Risk of Rain 2 Mastery Skins Ranked

Image: Hopoo Games & Gearbox Publishing via HGG

Human Made

Penned by Jake Bosee

Jake is our expert Risk of Rain and Apex Legends writer. He's also a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons.

Reviewed by Benjamin Barr

In Risk of Rain 2 by Hopoo Games, skins work a little differently. As a reward for beating the game on its
hardest difficulty, players are rewarded with mastery skins. Each character only gets one, and there’s no better way to show off your skills with your main than sporting your unique mastery skin.

Today, we’re ranking all of the mastery skins in Risk of Rain 2 from worst to best. Let’s get started!

How to Get Mastery Skins

The mastery skin you receive is based on which character you’re playing when you beat the game. Because of this, you won’t ever get a skin for a character you haven’t yet unlocked!

There are three ways to beat the game. You can travel to the moon after Stage 5, ultimately
leading to an epic confrontation with the boss Mithrix. After you’ve defeated Mithrix and made it back to the escape ship, you win the game.

Alternatively, you can instead stay on the planet until a portal appears after beating Stage 8. If you so choose, you can obliterate yourself at the obelisk within this hidden realm and end the game. This method also counts as a win.

The last method is to defeat the hidden final boss, but this is so much more difficult than the other
options it’s not really worth getting into. Look out for guides on all of the following ways to beat monsoon in the coming weeks!

All 13 Risk of Rain 2 Mastery Skins, Ranked

With that out of the way, let’s dive right into our list of the best mastery skins in Risk of Rain 2, starting with the worst options and moving to the best.

13/13

MUL-T

Bottoming out the list is the mastery skin for MUL-T, the “Janitor” skin. This skin contains a bit of a
reference to a character from the first Risk of Rain, HAN-D. MUL-T is the spiritual successor to HAN-D and therefore gets the classic color pallet as its mastery reward. This kind of callback isn’t unique to MUL-T (which you’ll see as we get further on in the list). On top of that, it’s unfortunately only a color palette swap, nothing more.

12/13

Acrid

Next up is the poison doggo Acrid. This mastery skin, dubbed “Albino” for obvious reasons, bleaches out Acrid’s color pallet and makes it look even more alien. Unfortunately, as was the case for MUL-T, this skin changes only the character’s color scheme. That being said, it’s an improvement over the base skin and worthy of an unlock.

11/13

Huntress

This is another “What if we took a character and bleached them?” skin. This time, it’s the “Arctic” mastery skin for Huntress. Unlike the prior two skins, we have some differentiation from the base skin. Gone is the iconic cape from the default skin, instead replaced by a fur shawl. Perfect for the snowy levels in the game.

10/13

Loader

The “Classic” mastery skin for Loader outfits her in the character’s suit from the first game. In that sense, it’s a callback skin like MUL-T’s, but changes up more than just the color palette. It also changes up the visor, and does a pretty slick job of it at that. The only real complaint is that the colors are very similar to her default skin.

9/13

REX

Everyone’s favorite plant-robot-thing, REX, gets a fittingly weird mastery skin. “Smoothie” transforms
not only the colors of REX but also changes the flowers that appear in its foliage. Definitely a must-get
for anyone passionate about either plants or robots, but it does feel like this skin could have been
bolder.

8/13

Artificer

The default skin for Artificer already looks great, but “Chrome” takes it another step further. The darker
pallet, the streamlined helmet, and the wizard sleeves really take this sci-fi spellcaster to another level
of cool. It marks the midway point of this list and the jump into skins that are objectively good.

7/13

Engineer

The “EOD Tech” skin for Engineer gives the character an incredible facelift. To be completely honest, the
Engineer default skin is a bit goofy. Probably to due the giant dome of the helmet. Instead, the mastery
skin gives the Engineer a cleaner profile and a space military vibe. It fits very well and gets bonus points
for changing the turrets, too.

6/13

Void Fiend

Void Fiend’s mastery skin, “Purified,” could be higher on this list, but it suffers from an interesting
problem. The default skin alternative is just so damn cool. The best part about “Purified” might actually
be the story implications for its existence. If the Void Seed that caused the invasion seen in the DLC can
be purified, what does that mean for future events? Either way, this skin does the kind of space
corruption theme extremely well in a way that echoes the Metroid Prime games.

5/13

Captain

The mastery skin for Captain is very similar to some of the others on this list. “Admiral” is an all-white
palette swap that actually is only that. There isn’t a particular reason why this ranks so much higher than the others, besides that the Captain looks fantastic with this swap. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

4/13

Railgunner

The other new character on the block, the Railgunner, received her mastery skin alongside the release of the Survivors of the Void DLC. “Marksmen” is actually another throwback skin, outfitting the Railgunner in a way that’s reminiscent of the Sniper from the first Risk of Rain. The reason why this skin ranks so highly is because it makes the Railgunner look more in line with the other characters in a very clean way.

3/13

Bandit

A throwback of a different kind, Bandit’s “Chilly” mastery skin references a different game series
entirely. This outfit belongs to the reaper from DEADBOLT, a different Hopoo title. Not only is this skin
dramatically different from the default, it’s also dramatically cool. The helmet obviously stands out, but
getting a different gun is sweet, too.

2/13

Commando

The original character in Risk of Rain 2, Commando, also gets such an incredible mastery skin. “Hornet”
has been in the game for a long time, but absolutely stands out. This skin proves that not much needs to be done to create greatness. Instead of dramatically changing the Commando, “Hornet” just
accentuates certain aspects of the character and revamps the color pallet.

1/13

Mercenary

Finally, the number one mastery skin in Risk of Rain 2 is the “Oni” skin for Mercenary. Everything about this skin is excellent, from the palette swap to the additional details. In a tangentially related way, Mercenary is one of the most difficult characters to beat the game with, making this skin additionally desirable.

Join the High Ground

And that’s the list of the mastery skins in Risk of Rain 2! Which skin is your favorite? Let us know in the comments, and make sure to stay tuned for more content about Risk of Rain 2 and your other favorite games.

Happy gaming!

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