Welcome, you cool cats and kittens. Whether you’re just starting out or already a seasoned survivor chasing Eclipse 8 victories, this guide will walk you through five game-changing tips to elevate your Risk of Rain 2 experience. With over 2,600 hours played and hundreds of Eclipse clears, this advice comes from hard-earned trial and error. Let’s get into it.

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Tip 1: Time Doesn’t Matter—Items Do

Contrary to what many guides suggest, you don’t need to race through stages. The popular advice—”spend 5 minutes per stage”—sounds reasonable on paper, but in reality, it’s misleading. The assumption is that keeping time low prevents difficulty from scaling, but that ignores one key truth: difficulty increases with stage progression too, not just time.

More importantly, rushing prevents you from looting efficiently. If you’re only getting a handful of items per stage, then those items better be phenomenal—because you won’t have enough volume to carry your run. Survivor skills alone aren’t enough to win. You need a build. And to build anything useful, you need items. So don’t be afraid to spend over 10 minutes on a stage, especially early on. Learn the maps, learn the item pool, and gather everything you can. Items make you stronger faster than time makes the game harder. Always has, always will.

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Tip 2: Don’t Use Artifacts (Seriously)

Artifacts are fun—there’s no denying that. They let you break the game in weird and exciting ways. But if your goal is to improve, you need to put them away, especially Artifact of Command and Artifact of Sacrifice.

Command removes randomness from the game. It lets you pick your items, and that’s great for experimentation, but terrible for learning. You don’t adapt—you just repeat the same builds. And adaptation is the core skill Risk of Rain 2 teaches.

Sacrifice removes item pickups and turns the game into a mob farming simulator. It detaches you from map knowledge and efficient looting, which are both vital skills. Sure, you’ll get plenty of loot, but you’ll stagnate as a player. If you want real progress, ditch the artifacts.

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Tip 3: Learn to Dodge—Not Just Heal

It’s tempting to stack healing and just out-recover any damage taken. But that’s a trap. The real skill is dodging attacks in the first place. There are two approaches to combat:

1. Take hits and rely on healing.
2. Avoid hits entirely through movement.

Most players default to the first, because dodging can feel overwhelming at first. The game sometimes feels like a bullet hell. But movement-focused builds not only keep you alive longer—they force you to understand how enemies behave. This awareness accelerates learning.

While learning to dodge, remember: you don’t have to stay in the teleporter zone the whole time. If things get hairy, leave and come back. Herd enemies like you would in Call of Duty Zombies—it’s easier to deal with grouped threats than getting swarmed from all sides.

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Tip 4: Play Eclipse Mode

If you want to truly improve, Eclipse difficulty is your best teacher. Starting at Monsoon and increasing in difficulty with each clear, Eclipse has 8 levels, each introducing a new modifier:

• Eclipse 1: Half health on stage start.
• Eclipse 2: Smaller teleporter radius.
• Eclipse 3: Double and lethal fall damage.
• Eclipse 4: Enemies move 40% faster.
• Eclipse 5: Healing is 50% less effective.
• Eclipse 6: Enemies drop 20% less gold.
• Eclipse 7: Enemies attack twice as fast.
• Eclipse 8: Damage taken becomes partially permanent.

Each layer teaches a new lesson—health management, movement, dodging, prioritizing targets, efficient looting, and overall decision-making. Once you’ve cleared Eclipse 8 on a survivor, you’ll feel the difference. Monsoon will feel like a cakewalk.

This is the best way to learn how to truly dodge, how to loot with intent, and how to build around your survivor’s strengths. And you can do it in multiplayer now, too.

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Tip 5: Limit Your Lunar Item Usage

Lunar items are fun, flashy, and powerful—but they can completely derail your growth as a player. They often mask your weaknesses instead of helping you overcome them.

• Transcendence removes health and converts it to shields, negating Eclipse 1, 3, and 5. It also reduces the penalty of Eclipse 8. That’s three massive learning opportunities gone.
• Spinal Tonic gives absurd buffs for 20 seconds, with barely any downside if paired with Gesture of the Drowned and Fuel Cells. It removes all tension from the game.
• Gesture of the Drowned makes equipment auto-fire and drastically reduces cooldowns, often turning gear into permanent buffs with zero input.
• Shaped Glass doubles your damage but cuts health in half. Sounds risky, but when enemies die instantly, your health becomes irrelevant.

None of these items are inherently bad—unless your goal is to improve. If that’s what you’re after, try to avoid Lunar items until you’re confident in your fundamental skills. Otherwise, you’re just leaning on crutches.

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Final Thoughts

Improving at Risk of Rain 2 means embracing discomfort. The randomness. The difficulty. The deaths. But in that process, you build awareness, adaptability, and mastery.

So here’s the plan:

• Stop rushing stages.
• Ditch the artifacts.
• Prioritize dodging over healing.
• Play Eclipse mode.
• Use Lunars sparingly.

Do that, and you’ll grow faster than you thought possible. And remember, this is a PvE game—if stacking 100 Bungus on Drizzle makes you happy, you do you. But if you want to get better, the blueprint is here.

Have fun, and keep dodging!