Video Game / Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Blast your way through an interdimensional adventure.

We're going to a dimension where I always win, so YOU can finally know how it feels!

—Dr. Nefarious

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is the long-awaited sixteenth game in the Ratchet & Clank series, and the first game released after Ratchet & Clank (2016) to follow an original story, coming after Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus. It was released on the PlayStation 5 on June 11, 2021. A PC version was released on July 26, 2023 via Steam and the Epic Games Store, marking the series' first appearance on the platform.

Several years after Into The Nexus, the titular duo attend a Ratchet & Clank Appreciation Ceremony where Clank plans to give Ratchet a very interesting gift: a repaired and modified Dimensionator. Clank repaired it to help Ratchet search for the exiled Lombaxes... at least, that was the plan until Dr. Nefarious comes out of retirement to crash the ceremony and steal the device in an effort to make the duo finally taste defeat by sending them "to a dimension where [he] always wins!", ripping the space-time continuum to hell and back in the process.

The three of them are sent through an interdimentional cascade, eventually landing them in a Villain World ruled by an alternate Doctor Nefarious. With the Dimensionator destroyed, the quantum rifts increasingly tearing reality apart, and Dr. Nefarious claiming his counterpart's throne in his absence, our duo, with the help of a resistance that includes Ratchet's own dimensional counterpart, a female Lombax named Rivet, must somehow repair the damage, stop the Nefariouses, and find their way back home before reality falls apart.

The launch trailer can be viewed here.

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Hmmm... The rifts appear to react to your tropes...

• Ability Required to Proceed: Early on in Nefarious City, if Ratchet comes across the wall plates before getting the required gadget, he'll acknowledge that he doesn't have it.
  Ratchet: I don't have anything that will get me across... yet.
• Aborted Arc: The ending of All 4 One implied that Dr. Nefarious was on the path to a Heel–Face Turn, however by the start of Rift Apart he's back to his old, villainous ways with the events of the former game never being brought up.
• Actually Pretty Funny: At one point while trying to get to the Fixer, Pierre attempts to insult Clank by calling him Rivet's "sassy backpack." Clank chuckles in response.
• Affectionate Nickname: Rivet refers to Clank as "Bolts".
• Alternate Self: Being set in an alternate dimension, different versions of established characters appear throughout the story.
  • Rivet herself is an alternate version of Ratchet. Both lombaxes are rather surprised the first time they talk to one another over Clank's communicator, and their first meeting in person feels a little strange for the pair of them.
    Ratchet: C'mon, I knew you wouldn't hurt Clank. Pretty sure you're ME after all.
    Rivet: [Teasing] Wait... what makes you so sure YOU'RE not ME?
    Ratchet: Well, I mean, come on! I, uh...
    Rivet: You got nothin'.
    Ratchet: Yeah, I got nothin'.
  • The confusion of the situation is also given by the Lombax lore spheres, which the player collects during the game. There is a clear hint in them that the Lombaxes from the Ratchet universe were in the Rivet universe. Does this mean that Rivet hails from the Ratchet universe and got lost during the migration of the Lombaxes to another universe? Or did the Ratchet Lombaxes take the Lombaxes from the Rivet universe? And if the first option is correct, then can Rivet be called a full-fledged alternative doppelganger?
  • Clank has his own counterpart in KT-7461, or "Kit" for short. Ratchet meets Kit when looking for the plans for a dimensionator in Savali. Given that she's a creation of Emperor Nefarious and has a giant form, she might actually be this universe's answer to Clank's Evil Knockoff Klunk.
  • Emperor Nefarious from Rivet's dimension is obviously another version of Dr. Nefarious, albeit a much more successful one.
  • The Zurkon family is given much more prominence — Mrs. Zurkon is a heavily accented, vivacious Southern Belle active in the Resistance (while her main counterpart is shown at the beginning to barely have any personality beyond an automated weapons vendor), Mr. Zurkon is "Zurkie", a friendly pacifist who won't allow any fighting in his bar, and Zurkon Jr. is a bloodthirsty showman who runs the location's gladiator arena out back.
  • Phantom is a far more competent version of Skidd McMarx, who has become an enigmatic key figure in the Resistance since Nefarious rose to power.
  • Pierre Le Fer is a preening, vain French cavalier, extremely unlike Rusty Pete save for his profession.
  • Qwark's got his own, too: Captain Quantum. He wears an orange suit, has a tan, and makes his living not as a superhero, but as a pirate leader that vexes Emperor Nefarious (hence where his "Captain" title came from) before finally becoming part of Rivet's Resistance. The both of them hit it off quite well during the final level.
  • Emperor Nefarious' assistant is one both to Lawrence and also Zed from the movie.
