Hello again everyone! It’s been a while since our pre-release Dev Thoughts and we’ve got a few new thoughts to share with you!

I strongly recommend watching the video version of the Dev Thoughts this month as it includes all the below content as well as a lengthy Community Q&A Interview with the co-founders of Hopoo Games - Duncan and Paul.

• Where did the name “Hopoo” come from?
  
  
• Who is to blame for Captain’s abilities not being available in hidden realms?
  
  
• DEADBOLT 2 WHEN?

Find out the answers to these questions and many more by watching the below video!




First off let’s start off with the reception of Survivors of the Void. We have been absolutely blown away with the positive reaction to the expansion! We are thrilled that you’re loving the DLC, and despite some early balance/bug issues that we have adjusted as quickly as possible, you stuck with us and are playing Risk of Rain 2 in record numbers!

So once again, from the bottom of our hearts, a huge thank you from everyone here at Hopoo Games for being part of this - we couldn’t do it without you!




Since the PC release of Survivors of the Void we have been busy ironing out all the bugs and balance changes needed to get the expansion - and Risk of Rain 2 as a whole - up to the best standard. In order to release the console versions simultaneously to this same standard, including all the improvements we’ve already made to the PC version, we have made the decision to move the Console release of Survivors of the Void to later this year in early Q4.

This was not an easy choice to make however we want to ensure your experience playing Risk of Rain 2 is the same regardless of the platform you chose, moving the date will allow us to deliver the game on all Console platforms in the state you deserve. We know this will be disappointing news for some of you however we know that in the long run this is the best move to make for the future of the game.




Just a quick update here - you may have seen on Twitter or Discord a couple of months ago that I asked what you’d like to see as far as Hopoo Games merchandise is concerned and I’ve taken that feedback and we are well on our way to opening a merch store for you!

We have secured a partner to bring this merch to you and we are finalising designs right now - but don’t worry we will absolutely let you know when we’re ready to open!

As you can tell from this secret snippet of an email - we have something special in store for you!


oooh




We have already updated Survivors of the Void twice since release and we are planning on at least one more bug fix patch before we consider Survivors of the Void completed on PC. This patch mainly focuses on bugs so there will not be much in the way of balance or content changes this time - however one change we’ve made is to recolor any ally Void creatures on your team to make them easier to identify in the chaos of combat.


Your special blue crabbos.

Another big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to report any gameplay or bug issues to us over the last couple of months - this is incredibly valuable information for us to improve the game and we really appreciate it! There is still time to report any bugs you may have experienced since the 1.2.3 Patch - let us know by joining our Discord and reporting them in the #bug-reports-pc channel

https://discord.gg/riskofrain2



Thanks again to everyone for making the Survivors of the Void launch an amazing experience - don't forget to check out the video dev thoughts above for the Q&A with Duncan and Paul - and I'll see you next time, we can’t wait to show you what we’ve been cooking up!



Jonathan
Community Manager
Hopoo Games

Changes with the ‘🌧’ icon in front of them are changes or additions suggested by the community. As always, if you want to stay up to date on the game or give us feedback feel free to join the discord at https://discord.gg/riskofrain2



The goal of this patch is to address lower-level bugs, while also taking a look at some content changes and more long-standing bugs that have existed in RoR2.

Read up!

• Simulacrum

• Slightly updated visuals of Void Focus
  
• Now has an indicator for the Void Focus’ position

Void Seeds

[/b]

• 🌧 Now cap at a maximum of 3 per map
  
• 🌧 Spawn less frequently with Artifact of Sacrifice enabled
  
• 🌧 Spawn less frequently on top of you when starting a new stage

Void Fiend

[/b]

• 🌧 Corrupted skills are now lower priority than Heresy items, allowing Heresy items to override both versions of skills

Goobo Jr.

[/b]

• 🌧 Damage Bonus: +70% ⇒+200%
  
• 🌧 Health Bonus: +70% ⇒ +200%
  
• 🌧 Fix description in logbook being wrong
  
• Developer Notes: Goobo was designed to be +600%. It was +70%. +600% was actually waaay too strong when we fixed it, so we set it to a more reasonable value.

Brittle Crown

[/b]

• 🌧 No longer grants gold to the enemy who hits you while wearing the item (but still shows the visuals)
  
• Developer Notes: We thought it would be a cute behavior if when losing money from Brittle Crown, it granted that money to the attacker - for use in stuff like a Scavenger’s Crowd Funder. However, this resulted in you gaining all the money back when you killed the enemy, making Brittle Crown have (essentially) no downside.

