Risk of Rain 2 Tier List: Every Survivor Ranked from Busted to Benched
Let’s be real – picking the wrong survivor in Risk of Rain 2 can turn a promising run into a coin flip at the worst moment. You’re on stage four, the scaling is getting nasty, and suddenly you realize your character just doesn’t have the tools to keep up. It’s one of those games where character choice matters way more than people give it credit for, especially once you’re pushing Monsoon or chasing Eclipse unlocks. So here’s a breakdown of every survivor currently in the game, tiered by their overall effectiveness across typical runs. This Risk of Rain 2 tier list covers solo play primarily, though a lot of these rankings hold up in multiplayer too.
What This Risk of Rain 2 Tier List Is Actually Based On?
Before getting into it – a few words on how this ranking works, because “tier list” means something different depending on who you ask.
This list weighs:
- Baseline survivability – how forgiving the character is before you have items.
- Item synergy ceiling – how insanely powerful they can get with the right stacking.
- Mobility – escaping danger, repositioning, staying alive through chaotic fights.
- Scaling – how well they hold up deep into a run when enemies are one-shotting lesser builds.
It doesn’t assume you’re playing a specific set of items on purpose – most runs are random, and the best survivors are the ones who can work with whatever drops.
The Full Survivor Tier List
| Tier | Survivors | Why They’re Here |
|---|---|---|
| S | Loader, Artificer, Railgunner | Insane damage, great survivability tools, strong at any stage |
| A | Commando, Mercenary, REX, Captain | Solid kits, flexible, good item synergy |
| B | Huntress, Mul-T, Bandit, Acrid | Fun, capable, but need more items to shine |
| C | Void Fiend, Engineer | Situational – powerful but awkward without the right setup |
| D | Heretic | Technically playable, practically a trap until late |
S-Tier: The Survivors Who Just Win
Loader – The Risk of Rain 2 Tier List’s Undisputed Queen
Loader is, without any hyperbole, one of the best-designed characters in the game. She’s melee, which sounds like a death wish in a game that scales exponentially, but her grapple changes everything. She can slam into enemies from across the map, punch through groups with her fist, and her passive shield means she tanks hits that would delete any other survivor.
What makes her S-tier isn’t just raw power – it’s that she has a built-in escape tool. Most melee builds crumble when enemies get overwhelming. Loader just grapples out, repositions, and comes back swinging. With Shatterspleen or Charged Perforator in the mix, she reaches a level of damage that breaks the run open completely. Stacking attack speed and crit items on her feels almost unfair.
She also hits like a truck on boss kills, and her swing on the Thunderslam is the kind of screen-clearing moment that never gets old.
Artificer
Artificer is a glass cannon who somehow survives anyway – because if you’re playing her right, nothing lives long enough to hit back. Her Plasma Bolt staggers enemies, her Ice Wall is a free crowd-control tool, and her Flamethrower is one of the best sustained DPS abilities in the game when proc-chained with items like Gasoline and Kjaro’s Band.
The real strength? Her kit encourages aggressive, close-range play while also rewarding smart positioning. She punishes grouped enemies harder than almost anyone else. The main limitation is mobility – she has no natural gap closer, so smart players learn to use her Hover carefully.
Railgunner
Railgunner showed up in the Survivors of the Void DLC and immediately made everyone reconsider what a sniper character could be. Her shots pierce. They can hit multiple enemies in a line. And when she activates her Supercharge, she’s hitting weakpoints for multiplied damage on every shot.
She’s a bit more mechanically demanding than Loader – you need to be clicking heads – but on Monsoon, rewarding that investment with massive burst damage is exactly what you want. She also has great synergy with Pocket ICBM and basically any proc-heavy item stack.
A-Tier: Reliable, Dangerous, and Underestimated
Commando
People sleep on Commando because he’s the tutorial character, but that’s a mistake. He has two charges on his roll, his Suppressive Fire procs on every shot (which means a lot of proc coefficient), and his Tactical Dive gives him solid repositioning in a pinch.
