Risk of Rain: Starstorm Mod Info

******UPDATED 6/25/20******
Starstorm: A Detailed Guide
****GET THE MOST UP-TO-DATE VERSION OF THE MOD HERE: https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1sv6FYImGI3rP47bSCI9L9BoA5ZR3dj4A&export=download

***QUICK HOSTING GAME REFERENCE***
-/v/ rules artifacts + adversity (every 5th stage is an ethereal teleporter)
-Blacklist Baby's Toys, Relic of Gratification (been known to be overpowered/cause crashes).
-Set max player HP cap to 999
-Set storm rate and enemy buff to x2
-Nkota's Heritage (clipboard-looking red) is a really good first red. If host didn't ban it, get it for items fast.
-Get a Counterfeit Teleporter (orange) before stage 5 (preferably on stage 4) to bypass the first ethereal teleporter.
-If you a hear thunder and the screen flashes purple after finishing a stage, a void portal has spawned. Do it to permanently make the run harder and allow nemesis survivor enemies to have a chance of spawning per stage (currently a max of 3).

***"Wtf is it?"***
Starstorm is a near total overhaul of Risk of Rain that includes several new enemies, six new elites, over a dozen new items, new stages, vanilla stage variants, alternate loadouts for each default survivor, four new survivors, a new difficulty in Ethereal portals (found where artifacts normally are), and various QOL touches.

"Sounds like it fucks over the general Risky experience. Fuck you for trying to shill this."
It's entirely in keeping with the spirit of vanilla /v/ rules, and vanilla as a whole i.e. Ceremonial Dagger, along with Infusion, are now balanced for Glass.

***"No shit? What QOL changes are there?"***
Modloader already includes a TAB menu to showcase players and their item counts (sorted by whites, greens, reds, and clovers), but Starstorm includes a SHIFT menu with even more details, including information on item stacking, player armor, hp, etc. Other things include (from the mod page itself):
-Automatic De-tilting: getting stuck on walls because the game wants you to? No thanks! Automatic de-tilting makes sure you never get completely stuck inside anything! (Disclaimer: this won't stop you from getting out of bounds!)
-Better Crates: crates now remember your last selection. Use item crates now despawn as the normal use items do. No more delay from opening crates, because picking up items shouldn't be a chore! (This also means you won't waste green
-Better Pick-ups: item text now follows the player who picked up the item. Picking more than one item of the same type is more efficiently displayed. No more than one item description per player can be displayed at once for much less clutter.
-Better Item Stacks: hate those items that just DON'T stack? Now (currently) two of them do! Red Whip and Dio's Friend now can be stacked the way you would be expecting them to do!
-Glass Item Rebalance: it's a common unwritten rule that either having Infusion or Ceremonial Dagger on a Glass run makes you a big cheater, Starstorm fixes that by rebalancing both items when the Glass artifact is enabled: Each 10 Infusion kills grant one HP, Ceremonial Daggers deal a third of their normal damage.
-Faster Gold Pickup: gold now takes slightly less time to fly towards you, so you are no longer having to wait for it in front of a chest you can almost afford.
-Sound Fix: all sounds are stopped when a run is finished or while returning back to main menu. This prevents several loops from being stuck and played forever even after exiting to menu.
-Boss Item Chests: Yellows are now able to be dropped as command chests.
-Fireworks on Command Artifact: fireworks now activate when choosing an item from a command chest.

***Feature Highlights***
-ACTUAL RISK OF RAIN: "Storm" events will occasionally happen later in the run. The screen will turn a bit brighter and all enemies will have their stats buffed for the duration of the storm.
-New Events: Along with the aforementioned storm events, other events can occasionally happen including:
 -The "Strong Winds" event will cause a certain direction to be harder to move towards due to the winds.
 -The "Dissonance" event functions a lot like Risk of Rain 2's dissonance artifact; will spawn enemies that aren't usually found in that stage for a period of time.
 -The "Flood" event will cause water to rise from the bottom of the map and affect your gravity much like the water in Stage 3 Sunken Tomb.
 -The "Collapse" event will create and earthquake that makes rocks rain down from above. Small indicators will show where the rocks will land. Usually happens in underground stages.
-Ethereal Teleporters: want even more of a challenge? Big teleporters will occasionally spawn in the same locations you would find the vanilla artifacts. Turn on the "Adversity" artifact to always have the 5th stage's teleport be an Ethereal teleporter. Activating them will permanently treat that run as if it were a +1 loop and harder enemies will start spawning. Don't do it before the first loop unless you want to wipe or you somehow already have a good amount of items.
-Relics: will spawn on the stage 5 temple map/mountain map. These items function similarly to lunar items from the second game in that they give you an advantage at a disadvantage.
-Item Activators: Equipment items will spawn on maps. Pay money to use an equipment item. Price will rise per use.
-Rulesets: Want more crazy modifiers? Want only meteorites to drop? Anything is possible now with rulesets.
-ALT Skins/Skills: All vanilla characters now have a skin with an alternative skill replacing one of their vanilla ones.
-Alternate Ending: A new alternate ending, try using a Counterfeit Teleporter during the Providence fight...
-Soundtrack Options: New options to enable or disable the remixed soundtrack, dynamic music related to teleporters finishing, etc.

