How to Unlock Acrid in Risk of Rain 2

Hopoo promised we’d see a substantial update to Risk of Rain 2 in December, and as usual, they have stayed true to their word. The new Hidden Realms update is out and allows players to unlock the survivor Acrid, among other things.

The Hidden Realms update brings a lot more than Acrid. There are new hidden stages, new items, new stage variants, new chest types, and more. Read the patch notes on Steam; they’re enough for any Risk of Rain 2 player to get excited about.

As an Acrid main in the original Risk of Rain, his addition to the sequel is a huge surprise, as Hopoo had previously mentioned the poison pup wasn’t going to be making it into Risk of Rain 2. He’s here now, though, and doesn’t play that much different from the first game.

How to Unlock Acrid in Risk of Rain 2

Acrid is the hardest survivor to unlock so far, save for trying to get the Loader deep into a run. We’re going to go into this step by step, because it is a huge pain.

You probably do not want to try this after hitting the Lunar Shrine on the very first stage unless you are on Drizzle. I have no idea what the difficulty of this is like on Rainstorm or Drizzle as I did it on Monsoon out of habit, and it was incredibly difficult.

The reason for this is you need healing. You absolutely must have some decent regeneration to deal with this challenge. Even just fungus — you need something to help keep you alive.

Step 1. Pop a Lunar Shrine to Gain Access to the Bazaar Between Worlds and Find the Null Portal

Walk down like you normally would to enter the bazaar, but don’t enter it. Instead, turn your camera and look below the platforms to see the platform below. It’s circled in the following image.

Drop down onto the platform. Don’t worry too much if you fall all the way down; you can just try again.

From here, turn your camera down and look for the light green area shown in this image.

Jump to the platform pictured, then make your way into the tunnel. You will come across a purple Null Portal within. Enter the portal.

Step 2. Complete the Void Fields

Entering the Null Portal will take you to the Void Fields, a desolate and harsh environment that drains your health persistently while outside the Cell Vent fields. Hence my warning that you need healing.

This area is tricky to navigate and hard to deal with.

You must activate all nine of the area’s Cell Vents, which sounds easy enough. It’s not.

When you open a Cell Vent, you will have to defeat enemies in a fashion similar to regular teleporter events.

The difference here is that enemies will absorb the powers of random items when you open some Cell Vents, and you take persistent damage outside of the Cell Vent fields.

Once you finish one of these events, the field will rapidly disperse and leave you to hunt down the next one.

You don’t have to wander around here completely aimlessly, luckily enough. Keep your eye on the sky and look for a purple beam of light to find the next Cell Vent each time.

Once you have activated the ninth Cell Vent, you will receive the “…To Be Left Alone” achievement, which finally unlocks Acrid.

This all sounds a bit trivial written out, but I had a very hard time doing this on Monsoon, and it took about 15 minutes. If you’re not a confident Risk of Rain 2 player, unlock Acrid on a lower difficulty.

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Acrid is a fan favorite from the first Risk of Rain, and my personal main in the original. His kit hasn’t changed too much here in Risk of Rain 2, but how does he compare to the rest of the lineup? That’s something I’m about to test out myself.

Good luck unlocking Acrid in Risk of Rain 2! If you found this guide helpful, take a look at our other Risk of Rain 2 guides here on GameSkinny.