Highlights

• Risk of Rain 2 DLC Seekers of the Storm is on the way, exciting fans and boosting player count.
• Some Survivors, like Commando and Artificer, need time and practice to become 'overpowered.'
• Railgunner and Void Fiend, from Seekers of the Storm DLC, are considered strong additions to the game.

Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike third-person shooter that, even 4+ years after its release still has an iron-grip hold over the roguelike community. Now that Gearbox has bought Hopoo Games, Risk of Rain 2 fans were worried about the state of the game. But, thankfully, there's another DLC expansion on the way after Survivors of the Void called Seekers of the Storm. Between all of the updates, patches, and content additions to RoR2, fans still can't quite figure out which Survivor is the most 'overpowered' overall.

Granted, every single playable Survivor in Risk of Rain 2 is pretty broken when they get the right items or in the hands of the proper player. However, some Survivors have a higher play percentage than others, and thats not just a coincidence or because of certain Skin Mods.

Updated on April 18th, 2024 by Jacob Buchalter: With the recent (at the time of writing this) news on the upcoming Seekers of the Storm DLC, people are once again returning to Risk of Rain 2. Not only did they go a bit more into what exactly was coming in the eventual SotS update such as stage variations, but they also showed off the Dead Cells Mercenary Skin that's apparently coming soon. And as soon as that update drops, it's almost a guaranteed chance that the concurrent players for Risk of Rain 2 are going to shoot up for at least a week or so. With that in mind, let's take another look at all the Survivors offered in this game and how they stack up against each other.

Disclaimer: Certain Survivor stats scale based on the currently selected difficulty. In all of the tables, (D) = Drizzle Difficulty, (R) = Rainstorm Difficulty, (M) = Monsoon Difficulty

14 Commando

Unlock: Unlocked By Default

Commando is the 'Mario' of Risk of Rain 2, as he's the one that's unlocked by default, and the one with the most simple mechanics for beginners. A lot of people sleep on this Survivor, given that they're almost 'forced' to play as him for a while at first, and as a result, many players move on from the Commando and never look back.

However, that's a mistake, as the Commando is probably one of the best Survivors to show how absurd item scaling can get if players pick the right items. He absolutely takes a while to get going, as his starting damage is basically a light scratch against enemies, but the more on-hit items Commando gets, the more he'll start to skyrocket.

13 Artificer

Unlock: Completing 'Pause' Challenge

Out of every playable character in Risk of Rain 2, Artificer probably has the lowest playrate for such a silly reason. Artificer is a Survivor that forces players (for the most part) to hover constantly and learn how to survive while moving around in the air. She has a vastly different general playstyle compared to all the other Survivors and is most accurately described as RoR 2's 'Mage' class.

But, if you spend just a few hours with Artificer and actually get into the flow of her gameplay loop, it's easy to see that she's actually a pretty strong Survivor. She has some of the best single target damage tools in the game, the ability to execute with her Ice Wall, some of the most maneuverability thanks to Ion Surge, and doesn't really ever have to worry about fall damage. However, to get to the realm of 'overpowered' with Artificer, it takes a lot of practice and the right items, which is why she ends up this low in the rankings.

12 REX

Unlock: Completing 'Power Plant' Challenge

Considering all the effort it takes to unlock REX, you might expect it to be a higher-ranked Survivor. Unfortunately, while REX has a ton of damage potential, CC tools, and unique abilities, it a bit too high of a risk for the reward it offers. Because a lot of REX's abilities use its health as a resource, players are constantly having to keep an eye on their health more than usual, and those who are trying to learn REX will be frustrated by the number of times they're caught at low health by a stray Pest or Wisp.

Additionally, thanks to constantly using its health, again as a resource, REX almost never has the 'one-shot' protection active that stops enemies from just instant-killing Survivors with a single attack. It's a bit of a shame considering how unique this Survivor is, and with the right build and the proper playstyle REX can put out more damage than most other Survivors, but the odds of that happening consistently are just very low on average.

11 Mercenary

Unlock: Completing 'True Respite' Challenge

Considering how dangerous even a single hit can be from enemies on a difficulty like Monsoon, you might be surprised to discover that the melee class, Mercenary, is actually pretty great. For one, it's the Survivor that feels the best to get around with at the start of a run. Because the Mercenary has both the ability to double jump by default and multiple dashes, it's incredibly easy to get around the map without needing to rely on move speed items.

But more than that, the Mercenary just has a good amount of damage (thanks to his Expose debuff) and a lot of iIframes to abuse to avoid damage. His default Special, Eviscerate, basically makes him immune to damage for about 2 entire seconds with each cast. And, even if players use his other Special, Slicing Winds, they can still rely on the I-frames from either Focused Assault or Blinding Assault to get them through most difficult encounters. All that said, he is still a melee class, and playing as the Mercenary comes with a lot more innate risk, but thanks to Survivors of the Void's new items such as Safer Spaces, it's now easier to play melee Survivors overall.

