Highlights
- The Survivors in Risk of Rain 2 are not the same as the ones in the first game, except for Acrid.
- When players become the Heretic, they control her body rather than actually becoming her.
- The Artificer was likely frozen in time for trying to get information about ‘Heaven’ from the Glass Newt.
Despite what most players end up thinking, there’s a lot more lore in the Risk of Rain games than just the general ‘fight your way off an alien planet’ setup. The Logbooks in the original game, Risk of Rain 2, and of course, Risk of Rain Returns all give a bit of an inkling into the events and timelines of these beloved roguelike games.
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Whether it’s the events surrounding the crash of the Contact Light in the first Risk of Rain (which is still explorable) or the situation with the Safe Travels in Risk of Rain 2, there are plenty of little hints of lore sprinkled throughout the games. So, let’s go over some of the lesser-known secrets, both in terms of lore and gameplay, that most people don’t know about.
8 The Survivors In Risk Of Rain 2 Are Not The Same Survivors As The First Game
Despite Looking So Similar, Acrid Is The Only One That’s In Both Games
This is probably the most commonly known bit of info on here, and it’s the fact that all of the Survivors in Risk of Rain 2 (outside of Acrid), which includes those playable by default and those that are unlocked, are not the same Survivors that players controlled in the 2013 Risk of Rain game and by extension RoRR.
Remember, a lot of the ‘names’ for these Survivors were just titles, pseudonyms, or occupations, which means both the Contact Light and Safe Travels have their own Commando on Staff.
7 When You Become The Heretic, You Aren’t Her But Your Survivor Is Controlling Her Body
“The Heretic? The Guardian? How? Who Pulls Your Strings, Vermin?”
Finding out about the secret playable character in Risk of Rain 2, AKA the Heretic, for the first time is usually when players start getting interested in the lore for real. Who was this Heretic, why was she labeled as such, why was she punished so horrifyingly, and why does she look so similar to the Alloy Vultures of Siren’s Call?
Well, there are a lot that players can find out about this Heretic through Logbook entries related to the Heresy Lunar Items, but one thing a lot of people commonly miss is the fact that, once players get all her necessary Heresy items, they don’t suddenly ‘become’ Kur-skan the Heretic. Rather, the Survivor they’re controlling has now transformed into the body of the Heretic and is, in a way, puppeting her reformed corpse. Kur-skan is not ‘at the wheel’ here, so to speak. It doesn’t add a ton to the lore to discover this, but when Mithrix has the quote about her strings being pulled when players fight him as the Heretic, it’s a pretty somber reveal.
6 The Artificer Was Likely Frozen In Time For A Reason
As An Agent Of The High Court, Artificer Was Likely Punished For Trying To Get Info On ‘Heaven’ From The Glass Newt
The High Court is a mysterious, highly advanced sub-organization of humanity that players only find out about through Artificer’s Logbook entry and is rarely even discussed through online forum posts about the game. As it turns out, this ‘High Court’ has a House called the House Beyond that’s known for diving deeper into space travel than anyone else.
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And, the Artificer that players save from being frozen in time forever at the hands of the Glass Newt in the Bazaar Between Time is from the House Beyond. It’s unconfirmed, but the Artificer was probably frozen in time here as a result of trying to get the Newt to help her reach ‘A Moment, Whole’ or at the very least ‘A Moment, Fractured’.
5 The Glass Newt Is Likely Powerful Enough To Scare Even Void Reavers
This Same Newt Is Confirmed To Be One Of The Weaker Examples Of His Species Too
Speaking of Newt’s Shop, let’s talk about another space sci-fi lore secret found in this area. Most players already know about the portal to the Void Fields found in the tunnel near the bottom of the chasm in the Bazaar Between Time. However, how many players have looked closely around the portal itself before going through it?
The few who do will immediately notice all the bodies of Void Reavers surrounding the portal. Considering how these same Reavers are found on Commencement right before it’s directly warped to the Void, and considering the black holes they make on death can ‘instakill’ any Survivor, who exactly managed to kill so many of them? The only real option in this area is the Glass Newt since they’re the only entity in the Bazaar, and this implies that the Void Reavers were probably trying to capture the Newt, recognizing it as a powerful existence.
