Leading up to its acquisition by Gearbox in 2022, the Risk of Rain series’ creators expressed satisfaction with the state they had managed to leave the game in, being that they had been able to release their first and final downloadable content update to the game, Survivors of the Void, after the massive success the game had already achieved up to that point. In an announcement to the game’s Discord community server, Hopoo unofficially stated:
I feel we did everything we set out to do with Risk of Rain.
And with that, the baton was passed on to the next team of developers. With the development of Risk of Rain 2 now fully under Gearbox’s control, the prolific looter-shooter roguelike franchise has, so far, seen a consistent stream of brand-new DLC content. The team’s first DLC release, Seekers of the Storm, was released in August 2024, introducing several new features such as items, environments, and characters. Today, we see the imminent release of the second DLC, titled Alloyed Collective, mirroring the last two DLCs as far as what it offers; however, with an added free bonus that Risk of Rain fans are certain to be excited about.
Though a paid DLC, fans can look forward to an incredibly useful new quality of life feature for the longevity of the game, making its debut in this update to all players for free. Detailed on the Risk of Rain 2 Instagram page as of yesterday, November 6—in preparation for the Alloyed Collective‘s release on November 18—is a narrated sneak peek trailer detailing the two playable alloyed newcomers, as well as some more playable “characters”. Risk of Rain 2 is known for simply being an overall better experience when played with friends, as many games are. This truth changes, however, when you or one of your friends dies early on. Due to Risk of Rain’s nature as a roguelike looter shooter, if you die when playing solo, you are expected to start over from the beginning, no matter what. When playing online with friends, however, dying early on can mean having to wait to respawn for upwards of 10 minutes as your friends scour the area for loot. It is not until they finally move on to the next area that you or your friend are revived and can continue looting to get stronger. This feature was present in Risk of Rain up until this upcoming update, which fixes this tiring and demotivating phenomenon. The Alloyed Collective DLC emphasizes the robotic pals available to you, with the introduction of drone upgrading, brand new drone types, a massive alloyed companion who will fight on your behalf, and the free update of fully controllable drones. This free addition allows players who struggle with survival at times to remain in the action even after dying. By picking up items while in drone form, you won’t ever have to worry about falling too far behind in power.
Though the addition of brand-new and customizable drones is locked behind a paid DLC, gamers are sure to enjoy this free quality-of-life update that feels like one of the most significant new additions from the Gearbox team yet. Gamers can expect the imminent release of the Risk of Rain 2: Alloyed Collective update this coming November 18 to PC via Steam and Xbox, with the Nintendo Switch version planned for release later the same day.