Rat

Rats are animals that spawn in dark places in the Overworld or on Garbage Blocks/Compressed Garbage Blocks. They're the main focus of the Rats mod.

Wild Behavior[]

Wild rats are considered voracious pests that seek to eat as much as possible. They'll target any items they consider edible, which they will try and eat. Rats will seek out planted crops, which they will break and consume. Placing food items in chests do not provide much protection, as rats will steal items from chests, occasionally leaving behind Contaminated Food, and will dig through any wooden walls to create Rat Holes.

Rats can also pass through fences. In versions later than 1.12.2, they won't be able to pass through fences.

In addition to their thievery, wild rats will also flee players when seen stealing items. Rats will not flee from a player wearing a Piper Hat.

In order to deal with them, players can tame cats, which rats naturally fear, as well as craft Rat Traps to bait and kill the pests.

Rats will only squeak when their health is below 50%, when they are hurt, or when they die.

Taming[]

Eatin cheese — A wild rat eating dropped cheese.

Taming a rat is considered difficult as they actively try and avoid players. While it's impossible to tame a Plague Rat, a normal rat can be tamed using Cheese. Like other food items, rats will eat cheese chunks that are thrown on the floor. However, wild rats have a trust variable that increases with each feeding of cheese. As the rat starts slowly trusting the player, it won't flee as fast or far, and at 10 Cheese eaten it will no longer flee from the player.

Once the rat has been fed cheese 10 times, each additional feeding will have a 33% chance of taming the rat. It can take up to 15 times to tame a rat. Rats are tamed when they make heart particles and can be interacted with.

Cheese items from other mods can be used as well.

Possible difficulties while trying to tame a rat:[]

In some modpacks, rats can only be tamed by cheese dropped one-by-one from your hotbar using the eject keybind (default Q). Dropping any amount of cheese from your inventory may result in the rat consuming all the cheese at once but not raising the trust variable or giving off taming particle effects.^[1]

Rat Inventory[]

Tamed rats have an inventory that can be accessed by interacting (right clicking) on them with most items or an empty hand.

In this inventory, the player can change the helmet and banner the rat is wearing, change the rat's 3 equipped upgrades (only 1 upgrade for earlier mod versions), or the item held in the rat's hands or mouth.

The player can cycle through rat commands by pressing the arrows to the right. The current status of the rat and its gender are also displayed.

Rat Commands[]

Rats have a variety of commands that can be changed in their menu, or through the use of a Rat Flute. They are as follows:

Wander - The rat will mill around aimlessly like most vanilla creatures. Note that the rat will still defend its owner while under this command.
Stay Here - The rat will slouch upwards and sit, not moving at all and not following any other tasks.
Follow Me - The rat will follow its owner like a wolf and defend them from attacks.
Hunt Prey - The rat will target any animals and monsters in the area and attack them. Rats will not attack baby mobs.
Gather Items - The rat will pick up any items on the floor.

Rat staff comand — The Cheese Staff menu. Note that the currently selected rat is shown in the middle of the screen.

Harvest - The rat will break grass blocks and crops and pick up the drops. Some upgrades, like the Rat Upgrade: Miner, Rat Upgrade: Planter, and Rat Upgrade: Fisherman, override this command.
Transport Items - The rat will carry items from a pickup container (like a chest) and move them to a deposit container.

Note: For the Hunt Prey, Gather Items, Harvest and Transport Items commands, players can use a Cheese Staff on containers to designate them as pick up and drop off locations.

Specialization[]

There are a variety of headgears that can be applied to a rat. Apart from the vanilla helmets (pumpkins and skulls), there are 17 special hats and masks that rats can wear (19 with Ratlantis addon). A rat gains varying armor points from its helmet.

The rats can be dyed by right clicking on them with a dye. Rats can be also dyed rainbow with Rainbow Essence. To remove the dye, you'll have to use a Dye Sponge.

Most specialization of rats come from Rat Upgrades, which give rats specific stats or abilities. There are currently 50 rat upgrades available.

Breeding[]

Two rats of opposite genders will breed when placed inside a Rat Cage decorated with a Rat Breeding Lantern. When bred, rats will produce 1-3 babies, which take a day to become adults. In the real world, baby rats are called kittens (often mistakenly-called 'pups') and the newborns are affectionately called pinkies.

The pinkies cannot be let out of cages like adult rats, but can be freed by destroying the cage. However, the baby rats cannot actually move around until they are fully grown. Breeding rats can result in new domestic color varieties, including morphs like white, hooded, cream, and albino.

Rat Breeding Lanterns can breed as many pairs of rats as you want, with a cooldown that lasts until the pair's offspring become adult rats.

Transport[]

Tamed Rats can be placed on their owner's head or shoulder by interacting while sneaking. Up to three rats can ride on a player. To remove a rat, players can sneak and punch into the air with an empty hand. Right-clicking a cage with a rat on your head will deposit the rat in the cage, and right-clicking on the cage block the rat is in will release it. Only the rat's owner can carry it or place it in a cage.

A Rat Sack can be crafted to transport multiple rats and itemize them.

Rat Cages[]

You can build cages for rats. Interacting while sneaking on a decoration in a cage will remove it, and some of the decorations that you can place in rat cages are as follows: houses, tunnels, love lights, seed bowls, water bottles, and rat hammocks. You can connect two rat cages by placing them next to each other or by putting rat tubes between the cages.

Patrol[]

Patrols can be made using the Rat Patrol Staff. Patrolling rats will "fight" any monsters they encounter.

Currently, this feature is very buggy, and it's highly advised not to be used due to potential rat loss when patrolling nodes are set. Mobs might barge into your base due to the patrolling rat not actually fighting them.

Gallery[]

↑ (Tested on MCEternal and All The Mods 6).

[1] (Tested on MCEternal and All The Mods 6).

[1]

Rat

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