Classes

Our four survivor pages were written by three authors over four years, and they disagree about almost everything except the shopping. Between them they name 51 items, and when you lay the four lists side by side a short core falls out: ten items that three of the four pages call for, and none that all four do. That core is the spine of this page, because it is the one thing a reader can carry from the Artificer to the Mercenary without relearning anything.

After the shared list come the places where a survivor page overrules our items tier list, then each survivor in turn: what it costs to unlock, which abilities the page picks, and the one item it treats as non-negotiable.

The Ten Items Three Survivors Agree On

Only two of the ten are ranked on the tier list, both in Tier A. The other eight are greens and reds the tier list never reaches, which is the first sign that the list and the survivor pages were written for different stages of a run.

Nineteen more items are named by two pages, and that group is where the tier list’s S tier finally shows up: Paul’s Goat Hoof (Artificer and Huntress), Tougher Times and Infusion (Huntress and Mercenary), Hopoo Feather (Engineer and Huntress). Twenty-two items belong to one page only, and five tier-list entries, Focus Crystal, Old Guillotine, Topaz Brooch, Fresh Meat and Sticky Bomb, appear on no survivor page at all.

Where the Survivors Overrule the Tier List

The tier list is a general ranking for every hero, and it says so. Four of its low placements get reversed by a survivor page. Cautious Slug sits in Tier D, with the note that late runs never leave combat long enough for it to work, yet the Artificer’s crowd-control and Monsoon builds both list it among their whites and the Huntress page puts it in its first item table. Energy Drink is Tier C and redundant next to a Goat Hoof by the list’s reckoning, but the same two survivors want it for sprinting away from what they cannot fight. Red Whip and Bundle of Fireworks are both Tier D and both on the Artificer’s Monsoon list.

It runs the other way too. The Soldier’s Syringe is Tier S and only the Mercenary page names it, as the item that speeds up the animation cancels his whole plan depends on. Lens Maker Glasses are Tier S and turn up only in the Huntress page’s preferable picks. Fuel Cell is Tier A and the Huntress page rates it core only if you found an early Foreign Fruit, and then wants exactly one.

The Four Survivors

Huntress

The Huntress page is our item catalogue: it names 36 of the 51 items the four pages mention across a must-have table, a survival list, a core list and a preferable list, and that breadth is why she appears in all ten shared rows. Her skills are given with numbers, Strafe at 150 percent, a Laser Glaive at 250 percent that bounces six times and grows ten percent per bounce, Blink, and Arrow Rain at 330 percent a second, with Flurry, Phase Blink and Ballista as the alternates. The page rates her a hard carry that suits Drizzle, and pairs her with Commando or Bandit.

Engineer

The Engineer page prices every ability, as the Huntress and Mercenary pages do and the Artificer page does not: eight grenades at 100 percent each, Pressure Mines at 900 percent armed and 300 percent unarmed against Spider Mines at 600 percent, a Bubble Shield of 15 seconds and 9.75 metres against four Thermal Harpoons at 500 percent, and two turrets, the stationary TR12 at 100 percent and the mobile TR58 at 200 percent with a slow. Both turrets inherit your items and you can place two. The page calls him the tankiest survivor with the worst movement, and its two builds split on exactly that: fungus and Bubble Shield to stand still, or the TR58 and harpoons to keep moving.

Mercenary

The Mercenary page is the longest of the four and most of it is about cancelling one animation into another. Its two numbers to remember are 530 percent for a Laser Sword first hit cancelled into Whirlwind and 730 percent for Blinding Assault into Laser Sword into Whirlwind with every hit landing. Rising Thunder and Slicing Winds are locked behind the Demon of Skies and Ethereal challenges, and the page rates Slicing Winds as not worth taking over Eviscerate, whose invulnerability it treats as his defence against boss bursts. Both builds share Hardlight Afterburner, Backup Magazine, Bandolier and Dio’s Best Friend; the Invincible build adds Alien Head and Predatory Instincts, the Speedy Boy build adds Syringe, Crowbar, Armor Piercing Rounds, Tougher Times, Rose Buckler and Foreign Fruit.

Artificer

The Artificer page is five builds with no unlock section and no ability numbers, so its value is in which of her skills each build takes. All five run Snapfreeze as the utility; three take Ion Surge as the special, the rotational build takes the Flamethrower and the slow-death build lists either; the primary is Plasma Bolt in two builds and Flame Bolt in three. The page is blunt about the Flamethrower, calling it too close-range for a survivor who cannot afford to be close, and the crowd-control build’s whole opening is killing twenty enemies fast so the primary scales up.

Two Survivors Written From The Kit Up

The four pages above are build pages: item lists first, abilities second. Two more survivors now have pages of a different kind, written from the skill numbers outward, and they belong here because the shared item core does not apply to either of them cleanly. Loader starts with 160 health and 20 armor, takes no fall damage, and reads her own movement speed as damage on Charged Gauntlet, which is why the Goat Hoof that is a convenience elsewhere is a damage item for her. Drifter, from the Alloyed Collective expansion, starts with 170 and runs on Junk generated in combat, so she spends her scrap on buffs instead of feeding it to a printer.

Loader heads our character tier list and Drifter sits mid table on a placement that is still provisional, which is worth weighing before you spend a run earning either. What each of the nineteen costs to unlock is on our survivor unlock guide, including the Artificer's 10 Lunar Coins, the one price these four pages never state.

Reading Order

Start on the items tier list for the whites you take in the first stages, then the survivor page for whoever you have unlocked, then come back to the shared table above when a green or red drops and you are not sure whether it fits. The Risk of Rain 2 hub walks the whole folder by stage of a run rather than by survivor.

Survivor Questions

Which survivor should a new player start with?

The Huntress is the one our pages say is unlocked from the start, and her page rates her as a Drizzle survivor with a low health pool. The Engineer page calls him the tankiest survivor in the game and the Mercenary page says his kit takes practice, so the order the pages imply is Huntress to Engineer to Mercenary.

How do you unlock the Mercenary?

Keep clearing areas in one run without dying until the game loops you back to the first stage and a white Celestial Portal opens. Go through it and obliterate yourself at the Obelisk; he is available on the next run.

How do you unlock the Engineer?

Complete 30 stages in total. The counter carries across runs, and the page recommends Drizzle and the small early stages to get there fastest.