Roguelike games have a focus on player skill. Dodging attacks, making critical decisions quickly, and altering your playstyle based on items found are all core aspects of this genre.

This is why Risk of Rain 2 is such a popular title. This roguelike co-op game takes the common 2D zaniness into full 3D with no compromises. To survive for long durations, you will need to keep your eyes peeled for good items. While most items serve a specific niche, some are much better than others and will have a much more noticeable impact on your gameplay. Here are the best items you can use in Risk of Rain 2.

Updated July 12, 2022 by Amanda Hurych: Risk of Rain 2 received quite the hefty expansion with the release of the Survivors of the Void DLC. New monster types, new characters, and new maps were all added to the mix. But most importantly, new items were bestowed upon us, with some clearly standing above the rest to join the top items in the game.

13 Laser Scope

Laser Scope: Critical Strikes deal an additional 100% damage (+100% per stack).

The Laser Scope is a legendary item added in the Survivors of the Void DLC. If you’re lucky enough to find it (or you’re having fun using the Artifact of Command), you’ll soon be dealing more damage than you know what to do with. Critical Strikes alone already deal twice the damage a normal hit does. With the Laser Scope in tow, your Critical Strikes become life-enders.

For maximum effect, try pairing the Laser Scope with a stack of Len’s Maker’s Glasses. The Glasses increase the likelihood of landing a Critical Strike in the first place. If you manage to stack ten Lens-Maker’s glasses with even just one Laser Scope, Mithrix should tremble before you.

12 Hopoo Feather

Hopoo Feather: Gain +1 (+1 per stack) maximum jump count.

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of the Hopoo Feather. Though it does nothing to increase your character’s damage output or enhance how quickly they can recover health, the Hopoo Feather is a godsend when it comes to your mobility. Even having a single extra jump can make the difference between life and death if a boss catapults you into the air and you can time your second jump right before you hit the ground.

And if you consider the changes made to Mithrix’s boss area in the Anniversary update, verticality becomes an issue you’ll have to grapple with if you want to complete Commencement. In conclusion, there is no such thing as too many Hopoo Feathers at your disposal.

11 Unstable Tesla Coil

Unstable Tesla Coil: Fire out lightning that hits 3 (+2 per stack) enemies for 200% base damage every 0.5s. The Tesla Coil switches off every 10 seconds.

Some of the best items in Risk of Rain 2 are the ones that eventually make your character’s attacks obsolete. The Unstable Tesla Coil shoots out bolts of lightning that severely damages the nearby monsters it strikes. With every coil you add to your collection, you hit more and more enemies every time it activates.

This delightful item does wonders for any characters that are close-range fighters, and it’s also handy to have if you’re playing Engineer. Your little turrets (which acquire all the items you do) will have their own Unstable Tesla Coils, making the three of you one happy, lightning-dealing family.

10 Shatterspleen

Shatterspleen: Critical Strikes bleed enemies for 240% base damage. Bleeding enemies explode on death for 400% (+400% per stack) damage, plus an additional 15% (+15% per stack) of their maximum health.

For a boss item, Shatterspleen is a devastating item that virtually every Survivor can use. This item gives your critical strikes a way to apply a massive AoE explosion by bleeding enemies, dealing an absurd amount of damage. This is easily one of the strongest boss items in Risk of Rain 2. If you get a Shatterspleen, prepare for a fun time.

9 Kill Chain Items

We’re going to cheat and include multiple items in this entry, as they all functionally do the same thing. These items all activate some sort of effect after you hit or kill an enemy, and they have a proc coefficient.

In essence, when one of these items activates, it’ll damage a target and has a chance of activating other on-hit items you have. This can create a chain reaction of damaging effects that can single-handedly clear levels for you. If you can get a few of these items, you’re in for a good run:

8 Paul’s Goat Hoof

Paul’s Goat Hoof: Increases movement speed by 14% (+14% per stack).

Increasing your speed by 14% sounds bad on paper, but Paul’s Goat Hoof is a common item that can stack on itself. With multiple Hoofs, your character becomes much faster and easier to play.

Most attacks in Risk of Rain 2 are telegraphed either through a melee animation or a traveling projectile. Having a high movement modifier allows you to completely dodge these attacks while looping across stages faster, letting you get further in a run than otherwise. It can also be stacked with a single Energy Drink to provide a massive increase to your sprint speed.

