How to Change Skills in Risk of Rain Returns

Similarly as in RoR 2, you can change out each survivor’s abilities based on your playstyle. Let’s see how to change skills in Risk of Rain Returns.

Each survivor usually has an alternative pair for each of their skills. These can change your playstyle or introduce a new variation in how you play them. I’ll show you how to unlock new abilities and switch them around.

Risk of Rain Returns: How to Change Survivor Skills

You can acquire alternative abilities for each survivor either via character-specific Achievements or in the Providence Trials. The latter is a special game mode where each survivor has their own special mini-game challenges. Each one’s tied to a specific skill and tests your proficiency with that skill.

For example, there’s a trial for the Commando that unlocks his Tactical Slide if you complete a race in time while using it. Taking part in his trial, you both get to practice this new mobility skill and unlock it.

Once you unlock a skill by completing the appropriate Providence Trial, you can switch them in the character select menu:

• Start your preferred game mode.
• Select the survivor for whom you’ve unlocked a new skill.
• Go down to the “Skills section”.
• Navigate to the unlocked ability and select it.

Continuing our Tactical Slide example, switching to this skill replaces the Tactical Dive. In general, there’s no best ability. There are pros and cons to each one so I recommend picking the one that suits your playstyle.

Recently I completed the Indiana Jones-inspired Temple trial for the Bandit and unlocked his Whip skill. While it’s quite powerful in melee it can leave you exposed in certain scenarios with his Flashbang on cooldown. It’s all a matter of playstyle as someone might prefer his original ranged basic attack.

Either way, once you’ve unlocked all skills you can mix and match them to create your own unique combination. We hope you’ve enjoyed this quick guide on how to change skills in Risk of Rain Returns. For more tips, check out our RoRR guides hub.