Lizards

Lizards are the most common species of predator; hardy and near-ubiquitous - found in 11 regions - they pose a threat to the player throughout the entire game. They are characterized by their typically black bodies and pulsing neon coloration.

Lizard types


Lizards boast the most variety of any creature type, having 9 distinct subspecies with their own abilities and attributes. Parameters below are listed for comparison and should not be taken as exact values for in-game situations.

Abilities & Behavior
Whilst the specific abilities of each Lizard varies depending on the subspecies, there are some all species have in common, such as being able to perform charges of varying lengths and speeds, having armored heads that are immune to spears and soft bodies that are not, and access to special creature tunnels to navigate around rooms.

Lizards actively hunt down prey throughout the cycle, such as and any other similarly sized creatures.

Mobility
Lizards' movement speed varies per subspecies; most are slightly slower than the Slugcat's running, crawling and climbing speeds. The majority of Lizards also have the ability to climb poles, giving them a degree of verticality.

Senses
Lizards rely on both sight and sound to perceive their prey. Vision range varies by subspecies, averaging at around 250°, and is affected by movement, distance and bodies of water. They can also hear and investigate noises, and all Lizards have a hearing multiplier of 1.

Bites
When biting Slugcats, Lizards utilize an RNG-based kill system, in which every subspecies of Lizard has a percentage chance of killing the player when successfully bitten. If the check fails, the player is incapacitated, but alive, until the Lizard either brings them back to it's den, resulting in death, or drops the player.

Both death and incapacitation disable the player's input and bring up the game over text in the UI, and can only be distinguished via two tells - incapacitation plays one bass note and the Slugcat's eyes squeeze shut; death plays two bass notes and the Slugcat's eyes cross out. When biting other creatures, Lizards deal a randomly rolled amount of damage using the calculation (biteDamage * [randomly selected float between 0.8-1.2]) which is then multiplied according to the body resistances of the victim's affected body chunk.

Fear
Lizards are fearful of creatures that prey on them, such as (but not limited to) s, and attempt to run away when faced with predators.

Taming
All Lizards can be tamed, but different subspecies need different amounts of food in order to be successfully tamed. Factors such as difficulty, regional Lizard reputation, personality and prior confrontations may also impact how much food is required. Lizards only eat larger prey items (s, both varieties of, s, s, all varieties of , s, , , or s, s and s - all food types are equal in reputation value) and ignore smaller prey like , s, s or. Live creatures may be used, but this is less likely to work given its mobility, and the fact that Lizards do not register an increase in disposition until they have caught the prey in their jaws. Additionally, saving Lizards from threats - such as Vultures - increases reputation with them sharply. has an easier time taming Lizards, presumably due to their "empathetic nature".

Lizards also have a global reputation system. When Lizard reputation is extremely low, lizards become more afraid of Slugcat. If Lizard reputation is high enough, they no longer attempt to eat Slugcat, unless provoked. Unlike other reputation-dependent creatures, this is not shared with any, meaning they always try to eat them unless tamed.

Once tamed, Lizards become passive towards the player, following them everywhere - including into shelters and through gates - unless physically unable to, and attempting to fight anything that threatens them. They may also pick up prey and attempt to bring them back to a creature den. However, above all else they prioritize following the player, which can be used to influence their movement. They continue to be tame as long as their reputation remains high enough, which can be maintained by interacting with them every cycle by sleeping in the same shelter as them or feeding them. Inversely, their reputation is lowered when weapons such as and s are thrown at or near them, and a Spear to the body typically breaks their trust. If their reputation is on the lower end, they may occasionally bite the player when in confined spaces.

Tamed Lizards do have some quirks that must be worked around, however. The player does not have direct control over the Lizard, making it hard to manage them. Tamed Lizards are also still afraid of the player when wearing a Vulture Mask, though they still follow whilst it's active (at a greater distance), and the debuff wears off eventually. Additionally, when in possession of multiple tamed Lizards they may still fight each other, making it difficult to have more than one in the same region at a time. Furthermore, they and Scavengers are still aggressive towards one another even if the player has high Scavenger reputation.

