Risk of Rain 2: The Ultimate Captain Guide

Captain is a survivor in Risk of Rain 2 who was first introduced with the 1.0 update. He is a unique survivor, capable of calling down beacons from the UES Safe Travels — you know the ship in the opening cutscene of the game? That'd be Captain's ship. He was sent on a rescue mission to Petrichor V, with the help of the other survivors.

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Using his ability to communicate with the UES Safe Travels, Captain can heal allies and wipe out waves of enemies. He is a great addition to any team, and once you get the hang of him, he is incredibly fun to play as. This guide will help you learn all there is to know about Captain.

Updated January 8, 2024 by Jacqueline Zalace: Captain remains one of the best support options in Risk of Rain 2. If you are still looking to harness the power of his beacons, you're in luck. We've updated this guide with a bit more information on playing this survivor.

How To Unlock Captain

To unlock Captain, all you have to do is beat the final boss, named Mithrix. To get here, you must play through the world until you come to the Sky Meadows. Once here, you will see a different type of teleporter. If you don't adjust the outer rings, it will bring you to the moon, where Mithrix is.

Alternatively, you can adjust the teleporter and loop back through the world.

Fighting Mithrix can be difficult, but there is no requirement for which difficulty you play on. If you want to get this over with to unlock Captain, play as a survivor you are good with, and choose the easiest difficulty.

Captain's Abilities

Unlike other survivors, Captain has his own Microbot that will protect him from enemy projectile attacks. This is an incredible defensive boon, but the real stars of the show revolve around his ability to call down support from the UES Safe Travels. Here are Captain's default abilities and what they do.

Ability Type

Name

What It Does

Passive

Defensive Microbots

Passively gain Microbots that shoot down nearby enemy projectiles. Drones are also given Microbots.

Primary

Vulcan Shotgun

Fire a blast of pellets that deal 8x120% damage.Charging the attack narrows the spread.

Secondary

Power Tazer

Fire a fast tazer that deals 100% damage.

Travels farther if bounced.

Shocks targets.

Utility

Orbital Probe

Request up to 3 Orbital Probes from the UES Safe Travels.

Each probe deals 1000% damage.

Stuns targets.

Special

Orbital Supply Beacon

Request a permanent Supply Beacon. This can only be requested twice per stage.

Beacon Type 1 (Special)

Healing Beacon

Heal all nearby allies for 10% of their maximum health every second.

Beacon Type 1 (Special)

Shocking Beacon

Periodically shock all nearby enemies, immobilizing them.

Captain's Alternative Abilities

In addition to default abilities, Captain has several alternative abilities that can be unlocked through different challenges. Here are his alternative abilities, and how to unlock them.

Ability Type

Name

What It Does

How To Unlock

Utility

OGM-72 'DIABLO' Strike

Request a kinetic strike from the UES Safe Travels.

After 20 seconds, it deals 40,000% damage to ALL characters.

Stuns targets.

Kill the final boss using a Supply Beacon as Captain.

Alternate Beacon Option

Resupply Beacon

Recharge Equipment on use.

Visit 10 different environments in a single run as Captain.

Alternate Beacon Option

Hacking Beacon

Hack all nearby purchasables to a cost of $0 over time

Repair a TC-280 Prototype drone as Captain.

Captain also has an alternative skin that can be obtained by either defeating the final boss or obliterating on Monsoon mode. The skin is called Admiral and makes the Captain's uniform take on a nautical aesthetic.

Best Items To Obtain

Captain may be a support-oriented survivor, but he can expand his capabilities significantly with the right items. He's a little slow, so you will want to get some mobility items. He can only call in two beacons per stage, so you will want to collect items that boost attack for his other abilities as well.

Below, you can check out some great items for Captain. Keep in mind that unless you have an Artifact of Command, the items that you receive from chests will be random.

Item

What It Does

Why It's Good

Tri-Tip Dagger

Needletick corrupts this item.

10% chance to bleed an enemy for 240% damage

Captain has a high proc coefficient, so you will want to get items that deal with chance.

Sticky Bomb

5% chance to stick a bomb to an enemy, dealing 180% total damage

High proc coefficient for his first ability will also give you a good chance of attaching sticky bombs.

