How to Get the Bitter Root in Risk of Rain Returns

Goes great with tea!

Risk of Rain Returns Bitter Root Item
Image via Prima Games

Trying to unlock Chef, but can’t seem to find that last item? Don’t worry; you’re not having the most unlucky day ever. Here’s how to get Bitter Root in Risk of Rain Returns.

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How to Unlock Bitter Root and Chef in Risk of Rain Returns

Bitter Root is unlocked by having a survivor reach at least 650 health in one playthrough. Once your survivor reaches 650 health, you will complete the challenge ‘In Good Health’, and Bitter Root will enter the loot pool starting from your next playthrough.

Risk of Rain Returns In Good Health Challenge

Completing the ‘In Good Health’ challenge and unlocking Bitter Root is much easier than it may seem. Here are my best tips for completing the challenge quickly:

1) Play on Drizzle Difficulty

There is no sense in making it any harder on yourself. If your only goal is to get to 650 health and complete the challenge, then the difficulty setting doesn’t matter, as ‘In Good Health’ can be completed on any difficulty.

2) Pick Up an Infusion

Risk of Rain Returns Infusion Item

Infusion is an uncommon item (green) that permanently increases your health by 1 for each enemy killed, so it’s easy to see how helpful even a single stack would be. If you can find one in the first stage, you’ll quickly reach 650 health within the next stage or two.

3) Level Up

Simply leveling up will increase your maximum health by a hefty amount. If you cannot find an Infusion, you’ll still permanently increase your maximum health points as you progress through the stages.

What is Bitter Root and Why is it Important?

Bitter Root is a common item (white) that increases maximum health by 8% per stack. It’s a decent health item that can benefit survivability, especially when stacked, for the later stages.

However, Bitter Root is also one of the five ingredients needed to unlock Chef, one of the 15 available survivors to play in Risk of Rain Returns. The other four – Meat Nugget, Bustling Fungus, Sprouting Egg, and Foreign Fruit – are all already unlocked by default. As such, Chef cannot be unlocked until the ‘In Good Health’ challenge has been completed.

That’s all you need to unlock and find Bitter Root in Risk of Rain Returns. For more tips and tricks, check out our guide on how to unlock all characters in Risk of Rain Returns.

About the Author

Matt Vatankhah

Matt's writing career began when he joined Prima Games in 2022. As Managing Editor, he tries to make sure everything you read looks as pretty as possible. He's had a passion for video games all of his life and really loves Final Fantasy, retro FPS, roguelikes, and metroidvanias. He will absolutely stomp you in Tetris.