  • Additionally, Emperor Nefarious' forces are his equivalent of Dr. Nefarious' army from A Crack in Time, sharing the general B-movie sci-fi aesthetic as well as specifically having glass domes for heads with three robotic eyes inside.
  • The character gallery reveals that the sheep in Zurkie's bar is actually Drek, with his fate implying that he's a more direct variant of his reimagined self.
• Ambiguously Brown: Captain Quantum appears to be black or at least black-coded, having darker skin, a slightly wider nose, and more accented lips than Qwark.
• And the Adventure Continues:
  • Ratchet and Clank go back to Rivet's dimension to help clean up after Emperor Nefarious' reign, since they've solved most of their own dimension's problems. With an implied pitstop in the Lombax dimension.
  • Talwyn also appears during the credits looking at a map with Ratchet and Clank, implying that they'll try to search for her Disappeared Dad after he jumped dimensions with Angela Cross prior to A Crack in Time.
• And Then What?: Discussed and deconstructed. After believing he's totally conquered his dimension, Emperor Nefarious realizes that he still doesn't feel content as he imagined he would. When Dr. Nefarious — who, by comparison, was overjoyed to temporarily be in the Emperor's shoes and only wanted the four heroes dead so he could bask in his victory — makes a salient point that achievement can't be tied to personal happiness, the Emperor furiously advances on him before coming to an "epiphany" of his own: there are still other dimensions that he doesn't rule, so he needs to rule all of them to be at peace. Given the theoretically infinite number of universes out there, all the Emperor has done is shift the goalposts to a place impossible to reach, but he clearly enjoys conquering so much that he doesn't even seem to consider the scope of what he's doing.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The list of accessibility options for Rift Apart is very long. In addition to things like button remapping and UI controls, you can also auto-boost with rocket boots, prevent yourself from falling into Bottomless Pits, automatically level out in flight, and apply multiple shaders to make it easy to tell what's what onscreen.
  • A full subsection of accessibility options are marked as being designed specifically for speedrunning, removing elements like slowing down time during a levelup that are useful in casual play but would be an unnecessary annoyance to a speedrunner.
  • As with previous Ratchet & Clank games, ammo boxes in boss arenas slowly respawn. Also as in previous games, you retain all of your experience with your weapons and your health upgrades if you die, so you can eventually brute-force your way through an area if you find it too hard.
  • Unlike previous titles, you can watch a preview of what a weapon does before you buy it at the weapon shop, which also explains what a half-push and a full-push of the fire button do. This way, you won't find yourself sidelined by basic enemies when you want to try out your new tools of destruction.
  • If you forget what you were doing or need another objective to do, pressing the right analog stick will bring up your current objective.
  • If you're having trouble completing Clank's Dimensional Anomaly puzzles, you can skip them altogether.
  • During the Final Boss fight where you face the heart of Emperor Nefarious's warbot mech, you need to destroy six nodes to move on to the next part of the fight. An on-screen indicator on the right side of the screen helpfully informs you how many of them you have left.
  • The Infinite Ammo cheat unlocked by collecting all of the Gold Bolts no longer prevents weapons from gaining experience, which it did in the 2016 game. This makes it useful for the final boss fight and for Challenge Mode instead of being a Power Up Letdown.
• An Arm and a Leg:
  • Clank loses his right arm when the dimensionator explodes and he is separated from Ratchet. When he meets Rivet upon waking up, he's still missing it. Clank actually goes through the whole game missing the arm, though his playable segments have it attached, due to being mental projections. When getting the Fixer’s aid, Clank comes to terms with losing his limb, claiming to it that he is 'fixed' in spite of his incomplete state, to get the depressed robot out of his nihilistic funk. Don't worry, he gets a new one during the credits sequence, courtesy of Rivet. It's even yellow like her own right arm!
  • A plot point is Rivet's own robotic right arm. She got the arm, and her distrust of robots, from being surprised and attacked by one of Emperor Nefarious' warbots when trying to sneak into his tower, having to replace her damaged limb when she was able to unexpectedly flee once the robot stopped attacking. Unbeknownst to Rivet, said warbot was actually Kit, her dimension's 'Clank', who was merely trying to non-lethally subdue Rivet, but whose weaponry and programming overrode her intentions and led to Kit accidentally blasting Rivet full-force. Kit's horror at having dangerously wounded Rivet allowed the lombax to flee. Finding out and overcoming their negative emotions towards each other for the act serves as a significant hurdle for Rivet and Kit to overcome.
• Arm Cannon: A few new weapons, such as the topiary sprinkler, are either transforming gloves or attachments for Rivet's prosthetic arm.
• Artificial Limbs: Rivet has a robotic right arm. She got it when Kit blasted Rivet, attempting to nonlethally subdue her. When Rivet finds out, she is not happy with Kit, since it's how Rivet got her aversion to robots.
• Art Shift:
  • The end credits are presented in a 2D chibi style.
