Lore of Rain World: Downpour (2024)

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SPOILER WARNING: Downpour
This section contains details concerning the Downpour DLC. If you have not yet completed the DLC, then read no further!

This page contains the lore and backstory of Rain World, as well as new discoveries that have come to light in Rain World: Downpour. The contents of this article should always be supported by evidence from texts and excerpts found in the game.

Please discuss potential changes on the talk page to ensure your additions are valid.

The events that transpire from the start to the end of the Rain World universe are complicated and entangled. The Slugcat's journey across the world is also riddled with clues and subtle messages of the past.

A number of pieces of evidence and excerpts acquired over the course of the game's storyline offer a logical and well-supported explanation in regard to the cause of the world's current state of decay and disrepair.

The game's original timeline is separate from the events of the Downpour DLC, which is considered an official alternative universe^[1]. For this reason, all Downpour-related lore is compiled here in addition to the original lore in order to create a cohesive and comprehensive timeline that does not interfere with the already established lore.

The following are a list of resources used heavily in compiling the information seen below:

• Pearl/Dialogue
• Broadcasts
• Looks to the Moon (character)/Dialogue
• Five Pebbles (character)/Dialogue
• Echo/Dialogue
• Developer Commentary^*

^*While not directly related to the content within this page, a lot of the information within provides insight on design decisions and allow for a more accurate breakdown of in-game details

Summary Of Background Lore

The Great Cycle

All beings in the universe of Rain World are locked in an everlasting cycle of death and rebirth. The specifics of this and how it works are unknown, as no concrete information is given. Creatures can die out, and new species can emerge and evolve, but no soul ever truly leaves this world. This property was discovered by the planet's dominant species, colloquially known as the Ancients, who viewed it as a prison. They desired a way to break free from the cycle, to truly pass on from the world—a process they dubbed "ascension". Means of ascension were eventually found.

Intelligent Life

The aforementioned Ancients were a powerful, Buddhist-influenced dogmatic society heavily enveloped in their traditions and beliefs. Even with their collective power, they were unable to break free of what became known as the Great Cycle, the universal element that affected all living creatures.

Other prevalent intelligent species, at least within the time frame of the game events, include the Slugcats, a nomadic, stout-bodied bipedal organism capable of hunting, non-verbal communication, and social interaction. Their abilities are not dissimilar to the Scavengers, a lankier, more primate like species that are much more tribal and collective, wary of other creatures but capable of trade and communication with others if the proper precautions are taken.

Purposed Organisms

Most, if not all life seen within the world are descendants of purposed organisms, a mix of organic and inorganic life-forms created and genetically engineered by the Ancients for their own functions, whether it be production or amusem*nt; working at such an unprecedented efficiency with the combined advantages of their biological components structured and streamlined as if it were a machine.^[2]

Occurring within the Void Fluid Revolution, much of the natural flora and fauna of the world had died off or disappeared by the time the Ancients had obtained this power, resulting in most of the evolved lifeforms seen eons later being offshoots or at least part of these once unnatural creatures. A good example of this are Miros Birds, which were created to protect the Memory Crypts.^[3] The Slugcat species is suggested to be a descendent of a purposed organism, a type of slug creature that would clean the insides of pipes. While not stated in game, it is heavily implied that the Spearmaster is a purposed organism, created to be an ideal messenger.

Pearls

Pearls are reflective, spherical objects used by the Ancients to store information, ranging from stories to images to songs. Many are found scattered throughout Rain World, holding a vast array of history and data. Much of the information within this page is sourced from these data pearls, which were often used as facility logs or records of Iterator communications, in which Looks to the Moon at different points in the timeline will provide different transcriptions of most pearls, alongside the pearls that can be read within Artificer's campaign by Five Pebbles, providing his own unique perspective on established pearl transcriptions and often providing new information altogether.

The Ancients and Void Fluid

Eons ago, an ancient civilization much like modern humans inhabited the planet. Even such a developed society could not escape the grasp of the Great Cycle that impacted all living creatures. Birth, death and rebirth were connected to each other like a ring, making true death impossible. It became this civilization's goal to break free of this cycle—a process known as transcendence.

