Void items are a new tier of item introduced in the Survivors of the Void DLC for Risk of Rain 2. Void items are intended to be corrupted versions of standard items, where picking up the non-corrupted item will convert into the void counterpart if present in your inventory.
While these items are intended to act like lunar items, having a downside by giving up one item, some of these items feel too powerful. There are some exceptions where choosing a void item is a difficult decision, and relies on existing context for that run. Below are some proposed changes that can balance some void items, and make choosing them require a more informed decision.
Item Buffs
The following items could use some improvements, as they are almost never worth picking up, and can prove to be more harmful than useful in some runs.
Newly Hatched Zoea
Currently, this converts ALL boss items into this item, which summons a void ally per stack. The primary detriment of this item is that useful boss items like Shatterspleen, Charged Perforator, Molten Perforator, and Empathy Cores, are all impossible to obtain after item pickup. While the void allies are fairly tanky, they still have the issue of standard void enemies, where the death-void area of effect CAN still kill the player, even if it’s from a void ally.
A simple fix would be to remove this functionality / feature, so player’s don’t need to play carefully around their own allies, risking the possibility of death. It also wouldn’t hurt to increase damage dealt by void allies, as they seem to primarily be targets to remove aggression from the player.
Singularity Band
In its current form, this may be the worst void item, and one of the worst items in the game. This item deals a fraction of the damage its non-corrupted counterparts do, all while having twice the cooldown (20 seconds). While the void collapse does have a 1.0 proc coefficient, that doesn’t redeem the other aspects of this item.
To remedy this issues, the item could have a similar theme of creating an area of effect that detonates after a certain time, but some values would need to be modified. A proposed solution could include the following:
Hits that deal more than 400% damage fire a black hole that draws enemies within 15 meters [+5 per stack] into its center. Lasts 5 seconds before collapsing, dealing 40% [+40% per stack] total damage each second, before collapsing and dealing 120% [+120% per stack] total damage. Recharges every 20 seconds.
This new Singularity Band scales with both damage and radius, exponentially increasing its power. Rather than dealing damage upon collapse, the black hole will deal damage every second, for four times, then collapse, dealing a larger chunk of damage. The 20 second cooldown remains as having multiple stacks of this item would be very powerful, especially with the radius scaling. On paper, this item is still worse the both of the elemental bands, but can apply modest damage to numerous targets and reposition them as needed.
Item Nerfs
Some void items are direct upgrades from their non-corrupted counterpart; as such, bringing a little bit of balance to these items can prompt harder decisions to be made by players in their runs. Below are the proposed changes to each item, given my experience with using each of them.
Plasma Shrimp
Currently, this item fires a missile on every hit if the player has any amount of shields. Each missile deals 40% total damage, and has a 0.2 proc coefficient, and the item grants shields equal to 10% max health upon first pickup.
What makes this item much stronger than the ATG Missile Mk. 1, is the consistency of firing missiles, along with the stats of each missile. ATGs deal 300% total damage per missile, and are prone to colliding with surfaces and stage objects, while Plasma Shrimp missiles automatically hone on a target, and can pass through walls. To combat these functional and stat differences, here is a revised Plasma Shrimp concept:
Gain a shield equal to 10% of your max health. While you have a shield, hitting an enemy fires a missile that deals 30% [+30% per stack] total damage. Missiles have a 0.1 proc coefficient. Corrupts all ATG Missile Mk. 1s.
This reduces the damage dealt by each missile to ‘match’ the ATG Missile Mk. 1, along with evening out the proc coefficient to match the 10% firing chance of an ATG Missile compared to the 100% fire rate of a Plasma Shrimp. Even though Plasma Shrimp needs shields to function, there are plenty of items that offer shields, and movement items can help players keep their shields up.
Polylute
The Polylute has a 25% on hit to chain lightning for 60% total damage up to 3 [+3 per stack] times, and each lightning hit has a proc coefficient of 0.2. Corrupts all Ukuleles.
What makes Polylute different from Ukulele is the chain lightning occurs on the same target, rather than spreading to other enemies. While it seems like Polylute is the same as Ukulele, if not weaker on paper (80% total damage on 3 targets), Polylute is able to melt through bosses, especially on higher proc survivors, like Commando, Huntress, and Bandit. The single target damage granted by Polylute more than makes up for the ‘weaker’ damage it has than Ukulele.
