Risk of Rain 2: Beginner-to-Advanced Guide

Everything you need to beat Risk of Rain 2 in 2026: the run loop, item priorities, unlocking every survivor (including the Alloyed Collective DLC), stage secrets, the different endings, and what's coming in Hallowed Concepts.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the Alloyed Collective DLC (released November 18, 2025) with Hallowed Concepts announced but not yet released. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Quick Start

• Time is your enemy. Difficulty goes up constantly as the clock runs (and faster on harder difficulties). Loot efficiently, but don't comb every corner of every stage.
• Spend gold as you earn it. Chest prices go up as difficulty rises, so saved gold loses value. Open chests all through the stage.
• The teleporter ends each stage. Charge it by staying inside its radius, then kill the boss and move on. Loop back to stage 1 after stage 5, or take the ending path.
• Stack movement and survival items early. Paul's Goat Hoof, Energy Drink, Tougher Times, and Medkit/Bustling Fungus keep a new player alive better than raw damage does.
• Look for Lunar Coins. They carry over between runs and are spent in the Bazaar Between Time, which you reach through a blue portal after a Newt Altar is activated.
• Rainstorm is the standard difficulty. Drizzle is the easy setting, good for learning or unlocking things. Beating Monsoon unlocks the Eclipse levels for that survivor.
• Unlocks come from challenges. Check the Logbook > Challenges to see what's next.
• Printers (3D Printers) and Scrappers let you turn junk items into ones you want. Use them.
• Look for elite enemies (Blazing, Glacial, Overloading, Malachite, and more). They hit much harder, so focus them first.
• Co-op scales everything. Items are shared by whoever opens the chests, so talk about who gets what.

Survivors and How to Unlock Them

Survivor | Unlock (challenge)

Commando | Default

Huntress | Default (since the Anniversary Update)

Bandit | Warrior: reach and complete the 3rd Teleporter event without dying

MUL-T | Verified: complete the first Teleporter event 5 times

Engineer | Engineering Perfection: complete 30 stages

Artificer | Pause.: free the survivor suspended in time at the Bazaar Between Time

Mercenary | True Respite: obliterate yourself at the Obelisk

REX | Power Plant: repair the broken robot with an Escape Pod's Fuel Array

Loader | Guidance Offline: defeat the unique guardian of Siren's Call

Acrid | ...To Be Left Alone: stabilize the Cell in the Void Fields

Captain | Washed Away: beat the game

Railgunner (SotV) | Unlocked by default with Survivors of the Void

Void Fiend (SotV) | Dragged Below: escape the Planetarium or complete wave 50 in Simulacrum

Seeker (SotS) | Unlocked by default with Seekers of the Storm

False Son (SotS) | Purified Freedom: purify the Heart using the Halcyon Seed

CHEF (SotS) | Order Up!: complete the Wok's recipe in Reformed Altar

Operator (AC) | Unlocked by default with Alloyed Collective

Drifter (AC) | Lost in Transit: free the survivor from the vault in Solutional Haunt

Heretic is a special, hidden form. Collect all four Heresy lunar items (Visions, Hooks, Strides, and Essence of Heresy) and your survivor transforms for the rest of the run.

SotV = Survivors of the Void, SotS = Seekers of the Storm, AC = Alloyed Collective. You need the DLC enabled in the lobby to use its survivors and content.

Good first survivors

• Commando: simple kit, a good way to learn items.
• Huntress: auto-targeting primary and great mobility, but fragile.
• MUL-T: tanky, with a very strong nailgun primary. Very beginner-friendly.
• Engineer: turrets do the work. Excellent for Monsoon and for learning.
• Captain: orbital strikes plus beacons (healing, shocking, or hacking chests).

