Artificer is one of the least favorite survivors in Risk of Rain 2, according to our community tier list at least. But I assume this is due to her high skill cap and not her overall potential. In this Artificer guide, I aim to help you overcome Artificer’s skill cap and make you the best possible Artificer player you can be.
This guide will go over all of Artificer’s abilities, her best items, and some tips on how to play Artificer in ror2. She is one of the better survivors in Risk of Rain 2, she just isn’t as brain-dead as some of the other characters……
Table of Contents
How does Artificer Play?
Artificer is a burst class like her fellow survivor Loader, but unlike Loader, Artificer has cooldowns on every ability, even her primary. This means that any potential Artificer main needs to keep her CDs on their mind at all times and respect her burst window (see the rotation section below).
Besides her CDs, Artificer also has zero survivability in her kit. Instead, she has loads of damage abilities that emphasize the “can’t take damage if everything is dead” lifestyle.
That said, Artificer is right up there with Rex in terms of early-game burst damage and can become a boss buster like Loader. You have to make sure to use all of your abilities in the correct order to maximize your DPS while also making sure you don’t go too hard in the middle of fights, or else you are gonna end up restarting your run pretty early.
Artificer’s Abilities
This section will go over all of Artificer’s available abilities. I already have a loadout guide for every survivor, so you should check that out if you want longer explanations for every ability (and if you haven’t unlocked specific abilities).
Artificer’s Passive: ENV Suit
ENV Suit is Artificer’s passive and the only “defensive” ability in her whole kit. Holding the jump button allows Artificer to hover in the air.
Sadly, Artificer doesn’t have any abilities that push her in the air (she does, but you have to unlock it, and it is meh), so mostly this will be you yeeting yourself off a cliff to use.
Artificer’s Primary: Flame Bolt & Plasma Bolt
Artificer has two choices for her primary attack.
Flame Bolt fires a bolt for 220% damage that ignites enemies (8 ticks for 25% damage) and holds four charges.
Plasma Bolt fires a bolt for 220% damage that explodes in a small area. Plasma Bolt also has four charges.
The choice between the two is more or less irrelevant. One gives you DOTs, and one gives you AOE damage, so whichever one of those two options you fancy the most is what you should select.
Artificer’s Secondary: Charged Nano-Bomb & Nano-Spear
Another two choices for the Artificer in her secondary loadout. Let me spoil this for you, Nano-Spear is 10x better.
Charged Nano-Bomb charges up an exploding nano-bomb that deals 400%-1200% damage and stuns all enemies.
Nano-Spear charges up a piercing nano-spear that deals 400%-1200% damage and freezes all enemies.
The main difference between the two is that the Nano-Spear Freezes enemies is an execute attack that functions just like the Old Guillotine, which will instantly kill an enemy when they are below 20% healthy, except the Freeze will kill any enemy below 30% health. So an even better Guillotine.
Artificer’s Utility: Snapfreeze
Snap freeze is Artificer’s utility skill. This would be some form of mobility or survivability for most survivors, but for Artificer, you get more damage.
Snap freeze creates a barrier that freezes (free Guillotine) enemies for 100% damage. Enemies are instantly killed if they are below the 30% health threshold (not bosses).
For killing Mithrix, and climbing eclipse levels, snapfreeze is insanely good. It makes the Mithrix fight the easiest part of the entire run.
Artificer’s Special: Flamethrower & Ion Surge
Artificer has dos options available for her special attack. Flamethrower is the creme de la creme of insane DPS abilities and is simply ICONIC for Artificer. That being said, let’s look at what each of these abilities does.
Flamethrower burns all enemies for 1700% damage over several seconds. Due to quirks within the ability, the Flamethrower will do 4400% damage to anything in front of it.
Ion Surge shoots Artificer in the air, does 800% damage, and stuns any enemies nearby.
I shouldn’t have to tell you that Ion Surge sucks, especially when you put it against an ability that does 4400% damage. Always get Flamethrower if you are sane.
But jokes aside, Ion Surge will obviously give you more survivability. Also, much like snapfreeze, if you use Ion Surge, you can skip straight to Mithrix (avoid pillars which is amazing!) and are, for the most part, pretty safe during the whole encounter.
Artificer’s Rotation
Here is the optimal rotation for Artificer:
- Spam Flame Bolt until all charges are used
- Nano-Spear
- Snapfreeze
- Flamethrower all enemies frozen by Snapfreeze
- Repeat
This rotation should maximize the amount of damage you do as Artificer as you are using most abilities during the downtime of the others. For example, by the time you get through the rotation, your Flame Bolts will be ready to be used again.
Even bosses will get shredded by this combo, which is why Artificer is considered one of the better boss-killing survivors in Risk of Rain 2.
Best Items for Artificer
This will be a quick item guide for Artificer. By that, I mean that they will be items that are generally good on Artificer and not just good items, period. If you want to see the best items in the game ranked, check out my item tier list.
- Bandolier – Allows her to reset her CDs which is huge for Artificer
- AtG Missile Mk. 1 – Proccing the ATG on one of her higher damage abilities can result in some insane damage, might be the best item on Artificer
- Backup Magazine – Multiple Nano-Spears is insane. Just like Mercenary and Huntress, stack as many backup mags as you can on Artificer
- Wax Quail – Mobility is a must on this survivor as she has none
- Alien Head – 25% stacking CD, nuff said
- Brainstalks – NO CD FOR 4 SECONDS WOW
As I said, these are just the items that are really good on Artificer rather than a list of the best items in the game. Backup Magazine, for example, is good on some of the survivors like Artificer, but not everyone, whereas Len’s Makers is just a god-tier item regardless of what survivor you are.
If you’re looking for a specific build for artificer, any of the above items will be great. Survivors of the Void DLC added some good items for her as well, namely the Plasma Shrimp and the Voidsent flame, which are tremendously powerful items.
End
And that’s it for the Risk of Rain 2 Artificer guide. Hopefully, this helps all of you potential Artificer players and will boost her popularity because she certainly doesn’t get the recognition she deserves.
Thanks for reading!
