Risk of Rain 2 is one of those rare games that feels perfect until it doesn't. You've spent three hundred hours dodging Greater Wisps. You've looped five times in a single run. The thrill of the RNG starts to wear thin. That's exactly where Risk of Rain 2 mods come in, and honestly, they change the entire vibe of Petrichor V.
It isn't just about adding broken items. It’s about the community fixing things that the developers at Hopoo Games—and now Gearbox—either haven't gotten to or decided weren't a priority. We're talking about quality-of-life shifts that make the game playable for six hours straight without a headache.
Why the Modding Scene Is So Different Here
Most games treat modding like a side hobby. In the Risk of Rain community, it's practically the lifeblood. Since the Survivors of the Void DLC and the more recent Seekers of the Storm update, the codebase has shifted. It’s been messy. But the modders? They’re fast.
The primary hub is Thunderstore. It's the gold standard. If you're still trying to manually drag files into your Steam folder, you're doing it wrong and probably breaking your installation. Use the r2modman manager. It’s clean. It keeps your vanilla files safe. It just works.
The Essential Risk of Rain 2 Mods for Every Run
You don't need a thousand mods. You need the right ones.
First off, ProperSave. It is genuinely baffling that a game with runs lasting two hours doesn't have a mid-run save feature. If your power flickers or your cat jumps on the power strip, your god-run is gone. ProperSave fixes that. It saves at the start of every stage. Simple. Necessary.
Then there’s ItemStatsMod. Look, memorizing exactly how many stacks of Tri-Tip Dagger you need to hit 100% bleed chance is a flex, but it’s also annoying. This mod shows you the math. It tells you exactly what that next stack of Paul's Goat Hoof will do to your movement speed. No more guessing. No more alt-tabbing to the wiki.
ProperSave and ItemStatsMod are the "basics." But if you want to actually change how the game feels, you look at Released_Artifacts or character mods like PaladinMod. The Paladin isn't just a reskin. It’s a fully realized, custom-animated survivor with unique mechanics that feel like they belong in the base game. It’s better than some of the official roster, frankly.
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Breaking the Scaling with Content Expansions
Some people think Risk of Rain 2 mods ruin the balance. They aren't wrong. If you download a mod that gives you 10,000 lunar coins, you've killed the progression.
But consider Starstorm2. This is the spiritual successor to the massive Starstorm mod from the first game. It adds new events, new survivors like the Executioner, and "Storms" that increase difficulty in a way that feels punishing but fair. It’s for the player who finds Monsoon difficulty a bit of a joke now.
The Multiplayer Problem and How Mods Fix It
Multiplayer in RoR2 is a chaotic mess. It's great, but it's flawed. If your friend dies three minutes into a stage, they have to sit there and watch you play for the next fifteen minutes. That sucks.
ResurrectionMod or Refurbished changes that. They introduce ways to bring teammates back mid-stage, usually at a high cost. It keeps the group engaged.
Also, ShareSuite. This one is controversial. It makes it so when one person picks up an item, everyone gets it. It completely removes the "loot goblin" mentality where your Loader friend zips across the map and takes every chest. It changes the game's balance significantly—making you way more powerful—but you can tweak the money scaling to compensate. It makes the game feel like a true co-op experience rather than a race against your friends.
Setting Up Your Mod Profile Without Breaking Everything
Don't just go to Thunderstore and click "Install" on fifty things. You’ll crash on the loading screen.
- Download r2modman. Do not use the Overwolf version if you value your RAM. Get the clean version from GitHub or the direct Thunderstore link.
- Create a New Profile. Name it "Modded" or "Chaos." This keeps your vanilla game clean for when you want to play official multiplayer.
- Install BepInExPack. This is the foundation. Nothing works without it.
- Hook up the HookGenPatcher. Most modern mods require this to bridge the code.
- Add your favorites one by one. Test the game. If it boots, add three more.
Common Misconceptions About Modding Risk of Rain 2
A lot of players think modding will get them banned from Steam or prevent them from getting achievements. It won't. You can still unlock everything. In fact, there are mods specifically designed to re-enable achievements while playing with mods.
Another big myth is that everyone in the lobby needs the exact same mods. This is... mostly true. For "Client-Side" mods like UI changes or FOV sliders, only you need them. For "Server-Side" mods like new characters or item changes, everyone needs to be synced up. r2modman makes this easy with "Profile Codes." You just copy a string of text, send it to your friend, and their manager mirrors your exact setup.
The "Must-Have" Quality of Life List
- SkipIntro: Because watching the Hopoo logo for the 900th time is a test of patience.
- FasterScrapper: The vanilla scrapper is painfully slow. This mod makes it instant.
- EmptyChestsBeGone: Removes the "outline" of opened chests so you don't run across the map for nothing.
- ScrollableLobbySelection: If you have more than 10 character mods, you literally can't see them all on the screen without this.
Where Modding Goes From Here
With Gearbox taking the reins, the community was worried. The Seekers of the Storm launch was buggy, and it broke almost every single mod in existence because of changes to the frame rate logic and internal naming conventions.
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But the modding community is resilient. Within forty-eight hours, the core libraries were patched. We're seeing a new wave of mods that fix the bugs Gearbox left behind, like the "sticky" collisions and the weird physics issues tied to high FPS.
Practical Next Steps for Your Modded Journey
If you're ready to jump in, don't just grab the "Most Downloaded" list. Some of those are outdated or "deprecated." Check the "Last Updated" timestamp on Thunderstore. If a mod hasn't been touched since 2022, it’s probably going to break your game.
Look for mods by Moffein, nuxlar, or ThinkInvisible. These creators are legends in the scene for a reason. Their code is clean and their mods are generally compatible with everything else.
Start by installing r2modman and searching for the ProperSave mod. Once you experience the relief of being able to quit a run and come back tomorrow, you’ll never go back to the vanilla experience.
After that, try PaladinMod. It’s the gold standard for what a custom survivor should be. It has its own lore, its own unlocks, and a playstyle that fills a gap the current roster misses. Just remember to keep your profile codes handy so your friends can join the madness without a half-hour of troubleshooting.