Master the unlock process for Bill and Marlene in No Return with strategic tips and expert guidance
Introduction to the New Playable Characters
Bill and Marlene represent a welcome homecoming for fans, added as playable operatives within The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered: No Return roguelike mode. While both figures were pivotal in the original narrative, their inclusion here answers long-standing community requests. Accessing them isn’t automatic; it requires dedicated effort to complete specific in-game trials that test your adaptability and resource management.
This guide breaks down the exact requirements, offering strategic insights to streamline your progress. Unlike some progression systems, Naughty Dog has designed these unlocks to be persistent and forgiving, respecting your time while offering meaningful goals for dedicated players.
Mastering Gambits to Unlock Marlene
Gambits are optional, dynamically generated side objectives that appear during your runs. Successfully clearing them rewards you with valuable currency for Trading Posts, bonus ammunition, and other tactical advantages. To unlock Marlene, you must complete a total of five Gambits.
These objectives vary wildly in complexity. Simple ones may ask you to eliminate all enemies using stealth takedowns or to deliver specific items to a Dead Drop. High-risk Gambits could challenge you to finish an entire encounter without sustaining any damage. The key is that progress is cumulative. You do not need to finish five in one perfect run; you can chip away at them across multiple attempts, even failed ones.
Pro Tip: If you’re short on time or find certain Gambits too punishing, utilize the Custom Run option. This allows you to tailor the experience, adjusting the difficulty to complete objectives more efficiently without sacrificing progress.
Once unlocked, Marlene brings the firepower of the Fireflies to your team. She wields a customized assault rifle, a weapon familiar from The Last of Us Part I, known for its high damage output and significant recoil that requires careful burst-fire control.
Her unique character traits define a high-risk, high-reward playstyle:
- One-Time Path Reroute: Allows a single mid-run change to your planned route, offering a tactical mulligan.
- All or Nothing Gambits: Gambits provide dramatically increased rewards but are automatically failed if not completed, demanding commitment.
- Calculated Upgrade Branch: Provides more predictable and potentially powerful upgrade paths for her weapons and skills.
Marlene excels in aggressive, decisive play. Her traits encourage engaging with the Gambit system fully, making her ideal for confident players who like structured, high-stakes challenges.
Navigating Dead Drops to Unlock Bill
To recruit the grizzled smuggler Bill, your task shifts from Gambits to scavenging. You must locate and deposit three specifically requested items into Dead Drops. These are blue postal boxes hidden throughout various combat arenas.
Finding Dead Drops: Activate your listening mode (hold R1 on DualSense) to scan the environment. Dead Drops will be highlighted with a distinct audio cue and visual outline. They are only available during the Assault and Hunted encounter types, so focus your efforts on those missions.
Preparation is Key: Before embarking on an Assault or Hunted run, check the requested item at the mission start. If it’s a crafted item like a health kit or molotov, ensure you have the necessary components (rags, alcohol, etc.) and sweep the area thoroughly for materials. The request will not change mid-run, so you can plan your crafting accordingly.
Just like Marlene’s objective, your three successful Dead Drop deliveries are tracked across all your runs. A failed run or even quitting to the menu does not reset this count.
Bill’s inclusion is a pure fan-service victory, bringing his paranoid, survivalist expertise from Lincoln directly into the tense, round-based combat of No Return. His playstyle favors preparation, stealth, and opportunistic strikes.
Advanced Unlock Strategies & Rewards
A critical nuance is that you cannot unlock both characters in a single run. The game tracks progress toward each character independently, forcing you to choose which unlock to pursue during any given attempt. This is a minor inconvenience, as the challenges are manageable, particularly on lower difficulty settings.
After adding Bill and Marlene to your roster, you can pursue their alternate cosmetic skins by completing more stringent versions of their unlock criteria.
- Marlene’s “Salt Lake City” Skin: Complete five Gambits within a single, continuous run (no quitting or failing).
- Bill’s “Western” Skin: Successfully deposit three requested items into Dead Drops during a single run where you are playing as Bill himself.
These skin challenges are the true test of skill and consistency, designed for players seeking mastery.
Completionists can also chase related trophies. Finishing all Part I character challenges earns the nostalgic trophy “This Makes You All Nostalgic?”. Two other combat-focused trophies are available:
- Use Bill with a pump-action shotgun to eliminate a Bloater enemy.
- Use Marlene’s unique assault rifle to defeat 15 enemies within a single encounter.
These trophies incentivize experimenting with each character’s specific loadout and strengths.
Pro Tips & Common Pitfalls
Optimization Strategy: Dedicate specific runs to specific goals. Start a run aiming only for Gambits, ignoring Dead Drops, and vice-versa. Use Custom Runs to set a comfortable difficulty (like Light) to focus purely on objective completion without the pressure of brutal combat.
Common Mistake to Avoid: Wasting resources on a Dead Drop run. If a mission requests a Medkit, don’t craft and use it for healing—save it exclusively for the drop. Manage your health through other means during that encounter.
Gambit Selection: You can sometimes see the Gambit objective before fully committing to a path. If a Gambit seems impossible (e.g., “No Damage” on a crowded Hunted mission), it’s okay to ignore it and try for a different one next run. Persistence is rewarded over perfection.
Difficulty is Your Friend: There is no penalty for lowering the difficulty to complete these unlocks. If you’re struggling with the combat while also managing Gambits or Dead Drops, switch to an easier setting. The unlocks and rewards are the same.
Listener Mode Discipline: Make tapping into listening mode a habitual part of your exploration in Assault/Hunted modes. The audio cue for a Dead Drop is easy to miss during tense gameplay. Frequent scanning prevents you from missing a box hidden behind scenery.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. For more advanced tactics and performance guides, explore our related coverage.
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