Risk Of Rain Returns: What Are Providence Trials?

Risk of Rain Returns isn’t shy about trying new things and introducing new mechanics to remake the original Risk of Rain. From new characters to new secrets, there are things to discover on every level.

One of the new features introduced in Risk of Rain Returns is the Providence Trials, a challenge mode that breaks away from the tried-and-true gameplay loop into something completely different. Players will want to know what to expect when they delve into the Providence Trials. Here is the breakdown.

How To Unlock Providence Trials

Providence Trials are not available right from the start of the game. They become automatically available as soon as you unlock your first new Survivor. I unlocked the Bandit on my first run by completing the third stage. Enforcer is also an easy character to unlock as he becomes available after you defeat the Magma Worm, Wandering Vagrant, and Colossus bosses in the game. You don’t need to do so in a single run, making it very easy to unlock for even new players, as all three bosses can spawn on the first map. I unlocked the trails during a single-player run, but both Local and Online Co-op should work just fine as well.

Regardless, after you’ve unlocked your first new character, head back to the main menu, and you’ll see the Providence Trials are newly unlocked.

How Do Providence Trials Work?

Providence Trials are mini-challenge runs that unlock alternate skills for characters. All survivors in the game start with four skills, but for most of these skills, there is an alternative variant that the player can opt for. These alternative skills are locked by default.

The main method of unlocking these skills is to complete a specific Providence Trail for that skill. The trials serve both as a challenge players need to complete to get the reward at the end: the new skill, and as a crash course on how best to use that skill in-game.

Providence Trails are not the only way to unlock skills. Under the description for a locked skill, you can find an alternative method of unlocking the skill by completing certain challenges during regular runs.

The Tactical Slide, for example, is an alternative skill for the Commando. On paper, it’s a basic movement ability that allows the Commando to slide on the ground with i-frames. Useful in a pinch.

However, if you enter the Providence Trail: “Slide To The Finish!” to unlock this skill, you’ll be shown exactly how to use the Tactical Slide to jump over gaps, pass through enemies, and really move across the map.

All Providence Trials are contained challenges that don’t last very long if you play them right. At most, a trial should take about five minutes to finish. This makes them bite-sized palette cleansers whose main purpose—getting the player to understand the skill—never gets tiresome. On top of that, the developers have tried to make sure that each trial is completely unique and tailored to force the player to use the ability the trial is about in different ways to eke out the win, getting them familiar with creative ways of using it.

Each trial has a base requirement for completion and a gold standard for outstanding achievement. Completing the base requirement is all you need to do to unlock skills. The gold is just for bragging rights.

Unlocking New Providence Trials

Providence Trails are set up in a grid format that expands the more trials you clear. To start off, you begin with a trail for the Commando. Competing it will reveal new trials to play. Some of these will be for Commando, some of them for the Huntress, and some of them for the new character you unlocked. For me, it was the Bandit. For others, it might be the Enforcer.

As you clear more trials, you’ll eventually reach a dead end, meaning further trials are inaccessible. Hover over the locked tiles to see that they’re trials for characters you haven’t unlocked yet. To progress, you’ll need to unlock the Survivor they’re meant for. This creates a gameplay loop where you do a single run, achieve the necessary requirements for unlocking a new character, and return to the Providence Trials to unlock and get familiar with their alternative skills.