Risk of Rain 2 Tier List: Ranking All Characters [Mar. 2023]

Mercenary – C Tier

When Risk of Rain 2 was first released, every magazine had listed Mercenary in A tier. His abilities, including double jump, I-frames, and slamming, were some of the most overpowerful ones in the game.

However, during the recent update, he has received a huge nerf, In which his Base Health and Regeneration, along with cool down, have been changed dramatically. This has totaled the entire character, and I’m not sure if nerfing him so high was a good idea.

These days, Mercenary is just an average melee survivor with traits that are now a shadow of his past self. This doesn’t necessarily conclude he is a bad survivor. It’s just that with so many changes in his abilities, he has become immensely unpopular.

Likewise, it would be better for new players if they first learned how his techniques actually work rather than just jumping in the game and expecting miracles.

Acrid – B Tier

I’ve used Acrid a lot in multiplayer. My duo friend usually gets Acrid with Blight, while I use Poison, which creates an epic combination to reach further levels. However, at the same time, Acrid is quite honestly the last character I pick in solo or other modes.

His abilities are good, but they provide no more value than being a hit and run specialist. If you look at his primary, Vicious Wounds, it’s good, but then again, you have Mercenary that does the same thing better and can also survive later stages, unlike Acrid, who always struggles to finish off enemies.

Acrid did get a recent regeneration buff that now further expands over the vicious wound and ravenous bite. But still, if you think about it, the 10% health over time is below ordinary.

Suppose you still like Acrid, my personnel recommendation is to only use him in multiplayer. If that is not possible, get all the necessary items like Ukulele, Ceremonial Daggers, Gasoline, and Will-o-the-wisp. Until and unless Acrid can do more than just melee attack and survive in later stages of the game. He will always be in the C tier for me (at least in survivor mode).

Here are Acrid stats while writing this tier list article in March.

Artificer – B Tier

I know a lot of people would disagree with Artificer being at B. But genuinely speaking, I think she deserves an upgrade from C to B. Very recently, Artificer received tons of buff that included an increased nanobomb damage with additional drop off during the fight.

Moreover, the devs have acknowledged Artificers only role, which is high damage and nothing more. They have now also distinguished between the debate whether Nano-Spear is better than Nano-Bomb or not. The latest patch 1.0, has drastically changed the Blast Radius, Damage, and Force. The Ion surge has also gotten a small tweak, but that seems unnecessary.

My thoughts on Artificer are that she feels like the best survivor in the early game, thanks to her high DPS. But, down the road, as you progress, all things change, and she feels completely useless. Her mobility with items remains a challenging problem to tackle.

This further expands because then you are likely to loot more and find suitable items. Similarly, I still don’t get why the developers are not making a change to her primary cooldown, which is still Artificer’s biggest drawback.

The overall takeaways from Artificier’s rank in this risk of rain 2 tier list Is that suppose you still want to use her. Try to get her the best items from loot chests, find a proper build for Flamethrower and  Ion Surge, and become immensely pro with fireball.

On the other hand, If you haven’t used Artificer, I’d highly recommend this to new players because her High DPS and Slow Movement creates a nice natural growth process.

Engineer – A

Starting at A Tier, we have the tedious and specialist – Engineer. So far, the survivor has not received any updates, and his ability to control the entire game through turrets remain vital. He is perhaps also the strongest individual survivor in Risk of Rain 2. I know a lot of people hate his primary, to which I agree, they are inconsistent, but if you look at the stats.

They are the strongest in ranged fights and can deal the highest damage. Engineer’s mobility is debatable and average at best, but the Bubble Sheild (Utility) makes up for it in the long run. My biggest concern about Engineer is that often he feels boring. The TR12 Gauss Auto or TR58 Carbonizer Turrets are doing all the work, and you are just following along.

If you are new to Risk of Rain 2, I’d highly advise using Engineer. His ability to distract the enemies through Turrets and then further becoming strong with items like Bustling Fungus, Soldier’s Syringe, Hellfire Tincture, and Razorwire is beyond powerful.

