#i actually really loved playing artificer’s campaign in rain world

[xxivletxx]

DARKNESS IMPRISONING ME ALL THAT I SEE ABSOLUTE HORRORRRRRRRR

[the-real-rain-world-confessions]

I'm an oldster in this fandom, relatively speaking. started playing in 2020. I remember when the msc mod became hush-hush. i remember when Hunter was the favorite. i remember when shipping was scarce, a cute little side thing no one minded. there was so much more room to live and breathe the real language of the game. The depth of the lore and the characters was boundless. i remember the day the official discord server hit 15k members.

I love Downpour. I love everything downpour brings to the story of the game (except one thing, fuck Survivor OE ending. it ruins the campaign). I fully believe Downpour is canon, I believe Downpour successfully expands on everything set up in Vanilla. I'm beyond grateful i was able to experience Rain World truly Vanilla, and see the world and characters deepen and expand in such thought provoking and significant ways. Downpour is good. I dont even think the campaigns are that overpowered. With the exception of Gourmand and Rivulet, i think the DP campaigns have really high skill floors, with ceilings even higher. i think it's fine. and i dont care because the stories are worth it.

No, my issue is with the community, the fandom, if you will. I am as gay and allo as it gets. Fuck the shipping scene in this fandom. its fucking oppressive, its boring, surface level junk that actively detracts from the depth of the game. iterator shipping i can tolerate, i still dont mind, its the fucking slugcats. shipping Artificer and Hunter is stupid because they dont live at the same time, arti is probably dead by the time Hunter is made. shipping Artificer and Saint is mega stupid, arti definitely died! i think all these characters, slugs included, have fascinating parallels and reltionships ripe with conflict and intrigue, there's tons to talk about but no who fucking cares, muh fucking artihunter look theyre red and orange they're lesbians. enormous groan. if it was just a silly joke, i wouldnt care, but it's way too much of the fandom now and it blows chunks. unfortunately i love and respect canon too much to be willing to fucking obliterate it as required to actually engage with the slugcat shipping.

i miss when you could just talk about the lore and not have to throw in a big caution sign that you do actually think downpour is canon and good, sorry fellow old guard. i miss when you could just talk about the characters and not have to throw in a big caution sign that you take the game seriously and not as fodder for shipping or warrior cats oc bait.

it begs the question: why are you 1.9 people here? are you here because you love this game for what it is? or are you here just for the fandom? dont ruin this for me like you did to undertale.

- Sliverist

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[overgrownmoon]

my thoughts on downpour

i like downpour but i do agree that some of its lore is weird. its in a weird state of canon yet not canon. its a canon AU

my solution: downpour is a story.

this is long as hell the rest is under the cut

vanilla slugcats feel like you are in charge, you are playing your own journey and experience. there is an ending, but you have to choose to go to it. everything is on you. even in hunter, your journey feels like your own, just with added challenge. downpour felt like i was playing a story. the scugs are characters that i dont have all the agency in; the plot has been written and im simply playing through it. i dont think this makes downpour bad, but it makes it fundamentally different from vanilla.

my take is that vanilla is what actually happened through the eyes of three slugcats. its their real journey through this world. they are incidental in a larger world, learning bits and pieces about the past, but never the main character. you are the slugcat, experiencing the world, making your journey.

downpour is the telling of stories about specific protagonists, perhaps oral traditions told by future slugcats. the campaigns of downpour have a plot, and you are not free to make your own choice in ending; you are led to it, as if this has already happened, and someone is recounting it. that is why the lore gets weird; these stories have been told and retold and changed, details have been lost and made up.

for me, this take would make the outlandishness of saint make sense; perhaps the real saint was a simple saintly traveler, whose story was told and exaggerated over time. maybe they became a fable, to explain the death of the computer gods. others, like rivulet, maybe really did happen, and we are reliving it like a play, acting out a story a mother tells her pups. maybe artificer became a warning about revenge and violence; gourmand a folk hero of a tribe who long ago led them to new lands.

(side note about spearmaster - i think their story is also what actually happened, but only through the eyes of the messenger. they dont have the whole story, just what they saw and did, and so not every detail is accurate. there is another thing to say here about rain world's themes of individual experiences. maybe spearmaster is recounting their own journey from their memories to SRS or another slugcat, who knows)

i like to think that this would make a place for survivor and monk's outer expanse endings make sense. they are another story, a tale of siblings who reunited, long after their original lives. it kinda leaves their journey open; did they choose to ascend or live to find each other? nobody really knows. the past has already happened and we'll never know the truth. i think thats a recurring theme of rain world; this story has already happened, this world is already dead, and you cant change it or ever know exactly what happened. you only have your own experiences and the words of others.

this is all just basically my justification for why in my own canon that im building my strategy with downpour is to just take the bits and pieces i like and leave the others behind, lmao. again, i like downpour! but i do agree that is is fundamentally different from the original game's intent. i preferred the ambiguity of the vanilla cats' endings. gourmand is still my favorite tho i love the chonk

[scugbox]

artificer pastel doodle to keep this account alive GO!! HUZZZAH!