Ben’s Raincoat

[/b]

• Rework behavior - Now has an internal cooldown of 5 seconds
  
• Now blocks 1 (+1 per stack) debuffs before going on cooldown
  
• Now grants 10% of your health as barrier when blocking a debuff
  
• Now has the ‘Healing’ tag
  
• No longer grants maximum health
  
• 🌧 No longer blocks non-timed debuffs, like Eclipse 8 and skills like Power Mode
  
• Developer Notes: Ben’s Raincoat was a very binary item, resulting in unsatisfying stacking behavior and frustrations when given to monsters (like in Simulacrum). The item also trivialized Eclipse 8. Now, it has a bit of downtime for when it can block debuffs - and since we didn’t want this to be just a net nerf, we also added a large barrier when blocking a debuff with the coat.

Void Devastator

[/b]

• Max Health: 2100 (+630 per level) ⇒ 2800 (+840 per level)
  
• Armor: 10 ⇒ 20
  
• Developer Notes: Despite being a boss monster, the Void Devastator had strangely low stats for its cost, especially when compared to same-cost monsters like the Imp Overlord

Gup

[/b]

• 🌧 No longer splits if killed from a ‘Void Death’, like from Lost Seer’s Lenses
  
• Voidtouched Gups and Geeps will now split into Voidtouched Geeps and Gips (respectively)

• Altered some planets in the Planetarium
  
• Updated Captain’s Defense Matrix log to be granted by playing Captain
  
• 🌧 Updated Shipping Request Form to be blacklisted for enemies
  
• 🌧 Updated inventories to work with more than 255 items for mods with many items
  
• 🌧 Made it easier for mods to register custom achievements
  
• 🌧 Updated localization to allow mods to properly utilize the system
  
• 🌧 Extended systems to support mods adding custom item tiers
  
• 🌧 Pluripotent Larva will no longer convert into items that are not available in the current run
  
• 🌧 Updated a deep pool in the Planetarium causing you to get stuck inside if you had no jump boosts
  
• 🌧 Updated Heretic to receive Heresy items, even if spawned from Goobo Jr, so it can use abilities
  
• 🌧 Fixed Korean language files having a malformed format, resulting in errors

• 🌧 Fixed Category Chests dropping a much smaller subset of items
  
• 🌧 Fixed Beetle Guard summoned from Queen’s Gland no longer being a fresh green color
  
• 🌧 Fixed a variety of issues relating to Heresy items losing or gaining stocks when swapping skills with other skills
  
• 🌧 Fixed Simulacrum referring to Rainstorm as Normal
  
• 🌧 Removed nodes in Simulacrum’s Titanic Plains, Sulfur Pools, and Rallypoint Delta that were inside walls
  
• 🌧 Removed nodes in Aphelian Sanctuary and Sulfur Pools that were inside walls
  
• Fixed tag requirements of Vengeance and Void Fields
  
• Fixed a bunch of NRE’s, causing a potential variety of issues
  
• 🌧 Fixed profiles not being able to be deleted in the main menu
  
• 🌧 Fixed out-of-bound zones for Aphelian Sanctuary, Void Fields, Distant Roost, Titanic Plains, and Sky Meadows not properly culling monsters
  
• 🌧 Fixed Siphoned Forest being called Snowy Forest in the logbook
  
• 🌧 [!!SPOILER!!]Fixed the frog not spawning a deep void portal
  
• Fixed text for Blast Shower not clarifying that it also removes freezes and stuns
  
• 🌧 Fixed visible back faces in Siphoned Forest
  
• 🌧 Fixed Void Fiend’s Trespass continually playing the sound if you quit in the middle of the skill
  
• 🌧 Fixed Disposable Missile Launcher and Fireworks not triggering other missile effects, like AtG Missile and Plasma Shrimp
  
• 🌧 Fixed a few bugs with state-controlled debuffs (like Void Fiend’s Corrupted Flood) and Ben’s Raincoat causing those debuffs to be permanent
  
• 🌧 Fixed REX’s core position being lowered while sprinting, causing AI issues and some projectiles appearing in the floor while sprinting
  
• 🌧 Fixed Bulwark’s Ambry entry missing in logbook
  
• Fixed Heretic’s head hurtbox causing issues when hit
  
• Fixed Xi Construct and Void Jailer appearing with Artifact of Dissonance enabled, even with the DLC disabled
  
• 🌧 Fixed Simulacrum button being there even if the DLC is disabled
  
• 🌧 Fixed Pluripotent Larva not corrupting all items that map many-to-one (i.e., Runald’s Band + yellow items)
  
• 🌧 Fixed Railgunner seeing her own Weak Points while Chaos is enabled
  
• 🌧 Fixed camera issues with Frost Relic while using Railgunner’s scopes or Mul-T’s Power Mode
  
• 🌧 Fixed issues with Gup / Geep / Gip and Dio’s Best Friend
  
• 🌧 Fixed Collapse counting as two separate debuffs
  
• Fixed Geep and Gip receiving items from Evolution and Simulacrum multiple times
  
• Potentially fixing more cases where Simulacrum would fail to spawn enemies
  
• Fixed various typos

Once again thanks very much for everyone who has jumped in and played Survivors of the Void and especially everyone that has reported these bugs! We're planning on at least one more bugfix/balance patch for the expansion so If you have any further issues with any of the above, or find any new bugs (impossible) please keep letting us know!

