Welcome to our Risk of Rain 2 Tier List guide. Are you wondering which are the best characters in Risk of Rain 2? Well, that’s a tricky question since they are all really really good. But we’ll do our best to try and rank all ROR2 characters below.
Risk of Rain 2 tier list updated on: 3.29.2023
Risk of Rain 2 Tier List
This guide will show you the best character in Risk of Rain 2 in this Risk of Rain 2 character tier list. We will be looking at what the best characters are for solo runs and for group runs in Risk of Rain 2 so you can be prepared for every situation.
We know that there are people who have a hard time finishing the Risk of Rain 2 game. If you are one of those who find it difficult to finish the game, let’s take you to our Risk of Rain 2 guide.
F Tier
Commando
- Strengths: Simple, Jack-of-all-trades.
- Weaknesses: Outperformed by other classes.
Commando is the first class you have unlocked in Risk of Rain 2 and is, therefore, the one character everyone has experience with. Bland/vanilla was my first thought when playing Commando and I wouldn’t be surprised if others share that sentiment.
I don’t want to let my hatred of this survivor leak into this, but, the Commando plain sucks at everything he does. His AOE is bad, his single target, his utility is the second-worst mobility skill in the game, and he wears a bowl on his head. Worst of all…. he isn’t fun.
The Commando is, in my opinion, the worst in the game at the moment. This is why he is at the very bottom of our Risk of Rain 2 tier list. But…. if you really HAVE to play him, you should check out my Commando guide.
B Tier
Mercenary
- Strengths: Mobile, Damage Dealer, Fun.
- Weaknesses: Melee, Squishy.
Mercenary is the most fun character in Risk of Rain 2 without a doubt. Who doesn’t want to be a samurai?
Although he isn’t exactly the best character, he definitely has reason to be used. I would say Mercenary is a melee Huntress. By that, I mean that they both want to do similar things during a RoR2 run. They both are rather squishy with good mobility and lots of damage.
One of the reasons I put him lower on the list was because of how squishy Mercenary is, which is understandable because he is a damage dealer, however, he is also melee, which makes playing him require a much higher skill cap.
So if you want an insanely fun character to play in Risk of Rain 2, play Mercenary.
Acrid
- Strengths: Boss buster, Tank, Good AOE.
- Weaknesses: Can’t kill anything, lacks mobility compared to other melees.
Acrid is a survivor from the Hidden Realms update who is a melee/ranged hybrid class. He does DPS from both close-up and far away by using a poison that does a percent of the enemy’s health.
There was a lot of hype for Acrid (NGL I was hyped too) but those of you looking for a really strong survivor should look elsewhere. His poison is strong, but it isn’t lethal, making him pretty lackluster against certain low HP enemies like wisps.
In terms of melee, he isn’t strong either. Acrid lacks the mobility of Merc and the tankiness of Loader, which makes him a liability in melee situations. It is way better to just use his special and Secondary to kill things.
He is pretty good at killing bosses but not great at that much else. Somewhat lackluster but kinda fun.
Rex
- Strengths: Weakens enemies, can control his HP,
- Weaknesses: A lot.
Rex is one of the characters that hipster gamers play. “Rex isn’t bad if you know how to play him” kinda vibe. He is incredibly hard to play and requires a much different play style than the other survivors on this list.
That being said, Rex does have the highest DPS with no items being involved. Plus, he can more or less control his health pool which is something no other survivor can do.
Not to mention the huge buff he got in previous updates, check out my loadout guide if you want more information on that.
For all these reasons and more, Rex is 6th in this Risk of Rain 2 character tier list. If you wanna really learn how to play Rex, check out my Rex guide which has a bunch of tips and item suggestions on how to play him.
Void Fiend
The Void Fiend is one of the newest survivors that came out with the Survivors of the Void. But, while he might be a brand new survivor, he plays awfully similarly to Rex, where you trade HP for damage.
Essentially the Void Fiend becomes more powerful by swapping to his “corrupted” form. This form either requires him to wait or requires him to lose HP, and once you’re in the form, you can optionally trade HP to stay in the form longer.
Because of this, the Void Fiend will probably never have one-shot protection and therefore is far more likely to die. Kinda like Rex. Although, I can’t tell which has the most damage yet…
Captain
The captain is the last survivor in Risk of Rain 2. Although he is one of the hardest survivors to unlock, I can’t say he is all that good. The main reason is, Captain is a “utility” survivor with some rough edges.
First off, Captain’s attacks are incredibly slow. Like dead slow. Secondly, his secondary skill is straight garbo, and his special has limited use (so limited you only get two uses per stage). Captain’s one saving grace is his utility skill, but even that isn’t tremendous.
So, I’m gonna stick Captain down here with some of the weaker survivors. Don’t hate me for it, I enjoy playing him, he is just weak.
That being said, check out my Captain guide in Risk of Rain 2, if you’d like to see how to properly play him.
A Tier
Bandit
- Strengths: Can scale damage, high mobility, lots of options.
- Weaknesses: can be weak if played wrong, weak primary
The Bandit is the last free survivor to come out, and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised to see how good the Bandit is. All of his abilities are pretty decent, except for maybe his primary which is relatively weak, but the real power he has comes from his special abilities.
Lights Out and Desperado are the Bandit’s two skills that allow him to either have a way of constantly resetting his cooldowns (lights out), or infinitely scaling damage by killing things (desperado). There is no survivor in the game other than the Bandit who can actually scale damage infinitely, which makes him at the very least unique, if not at least extremely strong.
