A short guide to quickly reference before a run. This guide is not intended for complete beginners and assumes you have a basic understanding of the game.

Info

None of this includes Void DLC info as I don’t own it.

This is all the knowledge i have from not only playing the game but also reading and watching other guides. I wanted a guide I can quickly reference before a run. I wanted to make it as short as possible to check quickly just to get an idea of what i should be focusing on.

Every survivor is viable and can have fantastic runs. Play who you wanna play, how you wanna play. You may disagree with this guide and that’s fine. This is not the only right way to play.

Movement speed items are generally good for all survivors so I don’t really mention them.

Most items are generally good for everyone but these items are especially good on each specific survivor.

This is not an end all be all guide. Play how you wanna play.

Acrid

Tips: Other than early game, Acrid’s melee viability is lower than other melee survivors. Late game he is more consistent using his ranged abilities.

⦁ Focus Crystal

⦁ Gasoline (Poison stops at 1hp any damage will finish them off)

⦁ Tri-Tip Dagger (Poison stops at 1hp any damage will finish them off)

⦁ Old Guillotine (Poison will exucute Elites if under Guillotine threshold)

⦁ Visions of Heresy (Lunar item that replaces melee with ranged attack)

Artificer

Tips: Flamethrower gives good damage but Ion Surge gives good mobility which she desperately needs. With Ion Surge and your passive you can fly for a long time. You need to manage cooldowns on all her abilities and don’t unload everything at once, burst attack. Always sprint except when using Flamethrower.

⦁ Backup Mag

⦁ Movement speed

⦁ Crowbar

⦁ Dual Bands

⦁ On Hit Items (not the best with her but Flamethrower can proc pretty well)

Bandit

Tips: Attacking the back of enemies is guaranteed crit. Movement speed items are especially important for Bandit to get behind enemies for crit.

⦁ Predatory Instinct

⦁ Harvester Scythe

⦁ Soldier Syringes

⦁ Dual Bands (for R attack)

⦁ Crowbar (for R attack)

⦁ Medkit (for when stealthed)

⦁ Hardlight Afterburner (red item)

Captain

Tips: M2 ends M1 cooldown. So M1 + M2 + M1 is a faster combo than M1+M1. Unlocking his Beacon: Hacking you can get 2 free chests per stage.

⦁ Dual Bands

⦁ On Hit Items

⦁ Tri-tip dagger

⦁ Shatterspleen (red item)

⦁ Hardlight Afterburner (red item)

Commando

Tips: Commando is a pretty basic character. Pretty much all items are good nothing too specific. However he does have high dps and highish proc chance so on hit items are good. Use shift to dodge attacks. Just spam M1

⦁ Soldier Syringe

⦁ Tri-Tip Daggers / any bleed items

⦁ On hit items (Ukulele, Atg Missiles, Sticky Bombs, etc)

⦁ AoE Items (Gasoline, Will o’ Wisp, etc)

Engineer

Tips: Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus, Bustling Fungus.

⦁ Bustling Fungus

⦁ On hit items

⦁ Ukulele

⦁ N’kuhana’s Opinion (Red Item)

Huntress

Tips: M1 can be used while sprinting so you should ALWAYS sprint and hold M1. However most of your damage will come from M2 so that should be used when off cooldown. She has lowest HP of any survivor so get defensive items and mobility.

⦁ Movement speed

⦁ Tougher Times

⦁ Infusion

⦁ Rose Buckler (Increase armor when sprinting, ALWAYS SPRINT!!)

⦁ Crit Glasses & Harvesting Scythe

⦁ Backup Mag

⦁ single target damage/on hit items (Missile Launcher, Dual Bands, etc)

Loader

Tips: Her shift and M2 should be used the majority of the time. Similiar to Acrid, Loader’s M1 melee ability should not be used as a primary late game. M1 is “useless” compared to M2 + Shift. You should always be sprinting as it doesn’t cancel Loader’s abilities and her shift damage scales with movement speed.

⦁ Movement speed (Shift damage scales with movement speed)

⦁ Backup Mag

⦁ Crowbar

⦁ Focus Crystal

⦁ Soldier Syringes (Charges shift faster)

⦁ Dual Bands

⦁ Bandolier (chance for enemies to drop ammo, resetting cooldowns. With shift you go through the enemy instantly picking up the ammo drop.)

⦁ Hardlight Afterburner (Red item)

Mercenary

Tips: Merc can stay in the air during combat for a long time if attacks are timed right.

You can stand on Wandering Vagrants and avoid all their attacks except for Charge Blast.

⦁ Focus Crystal

⦁ Backup Mag

⦁ Hopoo Feathers

⦁ Harvesting Scythe/Crit Glasses

⦁ Soldier Syringe (Attack speed scales your R so it will hit more times, increasing chance for on hit items)

⦁ Tougher Times

⦁ Ukulele (Helps with flying enemies)

Mul-t

Tips: Mul-t has such high DPS if you can get high crit and Harvesting Scythes you can heal faster than you take damage. I have personally had the most consistent runs with Mul-t.

⦁ Harvesting Scythe

⦁ Crit Glasses

⦁ Predatory Instincts

⦁ Soldier Syringe

⦁ Leaching Seeds

⦁ Aegis (Red item)

⦁ Proc items (especially Ukulele)

Rex

Tips: His abilities drain his health. High risk high reward. Spend your health for massive damage. M1 and R regen health, R is primary source of healing it’s also great for crowd control. Kill big enemies with M2 and keep small enemys for R healing. M2 is most consistent damage. Rex is my favorite survivor 😀

⦁ Topaz Brooch (Abilities will pull health from brooch barrier)

⦁ Harvesting Scythe

⦁ Crit Glasses

⦁ Ocular HUD (Equipment)

⦁ Tougher Times (Can block self inflicted damage)

⦁ Aegis (Red item)

Here we come to an end for Risk of Rain 2 Survivor Items Quick Reference Guide hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!