Even far before the storyline of Rain World began, methods and spiritual instructions were devised by beings such as monks to rid oneself of natural urges. These methods were practiced in an effort to escape the Great Cycle, but there is no indication that these instructions were able to achieve any success.

The situation changed drastically, however, with the Void Fluid Revolution.

At some point in their history, the ancient civilization discovered what later came to be known as Void Sea far below the surface in the Depths. The Void Sea was comprised entirely of Void Fluid. While it was difficult to harvest the fluid due to its nature of dissolving anything that comes into contact, devices known as Void Drills were invented to gather up small amounts Void Fluid embedded in rocks slightly above the Void Sea, where its concentration is lower and wouldn't pose a risk to the equipment. The impurities such as rock and sediments were then filtered out to obtain a sample of the pure liquid.

This fluid was soon found to be an outstanding source of energy, leading to the creation of devices such as the Mass Rarefaction Cell.^[4] Technological advancement quickly boomed, and the ancient civilization reached the height of its power.

After further studies, it was found that the Void Fluid does not just dissolve objects, it also removes them from the physical realm. Attempts were made to dig even deeper into the Depths to find higher concentrations of Void Fluid as well as uncover more information about it, but the ancients' equipment simply broke or dissolved. As later described, no one returned if they ventured too deep into the Depths. However, this property of the Void Fluid coincided with what the ancients thought to be the solution to escaping the Great Cycle. The civilization believed that the ability of the Void Fluid to remove one from the physical world was the transcendence they had longed for. Since any that came into contact with Void Fluid did not return, it was inferred that they must have broken free of the cycle.

However, a risk was associated with taking the plunge into Void Sea to escape the world. Not even Void Fluid was enough to remove those with sufficiently large egos from the physical realm. This resulted in some "horror stories" in regards to semi-transcended abominations.^[5] Several Ancients that did not entirely transcend are likely to be the Echoes seen throughout the timeline. These creatures claim to know how to transcend, but express a sense of regret and sorrow at being trapped between the mortal realm and the transcended realm.^* The Echo found within Bitter Aerie is not confirmed to be canon.

Karma

In order to transcend, it seems that one would have to abandon all attachments and desires, entering an "effortless" state. These are summarized with what they referred to as the five 'natural urges'; The first being wrath/violence , the second lust , the third material possession/attachment , the fourth gluttony/indulgence , and the fifth being self preservation/ego . These are the first five of the ten known levels of Karma, with the symbols that represent the latter half changing with current maximum Karma level.

With such a degree of commitment required and with the knowledge of the consequences of failure, the ancients once again turned to archaic methods to rid of one's natural urges and ego before deciding to use Void Fluid in order to finally transcend. However, this seemed not to be an entirely perfect solution, which would explain why Iterators were constructed. Additionally, the last Karma symbol seems to be the desire to ascend others, this backed up by dialogue in the Saint's campaign.

Creating and Using the Iterators

The ancient civilization began using its technological prowess to create and construct the iterators. Iterator was the name given to artificial superintelligences of colossal size and incredible power that were constructed to solve the 'Great Problem'—to find the method of breaking free of the Great Cycle without the use of Void Fluid.

Although these superstructures were mainly of efficient machines and purposed organisms, these constructs can still be found imbued with the ideology of the Ancients, with these 'Karma Shrines' residing just above the roof of the so called iterator 'cans', a series of murals held within an ornate spacious room, with each room filling mural depicting one of the five natural urges. These are known to appear within an iterator of an older generation and one of the newest, suggesting that this is a pattern found throughout all iterator superstructures.

The Iterators were a combination of organic and synthetic components, relying on specially grown microorganisms as peripheral processing devices: their natural metabolism and reproduction could perform very complex calculations beyond the physical capabilities of electronics. In order to keep their electronic components cool and their organic components clean, iterators required gargantuan amounts of water. The Iterators stripped their nearby ecosystems of water and pumped water vapor back into the atmosphere, where it would condense into rain and be used again.^[6]

Due to this process and the sheer number of iterators built, the equilibrium of the world's ecosystems was severely disrupted or even destroyed, creating a dense layer of fog and clouds rife with torrential downpours and periodic flooding. Ultimately, this effect came to be known as the Rain.

