Red Lizards are the largest, most aggressive, and deadliest species of Lizard. They do not spawn natively whilst playing as Monaĥo or Pluvivanto and can only be encountered through the lineage system during these campaigns. Red Lizards have a 100% bite lethality rate.
Red Lizards are some of the most decorated Lizards, typically featuring long, thin frilled tails and backs adorned with spines. Some may exhibit smaller and darker back spikes. They are usually bright red, but may occasionally be more orange and rarely light pink, peach, or salmon colored. Red Lizards have the longest average tail-to-body ratio of any Lizard and may feature up to four distinct scale types on a given individual.
Tips
Combat
Red Lizards are extremely difficult to fight due to their aggression, speed, ability to disarm with their projectile spit, and resistance to injury; they can take 6-12 Lanco hits before dying. Additionally, hitting them with a Rock does not flip them over like other Lizard species, and they are resistant to Explosives. Hitting Red Lizards with a Spear to the mouth via crouch- or slide-spearing stuns them for a longer than average period, granting the opportunity to get more hits in on their body. Explosives may also be used to stun them for a moment. A tamed Green Lizard can be a valuable ally to have when fighting Red Lizards as they are immune to Red Lizard bites.
Stealth
Sneaking past Red Lizards is difficult due to their keen senses; they can hear and see from far off-screen and pursue prey relentlessly. Additionally, they are typically found in long, flat stretches of terrain, giving few options for sneaking around them.
Evasion
Due to their speed, evading Red Lizards can be difficult; on flat terrain, they can easily close long distances. Because Red Lizards are incapable of climbing walls, staying on high ground may be advantageous. When running away from a Red Lizard, it is possible to utilize the knockback from their projectile spit to boost towards an exit. Additionally, finding a group of other creatures such as Squidcadas, Scavengers, or even other Red Lizards may distract them, buying time to get away safely. Advanced movement, such as slides, also helps in outpacing them.
Abilities & Behavior
Projectile Spit
Red Lizards have the ability to spit projectiles at their prey. While the spit itself does not deal damage, it causes a large amount of knockback, weighs down whatever it is attached to, and can knock objects out of Slugcat's hands. The projectiles have a large range, but Red Lizards must stop moving to shoot them. They shoot projectiles at a rate of about 4 times per second.
However, if a Red Lizard is preoccupied, such as when carrying prey back to their den, Vultures are able to bite and carry them off.
Tongue
Rain World Remix - Only occurs when the "Alpha Reds" option is enabled.
When chasing prey or fighting against other Lizards, Red Lizards use their tongues. Unlike other Lizards' tongues, the Red Lizard's tongue is incapable of grabbing Slugcat. Instead, it can steal an object from Slugcat's hand. If this object is a Spear of any sort, the Red Lizard bites it in half, destroying it. Some objects can potentially harm the Red Lizard when stolen; for example, Explosive Spears detonate when a Red Lizard bites them.
Technical details to supplement this section can be found at Lizards/Taming.
Red Lizards are difficult to tame, having the highest taming difficulty statistic outside of the More Slugcats Expansion. If done on the same cycle without the Lizard ever being previously attacked, the player may need between 3 and 5 feedings to fully tame it.
Due to the high taming difficulty, with sufficiently low regional Lizard reputation, it is possible to get a Red Lizard partially tamed: a partially-tamed Red Lizard is aware of Slugcat's position and tries to head there at all times, also protecting Slugcat from threats; however, the Red Lizard still attempts to kill Slugcat. If this happens, an extra feeding or two is enough to tame it.
Due to the low amount of progress gained from feeding the Lizard, a single feeding is not enough to put the Lizard's like of player above the threshold at which it no longer resets at hibernation, therefore doing a single feeding in a cycle can never result in the Lizard being tamed. Once two feedings have been done, it is possible to switch to making one per cycle.
Care must be taken when feeding due to their speed and aggressiveness. Once tamed, they are capable of fending off the majority of threats and keep fighting until killed. However, their inability to climb walls makes it difficult for them to follow Slugcat through some rooms. Fully tamed Lizards may also bite if injured. With Remix enabled, tamed Lizards no longer bite lethally, so they can be brought to a shelter where they can regain health.
Red Lizards are the largest Lizards and generally present with the most frills out of any Lizard type. They have the smallest possible color range out of any Lizard subspecies, varying from dark red to salmon.
Red Lizards have five possible cosmetic features: TailTuft, TailFin, LongHeadScales, BumpHawk, and ShortBodyScales, with TailTuft being the most common. While these may occur on any Red Lizard, they always have the LongShoulderScales and SpineSpikes cosmetic. Red Lizards have the longest tail out of any Lizard subspecies. Their heads, bodies, and tails all vary slightly in size.
Ten Red Lizards side by side, showcasing variations in color, cosmetic features, and scale types.
A Red Lizard's color range.
Trivia
Unlike most other creatures only found natively as Hunter, Red Lizards were present in the game before the 1.5 update, but they could only be encountered via the lineage system.
Red Lizards have the highest visual range, swimming speed, and vision when looking into water from the surface of any Lizard.
This technically makes them better at swimming and looking into water than Salamanders, who have 0.2 speed and 50% vision compared to Red Lizards' 1.9 speed and 95% vision. However, Red Lizards cannot dive.
They move so quickly in water that the water around them is displaced.
Red Lizards attack other Red Lizards on sight with an extreme aggression not exhibited by any other Lizard species, almost always resulting in a fatality. They are mostly neutral towards other Lizard species.
Red Lizards are capable of killing Red Centipedes, but they usually do not retaliate because of their fear towards them.
As with other Lizard species, they lose this fear when tamed and attempt to kill Red Centipedes threatening Slugcat, often successfully.
Unlike any other Lizards, Red Lizards attack - and often kill - King Vultures (and Miros Birds, though this interaction does not often occur naturally).
Dropwigs and Big Spiders, who usually attack all other Lizard types, attempt to flee from Red Lizards.
Red Lizards can still fire projectiles while holding creatures in their mouths.
Red Lizards are capable of biting every second frame.
There is an approximately 1/10000000 (one in ten million) chance that a Red Lizard's bite may fail (except when biting a Slugcat if Remix is enabled).
Remix implements dynamic difficulty modifying the chance for a Lizard's bite to be lethal to a Slugcat, and it's set to bypass the random roll completely if the lethality chance is 100% or greater in order to not have it decrease from a guaranteed kill. This inadvertently fixes the low chance for a Red Lizard bite to be non-lethal, exclusively if the target is a Slugcat.