Risk of Rain 2 has 14 characters to choose from, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. While every character is certainly viable and each one has their fans, some characters can be easier to play than others due to their skills, compatibility with items, or simply ease to play.
In this article, I’ll share my list of the top 5 most powerful Risk of Rain 2 characters. I’ll share their strengths and weaknesses, as well as what about their strengths make them stand out above the other characters. Keep in mind, even if your main character doesn’t appear on this list, that doesn’t mean they aren’t powerful! Every survivor in Risk of Rain 2 has the capacity to be powerful given the right circumstances. But the survivors listed below have the easiest time of making it to Mithrax and, well, surviving.
5. Huntress
Huntress is the definition of a glass cannon character. With high scaling damage and high mobility, her primary weakness comes from having the lowest health of any character in the game at 90 hit points. Thankfully, her mobility abilities are super easy to use and a great way to evade heavy hitting attacks from monsters. Plus, she even has auto-aim on her primary attack for those gamers among us who just can’t aim to save our lives.
In the early game, Huntress can be vulnerable due to long cooldowns on her abilities and lower damage output than other survivors. But she scales well into the late game, with one of the highest damage outputs in the game and unmatched mobility. She fulfills the fantasy stereotype of a high-damage but fragile archer.
Her defining feature is her Utility Skill, Blink, which allows her to teleport in any direction (even straight up or down). An alternate version of this skill, Phase Blink, can be unlocked which allows Huntress to teleport a shorter distance, but do so much more often. Both skills are a vital part of her mobile identity, and make you feel untouchable while you spam high-damage auto-aiming arrows in the late game.
Huntress Strengths
- Her homing attacks let you focus on your movement and evasion rather than your aim.
- Huntress’ Blink and Phase Blink abilities, if used wisely, allow you to escape certain death.
- An unlockable Special Skill, Ballista, rounds out her kit with amazing single-target damage, allowing her to take out boss monsters alone.
- There are a variety of items that will complement Huntress’ kit, allowing you to reach high damage and survivability without needing to get lucky with item spawns.
- Her crowd control skills Laser Glaive and Arrow Rain let her take out large groups of monsters at once.
4. Captain
While having much less mobility than other characters on this list, Captain has unrivaled strength in his utility skills. He even keeps up in damage with the likes of Huntress, although his playstyle revolves more around burst damage than the steady damage-per-second play style of characters like Huntress.
Captain’s signature ability is his Hacking Beacon, allowing him to freely collect items from Multishop Terminals or Large Chests that would otherwise cost large amounts of money. If used well, this ability allows Captain to move through stages much faster than other characters, gaining more items of higher rarities than other characters might have access to.
In addition, Captain has a unique defense over other characters in the form of his Microbots. These Microbots shoot down nearby enemy projectiles, meaning you don’t even have to worry about dodging While not a perfect defense, these Microbots greatly compensate for his lower mobility. His high damage primary attack coupled with his utility and unique passive make him one of the most powerful characters in the game. But be careful about standing under hiss Orbital Supply Beacon. You will get crushed!
Captain Strengths
- Microbots defend you from hard to dodge attacks and can literally save a run late in the game.
- He starts with a Legendary item (his passive) that can be traded away if you encounter a 3D Printer for a better Legendary item.
- His Hacking Beacon not only grants access to hard to acquire chests, but it can also be used as a weapon if it lands on a monster.
- His primary attack knocks back enemies, compensating for his initial lack of mobility.
- Finally, there are lots of good mobility items in Risk of Rain 2 that can compensate for Captain’s biggest weakness.
3. Void Fiend
Canonically a corrupted version of the Commando survivor, Void Fiend has been described by members of the Risk of Rain 2 community as basically just a better Commando. While Void Fiend is powerful, able to achieve unparalleled damage output while in its corrupted state, that power comes with the responsibility of constantly managing a state of corruption. As such, more than some survivors, Void Fiend is limited by which items you can find. On top of that, Void Fiend is always oscillating between its corrupted and uncorrupted forms, each form having its own strengths and weaknesses. Leaving one form and entering another at the wrong time can end a run.
