Risk of Rain 2 Armor: Types, Enemy Armor And More

In Risk of Rain 2, armor functions the same as in any game. It reduces the amount of damage dealt with you. The armor that a player has can be different. It depends on the value of the armor. A higher value of armor means the player will have higher resistance to damage dealt.

All Characters have a different base armor

The damage reduction you get from the armor isn’t linear. It follows a formula to determine how much damage resistance you have; more on that later on.

The armor can be positive or negative, yes, negative. When it is negative, the damage dealt will multiply instead of reducing. Keep in mind that in Risk of Rain 2, the damage dealt will never be less than one. If it was, like a god-mode, it’d take all the fun away from the game. Although it may be fun for some people, for most, it is not.

The armor in risk of rain 2 is for both Survivors and Boss Monsters. Boss monsters, too, can have different values of armor. They can have positive or negative armor that will increase or reduce damage taken. If you don’t have items or means to reduce their armor, you can use the Armor Piercing Rounds.

In the long run, it’s necessary to choose the perfect survivor and ensure that it has enough damage reduction.

Armor functionality in Risk of Rain 2

As we’ve mentioned before, the armor in Risk of Rain 2 isn’t linear. For example, at 100-armor, you get a 50% armor reduction. You can’t expect to get a 500% armor reduction at 1,000-armor; that would be absurd. This is because stacking armor has diminishing returns. This means that at one point, the reduction you get for each armor increase will be neglectable.

Now, you might ask, how to calculate the damage taken per hit with the armor. There are different formulas for the positive and negative armor values.

1. Positive Armor:
   • Positive armor reduces the damage taken by the player.
   • The formula for calculating damage taken with positive armor is:
     Damage Taken = (100 / (100 + Armor)) * Damage

   • This formula yields a value between 0 and 1, indicating the damage the character receives.
   • Damage reduction due to armor is calculated as:
     Damage Reduction = Armor / (100 + Armor)

2. Negative Armor:
   • Negative armor increases the damage taken by the player.
   • The formula for calculating damage taken with negative armor is:
     Damage Taken = Damage * (2 - 100 / (100 - Armor))

   • This formula results in a value between 1 and 2, where negative armor is subtracted, effectively increasing damage taken.
   • When dealing damage to monsters with negative armor, the formula for calculating the damage increase is:
     Damage Increase = (100 / (100 - Armor)) - 1

Damage Reduction Table

Now that you know the basics of how the Risk of Rain 2 armor works. Here’s a damage reduction table available on the Official Risk of Rain 2 Wiki. This table tells how much damage reduction percentage you’d get for a certain armor value.

This table shows that to get a 50% damage reduction, you only need 100-armor. But at 200-armor, you only get 66.67%. To get a 99% damage reduction, it would take 330 Rose Bucklers to get the 9900-armor required.

Items That Effect Armor

Getting Armor in Risk of Rain 2 seems complicated. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it a lot easier than it seems. The damage reduction of the character increases if their total armor increases. The goal in Risk of Rain 2 is to increase the Armor. We’ll look at items that increase Survivor’s armor and base armor.

Monsters’ armor in Risk of Rain 2 can’t be ignored. How much damage you can deal with them depends on their armor, so we’ll take a look at their armor too.

1. Playing on the lowest difficulty (Drizzle) grants each character a 70-armor bonus.
2. Spinel Tonic, when activated, provides 20 armor along with other buffs. Be cautious, as it may cause Tonic Affliction after it wears off.
3. Rose Bucklers grant 30 armor while sprinting and can be stacked for additional armor.
4. Irradiant Pearls increase all stats by 10% per stack, including base armor.
5. Jade Elephant provides a massive 500 armor boost for 5 seconds, with a 45-second cooldown. It’s useful when surrounded by monsters.
6. Repulsion Armor Plate reduces incoming damage by 5 per plate stacked. The damage reduction is linear and stacks until you take only 1 damage per hit.

Survivors Armor 

Some Survivors in Risk of Rain 2 have base armor. This means they have armor from the beginning. Knowing their armor will give you a better understanding of the Survivors. Let’s check them.

1. Acrid, Loader, Mercenary, and Rex start with 20 base armor.
2. MUL-T starts with 12 base armor.
3. Artificer, Bandit, Captain, Commando, Engineer, Heretic, and Huntress start with 0 base armor but rely on their skills and abilities for survival.

The Survivors that have base armor have it in their kit. MUL-T is a Survivor that can get extra armor by using their skills.

• The utility skill Transport Mode gives MUL-T 200 extra armor.
• MUL-T’s special skill Power Mode increases their armor by 100.

Monsters’ Armor

As we mentioned at the beginning of the guide, both the survivors and monsters can have armor. 

1. Some boss monsters have base armor, which ranges from 10 to 100.
2. The Clay Dunestrider’s armor increases by 200 when its life-draining tendrils are active.
3. The Scavenger’s armor increases by 200 when it’s looking for an item.

How To Reduce Armor?

Now you might be wondering since armor has such effects on damage taken or damage done how to inflict damage on enemies that have armor. For that, some effects reduce the target’s armor. Using this will surely give you an advantage over them.

• If you hit a target 5 times while Shattering Justice is activated, it will reduce the target’s armor by 60.
• Weaken or Natural Toxins of REX reduce targets’ armor by 30 points.
• Cripple is a debuff that reduces its victim’s armor by 20.

Armor-Piercing rounds

Armor-Piercing Bullets are a valuable item that can significantly increase your damage output against bosses with armor. Here’s how they work:

• Effect: Armor-Piercing Bullets provide a damage bonus specifically against bosses. Each stack of Armor-Piercing Bullets increases the damage bonus by 20%.
• Boss Damage Bonus: With a single stack of Armor-Piercing Bullets, you deal 20% additional damage to bosses with armor. If you stack multiple Armor-Piercing Bullets, the bonus damage increases by an additional 20% per stack. This allows you to stack the item to further boost your damage output against bosses.
• Rarity: Armor-Piercing Bullets have a common rarity, making them relatively easy to find during your run.

Having Armor-Piercing Bullets in your item collection can make a significant difference when facing boss enemies with armor. By stacking this item, you can maximize your damage output, making boss encounters more manageable and allowing you to focus on other aspects of the game, such as dealing with swarms of enemies or activating the teleporter.

Summary

Armor is a stat in Risk of Rain 2 that most of the Players seem to ignore. It can be the only thing keeping you alive when you’re surrounded by a swarm of monsters. If you’ve been following our guide then you’d know that it is as important as other buffs. Some survivors’ gameplay differs according to their base armor too, as they are stronger early game.

While getting armor items for your survivor, keep one thing in your mind. After 100-armor, there’s no point in getting extra armor, as it has diminishing results.

Next: Risk of Rain 2 Tougher Times