This guide is going to focus on how armor and weaken work in Risk of Rain 2. I will be trying to provide accurate data and information that reflects how much weaken and armor does in Risk of Rain 2.
Both armor and weaken are debuffs that make it easier to kill enemies with the debuff on them. Armor making them take more damage and weakness doing a whole load of different things which includes reducing armor.
First, let me explain how weakness works in Risk of Rain 2.
How does Weakens work in Risk of Rain 2?
Weakness in Risk of Rain 2 is a mechanic that is so far only used by Rex. His basic attack applies “weaken” to all enemies he hits with the attack, this, in turn, reduces the enemy’s armor, damage, and movement speed considerably (30, 40%, and 40% respectively).
The chart above, made by a Redditor, shows the difference between a non-weakened enemy and a weakened one.
As you can see, weakens is actually quite strong and is what makes Rex a “boss killer”.
Armor in Risk of Rain 2
Now that you know what weakens does I guess it is time to explain how armor works in Risk of Rain 2.
All armor does is decrease the amount of damage you take in Risk of Rain 2. Most games have other stats like resistance to fire, lighting, etc., however, Risk of Rain only has the armor stat, so regardless of what type of damage you take, armor will reduce it.
There are two separate formulas for armor. For the more mathematically inclined, the two formulas are as follow:
If you have positive armor:
- Your damage taken is multiplied by
100 / (100 + Armor). - This is a number between 0 and 1.
- The formula for damage reduction is:
Armor / (100 + Armor).
If you have negative armor:
- Your damage taken is multiplied by
2 - 100 / (100 - Armor). - This is a number between 1 and 2.
- Note that the negative armor is subtracted, and two negatives make a positive.
Both of these were taken from the wiki.
How Much Armor Do I Need?
This handy table, also from the wiki, tells you how much armor you need to get to a certain damage reduction percentage.
| Armor | Damage Reduction |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0.99% |
| 5 | 4.76% |
| 10 | 9.09% |
| 20 | 16.67% |
| 30 | 23.08% |
| 40 | 28.57% |
| 50 | 33.33% |
| 100 | 50.00% |
| 200 | 66.67% |
| 300 | 75.00% |
| 400 | 80.00% |
| 500 | 83.33% |
| 1000 | 90.90% |
| 2000 | 95.23% |
| 3000 | 96.77% |
| 4000 | 97.56% |
| 5000 | 98.04% |
| 10000 | 99.01% |
From the table, you can see that stacking armor in Risk of Rain 2 has diminishing returns. One rose buckler will take you all the way from zero to twenty-three percent damage reduction. Although, you actually have some base armor so your DR would be more than that.
What gives Armor in Risk of Rain 2?
There are various armor boosts in Risk of Rain 2. These can come from several different sources including items, difficulty, and what character you play.
The only item in the game that gives armor is the Rose Buckler, which gives 30 armor (+30 per stack) while you are sprinting.
Here are the base armor values for all characters in Risk of Rain 2:
- Commando has 0 Armor
- MUL-T has 12 Armor
- Huntress has 0 Armor
- Engineer (and his turrets) have 0 Armor
- Mercenary has 20 Armor
- Rex has 20 Armor
- Loader has 20 Armor
On top of the base armor each character gets, Drizzle difficulty will also give you a 70 armor bonus.
What takes away Armor in Risk of Rain 2?
As of right now (skills 2.0), there three ways to get rid of armor. Rex, Shattering Justice, and Effigy of Grief. Rex is a character who has weakens (reduces armor), Shattering Justice is a legendary item, and Effigy of Grief is a piece of lunar equipment.
My understanding is the only way to reduce your armor is to place the Effigy of Grief, which reduces the armor of EVERYONE inside the AOE by twenty, including friendly players.
Shattering Justice reduces armor by sixty for eight seconds (+8 per stack) if you hit them eight times.
Finally, Rex will reduce an enemy’s armor by thirty if he uses his basic attack on them.
Bosses Armor
Bosses all have base armor. Now, I am not sure whether or not elites have armor but there is no mention of it anywhere so I think it is safe to assume they do not.
Anyway, here is a list of bosses with their base armor included:
- Alloy Worship Unit has 30 Armor
- Aurelionite has 20 Armor
- Beetle Queen has 20 Armor
- Clay Dunestrider has 20 Armor and gets another 200 when he does his suck thing
- Grovetender has 20 Armor
- Imp Overlord has 20 Armor
- Magma/Overloading Worm has 15 Armor
- Solus Control Unit has 20 Armor
- Stone Titan has 20 Armor
- Wandering Vagrant has 15 Armor
End
That is about all there is to armor and weakens in Risk of Rain 2. If I can think of anything else to put in here I will. Thanks for reading!