-Hopoo Games

Changes with the ‘🌧’ icon in front of them are changes or additions suggested by the community. As always, if you want to stay up to date on the game or give us feedback feel free to join the discord at https://discord.gg/riskofrain2



The goal of this patch is to address bugs from the release of Survivors of the Void, alongside community-driven balance and design changes. Read up! For some context, check out our previous Dev Thoughts:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/632360/view/3114807061130869250

• General

• Added Steam achievements for the DLC!

Simulacrum

[/b]

• Waves now skip if nothing has spawned for 60 seconds
  
• Waves now have a limit of how many credits can be given out at once
  
• Waves will now spawn slightly more elites, and slightly less normal monsters
  
• Artifact of Kin will always spawn monsters, even if they are considered ‘cheap’
  
• Developer Notes: Simulacrum has a few edge cases where the director fails to spawn monsters - and as a result, the gamemode no longer advances. We added a few different checks to address situations where the game gets stuck. Not only that, but simulacrum tended to spam a lot more normal monsters instead of elites - so now, it’ll spawn a little bit more elite-y.

Void Seeds

[/b]

• Void Seeds no longer spawn monsters over time, or when the Teleporter starts
  
• Void Seeds no longer occasionally spawns normal, non-Voidtouched monsters
  
• Void Seeds now have a more clear area indicator
  
• Void Seeds no longer spawn ‘naked’ Void Infestors
  
• Void Seeds now scale a lot slower over the duration of the run
  
• Void Seeds now spawn elite affixes (like Overloading and Mending) less frequently for its Void
  monsters
  
• 🌧 Void Seeds now spawn Void Caches with Sacrifice enabled
  
• 🌧 Void Seeds now mark remaining enemies on the map if there are 3 or less
  
• Developer Notes: Void Seeds are chaotic and strange by design - but that same chaos and strangeness can lead to a bit of frustration in what the heck is going on. We’ve clarified behavior, and fixed some weird edge-case scenarios that led to it being more confusing. We’re still taking a look at trying to reduce the frequency of it spawning right on top of you at stage start.

Void Portal

[/b]

• Minimum Stage Count: 3 ⇒ 6
  
• Developer Notes: It’s pretty much impossible to beat The Planetarium at stage 3, so it was just bait. Now it only spawns when a player could reasonably beat the objectives.

Prismatic Trials (Live with SotV release)

[/b]

• Prismatic Trials now has Survivors of the Void permanently enabled, even for non-DLC owners

Eclipse (Live with SotV release)

[/b]

• Eclipse is now available in multiplayer

Ignite (Live with SotV release)

[/b]

• Ignite effects, like Blazing elites and Artificer’s Flame Bolt, now deal 50% of its damage over time as ignite
  
• Developer Notes: Previously, ignite damage was calculated off of a weird version of base damage, which was inconsistent across enemies. Not only that, but Artificer’s ignite was handled quite differently than the Blazing elites. Now, ignite effects always deal half the damage of the impact - which makes it match Overloading elite damage as well.

Void Fog (Live with SotV release)

[/b]

• Void fog damage now ignores armor, Tougher Times, Armor Plating, and Planula
  
• Void fog damage now slowly ramps up over time as long as you remain in the fog
  
• Developer Notes: The Void Fog is important for a lot of content, especially in SotV - and has to remain threatening for the events to work. We found that Tougher Times, Armor Plating, and Planula made some of this content arbitrarily too easy. We also wanted to avoid being able to go ‘infinite’ in the fog with a lot of healing-over-time, so now it ramps up slowly.

Artificer

[/b]

• 🌧 ‘Flamethrower’ now scales the number of damage ticks with attack speed

Void Fiend

[/b]

• 🌧 ‘Drown (Corrupted)’ now scales the number of damage ticks with attack speed
  
• 🌧 ‘Suppress (Corrupted)’ no longer marks you as the attacker for its self-damage - meaning it won’t proc items on yourself like Crowbar, etc.
  
