Saint

''Frail and armed with a long tongue. Your journey will be one of perfect enlightenment, but walking this path requires patience, caution and complete attunement with the world.''

The Saint is one of five playable Slugcats in the Downpour DLC. They begin the game in Windswept Spires, and have a variety of unique mechanics, including the ability to grapple and swing from walls and ceilings with their long tongue, which can be extended and retracted by pressing up and down. Saint is unable to throw spears properly, making defending themselves incredibly challenging.

For the main Slugcats page, see Slugcat.

Food
4 food pips are required to hibernate, while up to 1 may be stored for the next cycle.

General Changes

 * Eating meat gives no Food Pips, and briefly stuns Saint.
 * This does not apply to creatures' 'eggs'; however, s give progress toward, and s are not present in Saint's campaign. The only way to attain Passage is repeated starve cycling after eating meat.
 * In Expedition mode, if the player selects the perk, this can be bypassed by combining meat and a plant.
 * Saint immediately dies to any danger, including ones that are normally randomized like bites.
 * They also have a more intense reaction to being stunned, especially to creatures like s, which make the Saint seize helplessly for around 4 seconds and depletes their breath almost completely.
 * Additionally, most non-lethal attacks leave Saint weakened, afflicting them with an extended exhaustion debuff. Some enemies that can inflict this status are, s, and the headbutt of a.
 * s cannot be properly thrown and deal no damage. Instead, they spin in the air and fall after a short distance. Other throwables like, s, s and s still work, however.
 * This means that, while unconventional, passages such as and  are technically attainable.
 * s cannot be opened, instead opening by themselves as the blizzard worsens.
 * In Expedition, Saint is capable of throwing Spears albeit with severely reduced velocity and damage, which does not apply to upthrows.
 * es can be met at any Karma level, and raise Saint's maximum Karma by one. Meeting one while having 5 maximum Karma raises Saint's maximum Karma by 2 instead.
 * Saint starts with a maximum Karma level of two, and must meet seven Echoes to reach 10 Karma.
 * Saint has three unique Echoes, and some vanilla Echoes have been moved or removed.
 * Nearly all have been 'blanked' by the passage of time. Only two remain readable: The Pink Pearl at Farm Arrays and a Pearl that is special to.

World Changes

 * Snow falls all over the surface.
 * Almost every Region is renamed to reflect the passage of time.
 * 's name has uniquely not been changed.
 * Water becomes dangerous when the snow grows intense enough, freezing the Saint faster.
 * s have spread all over the world and can be found in several regions, in greater numbers than before.
 * packs are now widespread across most Regions.
 * All Lizards except for s can have horns on their snouts as well as hair, which is more commonly seen in and  lizards.
 * has collapsed, and has fallen on top of the, crushing it. As such, and  no longer exist and cannot be accessed. What remains of the regions that comprised the Shaded Citadel and ' superstructure is now known as the.
 * has transformed into, a humid jungle environment unaffected by the cold. can be found there.
 * The Rot in (Glacial Wasteland) is completely gone.
 * (Frigid Coast)'s waters are now fully clean. Fauna and flora from the like es and s have expanded into the region. Due to this, the lack of  and the presence of s, the region is much more dangerous than before.
 * The Leg and the part of the Underhang that contained the lower entrance to Five Pebbles has crushed the Shaded Citadel-Shoreline Karma gate, replacing it with a connection to the Silent Construct.
 * has gravity fluctuations due to Looks to the Moon's partial reactivation. The mostly-intact can be reached through the passages above Moon's chamber while there's low gravity.  can be met at the western dead end, beyond the Five Natural Urges' representations.


 * has a few changes to make it easier to reach The Heart, and the Saint can find an additional, optional Echo inside of Bitter Aerie. Even with the changes, reaching The Heart is incredibly difficult without 10 maximum Karma. There is an alternate route to Bitter Aerie up through 's Memory Cortex. The secret Echo lives near the Auxiliary Transmission Array.
 * (Ancient Labyrinth) now has a visual distortion effect similar to the one in the Depths, which is now gone entirely and replaced with a massive pit that leads to . Rubicon cannot be accessed without 10 maximum Karma, and any attempts to jump down just teleport you back up.

Region Name Changes
While playing as the Saint nearly all accessible regions have altered names, which are listed here. Omitted areas are either inaccessible or have kept their original name.

Blizzard
Main article: Blizzard

Rain is not present in Saint's campaign. Instead, snowfall gradually increases into a blizzard, decreasing all creatures' (except those immune to the cold) temperature until they hibernate or freeze. Warmth can be retained by maintaining proximity to warm creatures or objects, holding or swallowing warm objects such as s, and being indoors. When freezing, Saint may fall over or drop objects.

Stats
[*] Throwing skill affects velocity and trajectory.

[†] Only applies to s and Expedition. Damage value is randomized on throw between 0.6 and 0.9, with an average of 0.66.

Grappling
Saint possesses a long tongue they can use to grapple onto walls, ceilings, objects, and creatures. Saint can also grab onto poles on detracting their tongue if it does not come into contact with a different surface. Initially, this bears resemblance to the, but the player has much more control. When Saint is hanging vertically or otherwise still, their tongue can be extended or retracted by holding Up or Down, and Saint can move 45 degrees horizontally in either direction. While attached to a surface, Saint can eat food while still and throw objects. While attached to a creature or object, Saint either pulls it or is pulled by it depending on the mass ratio. This interaction allows Saint to grab to eat and ride  without using a, among other uses. There is no cooldown on the grapple ability.

