Slugpup

Slugpups are creatures added in the Downpour DLC. They are unlocked after completing the food quest and travelling to Journey's End, where they begin spawning in shelters in, , and Gourmand's campaigns. They rely almost entirely on the player for their survival.

Appearance
Slugpups are the juvenile versions of s, and are roughly half the size of an adult. Slugpups' bodies and eyes come in a variety of different colors, with green and yellow hues being the most common, and red and violet being the rarest. Slugpups can be grabbed, piggybacked, fed, and played with.

Food
Slugpups need 2 food pips to hibernate, and 1 may be stored for the next cycle. Their food bar resembles the pup’s color.

On the cycle a Slugpup is found, their food bar is not visible. Due to this, a common mistake is to not feed them during that cycle, resulting in the Slugpup starving and needing 3 pips of food the next cycle. A found Slugpup has an empty stomach, and 2 pips of food is enough for them to hibernate successfully.

Slugpups can eat anything that Survivor can eat, including all kinds of. However, the only prey they actively pursue are. They may still catch Batflies when full, but do not attempt to eat them. give Slugpups the Neuron ‘glow’.

When not full, Slugpups can also consume other plants. s cause them to shake sporadically for a brief time, and triggers the mushroom’s effects on the player’s screen. s consumed by Slugpups reinforce the player’s Karma.

Successfully hibernating with a Slugpup for grants passage progress towards. The amount depends on how many Slugpups are hibernated with.

Abilities & Behavior
Initially, Slugpups ignore the player until interacted with by means of grabbing or feeding. Upon being fed, Slugpups become friendly towards the player. Once sheltered with, a smaller food bar appears above the player's, indicating the Slugpup's hunger. Slugpups follow the player around unless distracted or given a stay command. Although Slugpups are capable of grabbing and eating food, such as on their own, the player may still need to feed them.

Slugpups can tug on the player and point, pick up and throw items like s and jump over terrain. Upon entering a room with a hostile creature, like, any Slugpups that are not being held scatter. When captured, their food bar starts blinking red, alerting the player so they can save them. When killed, their food bar fades to a dull grey. While they cannot defend themselves when grabbed, if the player happens to be captured, they may throw Spears and in an attempt to rescue them.

Every cycle, Slugpups have a chance to spawn in the current region inside a random. The spawn chance differs per region; it is relatively high in regions such as and  (50% and 40%, respectively), and lower in regions such as  and  (5% and 15%, respectively). However, when factoring in the number of shelters per region and general difficulty, is a recommended region to search for Slugpups, as there is a moderate 25% chance and traversing from shelter to shelter is relatively easy.

Utility
Slugpups can hold extra Spears and other useful items for the player. Slugpups can also throw them to catch food and help the player escape when they are captured by a predator (e.g. a Lizard), and are sometimes able to free themselves when holding Rubbish. Slugpups deal the same amount of damage as, and can be surprisingly adept at killing or distracting creatures. When held, Slugpups may take hits for the Slugcat from Spears,  Dart Maggots, and  bites. On Expedition, their attacks count towards the player's challenges and score.

A.I. Quirks
Slugpups have memory for food items, which works similarly to the "Ignores" and "Eats" behaviors other creatures utilize.

Slugpups can perform most of the same movement options that are available to the player, but aren't able to intentionally use them, like a backflip. They can also grab anything that the player can, including s and corpses.

Playing & Player Interaction
A Slugpup in a player’s right hand can be transferred to their back by holding the grab button. Piggybacked Slugpups do not affect the player’s weight. Only one Slugpup can be piggybacked at a time.

Slugpups can also be given certain commands:
 * If the player jumps while crouched (down + jump), the Slugpup is told to stay in their current location.
 * A singular jump without directional inputs tells a Slugpup to play with the player. In this "play with me" mode, Slugpups stay closer to the player and pick up items more often.
 * A jump with the up direction held tells the Slugpup to stop playing with the player.

Idle Slugpups occasionally play with items and shuffle them around in their hands, as a form of fidgeting. They may also wiggle and jump around, and tug on the player's hand. Slugpups may also decide to nap while idle, laying down on the ground and closing their eyes.

