Difficulties

''' Warning: This wiki page discusses features that are not currently implemented. Easy and hard mode are only available in the opt-in beta of version 1.51. '''

When a player starts their game, they have the option of playing as three different Slugcats. Although the different slugcats have many different features, the vastly different skill and dedication levels required to play each slugcat mean that they are frequently referred to simply by their difficulty level. Yellow, White, and Pink (or red) slugcat correspond to easy, default, and hard difficulties for the game respectively.

Yellow Slugcat: The Monk (Easy Difficulty)
The monk is more in-tune with nature than your average slugcat. Predators are less common and slightly less aggressive, and less food is required for the player to hibernate. Karma gates will also remove their requirements after their first use, meaning the player cannot get trapped and can easily backtrack after progressing. Creatures are also much more quick to befriend or forgive yellow slugcats. The only significant downside is the monk's reduced throwing abilities with rocks and spears, making combat much more difficult should the player seek it out. The monk is designed for players seeking a more peaceful experience.

White Slugcat: The Survivor (Normal Difficulty)
The classic Rain World experience, white slugcat has standard karma gate requirements, requires 4 pips of food to hibernate, and must deal with the ever-present threat of predators.

Pink Slugcat: The Hunter (Hard Difficulty)
The Hunter is a very different experience from the other two modes, and takes considerable dedication to complete. The hunter is carnivorous slugcat, a strange creature with the odds stacked against them. The Hunter can only eat meat, but will happily make a meal out of otherwise inedible predators such as lizards. Since the Hunter is pushing past its place in the food chain, it is karmically imbalanced, and karma flowers will not spawn on this difficulty. Several predators are unique to this difficulty, and no overseers will appear to guide the player on this difficulty. Although the journey will be difficult, the Hunter is adapted to it. The Hunter is faster and stronger than other slugcats, and also has the ability to carry a second spear on its back. Its heightened metabolism will require it to eat more food per cycle than other slugcats, forcing the player to battle for their survival.

The Hunter's journey is significantly different from the other two, starting in the middle of the Farm Arrays instead of Outskirts. The Hunter holds a strange green Neuron Fly and Pearl and must quickly head straight for their destination as they will cease being able to reincarnate after a certain number of cycles.