• 🌧 Transitioning into Corrupted mode now grants 0.5 seconds of invincibility

Void Fields

[/b]

• 🌧 Percent Health Damage: 5% per second ⇒ 2.5% per second
  
• Developer Notes: We wanted to make Void Fields more oppressive in SotV, as a mobility/heal check before you can access the guaranteed portal into the Planetarium. It was too much, so we are reducing it.

Stages

[/b]

• Planetarium music now advances every phase

Void Infestors

[/b]

• 🌧 Void Infestors now slowly decay health over 30 seconds
  
• 🌧 Void Infestors no longer can convert ‘mechanical’ targets, like Drones or Engineer Turrets
  
• Developer Notes: While it was cool the first time, having Void Infestors instantly kill your hard-earned drones made drones even worse. Now, they’re a decent ally to help pick off those bugs. Not only that, but an infestor that’s stuck running around the edge of a map would prevent you from finishing the Void Seed, which was annoying - now they slowly lose health over time.

Items

[/b]

• Spare Drone Parts no longer grants Col. Droneman to Engineer Turrets

• 🌧 Fixed ‘Remote Caffeinator’ DLC equipment being locked permanently
  
• 🌧 Fixed weird momentum/velocity behavior after falling out-of-bounds and teleporting back
  
• 🌧 Fixed ignite effects from Fire affixes and the ‘ignite’ damage type dealing 2x the damage over 4x the duration
  
• 🌧 Fixed Volcanic Egg disjointing its position over time
  
• Fixed clients who disconnect and then reconnect being stuck spectating
  
• 🌧 Fixed Railgunner’s Goobo Jr. AI using only its Primary ability
  
• 🌧 Fixed Ignition Tank’s descriptions being inaccurate to its behavior
  
• Fixed hosts not being able to create new multiplayer games if they disconnect and reconnect their internet
  
• 🌧 Fixed Merc’s expose being consumed by non-Mercs
  
• 🌧 Fixed Simulacrum’s Enigma wave having the wrong strings
  
• 🌧 Fixed Void Devastator not having its boss item assigned, causing it to not drop or be targetable by Trophy Hunter’s Tricorn
  
• 🌧 Fixed Newly Hatched Zoea not consuming Defense Nucleus
  
• 🌧 Fixed a stray jump pad in Sulfur Pools that leads nowhere
  
• 🌧 Fixed ‘crusty’ pixels around buff icons
  
• 🌧 Fixed Distant Roost having less interactable credits than Titanic Plains, causing it to spawn less interactables
  
• 🌧 Fixed Rusted Key always granting a red item
  
• Fixed consecutive weak point tracking resetting whenever ANY player missed, not just the player trying to earn the achievement
  
• Fixed Will-o-the-wisp/Voidsent Flame having reversed damage coefficients
  
• Fixed Prismatic Trials being playable in multiplayer by starting a singleplayer prismatic trial, backing out, and then hosting a multiplayer game
  
• Fixed cans not animating properly with Remote Caffeinator
  
• Fixed Snowy, Natural, and Sandy Golem skins not being fully implemented

Ice to see you :¬)



We’re keeping an eye on:

• Reports of new crashes as of SotV release
  
• Category Chests dropping limited items
  
• Other potential softlocks in Simulacrum

As you can see we have made quite a few fixes and changes directly based on your feedback, so a big thank you to everyone who has been in touch to report any issues! Keep this feedback coming - it really helps!

-Hopoo Games

Hello everyone!

Before we get started today a HUGE thank you from everyone here at Hopoo Games for jumping in and trying Survivors of the Void - we have had an absolute blast watching your streams and tweets and Discord posts about your brand new Risk of Rain 2 experiences! For us as a team, SotV was definitely the most ambitious thing we’ve done to date and we’re thrilled with the reception!

We’re currently working on a patch that should fix most of the issues you have reported to us, along with some balance/gameplay changes. Please note that these are only some of the changes we’re working on, and we will provide full patch notes for these changes on release!

Oh yea… patch notes. We’ve learned from our mistake on not releasing patch notes for the expansion’s release - we recognize that many of you were used to how the game played prior to Survivors of the Void, and not informing you of the changes was something we have learned from - we will ensure future updates are well documented!
On that subject… Some of the things we’re working on are:

• Fixing velocity/momentum changes after teleporting back into the map, causing you to be flung around
  
• Fixing one of the DLC Equipment being permanently locked
  
• Fixing a few issues with the boss item from the Void Devastator
  
• Fixing profiles not being deleted through the main menu
  
• Fixing Volcanic Egg disjointing over time
  
• Improving clarity, balance, and behaviour on Void Seeds. It’s fairly confusing, and spawning inside of it, being unable to find the enemies, or randomly dying to it isn’t a fun experience.
  
