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Rilgar is a planet in the Solana Galaxy featured in Ratchet & Clank and Up Your Arsenal. It is a planet with dark water most notable for being home to Blackwater City, an entertainment capital,[1] which is renowned in the galaxy for hoverboard racing. The city's sewers meanwhile are home to a thriving underground weapons market.[2]

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 in Up Your Arsenal, they fought with the Galactic Rangers to defend the planet from a tyhrranoid invasion ordered by Dr. Nefarious, and successfully defended the planet.

History[]

Before Ratchet & Clank[]

Emergency Plan Number 2 1

Dr. Nefarious' secret laboratory on Rilgar.

Documented in the Qwark vid-comic Issue 2: Arriba Amoeba!, Nefarious created the amoeboid race in a secret laboratory in the swamps of Blackwater City, intending to use them in exterminating all life on the planet. Captain Qwark, at this time, was alerted to the amoeboid infestation after defeating an army of ghost pirate robots, and coordinated the city's defenses from the women's restroom at Galaxy Burger.[3] Qwark eventually defeated Nefarious' amoeboid army, causing Nefarious to flee the planet in disgrace while Qwark trailed him.[4]

The Blackwater City Hoverboard Course was designed by classic hoverboard hero, RJ Dixon. Qwark had also regularly visited the planet to present awards to winners of the Intergalactic Hoverboard Championship, which Skidd McMarx was a regular contender. For three years in a row, Skidd competed in close races with Chester St. Cloud.[5]

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.

Welcome!

Ratchet and Clank being welcomed by Starlene.

While traveling to the hoverboard race during "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.[6] 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 hoverboards.

Captain..

Ratchet and Clank meet Captain Qwark.

In "Locate Captain Qwark", the duo also traversed the sewers of the city, and were able to find him in his trailer. Qwark's bouncer refused to let them in, unless they bribed him 4,000 bolts, as he only earned six 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.

The Rilgar Times

The Shady Salesman, pleading "Not Guilty" in The Rilgar Times.

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.[7]

Re-imagined[]

The 2016 re-imagined game is primarily an unreliable retelling of events by Qwark.
The re-imagined game primarily describes Captain Qwark's account of events. As Qwark is an unreliable narrator, and contradictory events are in-universe fiction (though those which correspond still apply). Please see Project:Bulletin board/Canon for the wiki's coverage of canon.

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.

Blackwater City from R&C (2016) screen 2

Hoverboard park.

Blackwater City from R&C (2016) screen 3

Hoverboard racetrack.

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 Slim Cognito. Slim 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 played the Qwark vid-comic, Arriba Amoeba!, which featured Blackwater City as the main setting.

Blackwater Attack

A Ranger broadcasting during the Blackwater City invasion.

Later, Blackwater City came under attack around the time Ratchet was investigating Obani Pollux. When Ratchet met up with Skidd on the moon, the Galactic Rangers contacted him warning him that the docks of Blackwater City had come under attack. This gave Ratchet the mission, "Save Blackwater City", in which he had to lead Operation: BLACK TIDE, in which the Rangers would fight back against the tyhrranoid forces. For defeating them, 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.

Geography[]

Overview[]

Blackwater City from R&C (2002) screen 1

Blackwater City.

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, and the water stays a deep dark blue. The city is quite expansive, with a lot of visual buildings and other structures.

Ratchet & Clank area[]

Blackwater City from R&C (2002) map

Map layout of Blackwater City during Ratchet & Clank.

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 connects 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[]

Blackwater City from R&C (2002) screen 3

Downtown Blackwater City.

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 battle 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[]

Blackwater City from R&C (2002) screen 2

Raceway plaza.

The elevators lead to the raceway plaza, a safe clearing with Starlene standing in the center of a patch of grass, and a large screen floating above and behind her. The patch of grass is surrounded by six streetlamps, spaced evenly apart, with a single blossoming cherry tree placed further from each of them, 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. In 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[]

Blackwater City sewers from R&C (2002)

The 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 into 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 pipes easily outnumber the rest of the fixtures. All platforms and materials appear 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 where Qwark's trailer is found.

Racetrack[]

Blackwater City hoverboard track from R&C (2002) 1
Blackwater City hoverboard track from R&C (2002) 2

Parts of the hoverboard track.

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 appear as part of the track. Several of the latter feature two rows of red arrows placed at the end, pointing downwards.

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 in the lower area.

Re-imagined differences[]

The 2016 re-imagined game is primarily an unreliable retelling of events by Qwark.
The re-imagined game primarily describes Captain Qwark's account of events. As Qwark is an unreliable narrator, and contradictory events are in-universe fiction (though those which correspond still apply). Please see Project:Bulletin board/Canon for the wiki's coverage of canon.
Blackwater City from R&C (2016) screen 1

Blackwater City in the re-imagined game.