The ancient civilization compensated for this by moving away from living on the surface, and constructed immense, dense cities directly on top of the surface of the iterators' "cans"—massive, square shaped buildings which protruded like islands far above the cloud layer. In addition to computing the solution to the Great Problem of transcendence, the iterators were tasked with providing regular shipments of food, water, equipment and Void Fluid for energy to these colonies.

Layout of an Iterator Superstructure

The basic layout of an Iterator superstructure consists of a large rectangular prism, at an approximate ratio of a width and depth of 1, and length of 2, often referred to as a 'can.' This central structure is elevated from the surface and rises high above the cloud level, with the support of 8 pillars spaced apart, referred to as the 'legs,' with one just before each corner and the remaining 4 legs spaced equally between the legs along the lengths of the underside, forming a collection of 2 rows and 4 columns, with the columns of each row closer together and the rows farther apart.

The other parts of the exterior, which include the horizontal surface of the underside, the 4 vertical surfaces, and the horizontal surface of the topside are referred to as the underhang, the wall(s), and the roof correspondingly.

Much of the interior structure is unknown, but notable systems of the Iterator superstructures include the General Systems Bus (GSB), Neural Terminus (NT), Primary Cortex (PC), Memory Conflux (MC), Recursive Transform Array (RTA) / Abstract Convergence Manifold (ACM), Linear Systems Rail (LSR) / The Heart, Lymphatic Conduit Water Distribution System (LCWDS) / the Arteries.

General Systems Bus, Recursive Transform Array, Linear Systems Rail, and Lymphatic Conduit Water Distribution System are found within Five Pebbles, while Neural Terminus, Abstract Convergence Manifold, The Heart, and the Arteries correspond to Looks to the Moon, with the differently named subsystems retaining a similar function.

Recursive Transform Array and Abstract Convergence Manifold both consist of angular shafts lined with Flux Condensers, large 'electric fly zapper' coils that seem to serve as volatile capacitors for electricity, with the systems containing a single spacious room adjacent to the core of the structure, with a large chip-like object in the center, likely acting as a power distribution system and/or north/south bridge (Related to Computer System Architecture), or even as a Central Processing Unit (CPU).

Found in both Iterators, Memory Conflux serves as the active memory structure for use by the system, likely for both short and long term memory, with individual cells often filled with these brittle, coral-like lattices that can be seen reconstructing themselves if disturbed, likely serving as an active individual thread or process.

General Systems Bus, Neural Terminus, and Primary Cortex are all close to the central Iterator Puppet chamber, with GSB and NT serving as highways for purposed organisms like the Neuron Fly with access tunnels and busses directly to the chamber and its immediate surroundings, and connecting to further subsystems like Memory Conflux and the Flux Condenser arrays.

The Primary Cortex is a region seen in both Iterators, being these systems of large chasms filled with green electric energy discharges, with organisms and conduits weaving through to the core, located nearby but not adjacent to the core chamber, likely serving as more of a 'backrooms' within the core, with a multitude of smaller electrified chambers more closely surrounding some layer around the chamber; a system as a whole with a less apparent or known function.

Linear Systems Rail and The Heart both serve as containers for Rarefaction Cells, serving as immense power sources that are accompanied by the much needed water distribution systems (LCWDS and the Arteries) that span the facilities and flush out processor organism slag and regulate internal and external temperatures.

The Local Facility

Looks to the Moon and Five Pebbles serve as the only physical presence of the Iterators in-game, with Looks to the Moon being an older model of Iterator.^[7] Looks to the Moon was built and mainly served during a time at which the Ancients still lived on the surface.

The Local Facility is built around a great source of ground water with a large circular aquifer at the center, with Looks to the Moon just to the east of this aquifer; her large rectangular can with her width / depth adjacent to the aquifer and her length running from west to east. Five Pebbles is just to the west across the other side of the aquifer, instead aligned perpendicularly with his length running from north to south.

The two superstructures are connected by two bridges that span across the aquifer, suspended at a height just around the intersection of the legs and the walls. The first bridge, which is encountered in-game as 'The Precipice', starts from Five Pebbles second 'left-most' leg (when referring to Five Pebbles' eastern wall as the front), the one seen in-game, and connects to the first leg of Moon's first row. The second and encountered bridge connects from the first leg of Looks to the Moons' second row to the third leg of Five Pebbles front row. Together, they create a 'T' like formation, with Five Pebbles forming the horizontal top line, and the combined length of the bridges and Looks to the Moon's can forming the vertical line, albeit rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise when using north as the upward direction.