• Improving Goobo Railgunner AI
  
• Reducing damage of updated Void Fields’ fog
  
• Captain occasionally spawns in with no stocks of his Special
  
• Simulacrum soft-locks
  
• Fixing Rusty Lockbox from always dropping a red item

Forever in our hearts

Some things we’re keeping an eye on:

• Difficulty and overall balance of new content
  
• Duration of some ignite effects
  
• Improving functionality internally for modders
  
• Frustrations with Void Infestors, specifically with drones and turrets

Again, I wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you - it's been an amazing experience launching Survivors of the Void and we're truly grateful to have such a passionate fanbase! Please keep the feedback and bug reports coming - we’re watching and listening!

-Hopoo Games

P.S.

Risk of Rain 2 Trading cards are now live on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Risk_of_Rain_2_Survivors_of_the_Void/

The first expansion to Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void has arrived and is now available to purchase right here on Steam right NOW!

its got





and a whole lot more - including Gup!



So what are you still reading this for?? Go check it out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Risk_of_Rain_2_Survivors_of_the_Void/

and if youre looking for somewhere to find other RoR2 players to jump into some multiplayer with - or if you want to let us know what you think of the expansion please join us on Discord!

https://discord.gg/riskofrain2

We hope you enjoy it! See you in the Void!





-Hopoo Games

Hey everyone!

This will be the last Dev Thoughts before the release of Survivors of the Void on PC on the 1st March! I can’t explain how excited we all are at Hopoo Games for you all to get your hands on the expansion - We’re very proud of the final product and we hope you all enjoy it - be sure to let us know what you think!

Thank you to everyone who has followed along with each of the Dev Thoughts over the last 5 months, it’s been a wild ride and it's been great talking with you all - this won't be the last time you hear from me as we do have some more surprises for you in the not-too-distant future!

Following last month’s reveal of the Railgunner the anticipation for release of Survivors of the Void has skyrocketed and I have a couple of release updates for you all before we get into the main subject of this month’s Dev Thoughts.




Firstly I'm happy to announce that for the first time we’re releasing Risk of Rain 2 and Survivors of the Void on the Epic Game Store. It will launch at the same time as the Steam version on March 1st and the Expansion will have the same limited special offer price on launch we announced last month for Steam - a 35% discount down to $9.75

The Epic Store version will be multiplayer compatible with the Steam version so you’ll be able to play together with your friends no matter which PC version you own.


Explore stinky new worlds with your pals

Secondly i’d like to give an update to our console fans as many of you have been back in contact with me since last month excited to give the Railgunner a try - While I dont have a precise date for you just yet I can confirm that as mentioned in Dev Thoughts 23 we are still on schedule for a Q2 (April-June) release for the console versions and I will let you know as soon as possible when the exact release date will be.

And finally I know many of you - like myself - are huge fans of the RoR2 soundtrack and want to get your hands on the new music we previewed last month - You can now pre-order the Survivors of the Void OST on Chris’s Bandcamp on the following link:

https://chrischristodoulou.bandcamp.com/album/risk-of-rain-2-survivors-of-the-void




Introducing the second of two Survivors arriving with the Expansion

The Void Fiend.



The Void Fiend is Risk of Rain 2’s very own Jekyll and Hyde - a Void corrupted survivor that fluctuates between a controlled form and corrupted form, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

Key to mastering the two sides of the Void Fiend is Corruption - which is increased by taking damage, reduced by healing but always slowly creeping higher and higher.

The Void Fiend doesn’t have a set of alternate abilities to choose from - once your Corruption reaches 100% you burst into a more aggressive form with 4 new abilities to master.





While in this form your Corruption slowly decreases - giving you a short window to use these more powerful abilities before transforming back into your controlled form and reliving this curse over and over.


In your controlled form Drown fires a slowing long-range beam for 300% damage - a great all-round weapon that does high damage and has built in crowd control.





In your corrupted form Drown transforms into a short-range rapid-fire beam that rips and tears through your enemies foolish enough to attack you.






Using your huge mutated crustacean arm-cannon fire a plasma missile for 600% damage - you can also charge this attack building to an explosive plasma ball instead, dealing 1100% damage.





In your corrupted form not only does this attack instantly fire a 1100% damage arcing bomb it also has twice the explosive radius.






The Void Fiend can vanish into the void for a short time which cleanses all debuffs while you move in an upward arc - great for escaping tough situations or for navigating to higher ground.





In your corrupted form this turns into an aggressive leap forward through the void allowing you to quickly close the distance to decimate your enemies up close and personal.






Suppress is Void Fiend’s way of maintaining whichever form you wish to stay in a little bit longer. In your controlled form you consume 25% corruption and convert it into instant 25% healing.





