What does the Egocentrism item do in Risk of Rain 2?

With the new Risk of Rain 2 DLC, Survivors of the Void, there are a multitude of new items and mechanics available to help you escape. One new item is Egocentrism, which offers survivors a new means of obliterating enemies, but it comes with a cost.

Egocentrism is a Lunar-rarity item which damages enemies. It replaces the survivor’s head with a large sphere, which becomes the barycenter for new bombs which begin orbiting the survivor. Every three seconds (-50% time per stack), a floating bomb is generated which begins to orbit the survivor, detonating on impact for 360% damage.

A maximum of three bombs (+1 per stack) can be generated at once. Every sixty seconds, a new stack of Egocentrism will be generated by consuming a random item in the Survivor’s inventory, allowing for additional bombs to begin orbiting the Survivor. However, while Egocentrism can become extremely strong with multiple stacks, Survivors should bear in mind that items are consumed randomly every sixty seconds: this could remove vital aspects of an ongoing build, which could threaten a successful run.

A rough equation to figure out whether or not Egocentrism is worth picking up in a current run is done by determining how far you are within your current run with the considered average of an estimated one hour, fifteen minutes per run. Picking up Egocentrism within the final thirty minutes of a run, for example, means that players will lose 30 inventory items for one additional 360% damage strike, regenerating every couple of seconds, the timer of which decreases as stacks increase.

In addition to calculating the possible time left, determining the DPS percentages per item stack within the Survivor’s inventory, along with active legendries. For example, the Legendary Frost Relic summons a 1,200% DPS ice storm that is centered on the Survivor upon killing an enemy, and grows in diameter every kill. This is a hard-hitting Survivor-centered DPS which will determine a playstyle — picking up Egocentrism in this case would be detrimental, if Frost Relic is consumed by the Lunar item.

Risk of Rain 2 often places these conundrums in front of players, determining whether the possibility of greater power is worth a risk, and Egocentrism is no different in this aspect. It’s just a matter of how many bombs you have the time to summon, and if you can risk your entire build.