7 Harvester’s Scythe

Harvester’s Scythe: Gain 5% critical chance. Critical strikes heal for 8 _+4 per stack) health.

Critical hits are common in the later stages of Risk of Rain 2. Capitalizing on those criticals can turn any great run into a god-tier run. Harvester’s Scythes are one item that can turn your criticals into life-savers.

With this item, you gain a 5% increased critical hit chance, and you heal for 2 health for every critical strike you deal. That sounds rather low, but creating proc-chains with items that all critically hit can result in hundreds of health being recovered in a second. This item can stack on itself to provide further healing, although the 5% critical bonus does not stack on itself.

6 Shattering Justice

Shattering Justice: After hitting an enemy 5 times, reduce their armor by 60 for 8 (+8 per stack) seconds.

Armor is a damage reduction stat in Risk of Rain 2, making players and enemies alike take significantly less damage if their armor stat is high enough. Shattering Justice reduces an enemy’s armor by 60, increasing the damage all enemies take by a significant amount. Armor can be reduced into the negatives, meaning this is a massive damage increase against every enemy in the game.

5 Gesture Of The Drowned

Gesture of the Drowned: Reduce Equipment cooldown by 50% (+15% per stack). Forces your Equipment to activate whenever it is off cooldown.

Most Lunar items come with some negative modifier to offset a major boon. Gesture of the Drowned has a negative that is a blessing in disguise.

While active, your equipment will have half its normal cooldown in exchange for automatically activating. This is fantastic when you stack Fuel Cells to keep short cooldown Equipment always active. With Spinel Tonic, you can permanently boost all of your stats and make any average run into a god run.

4 Lens-Maker’s Glasses

Lens-Maker’s Glasses: Your attacks have a 10% (+10% per stack) chance to critically strike, dealing double damage.

Few common items can impact a run as much as Lens-Maker’s Glasses. While simple, they can provide a massive boost in damage output and the longevity of your run.

Every stack of this item increases your critical hit chance by 10%. This can stack up to 100%, and going past that value does nothing. Critical hits double the damage you deal and activate items that rely on critical strikes, making these Glasses an essential item for any character.

3 Spinel Tonic

Spinel Tonic: Drink the Tonic, gaining a boost for 20 seconds. Increases damage by 100%. Increases attack speed by 70%. Increases armor by 20. Increases maximum health by 50%. Increases passive health regeneration by 300%. Increases movespeed by 30%.

When the Tonic wears off, you have a 20% chance to gain a Tonic Affliction, reducing all of your stats by -5% (-5% per stack). Has a 60-second cooldown between uses.

Spinel Tonic is one of the strongest Equipment items in Risk of Rain 2, but only if you can maintain the buff. In essence, this tonic turns you into an unstoppable killing machine that’s much faster than normal. If you lose the buff, you can have all of your stats reduced for the rest of your run. Obviously, that’s not good.

This item is so strong because negating Tonic withdrawal is surprisingly easy. A Gesture of the Drowned and a few Fuel Cells are all you need to have this buff up 24/7. If you can maintain Spinel Tonic, you’re in for a good run.

2 Tougher Times

Tougher Times: 15% (+15% per stack) chance to block incoming damage. Unaffected by luck.

It’s important to note that this item has diminishing returns as it stacks. You cannot reach 100% damage avoidance with Tougher Times, no matter how many stacks of this item you have. Additionally, 57 Leaf Clover doesn’t affect this item’s proc chance.

With those downsides, why is this item on the list? Well, mitigating any source of damage to zero is absurdly strong, especially with how often Tougher Times does it. This item can single-handedly save your run, especially when enemies start dealing an absurd amount of damage.

1 57 Leaf Clover

57 Leaf Clover: All random effects are rolled +1 (+1 per stack) times for a favorable outcome.

No other item in Risk of Rain 2 comes remotely close to the 57 Leaf Clover’s power. If you obtain this Rare item, you are in for a fantastic run.

This item will reroll any random effect an additional time and use the favorable outcome. It works like the Lucky feat in Dungeons & Dragons, giving almost every item a much higher chance to proc. This does not work on Tougher Times or loot from chests or shrines, but this allows proc-chains to occur much more consistently. If you get more than one of these, the game practically plays itself.