Combining fast-paced combat with rogue-like elements, Risk of Rain 2 provides an experience few games offer. A plethora of options are available for you to tweak before each run, including characters to use, abilities, and even level modifiers.

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One of the most important decisions you must make before starting a run is picking your character. Each character in Risk of Rain 2 has a unique set of skills, each with strengths and weaknesses. From slashing hordes of enemies to raining arrows from the sky, here are all of Risk of Rain 2's characters ranked from worst to best.

The survivor that you use is ultimately your decision. If your favorite happens to be low on our list, it's okay! We know that every character can excel in the right conditions.

Updated May 4, 2023 by Jacqueline Zalace: Risk of Rain 2 has a growing cast of characters. We've updated this list with new survivors that have been added to the game, including Bandit, Railgunner, and Void Fiend. Now, you can find all the current survivors in the game.

14 Commando

Risk of Rain 2 Commando

Being the first character you can use, it is not surprising that he is the most underwhelming member of the cast. That isn't to say that Commando is bad, however. With the inclusion of skill variants, Commando can alter his kit to deal more damage versus tougher foes and crowds.

Frag Grenades and Phase Blast are the best skills that a Commando main could use, but that doesn't change the fact that Commando is incredibly gear-dependent, more so than other characters. As a result, runs with Commando can vary from incredible to underwhelming.

13 Heretic

secret character heretic running

Heretic is a secret character that unlocks through the acquisition of Lunar items. The four Lunar items you need will replace your abilities; when all four are replaced, you will turn into Heretic. Since your kit is essentially just Lunar items, there isn't much variation when playing Heretic.

Unlocking this secret survivor may be a fun challenge, but doing it every run can be a bit tedious. To make matters worse, Heretic loses HP over time. While this can be combated with her high attack and speed, it can still be frustrating to deal with.

12 Acrid

Risk of Rain 2 Acrid

Spreading deadly poisons to enemies is both Acrid's strength and ultimate weakness. This character can deal an insane amount of damage with his abilities in the early-game, but Acrid begins to fall off after a few stages.

This is due to his lack of rapid-attacking abilities and defensive mechanics. Acrid's inherent life regeneration is nowhere near enough to keep him alive after the first stage, much less after a full rotation. Being restricted to melee attacks doesn't help much either. With that said, Acrid is a solid early-game character that can demolish most enemies. If RNG is on your side, Acrid can be a fantastic Survivor. When you can't get certain items to drop, Acrid can't hang with the rest of the roster.

11 Rex

Risk of Rain 2 Rex

While underwhelming at launch, Rex has received some buffs that have turned him into a great Survivor with a high skill floor. His ability to leech health from damage dealt makes him a strong Survivor without any reliance on gear.

Rex's abilities revolve around dealing damage to himself to gain life steal on his attacks. Rotating between his abilities can mean a constant influx of health, allowing him to tank large amounts of damage at later stages. Both the utility and damage output of Rex's abilities makes him excellent for the first few stages. His abilities also scale well with on-hit effects, but Rex does suffer from a lack of mobility skills. If you can find a few Wax Quails and Goat Hooves, Rex becomes an excellent pick.

10 MUL-T

Risk of Rain 2 MUL-T

MUL-T is an underrated Survivor that has a much stronger kit than most realize. MUL-T has the largest health pool in the game, has passive armor which grants damage resistance, a primary weapon that can reliably active on-hit items and can stun targets with Blast Canister.

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There's a lot going for MUL-T's kit; the only thing lacking is mobility. Transport Mode is a solid ability for horizontal movement and ramming into targets, although that pales in comparison to abilities seen on Loader or Huntress. MUL-T can counteract this with a double Rebar loadout, although this is rather input-intensive. Overall, if you can find a few on-hit and movement items for MUL-T, you're in for a good run.

9 Artificer

Risk of Rain 2 Artificer

With how important items are in Risk of Rain 2, it is important to use a character that can take full advantage of them. Artificer's high proc-coefficient on her abilities allows her to dominate the battlefield early-game with few items. Most of her abilities have a very high proc-coefficient, meaning that they have a high probability of activating a condition-based item like the Ukulele.

Her main downside is a lack of mobility, with no abilities in her kit allowing her to dodge or move quickly. She can float in the air, but that will rarely save you from the bullet-hell later stages turn into. Even if you can overcome that issue, Artificer's reloading mechanic on her skills significantly limits her true potential at later stages. If you can play around both of those downsides, Artificer provides some of the strongest early and mid-game burst damage.

8 Huntress

Risk of Rain 2 Huntress Survivor

Huntress is somewhat difficult to play if you're new to Risk of Rain 2. She has a small health pool and a lack of damage absorption through abilities. She is far from defenseless, however.

