Risk of Rain 2 News

• Irradiant Pearl Chance: 4% ⇒ 20%
  
• Can no longer be pinged to reveal its contents
  

• Charge Buff Duration: 5s ⇒ 7s
  
• Updated Logbook description for more detailed explanation
  

• Armor Buff: 200 armor (66% damage reduction) ⇒ 100 armor (50% damage damage reduction)
  
• Developer Notes: Power Mode is gated behind a difficult challenge, but its current iteration is a bit too insane. Players should be motivated to leave Power Mode every now-and-then, and this is a safe way to make it less powerful while still keeping it fun.

Risk of Rain 2 officially entered Early Access in March 2019, and while the game went 1.0 back in August 2020, it seems the devs aren't entirely through with their take on roguelike games. Risk of Rain 2 has just received a massive anniversary update with a new playable character, new enemies, and a complete rework to the final stage, and players are flocking back to it en masse.

Risk of Rain 2's anniversary update went live on March 25, and while you can get the full list of additions over on Steam, even just the highlights are impressive. The Bandit survivor returns, and there's a new monster, new elite, and new boss. The devs say "the final stage has been redone entirely, with unique objectives and a new, large arena to play in", too.

Players are here for it, too. Following the update, the peak player count for Risk of Rain 2 hit 55,800, up from a high of just 7,370 the day before, as SteamDB shows. That's by far the biggest number since the game's 1.0 launch last year.

Read the rest of the story...

RELATED LINKS:

Risk of Rain 2 has more than 3 million players

Risk of Rain 2 Mithrix guide: how to unlock Captain

Risk of Rain 2 leaves early access with a tenth character, the Captain

• Added System: Morgue + Account Stats
  
  • Browse past runs and all of your account stats - like favorite survivors, progress to completion, or your favorite equipment - now in the Logbook!
    
• Added New Survivor
  • New Survivor: Bandit
    
• Added New Survivor Skin
  • New Survivor Skin: Bandit Skin
    
• Added 5 New Items
  • New Lunar Item: Hooks of Heresy
    
  • New Lunar Item: Essence of Heresy
    
  • New Boss Item: Empathy Cores
    
  • New Boss Item: Charged Perforator
    
  • New Boss Item: Planula
    
• Added 5 New Skill Variants
  • New Skill Variant: MUL-T Special
    
  • New Skill Variant: Mercenary Utility
    
  • New Skill Variant: REX Special
    
  • New Skill Variant: Loader Special
    
  • New Skill Variant: Captain Utility
    
• Added 1 New Monster
  • New Monster: Lunar Chimera (Exploder)
    
• Added 1 New Elite
  • New Elite: Perfected
    
• Added 1 New Boss
  • New Boss: Grandparent
    
• Added New Interactable
  • New Interactable: Lunar Shop Refresher
    
• Added 9 New Challenges
  • New Class Challenge: Bandit: Sadist
    
  • New Class Challenge: Bandit: Classic Man
    
  • New Class Challenge: Bandit: B&E
    
  • New Class Challenge: Bandit: Mastery
    
  • New Class Challenge: MUL-T: Seventh Day
    
  • New Class Challenge: Mercenary: Flash of Blades
    
  • New Class Challenge: REX: Full of Life
    
  • New Class Challenge: Loader: The Thunderdome
    
  • New Class Challenge: Captain: Smushed
    
• Added 93 New Lore Entries
  • New Lore Entry: Monster Tooth
    
  • New Lore Entry: Lens-Maker's Glasses
    
  • New Lore Entry: Paul's Goat Hoof
    
  • New Lore Entry: Bustling Fungus
    
  • New Lore Entry: Crowbar
    
  • New Lore Entry: Tri-Tip Dagger
    
  • New Lore Entry: Warbanner
    
  • New Lore Entry: Cautious Slug
    
  • New Lore Entry: Stun Grenade
    
  • New Lore Entry: Backup Magazine
    
  • New Lore Entry: Armor-Piercing Rounds
    
  • New Lore Entry: Bison Steak
    
  • New Lore Entry: Focus Crystal
    
  • New Lore Entry: Item Scrap, White
    
  • New Lore Entry: AtG Missile Mk. 1
    
  • New Lore Entry: Infusion
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hopoo Feather
    
