The Saint (Rain World)

Saint is one of nine playable slugcats in Rain World, being one of the six added in the DLC Downpour. Their campaign serves as the game's finale, taking place far into the future in a barren, snowy world. After reaching Karma 10, they gain the ability to ascend other creatures with only their mind, but are unable to ascend themself, forever stuck in the cycle.
== Appearance==
Saint is a fluffy, lime green slugcat with a small black nose. Their eyes are almost always closed, and they have three small, darker green spots on their forehead. They have a long, pink, frog-like tongue. While using their ascension powers after attunement, their eyes and nose flash multiple colors. In their campaign selection artwork, their tail is a yellowish-orange.
Once reaching attunement, their eyes open and glow white, with the spots on their forehead glowing white as well.
As an Echo, they are a black silhouette of a slugcat with no fur and a dark blue tail. Their arms and legs are replaced with long black tendrils with shiny golden "scales", and two thinner, completely black tendrils extend from their back.
==Biography==
Chronologically Saint's campaign is the final, following Rivulet.
Presumably, countless cycles before the events of the game, they were created by the Iterator Sliver of Straw as a way to ascend creatures and allow them to escape the cycle without the risk of becoming an Echo (suggestion - Challenge 70 has been confirmed to not be canon by a developer). Countless cycles later, as Saint tries to ascend through the Void Sea, they come across a giant, glowing Karma 10 symbol. They then awake in Windswept Spires, an area part of a frozen wasteland.
As they explore, the player will find that Five Pebbles has collapsed, and what's left of him is now in the Silent Construct. When finding him, he is in such disrepair that he struggles to speak, and is listening to a pearl playing a broken melody. He's barely able to inform Saint that there's nothing left.
Once reaching Looks to the Moon, she will at first ask Saint if they too feel that their perceptions will part ways soon, and tells them to keep going on their journey, stating that they'll meet again. On the second visit, she'll ask how they're able to understand her without a mark of communication, then states that it's been a while since a slugcat has visited her, happy to know there are still some left. She then says she doesn't envy Saint, hoping they'll find a way out of being bound to the cycle. On the third, she says the green creature reminds her of another slugcat that used to visit, though that was a long time ago. She invites Saint to stay as long as they like, but warns that her chamber won't protect them from the blizzard.
Due to neither Iterator being in any state to raise Saint's Karma level themselves, the fluffy slugcat must instead visit various Echoes around the world to raise it. Once reaching Karma 10, a short cutscene will play of Saint becoming attuned, gaining the ability to ascend other creatures with only their mind. After making it to the bottom of the Ancient Labyrinth in the Primordial Underground, the player will find that the Depths and Void Sea are completely gone, with only a long drop into an abyss remaining. As they fall into this abyss, the background gets progressively lighter before fading to white and showing a black Karma 10 symbol, with the screen then inverting colors following by the symbol fading. Saint will soon after drop into a new area known as Rubicon, a place akin to a dream that is a mixture off all other areas in the game.
At the end of Rubicon, the player will come across an Iterator chamber, with Moon and/or Pebbles being present if they have been ascended, restored to the states they were in long before their collapse. If only one of them was ascended, they will tell Saint that they recognize they're in a dream, and can see every cycle at once, including ones that have yet to happen. They then note that they can't see where Saint's cycle begins or ends, with Pebbles stating that the green slugcat has found a horrifying destiny, while Moon wonders what the creature has become. If both Iterators have been ascended though, they will wonder if this is the answer they were created to find, concluding that they could have never found it from within the cycle, with Pebbles telling Saint that the fluffy slugcat needs to wake up.
Once leaving the chamber, Saint will enter the Void Sea, and begin swimming upwards. A Void Worm will begin inspecting them, and without the player's input, Saint will try to ascend it. This causes the Void Worm to thrash around a swim away as the background turns white, with Saint's Karma flashing red as is progressively lowers to zero, all while images flash on screen first of the places Saint has been through in their journey, then of the giant golden Karma 10 symbol seen in the intro. Saint then continues to swim to the surface as their body distorts and Echo tendrils sprout from their back. The screen fades to white, and Saint wakes up in Windswept Spires once more, in the exact same place their campaign had begun. After the credits roll, their select screen artwork shows them fully transformed into an Echo.
==Gameplay==
Saint is unlocked upon completing both Spearmaster's and Rivulet's campaigns.
