Risk of Rain 2 items: How to unlock every item in the game

With the release of the Skills 2.0 update, the number of Risk of Rain 2 items has reached new heights, and there are already more items on the way. Testing and combining new items is the best part of the nutty third-person shooter, so we've rounded up all the ways to unlock more Risk of Rain 2 items. Any items not on this list are available by default - you just have to get them to drop, which comes down to pure luck. We'll update this list as more updates are released, so check back if you're having trouble unlocking new items.

Common / White Risk of Rain 2 items

Tougher Times: chance to block incoming damage. To unlock: die five times. That shouldn't be a problem.
Paul's Goat Hoof: increases movement speed. To unlock: fail a Shrine of Chance three times in a row. You have to fail on the same Shrine of Chance - the ones that cost money and reward items - so cross your fingers the other way and pray for the worst.
Crowbar: deal more damage to enemies with 90% or more of their health. To unlock: find ten different Common / White items. You'll unlock this naturally just by playing, but you can speed up the process by buying new items from those three-pronged vending machines.
Medkit: regain a bit of health roughly one second after taking damage. To unlock: defeat an elite monster. You'll find elites all over the place on higher difficulties, so you'll knock this one out pretty quickly.
Bundle of Fireworks: opening a chest or container launches homing fireworks that damage enemies. To unlock: duplicate the same item seven times in a row at a 3D printer. 3D printers are those little machines that spit out specific items. When you use one, you'll lose a random item from your inventory in exchange for whatever that printer is offering.
Backup Magazine: gain an extra charge on your secondary skill. To unlock: charge a teleporter without getting hit. This one takes some doing. Play safe, play with friends, and try to kill the boss quickly so you can safely stay inside the red teleport charge aura.
Rusted Key: spawns a free bonus chest in each level. To unlock: defeat a teleporter boss in under 15 seconds. Your best bet here is to scrounge up items in the first and second stages, then melt the stage two boss. Move as fast as you can to keep the difficulty timer low while collecting as many DPS-boosting items as possible.
Armor-Piercing Rounds: deal more damage to bosses. To unlock: charge a teleporter. You need to beat a stage, basically. So, you know, go do that.
Old Guillotine: insta-kill elite monsters below 20% health. To unlock: defeat 500 elite monsters. Nothing fancy, just keep playing and killing elites and you'll get this item eventually.

Image via minmax.gg (Image credit: Hopoo Games)

Rare / Green Risk of Rain 2 items

Predatory Instincts: critical hits increase attack speed. To unlock: reach 200% attack speed. The easiest way to buff your attack speed is by stacking Soldier's Syringes using a 3D printer. You can also stand in a Warbanner aura or trigger Berzerker's Pauldrons (more on those later).
Harvester's Scythe: increased critical hit chance, critical hits heal you. To unlock: complete a Prismatic Trial. You can queue up a Prismatic Trial - basically a time trial in a controlled environment - from the main menu. You don't have to top the leaderboards or anything, just finish one successfully.
Infusion: defeating monsters increases your maximum health (up to +100). To unlock: defeat 3,000 enemies. You'll unlock this eventually, but if you want to speed up the grind, you can camp a teleporter without finishing the charge.
Berzerker's Pauldron: killing three or more enemies within one second triggers a six-second buff which increases your movement speed by 50% and your attack speed by 100%. To unlock: charge the teleporter with less than 10% health remaining. Your health needs to be low when you finish charging the teleporter, so let the last few enemies whittle you down right before you hit 100% charge.
War Horn: using your Equipment item gives you a big attack speed boost for a few seconds. To unlock: activate and complete three Combat Shrines in one stage. Combat Shrines are the clay totems with the purple signals over them, not the claw-shaped Trial of the Mountain shrines. They summon enemies when activated, so just scout out every stage carefully until you get one with three shrines.