10 The Huntress

Unlock: Unlocked by Default

As another highly mobile Survivor like Mercenary, Huntress has all the utility of multiple dashes while also being able to primarily attack enemies from a decent range. Be aware, however, that the Huntress starts off with the lowest base health. Also, despite her in-game description, Huntress has some of the lowest damage output (at the start of a run) out of all the Survivors, and also has lower proc coefficients (on average) as well. So, she takes a while to get a really fun build going, similar to the Commando.

However, there's a reason that Huntress seems to have a lot more diehard fans than the Commando, and it's because once Huntress gets some Backup Mags and maybe a bit of Crit Chance, all of a sudden she feels so much stronger. Additionally, her Primary auto-locks onto enemies, giving players one less thing they have to focus on while running around desperately trying to survive.

9 MUL-T

Unlock: Completing 'Verified' Challenge

The spiritual successor to the original Risk of Rain's HAN-D Survivor, MUL-T is another robotic automaton players can control. However, compared to HAN-D's melee playstyle in the 2013 Risk of Rain (as well as Risk of Rain Returns) MUL-T has four different ranged options.

This character doesn't have a 'Secondary Ability' like all the other Survivors have, but instead, players can choose two different primaries to switch between (or use with Power Mode once it's unlocked). These primaries include the Nailgun, Rebar Puncher, Scrap Launcher, and the Power Saw. Though, overall, double Nailguns do seem to be the 'meta' loadout for this character, as it turns them into an on-hit nightmare for any natives of Petrichor V.

MUL-T has a lot of base health, a lot of little 'tricks' players can learn to optimize MUL-T's gameplay, and a Utility Skill that functions for both offense and defense. Their versatility is the primary reason MUL-T is ranked so highly, as it truly is the Survivor that no two people play the same way.

8 Acrid

Unlock: Completing 'To Be Left Alone' Challenge

Take this next ranking with a grain of salt, as we're admittedly an Acrid main, but this adorable little biohazard nightmare is one of the most reliable Survivors in both the original Risk of Rain and Risk of Rain 2. That's right, Acrid is the only Survivor that's the same 'person' between both games and in the time that passed between these two games, Acrid has really gotten comfortable on Petrichor V.

As a character, Acrid is pretty unique. His default playstyle revolves around using Poison to slowly get enemies to 1 HP, and then finish them off from there. There's a playstyle based around his Blight loadout and one that builds him as a melee tank revolving around his Ravenous Bite, but the Poison hit-and-run playstyle is the most popular. While this playstyle is, admittedly, boring compared to other Survivors, Acrid is one of the Survivors who have to worry about enemy scaling the least. His Poison will always deal 10 percent of the opponent's max HP over its 10-second duration, meaning that regardless of how much health a Teleporter Boss has, Acrid will always be able to deal decent damage.

7 The Captain

Unlock: Completing ‘Washed Away’ Challenge

Captain is one of the later characters added to Risk of Rain 2 and he also has a pretty unique loadout and playstyle. Instead of having a damage-based Special Ability, Captain instead has two 'Beacons' he can call down once per beacon, per stage. These beacons can heal, hack nearby interactables, trap enemies in an endless stun, or recharge the player's equipment, and a player's favorite beacon really just comes down to preference.

Outside of this, Captain also has a shotgun primary which can be charged to work both up close and at a medium range, and this gun fires 8 bullets with every shot making it great for triggering on-hit items. Finally, Captain can also call down Orbital Strikes from the UES Safe Travels ship orbiting Petrichor V, and he can even unlock the ability to call down the dreaded 'Diablo' Strike that deals 40,000 percent damage if it manages to hit its target. Captain requires a pretty skilled player in order to succeed, as his movement is some of the worst in the game. Thankfully, his passive Defensive Microbots do help out quite a bit, but it still takes some getting used to.

6 The Bandit

Unlocked: Completing 'Warrior' Challenge

Bandit was an odd character for a while when Risk of Rain 2 was in early access. All of his files were in the game and could be accessed with mods (which a lot of players did) but he wasn't fully 'added' to the game until the Anniversary Update. He's the very definition of a 'gunslinger' much in the same way that Artificer is the representation of a 'mage'. Players with good aim and a love of good video game gunplay will naturally gravitate toward the Bandit, as his damage skyrockets in the hands of someone who can aim true.

Bandit is also another character that doesn't have a ton of innate maneuverability, needing to rely on the small burst of air gained from popping both Smoke Bomb and Serrated Dagger to get around until he finds a Hopoo Feather. Still, the innate ability to Critically Strike enemies 100 percent of the time as long as the Bandit hits them from 'behind' is so incredibly strong. Truly, Bandit is one of those Survivors who's just 'okay' in the hands of a newcomer but is hilariously overpowered in the hands of an expert.

