Style Guide

'''This set of rules is never perfect and always changing and expanding. There will always be exceptions, and there will always be new rules to make. If you have a suggestion or confusion regarding the Style Guide, feel free to discuss it with other wiki contributors!'''

Content Guidelines
When adding content to the wiki, consider these questions:


 * Is your addition speculative?
 * Is this your own interpretation?
 * Is there not enough information to be certain about this?
 * Does the information lack an official source?
 * Is the information related to a modification? (I.E. if you're considering adding new information, are you sure what you're documenting isn't part of or the result of a fan-made mod? To avoid adding incorrect information, make sure your game does not have any mods besides Expedition, Jolly-Co-Op, Dev Tools, or the More Slugcats Expansion.)

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, then the content does not belong on the wiki. Speculation and non-canon interpretations can very easily be taken as fact when published on a wiki article, even with disclaimers.

Some pages cover lore which is inherently open to interpretation. For these pages, make sure that fan theories and speculative ideas are confined to an Interpretations subheader.

Use of Mods
Ideally when documenting new content, mods that change the game play or visuals for screen captures should be avoided. As a general example if a creature with a new colour palette is found then this is likely related to a mod such as Emerald's Tweaks & Features and is not accurate to the base game. The following mods are allowed for experimentation.
 * BeastMaster - spawn in tamed and dead creatures, and grab them using the mouse.
 * Dev Console - a generally more accessible and better alternative to Dev tools for cheating, allows commands like no-clip and invulnerability to prevent death when testing interactions, and spawning creatures with IDs.
 * KeepThatAwayFromMe - allows preventing certain creature spawns, useful for testing in a region without interruptions.
 * Warp Menu - allows teleporting to every room in the game.
 * Testing Arenas - adds clear and flat arenas to use in sandbox, ideal for quickly testing interactions with creatures and items.
 * Greyscreen - used as a greenscreen for making transparent gifs and images.
 * Health Bars - displays creature health on screen, useful for testing damage and stun timers.
 * Input Display - displays your inputs on screen, used for recording movement techniques.
 * Visible ID - displays IDs above creatures along with their personalities and other special stats

Other tools include dnSpy which is used for looking at game code in the assembly file, and Ezgif is used for making gifs.

Page Formatting
If there is something that is left ambiguous by the Style Guide, look around and ask around! We are always willing to clear up any confusion you may have as a contributor.

This wiki is formatted using Wikitext, a guide to which can be found here. A cheat sheet can be found here.

Page Titles
Page titles are written in title case (except for the title's first word, which is always in start case), and are, in most cases, the most commonly accepted name for the thing or group the page is about. When two pages have identical names, a disambiguation may be appended to the end of the title in parentheses. This disambiguation is always in lowercase.

Sections and Headings
Section headings follow the same capitalization rules as titles, and are concise descriptions of the section's contents. They typically come from a pool of headings, commonly shared by all the pages in a given category, but exceptions are often made for unique pages and other special cases.

Subsections
Subsections are used to further divide content within sections, when there is too much content related to one subject to create a list, but when there is not enough information, or the subject is not too far removed from the section to warrant the creation of another section. Subsections of higher degrees can be created within subsections for further such division. Subheadings follow the same capitalization rules as headings and titles.

Below are some common categories, and their most widely used layouts.

Creature Pages
=Page Title=

Appearance
==Tips== ===Combat=== ===Stealth=== ===Evasion=== ===Utility=== ==Abilities & Behavior== ==Variants & Attributes== ==Trivia== There can be any number of subsections under Appearance, Abilities & Behavior, and Variants & Attributes, as every creature in Rain World is wildly different. Tips usually only ever fall under four categories, so in the interest of consistency, there is hardly ever a use case for another subheader. Trivia, typically comprising solely a bulleted list, never has a use for subsections.

Object Pages
=Page Title=

Function
==Trivia== Object pages have few sections because they are relatively simple compared to Creatures and Regions. Subsections within Function are very common and typically diverse, as every item is different.