Runald's Band and Kjaro's Band: chance on hit to spawn an ice blast or fire tornado, respectively. To unlock: open the secret chamber in the Abandoned Aqueduct and defeat the bosses inside. The Abandoned Aqueduct is that sandy, desert-looking level. There's a small area to the north-ish with a gate along the back wall. Look for two small buttons on the ground around that area. They spawn in random places, so start your search at the pit in front of the gate and spread outward. You and a friend need to step on both buttons at the same time to open the gate. Inside you'll find two elite lizards. Kill them to unlock these paired items.
Wax Quail: jumping while sprinting boosts you forward. To unlock: reach 300% movement speed. This item is similar to Predatory Instincts in that you can cheese it using a 3D printer with Paul's Goat Hoofs, Energy Drinks, or Red Whips available. You can also collect those items naturally and finish things off with a Warbanner aura.

Legendary / Red Risk of Rain 2 items

N'kuhana's Opinion: fire homing flame skulls when healed. To unlock: find the altar to N'kuhana. This altar has a chance of spawning in the Wetlands level. Look for the L-shaped stone platform jutting out of the cliff to the right, walk up it, and look for an opening along that cliff. You should see some roots poking out of the wall near the opening. Make your way to the opening - jumping off the cliff if necessary - and head through the cave inside, following the red lights. You'll come to a large chamber with a skeleton floating in the middle. Shoot the skeleton to unlock N'kuhana's Opinion, then drop down into the abyss to return to the Wetlands. Refer to the GIF above if you get lost.
Unstable Tesla Coil: zaps nearby enemies every 10 seconds. To unlock: deal 5,000 damage in one shot. You're going to need to build up a lot of items and levels to deal 5,000 damage on any character, but it helps if you play a character with a strong burst move like the Artificer's lightning orb. (You can find more details on Risk of Rain 2 character unlocks here.) You can also use equipment items like the Royal Capacitor or Preon Accumulator.
57 Leaf Clover: improves the chances of random effects working in your favor. To unlock: complete 20 stages in a single run. The only real shortcut to this item is playing on easy difficulty, and even then, clearing 20 stages won't necessarily be easy. To keep things manageable, prioritize finding and charging teleporters. Don't try and obtain every single item in each level, as you run the risk of being outstripped by the ever-ticking difficulty timer.
Sentient Meat Hook: chance on hit to summon homing, damaging meat hooks. To unlock: loop back to the first stage. You'll need to clear around seven stages to loop back to the start - think of it as reaching New Game+. Oh, and if you see the Celestial Portal which leads to the obelisk, be sure to go to the next stage rather than using the obelisk.

Soulbound Catalyst: kills reduce equipment (use item) cooldown. To unlock: discover and activate eight unique Newt Altars. An Altar of Newt can be found in random locations in each level, so you'll just need to scour for them. If it helps, they look like clam shells from a distance. Each altar costs one Lunar Coin to activate, so you'll need to collect eight to unlock this item.
Dio's Best Friend: gain one extra life. To unlock: stay alive for 30 minutes. This is a cinch on easy difficulty, so just play it safe for half an hour.
Brainstalks: killing elite monsters triggers a three-second buff during which your skills have no cooldowns. To unlock: defeat an elite boss on monsoon (hard) difficulty. The key word here is elite boss, not elite enemy. Elite bosses don't spawn until later stages, at which point the difficulty timer will likely have reached the "HAHAHA" stage. Monsoon difficulty is no joke, so bring friends for this challenge.
Rejuvenation Rack: all healing effects are doubled. To unlock: reach and clear the third stage without healing. Your natural regen doesn't count against this challenge, obviously, but you do need to avoid all other healing items. That means no Medkits, no Monster Tooth, no Bustling Fungus - nothing. Just take it slow and hide to regen when necessary.

