The Huntress is a long-range roaming Survivor inRisk of Rain Returnsthat has the unique ability to move at normal speed while using her skills. This ability lets her remain mobile while dishing out damage, always staying at range from enemies while dominating from afar.

The Huntress is fairly easy to play and understand, making her a great choice for players new to Risk of Rain Returns. If you want to know everything there is to know about building and playing the Huntress, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’ll take a look at all of her default and unlockable abilities, the best items to use with her, and some tips for playing her.

huntress skills on character select menu

Description

Strafe

Fire an arrow for 120% damage. you may shoot all skills while moving.

Laser Glaive

Throw a glaive that bounces to up to 4 enemies for 300% damage. Increases by 30% per bounce.

Teleport forward a small distance.

Cluster Bomb

Fire an explosive arrow for 320% damage. The arrow drops bomblets that detonate for 6x80% damage.

Unlockable Skills

you may unlock the following alternate abilities for Huntress that replace Strafe, Laser Glaive, and Blink, respectively.

How To Unlock

Pierce(replaces Strafe)

Hold to charge an arrow shot, firing for up to 1000% damage. Move more slowly while casting.

Defeat 3 unique hidden event bosses in one run. (hidden bosses include Acrid, the Direseeker, and Providence)

heaven cracker item description

Laser Cyclone(replaces Laser Glaive)

Throw a large, slow-moving, glaive, dealing 50% damage over time, before returning.

Complete the Providence Trial “Blades in the Wind”

huntress charging a pierce shot at enemies in the dried lake stage

Defeat 3000 enemies as Huntress.

Fire a weighted dart, teleporting you to it when it lands. Explodes for 200% damage upon landing.

Complete the Providence Trial “Piercing Space and Time”

Collect 300 items as Huntress.

Best Items For Huntress

The Huntress hashigh innate attack speed and mobility, so items that can capitalize on these stats will work the best. On-hit effects will activate much more frequently, making these the best way to boost the Huntress’s damage or survivability.

Soldier’s Syringe

Increases attack speed by 12%.

Normal attacks are the core of Huntress’s damage, Soldier’s Syringe makes them faster.

Increases movement speed by 7.5% and attack speed by 6%.

Increases attack speed and movement speed in one item.

Warbanner

Drops a Warbanner on your position after leveling up or activating the Teleporter, increasing attack speed and movement speed by 30%, damage by 4, and restores 1% health every second.

Major attack speed and damage boost, especially in the early stages.

Increases damage against high health enemies for Cluster Bomb.

Lens Maker’s Glasses

Attacks have a 10% chance to Critically Strike, dealing double damage.

Increases overall damage.

AtG Missile Mk. 1

10% chance on hit to fire a missile for 300% damage.

On-hit effect that increases overall damage.

Concussion Grenade

5% chance on hit to stun the enemy for 2 seconds.

On-hit effect that increases survivability.

Harvester’s Scythe

Increases Critical Strike chance by 5%, and Critical Strikes heal you for 8 health.

Increases overall damage and grants sustain through Critical Strikes.

Predatory Instincts

Increases Critical Strike chance by 5%, and Critical Strikes increase attack speed by 10%, up to 30%.

Major increase to attack speed and overall damage.

Increases damage through AoE piercing basic attacks.

AtG Missile Mk. 2

7% chance on hit to fire three missiles for 3x300% damage.

Strong on-hit effect that increases overall damage

Hyper-Threader

Hitting an enemy fires a laser for 40% damage that bounces to up to 2 enemies.

Increases AoE damage.

Attack speed and on-hit effects are essential for Huntress. These items will increase the Huntress’s damage by rapidly activating strong on-hit effects or sustaining through Harvester’s Scythe, Leeching Seed, mitigating damage with Concussion Grenade.

Because of the Huntress’s innate ability to move to normal speed while using her skills, movement items aren’t as imperative for her as they may be on other Survivors. That said, aHopoo Feather,Red Whip,Rusty Jetpack, orPaul’s Goat Hoofare always welcome.

How To Play As Huntress

The Huntress’s default skills are pretty straightforward to use. Use herLaser GlaiveandCluster Bombwhen there are multiple enemies nearby, anduse Blink to escape from danger. The key to surviving with Huntress is to alwayskeep your distance from danger, as she won’t survive long in close-range situations.

Blink can also be used to reach otherwise inaccessible areas byBlinking at the apex of a jump, allowing you to travel a bit further forward.

Where things get interesting is with the Huntress’s alternate abilities. Pierce, which replaces her normal attack, can becharged up to increase the damage of the arrow. Plus, this attack willpierce through enemies, meaning you won’t need as much AoE support from items like Ukulele, Will-O'-The-Wisp, or Heaven Cracker.

Youcan’t change the directionyou’re aiming with Pierce while charging, butattack speed-increasing items will make Pierce charge faster.

Warp Dart is a very interesting mobility skill that has good potential, but can betricky to use at first. The Warp Dart offers a muchwider range of movement options, allowing you to teleport greater distances or evenover and above walls. However, it’sharder to use to avoid enemy attackslike Blink, and it also has a muchlonger cooldownthan Blink. An Alien Head or Wicked Ring will help with that, though.

Laser Cyclone can be really good forconsistent damage against larger enemieslike the Colossus or Toxic Beast, or againstlarge groups of enemies. The Glaive will always try to fly back to you, but you can keep this from happening byavoiding it. This will increase its uptime, allowing you to getmore damage out of each useof Laser Cyclone.

No matter which skills you choose, the main thing to keep in mind when playing Huntress is toalways be moving. The Huntress is very fragile, and relies heavily on Blink or Warp Dart to avoid taking damage. Always be on the move and take out enemies from afar to survive as long as you can.