The goal of this guide is to teach you how to speedrun the Risk of Rain 2 any% category as Huntress.

SETUP

First, you want to be playing on version 1.0.0.6, as it has the most convenient changes for speedrunning. For information on how to downpatch, see Rythin's downpatching guide.

Next, for setting up the autosplitter and load remover, use Rythin's timer resources.

Editing your savefile is allowed, so you might want to increase the number of lunar coins, and set your file to read-only. Modifying unlocks to exclude unused lunar equipment for better odds in Bazaar is a good idea as well.

Having a modded version of the game to practice with is highly recommended, as it will greatly improve your movement and understanding of stages. Information on how to download practice mods can be found in Gothrand's download guide.

Practice movement by replaying each stage repeatedly. Memorize common locations for teleporters, newt shrines, and spawn locations. This is so that you know how to properly move and search through stages. Practicing stages also helps you deal with odd teleporter locations that can lose time.

BUILD

Loadout

You should customize your abilities as follows:

• Strafe
• Laser Glave
• Phase Blink
• Ballista

The only artifacts you should select are the following:

• Command
• Glass
• Kin
• Sacrifice
• Swarms (Recommended, however not required for Tonic strats, especially since dealing with enemies may be difficult.)

Strats

Equipment is the most important part of any build, as it dictates what strat you go for. There are two reliable strats you can use: Wings strats and Tonic strats. These strats dictate what items you use and your movement during stages. Wings are considered a little faster, while Tonic is a little more reliable. The largest difference in the two builds is the strategy for Commencement. Top runners also use "Crowdfunder Strats," however it is only worth using for 7 minute times.

Items

These are the items you should look for in runs. Not all may be used.

White Items

• Energy Drink: Speed item;
  Since Energy Drink on downpatch scaled differently, it is optimal to pick up a single Energy Drink before hoof.
  Pre-Aniversary Update: "+20.68…% (+13.79…% per stack) Movement speed."
  Post-Aniversary Update: "+17.24…% (+17.24…% per stack) Movement speed."

• Paul's Goat Hoof (Hoof): Speed item;
  This is the White Item you should default to when there are no others in priority.
  +14% Movement speed per stack.

• Crowbar: Damage item; Required.
  You should always pick up 3 crowbars. They are required for the damage you need to one-shot Mithrix and to deal with the flying chimeras during Phase II.
  If Swarms is off, only 2 are needed.

• Armor-Piercing Rounds (APR): Damage item;
  Sometimes necessary for Phase II/III of the Mithrix fight. If you are short on Shaped Glass after visiting Bazaar, you can get 2 extra crowbars (for 5 total) and 2 APRs to compensate for the missing damage. You will likely need 1 APR for Commencement if you use Daggers, or are below level 8.

• Topaz Brooch (Brooch): Defensive item; Recommended with Swarms.
  This will help you survive hits and stay alive during teleporter events.

• Gasoline: Defensive item; Recommended with Swarms.
  This is an optional item that makes enemies much easier to deal with during teleporter events. A major downside is that it can interfere with crowbar during phase II, which loses time. This can be mitigated with an extra APR.

Green Items

• Red Whip: Required, preferably 7 or more with Swarms.
  This is the only Green Item you need besides Fuel cell.
  +30% Movement speed per stack.

• Fuel Cell (Battery): Required.
  2 are required for Tonic strats in order to manage Tonic cooldowns properly in Commencement. The first fuel cell should be picked up on stage 3 to ensure 2 charges at the start of Commencement.
  Wings strats used to require 1 fuel cell for the escape sequence, but it can be skipped with enough movement speed (~10 red whips).

• Will-o'-the-Wisp: Can be used in place of gasoline, but does so in exchange for a Red Whip that could otherwise be useful early in the run.

• Berzerker's Pauldron: Wings strats only.
  Can be effective during phase II and during teleporter events, but does so in exchange for a Red Whip. If your phase II is fast enough without pauldron, you will be waiting on the ballista cooldown anyway.

Lunar Items

All of these items are vital in a run. Depending on which strat you use, you may either need 4 lunar items and 1 equipment (4:1 Bazaar), or 5 items and 0 equipment (5:0 Bazaar).

• Focused Convergence: Required.
  This item charges each teleporter quicker. You must pick up 3 Convergence for maximum time save. Saves around 2:40 over the course of a run. It's important to remain within the decreased teleporter zone as much as possible.

• Purity: Required.
  1 purity gives Huntress the minimum (0.5s) cooldown on her Blink. This is a major source of Huntress' speed.

• Shaped Glass: Required; Wings Strats only.
  You will need to pick this up for necessary damage output during the Mithrix fight.