Items

Rarity Tiers

Tier | Colour | Examples

Common | White | Soldier's Syringe, Tougher Times, Lens-Maker's Glasses, Paul's Goat Hoof, Bustling Fungus, Crowbar, Sticky Bomb, Tri-Tip Dagger, Armor-Piercing Rounds

Uncommon | Green | Ukulele, AtG Missile Mk. 1, Predatory Instincts, Harvester's Scythe, Hopoo Feather, Will-o'-the-wisp, Leeching Seed, Kjaro's Band, Runald's Band

Legendary | Red | 57 Leaf Clover, Brilliant Behemoth, Ceremonial Dagger, Soulbound Catalyst, Sentient Meat Hook, Alien Head, Aegis, Rejuvenation Rack, Happiest Mask

Boss | Yellow | Drops from teleporter bosses (Titanic Knurl, Queen's Gland, Pearls from Cleansing Pools, and more)

Lunar | Blue | High-risk items: Shaped Glass, Gesture of the Drowned, Brittle Crown, Transcendence, Purity

Void (SotV) | Purple | "Corrupted" versions that replace their normal counterparts, like Polylute (replaces Ukulele) and Voidsent Flame

Equipment | Orange | Primordial Cube, Preon Accumulator, Royal Capacitor, Gorag's Opus, Fuel Array

Alloyed Collective added 22 new items across these tiers, plus two new item types: Temporary Items and Meal Items (foods like Seared Steak and Hearty Stew). It also added the Collective elite, which gives its allies a protective dome and 25% lower skill cooldowns.

Early Stack Priorities

• Mobility: Paul's Goat Hoof, Energy Drink, Hopoo Feather.
• Crit and proc items: Lens-Maker's Glasses (up to 100% crit with enough stacks), Predatory Instincts, Harvester's Scythe.
• Survival: Tougher Times, Medkit, Bustling Fungus (on stationary builds like Engineer), Leeching Seed.
• On-hit/proc damage: Ukulele, AtG Missile, Sticky Bomb, Tri-Tip Dagger.

Proc coefficient decides how often a skill triggers on-hit items. Fast multi-hit skills (like MUL-T's nailgun) are great for on-hit builds.

Lunar Items: know the trade-offs

• Shaped Glass: doubles your damage but halves your max health. Strong, but it can end a run in one mistake.
• Gesture of the Drowned: equipment activates automatically with reduced cooldown. Amazing with some equipment and terrible with others.
• Transcendence: turns your health into shield that regenerates.
• Brittle Crown: gain gold on hit, lose gold when you get hit.

Stages and Secrets

Stage | Environments (base game + SotV)

1 | Distant Roost, Titanic Plains, Siphoned Forest (SotV)

2 | Abandoned Aqueduct, Wetland Aspect, Aphelian Sanctuary (SotV)

3 | Rallypoint Delta, Scorched Acres, Sulfur Pools (SotV)

4 | Abyssal Depths, Siren's Call, Sundered Grove

5 | Sky Meadow

Final | Commencement (the moon)

Seekers of the Storm and Alloyed Collective add more stage variants (Alloyed Collective alone added seven stages, including Pretender's Precipice, Iron Alluvium, Repurposed Crater, and Conduit Canyon).

Hidden areas and interactables

• Bazaar Between Time: a shop using Lunar Coins. It's also where Artificer is freed.
• Gilded Coast: reached through a gold portal. Fight Aurelionite.
• Void Fields: reached through the null portal in the Bazaar. Stabilize cells for items, and unlock Acrid.
• A Moment, Fractured / Obelisk: obliterate yourself to "end" the run and earn Lunar Coins. It also unlocks Mercenary.
• Newt Altars: pay a Lunar Coin to open the blue portal to the Bazaar.
• Shrines: Chance (gamble gold), Mountain (a harder boss for extra items), Combat, Blood, Order (rerolls your items), Woods, and Cleansing Pools (trade lunar items for Pearls).

Endings / Final Bosses

Ending | Where | Boss

Main | Commencement | Mithrix

Void (SotV) | Planetarium | Voidling

Storm (SotS) | Prime Meridian | False Son

Solus (AC) | Alloyed Collective finale | Solus Wing / Solus Heart

Obliteration | A Moment, Fractured | none (you give up the run for Lunar Coins)

Mithrix tips

• Phase 1: melee and ranged attacks. Dodge his hammer smash (a direct hit deals 1200% damage) and keep moving.
• Phase 2: Mithrix leaves the arena and Lunar Chimeras and Wisps spawn. Kill them all to progress.
• Phase 3: he returns with an empowered hammer that leaves lingering flame pillars, plus a rotating-pillar spin attack. Lunar adds keep trickling in.
• Phase 4: he steals all your items (he is invulnerable while doing it). Each chunk of damage you deal (about 1% of his health per item) returns items in the order you found them, so bring a plan that works without items: equipment, drones, or allies.