Region Pages
=Page Title=

Overview
==Creatures== ==Points of Interest== ==Gallery== ==Arena Mode Unlockables== ==Trivia== ==Maps== ===Graphical Map=== ===Visual Map=== ===Interactive Map=== Region pages are long but formulaic because all regions are complex but functionally similar. There is almost no case in which a break from this layout is required.

Blurbs
In the Rain World Wiki, blurbs are brief introductions placed below the infoboxes and header images (referring to the lines of text in the source editor that form the infobox in the actual page) near the tops of Creature, Object, and Region pages. In Creatures, they consicely describe at minimum their general behavior, in Objects, they describe their purpose, and in Regions, their general location in the game and their features. The name of the page must always be repeated in the blurb in bold. If something has multiple names, or its codename is different from the name of its page, these names are also listed in boldface in the blurb.

Creature Infoboxes
Creature infoboxes should follow 5 lines when possible, those lines being:


 * Code Name
 * Behavior
 * HP
 * Food Pips
 * Regions

Codename
Even if a creature shares the same name with its codename, it should be included.

Behavior
Behavior tags consist of the following:


 * Passive
 * Fearful
 * Neutral
 * Aggressive
 * Reputation-based

More than one tag may be used for creatures such as, who have varying behavior due to non-reputation based reasons.

HP
HP should be the number of damage required to reach a creature's bleedout state. If a creature does not have HP, such as, then an N/A should be used.

Food Pips
Due to the varying diets of different Slugcats, values and icons should be used to specify the amount of food each Slugcat gets from a creature. Amounts less than 1 should be indicated with decimals instead of fractions.

If a creature can be grabbed, but not eaten, Inedible should be used. This excludes Slugcats who can not eat corpses like carnivorous Slugcats can. Instead, they should be omitted from the list. If a creature can not be grabbed nor eaten, such as s, a N/A should be used. In the case of Saint, who can eat certain meats but earns nothing, 0 should be used. Similarly, if Saint or Spearmaster can not consume a food most other Slugcats can, they should use the Inedible tag and be listed at the bottom. A 0 should be used if an item is consumable but provides no nutrition, excluding s and s.

Downpour Slugcats, even if they share the same food pips with Vanilla Slugcats, should be on a different row. Rows should go in numerical order, with the highest values at the top and the lowest at the bottom. 0 and Inedible are always listed at the bottom. If Slugcats share the same food pips, they should be listed in order of the character selection screen.

Inside the Infobox template, Food Pips are dictated by this format. Here is an example using Green Lizards:

This yields the following result:

8

8

4

To implement tip-text, for cases such as Spearmaster's needles or pips changing with size, a forward slash can be added next to the value with the tip text following it. For instance:

Yields the following:

Using hyphens to signify variables in Food Pips does not work with this template. Instead, an en dash (–) should be used to signal variations in food pips. 3–5 over 3-5, for instance.

Regions
There are 2 region parameters. | regions is to be used for Vanilla Slugcats and regions, while | dpregions should be used for Downpour-exclusive Slugcats and regions, as well as changed spawns for Vanilla Slugcats in Downpour.

Regions should be listed in the order of the game's intended path for Survivor and Monk:

Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Drainage System, Garbage Wastes, Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Five Pebbles (region), Chimney Canopy, Sky Islands, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

Shared spawns should be denoted by the generic Slugcat head.

Downpour Regions should be listed after Vanilla regions, in the following order:

Pipeyard, Submerged Superstructure, Outer Expanse, Waterfront Facility, Metropolis, The Rot, Looks to the Moon (region), Undergrowth, Silent Construct, Rubicon

Slugcats should have their individual spawns listed like the following, even if they share spawnsets. The exceptions are shared spawnsets among all Slugcats, including Vanilla; and if Slugcats share spawn/s without any other spawns. They should also always be listed in the following order:

Monk: Industrial Complex, Garbage Wastes, Farm Arrays, Subterranean, Outer Expanse

Survivor: Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Outer Expanse

Hunter: Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

Gourmand: Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean, Outer Expanse

Artificer: Industrial Complex, Garbage Wastes, Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

Rivulet: Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

Spearmaster: Industrial Complex, Garbage Wastes, Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

Saint: Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Garbage Wastes, Chimney Canopy, Farm Arrays, Subterranean

The Infobox template format is as follows:


 * Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Chimney Canopy
 * Shoreline, Subterranean
 * Pipeyard
 * Garbage Wastes
 * Outskirts, Industrial Complex
 * Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Silent Construct

Media and Galleries
When writing a wiki page, the usefulness of GIFs and images should not be overlooked. They add contrast to the page, aiding in aesthetics and readability, and are able to concisely convey a wide variety of topics. Files can be uploaded here.

