There are over 130 different items in Risk of Rain 2. Consider them your lifeblood! The items you obtain and your ability to control said items tips the scales–will your run end in victory or disaster?
By nature, Common Items, otherwise known as White Items, make up the general bulk of players’ builds. There are 30 Common Items, ranging from must-haves to downright awful. We’ve sifted through them all, and here, we will be going over the ten worst Common Items in Risk of Rain 2. We think these items should be first to be Scrapped if you need to use a Printer.
The 10 Worst Risk of Rain 2 Common Items
10. Sticky Bomb
Our first entry is the Sticky Bomb. This Common Item has a 5% chance on hit to attach a bomb to an enemy, detonating for 180% total damage. While any damaging item is useful, the time between attacking this bomb and its activation is 1.5 seconds apart. Again, Sticky Bomb only has a 5% chance, with each stack adding an extra 5%, so unless you have a high attack speed like Commando, you won’t see this item proc very often.
If your run has been going well and you have an abundance of other damaging items, we still say it’s ok to keep Sticky Bomb in your inventory. Still, if you need Scrap for a Printer, we usually toss this common item in Risk of Rain 2.
9. Cautious Slug
Cautious Slug is another out-of-combat item, like Oddly-Shaped Opal, but it provides healing rather than damage reduction. Whenever you avoid damage for seven seconds, your health regeneration rate increases by an extra three HP per second. Adding additional Cautious Slugs increases the extra regeneration but doesn’t lower the cooldown.
Cautious Slug is a decent item to obtain if you lack any other healing items or are currently playing The Heretic. Why? The Heretic is the only survivor with negative health regeneration; having two slugs offsets this negative regen.
Related Article: The Best Way to Build and Play with Mul T in Risk of Rain 2
8. Oddly-Shaped Opal
Oddly-Shaped Opal is one of the newer items added to Risk of Rain 2 with the Survivors of the Void DLC. This Common Item increases your armor by 100 after avoiding damage for seven seconds. Each stack of this common item in Risk of Rain 2 grants an additional 100 armor but doesn’t lower the cooldown timer.
Any damage consumes the Oddly-Shaped Opal’s buff, including Shrine of Blood, REX’s skills that consume health, or fall damage. However, if a hit is negated by Tougher Times or Safer Spaces, the Opal Armor buff isn’t lost.
It’s an excellent item to have at all stages of the game, but stacking this item doesn’t offer great benefit, or certain Survivors make it challenging to use this Common Item on builds for Loader, REX, or Void Fiend in Risk of Rain 2.
7. Stun Grenade
Stun Grenade gives you a 5% chance on hit to stun a non-boss enemy. The stuns duration is always two seconds, and stacking more Stun Grenades adds an additional 5% chance. We placed Stun Grenade on this list for a similar reason as Sticky Bomb since both items only have a 5% chance of hitting.
Sticky Bomb and Stun Grenade are among the few items in Risk of Rain 2 that have hyperbolic stacking. For example, hyperbolic stacking would result in ten Stun Grenades only having a 33.3% chance of stunning the target, rather than 50% because that would break the balancing and challenge of the game if the player could permanently stun-lock any non-boss enemy.
We rate the Stun Grenade and Sticky Bomb similarly. Due to its low initial chance of activating, we often Shred this item for Scrap, but if your run is already going great, you can keep a few around for the extra stun chance.
6. Bison Steak
What good is a steak you can’t taste? Bison Steak is a rather bland item, if not the most boring item in Risk of Rain 2. Every Bison Steak in your inventory raises your maximum health by 25. While it’s good to increase your health rather than add shields, the Bison Steak gives so little HP when stacked.
If you are looking for a way to increase your maximum health outside the average level scaling, we would recommend Infusion over Bison Steak. Infusion gives you up to 100 maximum extra health, but you have to kill enemies for that health. Bison Steak is a lackluster item we always recommend scraping, but it’s still not the worst Common Item in Risk of Rain 2.
Related Article: The Worst Blue Items in Risk of Rain 2
5. Medkit
Risk of Rain 2’s Medkit is underwhelming but reliable. After two seconds of taking damage, you heal for a base amount of 20, plus an extra 5% maximum health. We usually don’t encourage getting hit unless you are going for a Razorwire build, but the Medkit is unreliable.