Difficulty and Eclipse

Difficulty | Notes

Drizzle | Easy: slower scaling and regen/armor buffs

Rainstorm | Standard

Monsoon | Hard: faster scaling. Beating it unlocks Eclipse for that survivor

Eclipse 1–8 | Stacking modifiers (for example, shorter teleporter radius, less healing). Beat each level to unlock the next.

Artifacts

Artifacts are run modifiers you toggle in the lobby. You unlock them by entering codes at the Bulwark's Ambry (reached through artifact portals on Sky Meadow). Examples: Command (choose your items), Sacrifice (items drop from enemies instead of chests), Swarms, Spite, Glass, and Honor.

Artifact of Command is great for learning what items do.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Wasting time: hunting every chest on stage 1 means the game gets harder while you're still weak.
• Not using Printers and Scrappers to focus your build.
• Picking Shaped Glass without a plan for staying alive.
• Ignoring Elites.
• Dying in co-op without a Dio's Best Friend. Dead players stay out until the next stage, so play safe while the teleporter charges.
• Forgetting DLC toggles: you can turn DLC content on or off in the lobby, and DLC unlock challenges need it on.

Advanced Tips

• Loop for power. After stage 5, going back to stage 1 (looping) keeps you collecting items. Once you're strong enough, loop until you're ready for the ending.
• Shrine of Order: it turns every item in a tier into one random item from that tier. It's a gamble. Use it when a tier is full of weak items, and one big stack of a good item would be an upgrade.
• Printers: feed scrap into printers for exact items. On-hit builds want Ukulele, AtG, and Crit, while mobility builds want Goat Hoof and Energy Drink.
• Teleporter bosses: Shrine of the Mountain doubles the teleporter boss and its item drops. Use it when you're ahead.
• Co-op: split items by role. A tank takes survival, and a damage player takes crit and on-hit.

What's Next: Hallowed Concepts (announced)

Hallowed Concepts was announced on April 9, 2026. Dev diaries so far (as of September 2026) have revealed:

• 2 new survivors: Acolyte (close-range glaive combos with a cost) and Enforcer (Steel Protection shield that blocks everything, a parry on reactivation, Shield Tackle, and Rally Point).
• Hexes (10, pure downsides) and Hallowed items (11) that you earn by enduring Hexes.
• Trials of N'kuhana: pocket-realm trials (Winnowings of Survival, Predation, and Mortality) found by ringing gongs on stages.
• 3 new standard stages, 3 new bosses, 4 enemies, a new elite type, and 16 new survivor skins.
• It will be shown at The Triple-i Initiative on October 8, 2026. No release date had been given as of late September 2026.

FAQ

How do I unlock all survivors? Complete the challenges listed above, found in the Logbook > Challenges menu.

What's the easiest survivor? MUL-T and Engineer are the most forgiving. Commando is the simplest to learn.

Do I need DLCs? No. The base game is complete. The DLCs add survivors, stages, items, and new endings.

What are Lunar Coins for? Buying lunar items and access in the Bazaar, and unlocking some content. They carry over between runs.

How do I get Eclipse? Beat Monsoon with a survivor to unlock Eclipse 1 for them.

How many players in co-op? Up to 4 players online (per the Steam page).

When is Hallowed Concepts coming out? There's no release date as of September 2026. Watch the Triple-i Initiative on October 8, 2026 for news.

Sources

• Risk of Rain 2 on Steam
• Risk of Rain 2 Steam news (Hallowed Concepts dev diaries, Acolyte and Enforcer reveal)
• Risk of Rain 2 Wiki — Survivors
• Risk of Rain 2 Wiki — Challenges
• Risk of Rain 2 Wiki — Alloyed Collective
• Risk of Rain 2 Wiki — Huntress
• Risk of Rain 2 Wiki — Mithrix