Slugcat

Slugcats are the primary protagonists and playable characters of Rain World. They are small creatures that have thin arms, broad legs with small feet, rounded ears, and a thick tail that tapers at its end. They appear in various colors and have differing stats and abilities. Slugcats have a variety of movement abilities, which can be seen in detail on the Controls page.

When first starting the game, the player has the option of playing as two different Slugcats: Monk and Survivor. After finishing the game as either, the player unlocks the ability to play as Hunter.

If the More Slugcats Expansion is enabled, five more Slugcats may be unlocked. Artificer and Gourmand are unlocked along with Hunter. After finishing the game as either Gourmand, Artificer, or Hunter, the player may play as Rivulet or Spearmaster. Once both of their campaigns have been completed, Saint is unlocked.

Gameplay Basics

Food

Survivor eating two Blue Fruit

In order to hibernate, Slugcat must find and eat enough food each cycle. This amount is represented by the food meter, which can be viewed alongside the current karma level by pressing and holding Map.

The food meter is made up of food pips: circles that fill up as Slugcat eats, and a vertical line that separates the food pips required to hibernate (all pips to its left) and the food pips that are saved for the next cycle (all pips to its right). The amount of food required to hibernate varies between Slugcats.

Slugcat	Requirements
Monk
Survivor
Hunter

Slugcat	Requirements
Gourmand
Artificer
Rivulet
Spearmaster
Saint
???

There are many different kinds of food. Monk, Survivor, Gourmand, and Rivulet can eat most insects and fruit. They can also eat any size of Centipede, though larger ones must be killed prior. Hunter and Artificer can eat from the corpses of most creatures, but fruit and small insects such as Batflies, Blue Fruit, Slime Mold, and Bubble Fruit provide less value, and only fill a quarter of a food pip when eaten. Gourmand can also eat from corpses, but only gains half the normal amount of food pips.

Gourmand is able to combine 2 food items into a meal, providing an additional food pip to their base amounts. Spearmaster is unable to eat food like other Slugcats, instead having to throw spears grown out of their tail at live prey. Saint's diet is much more limited, being completely incapable of eating meat.

Swallowing

Slugcats are able to swallow and store certain objects in their stomach. Only 1 object can be stored at a time. An object can be swallowed by holding Pickup with no other inputs. If holding 2 objects, the object in Slugcat's right hand is prioritized. When there is already an object in Slugcat's stomach, holding Pickup with no other inputs regurgitates it. When Slugcat has a free hand and is upright, such as by standing or crawling upwards in a tunnel, then Slugcat grabs the object.

Spearmaster is incapable of swallowing items.

The following items may be swallowed:

• Rock
• Pearl
• Flashbang
• Lantern
• Cherrybomb
• Vulture Grub
• Hazer
• Batnip
• Grenade
• Spore Puff
• Bubble Weed
• Overseer Eye

• Five Pebbles' Neuron Flies
• Hunter's Neuron Fly

• Fire Egg
• Singularity Bomb
• Inspector Eye

Incapacitation & Death

While both death and incapacitation disable the player's input and cause a game over, Slugcat is still alive when incapacitated and may be able to come back. This potentially allows the player to continue without restarting the current cycle. The two states can be differentiated by looking at Slugcat's eyes; they are shut when incapacitated but crossed out when dead. Additionally, death plays two bass notes, while incapacitation only plays one.

Lizards, Dropwigs, and Big Spiders, among other creatures, have an RNG-based kill system, which means that when bitten or grabbed there is a percentage chance that Slugcat dies. If this check fails, the player is incapacitated, then killed if brought into a den.

There are a few ways to get out of incapacitation. A creature is likely to let go if already wounded or attacked by another creature. When bitten by most creatures, there is a short grace period where a Rock or a Spear can be thrown to stun them, allowing escape. Tamed Lizards or friendly Scavengers may also attempt to save Slugcat.

• 

  An incapacitated Slugcat (left) and a dead Slugcat (right)

• 

  Stunning a Lizard with a rock to make it let go

Relationships

These values are present in the game's code, but do not impact gameplay mechanically.

Vanilla Slugcats

• 

  The Survivor

• 

  The Monk

• 

  The Hunter

• 

  The Watcher

Downpour Slugcats

These are all the Slugcats made available while the More Slugcats Expansion DLC is Enabled.

• 

  The Gourmand

• 

  The Artificer

• 

  The Rivulet

• 

  The Spearmaster

• 

  The Saint

• 

  ???

Table of Slugcat Differences

SPOILER WARNING
This section contains major plot details. If you have not made significant progress in the game, then it is recommended that you read no further!

Campaign Stats
	Monk	Survivor	Hunter	Gourmand	Artificer	Rivulet	Spearmaster	Saint	Inv
Starting Location	Outskirts (SU_C04)	Outskirts (SU_C04)	Farm Arrays (LF_H01)	Shaded Citadel (SH_GOR02)	Garbage Wastes (GW_A24)	Drainage System (DS_RIVSTART)	Outskirts (GATE_OE_SU)	Windswept Spires (SI_SAINTINTRO)	Shaded Citadel (SH_E01)
Starting Karma (Starting Maximum)	()	()	()	()	()	()	()	()	()
Starts with Mark?	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No[§]	Yes
Can Maul?	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Food per Hibernation (Maximum)	3 (5)	4 (7)	6 (9)	7 (11)	6 (9)	5 (6)	5 (10)	4 (5)	12 (12)
Diet	Standard	Standard	Standard foods, such as Batflies and Blue Fruit, grant only 1/4 pip. Can eat the corpse of almost any creature, including predators.	Standard Can also eat the corpse of almost any creature, including predators, but grants only 1/2 of normal pips.	Standard foods, such as Batflies and Blue Fruit, grant only 1/4 pip. Can eat the corpse of almost any creature, including predators.	Standard	Feeds using self-made spears. Pips vary[†]	Only plant-like entities, such as Slime Mold and Blue Fruit, can be eaten. The exceptions are Fire/Eggbug eggs. Other foods, such as Batflies, stun Saint and grant no pips.	Standard Can also eat the corpse of almost any creature, including predators, but grants only 1/2 of normal pips.
Lung Capacity	0.83x[*]	Standard	Standard	Standard	Standard[††]	6.67x	Standard	Standard	Standard
Spear Damage	0.6 - 0.9x	Standard	1.25x	3.0x	1.25x	Standard	1.25x	0.6 - 0.9x[**]	0.6 - 0.9x
Speed	Standard	Standard	1.2x	Standard	1.2x	1.75x	1.2x	Standard	Standard
Mass	0.95x	Standard	1.12x	1.35x	1.12x	0.95x	0.85x	Standard	Standard