Equipment

• Spinel Tonic (Lunar Equipment): Required; Tonic Strats only.
  This equipment provides essential movement speed and damage (equivalent to one shaped glass) while active, and requires 2 fuel cells for Commencement. The tonic debuff is usually a non-issue in runs — during the start of teleporter events tonic is always active, and in Commencement fuel cells counteract the critical downtime.

• Milky Chrysalis (Wings): Wings Strats only.
  Provides a movement speed buff, and conveniently enables vertical movement for Phase Blink while active. Ironically, not required for Wings Strats.

  It's important to conserve speed when using Wings. This is done by alternating between Space and Shift to move. Ideally, you should time your buttons in 3 steps: use Blink, press Jump for the Chrysalis boost, pause for ~0.5s while the boost is active, and repeat. By alternating the Chrysalis boost in between Blinks, you maximize Huntress' speed during the Blink's downtime, thus saving time.

• The Crowdfunder:
  Having 0 gold at the end of a teleporter event saves a lot of time each stage, but gives you less time to pick up items after the end of a teleporter event. Crowdfunder strats involve picking up the equipment on stage 1, and holding on to it until stage 5 or the very end of stage 4 before swapping to Wings, but does not differ from Wings strats otherwise. Wings strats can still make use of The Crowdfunder when the opportunity arises.

Red Items

~Oooh shiny

• Ceremonial Dagger: Swarms on only.
  Daggers are the best red to pick up. Not only will they substitute all protection items, but they will also save time on Phase II of Mithrix if used properly. A fast enough Phase II may require APR for phase II, and a Glaive instead of Ballista on phase III.

• Hardlight Afterburner:
  Provides 2 extra Blinks, but does not save as much time as you might expect. The earlier you get it, the better.

• Soulbound Catalyst:
  This can replace a single fuel cell on Phase II.

• Dio's Best Friend ×2

GAMEPLAY

Stages

Teleporters emit large orange particles you can look out for to help locate the teleporter more quickly. Sometimes these can be hard to spot due to background scenery. The Sky Meadow teleporter has blue particles instead.

Internal stage names are listed in parenthesis for reference. With the "Debug Toolkit" mod while in-game, you can use the set_scene command followed by the internal stage name to visit them quickly.

Stage 1

Titanic Plains (golemplains/golemplains2) is generally much slower than Distant Roost (blackbeach/blackbeach2). Your goal is to pick up a newt shrine (or get a natural blue orb spawn, which you can check by quickly toggling Enter), and reach the teleporter in a reasonable time. At the end of the teleporter event, you should enter the blue portal.

If you are doing wings strats, you have to be on the lookout for Orange Command Essence throughout the run.

(Farming natural blue orb spawns is not worth it.)

Bazaar Between Time

You need to pick up 5 specific lunar items (a 4:1 Bazaar for Tonic strats, or a 5:0 Bazaar for Wings). You will need 3 Convergence and a Purity. For Tonic strats, pick up a Spinel Tonic. For Wings strats, pick up shaped glass. If there's no glass, you can try substituting it with damage items, or by picking up glass in Commencement from lunar pods on the island.

Once you activate the portal in Bazaar, you should try to go back to The Lunar Seer and select a destination stage. Ideally, you will be able to select Abandoned Aqueduct in time, since that stage is more reliable than Wetland Aspect.

Stages 2-5

The first step is to always activate your equipment for optimal movement. Then move through the stage and find the teleporter as quickly as possible.

Stage 2

You should expect Abandoned Aqueduct due to the Lunar Seer, however that is not always guaranteed.

• Abandoned Aqueduct (goolake)
  Straightforward stage. Look out for teleporters hiding around the pathways underneath the giant skeleton with the Newt Shrine.

• Wetland Aspect (foggyswamp)
  Teleporters may spawn in the many hard to reach fringes of the stage. Boss mobs may spawn completeley out of reach, and can refuse to move.

Stage 3

Rallypoint Delta is preferred over Scorched Acres.

• Scorched Acres (wispgraveyard)
  If you get Scorched Acres, it is important to know how to gain height, since it is common for the teleporter to spawn high and far from you. Climbing landmasses and arches, along with abusing respawns, and performing trimps are some methods to mitigate poor teleporter locations.

• Rallypoint Delta (frozenwall)
  Rallypoint Delta has a spawn along the mountain that you need to know how to reach quickly.

Stage 4

Siren's Call is preferred over Abyssal Depths.

• Siren's Call (shipgraveyard)
  Siren's Call is generally fast, however the teleporter may spawn in caves or high up.