  • New Lore Entry: Ukulele
    
  • New Lore Entry: Leeching Seed
    
  • New Lore Entry: Red Whip
    
  • New Lore Entry: Harvester's Scythe
    
  • New Lore Entry: Berzerker's Pauldron
    
  • New Lore Entry: Razorwire
    
  • New Lore Entry: Brilliant Behemoth
    
  • New Lore Entry: Frost Relic
    
  • New Lore Entry: Happiest Mask
    
  • New Lore Entry: 57 Leaf Clover
    
  • New Lore Entry: Dio's Best Friend
    
  • New Lore Entry: Wake of Vultures
    
  • New Lore Entry: Resonance Disc
    
  • New Lore Entry: Defensive Microbots
    
  • New Lore Entry: Titanic Knurl
    
  • New Lore Entry: Pearl
    
  • New Lore Entry: Irradiant Pearl
    
  • New Lore Entry: Genesis Loop
    
  • New Lore Entry: Artifact Key
    
  • New Lore Entry: Corpsebloom
    
  • New Lore Entry: Gesture of the Drowned
    
  • New Lore Entry: Beads of Fealty
    
  • New Lore Entry: Defiant Gouge
    
  • New Lore Entry: Mercurial Rachis
    
  • New Lore Entry: Empathy Cores
    
  • New Lore Entry: Essence of Heresy
    
  • New Lore Entry: Effigy of Grief
    
  • New Lore Entry: Spinel Tonic
    
  • New Lore Entry: Disposable Missile Launcher
    
  • New Lore Entry: Foreign Fruit
    
  • New Lore Entry: Primordial Cube
    
  • New Lore Entry: Royal Capacitor
    
  • New Lore Entry: Radar Scanner
    
  • New Lore Entry: Eccentric Vase
    
  • New Lore Entry: Volcanic Egg
    
  • New Lore Item: Hooks of Heresy
    
  • New Lore Item: Essence of Heresy
    
  • New Lore Item: Empathy Cores
    
  • New Lore Item: Charged Perforator
    
  • New Lore Item: Planula
    
  • New Lore Entry: Lesser Wisp
    
  • New Lore Entry: Lemurian
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hermit Crab
    
  • New Lore Entry: Solus Probe
    
  • New Lore Entry: Brass Contraption
    
  • New Lore Entry: Bighorn Bison
    
  • New Lore Entry: Stone Golem
    
  • New Lore Entry: Clay Templar
    
  • New Lore Entry: Greater Wisp
    
  • New Lore Entry: Elder Lemurian
    
  • New Lore Entry: Lunar Chimera (Exploder)
    
  • New Lore Entry: Beetle Queen
    
  • New Lore Entry: Stone Titan
    
  • New Lore Entry: Aurelionite
    
  • New Lore Entry: Wandering Vagrant
    
  • New Lore Entry: Magma Worm
    
  • New Lore Entry: Grovetender
    
  • New Lore Entry: Imp Overlord
    
  • New Lore Entry: Scavenger
    
  • New Lore Entry: Overloading Worm
    
  • New Lore Entry: Grandparent
    
  • New Lore Entry: Distant Roost
    
  • New Lore Entry: Rallypoint Delta
    
  • New Lore Entry: Scorched Acres
    
  • New Lore Entry: Siren's Call
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hidden Realm: Gilded Coast
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hidden Realm: Void Fields
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hidden Realm: Bazaar Between Time
    
  • New Lore Entry: Hidden Realm: A Moment, Whole
    
  • New Lore Entry: Sundered Grove
    
  • New Lore Entry: Commando
    
  • New Lore Entry: Engineer
    
  • New Lore Entry: Acrid
    
  • New Lore Entry: Loader
    
  • New Lore Entry: Mercenary
    
  • New Lore Entry: Bandit
    

• General
  
  
  • Final Stage
    • 🌧 The final stage has been redone entirely, with unique objectives and a new, large arena to play in. We won’t spoil it. Please let us know how you feel!
      
