Slugcat

''"Monk," "Survivor," "Hunter," and "Nightcat" redirect here. For the achievements of the same names, see Achievements.''

Slugcats are both the primary protagonists and only playable characters in Rain World. They are small white creatures with black eyes, thin arms, comparatively broad legs with small feet, broad-ended ears, and a thick tail that tapers. The player must keep the Slugcat they play as alive as they explore the world, confront strange creatures, and take part in completing challenging achievements. Slugcat has a variety of movement abilities which can be seen in detail on the controls page.

When a player starts their game, they have the option of playing as three different Slugcats. Monk and Survivor both spawn in the same location and have the same story (being led by the yellow overseer to the same destination) with the only gameplay differences being features or changes that make Monk easier than Survivor. Monk (Yellow), Survivor (White), and Hunter (Red) correspond to easy, medium, and hard difficulties, respectively.

= Gameplay Basics =

Food
In order to hibernate, Slugcat must find and eat enough food each cycle. This amount is represented by the food meter, which can be viewed alongside the current karma level by pressing and holding the map button.



The food meter is made up of several food pips - circles which fill up as Slugcat eats, and a vertical line that separates the food pips required to hibernate (all found to the left), and the food pips that will be saved for the next cycle (all found to the right). The amount of food required to hibernate varies between Slugcats: Monk and Survivor eat mostly smaller creatures and fruit. They can also devour any size of Centipede, though larger ones need to be dead first. A full list of all the different foods can be found here. Hunter's diet is more varied, as it also includes the corpse of any killable creature, however, certain foods such as Batflies, Blue Fruit, Slime Mold, Bubble Fruit and Neuron Flies provide less value, and will only fill 1/4th of a food pip when eaten.
 * Monk :
 * Survivor:
 * Hunter :

Incapacitation & Death
While both disable the player's input and make the game over text appear, when incapacitated the player is still alive, just unable to do anything. Knowing when that is the case could potentially allow the player to continue on without the need to restart the current cycle. You can differentiate between them by looking at Slugcat's eyes (they'll be shut when incapacitated, and crossed out when dead) and listening for bass notes (incapacitation plays one, death plays two).

Lizards, Dropwigs and Big Spiders have an RNG-based kill system, which means that when bitten/grabbed there is a percentage chance that Slugcat will die. If this check fails, the player will be incapacitated, killed if brought into a den. Vulture bites always incapacitate the player, unless de-masked, in which case they are always lethal.

There are a few ways to get out of incapacitation. A creature is likely to let go if wounded, or attacked by something hostile towards it. Throwing a rock or spear in the short period of time where inputs aren't disabled to stun the creature, or having a tamed Lizard or friendly Scavengers nearby are some of the more reliable methods, and usually the only ones that work when grabbed by a masked Vulture.

Nightcat
Nightcat does not have a campaign, instead only being found in arena mode. It doesn't have any special ability and works just like the Survivor. It has dark blue skin, two white eyes, and a white nose. Since it doesn't appear in single player mode, it is most likely not canon to the Rain World story.

The most likely reason why Nightcat is in the game is to give the arena mode a fourth Slugcat for multiplayer. All four Slugcats have the same abilities in arena mode.

Trivia

 * All four Slugcats are playable in the game's Arena modes, but they all handle similarly to how the Survivor does in Single Player.
 * Slugcats have a few different facial expression apart from the ones mentioned in the incapacitation and death section. For example, when throwing or swallowing an object, Slugcat briefly closes its eyes, and when regurgitating an object it keeps its eyes closed for a longer period of time. Slugcat also keeps its eyes shut when close to a threat. While idle, Slugcat has widened, circular eyes which blink occasionally.
 * Slugcat actively move its tail away from threats, such as lizards, in situations that allow it (such as resting at the top of a pole).
 * When faced by a lizard, Slugcat may hold its hand out in an attempt to briefly stop the creature from biting it.