4 You Can Reach The Gilded Coast Through The Bazaar Between Time
All It Takes Is A Bit Of Luck & 3 Lunar Coins
And for the last secret related to Newt’s Shop, let’s talk about the Gilded Coast. The Gilded Coast is another ‘hidden’ area players can encounter in their runs and it’s where they’ll come up against Aurelionite, one of the first creations of both Providence and Mithrix, and a creation that deeply loathes her creators.
Usually, the only way players could get to the coast is by interacting with a Gold Shrine of Chance that ‘happens’ to spawn on any map. But, if players go to the Bazaar Between Time in between the Third and Fourth Stage of a run, they’ll also have a chance to see the Gilded Coast as one of the two ‘Dream’ options. Paying 3 Lunar Coins here guarantees that when they leave through the blue portal, they’ll pop out right on the Gilded Coast and will face off against Aurelionite.
3 The Captain Survivor Can’t Use His Utility Or Special Abilities In Hidden Realms
If The UES Safe Travels Can’t See Him, Then It Can’t Send Things Down To Him
This next secret is one of those instances of an interesting mechanic added into the game for lore reasons that also (sadly) actively detracts from the player’s experience. It has to do with the Captain of the Safe Travels, who is a playable character in Risk of Rain 2.
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For the Captain’s Utility and Special abilities, he calls down both Orbital Bombardments and Orbital Supply Beacons from his ship, the UES Safe Travels. But, in a standard RoR2 run, players might enter the Void Fields, the Gilded Coast, or other ‘separate dimension’ Hidden Realms such as ‘A Moment, Fractured’. When the Captain is in these areas, it does make sense that the Safe Travels wouldn’t be accessible, as it can’t see its pilot from the orbit of Petrichor V when they’re in another realm. But, it is a bit rough that he can’t use two of his abilities while charging any of the Cells of the Void Fields or the Void Cradles of the Void Locus. Surely they could’ve used a bit of sci-fi lingo to come up with some reason his abilities still work in any realm?
2 The Easter Egg Islands Of A Moment, Fractured
You’re Going To Need A Lot Of Quails & Feathers To Reach These Islands
Now for a more literal ‘easter egg’ secret in Risk of Rain 2, a literal floating island of giant easter eggs. This place is incredibly hard to reach and requires a player who doesn’t mind floating through the nothingness, hoping they’ll eventually find their destination. To get here, first players will need to go through the Celestial Portal and go to ‘A Moment, Fractured’.
Here, on the first island, they should see a knocked-over wooden light pole, this is where players will want to launch themselves into the void using it as a ‘ramp’ of sorts. With enough Wax Quails, movement abilities (such as the Loader’s Charged Gauntlet), and Hopoo Feathers, players will eventually land on an island that has a bunch of large Easter Eggs sunken into the ground. And, if they launch off the knocked-over pole on this new island and keep going into the abyss, they should see another island with even bigger Easter Eggs on it.
1 The Mystery of ‘Her’
The One Existence Both Providence & Mithrix Seem To Have Equally Cherished
Lastly, let’s go over one of the biggest remaining mysteries of the Risk of Rain 2 timeline and also one that might’ve been spoiled by the developers in the announcement of their Seekers of the Storm DLC. In the Logbook entries for A Moment, Fractured, and the Brittle Crown there’s mention of some female entity that both Providence and Mithrix seem to have some deep ties to.
For example, in the Brittle Crown entry, it’s mentioned that ‘She’ died to give Providence a gift of some sort, which fans think was the gift of creation that Providence used to bring a lot of Mithrix’s creations to life. The most common theory is of N’kuhana, an old ‘god of death’ of sorts on Petrichor V, but that’s becoming more and more unlikely as fans dive deeper into the Logbook entries. In all likelihood, this unknown ‘Her’ is likely another Cyclopian like the two brothers or is some third party that might be hinted at in the Seekers of the Storm DLC (as if Gearbox isn’t already busy enough).
Risk of Rain 2
- Franchise
- risk of rain
- Released
- September 11, 2020
- Developer(s)
- Hopoo Games
