Drifter is one of the two survivors from Risk of Rain 2's Alloyed Collective DLC, and she offers a completely unique playstyle even by the game's standards. She swings her oversized sack around like a mallet, smacking enemies, bagging chests, and providing temporary items for her and her teammates. Drifter is a one-of-a-kind character, but if you want to unlock her, you'll want to go through quite a few hoops first. In this Risk of Rain 2 guide, we'll be covering what you need to do to get Drifter as well as a general list of recommended items and skills for her.
Risk of Rain 2: Achievement/Trophy Guide
Getting every trophy/achievement in Risk of Rain 2 can take a while due to range-dependent factors.
Risk of Rain 2: How to Unlock Drifter
As part of the Alloyed Collective DLC, Drifter is naturally found in one of the new maps that the expansion introduced, and in many ways, getting her is much like unlocking False Son in ROR2. In this case, you need to go to the Solutional Haunt. Here, you'll need to beat Solus Wing, one of the big bosses of the DLC, and after that, you need to break Drifter out of her prison. Here's a complete breakdown of the things you need to do:
- Reach the third stage of a normal run.
- Find and interact with an Access Node somewhere in the third stage
- Beat the third stage, and go through the Encrypted Portal that appears.
- Complete the Conduit Canyon map.
- Beat Solus Wing in Solutional Haunt.
- Find two Prison Matrix items hidden in Solutional Haunt.
- Free Drifter.
Stage Three Alloyed Construct
When you reach the third stage of a run, you'll find an Access Node from the Alloyed Collective that sort of looks like a red, glowing sea mine. If you interact with it, a message will pop up saying that a Virtual Orb has appeared. Once you finish the stage's teleporter event, an Encrypted Portal will appear. Interact with that to reach Conduit Canyon.
Conduit Canyon
This map has a gimmick where you have to collect Sentry Keys dropped by enemies to open gates and unlock the teleporter at the end. Keep fighting stuff and collect at least 6 keys, then start the teleporter event when you're ready.
Save one Sentry Key to open the force field blocking the way to the Legendary Chest underneath the platform you spawn on at the start of the map. You can reach it by riding the holo-rail that passes beneath the platform.
You'll have to fight the Alloy Hunter during the Conduit Canyon teleporter event, and unlike many of the other bosses in the game, this one can be hard to beat if you don't have a good build in Risk of Rain 2. The boss also has plenty of dangerous moves that can potentially one-shot you, so keep moving and try not to get hit.
Solutional Haunt and Solus Wing Boss Fight
Solus Wing is an even harder boss than Alloy Hunter, and you'll need to make full use of your character's abilities as well as the rails and elevators found throughout the arena. This boss is extremely resistant to damage, and to beat it, you need to destroy its weakspots (the three eyes on its faceplate and the little antenna thing on its head). Railgunner is especially good against this boss.
Once you break enough of Solus Wings' weakspots, Heat Vents will appear on the map. They'll turn the entire arena into an oven and cook you alive, so if you don't want to die, find and destroy the vents ASAP.
Prison Matrices and Drifter Prison
After beating Solus Wing, you'll then need to find two Prison Matrix items hidden in a big area past one of the tunnels leading out of the boss arena. From the arena entrance, go left, and you'll find the tunnel above that leads to the right area.
In this big cave-like area, you need to find two Solus Coffers. Interact with each of them to get the two Prison Matrices you need to free Drifter. Once you've obtained both, head back to the main arena, but be careful. A hostile MUL-T unit will block your way back and try to kill you. Beating it will drop a Shaped Glass Lunar Item.
Back at the arena, look for Drifter's prison at the bottom floor. Use the Prison Matrices to remove the force fields and set Drifter free. If you plan on continuing the run, interact with the MUL-T unit in Drifter's prison to get a shower of free items. You're going to need all the help you can get if you want to face the true final boss of the Alloyed Collective DLC.
Best Drifter Build in Risk of Rain 2
As a fairly-agile melee character, Drifter works best with the same item build you'd usually want for Mercenary in Risk of Rain 2. Some core items for a good Drifter build include:
- Focus Crystal: Increases the damage you deal to nearby enemies
- Luminous Shot: Activating your Secondary Skill generates a charge that stacks up to 5 times. Hitting enemies with your Primary Skill consumes charges to deal more damage.
- Paul's Goat Hoof: Increases movement speed.
- Oddly Shaped Opal: Increases armor while out of combat until you take damage.
- Gasoline: Killing enemies ignites nearby enemies
- Will-o'-the-Wisp: Killing enemies cause them to explode
- Hardlight Afterburner: Gain reduced cooldown and an extra charge for Utility Skills
- Lysate Cell: Gain an extra Special Skill charge. Corrupts all Fuel Cells.
The Substandard Duplicator Legendary Item from Alloyed Collective will double the number of Temporary Items you get from Drifter's default Special Skill. Consider getting that when you get the chance.
Ideally, what you want most for Drifter are items that give movement speed, survivability, and AoE damage. Her biggest weakness is her inability to reliably damage flying enemies, so items like Gasoline, Will-o'-the-Wisp, Ceremonial Dagger, and even Ukulele are all good for covering Drifter's weakness.
As for abilities, Drifter's base kit works wonders when played right. Her usual playstyle revolves around this simple rotation:
- Use Repossess (Utility Skill) to bag an enemy and smack them around to generate Junk.
- Use Salvage (Special Skill) with your generated Junk to produce Temporary Items
- Spend any excess Junk to spam Cleanup (Secondary Skill)
- Bonk things with Blunt Force (Primary Skill) when your skills are cooling down.
For Drifter's unlockable skills, we recommend using Junk Cube the most. It will further hamper your ranged capabilities, but in exchange, you'll be blowing enemis up in melee range much quicker. Junk Cube spawns a box in front of you, and when you hit it with your bag, it'll fly forward, dealing big damage to enemies it hits. We strongly suggest mastering Drifter's base kit first before experimenting with her other skills.
Risk of Rain 2
- Released
- September 11, 2020
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen // Blood, Drug Reference, Fantasy Violence
- Developer(s)
- Hopoo Games
- Publisher(s)
- Gearbox Publishing
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
- Risk of Rain
- PC Release Date
- September 11, 2020
- Xbox Series X|S Release Date
- August 27, 2024
- PS5 Release Date
- August 27, 2024
- Nintendo Switch Release Date
- October 20, 2020
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Roguelike
- Platform(s)
- Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
- PS Plus Availability
- Extra & Premium