***New Enemies***
-Gatekeeper: bigger and much badder version of temple guardians. They will fuck you up with their lasers when entrenched, and will occasionally summon an orbital laser strike when moving. Incredibly deadly.
-Sand Crab King: originally slated to be in Risk of Rain, but left only as a drawing. Starstorm author implemented him proper. They're not very tough, but they drop a fuckload of spite bombs and can immobilize you with bubbles, leaving you open to getting missiled by volatiles, or otherwise attacked.
-Exploders: small little slug-like creatures that do exactly like their name suggests. Can oneshot you with /v/ rules at nearly any stage of the game.
-Squall Elvers: small worm/wyvern-like enemies that spawn in the new mountain stage 5 and on loops. They slowly home in on you and are segmented like wurms.
-Scrounger: weird, long-legged abominations that will spit acid that spreads on the ground, creating a hazard for any player that steps in it.
-Wayfarers: a previously unused lamp post-looking boss now implemented in the game. Will buff nearby enemies in an AoE and make itself invisible. Its melee attack bashes its two lamps in its hand to damage you.
-Overseer: A scrapped alpha boss re-implemented into the game. Will turn it's body incorporeal and chase you around as a floating eye firing 3 fireballs at you periodically.


***New Elites***
-Weakening: Get within range, and they reduce your armor as long as you're tethered to them.
-Dazed: On getting hit by a dazed elite, your left and right buttons are temporarily switched.
-Poison: Fuck these guys in particular. They leave poison clouds like the fungi in Fungal Cavern, but they last much longer.
-Gilded: Gilded elites spawn with three golden spheres above their heads, and can attack you with them at long range. can melt you in seconds even during late game.
-Corrosive: leaves behind a trail of acid on the ground, applies a DoT if they manage to hit you, and reduces your armor as well.
-Void: Just being near a void elite will cause you to slow down immensely, and reduce your jump height greatly. A single void elite in a group of enemies can mean you're fucked if you get near them.
-Ethereal: after hitting an ethereal teleporter, these guys will start spawning and fuck you up. Will aggressively teleport to you like the yellow Frenzied elites, but don't require a ground to teleport to. Will cause an extremely damaging AoE around itself indicated by a teal circle around it.
-Ultra: Larger enemies that hit harder and have greater health pools. Ultra can be fitted atop other elites i.e. Ultra, Weakening Vagrant. Incredibly rare, (a lot more common once a couple ethereal teleporters are activated).

***Alternate Loadouts***
**COMMANDO**
	-Fatmando: functions like default. Meme character.
	-Specialist: his pistol fires 1 piercing round instead of the normal 2-shot double tap.
	-Nemesis: wields a laser blade that deals bleed damage with each slash.
**ENFORCER**
	-Heavy: Shotgun range is extended, but initial speed is slower.
	-Nemesis: Z is replaced with a powerful hammer that knocks enemies back. His previous shield stance now allows you to switch to a
     chaingun for maximum BRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTT.
**BANDIT**
	-Reaper: the character from Hopoo's other game, Deadbolt. A much more powerful Bandit, but at greatly reduced health.
	-Nemesis: Z is replaced with a slower, but more powerful shot. His X stun bomb is now a lasso that tethers to enemies and allows
     you to pull and perhaps even ride whatever you lasso'd. His V still resets cooldowns, but is now a shorter range, piercing shotgun
     blast.
**HUNTRESS**
	-Arbalist: Her alt fires double each attack. Two glaives, two arrows, or two cluster arrows. Trouble is you can't cancel out of
    these with her blink.
**HAN-D**
	-R-MOR: Replaces fist strike with a rocket punch in exchange for slower speed.
**ENGINEER**
	Fungusman: Turrets are now mushrooms that periodically heals allies in a radius around it along with applying a poison DoT to any
    enemy within that same radius.
**MINER**
	-Blacksmith: Replaces Crush with a burning blade that attacks slower, but deals blazing damage with each strike.
**SNIPER**
	-Assassin: Replaces standard fire with a knife that pierces enemies close together and deals bleed damage. Quick rate of fire, but
    incredibly risky.
**ACRID**
	-Acerbid: Replaces first skill with a long range spit, but loses its poison.
**MERCENARY**
	-Legionary. Wields a large blade that he strikes down with, dealing massive damage. MUCH slower than default Z, but greater range.
**LOADER**
	-Prosecutor: Kicker. Runs faster, grapple has a longer range, three kick combo that pushes enemies back on the third kick.
**CHEF**
	-Ninja: Faster initial speed. Replaces cleavers with ninja stars that don't return to you. Enhanced ninja stars fire it in a fan-
    like pattern in whatever way you're facing.
**EXECUTIONER**
    -Electrocutioner: Z is now a short range lightning bolt that deals more damage the closer you are to an enemy.
**BARONESS**
    -Boaroness: Z is now a short range spear stab. Your C mount is now a boar that allows you to jump and turns your Z into a two-hit
    spear stab. V now summons 4 boars that will charge ahead, dealing damage.

