Risk of Rain 2

Overview

One crash landing, then the planet starts throwing everything it has at you. Risk of Rain 2 is a 2020 action indie game from Hopoo Games and Gearbox Publishing, set on a hostile alien world where survival means fighting through monsters, scooping up loot, and pushing onward before the swarm closes in. The loop is simple to grasp and cruelly easy to get lost in: move fast, hit hard, and stay alive.

The game builds its pressure with over a dozen handcrafted locales, enormous bosses, and more than 110 items that can twist each run in strange directions. You can play solo or take on the chaos with friends in online co-op, and the run can end at the final boss or keep going as long as you can survive. That flexibility gives every attempt a different shape, even when the planet is doing its best to flatten you.

Eleven playable survivors wait to be unlocked and mastered, each with their own combat style and alternate skills. Artifacts let you alter the rules with modifiers such as friendly fire, random survivor spawns, and item selection, while randomized stages, enemies, and items keep the road ahead uncertain. It is the sort of game that rewards curiosity, timing, and the willingness to turn a bad situation into an even bigger one.

Why play it

• Loot stacks into surprising combinations.
• Solo runs or online co-op both fit.
• Eleven survivors bring different play styles.
• Runs can loop, escape, or end in a boss fight.

Quick facts

Beginner walkthrough

Choose a survivor and start moving

Pick from the available survivors and jump into the run alone or with up to three friends in online co-op. Each survivor has a unique combat style, so the first step is deciding how you want to fight: close, ranged, heavy, or something stranger. The game also supports competition in the rotating challenge of the Prismatic Trials.

Find the teleporter and survive the charge

Each stage pushes you to locate the teleporter, trigger it, and then hold your ground while enemies swarm in and a boss joins the fun. Once the teleporter is fully charged, you move on to the next level. The longer the run lasts, the more the difficulty climbs, and the enemies grow stronger with it.

Spend, stack, and bend the rules

Use currency to open chests, activate turrets and drones, and collect items that can stack without limit on a character. More than 110 items can combine in surprising ways, and Artifacts can switch on modifiers like friendly fire, random survivor spawns, and item selection. Randomized stages, enemies, and items help make every run feel unruly in a different way.

Key characters

• Commando classic survivor

  The Commando is one of the familiar survivors you can take into the fight from the start.

• Engineer defensive specialist

  The Engineer is one of the classic survivors mentioned alongside newer arrivals like the Captain and MUL-T.

• Huntress mobile attacker

  The Huntress is part of the survivor roster and appears among the classic characters.

• Captain new survivor

  The Captain is one of the brand-new survivors added to the roster.

• MUL-T new survivor

  MUL-T joins the roster as a newer survivor with its own combat style.

Our take

Risk of Rain 2 thrives on motion, pressure, and item chaos. It gives you a strong survivor roster, a load of loot to bend into odd shapes, and enough randomness to keep each run twitchy. If you like third-person roguelikes that reward risky momentum and co-op survival, this has plenty to chew on.

FAQ