Risk of Rain 2 Artificer: Complete Unlock Guide

Risk of Rain 2’s Artificer is often regarded as one of the weakest characters in Risk of Rain 2. She is immensely popular within Squads, and although the developers acknowledged and tried to raise awareness about her by giving it a slight buff. She is still tough to use. The primary reason is that Artificer lacks all the good primary qualities that someone like MUL-T, Mercenary, or Engineer has.

Having said that, a Risk of Rain 2 Artificer-specific guide would be enjoyable. This way, we can highlight the best items, abilities, playstyles, and important things to be aware of. Before we proceed with that, it’s imperative first to know how Artificer is unlocked in Risk of Rain 2.

How Do You Unlock The Artificer In Risk Of Rain 2?

First off, let’s briefly check out the stats of Artificer in Risk of Rain 2:

Suppose you are a beginner and just started playing Risk of Rain 2 – the first question in your mind would be how to unlock Artificer. Well, this isn’t surprising, but just to let you know, it’s pretty safe. All you have to do is collect a bunch of items, go through the flow – kill some bosses, and enter a portal.

Once you are inside the portal, there will be a giant who will give you the option to free Artificer. Afterward, she will be readily available in your character options. This all might sound a bit tricky, so here is the step-by-step process.

Step 1: Collect 11 Lunar Coins

Have you ever come across some beautiful Blue Coins right after you kill an enemy? Well, luckily, If you have, then it must be that you have many Lunar Coins. These Coins are usually dropped after you kill an enemy. They are a bit rare, so If you ever come across one, do not miss it.

Step 2: Donate Coin to the Newt Altar

After you are done either farming or finding the Lunar Coins, you have to come across a Newt Alter – this is a portal creator and is scattered around the map. The locations of Newt Altras aren’t challenging, and having said that. You have to donate one lunar coin to the Newt Altar.

After that is done, It’ll spawn a tiny Blue Portal – this can take time, depending on when the Teleported has reached its charging capacity. All things considered, kill all the nearby enemies and save 10 Lunar Coins for the rest of the Journey.

Step 3: Travel Inside the Blue Portal

It’s reasonable to presume that at this point, you will be inside the Blue Portal – which essentially takes you to a cave. Afterward, travel one way, and at the end, there will be a huge crystal creature. This creature will give you the option to unlock Artificer after you come a little close to it.

The cost to unlock her is 10 Lunar, so make sure you haven’t wasted them elsewhere. Notwithstanding, If you have, you can come back later and unlock Artificer.

These were the three-step process to unlock Artificer in Risk of Rain 2. Now, we shall move to her Abilities and Best Items.

Artificer Abilities

Artificer is also very hard to scale – this gets problematic when you are playing Squads and making the best use of Artificer to contribute to the team. Besides, all these things might be correct – her sustained damage is good, there is also the benefit of High Burst, and she has good AoE. Many people forget the correct and most adequate use of Artificer. Our Risk of Rain 2 Tier List Guide ranked Artificer at Solid B because she is still relatively useful.

Just like many other survivors in the game, Artificer is also equipped with some talents. These are divided into three different portions: Passive, Primary, Secondary, Utility, and Special. We will analyze them separately.

ENV Suit

Artificer is equipped with ENV Suit – this is her Passive, and all it does is add a bit of mobility to her character. In other words, the ENV Suit allows Artificer to hover in the air — this is very useful when she gets knocked out in mid-air and can avoid fall damage.

Moreover, the Passive is also helpful when trying to escape enemies; this gets better with her already decent jumping ability. All in all, the Passive isn’t as good as the other characters, but it can indeed simulate a fast-playing style.

Flame Bolt

This is where the majority of people sideline and completely throw everything they have against Artificer. The two Primary abilities are entirely similar, the only difference being that a Flame Bolt ignites enemies while a Plasma Bolt does high-radius damage, making it better for long-range shots.

All in all, their Damage is entirely the same, 220% for Firebolt — Igniting the enemies, while Plasma Bolt does the same but rather explodes in an area. Both have the same amount of cooldown — 1.3s.

To sum things up, Artificer’s primary isn’t any unique or really out of the world. It still does the job as the Flame Bolt is very effective against enemies in close range, while the Plasma Bolt does its job in long-range fights.

The only problem here is that Artificer’s primary does not match up with the much user demanded – hold-down Primary Attack Style. The cool-down isn’t liked by many out there.

