how to humiliate the lizards 3.0

Welcome to the greatest lizard combat guide in all of rain world! This guide covers totally consistent techniques to murder every lizard (yes, including reds) 100% consistently! This is the greatest PvL you've been waiting for! (L stands for loser) Lizard combat is actually really easy, and definitely didn't take me over 200 hours purely spent playing arena mode to master!

This guide does not cover downpour lizards because I'm too lazy but you should be able to kill them with the shown techniques.

I also won't bore you with teaching you how to perform movement tech, especially since there's already a guide for that.

Most information comes entirely from my experimenting, so it might not be totally accurate.

All techniques will be ranked from 1-4 in practicality to help with knowing what to learn: 4 being the most effective, and 1 being practically useless.

Lizards' heads are invincible to most damage, including spears and explosives. Thrown objects will bounce right off and deal minimal damage and stun. This protection is not perfect, though, as a technique can be used to bypass it. Rocks will turn lizards around* upon contact. This can be followed up with a spear in quick succession to hit the lizard from behind. If the lizard is grabbing a wall or pole, it will also dismount and fall from it.

*The lizard may not turn around if you are too close to it or if it doesn't have space to.

Thrown objects cannot be picked up for one second after they are thrown. Each item has its own cooldown, so you can bypass this by using multiple items. Lizards take longer stun the lower their health is. For example, a green lizard will be unfazed on the first spear hit, while a blue lizard will be stunned for a very long time. Surpassing the point where stun lasts longer than the throw cooldown allows for spear locking: where the lizard cannot recover from the previous hit before the next, resulting in an easy kill. Most lizards have less than 3 health, but green and red lizards have 5 and 6 health respectively. Survivor deals 1 damage, and Hunter deals 1.5 for reference. Lizards can still move and attack for a short period after "dying", so make sure to stab a corpse 1-2 times to be safe. Make sure to engage fights on flat and open ground. Combat can get pretty janky and inconsistent outside of these circumstances, and most techniques shown here only work in this environment.

Try to avoid hitting most lizards from afar, unless you have multiple spears. You will not be able to follow up the attack since you will have to reacquire your spear from the lizard and by then it would have already recovered and possibly ran away.

Not exactly any lore related spoilers, but the information shown past this point may trivialize the game for some players, especially the first technique shown in the first section. I recommend playing through the game normally at least once first. Combat is actually that easy to learn (not really).

The information in the basics section should already be enough for a first playthrough. Only if you're really struggling with combat even with the given information should you continue.

Normal lizards are every lizard excluding greens and reds. Everything in this section works on pink, blue, cyan, orange, salamander, white, and black lizards.

All normal lizards have a longer base recovery time than your throw cooldown. This means that, with good timing, you can kill a normal lizard by:

1. Using a rock if necessary to turn it around,

2. throwing your spear into it's back,
3. picking up your spear as soon as possible,
4. and immediately throwing your spear again.
5. Optionally, spear the corpse a third time to prevent post mortem.

It's as simple as that. Obviously, just make sure you're close enough to reach your spear before they recover. This is by far the most practical combo as it works on basically any lizard you find in most situations.

Throwing a spear at a lizard's head from a specific distance* will cause it to hit it's mouth and deal 1.5x damage. The lizard will also be stunned for at least 2 seconds, regardless of their health, allowing for an easy finish. When moving towards the lizard, you will have to throw your spear from slightly further than when moving away or not moving at all.

Mouth spearing may not be effective or necessary in all situations, but it can quickly paralyze and kill lizards on command with only a spear.

*The distance shown assumes you throw the spear while crouching, since throwing the spear after fully crouching creates a lower throwing arc. The red distance only works once you have fully accelerated to walking speed and throw during said speed.

Not much to say about this. Backflip or whiplash when the lizard is right behind you (the closer, the better) and downthrow when your head is above the lizard's back. Then stab it until it's dead.

This is outclassed by every other technique at least for normal lizards due to its excessive inconsistency. The lizard can grab you out of the air, facetank the spear, or even dodge it as long as it's aggressive enough. This only works in scenarios where mouth spearing would also work, so it's completely impractical.