  • Nefarious' announcements to his citizens about the whereabouts of Ratchet and Rivet are done in a Limited Animation style, with a drawing of Dr. Nefarious in a comic book style moving around the screen.
• Ascended Extra: In previous games, the Zurkons were just weapons (and enemies depending on who they belonged to). In this game's alternate universe, they are actual NPCs who play a slightly more active role. Mrs. Zurkon is the weapons vendor, "Zurkie" is the owner of the Good-Guy Bar that the Anti-Nefarious resistance use as a hangout and Little Zurkon is the commentator of the Battle Arena as well as the weapon previews.
• Attack Drone: Quite a few of weapons launch autonomous attack drones:
  • The series' staple, The Glove of Doom launches four robots that will bite enemies then self-destruct.
  • Mr. Fungi launches a fungi that hovers around and attack enemies.
  • The Topiary Sprinkler launches a static sprikler that will sprinkle enemies, causing them to get stunned and covered with flora.
  • The Bombardier launches a drone that flies high in air and bombs the target from above.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
  • Rivet and Clank must contend with (but not fight, as they don't want to hurt him) "The Fixer", a towering robotic juggernaut who's convinced that his temporary disrepair means he's now worthless.
  • Emperor Nefarious's "power suit", an enormous destructive mech shaped like himself which nearly eclipses the skyline of Megalopolis.
• Bait-and-Switch: It's clear from the opening you are supposed to believe that the Lombax you are watching is Ratchet, as this character is fully armored up and doesn't talk. It isn't until this Lombax reveals a hammer rather than a wrench do you suspect that it isn't Rachet.
• Bag of Sharing: Ratchet and Rivet have the exact same inventory, despite rarely being on the same planet and not even in communication until halfway through. Their bolts and collected equipment are justified by Mrs. Zurkon effectively providing a shared account for them due to mistaking Ratchet for Rivet.
• Bag of Spilling:
  • Justified. Ratchet and Clank start out partaking in a parade held in their honour, armed with only Ratchet's OmniWrench, Burst Pistol, Grind Boots, Magniboots and Clank's Helipack mode after having been retired for so long. Most of those were available so Ratchet could navigate the parade up to the front where Clank planned to reveal the rebuilt Dimensionator, retelling their story through the themed floats based on their past adventures and showing off for the crowd. Nefarious' attack on the parade and them getting abruptly stuck in an Trapped in Another World means that, beyond the various weapons they buy with scavenged bolts, these are all the tools they have to work with at first.
• Blunt "Yes":
  Nefarious: You think a crushing defeat is all it takes to stop ME?!?
  Ratchet: I mean... yeah.
  Clank: Yes.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: When he sends his message after Clank and Ratchet re-establish contact, Dr. Nefarious says he wants both Ratchet and Rivet dead or alive...but preferably alive, so he can toy with them first.
• Book Ends:
  • The game starts and ends in Ratchet's home city whilst it's under attack from Nefarious and his goons, only with much higher stakes by the Final Boss battle. Both fights also feature Nefarious piloting a mech shaped in his likeness. Also, during the beginning segment, as part of the chaos the broken Dimensionator is creating, Ratchet witnesses several Goons-4-Less getting pulled through a portal by what appears to be a kraken's tentacles, commenting on it. This is also how Emperor Nefarious is finished off.
  • Early on, when fighting the Seekerpede on Sargasso at the end of her first playable segment, Rivet does a flying leap to hammer the mech pilot unconscious mid-air, with slow-mo accentuation of the finishing blow. The same thing happens to finish off the Final Boss, Emperor Nefarious, only this time Rivet needs Kit's help to get the air time necessary to reach him before he overclocks the Dimensionator.
• Brick Joke:
  • The very first thing Dr. Nefarious ever summons using the Dimensionator is a very unimpressive-looking sea creature, looking like a cross between a marlin and a squid, from Cordelion, which splatters against his mech's windshield. At the very end of the final boss battle, Emperor Nefarious tries to summon all of his forces to crush Rivet and Kit... only to find out in the most humiliating way that there aren't any more, and all he's done is transport a bunch of flopping marlin-squids.
  • As you make your way towards Nefarious at the beginning of the game after Dimensionator starts going haywire, a kraken (or a giant octopus) emerges from one of portals and swoops some unfortunate civilians. At the end of the game, the kraken is what finishes Emperor Nefarious off.
  • During the first boss fight against Nefarious, he'll mention that his assistant isn't there to help him because he gave him paid paternity leave. During the end credits, we see Nefarious's butler Lawrence showing his newborn baby to his boss.
  • In Nefarious City, Ratchet can overhear a robot complaining about having to complete a work order when a Raritainium shipment has gone missing. On Savali, he can find a ship loaded with Raritainium that's crashed, with a bunch of Nefarious troopers wondering how they got there and how they're going to get the Raritainium back to Nefarious City.