Iterator Presence

Twelve iterators have been named but there are up to fourteen total (including the named twelve) which have been seen in-game. The seven mentioned within the timeline of most Slugcats are:

• Five Pebbles (5P) - "Erratic Pulse"
• Looks to the Moon (LttM) - "Big Sister Moon" (BSM)^*
• Sliver of Straw (SoS)
• Seven Red Suns (SRS)
• Chasing Wind/Gray Wind (CW)
• Unparalleled Innocence (UI)
• No Significant Harassment (NSH)

^* "Big Sis Moon" to Iterators she is close to.

Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon serve the only in-game appearance of iterators and their structures, with Sliver of Straw playing an important influence in the actions of the iterators, with others like Seven Red Suns, Chasing Wind, Unparalleled Innocence, and No Significant Harassment merely appearing in preserved records/logs or influence in the events that take place; an albeit distant but notable appearance within the world.

Seven more iterators are mentioned within the broadcasts of the Spearmaster, of which five are named and two are only known by their initials:

• Pleading Intellect (PI)
• Wandering Omen (WO)
• Gazing Stars (GS)
• Secluded Instinct (SI)
• Epoch of Clouds (EOC)
• HR
• NGI

Within the storyline of the Spearmaster, the aforementioned Seven Red Suns and No Significant Harassment play a large narrative and influential role for the events that take place, where the other remaining Iterators serve mainly as additional insight or supplementary world building outside of the in-game events. Notably are some comments on the state of the planet that Rain World supposedly resides in; with its entire surface to be a cold, frigid wasteland, a world where the only remaining sources of heat come as a byproduct of the Iterator superstructures. By the time the iterators were created, this was the known state and landscape documented, with previous or otherwise past information on a different state of the environment unknown. The second iterator, NSH as they are known, also has a role within the journey of the Hunter that later takes place.

Fall of the Ancients and Creation of the Rot

The Ancients' civilization disappeared and collapsed before the Iterators computed the solution to the Great Problem due to a massive transcendence movement of the entire population, leaving the surface cities dark and abandoned if largely intact. However, the Iterators were left turned on, their final command being to continue working towards a method to transcend without using Void Fluid and guide lesser creatures on the path to the realm beyond should the solution ever be discovered.

Over the next indeterminate amount of cycles up until the start of the game, the Iterators did not achieve any major breakthroughs. Only Sliver of Straw claimed to have uncovered the solution, but she died almost simultaneously as the confirmation of success was broadcasted to the other Iterators, causing the methods in which she attained this positive result to be lost.^[8]

Unable to find the solution after Sliver of Straw's ascension and growing increasingly frustrated, another Iterator—Five Pebbles—became convinced there was no solution to the great problem, there was no reason to keep trying to solve it, and that death was the only way out. It is likely he showed these beliefs off in Iterator chat logs under the pseudonym EP, or Erratic Pulse.^[9]

The Ancients had anticipated this kind of thinking, however, and put taboos preventing self destruction within the Iterators' genetics. One (and perhaps the only) way to circumvent these taboos was a very dangerous and repetitive shuffling of genetics that required a heightened water intake.^[10] The goal was to cause cells to mutate until the desired genetics were obtained: ones that would overwrite the encoded taboos. It is very likely Five Pebbles used this method to attempt overwriting his genetics.

At some point Five Pebbles began drawing several times the usual amount of water, tapping into the neighboring Iterator, Looks to the Moon's water source. Attempts by Moon to persuade Pebbles that water shortages would be fatal to her failed and she had to leverage her seniority in an attempt to make him stop, to which Pebbles responded that this plea has "ruined everything". Upon being interrupted, Five Pebbles lost focus of his genetic shuffling, and it is likely it became what is known as the Rot.

Five Pebbles attempted to rid his systems of the Rot, doing things such as flushing it out into Garbage Wastes, but it has proven resilient and still resides within him, slowly consuming more and more, day by day. It is unknown if Five Pebbles still uses extra water during the time that the three playable Slugcats take place in. Due to many cycles lacking water, Looks to the Moon's processes eventually seized, her facility compromised, and her primary cognitive unit descended into an amnesic, near-death state.

