# Risk of Rain turns co-op into a race against the clock

Take on Risk of Rain’s shifting stages with up to three friends online or on one shared screen, collecting items before the rising difficulty catches up.

[PLAYNEXT](https://playnext.party/) · Published: 10/2/2026

![A small survivor attacks a crowd of alien enemies across floating platforms beneath the Wandering Vagrant boss bar.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/0ae48998-6ca4-4240-a408-1ae8f0cf4c58/ss-9b26bb93397ea5bbb7906950c4ffa0d6e9203f7d?width=1200)

Risk of Rain is a side-scrolling action roguelike built around a simple co-op tension: every minute makes the planet more dangerous. You and up to three friends can take on the same run online or on one shared local screen, jumping through alien stages, fighting whatever appears, and searching for the teleporter that leads onward. The game gives you room to grow stronger through items, but spending time exploring also raises the overall difficulty. Your group is constantly balancing the reward of another chest against the danger of staying longer.

This is the original 2D side-view game, rather than the separate 3D sequel Risk of Rain 2. Its multiplayer is a shared survival run, not a set of isolated player missions: everyone faces the same stage and boss, while each survivor’s gear and abilities shape how they handle the fight. Four players can fill a screen with attacks and pickups, but the camera and the rising enemy pressure keep the group tied to one journey.

## Every stage adds another decision

A run moves through a sequence of large platforming stages on an alien planet. The game has ten stage environments, from forests and caves to frozen terrain, and their order can vary between runs. You cross ledges and platforms, use ropes and lifts, and search the map for chests, shrines, drones, and the teleporter. Enemies spawn throughout the level, so exploring a side path can bring another fight before you have reached the route forward.

The teleporter is the main objective in each area. Activating it starts a boss encounter and a charge period; your group must survive and deal with the threat while the device powers up. Once the teleporter is ready, you can leave for the next environment. That loop gives each stage a clear shape without turning the game into a string of fixed arena waves. Where the teleporter sits, which enemies appear, and how much equipment you find can vary, so a familiar map can still produce a different run.

Time is the pressure system behind all of this. The difficulty rises as the run clock advances, moving from manageable enemies toward tougher groups and bosses. Opening more chests can add the items needed to handle later stages, but every detour gives the world more time to grow hostile. Leaving quickly preserves a lower difficulty for the next area, while lingering for gear makes the next fight harder. That push and pull gives the group a shared decision to weigh throughout a run, even though each player is steering a separate survivor.

Combat is built around reading a crowded screen while moving through platforming spaces. Enemies can appear from several directions, attack from range, or close in on a character trying to reach a ledge or chest. Some stages have narrow platforms and drops that make movement as important as damage. Bosses take up more space and demand sustained attacks, while ordinary enemies keep arriving around them. The result can swing from a quiet stretch of traversal to a busy fight with projectiles, explosions, and effects overlapping across the screen.

![A survivor moves through an icy stage beside a rope and scattered chests while the HUD objective reads Find the teleporter.](https://playnext.party/steam-images/0ae48998-6ca4-4240-a408-1ae8f0cf4c58/ss-d470578d7945689fb108cc5e68dc9b2ae12fe528?width=1200)

## Survivors and items make the build

You choose from a roster of twelve survivors, each with a different weapon and set of skills. They are not rigid co-op classes that assign one person to tank and another to heal; the difference is in how each character attacks, moves, and handles a fight. The Commando gives you a straightforward firearm-focused start, while other survivors bring more unusual tools and attacks. Unlocking additional characters expands the ways a group can approach the same stage loop, so a new run can change its feel before the first item even drops.

Items are the other half of that variation. More than a hundred can appear, from attack boosts and defensive effects to gear that triggers explosions, launches missiles, or summons support. Pickups attach to the survivor who collects them, so builds develop individually rather than becoming one shared inventory. One player stacking damage effects may handle enemies differently from a friend whose items favor defense or movement. The optional Force Item Sharing setting can keep item counts even across the group, while ordinary pickups let survivor builds diverge.

Items also interact, sometimes producing combinations that are much stronger than any single pickup. A simple damage increase can become more noticeable when it triggers alongside an on-hit effect; several copies of the same item can compound a build in dramatic ways. Drones add another source of help, including healing and missile support, and shrines can trade resources for a chance at more gear. The game does not divide the group into fixed co-op jobs. Instead, the survivors you select and the items the run produces determine whether the team leans toward rapid attacks, durable defense, or a messy mix of both.