5 The Loader

Unlock: Completing 'Guidance Offline' Challenge

While Loader has a lot of Ability similarities to the Loader in the original Risk of Rain, the gameplay loop between these two Loaders couldn't be more different. Risk of Rain 2's Loader is basically One Punch Man when built correctly (or just has even a single Polylute), thanks to her two Gauntlet Abilities and her Grapple Abilities. Instead of grabbing a bunch of on-hit items, Loader benefits much more from stacking as many Crowbars, Bands, and Focus Crystals as she can. Additionally, if players can actually utilize the damage buff from going at a high velocity before using her Charged Gauntlet, they can literally one-shot Teleporter Bosses if they play their cards right.

As the other melee character besides Mercenary, Loader is the perfect example of a Survivor who needs a skilled hand to show her true colors. People who never got her gameplay loop or figured out how to effectively use her Grapple Abilities probably think Loader is one of the worst Survivors, but those who have actually learned Loader's mechanics will always rank her among their favorite Survivors to play, though maybe not in singleplayer runs.

4 The Engineer

Unlock: Completing 'Engineering Perfection' Challenge

The originator of the 'Bungus' meme, Engineer is such a powerful character. When playing Engineer, players are almost playing a tower defense game more than a roguelike, thanks to his turrets. And, because the Engineer's Turrets inherit his items, the items that would be mediocre or just straight-up bad on other Survivors tend to actually be amazing on the Engineer. For example, any item that benefits from the player standing still or getting close to death, such as the Bustling Fungus or the Genesis Loop is as useful as it'll ever be when given to the Engineer's turrets.

It takes a bit of learning to get used to the Engineer, but a lot of players who do learn him find that they'll never want to switch off him after this point, especially in multiplayer. While the lack of mobility and generally unreliably primary is a bit tough to adjust to at first, Engineer becomes one of the strongest and most accessible characters in Risk of Rain 2 once players push through the awkwardness and actually learn how to play him.

3 The Heretic

Unlock: Obtain All Four Lunar Items With 'Heresy' in Their Name in One Run (Visions, Hooks, Strikes, & Essence of Heresy)

No, you didn't forget to unlock a character just because you don't see the Heretic on the character select menu. The Heretic is actually a 'secret' playable character in Risk of Rain 2, similar to Risk of Rain Retunr's Robomando, as she's only controllable once players fulfill very specific conditions, and she's only controllable for that run in particular. Essentially, once players collect all four Lunar items with the word 'Heresy' in their name (AKA the ones that replace their Abilities with new ones), they'll immediately just 'become' the Heretic.

At a base level, the Heretic has 4 times as much health as the average, 6 more base damage, a bit more speed, and even a triple jump. In exchange, however, she has negative health regen, meaning she'll actually lose health over time instead of regaining it. Thankfully, her Utility Ability called Shadowfade makes it pretty easy to get this Health back, but Heretic absolutely fits the definition of a 'high-risk high-reward' character.

2 The Railgunner

Unlock: Unlocked by Default (Requires Survivors of the Void DLC)

Let's be honest for a second, while every Survivor in this game has the potential for greatness and there are not really any 'bad' Survivors, the two Survivors added in the Survivors of the Void DLC are just much stronger than anyone else by default. Railgunner is a great example of this, as her base stats are pretty average, but after using any of her in-game Abilities, players will instantly figure out that these base stats are deceptive.

With the proper aim and good use of her active reload system, Railgunner can quite literally spawn into the first stage on any difficulty, start the Teleporter with 0 items, and still melt the boss in under 2 minutes. Railgunner has a version of Bandit's guaranteed Crit system, is able to freeze (and by extension execute) enemies like Artificer, and can jump around the map with ease using her Concussion Devices similar to Acrid or the Mercenary. This character literally has it all, and that's not even getting into her un-scoped homing shots or her innate ability to turn Crit Chance into Crit Damage.

1 Void Fiend

Unlock: Completing ‘Washed Away’ Challenge (Requires Survivors of the Void DLC)

And finally, let's talk about the strongest overall Survivor in Risk of Rain 2 as well as the most 'recent' addition, the Void Fiend. While unlocking this guy can be a bit of a hassle given how difficult Voidling is to fight (and how tedious the Simulacrum can be), it's absolutely worth it as this character is so incredibly strong. The Void Fiend has homing shots, maneuverability, an innate ability to heal himself, great burst damage, and he even has a transformation that turns him into a close-range nightmare.

While the Railgunner basically has all these things other Survivors have, but slightly better, Void Fiend takes it to a whole other level. Sure, it can be a bit tedious or difficult to manage his Void Corruption meter at first, but after getting used to that players can basically play however they want and build him however they want, and they'll still typically make it to the end of the run without much trouble.