Risk of Rain Returns: Who Are The New Survivors? Answered

With the official launch of Risk of Rain Returns comes three new characters to join the Petrichor V Party. So who are the new survivors in Risk of Rain Returns?

Hopoo has designed two new characters with one coming back from Risk of Rain 2. They offer exciting new ways to approach the game like air-based combat and spawning items.

Who Are The Risk of Rain Returns New Survivors?

The three new characters introduced in the game offer drastically different playstyles than the rest of the crew. With the game being an overall remake and improvement of the base game, it’s great to see new content and innovative ways to approach the game. The three new survivors are:

• The Pilot: An air combat character unlocked by collecting 15 Monster Logs.
• The Artificer: The elemental scientist returning from RoR2 and unlocked by visiting ten unique stages.
• The Drifter: A brawler that can spawn items and is unlocked by recycling six drones in one playthrough.

Let’s take a look at their abilities and playstyles as well as how Artificer differs from RoR2.

The Pilot

This is the original pilot of the Contact Light ship that Providence infiltrates and crashes in the opening cutscene. They are all about staying in the air as much as possible with their abilities and raining down death upon enemies and bosses. Their abilities include:

• Clusterfire: A basic attack similar to the Commando’s but it pierces enemies every third shot.
• Rapid Deployment: The bread and butter ability that shoots you up into the air with a parachute and allows you to glide down slowly.
• Target Acquired: A rapid flurry of diagonal high-damaging shots that either shoots up if you’re on the ground or below you if you’re in the air.
• Airstrike: The pilot marks the ground causing multiple shots to be fired upon enemies that stand on the mark.

The neat part about the Pilot’s kit is that it slightly changes based on whether you are in the air or on the ground. That’s why Rapid Deployment is so valuable. I recommend saving it for the right moment instead of activating it whenever it’s off cooldown.

The Artificer

A blast from the Risk of Rain 2 past, the Artificer is back to channel elemental attacks and create barriers to keep enemies at bay. Their abilities include:

• Flame Chakrams: A five-hit flame attack that deals decent damage and ignites enemies.
• Charged Nanobomb: A powerful attack that hits like a truck and stuns enemies but has to be charged.
• Frost Barrier: Creates an ice wall to block enemies from approaching you and your allies.
• Flamethrower: A channel-able flame attack that deals great damage and ignites.

Those who played the Artificer in the second game will notice the lack of flight and air-time maneuverability. Unfortunately, the Artificer is now much more grounded, I think they wanted to focus on air combat with the Pilot. That said, an alternative jumping and gliding ability can be unlocked for the Artificer in the Providence Trials.

The Drifter

Last but not least, we have the support-focused brawler dressed in a snuggly cozy jacket. Don’t let appearances fool you though as the Drifter hits hard in melee with her massive backpack. Their abilities include:

• Blunt Force: A three-hit melee combo that hits enemies in a wide AoE generating the Drifter’s unique resource Scrap.
• Suffocate: Another melee ability that slams the ground dealing high damage and stunning enemies while executing those below 20% HP converting them to scrap.
• Clean Up: A Scrap-fueled ability that shoots your collected Scrap shotgun-style.
• Salvage: When at 75% Scrap, you can activate Salvage to spawn four temporary items that you or your allies can pick up.

If you’re playing co-op, your team won’t only love you because of your frontline presence but also because you can give them items. I would say the Drifter probably has the best standalone support ability in the game.

All three characters have their own unique playstyle whether in terms of mobility, offensive, or support options. We have outlined their base kits but note that you can unlock alternative abilities in Providence Trials. They can change your playstyle drastically which introduces lots of replayability to the game. 

We hope you’ve enjoyed this guide on who are the new survivors in Risk of Rain Returns. Stay tuned for more useful and interesting guides on the game. You can find all of our RoR Returns guides right here.