Rat King

The Rat King is a mid-round antagonist that is triggered by the mouse migration station event. It is a player controlled ghost role that is unaligned with any other crew or factions. Though, this does not mean the Rat King is aggressive, as it is free to communicate and form deals and bonds with whoever it sees fit.

The Rat King has more health than the average crew member, moves slightly slower, and deals significantly more damage with his claws.

Though the Rat King has no innate goals or drive, it usually seeks out food in order to grow its army. This is done through its abilities, which require food to be activated.

RatKingArmy.png Raise Army
Spend some hunger to summon an allied rat to help defend you.

The Raise Army ability costs a small amount of food in order to summon an allied Rat Servant to help defend the Rat King. The Rat Servant is allied to the King and is slightly stronger than an average mouse. It, like the King, can communicate with crew members, but is also capable of fighting them off to protect their leader.

RatKingDomain.png Rat King's Domain
Spend some hunger to release a cloud of miasma into the air.

The Rat King's Domain ability costs a moderate amount of food in order to release a small cloud of miasma into the vicinity of the King. The miasma not only heals the Rat King and the Rat Servants, but it also spreads diseases that the rats are immune to. It can be an effective tool in order to heal up the Rat King and his servants as well as zoning out attackers.

Defence
The Rat King is an antagonist even if it is acting friendly. Any Rat Servants it spawns are player controlled and thus have their own will which may or may not align with the King. A swarm of several Rat Servants can quickly destroy any single unarmoured crew member once in melee range. There are a few different strategies crew can take:
 * Cats are aggressive towards any rodent including rats. Cat crates can be ordered from a Cargo Technician
 * Crew can throw mouse traps at rats which will instantly kill them. A Janitor will typically have boxes of these but more can be ordered from Cargo.
 * Cyborg or robotic players as well as crew in riot gear are very effective against rats. Riot gear can be ordered from Cargo.
 * Crew can pick up rats at close range just like you can with mice. They can then be thrown or tossed into a Disposal.
 * A Chef or Chemist can "poison" food by making it spicy (harmless to crew but deadly to rats). Hotsauce can be crafted and injected into any food with a syringe. To make it, grind chilli, juice tomatos and get chemists to make salt then combine in a beaker.
 * Crew can try to appease the rat king until a suitable strategy is adopted - typically by making it lots of food.