• Abyssal Depths (dampcavesimple)
  You should make sure to check the stage's high platforms. If the teleporter can't be found initially, there's a good chance it spawned in the stage's cave system.

• Sundered Grove (rootjungle)
  This stage does not exist in game versions before 1.0.2.0.

Stage 5

• Sky Meadow (skymeadow) Make sure to keep the teleporter directed towards the moon as opposed to the planet. As always, high and low points of the stage are difficult to find, in addition to fringe areas that are obstructed by terrain. With enough movement speed you can hear an audio cue as the teleporter unfolds at the start, which can help locate it.

By the end of these stages, you must have 3 crowbars (and 2 fuel cells if you are doing Tonic Strats).

Teleporter Events

Teleporter events can be hard to deal with, especially considering the decreased size of the teleporter zone. Each stage tends to spawn a horde of a certain mob. There are some things you can do to increase survivability during events.

Getting on the Teleporter Horn

This is a very useful trick that is used to space yourself above and away from enemies. If there is any raised terrain, use it to jump onto the horn. Otherwise, in order to get on the horn, position yourself at the very center of the teleporter, and align your crosshair with the middle of a horn. Move forwards and jump into the curve of the horn. On contact, activate Ballista. When done right, it should carry you right up onto the horn. An alternative way to do it is by jumping onto the side of the horn's base, then jump again and tap forwards at the jump's peak in order to land on the horn.

If the enemies are glacial, try to deal with them as fast as possible. If they reach you, try to get them to one side of the teleporter zone. Weaken them and kill them all at once so that you waste minimal time outside the zone. Otherwise, you can bait the enemies in and farm them for items. You should get off once the teleporter charge exceeds 80%. Use glaive on the lower part of the horn in order to avoid exiting the zone.

Picking up items outside the zone

When items look a little out of reach, you can abuse the camera in order to pick them up. By positioning the camera beside the pickup, your pickup range increases depending on character specific camera positions. The item grab box starts a little behind the camera (as a box, it extends further to the sides of the camera, completely off the screen sometimes), and extends to slightly in front of the character in the direction of the crosshair. This is especially effective while Tonic is active.

End of Event

Avoid killing enemies after activating the teleporter/portal on exit. It takes more time to teleport out as the money from newly defeated enemies gets converted into XP orbs, continually resetting the teleport timer. It is possible to kill enemies without losing time if you wait until the start of the tp out animation, which can be useful if you somehow need XP for levels (pre-spawned elites can be good for this). Additionally, having 0 gold before exiting skips the conversion process, saving time.

Enemies

• Beetles (Stages 1-4):
  Beetles are the best case, since they are easy to deal with and get items from. Simply get on horn and shoot them. Use Ballista on any Glacial enemies that may spawn early on.
• Lemurians (Stages 1-4):
  Use Glaive, then sprint back and forth while jumping within the zone to avoid shots and shoot the rest. Avoid using Glaive a second time as it slows you down and can cause you to get hit.
• Lesser Wisps (Stages 1-3/5):
  Use Glaive, Blink out along with the expanding zone, then follow the Glaive and travel in a circle around the teleporter's perimeter. Finish off the rest using Strafe and Glaive. Avoid jumping.
• Stone Golems (Stages 1/3):
  Use Ballista, use Glaive, then finish off the rest. Note that you can stun non-elites with your strafe. You can try baiting golems for items by hiding behind the teleporter horn.
• Beetle Guards (Stages 2-3):
  Get on the horn. If the enemies are glacial, use the Ballista on them and then Glaive. If more glacials remain, stun them with strafe before they reach the zone, otherwise wait for them to run to one side before killing them.
• Bighorn Bison (Stage 3):
  Get on the horn and defeat them all. Make sure they don't reach you from higher ground.
• Alloy Vultures (Stage 4): Glaive, then sprint back and forth while jumping within the zone and deal with the rest. Use Glaive again as soon as possible, and avoid using Ballista. Sometimes this boss mob will fail to spawn if the spawn locations have a ceiling overhead, leaving you with one fewer green drop.
• Hermit Crabs (Stage 4):
  There are 3 options against Hermit Crabs. If the teleporter is in a cave, they won't spawn. If you have daggers, they might take care of them without losing time. Otherwise, chase them one by one outside the zone. Once dealt with, the rocks they shoot are dangerous, so you will need to do a walking semi-circle around the perimeter of the teleporter zone, wait until the rocks hit the floor, then repeat.
• Imps (Stages 3-4):
  Get on the horn. Use Glaive on them. If the elites are Overloading, you can bait them in and farm them.
• Jellyfish (Stage 4):
  Shoot them before they get too close to you. They might spawn in unreachable spots, in which case you may only hope a Glaive or Gasoline can reach them. Otherwise, you will need to chase them down.
• Mini Mushrums (Stage 5):
  Glaive, then use Ballista. If there are enemies remaining, walk slowly in a circle and deal with the rest. Use Glaive again as soon as possible. Mushrums have a subtle audio cue when they attack.
• Brass Contraptions (Stages 4-5):
  Use Glaive, preferably on any that spawn before the event. Then use Ballista, and - importantly - start moving soon after to avoid getting shot. If there are enemies remaining, move counter-clockwise around the teleporter, and shoot the rest.

