This guide will explain how to set-up, practice, and learn how to do the Loader Pod Strategy for the Risk of Rain 2 Any% Current Patch Speedrun.

Set-up

The first thing I recommend you do before you start doing runs is you should follow Gothrand's config guide. This guide will help you set up configs to make your runs more efficient and can help you with practicing stages.

One last thing to do is downloading a pod profile, a pod profile is a profile specifically editted to have no lunar equipments unlocked. You can download this profile I use here and put it into "Program Files (x86) > Steam > userdata > (user-id) > 632360 > remote > UserProfiles."

Make sure you set this file to read-only in the file properties so that once you do get an achievement, it will not be saved to your profile.

Practicing

For practice Loader movement, specifically for practicing commencement, you should follow Gothrand's Commencement Guide. If you are on current patch, change the line with set_scene moon to set_scene moon2 in the pod file. That will update it to current patch moon. For learning the loader movement, I recommend this video to better understand how loader movement works.

Build

The Loader loadout that you should be using is:

• Spiked Fist
• Charged Gauntlet
• M551 Pylon

This loadout is the best for movement based goals such as general movement, commencement, starting stages, and more.

As far as artifacts go:

• Glass
• Enigma
• Command
• Delusion (1.10+)

Glass is for high damage and not having to go get a Shaped Glass in bazaar, just dont get hit and you will be fine.

Enigma is for trying to get a Volcanic Egg so you can clip through the Mithrix Arena during p4 skip and saves time on looking for an equipment barrel.

Command is for picking the items we want from teleporter drops and chests drop.

Delusion is mainly a convenience, so if u get a chest next to tp, you can obtain another of it, which is good for most of the items mentioned below. (This artifact only effects chests, not equipment barrels or lunar pods.)

One last thing I recommend doing, is turning off the Survivors of the Void DLC. This gets rid of void cradles, maps, items, and enemies which makes the speedrun more simplified and increases the amount of lunar pods you will be getting at the start of each run.

Strategy

You want to roll for a stage you are comfortable with, this means you know where all the newt alters are and teleporter can spawn. You want to roll until you get a good newt alter route with 1-3 newt pods depending on your seed and practice with each scenario. You should always be trying to using your equipment until you get a Volcanic Egg.

Getting a recycler here can jeopardize the run, so the best way to work around this would to either find a extra green item, boss item, or lunar item to reroll. Otherwise you will have to find an equipment barrel or just restart the run if you end up doing a run without the egg clip.

Items

The items you should pick are as follows:

• Focused Convergence- You want to get 3 Focused Convergences by getting 2 or 3 lunar pods on stage 1. Then, you can get the last convergence at the bazaar and while you are there, you can get 3 or 4 purities. Here are the portals times depending on how many focused convergences you have:

0 = 90s

1 = 69.2s

2 = 56.2s

3+ = 47.3s

• Purity- You want to get a run with 3 or 4 purities depending on how confident you feel in your movement. 4 is ideal for runs due to your grapple having no cooldown. Each Purity reduces cooldowns by 2 seconds.

• Kjaro's and Runald's Bands- You want to get 1 Runald's band and all the next green items should be Kjaro's bands. This is because Runald's bands stack 250% per band while Kjaro's stack 300% per band. Typically, you get 1 Runald's Band and 4 Kjaro's band from boss drops.

• Backup Magazine- Backup Magazine is good when combo'd with the purities. It helps you make your movement fluent and ideally you only get 1, but if you aren't confident enough you can get 2.

• Crowbar- Crowbar is good for the charged punch and it helps when killing enemies in p2 and killing Mithrix. Ideally you get 1, but if you have a backup magazine already, I recommend stacking as many crowbars as possible.

• Genesis Loop- (if you get a boss item) You are already low health so if you get hit enough, you can clear all enemies around you.

Stages

Stage 1- Distant Roost is faster, but Newt Pod spawns are harder to see. Titanic plains is slower but easier to see Newt Pods, I typically reset for Titanic plains, because it's easier to route for pods in my personal opinion.

Verdant Falls is a pretty small map so the Newt Pods can spawn pretty densely together. However, the alter locations are inside of a structure, so it's only the fastest map if alter is automatically turned on. If you want to know a trick to find the alter, I made a short video to explain a pinging issue with this map:

Get Newt Altar and try to get a seed with 2 or more Newt Pods (1 is good for practicing.) Complete teleporter and enter the blue portal.

Bazaar- Grab all lunar items and make sure none of them are equipment lunars, and you should end up with 3 Focused Convergences and 3 or 4 Purities (Newt Pods are common during other stages so its alright to get the 4th Purities before Commencement.)

Stages 2-5- Do teleporter as fast as possible and follow the item guide. Make sure you know how to spot the teleporter from afar and learn the maps. Ideal maps are Abandoned Aqueduct > Rallypoint Delta > Siren's Call.

Moon After practicing pillar skip as loader, this should feel like muscle memory. You should however study some speedrunner's Mithrix fights. To do the Volcanic Egg Clip, the closest ramp to the rescue ship is the only ramp you can clip through. This clip by me shows the ideal outcome of doing the clip. You should position yourself to hit Mithrix while launching towards the ramp. While this is happening you should P4 skip, and you will be diving towards the ship.

Studying

I recommend watching people do runs such as @_Wig, @ConfusedBTW, @MeaFreya, and me (@snekuru.) Some of them stream and some of them you can watch their speedruns. I would recommend trying to see where they could improve their times at and trying to practice getting better at it. Seeing the small issues they make and working on improving them in your own gameplay will help you improve your skill and time as a speedrunner.

Summary Pod runs will make you stay on stage 1 for a long time until you get the Newt Pods. After you do, don't let the pressure break you and your run. If you do, let it go and maybe take a break. It's important to only do runs if you are enjoying it and remember it's still all in fun. If you need help, visit the Risk of Rain 2 Speedrunning Discord and ask for help. Goodluck to everybody who plans on running pod and best of luck to you. <3