Risk of Rain Returns: Best Acrid Build and Loadout

Acrid is all about poison damage. This melee survivor is superb at dealing with large groups of enemies, but what if I told you they could be even more powerful? Here’s how to make the best Acrid build and loadout in Risk of Rain Returns.

How to Make the Best Acrid Build and Loadout in Risk of Rain Returns

The core of what makes Acrid strong is his incredible damage-over-time abilities that spread across hordes of enemies at once. If you want to run through a group of elites and leave them slowly dying behind you, Acrid is for you. That said, our venomous best boy also has his weaknesses, so let’s talk about the following elements to compensate for them:

• Acrid Ability Loadouts
• Items
• Equipment

However you build Acrid, I can’t stress this enough: don’t use your bite for melee attacks. Acrid can get taken down in seconds if you rely on his melee attack. Instead, utilize the following abilities and employ hit-and-run tactics, only attacking single foes that you can maneuver around. Realizing his weaknesses as a melee character and how powerful his abilities were when used for kiting was an eye-opener for me back in the original RoR. That’s still true in Returns.

Best Abilities for Your Acrid Build

When you first play as Acrid, you’ll notice he’s not very mobile. Therefore, I highly recommend completing the Uncontrolled Experiment Providence Trial to unlock his Dissolving Ambush movement ability. Unlocking all of his abilities in general gives us two build options:

• Sustained Damage (Corrosive Wounds, Neurotoxin, Caustic Sludge, Epidemic): This traditional Acrid build is all about firing off Epidemic in a group, running through them with Caustic Sludge, and keeping them stunned inside it with Neurotoxin. Mark the boss with Corrosive Wounds if you can for extra damage, but don’t risk it if it’s too dangerous.
• Burst Damage (Festering Wounds, Toxic Bubble, Dissolving Ambush, Epidemic): This is more of a boss-killer burst build. The strategy is to place your Toxic Bubble and fire your Dissolving Ambush below it. Once the bubble is ready to pop, hit D.A. again to deal burst damage in a small AoE. This build sacrifices a larger area of effect attack for extra mobility through bubble jumps and teleports.

Best Items for Your Acrid Build

The best items to get for Acrid are those that capitalize on his tendency to pass through enemies when you’re running around spreading Caustic Sludge. You don’t have to and shouldn’t use your melee all that often, so these items simply need you to be close to enemies as you run through.

• The Toxin.
• Frost Relic.
• Chargefield Generator.
• Toxic Centipede.
• Tesla Coil.
• Fireman’s Boots: Double trail with Sludge.
• Burning Witness: Also gives you a double trail with Sludge.

Any melee survivor like Acrid needs to increase their survivability. Pick these items up to do so:

• Topaz Brooch.
• Monster Tooth.
• Hermit’s Scarf.
• Infusion.
• Tough Times.
• Guardian Heart.
• Prophet’s Cape.
• Repulsion Armor.

If you’re not using Dissolving Ambush with Acrid, you should also aim to get the Hopoo Feather. This goes great with the Red Whip, Rusty Jetpack, or better yet, the actual Photon Jetpack.

Best Equipment for Acrid

Acrid doesn’t attack much, so any attack speed or on-hit items and equipment aren’t as effective here as they ar with other survivors. Instead, these are some that I find useful:

• Carrara Marble: Allows you to safely teleport out of the fight when you’ve deployed your combo, which Acrid desperately needs without Dissolving Ambush.
• Sawmerang: I find it truly satisfying to use Sawmerang on a group of enemies trying to reach you across your Caustic Sludge.
• Gigantic Amethyst: Extremely useful on Acrid due to his long cooldowns.
• Unstable Watch or Shield Generator: These are useful on any character but especially on Acrid, who needs a few seconds of invulnerability to set up his combo.

If you’re struggling with Acrid, I recommend activating the Artifact of Command, which allows you to choose which items drop. This allows you to tailor your build however you like and guarantees crucial items. This goes double for movement items and equipment pieces, which Acrid needs to survive (don’t worry so much about defensive ones).

Acrid isn’t the best choice for facing Providence, since there aren’t that many mobs present in this 1v1 fight. Since melee attacking is dangerous, you need to move around and apply your damage-over-time effects while avoiding Providence’s attacks. A drone or two can be helpful to aid your passive damage output, but movement is the key in this fight. Furthermore, read my guide on how to beat the Cremator if you’re struggling.

That’s it for my guide on the best Acrid build and loadout in Risk of Rain Returns. Acrid is quite a powerful survivor for taking out groups of enemies and is excellent when you’re looping, but to make the most of things, you’ll need to make sure you have the ideal abilities, items, and equipment equipped. For more tips and tricks, like our survivor tier rankings, click the link or check out our RoR Returns hub.