Void Items are a new tier of items brought in with the Survivors of the Void DLC expansion. In addition to their normal affect, their unique gimmick is they will also corrupt other items. Whenever you pick up a Void Item, all stacks of its uncorrupted counterpart are instantly corrupted and offer a similar or sometimes drastic change to the usual item’s ability.
We will touch upon every Void Item in Risk of Rain 2, rating them from worst to best. Most of the Void Items introduced into the game are above average or extremely powerful. If you see your favorite Void Item lower on this list, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pick it up. All Items are subject to change based on the current Survivor you are playing and the circ*mstances of your run.
The Worst Void Items in Risk of Rain 2
14. Safer Spaces
Safer Spaces is the corrupted version of Tougher Times and offers a guaranteed chance to block one attack rather than a percent chance to block any attacks. Unlike some times that require avoiding damage to enable a recharge, Safer Spaces has a base cooldown of 15 seconds and recharges in and outside of combat.
Each additional stack of Safer Spaces lowers the cooldown by 10%, making this the least impactful Void Item when you have low stacks. Its regular counterpart, Tougher Times, has a great early on scaling but suffers Hyperbolic Stacking, making Tougher Times more challenging to stack properly.
When deciding to pick up Safer Spaces, we recommend only grabbing this Void Item when you have at least five or more stacks of Tougher Times. Having ten stacks of Tougher Times roughly equals to 60% block chance, which is arguably the high point of its Hyperbolic Stacking before suffering diminishing returns. Ten stacks of Safer Spaces reduces the cooldown from 15 seconds to five seconds, drastically improving the quality of this Void Item in Risk of Rain 2.
If you enjoy having a guaranteed block, grab Safer Spaces. Otherwise, Tougher Times is still a fantastic Common Item to keep in your build.
13. Tentabauble
Tentabauble is the corrupted counterpart of Chronobauble. While we think Chronobauble is a somewhat underwhelming Uncommon Item, we find its Void Item variant much stronger. Where Chronobauble guarantees a 60% slow for two seconds, Tentabauble has a 5% chance to root enemies for one second.
Chronobauble is better when making use of its guaranteed slow for applying Death Mark, but Tentabauble’s chance at rooting an enemy is far stronger than applying a fading slow. Atop of its increased strengths, Tentabauble’s rooting effect can affect Mithrix, temporarily nullifying most of his moveset, allowing for a small window of free damage.
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12. Voidsent Flame
Voidsent Flame is the corrupted version of Will-o’-the-wisp. This Risk of Rain 2 Void Item spawns a lava pillar in a 12m radius whenever you hit a full health target: this lava pillar deals 260% base damage but less damage than Will-o’-the-wisp. In contrast, Will-o’-the-wisp spawns a lava pillar whenever an enemy dies but deals 350% damage and scales better than Voidsent Flame.
Even with the damage decrease, Voidsent Flame has the capability to deal more damage to groups of enemies or better single target damage due to its damage being applied on living targets, rather than triggering an on-death effect. You would still gain more damage from taking this Void Item in Risk of Rain 2 over its Uncommon counterpart. Yet, both versions of the item only deal damage once.
There is one case that Will-o’-the-wisp would be better than Voidsent Flame, and that’s if you are using the Forgive Me Please Equipment, which rapidly triggers on-death effects in a small area. Will-o’-the-wisp works with this setup because it’s an on-death effect while Voidsent Flame isn’t. Overall, we still recommend obtaining the Void counterpart over the original unless you are running Forgive Me Please.
11. Needletick
Needletick is the Void Item equivalent of Tri-Tip Dagger. It replaces the normal 10% chance to inflict a bleed DOT on an enemy with a 10% chance to proc collapse. Collapse is a new status effect introduced in Survivors of the Void. Once a player or monster is afflicted with Collapse, the debuff has a chance to repeatedly stack within a three-second window before dealing 400% base damage per stack.
