Astro’s Playroom second update is now available, hiding a new Special Bot in-game

Hi everyone! We hope you are getting ready for a good summer and have enjoyed the last few weeks of gaming news. 

As we gear up for Astro Bot’s launch on September 6, we wanted to let you in on a few surprises we have been reserving for our community.

In Astro Bot, you and Astro go on a mission to rescue the 300 bots crew who got scattered all over the galaxies. Many of the bots making up the crew are cameo characters that have marked the PlayStation history. There are over 150 to collect, each with their own funny animations relating to the game they originally came from.

To add a spice of fun, we’ve been hiding 4 of these Special Bots inside Astro’s Playroom, which came pre-loaded in every PS5 console. By unlocking these 4 hidden characters in Astro’s Playroom, you will be able to take them with you into the new game, Astro Bot, and add them to your starting crew. Are you following so far?

On June 7, we dropped in the first of these 4 Special Bots. Being cheeky robots ourselves, we thought it would be fun to turn this into a treasure hunt riddle and see how long it would take anyone to figure it out. What a big surprise to see it took the community less than 3 hours to clear that riddle. That was quite incredible. If you have missed it, here is a quick rundown of what you have to do.

We hid a secret capsule in the first area of GPU Jungle (Render Forest). To make it appear, you must stand on top of a big plant near the edge of the level, just behind the Bloodborne Hunter Bot. Inside the capsule, another Special Bot (Lady Maria) appears to be trapped and needs rescuing.

On the capsule itself, we included a small hint showing the image of a clock. But what could that mean? Looking carefully around the level nearby, you will find a similar clock symbol carved into one of the trees up above. It takes a few jumps to get there. It is at the back of a tree, the furthest away.

That’s when things get trickier (or so we thought!). Standing on that spot, you have to pause the game by pressing the options button. Instead of the normal pause, that makes a special Astral Clock screen appear. By entering the number 24.11.2015 (or November 24, 2015, the original release date of the Bloodborne DLC featuring Lady Maria), the hands of the clock magically turn and…

The capsule opens, letting our Special Bot free. Well done, let’s celebrate with a trophy!

Once freed, Lady Maria will wait for you in the Mission Room, ready to be transferred to Astro Bot when you are ready.

Just a few days ago, we added a second Special Bot, Selene, from the PS5 title Returnal. Once again, working together, you were able to crack the riddle and free her to make it 2 out of 4.

We hope you enjoy these updates as much as we had fun making them! In addition to these Special Bots, the PlayStation Labo received an update, so we invite you to check it out and add new artefacts to your collection. 

That’s all for now. But the treasure hunt does not end here! We will be back soon with 2 more riddles on the run-up to the release of Astro Bot. And by the looks of it, we might have to make the next ones even harder. 

Thank you all for playing along with us, and we will see you soon!

Team Asobi out.