Picking up Gasoline or Will-o'-the-wisp is a much safer and more reliable way of dealing with teleporter events, as it makes it easier to defeat all of the enemies quickly.

Commencement

Movement without Wings

Activate Spinel Tonic if you have it, and head for the tunnel exit. Briefly head up the ramp on the left for height, jump over the railing and head straight for the crescent-shaped island. Aim towards the right side of the island where the triangular platform is sticking out. You should be able to ride up the slope with Huntress' Blinks, at which point you can move along the back of the island before heading towards the geysers leading to the arena.

If you do not have glass, head for the lunar pods at the base of the island, then trimp off the ramp near the front of the island to get back on top of it.

There are two things you can do to optimize movement for a faster time:

1. Caastl Clip
   When spawning in, you can reroute to a corner to the left of the slope and clip through it away from the ground. Then, aim between two asteroids visible near the bottom of the background and move forwards. You should respawn at the path by the launch pad and thus save a little time. The lower your movement speed the more time this saves.

2. Island Trimp
   Instead of heading for the slow geysers underneath the arena, the back of the island has a slope in a dark area between two lighter splotches. With sufficient movement speed, you can simply run up the slope and get launched upwards, at which point you can head to the arena directly.

Movement with Wings

Activate Wings and head for the tunnel exit. Maintain a straight line to the arena and enter it.

Phase I

Once you reach the edge of the arena, look at the in-game timer and count 3-4 seconds. Re-activate your tonic if you have it, activate your Ballista, and aim at the center of Mithrix's "Bubble". If timed correctly, Mithrix should appear, be hit with your Ballista, and retreat before the cutscene ends. If you missed the timing, just wait for Ballista to re-charge. Avoid attacking Mithrix with anything else, it will activate his adaptive armor, forcing him to jump and waste time.

Phase II

This phase is affected the most by the Swarms artifact.

• Swarms off
  Go in front of the large rocks to the right side of the arena (relative to entry) and kill the Wisp Chimera. Use Ballista to one-shot all of the Golem Chimera, then simply kill the rest one-by-one before the tonic from Phase I runs out.

• Swarms on
  Go in front of the large rocks to the right side of the arena (relative to entry) and defeat the nearby Wisp Chimera. Use Glaive on the nearby Golem Chimera, then activate Ballista and one-shot the Golem Chimera on the other side of the arena. Finish off the rest of the enemies in order.
  Keep track of a Chimera Wisp that always spawns inside a pillar on the left side at the rear end of the arena. It gets launched in a random direction, and you need to be ready to hit it with your spare Ballista shot, or chase it down before it loses substantial time. Usually it dies on impact though.
  If you have Daggers, use the final Ballista shot on the Chimera Wisps at the front (entrance) of the arena to activate the daggers. This will quickly end Phase II, at which point you will need to use Glaive on Phase III since the Ballista will still be on cooldown. Make sure you have an APR so that the Glaive will one-shot Phase III

Phases III/IV

After you finish Phase II, wait a second, then activate your Ballista and destroy Phase III. Then, head for the exit. Go right up against the corner of the barrier and the pillar behind the large ramp in order to have an angle on Mithrix, and finish off Phase IV.

Escape

Instead of heading straight for the escape ship platform, you should head for the tiny island above the spaghetti in the background to the left. This should respawn you at the exit before the escape sequence starts.

Commencement is likely the easiest part of the run to mess up, so it's important to practice it.

CONCLUSION

For more information and context, you should try to reference some Top Huntress Times and runners. Overall these videos should make the tutorial clearer, so I recommend viewing some of them.

Relevant runs (as of editing):

• WR run using Crowdfunder Strats

• Crowdfunder Strats with Daggers

• Fastest Tonic Strats run

• Fastest run with no wings CorvusScribe PB (Demonstrates both the Caastl Clip and Island Trimp)

• Other runs by @Xenon1, @ConfusedBTW, @CorvusScribe, and @Yonker.

You may also seek guidance from the Speedrunning Discord.

This concludes the Huntress guide, I hope people will find this useful!