Collapse is a lot deadlier on monsters than on players since their base damage is greater and increases far more often with scaling difficulty. In contrast, Needleticks damage only increases if you can squeeze more stacks onto a target that has Collapse before it detonates.
Needletick offers more damage in shorter bursts, often having a greater effect when fighting weaker targets. Otherwise, the normal Tri-Tip Dagger’s bleed will deal more consistent damage on tankier targets or bosses.
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Top 10 Risk of Rain 2 Void Items
10. Singularity Band
Singularity Band is the corrupted version of both Runald’s and Kjaro’s Bands. Instead of unleashing a burst of fire or ice damage, Singularity Band creates a black hole that draws enemies within 15m into the center before collapsing after five seconds, dealing 100% base damage. Like both Runald’s and Kjaro’s Bands, the Singularity Band only triggers if a damage source hits for 400% damage or more.
While Singularity Band deals less damage than its Uncommon Item counterpart, it adds more crowd control, allowing you to stack or focus the majority of your damage in a small area. If you are lacking in damage early on, or in general, we would recommend sticking with the uncorrupted variants. However, if you already have a lot of AOE damage or take advantage of clumped-up enemies like Acrid or Loader, Singularity Band is a great pickup.
9. Lysate Cell
Lysate Cell is an interesting pickup but can offer a lot of extra firepower, or extremely little, depending on the Survivor. It corrupts all charges of Fuel Cell. Instead of offering extra Equipment charges, you now obtain extra charges of your Special Skill. Along with granting extra Special skill charges, Lysate Cell also lowers the cooldown of your Special skill by 33%.
Lysate Cell in Risk of Rain 2 is solid on survivors like Acrid, REX, or Huntress, but it’s underwhelming on Captain or Void Fiend. Engineer is a special case since Lysate Cell does work and allows him to gain a third turret, which is extremely powerful; its scaling stops there. The Engineer in Risk of Rain 2 can only have a maximum of three turrets out at a time. Therefore, the extra charges are only suitable for quickly replacing his turrets if one is destroyed.
Adding more Special skill charges for most of the playable characters in Risk of Rain 2 is a great pickup, but be aware of how it affects certain Survivors. Alternatively, if you would rather keep your extra Equipment charges if you have a build that synergizes around that instead.
8. Newly Hatched Zoea
The Newly Hatched Zoea is the only Boss Item in the set of Risk of Rain 2 Void Items. The Newly Hatched Zoes corrupts all Yellow Items in your inventory and grants you the passive ability to summon a random Void ally. Each stack increases the number of current allies you can have at one time and lowers the cooldown it takes to summon one.
While you have this item in your inventory, the Void allies you have a chance of spawning are:
- Void Jailer
- Void Reaver
- Void Devastator
The Void Jailer and Reaver have the highest chances of spawning, each having over a 48% chance of appearing. The Void Devastator is extremely powerful but has a much lower chance of spawning at roughly a 3% chance.
Picking up a Newly Hatched Zoea purely depends on what Boss Items you already have in your inventory. Shatterspleen, Planula, or Molten Perforator are a few we would recommend keeping in your build. If you have a Titanic Knurl or a Queen’s Gland, we would rather swap them out for this Void Item in Risk of Rain 2, so it’s purely based on the situation of your run.
7. Lost Seer’s Lenses
Lost Seer’s Lenses is the corrupted alternative of the Lens-Maker’s Glasses. Taking this Void Item trades in your 10% crit chance from each Lens-Maker’s Glasses into a 0.5% chance to instantly kill any non-boss enemy. While the item description states you can only instantly kill a non-boss enemy, this only means you cannot one-shot a Teleporter boss, Mithrix, or Voidling.
Any boss you encounter during a stage or Looping that isn’t spawned by the Teleporter still has the possibility of being one shot. Most Survivors utilize crit extremely well like Huntress or Commando, but Lens-Maker’s Glasses isn’t the only item that grants critical chance. Harvester’s Scythe, or Predatory Instincts, and Shatterspleen all grant 5% crit chance as opposed to Lens-Maker’s Glasses giving 10%.