The roster and item pool give each replay room to change, but the game still revolves around the same basic loop. You move through a stage, gather enough strength to face its teleporter event, and decide how long to remain before leaving. Unlocking characters and items adds new possibilities over time; it does not turn the game into a campaign of entirely separate objectives. If you want a co-op game where every session has a new mission brief or a large story path, Risk of Rain’s focus is narrower. Its replay value comes from changing combinations of survivors, items, enemies, and stage order.

## A shared screen changes how four players move

Local co-op supports up to four players on one computer and one shared screen. One keyboard and up to three gamepads can be used in local co-op, so a group can mix keyboard and controller players instead of requiring four controllers. The camera zooms to account for how far apart the survivors are. This keeps everyone inside one view, but it also means local play is not four independent screens: when the group spreads across a large platforming area, the camera has to show more of the level at once.

The same-screen view is a visible part of the group experience. A survivor exploring for another chest may be farther from the friend trying to reach the teleporter, and the camera’s framing has to include both. Vertical terrain, ropes, and branching paths can stretch the distance between characters. The game’s camera responds by pulling back, so the scene can become smaller and busier as the survivors separate. The group is still moving through the same place, and a player who lags behind does not get a private view of a different portion of the map.

Online co-op supports four players total. One player hosts a run, and the others connect to that host by IP address; depending on the network, hosting may take extra setup. Steam Remote Play Together is a separate option for streaming the shared-screen local mode; it should not be confused with the game’s native online co-op.

## When a survivor falls

Risk of Rain’s permanent-death structure makes a failed run matter, but a single death does not immediately end a multiplayer run for everyone. If one survivor falls during a stage, that player waits while the remaining players finish the area. They return at the next stage, behind the others in the current run’s experience and equipment. That gap can leave someone underpowered for the next boss, even as the group’s overall difficulty continues to rise with time. If everyone is defeated, the run ends and the group starts over.

This creates a co-op rhythm in which survival is shared but each character’s progress can drift apart. A player who remains alive continues to collect experience and items, while a fallen partner has to rejoin the next area with fewer upgrades. There is no revive action that immediately pulls a teammate back into the current fight. A death therefore changes more than the number of characters on screen; it can alter how much damage the group can deal during the next stage and how prepared the returning player feels.

The game’s tone helps keep this pressure energetic rather than grim. Pixel-art landscapes set off strange creatures and mechanical enemies, and the soundtrack gives boss encounters a sharp, driving pulse. Combat effects can make the screen glow with projectiles and item triggers, especially later in a run when builds have grown. Risk of Rain’s challenge is less about a realistic military plan than about moving, attacking, and making use of a run’s increasingly elaborate item combinations while the environment turns up the heat.

## Who this co-op fits

Risk of Rain works well when your group wants a replayable action run where every player shares the same objective and the group’s strength grows from whatever the stages provide. The four-player count supports a full small group, while local play keeps everyone on one screen and online play connects separate PCs. The host-by-IP setup is less streamlined than a lobby with automatic matchmaking, so it suits friends prepared to arrange a session directly. The Mac version has an important compatibility limit: it does not run on macOS Catalina 10.15 or later. The game is also available for Windows and Linux. For players who want a polished story campaign, modern matchmaking, or local split-screen, this is a more specific fit. For a group drawn to side-scrolling combat, four-player survival, item-driven builds, and a clock that makes every extra chest a risk, its compact run structure has a clear identity.

## On Steam

- **Play together:** Remote Play Together, Co-op
- **Steam reviews:** Very Positive, 93% positive of 29,834 reviews
- **Playing now:** 16
- **Platforms:** Windows, macOS, Linux
- **Developer:** Hopoo Games
- **Publisher:** Gearbox Publishing, 2K

[View on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/248820/)

## Similar games to Risk of Rain (2013)

- [Risk of Rain Returns](https://playnext.party/en/games/risk-of-rain-returns/)
- [Spelunky](https://playnext.party/en/games/spelunky/)
- [The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth](https://playnext.party/en/games/the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth/)
- [Rain World](https://playnext.party/en/games/rain-world/)
- [20XX](https://playnext.party/en/games/20xx/)
- [Vagante](https://playnext.party/en/games/vagante/)


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Source: https://playnext.party/en/games/risk-of-rain-2013/

Language: en