the vortex to land on the hidden platform to reveal Selene’s pod. Then, they must proceed through the shooting section, stopping in the room with the low-hanging lights. They will find a small astronaut doll on the walkways above. This being a Returnal reference, players then need to die and respawn to free Selene.