***New Characters***
-Executioner: Melee-range hybrid. Can utilize his pistol at a range with X, fear enemies and gain a brief invincibility window with his C, and his V skill allows him to rise in the air and bring down his axe similar to HAN-D. On kill, his axe will lower the cooldowns of his other abilities.

-Mule: Melee. Its Z causes it to stand still and wind up its melee attack for big damage. X is a ranged stun/snare. Useful to combo stun with its melee attack. C pushes you forward, spinning your arms around knocking enemies around with you. V deploys a drone that heals for a good chunk and then disappears. The drone provides an overshield if at full health and i-frames while deploying it. A fully charged melee attack on the edge of platforms can you send you flying pretty far, useful for escapes and mobility.

-Cyborg: Ranged. An interpretation of an early alpha character "Cyborg" in the cut content of the original Risk of Rain. X fires three shots at an angle, C allows you to put put down a marker at a location and teleport back to it within a limited range, and V fires a slow moving energy projectile that slowly fades as it goes farther and farther, doing damage the entire time. Excellent against lines of enemies, and overloading magma worms. Ancient Scepter increases the damage of your V.

-Technician: Ranged. Functions similarly to Engineer. Z is a piercing ranged wrench attack. You can throw the wrenches at your tech to upgrade them. X is charged mine that can be upgraded 3 times to have a bigger explosion radius and an enemy magnetic pull. V is a drone turret can be upgraded 3 times as well to increase its attack speed and persists as long as you are alive. Can sip an NR-G drink to temporarily boost speed and attack speed. Multiple Technicians can upgrade each other's stuff. Ancient Scepter allows you to place a fully upgraded drone turret without having to upgrade it with Z.

-Nucleator: Ranged. The further he fires his nuclear projectiles, the more damage he does. Overcharge his attacks to sacrifice a % of his health to make them better. His Z can be overcharged at varying degrees to fire a homing ball of energy, his X can be used to push enemies back, his C allows himself to boost himself in any direction, and his V adds a radiation damage buff and aura to all his attacks. Ancient Scepter increases his V buff damage and duration.

-Baroness: Ranged. Good at single target damage and isolating smaller threats. Z is an automatic rifle you can hold down to fire, X is a telekinetic grab that holds enemies in stasis for you to move around for a short while, C summons a hover-bike you can mount to get around fast (and allows for a laser that gains damage the longer you hold it down on a single target), and V is a laser marker that calls down a damaging orbital laser strike (very good against an early wurm). Ancient Scepter increases the damage of the orbital laser strike.

-Chirr: Ranged. Beast tamer/minion controller. Very slow walk and climb speed, but has a higher jump and a hover you can use to move around. Her X is a short range stun you can use, her C an AOE heal that heals friends and minions and lingers a bit, and her V allows you to tame 1 enemy near you when they are below a certain threshold of health. After taming, your V skill allows you to drag around your minion on a tether.  Ancient Scepter allows you to tame bosses at 30% of their health.

-Pyro: Short-range. An interpretation of an early unused alpha character "Pyro" in the cut content of the original Risk of Rain. Holding Z let's loose your flamethrower and builds up "heat" in a meter. When the bar is full, damage you deal will inflict a blazing DoT. X pushes things back if they're super close and lowers the heat meter. C propels yourself in a direction while expelling heat from the heat meter, (less heat = more horizontal movement, more heat = more vertical movement). V allows you to disperse homing fire pellets provided you have heat in the heat meter, (higher heat = more pellets).