Blink is a fantastic movement tool that lets Huntress get out of a hectic situation in a flash. Better yet, she is the only Survivor in the game that can attack while sprinting. Mobility is the cornerstone of Huntress' playstyle. She also scales absurdly well with gear, thanks to how quickly she can attack targets. Huntress' only downside is her reliance on Ballista for early-game single-target damage, a skill that is incredibly hard to unlock for newer players.

7 Loader

Risk of Rain 2 Loader

If you want to get up close and personal with enemies, Loader is a fantastic choice. High-damaging fists are coupled with a high-mobility grappling hook to give Loader fantastic mobility. She doesn't rely solely on mobility, however. Her main attacks deal huge amounts of damage up close.

If you swap some of her abilities, she can be morphed into a highly mobile assassin instead of a melee brawler, allowing for a multitude of playstyles few characters can rival. Her main downside is her slow attack speed, meaning that on-hit items aren't nearly as powerful on Loader. Fortunately, that downside doesn't impact her much since her abilities deal so much damage on their own.

6 Mercenary

Risk of Rain 2 Mercenary

Mercenary has one of the most unique playstyles in Risk of Rain 2 compared to the rest of the cast. He is the only character that only deals damage through melee attacks but also happens to be incredibly mobile.

Unfortunately, Mercenary is also one of the hardest survivors to master playing. If you are used to playing as a long-ranged character, then switching to Mercenary can be a bit difficult. When you do manage to learn how to play Mercenary, you are in for a treat, as he can quickly become very overpowered.

5 Void Fiend

Risk of Rain 2 Void Fiend Corrupted Flood

Void Fiend is a new survivor who was added to the game with the Survivors of the Void DLC. This survivor has been corrupted by the void, giving them an eerie appearance. This corruption is also the source of his power, as Void Fiend can switch to a corrupted form which boosts the damage from all attacks.

Overall, Void Fiend is a fun survivor to play as. Managing corruption via healing and Corrupted Suppress can provide a more hands-on experience. If you manage to time Void Fiend transforming, you can do some serious damage to bosses and stronger enemies. There are no unlockable skills for Void Fiend, making a play-through not feel quite as unique.

4 Captain

Risk Of Rain 2 Captain Reloading The Shotgun

Captain has everything you could want from a Survivor. He deals excellent single-target damage, damage to groups, has an innate means of mitigating damage, and brings a solid chunk of utility to the table.

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Arguably Captain's strongest ability is Orbital Supply Beacon. It can summon two different beacons that provide excellent utility buffs, one of which reduces the price of nearby objects to $0. This works on chests, drones, Shrines, and even legendary chests! Captain's microbots mean most projectile attacks are harmless throughout a run. For those of you that aren't as skilled at dodging projectiles, this is a major blessing.

3 Bandit

bandit in the scorched acres

Bandit is a returning survivor and a fan-favorite from the first Risk of Rain game. As his name implies, Bandit is a gun-slinging cowboy who is capable of doing some series damage with his gun. The passive skill Backstab ensures that all attacks from behind are Critical Strikes.

Lights Out, Bandit's Special Ability is one of the best skills out there. With a four-second cooldown, this will cause you to fire your revolver dealing 600 percent damage. Using this skill will reset all of your cooldowns. You read that right; all of them, not just one. This allows you to continuously use all of your skills without the need to wait for a cooldown. If you do happen to get trapped, you can throw a smoke bomb down and run away.

2 Railgunner

Risk of Rain 2 Railgunner Concussion Device

Railgunner is the second survivor introduced in the Survivors of the Void DLC, alongside Void Fiend. As a markswoman, Railgunner has a railgun that has an incredibly long range. Rather than approaching enemies to kill, you can stay way back and shoot from a distance.

Railgunner's Passive guarantees that all hits to weak points are Critical Strikes. To buff this, her abilities M99 Sniper and HH44 Marksman will highlight weak points. On top of this, Supercharge will deal weak point damage. The real icing on the cake is how Railgunner deals with Critical Strike Chance. Railgunner doesn't have random Critical Strikes, so this chance is converted into damage. Overall, with Critical-boosting items, Railgunner can be a one-shot wonder.

1 Engineer

Risk of Rain 2 Engineer

Items are the bread and butter of Risk of Rain 2, drastically buffing a player's movement and damage output. Grabbing one Legendary is enough to turn a run around, but what about three? The Engineer's biggest strength is his turrets. These deal an obscene amount of damage and use any items currently on you. This means that as the Engineer scales, so too do his turrets.

While a lack of mobility is typically a major negative with Survivors, Engineer's turrets somewhat make up for this. You can focus solely on looting zones since your turrets will deal with the killing. Engineer's primary weapon is indeed rather lackluster, but that doesn't impact his kit much at all considering how absurdly powerful his other three abilities are.

NEXT: Risk Of Rain 2: Everything You Need To Know About Void Items