im still grinding rain world as often as i canj but holy shit (experiences/opinions so far described in excessive detail below warning)

i think gourmand set my standards too high for other campaigns, they're literally perfect i love them with my entire heart they've been a blast to play through. i forced myself to not complete the food quest on my first run even though i was accidentally quite close just so i had a reason to replay them. chef's kiss gourmand my beloved.

artificer despite a rough start and the fact that it made me go through both shaded and underhang also ended up really fun. i love exploding the shit out of everything and the double jump is so satisfying. the vibes of metropolis are also immaculate, although not as good as outer expanse id say. scav king's a total pushover too killing them with their own spears was beyond funny. it has me curious about the waterfront facility and arti's ascension ending so i do also want to go back.

and then there's rivulet. fuck there's rivulet. i haven't finished it yet but man. man fuck that guy. so far at least. i mean i hope late game is more interesting but so far im stuck in chimney canopy, 3 shelter failures in and im losing my GODDAMN MIND.

anyway if you actually read all that then uhhh make yourself a nice little tasty sandwich or somethin n have a nice evenmorndaight

[booksofstars]

I know you like rainworld, but I have genuinely no idea what in the world it is.

Care to give an explanation of it? A passionate fan seems like a good person to ask.

ok so im terrible at explaining BUT i love rambling. so lets get into it!

rain world is a survival simulator. at its core, this is the game. you play as a slugcat (the stories of which vary based on the campaign). the goal of the game, really, is exploration. survival doesnt truly matter until either crossing through a gate into another region or in ascension endings.

generally, the story revolves around the iterators, though some downpour scugs have stories more focused on them. through taking pearls (which have information on them) to looks to the moon (an iterator), you learn more about the past of this dangerous world.

iterators were built by the ancients, a society now gone due to their attempt to escape the cycle. the iterators were created for this purpose; to find a solution that would allow the ancients to ascend without going into the void sea (the classic route). after the mass ascension of the ancients, an iterator named sliver of straw gave the triple affirmative, declaring that the solution had been found. heres the issue, though: she died right after. so? the iterators are left to speculate. this is the catalyst for the story you slowly learn about, or even contribute to, throughout the game. throughout the game, you can visit the iterators five pebbles and looks to the moon and learn their stories. the rest of the local group of iterators includes no significant harassment, seven red suns, chasing/gray wind, and unparalleled innocence. only the first two are ever depicted in game, though they cant be visited. they get splash screens!

the general gameplay loop involves exploring, perhaps collecting pearls or other items to take to looks to the moon if you reach her, eating to sate hunger, and returning to a shelter in time for the end of the cycle. at the end of each cycle comes the rain, caused by the still-standing five pebbles, a grouchy iterator who gives you the mark of communication, allowing you to talk to him and looks to the moon, his big sister. this rain is deadly; it will kill you after a little while. there are many regions to explore, all of which are accessed by finding and entering through karma gates. karma increases with each successful cycle, and decreases when you die. there is no penalty for losing karma; you will simply be unable to move on until you replenish it through a few cycles. karma flowers prevent this from dropping for a single cycle. the goal, once karma 10 is reached, is to either ascend in the void sea, or reach the campaign‘s specific ending (which typically doesnt actually require karma 10! only ascension does).

in the base game, there are three slugcats to choose from. monk (yellow, "easy" mode), survivor (regular mode), and hunter (hard mode). now, these scugs do have their own stories, though monk and survivors are somewhat similar (they are siblings, by the way)! when i say monk is easy mode, take that with a grain of salt. rain world is a very cool game, but it isnt easy. especially on console.

there is also a dlc, rain world downpour. it adds the slugcats artificer, gourmand, rivulet, spearmaster, saint, and inv (who is actually a bonus campaign meant as a developer easter egg. also they have a dating sim). these slugcats each have their own tales to tell, all at different points in the timeline. they are unlocked progressively as you complete campaigns! i wont be spoiling them, though!

the order of slugcats in the timeline is as follows:

spearmaster

artificer

hunter

gourmand

monk & survivor

(big timeskip)

rivulet

(big timeskip)

saint

like i said, i wont be outlining the stories, because its really fun to piece together yourself! rain world is about survival and discovery, after all. id absolutely recommend it if you have the patience! also, i should note, downpour also provides a cheat menu that makes the game somewhat easier.

happy sluggying!

[cheddar-inq]

guh this was supposed to be a quick warmup and it was NOT

fandom opinion stuff !!!!!

notes abt why and blank template below the cut

Favorite character - I've just always loved Rivulet. Even before I realized I WAS riv, ive always just. loved him. i love how fast-paced the campaign is, i love the story, i love the colors and mechanics and design and just. all of it !!!!!

Liked by everyone but me - i just cant really understand a lot of the fandom's love for artificer. like i dont hate arti at all but i just dont understand all of the love. to me, artificer is someone trapped in that pure fury who simply could not let go of it, regardless of how hard they may have tried to break out of it. i think that it should be highlighted more in the fandom and thats actually what im trying to change about my own rain world au- i want to highlight that fury, that grief, that pure hatred mixed with the confusion of what to do, and how even once theyve calmed down from that fury, that it can be reignited in an instant from anything that reminds them of the death of their pups, the toll scavengers, ect.

