Summary
In theRisk of Raingames, there are three ‘basic’rarities of items which are white, green, and red. Depending on the game, there are a couple more of the yellow (Boss item), blue (Lunar item), or even purple (Void item) varieties, but those are all obtained under unique circumstances. In the act of opening Chests or interacting with Shrines of chance, getting a Red Item is about as lucky as it gets.
InRisk of Rain Returns, red items are a bit more common than inRisk of Rain 2, but finding them is still not easy by any stretch of the imagination. So, with that in mind, let’s go over the best of the best red items out of the possible 32 red items inRisk of Rain Returnsand why they’re worth grabbing every single time.
AtG Missile MK 2
Damage
Gives a 7 percent chance on-hit to fire three homing missiles at the enemy that was hit that deal 3x300 percent total damage.
+7 percent chance on-hit per stack
Starting things off with a pretty simple red item, as far as the effects go, the AtG Missile Mk 2 item isbasically just three AtG Mk 1’sall compressed into one item. When players obtain this, they’ll gain a base 7 percent chance to launch even more missiles on hit, with each missile getting ridiculous damage scaling.
And, because each on-hit ‘trigger’ causes 3 missiles to spawn, there are even more chances to trigger another on-hit effect, which might trigger another on-hit effect, and the chain continues.
Happiest Mask
Killed enemies will spawn ghosts that last 15 seconds with 100 percent of their health that deal 70 percent damage.
+20 percent more damage & +30 percent more health per stack
Fans of theRisk of RainIP who have really only playedRisk of Rain 2might be surprised to see Happiest Mask on a ‘best of’ list. This is because, inRoR 2, this item only had a 7 percent chance to spawn ghosts on kill, though these ghosts would have 1500 percent damage scaling and would last 30 seconds.
It might read like a useful effect, but in reality, it barely ever triggered. And, when it did it would often make ghosts of enemies that either didn’t deal a lot of damage or still had the potential to damage the player with the Happiest Mask (such as a Grandparent ghost). InRisk of Rain Returns, this item is much more reliable, spawning ghosts with every kill. And while the damage and duration are lower than inRoR2,the frequency of spawns more than makes up for it.
Every 3 Basic Attacks will pierce through all enemies.
-1 Basic Attack to cause piercing per stack (max 4 stacks)
Piercing attacks in 3D games are usually good, if not great, but they’re rarely ever ‘amazing’. However, in games that are 2D piercing effects are typically among the best of the best, and Heaven Cracker is a great example of this.
Enemies can only travel in four directions (mostly two) in a 2D plane, so being able to pierce through them with attacks means a lot more enemies are going to get hit,especially in a roguelikewith so many enemies on screen at once. Additionally,there are a good number of Survivors inRisk of Rain Returnswith a pretty high base fire rate, leading to this item’s effect being triggered almost constantly.
Repulsion Armor
Health
After taking 6 hits, increase armor by 100 and reflect incoming attacks for 4 seconds that deal 400 percent damage.
+1 second duration per stack (max 6 stacks)
On its own, the next item on here, Repulsion Armor, is still good but absolutely not at its best. But, when this item is part of a buildthat also includes itemslike Tough Times, Hermit’s Scarf, Prophet’s Cape, and so on, Repulsion Armor is ridiculously strong.
The armor increase it applies when it activates is already powerful enough, but the damage reflection basically makes it so that most bosses end up accidentally killing themselves from hitting the player (save for maybe Providence).
Brilliant Behemoth
All attacks by Survivor explode for a bonus of 20 percent total damage to nearby enemies.
+20 percent total damage per stack
This next red item should be pretty obvious as to why it’s included here from the description alone. But, in case that’s not enough of an explanation, adding additional explosive damage to each shot, especially AoE damage, is going toexponentially increase the damage outputof any character in the game.