A guide to MediaWiki image use can be found here. Using the source editor is recommended for inserting media onto a page.

In-game Media
When capturing any sort of media directly from the game, please consider the following guidelines: In-game media should be captured while running Rain World in its native 1366x768, and as close to lossless as possible.
 * Do not use Sharpener or any other visual modification mod.
 * Do not use custom colors or custom Slugcats.
 * Use the most relevant Slugcat, defaulting to Survivor.
 * Avoid capturing media in Arena unless absolutely necessary.
 * If a gif or image has information such as text, overlays, or creature variation that must be clearly visible, then the use of Greyscreen's background color instead of an in-game location is permissible.
 * When capturing images and gifs, it is preferred that cause and effect is shown. A lizard using its tongue attack, for instance, should include the creature it is targeting.
 * Visual clarity is important. Avoid locations ingame where foreground effects like plants and poles may obstruct the subject.
 * When recording gifs, it is preferred that Slugcat does not have neuron glow, nor the Mark of Communication. Glow, usually in the form of a, should only be used when absolutely necessary.

Screenshots
In-game screenshots are mostly captured using a free application called Lightshot, but many other applications are fine as long as they allow for the capturing of images as .pngs. When taking a screenshot, try to capture only the information that is needed; make the frame as small as to only capture the subject(s) of the screenshot, and avoid having any extraneous information in the screenshot that does not contribute towards its main message, such as a Creature that has nothing to do with another Creature's interaction, or effects in an image that has nothing to do with Echoes.

GIFs
In-game GIFs are taken using a free application called ScreenToGif. Below is the recommended ScreenToGif configuration for taking GIFs for the Rain World Wiki.


 * In the "Options" menu, under "Recorder" and "Capture Frequency", the "Per second" option should be selected, and "Fixed frame rate" should be enabled.
 * When recording a GIF, its frames per second should be set to 60, as that is the speed in which Rain World's visuals run.
 * In the editor, after recording a GIF, there are a few options that appear upon clicking on "Save as".
 * Under "File type and preset", "Gif" and "Default (.gif)" should be selected.
 * Under "Encoder and quantizer", "ScreenToGif" and "Neural network" should be selected.
 * Under "Encoder options", sampling should be set to 1 and colors to 256.
 * "Looped gif", "Repeat forever", "Detect unchanged pixels", and "Replace these pixels with a chroma key" should all be turned on, and everything else in encoder options should be turned off.

When cropping and trimming a GIF, the same general guidelines apply as to screenshots: minimize filesize and extraneous information. Big GIFs heavily impact page loading time, and a GIF will break if it is over the 20 megapixel limit. The megapixel count of a GIF is calculated by multiplying the height of the GIF in pixels by its width, by the number of frames the GIF has. Avoid scaling GIFs down by rendering them as thumbnails on pages, as this will often break them. The framing and content rules of screenshots generally apply for GIFs as well.

Videos
In-game videos are recorded using a free application called OBS Studio. The recommended configuration is as follows.


 * Go to Settings, into Video, and change both your scale Base and Output Resolutions to 1366x768
 * Create a new scene and set up two sources: a Game Capture and an Audio Capture.
 * Launch Rain World
 * Go to the properties of your Game Capture and change the mode to "Capture specific window", and your window to "[RainWorld.exe]: Rain World"
 * Make sure there are no filters on your game capture (sharpen may sometimes be applied by default)
 * Right click your Game Capture and change scale filtering from "Disable" to "Point"
 * Go to the properties of your Audio Capture and change the device to the audio device you normally use

Videos are recorded when a taking GIF is unfeasible and capturing screenshots is impractical. Recording videos can be taxing for some devices. If you cannot capture a video at 60fps, consider asking another wiki contributor to record and upload it for you.