Survivors with high attack speed or attacks that hit multiple times like Commando or Captain have a significantly higher chance to proc the instant kill effect. However, gaining more than 100% critical chance doesn’t yield further results unless you’re building Railgunner. Since Lost Seer’s Lenses scale less with each stack, you can surpass the standard 10-stack limit.
It’s a mix-up between wanting a consistently high amount of crit chance or wanting the smaller chance to destroy any enemy instantly. We also say it depends on your Survivor and the running status of your build or the run. The only time we wouldn’t recommend taking Lost Seer’s Lenses is if you plan to fight Mithrix since he counts as a boss enemy, and it’s better to have a crit chance than having an item that will never proc against him.
6. Encrusted Key
Encrusted Key is the corrupted variant of the Rusted Key. While the Rusted key functions by giving you a free Large Chest on the next stage, Encrusted Key allows you to choose from three Risk of Rain 2 Void Items in an Encrusted cache on the next stage. These Void Items are chosen based on rarity, akin to shuffling their counterparts in a Small Chest.
Encrusted Key is one of the few ways in the game to choose specific Void Items when you desire them. The chance of getting a Weeping Fungus, Plasma Shrimp or Polylute from an Encrusted cache makes the item worth picking up to seek out a power spike.
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5. Benthic Bloom
Benthic Bloom, unlike all the other corrupted items, functions in a completely separate manner in comparison to its uncorrupted alternative. 57 Leaf Clover improves your luck stat, while Benthic Bloom alters the rarity of 3 random item stacks to the next tier every round. This means that after changing stages during a run Common Items turn into Uncommon Items, and Uncommon Items turn into Legendary Items. You can also force this effect to activate when doing hidden realms, like Bazaar Between Time and Void Fields.
Benthic Bloom will eventually eat all your Items to make them Legendary items in Risk of Rain 2. Legendary Items can easily control your runs for the better if you adapt to them. Even though Common Items are incredibly strong, this item stacks the hardest to obtain items with ease.
Benthic Bloom will not consume Boss Items, Lunar Items, or Void Items. This makes it incredibly strong to stack as many Void Items as possible so that you can keep a relatively consistent item pool alongside Benthic’s Item consumption.
4. Pluripotent Larva
Unlike Benthic Bloom, pluripotent Larva effectively functions identically to the item it corrupts. Dio’s Best Friend is a Legendary item that brings you back to life upon death. Pluripotent Larva does the same thing, except all of your uncorrupted items become corrupted.
The only downsides to being revived with a Pluripotent Larva would be:
- Losing 100% critical strike chance from Lost Seers Lens.
- Getting Lysate Cell on a Survivor that can’t utilize it.
- Getting Benthic Bloom on a run where you don’t want it.
- Getting Voidsent Flame in the rare situation that you don’t want it.
- Obtaining Safer Spaces when you only have a stack or two of Tougher Times.
- Corrupting fantastic Boss items into the Newly Hatched Zoea.
Pluripotent Larva is an easier-to-obtain resurrection with a relatively weak downside. It’s also important to mention that all these potential downsides still give you fantastic items that, although you might not desire them, are rarely bad alternatives to their counterparts in a worst-case scenario. Coming back to life after death is incredibly powerful, no matter the downside.
Related Article: The 10 Worst Common Items in Risk of Rain 2
The 3 Best Void Items in Risk of Rain 2
3. Plasma Shrimp
Plasma Shrimp is an incredibly powerful alternative to the AtG Missile Mk.1 Uncommon Item, adding a missile that does 40% of the activating ability’s damage onto every single shot or utility containing a Proc Coefficient. Each subsequent stack of Plasma Shrimp adds 40% total damage to the missile’s damage, making both hard-hitting and rapid chip abilities incredibly strong.
