Ratchet

Ratchet is the main protagonist of the Ratchet & Clank series, being one of the titular heroes and a main playable character in the series. He is the last remaining lombax in the universe, a skilled mechanic, and intergalactic hero who wields a variety of extremely powerful weapons.

Ratchet was born on Fastoon in the Polaris Galaxy, son of Kaden, guardian of the Dimensionator, and grew up as an orphaned mechanic on planet Veldin in the Solana Galaxy. His life was changed once he met Clank, a small robot who crash landed on Veldin, and who would become his lifelong companion and best friend. The two shared many adventures, often working alongside Captain Qwark, in which they defeated galactic criminals and supervillains, the most notable of which being Dr. Nefarious. During this time, Ratchet has worked with Megacorp as a commando, the Galactic Rangers as a sergeant, Q-Force as a leading member, and the Polaris Defense Force.

Ratchet is a street-wise, headstrong lombax who has shown immense bravery and enjoys challenge. He cares about protecting people of the galaxy, but particularly cares passionately about his close friends, and his home world of Veldin. He is a skilled mechanic, and a wielder of many powerful weapons and gadgets, manufactured by Gadgetron, Megacorp, GrummelNet, the lombaxes and others, that make him a formidable hero. His most common weapon is an OmniWrench, which he uses in melee combat.

Early history
Ratchet was born on the lombax planet of Fastoon in the Polaris Galaxy, and was sent to the Solana Galaxy by his father, Kaden, to flee from cragmite Emperor Tachyon's attacks on the lombaxes. Ratchet then lived his life on Veldin, securing a garage as his home.

Ratchet worked on Veldin as a mechanic. He looked up to the Solana Galaxy's greatest heroes, such as Ace Hardlight (prior to disappearance), and was a keen fan of celebrity superhero Captain Qwark. He dreamed of one day exploring the galaxy, and had been constructing a ship made of scrap metal (held together by gum and rubber bands).

Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet, aged 15, had constructed a homemade ship, though he was informed by the Gadgetron HelpDesk that it could not be complete without attaching a robotic ignition system. Later that day, a robot crash landed in the Kyzil Plateau, which Ratchet recovered. This robot contained an infobot detailing a message from blarg Chairman Drek to the citizens of planet Novalis, informing them that Novalis would be destroyed to help him construct his new planet. As the robot came equipped with the latest in robotic ignition systems, Ratchet could now start his ship, resolved to search the galaxy with this robot, to find and ally with Captain Qwark to defeat Chairman Drek. While leaving Veldin, Ratchet asked the robot's name, which he gave as B54296, though Ratchet instead named him Clank after he hit the side of the ship.

After traveling through planets such as Kerwan and Aridia, Ratchet and Clank met Qwark in Blackwater City on planet Rilgar, where upon meeting him, he claimed he was already aware of their heroic deeds across other planets and promised to train them on planet Umbris. When the two completed the training course on Umbris, Qwark offered them a position at his side to step into the "Ring of Heroes", a trap that Ratchet was suspicious of, but that Clank walked into. Qwark betrayed them, revealing he was working for Drek as a spokesperson for his new world, and left them to die to his pet blargian snagglebeast. After defeating it, Ratchet became angry towards Clank over this, and vowed only to seek revenge against Qwark, mostly unconcerned with Drek's plan. However, as Ratchet still required a robotic ignition system to fly a starship, Clank offered him an ultimatum that he would only start Ratchet's ships if he agreed to help planets under threat from Drek, starting with helping the Commando on planet Batalia.

The two later confronted Qwark and shot down his spaceship at the Gemlik Base in the orbit of planet Oltanis. After celebrating in Qwark's defeat, an infobot showed the extent of the damage the blarg were doing under Drek to Gorda City on Oltanis' surface, prompting a change of heart in Ratchet, in which he made peace with and apologized to Clank, now determined to stop Drek. While exploring Quartu, Ratchet learned that Drek was going to use a weapon called the Deplanetizer to destroy planet Veldin so that his new planet could replace Veldin's orbital position in the star system. This enraged Ratchet, driving him to seek vengeance and defeat Drek. He eventually confronted Drek over the Deplanetizer on Veldin, and the two defeated Drek by propelling him to his new world, and destroying it with the Deplanetizer while he was still on the planet. After this, Ratchet and Clank did not part ways, and the two bonded to become lifelong friends.

Re-imagined
In Qwark's retelling and the holofilm, Ratchet's story is slightly different. Ratchet begins on Veldin in the garage of Grimroth Razz, his boss, where he is a reckless mechanic who installs unnecessary modifications on ships after clients only requested a repair, who dreams of greater things and idolizes the Galactic Rangers. When Captain Qwark and the Rangers host tryouts on the planet looking for a new recruit in the wake of Chairman Drek's destruction of planets, Ratchet convinces Grimroth Razz to allow him to participate in the tryouts, only to be rejected by Qwark, due to his reckless past and his inexperience. Returning home solemn, Ratchet then spotted a ship crash land from the sky, and investigated it to recover the robot inside, whom he nicknamed Clank. Clank told Ratchet of Drek's invasion of Aleero City on planet Kerwan. Ratchet, eager to help, claimed to be a friend of the Rangers, and the two set off to the city.

After crash landing on Novalis, where the Plumber repaired his ship, Ratchet arrived on Kerwan, and made use of the Mag Booster he installed on his ship to propel warbots into a Class G Dreadship, and stopped the invasion. Ratchet landed on the planet to applause, and after being put on the spot by interviewer Dallas Wanamaker, Qwark made Ratchet a Ranger, giving him a training course, and granting him a protosuit and a new starship. As well as rescuing Skidd McMarx on Aridia and competing in Rilgar's hoverboard races, Ratchet took on many missions for the Galactic Rangers, including investigating the Blarg Tactical Research Station and planet Gaspar for new equipment, as well as fighting on planet Batalia.

Throughout this, Qwark grew jealous of Ratchet's popularity, while Cora Veralux and Brax Lectrus were visibly annoyed by him, which Ratchet was blissfully unaware of. The Rangers next attacked Quartu, where they learnt that Drek was going to destroy planet Novalis with the Deplanetizer. At the beginning of the battle, Qwark puzzled the Rangers by claiming he would "reason with Drek", and deactivated his communicators, going alone. Ratchet, fearing Qwark's safety, flew to the Deplanetizer himself, losing his starfighter in the process, and infiltrated the station to disable it. Drek, humiliating Ratchet, caught him with a Mag-Net Launcher, and took Ratchet to a shuttle home so that he could witness his failure first hand. On the way to a shuttle, Ratchet saw Qwark relaxing with other blarg in the Deplanetizer, realizing that Qwark had betrayed the Rangers due to his jealousy of Ratchet.