[*] Monk's lung capacity is increased to 1.25x when 'Monk Extended Breath' is enabled under Remix's Assists config.

[†] A full list of food and pips given can be found on Spearmaster's page.

[§] Saint can understand Iterators and Echoes even without the Mark of Communication.

[**] Outside of Expedition, Saint is unable to throw regular Spears like other Slugcats, instead tossing them aside.

[††] While Artificer has the default lung capacity, spending 35% of the air kills them. If Artificer is played in a different campaign using Jolly Co-Op, the requirement is changed to spending all of the air in the lungs, but the death remains instant instead of slowly drowning like other Slugcats.

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The following are the raw statistics for each Slugcat, exactly as they are found under SlugcatStats.

Campaign Raw Stats
	Monk	Survivor	Hunter	Gourmand	Artificer	Rivulet	Spearmaster	Saint	Inv
Lung Drain Rate (lungsFac)[*]	1.2 (0.8)	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0	0.15	1.0	1.0	1.0
Throwing Skill (throwingSkill)	0	1	2	2	2	1	2	0	0
Spear Damage	0.6 - 0.9[†]	1.0	1.25	3.0 (0.3)[‡]	1.25	1.0	1.25	0.6 - 0.9[†]	0.6 - 0.9[†]
Run Speed (runSpeedFac)	1.0	1.0	1.2	1.0	1.2	1.75	1.2	1.0	1.0
Corridor Climb Speed(corridorClimbSpeedFac)	1.0	1.0	1.2	0.86	1.2	1.6	1.2	1.0	1.0
Pole Climb Speed (poleClimbSpeedFac)	1.0	1.0	1.25	0.8	1.25	1.8	1.25	1.0	1.0
Mass (bodyWeightFac)	0.95	1.0	1.12	1.35	1.12	0.95	0.85	1.0	1.0
Loudness (loudnessFac)	0.75	1.0	1.35	1.5	1.35	1.0	1.35	1.0	1.0
Visibility Bonus (generalVisibilityBonus)	-0.1	0.0	0.1	0.3	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0
Crawling Stealth (visualStealthInSneakMode)	0.6	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.3	0.5	0.5

[*] lungsFac determines how much air is drained per frame. This means lower values grant a larger lung capacity.

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

[‡] 3.0 only when not exhausted - reduced to 0.3 when exhausted.

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The following are the raw statistics when starving, showing the stats that change only. Note that most slugcats share these stats when starving, only Gourmand and Rivulet are unique.

Campaign Starvation Raw Stats
	Slugcat	Gourmand	Rivulet
Throwing Skill (throwingSkill)	0	2	0
Spear Damage	0.6 - 0.9	3.0	0.6 - 0.9
Run Speed (runSpeedFac)	0.875	0.875	1.27
Corridor Climb Speed(corridorClimbSpeedFac)	0.86	0.81	1.2
Pole Climb Speed (poleClimbSpeedFac)	0.8	0.75	1.1
Mass (bodyWeightFac)	0.9[*]	1.15	0.91

[*] bodyWeightFac is clamped to 0.9 - for Spearmaster and Slugpups who are already lighter than 0.9, their weight does not change.

Spoilers end here.

Trivia

Slugcat watching a Lizard pass by and moving their tail away

• When Downpour is disabled, all three vanilla Slugcats as well as the otherwise unused Nightcat are playable in the game's Arena modes, they all handle similarly to how the Survivor does in Single Player.
  • In Downpour, this is changed, and any Slugcat except Nightcat may be played with their unique stats.
• Slugcats have a few different facial expressions apart from the ones mentioned in the incapacitation and death section. For example, when throwing or swallowing an object, Slugcats briefly close their eyes, and when regurgitating an object they keep their eyes closed for a longer period of time. Slugcat also keeps their eyes shut when close to a threat. While idle, Slugcat has widened, circular eyes which blink occasionally.
• When close to a creature or an object, Slugcats will stare at it. This can be used to detect ambush predators while they're still hiding or to be warned of an off-screen creature.
  • The tracking doesn't require a line of sight to exist between the Slugcat and the target and so it can happen even if there's a wall separating the two.
• Slugcats actively move their tails away from threats, such as Lizards, in situations that allow it (such as resting at the top of a pole).
• When faced by a threat, Slugcats may hold their hand out in an attempt to briefly stop the creature from biting them.
• On the Rain World Dev Logs, the Slugcat was originally referred to as “Bear Creature”.
  • Their current name comes from a comment on a developer video stating “Slug Cats :)”.
• Various colors of Slugcats that did not make it to the final release can be seen in the Dev Logs: brown in the prototype, light pink in the early alphas, and green in the first Arena screenshots.

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