Any% Fireshield Guide 2023

![](/static/blob/xzd96qnm.png)

This strategy requires the least amount of items and improves consistency over alternate strategies

Notes:

- Infusion should be picked by early stage 2 at the latest

- No red items required for this strategy to work, they are only listed here to show what I think are the most impactful on a run

- Mortar Tube is good if you've managed to already get the Crowbar and 5 Fireshields as it if you get around 3 of them they will provide an extra small chance to one shot providence

- This build assumes you will box/ladder warp from stage 5 to stage 6, if you are not doing this then get an extra hopoo feather

- Rusted Jetpack is not really necessary if box/ladder warping, but it is useful for traversing stages so I recommend it

How the final fight works:

- Stand where providence will spawn, let yourself get hit and move on to the next phase

- Move to the left near the doorway into the room and activate your key after a second or so, and if the wurms dont die completely then just kill them yourself 

- Move so you are standing on the exit console and wait for providence to spawn and hit you, interact with the console and you are done!

- In the event that you dont have 100% ATG proc chance and providence doesn't die on either of his phases, then it is still very possible to fight him normally and kill him fairly quickly

Fast Wurms (Phase 2):

- Fast Wurms happens when you manage to kill providence phase 1 with just the damage from the fireshield alone and still get and ATG proc which flies down and kills one of the wurms. Getting crit chance increasing items if you get extra items during the run is a good way to raise the chance of this happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdS4j4b0tj4?t=681

Current Item Builds (4/3/2021)

Itemization in Risk of Rain speedruns can be divided into three subcategories: the absolutely necessary items for fast movement (named here as **Core Items**), the bundle of common, uncommon and rare items you pick up besides those (named here as **General Items**), and the use item you pick up in the later stages, before fighting Providence (named here as **Use Items**).


#Core Items
##Gigantic Amethyst
Use item (orange). Necessary to execute the Bandit Smokebomb glitch, to build up speed. This item should be kept until the later stages, or until your character is at a considerably fast speed (this is not a well defined threshold and it varies from runner to runner; once you start having trouble opening small containers and chests, it's a good time to stop stacking speed).
##Hopoo Feathers and Rusty Jetpacks
Uncommon items (green). A bunch of these are necessary to execute the Out-Of-Bounds skip to Providence's room in the final stage. Also very helpful to move around stages and skipping over large gaps.
The recommended amount of items is 3 Feathers and 2 Jetpacks, or 4 Feathers and 1 Jetpack; these will consistently allow you to jump to the top of the final stage and be able to perform OOB (Having extra Feathers/Jetpacks can make it easier, but you should be saving those for the item builds; likewise, cutting down on these to setup the item builds may leave you stuck trying to climb the ship or unable to OOB).


#General Items
##Attack Speed
**Requirements**: (up to) 13 Soldier's Syringes, 1+ Laser Turbine
**Execution**: Just keep shooting. (With high attack speed, mashing the button is better than holding it down)
**Pros**:
* Consistency (not reaching 13 Syringes doesn't automatically mean you fail to execute the Prov kill)
* Doable with fewer syringes (only a tad bit slower)
* High attack speed charges Turbine faster, letting you time the kill on Wurms
**Cons**:
* Overall slower than other strats

##One-Shot
**Requirements**: 9 Crowbars, (up to) 10 Atg Missile Mk.1, 1 Ancient Scepter, 1 Brilliant Behemoth, 1+ Laser Turbine
**Execution**: Position yourself on the spot where Providence spawns (inside his hitbox), then use Lights Out
**Pros**:
* Fastest strat (with proper timing, you can kill Prov 1 and 3 on the first vulnerable frame)
* Even without Turbine, Wurms can be dealt with fast
* Doable with fewer Missiles (but riskier)
**Cons**:
* Reasonable amount of items required (easier in Monsoon)
* Requires accurate positioning inside the hitbox where Prov spawns
* Requires missiles to proc (each missile stack grants you a 10% chance of spawning them)
* Not having enough crowbars means the damage dealt won't be enough to kill Prov in one shot

