Combat

This page covers combat techniques and basic tips. Click here to go to the main Controls hub page and access other movement tech pages.

Rubble/Spear combo
Lizards have armoured heads which protect them from most spear damage. To hurt them, slugcat usually needs to spear them in their softer back.

Rubble will flip lizards over when thrown at their heads. A spear can be thrown immediately after for a simple attack.

Remember to keep the rubble in Slugcat’s right hand to throw first!



Note: There are some extremely niche conditions under which a lizard will not flip when hit with rubble. These include the lizard having just climbed up onto a ledge, and being hit with rubble when directly next to Slugcat (essentially touching).

Pinning creatures to walls
Creatures can be pinned to walls with spears to immobilise them for some time.



Spear-lock
On taking damage, lizards and some other creatures enter a stun state for a short amount of time. As lizards lose more health, this amount of stun per spear increases.

This can be used to repeatedly spear lizards by pressing grab and instantly throwing again multiple times.



Spear cooldown
Spears cannot be picked up immediately once thrown, preventing slugcat from stun-locking to death more resilient creatures with one spear.



Double-spearing
Spear cooldown can be circumvented with multiple spears, as the cooldown applies per spear, not for the player. This allows for more rapid stun-locking, and is useful for quickly incapacitating tough creatures.



Throwing midair
Spears can be thrown while midair to catch lizards on poles.



Slide spearing
Throwing a spear or rock forwards mid-slide causes the object to bounce off the floor and travel much further horizontally. This allows spears to embed into walls much further away.



Spears can be slide-thrown from further away to hit targets.

Slide-spearing a lizard in the mouth will do 1.5* damage and stun them for longer. This allows for consistent stunlocking with a single spear.



Backflipping to downthrow
To throw downwards, hold down and throw mid-backflip without holding any other buttons. If holding left or right, the object will be thrown in that direction instead.

Spears thrown downwards will become embedded in the ground and can be climbed.



Slide-flipping to pass lizards
Slide-flipping can be used to safely pass lizards without being caught. This works for lizards with high aggression.



Downthrowing from slide-flips
You can also throw downwards mid-slideflip.



Pinning creatures to floors
Downthrown spears can pin a creature to the ground.



Lizard tracking - Move safety/Laziness
Lizards have differing levels of aggression depending on multiple factors, including lizard spawn variation and the gamemode.

Less aggressive lizards will have slower reactions and can be backflipped over, for instance, while more aggressive lizards will quickly turn and snap slugcat out of the air if this is attempted. Backflipping is generally only recommended as a reasonably safe move for green lizards.



Dealing with tongues
When grabbed by a lizard tongue, reaching the same height and throwing objects at the lizard is often effective.

If not possible, getting close to the lizard will often cause it to snap and miss slugcat, especially if done quickly.

Throwing at the same height as a white lizards mouth has a chance to hit and is very effective when their tongue is out.



Grace period / Bite lethality
Lizard bites have a chance to immediately kill slugcat.

It is possible, for a short window after only being stunned by a lizard bite, to pick up / throw a rock or spear which can often hit the lizard and allow slugcat to escape.

Information on lizard bite lethality can be found at https://rainworld.gamepedia.com/Lizards



Mask responses
When wearing a vulture mask, lizards will run from the player for 17.5 seconds, starting from when they first see slugcat wearing the mask. After this timer has run down, the mask will no longer scare that lizard. This is extremely effective for passing through regions without trouble, or playing as Hunter.

King vulture masks last longer, for 30 seconds.