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For general solo and multiplayer runs across Normal, Monsoon, and most standard content, Railgunner, Huntress, Loader, and Void Fiend are the strongest all-around Survivors. Captain, Bandit, Engineer, Mercenary, and several others can match or exceed them in specific modes, team compositions, or skilled hands.
This is an editorial ranking of all 19 current Risk of Rain 2 Survivors. It is not an official developer tier list, and the order changes substantially for Eclipse 8, speedrunning, multiplayer support, and beginner accessibility.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Risk of Rain 2 - Nintendo Switch | $19.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Risk of Rain 2 - PlayStation 4 | $19.47 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Risk Of Rain 2 (Nintendo Switch) | $21.95 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Risk of Rain 2 - Xbox One | $17.94 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Risk of Rain 2 (inkl. Risk of Rain 1) | $9.98 | Buy on Amazon |
Risk of Rain 2 Survivor tier list
The tiers below judge each Survivor by a combination of damage scaling, survivability, mobility, consistency, item flexibility, boss performance, and usefulness in ordinary solo or multiplayer runs. They assume the current PC and current-generation-console version, including content from Survivors of the Void, Seekers of the Storm, and Alloyed Collective.
| Tier | Survivors | Why they rank here |
|---|---|---|
| S | Railgunner, Huntress, Loader, Void Fiend | Exceptional damage, scaling, survivability, or consistency with relatively few serious weaknesses. |
| A | Captain, Bandit, Engineer, Mercenary, False Son, Operator | Extremely powerful, but more dependent on positioning, items, cooldowns, setup, or mode. |
| B | Commando, MUL-T, Artificer, REX, Seeker, Drifter | Capable and rewarding, but less consistently dominant or more demanding than higher-tier choices. |
| C | Acrid, Heretic, CHEF | Strong in particular situations, but limited by access, survivability, range, scaling, or consistency. |
There is no official S/A/B/C classification from the developers. Community lists disagree because they often measure different things. For example, one 2026 list puts Railgunner, Huntress, and Loader in S while another puts Huntress and Loader in S but places Railgunner in A. Those disagreements are evidence that tier placement is judgment, not an in-game rating.
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S tier: the best general-purpose picks
1. Railgunner
Railgunner is the most reliable high-end damage dealer for this ranking. Her precision-focused kit can delete priority targets and bosses, while her long-range playstyle reduces the amount of time spent trading damage at close range. She is especially effective when a run supplies critical-hit-related or attack-speed tools that improve the consistency and frequency of her powerful shots.
Her main drawback is that missed shots and poor positioning are costly. She also does not provide the same forgiving close-range control as Loader or Huntress. Nevertheless, for players who can aim and manage distance, Railgunner offers one of the clearest paths to a strong run.
2. Huntress
Huntress combines automatic target selection, excellent mobility, and strong area damage. Her ability to attack while moving makes her forgiving in ordinary runs, and her kit remains effective when the player is dodging enemies, repositioning between targets, or dealing with crowded stages.
She can feel fragile when surrounded, and her damage is more dependent on obtaining useful items than Railgunner’s burst is. Even so, her consistency and low mechanical friction make her one of the best choices for both experienced players and people learning higher difficulties.
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Loader has outstanding burst damage, mobility, and natural durability. Her grappling movement can cross stages quickly, and a well-placed charged punch can erase dangerous enemies or bosses. Barrier gives her a way to survive damage that would immediately threaten many other Survivors.
Loader is not effortless: missed grapples, poor momentum, and careless melee exposure can turn her strengths into liabilities. The November 2025 change from flat barrier decay to exponential decay also changes barrier timing, so old guides that describe barrier behavior as unchanged are stale. With competent movement, however, Loader remains one of the strongest solo picks.
4. Void Fiend
Void Fiend has an unusually strong combination of ranged damage, healing, mobility, and form management. The corruption system gives the Survivor access to different strengths depending on the run’s current needs, making Void Fiend powerful in both sustained fights and dangerous recovery situations.