##Fire Shield
**Requirements**: 10 Fire Shields, 9 Crowbars, 1 Infusion/Guardian's Heart, 1+ Laser Turbine
**Execution**: Get hit by Providence to trigger Fire Shield damage, instantly killing him
**Pros**:
* High amount of damage dealt
* Can be useful during the run to clear large groups of enemies
* Dealing on-contact damage and having a safety item can help in tight situations
**Cons**:
* Large amount of common items required (easier in Monsoon)
* Have to wait until Prov attacks to deal damage (stick close to it to avoid losing extra time)
* Not picking up a safety item (Infusion, Heart, etc) means certain death to Prov


#Use Items
##Explorer's Key
**Execution**: Around 1 second after Providence's Phase 3 starts spawning, trigger Key on the left side of the boss room to open the chests on the upper-left part of the screen; let Providence teleport to the left side to tank the missiles
**Pros**:
* Consistency (missiles usually kill Prov, even if he's still alive it only takes a few hits to get him down)
* After Prov teleports to tank the missiles you can go straight to the panel to finish the game, hitting it as soon as you can
**Cons**:
* Requires at least 2 Bundles of Fireworks to fully kill Prov
* Mistiming the Key or having Prov teleport a bit further away easily leaves him alive, which loses time and can get you killed

##Glowing Meteorite
**Execution**: Trigger as soon as Providence's Phase 1 dies
**Pros**:
* Turbine is no longer required
* Damages Wurms even before they appear (by hitting them on a lower platform, below the boss room)
* Often kills one of the Wurms, sometimes even kills both
**Cons**:
* Meteors can kill you as well (painful way to end a run)
* No fast kill on Prov 3 if you're using attack speed build

##Marble Gate
**Execution**: Set gate outside the boss's room, trigger when Providence's Phase 1 ends
**Pros**:
* Fast kill on Wurms (by dropping down to the lower platform below the boss room, where they spawn)
* Fast kill on Prov 3 by baiting him to teleport to you while you're outside of the room, killing him instantly
**Cons**:
* Requires better movement outside and around the boss room (prone to errors)
* Have to perform OOB again to get back in the boss room, losing some time

Framerate issues? Use a frame limiter.

Risk of Rain is known to have an issue with framerate - on some systems, the game won't get over ~50 fps, despite the system being more than powerful enough.

The fix: use an external frame-limiter. Options:

- The nVidia Control panel has one
- the frame limiter included in RTSS (part of MSI Afterburner) also works

 I set the limiter to 120 fps, and get a constant 60 from the game.

How to host without Hamachi

Explained in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Azy_fw0BQ

Risk of Rain video tutorial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzBxWeiwZmk

Risk of Rectangle Any% Notes

[pdf version of the guide](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-sjXeJD58IUyNcqy7pa3fVOuSJGdYKID)
Dexterity358
Last updated January 15, 2018

# Things to Know Before Running
1st thing to know is we run on version 1.2.2, which can be found at the [Resources](https://www.speedrun.com/ror/resources) page on [Speedrun.com](https://www.speedrun.com). This version is ran because Providence doesn't have his shield after 1/3 HP.

There's a 100% save file on the [Resources](https://www.speedrun.com/ror/resources) page also. The save file goes in C:\GOG Games\Risk of Rain

We also now run on a locally hosted online server. This is done by selecting "Start Online Co-op" then "HOST GAME". ***IMPORTANT NOTE:** Make sure no one's IP is in the join game section if you are streaming. It should go without saying, but it's easy to forget about it.*

## Terminology to Know
__**Zoom Strats**__ — This is when you go into the escape menu mid run to change the zoom. This is done to decrease the travel distance of the money that turns into xp at the end of the run. Watch Scaz' [9 10 RTA - 9 04 IGT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6l8C5Nd3S0) for a good demostration of zoom strats.