• Bring It: Rivet is completely surrounded by an army of Emperor Nefarious' hench bots in the final battle, she just readies her hammer.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Two weapons, The Bouncer and The Pixelizer, can be only obtained in Challenge Mode. Averted with R.Y.N.O 8 and surprisinly even with Infinite Ammo and Health cheats, which can be used for a chunk of last level and Final Boss if player has collected all Gold Bolts they could and wishes to use them.
• Broad Strokes: This appears to be Insomniac's approach to the 2016 reimagining's place in continuity as of this installment:
  • The Veldin and Kerman floats in the opening parade visually match their aesthetics from the PS4 game with the Hall of Heroes stated to exist on the latter planet, but Qwark only acknowledges Ratchet and Clank's time on them in his commentary. While this could be chalked up to Qwark being unusually humble, it does imply that he and the Galactic Rangers may not have had a presence during those events unlike the reimagining.
  • The float that the duo quickly grind through during the assault is modeled after Kalebo III, with it having an appearance that splices both its original and reimagined looks.
  • While Veldin's reimagined appearance was transferred over, Grimroth Razz — Ratchet's foster father in the movie — was not, as the game's gallery explicitly refers to the Lombax as "a lonely, orphaned mechanic."
• The Bus Came Back: Barring the re-imagining:
  • Skidd McMarx and Rusty Pete return after not having been seen since 2004's Up Your Arsenal and 2008's Quest for Booty, respectively^note Pete did appear on the space radio in A Crack in Time, but through voice cameos and not as a major character.; if the player lingers when approaching them at the ceremony, Ratchet will lampshade it, marveling that he hasn't seen them in a while. On top of that, alternative versions of themselves are present.
  • Dr. Nefarious returns as a major character, having not shown up since 2011's All 4 One.
  • Thugs-4-Less return, having rebranded as Goons-4-Less.
• Call-Back: This game is full of them:
  • Sandsharks, the robot dogs of Metropolis, and Amoeboids all make appearances during the first level.
  • Just like at the end of the very first game, Clank sustains damage to his arm. This time, however, it's not only his right arm that is now damaged instead of his left, but it has been completely broken off.
  • The dimly-lit city that the duo briefly fly through when Nefarious first successfully uses the Dimensionator has billboards advertising Megacorp along with what appear to be protopets.
  • The Grunthors from Tools of Destruction return, both on their native planet of Sargasso and as an undead version as the boss of the second visit to Savali.
  • Nefarious states before using the Dimensionator for the first time, "We're going to a dimension where I always win!", which is a direct call back to his Motive Rant from A Crack in Time.
  • Much like in A Crack in Time, Ratchet sneaks up on Nefarious and blows his cover by uttering Clank's name leading him to attack Nefarious directly, only this time it's done in a more comedic fashion.
  • Though Dr. Nefarious doesn't malfunction at all this time, he still wants to see if the Dimension Monks have lost episodes of Lance and Janice.
  • Similarly to Ratchet & Clank (2002), when onboard Emperor Nefarious' ship, Rivet quietly sneaks towards a chair to attack from behind, almost how Ratchet attempted to do when he reached Chairman Drek's room at his fleet.
  • One of the patrons of Zurkie's is a Sheepinator sheep who just stares blankly at the wall and chews grass, completely numb to everything around it. Its Gallery profile reveals it's the alternate-dimension version of Chairman Drek, who, much like Alonso Drek in the movie, was Sheepinated by Nefarious, either as a humiliating punishment or just to get him out of the way.
• The Cameo:
  • Dallas and Juanita◊ from Ratchet: Deadlocked can be briefly seen on a few TVs throughout Nefarious City.
  • The RYNO 8 can bring in items from other dimensions, including items from other franchises including Sly Cooper, Uncharted and Horizon Zero Dawn. The RYNO doesn't stop at items either; Jak and Sly themselves even show up as some of the unlucky cameos ripped from their worlds on rarer occasions, although they don't seem to be too perturbed.
  • The Plumber and Talwyn Apogee can be seen during the ending credits.
• Carry a Big Stick: Rivet wields a giant, hi-tech hammer as her default melee weapon and counterpart to Ratchet's OmniWrench. Rivet swings around the hammer with similar animations to Ratchet's melee attacks, and she smashes a Nefarious warbot's head in with the hammer in the game's opening movie.
• Cassandra Truth: Rivet doesn't buy Clank's explanation of why the dimensions are collapsing or the mere existence of Ratchet, not until she views his memory circuits and actually sees what happened.
  • Clank quickly catches on that she doesn't believe anything he says, leading to the following exchange during a fight against Jetpack Goons:
    Rivet: I wish you had a jetpack function!
