It’s been a troubling year for Risk of Rain 2 players. At first, it seemed like the Gearbox acquisition was going smoothly, but then the Seekers of the Storm DLC from August of this year was a rather large disappointment due to balancing issues, bugs and other problems. However, you can’t keep a good live-action game down, and the first part of the recovery is now available.
Risk of Rain 2 has already survived a good deal as a multiplayer game. First coming out in August 2020 before a studio changeover and some ill-fated DLC, the action game continues to roll with some big punches. In response to the poor reception to Seekers of the Storm, Gearbox is conducting a full revamp to its roguelike, starting now.
Phase One is focusing on rebalancing items and sorting out the Elites. All items in the pack are being rejigged to become more usable and fit into your various builds better – except Sale Star. The changes include top-down overhauls, rebalances and more, and quality-of-life tweaks are included in most.
Examples given in the patch notes include Noxious Thorn, which is now one of the most powerful uncommon pickups, and the Elusive Antlers, formerly Antler Shield. This nominally boosts your speed stat, then spawns orbs around the map that make you even faster.
Over on the Elite side of things, Twisted encounters now present greater windows for strategic attack due to a large attack the enemies charge above their head. You can either try and kill them before that move fires (advised), or dodge the resulting wave.
Halcyon Elites have been nerfed, but given an offensive capability that steals your gold. So they’re weaker, but potentially more annoying if you let the battle run too long. In both instances, the idea is to make these easier to defeat overall while maintaining challenge in different ways.
Risk of Rain 2 is available now on Steam for 67% off, at $8.41/£6.59. This is the first of three phases that should rehabilitate Seekers of the Storm, and get Risk of Rain 2 back on track. To help sweeten the deal, the game is available at 67% off on Steam right now to boot.
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