Quick answer: how to get the Enforcer
- Buy the Hallowed Concepts expansion. It is $14.99 USD on Steam (app 3055670) and it launched on October 8, 2026.
- Switch Hallowed Concepts on in the main menu.
- Pick the Enforcer from the survivor select screen. That’s it. There is no unlock chain, no quest, no item to find.
The official launch announcement lists the DLC’s two new survivors as “Enforcer (unlocked by default)” and “Acolyte (unlockable)“. The Enforcer is a returning survivor from the original Risk of Rain, rebuilt around an unbreakable shield. The Acolyte is the one who needs work: she has a five-stage unlock chain, and the Acolyte is the one who needs work: she has a five-stage unlock chain, which we cover in our Acolyte unlock guide.
What to do if he isn’t showing up
Three things are the usual cause.
The expansion isn’t toggled on. The DLC has to be enabled from the main menu before the new survivors appear. Buy it and forget to switch it on, and you get the base game with no sign of him.
The platform is wrong. The DLC is a separate purchase from the base game on every platform, and the Enforcer only appears on accounts that own it.
You’re in a lobby with a friend who doesn’t own it. Per the DLC’s own store description, only one player in a lobby needs to own Hallowed Concepts for the new monsters, levels and items to appear for the whole lobby. Players without the expansion can’t select the new survivors, though. So in co-op, one of you owning it is enough for the content to show up, but each of you needs your own copy to actually play him.
What the Enforcer actually does
His kit comes straight from the official Dev Diary #4 – Acolyte and Enforcer, which introduces him as “the immovable object himself”: a survivor built to hold the line, pairing an unbreakable defense with movement.
- Steel Protection. As long as the shield is pointed at the danger, it blocks everything. Reactivate it at the right moment and you parry dangerous projectiles back at the people who fired them, while nearby monsters are knocked back and stunned. The diary’s phrasing is blunt about how little he cares.
- Shield Tackle. A gap-closer that drives the Enforcer into the middle of the action to give other survivors cover. It has two charges, and you can spend both at once to power the tackle up and close more distance.
- Rally Point. He slams the ground, the shockwave knocks enemies away, and a Holdout Beacon is left behind granting a barrier. Each kill restores a slice of that barrier, so the weakest survivor in the group can stay in the fight.
That third ability is the one to think about when you’re deciding which survivor to bring to a group. Steel Protection keeps him alive; Rally Point is what keeps everyone else alive.
What the Trials of N’kuhana are
A lot of the searching around this character is really searching around the Trials, so it’s worth being clear: the Trials are a separate mode, not an Enforcer unlock requirement. They come with the expansion and everyone who owns it gets access.
Per Dev Diary #3, the Trials drop you into pocket realms tucked into the new stages, each with its own objectives and rewards. There are three flavors: the Winnowing of Survival (endure), the Winnowing of Predation (hunt your quarry) and the Winnowing of Mortality (race for your soul). One timer is shared across all of them, so every extra Trial you attempt eats into the clock you have to cash out with what you’ve earned.
You start a Trial by finding a gong left by the followers of N’Kuhana in the stages and ringing it. Ring the gong in a Trial’s reward area and the next one chains straight on, which is how ambitious runs end up short of time. The standout Trial is the Soulbound Threshold, a boss rush: clear every wave inside three minutes and you can return to your run with the power you’ve collected.
Trials are also the reliable way to earn N’tormat Pages, which is the currency the Acolyte’s chain asks for. Running a few as the Enforcer before you go after her is a sensible order of operations.
Where to find him, and where you can’t
The expansion adds three standard stages: the returning Damp Caverns, the Tenebrous Quagmire and The Lurid Basilica, plus several Trial stages, new bosses and enemies, two new item types and the N’tormat curio, according to Gearbox Publishing’s launch notes.
One caveat worth knowing: Gearbox shipped a hotfix on October 14 for two problems, enemies spawning out of bounds on the Soulbound Threshold and the Enforcer clipping through terrain when using some abilities. The console patch was still to follow when that note went out. If he feels broken on a console, that’s a known issue rather than something you did wrong.
Enforcer or Acolyte?
| Enforcer | Acolyte | |
|---|---|---|
| Getting him | Unlocked by default once you own the DLC | A five-stage chain: N’tormat, Page, Shrine of Descent, Ritual Portal, Anima Harvester |
| Core idea | Hold the line behind an unbreakable shield | Bank the health you lose, then spend it back |
| Strength | Keeps the group alive; Steel Protection parries | Burst damage with Sacrifice; Bola Throw drags targets in |
| Difficulty to get | None | You need a Teleporter clear and a healing item in your pocket |
| Best first run for | Someone meeting the expansion for the first time | Someone who already knows the base game |
The Enforcer is the rare DLC character that gives you something on the first run without asking for anything first, and that changes how the rest of the expansion plays. Because you don’t need a chain cleared, you can take him straight into the Trials, and the Trials are where the N’tormat Pages come from that the Acolyte’s chain demands. Doing a few Trials as the Enforcer first means the second character’s unlock is already partly done before you start it. He is also the safer pick for co-op, since Rally Point’s barrier keeps a weaker teammate in the fight while Steel Protection handles what comes at you. The trade is that he contributes less damage than the Acolyte’s Sacrifice burst, so a group that already has good positioning may find that damage is the thing they are short of.
Is it worth $14.99?
The expansion lists at $14.99 on Steam, with console pricing set by each store. Gematsu’s launch coverage lists it for PC through Steam and the Epic Games Store, along with PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series. The base Risk of Rain 2 is a separate purchase, listed at $24.99 on Steam.
For a rough sense of the size of the audience still playing, Risk of Rain 2 was at 11,919 concurrent players on Steam at 10:00 UTC on October 24, 2026, according to Steam player data tracked by Pixel Herald (our player counts). That is a live number rather than a historical one, and it moves through the day.
Useful links
- Our launch coverage: Risk of Rain 2: Hallowed Concepts DLC Adds Acolyte and Enforcer, Out Now on Consoles and PC
- The game page: Risk of Rain 2 on Pixel Herald
- Official Hallowed Concepts on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3055670
- Official launch announcement: steamcommunity.com
- Official Dev Diary #4, the two kits: steamcommunity.com
- Official Dev Diary #3, the Trials: steamcommunity.com
- Gematsu launch coverage: gematsu.com
Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report
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