The Timeline of the Slugcats

Rain World: Downpour has a significant amount of lore in it; some hidden, some obvious. The campaigns of the new Slugcats happen at various points in the timeline. What is defined to happen, is not theoretically what can happen in game, but what canonically happens. The following Slugcat campaigns are in timeline order.

Spearmaster

Spearmaster's campaign takes place earliest chronologically, shortly before Looks to the Moon's collapse. Spearmaster is an purposed organism created by Seven Red Suns to provide a practical long-term solution for communication between Iterators, as their communication arrays would inevitably decay. They are sent to Five Pebbles for a second time to deliver a message via a Pearl embedded within their body. They are accompanied by one of Seven Red Suns' red Overseers. The reason for their journey to Five Pebbles is due to the communication and involvement of Seven Red Suns and No Significant Harassment, discovering from other iterators and in further investigation that communication has been lost with Five Pebbles and his supervisor Looks to the Moon, of which Five Pebbles has taken in a significantly largely amount of water and is dehydrating and damaging Moon.

Spearmaster eventually reaches Five Pebbles, who rips the Pearl out of Spearmaster's body and reads the message it contains. In anger, he proceeds to cut Seven Red Suns out by destroying the red Overseer, throwing Spearmaster out of his chamber, and locking down his facility entirely.

After this, Spearmaster brings the Pearl to Looks to the Moon. Her superstructure is intact, but she suffers from power failures and structural damage and is within cycles of collapse. Looks to the Moon realizes the state of Five Pebbles and her own inevitable situation, and she rewrites Spearmaster's Pearl to contain what will be her last message to the local Iterator group. Spearmaster travels to Sky Islands and delivers it to Communications Array to send this message.

After Looks to the Moon's message is successfully delivered, Spearmaster supposedly finds their way back to Seven Red Suns. Choosing to ascend will show a mix of the Hunter and Survivor's endings, with the final scene being replaced by the game rolling to credits.

• Messenger menu selection after delivering Moon's last message to the local group

• Speamaster's Ascension Ending

Artificer

Artificer's campaign has less of a significant impact on the timeline and is instead a more focused, character-driven story. At this point in the timeline, Looks to the Moon is in the midst of her collapse, and her superstructure is inaccessible.

Artificer is in constant conflict with Scavengers. Because of their deep anger, the Artificer is initially stuck at the first level of Karma, which represents the natural urge for violence and wrath. Their backstory is revealed through dream sequences during hibernation.

Backstory

Prior to the events of their campaign, Artificer traveled through Garbage Wastes with two Slugpups, one blue and one green. In their travels, the family passed through a seemingly-abandoned Scavenger Toll, but the blue Slugpup became distracted and climbed up a pole to take one of the hanging Pearls. This angered the nearby Scavenger population, causing them to chase down the three Slugcats. Artificer leapt over a cliff with the green Slugpup in hand, but the blue Slugpup was left behind as the Scavengers closed in on them. Finally, Artificer jumped over a pool of water with the green Slugpup, but the nearby explosion of a Scavenger Grenade knocked the Slugpup out of Artificer's hand. Artificer made it over the gap, but the green Slugpup fell into the water and was dragged to the bottom by numerous Leeches.

After all of their backstory dreams have played out, Artificer has a nightmare in which they are trapped in a small room with a lone Scavenger. The next dream is similar, but the player takes control of the Scavenger instead of Artificer. Afterwards, all of Artificer's dreams are replaced with variations of the former dream.

Introduction

At the start of their campaign, Artificer is seen jumping through a Scavenger Treasury in Garbage Wastes, where there are multiple Scavenger corpses. Artificer eats from one of the corpses before leaving the room. As they exit, Artificer finds a small drone which reactivates and begins to follows them.

Five Pebbles

They make their way to Five Pebbles' can. Upon arrival, Five Pebbles reveals that the drone was originally an Ancient's citizen ID drone. He re-syncs it with his own systems and brings it to a functional state, then informs Artificer of an infestation of Scavengers in his city, who have been disassembling his architecture for scrap metal. With a common enemy, he allows the Artificer access to Metropolis.

