When it comes to playing Acrid in Risk of Rain 2, understanding how to effectively utilize lunar items can take your run from average to overwhelming. Acrid is a hybrid melee and ranged character who thrives on poison damage over time and high mobility. While many players shy away from lunar items due to their heavy drawbacks, the right lunar choices can drastically enhance Acrid’s kit. Whether you’re aiming for survivability, burst damage, or sheer chaos, knowing the best lunar items for Acrid can redefine your approach to the game.
Understanding Acrid’s Playstyle
Damage Over Time Specialist
Acrid’s primary strength lies in his poison ability, which applies damage over time unaffected by enemy armor. This allows Acrid to weaken bosses and elite monsters regardless of their defenses. His mobility and regenerative passive give him great sustain, while his mix of melee and ranged attacks allows him to adapt to various threats.
Risk and Reward of Lunar Items
Lunar items in Risk of Rain 2 come with powerful effects but usually include significant downsides. For Acrid, the challenge is choosing lunar items that amplify his strengths without introducing vulnerabilities that compromise his survivability or damage output. Many lunar items synergize surprisingly well with Acrid’s mechanics if picked carefully and with the right context.
Top Lunar Items for Acrid
Shaped Glass
Shaped Glass increases base damage by 100% but reduces your maximum health by 50%. For Acrid, this item offers a clear damage boost, helping his poison tick harder and his secondary abilities hit like a truck. However, it’s best used when you’ve already stacked healing items or if you’re confident in dodging and crowd control.
- Pros: Significantly boosts poison and melee damage
- Cons: Reduced health limits mistakes and recovery
- Best When: Paired with healing sources like N’kuhana’s Opinion or Leeching Seed
Gesture of the Drowned
This item reduces equipment cooldown and makes it auto-activate, which works wonderfully with utility-based equipment. Acrid benefits from constant uptime on healing or offensive equipment like The Back-up or Preon Accumulator. Auto-activation removes player control, but with careful equipment choices, this item becomes a powerful enhancement.
- Pros: Reduces cooldowns, boosts uptime on strong equipment
- Cons: No manual control; not useful with charge-based equipment
- Best When: Used with passive or support equipment that benefits from frequent activation
Corpsebloom
Corpsebloom doubles healing received but spreads it over time, which complements Acrid’s passive regeneration and on-hit healing items. This lunar item synergizes especially well with builds centered around Leeching Seed or other healing-over-time mechanics, letting Acrid survive longer in prolonged fights.
- Pros: Massive total healing boost, fits Acrid’s regen style
- Cons: Delayed healing can be risky in burst-damage situations
- Best When: Stacked with healing items or used in long fights
Transcendence
Transcendence converts all health to shields and gives a flat shield boost. This changes Acrid’s regeneration mechanics, but it provides a consistent buffer against large bursts of damage. Though it removes poison’s healing utility, it can work well in one-shot protection builds or when paired with barrier effects.
- Pros: Grants consistent shielding and protection from one-shots
- Cons: Removes health-based healing, affects Acrid’s passive
- Best When: Combined with shield regeneration support or barrier items
Mercurial Rachis
This item randomly creates a buff zone that increases all stats. For Acrid, this includes movement speed, attack speed, and damage ideal for his fast-paced gameplay. While the random placement can be unreliable, it can work in synergy with Acrid’s mobility to take advantage of the buff zones effectively.
- Pros: Strong buffs across key stats
- Cons: Random placement can reduce usefulness
- Best When: You have enough mobility to move in and out of zones efficiently
Lunar Items to Avoid on Acrid
Defiant Gouge
While this item increases shrine usage by automatically summoning enemies, it doesn’t offer enough benefit to justify the risk on Acrid. It can lead to overwhelming waves of elites early, which are hard to manage without proper gear.
Purity
Although Purity reduces all cooldowns, it also removes randomness from effects negating many on-hit or proc-based builds. Acrid often benefits from item procs like Will-o’-the-wisp or Ukulele. Removing randomness can actually harm the synergy with such effects.
Strides of Heresy
This item replaces your utility skill with a shadow step ability. Acrid’s utility is a vital part of his mobility and survivability, especially in melee. Replacing it usually weakens his kit unless paired with specific builds that rely on pure damage output instead of crowd control.
Best Lunar Builds and Synergies for Acrid
Toxic Glass Cannon Build
This build focuses on maximizing Acrid’s damage output through Shaped Glass and Gesture of the Drowned. Stack equipment cooldown support items and run an aggressive strategy. This works best with AoE equipment and items like Will-o’-the-wisp to clear crowds quickly before they can fight back.
Regenerative Tank Build
With Corpsebloom and healing items like Leeching Seed or Rejuvenation Rack, Acrid can become nearly unkillable. This setup pairs great with poison-focused builds that allow you to deal damage and recover health simultaneously. Ideal for solo play and sustained combat encounters.
Shield Overload Build
Using Transcendence and Aegis, this build turns Acrid into a shield-based brawler. While you lose your health-based regeneration, you gain powerful front-loaded durability and can recover quickly after fights. Works well when combined with defensive drones or team buffs in multiplayer games.
Lunar items are often a gamble, but for players who understand Acrid’s strengths and limitations, they offer powerful tools that can completely transform gameplay. Whether you’re diving into Monsoon difficulty or just experimenting with builds for fun, the best lunar items for Acrid bring out new layers of strategy and excitement. Always consider your current build, available healing, and mobility before grabbing a lunar item. Used wisely, these items can make Acrid one of the deadliest survivors on any stage in Risk of Rain 2.