Risk of Rain 2 – Characters – Strategy Guide

by Falagar / Articles, Risk of Rain / 30 Mar 2019

What Character To Play (And What To Expect)

This guide is to help new and experienced players to learn a little more about the current characters in the game, what they’re strong at in the game at their base forms, as well as what kind of strategy to use for each.

COMMANDO

Commando is the standard starting character in the game. He is a very well balanced character that, when used well, can take you a long way in the game.

Double Tap – This is your basic spam attack. Commando will fire a shot from his dual weapons that won’t do a lot of damage, yet can be useful for slowly chipping away health on lesser enemies.

Phase Round – A singular shot that is stronger than Double Tap. Useful for taking away chunks of health from enemies, plus it can fire through environments, so be sure to use it as often as possible.

Tactical Dive – This is basically a dodge roll. Keep in mind, you are not invincible when rolling, yet it is helpful for keeping mobile and creating distance between enemies.

Suppressive Fire – The most useful in the Commando arsenal, this skill fires rounds in quick succession, temporarily stunning an enemy. This ability also tracks a target, which can be useful for long range attacks.

Why Play This Character?

Asides from the fact that he is the starting character, he can still be very effective and quite powerful on his own. He isn’t the fastest yet his Tactical Dive helps him to keep fairly mobile during fights, along with his Suppressive Fire to keep the tougher enemies at bay whilst you take out the small fry. With some smart decision making and stunning the right enemies to take out others, you will quickly find yourself dominating the battlefield with Commando.

MUL-T

MUL-T is a robotic character that is an extremely fast character in a fight, with a surprisingly diverse set of skills to eliminate enemies.

Multifunctional – In the game, you will find equipment from special orange canisters, each unique in ability. MUL-T is able to hold TWO pieces of equipment and is able to swap out between them with his fourth ability, Retool.

Auto-Nailgun – His first ability is a standard weapon he fires from his arm, which can be switched out from either a machine gun, which is fired in constant succession, or his second ability a railgun, which charges up to be fired and deals quite a lot of damage.

Blast Canister – Much like Commando’s Suppressive Fire, Blast Canister fires out a canister than explodes on impact, which will then split into smaller canisters for more explosions, which both damages and stuns enemies.

Transport Mode – This ability will momentarily make MUL-T zoom forward on his wheels at high speed, giving him both armor and speed, as well as the capability to run into enemies and damage them, which increases with more speed.

Retool – This ability is the one used to switch out Auto-Nailgun to the Railgun and back again, as well as swap out any two pieces of equipment MUL-T is carrying.

Why Play This Character?

MUL-T can be considered both a mobile character and a crowd control character. With his Transport Mode, he is easily able to move around for better positioning and use his Blast Canister to stun enemies, setting them up to be taken out with the Auto-Nailgun, whilst the Retool gun to switch to the Railgun can be used for much stronger enemies. If you can switch back and forth between the weapons efficiently and keep your enemies stunned long enough for the kill, MUL-T is one rust bucket to look out for.

HUNTRESS

Huntress is another of the most mobile characters in the game, as well as one of the easiest to use for new players.

Strafe – Strafe is what you will use the most as Huntress. It’s a simple arrow attack that can track enemies from a distance and does decent damage. This ability can also be used whilst sprinting.

Laser Glaive – Huntress throws a glaive that tracks enemies, which will bounce back and forth between enemies. The more enemies it bounces between, the more damage it will increase in. Wonderful for crowds.

Blink – This ability is what makes Huntress one of the most mobile characters in the game. This turns her invisible for a moment and will shoot her forward a certain distance before she reappears, which is brilliant for moving across the battlefield quickly or even up into the air.

Arrow Rain – Huntress teleports up into the air and gives you control of a dome, which you aim and click with to call down a range of arrows. It will slow enemies and lasts for a short time before stopping, dealing plenty of damage per second.

Why Play This Character?

Huntress is remarkably good for new players to play with, as her tracking abilities do not even require aiming, you would only need to look in their direction. With her Blink ability, sending Huntress up high to see the battlefield better, then using her Laser Glaive to take out entire groups of enemies can easily help her with crowd control and keeping clear of danger.

ENGINEER

Engineer is a character suited for those with a mind for placement and tactics, or those who just like to blow stuff up. A lot.

Bouncing Grenades – Engineer’s standard ability will fire a cluster of grenades which bounce a short while before exploding. Holding the button down will charge up this attack, firing out more grenades as a result.

Pressure Mines – 10 of these mines can be placed down at the same time, yet keep in mind that placing another will destroy the earliest one you put down. They are proximity triggered and enemies will not avoid them.

Bubble Shield – A shield that deploys nearby the Engineer in a dome shape, blocking out any incoming damage, such as projectiles, for a short amount of time before vanishing.

TR12 Gauss Auto-Turret – Engineer places down two of these turrets at the same time, which will automatically fire upon enemies within range. This will also copy any items your Engineer is carrying.

Why Play This Character?

Engineer is a Crowd Control King. Each of his abilities excels at controlling huge numbers of enemies and destroying them with devastating explosions. With the right placement, Engineer could easily hold a single location on any map, laying down mines around himself and deploying both turrets to help fend off lesser enemies, whilst his shield keeps him from taking too much damage and his bounce grenades obliterate anyone close enough.

ARTIFICER

Artificer is possibly THE MOST damaging character in the game, excelling at dealing massive amounts of damage to enemies.

Flame Bolt – The standard ability will fire out fireballs in succession of four before needing to recharge, yet can deal a decent amount of damage.

Charged Nano-Bomb – Holding down this ability will charge up a bomb that is capable of both stunning and damaging enemies to great effect. It can still be clicked for a quick bomb yet charging deals more damage.

Snapfreeze – This ability summons up a wall of ice wherever you aim, freezing enemies in place and leaving them open to attacks. Be aware that enemies will avoid this wall and try to move around it.

Flamethrower – Artificer sends streams of fire from both hands, dealing huge amounts of damage to enemies for a short amount of time.

Why Play This Character?

Artificer is ridiculously good at dealing damage to enemies. They have a ridiculously short cooldown time for a lot of their skills, yet has no mobility skills at all. Therefore, it is important to continuously dish out damage to enemies, using both the Charged Nano-Bomb & Snapfreeze to stop enemies in their tracks and using Flame Bolt and Flamethrower to finish them.

MERCENARY

Mercenary is one of the more unique characters, as he uses a melee weapon instead of ranged attacks to fight. Yet if used right, he can be incredibly fast and efficient at focusing on singular targets.

Cybernetic Enhancements – This passive ability simply allows Mercenary to double jump.

Laser Sword – Mercenary’s basic attack consists of three attacks, the first two dealing a decent amount of damage whilst the third deals much more.

Whirlwind – Mercenary will dash forward a short distance and slash in a circular motion around him twice, capable of hitting multiple enemies. Using this ability whilst jumping will change it to a vertical slice.

Blinding Assault – Mercenary dashes forward a short distance with this ability, yet hitting an enemy with this ability will immediately refresh it, allowing Mercenary to dash up to three times.

Eviscerate – Mercenary will dash forward a short distance and continuously slice at an enemy multiple times for decent damage. Mercenary is also invincible during this ability.

Why Play This Character?

Mercenary can be a dangerous character to play as since he relies on being close to enemies in order to inflict damage. Yet with smart usage of his Blinding Assault and Eviscerate, Mercenary can quickly become a blinding flash of unstoppable attacks as he focuses on taking on stronger enemies, using his mobility and speed to his advantage.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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