Risk of Rain 2: Engineer Guide

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An in depth guide on the campiest character in the game.

Other Risk of Rain 2 Guides:

Let me show you how to pitch a tent! Engineer is campy, hard scaling survivor. All his cooldowns are a bit long so you have to be a little more careful when using them. However his sustained damage can get obscene.

How to Unlock the Engineer

The Engineer character will unlock for you after you have cleared 30 areas. These do not have to be done in one life. Instead, you will be able to spread it out across multiple games! This is good news, as I cannot fathom being able to last for 30 different areas in Risk of Rain 2!

The good news is, that while it seems like a bit of a grind, areas go by surprisingly fast, especially if you have an efficient team. Just run around the areas killing enemies and getting gold. Open crates that contain new items, then fire up the Teleporter! Fight the boss and use the teleporter and you will be on step closer to the Engineer! You can also unlock other characters along the way, which is nice!

Bouncing Grenades

Without attack speed these feel terrible. With attack speed they are one of the most brutal attacks in the game, allowing instant 800% damage with a high chance to proc multiple on-hit effects.

As you hold onto left click you will charge up more grenades. These are a lobbed attack meaning that they fall instead of flying straight. Aiming above a distant target will allow you to hit it. Also, if you are anything like me then you have probably asked yourself, “Is it better to spam click it than charge?” I can assure you the answer is no. Charging allows you to fire twice as many grenades.

Always fire your grenades, don’t use another skill before you do. This is because using a skill while charging grenades cancels the charge and you can use your skills instantly after you attack anyway.

Once you launch your grenades you can turn your camera to sway the launch and affect a wider area.

Pressure Mine

8 second cooldown per charge

General Info
A mid-range lobbed attack that leaves BIG damage on the ground. It has 10 charges ad the rate that you place them increases with attack speed. They last until an enemy walks over them or you place an 11th one. Like all skills with charges, you should always be regenerating at least one. It’s better to have a random min in the middle of no where than wasting potential damage.

Carpeting
When you can predict the movement of an enemy, you can throw down mines in a line for them to walk over. The easiest and most practical way to do this is to simply move backwards when they are head for you ad drop them at your feet .

Field
Drop a bunch of mines in an area. This is particularly useful around the teleporter and areas with numerous chests/shrines/shops that you cannot afford yet. This is also a good strat to protect your turrets.

Delivery
Oh boy. This is my favorite one. Mines. Stick. To players. If you see an ally, ESPECIALLY a Mercenary, standing around your turrets, slap a mine or two on them. Unlike randomly throwing them on the ground, you know these bad boys are going to explode AND it’s fun for everyone. It may not always be the most efficient use, but maaaaan is it fun.

Bubble Shield

25 second cooldown

Lasts 15 second. Enemies can walk in and attack you from inside. This thing is so manly it can even block Titan lasers. It also is a strong advocate of equal opportunity and as such blocks your (and ally) attacks too. This means your mines stick to it and grenades bounce off of it. I’ve actually seen someone use this to launch his grenades at aerial enemies. This is really hard, but does make killing air easier once you learn how to do it.

TR12 Gauss Auto-Turret

30 second cooldown
Excuse me what!?

General Info
Hello everyone and welcome to the skill that multiplies the effectiveness of your items by three. Keep in mind that your turrets are selfish and share nothing with you. meaning Leech Seed heals them, Infusion buffs their health not yours (and goes away when they go away), and so on.

Farming
Turrets are very good for increasing your income. To understand this first let’s talk enemy spawn. Enemies spawn in an area around players, meaning if you walk away from your turret and no ally is nearby it: it has nothing to shoot. So how do we farm with turrets? We abuse the spawn parameters. First we designate an area we want to farm, mind you it’s a big area. We then set one turret at one edge of the spawn circle around us, and another turret waaaaay on the other side of the circle. As we are moving between the area the turrets will kill and give us moneys. This becomes easier the more players in game.

Healing
With a Bustling Fungus your turrets become healing stations!… that heal each other… that you can heal as well… cuz’ that’s okay. Just place both turrets on top of the other to make this happen. Keep in mind that this increases the risk that you instantly die to AoE. You are NOT invulnerable when sitting in this mess so pay attention to what is happening around you and run when needed.

Emergencies
Holding on to a turret charge is important too. This is because it is your only anti-air. It also can generate aggro, meaning it will take hits for you. On demand healing stations are also wonderful. Just in general, there are so many uses for dropping a turret in combat that can save your life that it can just be dangerous not to hold one.

