After going through countless runs of Risk of Rain Returns and failing miserably at just about all of them, relying on items became a focus. There are tons of great equipment that you can use and switch out whenever you find something better, but items stick with you for the remainder of your run like your Survivor. Even though you don’t really have control over which items you get in Risk of Rain Returns, you can definitely rejoice when you open up a chest to find any of the following items.
Risk of Rain Returns Item Tier List
We outlined all of the items that you can find and laid them out in a tier list for Risk of Rain Returns below. The best items and where we think they fall on the list are as follows:
| S-Tier | Small Enigma Strange Battery Big Bison Steak Marinated Lizard Loaf Golem Essence on the Rocks Helly Brain Salad Fried Eyeball Keycard White Undershirt (M) |
| A-Tier | Legendary Spark Imp Overlord’s Tentacle Burning Witness Colossal Knurl Ifrit’s Horn Nematocyst Nozzle Scorching Shell Piece |
| B-Tier | Thallium Tesla Coil Old Box Beating Embryo Permafrost AtG Missile Mk. 2 Happiest Mask Plasma Chain Heaven Cracker Rapid Mitosis Ceremonial Dagger Repulsion Armor Brilliant Behemoth Hardlight Afterburner Interstellar Desk Plant Laser Turbine Wicked Ring Alien Head The Ol’ Lopper The Hit List Photon Jetpack Shattering Justice Telescopic Sight Fireman’s Boots Hyper-Threader Dio’s Best Friend Ancient Scepter Bottled Chaos Aegis Substandard Duplicator Classified Access Codes Umbrella |
| C-Tier | Timekeeper’s Secret Smart Shopper Infusion Will-O’-The-Wisp AtG Missile Mk. 1 Tough Times Energy Cell Rusty Jetpack Leeching Seed Ukelele Boxing Gloves Prison Shackles Guardian’s Heart Hopoo Feather Frost Relic Red Whip Chargefield Generator Arms Race Golden Gun 56 Leaf Clover Concussion Grenade Filial Imprinting Dead Man’s Foot Toxic Centipede Harvester’s Scythe Panic Mines Predatory Instincts Royal Medallion Prophet’s Cape Locked Jewel Hunter’s Harpoon Insecticide Decaying Sample |
| D-Tier | Meat Nugget Fire Shield Bustling Fungus Lens Maker’s Glasses Sprouting Egg Headstompers Life Savings Barbed Wire Rusty Knife Mysterious Vial Mortar Tube Warbanner Monster Tooth Soldier’s Syringe Crowbar Medkit Bundle of Fireworks Backup Magazine Topaz Brooch Taser Paul’s Goat Hoof Bitter Root Sticky Bomb Snake Eyes Hermit’s Scarf Gasoline Spikestrip Mocka Voltaic Mitt The Toxin Mu Construct Razor Penny Arcane Blades |
Best Items
In our experience, we found that the most useful items to use, despite what their tier was, were the Life Savings and Monster Tooth items. The former lets you gain more gold over time, which you will need to open more chests and get more items. The latter heals you for ten health every time you kill an enemy. There will come a point where your attacks are killing more enemies, assuming you’re going through the levels relatively quickly. At that point, you’ll be able to take advantage of the Monster Tooth item more as you gain health with every kill you make.
Risk of Rain Returns is now available for PC and Nintendo Switch.
