Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence: All Pros And Cons (2023)

Risk of Rain 2 is a journey of survival on a planet full of monsters called Petrichor V. Players have the option to pick one out of eleven playable classes in the game. Each survivor comes with a different set of skills, and depending on your playstyle, you can master one or none in the game. Our tier list can help you on that front when it comes to picking the best and easy-to-control survivor. Besides, it would help if you also learned how health and shields function. Most healing items favor health regeneration but not shields. This is where we think Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence comes into play. It completely changes the narrative of survival in the game.

Except for the half-robot-half-plant Rex, who recovers health over time and sacrifices a chunk of its own health to launch skills. You will need to stack health items to survive while playing with other characters. The health bar limit itself is variable for all survivors like MUL-T has the highest health from the get-go. In any case, items giving active or passive healing must never be missed while doing runs. Even if you do not have a great healing build, you can still turn the tide if you find and equip the ‘Transcendence’ item in Risk of Rain 2.

Things You Should Know About Transcendence

Unlike many returning items, Transcendence is a new one in Risk of Rain 2. Whenever a player equips this lunar item, all of the health, except 1HP, turns into regenerating shields. Additionally, each Transcendence item grants a 50% health increase. The expansion in the health bar is further achieved by stacking more of the said item: e.g., each stack gives 25% more health.

Next, to regenerate the shields (which becomes the health after equipping the item), you need to avoid taking damage for at least seven seconds. It is because, in Risk of Rain 2, shields start to regenerate at a high rate for 2 seconds if your survivor dodges all incoming attacks first for 7 seconds. Otherwise, no item (found from Rusty box or random chests) in the game grants passive or active shield regeneration. Not taking damage for said amount of seconds is the only way to get back the depleted shields.

The logic behind 1 HP is associated with the fall damage because shields do not take fall damage hit; only the health bar does. The 1 HP is there to mitigate the fall damage, which does not drop a survivor’s health below the mentioned number. On a side note, Loader does not take any fall damage whatsoever.

Changes After Equipping The Item

As soon as you get the item, your survivor will be engulfed by a blue energy barrier indicating that the shield is the new health. It is pretty easy to spot as a glowing coating surrounds the survivor’s outer suit/body layer. Furthermore, a pair of antennae may appear on the head of humanoid characters like Mercenary, Captain, and others as well.

How to Get Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence

Transcendence is a lunar item, which means the chances of it dropping from chests or killing bosses are zero. The only way you can get this item is by spending lunar coins. One way to do this is by visiting Bazaar Between Time and purchasing lunar items from Newt. Another way is to get the item from lunar pods. It spawns on all environments randomly and takes up at least one lunar coin to activate and drop a random lunar item. So you may spend a lot of lunar coins before you see Transcendence dropping from a lunar pod.

The Pros and Cons

When it comes to the Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence item, its usage is a mixed bag. Of course, some instances favor a survivor if he/she equips the item. Then, few scenarios equipping this item render a pool of other valuable items straight up useless. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the pros and cons of Transcendence.

Pros

1. Shields recharge at an extremely crazy rate in Risk of Rain 2. Having swapped the entire health bar with shields is a blessing, should you know how to avoid danger for a couple of seconds to regenerate the shields. Plus, if you are playing with a high-damage class like Artificer, recovering health at a faster rate is necessary.
2. The item grants immunity to the on-hit effects caused by Malachite Elites as they inflict damage on survivors whenever they try to heal themselves. Since shield generation does not count, therefore a bearer of Transcendence item can attack the said elites without worrying about taking a toll on its health. Huntress, who has the lowest health of all the survivors, can benefit a lot from Transcendence.
3. Heretic, the secret playable class in Risk of Rain 2, favors from Transcendence. It is because Heretic continuously loses its health. Since this lunar item swaps the entire health bar with shields, the negative health regeneration element of Heretic no longer becomes applicable in the play style. Transcendence changes the whole gameplay mechanic while playing with Heretic in Risk of Rain 2.
4. Coupling Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence and Tougher Times will grant a chance of shield regeneration while in combat because the latter item has the 15% chance (+15% per stack) to block all sorts of attacks whatsoever.
5. On the note of invulnerability, if you pair Transcendence with at least three stacks of Strides of Heresey, you also get immunity from attacks. Doing so allows you to regenerate shields even if the enemies attack you.
6. Equipping Transcendence allows a survivor to get a significant advantage in reaping the rewards while interacting with a Shrine of Blood. Unlike Shrine of Order, Shrine of Blood grants gold by depleting the health of a survivor. The longer you fight monsters with less amount of health, the higher the payoff in gold. Since shields will become a survivor’s health after equipping Transcendence, you can essentially farm lots of gold.

Cons

1. The greatest disadvantage of equipping Risk of Rain 2 transcendence item is that it makes every single healing item useless and puts them out equation while doing the run. As mentioned earlier, no active or passive health granting item works on shields. This is why items such as Medkit, Corpsebloom, Harvester’s Scythe, Bustling Fungus, Leeching Seed, and more no longer serve the purpose for which they are made in the first place.
2. While playing coop with other teammates, a player having equipped Transcendence and Bustling Fungus can no longer heal their teammates. It is because the latter requires a survivor to stand still for 1 second to start healing allies, and the former requires you to avoid damage, which you can only do by moving a lot. This is why healing yourself is out of the question, and equipping certain items to recover allies’ health is an unproductive approach if you equip Transcendence.
3. As mentioned, equipping Transcendence with Rex playable class proves lethal. It is because this survivor uses its skills by taking away a portion of its health. Since the shields will swap the health bar, Transcendence essentially kills this survivor as soon as you try to create a build around this item.
4. Other than Rex, this item also does not work well with Engineer.

Is Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence Worth It?

Well, technically, we see Risk of Rain 2 transcendence item as a valuable collectible. Of course, certain traits of the item devastate a couple of playable classes in the game. However, other than that, this item offers a unique experience to do runs in Risk of Rain 2. Not only it allows you to play the game from a different perspective, but it also tests your mastery over the game by throwing in an extra challenge.

Now that you know everything about the Risk of Rain 2 transcendence item, are you going to get it in your next run? Let us know more about it in the comments section here below.