Risk of Rain 2 has recently introduced a powerful new lunar item called transcendence, which has quickly become a fan favorite. This item allows players to transcend their mortal form and become godlike beings with incredible abilities.
However, understanding how to use transcendence to its fullest potential can be challenging. In this guide, we’ll explore more about Risk of Rain 2 transcendence, what transcendence is, and how it works, and provide tips and strategies to make the most out of this new item.
RoR2 Transcendence: What Is It?
Transcendence is a highly debated lunar item in Risk of Rain 2. While it does offer a significant boost to a player’s health pool and shields, the trade-off of losing all but 1 HP and having zero health regeneration can be a deal-breaker for some players. Additionally, the inability to receive healing from any source can be a disadvantage in some situations.
However, the fact that transcendence allows players to ignore healing-disabling debuffs and fall damage can make it a valuable item in certain scenarios. Additionally, the fact that one-shot protection still applies and that shields increase with HP increases can further enhance a player’s survivability.
It’s important to note that transcendence is not suitable for all survivors, and players should consider their survivor’s unique abilities and playstyle before picking up this item. As mentioned, REX cannot use transcendence effectively due to the nature of its abilities.
How To Get Transcendence
Transcendence is a rare lunar item that can only be obtained by spending lunar coins, a rare currency found in secret locations or earned through achievements.
Players can buy Transcendence at the Bazaar Between Time from the vendor, Newt, or find it in lunar pods by spending at least one lunar coin.
However, obtaining Transcendence from lunar pods can be challenging due to the low drop rate, which may require players to spend multiple lunar coins.
Effects After Equipping Transcendence
Upon obtaining the transcendence lunar item in Risk of Rain 2, the player’s survivor will immediately be surrounded by a visible blue energy barrier, indicating that their shields have become their primary means of defense.
This barrier is easily recognizable by the glowing coating that encompasses the survivor’s outer suit or body layer.
Additionally, some humanoid characters, such as the Mercenary or Captain, may have antennae appear on their head after equipping transcendence, providing a distinct visual indicator that the item is in use.
Risk of Rain 2: Item Interactions
Healing Items
Transcendence has a significant impact on healing items, affecting both regenerative and burst healing items differently.
It’s crucial to understand the specific effects of each type of healing since many powerful items in the game rely on different types of healing, some of which may be rendered ineffective with Transcendence equipped. Some of the affected items include:
Rejuvenation Rack: It only restores a maximum of 2 HP per use, despite doubling the healing amount of items.
Bustling Fungus: Provides passive healing to the player by creating a healing zone around them that restores 1 HP of their maximum health every second.
Lepton Daisy: This is limited to healing only 1 HP per stack during the teleporter event, making its normal healing amount of 50% HP impossible to achieve.
Interstellar Desk Plant: Only restores a maximum of 1 HP per pool every half second due to the player’s health being reduced to only 1 HP.
Cautious Slug: Boosts passive HP regeneration by 3HP per second when out of combat. However, since it doesn’t affect shield recharge, it becomes the least useful item to pair with Transcendence in the game.
Medkit: This is not very useful with Transcendence equipped, as it only heals 1 HP and lacks any scaling healing items. The only way to make use of it is with Aegis or N’Kuhana’s Opinion, which adds temporary barriers to the player’s shield.
Monster Tooth: This is made redundant by Transcendence, as it only heals 8-9 HP based on the number of stacks, rendering it almost useless. It is only effective when paired with other items and, even then, is rarely useful.
Health-Relient Items
These items have effects that are designed to scale off direct HP, which means that they only partially affect players with Transcendence equipped, resulting in unique effects.
N’Kuhana’s Opinion: Multiplies skull damage by 1.5x, but takes longer to collect Soul Energy and slows down healing items that are not on-hit effects.
Aegis: Can convert healing into a barrier to offset the inability to regain HP with Transcendence. It scales directly with the amount healed and is not percentage-based like N’Kuhana’s.
Delicate Watch: Treats combine HP normally, but break at 25% of the total, which is faster to reach due to the shield recharge delay with Transcendence.
Old War Stealth Kit: Turns players invisible at 25% health and recharges every 30 seconds. Players can restore most of their shield while invisible and gain a 40% speed boost afterward.
