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How to Unlock Acrid
Acrid's Abilities
Acrid's Alternative Abilities
Best Items To Obtain
Tips To Play Acrid
Which Abilities Should You Choose?
Which Survivors Pair Well With Acrid?
Acrid is a poisonous test subject from Risk of Rain 2. Although he was an original survivor from the first Risk of Rain game, Hopoo introduced him with the Hidden Realms update. In Risk of Rain 2 lore, Acrid was captured by Void Reavers and imprisoned in the Void Fields, from which he eventually escaped.
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Risk Of Rain 2: 8 Tips For Beating The Voidling
Annoyed with the Voidling?
If you played the first game, then you know how fun playing as Acrid can be. Thankfully, he is just as enjoyable to play as in Risk of Rain 2. Acrid specializes in damage-over-time attacks and uses his acid to burn through tough enemies. This guide will help you become an Acrid expert in no time.
Updated December 18, 2023 by Jacqueline Zalace: With the launch of Risk of Rain Returns, you may have an itch to return to Risk of Rain 2. If this is the case, we've got you covered. We've updated this guide on Acrid with even more information, helping you become a pro Acrid user.
How to Unlock Acrid
Acrid can be unlocked by completing '...To Be Left Alone.' This challenge can be completed by successfully playing through the Void Fields. Without preparing properly, the Void Fields can pose quite a challenge. Thankfully, you will still be able to do this on a lower difficulty.
The name of this challenge is a nod to the first Risk of Rain game. Beating the game will show a quote based on the survivor you chose, and for Acrid, the full quote was, "...and so it left, with a new hunger: to be left alone."
Acrid's Abilities
Almost all of Acrid's abilities deal with poison. Acrid excels in spreading this poison throughout the map with both melee and long-range attacks. Here are his default abilities and what they do.
Ability Type | Name | What It Does |
|---|---|---|
Passive | Poison | Poisonous attacks apply a powerful damage-over-time |
Primary | Vicious Wounds | Maul an enemy for 200% damage. Every 3rd hit is Regenerative and deals 400% damage
|
Secondary | Neurotoxin | Spit toxic bile for 240% damage |
Utility | Caustic Leap | Leap in the air, dealing 320% damage. Leave acid that deals 25% damage |
Special | Epidemic | Release a deadly disease that deals 100% damage. The disease spreads to up to 20 targets |
In addition to dealing damage over time, Acrid can also regenerate health using his default Primary Ability.
Acrid performs the best when using his long-range attacks. Attacks like Neurotoxin deal more damage and have additional poison effects.
Acrid's Alternative Abilities
You can unlock several alternative abilities as well. Here are these unlockable abilities, and how to get them.
Ability Type | Name | What It Does | How To Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
Passive | Blight | Attacks that apply Poison apply stacking Blight instead, dealing 60% damage per second | Land the killing blow on 50 total enemies that have 1 hit point left. |
Secondary | Ravenous Bite | Bite an enemy for 310% damage
| Land the final blow on a Scavenger with Acrid. |
Utility | Frenzied Leap | Leap in the air, dealing 550% damage. Reduce the cooldown by 2s for every enemy hit
| Inflict Poison 1000 total times. |
Unlike other survivors, Acrid can switch between Passive Abilities. The ability Ravenous Bite is also regenerative and deals more damage to enemies with lower health.
Unlocking these abilities is pretty straightforward. It is easy to land final blows on enemies if you are playing by yourself. If you are interested in unlocking all of these abilities, try doing a solo run.
Acrid's unlockable skin can be obtained by either beating the game or obliterating on Monsoon mode. The skin is called Albino and makes Acrid appear all white.
Best Items To Obtain
Acrid is already pretty strong, but there are definitely some items that can boost his strength. If you are aiming to do a long run, then after a while, it really won't matter what items you get. Chances are, you will eventually get every item. Here are some items that work great with Acrid at the start of the game.