The trade-off is that corruption must be managed rather than ignored. Players who do not understand when to remain controlled and when to embrace corruption can lose consistency. Void Fiend also requires an unlock challenge, unlike Railgunner, who is immediately playable when Survivors of the Void is owned.
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5. Captain
Captain is one of the best team-oriented Survivors and remains highly effective alone. Orbital abilities provide powerful control and damage, while his equipment-focused design can create enormous value from the right item. His drones and utility tools also benefit from the current drone improvements.
Captain is less comfortable when forced to move constantly or fight without time to establish his tools. His strongest advantages are easier to exploit when the player understands stage layouts and can plan engagements.
Rank #2
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6. Bandit
Bandit rewards accurate positioning and deliberate target selection. His stealth and back attacks can produce explosive damage, and his kit is particularly good at eliminating elite enemies or bosses before a fight becomes prolonged.
He is less forgiving when attacks miss or when enemies cannot be approached from favorable angles. Bandit therefore ranks below the most universally consistent S-tier picks, but skilled players can make him look stronger than this placement suggests.
7. Engineer
Engineer can turn a favorable position into a fortress. Turrets multiply his item effects and provide sustained damage while he concentrates on placement, defense, and survival. He is one of the strongest choices for players who enjoy controlling an area rather than constantly chasing enemies.
His ranking falls when stages or encounters force constant movement, and his power depends heavily on keeping turrets alive and placing them intelligently. Drone improvements in the November 18, 2025 update also make drone-related strategies more relevant than they were in older rankings, although Engineer’s turrets are distinct from ordinary purchasable drones.
8. Mercenary
Mercenary has excellent mobility, invulnerability windows, melee damage, and the ability to chain movement through a fight. In practiced hands he can avoid threats that would overwhelm slower Survivors, making him a strong choice for Monsoon and other demanding play.
His close-range design imposes real execution demands. Mistimed abilities can leave him exposed, and inexperienced players may struggle to convert mobility into safe damage. The current game also no longer has the former bug in which Whirlwind could sometimes cause fall damage, so rankings based on that behavior are outdated.
9. False Son
False Son brings powerful close-range pressure and a strong scaling identity. He can become exceptionally threatening when a run supplies the resources and items needed to support his build, and his kit rewards players who are comfortable fighting in the middle of enemy groups.
His effectiveness is more dependent on build direction and engagement discipline than the most reliable ranged picks. He can also be punished heavily when mobility, positioning, or defensive options are lacking.
10. Operator
Operator is a strong choice for players who understand drones and equipment-based combat. The November 2025 update improved drones’ focus-fire behavior, following, regeneration, and resistance to certain environmental damage, while also making destroyed drones 33% cheaper to repair. Those changes improve the value of Operator’s central game plan.
Operator is still more dependent on finding, maintaining, and using the right external resources than a Survivor whose damage is entirely built into the character. That dependence keeps Operator in A rather than S for a broad, mode-neutral ranking.
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Rank #3
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B tier: effective but less universally dominant
11. Commando
Commando is the baseline ranged Survivor and remains a dependable character rather than a weak one. His rapid fire supports many item effects, his kit is easy to understand, and he teaches core skills such as strafing, target priority, and cooldown management.
His problem is that he lacks the exceptional burst, mobility, survivability, or utility that pushes the top-ranked characters ahead. Commando’s straightforward design also means that a run often depends more heavily on item quality and execution.
12. MUL-T
MUL-T offers durability, weapon flexibility, and useful equipment handling. Switching weapons lets the player adapt to different encounters, and the character can build toward either sustained ranged damage or more aggressive close-range pressure.
That flexibility comes with slower movement and a kit that can feel less fluid than faster Survivors. MUL-T is a solid generalist, but not usually the most efficient answer to a specific problem.
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13. Artificer
Artificer has some of the game’s strongest elemental burst and crowd-control tools. She can freeze dangerous targets, burn groups, and create large damage spikes when abilities are used deliberately. Her aerial options can also help control the shape of an encounter.