Official Files
Any media taken from an official source, such as a devlog, developer or publisher social media, the game's files, etc. must be the highest resolution and least compressed version of the file available.

Fan-made Media
Ask a Rain World Wiki administrator about the use of non-official media.

Galleries
Galleries are often used as either standalone sections or supplements to other page sections, such as a creature's Variants & Attributes section. There are two types of galleries: the one made using the  tag, and the one made using the   template. allows for the individual control of row heights, while  allows for the individual control of image widths and pixelization. If a gallery doesn't look quite right, it is likely that switching to the other type might fix that.

Alt Text
Alt Text is a helpful tool for those that are visually impaired and require the help of screen readers to understand the context of any given image. It is always a good idea to add Alt Text to any image you see that might need it. Adding Alt Text to an image is easy; essentially, it's the same as adding any other parameter to an image.

It's important when writing Alt Text to make sure to be both concise yet descriptive. You don't want to be too vague as to be unclear about what's happening in the image, but being too descriptive can be confusing, complicated, and condescending.

Using the gif below as an example, here are a couple of descriptions and why they do/don't work:



"'A Vulture chasing Slugcat'"

This description is much too vague, the gif is attempting to show how Vultures can navigate through tunnels, so excluding that context makes the alt text useless.

"'A vulture with a beige mask and brown back plates pursues Slugcat into a tunnel. The tunnel is only slightly bigger than the Vulture's body, so it is able to push past. It navigates around corners using its wings to walk while the Slugcat attempts to put its hand out and stop it, however, the Vulture reaches out and grabs the Slugcat before they can escape. A vulture with a light blue mask and dark blue back plates enters from the left, right behind the original Vulture'"

This description, while incredibly detailed, includes way too much information and is hard to parse. Specifically, mentioning Slugcat attempting to stop the Vulture, as well as the other blue Vulture, are both unneeded details that don't add anything to the description. Keep in mind that screen readers will have to read out the entire description, and they can be slow, so it's better to keep descriptions short if you can.

"'A Vulture follows Slugcat through a cramped tunnel by using its wings to pull itself through and around tight corners.'"

This description gives the reader context on what the gif is and what happens in it, without being too vague or too descriptive.

It's important to consider the context in which the image is used when deciding on Alt Text, if the image is in the "Appearance and Variations" section, then you would want to put more detail on accurately describing how it looks or moves. If the image is attempting to show a situation or specific mechanic, you want to avoid smaller details and focus on said mechanics.

Links
When linking to another page within the Rain World Wiki, there are two ways of doing so, each reserved for a particular situation. If the page you want to link belongs in the Creatures or Objects category or is a passage or an individual echo, use the inlineicon template to link to that page. If the page or section you want to link is not any of the prior things mentioned, use a wikilink. Links are often utilized on the first mention of something in the main body of a page, in templates, and in captions, but contributor discretion should be taken regarding when to, and not to link. Wikilinks and inlineicons can be piped to change their text content, so that they make more sense in a sentence, but they follow the same capitalization rules as regular text, which are established later in the Style Guide.

Hatnotes
In the Rain World Wiki, hatnotes are italicized pieces of text which serve to disambiguate or elaborate by means of linking to other pages. They are typically placed at the very tops of pages to disambiguate two similar page titles, or immediately below headers, to show that there is more information on a particular subject than is covered in the section on another page.

Citations and Footnotes
Citations are used when referencing an external source, such as an interview, a devlog post, a social media post, etc. Citations are to appear in a References section at the bottom of the page, below the last section and above the navbox, if one exists. Footnotes are used to clarify or further elaborate on something, when putting that information in parentheses does not work with the page's format, and when a hatnote cannot be used to link to another page that fulfills that role. The Footnotes section is below the last section but above the References section, if it exists. A footnote is represented in the main text as a symbol within brackets in superscript (like so: [*]; it can also be written as  in the source editor). If there are footnotes solely related to a table, a Footnotes section is not required and the footnotes can be instead placed below the table. The order for footnote symbols goes: *, †, ‡, §, **, ††, and so on.