The trade-off for Plasma Shrimp is that, instead of every shot having a 10% chance to fire a 300% base-damage scaling missile that has a 1.0 proc coefficient, you are guaranteed to fire a 40% damage scaling missile that has a 0.2 proc coefficient as long as you have a shield. Picking up the Plasma Shrimp gives you a 10% maximum health shield, and any maximum health-providing or shielding items you pick up provide more of a lenient window for Plasma Shrimp to be activated within.
Aside from the restriction Plasma Shrimp requires for activation, any shield items like Personal Shield Generator take 7 total seconds to recharge your full Shield, and your One-Shot Protection cannot be active until this shield is recharged. It’s highly recommended to be careful when picking up Plasma Shrimp, but we believe the upside is so powerful that we would almost always take it on a run.
2. Weeping Fungus – Runner-Up to the Best Risk or Rain 2 Void Item
Weeping Fungus is one of few percentage-based healing items in the game, and it stacks similarly to its uncorrupted alternative. This Void Item is the corrupted variant of Bustling Fungus in Risk of Rain 2. It creates a healing AOE after a second of standing still and goes away upon moving.
In order to understand Weeping Fungus, you must first understand how it’s different from Bustling Fungus. The healing properties of Bustling Fungus equate to 4.5% of your maximum health, ignoring shields, and the range initially starts at 3.5m. Each subsequent stack of Bustling Fungus increases the healing and range by half.
Weeping Fungus lacks two of the qualities that Bustling Fungus contains – The AOE heal and the standing still portion. In a game where you wish to sprint everywhere you go, Weeping Fungus is a consistent and powerful healing tool for every single Survivor, excluding the Engineer who needs Bustling Fungus to keep their turrets alive.
Weeping Fungus will always heal less than Bustling Fungus, but it always scales itself by the full 2% health it provides per stack. With ten stacks of Weeping Fungus, you heal 20% of your health while sprinting from the Weeping Fungus Regeneration buff.
Although Bustling Fungus would heal for 24.75% of your health per second with the same amount of stacks, you don’t have to wait a second for the active effect, and the effect can be utilized with Sprinting buffs like Energy Drink, Rose Buckler, Wax Quail, and Little Disciple.
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1. Polylute – The Best of All Void Items in Risk of Rain 2
Polylute functions as the corrupted variant of the Ukulele, offering some of the most powerful single-target damage in the game. Unlike the uncorrupted variant, Polylute chains damage between a single target instead of a group, making it far more effective on bosses and important targets. The Polylute can activate on-hit effects just like its predecessor with its proc coefficient of 0.2 but stacks debuffs on a single target far easier than it could uncorrupted.
The basic form of the Polylute does 20% less total damage than the Ukulele on every chaining shot but stacks indefinitely better. While the Ukulele stacks 2 additional potential lightning strikes per stack, the Polylute stacks 3.
This means while Ukulele will do 400% damage to a group of enemies at 2 stacks when chaining every shot, the Polylute does 360% damage to a single enemy without having to chain between multiple targets. This imbalance becomes even more apparent with four stacks, where Ukulele can deal 720% Total damage, and Polylute is able to output the same amount.
The more stacks of Polylute you have, the stronger it gets in comparison to its already fantastic counterpart. Since group damage is weaker and worse the later you get in a run, Polylute scales fantastically. We believe that since Polylute activates on hit effects several times on a single target, scales incredibly well after four stacks, and makes difficult enemies easier to handle, it’s the best Void Item in Risk of Rain 2.
Summary of the Worst Void Items in Risk of Rain 2
The Survivors of the Void DLC is the first expansion for Risk of Rain 2, and all of its new Void Items are proof that it’s definitely worth the purchase. You don’t need to own the DLC to access these items; as long as the lobby host owns the DLC, the run will include all the new enemies and items in the expansion. However, you will miss out on playing Railgunner or Void Fiend; both are included in this DLC.
For other great Risk of Rain 2 items from different rarities, check out our companion article.