  • Low Health Threshold
    • 20% ⇒ 25%
      
  • NPC AI
    • All AI now have dramatically improved pathfinding
      
    • All AI now gets position updates on targets who are invisible only every few seconds, rather than losing the target entirely
      
  • Minions
    • Drones no longer have resistance to AOE attacks
      
    • 🌧 All minions now teleport to their owner if they stray past 400m
      
    • 🌧 All Minions now scale to the ‘ambient level’ of the run
      Developer’s Notes: The ‘ambient level’ is the level of the run that grows over time. Previously, the enemy team used the ‘ambient level’ to set their level. Now, all enemies AND minions are at ambient level. The result of this is that player minions, like ghosts from Happiest Mask, purchased Drones, and yes - the Squid Polyp - will scale much better over time. This matches drone scaling in RoR1.
• Survivor
  • Commando
    • Update VFX of Double Tap, Phase Round, and Suppressive Fire
      
    • Double Tap
      
      • Now fires a single bullet per click
        
      • Bloom Reset Time: 1s ⇒0.7s
        
      • Damage: 90% ⇒ 100%
        
      • Duration: 0.2s ⇒ 0.15s
        
    • Tactical Dive
      
      • Duration: 0.5s ⇒ 0.4s
        
    • Phase Round
      
      • Now deals 40% more damage every time it passes through an enemy
        
  • Huntress
    • Now unlocked by default alongside the Commando! Her previous unlock condition (beat the 3rd stage) now unlocks the Bandit.
      
  • Engineer
    • Both Gauss Auto-Turret and Carbonizer Turret now also inherit your equipment. They won’t activate it, but they will hold it.
      
    • Grenades now have slight anti-gravity.
      
  • Artificer
    • Nano-Bomb
      
      • Tendril Damage: 20% of explosion ⇒ 10% of explosion
        
      • Tendril Fire Frequency: 0.25s ⇒ 0.125s
        
    • Tendril Same Target Frequency: 2s ⇒ 1s
      Developer Notes: This change is made specifically to avoid the Artificer’s Nano-Bomb tendrils proccing Ice and Fire Bands. The tendrils will now fire twice as often, but at half the damage.
  • Mercenary
    • Blinding Assault
      
      • 🌧 Now has a lingering 0.2s invincibility to help chain together Blinding Assaults in high-latency online games
        
• Items
  
  
  • Bustling Fungus
    • Start Delay: 2s ⇒ 1s
      
    • Now heals at a higher tick rate - overall healing is the same, but the healing is smoother over time
      
    • 🌧 Now has small visual mushrooms that grow over the area
      
  • Energy Drink
    • 🌧 Speed Boost: 30% (+20% per stack) ⇒ 25% (+25% per stack)
      Developer Notes: Mathematically, the Energy Drink was worse than the Goat Hoof for speed after the first pickup, even while sprinting. This change will consistently make Energy Drink stronger when sprinting, and also makes its stacking behavior more consistent. This may make the Energy Drink too strong, but it’ll at least make a bit more sense now.
  • AP Rounds
    • Improve visual effects to be more noticeable
      
  • Focus Crystal
    • Damage Boost: 15% (+15% per stack) ⇒ 20% (+20% per stack)
      
    • Now shows radius for ‘nearby’ distance
      
    • Now causes numbers to be pink when active
      Developer Notes: There are many characters and builds where the Focus Crystal should shine through - however, it never seems to be quite high priority enough for the effort required. We’re hoping that by making it both flashier and stronger, players will prioritize it.
  • Rusted Key
    • 🌧 Now subtly glows and pulses
      