Metropolis

Artificer then journeys into the city, which they find has a thriving Scavenger population. They make their way towards 12th Council Pillar, the House of Braids, where they meet the Chieftain Scavenger. This Scavenger appears to have the Mark of Communication and also has a citizen ID drone, and as Artificer approaches, the drone points towards Artificer, signaling danger. Artificer attacks the Chieftain Scavenger and emerges victorious, taking the Chieftain Scavenger Mask for their own and continuing to hunt down the remaining Scavengers. This ending locks Artificer into the first Karma level permanently.

Acceptance

Artificer has a second potential route in which they do not confront the Chieftain Scavenger and attempt to ascend. If Artificer meets Echoes, they are able to raise their Karma level; however, they are only able to gain a maximum of 9 Karma. To pass the Guardians in Depths, they must augment their Karma by way of bringing a Scavenger corpse with them.

Upon diving into the Void Sea, Artificer is forced to drop whatever they carry, preventing them from remaining at maximum Karma as they swim downwards. After swimming past the Void Worms, a single Void Worm appears and inspects Artificer; however, the Void Worm soon leaves without assisting Artificer, leaving them to descend on their own. As Artificer continues their descent, they begin to progressively dissolve with note-like particles erratically shooting off of their body, until they disappear completely and the ending cutscene starts to play.

As they swim through the Void Sea, Artificer's tail can be seen dissolving behind them. A golden aura appears to emanate from their body, before the Artificer spots their two Slugpups. Artificer embraces them one last time before seemingly dissolving entirely, leaving nothing but residual golden trails and leaving the two Slugpups behind. This ending is referred to as "acceptance" within the post-credits score sequence.

Hunter

The events within Hunter's campaign remain mostly unchanged from the vanilla game. Chronologically, their story takes place between Artificer's and Gourmand's campaigns.

In Downpour, Hunter's illness is implied to be Rot, and if Hunter succumbs to it, their corpse reanimates into the Hunter Long Legs, a creature similar to the Rot cysts formed within Five Pebbles' superstructure. The Hunter Long Legs can be encountered in Gourmand's campaign.

• Hunter's Ascension Ending

Gourmand

Gourmand is a Slugcat venturing out from Outer Expanse's tribe of Slugcats into the rest of the world. At some point in their journey, they reach Five Pebbles' superstructure and receive the Mark of Communication. Five Pebbles opens a gate to the outside world from his facility to allow Gourmand to leave.

Following this, Gourmand travels past Subterranean and back into Outer Expanse, where they return to their tribe. They tell the other Slugcats of their journey, and if Gourmand's food quest has been completed, the tribe ventures into the world, visiting the same locations that are seen in Monk and Survivor's opening cutscenes.

• Gourmand's Default Ending

• Gourmand's Ending after completing the Food Quest

• Gourmand's Ascension Ending

Survivor

Some time after the events of Gourmand's campaign, Survivor is separated from their family by heavy rainfall in Outer Expanse, falling into a pipe leading to Outskirts. The Survivor is guided by one of Looks to the Moon's Overseers. This Overseer guides them towards Looks to the Moon with images of their family and encourages the Survivor to bring additional Neuron Flies to repair her memory. After visiting Moon, the Survivor travels to Five Pebbles, who grants them the Mark of Communication and guides them to the Depths. However, the player can choose to not transcend and/or steal neurons from Five Pebbles and give them to Moon. The player can also skip visiting Pebbles and Moon entirely, and instead pursue the Echoes to gain maximum karma and transcend that way. The Survivor, upon transcending, is taken to the Void where many other ascended Slugcats are shown.

It is possible for survivor to bring up to two slugpups to Outer Expanse ending with the scenes changing respectively to the amount of slugpups with you.

• Survivor's Ascension Ending

• Survivor's Outer Expanse Ending looking at the tree

• Looking upwards at the tree

• Inside the tree

• Survivor with a single slugpup inside the tree

Monk

The Monk is seemingly Survivor's younger sibling, and they jump after Survivor during their beginning cutscene. Monk's story appears to take place shortly after Survivor's story, and generally follows the same story as Survivor, being given the same options in terms of meeting the Iterators and the two endings.

