Rilgar

Rilgar is a planet in the Solana Galaxy featured in Ratchet & Clank and Up Your Arsenal. It is most notable for being home to Blackwater City, which is renowned in the galaxy for hoverboard racing.

Ratchet and Clank first visited the planet during an amoeboid infestation, to participate in the race with their hoverboard, and to find Captain Qwark in his trailer. They also encountered a Shady Salesman, who sold the R.Y.N.O.. Later, they fought with the Galactic Rangers to defend the planet from a Tyhrranoid invasion ordered by Dr. Nefarious, and successfully defended the planet.

Before Ratchet & Clank
According to Qwark vid-comic Issue 2: Arriba Amoeba, Nefarious created the amoeboid race in a secret laboratory in the swamps of Rilgar. Captain Qwark at this time was alerted to the amoeboid infestation after defeating an army of ghost pirate robots, and went to stop the infestation, causing Nefarious to flee the planet and Qwark to tail behind.

Qwark had regularly visited the planet to present awards to winners of the Intergalacitc Hoverboard Championship, which Skidd McMarx was a regular contender.

Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet and Clank received coordinates to the planet after viewing an infobot from a destroyed warship in the Blarg Tactical Research Station following "Explore the blarg warship", which showed a news broadcast on Channel 2 News featuring Darla Gratch warning about the amoeboid infestation. The two arrived to fight the amoeboids, search for Qwark and compete in the hoverboard race.

While traveling to the hoverboard race "Win the hoverboard race", The two fought through amoeboids and the local extermibots, robots sent to fight the amoeboids that could not distinguish between amoeboids and Ratchet. Along the way, they encountered a Shady Salesman who sold the R.Y.N.O., which Clank suggested had been stolen from the blarg. Eventually, they were welcomed to the hoverboard race by the hoverboard girl, who allowed them to participate in Skid McMarx's place using his Z3000 Hoverboard. Upon beating the race, they won a Platinum Zoomerator upgrade for the hoverboard.

The duo also traversed the sewers of the city, and were able to locate Captain Qwark in his trailer. Qwark's bouncer refused to let them in, unless they bribed him 4,000 bolts, as he only earned 6 bolts an hour working for Qwark. After bribing the bouncer, the duo entered Qwark's trailer, where he told them he had been following their adventures and gave them an infobot to his headquarters on planet Umbris, where he promised to meet them.

Following the events of the game, the Shady Salesman was caught and arrested. As reported in The Rilgar Times, he pleaded "Not Guilty" to his crimes.

Re-imagined
In Qwark's retelling of events, Ratchet and Clank received coordinates to Rilgar on Aridia from Don Wonderstar, Skidd's agent, after finding him and reunited him with Skidd, and after helping Skidd get to his ship. As Skidd was injured, he suggested Ratchet compete in the hoverboard race himself, using the hoverboard that Skidd had given him.

Upon arriving, the Blackwater City Administration closed down the hoverboard race due to an amoeboid attack, and released extermibots to deal with them. In "Travel to the hoverboard event", Ratchet and Clank fought through the amoeboids and the extermibots (who attacked Ratchet after identifying him as a "rodent-type organism"), and stopped the infestation, causing the race to be put back on. They then spoke to Starlene, the host of the race, and won the hoverboard race in place of Skidd.

The two also detected a gadget on the planet. In "Search the sewers", they used their Hydrodisplacer to travel through the sewers of the city in search of it, however, the sewers began to flood forcing them to escape to the surface, at which point they found the Shady Salesman. The Salesman asked them to search the galaxy for RYNO holocards, which contained the plans he could use to assemble a RYNO, offering to assemble one for them for free if they found all the cards. He then gave them a Trespasser to help acquire cards.

Up Your Arsenal
Ratchet and Clank returned to fight with the Galactic Rangers to defend the docks of Blackwater City after it came under attack by a Tyhrranoid army during Operation: BLACK TIDE. The two were alerted to the attack after receiving a transmission while investigating the Obani Pollux. After they successfully fended off the Tyhrranoid attack, the Rangers gave Ratchet a pair of Gravity Boots to thank him.

After Up Your Arsenal
After DreadZone Station was destroyed following the events of Deadlocked, the combat bots Merc and Green worked in the Galaxy Burger fast food restaurant in Blackwater City.

In Into the Nexus, a portrait of Blackwater City can be found in the Intergalactic Museum of History in the Hall of Villainy.

Overview
Blackwater City is predominantly surrounded by water, either a sea or lake, from which it gets its namesake 'Blackwater', as the tall skyscrapers and towers light up, the water stays a deep dark blue. The city is quite expansive, with a lot of visual buildings and other structures.

City docks
The landing pad is placed on an outreach of the city docks, which themselves are a small collection of three dirt-covered islands, also showing a number of starfishes and coral formations. The two others each have a single-story structure, both of which consist of a single room with a domed roof. The last island connects to a platform on the edge of the city itself, through a button-activated extendable bridge. This platform then to another through an elevator, which features two small rooms that are barred until opened by another button, with the room on the right containing a parked taxi, which itself heads to downtown. The entire path from the second city docks island to the taxi is littered with extermibots, generally always locked behind the aforementioned bars.

Downtown
The downtown area is in fact a single sizable square, with the sidewalks lined by streetlights. There are a few phone cells lining the walls, and a pair of sewer caps ejected into the air by steam can be used to reach a pair of ledges. A small war between extermibots and amoeboids takes place upon arrival, with a lone extermitank guarding an elevator. The blocked and barred elevator leads to a small cave system, with a single tunnel leading to a larger cavern. Said cavern holds a large circular pit in its center, reaching close to the diameter of the cavern itself. A single button in the very center of said pit will unlock three cages, containing extermibots, embedded in the walls, with a single cage containing a lone passage to another elevator, which exits outside.

