Slugcat

The slugcat is both the primary protagonist and single playable character in Rain World. It is a small white creature with black eyes, thin arms, comparatively broad legs with small feet, broad-ended ears, and a thick tail that tapers to a point. The player must keep the slugcat alive as it explores the world, confronts strange creatures, and takes part in completing challenging achievements. The slugcat has a variety of movement abilities which can be found detailed on the controls page.

Backstory
The intro cutscene starts at a huge tree, with a family of slugcats living there. The family of slugcats sets off from the tree and starts to explore. At one point the cutscene shows the family eating batflies and then focuses on a juvenile Slugcat in the middle, the game's protagonist. The Slugcat looks to the sky, and a raindrop falls on their nose, showing the viewer that the Rain has begun. The family starts to travel, likely towards a shelter or the huge tree, but when they try to cross a broad pipe, lightning strikes and the juvenile Survivor falls into the water below. The cinematic ends with the Survivor waking up after the flood.

After the intro scene, you take control of the Survivor long after your separation, with your goal being to survive, thrive in, and ultimately explore the cruel but beautiful world around you.

Food
In order to survive, the slugcat must eat whatever is available in this harsh landscape. The slugcat can find a variety of food, from fruits and fungus to batflies and bugs. Some food will be easy to acquire, while others must be chased down or killed first. Some food will even fight back as the slugcat attempts to make a meal of it. Normally food is smaller and less threatening than the slugcat itself, but the Hunter is known to eat creatures further up the foodchain. The slugcat eats mostly batflies and fruit such as blue fruit and occasionally bubble fruit.

Incapacitation and 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 you to continue on without the need to restart the current cycle. You can differentiate between them by looking at the slugcats eyes (they'll be shut when incapacitated, 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 the 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/friendly Scavengers by your side are some of the more reliable methods, and usually the only ones that work when grabbed by a masked Vulture.

Slugcat varieties
Different sub-species of slugcat have different abilities and traits as well as different difficulties. These can be selected from the start up screen even if the game has never been completed. There are four playable variants of the Slugcat:
 * Yellow slugcat (The Monk): The slugcat most in tune with nature. It requires less food to hibernate, is better attuned to Karma gates, and has fewer predators than its kin.
 * White slugcat (The Survivor): The game's iconic slugcat, fighting to survive in a world with dangerous enemies and a constant hunt for food.
 * Red slugcat (The Hunter): A stronger and more agile variety of slugcat, this creature is higher-maintenance than the others. It can store a spear on its back and kill and eat certain large predators, but it only has a limited time in this world.
 * Black slugcat (called Nightcat by the developers): A slugcat with white eyes only featured in the game's Arena game modes, where all slugcats have the same abilities.

A deeper description of game play with each of these slugcats can be found on the difficulties page.

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 four different facial expressions which change based on their state of well-being or actions being performed. For example, while stunned or caught within the maw of a lizard (but still alive), the slugcat will clench its eyes closed. When throwing or swallowing an object, the slugcat will briefly close its eyes, and when regurgitating an object it will keep its eyes closed for a longer period of time. The slugcat will also keep its eyes shut when close to a threat. When it dies, the slugcat's pupils are replaced with two 'X' shapes. While idle, the slugcat will have widened, circular eyes which blink occasionally.
 * The slugcat will actively move its tail away from threats, such as lizards, in situations that allow it (such as resting at the top of a pole).