Risk of Rain 2 News

Risk of Rain 2's first big expansion, Survivors of the Void, is coming to PC on March 1, with a console release not far behind...
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Risk of Rain 2 is already everything it ever needed to be. It's a pillar for modern roguelikes, one of the best co-op games around, and – most importantly – a longtime mainstay of my friend group's game night. But with Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void, Hopoo Games will demonstrate what else it could be...
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Greetings Goobo Jr Fan Club!

[h3]Dev Thoughts Video[/h3]

You know the drill by now - Dev Thoughts also comes as a video!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You did smash it didn't you?

And before we crack on, don't forget to visit the Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void Steam Page as it might have changed since your last visit…

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Survivors_of_the_Void



[h3]Console Update[/h3]

Since starting as Community Manager many of you within our console playing fanbase have asked me about the status of any updates in the future for Risk of Rain 2 - today I’m going to give you some fresh info.

Firstly, I’m happy to announce that it is our goal to release the upcoming RoR2 expansion Survivors of the Void on console in Q2 of 2022, quite soon after the release of the Steam version in Q1 (both dates subject to change, but currently both still on schedule!)

With the release of the expansion will also come an update where we have completely rebuilt the console version from the ground-up. The goal of this rebuild is to have much closer parity between the console and Steam versions of the game.

This update should resolve most existing console-only bugs and - In theory - any new bugs should no longer be platform specific which will make them easier to identify and fix.

In practice, there will definitely be new bugs.



[h3]Survivors Corner[/h3]

Last month I asked you to come up with some renditions of one of the new Void monsters arriving in Survivors of the Void and the response was much bigger than I expected, and in some cases much weirder than I expected.

These ranged from the creative



To the funny



To the strangely accurate



Thank you to everyone who sent me your versions of this mystery Void Monster, let’s take a visit to Petrichor V to see just how close you were...



[h3]Petrichor Safari[/h3]

It’s time to go on a sightseeing tour of Survivors of the Void to discover the environments and monsters that await you in the expansion.

Let’s begin by visiting the Snowy Forest



The first monster we’ll find here today is not from these once-peaceful lands - but instead invading from the Void. The Void Jailer.

The Void Jailer is the master of putting you in your place. It’s main attack is a powerful void-blast that slows your speed and its secondary attack is a entangling snare that locks you in place, leaving you at the mercy of this abomination.



And if you manage to overcome this beast you had better get outta dodge REAL quick - those of you familiar with the Reavers know what happens when you manage to finally topple a Void enemy….



This was going to be a gif of the Void Jailer dying and doing that cool void-explosion but it kept killing me first so this is what you're getting instead.

Next up, one of the many enemies found high up in the Aphelian Sanctuary...



…is your new worst nightmare. The Blind Pest.


Who... this guy? Your worst nightmare? Surely not?

Aww look at his cute fuzzy face, flapping ear-wings and swinging tongue. What a cutie!



Don’t let it's looks fool you, I hate these things, and you will too. If Lesser Wisps are the flying shotguns of RoR2, these douchebags are the flying rifles. Dangerous in packs and deadly if ignored, get used to seeing this:



Not every new monster in Survivors of the Void will be completely unfamiliar. Our next monster is a returning enemy from a previous ill-fated visit to Petrichor V.

It’s big, it’s orange, and it’s here to ruin your Mercenary run...



It’s Gup.



And Geep and Gip, obviously.

Don't forget this is just a sample of the new stages and monsters you’ll find in Survivors of the Void - And that concludes the Petrichor Safari. As always thanks for being an amazing community and join me next year when we’ll have many more exciting reveals for you all.

Goodbye for now!



Jonathan @ Hopoo Games.

Hello fellow Survivors! Welcome back!



I wanted to start out by thanking everyone who reached out to me following last month’s video version of the Dev thoughts - as requested I got a huge amount of feedback - which was overwhelmingly positive so I went ahead and made another one for this month! Check it out and once again please let me know what you think!

[previewyoutube]https://youtu.be/1EBxT0zwIVA[/previewyoutube]





The official artwork and the name of the upcoming Risk of Rain 2 Expansion is now ready to be unveiled:

Survivors of the Void.



We have also launched the Survivors of the Void store page on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Survivors_of_the_Void

I’d highly recommend both wishlisting the expansion and checking the store page regularly, there might just be some additions over the coming weeks. Also stick around for the rest of the Dev Thoughts - these are not the only Survivors of the Void reveals we have today...





Here’s a new section I'd like to include in each new Dev Thoughts where I highlight something cool created by our fans! This month i’d like to show off this amazing creation from @TheFiddleCat on Twitter:



Go and show them some love! If any of you have created or seen anything Hopoo Games related drop me an email at [email protected] or ping me on Twitter or Discord and I might just include it in a future Dev Thoughts!





You’ll never guess what we installed in our new office this month: A genuine Item Printer from RoR2!

Someone let Ben near the bloody thing and he decided to make a load of copies of his raincoat...



Great job Ben you dingus, What are we supposed to do with all these coats??



Ok all is forgiven





Revealed in Dev Thoughts #21 and teased last month is the new game mode which will be available in Survivors of the Void.