    • Now grants items at the same rarity as a Large Chest
      
    • Now spawns a Lockbox per player with a Rusted Key
      
    • Now consumes a Rusted Key when a lockbox is opened, and requires a Rusted Key to open
      
    • No longer scales reward chance with the number of Keys in your inventory
      Developer Notes: People have always been a bit confused about the behavior of the Rusted Key, so we made it make a bit more sense by actually consuming a key to open. 1 Key = 1 Box. Since the item no longer gives ‘infinite’ items, we can also make it a bit stronger and make the lockbox more noticeable.
  • Crowbar
    • Damage Boost: +50%(+50% per stack) ⇒ +75% (+75% per stack)
      
    • Improve visual effects to be more noticeable
      
    • Update pickup text to include the damage threshold
      Developer Notes: Same reasoning as Focus Crystal - there are many heavy-hitter builds and characters, but Crowbars aren’t prioritized.
  • Gasoline
    • Now deals 150% base damage on detonation alongside the burn effect
      
  • Stun Grenade
    • Added visual effect when the item procs
      
  • Bison Steak (New! Yum!)
    • Replaced ‘Fresh Meat’ item
      
    • No longer grants regeneration on kill
      
    • Now grants 25 (+25 per stack) max health
      
  • Tri-Tip Dagger
    • Bleed Chance: 15% (+15% per stack) ⇒ 10% (+10% per stack)
      Developer Notes: Right now, bleed is okay until you can stack it infinitely, in which case it becomes incredibly strong. We want to smooth out the power curve a bit, increasing the number of daggers required for ‘infinite’ bleed to match the number of Glasses required for 100% crit.
  • Lepton Daisy
    • 🌧 Now activates in all ‘holdout zones’, like Void Fields, and not just during the Teleporter Event
      
  • Old War Stealthkit
    • Now activates when falling to low health, rather than as a chance when hurt
      
    • Stealth Duration: 3s (+1.5s per stack) ⇒ 5s
      
    • Stealth Cooldown: 0s ⇒ 30s (-50% per stack)
      
  • Bandolier
    • 🌧 Packs now restocks skills by the amount a full cooldown would
      
    • 🌧 Packs now also apply to stashed skills, like MUL-T's second primary
      
  • Radar Scanner
    • 🌧 Now details if an interactable is a Barrel, Chest, Drone, Shrine, or something unknown
      
  • Frost Relic
    • 🌧 Now applies ice slow debuff
      
    • 🌧 Now has a softer visual
      
    • Damage Coefficient: 150% ⇒ 300%
      
    • Radius: 3m (+1.5m per kill) ⇒ 6m (+3m per kill)
      
  • H3AD-5T v2
    • 🌧 Now calculates damage from distance traveled, not speed on impact
      Developer Notes: Even though this makes less sense from a physics standpoint, it will align better with player expectations. Super long fall = big boom.
  • Resonance Disk
    • Redo firing logic to be more understandable
      
      • Now grants 1 stacking buff per kill, lasting 5 seconds
        
      • Now fires the Disk at 4 stacks, resetting all stacks
        
  • Defiant Gouge
    • 🌧 Monster Spawn Points: 100 (+100 per stack) ⇒ 40 (+40 per stack)
      Developer Notes: A single Gouge would spawn way too many monsters. Now, having 1 or 2 Gouges should be a reasonable option.
  • Focused Convergence
    • 🌧 Now activates in all ‘holdout zones’, like Void Fields, and not just during the Teleporter Event
      
  • Queen’s Gland
    • Limit of deployed Beetle Guards now doubles for Artifact of Swarms
      
  • Halcyon Seed
    • Changed summoned Aurelionite pre-stack scaling from current-difficulty-based hp + damage bonuses to leveling up to the ambient level like other summoned characters
      