Ratchet then returned to Veldin, solemn after his defeat, and returning to his old life. Clank returned to Veldin later, attempting to convince Ratchet to rejoin. With a push from Grimroth Razz, proud of how far Ratchet had come, Ratchet then rejoined the Rangers as their leader, to which they welcomed his return. The Rangers then deduced that Dr. Nefarious, Drek's mad scientist, was simply using Drek to humiliate the Rangers by seeing them fail, and that the Deplanetizer's next target, Umbris, would destroy not only Umbris but several planets with it. Ratchet obtained a Hologuise from Kalebo III, and then infiltrated the base, while the Rangers used his Mag Booster to throw the Deplanetizer off balance. Ratchet confronted Qwark, and after a battle with him, convinced him of the error of his ways, causing him to help them fight Dr. Nefarious. The three managed to defeat Nefarious, causing him to crash land on Umbris, and fled the Deplanetizer shortly before it was destroyed, while the Rangers caused the Deplanetizer to destroy New Quartu with Drek still on it.

Afterwards, Ratchet returned home to Veldin, before being visited by Clank again, who would become his lifelong companion.

Going Commando
Celebrated as galactic heroes, Ratchet and Clank both appeared in an interview for Behind the Hero in which they detailed their life following Drek's defeat, and Ratchet claimed he was busy in a "domestic sense", believing "no one needs a hero right now". At this moment, they were teleported away by Abercrombie Fizzwidget, who recruited and trained Ratchet as a Megacorp commando, giving him the task of tracking down the Unknown Thief in the Bogon Galaxy that had stolen a biological experiment (later known as the Protopet). Ratchet agreed, beginning by tracking the thief to their base on planet Aranos, while Clank was given a job as Megacorp's head accountant, and an apartment in the city of Megapolis on planet Endako.

Ratchet chased the Thief down planet to planet, while fighting off the Thief's hired Thugs-4-Less mercenaries, though when learning in the Maktar Resort that the Thief had kidnapped Clank, Ratchet rescued Clank and the two were reunited. They then chased the Thief down, and returned the experiment to Fizzwidget, who left both of them stranded on planet Tabora. The Thief caught up with them demanding they return the experiment, though clumsily dropping the disguise and revealing herself to be a female lombax named Angela Cross, warning them that the Experiment was deceptively dangerous. Ratchet and Clank went on to learn more about the experiment, learning that it would be manufactured into a pet known as the Protopet, a dangerous pet that could breed rapidly and would devour its handlers.

When it became clear that they could not get through to Fizzwidget, Ratchet, Clank, and Angela tried instead to stop the Protopet by stopping the original, located in the Megacorp Headquarters on planet Yeedil. As they reached the original and attempted to cure it, it was revealed that Fizzwidget was in fact a disguised Captain Qwark, who attempted to frame the three for the Protopet menace and liberate the Bogon Galaxy from its threat. Qwark tried to use Angela's Helix-o-morph to cure the original Protopet, though as the battery was inserted backwards, he instead amplified it to a Mutant Protopet. Ratchet and Clank defeated it, while Angela freed the real Fizzwidget, fixing the Helix-o-morph and curing the galaxy's Protopets. Ratchet then rested in Clank's apartment in Megapolis.

Up Your Arsenal
While in Clank's apartment, Ratchet learned through a holovision news report that his home planet of Veldin was being attacked by an army of Tyhrranoids, led by a villain known as Dr. Nefarious. Using the gravimetric warp drive that he had built of out blargian scrap metal against Clank's wishes, the two returned in his ship to the Solana Galaxy and worked with the Galactic Rangers to fend off the Tyhrranoid attack. They were congratulated by Solana Galactic President Phyronix, who asked that they search for a long lost hero who was the only man to have fought Nefarious and lived. They both searched the jungles of planet Florana to find this hero, who was revealed to be Captain Qwark, although he had lost his memory. Ratchet and Clank returned Captain Qwark as ordered to a galactic fleet starship known as the Starship Phoenix, commandeered by Sasha Phyronix (whom would become romantically involved with him).

After fighting off a Tyhrranoid invasion on Marcadia from which they retrieved a Qwark vid-comic, Ratchet completed the comic, which refreshed Qwark's memory. Qwark then founded the Q-Force team aboard the Starship Phoenix, which Ratchet became a member of, along Clank, Sasha, Qwark's monkey friend Skrunch, and old allies Al, Skidd McMarx and Helga von Streissenburgen. The team would fight many successful battles against Dr. Nefarious alongside the Galactic Rangers, and defeat many of his allies, including pop star Courtney Gears, and Nefarious-made clone of Clank named Klunk. However, Qwark led an attack on Nefarious' flagship, the Leviathan, which was a trap set by Nefarious in which he self-destructed the ship before escaping it himself, with Ratchet able to escape but Qwark stuck on the starship as it crashed to the surface. This led the Q-Force to believe Qwark was dead, demoralizing the team, and combined with an attack by Nefarious' superweapon, the Biobliterator, on planet Kerwan, which transformed the entire population of Metropolis into robots, many believed Nefarious had won the war.

However, Ratchet and Clank continued the fight alongside the Rangers and many other Q-Force members. Al worked on deciphering plans for the Biobliterator to learn how to destroy it, while Ratchet discovered Qwark was alive in his hideout in the Thran Asteroid, and confronted him there about his cowardice before leaving. Ratchet and Clank destroyed the first Biobliterator while it recharged on planet Koros, only to learn a second was still present on planet Mylon. They chased this Biobliterator down, and with the help of a recovered Qwark, defeated Dr. Nefarious, and destroyed the Biobliterator. While Nefarious survived, thanks to his butler Lawrence, he was stranded on an asteroid out of range of any planet, and without a superweapon, meaning the galaxy was safe. Following Nefarious' defeat, Ratchet, alongside many friends of his he had encountered in his adventures, went to see the premiere of a new Secret Agent Clank film.

Deadlocked
With Sasha elected as mayor of Metropolis, Ratchet, Clank and Al had taken over the Starship Phoenix. However, Sasha sent a transmission to warn them about reports she had heard about Gleeman Vox, whose forces had kidnapped heroes and forced them to compete in DreadZone, an illegal combat sport filmed in the Shadow Sector which was aired to trillions of viewers as a reality TV show. Soon after receiving her warning, Ratchet was then kidnapped along with Clank and Al, and placed into a team known as Team Darkstar, in which the three of them, along with combat bots Merc and Green, would compete for their lives. Due to a deadlock collar placed on Ratchet, he could not escape the facility without being destroyed.

Ratchet competed in the tournament, surviving much further than many heroes, while Gleeman Vox' news network, Vox News, hosted by Dallas Wanamaker and Juanita Alvaro, covered his life negatively, with many misleading or false smears. While Clank and Al worked out a way to escape DreadZone, Ratchet defeated many of the DreadZone Exterminators, including Ace Hardlight, a fallen hero that Ratchet admired during his childhood who had become one of the deadliest DreadZone contestants. Following Hardlight's defeat, Gleeman Vox offered Ratchet the chance to replace Ace as captain of the Exterminators, an offer that Ratchet denied.

Clank and Al were soon able to send Ratchet to restricted areas of DreadZone Station, allowing him to defeat Vox, who had planned to detonate the station and kill everyone on board for ratings. Ratchet successfully defeated Vox while Clank and Al worked to evacuate the heroes from the station, as Ratchet himself was able to flee at the last minute and return to freedom.