Here's some extra info about normal lizards you might find useful.

The pink lizard has the shortest reaction time and is on average the most powerful in the normal lizard category (screw cyans). I like to call them "ego lizards" since they're basically rain world's tryhards, and definitely not because I myself have an ego and die to them alot. Orange lizards are the opposite; being the only lizard who is consistently jukable due to their slow reaction time. It's funny just whiplashing over or sliding under them continuously.

Most white lizards will not react to sound when hiding (even when it's right next to them), yet still visibly react and make particles. This not only makes them easier to spot safely, but allows you to snea- I mean literally just walk up to them from behind and shank them to death easily.

I would have mentioned wall spearing, since you can keep the lizard pinned to the wall the entire time as you kill it, but it's incredibly situational. This could even kill a green lizard easily, but it's highly unlikely you will find one facing parallel to a wall. If the lizard turns even slightly away from the wall, it likely won't work.

Green lizards are braindead stupid and very easy to avoid, but hunting them may be more difficult than others due to their near immunity to spear locking.

Lizards can actually be mouth speared multiple times. Since mouth spears always stun, regardless of their stun resistance, this allows you to essentially spearlock stronger lizards before they're spearlockable. A green lizard can be mouth speared twice, dealing 3 damage, which then allows it to be finished off with a spearlock. Note that the second mouth spear always uses the red mouth spear distance: the one you would use when moving towards the lizard.

This is the most consistent and effective way to kill a green lizard in my opinion.

Lizards cannot move their heads whilst charging, making them easy to jump or backflip over. Green lizards are especially vulnerable to this, due to how often they charge and for how long they do it. Downspearing a lizard greatly reduces their ability to turn around, even after being released from the pin. This usually allows you to finish a green lizard with ease, but some may ignore this principle.

Once again, this only works in situations where a mouth spear would also work, making it practically useless, but at least it's actually usable here.

Using multiple spears allows you to ignore throw cooldown and initiate fights from longer range with more damage. 2 spears makes it really easy, while 3 spears makes it trivial. Obviously, you won't always have access to more than one spear, though. Here's some extra info about green lizards that you might find useful.

Green lizards, as mentioned before, have practically no spearlocking point. Though, after taking 3 damage, the lizard will usually begin struggling to move, turn around, or grab prey. Sometimes, outside of arena mode, it will even attempt to flee to its den. Once again, this isn't a guarantee since an aggressive green lizard can ignore these principles entirely.

Throwing a rock at a green lizard before their slide will cause them to slide in the opposite direction. Throwing a rock during their slide causes them to slide fowards while facing backwards. The green lizards can finally fulfill their goal of moonwalking. Or moonsliding.

Mouth spearing a green lizard from the wrong distance might sometimes cause the spear to hit its mouth, but deal minimal stun as though you hit it in the body. Normal lizards would still get paralyzed since their stun resistance is simply that low.

Red lizards are the strongest species of lizard, approximately 6.9x stronger than the cyan lizard. Unfortunately, they're still a complete pushover, and 6.9*0 is still 0. This is how to put them in their place.

This is basically the exact same as the double mouth spear, except 50% more sharpened rebar consumed. You might also have to throw from slightly further to compensate for the lizard's mach 1 speed. As turtle toad once said: "perform the spear throw" (I don't know if he ever said that). That's the secret to killing the most powerful lizard in all of rain world! It's as simple as that! Trust me it's really that easy!

Joke's aside, this isn't all that practical. Even if you master this, you're probably never going to use it as survivor, and as far as I know, there aren't that many red lizard spawns near sufficiently flat surfaces.

I made this out of spite for all the horrible based tier lists, but also just because all lizards are idiots and i need to express my frustration on them. welcome the most objectively accurate tier list on youtube.