My main problem is the fact that the Bandit has a pretty bad primary and because of that certain items like tri-tip-dagger (an otherwise OP item), just aren’t good on him. If his primary was slightly better I’d rank him much much higher.
Artificer
- Strengths: Good damage and AOE.
- Weaknesses: Harder to play, have to manage cooldowns, no mobility.
Artificer is one of the highest damage characters in Risk of Rain 2 and a personal favorite to play. Her flamethrower has the ability to do 4400% damage and she can execute enemies at 30% health with either of her freeze abilities.
That being said, all of these tremendous abilities have cooldowns. Even her primary has a cooldown, which is unlike every other survivor on the list. This makes attack speed and life-steal do a little less on her.
Also, she has no mobility and has very little health, making her the closest to a glass cannon in the game.
If Artificer had any natural survivability I would have ranked her higher, but she is number five.
Loader
- Strengths: Boss Buster, Mobile, Tanky.
- Weaknesses: Melee.
Loader is the premiere boss buster of Risk of Rain 2. With her incredibly strong punch, she can take a large chunk out of a boss without much trouble. Pair this with her strong mobility and inherent tankiness, and you have a strong character.
Something that puts Loader further down the tier list is her lack of ranged damage. The only thing she can do against flying units is either expend her punch or throw up her shock drone. This is a glaring weakness to her otherwise strong kit.
I have a Loader guide for anyone who wants to know how to play Loader to her maximum potential.
Huntress
- Strengths: Damage dealer, high mobility.
- Weaknesses: Squishy.
Huntress is the resident damage dealer of the Risk of Rain 2 universe. All of her abilities revolve around damage except for her dash (similarly to the Commando).
She is, in every way, just a better Commando. She can sprint with her primary attack, she can do AOE damage with her secondary, she has an I-frame with her utility, and she does massive single target DPS with her ballista skill.
Although she does suffer from having the lowest HP in the game, she can kill most enemies quickly and if push comes to shove, she can use her dash.
Because she is such a good survivor with the (second) highest DPS potential out there and she has an I-frame, the Huntress is numba three.
S+ Tier List
Railgunner
The Railgunner is the second survivor from the Survivors of the Void DLC. She might as well be the ranged loader with how her damage works. Heavy burst damage, with the possibility of amazing proc chains.
Her alternate special ability allows her to freeze enemies like Artificer, which makes Railgunner one of the easiest eclipse characters in all of Risk of Rain 2.
Unlike Loader, however, Railgunner lacks mobility and can only use her mines to move around quickly. Indeed better than most survivors, but still a drag on her ranking nonetheless.
One thing the Railgunner has over every other survivor, though, is her ability to infinitely scale crit damage. Unlike the other survivors, that can only get 10 crit glasses and call it a day, the Railgunner can keep getting more and increase her damage with everyone. I go into it in more detail in the Railgunner guide.
A strong survivor and will be getting plenty of mains. Even if she has mickey mouse shoes.
MUL-T
- Strengths: Can hold more than one piece of equipment, good damage, relatively tanky.
- Weaknesses: Lacks good range.
MUL-T has got to be the survivor the developers love the most. Not only does he have the highest damage potential but he has the fastest attack rate AND the highest health pool. Plus, he starts with 12 armor and has an ability that gives him another 200 on top of that, giving him 66% damage reduction, an insane amount.
Besides that, though, MUL-T can hold two pieces of equipment which negate the one downside of Gesture of the Drowned (using the equipment immediately).
Easily one of the best survivors in the game and has very few downsides to him. Comfortably sitting at the second-best survivor in the game.
Engineer (Best for Solo)
- Strengths: Good at almost everything, including boss busting.
- Weaknesses: Bad mobility.
The Engineer is a great character who can do almost everything you want a character to do. He can kill mobs even without having to focus on shooting them himself due to his sentries. This allows him to either collect items or run from bad engagements while still maintaining good DPS.
Besides that, the Engineer has some of the best (if not the best) survivability in the game. His turrets can heal him with the fungus item and his shield can protect them from most bosses in the game with exceptions being made for imps and magma worms.
Although he does have some good survivability, he has no mobility. Besides any items the Engineer might pick up, he can’t escape with a dash as a Soldier or Huntress can.
The engineer is the best solo character in Risk of Rain 2. Because his turrets get all of his items, it is like having two extra yous sitting around. He also isn’t bad at group runs, although he might not be at the top of the list for that.
The Best Character in Risk of Rain 2
The best character in Risk of Rain 2 is Engineer. Currently, he has the strongest all-around abilities and kit. His sentries allow him to kill enemies while he takes cover or collects items, something no other character in risk of rain has. Keep reading to see why else the Engineer is so good in Risk of Rain 2.
How did we Create this Risk of Rain 2 Tier List?
With every leaderboard we create, we start by playing ourselves, taking notes about our experiences and who we think are the best characters in the game. But to avoid bias of opinion, we also try to get information from other Risk of Rain 2 players from communities like official Discord server and subreddit. This allows us to make a more informed decision on how we create our Risk of Rain 2 character ratings. Still, at the end of the day, we rank these Risk of Rain 2 survivors based on their performance in both solo and co-op play a. , and how quickly and effectively they destroy waves of enemies without dying.
After all, Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike game, so dying really sucks. But since no ranking is absolutely correct and everyone has their own unique playstyle, you should take this Risk of Rain 2 ranking with caution. We hope you find our Risk of Rain 2 stages list useful. Use them to inform your character choices and we wish you the best of luck in all your endeavours!