She is more vulnerable when abilities are on cooldown and generally has less forgiving sustained damage than the best ranged characters. The November 2025 fix also removed the unintended enemy-pushing behavior from Nano-Spear; guides that treat that displacement as an intended feature should not be used to evaluate her current kit.
14. REX
REX trades health for control, healing, and powerful enemy manipulation. The character can weaken groups, displace threats, and recover health through a playstyle that rewards knowing when to spend resources aggressively.
That health economy is also the reason REX is not higher. Mistakes can compound quickly, and the character demands more awareness of health, positioning, and ability timing than straightforward ranged Survivors.
15. Seeker
Seeker offers useful support and recovery tools alongside respectable damage. She is more valuable in a multiplayer team that can capitalize on her utility, and she can stabilize difficult situations when her abilities are used at the right time.
For a general solo ranking, her damage and consistency do not match the strongest specialists. Her placement can rise in coordinated multiplayer, where support and team survival matter more than individual burst.
Rank #4
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16. Drifter
Drifter is a flexible, resource-oriented Survivor whose value grows when the player understands how to convert collected materials into immediate run advantages. That gives her a distinctive economy and can make a good run snowball.
Her performance is less automatic than that of a high-end damage specialist. Players who fail to manage her resources or choose poor moments to use her utility may find her underpowered, while experienced players can reasonably place her in the upper half.
C tier: specialized, demanding, or inconsistent picks
17. Acrid
Acrid excels at spreading poison and weakening groups over time. He can be excellent against large enemy populations and rewards players who understand when to apply damage-over-time effects and when to commit to melee attacks.
Damage over time is less satisfying against targets that must be killed immediately, and his close-range tools increase exposure to danger. Acrid is not unusable; he is simply less consistently efficient than characters with stronger direct burst or safer sustained damage.
18. Heretic
Heretic has a powerful but unusual kit and cannot be selected like a normal starting Survivor. Access depends on finding the required Lunar items during a run, which makes Heretic a situational transformation rather than a dependable choice for every attempt.
Once available, Heretic can be extremely strong, but the cost of Lunar items, the character’s unusual health and ability management, and the randomness of access make a general tier placement misleading. In a ranking of peak potential, Heretic can move upward; in a ranking of reliable starts, C tier is more appropriate.
19. CHEF
CHEF has a distinctive weapon-and-ability rotation that can produce strong area damage and satisfying item interactions. He is capable of clearing groups effectively when the player keeps his attacks and boosted abilities synchronized.
His rotation is less forgiving than the kits of the top-ranked Survivors, and his output depends more on correct timing. The November 2025 update corrected the unintentionally high proc rate of returning cleavers; only Boosted or Yes Chef Cleavers retain the higher proc rate. Any tier list that evaluates CHEF using the old returning-cleaver behavior is outdated.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How the ranking changes by game mode
For beginners
Huntress, Commando, MUL-T, and Loader are the most approachable starting points in this list. Huntress reduces aiming friction, Commando teaches the fundamentals, MUL-T is durable and flexible, and Loader can survive mistakes that would kill more fragile characters. Railgunner is powerful but asks the player to aim carefully, while Mercenary, Bandit, REX, and Heretic demand more specialized knowledge.
For Monsoon
Prioritize mobility, reliable damage, and a way to survive bad encounters. Loader, Huntress, Railgunner, Void Fiend, Mercenary, and Bandit all have strong Monsoon arguments, but the best choice depends on execution. A lower-tier Survivor with a clear build plan is generally better than a top-tier character whose mechanics the player does not yet understand.
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For Eclipse 8
Do not reuse this general ranking as an Eclipse 8 ranking. Eclipse is a separate mode with Survivor-specific progression up to Eclipse 8, and each level adds another modifier while retaining the earlier ones. Those modifiers change the value of healing, barrier, mobility, melee exposure, and equipment.