Turtling

The thing Engi is most famous for: Drop 2 turrets > lay a mine field around them > drop a bubble > profit. This is a very strong strategy for most any teleporter fight.

Item Guide

oMg MiNe (Core Items)

Bustling Fungus: Turning your turrets into healing stations is Engi’s best gimmick. It allows him to tough out ost of what the game can throw at him and coves most of his survivability needs. It also makes him the only healer survivor which is a cool side effect.
Milky Chrysalis: Single handedly fixes all mobility needs.
Wax Quail: Strong item that fixes your complete lack of mobility. More reliable than Milky Chrysalis, but less potent.
Alien Head, Brainstalks, and Hardlight Afterburner: Let’s be real here. Every character has these three in this tier. It’s because they hard enable everything your character does and are DRAMATIC dps boosts.
Hardlight Afterburner (continued): There is only one survivor that can argue taking this from you and that is MUL-T (I am speed) Mercenary. This item on you can make your whole team virtually invincible.

Lovin’ It
These items are the most ideal for you. They aren’t core, but they are the most preferable picks.

Tougher Times, Monster Tooth, Personal Shield Generator, Medkit, Leeching Seed, Harvester’s Scythe, Infusion, Dio’s Best Friend, Rejuvenation Rack: Survivability is important on every survivor. However, Engi turrets can die easy and these fix that problem.
Lens-Maker’s Glasses, Tri-Tip Dagger, Armor Piercing Rounds, Gasoline, Soldier’s Syringe, Warbanner, Stun Grenade, Sticky Bomb, ATG Missile MK. 1, Runald’s Band, Kjaro,’s Band Ukulele, Predatory Instincts, Beserker’s Pauldron, Will-o’-the-Wisp, Chronobauble, Sentient Meat Hook Ceremonial Dagger, Frost Relic, Happiest Mask, Brilliant Behemoth: Because of how grenades and turrets work, ANYTHING that does damage or has a % chance scales magnificently on you. Keep in mind that grenades in particular need attack speed to make the best use of on-hit items.The real power is that your turrets have a harder time dying to swarms because they just kill them.
N’Kuhana’s Opinion: You are going to get a decent amount of healing making this a sizable damage increase.
Unstable Tesla Coil: These require you to get up close which you kind of already do. They also go to your turrets which allow them to deal tons of damage and stay alive longer.

Acceptable
These are not bad items on you (in singleplayer there is no such thing as a bad item) but they aren’t particularly important either.

H3AD-ST v2: Requires vertical mobility to really shine, however it still does insane damage and is worth taking on anyone. If you have a Huntress or Merc, just give it to them.
Bandolier: Your cooldowns are so long that Bandolier would seem like an important item on you. However, compared to other survivors it just doesn’t have the same level of effectiveness. This is because the only skill it really empowers is your mines.
Rose Buckler: With sprint being your most reliable form of mobility this can provide and unreliable, but decent amount of defense.
Bundle of Fireworks: These do a surprising amount of damage and if you have been building on kill items it can start some nasty chains. However, it is relatively inconsistent and cannot be used in boss fights making it fall dramatically in usage.
Red Whip: No one doesn’t want this but no one really needs them either. Good for cleaning up the end of a level or speed running. If you do the later these may shoot up on the list.
57 Leaf Clover, Wake of the Vultures: No one doesn’t want these but no one really needs them either.
Disposable Missile Launcher, Primordial Cube, Ocular HUD, The Back-up, Preon Accumulator, Royal Capacitor, Gnarled Woodsprite, Foreign Fruit, The Crowdfunder and Radar Scanner: Any active item works decently with you. If you are comfortable not having the mobility wings give, the utility another item gives may just be better for you.

Don’t Want It
These are items you don’t need to worry yourself with. Just pass them off to someone else who can use them more. And if they don’t want them just take it without a second thought. Keep in mind in singleplayer there are no bad items so if it was from a chest or shrine its not a terrible thing. A buff is a buff. But don’t consciously pick them until you are solid on everything else.

Backup Magazine: First off, you have a max of ten mines at all times and these don’t change that. Secondly, you already have 10 charges, an 11th isn’t going to do a whole lot. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good Engi actually have even 8 charges.
Crowbar: This item strongly empowers skills that fire a single, strong attack. The only thing you have that fits the bill is your mines and they aren’t worth taking crowbar over something else.