Artificer

 is a playable character in Risk of Rain 2.

Wielding a diverse armament of destructive skills, Artificer's strength lies in her devastating offense that can break through even the bulkiest of enemies, aided by the versatile Snapfreeze. However, her power comes at the cost of survivability, as she has no defensive or movement skills aside from her high-flying Ion Surge, so the player must be adept at dodging and especially aware of their surroundings.

Tips

 * Flamethrower is Artificer's main source of damage and proc effects, piercing through groups of enemies and rapidly applying on-hit effects like the.
 * The synergizes extremely well with Flamethrower, drastically increasing the burn damage. As a bonus, it greatly improves Flame Bolt as well.
 * Flamethrower deals colossal damage and procs many times against multiple enemies, while Ion Surge allows Artificer to stay above the action and out of the way of danger. Experiment with both to determine which option is more appealing.
 * Losing Flamethrower will forfeit a huge portion of Artificer's damage and almost all of her procs. and skillful use of Snapfreeze will become even more necessary than usual to recover some of the lost damage. Gathering items with on-kill effects, such as  and, also helps.
 * Remember that although Ion Surge keeps Artificer out of the way of most enemies, flying monsters will pose an even bigger threat than usual. When facing a flying enemy high in the sky, Snapfreeze is completely ineffective, Charged Nano-Bomb requires a direct hit to explode, and Flame and Plasma Bolt deal comparatively low damage. Cast Nano-Spear is good for picking off individual flying enemies, but also costs Artificer even more crowd control.
 * While continuously hovering, mobility items like the and  become difficult to use, and Artificer's only real dodging option becomes sprinting, dropping down quickly, or using Ion Surge again. Picking up the  lets Artificer use  for mobility and healing, but this means that she loses damage and cannot freeze enemies without Cast Nano-Spear.
 * Because Artificer lacks mobility outside of ENV Suit and Ion Surge, mobility items and good strafing skills are extremely important. Never stop moving when in combat, as moving even a little makes Artificer harder to hit.
 * A full-height jump puts Artificer out of melee range for many non-boss enemies, such as . This can be leveraged using ENV Suit to dodge attacks effectively.
 * Both Charged Nano-Bomb and Cast Nano-Spear are powerful enough to activate, , and , significantly increasing their damage.
 * Note that despite Artificer constantly hovering, she still takes fall damage. This can be prevented by using ENV Suit to rapidly decrease Artificer's fall speed.
 * Since Artificer cannot sprint while Flamethrower is active, may be even more valuable than the . However, the player must also be aware of when to prematurely end Flamethrower when an incoming attack can't be avoided without sprinting.
 * Each pillar of Snapfreeze hurts and freezes enemies individually. This means that it can be used defensively to buy time to flee from multiple pursuing enemies, or to focus damage on a single important target by luring it into multiple pillars, freezing it repeatedly for easy damage.
 * This also means that Snapfreeze is still useful even against boss enemies that can't be frozen, as they are large enough that they will likely take damage from many of the pillars.
 * Cast Nano-Spear and Snapfreeze cannot freeze most bosses, but can freeze and even execute the.
 * Higher attack speed will increase the speed of all attack animations and increases the charge speed of Charged Nano-Bomb and Cast Nano-Spear, as well as increasing the number of times Flamethrower hits.

Version History

 * Anniversary Update
 * Gameplay Changes
 * Tendril Damage: 20% of explosion ⇒ 10% of explosion
 * Tendril Fire Frequency: 0.25s ⇒ 0.125s
 * Tendril Same Target Frequency: 2s ⇒ 1s Developer Notes: This change is made specifically to avoid the Artificer’s Nano-Bomb tendrils proccing Ice and Fire Bands. The tendrils will now fire twice as often, but at half the damage.
 * Quality of Life
 * Graphics Updates
 * Update skin visuals
 * Update skin visuals
 * Early Access Content Update 5
 * Gameplay Changes
 * Developer Notes: We want to enforce the Artificer’s role as a high-damage, high AoE character. Nano-Bomb in general was core to the fantasy, but was pretty much inferior to Nano-Spear in every way.
 * Blast Radius: 4m ⇒ 6m
 * Now has slight gravity
 * Blast Radius: 10m ⇒ 14m
 * Blast Damage, Max Charge: 1200% ⇒ 2000%
 * Blast Force: 1300 ⇒ 3000
 * Lifetime: 5s ⇒ 10s
 * Improved FX for clarity
 * No longer has -75% damage falloff at the edge of the blast
 * (Undocumented) Updated descriptions for, , , and to include keywords
 * No longer has -75% damage falloff at the edge of the blast
 * (Undocumented) Updated descriptions for, , , and to include keywords
 * (Undocumented) Updated descriptions for, , , and to include keywords
 * PC Early Access Patch (Build ID No.4892828)
 * Bug Fixes
 * Fix Artificer being able to hit herself with projectiles when backed up against a wall
 * Early Access Hidden Realms Content Update
 * Bug Fixes
 * Ensure state stops charging animation if interrupted
 * PC Early Access Patch (Build ID No.4233443)
 * Gameplay Changes
 * Update proc coefficient, travel speed, and fire rate to match
 * Update proc coefficient, travel speed, and fire rate to match
 * Early Access 'Skills 2.0' Content Update
 * Major Content and Changes
 * Added New Skill Variant:
 * Fire a bolt for 220% damage that explodes in a small area. Hold up to 4.
 * Added New Skill Variant:
 * Charge up a piercing nano-spear that deals 400%-1200% damage and freezes all enemies.
 * Added New Skill Variant:
 * Burst into the sky, dealing 800% damage and stunning nearby enemies.
 * Added New Skin:
 * Added New Class Challenge:
 * Added New Class Challenge:
 * Added New Class Challenge:
 * Added New Class Challenge:
 * Gameplay Changes
 * Add 2 new skill variants
 * Add 1 new skin
 * Bug Fixes
 * Canceling Artificer’s early now properly stops the sound
 * Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3961583)
 * Bug Fixes
 * Fix the Artificer's being stretched
 * Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
 * Gameplay Changes
 * New Passive:
 * ☂ The Artificer now hovers while holding Jump.
 * Add new crosshair
 * Add new bloom effects for
 * Bug Fixes
 * Prevent attacks with proc coefficient 0 applying Crowd Control effects like
 * Set interrupt priority of frozen state to be higher than stun state to fix issues with the  being interrupted by
 * Early Access Patch (Build ID No.3731106)
 * Gameplay Changes
 * [Community Suggestion] Increase Artificer proc coefficient on from 0.2 to 1.
 * [Community Suggestion] Increase Artificer proc coefficient on pillars from 0 to 1.
 * [Community Suggestion] Increase Artificer's explosion radius from 1.5m to 2.5m to alleviate it not always freezing enemies who trigger it
 * *Artificer mistakenly had very low proc coefficients. Consider these bug fixes.*
 * Bug Fixes
 * [Community Found] Fix Snap Freeze explosion radius not being large enough to always freeze enemies who trigger it

Trivia

 * Artificer has several unused skills relating to her elements, most notably the skill people tend to call "Laser Bolt."
 * Artificer is referred to internally as "Mage."
 * All of Artificer's challenge skills can be unlocked at once by enabling the and . Repeatedly restart the run until the first stage's chosen monster is, then take the  from the Escape Pod. Activate the Teleporter, round up at least 20 Beetles (including all those from the Horde of Many), and die from the Fuel Array's explosion. This will kill all the Beetles at once, which will clear both the Chunked and Massacre challenges. Since the player's body is launched into the sky by the Fuel Array's explosion, this also will clear the Orbital Bombardment challenge.