    Clank: I...do as well.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Despite the city of Megalopolis being under siege by Dr. Nefarious, Ratchet and Clank still take the time to enter the parade so that Clank can give a (condensed) speech and present Ratchet with the repaired Dimensionator.
• Central Theme: What it means to be broken, physically and mentally.
• Chain Lightning: The shots from Lightning Rod/Strike can do this. Very useful since each shot has also a chance to stun enemy, meaning you can paralyze whole enemy group this way.
• Changed My Mind, Kid: After Rivet frees Ratchet, Clank, and Kit from Zordoom Prison, Kit decides to sit the rest of the adventure out and return to Savali, still shaken by the realization that she was responsible for damaging Rivet's original right arm and having to reveal this fact to her shortly before her capture— especially since the two of them had been growing close. She's firmly convinced once again that she's a broken monster, and Rivet, still carrying feelings of betrayal and resentment towards her because of the reveal, tries to convince her to change her mind, but quickly and frustratedly gives up and leaves, deciding she's better off alone anyway. Fast-forward to the final fight with Emperor Nefarious— the Resistance manages to get him on the ropes, but he summons a large amount of his minions to fight Rivet, and Ratchet and Clank were flung elsewhere in the chaos and can't get there in time to assist. Rivet gears up to fight the overwhelming odds alone... and then the army is peppered with explosive fire. It's Kit, in her Giant form— it's implied that she's mastered control of it, in fact— and she's arrived to hold them off so Rivet can take the Emperor on with ease.
  Kit: You were right. I cannot run away anymore.
• Comically Missing the Point: Played With — Ratchet tells Captain Quantum about his dimensional counterpart Captain Qwark, and expresses genuine respect for the man. Before that though he touches on the more negative points in their adventures, leading to the following exchange:
  Quantum: So this "Captain Qwark"... is he a pirate in your dimension too?
  Ratchet: No, he's a hero. Even though he's betrayed us, surrendered to save his own skin, taken credit for our—
  Quantum (with genuine wonder): He's a hero?
• Company Cross References: See the franchise's dedicated Company Cross References page.
• Continuity Cavalcade: The parade at the start of the game reenacts several events from the series, like Ratchet and Clank's first meeting at Veldin, the Blarg invasion of Kerwan, their adventures on the pirate planet of Ardolis, and the Great Clock.
• Continuity Nod:
  • While he's telling Captain Quantum's about his dimensional counterpart, Ratchet mentions that Qwark has betrayed the duo, surrendered to save himself, and taken credit for their work.
  • The animatronics in Ardolis' Pirate Trials sing the same shanty that Rusty Pete and Captain Slag did when they showed up on Ardolis in Tools of Destruction, albeit with the lyrics altered to be less perverse.
• Contrived Coincidence: Once the Dimensionator explodes it sends Ratchet, Clank, and Dr. Nefarious to various spots in Nefarious City within the same dimension instead of scattering them across the multiverse. Not only that, Clank lands convieniently close to Rivet while Nefarious ends up in the office of his Emperor counterpart allowing him to take over.
• Covers Always Lie: The game's key art depicts Ratchet on Sargasso and Rivet in Nefarious City, when in reality you actually play as the characters on the opposite respective levels. Additionally, Clank is depicted not missing his right arm.
• *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": The Hurlshot was recalled due to causing too many spinal injuries. The first time Rivet uses it, she says "Augh! My spine!"
• Cutscene Incompetence: When Ratchet and Rivet first meet at Zurkie's, they open the door to find an ambush by Nefarious's forces and immediately surrender, despite being at a point in the story where you've already fought your way through that many troops multiple times. And then Rivet knocks Dr. Nefarious into the arena and the boss fight begins while Ratchet deals with Nefarious's troops.
• The Dandy: In contrast to Rusty Pete's grimy, grog-swilling piracy, Pierre Le Fer is a much more foppish, vain and well-assembled swashbuckler who acts as a recurring nemesis (and, in his own mind, paramour) to Rivet. His first encounter — where he promises to fight Rivet for a signal booster, then badly feigns a broken ankle and summons his "second", a giant warbot — paints a pretty succinct portrait of how he fights.
  Pierre: It seems Fate 'as brought us together again — [doffs his hat] — m' petite Rivette!
  Rivet: Guess Fate really loves seeing you get your butt kicked, Pierre.
  Pierre: [Fuming] AaaAAAaaGH! Yoo-hoo? Pirate mateys? ATTAAACK!
• Dead Hat Shot: After Captain Quantum saves Ratchet & Clank from being captured on Ardolis, his pirate hat pops out from the ocean afterwards. Subverted since he was captured.
• Dem Bones: After the Nefariouses travel to Savali, their portal tampering in the Catacombs begins summoning enemies from a dimension of living skeletons, resulting in the planet being infested with Bone Goons and an Undead Grunthor.