__**Amethyst Glitch**__ —  Also referred to as "Smokebomb Glitch", "Amethyst Smokebomb" and "Bandit Sprint". This is achieved by using Bandit's Smokebomb, Amethyst, and Smokebomb again in quick succession. When you initially start the combo you are getting one stack of Smokebomb speed. When you do Amethyst then Smokebomb a 2nd time you have 2 stacks of speed boost from the the combo. Since the initial Smokebomb was interrupted by the 2nd Smokebomb, you only lose 1 stack of speed boost.

__**Box Strats**__ — Also referred to as "Box Glitch". When you are collecting the final xp from the top left you want to be in a command chest. Select an item after you collect the xp. You will have control of your character right away when you teleport to the next level. An example of this is a [twitch clip](https://clips.twitch.tv/EasyViscousRadishFreakinStinkin) from anshwo. It's not that important of a strat. You can lose you time because when you’re not moving, you can get money trained.

__**OoB**__ —  Also referred to as "Prov Skip". Onin's [Risk of Rain speedrun tutorial](https://youtu.be/FesrXx6gOWM?t=813) is still a good explanation of OoB. The only thing it's missing is how you instantly teleport up the ladder. You can instantly teleport up the ladder by holding both up and down, instead of just holding up to grab the ladder.


# Detailed Any% Notes

We choose to run on a locally hosted online server because bosses have less hp and you can do zoom strats. Zoom strats are possible in the singleplayer mode but are slower because the game pauses when going into the menu. We also run Bandit for amethyst glitch. The 3 artifacts we use for Any% are Glass, Command, and Spirit.

We start the run zoomed out so we can have an easier time seeing where the portal is located. Enemies start spawning at around 10 seconds. Something that new runners, even old runners, forget is you can shoot the lemurians to come to you faster. You can take 1 hit from a lemurian for a speed boost.

The 1st green item you want to get is "Smart Shopper", often referred to as wallet or purse. One wallet should be good. This is extremely helpful for more shrine attempts and opening all chests. It also makes enemies that normally don't drop money, the imps from imps statues, drop gold.

The rest of the greens you want are 4 Hopoo Feathers and 1 Rusty Jetpack. The order you want to get them is 1 Feather -> 1 Jetpack -> 3 Feather. Any greens after this should be put towards AtG Missile Mk. 1.

If you get a red item from the 1st boss then you want to get laser turbine. You want to get 2 turbines. After 2 turbines we get missles or behemoths.

The 1st white item you would want to get is fireworks, you want to get about 2 in the whole run; Getting 2 fireworks in succession or delaying getting the other one later is up to you. Fireworks are used to clear any straggling/flying enemies at the end of a level, they are also used for the the final boss. The last paragraph shows why I think you should get 2 fireworks.

The next 7 whites you want for the run is Soldier Syringe. Important side note, after 13 Syringes Bandit does not get any benefit. If you look at the wiki it will have 3 different numbers 8, 12, 13. I've tested this myself and found it to be 13 for bandit. Any whites beyond with point are your choice. Anshwo has told me he likes to go with Lens-Maker's Glasses. Onin brought up that [Crowbar](https://i.imgur.com/jef9geG.png) might be a good pickup.

The 1st orange item you want is Amethyst. Bandit's 4th ability, when you kill an enemy with it, resets his cooldowns to 0. So you would want to do amethyst glitch then kill somebody with your 4th ability. Most runners switch amethyst for the 2nd orange on map 4-5. Only [random roulette chamber](https://i.imgur.com/cmIGmGS.png) and [small chests](https://i.imgur.com/GW0Ygoi.png) have a chance of dropping an orange command box. Roulette chambers also have a chance to contain an orange item.

The 2nd orange you are going to want is Explorer's Key. Map 3 and onward is when you want to trade Amethyst for Key, it's really up to you if you want to trade it as early as map 3 or wait.