Artificer’s most debatable and efficient skills come under Secondary. She has the Charged Nano-Bomb alongside Cast Nano-Spear. These Secondary Abilities have somewhat similar characteristics, so let’s break them down.

Charged Nano-Bomb

The Charged Nano Bomb is a stun typo attack, which charges itself as you walk around. The charge represents the entire damage; If you can charge more, the damage will be higher. Usually, the typical range of damage is between 400% and 2000%.

The Proc Coefficient for Explosion is 1, while Sparks is restored to 0.3. It is considered to be a decent Secondary, but many players go with Cast Nano-Spear due to its multi-purposes. All things considered, the Charged Nano-Bomb does come with a 14m Black Radius, and it takes a total of two seconds to charge when Attack Speed is 1 fully.

Cast Nano-Spear

Cast Nano-Spear is the ACE when it comes to Artificer’s Secondary. This is a freeze power; you aim at a target, and it’s frozen for a while. This is because any enemies with less than 31% health get an infinite death, while others remain frozen. Moreover, the Cool Down is a bit high; it’s five seconds, Proc Coefficient remains at 1, while a charged-up Piercing Nano Speak can deal up to 400% to 1200% damage.

Keep in mind that although all these elements are pretty fantastic – this does not mean that you can freeze bosses or maybe while frozen. The best part is about pricing; you can shoot through multiple targets, ultimately making it highly efficient.

Snapfreeze – Utility

Here comes the best part about Artificer – the Snapfreeze. I honestly believe this is one of the most incredible Utilities in the game. It is instrumental when it comes to Team Survivor games. The reason is that Snapfreeze does an insane amount of damage – this gets even better when you realize it has a barrier alongside the execute compound.

Moreover, the drawback is that it has a massive cooldown of 12 seconds, which I think gets compensated through its wonderful abilities. Moreover, the meta remains the same; 30% or fewer health enemies are killed within seconds.

Likewise, it can’t freeze bosses, but keep in mind you can still damage them. The AoE Per Pillar is set to 2.5m, and 5m in Height. To put it in perspective, the Snapfreeze is handy when it comes to blocking narrow corridors or maybe blocking Golem Lasers.

Flamethrower

We all know how good and highly praised is the  Preon Accumulator. But did you know, the Artificer’s Flamethrower is the closest you can get to it? Well, to put it in perspective. The Flamethrower deals more than 4000% Damage. This is taken up from its default damage and the one done after an enemy is set to fire.

Besides, the ability can pierce through enemies, and every tick has a relative chance of 50% to ignite further any enemy it hits. The Proc Coefficient is 1, and therefore, If the crit procs, you are looking at an insane amount of damage because all hits are going to crit.

Other than these core characteristics, the Item also has a five-second cool-down. Further, the fire bam can reach no further than 21 meters, and the tick rate cannot be scaled with attack speed.

Ion Surge

Perhaps one of the weakest abilities in Risk of Rain 2 is where Artificer really lacks anything more destructive. The Ion Surge is a highly average ability; all it does is throw you in mid-air and Stun the nearby enemy, dealing whole damage of 800% only.

Now that we have illustrated what these major abilities are, which ones are better? It’s reasonable to presume that you will pick Flamethrower over Ion Surge. Likewise, it is time that we look at the best Items and Gameplay Tips regarding Artificer in Risk of Rain 2.

Changes To Artificer

Some recent updates in Risk of Rain 2 brought out some changes in ARtificer. These tweaks are mentioned above in the image. In a nutshell, the Blast radius of Artificer’s Plasma Bolt was improved, whereas, multiple changes were made to the Charged Nano-Bomb ability. All in all, after the update Artificer improved a lot in Risk of Rain 2.

Final Analysis

The most usual complaint about Artificer is regarding the cooldowns being extremely weak. The game needs to have a list of different characters; otherwise, it wouldn’t be fun with all being identical and having different powers.

The key with Artificer is different, and this is where the game expertise truly lies. The game allows you to progress from a beginner to an advanced level. The Artificer has the most damaging abilities, and the only problem is mobility and scaling. These are relatively easy to tackle, and they honestly aren’t a big hurdle.

The items suggested above can truly transform her, and besides, if you come across Purity Item, it would be game over. Just keep in mind that she isn’t a spammy character. Instead, you will have to switch between different abilities and get the best out of enemies. Also, the last thing, learn to prioritize your enemies, Wisps, and then Lemurians.

More Risk of Rain 2 Character Guides: Risk of Rain 2 Acrid