• Demoted to Dragon: Dr. Nefarious becomes this to Emperor Nefarious after spending a good portion of the game impersonating the Emperor.
• The Dictatorship: The Nefarious Empire is a bleak and oppressive robot-dominated dictatorship where organics are treated as second-class citizens. All businesses are owned by the emperor, and all citizens are subject to a 23-hour shift policy. Nefarious Troopers continuously patrol the streets of the capital city, ready to destroy anyone breaking the emperor's highly oppressive laws, such as harboring a resistance member or cutting in line.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • Dr. Nefarious transported himself, Ratchet and Clank to an alternate dimension where he is victorious, to force them into a world where he's already won. He failed to relate that this meant there would be a more competent version of himself in charge there who wouldn't be willing to hand over the reigns of his empire to his 'inferior' counterpart.
  • Ratchet clearly didn't put much thought into shooting the Dimensionator beyond preventing Nefarious from using it on them, which causes the whole dimensional collapse in the first place.
• Distaff Counterpart: Rivet to Ratchet, and Kit to Clank.
• Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: When activating the Rubicon Forge to rebuild the Dimensionator, Ratchet needs to turn on the power fully on in order for the machine to be able to handle the strain of it. He's given the choice between two identical green buttons, one of which has a skull and crossbones drawn on it, in order to activate the machine. Ratchet chooses the other button... which turns out to be the incorrect one, resulting in the forge breaking and the base's security forces descending upon them.
• Dramatic Irony: Players might get an idea of it when Kit is first explaining her backstory, but it's not until Kit and Rivet join up for the first time and successfully fight off Emperor Nefarious's forces on Sargasso that it's confirmed that the resistance member that Kit accidentally injured when trying to arrest them was Rivet, which took her right arm, though Rivet remains unaware of this as she relates her side of the story to a horrified Kit. Meaning that the Alternate Self version of Clank is the reason why her dimension's 'Ratchet' has an aversion to robots.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: It is clear after Dr. Nefarious meets up with Emperor Nefarious, he is already getting sick and tired being treated as a lacky. It even ends with him kicking Emperor into a portal.
• Early-Bird Cameo: When the dimensionator is going haywire in the beginning, various creatures from Rivet's dimension are shown to be falling through portals or randomly spawning around the city, with the players later encountering them in their native habitats. Notably, what seems to be The Fixer himself appears as well, falling through a bridge in front of the duo and accidentally knocking them to a lower level.
• Easier Than Easy: Much like the Rookie Recruit difficulty, Rookie Explorer difficulty is designed for "beginners and casual heroes that want to focus on story", with enemies dealing very little damage and going down quickly. Unlike Rookie Recruit, Rookie Explorer also ensures that Ratchet/Rivet won't die if they lose all their health, making them effectively immortal in combat.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom:
  • Happened to Blizar Prime before Rivet and Clank got there. Fortunately, it's still intact in a parallel dimension so they can still mine phase quartz.
  • When Rivet turns the tide against Emperor Nefarious' invasion of Sargasso, he orders his cruisers to drill down to the core and blow it up; foreshadowing his later omnicidal temper tantrum.
• Easter Egg:
  • Quite a lot of them, some of them also being Shout Outs and Cameos.
  • The RYNO 8 Is almost like a weapon that actively shoots these, thanks to the fact that it can bring in items from other dimensions.
• Egopolis: In grand super-villain fashion, Emperor Nefarious's capital is named "Nefarious City", with all of the statues, public addresses, and shameless self-branding that goes with it.
• Eleventy Zillion: Dr. Nefarious offers multiple "squijillions" of Nefarious coupons to catch Ratchet and Rivet.
• Establishing Character Moment: Emperor Nefarious first announces himself via defeating Ratchet and Clank off-screen and tossing them into the arena where Rivet and Kit were just celebrating their victory against Dr. Nefarious, proceeding to grab the Dimensionator and use his telekinesis to effortlessly immobilise all four heroes, showcasing how much of a genuine threat he is compared to Dr. Nefarious, as well as his sense of dramatics and spectacle, since he's so self-assured of his inevitable victory, he wants to make things fun along the way. When Rivet points out that the audience just witnessed a variant of himself lose, he sucks them into a portal to erase all witnesses to his public "defeat", showcasing his Sore Loser personality and tendency to Rage Quit when things don't go his way, foreshadowing his Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum during the Final Battle.
• Experienced Protagonist: Ratchet & Clank and Rivet but in different ways.
  • Ratchet and Clank start off the game at a parade in honor of their past achievements, with Ratchet worrying that he might have become washed up in the interem between games. Ratchet and Clank's exerience shines through not only in their combat skills but in how they interact with their partner's counterparts, Clank able to to help Rivet start to come to terms with her bad history with robots and Ratchet able to help Kitt start to come out of her shell.