The biggest run killers are Dank Caverns (Damp Caverns), Desolate Forest, top spawn of Risk of Rain, and getting Amethyst. Top spawn is an instant run killer because of the 30 second wait time for opening the door.

When you finally make it to Risk of Rain, you want to get on top of the ship. If you got top spawn then you have to wait for the door to open and jump up the hole in the next room. With any other spawn you want to climb up the left side of the ship. Here's an example from Onin's [9 10 RTA - 9 06 IGT](https://youtu.be/8ZeuM0lYDrs?t=507). Once you make it on top of the ship you want to proceed left until you're on Providence's room. You then want to perform OoB.

If you are having trouble getting the OoB then just open the doors to Providence's room and keep practicing the skip. The skip takes some time to get use to, so just keep trying and you’ll get it in no time.

Killing 1st phase of Providence is pretty straight forward. You kill him like you would any other boss in the previous stages. You might want to spam ability 1 so you can get off a turbine shot. You want to charge up turbine again before 2nd phase, Gilded Wurms.

For 2nd phase you want to stand at the bottom of the room to setup for the Wurms. You want to hit them with turbine, make sure you hit more than one segment of the Wurms; Wurms should die instantly to 1 turbine hit.

For the 3rd and final phase you want to stand under the middle left ladder. You want to jump to the closed door on the left and use Key to open the chests. You want to go on to that left ladder so he teleports above you. You then want to go to the terminal while he's being hit by the fireworks. Here's an example from Onin's [9 10 RTA - 9 06 IGT](https://youtu.be/8ZeuM0lYDrs?t=543).

You can do the fight with 1 firework, but I think 2 is better to get. An example of this is Scaz' [9 10 RTA - 9 04 IGT](https://youtu.be/w6l8C5Nd3S0?t=551), which has 6 boxes open. If Scaz' had 2 fireworks it would have killed 3rd phase as fast as: anshwo's [9 12 RTA - 9 08 IGT](https://youtu.be/zS0LOLKLy0E?t=552), which has 6 boxes open; or Scaz' [9 09 RTA - 9 05 IGT](https://youtu.be/nwH0jV2eaXo?t=549), which has 5 boxes open.


# Quick Any% Notes
* Artifact are Glass, Command, and Spirit.
* 1st Green is Wallet, then collect 4 Feathers & 1 Jetpack (1 Feather -> 1 Jetpack -> 3 Feather). The rest are Missles.
* Red are 2 Turbines, the rest Missiles or Behemoth.
* 1st White is Firework, then 7 Syringes & 1 Firework (any order). The rest Lens or Crowbar
* 1st Orange is Amethyst. Trade for Key on map 4 or 5.




# Final Thoughts
Thanks guido_slapnugs, anshwo, Onin & scaz.zaf for helping. My notes are probably just okay, but I'm glad you guys helped make it even the tiniest bit better. You guys and all of the slowjogging discord are awesome. If there are any updates needed or errata then you can reach me from the [Risk of Rectangles Slowjogging Discord](https://discord.gg/XZAMw2S). If that link doesn't work anymore you can find a link at the [Speedrun.com RoR Forum](https://www.speedrun.com/ror/forum). If you still need help or know a strat that might be faster, then feel free to ask the runners in the discord or on the forum; More eyes are on the Discord than the Speedrun.com Forums, but either are good places for discussion/questions.

Name	Author
Any% Fireshield Guide 2023	_Wig 2 years ago
Current Item Builds (4/3/2021)	Uziskull 4 years ago
Framerate issues? Use a frame limiter.	iwasaradio 2 months ago
How to host without Hamachi	ShadowDraft 7 years ago
Risk of Rain video tutorial	Onin 7 years ago
Risk of Rectangle Any% Notes	Dexter 5 years ago
scaz.zaf's item guide (7/17/2017)	scaz.zaf 7 years ago