Food Preferences
Slugpups have unique food preferences. If a Slugpup likes a type of food, it dances around in joy to a level according to how much it likes the food. However, if a Slugpup dislikes a type of food, it closes its eyes in disgust and shakes slightly. If a Slugpup has a strong enough preference in either direction, they can also be stunned for a short moment, followed by the appropriate reaction.

Slugpup food preferences are impacted by personality traits, which can be modeled in the following table:

Personality
Slugpups have six personality traits that affect their behavior: sympathy, bravery, energy, nervousness, aggression, and dominance.

Out of these six, sympathy, bravery, and energy are hard-coded, and the other three traits are influenced by them.

Sympathy

Bravery

Energy

Nervousness

Aggression

Dominance

Variants & Attributes
Like other creatures in Rain World, Slugpups are vastly varied in appearance and attributes. These attributes, such as metabolism, stealth, balance, etc. affect their physical appearance and performance. This can be seen in the form of a Slugpup's color, wideness, speed, and lung capacity.

Slugpups have a wide range of color with multiple variables. Pups may come in either a pale or dark range of colors, which is determined in the game files by a variable called. Eye color is based on their body color, with darker Slugpups having pale eyes, and lighter Slugpups having dark-colored eyes.

Trivia

 * Slugpups are a reimagining of Cut Content: another version of Slugpups were shown in alpha trailers, which had a different code base and was removed prior to release.
 * 's Slugtree ending changes depending on the number of Slugpups the player brings with them; however, 's Slugtree ending cutscene always shows 2 Slugpups with Survivor.
 * Slugpups occasionally pick up corpses. There is a 1% chance of a Slugpup picking up the player's corpse.
 * Slugpup corpses can be picked up, but cannot be piggybacked, unlike dead player corpses in Jolly Co-Op.
 * Slugpups can be fed to to tame them.
 * Slugpups can be targeted for tutorials by an . This is most likely an error in the entity being targeted.
 * While Slugpups are accessible to only three Slugcats, every region has a pupSpawnChance number in their properties file, with the exception of Submerged Superstructure
 * There is a 30% pupSpawnChance in Waterfront Facility, 1% in Metropolis, 50% in Undergrowth, 10% in Silent Construct, and 100% in Rubicon.
 * ,, , and have unique pupSpawnChance numbers in their properties files, despite pups being unable to spawn in their campaigns.
 * Artificer has a 25% pupSpawnChance in Garbage Wastes.
 * Rivulet has a 30% pupSpawnChance in Shaded Citadel, 1% in The Exterior, and 5% in Subterranean.
 * Spearmaster has a 25% pupSpawnChance in Garbage Wastes.
 * Saint has a 2% pupSpawnChance in Outskirts, 15% in Industrial Complex, 25% in Garbage Wastes, 4% in Shoreline, 10% in Chimney Canopy, 12% in Farm Arrays, 5% in Subterranean, and 25% in Pipeyard.


 * Slugpups cannot ascend as they are stopped by an invisible floor in the Void Sea. If carried, they still move left and right along the barrier with the player. Once let go they can swim to the surface of the Void Sea.
 * Slugpups also cannot gain Karma by any means and are attacked by s upon entering . This can result in the player's death if they are carrying the Slugpups.
 * Despite being able to encounter Slugpups, is locked off to the . Because Slugpups cannot ascend, if the player wants to complete the game, the only option is to abandon them.
 * Due to the Slugpups' low mass, they are significantly more vulnerable to threats like s and . Care should be taken in traversing through areas abundant with these creatures.
 * If slides into a pipe while carrying a Slugpup, it is knocked off and stunned.
 * Slugpups are transported with the "parent" when using Passages to fast travel.
 * Tamed can target Slugpups, and due to being friendly to the player, they are exempt from hostile stasis at the start of cycles. Care must be taken when keeping a Lizard around Slugpups, such as sleeping in a large shelter, and being prepared to immediately grab the Slugpups once the cycle starts, as Lizards cannot bite them when held by the player. Another way to prevent this is to keep lizard reputation high, as the Slugpup's lizard reputation is tied to player's Lizard reputation, a high enough Lizard rep will make them passive to pups and otherwise safe.
 * If the player force enables Slugpups, there is a 100% pupSpawnChance in as, according to one of the developer commentaries, "all Slugpups go to hell".