Ratchet (Ratchet & Clank)

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.

In the Heroes Coalition fics, Ratchet is a member of the Heroes Coalitions and is a part of Of Guns and Magic.

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,[7] 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.[8] 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 enemies 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.

Trivia

 * Ratchet is not Ratchet's real name. It is unknown of what his real name is, but it is presumed "Persia".
 * Ratchet's father's name was Kaden, who was killed shortly after his birth.
 * Ratchet is client 91802 in the Gadgetron corporation.
 * Ratchet is a Lombax, a fictional bipedal anthropomorphic species, which is a mix of canines and felines.
 * Ratchet appeared as a gun-course target in Jak 3.
 * While living and growing up on Veldin in the Solana Galaxy, he was born on planet Fastoon of the Polaris Galaxy
 * Ratchet had a dramatic facial feature change from the series, to Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One, and then changed back in PlayStation Move Heroes.
 * In Jak II, Ratchet and Clank were seen on the walls, and on public posters.
 * Ratchet was an unlockable golfer in Hot Shots Golf Fore! (Everybody's Golf in Europe)
 * Ratchet was an unlockable racer in Jak X: Combat Racing.
 * Ratchet was seen on a billboard in Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves, and on the same game, one could unlock a demo for Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
 * In the PSP Game by NaughtyDog and a spin-off of the Jak & Daxter series known as Daxter, Daxter could unlock a Ratchet mask.