    • Summoned Aurelionite attention span: 5s ⇒ 15s
      Developer Notes: Aurelionite’s raised attention span should make it less likely to get distracted by weaker monsters attacking it so it’s more likely to spend its time fighting stronger monsters.
  • Mired Urn
    • No longer capable of targeting and healing from allies
      
• Monster
  
  
  • Hermit Crab
    • Base Damage: 4 (+0.8 per level) ⇒ 12 (+2.4 per level)
      
    • Mortar Projectile Count: 3 ⇒ 1
      
    • Mortar Projectile now has more visible trail
      Developer Notes: When fighting Hermit Crabs, it’s always been difficult to parse where and how many there are. To help clarify their behavior, we made it clearer so 1 mortar = 1 crab.
  • Parent
    • Health: 900(+270 per level) ⇒ 585 (+176 per level)
      
    • Update visuals to match closer to RoR1 design
      
    • Update animations
      
  • Greater Wisp
    • 🌧 Can now be stunned and frozen
      
  • Lunar Chimera (Golem)
    • Health: 1900 (+570 per level) ⇒ 1615 (+485 per level)
      
    • Twinshot Attack
      
      • Total Shots: 4 ⇒ 10
        
      • Damage Coefficient: 2 ⇒ 1
        
      • Force: 8000 ⇒ 1000
        
      • Now fires in series, rather than all at once
        
      • Update visuals to be less noisy
        
    • Raised the aim origin to be closer to its cannons so it can fire more accurately
      
  • Lunar Chimera (Wisp)
    • Tracking Bomb
      
      • Damage Coefficient: 6 ⇒ 5
        
      • Speed: 90 m/s ⇒ 60 m/s
        
      • Update visuals to be less noisy
        
  • Beetle Queen
    • Summon Beetles
      
      • Beetle Count: 5 ⇒ 2
        
      • 🌧 Now summons Beetle Guards instead of Beetles
        
  • Scavenger
    • Now properly spawn as elites
      Developer Notes: Apparently, Scavengers were already spawning as elites - with their health and damage buff - but did not have their elite equipment (Burning, Glacial, etc). Now they will.
  • Void Reaver
    • Added a minimum distance between bombs
      
  • SPOILERS! Final Boss, Last Phase. SPOILERS!
    • Base Health: 1000 (+300 per level) ⇒ 1400 (+420 per level)
      
    • Added stagger state triggered by taking high damage
      
    • Item Steal
      
      • Now consistently returns items as you deal damage, rather than randomly, i.e if you have him at 50% health, you will have 50% of your items back
        
      • Now consistently returns items to players in multiplayer in order (1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4) rather than per-player damage
        
      • Now returns items in the order that you found them, rather than in reverse order
        
      • Now utilizes Crowbars
        
• Stages
  • Bazaar Between Time
    • Now allows you to reroll shop contents, at the cost of 1/2/4/8… lunar coins
      
  • Wetland Aspect
    • Altered stage layout to add more identifiable landmark areas
      
  • Sky Meadows
    • Reduce initial map monster spawns by -24%
      

• Various optimizations, both small and big! Let us know if the game is running better (or worse...)
  
• 🌧 Added an option in settings to disable Screen Distortion, like from using Spinel Tonic, since many users reported motion sickness from the effect.
  
• 🌧 Added an team-colored area indicators for attacks from Mini Mushrums, Malachite Elites, Titans, Imp Overlords, Aurelionite, and Void Reavers. Remove area indicators for attacks from Beetle Guards.
  
• Graphics Updates
  
  • Update visuals for Gunner Drone, Gunner Turret, Backup Drones, and Healing Drones to match other assets
    
  • Update visuals for Chests, Large Chests, Category Chests, Barrels, and Equipment Barrels to match other assets
    
  • Update visuals for Bustling Fungus, Soldier’s Syringe, Squid Polyps, Cautious Slug, Goat Hoof, Gesture of the Drowned, Rusted Key, and Leeching Seed to match other assets
    
  • Update visuals for all broken drones to be easier to see
    
  • Update visuals for missiles
    
  • Update damage numbers to be more legible
    
  • Update skin visuals for Huntress, MUL-T, Loader, and Artificer
    
• 🌧 Fire trail hitboxes from Burning elites are no longer spherical and properly match the visuals
  
• 🌧 Reduced screen shake and post-process brightness on Magma Worm. Clean up projectiles to be less opaque.
  
