[Update]: Risk of Rain 2 has now left Early Access alongside the massive new Update 1.0!

It seems that Risk of Rain 2 is taking its Early Access stay quite seriously given the amount of content the developers have been adding. A few months ago they introduced a new survivor, bosses, as well as stage variants, while the more recent major update looks to be just as impactful.

The aptly named Artifacts update brings with it sixteen powerful artifacts that will dramatically change the way you play by essentially having you customize your own difficulty. For example, my favorite Artifact of Glass makes it so you deal 500% damage, but only have 10% of the usual health pool. It makes the gameplay mercilessly difficult as a slight breeze can topple you over, but the absurd amount of power you get in return is absolutely delightful to play around with!

That's not all, however, as the update has overhauled the UI, as well as removed the annoying on-screen cursor for gamepad users. There's also a new stage to explore (Sky Meadow), two new music tracks to jam out to, a new hidden realm to explore, as well as couple of skill variants to toy around with.

If you're interested in checking out all of the changes, quality of life tweaks and bug fixes, you can read the full patch notes over at Steam.

As for the future, the recent community vote has decided that the next survivor will not be a Risk of Rain 1 veteran, but rather an entirely new character instead! The details are obviously nonexistent as Hopoo Games haven't even begun working on them, but what I can tell you is that they're trying to make the new character as creative and innovative as possible.

What exactly that might mean in gameplay terms, I'm afraid we'll all have to wait until Risk of Rain 2 fully launches in order to find out. Until then, have fun with the artifacts!