Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC – Best New Items Added to the Game

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game

As a seasoned adventurer who’s faced countless perilous runs in the chaotic world of Risk of Rain 2, I must say that the latest DLC has introduced some truly extraordinary items to our arsenal. Among these, two stand out as particularly noteworthy: the Seed of Life and Sonorous Whispers.


By August 30th, 2024, the Seekers of the Storm expansion for Risk of Rain 2 has left me scratching my head in disbelief. Despite adding an impressive amount of fresh content, new playable characters, and a plethora of new items, this DLC is plagued with bugs and fundamental flaws that make it more of a frustrating experience than an enjoyable one.

At present, there’s a great deal to discuss regarding Gearbox’s additions to Risk of Rain 2, yet it’s clear that these new elements have some substantial problems. The Void Items from the Survivors of the Void DLC for RoR2 were cleverly designed to introduce new items without overwhelming the item pool, but the Seekers of the Storm items fall short in comparison. Although many of them are forgettable or even harmful, there are still some noteworthy items worth highlighting, so let’s delve into the top examples.

7 Chance Doll

Uncommon Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game

Name Item Category Effect
Chance Doll Utility 20 percent chance to get higher rarity items from chance shrines on success (+8 percent higher item rarity chance per item stack).

Initially, the Chance Doll might appear as one of the less threatening new items in ROR2, but when used strategically, it can prove to be incredibly powerful. Pausing at Chance Shrines to gamble becomes slightly more rewarding with this item, and on rare occasions, it can even cause additional high-tier items to emerge from these shrines.

Once players discover that the 57-Leaf Clover can be used in conjunction with the Chance Doll, they’ll quickly understand why this item ranks among the top new additions in the Seekers of the Storm DLC. In fact, another item on our list is included due to its entertaining interaction with the 57-Leaf Clover. Overall, the Chance Doll is one of the most enjoyable items introduced in the DLC, although it requires some fine-tuning (such as limiting its ability to spawn Boss Items).

6 Sale Star

Uncommon Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Sale Star Utility Gain an extra item on the first chest opened per stage. Each additional Sale Star refreshes the initial effect for the stage and increases the chance of getting more items on the first chest opened per stage by +5 percent (per item stack).

Following that is the popular pick among the latest DLC additions, the Sale Star – a green item cherished by many players. Its appeal lies in the intriguing prospect of opening a chest and discovering not one, but two treasures inside. And indeed, that’s what the Sale Star does! Once acquired, the next chest you open (regardless of its type, including Legendary Chests) will now yield double the loot – two items instead of one. This special bonus can only occur once per stage, unless you happen upon another Sale Star and pick it up. In this case, the item refreshes, allowing the next chest to drop even more goodies!

However, this item doesn’t scale as one would expect, as additional copies of it only increase the chances of more items dropping from the affected chest, and the math for calculating these additional items is actually pretty complicated. Regardless, it’s an incredibly fun item to have and it makes players more aware of chest placements or even saving up to use it on the Legendary Chest on the Stage 4 variants, and just like the Chance Doll the Sale Star also is affected by 57-Leaf Clover.

5 Chronic Expansion

Common Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Chronic Expansion Damage Increases the Survivor’s damage by 10 percent (+5 percent damage per item stack) for every 5 enemies killed, lasting as long as the Survivor remains in combat.

In this game, Chronic Expansion is an exclusive uncommon item that might take some time to grasp at first. To put it simply, once you obtain Chronic Expansion and kill five enemies, your attack power increases. This enhancement continues to grow with each additional set of five kills (10% more at 5 kills, 15% more at 10 kills, and so forth). This bonus remains active as long as the player is engaged in combat. In the early stages of gameplay, this may not seem crucial, but during mid to late stages, particularly in a Monsoon run or when looping, players can often maintain combat, allowing Chronic Expansion to accumulate its buff almost indefinitely, especially for melee characters like the newly unlockable character.