Even Acrid, a character that usually just applies poison to nearby enemies and runs away, will get a lot of use from Brilliant Behemoth each time his Epidemic Spreads. Now just imagine this item on someone like Commando who is constantly unloading tens of bullets every second, if not more, and that’s not even taking other explosive items like AtGs, Sticky Bombs, or Will O’ the Wisps into account.
Hardlight Afterburner
Utility
Add +2 charges of Survivor’s Utility Skill & reduce overall Utility Skill cooldown by 33 percent.
+2 Utility Skill Charges per stack
This next item, like Backup Mags, is an item that jumps back and forth from ‘overpowered’ to ‘useless’depending on which Survivor obtains it. For example, Commando, Huntress, Bandit, Engineer, Miner, Acrid, Sniper, Mercenary, Loader, Chef, Pilot, Artificer, and Drifter all get a lot of out Hardlight Afterburner.
This means it’s only really just ‘okay’ or ‘bad’ on Enforcer, Han-D,and the super secret character. InRisk of Rain 2, the list of Survivors this item is great on is a bit smaller, meaning it was amazing in the first game, great in the second game, and is now back to amazing in the remaster/remake.
Wicked Ring
Gain 5 percent Crit Chance & Critical Strikes now reduce all Survivor’s Cooldowns by 1 second per Critical Strike.
+10 percent Critical Chance per stack
Wicked Ring is another red item that is heavily dependent on afew other items in the player’s buildin order to show its true worth. If a Survivor doesn’t have any other Crit Chance items, Wicked Ring is still helpful, but it won’t trigger all that often.
But, with even just two Lens Maker’s Glasses, all of a sudden Mercenary can use their Eviscerate Skill almost constantly. Again,on certain characters, this Ring isn’t going to see a lot of use. Still, on most of the playable cast, Wicked Ring is just a way to barely ever have to deal with Skill Cooldowns.
Shattering Justice
Attacks now reduce the enemy’s armor by 6 for 2 seconds. The reduction can stack up to -30 armor max.
+2 seconds to duration per stack
As enemies keep scaling based on the in-game time in theRisk of Raingames, so too do their stats. Whether that’s overall health, damage, armor, and so on, it’ll only get harder and harder to kill anything if players don’t get the right types of items.
Shattering Justice is one of those items that can either push an already powerful build into the ‘brokenly strong’ level or it can save an unlucky build from being a failed run. -30 Armor is no joke, even on boss enemies, and it’s also an item that does a lot for the Providence fight.
Fireman’s Boots
Survivor now leaves a trail of fire behind them at all times that burns enemies for 35 percent damage.
+20 percent damage per stack
Again,Risk of Rain Returnsis a bit different fromRisk of Rain 2in that correctlykiting enemies into bigger groupsand maintaining the proper distance matters a lot more. So, every Survivor actually ends up taking a page out of Acrid’s playbook, at least a bit, as they’ll kill a couple of enemies, make some distance, attack again, gain some more distance, and so on.
With the Fireman’s Boots, this hit-and-run cycle is a lot more efficient for killing enemies, as they’ll constantly be taking a decent amount of damage due to the fire trail left behind.
Ancient Scepter
Upgrades Survivor’s Special Skill, upgrade is unique to each Survivor. Also reduces Special Skill Cooldown by 30 percent.
+30 percent additional Special Skill Cooldown per stack (max 1 stack)
And finally, let’s go over by far the most ‘unique’ item inRisk of Rain Returns, the Ancient Scepter. To unlock this item, players will first need to beat the game as the Mercenary on Monsoon difficulty, which will take some work. After that, they’ll be able to obtain this item from any chest (though the chance is low).
The reason this red item, in particular, is so good, is because it just simply makes the Special Skill (AKA the fourth Skill from left to right) even better for all Survivors. From healing on kills to creating additional explosions, this item modifies all of the Survivor’s Special Skills in a lot of fun ways that always make seeing the Ancient Scepter pop out of a chest a welcome surprise.