Also, remember, folks, he is called Engineer because it requires planning. I’ve seen many players just being overly aggressive against enemies in survival and then complaining about the character. The engineer has more departments, and he isn’t Acrid who can completely squeeze enemies.

As I said previously, Engineer did not receive any updates in patch 1.0, so here are his stats while covering this tier article.

Rex – A

The half-robot and half plant, rex, remains as a top-tier survivor despite all updates. Rex’s main abilities, as everyone knows, is that he is a destructive independent survivor.

He does not need anyone’s help, and If I’m honest. There have been several occasions when I didn’t even grab an item early game and relied all on Rex making to the later stages. One of the key elements about Rex is that he has an incredibly balanced kit. He can deal high damage and still survive without having any trouble.

As of now, Rex hasn’t been updated a lot. He still has the Natural Toxins that can slightly slow down enemies’ armor, movement speed, and damage. Likewise, there is also Seed Barrage, a destructive mortar, and who can forget about the spammy Tangling Growth. These all attributes define him, and nearly all of these abilities are useful; they can completely shatter enemy bosses.

Rex would never make it to a higher tier than A because of his drawback to losing health while fighting. I know a lot of people use to criticize Hopoo Games for this lackluster ability to lose HP. But I think everybody has realized that this feature was the only option to balance him over the years.

I wouldn’t say I like his mobility; it’s tough to digest his slow movement. Moreover, when I’m using Rex a lot, it sometimes frustrates me because nearly all the gameplay is repetitive, and you are just forced to spam the abilities. On the other hand, he can heal himself from level 1 without requiring any equipment, so there’s that to compensate.

If you are new to Risk of Rain 2, I don’t recommend using Rex solely based on his tier ranking. He can be tough to use, and If you aren’t aware of the entire health meta, forget about it.

MUL-T – A

As you would have expected, MUL-T like Bandit did get some nice buffs, and now he is back on track. Hopoo Games agreed that MUL-T was somewhat left behind and needed a major revamp. However, unlike other characters like Mercenary, there were only a few changes to MUL-T.

His Transport Mode Cool Down has now been decreased to 6s. Moreover, the Retool swap duration has also been reduced to 0.4s. The Nail Gun, which we are used to spamming, also got few updates. The Proc Coefficient has now been changed to 0.6, and Damage has gotten a nice buff as well, changing from 60% to 70%.

The most important MUL-T Update, in my opinion, which has brought him back to the A tier list was an increase in base acceleration.

Other than that, he remains the same as he was previously. MUL-T still has the highest Health Pool in the game combined with excellent weaponry at his disposals. He remains an exclusive survivor with features like “carrying two pieces of equipment at once” and being the only ranged survivor with armor compared to all others who have zero.

MUL-T’s playstyle hasn’t changed much. You are just using Tank and rushing enemies to get decent damage. In my opinion, the retool is still the most useful ability and to sum it up, MUL-T is just a worthy survivor. The only reasons why some people disregard him is because he is too slow (which is a misconception) and that MUL-T is too dependent on AOE Items. 

The mobility factor is also there but slightly reduced, thanks to his highest attack speed. If you haven’t used MUL-T for a while, I promise you, this update has really made him the most potent ranged survivor in Risk of Rain 2.

Huntress – A

Also known as Glass Cannon of the game, Huntress is perhaps the most versatile and robust survivor in Risk of Rain 2. Her Damage Per Second, along with a single target, is simply insane.

She can just melt enemies, and the good thing about her is movement. She can also shoot while sprinting, which is helpful in situations where you are trying to rotate or fall back and can still hold off the enemy.

Huntress is regardless also spot on with scaling and on hit-items. This gets even better when you know she has everything an aggressive survivor would want. The primary is soft and accurate, but it lacks range. This gets compensated with the secondary and specials like Ballista.

It’s safe to assume Huntress is a decent survivor, and ranking her at A tier is fair. However, she does lack some essential aspects of the game. That goes on to say; her primary range is the biggest problem. You often have to get a close range and deal some damage.

