Batfly

"Batfly"
Details
Code name	Fly
Behavior	Fearful
HP	0.15
Food Pips	1 As MonkAs Survivor 0.25 As Hunter 1 As GourmandAs Rivulet 0.25 As ArtificerAs Spearmaster 0 As Saint
Regions As any Slugcat: Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Drainage System, Garbage Wastes, Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Chimney Canopy, Sky Islands, Farm Arrays, Subterranean
Downpour Regions As any Slugcat: Outskirts, Industrial Complex, Drainage System, Garbage Wastes, Chimney Canopy, Sky Islands, Farm Arrays, Subterranean, Pipeyard As MonkAs SurvivorAs Gourmand: Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Submerged Superstructure, Outer Expanse As Hunter: Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Submerged Superstructure As Artificer: Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Waterfront Facility, Metropolis As Rivulet: Shoreline, Shaded Citadel, Submerged Superstructure As Spearmaster: Shaded Citadel, The Exterior, Waterfront Facility, Looks to the Moon As Saint: Shoreline, Submerged Superstructure, Undergrowth, Silent Construct

Batflies are passive, flying, insectoid creatures that act as one of Slugcat's primary food sources. They are one of the most common creatures in the game, appearing in almost every region.

Appearance

Batflies are small black insects with two wings, antennae, and white eyes. They have no variation.

Tips

Batflies diving to hide from Slugcat

Hunting

Batflies can be caught and eaten to fill 1 food pip. Batflies are wary of Slugcat, but are usually slow in their evasion. They can be caught easily by jumping towards them and grabbing. Catching Batflies may be easier from above, as they often stop and hover in place. Jumping from above also makes it easier to catch Batflies through use of the game's Batfly auto-grab feature. Rocks and Spears can also be used to kill Batflies from afar. Batnip attracts Batflies, which makes them easier to catch. Unlike other food sources, Batflies do not persist in shelters, and are either auto-consumed or deleted.

Utility

Batflies can be used to distract certain creatures, such as Pole Plants and Monster Kelp. When thrown in range, these threats may prioritize the Batfly over Slugcat, retreating into their dens to consume them. Batflies can also be used to distract Jetfish and raise reputation with Squidcada.

Batfly Spear Linking

Batfly Spear Linking, also known as Batspearing, was a glitch in pre-1.9 versions of Rain World. In 1.9, enabling Remix corrects the glitch, unless "Vanilla exploits" is enabled in its options.
When a Spear is thrown through a Batfly that has already been impaled on another Spear, the game behaves as though it is impaled on both. The Batfly may appear to get transferred to the new Spear, but this is not necessary for the glitch to apply. When one Spear exits a room, enters a transition pipe, or enters a den, the other forcibly warps with it, including anything that the Spear is currently embedded in. This can be used to transport large creatures. The game can become softlocked if a creature retreats to its den while Slugcat is holding a linked Spear, however.

This glitch is significantly easier to perform as Hunter due to their back slot: if the Spear on the back has an impaled Batfly, any thrown Spear pierces through it. Any amount of Spears can be linked at once. Linked Spears that have been embedded into walls also warp, but can not be climbed on once they move rooms. Removing the Batfly from the linked Spears stops the glitch.

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  Hunter impaling a Batfly that has already been impaled on a Spear.

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  A Green Lizard being warped with Hunter.

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  Warped embedded Spears floating mid-air.

Abilities & Behavior

Migration

Batflies can be found in 'hives' around the world, known in-code as swarm rooms. These rooms feature black, white-tipped plants. Every cycle, Batflies attempt to migrate to a new swarm room. Depending on how many Batflies Slugcat has killed, multiple Batfly hives may be empty. When a hive is empty, the plants lose their white tips. Active Batfly hives are indicated on the map by pulsing blue rings.

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  An active Batfly hive

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  An empty Batfly hive

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  An active Batfly hive, as seen on the in-game map.

A stack of three Batflies.

Hiding

The white-tipped plants that Batflies nest in also act as Batfly-exclusive travel pipes. When a threat gets too close to a Batfly, they may dive and burrow into these plants. After a few seconds, they re-emerge from a different plant elsewhere in the room. Batflies can still be grabbed while in their burrowing animation.

Stacking

Batflies can hang upside down from ceilings, poles, and even each other, forming stacks. If a Batfly with others attached to it from below starts flying, the attached Batflies may not separate, and they can end up struggling to fly. If Slugcat grabs a Batfly attached to a chain, the entire chain is picked up until the other Batflies fly away. This can result in strange physics if the Batflies are still attached to the ceiling.

Trivia

• Most creatures in the game ignore them; however, Squidcadas, Jetfish, Pole Plants, Monster Kelp and Leeches actively hunt them.
  • Batflies are hunted by Strawberry Lizards, making it relatively easy to tame them by feeding them Batflies.
• Batfly is a community-created name.
• Batflies are one of the few creatures in the game with no individual variation.
• Batflies were initially intended to be the only source of food for Slugcat, but this was later changed as it limited the kinds of regions the developers could make.
• Early concept art of the Batfly.
• When a Batfly is flying near the edge of the screen, their shadow may elongate. This bug can be seen most often in The Wall.

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