Green lizards are the epitome of idiocy. They don't even know how to walk properly and have to push themselves in strokes. I can only have fun laughing sadistically and making fun of these lizards. It's hilarious watching them hiss at nothing when they're stuck in a pipe, facing the wrong way, or literally dead. Sadly, this feeling of dominance is short lived, as their mosquito intelligence bears zero self awareness and high stubbornness. It's hard to humble someone who is blindly ignorant.

I rate these F tier due to being idiots and thus unsatisfying to kill.

Orange lizards are on the opposite end of the spectrum. They're the most intelligent, but least physically competent of the lizards. Though I say "intelligent" very loosely, as the only thing that makes these "more intelligent" than other lizards is their ability to communicate with one another. Even when in a pack, these guys are still a complete joke, due to their horrible "flanks", reaction time, and generally whimsical teamwork.

They get stuck on each other's corpses, kill themselves, jump off cliffs, kill themselves, etc, etc. Half the time I encounter them at the Wall the entire group jumps off the boulder out of fear and dies upon one seeing my king vulture mask. As mentioned before, they're also the only lizard which can consistently get their ankles broken: making them exceedingly easy to disrespect and even ignore entirely.

Their "flanks" are extremely predictable and incredibly quirky. I love watching the last orange lizard ditch his dying teammates to run like 20 miles for the worst flank of all time: in this case running all the way up to the top of the boulder just to jump down, either slipping and falling to their death or immediately deepthroating my spear.

I rate these F tier due to being the weakest of the entire species.

Black lizards are very mid. They don't really serve any purpose other than to guard the Depths. Without player interference they just end up fighting one another for nonexistant food the entire cycle. Even though they're hard to kill due to the entire subregion being pipe hell (somewhat literally) they're very easy to avoid for the same reason.

I rate these D tier since they only exist as a generic obstacle to kill the player, which contradicts the game's philosophy.

Salamander and Eel lizards are similar to black lizards: guarding only one area, that being west shoreline. Like black lizards, they only seem to exist to either attempt to kill the player or die if they never show up. Once again, there's little to no food in their area, so 95% of the time they just stare at a wall the entire cycle or get solo'd by a baby jellyfish. Hilariously pathetic evolutionary, but arguably the most dangerous of any lizard on their home territory due to the inability to use combat tech underwater.

It seems really weird why they would add two races for only one part of one region, of which is entirely optional to reach. It would be better both realistically and gameplay wise for them to exist in the entire region of shoreline, at least in my opinion.

I rate these D tier for the same reason as black lizards.

Red lizards are very rare, which, according to natural and sexual selection, implies that they are statistically incompetent at surviving and/or finding bit-. They provide the most challenge to kill of any lizard, but as you guessed, that implies lizards are hard to kill. I have to admit, their high speed and awareness would actually make them a somewhat effective predator even in the real world, but their rarity in game seems to contradict that.

I rate these C tier due to being realistically competent, yet statistically incompetent.

Cyan lizards are basically upgraded blue lizards. They would rival the red lizard's speed if it wasn't for their extreme clumsiness. They seem to have no control over their "thrusters" or even their body in general: launching completely off target and into bottomless pits, falling off pipes and walls; the per usual lizard incompetence except 3x as often. They really do feel like blue lizards with no evolutionary experience whatsoever equipped with extremely powerful tools.

It's crazy how a futuristic alligator with a jetpack quite literally loses to a rat with sticks and stones. This game's ecosystem seems to prioritize abilities over intelligence for every creature. At least it's fun watching them throw their corpses around the room as an instinctual response to getting shanked to death.

I rate these C tier due to having a literal jetpack, yet failing in every other aspect.

Blue lizards are weak little creatures. I almost feel bad killing them, seeing how their entire cycle consisted of running from predator after predator, even being hunted by their own species, just to make their day worse. These guys are quite literally at the bottom of their league: with no distinct advantages, even dying in only one spear throw. The fact I feel remorse for these lizards makes me slightly biased towards them, though that remorse immediately turns into rage upon dying to one.

I rate these B tier since they always have really bad days.