In your corrupted form you crush 25% of your health to instead increase your corruption by 25% allowing you to stay in this powerful form a few seconds longer to unleash the power of the void - if you can afford the price.





You can also watch some exclusive Void Fiend gameplay footage over on the IGN website:

https://www.ign.com/videos/2022/02/15/risk-of-rain-2-13-minutes-of-void-fiend-gameplay

That concludes our..

「?TR?ESPASS】

.... What was that?

Oh God they’re getting clo…

『FLOO?D】

…the crabs… ..they’ve found me….





…The CRA…『「?SILENC?E」』





【D??ROW?N」
【DRO??WN」
『D?ROW?N】
【DR??OW?N」
[『D??ROW?N」】[/b]



[【 N?ULLIFIED INFOR??MANT」】[/b]

|||||[【 THE FIRS?T.. THE CU?RRUPT??ED… THE FIEN?D… ]]

[[[『[ …ABSC?ONDED 」】]]]]]

Welcome back and Happy New Year!

This is going to be a BIG year for Hopoo Games and I cannot wait to tell you more about what we have in store for you in the future - for today we’ll start with meeting a new friend!

Don’t forget the Dev Thoughts also comes in a super-sweet video format! I’ve done something slightly different this month - let me know what you think in the comments!



Before we meet our new friend… Some big announcements are in order!

The Risk of Rain 2 Expansion - Survivors of the Void - will launch on Steam on March 1st 2022

The SRP of the Expansion will be $15 - but for a short period at launch this will be discounted down to just $9.75!!

Aaaaaand finally before we get into the rest of the Dev Thoughts - check out the Steam Page which has been freshly updated!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Survivors_of_the_Void

Now its time to meet the first of two new playable characters in Survivors of the Void.






Railgunner is a specialist at long range single-target massive damage. She has a number of unique tools and mechanics that make her the queen of making anything in her sights turn into a red mist.


Or into pink blobs of beetle brains

This month’s Dev Thoughts is devoted to showcasing the Railgunner’s abilities - first up is her iconic M99 Sniper mode (Oops.. I said the S word already.)





Activate your long-range scope, highlighting Weak Points and transforming your weapon into a piercing 1000% damage railgun.





Unlike other survivors, the Railgunner’s attacks cannot randomly crit - when you hit one of the highlighted Weak Points through her scope you are guaranteed a Critical Strike - All Critical Strike Chance gained through items and equipment is converted into Critical Strike Damage.

After firing a shot the Railgunner’s M99 Sniper mode starts an Active Reload bar - a perfect reload lets you fire your next shot sooner and also makes that shot deal an additional +500% base damage.





Next up is Railgunner’s non-scoped attack




In a perfect world the Railgunner wouldn’t have to use the XQR Smart Round System - but as we’re all painfully aware Petrichor V is not a perfect world…

When you’re not using the scope the railgun fires rapid fire smart rounds that home in on enemies for 100% damage.

While it doesn't have the stopping power of the M99 Sniper - it certainly has its uses. It can help attack close range enemies that are swarming you





it can also quickly finish off those enemies that, selfishly, haven't quite died to a single railgun shot.





Next up we have an ability that actually makes the Railgunner rival Loader in maneuverability…




Railgunner utilises very versatile Concussion Devices that have two primary uses.

Firstly with a well timed jump it can be used to propel yourself to high or distant places to escape danger or get a better vantage point





(or both)

And it can also be used to knock back smaller enemies, breaking up dangerous packs making them easier to pick off one by one.

Its third secret use is that it makes damn cool trickshot-gifs for development blogs.





And finally the pièce de résistance in Railgunner’s arsenal..




Railgunner’s special ability is the Supercharge. Briefly overloading her railgun turns it into a boss one-shotting beast - firing a huge piercing round for 4000% damage and 150% Weak Point damage.





With this great power comes a big drawback, once used ALL your railgun weapons are disabled for 5 seconds leaving you with just your Concussion Device for defence - you had better make that shot count!

The Overcharge is also much wider than a usual shot - making it very useful for taking out large conga-lines of enemies.





It’s also very useful for killing that Solus Control Unit that always seems to spawn at the start of Sky Meadows from across the stage.







And that concludes our deeper dive into Railgunner’s abilities! She does of course have alternate abilities to unlock and an alternate skin for beating the game on monsoon much like the other survivors - but i’ll leave those up to you to discover for yourselves!


Let the speculation commence!

Don’t forget to check out the video Dev Thoughts above for some extended play footage of Railgunner & See you again soon when we will be very close to the release of Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void.






Adios!

Jonathan @ Hopoo Games

Greetings Goobo Jr Fan Club!


You know the drill by now - Dev Thoughts also comes as a video!



You did smash it didn't you?