Spoilers and Cleanup
The spoiler template must be utilized on all pages that cover content in the base game past Looks to the Moon, Five Pebbles, and The Depths, and the start of the Hunter campaign respectively. Any in-game dialog counts as a spoiler past Five Pebbles, as the Mark of Communication is required to see it. All content from Downpour's More Slugcats Mod must be marked with either a general Downpour spoiler template, or a specific Slugcat's spoiler template, depending on where the content is from. The cleanup template is to be placed at the very top of any page that is noticeably not in accordance with the Style Guide.

Navboxes
A navbox is to be placed at the bottom of every Creature, Object, and Region page respective to that page's category.

Grammar, Syntax, and Punctuation
For all matters of grammar, unless specified otherwise, the Rain World Wiki defers to the English Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Spelling
The Rain World Wiki uses American English orthography. This means that words such as "colour" and "defence" should be instead written as "color" and "defense".

Tone
To maintain a formal tone, avoid the use of instructional, presumptuous, and self-referential language. This includes referring to the reader directly in the second person using words such as "clearly" or "obviously", and referring to the Rain World Wiki or any of its contributors at all. The Rain World Wiki is a database of information before it is a guide or manual, and its language and appearance to the reader should reflect that.

Another thing that should be avoided is the use of future tense when not strictly necessary. Future tense often refers to phrases that include the words "will" and "would"

For instance, instead of:

Should any living or dead creature pass under a perched Dropwig, it will pounce down from its perch and attempt to grab its prey.

Use

Should any living or dead creature pass under a perched Dropwig, it pounces down from its perch in an attempt to catch its prey.

The use of passive voice is encouraged. Numbers should be expressed as integers for readability.

Referring to the Player
The reader, or the player, acts in Rain World through a variety of Slugcats. In most cases, when referring to a player's action through any Slugcat, the generic "Slugcat" can be used (e.g. "When Slugcat throws a Spear at an Eggbug [...]"). This form of "Slugcat" very often works as a proper noun, and can stand on its own without the use of an article. Slugcat should always be referred to with the personal pronouns they, them, their, theirs, and themself. Use of "the player" is also accepted to fill this same role. When referring to a specific Slugcat's campaign or interactions, however, that one particular Slugcat should be named.

Avoid using second person pronouns such as "you", instead replacing it with instances of either "Slugcat" or "The player".

For instance, instead of:

If you try to enter a Karma Gate when your Karma isn't high enough, it does not activate, and you have to successfully hibernate until you can pass through.

Use:

If Slugcat tries to enter a Karma Gate without sufficient karma, it does not activate, requiring the player to successfully hibernate until their Karma is high enough to pass through.

Capitalization Rules
If something is a creature, object, region, or subregion, or it is capitalized in in-game dialogue, then it is capitalized on the wiki, in the same way it is capitalized in the game, with very few exceptions. This rule includes the "The" in names such as "The Wall".

Bulleted and Numbered Lists
Lists are typically used when it is impractical to lay out information in any other way, such as in a table or as prose. They are most often used in Trivia sections, where there are many brief snippets of information that have no other place on the page.

Quotation Marks
Since Rain World is a game whose universe is very much not grounded in our own, referring to many of the things inside of it using terms we use for things inside our own world invites bias and conjecture. The use of single quotation marks helps avoid this, as you can denote something as being "like" something, without actually being it, especially when that term implies a function whose existence is unclear in the game (e.g. an Eggbug's 'eggs'). Double quotation marks, however, are used to repeat text from another place, such as an interview, Iterator dialogue, or menu option, verbatim.

Abbreviations, Contractions, and Ampersands
Abbreviations, contractions, and ampersands should be avoided in the majority of cases. "Looks to the Moon" should always be written out in full instead of "Moon" or "LttM", "Daddy Long Legs" instead of "DLL", and so on. There are a few exceptions to this guideline, as in the use of "LttM" and "5P" spoiler templates (in order to avoid any sort of spoilers), and ampersands in Section headers (in order to improve appearance and aid readability). These guidelines help ensure that the wiki maintains a formal, objective tone.