Zonkerdoodles are silly little creatures. They act very unpredictably, from acting like a pole plant: not even reacting direct sight, to a red lizard: aggressively chasing the player across the map for seemingly no reason. They commonly attempt to camp screen transitions, at least in my playthroughs, so they seem to have some understanding of the fourth wall. These guys are really in a league of their own. Even though they might be extremely easy to spot for a creature given the role of a "camouflage" lizard, it doesn't matter since they're zonkerdoodles and each have their own goals.

I rate these B tier since they're zonkerdoodles.

Pink lizards are satisfying to fight, kill, and especially humble. These guys are both statistically and realistically competent. The only weakness is their intelligence, but of course that simply comes with being a lizard. These guys are as aggressive and agile as reds, with their main strength over them being their greater commodity. According to natural selection, this implies that these lizards are statistically better and surviving and/or finding females.

The main thing that makes these guys so satisfying to kill is, of course, their ego. It feels like beating someone with (insert competitive player property) in (insert mainstream multiplayer game). The longer they chase you, the more aggressive they get, eventually to a point where they're full sprinting towards you. It's like you're actually pissing them off by surviving their wrath.

I didn't mention this in the actual guide, but these guys are actually the only normal lizards that can recover from the failed mouth spear I mentioned in the green lizard section in less than 2 seconds. That might seem extremely niche, but it means mouth spears are slightly less leniant against only these guys (in the normal lizard category of course). Their ego is simply that powerful.

That concludes my tier list! The end! ¡El fin! La fin ! Das Ende! La fine! O fim! Het einde! Конец! 结束了！ 終わりです！ 끝! النهاية! समाप्ति! Son! Slutet! Koniec! Akhir! Το τέλος! הסוף! จบ!

here's a video i made showcasing the techniques in various arena clips. ok i kind of lied, it's really just a compilation of funny clips with humorous editing. still, do watch it, as it's the closest to rain world content creation i will ever get.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ5wmJ1AMh8
If you can't watch the video, then it is likely a steam moment and you might have to copy the link and watch the video on a web browser instead. If that doesn't work either then just know you didn't miss out on any quality content.

you did it! you managed to traverse past the unholy lands of bad guide! know that by adding to the "unique viewers" count you are making me feel so much more popular! i dont deserve any of your attention, and you deserve all my praise!

also sorry if the grammar is really inconsistent, as i kept making changes to the writing over and over for conflicting reasons so thats probably why. knowing myself im probably going to continue with these random edits after uploading the guide and likely end up making this grammatical monstrosity even worse, so keep an eye out for those. unrelated but did you know this entire section didn't exist when this guide was first uploaded?

if you're wondering why i always used the same arena for the gifs, it's because the gif size would spike a ton if i used an arena with a detailed background to the point where i couldn't upload it to steam. actual gameplay on a real arena is shown in the video. the arena i used for the gifs is called "large flat arena" from "testing arenas" and for the video i used the "levels" vanilla arena.

8/26/23 Update
The writing of this guide has improved my ability to show emotions in text, my confidence online, and my grammar in general. As someone who lacked confidence, I used to just write in generic lowercase text and was too scared to show my emotions or personality online, but now I casually crack jokes and use the italics and whatnot.

But that's just the entree. The main purpose of this update is to tell you that this guide has motivated me to present to my real life class about the hit indie game of 2017. I will let you see the presentation here, I spent over 18 hours making it and I'm really proud of it[docs.google.com]. I don't want to talk about my personal life or turn this into an uncomfortably personal lecture, but this presentation has improved my confidence even more as it taught me that being different and open about obsessing over a cat game is totally fine, and I wouldn't have made it in the first place if I had never gotten obsessed with rain world and gained the means from making this guide. It's been like 4 months and I've been checking on this guide every day or two waiting for it reach the front page, and it finally did and I feel so accomplished and famous and competent.

Thank you for reading this guide, as it has not literally turned my life around but it would be really dramatic to say it did!

I could only imagine the people who just wanted to learn how to kill a green lizard getting lectured about pink supremacy and being told to watch random goofy ahh content...