Wax Quail

Boost you forward 10m if you jump while sprinting

Captain isn't that mobile; this item helps with that.

Backup Magazine

Add one charge to your Secondary Ability

Captain can only use his Special Ability two times per stage, so you'll want to increase the number of times you can use other abilities.

Red Whip

Increase movement speed by 30% when out of combat

This is great for exploring the map, or to make a quick getaway.

Bandolier

18% chance to reset the cooldown of all abilities

Captain has a high cooldown on some abilities.

The Back-up

Call 4 Strike Drones to fight with you for 25 seconds

Captain's Passive gives every drone he activates a Microbot, including these 4 Strike Drones.

Hardlight Afterburner

Adds two additional charges to a Utility and decreases the cooldown by 33%

Captain's default Utility Ability can only be used three times per stage, but this item will increase the number of charges to five.

Hunter's Harpoon

Killing an enemy will increase movement speed by 125% for 1 second

Increase Captain's speed and mobility even more!

Spare Drone Parts

Drones gain 50% increased attack speed and a 10% chance to fire a missile that deals 300% damage

Drones also gain an auto-chain gun that deals 6x100% damage

Combined with Captain's Microbots, drones will be able to do an immense amount of damage with this item.

Only one of the items mentioned above can be corrupted by Void items. Keep this in mind as you open Void Cradles.

Tips To Play Captain

Let's go over some basic tips for playing as Captain. When you first start a run, you will want to focus on mobility items. His abilities do a fair amount of damage right from the start, so try to find any item that boosts movement speed.

Getting legendary items can be difficult, but with Captain's hacking beacon, you will be able to immediately open the legendary chest without spending any money. The legendary chest spawns after you reach the fourth stage, and is guaranteed to have a legendary item. They can cost a lot of money, but you can hack the chest and get the item for free.

Which Abilities Should You Choose?

Captain only has one Primary, but it's important to know that you can charge Vulcan Shotgun. Charging the ability will narrow the spread of the bullets. If you are in close range to a group of enemies, you will not want to waste time charging the ability.

Utility

For Captain's Utility, OGM-72 'DIABLO' Strike does way more damage than Orbital Probe. The downside to the strike is that it has a 40-second cooldown, and has a delay of 20 seconds after using it. Orbital Strike has a shorter cooldown, does less damage, and can only be used three times.

If you are looking for an insanely powerful ability and do not care about using it immediately, go for OGM-72 'DIABLO' Strike. In general, though, the strike is impractical because you can just use your normal attacks in the 20 seconds that it is delayed for.

Which Beacons To Choose

Let's look at the four beacons that Captain is able to summon. Captain can only have two types of beacons active, but the ones you choose should depend on the type of build you want.If you are looking to have a healing build, then choose the healing beacon.

Alternatively, if you want to do a lot of damage and have a crowd control utility, choose the shocking beacon — it's particularly helpful during portal events.

You can also choose two of the same beacon (for example, having two hacking beacons will make your run go by fast). Overall, it comes down to which ones you prefer for your own play style.

Above, we learned that the hacking beacon can be used to open the legendary chest. The beacon is helpful when it comes to unlocking chests and purchasable items, but it's much less effective if you are playing with the Artifact of Sacrifice. This allows items to drop from monsters, but chests will no longer spawn.

Do not use the hacking beacon if you have the Artifact of Sacrifice active.

The resupply beacon can be helpful, but there are items to reduce your equipment cooldown, so we recommend passing on this beacon.

Lastly, it is important to note that the shocking beacon stuns the enemies for three seconds, but fires every three seconds too. This means that enemies can become stun-locked. If you manage to stun-lock a large group of enemies, this would be a good time to use OGM-72 'DIABLO' Strike.

What Survivors Pair Well With Captain?

Unlike some other survivors, Captain pairs well with everyone. He can function as a support character for others, which is always necessary.

If you are playing with others though, you may want to avoid more than one person playing Captain. While the sound of more beacons may sound appealing, you don't really need that many beacons active at a time.

Overall, Captain pairs well with everyone but himself.

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