Risk of Rain 2 Commando Guide

Today I will show you the best way to play Commando in Risk of Rain 2. In this Risk of Rain 2 Commando guide, you will learn how Commando plays, what items are best on Commando, and what Commando’s rotation looks like. We’ll be going over some good skill builds and item builds for the Commando as well.

Before I start, though, I want to mention that I think that Commando is the worst survivor in Risk of Rain 2, something the community agrees with. I won’t tell you what survivor to play, and really, all survivors are fun, but I just wanted to warn you.

How to Play Commando

Commando is the first survivor you get in Risk of Rain 2. He is the only survivor unlocked once you first start the game, therefore, he is the most vanilla character out of all of them since the game is trying to prepare you for the rest of the game. This leads to him being somewhat dull and altogether uninspired.

Sprint, shoot, sprint, shoot. That’s about it for the Commando. Arguably, this is all you do in Risk of Rain 2 in general, but it is extremely apparent for Commando, who has some of the worst abilities in the game.

The main problem with Commando is that he has to scale through items to become powerful, which again, is what most survivors in the game do. However, Commando’s issue is he has next to zero priority over any other character. So unless you are playing alone, nearly every item in the game has a better home than in Commando’s inventory.

Also, Commando lacks mobility. He has a simple combat roll that barely moves him anywhere but that is negligible at best.

The best thing to do as the Commando is to focus on items. This is not a survivor that can ignore chests and do well, even being one or two items behind can stop a run entirely for the Commando, so make sure you get every single item you can.

Commando’s Abilities

Here is a brief ability guide for the Commando. What they do, how they work, etc.

Commando’s Primary: Double Tap

Commando’s first skill is called Double Tap. This is the traditional point and shoot primary attack where you simply aim and hold down the fire button. There are some interesting quirks about it though.

• The further it travels, the less damage you deal to enemies
• The longer you hold down the fire button the less accurate the attack is
• Each attack has a proc coefficient of 1

In short, this makes it necessary to be closer to enemies like the Commando. The closer you are, the more accurate and the more damage you do, so it is in your best interest to get up close and personal with him.

Also, Double Tap has the highest chance to proc items (aka proc coefficient) out of any other primary ability.

Commando’s Secondary: Phase Round & Phase Blast

So previously, I thought Commando was straight trash. That was, until Phase Blast came out, now he is meh.

You see, what Commando lacks (ironically) is damage. Although he is the simplest survivor with extremely straightforward abilities, he just doesn’t do damage. With Phase Blast that changes.

Phase Blast is unlocked by killing an Overloading Worm (you can check out the Loadout guide if you want now where you can find out how to unlock it easier). After managing to pull that off, you have access to an ability that does over 5x the damage of his Phase Round.

Here are the main differences!

• Phase Round goes through enemies and terrain making it a meh AOE ability and a terrible single target DPS ability.
• Phase Blast does not go through enemies, instead, it acts like a shotgun blast that is a great single target DPS ability.

Phase Blast is the damage that Commando is missing and makes it far easier to get through stages without dying, even on Monsoon difficulty.

Commando’s Utility: Tactical Dive & Tactical Slide

Well, this is going to be short.

Tactical Dive is simply a roll in whatever direction you are facing, that’s it. Tactical Slide is a slide in whatever direction you are facing. The only ‘real’ difference between the two is that Tactical Slide lets you shoot during the slide, boosting your DPS.

Tactical Slide is just a better version of Tactical Dive, use it.

Commando’s Special: Suppressive Fire & Frag Grenade

So for Commando’s special he has two options, Suppressive Fire and Frag Grenade.

Suppressive Fire shoots six bullets for 100% damage that stuns every time they hit an enemy. Much like Double Tap, Suppressive Fire’s damage falls off with distance, however, it does scale with attack speed, firing more bullets the higher your attack speed is.

Frag Grenade, on the other hand, is exactly as it sounds, a grenade that explodes for 175% damage. This explosion does 4x damage at the center. You can also hold up to two charges of the Frag Grenade with a five-second cooldown on each charge.

Suppressive Fire is much better both from a damage standpoint and a utility standpoint.

Commando’s Rotation

Commando’s ability rotation looks a bit like this:

1. Double Tap a few times
2. Use Phase Blast/Round
3. (Optional) Suppressive Fire any enemies you need to stun
4. Repeat

THIS IS KEY! Phase Blase/Round reset the accuracy of Double Tap! So if you are shooting an enemy that is pretty far away and you start missing some attacks, use your Phase Blast/Round and reset the accuracy to maximize Commando’s ranged DPS.

Try to use Suppressive Fire only when you need to. The reason for this is that some enemies completely Shrek Commando (Templars for example), so if you don’t have a stun ready to stop them from killing you then you gonna die. If you feel safe, you can use Suppressive Fire for DPS as it is pretty strong.

Best Items for Commando

With my other survivor guides in Risk of Rain 2, I only put the must haves for them. However, with Commando, I am going to have to put a much longer list for his item build.

• Hopoo Feather – Mobility is one of the key things Commando lacks
• Wax Quail – Same reasons as Hopoo
• Tri-tip-dagger – Commando has a high proc chance
• Sticky Bombs – Again, high proc chance
• Soldier’s Syringe – Higher attack speed buffs Commando’s special
• Backup Magazine – Having more than one Phase Blast/Phase Round is incredibly powerful
• Leech Seed – Commando needs life-steal because he has zero survivability
• Harvester’s Scythe – Same as Leech seed
• ATG Missile – Commando is an on-hit god
• Ukulele – Read above
• Sentient Meathook – Read above

Could there be more in this item guide for Commando? Yes. But hopefully you get the gist of what I’m trying to say here. Commando needs mobility and life-steal for survivability because he has zero, and he benefits greatly from on-hit effects because his Double Tap can proc the most out of every other primary.

You should be able to piece together what items might be good from there.

P.S.: I refuse to put Lens Makers Glasses on any item build for survivors. How obvious can it be that you want to crit?

With the new Survivors of the Void DLC, many new items are available for Commando to craft a build with. That being said, it is a paid DLC so I will list them separately. Here are some great DLC items for your Commando build:

• Plasma Shrimp
• Shuriken
• Polylute
• Voidsent Flame
• Weeping Fungus

I wouldn’t recommend picking up the Lost Seers Lenses as these remove your crit.

End

That’s it for my Commando guide for Risk of Rain 2. I still think that Commando is one of the worst characters in Risk of Rain 2, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a strong or even fun survivor, just means he is the least fun/strong out of the survivors.

Commando mains come at me.