Prismatic Trials is RoR2's solo speedrun mode. Two stages, fixed seed, everyone competing under identical conditions. Destroy 3 Time Crystals per stage, kill the boss, portal to the next stage. The only reason most players run it is to unlock Harvester's Scythe and Mercenary's Slicing Winds skill.
Select Prismatic Trials from the main menu. Choose your survivor and skill loadout. Everything else - difficulty, artifacts, starting gold - is determined by the current seed.
On each stage, find and destroy 3 Time Crystals before you can activate the teleporter. Crystals are large glowing objects scattered across the map. Each one explodes on destruction, dealing moderate damage to you and nearby enemies - stay back when they're close to dying.
Once 3 crystals are destroyed, activate the teleporter normally. Kill the boss. The teleporter charges instantly the moment the boss dies - no waiting. Move straight to the portal.
Complete Stage 2 the same way. Your final time is recorded on the leaderboard when you finish.
Prismatic Trials treats all items and equipment as already unlocked, even if you haven't earned them in normal play. This levels the playing field across all players on the same seed.
There are two unlockable rewards tied to Prismatic Trials. The leaderboard has no in-game reward beyond visibility.
How to unlock: Complete any Prismatic Trial once.
Effect: +5% crit chance. Critical strikes heal for 8 HP (+4 per stack). Scales well with crit builds.
How to unlock: As Mercenary, complete a trial without falling below 100% HP. Losing HP or shields fails it. Losing barriers does NOT fail it.
Effect: Alternate special skill. Fires blades at up to 3 enemies for 8x100% damage. Last hit Exposes.
The seed is what makes Prismatic Trials competitive and repeatable. Understanding it changes how you approach each run.
A new seed generates every 3 days, globally identical for all PC players. Console players get different seeds. Everything resets with the new seed.
The two stages are determined by the seed. You cannot change or reroll them. If the current stages don't suit your survivor, wait for the next seed.
Every chest, drone, turret, and Lunar Pod spawns in the exact same location on every attempt. Memorize where high-value items are.
The specific item inside each chest never changes within a seed. If you know chest X gives Shaped Glass, route toward it every attempt.
Enemies spawn at the same time and location each attempt. Learn when dangerous spawns happen and position accordingly.
Visiting the Bazaar Between Time after Stage 1 changes the spawn location and teleporter location on Stage 2. Factor this into routing decisions.
Item drops from Artifact of Sacrifice enemies are not guaranteed to appear each run, but the order in which they drop stays the same.
Your time on the leaderboard resets when the seed rotates. No reward exists for leaderboard placement beyond bragging rights.
Unlike normal play, the teleporter fully charges the moment the boss dies. Build for boss burst damage, not sustain. Trophy Hunter's Tricorn (SotV DLC) instantly executes the boss and guarantees its item.
Time Crystals deal AoE damage on destruction. Chip them to low HP from range, then back up before the final hit. Mercenary's Eviscerate i-frames can safely finish them.
Seeds vary dramatically in difficulty. If you consistently can't beat the current trial, it's valid to wait 72 hours for the next seed rotation rather than grinding a bad one.
All interactables are in the same spot every attempt. Finding and buying a missile drone or equipment drone early significantly reduces difficulty by pulling aggro.
Regardless of seed, the Stage 2 teleporter boss always spawns as an Elite version. Budget time and items accordingly.
Prismatic Trials cannot be accessed with mods installed. Disable mods before attempting.
The in-game timer does NOT pause in Bulwark's Ambry, Gilded Coast, or any other hidden realm. Every second spent there counts against your leaderboard time.
If Sky Meadow is Stage 2, submit any artifact code at the Compound Generator underneath and enter the artifact portal. This completes the stage without fighting any boss or destroying crystals.
Any survivor can complete a trial. These are the most commonly used picks based on community performance and reliability.
Highest skill ceiling but strongest for Ethereal. Eviscerate i-frames dodge crystal explosions. Use Command + Glass artifacts.
Excellent mobility and burst. Strong grapple for quick map traversal. Popular top-leaderboard pick.
High burst and Reset on kill. Great for fast boss kills. Strong in seeds with many small enemies.
Supply beacon healing helps sustain. Orbital strikes burst the boss. Easier to survive with than mobility survivors.
Turrets pull aggro and deal consistent damage. Bubble shield provides safety. Less mobile but very reliable.
High mobility and can attack while sprinting. Good for fast stage traversal. Fragile in bad seeds.
The hardest Prismatic Trials challenge. Only 8-9% of players have completed it. Here is everything that helps.
Entering the Void Fields via the Bazaar on Stage 1, then exiting through the Null Portal, prematurely ends the trial and counts as a loss. Avoid the Null Portal entirely during trials.
Prismatic Trials is a solo-only game mode where you race through 2 stages as fast as possible. Unlike normal runs, the stages, items, enemies, and artifacts are fixed by a rotating seed shared by all players. The only choices you make are your survivor and skill loadout. Destroy 3 Time Crystals per stage, kill the boss, and the teleporter instantly completes.
The seed rotates every 72 hours (3 days). All PC players share the same seed simultaneously. Console players have different seeds. When it rotates, the leaderboard resets and a new stage combination, enemy layout, and interactable setup begins.
Completing any Prismatic Trial for the first time unlocks the Prismatically Aligned challenge and rewards Harvester's Scythe - an uncommon item that gives 5% crit chance and heals 8 HP per crit. Completing a trial as Mercenary without falling below 100% HP unlocks Slicing Winds, his alternate special skill.
No. Prismatic Trials cannot be accessed if the player has any mods installed. Disable all mods before attempting. This is enforced to maintain leaderboard integrity.
There is no in-game reward for leaderboard placement beyond seeing your name ranked against other players. The leaderboard resets with each seed rotation every 72 hours.
No. The Bazaar Between Time crystal that unlocks Artificer does not appear in Prismatic Trials. All other challenges and unlocks can still be completed here.
No. The in-game timer continues running in Bulwark's Ambry, Gilded Coast, and all other hidden realms. Every second spent there counts against your final time on the leaderboard.
If Sky Meadow is Stage 2, you can submit any artifact code at the Compound Generator underneath the map and enter the resulting artifact portal. This counts as a stage completion without fighting any boss or destroying any Time Crystals - the fastest possible Stage 2 completion. If Sky Meadow is Stage 1 instead, the portal goes to Bulwark's Ambry, not directly to completion.