• Survivor Logs now require you to beat the game at least once with that survivor
  
• 🌧 Updated the Beetle Guard visuals when they spawn from a Beetle Gland to stand out more
  
• 🌧 Improved Sticky Bomb’s logic for sticking to enemies
  
• Now display ambient level on the HUD
  
  • Ambient level cap raised from 94 to 99
    
• Allow for scripted combat encounters, like Aurelionite or Alloy Worship Unit, to spawn as elites if Artifact of Honor is enabled
  
• 🌧 Add invincibility earlier into player spawning to reduce chance of dying instantly on entering a map
  
• 🌧 Update Captain’s Supply Drop on controllers having non-intuitive reversed controls
  

• Fixed boss items spawning more frequently than intended, especially when more items drop from multiplayer or Mountain Shrine bonuses
  
• Fixed large rocks in Titanic Plains clipping into the camera
  
• Altered geometry slightly to make more difficult to accidentally go out of bounds on many stages
  
• Abandoned Aqueduct now has defensive tar fully circling outside of the play area
  
• Fixed korean language characters missing in certain cases
  
• Fixed some animation issues on the Loader
  
• Fixed physics issues with Commando’s Frag Grenades
  
• Fixed certain drones not having 360° vision, causing them to attack or heal less
  
• Fixed Lunar Chimera’s death animations not matching the sound timings
  
• Fixed more occlusion issues in Sundered Grove and other maps that cause objects to disappear at certain camera angles
  
• Fixed certain survivors not removing their limbs when picking up Paul’s Goat Hoof or the Royal Capacitor
  
• Fixed Helfire Tincture’s burning effect being offset
  
• Fixed Chain Lightning and Razorwire making trail renderers that were not being cleaned up, potentially causing infinite objects in the scene
  
• Fixed Mini Mushrums making hitboxes that were not being cleaned up, potentially causing infinite objects in the scene
  
• Fixed certain effects incorrectly rendering while the player has invisibility
  
• Fixed enemy Beetle Guards not appearing in Void Fields or with Artifact of Dissonance
  
• Fixed Vultures having base health regeneration
  
• Fixed the ending sequence explosions missing an authority check, causing it to fire additional projectiles for every client in the game
  
• Fixed Stone Titan and Aurelionite missing an authority check, causing them to fire an additional projectile for every client in the game
  
• Fixed broken drones spawning underground
  
• Fixed several monsters playing death sounds and creating the usual visual effects when vanished by Void Reavers
  
• Engi Grenades now properly play impact sounds
  
• Fixed Alien Head particles not being affected by invisibility
  
• Fixed Titan’s laser lock-on only being calculated once, rather than continuously re-evaluating
  
• Fixed Titan’s laser lock-on not respecting invisibility
  
• Fixed clients not being able to use the exit portal in A Moment, Fractured
  
• Fixed 3840x1080 resolutions being unable to navigate the Server Browser
  
• Fixed the final boss’s crystals not being correctly colored
  
• Enemies who are stunned, frozen, or shocked no longer continue to turn
  
• Fixed dedicated server sometimes capturing the mouse cursor
  
• Fixed transparent blue spawn point debug visualizers for certain map objects (like explosive pots) being visible to non-host players
  
• Fixed game browser not filtering out lobbies and servers running on a different version of the game
  
• 🌧 Fixed Solus Control Unit not being selected as a boss due to a misconfigured spawn card
  

• Bandit’s doppelganger can still be located by its halo while invisible
  
• dont make me say it again