The secret mode that turns unforgiving platformer Rain World into a zen safari

Find an adult Noodlefly hovering about the ruins of Rain World, and you can be pretty sure a gaggle of infant Noodleflies won’t be far behind. The flying pink slugs tend to clump together, attaching themselves to their parents’ hanging tubular bodies to dangle from side to side in mid-flight. Occasionally, they’ll fly solo, bumbling about in the air around you. Listen closely, and you might even hear them squeak.

These slapstick worms make up just a fraction of the bizarre creatures that inhabit this slippery metroidvania. Plants lie in ambush disguised as architecture, waiting to unfurl their leaves and snatch passing animals. Lantern Mice illuminate caverns with their naturally glowing bellies, charting the path ahead as they run away from predators. And neon-colored Lizards patrol busy areas looking for their next meal, which will often end up being you. Most of these creatures are bizarre, many are dangerous, and all are easier to appreciate when they’re not nipping at your heels. 

Convenient, then, that they don’t need to be. Introduced as part of Rain World’s Downpour DLC, Safari Mode flips the game upside down, transforming it from an unforgiving side-scrolling adventure into a passive spectator experience where players can observe its creatures in their habitats without interaction. Every inch of the postapocalyptic world is the same—only without the threat of death or the time pressure of the main game’s biblical floods that periodically threaten to wash everything away. Sit back, relax, and enjoy Rain World’s pixelated ecosystems unfold before your eyes.

“One inspiration for Safari Mode was ABZÛ’s meditation statues, which in that game give a similar experience of taking a break from the gameplay to just observe the environment and the creatures within it”, says project lead Andrew Marrero. Players had been asking for a more peaceful way of enjoying Rain World away from the brutal and often unforgiving main adventure, in which progress can be quickly wiped by a mistimed jump or unlucky run-in with a hidden creature.

But if ABZÛ served as a useful starting point, the initial idea ended up feeling a little underwhelming when brought into Rain World. “We were worried players wouldn’t engage with the mode for very long if that’s all that it offered,” says Marrero, “so that’s when we opted to get more ambitious with the mode and try to go even further with it.”

Merely observing the world, the thinking went, wasn’t enough. Better to be a part of it. While Safari Mode initially sets you off as a passive observer to explore the world and witness the procedural behavior of its creatures—who regularly butt heads and try to eat each other—the big draw is controlling them. Jump into a Centipede, and you’ll be able to electrocute other beasties by ensnaring them between your pair of shock-top heads. Try on the skin of a Jetfish to careen through the depths. Or control a Dropwig to bait prey into the line of your drop attack.

It’s a slick role reversal with enough finesse to not feel so much like a side addition but a game of its own. The biomes boast their own sets of native creatures, which handle with all the contorted gestures and weighty staggering you’d expect—their strange, unpredictable movements demystified now that their limbs are in your hands. 

Next to the adorable but squishy Slugcat of the main game, the creatures of Safari Mode offer greater mobility and freedom to explore the world around you. Nooks that were previously inaccessible are suddenly within reach thanks to a newfound pair of wings, and watery depths once off limits become your natural habitat. Though what you find there may not take kindly to your rude entrance. 

There’s a lot going on, in other words. So much so that Safari Mode alone ate up six months of development time. “Each creature in Rain World is very different from each other, and they don’t share a lot of internal code in common,” says Marrero. The control schemes for each had to be created from scratch, and even creatures within the same species boast varying special abilities. Blue Lizards can extend their tongues to reel in prey, for instance, while White Lizards have color-changing skin to camouflage themselves within their environment. The real joy, though, comes from hopping between them and seeing how the fauna around you reacts when you disrupt its habitat.

“Safari Mode was designed to be a sandbox experience, so we leave it in the hands of the player to come up with their own ideas of what they want to do with the mode,” says Marrero. With no objectives or win conditions, it’s a vehicle for playful experimentation within Rain World’s ever-moving ecosystems. And for those players who’ve uploaded extended YouTube play sessions of themselves simply idling in Safari Mode, watching the creatures go about their business without interruption, it also looks to be a sort of meditative release. 

What you take away from it is very much up to you. “Safari Mode also leaves plenty of room for roleplaying,” Marrero says, “having the player use their imaginations and creating their own personal rules, objectives, and self-imposed challenges.”

If you want to try it for yourself, you’ll first have to beat the obstacles of Rain World’s main game. Safari Mode is unlocked stage by stage by finding collectibles across each of Rain World’s regions. The dynamic ecosystems of each vary wildly—from industrial manufacturing plants to biomechanical lairs and great piles of trash. But when you’re scrambling to find shelter or fighting for survival, they can be difficult to properly appreciate.

“I hope Safari Mode can be one such new way of players being able to engage with Rain World’s environments,” says Marrero. “As well, I hope it can be a nice way for players to cool off and take a break after particularly frustrating play sessions.”

Sounds like the perfect way of enjoying a hostile alien world.