Not to mention, Polylute has good synergies with on-hit items, like crit, bleed, ATG / Plasma Shrimp, Shattering Justice, Symbiotic Scorpion, etc., as it can apply all of those effects to the same enemy, and allow the player to quickly target the next enemy. A simple modification that could balance the Polylute could either be:
- Reducing the proc coefficient to 0.15 or even 0.1 per lightning hit
- Reducing the damage per lightning hit to 50% or even 40%
Any of the above changes can make the Polylute more of a choice to pick up, rather than a given when seen during a run.
Safer Spaces
Safer Spaces blocks incoming damage once, and recharges after 13.5 seconds [-10% per stack]. This also corrupts all Tougher Times.
When void items are mentioned to be stronger than their non-corrupted counterpart, this is the item that is usually being referred to. Safer Spaces guarantees to block the next source of damage, regardless of what it is. This could be blood shrines, void cradles, fall damage, quite literally, anything.
Rather than being chance based like Tougher Times, this item is much more strategic, and can change how players play the game. Purposely waiting to do damage-heavy shrines or interactables until Safer Spaces is up can be very useful, especially in Eclipse 8. This is where the Safer Spaces becomes extremely powerful, and almost trivializes the permanent damage effect of Eclipse 8. One stack of this item can drastically reduce the impact of the health reduction curse.
While the concept of guaranteeing a blocked hit is very strong in a game like Risk of Rain 2, this item could be balanced in a few ways.
- Raise the initial cooldown duration from 13.5 seconds to 15, 16, 18, or even 20 seconds
- Reduce the stacking benefit of the item from -10% to -8% or even -7%
While those stat effects can balance the item, there is another approach to the item that could work, where incoming damage is reduced, not blocked, and stacking the item increases the percentage of damage reduced. For example, it could look like:
Reduce incoming damage by 50% [+10% per stack; hyperbolic] once. Recharges after 10 seconds.
This would place the stacking benefit on the damage reduction rather than the duration, allowing there to still be some strategy with using this item, but not allowing it to completely nullify damage every so often, and becoming more frequent with more stacks.
Item Tweaks
Some void items could use slight tweaks in their values or mechanics to either push them in the right direction, or bring them back a little bit.
Benthic Bloom
The Benthic Bloom upgrades 3 [+3 per stack] items to the next rarity at the beginning of each stage. This also corrupts all 57 Leaf Clovers. Upgraded items remain of the same ‘category’, so a white damage item can be turned into a green damage item, and same goes for utility and healing.
The major drawback of this item comes from it upgrading every stack of one item at a time. You had a perfect 10 Lens Maker Glasses for 100% crit? Nope, you now have 10 Predatory Instincts now. Very quickly, you realize that any and all items will be converted, making it difficult to maintain a defined build for that run.
Not to mention, less thought about, but still important stats like movement speed and critical strike chance, become all too rare, and can be crippling depending on the survivor. While the introduction of more DLCs has brought a variety of legendary items to the table that can help cover basic stats, like Growth Nectar, it isn’t the same as having the variety of rarities of items.
A functional change of this item could be that it converts 2-3 individual white items, and 2-3 individual green items into the next tier of item. This can still allow the player to retain most of their common and uncommon items, while still experiencing the upgrade effect of Benthic Bloom. Additional stacks could increase the amount of items per tier that are upgraded.
Lysate Cell
The Lysate Cell adds +1 [+1 per stack] charge of your survivor’s special skill. This also reduces special skill cooldown by 33%, and corrupts all Fuel Cells.
While this sounds, and is, fairly balanced, some survivors get the short end of the stick while stacking this item. Most notably, Engineer and Captain. Engineer is limited to placing 3 turrets down at one time, while Captain is limited in the amount of beacons he can have on a stage at once to 2 beacons.
Removing these limitations wouldn’t be fairly problematic, as they seem more like ‘unintended’ functionality and fairly limiting rather than purposeful item interactions.
Conclusion
Images taken from the Risk of Rain 2 Wiki here.
Overall, void items are a great concept for a new item tier, given the whole corruption mechanic and alternative effect each void item has. While some void items lack a little bit of strength, are a bit too strong, or need some minor tweaks, they are still some of my favorite items added into the game.
