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Enemies and Elites

By ScotPublished Updated Sources checked

Tactical Quick Answer

Basic enemies rarely end a Risk of Rain Returns run. Elite variants and flying enemies do. As the difficulty bar advances, the director spends credits on five base elite types carrying lethal auras, plus Blighted elites on Monsoon that combine two modifiers and turn invisible when they stand still. Flying enemies are the other major threat because horizontal attacks struggle to reach them.

The wildlife of Petrichor V is relentlessly hostile, but basic enemies are rarely the cause of a failed run. The true threats are Elite variants and flying enemies that exploit the limitations of a 2D plane. Understanding how to prioritize targets is essential for survival.

Elite Variants​

As the difficulty bar advances, the director begins spending its credits on Elite variants. These enemies possess distinct visual auras denoting a specific, lethal modifier. Every base elite carries the same statistical package: 2.8 times health, 1.9 times damage, 30% reduced cooldowns, and double gold on death.

There are five base types.

  • Blazing (crimson): Leaves trails of fire behind it and moves 20% faster. The fire trails are the real problem, because they take away the ground you want to retreat across.
  • Overloading (aqua): Shocks nearby characters passively, and its attacks send bolts of electricity into anything close by. This is a persistent aura, not a detonation, so the danger is standing near it and not being caught by one blast.
  • Frenzied (gold): Gains 25% movement speed and 30% attack speed. Those numbers are modest. What makes it lethal is that it can instantly teleport to your position, and that is what catches out slow, positioning-dependent characters like the Enforcer or Sniper.
  • Leeching (forest green): Heals nearby enemies passively and regenerates its own health whenever it deals damage. That self-sustain is why bursting one down mid-fight often fails.
  • Volatile (dark orange): Every attack causes an explosion, and it passively fires red homing missiles at you. This is the elite that actually detonates, and the homing missiles mean it threatens you even when you have broken line of sight.

Above those sit Blighted elites, exclusive to the Monsoon difficulty setting. They are available from the start of a Monsoon run and are never gated behind a time or loop threshold, though they grow more common as the clock advances. A Blighted enemy combines two of the five base modifiers, giving ten possible pairings, and carries 7 times health, 3.2 times damage, halved cooldowns, and 37 times gold. As a teleporter boss it takes the subtitle "Phantasm".

The Blighted mechanic that kills people is not the health. Blighted enemies turn completely invisible while stationary and appear only as writhing shadows when they move or attack. Watch for the elite health bar, which stays visible, and treat any unexplained damage as a Blighted enemy standing still nearby.

Two more elite types exist outside normal play: Cognate (brown), which only appears under the Artifact of Cognation, and Desecrated (magenta), a scripted spawn in Desolate Forest variant 4.

Flying Enemies​

Flying enemies such as Swifts, Archer Bugs, and Jellyfish are the other major threat, and each one is dangerous in a different way. None of them stun you.

Swifts dive-bomb. They are not hard to dodge on their own, and they are dangerous mainly when you are already committed to something else, such as climbing a rope or kiting a teleporter boss. Archer Bugs are the higher priority, firing an evenly spread triple projectile spit and swarming to deny whole sections of a stage. Jellyfish simply beeline into you for low continuous contact damage, and they are the first life stage of the Wandering Vagrant.

Attacking upward is the real difficulty, since most survivor kits fire along the ground. If your survivor lacks vertical attacks, buy Drones, which acquire and fire on aerial targets by themselves. AtG Missiles home, but they are a 10% roll on hit, so you have to be landing shots already. The Ukulele's chain lightning is the better on-hit answer. Do not count on the Frost Relic here, because its icicles orbit you and never seek anything.

Note: Patch 1.0.4 cut Swift base damage from 15 to 12 and Archer Bug base health from 105 to 82, and stopped dive-bombing Swifts from striking the player while time is stopped.

Frequently Asked Questions​

What are the elite types in Risk of Rain Returns?

Five base types: Blazing leaves fire trails, Overloading shocks everything nearby, Frenzied gains speed and can teleport to you, Leeching heals nearby enemies and itself, and Volatile explodes on every attack and fires homing missiles. Blighted elites on Monsoon combine two of those five. There is no ice elite.

What are Blighted elites in Risk of Rain Returns?

Monsoon-exclusive elites that combine two of the five base modifiers and carry 7 times health and 3.2 times damage. They are available from the start of a Monsoon run and are never gated behind time or loops. The dangerous part is that they turn completely invisible while stationary.

How do you survive Overloading elites in Risk of Rain Returns?

Keep your distance instead of trying to out-time anything. Overloading is a persistent shock aura that damages anything near it, not a single detonation you can dodge. Patch 1.0.3 reduced its range and patch 1.0.4 fixed monster attacks that were bypassing player invincibility.

How do you deal with flying enemies in Risk of Rain Returns?

Buy Drones, which acquire and fire on aerial targets by themselves, and lean on the Ukulele's chain lightning. AtG Missiles home but only roll 10% on hit. Skip the Frost Relic for this, since its icicles orbit you and never leave your body.

Did a patch nerf flying enemies in Risk of Rain Returns?

Partly. Patch 1.0.4 cut Swift base damage from 15 to 12 and Archer Bug base health from 105 to 82, and stopped dive-bombing Swifts from striking the player while time is stopped. Jellyfish were untouched.