He’s not flashy. But in a game where proc items do most of the heavy lifting anyway, a character with a high-frequency auto-attack is genuinely scary. Stack Lens-Maker’s Glasses, Tri-Tip Dagger, and Sticky Bomb on him and watch what happens.
Mercenary
Mercenary is one of the highest skill-ceiling survivors in the game. His dodge is tied into his combo windows, his Eviscerate keeps him airborne and invincible frames active, and when the flow state clicks – he’s untouchable. The problem is that flow state takes time to develop, and early in runs before you have movement items, you can get caught out.
His reward for mastery is absurd. Berzerker’s Pauldron into Wax Quail into a full speed build makes him one of the most cinematic characters to play.
Captain
Captain is weirdly strong and people underrate him constantly. His Orbital Probe hits like a freight train. His Beacon abilities – especially Healing and Shocking – give him kit-level utility that other survivors have to find in items. He’s not exciting, but he finishes runs reliably.
REX
REX is A-tier by a thin margin because he’s punishing to learn but genuinely terrifying once you understand the self-damage loop. DIRECTIVE: Inject applies a weakness debuff, his Tangling Growth roots entire groups, and his Bramble Volley can wipe a screen with the right items. He’s fragile early, though – and that self-damage mechanic will end runs before they start if you aren’t careful.
B-Tier: Viable, Fun, but Needs More
Huntress
Huntress is fast, has an excellent proc coefficient on her Glaive bounce, and her blink is one of the best dodge tools in the game. So why isn’t she higher? Because she has relatively low health and no real way to generate shield or armor passively. She lives and dies by how many mobility items drop early. When those are slow, she suffers. When they’re fast, she can be A-tier.
Her Strafe ability also fires while sprinting, which is huge for hit-and-run gameplay – just a wonderful quality-of-life detail that most players don’t fully appreciate.
Mul-T
Mul-T is all about flexibility. His alternate tools swap between a fast auto and a slow heavy shot, and Nailgun + Preon Accumulator is a combination that causes chaos in the right hands. He’s tanky by default and has a dash for repositioning.
The ceiling is there. The problem is reaching it – his kit requires more deliberate item building to feel good, and without the right setup, he can feel sluggish in ways that get punished on Monsoon.
Bandit
Bandit got significantly reworked and is a genuinely fun survivor now. His Lights Out resets cooldowns on kill, which creates these incredibly satisfying chain-kill moments. His Dynamite Toss has a great proc coefficient, and the burst damage from his Backstab passive is real.
What holds him back is that he needs enemies to die quickly to feel powerful – in the late game when health pools balloon, the reset mechanic becomes harder to trigger reliably.
Acrid
Acrid is the poster child for “extremely fun, not always efficient.” His poison doesn’t kill directly – it only reduces enemies to 1 HP – which means you need a secondary damage source to actually finish things off. His Blight ability skirts this rule, but it requires good uptime. His kit shines brightest against tough single targets and falls off against swarms.
C-Tier: Situational Stars
Void Fiend
Void Fiend has one of the coolest concepts in the game – a corruption meter that flips him into an alternate form with different abilities. The problem is that the optimal way to play him requires a lot of attention management, and in chaotic late-game situations, keeping that meter where you want it is harder than it sounds. He has moments of brilliance, but the inconsistency is real.
Engineer
Engineer is excellent in multiplayer, where turrets draw aggro and his bubble shield creates safe zones for the whole team. In solo? His kit is strong but requires a different mindset. His turrets inherit your items, which sounds incredible – and it is – but setting up optimally takes more time than most Monsoon situations allow. He’s a deliberate, methodical survivor in a game that often demands movement.
D-Tier: Heretic – A Special Case
Heretic isn’t a survivor you choose at the start. You transform into her mid-run by collecting all four Heretic items – Beads of Fealty, Visions of Heresy, Hooks of Heresy, and Strides of Heresy. When that happens, your whole kit swaps to her abilities.
The abilities are genuinely strong. Hungering Gaze tracks targets, Slicing Maelstrom is spectacular area damage, and the passive gives her a huge health pool. But getting there is a massive gamble. You’re sacrificing your original abilities and banking on finding all four specific items. In most runs, that just doesn’t happen reliably enough to plan around.