Relationships
These relationships are the default for all Lizards, unless specified otherwise for a specific subspecies.

Attribute generation
Lizard attributes, like other creatures such as Scavengers, are tied to a numerical seed; each seed always generates the same attributes when used. Both personality modifiers and physical traits are generated by and tied to the specific seed.

Personality
Lizards have 6 personality modifiers: energy, bravery, sympathy, dominance, nervous and aggression.

Energy impacts aggression, dominance and nervous. High values makes White Lizards and Salamanders less likely to lurk and more likely to abandon lurking for other actions (such as pursuing the player).

Bravery does not influence Lizard behavior directly, but impacts aggression, dominance and nervous.

Sympathy does not influence Lizard behavior directly, but impacts aggression.

Dominance can skew taming difficulty - lower values can make individuals easier to tame, whereas higher values make them harder to (up to ±10% difficulty). Yellow Lizards with high dominance have longer antennae, and are also more likely to be the pack leader.

Nervous does not affect Lizard behavior.

Aggression does not influence Lizard behavior directly, but impacts dominance.

It should be noted that the impact these variables have on moment to moment gameplay fluctuates wildly.

Physical Traits
All images depict Lizards without any physical traits other than the ones described.

The main physical traits of a Lizard can be categorized into 4 groups: body, skin, frills (clusters of scales) and scales. Each seed generates a random amount of frill types and a random amount of scales for each, which are then distributed along subspecies frill patterns. The finer details of how these features are generated is mainly determined by Lizard subspecies, with some being skewed towards or always exhibiting specific traits; Blue Lizards typically have shorter, stubby tails, and Salamanders always have gills. Lizards have one randomly generated main color, which is then applied to the rest of the body multiplicatively. Lizard body proportions largely depend on the subspecies, but can be subjected to scale modifiers on their torso and tail both in terms of width and length.

Lizards have 4 skin types which are entirely tied to their subspecies, determining how colors are exhibited on their bodies.

These names do not correspond to any specific labelled parameters in code, but instead refer to a collection of methods (e.g. InitiateSprites, DrawSprites) within the LizardGraphics class that are applied to certain species. They are named for convenience of discussion. In addition to this, each subspecies has its own frill pattern which serves as a guideline for how frills are arranged on the Lizard's body, allowing for each to have a distinctive look despite technically using the same frills.

Furthermore, many frill types can inherit one of the 7 scale types, altering the shape of each frill. Each frill group can only inherit one scale type, and an individual Lizard can only possess up to 4 distinct scale types (a number as large as this typically only found on Red Lizards). Scales inherit the skin colour by default, but may have a gradient applied to them too. Scales can be affected by the rigor (stiffness), scale (size), length and roundness modifiers.

Whilst it is not a visual attribute, something of interest is that there are 4 lizard voices: None, Pink, Green and Blue. Most Lizards use the "none" voice, defaulting to normal Lizard sounds, but the other three are used with their respective color subspecies, indicating that at some point in development there may have been plans to create unique voices for each subspecies.

Trivia

 * Lizards were the first creatures designed for the game, and originally the only predator present.
 * They were referred to as "crocs" very early in development.
 * In some alpha builds you could hunt down and steal Lizard Eggs.
 * Lizards have an advanced rivalry system which causes them to get into territorial fights. They start by hissing at each other, trying to get the other to back off, eventually escalating to an all-out fight. They continue fighting until either one submits and retreats or they are distracted by prey.
 * Salamanders are not technically true Lizards due to their amphibious nature, but are grouped with the rest as they are visually and mechanically similar.
 * When hit by a dart, anything incapacitated in a Lizard's mouth stays there even whilst the Lizard is paralyzed.
 * All lizards are capable of hearing prey and vibrate and emit particles from their head when they hear noise nearby. They become more and more aggressive toward investigating sounds the more noise any creature emits in rapid successions.
 * Lizards have 71 shared code profile parameters, most of which are used in calculations with other values.