Egocentrism is among the many strange and game-changing Lunar items found throughout Risk of Rain 2. Lunar items often have a bizarre gimmick or character/build-altering effect. Most Lunar items are complete risks to your run whenever you obtain one. Unlike other lunar items, Egocentrism physically disrupts your item pool in exchange for a rich reward. Does this make it good enough to use Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2?
What Egocentrism Does in Risk of Rain 2
Egocentrism is a Lunar item in Risk of Rain 2 that generates three small floating orbs around your character. These orbs regenerate every 3 seconds at one stack. When an orb gets close to an enemy, it rapidly homes toward it and explodes on contact. Each detonation deals 3.6 times your base damage. Unlike the other Lunar items, where getting stacks of the thing doubles the negative, Egocentrism is built entirely around the idea of stacking itself.
The tradeoff for equipping Egocentrism is that every 60 seconds, you will lose one item in your inventory at random. You will not lose copies of Egocentrism, used items, or Tonic Afflictions. Every time this happens, you generate another copy of Egocentrism. Egocentrism is one of the only Lunar items in Risk of Rain 2 that only scales positively after one stack. The 60 seconds does not change no matter how many stacks you have.
How Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2 Stacks
Each stack of Egocentrism buffs two stats. The first buff increases the number of orbs revolving around your Survivor. The second buff is how long it takes to regenerate a ball. Having the first initial stack of Egocentrism grants you three orbs, while each subsequent stack only adds one.
After taking 15 stacks of Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2, the revolving orbs begin to expand farther away from the Survivor. This results in the spheres having a farther range and rotating around the Survivor faster.
Note: The item description’s time scaling for Egocentrism is incorrect. The cooldown between regenerating orbs is actually 3 seconds divided by the number of stacks you have. This means having one stack will give you 3 seconds between orbs. Furthermore, three stacks will provide you with five total spheres with 1 second between each recharge. And lastly, having six stacks will provide you with eight orbs with 0.5-second recharges.
How to Use Egocentrism Properly
The damage of Egocentrism not only scales off your base damage but also activates proc-coefficient items such as the Tri-Tip dagger. This means that although Egocentrism might consume these items randomly, picking them up is a great idea if you have the item equipped.
In Risk of Rain 2, Loader does wonders with this item in her build due to her ability to generate shields. The same goes for Mercenary builds in RoR2 due to the invincibility frames.
When to Not Use Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2
Unless you have upward of 15 stacks of Egocentrism, relying on it as a ranged character is not recommended. Despite his high raw damage stat, Acrid and characters like him with low sustain should also not rely solely on Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2.
Taking it on the Heretic in RoR2 is a death sentence. This is because it’ll most likely consume her Heresy items. Moreover, it’ll force them into being “Nevermore,” a useless ability that does nothing.
It’s also important to note that Egocentrism still consumes items when the difficulty is paused. This occurs even in places like the Bazaar Between Time. This means that if you spend a long time AFK next to the Newt, you can go into the next level with several more hard-hitting orbs revolving around you than you naturally would, given that you have items to be consumed. Since you’re probably receiving the item from this location, it might be worth sitting back and waiting for the item to scale before heading back out.
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What Equipment Works Best with Egocentrism?
Since Egocentrism only consumes items that sit in your inventory, Equipment is free reign. It is highly recommended to take low cooldown Equipment. Yet, the two most beneficial have to be the Executive Card and Royal Capacitor.
Executive Card
Since you’re already using an item that consumes your items, the Executive Card does wonders at preventing you from losing too many items. Being able to buy everything in a level at a discount is nothing to scoff at. Furthermore, the ability to buy every item from every terminal without them shutting down,guarantees that the Survivor has numerous items to use alongside Egocentrism. You will rarely run out of valuable items if you take the Executive Card. This is regardless of whether you’re in the early or late game.
Royal Capacitor
The Royal Capacitor is also great at keeping your Survivor alive. It helps your Egocentrism build in Risk of Rain 2 because it can smite any enemies that might be giving you trouble. Since you usually go out of your way to collect damage-enhancing items to use alongside Egocentrism, the 30x damage multiplier of the Royal Capacitor will nuke the bosses and enemies around you every 20 seconds.
Additionally, unlike the Executive Card, you can store multiple charges of the Royal Capacitor. This is because you don’t lose every Fuel Cell charge after a few minutes. Even if Egocentrism does consume your Fuel Cells, the extra stacks gained on your Equipment remain until spent. Then it would be best to acquire new Fuel Cells to regain additional stacks.
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Is Egocentrism Worth It?
The longer you tolerate Egocentrism’s downside, the stronger it gets. After 20 minutes, you will be generating a 3.5x base damage orb every .15 seconds. You will be able to stack this up to 22 times outside combat. Any boss you hit will take 7700% of your basic raw damage, which is more than the Royal Capacitor does in a single shot. The longer you wait, the longer the range of Egocentrism gets. Anything that benefits from hitting or killing enemies will pop off without you needing to aim or react to an enemy at a distance.
The item has an extreme payoff in exchange for constantly draining all other forms of power from your Survivor. If you can get at least one item a minute, Egocentrism will net you a heavy positive.
All in all, Egocentrism is an excellent item. Alongside Gesture of the Drowned, it might be one of the best Lunar Items in Risk of Rain 2 of all time. If you can work around it and survive until it out scales other items, you will be rewarded for your patience.
One of Egocentrism’s more hidden features in Risk of Rain 2 is attempting to remove the item. Usually, Lunar items can only be removed from a player’s inventory when using a Cleansing Pool. However, when trying to remove Egocentrism, you only remove one stack from the item rather than the entire item.
A Cleansing Pool has two types of drops. The first is a Pearl, which has an 80% chance of dropping. The second drop is an Irradiant Pearl, which has a 20% chance. A normal Pearl gives the Survivor a 10% increase to their Maximum Health. Yet, an Irradiant Pearl does the same to not only Health, but Regen, Speed, Damage, Attack Speed, Critical Chance, and Armor.
Wrap Up
Egocentrism is a good item and can make for some exciting and entertaining Risk of Rain 2 runs. The only downside to Egocentrism in Risk of Rain 2 is that it’s not easy to adapt to at the start or runs or can be easily used without proper planning. While Egocentrism is usually a great item, there are a few you will not be fortunate to pick up. Check out our list of the worst blue items in Risk of Rain 2 to find out which!
We recommend picking Egocentrism up in the middle or late game of your Risk of Rain 2 run. Not only that, but we recommend using it primarily on melee characters. Also, if you ever want to abandon a run because Egocentrism is becoming harmful, we recommend using a Cleansing Pool instead of restarting. If you are looking for more Risk or Rain 2 guides, check out our guide on how to beat Risk of Rain 2 and obtain every ending.