  • Rivet has been fighting Emperor Nefearious for as long as she's been alive and recounts previous escapades during the adventure mid-combat.
• Expressive Mask: Justified. The opening shows Rivet's helmet with an LED-like screen on the front with emoticon expressions running over it. Rivet's wearing it to hide the fact that she's organic, since the troops of Emperor Nefarious are looking for her. Ratchet's helper Glitch has a similar facial display screen, which she showcases at the end of her segments by turning to the 'camera' for the benefit of the player.
• Extra-Dimensional Shortcut: This installment's gimmick, the Rift Tether, allows instant jumps to orange dimensional rifts on the map, only possible thanks to the PS5's incredibly fast load speeds. There's also levels where one has to bypass obstacles by switching dimensions via whacking large purple crystals.
• Eye Take: Rivet gives one when Clank giggles at her installing the amplifier he needed to contact Ratchet.
• Fastball Special: Kit tosses Rivet at Emperor Nefarious to strike the finishing blow against him.
• Fighting Across Time and Space: A number of boss battles get momentarily interrupted by dimensional rifts opening beneath the combatants and taking them to another planet. During Dr. Nefarious' battle he intentionally opens them with the Dimensionator in order to spice things up.
• For Doom the Bell Tolls: The pirates on Ardolis utilize ringing a large bell to summon a kraken. This very same bell is used in the final fight with Emperor Nefarious to get the kraken to finish him off.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When they first meet, Ratchet offers to team up with Kit to gain access to the archives, offering a handshake to seal the deal. It's his right arm he extends, and Kit's reaction to it, and her claims she's not a good partner as an excuse not to join up, foreshadows the fact that she's the Warbot that cost Rivet her right arm, which still haunts Kit to the present day.
  • When posing as 'interior decorators' to gain access to the Rubicon Forge, Ratchet can overhear conversations from the various workers that the Emperor recently placed a large order that got everybody excited, and another conversation stating it had to 'walk, shoot lasers of unspeakable power and be over 100 stories tall', all of which foreshadows the Emperor's Power Suit he unveils against the heroes in the climax.
  • Ratchet and Kit are hunted through the abandoned and derelict version of the Rubicon Forge by a Super-Persistent Predator called Juice. His name, along with the fact that the station's electrical systems turn on when he's nearby as an early warning sign of his presence, are hints that he's the 'power source' for the station, gone rogue from being abused as a battery for the Rubicon Forge.
  • When Emperor Nefarious first appears to stop the heroes as they're on the verge of victory after defeating Dr. Nefarious in the Battle Arena, Rivet points out that the audience watching the fight just witnessed a variant of himself lose. The Emperor's response is to instantly suck the spectators into a portal with the Dimensionator, rather than allow his image as an Invincible Villain to be tarnished by his "inferior" counterpart's defeat. This foreshadows his Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum during the Final Battle when he starts losing for real for the first time, willing to undo all of creation rather than suffer a defeat.
• Forgot Flanders Could Do That: After Emperor Nefarious believes he has completely won, he admits he still doesn't feel happy, to which Dr. Nefarious points out his problem — he's psychologically equated success with happiness. Even if he's Laughably Evil and untrained as a therapist, Nefarious is still a (mad) doctor, capable of a certain level of clinical insight; additionally, he went through a lot of anger management classes while stranded on Zanifar, and has at least seemed to learn how to deal with failure, if not overcome it.
• Forgot to Feed the Monster: One of the pirate trials on Ardolis was supposed to be a Grunthor fight, but it seems the pirates forgot to feed it so they just tell Ratchet to go right through.
• Freeze Ray: More like Freeze Bomb, but Cold Snap launches a bomb that freezes enemies within its blast radius, and its upgraded version Cold Front also leaves behind a cloud of freezing air that turns to ice everyone who enters it.
• Gatling Good: The Blackhole Storm, which instantly consumes enemies into an instant black hole after enough damage.
• Good-Guy Bar: Zurkie's Gastropub and Battleplex, a popular meeting place for members of the resistance and pirates, run by a pacifist alternate version of Mr. Zurkon who enforces a strict "no fighting" rule in the bar. Patrons who want to fight have to go to the arena in back run by Zurkon Jr (who's just as bloodthirsty as his main universe self).
• Good News, Bad News: During the return trip to Savali, Rivet relays the bad news to Ratchet that Emperor Nefarious wasn't on his ship, while the good news is they found Gary safe, and he hid the dimensional map in a anomaly.
• Guide Dang It!: The Craiggerbears are not tracked anywhere in the menus nor are they marked on the map when you get near them like the other collectibles, so it's easy to lose track of which ones you've already collected. Somewhat alleviated due to there only being 9 in the game and because you can make collectibles easier to spot in the accessibility options, but it's still an odd decision.
