The Captain is the leader of the survivors in Risk of Rain 2. Although he isn’t the strongest survivor, he certainly can do some interesting things. So, in this Captain guide for risk of rain 2, I will be showing you exactly how to play Captain, what items are good on Captain, and some tips and tricks for Captain.
If you haven’t unlocked him yet, check out our Captain unlock guide for Risk of Rain 2.
Anyways, let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
How Does Captain Play?
Captain is a “utility” survivor. This means he has unique skills that enable some different gameplay choices that can help out his allies. The closest thing to this you might have seen before is the Engi with Bustling Fungus.
Also, he comes with a free item as soon as he spawns in the game. This item is called Defensive Microbots and is (somewhat) unique to Captain. More info on this is in the abilities section.
Unlike many other survivors in Risk of Rain 2, Captain is unlikely to be the king of DPS and many items aren’t as good on him as they would be on other survivors. You can check out my ror2 tier list to see where he ranks, but the Captain is as close to a support survivor as it gets, enabling other survivors with his special skill. However, Captain does do pretty well with on-hits, allowing him to do some decent DPS, heavily dependent on good RNG.
A very specific weakness of Captain is the fact he has no mobility. This is very odd to me as he doesn’t have much survivability or damage, instead, he has a mix of both. So, definitely a weaker survivor.
Anyway, let’s go over his abilities. I’ll give some recommendations on the best build for the captain below.
Captain’s Abilities
Passive: Defensive Microbots
Defensive Microbots are Captain’s passive, but they are technically an item. Basically, Captain spawns with Microbots in his inventory without having to do anything special, just exists. These Microbots shoot down nearby projectiles at a rate of 1 projectile (within 20m) every 0.5 seconds. So, in theory, you could be shooting many projectiles down with this at once.
What projectiles are is actually pretty insane. I’ve seen some attacks I haven’t thought previously were projectiles getting blocked, such as the Beetle Guard attacks. But, obviously, certain attacks like Lemurian fireballs get blocked and this is an absolute godsend. So, solid passive. Maybe even the best in the game, honestly.
Also, you can technically get more than one by killing a doppleganger with the special Artifact, or by doing some other super wonky strats, but it will never drop naturally from a run, so you only get one.
Primary: Vulcan Shotgun
Vulcan Shotgun is the Captain’s primary attack and is his best ability by far. Captain shoots a blast of pellets that deal 8×120% damage (aka each pellet is 120%) and charging the attack will narrow the spread, meaning you can get some fairly accurate shots even at long range. Essentially, this ability is a shotgun and deals a buttload of damage. Although I am not sure of the proc coefficient, I can safely say the 8 pellets have a good proc chance, considering how well on-hits do with Captain.
Also, the ability is super slow when charging, so avoid charging Captain’s shotgun when in close range as this will dramatically decrease your DPS. Just spam the fire button.
Secondary: Power Tazer
Captain’s Secondary ability is Power Tazer. And boy does it suck. Power Tazer does 100% damage and stuns enemies, that’s all it does. After getting a stun grenade you almost have no reason to use this ability because of how low damage it is. You still should, but eh, I hate it.
Utility: Orbital Probe
Captain’s second best skill, Orbital Probe, is his utility ability. Captain summons 3 orbital probes and each probe does 1500% damage and stuns enemies.
Orbital Probe does massive amounts of damage if each probe hits, sadly, doing so is difficult, especially in large fights with lots of enemies. Because you have to stop shooting and aim the Orbital Probe, it can sometimes be very difficult to hit the enemy you want and also not die at the same time. Plus, if you miss, it goes on CD and you waste the ability. So, a pretty major tradeoff for all that damage.
That being said, this is Captain’s strongest ability outside of Vulcan Shotgun.
Utility: DIABLO Strike
Captain’s alternate utility skill (unlocked by completing smushed) is one of the skills that got memed on super hard when it was released but ended up being one of the best abilities in the game.
Basically, what the Diablo Strike does is mark a location where after 20 seconds, a giant nuke comes down and deletes anything inside the AOE (which is quite large). This is perfect against certain enemies like beetle queens, which are almost completely immobile and will almost always get hit by this ability.
There is also some fun stuff you can do with the Diablo Strike on Mithrix, but I’ll let you find that out.
I’d definitely recommend taking this over Orbital Probe, but to each their own.
Special: Orbital Supply Beacon
Captain’s special ability is where most of his utility comes from. When choosing your loadout you can choose two of the four beacons, some having to be unlocked through challenges. Similarly to Orbital Probes, you have to aim where the beacon lands and you can choose which of the two beacons you want to spawn. Be careful, however, as you can only spawn one of each per stage.
There are a few quirks to this. For example, you can bring two healing beacons if you so choose. This means you can have two healing beacons per stage. Likewise, you can choose the hacking beacon (which opens a chest for free, even a legendary chest) and get two free items every stage.
Of all of the available beacons, I believe hacking is the best one (free items, however, healing is incredibly solid as well.
Best Items for Captain
You can consider this the item build/guide for the Captain in Risk of Rain 2. These will be my recommendations based on my experiences with Captain and based on what other people think as well. So here are the best items on Captain in Risk of Rain 2.
- Sticky Bombs: for the on-hit
- Tri-Tip Dagger: Bleeds are now OP and more on-hit
- ATG: Most of Captain’s attacks do massive damage, so this multiplies it
- Kjaro’s Band: Big damage is good with Kjaro’s and Captain has big damage
- Ukulele: More on-hit madness
- Wax Quail: Captain is immobile
- Shatterspleen: ON-HITS
There are certainly more, like Len’s Makers Glasses, but these are the more specific items for Captain, as it is pretty obvious that Len’s Makers is good for everyone.
Survivors of the Void brought a bunch of new items as well, but it is a paid DLC. Here are some items to put in your captain build from that DLC:
- Shuriken
- Polylute (might be the best item)
- Plasma Shrimp
- Lost Seer’s Lenses
All four of those items are INSANELY good on the Captain. They do, however, replace their non-corrupted forms (except for shuriken) so keep that in mind when picking them up.
Captain Tips & Tricks
Here are a few tips and tricks I have when playing Captain in Risk of Rain 2:
- You can use the hack beacon for a free legendary item every time you find a legendary chest
- Get mobility early, as you do decent damage but have zero mobility
- Orbital Probes can hit things in the air, you just have to aim it directly at them
- Don’t charge your primary when in close range, just spam the button for extra DPS
- The more on-hits the better
End
And that’s it for this Captain guide in Risk of Rain 2. Hopefully, you can learn from the tips and tricks on how to be better at the Captain, and hopefully, the item suggestions will help you figure out better builds for Captain as well.
Have a good day and thanks for reading!