Inclusion & Separation of Downpour Content
Downpour-exclusive content, when possible, should be kept separated from vanilla v1.9 content. There are several world changes for the base Slugcats and lore between the two versions of the game. This should always be specified, as more often than not, everything that is true for v1.9 Remix is true for Downpour, but not vice versa.

Disclaimers
If Downpour content must be included alongside v1.9 content, it should always be added last. Whether in a list of Regions, Slugcats, Creatures, Objects, or in the form of a paragraph, mechanics, or other content, it should never be included in the middle of writing detailing v1.9. This should always be prefaced with a disclaimer that the content is exclusive to Downpour. The DLC InlineIcon should be used in front of Downpour-Exclusive items, characters, and regions.

For visual clarity and flow of pages, Spoiler tags for Downpour should only be used when absolutely necessary. For more details on tagging Spoilers, read the Spoilers section.

When content is exclusive to Downpour, but is not a spoiler, the template should be used. This template should not be used for single sentences or mentions, but should be used for sections, tables, or large paragraphs of Downpour-exclusive content. To signal the end of Downpour-exclusive content, use .For example...

Vanilla v1.9 Remix Content

Downpour Content

Single mentions of Downpour-exclusive content should be prefaced by, like so: s have similar behavior to Eggbugs.

Alternatively, or in the case of sentences, Downpour-exclusivity can be specified with a phrase such as 'In Downpour,'.

When Downpour content must be specified in a table, such as in the case of Relationships, Creature Spawns, Arena Unlockables, and more, it should be done through the use of Tabber. For example...


 * -|Vanilla=


 * -|Downpour=

Tabber can be used like so; Tab 1 text Tab 2 text Tab 3 text
 * -|Tab Title 1=
 * -|Tab Title 2=
 * -|Tab Title 3=

Templates
Frequently used templatesː


 * View template.


 * View template.


 * View Template.


 * View template.


 * View template.


 * View template.

The  template can be used to mark a page for overhaul:
 * View template.

InlineIcons
InlineIcons should be used no more than once per paragraph to avoid excessive clutter. InlineIcons can be used repeatedly in infoboxes, tables, hatnotes, footnotes, galleries, and in the Trivia section of a page. When a link is appropriate, but an InlineIcon has already been used in that paragraph, link the page with square brackets instead.

A creature, object, or region's InlineIcon should never be used on their own page.

Region InlineIcons can be used in regular paragraphs in the same way as Creature InlineIcons.

Proper use of InlineIcons:


 * are deafened by s. Carrying a Cherrybomb may assist the player in passing through areas with high amounts of Daddy Long Legs.

Improper use of InlineIcons:


 * are deafened by s. Carrying a may assist the player in passing through areas with high amounts of.

Spoilers
Spoilers

For visual clarity and flow of pages, Spoiler tags should only be used when absolutely necessary. Spoiler tags should shield new players of any information that plays a vital role in a campaign's story. The Spoiler template should be used when the spoiler spans a paragraph or more. The following tags should be used in the following cases:


 * Plot-heavy or endgame locations that do not have their own unique Spoiler tag.


 * The endings for every single Slugcat.

and
 * Iterator dialogue
 * Pearl dialogue
 * Entering the region in a campaign

... And all the other Slugcat-exclusive spoiler templates


 * Slugcat-exclusive storylines
 * Slugcat-exclusive mechanics (that are not established at the start of the campaign)
 * Hunter's backspear would not need to be spoiled, but their perma-death or extra cycles would.
 * Slugcat-exclusive pearls


 * Downpour-exclusive content accessible by all or most Slugcats.

Categories
Categories are used to index pages together for easy navigation and reference.

Frequently used categoriesː


 * Category:Creatures - For all creature pages.
 * Category:Objects - For all items that can be picked up, carried and used.
 * Category:Regions - For all region pages.
 * Category:Maps - For all region map images.

Categories can be inserted at the end of a page, in source edit mode, like soː

Every gameplay page should belong to its relevant category.

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