Size Matters
Ratchet initially took a vacation on Pokitaru with Clank, and met by a girl named Luna. Ratchet agreed to help her write a school report on heroes, before she was kidnapped by mysterious robots. Luna left behind an artifact that Clank identified as a Technomite artifact, which Ratchet firmly believed did not exist. The two regardless resolved to search for Luna. As they chased after Luna, Ratchet later ran into Qwark and persuaded him to tell them where to take the artifact to, in exchange for giving him access to a supercomputer to research his parents.After acquiring a Shrink Ray for beating a Skyboard race, the duo eventually caught up with Luna, who turned on them and incapacitated Ratchet, taking him to Medical Outpost Omega.

Ratchet then entered a strange dreamtime while out cold, in which he encountered odd hallucinations of enemies he'd fought in the past, before being awoken when Clank found him and then escaping the station. They learned that Luna was simply a Technomite robot designed to lure them into a trap, and then defeated Luna on the Dayni Moon, but Clank was disabled, and Ratchet had to shrink himself to enter Clank and fix him. They then discovered that Otto Destruct's goal was to create an army of Ratchet clones, and that while knocked out, they had taken Ratchet's DNA to clone him. After chasing Otto to his base on Quadrona, and fighting an army of Ratchet clones, he revealed his end game: to use the Ratchet clone army to kidnap the universe' most intelligent beings, switch their intelligence with his, and become the most intelligent being in the universe. However, Ratchet defeated Otto and used Otto's machine to switch his intelligence with Skrunch, effectively neutralizing him, and Ratchet clones were later seen in a commercial while Ratchet was awarded a medal by President Phyronix.

Secret Agent Clank
A mind control device was planted on Ratchet by Klunk, that controlled him and caused him to steal the Eye of Infinity from the Boltaire Museum. This framed Ratchet for a crime he didn't intentionally commit, causing him to be taken to Solana's Ultra High Security Prison Planet, in which he was imprisoned alongside many other inmates that he was responsible for imprisoning, such as the Thugs 4 Less and the Tyhrranoids. The Prison Warden promised him no protection against them, though Clank, while investigating the real criminal to potentially free Ratchet, was able to supply him with weapons by disguising them as cakes so he could fend the other attackers away.

Ratchet mostly spent his time fighting off prisoners and meeting old enemies, though at some points he also coordinated with Clank. Ratchet met with Slim Cognito, who had been imprisoned for illegal deals, and passed on Clank's message in which he requested the code to access Le Paradis Des Tricheurs Casino's High-Stakes Room, which Slim Cognito knew, but would provide only if Ratchet protected him from other villains. Ratchet also met with the Plumber, who was trying to fix the water pumps but accidentally destroyed them, sparking another battle. The mind control device caused Ratchet to have a crazed moment in which he claimed to have set up a laser that could destroy the galaxy, and the Prison Ward hit his head and he returned to normal, but his message sparked another fight. When Clank defeated Klunk and stopped his mind control device, President Phyronix was debriefed, and as Ratchet's actions were the consequence of mind control, he was released from prison with a full pardon.

Tools of Destruction
Ratchet was testing a hoverbike in his home on Kerwan, only to be interrupted by Qwark from the Planetary Defense Center warning them about an invasion by "heavily armed robotic commandos", known as the drophyds. Ratchet and Clank then used the hoverbike to rush to defend the city from a huge invasion, and confronted the leader of the drophyd invasion, a cragmite named Emperor Percival Tachyon, who claimed he was only interested in killing Ratchet, the last (known) lombax in the universe. Ratchet managed to escape Tachyon and stole his starship, which took him to the Polaris Galaxy, where he crashed on planet Cobalia.

After meeting with a Smuggler who took him to Stratus City on planet Kortog, Ratchet then used an escape pod in the city to travel to planet Fastoon, the abandoned home of the lombaxes. The pair managed to obtain a sentient lombax starship, known as the Aphelion, and began a search for the "Lombax Secret", a weapon that was rumored to have vaporized the cragmites years ago in a war. The search led them to the Apogee Space Station, where they encountered Talwyn Apogee, the daughter of explorer Max Apogee, and her warbots Cronk and Zephyr, and formed an alliance with them to search for the Lombax Secret. After learning from the Plumber that a weapon to vaporize the cragmites did not exist, Ratchet discovered in a hidden lombax bunker on planet Rykan V that the Lombax Secret was in fact a device known as the Dimensionator, and after finding and questioning the IRIS supercomputer, they learned that the lombaxes had won the war by banishing the cragmites to another dimension entirely. Clank asked Ratchet destroy the Dimensionator, believing it to be too dangerous, which Ratchet disagreed.

Ratchet tracked the Dimensionator to the kerchu homeworld of Jasindu, though before they could claim it, it was taken by Space Pirate Captain Slag. The two chased and defeated Slag, though Qwark then took the Dimensionator himself to try and become a superhero, which backfired as Tachyon captured Qwark and took the Dimensionator, bringing the cragmites back into the universe as their leader. The cragmites then invaded the galaxy wholesale, starting with Meridian City, the capital of the Polaris Galaxy, on planet Igliak. Tachyon later invaded Fastoon, and Ratchet returned to the planet with Talwyn, Cronk and Zephyr to fend off the invasion. He caught up with Tachyon, who revealed that the lombaxes had fled to an invasion after Tachyon's attack aside from two who were left behind: Ratchet's father, the guardian of the Dimensionator (who Tachyon had killed), and Ratchet, who had been sent to Solana. Tachyon offered Ratchet a compromise: he opened up a portal to the lombax dimension which they had fled to, giving him a chance to rejoin his kind but let him live in another dimension entirely. Ratchet refused this offer, believing that no one was safe with the Dimensionator in Tachyon's hands. He fought with Tachyon, and banished Tachyon to another dimension entirely, before returning and disabling the Dimensionator for good. Following this, Clank was kidnapped by the Zoni, a race of godlike aliens that Ratchet did not believe existed, and then resolved to find his friend.

Quest for Booty
While searching for Clank, Ratchet, along with Talwyn and Rusty Pete, visited planet Merdegraw, a Space Pirate planet home to Captain Darkwater. Ratchet fought with a gang of Space Pirates, and was then caught and fired out of a cannon to Hoolefar Island, home to the native hoolefoid population. The mayor introduced Ratchet to the Obsidian Eye, a device requiring a Fulcrum Star to use, that could find Clank's location. Ratchet and Talwyn followed Rusty Pete to the Morrow Caverns to search for Darkwater's corpse to find the Star, but he betrayed them as he revived Darkwater using Slag's head, as Darkwater and Slag now shared a body and summoned an army of undead pirates. Ratchet defended Hoolefar Island from the pirates, and traveled to Darkwater Cove to find the Star, and after defeating the undead Darkwater, was able to return to the Island and use the Eye. He saw that Clank was not only held captive by the Zoni, but by Dr. Nefarious, and resolved to head to the Breegus Nebula to find him.

