High Command — an RTS mode for Risk of Rain 2

Stop running. Start commanding.

Русская версия

High Command turns Risk of Rain 2 into a real-time strategy game. You have no body: you are the commander, looking down at the stage from an RTS camera. Your army is made of real survivors (Huntress, MUL-T, Acrid, Engineer, anyone you have unlocked), each driven by its own AI with that survivor's actual skills. You select them, give them orders, spend the army's gold on new recruits and upgrades, and decide when to start the teleporter.

Everything else is the game you know: the same stages, enemies, director, elites, bosses, items, difficulties and artifacts. It just plays very differently when you are the one holding the map.

Status: early but playable. Single player only. I am actively working on it, and I would love your feedback (see Feedback and help).

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What you get

Command an army of survivors

Select heroes with a click or a box drag. A right click does the obvious thing: move, attack the enemy under the cursor, follow a friend, open a chest. Attack-move, focus fire, hold, patrol, retreat to a rally point, formations, control groups, Shift-queues: it is all there, with the hotkeys you would expect from an RTS.

Heroes that fight like their survivor

Every hero uses its own kit. Ranged survivors keep their distance and kite, melee survivors dive in, and Engineer drops turrets. Skills fire on their own, or you cast them yourself (Z X C, Y for equipment) and switch any skill's automatic use on or off. Stances (aggressive / defensive / passive) decide how far they chase.

Get down into the fight

The camera is built like a modern RTS camera: zoom to the cursor, rotate, tilt, and zoom all the way in for a low, cinematic view right next to your heroes. A rock or a roof that hides a hero fades out of the way. A hero behind a hill is drawn as a silhouette, so you never lose anyone.

One purse for the whole army

Kills, barrels and income fill one shared purse. Spend it on:

• Recruits: every unlocked survivor can join, and the price grows as the run goes on.
• Army upgrades: weapons, armor, field medicine and logistics, for every hero including future recruits.
• Chests, shrines, printers and drones across the map. Right-click a chest and the nearest hero walks over and opens it. Idle heroes open nearby chests on their own when it is safe and you can afford it.
• Revivals for fallen heroes.

Share the loot your way

Items go into the army's pool and are handed out to the heroes. Open the item panel (I) to see who carries what, and drag an item onto another hero to give it.

The commander's own tricks

Four abilities on their own cooldowns: Orbital strike (F5), Field medic (F6), War cry (F7) and Mark (F8: everyone focuses the target, and it takes more damage). Heroes earn veteran ranks from kills.

The teleporter, the strategic way

One button (H): the nearest hero starts the teleporter, the army gathers in the zone, and when the boss is dead the same button takes everyone to the next stage.

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Installation

You need Risk of Rain 2 (Steam) with BepInEx and RoR2BepInExPack. Risk of Options is optional and gives you an in-game settings window.

The easy way: Thunderstore. Open HighCommand on Thunderstore and press Install with App, or search for "HighCommand" in r2modman / Thunderstore Mod Manager. The manager installs BepInEx with it.

From GitHub with a mod manager

1. Download HighCommand-<version>.zip from Releases.
2. In the manager: Settings → Import local mod and pick the zip.

By hand

1. Install BepInEx for Risk of Rain 2.
2. Unpack the zip into Risk of Rain 2\BepInEx\plugins\HighCommand\.

How to play

Main menu → Extra Game Modes → High Command, or pick the mode in the lobby. Choose your survivor and difficulty as usual: that survivor is your first hero, and a second random one joins it.

Camera	W A S D or the screen edge to pan, wheel to zoom (to the cursor), middle mouse or [ ] to rotate, middle mouse up/down or PgUp PgDn to tilt, Home to reset the view, Space to fly to the selection (twice: follow it), Backspace for the last alert
Select	left click, box drag, Shift to add, double click for all of that kind, Ctrl+A for all, Ctrl+1..9 to set a group, 1..9 to recall it, Tab for the next hero
Orders	right click (Shift queues), Q attack-move, E stop, R hold, F focus fire, V retreat, T patrol, G rally point, N formation, F2 F3 F4 stances
Skills	Z X C secondary / utility / special, Y equipment, Alt + key toggles automatic use
Army	B barracks (recruits, upgrades), I items, U revive, H teleporter
Commander	F5 orbital strike, F6 field medic, F7 war cry, F8 mark
Help	F1 shows every key in game; Esc closes things one by one

You lose the run when every hero has fallen and there is no gold for a revival.

Settings

• Lobby: a "High Command" rule category (starting gold, hero prices, army limit, how items are shared, ...).
• In game: Settings → Mod Options → HighCommand (with Risk of Options).
• Config file: BepInEx\config\kantemiir.HighCommand.cfg. Every key, the camera, the loot rules and Interface/UiScale are in there.
• AI per survivor: profiles\hero_profiles.json next to the dll sets ranges, retreat thresholds and when each skill is used (auto / never / escape / engage / burst). You can edit it without rebuilding.

Known limitations

• Single player only. There is network code from early versions, but multiplayer is not supported or tested now.
• Modded survivors work through a generic profile and may play below their potential.
• Final stages (Commencement, the Planetarium and similar) have not been tested. Their scripted events were made for a player with a body.
• Tested on the current Steam version of the game. If something breaks after a game update, please open an issue.

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Feedback and help

This is my first big mod, and I am open to criticism, ideas, feedback and help. If something feels wrong, if a survivor plays badly, if you have an idea for a feature, or if you want to work on the mod with me, please tell me.

• Bugs: open an issue. Attach BepInEx\LogOutput.log if you can, and say what you did and what happened.
• Ideas and suggestions: open an issue with the Idea / suggestion template, or start a thread in Discussions.
• Just want to talk, share feedback or a clip? Write to me on Discord: kantemiir (profile: discord.com/users/327786803891404801).
• Code, balance, AI profiles, translations: pull requests are welcome. Small ones are the easiest to review. See CONTRIBUTING.md.

For developers

• Source: src\ (C#, BepInEx 5, HarmonyX, netstandard2.1). Build: tools\build.ps1 (the game must be closed). Package: tools\package.ps1.
• The mod tests itself: tools\qa-run.ps1 <scenario> starts the game, plays a script from tools\qa\*.txt (synthetic mouse and keys, hc_* console commands, screenshots) and collects the log.
• Notes on the design and its history: CHANGELOG.md and docs\dev\ (design, roadmap, audits; mostly in Russian). CLAUDE.md holds the working rules (much of the mod was built together with an AI assistant).
• No game code or assets are copied. The interface pictures are drawn in code.

License

MIT © kantemiir. Risk of Rain 2 belongs to Hopoo Games and Gearbox. This is a fan-made mod and is not affiliated with them.