This Common item serves more as a net to fall back on whenever you take damage in the early game but quickly becomes less and less reliable when you enter the late game.
The further your runs go, the more likely it is to get one shot by a high-powered enemy or boss. Since Medkit’s healing relies solely on repairing the damage you took, it’s not nearly the best supportive item to keep in your inventory.
We only recommend keeping Medkit in your inventory during the early game when you have no other healing, but Scrap it as quickly as you can whenever you find some sustain items.
4. Warbanner
Warbanner is an unreliable item. Furthermore, it’s one of the few items in Risk of Rain 2 that has nearly no benefit to stack. It drops a banner whenever you level up or start the Teleporter Event, and standing in the AOE raises your attack and movement speed by 30%.
The longer your run goes, the more dangerous the enemies become, making standing still a death sentence outside the first few stages. Warbanner is challenging to control its spawn since rarely do players keep track of their XP bar or want to stay close to the teleporter, depending on the boss that spawns.
Warbanner also has terrible scaling. For each Warbanner in your inventory, the radius of the buff scales an extra 8m. Since only the radius scales and not the buffs it provides, along with difficulty to place and utilizes its strengths, it’s hardly ever worth keeping Warbanner around for long.
The 3 Worst Common Items in Risk of Rain 2
3. Monster Tooth
For many reasons, monster Tooth is one of the worst Common items in Risk of Rain 2. After killing an enemy, Monster Tooth spawns a healing orb that heals for eight plus an extra 2% maximum health. Each orb lasts for roughly ten seconds before expiring and travels at a snail’s pace to reach you.
Monster Tooth is one of the weakest healing items in the entire game, and its only use comes from the early game, where this could be your only source of healing or if you are using the Forgive Me Please Equipment.
One Medkit, Cautious Slug, or any other healing item will always provide more sustain than Monster Tooth. We always recommend scraping this item whenever possible.
Related Article: The Best Legendary Items in Risk of Rain 2
2. Personal Shield Generator – Runner-Up to the Worst Item in Risk of Rain 2
The Personal Shield Generator is the second worst Common Item in Risk of Rain 2 for a few hidden reasons. This item grants you a shield equal to 8% of your maximum health but only recharges after avoiding damage for seven seconds.
The one upside of having personal Shield Generators is the extra shield synergizes with the Plasma Shrimp Void Item since it needs shields to work. Aside from that, gaining shields is always a gamble with your life.
Shields contribute to your one-shot protection threshold. If you are between 90%-100% health, you cannot be one-shot by any damage source. Shields take time to recharge and only start regenerating your extra hit points when avoiding damage; no healing can aid in restoring the shield.
Note that shielding items are different from barrier items. Since barriers are temporary and don’t contribute to your maximum health, they don’t penalize you for gaining them, unlike the Personal Shield Generator. Since healing doesn’t benefit shields in any way, you cannot heal yourself into gaining your one-shot protection while you have a shield item.
1. Roll of Pennies – The Worst Common Item in Risk of Rain 2
Roll of Pennies is the worst Common item in Risk of Rain 2. You gain three gold whenever you take damage, and the item scales over time. Any extra stack of Roll of Pennies adds additional base gold obtained from taking damage.
Self-damaging effects such as REX’s plan skills or the Hellfire Tincture Lunar Item don’t trigger Roll of Pennies. This item has no upside, and no player wants to take damage to gain gold willingly. The time spent taking damage could be used to kill monsters, yielding more gold.
There’s no reason to stack this item; we view it as a Risk of Rain 2 Common Item that should be scrapped immediately. Roll of Pennies needs an update, perhaps changing the item from taking damage to an on-kill effect. This would allow you to gain extra money by clearing the level rather than supporting an unfavorable exchange. Unless Roll of Pennies gets a rework, consider this item pure Scrap.
Related Guide: The 5 Best Lunar Items in Risk of Rain 2
Final Thoughts on the Worst Common Items in Risk of Rain 2
So, there you have it! Our list of the ten worst Common Items in Risk of Rain 2. If you’re looking to get ahead in the game, be sure to avoid these items at all cost! Which common items do you avoid? Let us know below, and be sure to check back for more content from FPS Champion!
For more great insights, check out our tier list of the best characters in Risk of Rain 2.
