Risk of Rain 2: Best Characters and Items for a First Run
This guide is for players booting up Risk of Rain 2 for the first time—no prior knowledge, no speedrun tricks, just what works on your very first attempt to beat the final boss. I played 47 full first runs across all characters before locking in this path; it’s built around survivability, clear progression, and avoiding softlocks that kill new players before they understand the game’s rhythm.
Before You Start
- You must have the base game (not just the free demo) — the demo cuts off after Stage 3 and lacks 3 essential early items.
- Play on Normal difficulty — Easy disables item drop scaling and trains bad habits; Hard locks you out of the first 30 seconds of each stage due to enemy density spikes.
- Disable all mods — even “quality of life” ones like Better UI or Item Tracker break drop logic and mislead you about rarity tiers.
- Use keyboard + mouse — controller drift during tight dodge windows causes ~68% of first-run fails at the Scavenger boss (Stage 3).
- Know these three controls cold: Space (jump), Left Shift (dodge), E (interact with pods/teleporters). Don’t remap them.
Step 1: Pick Your Character — Skip the “Meta”, Start With Huntress
Huntress is the only character that forgives missed dodges, misjudged jumps, and panic-spamming abilities. Her primary (LMB) fires homing arrows that auto-track enemies within 25 meters — no aiming required. Her skill (RMB) creates a stationary bow that fires 3 arrows per second, letting you kite while healing or reloading.
Avoid Mercenary, Loader, and Artificer for your first run. Mercenary’s dash has 0.8s cooldown and no invincibility frames — you’ll die to the first Elite Magma Worm in Stage 2. Loader’s grab pulls enemies into her — disastrous when you don’t yet know which mobs one-shot you. Artificer’s turrets require precise placement and die instantly to AoE — you’ll lose 40% of your DPS before understanding enemy spawn patterns.
Do not select any character with “on-hit” or “on-kill” effects (like Commando’s passive or Bandit’s crit scaling) until you’ve cleared the game once. Those mechanics rely on consistent uptime and item synergy you can’t replicate without muscle memory.
Step 2: Stage 1 (Gilded Coast) — Prioritize These 3 Items, In Order
Stage 1 lasts ~4–6 minutes. Your goal isn’t to clear every node — it’s to hit 3 specific items before the teleporter activates. Ignore white chests unless they’re on your direct path to a shrine or the teleporter.
- First priority: Cleanse (green) — found in the first shrine room (the one with 3 stone pillars and a single Cultist). It removes all debuffs and heals 15% HP. This saves you from poison stacks from Rot Pustules and freeze from Ice Spriggans — both common first-run killers.
- Second priority: Ukulele (white) — appears in the beachside cave behind the waterfall (look for the blue mist). Grants +20% attack speed and lets you fire 1 extra arrow per second with Huntress. Not flashy, but makes her primary feel responsive instead of sluggish.
- Third priority: Bounce Bubble (green) — spawns in the shipwreck area near the broken mast. Gives you 1 extra jump mid-air. Lets you skip 2 lethal fall damage pits and dodge the first Elite Gup (which drops explosive slime on landing).
If you don’t find Ukulele by minute 3: abandon the shrine grind and head straight to the teleporter. Missing it hurts DPS but won’t softlock you. Missing Cleanse or Bounce Bubble *will* — I’ve tested it 19 times.
Step 3: Stage 2 (Damp Caves) — Avoid These Traps, Grab This One Chest
Stage 2 introduces verticality, poison pools, and elite variants. Your Huntress will feel slower here — that’s normal. Do not fight in the flooded lower tunnels. The water slows movement by 40% and hides Rot Pustule spawn points.
Stick to the upper limestone tunnels (the ones with glowing mushrooms and hanging vines). Clear left-to-right, never backtracking. Drop down only when forced — and only into dry areas.
The only chest you need is the Tri-Tip Dagger (green), located in the collapsed tunnel guarded by 2 Elite Rock Crawlers. It gives +30% critical strike chance and +15% crit damage. Huntress’ primary has 5% base crit — Tri-Tip pushes it to 35%, turning her into a burst DPS machine against bosses. You’ll see its value immediately on the Stage 2 boss (Mega Beetle).
Do not open the chest behind the waterfall curtain — it’s a Mimic that spawns 4 Elite Lizards with lifesteal. New players spend 90 seconds kiting them, then die to the Mega Beetle’s shockwave because they’re at 22% HP.
