How to Unlock Artificer in Risk of Rain Returns

The Artificer is one of the three new survivors available in Risk of Rain Returns among the total cast of fifteen. Today we’re going to show you how to unlock Artificer in Risk of Rain Returns.

Her ability to weave elemental powers for offense, defense, and mobility is back from Risk of Rain 2. That said, there are a few tweaks to adapt her kit for 2D gameplay. She’s one of those survivors you unlock passively, though it takes a bit of time, let’s see.

Risk of Rain Returns: How to Unlock Artificer

Artificer is the elemental mage survivor in the group of fifteen but with a sci-fi twist. She’s one of those survivors you cannot unlock on your first run but she will become available eventually. To unlock Artificer, you need to visit ten unique areas in the game. Usually, this’ll be the following areas:

1. Desolate Forest (Level 1 Variation).
2. Dried Lake (Level 1 Variation).
3. Fungal Haven (Level 2 Variation).
4. Sky Meadow (Level 2 Variation).
5. Frozen Tundra (Level 3 Variation).
6. Underwater Catacombs (Level 3 Variation).
7. Magma Barracks (Level 4 Variation).
8. Hive Cluster (Level 4 Variation).
9. Temple of the Elders (Level 5).
10. UES Contact Light (Final Boss Level).

As you can see, each level has two variations and you can only spawn in one per playthrough. This naturally means that you’ll have to replay the game a few times and even reach the final level for Artificer to become available.

Related: How to Unlock All Characters in Risk of Rain Returns

What Are Artificer’s Abilities

Sadly Artificer is no longer a flying character like in RoR2, even though she has some air-time abilities. I would assume they wanted to make flying the domain of the Pilot survivor. Either way, she comes with her own unique kit of offensive and defensive elemental abilities:

• Flame Chakrams: A ranged combo flame projectile attack that ignites enemies.
• Charged Nanobomb: This chargeable lightning bomb is your bread and butter for high damage.
• Frost Barrier: Create a wall made of ice to repel enemies.
• Flamethrower: Remain floating and fire off a torrent of flames that deal decent damage and ignite enemies.

These are just her basic abilities but you can already see the theme here. I recommend unlocking alternative abilities for the Artificer in the Providence Trials that include an air dash and spawning earth platforms for your allies in co-op.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this guide on how to unlock Artificer in Risk of Rain Returns. She’ll become available eventually if you just keep playing the game and visiting different levels. For more RoR Returns guides, visit our hub for the game here for useful articles like beginner tips for the game.