So, Gearbox dropped the Devotion Update and suddenly everyone is obsessed with turning Risk of Rain 2 into a pet simulator. It’s a trip. You’re no longer just a survivor sprint-sliding through Petrichor V; you’re a proud parent to a pack of purple lizards. But honestly, the Artifact of Devotion RoR2 introduces a mechanic that is way more punishing than the cute "lizard friend" vibe suggests.
If you’ve tried it, you know the drill. You find an egg, you drop a high-tier item, and out pops a Lemurian. Then, five minutes later, a Void Reaver touches them and your investment is literally erased from existence. It hurts.
How to Actually Beat the Trial of Devotion
To even start this mess, you have to find the code. Hop down to the bottom of Sky Meadow (Stage 5) or head to the top of the Helminth Hatchery if you’re running the Seekers of the Storm DLC. You’ll see that 3x3 grid—the Compound Generator.
The pattern you need is:
- Top Row: Triangle | Diamond | Triangle
- Middle Row: Square | Diamond | Square
- Bottom Row: Diamond | Triangle | Diamond
Once you punch that in and jump through the portal, you’re in Bulwark’s Ambry. This is the Trial of Devotion.
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Here’s the thing: inside this trial, all those broken drones you usually see? They are all replaced by Lemurian Eggs. To beat the trial, you have to defend the Artifact Reliquary by feeding it Artifact Keys, which drop from enemies. Don't overthink the keys. Just grab 'em and shove 'em into the big floating ball in the center. The "Trial" part is basically just surviving the waves while the Artifact itself makes the enemies harder.
Lemurian Math: How Your Items Scale
This is where people get confused. Most players think giving one Lemurian a Mocha means that one Lemurian is slightly faster. Nope.
When you have the Artifact of Devotion active, the item pool is shared across the entire "squad." If you hatch three Lemurians and give the first one a Medkit, the second one a Topaz Brooch, and the third one a Goat Hoof, all three Lemurians now have one stack of each item.
But there’s a catch.
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Every time you clear a Teleporter event, your Lemurians evolve. They go from basic to Elite, then to Elder, and eventually to Elite Elder Lemurians. With every evolution, they gain an extra stack of the items they are holding. By stage five, if you’ve kept your original lizard alive, it’s not just an Elder; it’s an Elder with a massive stack of whatever you sacrificed at the start.
Pro Tip: Give them a Shipping Request Form. Because the game treats each Lemurian as an "entity" loading into a stage, they each trigger a delivery. You will literally be drowning in items by stage 3.
The Brutal Reality of Friendly Fire and Voids
You've got to be careful. Lemurians are not smart. They will walk directly into a Void Jailer's death collapse. If a Lemurian dies, the item you gave to hatch it is gone forever—well, it turns into Scrap of the same tier. You lose the buff, you lose the stack, and you lose your mind.
Also, watch out for the Artifact of Vengeance. If you run both, your doppelganger will spawn, and it will be gunning for your lizards. Since the Lemurians start with Elite-level health and damage buffs, a corrupted or "Umbra" version of your run can end in seconds if your pets turn on you.
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Why This Artifact Changes the Meta
Usually, Risk of Rain 2 is about hoarding. You want every scrap of scrap. Artifact of Devotion forces you to gamble. Is it worth giving up your only Unstable Tesla Coil to a lizard that might fall off a cliff?
Sometimes, yeah. A pack of five Elder Lemurians with Tesla Coils and Tougher Times (the teddy bear) is basically a mobile delete button for the map. They don't just distract enemies; they hunt them.
What to give them (and what to avoid)
- Give them: Medkits, Cautious Slugs, Mocha, and Shipping Request Forms.
- Avoid: Warbanner and Spare Drone Parts. They are blacklisted and won't work.
- The Trap: Avoid giving them Power Elixirs. They'll use them once and then they're just holding empty bottles.
Your Next Step for the Best Devotion Run
Go grab the Artifact of Swarms before you try a serious Devotion run. Swarms doubles the number of spawns, which sounds bad, but it actually interacts weirdly with the Lemurian evolution. If you play your cards right (and maybe use the Artifact of Vengeance exploit), you can actually hit the Elite Elder evolution by the end of Stage 1.
Start a run on Drizzle first just to get a feel for the shared item pool mechanics without losing a 60-minute Monsoon run to a stray beetle. Once you see a pack of six fire-breathing lizards with Soldier's Syringes absolutely melting a Wandering Vagrant, you'll never go back to drones again.