Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

In this guide we’ll show you a complete breakdown of the Bandit in Risk of Rain 2, including best items, builds, and tips.

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

The Bandit is a fast-paced gunslinger in Risk of Rain 2. This survivor needs high accuracy and skillful timing of abilities to play effectively. As one of the survivors brought back from the original game, players may have a hard time adjusting to the Bandit's overhauled play style.

Bandit has a highly defined play style that can be difficult to get the hang of. Let's take a look at each of Bandit's default and alternate abilities, the best items to use, and some tips and tricks for mastering the Bandit.

Updated May 4, 2024: We've updated this guide to playing Bandit in RoR2 for readability. We've also detailed a few new items that you should prioritize when playing as Bandit.

How to Unlock Bandit

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

The Bandit is one of the easier survivors to unlock. To unlock him, you will need to complete the 'Warrior' Challenge, where you'll need to clear the third stage's Teleporter event without dying.

Try using Huntress for this challenge, as her superior mobility and ability to attack while moving make her much easier to survive with than Commando. Additionally, if you aren't already, try lowering the difficulty to Drizzle .

In general, it's best to clear out all the chests on the map before activating the Teleporter. Don't let the difficulty timer scare you, you'll have a much easier time if you get all the items you can before fighting the Teleporter boss.

Bandit's Abilities

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

The Bandit excels in mid-range, one-on-one combat. Here are his default abilities.

Ability Type

Ability

Description

Passive

Backstab

All attacks from behind are Critical Strikes.

Primary

Burst

Fire a shotgun burst for 5×100% damage. Can hold up to 4 shells.

Secondary

Serrated Dagger

Lunge and slash for 360% damage. Critical Strikes also cause hemorrhaging.

Utility

Smoke Bomb

Stunning. Deal 200% damage, become invisible, then deal 200% damage again.

Special

Lights Out

Slayer. Fire a revolver shot for 600% damage. Kills reset all your cooldowns.

Bandit's Alternate Abilities

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

Bandit has three alternate abilities that can be selected in place of his default Primary, Secondary, and Special. These abilities, their effects, and how to unlock them are listed below.

Ability Type

Ability

Description

How To Unlock

Primary

Blast

Fire a rifle blast for 330% damage. Can hold up to 4 bullets.

Complete the "Bandit: Classic Man" Challenge.

  • As Bandit, use Lights Out to reset your cooldowns 15 times in a row.

Secondary

Serrated Shiv

Throw a hidden blade for 240% damage. Critical Strikes also cause hemorrhaging.

Complete the "Bandit: Sadist" Challenge.

  • As Bandit, kill a monster with 20 stacks of Hemorrhage.

Special

Desperado

Slayer. Fire a revolver shot for 600% damage. Kills grant stacking tokens for 10% more Desperado damage.

Complete the "Bandit: B&E" Challenge

  • As Bandit, kill the final boss with Lights Out.

Tips For Completing Bandit: Classic Man

Bandit's Blast alternate Primary skill is unlocked by successfully refreshing your cooldowns 15 times in a row using Lights Out. To complete this challenge more easily, we recommend stacking up on Crowbars to increase the damage of Lights Out against near-full health enemies.

Keep in mind that you can use other attacks in between Lights Out, including killing enemies. The only thing that will cause your counter to reset for this challenge is if you fail to reset your cooldowns when using Lights Out; that is, if you use Lights Out and it doesn't kill an enemy.

The Artifact of Soul can make this challenge much easier, as tons of weak Wisps will spawn frequently, giving you easy targets to one-shot with Lights Out.

Tips For Completing Bandit: Sadist

Getting 20 stacks of Hemorrhage on one enemy can be difficult, but there are a few ways to make it easier. Hemorrhage lasts for 15 seconds, so you will have 15 seconds from your first stack to get the other 19.

Several Backup Magazines are essential for this challenge. We recommend at least seven or eight, but the more the better. You can easily stack this many by playing with the Artifact of Command, or using a 3D Printer.

Additionally, you'll need to make sure the enemy you're stacking Hemorrhage on can survive long enough to get all 20 stacks. This means targeting bosses with high health later in a run, like the Alloy Worship Unit.

Tips For Completing Bandit: B&E

To complete this challenge, you need to kill the final boss, Mithrix, with Lights Out. This can be difficult, especially since you only get one chance to do it at the end of a run.

The main thing to be careful of for this challenge is killing the boss too quickly. During your run, you should avoid collecting items that have effects that can kill Mithrix on their own, like Kjaro and Runald's Bands, AtG Missiles, Tri-Tip Daggers, and so on. Also, avoid taking items that can summon allies like the Queen's Gland.

With the Artifact of Swarms , a second Mithrix will spawn, essentially giving you another chance at completing B&E. Just make sure you're strong enough to take on two Mithrixes!

Best Items for Bandit

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

The Bandit has a well-defined play style that doesn't heavily rely on certain items. That said, there are still several items that enhance Bandit's abilities very well. Listed below are some of the best items for Bandit that you'll want to shoot for each run.

Item Name

Item Description

Why It's Good

Crowbar

Increases damage towards enemies that have more than 90% of their health.

Increases overall damage and makes it easier to one-shot with Lights Out.

Gasoline

Killing an enemy ignites all enemies within 12m for 150% base damage. Additionally, enemies burn for 150% base damage.

Increases overall damage through damage-over-time, as well as provide AoE.

Paul's Goat Hoof

Increases movement speed by 14%.

Greatly increases overall mobility.

Ukulele

Grants the user a chance to fire a lightning bolt that bounces between nearby enemies.

Provides much-needed AoE to Bandit's kit.