She’s D-tier not because she’s weak – she isn’t – but because the path to playing her is so item-dependent that she can’t be ranked alongside characters you actually start with.
Survivor Skill Floor vs. Ceiling at a Glance
| Survivor | Skill Floor | Ceiling | Best With |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loader | Low | Extremely High | Attack speed, crit, Shatterspleen |
| Artificer | Medium | Very High | Proc items, Kjaro’s/Runald’s Bands |
| Railgunner | Medium-High | Very High | Pocket ICBM, crit stacks |
| Commando | Low | High | Proc items, crit, attack speed |
| Mercenary | High | Very High | Speed items, Berzerker’s Pauldron |
| Huntress | Medium | High | Mobility items, Glaive proc |
| Engineer | Medium | High | Any items (turrets scale with yours) |
| Acrid | Medium | Medium-High | On-fire, bleed, proc chains |
| Bandit | Medium | High | Proc items, good first few stages |
| Captain | Low | High | Any – surprisingly flexible |
A Few Tips That Actually Change Your Runs
Before wrapping up the tier breakdown, here are some things that make a bigger difference than survivor choice for most players:
- Don’t sleep on Teleporter farming. Clearing as much of the map as possible before hitting the Teleporter means more items, and items are everything in this game.
- Printers and Cauldrons are worth rerouting for. A white item you’re excited to triple-stack beats a red item you’ll never build around.
- The Newt Altars are almost always worth the Lunar coins. Getting to the Bazaar means access to items or Glowing Meteorite/Spinel Tonic if you’re feeling bold.
- Artifact of Command fundamentally changes how you approach tier lists – when you’re picking your own items, almost every survivor jumps a tier because you can fill their gaps.
FAQ
Who is the best survivor in Risk of Rain 2 overall?
Loader is widely considered the strongest survivor for most players. She has strong baseline survivability, excellent mobility through her grapple, and one of the highest damage ceilings in the game with the right items.
Is Mercenary good in Risk of Rain 2?
Yes, but he has a high skill floor. Once you understand his Eviscerate window and how to chain invincibility frames, he’s one of the most powerful – and fun – survivors to play.
Is Engineer worth playing solo?
He’s viable solo, but his kit really shines in multiplayer where turrets can draw aggro more effectively. Solo players can make him work, especially with Artifact of Command.
What is the hardest survivor to master in Risk of Rain 2?
Mercenary and REX are generally considered the hardest to play effectively. Mercenary requires precise timing and combo management, while REX demands careful self-damage management that punishes new players hard.
Does Railgunner need good aim to be effective?
A little, yes – her primary is a single-target shot and her burst damage comes from hitting weakpoints. That said, she’s not nearly as demanding as a traditional FPS sniper. Most fights give you time to line up clean shots.
Is Heretic actually playable or just a meme?
She’s genuinely strong once transformed, but getting there relies on collecting all four specific Heretic items in a single run, which is inconsistent. She’s fun to shoot for when it comes together, but building a strategy around it is risky.
Which survivor is best for a first run on Monsoon?
Loader or Captain are both great picks for players transitioning to Monsoon. Loader’s survivability tools help manage the increased enemy aggression, while Captain’s kit gives you healing and utility that other survivors have to find in item drops.
Final Thoughts
Risk of Rain 2’s survivor roster is genuinely one of the best in any roguelite right now. Even the B and C-tier characters have dedicated communities who push them to absurd limits – and with how item-driven the game is, the gap between tiers matters less than it might in a more mechanically static game. A lucky item run can carry almost anyone.
That said, if you’re trying to push Eclipse levels or just want runs that feel powerful consistently, Loader, Artificer, and Railgunner are the safest bets. Start there, learn the item synergies, then branch out into the more technical survivors once the fundamentals feel natural.
The game keeps getting updates – check patch notes if a specific character feels different from what’s described here, because Hopoo (and now Gearbox, post-acquisition) have a history of reworking underperformers in meaningful ways.
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