***New Stages***
-Stage 1 now has a Desolate Forest variant with many pits and ropes.
-A post-loop only Stage 1 called Stray Tarn is now in the map rotation. Similar design to the Temple of the Elders and implements the scrapped elevator ideas from the early alpha of the game.
-A post-loop only Stage 2 now exists. It is a mine stage that is super cramped and has numerous dead-ends unless you have mobility items (also wurms).
-Stage 4 now has a Hive Cluster variant that is a lot smaller and has bottomless pits on both sides.
-A new stage 4 called Verdant Woodland (previously The Overgrowth), which is a vertical-heavy forest stage with lots of platforms and ropes to traverse.
-Stage 5 has a new map called Uncharted Mountain which has tall vertical drops and long hallways (also wurms).
-New mysterious and hidden realms await such as the Void, and perhaps even something beyond Providence?

***New Item (Descriptions and Tier List) (WIP)***
**S TIER**
-Coffee Bag: White, increases movement speed by 10% AND attack speed by 7%. A good alternative to its singular stat-boosting counterparts Soldier's Syringe and Goat Hoof, but can be stacked infinitely. Extremely good on any survivor and easy to get.
-Nkota's Heritage: Red, drops a chest on level up (this includes the post-stage level-ups gained when teleporting). Very good early to essentially be an item printer as long as you are alive. Pairs well with Diaries and Baby's Toys. Falls off later as levels are harder to gain beyond 12, but Baby's Toys remedy this.
-Erratic Gadget: Red, every crit has double damage (400% damage). Stacking increases this by 50%.
-Malice: White, attacks you do to 1 enemy will do 55% of that damage to another. Stacking increases the number of enemies that can be affected at a time. Very useful to shit on segmented enemies and provide AoE to non-AoE survivors.
-Voltaic Gauge: Green, killing elites generates orbs that grant a temporary shield on pickup.
-Stirring Soul: Black (obtained through killing a nemesis survivor during a run), causes white soul dots to appear when enemies are killed. The holder can run over the dots to have a chance of spawning an item. Very good item to help itemlets catch up.
-Augury: Black (obtained through killing a nemesis survivor during a run), taking damage builds up a black aura around you. When fully charged, it causes the entire map to go black for a second and instantly kills all enemies on the map.

**A TIER**
-Relic of Force: Relic (found on stage 5), increases damage by 100% but decreases your attack speed AND cooldowns by 40%. Good catch-up, but you're going to have to compensate for the reduced attack speed with whites and reduced cooldowns with reds.
-Relic of Extinction: Relic (found on stage 5), a black hole will constantly follow you dealing damage the closer an enemy is to the center of the hole, but the black hole will damage you as well. Can completely eviscerate bosses provided you're fast enough to outrun it.
-Droid Head: Red, user gets a drone with each boss kill. Pairs well with the vanilla item Arms Race.
-Shell Piece: Yellow (boss item), provides immunity to damage on near death (once per stage). Good late game.
-Detritive Trematode: White, enemies at low health will continually take damage over time until they die.
-Metachronic Trinket: Green, reduces teleporter charge time. Useful when activating Ethereal Teleporters late game as they scale up the charge time.
-Countefeit Tele: Orange, puts down a teleporter in front of you to activate. Absolutely required on stage 5 to bypass the Ethereal Teleporter if the Adversity artifact is on. NOTE: You cannot go to final with this. Trying using it during the Providence boss fight and see what happens.

**B TIER**
-Insecticide: Red, all dealt damage becomes a poisonous DoT. Good alternative to Rusty Knife and is its own damage source.
-Strange Can: Green, chance to intoxicate enemies and applies a DoT over time separate from other DoT sources.
-Relic of Mass: Relic (found on stage 5), tour speed starts slow, but the longer you hold down a direction, the more speed you gain until you stop or change a direction. Requires some skill to get used to and to utilize properly.
-Voltaic Gauge: Green, functions like a Monster Tooth except it generates shield and you have to pick it up from enemies instead of having it fly towards you. Decent team item.

***C TIER***
-Balloon: Green, lowers your gravity by 34%. A decent Hopoo Feather alternative.
-Diary: White, good self catch-up item. Pairs well with an early Nkota's Heritage to get items fast.
-Baby's Toys: Red, you will essentially drop 5 levels, but keep the stats earned through previous level ups. Extremely good with a Nkota's, but is generally too overpowered with Nkota's so it's blacklisted.
-Molten Coin: White, chance to apply a blazing DoT to enemies, costs $1 per proc. OK alternative to other DoT-based items.
-Composite Injector: Red, allows you to combine multiple use items together and use them in one activation. Some use item combinations are good, but most people like to mess around by stacking a bunch of these and getting 1 of each use items.

FINAL NOTE: If mod author/mod man (Neik) is in the game, tell him what's in your crashlog if you happen to crash. Useful to troubleshoot straight from the mod author, because FUCK crashes and FUCK white screen freezing.