A Crack in Time
Ratchet traveled in the Aphelion with Captain Qwark (no longer accompanied by Talwyn) to the Breegus System to find Clank, though the ship crashed landed on planet Quantos, stopped from falling by a time anomaly that froze it in mid-air. After searching the planet, they met a friendly species known as the fongoids, who told them more about the Zoni, before the planet was invaded by Lord Flint Vorselon, a mercenary working for Nefarious who mistook Ratchet for another lombax rebel named General Alister Azimuth. Qwark was kidnapped, though Ratchet, who repaired and upgraded the Aphelion with the Zoni's help, resolved to find Azimuth, chasing Vorselon to his warship, freeing Qwark and the fongoids and then tracking Azimuth to Torren IV.

Ratchet met Azimuth on the planet, and after a brief confrontation following a misunderstanding, Azimuth recognized Ratchet as his friend Kaden's son, and the two bonded. Ratchet did question Azimuth on why he didn't stay with his father while the surviving lombax's fled during Tachyon's mass destruction, but Azimuth merely said that the universe had a cruel sense of humor, and soon after changing the subject and giving Ratchet his father's Hoverboots. Knowing he had gained another ally, Ratchet agreed with Azimuth to find the Great Clock where Clank was located, and defeat Nefarious. Later on, Azimuth had told Ratchet to meet him in Axiom City on planet Terachnos, as he claimed to know a way to try and contact Clank, who was still within the Great Clock. Soon after dealing with more of Nefarious' soldiers, they were able to break into an information center where Azimuth was able to locate an active Obsidian Eye on planet Lumos. Once there, they had another run-in with Nefarious' army and chose to help the Vullard slow them down, and in exchange they would show them where the Obsidian Eye is.

Once Ratchet and Azimuth got to the Obsidian Eye, they were successfully able to get a signal on Clank, who was still focusing on his own work to repair the clock from the effects and damages it caused on many of the planets. Clank, surprised and happy to see Ratchet again as he was, explained to him with the little time he had that he needed his help. He asked him to look for a portal on planet Zanifar, where it would take him two years back to when Nefarious had ambushed Orvus, knowing it was the last place anyone knew where he was before he had supposedly disappeared. On the way to Zanifar, Azimuth explained to Ratchet the supposed consequences of using the clock if they were to go back and save the lombax's, to which Ratchet agreed to despite knowing that altering the timeline would prevent him from meeting Clank.

Once Ratchet had found the portal on Zanifar, he soon realized after going back in time that it was the planet Nefarious and Lawrence had crash landed on after being stuck on the meteorite for a while. He is able to bust into the station within that planet, where he soon comes across Nefarious interrogating Orvus on how to get into the Orvus Chamber stationed within the Great Clock. Orvus still refused to, claiming that the clock was not meant to be used as a time machine. Nevertheless, Nefarious tried using the Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler to get Orvus to talk, but Orvus was able to block the attack, and claimed that there was only one person who was able to get into his chamber, and that he was far from Nefarious to get to. In that moment Orvus suddenly disappeared, but after looking more into his databanks just before he escaped, a picture of Clank had popped up. Ratchet was surprised to see it was Clank, which caught Nefarious' attention, causing Ratchet to flea through the windows immediately after he threw an explosive right in front of Nefarious' face. In the present, the explosion carried over to Nefarious in the current time, infuriating him once realizing Ratchet had gone back in time.

Ratchet continued to search all over the Breegus System fighting off Nefarious' forces, including another run-in with Flint Vorselon, who had captured Azimuth while Ratchet was on his mission in Zanifar. Once Vorselon was defeated once more and Azimuth freed, the search for Clank continued. While in the Bernilius Sector, Ratchet had picked up a distress call with Clank's signature on it, which eventually lead to the Valkyrie citadel on Vapedia, where Nefarious had used Clank as a decoy for Valkyrie leader Cassiopeia to kill him and Azimuth. Ratchet had already had a run-in with the other two leaders of the Valkerie's Libra and Carina during the story, but were able to destroy their ships during separate confrontations, eliminating them as threats. Ratchet soon after had his final run-in with Cassiopeia after realizing she had Clank held hostage within a machine suspending him. After causing her vehicle to malfunction, the vehicle smashed the glass Clank was in, and soon after lead Cassiopeia to fall to her death. Luckily, Ratchet was able to catch the suddenly-conscious Clank using his Hoverboots, and the two friends were finally reunited once more. After recovering from the battle, Clank warned Ratchet that the Great Clock should not be used to alter time, to which Azimuth disagreed with, believing the clock could bring back the Lombax race itself once more. Even so, Ratchet agreed with Clank knowing that the risk of such an action was too high, causing Azimuth to part ways with them both over this disagreement.

Ratchet and Clank later traveled to the Nefarious Space station, where Qwark was also happily reunited with Clank again. They then turned their attention to Nefarious, eventually infiltrating the Nefarious Space Station to try and defeat him. Nefarious caught them, and revealed that he planned to control the Great Clock and alter time to create a new timeline in which heroes always lose. Ratchet tried to convince him that there was an error in his logic of the clock, but were still casted away with his Asteroid Flinger 5000. It was supposed to kill them when they crashed on planet Morklon, but thankfully they were saved by the Zoni. After going back in time to help chief Zahn Gribnak from stopping the Agorians from destroying their village and the remaining Fongoids, they were able to acquire a ship after going back into the present, and soon after made their way back to the Nefarious space station.

They then returned and defeated Dr. Nefarious, but as the ship was about to crash into the space station, they tried to make it to the escape pod but Lawrence had already taken it. Luckily, Azimuth arrived to save them from the station just before it was destroyed. Ratchet and Azimuth then traveled to the Great Clock to drop Clank off, but Azimuth became enraged when Ratchet and Clank yet again refused to use it to save the lombaxes, and fired an energy blast from his wrench in rage that killed Ratchet. Horrified from what he had witnessed, Clank ran over to the Orvus Chamber before Azimuth could reach it in order to ensure that he couldn't use it. Upon realizing it was safe to use the Great Clock to travel six minutes back in time, Clank saved Ratchet's life just in time and the two fought Azimuth. Ratchet and Clank then defeated Azimuth and tried to fix the switch Azimuth had tampered with, but to no avail. Azimuth, who realized the error of his ways after realizing the clock was never meant to be used as a time machine, gave his life to fix the Great Clock which he had damaged. Once the clock had been repaired by the Zoni, Ratchet left, mourning the loss of Azimuth and leaving his best friend behind to take care of the Clock. However, Clank instead promoted Sigmund to Senior Caretaker and rejoined Ratchet, deciding to stay by his side until he could find a family of his own.

Comic series
Ratchet and Clank had both retired and returned to Veldin, where Ratchet was attempting to repair a Skyburst 8000 speeder, which almost shot up and left the atmosphere until Clank saved it with a stabilizer. Here, Qwark, who had been elected Galactic President of Polaris, met with the two and warned them of planets going missing from across the universe. Ratchet objected to being involved at first, claiming that he was retired and absolving himself of the responsibility, then returning to his garage. He was later awakened by a green light from Artemis Zogg's teleportation ray, and after a brief fight with Zogg's robots, he was kidnapped and taken to Artemis Zogg's warship, where Zogg revealed himself to be a fan of Ratchet. After a short conversation with Zogg, the self-proclaimed President of the Artemis Galaxy (made up of planets taken from other galaxies), imprisoned them in his Vartax Detention Facility.