Saint begins their campaign in Windswept Spires - formerly known as Sky Islands - with Karma 2. They must fill four food pips before hibernation, with one bonus pip able to be stored for the next cycle. They are strictly vegetarian, with any edible creatures causing them to be stunned briefly when consumed, filling no pips. Firebug Eggs and Blue Fruit, the latter of which are actually cocoons, do not count though, as they are classified as plants. They are also able to grab onto and swing from things with their long, sticky tongue, similar to a Grappling Worm.
Saint is incredibly frail, with most attacks, such as all Lizard bites, able to kill them instantly. Additionally, non-lethal damage will exhaust Saint for a while, making them much slower. They're unable to properly throw spears or do any damage with them, making the player have to rely on throwing rocks, Lilypucks, Spore Puffs and grenades when fighting, so combat should be avoided whenever possible.
Once Saint reaches Karma 10, they will reach attunement, allowing them to levitate when pressing grab and jump in the air. While levitating, they're able to hold items and breathe underwater, though can't eat. Using the grab key, the player can move a Karma 10 symbol that appears over Saint's head with the directional keys, and after one to two seconds, the symbol will pop. Should the symbol be on any creatures when it does this, a loud pang can be heard and the creature will be ascended. If Saint is disrupted during this process, such as by being grabbed, the ascension will be cancelled. Ascended creatures do not count as dead unless the slugcat had hit them with a throwable object like a rock first, and creatures like scavengers and lizards will not have their reputation lowered when an ascension is performed on one of their kind.
Most of the world has frozen over, and its areas renamed to reflect these changes, with only Submerged Superstructure and the Depths remaining the same. Drainage System, now known as Undergrowth, is one of the few areas not affected by the ice and snow, instead being a flourishing jungle. Five Pebbles' superstructure has completely collapsed, falling into Shaded Citadel, rendering Metropolis and The Exterior inaccessible. As such, the superstructure and Shaded Citadel are now one area called Silent Construct. The Rot has almost completely gone extinct, with only a few Brother Long Legs found in Silent Construct remaining. Green Lizards also have seemingly gone extinct, being replaced by Strawberry Lizards.
Rather than heavy rain, every cycle is ended by a fierce blizzard that will freeze Saint to death within a few minutes if they don't find shelter in time. The closer Saint is to freezing, the more they shiver, with their fur fading from green to white, then blue, and finally brown. The freezing can be slowed down while inside or near a source of heat, though will still kill Saint eventually. Some areas such as Undergrowth are not affected by the blizzard, however.
In Rubicon, several areas are flooded with Void Fluid that will kill Saint on contact, requiring the player to use the grappling tongue and levitation to traverse. Guardians will also block off some rooms, requiring Saint to use their powers three times to ascend them and open the rooms up. This is the only area in all campaigns where Firebugs, their eggs and Fire Spears can be found, with the Fire Spears being the only type of spear Saint can properly use. Blue Fruit, Rot Cysts, Red Centipedes, Leviathans, Cyan Lizards and Red Lizards will also be golden instead of their normal colors, with the Cysts, Centipedes. Lizards and Leviathans having unique golden icons to match. Instead of rain or a blizzard, Void Fluid will flood the area at the end of every cycle.
Beating their campaign will earn the achievement The Cycle.
== Gallery==
File:SaintTitleCard.png|Saint's title card
File:SaintAscension.png|Saint trying to ascend
File:SaintKarmaSymbol.png|Saint gazing upon a Karma 10 symbol
File:SaintHibernation.png|Saint Hibernating
File:SaintKarma10.jpeg|Saint reaching attunement
==Trivia==
*Saint and Inv are the only two slugcats whose campaigns only have one ending. (suggestion - saint actually has a secret second ending, called the heartbreak ending. it's very out of the way and unlikely to be encountered by a normal player, but it's there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8pZ2uqA5_A)
*Strangely, on the screen where Saint becomes attuned, they appear thinner, with their limbs, ears and tail being longer.
*As seen in older hibernation artwork for the game's beta stages, Saint was originally going to be hairless like all other slugcats. Interestingly, they are also hairless during Inv's dating sim.
*They cannot obtain the Hunter or Scholar passage. The former requires the player to eat nothing but meat for six cycles straight, which the Saint cannot do because of their vegetarian diet. The latter requires Saint to touch three colored pearls, which they can't do because there are only two in their campaign.
==External links==
Saint on the Rain World Wiki
Category:Video Game Heroes
Category:Indie/Doujin Heroes
Category:Genderless
Category:Animals
Category:Bio-Engineered
Category:Creations
Category:Mute
Category:Pacifists
Category:Weaklings
Category:The Chosen One
Category:The Messiah
Category:Magic
Category:Successful
Category:Tragic
Category:True Neutral