As a result, a character’s apparent weakness or strength can change sharply in Eclipse. Barrier and healing strategies may be less comfortable under relevant modifiers, while mobility and safe ranged damage may become more valuable. Community Eclipse lists are useful opinions from experienced players, not official rankings or proof of a universally correct order.
For multiplayer
Captain, Engineer, Seeker, Operator, and other utility-oriented characters can rise when teammates benefit from their control, drones, support, or area denial. Railgunner and Huntress remain excellent damage dealers, while Loader and Mercenary can handle dangerous targets independently. Team composition matters more than a single universal order: several A- or B-tier Survivors together can outperform four copies of a theoretically stronger solo pick.
Why old Risk of Rain 2 tier lists may be wrong
The November 18, 2025 update changed several systems that affect rankings and build evaluations:
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- Drones improved: they follow more closely outside combat, focus fire more effectively, regenerate more health, and take less damage from Void Fog and Grandparent’s area attack.
- Drone repairs became 33% cheaper: this especially affects Operator, Engineer, Captain, and builds that deliberately invest in drones.
- Strike Drones from The Back-up now scale with level: they also gained speed and regeneration, making the equipment more relevant over a long run.
- Spare Drone Parts was reduced by 50%: old lists that rate it using pre-update values overstate its current power.
- Barrier now decays exponentially: Loader and barrier-focused builds should not be judged using guides that describe the former flat-decay behavior.
- CHEF’s returning cleaver proc behavior was corrected: old evaluations based on the unintended high proc rate are no longer current.
- Artificer’s Nano-Spear no longer pushes enemies: that was a bug fix, not an intended strategic feature.
- Mercenary’s Whirlwind no longer sometimes causes fall damage: rankings should not treat the former bug as part of his current risk profile.
These changes do not automatically move every affected Survivor into a higher tier. They do mean that a list built around pre-update drone, barrier, CHEF, or Mercenary behavior should be treated cautiously.
Current roster and DLC availability
The base game includes Commando, Huntress, Bandit, MUL-T, Engineer, Artificer, Mercenary, REX, Loader, Acrid, and Captain. Survivors of the Void adds Railgunner and Void Fiend; Railgunner is available with the expansion, while Void Fiend requires its unlock challenge.
Seekers of the Storm adds Seeker, False Son, and CHEF. Alloyed Collective, released on November 18, 2025, adds Operator and Drifter. Operator is unlocked by default and Drifter is unlockable. Heretic is included in the 19-Survivor roster but is accessed through in-run Lunar-item requirements rather than a normal character selection.
Chirr is not a verified Risk of Rain 2 Survivor. Pages that list Chirr, omit CHEF, False Son, Operator, or Drifter, or claim to rank only a partial roster are not current full Survivor tier lists.
Platform note
Future Risk of Rain 2 content is targeted at PC, Xbox Series S/X, and PlayStation 5. The developer has stated that future content will not release for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or Nintendo Switch. Cross-generation multiplayer remains possible for now, but a future Xbox and PlayStation update will end PS4-to-PS5 and Xbox One-to-Series multiplayer. Players who upgrade from Xbox One or PS4 to the corresponding current-generation console receive that version, including purchased DLC, at no additional cost.
Verdict
Choose Railgunner for the strongest long-range burst, Huntress for reliable mobility and low-friction targeting, Loader for durability and explosive melee damage, and Void Fiend for a powerful but more technical all-rounder. For teams, Captain, Engineer, Seeker, and Operator become more attractive. For high-skill players, Bandit, Mercenary, REX, and Artificer can outperform their listed tiers.
The important qualification is the ranking’s scope: this is a broad current-run list, not an official order and not an Eclipse 8 verdict. Mode, skill level, unlock availability, team composition, and the current patch all matter.
Quick Recap
Sources
- Risk of Rain 2 Survivor roster
- Alloyed Collective and November 18, 2025 patch notes
- Eclipse and alternate game modes
- Future platform and Gen 8 console details
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