What a run actually is
Risk of Rain 2 is a run-based game: you drop onto a stage, fight through it while the difficulty climbs, find and activate the teleporter, survive the event that follows, and move on. That loop repeats until you either die or find one of the ways to end the run on your own terms. There are 31 environments in the game, and a single run only visits a handful of them.
The important consequence is that almost everything in the game is bought with time. Difficulty rises as the run goes on, so every extra minute spent searching a stage is a trade: more items in your inventory against a harder fight at the teleporter. Beginners usually lose because they take one side of that trade blindly rather than because they missed a mechanic.
Teleporter Event: Swarm Defense & Zone Containment
Items, rarity and the one slot that swaps
There are 220 item and equipment entries in the game, and colour is not decoration: rarity decides which pool an item comes out of. Common items fall from ordinary chests, uncommon and legendary items are rarer and worth a detour when you spot one, and boss or lunar items come from specific sources rather than the normal rotation.
Passive items stack — a second copy raises the effect, and how much it rises depends on the item. Equipment works differently: it occupies a slot of its own and is used on a cooldown, so picking one up replaces whatever you were carrying. That swap is the first real decision most players make badly, because the new equipment is not automatically better than the one already in the slot.
The full list lives on the items and equipment database, which you can filter by rarity or by family.
Proc Cascades: Exponential Synergies in Action
Systems that are optional
- Artifacts. 20 rule-changing unlocks you switch on before a run rather than find inside one. They are the cleanest way to set your own difficulty, and they are also the fastest way to learn the wrong instincts if you turn them on too early.
- Trials and pocket realms. Entered by finding a gong rather than through a menu, and rewarded with items rather than progress. They are a detour you choose, not a step in the loop.
- The expansions. Four of them now, each adding survivors, stages, items and bosses to the pool. All four are purchases but the patch content that ships alongside is free, so a base-game player still gets balance changes and new skills.
Where most players actually stop
The game publishes how many players worldwide have earned each achievement, which turns the early game into something measurable. Reading the sequence below from top to bottom shows the shape of a typical first session — the drop between rows is where people fall out of the game.
| Milestone | What it asks for | Players who have it |
|---|---|---|
| Elite Slayer | Defeat an Elite-type monster. | 90.8% |
| Advancement | Complete a Teleporter event. | 86.8% |
| Learning Process | Die 5 times. | 75% |
| The Lone Survivor | Stay alive for 30 consecutive minutes. | 77.3% |
| Warrior | Reach and complete the 3rd Teleporter event without dying. | 77.7% |
| The Basics | Discover 10 unique white items. | 82.3% |
The first rows are close to universal, which tells you the basic loop is learned almost immediately. The gap that opens further down is the real beginner problem: not understanding, but surviving long enough for understanding to matter. If you are stuck, that gap is where to look, and the fix is usually pacing rather than knowledge.
Percentages come from the platform's own statistics and are calculated across all owners, including players who barely started. See the full achievement list for the denominator caveats.
Choosing a first character
The roster is 20 characters, which is a lot to look at on day one. Rather than picking by tier list, pick by how much of the kit you have to hold in your head at once: the profiles on this site list every skill with its slot and cooldown, so a kit with fewer moving parts is visible at a glance even if you have never played the character.
Two things are worth checking before you commit to one. First, whether the primary triggers on-hit items reliably, because a whole category of items is worth much less on a kit that does not. Second, whether the kit has a defensive or repositioning option on a short cooldown — that one detail does more for a beginner than any amount of extra damage.
Each profile also notes where the character came from and how it is unlocked, which matters because four of the 20 are locked behind expansions or long unlock chains.
Frequently asked
- What should I focus on in my first few runs?
- Reaching the teleporter and surviving it. Most of the game opens up through stage progression, and the achievement statistics show that a large share of players stop before the third stage, which makes finishing runs the single most valuable habit.
- Should I pick up every item I find?
- Yes, with two exceptions worth knowing. Equipment replaces what you are already carrying because it shares one slot, and lunar items come with a drawback attached rather than being pure upgrades.
- When should I stop and farm a stage?
- Difficulty scales with time and with the number of stages you have cleared, so a long stay is not free. The trade is between more items now and a harder fight later, and the correct answer depends on whether your build can already handle the next teleporter.
- Do I need the expansions to play?
- The base game runs on its own, and the 1.21 patch that shipped with Hallowed Concepts is free for everyone. Buying an expansion adds survivors, stages, items and bosses to the pool, so all players in a lobby see them as long as one person owns it.
- Where do artifacts fit in?
- Artifacts are optional rule changes you switch on before a run rather than items you find. They are worth leaving alone until the ordinary loop feels comfortable, because some of them change the run so much that they teach you the wrong instincts.