Ratchet and Clank were unable to escape the prison, but bumped into an agorian general named Glahm, who sparked a fight with them that led to Ratchet and Glahm's execution. However, Glahm was using this as a set up to allow them to escape, with Cronk and Zephyr freeing Ratchet and Clank and returning them to the Apogee Space Station. Here, they met not only with Talwyn, but with Sasha Phyronix and the Solana Galactic Rangers, who along with Qwark and the Polaris government, were using the station as a base of operations while dealing with Zogg. Ratchet then learned that Zogg was a candidate for president of the Polaris Galaxy who Qwark initially planned to endorse, before instead running for president himself and being elected, leaving Zogg bitter. The Galactic Rangers tried to fire an EMP blast to disable Zogg's ship, though Zogg's ship escaped, and he then messaged Ratchet with an ultimatum: either he and Clank turn themselves into Zogg, or Zogg would relocate Veldin away from a star system and freeze it to death.

Ratchet agreed to Zogg's terms and teleported onto his warship. Zogg confiscated Ratchet's wrench, then broke his promise and claimed he would leave Veldin to die, though Clank threw a hidden grenade and Ratchet was able to flee Zogg and his robots, messaging Talwyn, Sasha and the Rangers to attack Zogg's ship. Ratchet obtained the Surinox Shard and ordered Clank to stop the warp sequence, though Zogg caught them both. Before he could kill him and Clank with a Plasma Coil, Talwyn crashed her ship into Zogg's, and was captured by his troops while Ratchet and Clank used an escape pod to travel to the desolate Veldin. There, they located Ratchet's garage and retreated, but were attacked by Zogg's robots, though Clank used a GrummelNet Flux Compression Generator which emitted electromagnetic radiation, disabling Zogg's robots but also Clank for an hour. Ratchet then encountered General Glahm who took him and the incapacitated Clank to the planet's Planetary Defense Center, where despite Ratchet begging him not to, Glahm fired a missile barrage that destroyed the ship, and presumably killed Zogg and his sidekick Vorn, but also Talwyn.

Believing Talwyn to be defeated, Ratchet remained silent and mourned Talwyn's loss while Clank awoke. Sasha, Cronk and Zephyr arrived to recover Ratchet and return to the Apogee Space Station, where they would come up with a plan to save Veldin. However, Zogg crashed into the station with an escape pod, holding Talwyn at gunpoint, unleashing an army of 100 Mr. Zurkons on the station. Talwyn was able to free herself from Zogg's grip, and as Zogg searched for the Surinox Shard, Ratchet was able to tackle Zogg into a docked ship, where Clank was located alongside a taped up Qwark, who tossed Azimuth's wrench to Ratchet and ordered him to fire a negatively charged blast to the shard, which banished Zogg to the same dimension that Ratchet had banished Tachyon to. From there, the Polaris government restored planets back to their original galaxy, and Ratchet decided to move back to Polaris rather than stay on Veldin.

All 4 One
With Dr. Nefarious still on the loose, Ratchet claimed in an interview with Kip Darling and Pepper Fairbanks that he would not join the search, suggesting he had confidence in Qwark's ability. Later, Ratchet along with Clank followed Qwark to Luminopolis on Igliak, where he was supposed to receive an "Intergalactic Tool of Justice" award for defeating a Light-Eating Z'Grute, suspicious as Qwark had never done this. When arriving, Dr. Nefarious and his butler Lawrence appeared, and Nefarious resurrected a Light-Eating Z'Grute to kill them all, though he had no control over it and it instead ravaged the city. When Lawrence fled, announcing his resignation to Nefarious, Nefarious was forced to team up with Ratchet, Clank and Qwark to defeat it, though they were afterwards teleported away by a machine known as the Ephemeris to a testing laboratory on planet Magnus.

Cronk and Zephyr attempted to retrieve the four, but were stuck in an asteroid field and could not reach them. Therefore, the four would have to escape the world themselves and stop the Ephemeris. A small girl named Susie took the four to the tharpods, a race native to the planet, who explained the Ephemeris in detail to them. Eventually, the four worked to destroy the machine and defeat the Loki Master, who had planned to use it to destroy the universe.

The four defeated the Loki Master, and Cronk and Zephyr were finally able to arrive with the help of Lawrence. Ratchet, Clank and Qwark believed that Nefarious had changed his ways, though Nefarious instead fled the world with Lawrence and was then still at large as a supervillain.

Full Frontal Assault
After Qwark lost the next presidential election, he, Ratchet and Clank founded a new Q-Force, with new members on an entirely new Starship Phoenix II. An unknown villain contacted the Phoenix II and revealed he was taking control of the Private Sector, forcing the new Q-Force to stop him. After they defeated his grungarian forces on planet Markazia, the villain revealed himself to be Qwark fanboy, Stuart Zurgo, whom Ratchet had previously encountered in Bogon.

Ratchet and the Q-Force defeated his forces on planets Ebaro and Proteus VII, though Zurgo had infiltrated their ship and taken over Ebaro's weather system, plunging the sector into chaos. Ratchet and the Q-Force destroyed the generator before invading Zurgo's Lair of Doom to defeat him and bring him into Polaris' authorities.

Into the Nexus
Now a member of the Polaris Defense Force with Clank, Cronk, Zephyr and Talwyn, Ratchet worked to arrest criminal Vendra Prog for her assault on Pollyx Industries. Ratchet, along with Clank, Cronk and Zephyr, escorted her to the Vartax Detention Center, though her brother, Neftin Prog, working with the Thugs 4 Less mercenaries, attacked the ship and kidnapped Cronk and Zephyr. Ratchet and Clank were imprisoned aboard the ship, though while the windows cracked open and allowed them to escape the ship before the Progs and Thugs destroyed it, they were forced to watch helplessly as Cronk and Zephyr died. Ratchet was able to stow away on the Thugs' ship to fly to planet Yerek.

Ratchet delivered the news to a visibly distraught Talwyn, who urged him to return to Meridian City on Igliak where it was safe, though Ratchet objected and wished to avenge Cronk and Zephyr. They learned that Yerek and the rest of the Zarkov Sector had been abandoned for 20 years. After retrieving a Grav-Tether from Pollyx's assistant, they tracked Pollyx himself to the Azeril Caverns where he gave Clank an upgrade to travel to the Netherverse. Ratchet and Clank realized that the "ghosts" haunting Yerek were in fact a race known as the nethers, and that Venda and Neftin Prog were orphaned nethers themselves who were trying to bring their leader, Mr. Eye, and the other nethers to this dimension with a low-rent Dimensionator. While still wishing to avenge the war bots' deaths, Ratchet became more sympathetic, as he understood that they wanted to be reunited with their race as he did. When catching up to the two, he defeated Neftin Prog, but failed to stop Vendra Prog from bringing Mr/ Eye to the universe, and Mr. Eye as predicted betrayed Vendra and imprisoned her in the Netherverse.