Lens-Maker's Glasses

The user's attacks have a 10% chance to Critically Strike, dealing double damage.

Increases overall damage and improves Critical Strike consistency.

Kjaro and Runald's Bands

High damage hits also blast the area with a flame tornado (Kjaro) or ice spikes (Runald).

Increases overall damage thanks to Bandit's high Critical Strike chance.

Hopoo Feather

Grants the user an additional jump.

Greatly improves mobility.

Predatory Instincts

Gain 5% critical chance. Critical strikes increase attack speed by 12%. Maximum cap of 36% attack speed.

Increases overall damage and reload speed.

Hunter's Harpoon

Killing an enemy increases movement speed by 125%, fading over 1 second.

Improves mobility when killing enemies.

Shuriken

Activating your Primary skill also throws a shuriken that deals 400% base damage. You can hold up to 3 shurikens which all reload over 10 seconds.

Increases overall damage of Primary skill.

Shatterspleen

Critical Strikes will bleed enemies for 240% damage. Bleeding enemies will explode on death for 400% damage.

Increases overall damage and provides AoE through Shatterspleen explosions.

Harvester's Scythe

Gain 5% Critical Chance. Critical Strikes heal for 8 health.

Increases Critical Strike chance while providing survivability based on Critical Strike chance.

Laser Scope

Critical Strikes deal an additional 100% damage.

Greatly increases overall damage of Critical Strikes.

Purity

Reduces all ability cooldowns by 2 seconds, but all random outcomes are more unfavorable.

Reduces all cooldowns, but is best used with Desperado rather than Lights Out.

Tips and Tricks

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

At first, Bandit might seem pretty straightforward to play, but there are a few nuances to his abilities that are worth mentioning. Listed below are a few tips and tricks to help you familiarize yourself with Bandit's main goals for success.

Bandit's main goal is to quickly kill low-health enemies with Lights Out, allowing you to consistently refresh your cooldowns. This will additionally allow you to use Smoke Bomb more frequently, and in turn increase your mobility and survivability.

The best way to consistently kill with Lights Out is to target low-health enemies like Wisps and Lemurians that you can easily kill in one hit. If you have a few Crowbars stacked up, the range of enemies you can one-shot expands, giving you more options in combat.

Smoke Bomb is one of the Bandit's most important tools. Smoke Bomb will allow you to escape dangerous situations and reposition to an advantageous location, usually farther away from enemies, where you can pick them off at range.

This, paired with Smoke Bomb's damage upon entering and exiting invisibility, gives the Bandit some excellent crowd control for dealing with groups of enemies.

You can exit invisibility early by using any other ability . When entering and exiting invisibility, you will bounce in the air slightly . This can be used to your advantage to reach higher places or get above enemies, if timed correctly.

The final thing to keep in mind about Smoke Bomb is that, when used, enemies will target the last place you were. This means you can lure enemies to your previous position by using Smoke Bomb, allowing your allies to focus their attacks on that area.

As Bandit, you should always be aiming for the backs of enemies. Having guaranteed Critical Strikes against enemies who have their back to you is extremely powerful, and can enable some strong interactions.

Harvester's Scythe and Shatterspleen both have incredibly beneficial effects when Critical Strikes are utilized, and these effects can be maximized by striking from behind .

Also, be sure to capitalize on Serrated Dagger and Serrated Shiv's ability to inflict Hemorrhage when Critically Striking. Using these abilities when exiting invisibility behind an enemy can deal high damage and stack additional damage through Hemorrhage.

Which Abilities Should You Choose?

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

Bandit has three alternate abilities that you can choose in place of his Primary, Secondary, and Special. If you're having trouble deciding which to choose, consider the following.

Primary

Burst and Blast may seem similar at first, but the effects of these two primary abilities can change Bandit's gameplay significantly. Burst is Bandit's default Primary ability, and will fire a spread of bullets that deals higher damage at range.

On the other hand, Blast fires a single blast of bullets that deals more damage to farther enemies, or when aimed accurately at specific targets.

If you need help deciding which to choose, use Burst for -range and Blast for long-range. Overall, the choice comes down to personal preference, as both abilities deal roughly the same amount of damage when used effectively.

Secondary

Bandit's default secondary Ability is Serrated Dagger, which deals high damage in melee range. Serrated Shiv instead throws a blade from long range that deals moderate damage. Similar to Bandit's two Primary abilities, his Secondary offers the choice of -range versus long-range play styles.

Choose Serrated Dagger for a melee AoE option, and Serrated Shiv for a long-range ability that emphasizes staying far away from enemies.

Special

Bandit's second Special ability, Desperado, grants tokens when it is used as the killing blow. These tokens stack, giving 10 percent increased damage for each token held. However, the tokens are lost upon advancing to the next stage.

Overall, Desperado has the potential to deal much higher damage than Lights Out, especially when paired with cooldown-reducing items like Alien Head or Purity. This means Desperado is very good for one-shotting high-health enemies like Teleporter bosses.

On the other hand, Lights Out provides tons of utility by resetting the cooldown of Smoke Bomb. Between Lights Out and Desperado, choose the ability that better suits your playstyle, as they are both extremely strong when used correctly.

Which Survivors Pair Well With Bandit?

Risk Of Rain 2: The Ultimate Bandit Guide

Bandit's core strengths are his high long-range, single-target damage and great mobility. Pairing him with another Survivor that either balances or strengthens these aspects will lead to the best results.

To that end, we recommend using Mercenary or Loader with Bandit. Both of these Survivors have great damage and mobility to match Bandit's, allowing both players to stay at the same pace while killing monsters and searching for items.

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