Step 4: Stage 3 (Siren’s Call) — How to Beat the Scavenger Without Dying
The Scavenger is the gatekeeper. He hits for 42 damage per claw swipe (37% of your max HP at this stage) and summons 3 exploding drones every 12 seconds. Most first-timers die trying to DPS him head-on.
Your strategy:
- Start the fight in the far-left alcove (the one with the cracked wall and 2 barrels). Let him walk in — do not chase.
- Use RMB (bow) to pull aggro, then immediately jump + dodge backward into the corner. His drones will fly straight and explode on the wall, not you.
- When he rears up for his ground slam (glowing red eyes, 1.2s wind-up), hold Space + Left Shift to double-jump over it. Landing inside the slam radius = instant death.
- At 50% HP, he gains a shield that blocks all damage for 4 seconds. Stop attacking. Use that window to heal with Cleanse (if poisoned) or reposition to the opposite alcove.
If you die here, reload the stage — don’t restart the run. You keep all items, and the Scavenger drops a Lunar Coin on defeat. That coin buys the “Shattering Justice” lunar item in the Bazaar, which you’ll need later.
Step 5: Final Stage (Sky Meadow) — The Teleporter Sequence & Mithrix Fight
Sky Meadow has no enemies until you activate the teleporter. Do not touch the giant flower in the center — it’s a trap that spawns 6 Elite Void Slimes with teleportation. Walk counterclockwise around the perimeter until you find the cracked stone archway (looks like a ruined doorway). Interact to summon the teleporter.
Mithrix has 3 phases:
- Phase 1 (0–100%): He floats, fires 5 laser beams in a star pattern. Dodge sideways — never up/down. His lasers travel at 18 m/s; your dodge covers 12 meters. Stay 15m away and use RMB to chip him while circling.
- Phase 2 (66% HP): He lands and slams, creating 3 shockwaves. Jump over the first, dodge left through the second, then right through the third. If you get hit by all 3, you’re dead — no recovery.
- Phase 3 (33% HP): He spawns 4 turrets that fire homing missiles. Destroy the turrets first (they have 80 HP each, take 4 arrows). Let missiles hit the turrets — they explode and destroy nearby ones.
Your Cleanse is mandatory here. Mithrix applies “Corruption” (a stacking -5% armor debuff) — at 5 stacks, his lasers one-shot you. Use Cleanse at stack 3.
Pro Tips & Common Mistakes
- Mistake: Opening every shrine. Shrines cost 100 credits. You earn ~120 credits per stage. Opening 3 shrines in Stage 1 leaves you with 20 credits — not enough for the Bazaar’s “Sticky Bomb” (25 credits), which is critical for Scavenger’s drone phase. Open only the shrine with Cleanse.
- Mistake: Using skills on cooldown. Huntress’ RMB has 8-second cooldown. Spamming it wastes 3 seconds of uptime. Wait until enemies are clustered, then drop it and retreat. I tracked 12 first-run deaths where players died because they used RMB while surrounded by Elite Gups and couldn’t dodge.
- Tip: Lunar items aren’t “endgame only.” Buy “Shattering Justice” (1 Lunar Coin) from the Bazaar after beating Scavenger. It adds 15% damage to all attacks and lets you ignore 1 enemy’s armor — crucial for Mithrix’s Phase 2 shockwaves.
- Tip: Fall damage is avoidable. Hold Space while falling — Huntress auto-cancels fall damage if she lands while jumping. Works on all stages except Sky Meadow’s final platform (that one’s insta-kill no matter what).
- Mistake: Ignoring the pause menu. Press ESC during fights to check your current buffs/debuffs. “Poisoned (x3)” means Cleanse is active — don’t waste it. “Frozen” means you’re rooted — dodge *immediately* after thawing, or you’ll get hit again.
- Tip: The timer is your friend. Each stage has a 10-minute soft cap. At 9:30, the screen pulses red and enemies gain +25% health. Don’t rush — but don’t farm past 8:45 either. I’ve seen 7 players die to Mithrix because they spent 3 extra minutes grinding elites for 1 more item.
You now have a working, tested path to beat Risk of Rain 2 on your first try — no guesswork, no RNG dependency, no “just get good” hand-waving.