And before we crack on, don't forget to visit the Risk of Rain 2: Survivors of the Void Steam Page as it might have changed since your last visit…

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Survivors_of_the_Void




Since starting as Community Manager many of you within our console playing fanbase have asked me about the status of any updates in the future for Risk of Rain 2 - today I’m going to give you some fresh info.

Firstly, I’m happy to announce that it is our goal to release the upcoming RoR2 expansion Survivors of the Void on console in Q2 of 2022, quite soon after the release of the Steam version in Q1 (both dates subject to change, but currently both still on schedule!)

With the release of the expansion will also come an update where we have completely rebuilt the console version from the ground-up. The goal of this rebuild is to have much closer parity between the console and Steam versions of the game.

This update should resolve most existing console-only bugs and - In theory - any new bugs should no longer be platform specific which will make them easier to identify and fix.


In practice, there will definitely be new bugs.




Last month I asked you to come up with some renditions of one of the new Void monsters arriving in Survivors of the Void and the response was much bigger than I expected, and in some cases much weirder than I expected.

These ranged from the creative



To the funny



To the strangely accurate



Thank you to everyone who sent me your versions of this mystery Void Monster, let’s take a visit to Petrichor V to see just how close you were...




It’s time to go on a sightseeing tour of Survivors of the Void to discover the environments and monsters that await you in the expansion.

Let’s begin by visiting the Snowy Forest



The first monster we’ll find here today is not from these once-peaceful lands - but instead invading from the Void. The Void Jailer.

The Void Jailer is the master of putting you in your place. It’s main attack is a powerful void-blast that slows your speed and its secondary attack is a entangling snare that locks you in place, leaving you at the mercy of this abomination.





And if you manage to overcome this beast you had better get outta dodge REAL quick - those of you familiar with the Reavers know what happens when you manage to finally topple a Void enemy….





This was going to be a gif of the Void Jailer dying and doing that cool void-explosion but it kept killing me first so this is what you're getting instead.

Next up, one of the many enemies found high up in the Aphelian Sanctuary...



…is your new worst nightmare. The Blind Pest.




Who... this guy? Your worst nightmare? Surely not?

Aww look at his cute fuzzy face, flapping ear-wings and swinging tongue. What a cutie!





Don’t let it's looks fool you, I hate these things, and you will too. If Lesser Wisps are the flying shotguns of RoR2, these douchebags are the flying rifles. Dangerous in packs and deadly if ignored, get used to seeing this:



Not every new monster in Survivors of the Void will be completely unfamiliar. Our next monster is a returning enemy from a previous ill-fated visit to Petrichor V.

It’s big, it’s orange, and it’s here to ruin your Mercenary run...





It’s Gup.





And Geep and Gip, obviously.

Don't forget this is just a sample of the new stages and monsters you’ll find in Survivors of the Void - And that concludes the Petrichor Safari. As always thanks for being an amazing community and join me next year when we’ll have many more exciting reveals for you all.

Goodbye for now!



Jonathan @ Hopoo Games.

Hello fellow Survivors! Welcome back!


I wanted to start out by thanking everyone who reached out to me following last month’s video version of the Dev thoughts - as requested I got a huge amount of feedback - which was overwhelmingly positive so I went ahead and made another one for this month! Check it out and once again please let me know what you think!






The official artwork and the name of the upcoming Risk of Rain 2 Expansion is now ready to be unveiled:

Survivors of the Void.



We have also launched the Survivors of the Void store page on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607890/Survivors_of_the_Void

I’d highly recommend both wishlisting the expansion and checking the store page regularly, there might just be some additions over the coming weeks. Also stick around for the rest of the Dev Thoughts - these are not the only Survivors of the Void reveals we have today...




Here’s a new section I'd like to include in each new Dev Thoughts where I highlight something cool created by our fans! This month i’d like to show off this amazing creation from @TheFiddleCat on Twitter:



Go and show them some love! If any of you have created or seen anything Hopoo Games related drop me an email at jonathan@hopoogames.com or ping me on Twitter or Discord and I might just include it in a future Dev Thoughts!




You’ll never guess what we installed in our new office this month: A genuine Item Printer from RoR2!

Someone let Ben near the bloody thing and he decided to make a load of copies of his raincoat...



Great job Ben you dingus, What are we supposed to do with all these coats??






Ok all is forgiven




Revealed in Dev Thoughts #21 and teased last month is the new game mode which will be available in Survivors of the Void.

How long will you last within the Simulacrum?



The Simulacrum is a wave-based arena mode set within a Void simulation. It can be played both single and multiplayer and contains any artifacts you’ve unlocked ready for use. It is an endless mode that can conclude only in your simulated demise.