Essentially, Void Fiend’s corrupted form transforms his abilities into more aggressive versions. These aggressive versions allow Void Fiend to dish out more damage, but make him more of a target. Timing is everything. As such, Void Fiend can be a difficult survivor for new players to master. Receiving healing reduces corruption, meaning to truly take advantage of Void Fiend’s strengths, you have to avoid healing items - something that other survivors tend to rely on.
However, if you can collect enough void items, you make it easier to switch to Void Fiend’s corrupted form when you choose. That means your number one priority when playing Void Fiend is collecting 13 void items in order to keep your corruption meter above 25% at all times. Once you do this, choosing when to time your corrupted form becomes much easier.
Void Fiend Strengths
- Void Fiend has free healing when it is uncorrupted, making it easy to survive in its uncorrupted form.
- Its utility skill grants invulnerability, allowing you to escape even the trickiest situations.
- Void Fiend has the highest raw damage output in the game in its corrupted form.
- While healing items will make Void Fiend harder to play, collecting regeneration and barrier items will give Void Fiend all the perks of healing with none of the negatives.
2. Loader
Loader is another example of a hard-to-master survivor, but one of the most powerful characters in the game once you put the practice in. Loader’s biggest strength lies in her unrivaled mobility. Skilled players can use her grappling hook to cross the entire stage in only a few seconds. Strangely, Loader also has some of the slowest move speed of any character at 7 m/s. This dichotomy means that players unable to use her Grapple Fist ability well will be an easy target for monsters. Thankfully, Loader has high starting health at 160, and high starting armor at 20.
But the main reason Loader is so powerful, beyond her unique mobility skill, is her hard hitting attacks. Her Utility skill, Charged Fist, deals an additional 30% of base damage per 1 m/s of Loader’s current velocity. This damage scales infinitely. That means Loader’s maximum damage is basically uncapped, and also that her damage is tied to how well you can use her unique mobility tools like Grapple Fist to build up velocity.
As a consequence of this stacking damage based on velocity, Loader synergizes very well with all movement speed items. While movement speed items are vital to any character who wants to survive longer, they are doubly effective on Loader due to also acting as damage items. This means that Loader can prioritize movement speed items over damage items and not lose out on any damage. This is the primary trait that makes Loader stand out above the other characters, despite her high skill ceiling.
Loader Strengths
- Charged Gauntlet can take down bosses in one-shot if done at a high enough velocity.
- Loader’s only real weakness is her low movement speed, which should be compensated for by using her grappling ability and collecting movement speed items.
- Loader can reach hard to access places on certain stages without the need for additional items.
- Loader can traverse stages easier than other survivors, making her clear times shorter.
- Her special ability, M551 Pylon, acts as great crowd control, allowing her to focus her high damage attacks on bosses and other high health enemies.
1. Railgunner
Railgunner deserves the top spot on this list not because she has no weaknesses, but because those weaknesses are hardly noticeable past the early game. Railgunner has mobility options, crowd control options, and high long-range damage output. She has the ability to instantly kill many high-priority enemies before they ever become a threat. This means that if you are choosing your targets correctly, Railgunner never has to worry about becoming a target.
While Railgunner may seem to lack splash damage options (her skills are mostly focused on high single-target damage), that weakness never becomes much of a problem due to the high amount of crowd control items in the game. Gasoline, Will-o’-the-wisp, Ukelele, and ATGs are all relatively common area of effect items that will compensate for Railgunner’s weakness after she has acquired only one or two of these items. In the early game, there are often only one or two high profile threats on the stage at a time anyway, which Railgunner will have no trouble taking out. By the time the late game comes around, Railgunner should have more than enough items to mitigate this weakness.
Ultimately, Railgunner wins the top spot simply due to having single target damage that competes with Loader, while also having long-range capabilities. Sometimes, damage is simply the best defense. Railgunner can systematically delete threats before they get too close, like a true sniper, and as such can remain safe even in the chaotic later stages of the game.
Railgunner Strengths
- Her sniper ability allows Railgunner to deal high damage while being far away from any real danger.
- Piercing shots give her early game crowd control.
- Railgunner synergizes with most items in the game well.
- Supercharge is an all or nothing special ability that deals 4000% damage and 150% weak point damage. If used correctly, it can delete high health boss monsters in one blow.
