The Carcosan Modifiers system in Saros allows you to manipulate the difficulty of a Cycle by altering specific parameters. While the system is entirely optional, and provides neither direct resource bonuses - like increased Lucenite - nor penalties, it is the most powerful tool at your disposal if you are struggling with the game's intense combat.
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How to Unlock Carcosan Modifiers
To unlock this system, you must complete the Shattered Rise biome and defeat the first boss, Prophet. Once the boss is down, the system becomes available at the Primary Unit for all future runs.
How the Modifier Dial Works
To activate your selected modifiers, you must balance their negative (–) and positive (+) values.
- Balanced / Overloaded: Your modifiers will only activate if the dial sits in the center or right segments.
- Underpowered: If the dial moves into the left segment, the modifiers will be disabled.
The Best Easy Progression Modifier Setup
If you want the combat advantages of the system without the massive gameplay restrictions, use the following Balanced setup. It puts you at the very edge of the dial's center segment, providing a massive buff to your combat efficiency with minimal downsides.
Protections (The Buffs):
- Damage Enhancement II: Increases damage dealt to all hostiles.
- Armor Enhancement II: Decreases incoming damage to your Armor Integrity.
- Artifact Enhancement: Increases the Tier of all Artifacts found during the Cycle.
Trials (The Trade-offs):
- Lucenite Devaluation II: Reduces the amount of Lucenite retained upon returning to the Passage.
- Halcyon Removal: Prevents Halcyon pickups from appearing in a Cycle.
Why This Setup Works
The reduced Lucenite gain is a minor inconvenience rather than a roadblock, especially once you have upgraded your suit to increase the amount of Lucenite dropped by defeated enemies. Furthermore, the lack of Halcyon pickups can be easily managed by replaying a biome without the Trial active once you have farmed enough permanent upgrades.
Generally, these two Trials are the best anchor points for the system. They allow you to experiment with other Protections without making the game significantly more challenging for your next cycle.
This concludes the guide. For more help, visit our Saros: Complete Walkthrough & Guide hub.
Guide based on a completed playthrough on base PlayStation 5. Screenshots captured from the same version.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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