Over the course of any Risk Of Rain 2 run, you’ll come out with a ton of items in your inventory. Some of these items you might end up with are Lunar Items. These are represented by a blue aura surrounding them, and offer huge buffs at the cost of significant nerfs.
Lunar Items can only be acquired by spending Lunar Coins. They are available in either Lunar Pods scattered around the various maps or for purchase at the Bazaar Between Time. Since Lunar Items can greatly change the way a run is played, it’s important to know what every one of them does.
Updated July 12, 2022 by Johnny Garcia: Risk Of Rain 2 has received its first major paid expansion, Survivors Of The Void. Included in the expansion are brand new survivors, items, environments, bosses, monsters, and even an entirely new game mode. Survivors Of The Void is packed with new content, making for one of the most exciting expansions for Risk Of Rain 2. With so much new content, there are a lot of new items that drastically effect gameplay. The expansion also brought in new Risk Of Rain 2 blue items, or lunar items. These all come with an upside and downside, so knowing what they do before your run is very important if you’re considering using lunar items.
How To Acquire Lunar Items
Unlike other items, there are only two ways to actually obtain Lunar Items. They do not spawn from regular chests or bosses, but instead can only be obtained through Lunar Pods or bought at the Bazaar Between Time. Both ways will require Lunar Coins, which have four ways of being obtained. They can be randomly dropped by an enemy, dropped by using the Forgive Me Please item, obliterating yourself at the Obelisk (you will get more if you have the Beads of Fealty and defeat the boss), and completing the game by defeating the main boss and escaping. Lunar Coins will always carry over between runs.
Lunar Pods are scattered through the maps and can be opened for one Lunar Coin. These will always contain a Lunar Item, though the item it drops is random. There is a special kind of Lunar Pod called Lunar Buds at the Bazaar Between Time that costs two Lunar Coins instead, but you will know what Lunar Item you are buying. To access the Bazaar Between Time, you have to find a Newt Alatar that costs one Lunar Coin to activate. Three to five Newt Altars spawn on each level. After activating it, once you complete the teleporter event, a special blue portal will spawn that will teleport you to the Bazaar Between Time as opposed to the next stage. There is also a small chance that the blue portal will be there naturally when a stage creates itself.
20 Egocentrism
Egocentrism was introduced in the Survivors Of The Void update, and if you like it, you’ll have a lot of them in your inventory. This is because every 60 seconds, an item in your inventory will randomly turn into an Egocentrism. Every three seconds, a bomb forms that will detonate when near enemies. Each stack gives you a maximum of three bombs, with an extra per stack.
Egocentrism is fun, but can be run-ending if you’re not prepared to lose your other items. The items that transform can be of any rarity, meaning if you have a fantastic red item it can be reduced to an Egocentrism.
19 Eulogy Zero
Eulogy Zero might be the safest Lunar item, as it will not actually affect your build at all. What it will affect is the items that spawn in a level. When you have Eulogy Zero, all items that spawn on a level regularly (such as in chests and 3D printers) have a chance to be a Lunar Item instead. It is only a five percent chance but will grow five more percent with each stack.
If you are aiming to get a lot of Lunar Items in your run, picking up Eulogy Zero is a good idea. It will also help you keep your Lunar Coins, as you won’t need to be spending them on pods.
18 Light Flux Pauldron
The Light Flux Pauldron is a fantastic Lunar Item for characters that heavily rely on their skills. When you have one, your skills will cool down twice as fast. The trade-off is your attack speed is halved. Attack speed can be very important for certain characters, so it’s important to hold off on Light Flux Pauldron unless you’re ready for it.
Characters such as Huntress and Void Fiend should not use this item, as their damage is largely tied to attack speed. Meanwhile, characters like Acrid and Loader can benefit greatly, as their gameplay styles are generally heavily focused on their skills rather than attack speed.
17 Stone Flux Pauldron
Similar to the other Pauldron, Stone Flux Pauldron will double one stat and half another. Stone Flux Pauldron doubles your heath, with the trade-off of halving your movement speed. If you don’t have the right build, the Stone Flux Pauldron can be quite dangerous, as movement speed gets progressively more important over the course of a run. The movement speed half is permanent, so even picking up movement speed items after will cause them to be much weaker.
Some characters can make use of it such as Loader, as their momentum-based skills can help keep their movement speed up to mitigate the speed decrease.
16 Beads Of Fealty
The Beads Of Fealty don’t affect anything for stats, and at first glance, they don’t do anything. However, if you are carrying the Beads Of Fealty and obliterate yourself at the Obelisk, instead of ending the run, you are taken to a unique area for an alternate final boss. The run ends after this fight.
Since this will end your game, it’s important to make sure your hero is stacked up on items before you decide to utilize the Beads Of Fealty.
15 Brittle Crown
The Brittle Crown is a way to earn gold quickly to continuously be able to open up new chests as the run progresses. With the Brittle Crown, on every hit, you have a 30 percent chance to gain two gold. However, if you get hit, you will lose gold equal to the amount of health you lost.
The Brittle Crown is best used with ranged characters like the Huntress since it’s much easier to avoid taking damage compared to melee-focused ones.
14 Corpsebloom
A Corpsebloom can make you quite tanky and can save you in some situations. It will double the amount of healing you get. However, this healing happens over time, at a maximum of ten percent of your health per second. You can go over this maximum healing restriction if you have a Rejuvenation Rack on you as well.
This healing can be useful for a character like Rex whose whole kit is built around using their health.