This gets a bit worse when you know her Health Pool is the lowest in the game. She can be fragile, especially against enemies who are ceaseless and would be able to take you down with one blow. Simultaneously, Huntress also struggles against a group of targets, where you have to focus on killing one enemy.

All things aside, Huntress will always emerge as an A-tier survivor. Her abilities are everything a survivor needs, and this gets topped off with crazy movement, which is debatable but best in the game for me. Had her Health Pool not been this low, Huntress would have made it to A+ Tier.

Void Fiend A

Just like the name suggests, this character is a void-mutated eldritch that can harness the Void as a deadly weapon to use against enemies. While fighting, he stores his corrupted energy to reach the critical point.

Once the energy bar is full, Void Fiend shows his true power and unleashes his aggressive abilities to take down enemies in a single go. You can unlock Void Fiend by playing through the game as Railgunner and beating the final boss. This means that you must have Railgunner unlocked in order to get Void Fiend in your profile.

Void Fiend is a unique character and only relies on corruption energy to unleash its true abilities. It has a primary ability named Drown that casts a slowing long-range beam and deals 300% damage.

However, the Corrupted Drown ability can deal up to 2000% damage, making it an ideal option to use against tough opponents.

He comes with special abilities of Suppress and Corrupted Suppress that enables him to sacrifice either Health or Corruption in order to increase the other.

Heretic – A

Heretic is a secret playable character that is unlocked when you acquire all of the four Lunar items. The ability of the collected item is switched with the survivor’s ability gradually transfiguring it into a heretic.

The primary ability of Heretic is blowing tracking shards that bang for 120% base damage after a delay. It’s acquired with 12 charges having a reload time of 2 seconds. Slicing Maelstrom, a secondary ability to initiate a projectile that encircles enemies giving 875% damage, dealing with 700% damage, and rooting enemies due to the explosion after 3 seconds delay having a recharge time of 5 seconds.

Shadowfade abstracts the survivor for 3 seconds with +30% moving speed while it heals for 18.2% of its total health. Ruin is a special ability that accumulates the stacks of ruin for 10 seconds. On activation of the skill, all the ruin stacks detonate to an extensive range causing 300% damage with 120% additional damage per stack.

Rail Gunner – A+

Railgunner is a deadly markswoman with impeccable abilities. She uses M99 Sniper as her primary weapon to punish the enemy and take them down from a distance without getting engaged in close-ranged fights.

This character is suitable for players who are good at sniping as Railgunner delivers an excellent long-range damage output with powerful Supercharge. You can purchase her for a total of 10 dollars. After buying the DLC, you will have the Railgunner survivor unlocked from the get-go. 

Like Bandit, Railgunner provides passive abilities as you cannot get random critical strikes while playing with this character. Railgunner provides critical strikes while attacking the enemies’ weak points.

The exciting thing about Railgunner is that each 1% of critical strike chance converts into +1% critical strike damage. The XQR Smart Round System ability increases her damage by 100%. The unique Supercharge Ability releases a Pierce damage that deals 150% increased Weak Point damage to the enemies and causes 4000% Pierce damage.

Bandit – A+

Bandit is a new S-Tier playable character introduced in Risk of Rain 2. Being swift in movement with high-damage attacks, the Bandit likes to catch its enemies off guard and backstab them while being in stealth mode. This devious character has high mobility that can be used to your advantage for sneaky attacks and quick combos.

Bandit comes with a passive skill called as Backstab. This ability make his attacks convert into Critical Strikes whenever he attacks enemies from behind. Bandit holds shotgun as a Primary Weapon that shoots five pellets of 100% damage each and holds four shells before it needs reloading.

The Serrated Dagger Ability allows Bandit to perform a melee slash, dealing damage of 360%. His Stun Ability can be used at crucial moments to go invisible and change the outcome of the scenario.