This part of downtown features a massive grid of metal pillars that support a large number of harmless laser barriers. The barriers and pillars are indestructible, but singular barriers are easily deactivated by buttons located nearby. Many squares of the grid contain extermibots and amoeboids, as well as crates and a lone gold bolt in a corner with a broken button placed nearby. Past the laser grid is a dead end, though another sewer cap rises above a plateau looking over the area. Adjacent to the platform is a small structure, with two extermitanks placed on both the platform and inside the building, which is featureless, save for another corridor with an elevator at the end.

Raceway plaza
The elevators take you to the raceway plaza, a safe clearing with Starlene standing in the center of a patch of grass, a large screen floating above and behind her. The patch of grass is surrounded by six streetlamps, spaced evenly apart, with further from each of them a single blossoming cherry tree, each of which is also placed in its own patch of grass. Two crate-filled, but otherwise empty, rooms are placed within the structures that partially surround the plaza. The non-walled section looking out over the city docks, a parked taxi will head to the landing pad when used. Another passageway, to the right of the taxi, is locked and holds extermibots, but can be passed through once buttons are activated on both sides. The other side of the plaza is empty, save for Captain Qwark's trailer, his bodyguard, and a lone elevator that can be accessed through the sewers.

Sewers
The city sewers are large, though primarily long and linear. They are first accessed through some sort of entrance that is only reachable by use of the Swingshot and two pontoon boats, starting from the landing area. An elevator is located at the end of the entrance tunnel, which exits unto a large underground chamber, consisting of two separate basins. Lights, valves and pipes litter the walls and ceiling of the sewers, though both large and small pipe easily outnumber the rest of the fixtures. All platforms and materials appears to be painted a light to dark blue, with yellow rims. The sewers feature several Insta-Drain and Insta-Faucets, which can be used to drain and fill the various basins.

The second basin connects to another through a large pipe, positioned above the water level, which is partially barred by destructible grates. This third basin connects to yet another basin, this time through a pipe placed underneath the water level. The last-mentioned basin then ends in a single chamber, surrounded by a ledge, on top of which are several crates. There is a natural underground slide through a tunnel on the north-eastern side, which leads to a deeper room of the sewer system.

Said room has a small layer of water covering the floor, but is otherwise unremarkable, save for the button located in front of a locked gate. Pressing the button opens the gate, but also triggers some sort of system that floods the entire lower levels of the sewers. The passage past the gate is a rather long and linear path, at first featuring a series of platforms, which leads to a curve in the path, and steps leading to the rim of three larger basins. The first basin connects to a hidden underground cave with a lone gold bolt. Past this set of basins is the first large chamber, which leads to another corridor, with platforms being the only way across. Another chamber and corridor lie in place after these, finally exiting unto an elevator that leads to the aforementioned area containing Qwark's trailer.

Racetrack
The hoverboard racetrack is placed amidst an otherwise unseen section of the city, with the track being built out of a dark blue painted stretch of platforms and blocks. The platforms have yellow paint accents on the top of the edges, and brighter lime-colored paint that covers the sides. The track is quite wide, with four lights in a row being placed at regular intervals. Oddly enough two rows of these lights are colored red after the first major ramp. The ramps themselves appear either in smaller versions, colored entirely yellow, or larger ones that are appear as part of the track. Several of the latter will feature two rows of red arrows placed at the end, pointing downwards. The track also has

Aside from the standard routes, the track will at times split partially in two, with one side being lower or higher than the other, as well as other gameplay differences. There are even two separate paths above the normal track, with intermittent gaps between the platforms, that serve as a potential shortcut to avoid any dangers on the lower area.

Re-imagined differences
In Qwark's version of events, Blackwater City's layout is very similar. Rather than taking a taxi to the downtown area, a Swingshot path leads towards it. In place of Qwark's trailer, the Blackwater Market is located (still connected to the race plaza), with the Shady Salesman is instead located, standing by his large orange and blue ship parked here.

Multiplayer
Rilgar appears in two multiplayer maps in Up Your Arsenal: Blackwater City and Blackwater Docks.

Blackwater City
Blackwater City is an average-sized map that supports all game modes, based on the map in Operation: BLACK TIDE. It is a symmetrical map designed for Siege with many platforms and open spaces for combat between the two bases. The bases face opposite each other divided by a bridge in the center, with defensive turrets on both sides. The map is surrounded by a dark, deadly liquid, which serves as the bounds of the map. The flags in Capture the Flag mode spawn at the base teleporters. The map does not contain any vehicles.

The map has four identical nodes in corners of the map, located above other terrain on the platforms next to the bases. Each are guarded by four turrets and two troopers, and spawn two weapon crates when captured. The nodes can be accessed from walkways covered with grav-ramps or from an adjacent node using the Hypershot.

Blackwater Docks
Blackwater Docks is a multiplayer map which supports Deathmatch and Capture the Flag modes. It is a small, asymmetrical map, with no clear center. The combat area concentrates at a few platforms on the map. The map is surrounded by a dark, deadly liquid, and the Hypershot and jump pads must be used to navigate through certain areas. No vehicles are supported.

Behind the scenes
Blackwater City was one of the first levels developed by Insomniac Games as a demo for Sony Computer Entertainment when they were pitching the original Ratchet & Clank concept.

While the city name "Blackwater City" was constant, the planet name in early builds of the game was instead named "Talos".

Blackwater City, along with Metropolis, was one of two levels included in the demo of the original Ratchet & Clank.

Assets from the original Ratchet & Clank appearance of Blackwater City are still present in the 2016 re-imagining, including the the landing pad, coral, and taxi signs. They can only be accessed through a glitch that allows the player to swim in the air, or by using the Plasma Striker.