Ratchet and Clank agreed to meet Neftin on planet Thram, where they agreed that they would help Neftin steal the Dimensionator and free Vendra, but the Prog twins must then turn themselves in. They headed to the Intergalactic Museum of History in Meridian City, in which they found the Dimensionator. The city came under attack from Mr. Eye, and Clank went to the Netherverse and found Vendra. Ratchet fought Mr. Eye, and Clank retrieved Vendra, allowing her to seal Mr. Eye and the nethers back into the Netherverse. The Prog twins kept their word and turned themselves in. The low-rent Dimensionator was returned to the museum, which fell apart, though Ratchet claimed despite wanting to find his race, he settled in staying in this dimension with Talwyn. Ratchet left to meet up with Talwyn, unaware that Clank had swiped the Dimensionator.

Appearance
Ratchet is a feline, humanoid alien known as a lombax, with yellow fur, two large pointy ears with brown stripes, large hands, flat, triangular clawed feet and large green eyes. Ratchet's attire normally consists of pants, gloves, a chest harness and a belt, and sometimes a short-sleeved shirt with boots. However, Ratchet normally equips a wide variety of heavy armor, and wears Clank as a backpack. With some exceptions, the armor does not normally cover his face.

His proportions have changed slightly throughout the series. Since Tools of Destruction, Ratchet's arms and legs are longer, while his hands are slightly smaller, to give him more realistic humanoid proportions. His height compared to other characters also tends to vary by game.

Personality
Ratchet is an eager, headstrong, and astute character who often fearlessly puts himself in harm's way or making sacrifices to do right by the universe and keep it safe. He is very astute to the motives and actions of other people, often more so than Clank, and is ferociously protective of his friends and his home world, Veldin. He also shows a strong sense of humor throughout, often throwing in light-hearted sarcastic comments in the face of danger and snide remarks to his foes. Ratchet has humbled and become more compassionate throughout the course of the series.

In the original Ratchet & Clank, Ratchet's personality is significantly different. He is an angrier, more selfish, arrogant character. He also behaves more similar to a teenager, seeking only excitement, adventure, and later, driven mostly by vengeance. Ratchet significantly humbled in Going Commando, and has an entirely new voice actor.

Abilities
Ratchet is a talented and resourceful mechanic who has invented powerful devices often with limited resources available to him. He has built starships himself, as well as intergalactic warp drives, often made with scrap metal. However, his overconfidence with his skills often leads him to use his devices untested, which can have dangerous consequences. Despite not having a pilot's license, he is nonetheless a skilled pilot who has survived and won several dogfights in space against insurmountable odds, as well as win races against Ace Bunyon, the fastest pilot in the Bogon Galaxy.

Additionally, Ratchet is skilled, acrobatic and physically strong fighter, both through his talents and through extensive commando training. His primary strength in combat however comes from his ability to wield a vast array of weapons. Despite his appearance, his physical strength is enough to hold off the likes of Qwark, Glahm or even a War Grok.

Equipment
Ratchet makes extensive use of a wide variety of weapons, gadgets and vehicles in his arsenal to defeat various alien and robotic foes, acquired from Gadgetron, Megacorp, Vox Industries, GrummelNet, the lombaxes, and other manufacturers, both legally and illegally. he equips weapons using a neuro-sensor in his helmet, which reads his thoughts and teleports the desired weapon in his hands. Ratchet always carries an OmniWrench with him, used both for melee combat and for interacting with the environment, typically turning bolt cranks or picking up and throwing upgrades (as seen in Quest for Booty onwards). His most common gadgets are the Swingshot, used to swing across large gaps and the Grind Boots used to grind on rails. Since acquiring them from Azimuth in A Crack in Time, Ratchet has extensively made use of the lombax Hoverboots to quickly traverse environments.

Ratchet's weapons range from standard blasters (such as the Blaster, Dual Vipers or Combuster), grenade launchers (such as the Gravity Bomb, Nitro Launcher or Fusion Grenade), shotguns (such as the Shock Blaster, the Shard Reaper or the Constructo Shotgun and missile launchers (such as the Devastator, the Minirocket Tube or the Negotiator), to many other deployed tactical weapons (such as the Groovitron, the Miniturret Gun or the Nano-Swarmers) and weapons that summon aid in combat (such as Mr. Zurkon and the Agents of Doom). Ratchet also often wields weapons that can morph his opponents into animals (such as the Morph-o-Ray, the Sheepinator and the Transmorpher).

By far Ratchet's deadliest weapons are the illegal RYNO weapons, extremely powerful weapons that are either large missile launchers (original R.Y.N.O., RY3NO), rapid fire missile launchers (RYNO II, RYNO V, RYNO VII), dark matter launchers (RY3NO when upgraded, RYNO IV) or even mech suits (RYNO VI Protosuit). Aside from the RYNO series, Ratchet's arsenal includes the Zodiac and the Harbinger, which have similarly destructive capabilities.

Ratchet has piloted several different vehicles, and made use of many starships. His most commonly used starship has been the Aphelion, a sentient lombax starship used since Tools of Destruction, though prior to that he frequently used his ship granted to him by Megacorp among others. Ratchet has also been able to use racing vehicles, notably the Hoverboard and Hoverbike, as well as several vehicles in battle, including the Hovership, the Turbo Slider, the Puma, and the Landstalker.

Clank
"You were never a sidekick. You do know that, right?"

- Ratchet

Clank is Ratchet's best friend since the two met after Clank crash landed on Veldin while fleeing the blarg. Clank provided Ratchet with a necessary robotic ignition system to allow his ship to fly and allow him to finally leave Veldin, and the two partook on an adventure to find Captain Qwark and work with him to defeat the blarg Chairman Drek. When Qwark betrayed Ratchet and Clank, the two initially fell out, though following Qwark's defeat they were once again on good terms. After defeating Drek, Ratchet invited Clank to stay with him. Clank has since remained a close friend of Ratchet, as they both partake on adventures and spend free time together.

Clank serves as Ratchet's voice of reason, helping him make the right choices when needed. Though Ratchet and Clank have often fell out and argued, normally over a rash or stubborn decision by Ratchet, Ratchet normally concludes that Clank is right in the end. Ratchet and Clank have gone through great lengths to save one another when in danger.

Captain Qwark
Ratchet once looked up to Captain Qwark, and had a poster of the intergalactic superhero in his home. He at first aspired to become like Qwark and to work with him, though following Qwark's betrayal of Ratchet and Clank, he lost a significant amount of respect and at first vowed revenge. However, the two worked together in Up Your Arsenal when Dr. Nefarious began his war on "squishies", in which Ratchet worked with Qwark in the Q-Force. Since then, their relationship has improved.

Qwark has often worked with Ratchet during his adventures, sometimes selfishly trying to take credit for Ratchet's work, and other times accidentally leading Ratchet into greater trouble. Nonetheless, Qwark and Ratchet have remained in close contact with one another. In an interesting role reversal, Qwark has often come to depend on Ratchet and Clank for help when in danger, though in other times Qwark has offered help to Ratchet.

Dr. Nefarious
"I must admit, Ratchet, you've proven to be a far more worthy adversary, than that imbecile Qwark. Alas, I have a galaxy to conquer, so our game must end here."