13 Defiant Gouge
The Defiant Gouge is a great item to carry around if you want to battle more enemies. When in your inventory, anytime you use a Shrine it will also summon enemies.
If stacked, the enemies it spawns will be more difficult, and the monsters it summons become harder as the run progresses.
12 Focused Convergence
Focused Convergence is the Lunar Item to carry if you want to speed through the teleporter events. With it, the teleporter will charge 30 percent faster; however, the size of the teleporter zone will shrink by fifty percent. Since there’s no time limit to teleporter events, this downside is rather minor.
A Focused Convergence is a solid pick for close-quarters characters like the Mercenary since the shrunken radius likely won’t affect them.
11 Gesture Of The Drowned
Gesture Of The Drowned can be one of the best Lunar Items if paired with the right equipment. When in your inventory, it will reduce how long it takes for your equipment to charge by fifty percent. The downside is that the equipment will activate as soon as the cooldown finishes.
Most characters can take advantage of this, but melee-centric characters may be saved by this if caught in a bad situation.
10 Mercurial Rachis
The Mercurial Rachis is a bit of a gamble, that both hurts and benefits enemies and allies alike. It will create a Ward Of Power in a random location on the map. Every character inside of the Ward, friend and foe alike, will deal fifty percent more damage to everything else.
Ranged characters such as MUL-T can take advantage best since they can camp out in the Ward Of Power easier.
9 Purity
Purity is the opposite of the 57 Leaf Clover but with the right build is still solid. It will reduce the cooldown of all your skills by two seconds; however, makes all random effects roll an additional time for a harmful outcome. If an item reaches 100 percent chance (such as Lens-Maker’s Glasses), then it will never be affected by bad luck.
Purity is best used on a build with items that can reach 100 percent luck, as it will never be affected by Purity’s downside.
8 Shaped Glass
Shaped Glass, as the name implies, makes your character into a glass canon. When you have it, your base damage is amplified by 100 percent. However, the trade-off is that your maximum health is reduced by 50 percent.
Be wary though, if you collect any more than 127 Shaped Glasses, you will be killed, albeit rewarded with a unique death. Shaped Glass is perfect for ranged characters but can be dangerous for those that have to get in close to deal damage.
7 Strides Of Heresy
The Strides Of Heresy is one of the Lunar Items that replace one of the skills of your character. When in your inventory, it will replace whatever your Utility Skill with Shadowfade. Shadowfade makes you intangible and boosts up your movement speed by thirty percent. You will also recover 18.2 percent of your maximum health during this.
Shadowfade is a solid choice for close-quarters characters since it helps them to escape tough situations should they ever be put in them.
6 Transcendence
Transcendence is a unique item that will replace all of your health except one with regenerating shields. You also gain 50 percent maximum health in the process that is changed to shields. Healing items don’t affect shields and are considered dead in your inventory. It should also be avoided as REX since you will be unable to leech health at all.
Transcendence is helpful for characters that can easily escape from confrontations such as Acrid since they can get into a position to recharge easier.
5 Visions Of Heresy
Like the other Heresy Lunar Item, Visions Of Heresy replaces a skill — this time your Primary Skill with Hungering Gaze. Hungering Gaze sends tons of tracking shards out that explode after a brief delay. These dish out 120 percent base damage. You can hold up to 12 charges, of which reload every two seconds.
Characters with weaker primary fires can take advantage of it, such as the Commando and Artificer, whose Primary Skills fall off in later parts of runs.
4 Effigy Of Grief
Effigy Of Grief is a Lunar Item that is Equipment, that acts as a debuff to everyone around it. When used, Effigy Of Grief drops itself permanently which will slow down all characters within its radius by 50 percent.
In addition, it reduces their armor by 20. You can carry up to five Effigy Of Griefs. Effigy Of Grief is best used with ranged characters, as they can avoid being within its debuff zone.
3 Glowing Meteorite
The Glowing Meteorite is a Lunar Equipment that is incredibly powerful. The downside to this is that it’s powerful against everyone, including allies. Glowing Meteorite causes meteors to rain down from the sky. Each blast will deal out 600 percent damage with each blast to everyone (including yourself and allies) hit. The meteor storm it causes lasts for a total of 20 seconds.
Glowing Meteorite is useful for characters like Acrid and the Mercenary who can escape out of the range of Glowing Meteorite easier.
2 Helfire Tincture
Helfire Tincture is a dangerous Lunar Equipment that can end a run if you’re not careful. When used, it will ignite every character, allies and enemies alike, in its radius for 12 seconds. This will do five percent of maximum health per second on yourself. The burning on allies is a bit stronger and especially stronger on enemies. The damage done to yourself may lead to an accidental death, so you’ll want to be careful when using Helfire Tincture.
Like other items that drop a radius effect, characters that can run out of it quickly are the best to use if you choose to run Helfire Tincture.
1 Spinel Tonic
The Spinel Tonic is a Lunar Equipment piece that severely hurts you if it backfires. When it is used, you’re given a giant boost for twenty seconds. This will increase damage by 100 percent, attack speed by 70 percent, armor by 20, maximum health by 50 percent, health regeneration by 300 percent, and movement speed by 30 percent.
However, once it wears off, you have a 20 percent chance to gain Tonic Affliction, which permanently reduces your stats by five percent. It is advised to carry a 57 Leaf Clover if you decide to use the Spinel Tonic, as you only have a four percent chance to gain Tonic Affliction instead.
Spinel Tonic is great to use against bosses for a giant burst of damage, and with a 57 Leaf Clover by your side, you will likely not be punished for using it.