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), where Slim is instead located, standing by his large orange and blue ship parked here. Additionally, the city throughout is lit up with more brightly colored billboards and advertisements throughout, and more flying traffic is seen in the skies.

Up Your Arsenal area[]

Blackwater City from UYA map

Map layout of Blackwater City during Up Your Arsenal.

The area fought in during the Operation is a small, symmetrical portion of the docks of Blackwater City docks. It consists of two opposite islands, filled with bomb craters, connected by ramps to a circular metal platform each. A relatively wide bridge connects the two towers, with a forcefield being placed there during the second mission.

Blackwater City from UYA

Blackwater City from Up Your Arsenal.

The Rangers and the tyhrranoids both have bases on the islands, where the Rangers' base is located on the southern island, while the tyhrranoids' base is located on the northern island. The islands have several blocks near the bases used by both forces as cover. Each of the metal platforms in the centers connects to a pair of tall structures that flank the island, through a curving bridge that leads upwards, though these are inaccessible during the Ranger missions.

Around the islands, different buildings can be seen in the background. Near the southern island for the Rangers' base, three tall towers can be seen, while the northern island for the tyhrranoid base is near a smaller set of tower-like structures, and a cluster of larger buildings in the northeast with a pier out to sea. Along either side of the metal platforms in the center are apparently residential skyscrapers.

Society[]

Rilgar is home to a species of humanoids with green skin, three fingers, two toes, and small horns in a single row on their heads. Members of this species include Skidd McMarx, Don Wonderstar, Starlene, the Shady Salesman, the re-imagined Slim Cognito, and Qwark's bouncer.

Blackwater City is an entertainment capital[1] home to the Hovercon Intergalactic Hoverboard Competition,[8] which Captain Qwark presented the grand prize for.[9] It had a newspaper, The Rilgar Times, a popular magazine known as Hoverboarder, and Ratchet & Clank: The Motion Picture featured Ratchet and Clank gliding in Rilgar in its poster.[7] The city hosted the Villainy Jamboree; a celebratory event for which villains from across the universe would gather.[10]

Rilgar was also home to a Galaxy Burger restaurant, from which Qwark coordinated the defense against Nefarious' amoeboid attack.[3]

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.

Blackwater Docks[]

Blackwater Docks is a multiplayer map that 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[]

Development[]

Blackwater City from R&C (2002) concept art

Blackwater City layout concept art.

Blackwater City from R&C (2016) concept art

Concept art from the re-imagined game.

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.[11] It was also, was one of two levels included in the demo of the original Ratchet & Clank, along with Metropolis.

While the city name "Blackwater City" was constant, the planet name in early builds of the game was instead named "Talos".[12] This name was later used for the name of a boss in Up Your Arsenal, the Terror of Talos.

Assets from the original Ratchet & Clank appearance of Blackwater City are still present in the 2016 re-imagining, including 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.[13]

Captain Qwark's T-posing model is located in the building behind his trailer, which can be accessed by pushing Ratchet through the wall via the Decoy Glove. The Qwark model's head is animated and will follow Ratchet's movement.

Hoverboard race area entry bug[]

On the PlayStation 2 it is possible to enter the local hoverboard race while using the Hologuise, which would cause Ratchet to enter the track without a hoverboard and thus be able to walk around. This effectively allows the player to abuse the large quantities of bolt crates on the course that will respawn nearly instantly when out of the camera's view. If equipped with the Taunter, one could reliably collect an incredibly large amount of bolts ranging in the hundreds of thousands over several hours.

In the Ratchet & Clank Collection this bug has been fixed. However, it is still possible to access the race track by using the Decoy Glove. Simply position yourself next to a corner in the area with the Hoverboard Girl and deploy a decoy next to yourself. With some luck it will push you through the wall, allowing you to glide to the course which will be visible down below. Be warned though as this method is rather unreliable and can take a while to achieve successfully.

Another method of entry is by slope-intercepting. To do it, you first need to jump on top a stack of crates by a tree, then do a stretch-jump. When touching the slope of the tree, spam X (while you are still holding R1) until you do a second stretch-jump where you can land on the roof. Make your way towards the racetracks by gliding down. This method is the easiest since it does not require a gadget.

Citations[]

References[]

Video games
Bibliography
  • Greg Off (2004). Ratchet & Clank Up Your Arsenal Official Strategy Guide [Book]. BradyGames. ISBN 0744005000.
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