Saint can release their tongue in 3 directions: diagonal-left, diagonal-right, and straight up. This differs from using a Grappling Worm, which can only release upwards. If no direction is held, Saint's tongue releases in the last held direction. Saint only releases their tongue upwards when the Up direction is held. Releasing in a horizontal direction adds momentum which is not removed on switching direction, which can be initiated at any point.

If Saint initiates a backflip or slide-flips into a grapple, they become locked in a semi-permanent aerial roll state until they hit a surface. If initiated by a backflip, the roll can be paused by holding the opposite direction. If initiated by a slide-flip, Saint spins even faster, and cannot stop or change direction. The rolling state can be used for faster vertical and horizontal movement respectively, at the cost of player control.

Climbing
Jumping while grappled detaches the tongue and gives Saint upward momentum. This can be used to climb anywhere there is a reachable wall or ceiling, as although some surfaces automatically detach Saint, manually jumping propels them upward regardless of this property. On poles, this acts as a normal pole-boost. Saint gains the most height when vertically attached to a surface or when crouching.

Velocity
Saint's tongue can be used to gain incredible speed as it is longer and more versatile than a Grappling Worm. This is mainly useful for traversing long horizontal rooms with ceilings by repeatedly releasing as late into the swing as possible; as each forward grapple adds momentum, initial speed is not required. Vertical momentum also applies to the grapple, however this has limited use as it is mainly encountered when grappling while falling from a great height, in which case Saint is yanked upwards relative to their speed.

Freezing
Saint has difficulty moving and is slower when below 1 pip of warmth. They may fall over while walking or climbing, and often drop held objects. Strangely, this doesn't affect their tongue, so they can stay grappled onto a surface indefinitely, even after death.



Attunement
Once Saint meets 7 of the 8 Echoes available, and reaches a maximum Karma level of ten, they unlock the ability to fly and ascend creatures, instantly killing them. Saint can take flight by pressing Grab and Jump while airborne (this includes when grappled onto a surface). Upon activating attunement, Saint opens their eyes and a maximum Karma symbol appears above their head. This symbol is surrounded by several green pips in a circular pattern, which act as a timer on the ability. When not in flight, any used pips refill over time. Once the pips fully deplete, Saint cannot activate flight until they recharge.

While flying, Saint moves at slightly faster than walking speed through the air, and as fast as holding a  through water (where they do not use up breath). Saint can pick up items and eat food but cannot throw objects. Instead, pressing Throw while flying gives Saint an aiming reticle controlled by the movement keys. After some time, an explosion appears at the aiming reticle, killing anything in a slight area of effect. Disturbances, like being grabbed or hit by spit, cancel the current ascension attempt.

Ascension kills do not count for the score tally after finishing the campaign, unless Saint hits a creature with another attack first (e.g. ). This makes killing stationary or blind creatures, such as or, a viable method to gain the Outlaw passage. It also makes it significantly easier to gain the Dragon Slayer passage. Additionally, as ascensions do not count as kills, ascending creatures does not affect your reputation with them, this can make obtaining items from Scavengers significantly easier. The ascension attack works on any creature in the game, including es, s, s, s, s,, and. Unlike all other creatures, Guardians can survive up to three attacks before dying. Ascension can also open s, forcing them to drop their s.

Should the player die in the same cycle as ascending Looks to The Moon or Five Pebbles, they remain ascended on the following cycle. If one or both of the above characters are ascended, they offer special dialogue at the end of.

In Expedition, Saint is permanently capped at 5 max Karma and is unaffected by Echoes, so reaching Attunement is impossible. If a player selects Saint in Jolly Co-Op, attunement works normally and can be used to ascend other players.

Echo Monologues
Main page: Echo/Dialogue

Trivia

 * The only kind of Spear Saint is able to throw are s, which are only found in the final region.
 * in Saint's campaign have horns growing from their heads.
 * Saint is the only whose body is covered in fur. It can be assumed that similar to the Lizards, the fur is an adaptation.
 * This makes sense as Saint is the furthest Slugcat in the timeline.
 * The game actively takes screenshots of Saint at each Karma cap increase, displaying them again at the end.
 * If Saint's tongue latches onto a Noodlefly or Firebug, they become aggressive.
 * It is possible to hit certain creatures such as s, s and s with Spears when grabbed by them. The Spear deals damage as if it was thrown.
 * Unlike other Slugcats, Saint can hold Batflies indefinitely without killing them.


 * Despite not having the ability to fly and ascend creatures in Arena Mode, Saint can still "ascend" Batflies. This is likely to allow them to still gain points, as they're normally incapable of doing this. The Saint gains the same amount of points as any other Slugcat that eats Batflies.
 * While flying, Saint's eyes rapidly shift between bright colors in a strobe effect.
 * Saint's Ascension attack, when used outside of their campaign, does not activate on Iterators. Instead, the Iterator is only displaced and does not acknowledge the disturbance.
 * If the player restarts the Saint's campaign after completing it, the Slugcat selection screen art still shows Saint as an.
 * If Saint finishes the game with an item in their stomach, they still have it after restarting; this allows for 'smuggling' items between playthroughs.
 * Saint's tongue can go through Void Fluid to attach to ceilings.