Ceremonial Dagger

Stat
 Damage

The **Ceremonial Dagger** is a returning item in Risk of Rain 2.

When the holder kills an enemy, whether from a direct attack or one of their items, 3 spectral daggers appear where that enemy died. Each dagger deals 150% base damage (*+150% per stack*). They aggressively home in on other enemies within 130m, traveling at high speeds toward the nearest target. If the daggers have no targets, they slowly float downwards in midair and disappear after 10 seconds if no target comes within range.

Each dagger has a proc coefficient of 1.0.

## Notes

* The summoned daggers cannot travel through terrain but also make no attempt to avoid it. If there is any geometry between a dagger and its target (especially flat geometry such as walls), the dagger will likely get stuck as it tries relentlessly to get through.
* Each dagger critically strikes independently of the others, and their critical strike chance is whatever the player's chance was when the daggers were summoned.

## Tips

* The  creates daggers when activated, giving an easy way for players to create daggers on demand even when there are no enemies nearby.
* Like other on-kill items, the Ceremonial Dagger pairs excellently with the . The Ceremonial Dagger in particular excels with Crowbars, however, due to its long-range homing nature. Even just a few Crowbars can power up a single dagger to kill an enemy in one shot, thereby creating even more daggers. This can escalate to the point that killing just one enemy can create an avalanche of daggers that wipes out many enemies across the entire map.

## Lore

```
The smell of sulfur fills the air.

"Oh god, they're so close. They have Hitchcock. Oh god."

"Grab the - the dagger. From my backpack. Quick."

"I-I don't... I got it. What the hell? This isn't gonna work, Marion. What the hell am I supposed to do with this against those...? They blew him into pieces - oh god."

"You have to... you have to kill me - ah! Kill me. Kill me with it."

"What? What the hell?"

"Yeah - it's the only way. Please."

"What are you saying? Stop!"

"It's a magic dagger. It'll save us. She will save us. But you have to kill me with it."

"Please don't... please don't make me. Oh god."

"Y-you have to. I've seen how this works. It's the only way - they're coming so close. You have to use it on me. Kill me."

"I'm so sorry Marion. I'm so so sorry. I don't think-"

"Do it. Do it now. DO IT NOW! DO IT NOW! DO IT-"
```

## Version History

Early Access Scorched Acres Content Update
* Gameplay Changes
	+ ☂ Update AI to be more accurate and performant
	+ Dagger Damage: 150% ⇒ 150% (+150% per stack)
	+ Dagger Number: 3 daggers (+3 per stack) ⇒ 3 daggers

## Trivia

* The survivors speaking in the logbook entry are also mentioned in   Wetland Aspect's environment log.
* Although Ceremonial Daggers are now AI-blacklisted, this was not always the case. After all, it would seem there would be no harm in giving enemies an item that only activates when killing a player. However, a  Thqwib attack activates all the Scavenger's on-kill effects, so even a single use of this skill would spawn dozens of powerful homing daggers that would wipe out players in an instant.