Power Elixir: Loses its functionality entirely below 25% max HP and is as useless as Cautious Slug but cannot be scrapped.
Genesis Loop: Deals 60x base damage when triggered at 25% health and has a damaging effect with a unique cooldown.
Personal Shield Generator: Scales off pre-Transcendence HP, adding 8% shield instead of overall health.
Specialty Items
Plasma Shrimp: Transcendence allows Plasma Shrimp to always be active, which can lead to powerful proc chains.
Ben’s Raincoat: This no longer grants bonus HP with Transcendence but instead provides a 10% barrier based on the player’s combined HP.
Bison Steak: Increases health by 25, resulting in roughly 37.5 shields with Transcendence’s 50% increase.
Infusion: With Transcendence equipped, Infusion provides 150 shields when fully stacked, a 50% increase from the item’s normal effect.
Titanic Knurl: Grants 60 shields instead of the usual 40, but its health regeneration effect is irrelevant with Transcendence.
Equipment
Although only a few equipment items are impacted by Transcendence’s passive effect, they do exist. Equipment items operate differently than regular items since they are self-activated and often have cooldown periods of 30 seconds or more.
SuperMassive Leech: Offers healing through lifesteal, allowing you to recover 20% of the damage dealt for 8 seconds. However, since it cannot replenish shields, it is ineffective when paired with Transcendence.
Nevertheless, when combined with Aigis or N’Kuhana’s Opinion, which has direct effects based on the healing received, this equipment becomes more valuable.
Foreign Fruit: Provides a burst of healing equivalent to Bustling Fungus when paired with Transcendence. However, it has a longer cooldown and lacks the ability to heal allies, making it less useful than other items.
Gnarled Woodsprite: Operates similarly to Foreign Fruit, but it has the added benefit of being able to heal allies with 10% of their Max HP per second.
Pros And Cons of Transcendence
Transcendence has both advantages and disadvantages. While it can be beneficial in certain situations, it can also make other valuable items useless. Let’s explore the pros and cons of using Transcendence.
Pros
- Equipping Transcendence provides a significant advantage when interacting with the Shrine of Blood, as shields become healthy, allowing for more gold farming.
- Combining Transcendence with at least three stacks of Strides of Heresy provides immunity from attacks and allows for shield regeneration even while being attacked.
- Shields recharge quickly in Risk of Rain 2, making Transcendence a blessing if you can avoid danger for a few seconds to regenerate shields.
- Transcendence grants immunity to on-hit effects from Malachite Elites, making it easier to attack them without worrying about taking damage.
- Pairing Transcendence with Tougher Times grants a chance of shield regeneration while in combat.
- The secret playable class, Heretic, benefits from Transcendence as it eliminates the negative health regeneration element of the class.
Cons
- Transcendence's play style does not allow for standing still, which makes it impossible for a player equipped with both Transcendence and Bustling Fungus to heal their co-op teammates.
- Rex is not compatible with Transcendence as its skills rely on taking away a portion of its health, which is swapped with shields when using Transcendence.
- Similarly, Engineer does not work well with Transcendence.
- Equipping the Risk of Rain 2 Transcendence item renders all healing items useless, as they do not work on shields. This includes items like Corpsebloom, Medkit, Harvester’s Scythe, Leeching Seed, and Bustling Fungus.
Is Transcendence Worth It?
If you have a playstyle that involves avoiding damage and using hit-and-run tactics, Transcendence may be a good choice for you, as it allows you to take more risks without worrying as much about losing your health.
On the other hand, if you prefer a more aggressive playstyle that involves taking on enemies head-on, Transcendence may not be as useful, as you’ll be more likely to take direct damage to your health.
Wrapping Up
The decision to use Transcendence ultimately depends on personal playstyle and the specific survivor being used. While it can offer advantages such as fast shield regeneration and immunity to on-hit effects, it renders many healing items useless and can negatively impact certain survivors’ gameplay [1].
However, it can still be useful in certain situations. Therefore, we recommended that players to carefully consider their playstyle and the specific survivor being used before deciding whether or not to equip Transcendence.
