Risk of Rain 2 Artificer in action
Image via Hopoo Games

What is the Blue Orb in Risk of Rain 2? Answered

It's not from Valve.

If you’ve been playing Risk of Rain 2 for some time now, you might have seen a message saying, “a blue orb has appeared.” Here’s what you need to know about the Blue Orb and the Blue Portal in Risk of Rain 2.

Recommended Videos

Related: The 10 best Rogue-lite games of all time

What does the Blue Orb do in Risk of Rain 2?

The Blue Orb lets you enter the Blue Portal to access a one-of-a-kind item shop. It has a chance to spawn randomly on a stage. When it does, it can normally be found circling the Teleporter. One can also appear when you activate a Newt Altar.

What is the Blue Portal?

Risk of Rain 2
Image via Hopoo Games

The Blue Portal allows you to enter the Bazaar Between Realms, which lets you purchase certain items using Lunar Coins. There are two ways to spawn the Blue Portal:

  1. When someone on your team finds a small blue rock with light blue spines. This blue rock is called a Newt Altar. If you give this a Lunar Coin, then the Blue Orb might spawn near a Teleporter. You have to spend the Lunar Coin before the teleporter is activated, however, or else the Blue Portal won’t appear.
  2. It spawns randomly in every new stage. You have a 25% initial chance of randomly spawning a Blue Portal around the Teleporter, but this chance gets lowered every time a Blue Portal is spawned.

Regardless of the way used to spawn a portal, the message “a blue orb has appeared” will still appear and notify everyone in the game.

The Blue Orb causes the Blue Portal to appear when you defeat the boss before the Teleporter hits 100%. Once the Blue Portal appears, you can enter it to visit the Bazaar Between Realms.

What can you get from the Bazaar Between Realms?

Risk of Rain 2
Image via Hopoo Games

The Bazaar Between Realms features a mysterious shopkeeper known as the Newt. The Newt will let you unlock a Survivor known as the Artificer (if you haven’t unlocked it already). You can unlock the Artificer by paying 10 Lunar coins.

Players can attack the Newt, but cannot kill it. Those who succeed in depleting its health simply stop it from staring at the player while moving inside the shop and from colliding with players. There’s no prize in defeating it. On the other hand, those who fail to drop their health to zero within a period of time will be transported to the portal area, and the shop will be closed.

The Bazaar also features other things that can help players in exchange for a specific number of Lunar Coins. Here’s a quick look at them:

  • Lunar Buds: These are a collection of five Lunar items that can only be purchased once, for 2 Lunar Coins each. Only items that have been unlocked in the run will appear.
  • Lunar Shop Refresher: This lets players reroll the remaining Lunar Buds in the Bazaar Between Realms so players can buy other items. Each reroll costs a few Lunar Coins, starting from one Lunar Coin. The cost is doubled with each reroll up to 16 Lunar Coins.
  • Trade-in Cauldrons: The Bazaar has two Cauldrons spawning items from the Uncommon and Legendary pools in exchange for a set number of items. The Cauldrons prioritize Scrap when trading, however.
  • Lunar Seer: The Bazaar also has two pedestals allowing players to choose what Environment they’d want to appear next. Called the Lunar Seer, these pedestals show two images of the said Environments at one time.
    • Players can select their preferred Environment in exchange for three Lunar Coins. However, they’ll have to exit the Bazaar using the Blue Portal to see their chosen Environment. Those who jump through the Null Portal at the bottom of the Bazaar might not see the Environment they chose even if they paid the Lunar Coins for it.
  • Null Portal: The Bazaar Between Realms has a Null Portal located beneath the Blue Portal used to enter and leave the place. This grants players access to a place called the Void Fields, which is a Hidden Realm that lets players acquire special rewards if they make it through nine waves of enemies. Players can enter the Null Portal only once per run.

And that’s all there is to know about the Blue Orb and Blue Portal in Risk of Rain 2. You can find these in practically every stage, but the Bazaar will still sell the same items regardless of the location of the Blue Portal you enter.


Gamepur is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author