Lunar / Blue Risk of Rain 2 items

Gesture of the Drowned: reduces equipment (use item) cooldown by 50% but forces it to activate whenever it's available. To unlock: kill 20 hermit crabs by chasing them off a cliff. You know those little stalagmite things that shoot rocks at you? Yeah, those are hermit crabs. When you get close to them, they'll scuttle in the opposite direction. Your goal is to force them to scuttle right off a cliff, so think of this as an exercise in herding. Luckily, you don't have to kill all 20 in one run. Summon all of your patience and channel your inner sheepdog.
Glowing Meteorite (use): rain down meteors which damage all characters, including you. To unlock: obtain five lunar items in a single run. Lunar items can come with serious drawbacks, so this is easier said than done. You can obtain lunar items by purchasing them from lunar chests found around levels for one coin apiece, or at the lunar shop accessed via the blue portal for two or three coins apiece. Given that your goal is to stay alive long enough to get five lunar items, I'd steer clear of the Shaped Glass and Transcendence items, which make you much more vulnerable.
Helfire Tincture (use): ignite all characters within eight meters, including yourself, dealing ticking fire damage to everything. To unlock: kill 15 enemies simultaneously. When Risk of Rain 2 says simultaneously, it means it. We're not talking 'within one second' or 'with the same Huntress glaive' here. Instantly. There are no shortcuts here: you're going to need a big group of enemies and one hell of a burst ability or item. Take the strategies you used to unlock the Unstable Tesla Coil and dial them to 11.
Strides of Heresy: replace your utility skill with Shadowfade. Fade away to heal 25% of your maximum health and become intangible and gain 30% movement speed for three seconds. To unlock: kill 15 bosses in one run. This is another straightforward, brute force item: just keep playing until you kill 15 bosses.

Equipment / Orange Risk of Rain 2 items

The Back-up: summon a horde of strike drones for 25 seconds. To unlock: repair 30 drones or turrets. You can find drones and turrets stuck in the ground all over the place. They get exponentially more expensive as time goes on, so try to buy them early on. After a few runs, you'll have your backup.
Royal Capacitor: zap a targeted enemy, dealing high damage and stunning it. To unlock: defeat all teleporter bosses after activating two Shrines of the Mountain. Every Shrine of the Mountain you trigger spawns two or so extra bosses when you activate the teleporter, so activating two will roughly triple your boss count. Have fun!
The Crowdfunder: fires a continuous hail of bullets which cost $1 each (price scales over time). To unlock: collect $30,480 gold total. You'll unlock this eventually just by playing. And yes, if you're wondering, the Kickstarter for the original Risk of Rain did raise $30,480.
Gnarled Woodsprite: gain a woodsprite that heals you and can be sent to heal allies. To unlock: fully upgrade a Shrine of the Woods. You'll find Shrines of the Woods in the Distant Roost, the foggy stage with lots of evergreen trees. They look like green shamanistic totems, and they cost money to use. Use the same shrine three times to max it out and unlock this item.

Preon Accumulator: fire a blob of energy which zaps nearby enemies and explodes on impact. To unlock: open the timed security chest in Rallypoint Delta. Rallypoint Delta is that snowy map which is often the third stage. The timed security chest will lock after ten minutes, so in other words, you need to reach the third-ish stage and find the chest within ten minutes. The chest seems to spawn all over the place, but it's often found smack in the middle of the stage (and sometimes inside a crate). Godspeed!
Radar Scanner: show all chests and containers on the map for ten seconds. To unlock: collect ten monster or environment logs. These research logs drop randomly, so just keep playing and keep your eyes peeled for floating textbooks.
Eccentric Vase: create a quantum tunnel up to 1,000 meters long. To unlock: defeat the boss of the Gilded Coast without any lanterns going out. You can access the Gilded Coast by activating a Golden Shrine before activating the teleporter for that stage. These shrines are rare spawns, so keep your eyes peeled. Take the golden portal that appears and you'll enter the Gilded Coast. Once inside, kill enemies to earn money which you can use to light the seven lanterns in the area. Once all seven are lit, you'll be able to damage the boss. Remember, kill him before any lanterns go out. This challenge is pretty tough, so I'd bring friends for this.
Blast Shower: cleanse all negative effects, including debuffs and damage-over-time effects. To unlock: die three fiery deaths. Yep, you have to burn yourself alive to unlock this. The easiest way to do this is to find Blazing Elites and let them lay into you, but be sure to run away when your health gets low, that you can ensure that the fire DoT is the thing that kills you.

For more info, check out our Risk of Rain 2 challenges guide!