How long will you last within the Simulacrum?



The Simulacrum is a wave-based arena mode set within a Void simulation. It can be played both single and multiplayer and contains any artifacts you’ve unlocked ready for use. It is an endless mode that can conclude only in your simulated demise.

My personal best attempt is wave 65 as Bandit, the office record is currently held by raincoat enthusiast Ben at an astounding wave 140 as Acrid. There is no shortage of testing (a.k.a. trying to beat each other’s record) going in behind the scenes with this new mode. We think you’ll have as much fun playing it as we have testing it!

The Void has recreated some of the iconic locations from Risk of Rain 2 to assess the threat of these dangerous places - the simulation is familiar yet somehow… different.

But definitely purple.

Within a confined safe-zone monsters spawn in waves of increasing difficulty and every 5th wave is a difficult Boss encounter. Some waves also have random mutators applied - maybe a random artifact is activated for one round...

...or maybe something that really sucks instead.

After each wave a Void Potential is created for every player, allowing you to select between 3 items giving you a great deal of control over your power within the Simulacrum.



Item Crates and other interactables spawn on the stage as normal - but venturing outside of the safe zone to reach these can be a great risk. Thankfully after every boss wave the safe zone moves to a new area, giving you a brief opportunity to open more crates and increase your power.

Get back here ya pesky varmint!

Getting those extra items will be a great help - when you experience a Void simulation of the most dangerous threats in the universe you never know who or what might show up to challenge you.







Please share your renditions of this mystery enemy in the #ror2-art-and-content channel on the Discord with a @SeventeenUncles ping plz. My personal favourite(s) will be included in next month’s Dev Thoughts.

Much Love

Jonathan @ Hopoo Games

Hey! I told you I'd be back this month!



A huge thank you to everyone who reached out and let me know what you thought of last month’s Dev Thoughts, we love how excited you are about the upcoming RoR2 expansion! Due to the positive response I decided to try out a video version of this month’s Dev Thoughts:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Please let me know what you think - especially if you would like to see this alternative format more in the future (I will continue with the written Dev Thoughts regardless.) Any ideas for future content/suggestions/critiques very welcome and greatly appreciated!

As always you can catch me on our Discord as @SeventeenUncles, or you can email me at [email protected]. Or whack a comment on that Youtube video, also I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to smash that like button while you’re there. Smash it.





Before we get into the meat 'n' potatoes of the Dev Thoughts, one new thing for us at Hopoo games is that we moved offices!

Who is this welcoming us into the reception?



Why, its Ghor himself! Everyone say Hi to Ghor!



“Hi Gamers!” - Ghor

(someone call HR this guy isn’t wearing any damn pants)





Earlier this month I asked on Twitter what your #1 question about the expansion was and you didn't disappoint! Never fear - I am here to dish out the answers to the most popular ones...

[h3]1 - What is the release date and will it launch on console at the same time?[/h3]

The Steam release is currently on-schedule for a Q1 2022 release window. The console version will be released at a later date.

One of our more lofty goals when we first announced the expansion was our hope to do a simultaneous release on all platforms - this was something that we have not attempted before.

The deeper into development we go the more we realise that the only way to achieve this would have been to delay the release of the Steam version. We didn’t like this one bit - so we have decided to go with the Steam release first with the console release coming soon afterwards.

We don’t want to pin a precise release window on the console version right now, however we will get it in your hands as soon as possible.

Lofty goals.

[h3]2 - How will multiplayer work between people who own and don’t own the expansion?[/h3]

As long as one player in the lobby owns the expansion you can enable expansion content such as new items, stages and monsters for that session - even if the other players in the lobby do not own the expansion. However only people who own the expansion will be able to play as the new expansion-exclusive survivors.

We think that splitting the multiplayer community between the “haves” and “have-nots” is kind of a worst case scenario - we want everyone to enjoy the game and keep the community together (aww.)

[h3]3 - How much will the expansion cost?[/h3]

The price of the expansion is still being discussed. We want to land on a price which represents the amount of new content in the expansion and is also excellent value for our players.

As soon as we have decided on the price we will announce it ASAP.

[h3]4 - How can I protect Goobo Jr from this horrible world?[/h3]

Don’t worry, Goobo Jr can take care of itself quite nicely.







Last month I promised you more expansion teasers and I am here once again to sneak the deets out of the coffers of the Hopoo dev team..

The theme of the upcoming Risk of Rain 2 Expansion is the Void

The eagle-eyed lore-hunters among you will have seen references to the Void scattered throughout the current log-book entries. Well, you’re about to find out a whole lot more about this mysterious force - Approximately a third of the new content is Void themed and that includes the new loot-tier I teased last month...







Awaiting your discovery in the expansion are Void Items. These are sneaky doppelgangers of existing items - once collected they absorb all copies of the original item and corrupts them to increase their own power for the rest of the run.



Void Items have warped effects, similar but distinct to their non-void counterparts…













This is just a small sample of the many Void Items within the expansion.



Once again thank you very much for being a great community and your continued support! Don’t forget to come back next month when maybe, just maybe, i’ll have even more expansion teasers for you all.

Literally me for another month.

Goodbye for now!

Jonathan @ Hopoo Games