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The Drifter is a melee Survivor inRisk of Rain Returnsthat uses scrap obtained from smacking enemies with her bag. Using that scrap, the Drifter can then create temporary items to give herself the edge in battle. This ability sets the Drifter apart from other Survivors, making her a great choice for tackling Monsoon difficulty.
The Drifter can be a bit slow at the start of a run due to her slower animations. However, each of her skills are very effective, more than making up for this shortcoming. Below, we’ll take a look at everything you need to know about playing as the Drifter, including each of her unlockable skills, the best items to use, and some tips for surviving.
Description
Blunt Force
3-hit Combo, hit enemies in a wide range for 120%-240% damage. Each hit in the combo has an added chance to generate scrap.
Cleanup
Toss out some of your spare scrap, spawning 4 bouncing, piercing projectiles for 55% damage each. Small chance to spawn special projectiles.
Suffocate
Slam enemies with your bag for 200% damage, and stunning them. If the enemy is under 20% health, Consume them; converting them into scrap.
Salvage
Consume a large amount of scrap to spawn 4 temporary items.
Unlockable Skills
Additionally, you can unlock the following three skills as alternate options for the Drifter’s Cleanup, Suffocate, and Salvage skills.
How To Unlock
Scrap Cube(replaces Cleanup)
Consume a small amount of scrap and toss out a large scrap cube. The cube can be pushed and shattered, dealing 150% damage while pushed.
Collect 300 items as Drifter.
Tornado Slam(replaces Suffocate)
Spin around wildly, slamming enemies with your bag for 100% damage. Increases attack speed and lowers your gravity.
Complete the Providence Trial “Equivalent Exchange”.
Complete 25 stages as Drifter.
As you attack enemies withBlunt Force, or kill enemies withSuffocate, you will generate small pieces ofscrap. Picking these up will add to the scrap gauge, found just beneath the Drifter.
You can then spend scrap to useCleanup,Scrap Cube,Salvage, orRecycle. Suffocate is the best way to quickly gain scrap, while Blunt Force is a great option when facing multiple enemies.
Increases overall damage and allows you togenerate scrap faster.
Increases movement speed by 7.5% and attack speed by 6%.
Increases damage and mobility.
Increases survivability.
Substandard Duplicator
Picking up an item gives you a temporary copy of itself. Temporary items last an additional 10 seconds.
Grants even more temporary items andincreases the duration of Salvage’s temporary items.
Reduces the cooldown of Salvage,increasing your supply of temporary items.
Hardlight Afterburner
Add +2 charges of your Utility skill. Reduces Utility skill cooldown by 33%.
Reduces the cooldown of Suffocate, increasing overall damage andscrap generation.
How To Play As Drifter
Drifter is on the slower side of Survivors, and can’t move very much while using Blunt Force. In fact, all of her skills have a fairlylong animation, which can make avoiding attacks harder. Luckily, with Salvage, there’s a good chance you’ll always have a fewmovement-based itemsequipped, which can alleviate her mobility issues.
Where Drifter doesn’t lack is in damage. The Blunt Force combo can deal veryhigh damage, with Suffocate able tofinish off enemies below 20 percent health. BothCleanupandScrap Cubecan deal tons of damage, especially togroups of enemies, or bosses with larger hitboxes like theMagma Worm.
Scrap Cube can be knocked around with Blunt Force, dealing even more damage as it moves.
Managing yourscrap gaugeis the most important aspect of surviving with Drifter. attempt to ensure youstay around half of the scrap gaugeat all times. This will let you useCleanuporScrap Cubeas necessary for extra damage, while staying high enough that you canuse Salvage as soon as it’s available.
Salvage is a very strong skill that can let you easilyout-scale enemies, especially during thefirst and second stages. If you get lucky and get a red item from Salvage, you’ll be able to blow through weak enemies and quickly get to the teleporter. Justkeep an eye on the timer for these items, as they will eventually expire.
Recyclecan also be good, allowing you to re-roll items for a chance at a more favorable one. However, if you’re using theArtifact of Command, this skill is essentiallyuseless, as you can already pick exactly what items you want.
Overall, the key to playing the Drifter is toget stronger than the enemy as fast as possiblethrough temporary items. This will help mitigate her slow attack animations and short range, but always keep these weaknesses in mind, especially when your temporary items expire.