Judging by how the Slugcats in campaigns later on the timeline meet Looks to the Moon for the first time, The Monk, on their search for the Survivor, also helps Looks to the Moon by giving her 2 Neuron Flies from Five Pebbles, and also explored her Submerged Superstructure, eventually finding a ragged cloak. They deliver this cloak to Moon, who wears it from then onward.

They eventually reunite with Survivor, either in Outer Expanse, where Survivor is found alongside two Slugpups, or seeing their spirit after diving into the Void Sea.

• Monk's Ascension Ending

• Monk's Outer Expanse Ending

Rivulet

Rivulet's campaign begins with an explosion heard from off-screen, before they fall into Drainage System alongside a dead Scavenger. They start with the Mark of Communication and a Celadon Pearl inside of their stomach. At this point in time, cycles are extremely short, and shelter failures are frequent.

Looks to the Moon

In their travels, Rivulet makes their way to Shoreline and meets Looks to the Moon. She tells Rivulet that the Pearl they carry is a schematic of an Iterator superstructure with a detailed path to a linear power rail outlined. She believes that the structure is using a lymphatic conduit water distribution system that is only present in the later Iterator models. She remarks that the closest Iterator that would share these schematics is Five Pebbles and that she has not had contact with him for a long time. Afterwards, Rivulet begins on their journey to Five Pebbles, along the way finding Memory Crypts to be scattered with remnants of the Underhang, presumably falling from and colliding with the surface of Memory Crypts and infesting the local area with the Rot.

The Rot

Upon climbing The Leg into Underhang, the architecture seen within Memory Crypts can be found to have deteriorated and collapsed, before reaching the interior of Five Pebbles' can. Upon entry, it is found that Five Pebbles' structure has heavily decayed into a region now known as The Rot. The subregions formerly known as Unfortunate Development and Memory Conflux have completely decayed, leaving a near-unrecognizable ruins flooded in the lower regions collectively called the Depths.

Rivulet travels through the Rot-infested superstructure towards Five Pebbles through his lymphatic conduit water distribution system, a series of water-filled pipes that span most of the interior. To the left of their entry point is the lower portion of Recursive Transform Array, infested with Rot and now affected by intermittent periods of power loss.

Five Pebbles

After traversing the superstructure, Rivulet makes their way into Five Pebbles' chamber. He is in a state of disrepair with the umbilical that moves his puppet now dysfunctional. Floating next to him is a Music Pearl, which continually plays a hymn.

Five Pebbles speaks to Rivulet and expresses regret for his situation and his past actions. He asks Rivulet to take his Rarefaction Cell found within his Linear Systems Rail and bring it to Looks to the Moon. Upon removal of the Rarefaction Cell, the fluctuations in power cease, gravity is normalized, and all of the flux condensers become inactive. Additionally, cycles greatly increase in length.

Return to Looks to the Moon

With the Rarefaction Cell in hand, Rivulet escapes The Rot and finds their way back to Looks to the Moon. On Rivulet's return, Looks to the Moon comments on the recent subsiding of rainfall and wonders whether Five Pebbles has finally succumbed to his decay.

Looks to the Moon inspects the Rarefaction Cell and explains that it is a backup energy source that the Iterators have become dependent upon, as their creators no longer exist to maintain them. She describes the event of all of her Rarefaction Cells becoming dislodged and carried away by the floodwaters, and states that such a power source could partially restore her systems, though without control of her Overseers and a functioning umbilical, she cannot deliver it to its proper location on her own. She informs Rivulet about an access shaft into her lower structure and urges them to be careful.

Submerged Superstructure

Rivulet then travels to Submerged Superstructure to deliver the Rarefaction Cell to its final destination. After Rivulet reaches the Heart and places the Rarefaction Cell, the strong currents generated from the reactivated core thrust them out into Bitter Aerie. This subregion is covered with snowfall and appears to be the remnants of the city atop Looks to the Moon's roof. Rivulet travels back out of Bitter Aerie via a one-way gate and find themself within the Karma Shrine atop Looks to the Moon, able to reach her chamber shortly by way of access shafts.