My personal best attempt is wave 65 as Bandit, the office record is currently held by raincoat enthusiast Ben at an astounding wave 140 as Acrid. There is no shortage of testing (a.k.a. trying to beat each other’s record) going in behind the scenes with this new mode. We think you’ll have as much fun playing it as we have testing it!

The Void has recreated some of the iconic locations from Risk of Rain 2 to assess the threat of these dangerous places - the simulation is familiar yet somehow… different.


But definitely purple.

Within a confined safe-zone monsters spawn in waves of increasing difficulty and every 5th wave is a difficult Boss encounter. Some waves also have random mutators applied - maybe a random artifact is activated for one round...


...or maybe something that really sucks instead.

After each wave a Void Potential is created for every player, allowing you to select between 3 items giving you a great deal of control over your power within the Simulacrum.





Item Crates and other interactables spawn on the stage as normal - but venturing outside of the safe zone to reach these can be a great risk. Thankfully after every boss wave the safe zone moves to a new area, giving you a brief opportunity to open more crates and increase your power.




Get back here ya pesky varmint!

Getting those extra items will be a great help - when you experience a Void simulation of the most dangerous threats in the universe you never know who or what might show up to challenge you.






Please share your renditions of this mystery enemy in the #ror2-art-and-content channel on the Discord with a @SeventeenUncles ping plz. My personal favourite(s) will be included in next month’s Dev Thoughts.

Much Love

Jonathan @ Hopoo Games

Hey! I told you I'd be back this month!


A huge thank you to everyone who reached out and let me know what you thought of last month’s Dev Thoughts, we love how excited you are about the upcoming RoR2 expansion! Due to the positive response I decided to try out a video version of this month’s Dev Thoughts:



Please let me know what you think - especially if you would like to see this alternative format more in the future (I will continue with the written Dev Thoughts regardless.) Any ideas for future content/suggestions/critiques very welcome and greatly appreciated!

As always you can catch me on our Discord as @SeventeenUncles, or you can email me at jonathan@hopoogames.com. Or whack a comment on that Youtube video, also I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to smash that like button while you’re there. Smash it.




Before we get into the meat 'n' potatoes of the Dev Thoughts, one new thing for us at Hopoo games is that we moved offices!

Who is this welcoming us into the reception?



Why, its Ghor himself! Everyone say Hi to Ghor!



“Hi Gamers!” - Ghor

(someone call HR this guy isn’t wearing any damn pants)




Earlier this month I asked on Twitter what your #1 question about the expansion was and you didn't disappoint! Never fear - I am here to dish out the answers to the most popular ones...


The Steam release is currently on-schedule for a Q1 2022 release window. The console version will be released at a later date.

One of our more lofty goals when we first announced the expansion was our hope to do a simultaneous release on all platforms - this was something that we have not attempted before.

The deeper into development we go the more we realise that the only way to achieve this would have been to delay the release of the Steam version. We didn’t like this one bit - so we have decided to go with the Steam release first with the console release coming soon afterwards.

We don’t want to pin a precise release window on the console version right now, however we will get it in your hands as soon as possible.


Lofty goals.


As long as one player in the lobby owns the expansion you can enable expansion content such as new items, stages and monsters for that session - even if the other players in the lobby do not own the expansion. However only people who own the expansion will be able to play as the new expansion-exclusive survivors.

We think that splitting the multiplayer community between the “haves” and “have-nots” is kind of a worst case scenario - we want everyone to enjoy the game and keep the community together (aww.)


The price of the expansion is still being discussed. We want to land on a price which represents the amount of new content in the expansion and is also excellent value for our players.

As soon as we have decided on the price we will announce it ASAP.


Don’t worry, Goobo Jr can take care of itself quite nicely.








Last month I promised you more expansion teasers and I am here once again to sneak the deets out of the coffers of the Hopoo dev team..

The theme of the upcoming Risk of Rain 2 Expansion is the Void

The eagle-eyed lore-hunters among you will have seen references to the Void scattered throughout the current log-book entries. Well, you’re about to find out a whole lot more about this mysterious force - Approximately a third of the new content is Void themed and that includes the new loot-tier I teased last month...






Awaiting your discovery in the expansion are Void Items. These are sneaky doppelgangers of existing items - once collected they absorb all copies of the original item and corrupts them to increase their own power for the rest of the run.



Void Items have warped effects, similar but distinct to their non-void counterparts…



















This is just a small sample of the many Void Items within the expansion.



Once again thank you very much for being a great community and your continued support! Don’t forget to come back next month when maybe, just maybe, i’ll have even more expansion teasers for you all.




Literally me for another month.

Goodbye for now!

Jonathan @ Hopoo Games