Didn't like at first - i just thought monk was boring tbh. As ive played rain world for longer and longer ive realized that monk is incredibly brave and fascinating

Would like to know more about - always been curious about nightcat and i am even MORE curious now bc of the announcement of the Watcher !!!!!!

Least Favorite Character - again, i just. i cant stand how the fandom sees arti exclusively as someone to be sympathetic for and someone to be redeemed without any of that lasting guilt and fury. kinda just ruined them for me. i do love their campaign though

Like the design, dislike (Campaign) - i literally LOVE gourm ok. i love just how much can be done with their character, i love how theyre presented in game as that kind colony member who braved a new, unknown area to benefit their family, their colony, everyone they care about and love. i just hate the exhaust mechanic and i found the food quest to just be boring and unnessecarily long and tedious

Like the campaign, dislike design - by this i mean more like. just how hunter was shown in game. i really liked the story but i feel like we just werent given enough. what were they like before leaving nsh? what were they like before the rot or before the rot began to seriously affect them? how many other iterators knew about hunter? how old even were they when they began their mission? and dont get me started on the ending i wish there was more than just the one end scene art, i wish we knew more about hunter and nsh's relationship

Similar personality - guys i kin rivulet i have always seem him acting like how i do and vice versa sorry this ones a bit boring of an answer

Fav ships - i love you puffball. i love you deepsea. my favorites ever <33

Least fav ship - this isnt personal to anyone and no hate to anybody who enjoys monk ships, i just cant see them as anything other than a pup so monk ships are just uncomfortable for me to see

would befriend irl - no joke. any of them tbh. potentially artificer but probably not just because of how that kind of grief and anger can affect people, im not sure if arti would be able to make friends with others. also the slug i drew is my slugsona, the lizardtamer <3

would never befriend irl - arti for the reasons listed aboveeee

yeah :333 heres the template !!!

[tammyhybrid21]

I’m going to put these on their own post just so I can get my thoughts in order first. Starting of course with the Siblings and their Slugcats... if the heights are inconsistent, please I’m aware... One of the curses I think... Anyway so what can I say-- A lot actually, but I don’t want to say everything.

So I’ll just kind of, list it as I take it.

I am a firm believer in short Pebbles, short all of the iterators actually. Which speaking of, they are child sized. Going by that one theory that Slugcats are around 3’-ish. Which I do adore, I love it so much because I-- I like characters who’re small and thus have to deal with the issues that comes from been smol, as well the blessings of that shorter height. I mean seriously, look back at my roleplaying days-- my Main Muse was a 3’1/95cm tall child who got into EVERYTHING, but that’s not the point of this.

This was initially a picture I was drawing just as a reference, but I think I’m just going to use whatever height charts I make for those in the end... so instead this is more like a sheet of Misc headcanons/thoughts.

Straight up at the front, listing off heights. Artificer shares the same thing that sends me about NSH with LTTM’s height difference, 1cm turns into a whole inch of difference. And then Ruffles/Rivulet is smaller and faster. Pebbles meanwhile just smol-- ALSO THE MARKINGS. I have come to a conclusion and Pebbles and Moon’s markings and how they go together and that conclusion is phases of the Moon. I also love the idea that they match clothing wise... and the deeper issues with Pebbles basically only been given hand me downs.

Hand me down citizens, hand me down clothes... Vague ideas he’s built to the west of Moon, so also literally in her shadow when the sun rises...

BUT also on that, I suppose lets go to those little picture snippets huh. So first off, I love the idea of iterators giving out marks/gifts to Slugcats they claim. Artificer is Pebbles’ citizen as much as he’s her “angry pink baby”. With one extra headcanon--

When I first fell into drawing Rain World fanart I also done up this quick sheet. Nothing here is really relevant because it was mostly me just getting some thoughts in order. BUT-- I have a half joking headcanon that Pebbles is colourblind thanks to a mod with unfixed dialogue. Which you can see in my timeline/headcanon scribbles as well. SPECIFICALLY. I play around as if Pebbles has protanopia.

Which ye, he has even more strive for independence from Moon as result. ALSO, As a funny thing, this will be used as an excuse for a fic at some point for him to send Artificer off to NSH and go “You’ll know her when you see her, she’s you coloured!”-- she is empathetically not. Same as her Scarf is not the same colour as Pebbles like he thinks it is in that first picture.

I have... a lot to say regarding that one spoiler picture with Ruffles and campaign specific event. But the issue with that is it would take a lot of words and some explanations that even likely go cross-fandom. I just have one thing I will say right here.

People need to learn how to hear/see unspoken apologies. Apologies through actions and not words... But I’ll save that for when I actually get my thoughts together for all the fandoms it’s relevant to. So maybe... hopefully one day I’ll get to that.

Kind of wish I had more to say about the Slugcats here, but uhhh-- don't really have much, at least not this second. Not beyond the obvious... Although I do have a WIP time-travel fic with Riv and Moon that goes with another half-joke headcanon... will I explain that, no, because that's currently one paragraph of a story that I don't even know will be written more or not.