Ending

With her power partially restored, Looks to the Moon's systems are rebooted. She regains control of her Overseers and a portion of her newly-powered systems, allowing her to recover memories and details of the events that transpired before and after her collapse, such as those of the preceding Slugcats and Iterators that have helped her, through recordings from her Overseers.

Realizing the state of Five Pebbles and of the events leading up to such, Looks to the Moon uses the Auxiliary Transmissions Array to initiate a forced private broadcast with Five Pebbles, where she informs him of the improvement of her condition and her awareness of the deterioration in communication with the local group. Attempting to reconcile with Five Pebbles, she pleads that any anger has long since subsided and wishes to talk to and be there for Five Pebbles. At the very end, it is shown that Five Pebbles receives this communication from within his chamber.

Two instances of this ending sequence exist, one with the Music Pearl and one without, depending on if Rivulet stole Five Pebbles' Music Pearl. The normal sequence with the Pearl has the soundtrack Halcyon Memories playing in the background, while the one without leaves Five Pebbles in his chamber surrounded by the ambience of The Rot, which continues to play for the entire scene, the credits, and even in the main menu until there is another music prompt.

• Rivulet's Moon Ending

• Ending Sequence if Rivulet does not take Five Pebbles' Music Pearl

• Ending Sequence if Rivulet takes Five Pebbles' Music Pearl

• Rivulet's Ascension Ending

Saint

Saint's campaign takes place in the distant future, where any significant Iterator activity has ceased, and endless snowfall replaces the rain as little heat output from Iterators remains. Most locations have changed significantly over the passing over time.

Saint's introductory cutscene shows Saint in the Void Sea. They see a vision of a large Karma 10 symbol in front of them. Afterwards, Saint awakens in Windswept Spires, formerly known as Sky Islands, as snow falls around them. They climb the structure nearby and make their way to shelter as the blizzard picks up.

Looks to the Moon

Looks to the Moon remains somewhat the same as in Rivulet's campaign. On Saint's first encounter with her, she has a strange demeanor, stating that their perceptions will soon part ways and their cycles will meet again.

If Saint visits her again, she greets them normally, seemingly with no recollection of their previous meeting. She wonders how Saint is able to understand her, and she remarks that it has been a while since she has seen another life form like Saint. She offers little help or guidance, only stating that she hopes Saint can find an escape to their suffering.

Five Pebbles

As Saint nears Five Pebbles' superstructure, it can be seen that much of the structure and surrounding areas have collapsed into a region known as Silent Construct. Additionally, much of the Rot has died out, and a multitude of species, including Scavengers, have made their homes within the structure's ruins.

Saint may eventually come across Five Pebbles, where his puppet sits in his chamber, now collapsed around him and exposed to the elements. Five Pebbles is in a barely functional state, and he has little to say. As in Rivulet's campaign, his Music Pearl (faded) continues to play, though it has faded and become distorted over time. Like Looks to the Moon, he offers little in the way of guidance.

Ascension

Saint's only remaining option is to raise their Karma and ascend. Upon first entering or awakening in any region with an Echo, Saint sees a flash of light that indicates the Echo's presence. On their travels, they meet the Echoes in each region and eventually raise their Karma to its maximum of 10. At this point, they reach a state known as "attunement"; in this state, they have the ability to fly and to instantly ascend other creatures that they encounter. They may also ascend Looks to the Moon and Five Pebbles, leaving their puppets lifeless within their chambers.

Saint heads into the Depths to find a massive chasm and the pseudo-mirror world of Rubicon in its place. If Saint has ascended Five Pebbles and Looks to the Moon by this point, they are present in a puppet chamber just before the ending with unique dialogue.

Saint appears to enter the Void Sea from the bottom and swims upwards past the Void Worms. A lone Void Worm swims up to Saint and inspects them. Saint proceeds to use their ascension ability on the Void Worm, seemingly resetting their own karmic loop as a slideshow of moments from their journey flashes before them. Saint is left swimming through a white void, and Echo tendrils burst out from their body. Saint is sent to the start of their campaign, with the distortion of an Echo and a glowing silhouette of a Slugcat next to them.

• Saint Ascending

• Saint turned into an echo

Additions to Vanilla Lore

Completing Gourmand's campaign permanently unlocks Outer Expanse for Survivor and Monk. Going to the Slug Tree as either gives an alternative ending.

References