Fleshrat

* Normal
* Gun
* Giant
* Armored

Fleshrats are mutated rats found throughout the world of Cruelty Squad, with a toxic bite that makes its victims woozy as it slowly kills them. Several fleshrats are first found inside glass cases in a lab within Pharmakokinetics along with a similarly cased subject as the centerpiece, and over the course of the story they become a common dangerous pest in the world.

Fleshrats have a tendency to be fished out of the water, where they have little value, if any at all.

Fleshmen drop fleshrats when gibbed.

## Strategy

While small and difficult to hit, there are simple ways to deal with fleshrats. Their AI behavior has them simply turn towards the player around once a second and move directly toward them, regardless of any obstacles. They will also periodically jump. This can be used to the player's advantage by luring the fleshrats into a straight line where the player has a long line of sight, allowing a patient player in a calm environment to simply pick them off one by one.

In a hurry or in a hectic area, explosives are a good go-to strategy for defeating them, as they typically have very little health and will be killed by even incidental splash damage.

Finally, equipping either the CSIJ Level V Biosuit or the Hazmat Suit will completely negate the Toxic Shock effect, leaving them only dealing 1/4 of a single damage point per attack.

## Variants

Fleshrats have a wide variety of special versions which appear in certain missions.

### Gunrat

Bizarrely, a fleshrat resembling a Zippy 3000 can be found inside a secret location within Cruelty Squad Headquarters in a secret area. Similarly, a fleshrat resembling the ZKZ Transactional Rifle can be found in the area containing the HQ Target up the staircases on either end of the hall.

Aside from their appearance making them harder to discern as fleshrats, these don't differ from normal fleshrats in any other way.

### Giant Fleshrat

Two hypertrophied specimens can be found inside the Cruelty Squad Headquarters, taking more shots to put down.

Several more can be found in Trauma Loop, accompanied by other variants of fleshrats.

Oddly enough, their larger size only makes the giant fleshrats easier to deal with.

### Armored Fleshrat

Armored fleshrats are plentiful in Trauma Loop. Thankfully, much like most of the armored variants of enemies only present in Trauma Loop, a single shot from any armor-piercing weapon should drop their armor and make them vulnerable to standard attacks.

A variant of the Golem enemy in Trauma Loop also explodes into many armored fleshrats upon being gibbed.

## Trivia

* Fleshrats have been created in the biolab seen in Pharmakokinetiks, the first real level in the game, where some NPCs will be found saying *"We've made a breakthrough in combinining rat and human DNA. The result isn't exactly what we expected though..."*. This is further re-established by a Hope Eradicated NPC found in Idiot Party.
* It is heavily implied that the Fleshmen are the result of fleshrats parasitizing humans, which is supported by how their heads have an identical texture to a Fleshrat's... head, and why they spawn one whenever they die.

## Gallery

A fleshrat in the wildThe bottom side of a fleshrat