1. Furthermore, accumulating additional Chronic Expansion items boosts the damage bonus per every 5 kills by an astonishingly high percentage (5% per stack). This can result in incredible damage values under the right conditions. It’s also worth noting that it works particularly well with the Forgive Me Please Equipment, though the extent of this item synergy might be overpowered and could require balance adjustments in a future update.

4 Luminous Shot

Uncommon Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Luminous Shot Damage Using the Survivor’s Secondary ability charges the next Primary ability, dealing 150 percent damage (+25 percent damage per item stack) per charge to 5 times (+1 charge maximum per item stack).

Many of the latest additions in “Seekers of the Storm” offer intriguing abilities, but they fall short when it comes to creative originality. To put it another way, none of these new items can match the exhilaration of experiencing Plasma Shrimp for the first time and witnessing a barrage of missiles being launched due to it.

Still, Luminous Shot is probably the most ambitious item in the DLC in terms of creativity. The overall DPS of the item obviously needs some adjustment, as it’s a bit weak in its current state for the level of investment it needs, but the idea of this item is pretty unique and enables a type of playstyle with certain characters that no other item has enabled previously. The funniest part is, out of the three new characters this DLC introduces, this item really only synergizes with one of them (maybe two if we’re talking about the Seeker’s alternate Secondary option).

3 Electric Boomerang

Legendary Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Electric Boomerang Damage/Crowd Control 15 percent chance on hit to fire an electric boomerang that travels a short distance before returning, dealing 30 percent (+30 percent per item stack) damage and Stunning all enemies hit.

Let’s discuss the first notable item, the Electric Boomerang. Frankly, all the new red items added with the Seekers of the Storm DLC are intriguing, except War Bonds, which is simply poor. However, the Electric Boomerang stands out as not just interesting but incredibly impressive on most characters, excluding perhaps Loader.

Equipped with this item, a player can continuously stun clusters of enemies, much like a setup using a few Tentabaubles. However, unlike Tentabaubles, which only impact enemies hit by the user’s projectiles, the Electric Boomerang launches a tangible boomerang when activated, enabling it to strike multiple foes simultaneously, either during its departure or return journey.

2 Seed Of Life

Equipment Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Seed of Life Equipment/Utility Revives the user automatically when killed or, when activated manually, revives dead allies. Consumed on use.

For the only Equipment item on here, and the only new Equipment added in the DLC, the Seed of Life is pretty incredible. This is another item that, at first glance, might seem overpowered, but it really just makes multiplayer runs with friends a bit more enjoyable overall, as it helps prevent those times where a friend dies early and just ends up eternally behind in terms of power scaling for the rest of a run.

With Seeker, Dio’s Best Friend, a Shrine of Shaping, and the Seed of Life at hand, players have an opportunity to resurrect more than four times during a single stage. However, the odds of all these events happening in a single game are extremely slim. If a player’s health or damage isn’t optimal, even multiple lives won’t be enough to defeat that Teleporter Event Boss.

1 Sonorous Whispers

Legendary Item

Risk of Rain 2: Seekers of the Storm DLC - Best New Items Added to the Game
Name Item Category Effect
Sonorous Whispers Utility When a large monster (AKA a ‘Boss’ Monster) is killed it will always drop an item. All Elite Monsters have a 15 percent chance of dropping an item (+5 percent more drop chance per item stack).

Of all the new items added in the DLC, Sonorous Whispers feels the most like a poorly executed item made by a modder. Don’t misunderstand, the item is a blast to use, but it’s obviously way too strong in its current state. As anyone knows, even halfway through a Monsoon run, a good half or more of the enemies that spawn end up being Elites of some variety, which gives this Legendary Item way too many chances to trigger.

With this particular item in our possession, during a single test run, we managed to gather over 20 items solely from enemy drops. Immediately upon finding the Teleporter, we made our way there. This item, like the 57-Leaf Clover, influences gameplay, so any player possessing both of these items stands a very strong chance of completing their run successfully, unless an unusually large number of mishaps occur.

Read More

2024-09-01 02:36