Item | What It Does | Why It's Good |
|---|---|---|
Ukulele
| Chance to start a lightning chain on up to 3 enemies, doing 80% total damage | Add even more damage to Acrid's AoE attacks. |
Focus Crystal | Increase damage by 20% to enemies within 13 meters | Most of Acrid's attacks are melee, so this increases damage for most attacks. |
Death Mark | Marks enemies for death if they have four or more debuffs | Acrid's poison counts as a debuff; you just need three more. |
Primordial Cube | Pull in enemies within 30m into its center | Poison can wipe out entire groups of enemies, but they have to be close enough. |
Shatterspleen
|
| Overall, this is just a really powerful item! |
Tri-tipped Dagger
| 10% chance to bleed an enemy, dealing 240% base damage | Having poison and bleed will demolish any enemy in your way. |
H3AD-5T v2 | Increases jump height and creates a kinetic explosion upon hitting the ground | Acrid's Utility allows him to fling forward; with H3AD-5T v2, you can do even more damage. |
Visions of Heresy | Fire up to 12 tracking shards, each dealing 120% base damage | Acrid's Primary Ability isn't really the best, so Hungering Gaze is a great replacement. |
Delicate Watch | Increases damage by 20%
| Acrid's primary ability heals him, so you won't risk breaking this watch as much. |
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Tips To Play Acrid
Although Acrid is a melee-range hybrid, his melee skills aren't that unique. Vicious Wounds does not deal poison damage, and his alternative Secondary Ability is a better melee choice. It's okay to not use Vicious Wounds, but if you want to keep doing a lot of damage, consider getting the lunar item Visions of Heresy.
Visions of Heresy replaces your Primary Ability. For Acrid, this changes his melee attack into a long-range one.
Acrid's Passive Abilities are the most valuable skill he has. Poison does one percent of the victim's maximum health per second, meaning that after a while, he can completely demolish a boss. His poison doesn't kill on its own, so after draining an enemy's health, finish them off with a simple melee attack.
This is great for tough battles when you just need to hang back for a little. If you are at low health, you can run around and avoid enemies for a bit while the poison does damage.
With Acrid, you can also avoid fall damage. Using either of his Utility Abilities flings him forward, and he does not take fall damage. Use this to your advantage when going around the map. If you want to jump down without finding a path, just use his Utility.
Which Abilities Should You Choose?
Secondary
Deciding which of Acrid's abilities to use comes down to personal preference. His Secondary Abilities both do equal damage. However, one is melee. If you want a real melee-range hybrid, stick with Ravenous Bite. If you want more long-range attacks, go for Neurotoxin.
Utility
As for Acrid's Utility, Caustic Leap deals more damage over time. Frenzied Leap has higher base damage, but unlike Caustic Leap, it doesn't deal additional poison damage.
Passive
Lastly, Acrid's Passive Poison does more overall damage than Blight. Poison scales over time, making it great for late-game bosses. Blight, on the other hand, does not scale and will stop increasing in damage at a certain point.
You should have an understanding of how to play Acrid now. Once you get this hang of it, he is pretty fun. Now, poison your way through the planet and beat the final boss!
Which Survivors Pair Well With Acrid?
If you are playing Risk of Rain 2 with friends, you may want to know who Acrid pairs well with. First, it's important to note that every survivor is viable, so if you truly can't decide, just play who you like the best!
If you are looking to get a little edge though, consider pairing Acrid with a long-range survivor such as Huntress. With these two, you can take control of the battlefield near and far.
In addition to Huntress, Acrid also pairs well with Artificer. The two excel in AoE combat, which is great for crowd control. On top of this, both Acrid and Artificer can stun enemies, which essentially makes for double the stunning.
Next
Risk Of Rain 2: What Every Lunar Item Does
Lunar Items can greatly impact every run in Risk of Rain 2, so it pays off to know what they do and how best to use them.