- Nefarious

Ratchet first encountered Dr. Nefarious when he attacked Veldin with a Tyhrranoid army, though there was initially no personal rivalry between the two, as Nefarious focused more on his archenemy Qwark. After Ratchet defeated Nefarious and destroyed his Biobliterator, Nefarious was humiliated, and has had a vendetta against Ratchet since, promising that once he took over the Great Clock, he would rewind time to kill Ratchet repeatedly. However, in All 4 One after failing again to kill Ratchet, Nefarious was forced to team up with him, along with Clank and Qwark, and the relationship improved a little. When Nefarious fled them both after they were leaving planet Magnus, Nefarious was seen looking solemnly at a picture of the four of them together, suggesting he had newfound respect for Ratchet.

Love interests
Ratchet has had three different love interests throughout the series, though his longest relationship has been with Talwyn Apogee.

In Going Commando, fellow lombax Angela Cross was Ratchet's love interest. While at first she was his enemy, once revealing herself to be a lombax, Ratchet became much more open to her warnings about Megacorp, and the two then worked together as a team. Ratchet began to grow a fondness for Angela over the course of the game, and became much more protective of her. Following the completion of the game, Angela visited Ratchet in his apartment on Endako.

In Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet's love interest was Sasha Phyronix. Throughout the course of the game, Ratchet often flirted and showed off to Sasha, and she appeared to be the most appreciative of Ratchet whereas the rest of the Q-Force were more infatuated with Qwark. She often expressed concern for Ratchet, while Ratchet became protective of her. The relationship between them has also been an elephant in the room, with a marriage proposal slipping out of Ratchet's mouth once arriving aboard the Starship Phoenix, and with Sasha rushing to kiss Ratchet when learning he was still alive before awkwardly backing away while in the company of others. When Sasha became the mayor of Metropolis, the two remained in contact, with Ratchet still often trying to flirt with her. However, upon leaving to the Polaris Galaxy, the two lost contact for a while, and though Sasha retained a respect for Ratchet and they remained friends, there was no longer any romantic involvement. Sasha had also become friends with Talwyn and the three remained friends, suggesting she was not hurt by Ratchet's new relationship with Talwyn.

From Tools of Destruction onwards, Talwyn Apogee became Ratchet's girlfriend. The two met when Ratchet infiltrated the Apogee Space Station, and she at first tried to boot him off the ship before learning he was a lombax and then working with them. The two began to learn about one another's pasts, and worked closely to defeat Emperor Tachyon, and remaining close even since. Talwyn and Ratchet are very protective of one another, going out of their way to rescue one another from danger. Talwyn has accompanied Ratchet on several of his adventures since, helping him find Clank when missing. Ratchet claimed that Talwyn was part of the reason that he gave up his hunt for the other lombaxes, as he has enough in this dimension to return to the rest of his kind.

Combat companions
Throughout the series, Ratchet has worked with several different companions in combat.

In Up Your Arsenal, Ratchet worked with the Galactic Rangers. Ratchet acted as the Rangers' sergeant, many times providing the terrified Rangers with a morale boost, and coming to their rescue when in need. The Rangers had great respect for Ratchet because of this, and many of them got together in secret to chip in to buy gifts to thank him with.

In Deadlocked, Ratchet worked with combat bots Merc and Green, who accompanied him in battle as they worked to survive the DreadZone challenges. Green showed great respect for Ratchet, referring to him as "Sarge" (similar to the Rangers), gladly performing tasks for him without complaint. Merc was less formal with Ratchet, referring to him as "Boss", and complaining more bitterly about performing some tasks, though nonetheless enjoying fighting with him. The two trusted Ratchet greatly, offering him a glimpse into their past, and when it appeared that they were all about to die, they planned to go down fighting with him and claimed it had been an honor serving him.

From Tools of Destruction to Into the Nexus, Ratchet worked with ancient war bots Cronk and Zephyr. Like Talwyn, Ratchet met them in the Apogee Space Station, where they first tried unsuccessfully to kill him before they learned he was a lombax and then worked with him. The two infrequently worked with Ratchet since this, and tried to save him, Clank, Qwark and Nefarious when they were stranded on planet Magnus. At the beginning of Into the Nexus, Ratchet and Clank were forced to watch as Vendra and Neftin Prog destroyed the Nebulox 7 Prison with them still trapped inside; Ratchet took this personally and vowed to avenge them.

In A Crack in Time, Ratchet met lombax Alister Azimuth after chasing him down to Torren IV, where he lay in refuge. Azimuth had been a friend of Ratchet's father, Kaden, and claimed he would have searched for Ratchet had he known Ratchet was still in this dimension. When they met, Azimuth taught Ratchet a lot about the lombaxes, granting Ratchet his father's Hoverboots and offering him wise words. Azimuth acted as a father figure and a mentor to Ratchet, though the two fell out after Ratchet found Clank again and disagreed over the use of the Great Clock. Azimuth, determined to use the Great Clock to bring back the lombaxes and amend his past failures, left the duo, though he returned to save them when from the Nefarious Space Station before it was destroyed. Azimuth took the two to the Great Clock, where their argument sparked once again, with Azimuth going as far as killing Ratchet before Clank used the Clock to reverse this and revive him. Ratchet then fought Azimuth in the Great Clock as he tried to use it to bring back the lombaxes, with the Clock suffering damage as it was meant to keep time, not alter it. Azimuth eventually realized Ratchet and Clank were right, giving his life to stop the Clock, and telling Ratchet to take care.

Nemeses
Aside from Nefarious, Ratchet has made many nemeses throughout the series.

In Going Commando, the Thug Leader of the Thugs 4 Less was merely a professional adversary of Ratchet at first, considering Ratchet a "hit". However, the Thug Leader's rivalry with Ratchet soon became personal, as he attempted to kill Ratchet to stop him from disrupting the Thugs 4 Less' operations. When he later encountered Ratchet on the Prison Planet in Secret Agent Clank, he was delighted to once again have a chance to kill Ratchet, though the two never fought.

In Deadlocked, one of Ratchet's nemeses was Ace Hardlight. Ace Hardlight was a hero who Ratchet had looked up to along with Qwark before he left Veldin, though upon encountering him in DreadZone, Ace Hardlight became jealous of Ratchet's success and the two became rivals. Ratchet lost a lot of respect over Ace Hardlight's bloodthirsty fall from grace as a DreadZone Exterminator. Things became more personal when Ace injured Al for trying to disable the Deadlock collars. When Ratchet defeated Ace, Ace warned Ratchet not to give into Gleeman Vox' ways like he had done, a warning Ratchet was willing to heed.

In Tools of Destruction, Ratchet met the leader of the cragmites, Emperor Tachyon, who had invaded Kerwan solely to kill Ratchet, the last lombax. The cragmite and the lombax species were bitter rivals during the Great War, and as the last of their respective kind, Tachyon and Ratchet became bitter rivals as well, as they fought over finding the Dimensionator to return their respective species to the universe. Ratchet eventually defeated Tachyon and banished him to another dimension, with Tachyon mockingly telling Ratchet that only he knew his true "name" and his true purpose.