Upon using his stunning Lights Out ability, Bandit fires a revolver shot, dealing massive damage of 600% damage. This ability is useful in taking out sturdy bosses of the game. Other than that, if you succeed in dealing with a killing blow, your ability cooldowns are also reset.

Mastering Bandit might be a bit difficult, but it is worth the time and effort as he can help you in taking down enemies with sneaky attacks. If you manage to play this character properly, then you can even take down heavy bosses with swift movements and Critical Attacks.

Loader – A+

Starting at the A+ Tier, we first have a loader, the insane spiderman, that can literally do anything. Loader has been in the game for a while, and she hasn’t been updated for an entire year now. Her primary abilities always start with no fall damage, which further expands with her character being the best melee survivor in Risk of Rain 2.

The loader has the second-highest health pool in the game. This makes her entire character impeccable because, in the early game, Loader has always remained the king. With the recent 1.0 patch, she has improved over her bands’ meta, and players can get guaranteed to proc that further expands with longevity through green items.

One of the main problems with other survivors in this tier list guide was that, although nearly all characters are unique. They always lack a significant feature, but in the case of loader. She is the most mobile survivor in the game while still dealing insane damage.

For new players in Risk of Rain 2, reading this tier guide, I highly recommend not jumping directly to loader. She can be tough to control, especially since her swinging mechanic needs a lot of consistency because that is your only chance to damage enemies.

On the flip side of the coin, you are not too keen on getting adjusted to her swinging mechanic. You can also wait for the Thunder Gauntlet to charge, which deals damage up to 2100%. Similarly, there is also the M551 Pylon that requires patience because of rapid recharge.

Captain – A+

Ever since the Captain set foot in the Risk of Rain 2 universe after patch 1.0. He has immensely become my favorite survivor in the game. His main meta of being efficient and having destructive weapons is what brings me back.

Captain’s M1, the Vulcan Shotgun, is without a doubt the best M1 in the game. On the other hand, his secondary is somewhat weird, it’s often inconsistent, and personally, Power Tazer isn’t my type. This gets compensated because his passive, Defensive Microbots allow him to be incredibly defensive in situations where rotation is a must.

They are still useful in late scenarios because of their high damage. Besides, Captain still lacks mobility, he isn’t the fastest in the game, but it’s understandable because his entire playstyle is circled around movement and not camping.

If you are able to use his hacking features properly and get items like Legendary chest, it can save you a decent amount of time, and being efficient with Captain is always the goal.

Although, I said Captain is my favorite survivor in the game. I didn’t say I use him often. The Orbital Strikes require a lot of practice, and If you aren’t willing to do that. There is a decent amount of chance you will end up canceling the process, and to top it off, hitting air enemies with it is an absolute mess.

Who Is the Best Character In Risk of Rain 2?

After the recent patch, Captain and Loader are without a doubt the best survivors in Risk of Rain 2. They are very independent of their gameplay and aren’t affected by any sort of enemy. Both Captain and Loader are capable of winning games on their own.

Changes Due To Latest Patch

Last Updated: Version 1.2.4

Here are all the changes in Risk of Rain 2 that players need to be aware of.

Artificer:

• Flame bolt damage is increased from 220% to 280%.
• Plasma bolt damage is increased from 220% to 280%.

Captain:

• The captain’s first beacon’s stock is now increased by Lysate Cell.
• Captain can only have two deployed beacons active at once.

Risk of Rain 2 Tier List at a glance

Our Risk of Rain 2 Tier List was solely based on personal preferences, and honestly, we weren’t biased with any survivor in the game. Moreover, at the end of the day, all tier lists are made from gameplay styles and compatibility.

Suppose you like Commando and can get decent runs through him. Forget about this tier list and keep playing him. The goal in Risk of Rain 2 is always to find the right combination in terms of items and game style.

I also recommend multiplayer users find a useful meta between two survivors and use them efficiently. I use Acrid with my friend so we can get decent poison and melt all enemies out there.

• Updated: 20th March 2023.
• Added: New Patch Notes.