Hologuise (Ratchet & Clank)

The Hologuise, sometimes referred to as the Holo-Guise, is a type of gadget in Ratchet & Clank, the 2016 re-imagining, and the 2016 movie. It is a gadget that enables the user to disguise themselves with a hologram to appear as a specific organism or robot depending on the gadget.

The Hologuise is acquired in both the original and re-imagined Ratchet & Clank on planet Kalebo III from Wendell Lumos, the Gadgetron CEO, after beating the hoverboard race; the original allows Ratchet to disguise himself as a sentry-bot, while the re-imagining allows him to disguise himself as Qwark.

Ratchet & Clank
The Hologuise is obtained from Wendell Lumos after "Win the Hoverboard race" on Kalebo III. It provides Ratchet a disguise for the sentry-bot, which he uses to infiltrate Quartu's robot factory as well as Drek's fleet. Ratchet cannot jump while the Hologuise is activated, meaning he often needs to deactivate the Hologuise, jump while a robot is not looking, and reactivate it again. Waving at sentry-bots behind locked fields causes them to be fooled and open the door for Ratchet, though entering with the disguise inactive will cause them to activate an alarm and kill him.

2016 re-imagining
In Qwark's retelling, the Hologuise is also obtained from Wendell Lumos after "Win the hoverboard race" on Kalebo III. It is used by Ratchet to disguise himself as Captain Qwark, used to infiltrate the Deplanetizer. It functions otherwise identically to the original, allowing him to sneak past Warbots and wave at them to open doors, but does not allow him to jump while using it. The appearance of the device is very similar to the original.

In the holofilm, the Hologuise is also featured briefly, allowing Ratchet and Clank to sneak on board the Deplanetizer by activating the Hologuise from his ship.

Use
The Hologuise when activated disguises Ratchet as a specific enemy, allowing him to go traverse undetected. It is often used to unlock doors that will not allow Ratchet through otherwise, either by waving at a guard behind the door or completing a short minigame while disguised. Ratchet's movement is restricted with this disguise active, as he often moves more slowly, and often cannot jump while using it. Pressing the fire button with a disguise on will wave at enemies. He cannot use weapons or gadgets.

Behind the scenes
The Hologuise was originally planned to be a helmet, but was changed to a handheld gadget. The helmet design can be seen in the Insomniac Museum in Going Commando. Additionally, an unused handheld glove model for the Hologuise can be seen in early builds of the game.

The Hologuise is responsible for several bugs in Ratchet & Clank, though they were fixed in the high-definition remake in the Ratchet & Clank Collection. If the player enters the Blackwater City hoverboard race on Rilgar with the Hologuise, they can walk around the track freely, which is useful for destroying bolt crates with the Taunter, as they will respawn if destroyed off-screen. Also, if the player enters the blarg fighter in Drek's fleet with the sentry-bot Hologuise engaged, Ratchet would be standing on top of the jet. Hologuise gadgets later cause minor glitches in subsequent games.