Rats are creatures that spawn at night in the Overworld much like monsters. Usually they are afraid of players and will run from them on sight, but they can become quite a nuisance as rats are able to dig through wooden walls, steal food & seeds from chests, and destroy crops! And on top of all that, rats can sneak through fences and navigate through doors!

Rat Traps and other more traditional defenses like stone houses and cats can help protect against rodent infestations!

An important aspect of Rats is cheese. Cheese can be made by pouring milk into a cauldron. Aside from being a good food source, cheese is used to tame wild rats and a plethora of rat-related crafting recipes. One can tame a wild rat first by cornering it, then by dropping cheese on the ground near it. After a few feedings, the full rat will trust the player: you've tamed a rat!

Tame rats' inventories can be accessed by interacting with them, and you can place rats on you head (or shoulder!) by sneak-clicking them. In the rat inventory screen, players can view information about their rat, access the held item, give a helmet/banner to equip, manage its upgrades, and command it to do all sorts of things. There are a multitude of upgrades that can be crafted for rats, ranging from simple health and speed boosts to massive strength and armor gains, along with new abilities, like cooking food and carrying entire stacks of items. Most of these upgrades can be created with cheese and diamonds.

Current rat commands include but are not limited to:

• Wander – The rat will move around similar to wild behavior.
• Stay Here – The rat will sit down and not move.
• Follow Me – The rat will follow its owner.
• Hunt Animals – The rat will search for and kill adult animals.
• Gather Items – The rat will search the area for dropped items (craft whitelist or blacklist upgrades to limit what they pick up). You can use a Cheese Staff to set a deposit inventory (see Transport Items command).
• Harvest – The rat will search for mature crops nearby to harvest. You can use a Cheese Staff to set a deposit inventory (see Transport Items command) where it will drop off any crops it collects. Many upgrades will repurpose this command to allow rats to perform various jobs, such as chopping down trees or breeding animals.
• Transport Items – Interacting with a rat with a Cheese Staff will bind it to the rat. Clicking on a block with an inventory will open a GUI to mark that inventory for the rat to take from/deposit items into. Once the rat has a marked deposit inventory and pickup inventory, it will transport items from one to the other.
• Hunt Monsters – The rat will hunt hostile mobs. You can have the rat collect any items dropped by killed mobs by using a Cheese Staff to set a deposit inventory (see Transport Items command). Don't forget that rats are mortal creatures!
• Patrol – The rat will patrol a set path and fight any monsters it encounters. Right-click the rat with a Patrol Staff to bind it and right-click any blocks with the staff to add points to patrol along.

To breed rats, a rat cage should be crafted first. Players can place rats in these cages by first putting them on their shoulder and then interacting with the cage. Rats of opposing genders in the same cage will breed as long as a Rat Breeding Lantern is placed in the cage. Their pups have a chance of having new color mutations not present in their parents. Rat cages can also be decorated with various rat cage decorations.

Tamed Rats can be made to do a variety of things, but one of the most useful is auto-crafting. One can start the auto-crafting process by giving a tamed rat a Crafting Upgrade and placing the rat on top of a Rat Crafting Table. To get the auto-crafting working, all you have to do is place items in the crafting grid (this won't consume your item) and place any required crafting recipe materials in the input slot(s).

Diseased Rats Caution must be taken when around wild rats, for some have been reported to carry deadly diseases. These rats have bright red glowing eyes and have a mangy, green fur. They are hostile on sight and will make aggravated noises when they encounter players.

The Pied Piper Rumor tells of a rare, evil Illager who has mastered the ability to control rats with his Rat Flute. This Pied Piper controls a small array of vicious rats under his musical spell, which he uses to attack his enemies. All those who venture into roofed forests and other magical biomes should beware.