In Into the Nexus, Ratchet's rivals was Vendra Progg. Much like Ratchet had wanted to be reunited with the lombaxes, Vendra wished to be reunited with her race, the nethers, though unlike Ratchet, she was willing to go through any lengths to achieve her desire, even if it meant endangering the universe. At first, Ratchet fought and imprisoned Vendra merely professionally, though it became personal when she killed Cronk and Zephyr. When Mr. Eye betrayed Vendra, Ratchet promised her twin brother Neftin Progg that he would rescue her from Mr. Eye only if he turned himself in after, and when the nethers were defeated, Neftin remained true to his word.

Development
Ratchet was originally conceptualized by Insomniac employee Brian Hastings as a reptilian alien who traveled around planets collecting weapons. The concept behind had at some point evolved into that of a fuzzy caveman led to space by a robot on a mission to save the galaxy, before the caveman's club was replaced with the OmniWrench 8000, and the caveman became a mechanic.

The very first concept art of a reptilian Ratchet was designed by David Guertin, with the idea of a "spunky alien with a crazy gadget gauntlet and some Bionic Commando traversal abilities". This form gave way to Ratchet's cat-like form, decided upon after Insomniac looked at various terrestrial creatures, such as dogs and rats, and settled on feline features due to the sense of agility associated with them. He was designed to be "fast and furious early" on.

Ratchet's initial design lacked eyebrows and stripes on the ears and went through many different color iterations before finally settling on a brown design. Sony's Japanese animators instead suggested using a yellow color and adding stripes to the ears to prevent Ratchet from blending into the background with nothing to look at and to appeal more to a Japanese audience, changes Ted Price of Insomniac objected to (saying that they would make the changes "over my dead body"), though these were implemented by Guertin nonetheless and adopted as final. Ratchet was also given five fingers rather than three or four to appear more anthropomorphic but also to be better received in Japan, a decision made through conventional wisdom rather than one suggested by Sony of Japan. Clean shapes as well as bold iconic ears were key to his final design.

Ratchet was voiced by Mikey Kelley in the original Ratchet & Clank, and though his voice acting was praised, Ratchet's personality as a whole received negative feedback, and Insomniac were unhappy with his personality, considering him "too sarcastic, too snarky, too selfish". This prompted a significant personality change for the sequel, Going Commando, in which Ratchet was instead voiced by James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Tidus from Final Fantasy X) from then onwards, and given a much more mature and affable personality. However, Makoto Tsumura voiced Ratchet in all his appearances in Japan.

In Tools of Destruction, Tachyon taunts Ratchet by saying that only he knows Ratchet's true name. This is because Ratchet's real lombax name was originally going to be revealed in A Crack in Time, but writer T.J. Fixman and Brian Allgeier opted not to reveal it as they realized that "Ratchet" is part of his identity, and wanted to continue to call him that. Fixman and Allgeier also know what happened to Ratchet's mother and Kaden, but have not revealed those stories in case they revisit them in a later game.

When transitioning to the PlayStation 3 hardware, Ratchet's character model became far more detailed in terms of polygons and bones for his skeleton to animate the character. While the skeleton for Ratchet's character model used 110 bones in total in the PlayStation 2 entries, for Tools of Destruction, the skeleton featured 120 bones in the face alone.

Non-canonical appearances


Ratchet also appears in non-canonical entries to the series. In the manga, Ratchet & Clank: Bang Bang Bang! Critical Danger of the Galaxy Legend, Ratchet is the main character and has to save Clank.

In a mobile phone game, Going Mobile, Ratchet was invited to look at new biomatter converter technology, though the device accidentally transported Ratchet and Clank to a Secret Agent Clank vid-comic, in which they needed to fight against Maximillian. Ratchet eventually contacted Al, who informed them only the MCGuFIN could help them escape, which split into six pieces due to a malfunction that they needed to find. Ratchet obtained all pieces and defeated Maximillian's Security Cannon to return home.

Non-Ratchet & Clank appearances
Ratchet has several major appearances in non-Ratchet & Clank titles. In Jak X: Combat Racing, Ratchet is a playable character, who drives a car with Clank as the antenna, in multiplayer mode. This is a crossover with the game and Deadlocked, in which Jak is a playable skin for the second player in co-operative mode.

In PlayStation Move Heroes, Ratchet appeared, based on his Tools of Destruction attire. Ratchet and Clank were captured, alongside Jak and Daxter, and Sly Cooper, to compete in a friendly competition hosted by the floating aliens known as the Whibbles to determine which was the greatest hero. The three fought at first, though they later allied to defeat villains Gleeber and Lunk, who had enslaved the Whibbles. Ratchet appeared to be the leader of the group, often breaking up disagreements between Jak and Sly. Later, the team defeated Gleeber and Lunk, and were returned to their worlds, with a communicator to keep in contact with the others.

Ratchet makes an appearance in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale as a playable character with Clank. Ratchet uses many of his weapons from the series, including the wrench, the Combuster, the Sonic Eruptor, the Agents of Doom, the Suck Cannon, Mr. Zurkon, and for his first Super Move, the RYNO V. For his ultimate level three Super Move, Ratchet uses the Aphelion to destroy enemies. In Ratchet's story mode, Ratchet and Clank are traveling through the galaxy searching for gold bolts, and track them down to the Nefarious Space Station, where they defeat many foes, run into Qwark and Nefarious, encounter their story rivals Jak and Daxter, and finally defeat the final boss, Polygon Man (the source of the fake gold bolt signal).

Non-Ratchet & Clank cameos
Aside from their playable appearances, Ratchet makes cameos in many other non-Ratchet & Clank titles:
 * In Jak II, Ratchet and Clank appear on the walls in Haven City, in a poster based on his Going Commando appearance.
 * Ratchet is an unlockable golfer in Hot Shots Golf Fore! (known as Everybody's Golf in Europe), with Clank as a caddie.
 * In Jak 3, Ratchet and Clank appear as targets in a secret gun course, along with Tyhrranoids.
 * In Ape Escape 3, an ape wearing a Ratchet outfit that was equipped with Ratchet's wrench and a Clank backpack can be caught.
 * A secret that could be found unlocked a Ratchet mask that Daxter could wear in Daxter.
 * In Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2, also developed by Insomniac Games, lombax equipment can be unlocked in multiplayer, based on Ratchet.
 * In LittleBigPlanet 2 and onwards, a Ratchet costume is available as downloadable content.
 * Ratchet, along with Clank, appear as a DLC Mod characters for the racing game Modnation Racers.
 * In Super Bomberman R, Ratchet, along with Clank is playable (on the PS4 version) and they're both voiced by James Arnold Talor and David Kaye respectively.

Reception
In the original Ratchet & Clank, reaction to Ratchet's character was lukewarm. IGN, while praising Mikey Kelly's voice acting, criticized his character as bland. GameSpy also criticized what they described as Ratchet's uninteresting aesthetic design and rude, immature and immoral demeanor. However, following Going Commando, reaction to Ratchet was much more positive, with IGN noting that he was "no longer an angry, selfish teenage furry", rather he was "a lot more palatable" due to being wiser and more forgiving. Ratchet was later voted as the sixteenth top character of the 2000s decade by Game Informer readers.