  • Going further, in order to truly get everythig in the game you must collect all the Craiggerbears twice: Once in a normal playthrough, and once in Challenge Mode. Upon doing so you will unlock the last batch of Photo Mode stickers commemorating past Insomniac employees that are no longer with us. It's a nice addition, however the game never tells you to do this, and considering you're also able to reobtain the other collectibles in Challenge Mode (which do nothing) it's likely most players will not think to do this.
• Handicapped Badass: In addition to losing his right arm, the Dimensionator explosion also appears to have left Clank 'stuck' in his backpack mode, unable to extend his legs and move under his own power, being largely dependant on either Rivet or Ratchet to transport him around. This comes into play with the Phase Quartz retrieval, as Rivet is forced to let the crystal get smashed because the drill's laser was about to hit both it and Clank, and he couldn't move out of the way on his own. This does not stop him from helping out as best as he can with his limitations, being the brains and main coordinator behind their plan to rebuild the Dimensionator, and resolving Dimensional Anomalies to help his partners progress, being playable as a mental projection of himself. He also helps out in the final battle, ringing the Pirate Bell to summon Bubbles, the kraken, through a portal Ratchet summons to attack Emperor Nefarious.
• Harder Than Hard: Renegade Legend is the absolute hardest difficulty, with aggressive enemy AI, heavy damage and high health.
  For those who wish to battle the most brutal foes in any dimension!
• Heel–Face Turn: As the game begins, Rusty Pete and his pirate armada have made an alliance with the powers that be, insofar as they now only steal things when nobody's looking.
• Heroic BSoD: Kit goes through one late in the game, believing that she was only built to destroy despite it being no fault of her own, and opts out on participating in the final battle against Emperor Nefarious before realizing her mistakes and arriving at the last second to support Rivet.
• Hope Spot: In the last anomaly puzzle, Clank discovers the way of repairing the dimensional rifts and eagerly rushes to tell Ratchet. Only for the Emperor and Nefarious to have already captured Ratchet.
• Humongous Mecha: Par for the course, but Emperor Nefarious really kicks it up a notch with his Imperial "Power Suit".
• Infinity +1 Sword: A series standard R.Y.N.O, this time number 8, which turns into R.Y.N.O Infinity when fully upgraded.
• Internal Reveal: By the time that Rivet and Kit meet up, the audience has already been made aware that Rivet lost her arm from being attacked by a warbot, and that Kit is that warbot. Flashbacks for each character make it quite clear that Kit was responsible, but Rivet doesn't know that. By the time Kit figures it out, the narrative sets it up so that it's not a matter of if it will come out that Kit took Rivet's arm, but when it will.
• Intrepid Merchant: Rather than purchase weapons from booths, Mrs. Zurkon follows the heroes across different planets and evidently dimensions to sell weapons. This is lampshaded on Cordelion, where a bewildered Ratchet asks her what she's doing at an undersea research facility - apparently, she's just working really hard to make enough money so she can send Zurkon Jr. to a good university.
• Ironic Echo: At one point, Emperor Nefarious mockingly asks Dr. Nefarious what he would know about winning. At the very end, Dr. Nefarious throws this question right back at Emperor before kicking him to his doom.
• Justified Tutorial: Ratchet should know about things like shooting weapons and throwing his wrench, but goes through the motions as it's all part of the parade.
• Lampshade Hanging: When Rivet first uses Mrs. Zurkon shop on Sargasso, she notes how there are weapons that she previously didn't had access too before.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: The last game ended with Clank taking the broken Dimensionator. Clank having finally fixed it was one of the first things revealed about the plot of Rift Apart.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Probably the most out of any installment in the series.
  • For one thing, there is now a sprint button (L3 / R1).
  • Circle is no longer an alternative fire button as it was in prior entries, as the game now has the Phantom Dash, which replaces the Long Jump from previous games. Likewise, instead of using the Swingshot with Circle, it is now performed with L1.
  • Returning from Size Matters, you can now mix and match various pieces of armor with each other. Though unlike in that game, as well as previous entries, collecting different sets of armor now adds bonuses (such as a bonus to bolts collected or reduced damage from certain enemies) instead of simply increasing your overall damage resistance á la Insomniac's own Spider-Man games.
  • While Ratchet and Clank are playable as you'd expect, you also have another new playable character in the mix - Rivet, whose gameplay is the same as Ratchet's, with the two sharing each other's progression.
  • Keeping within the game's themes, there are now bonus levels in the form of Rifts within the levels that you can come across at any given time. These usually reward you with Armor Pieces that can be collected for the above-mentioned gameplay effects.
  • The Heads-Up Display is noticeably different than it was in past entries. Your health bar is now at the top left of the screen instead of the top center while your ammo counter is on the top right instead of the top left, and your bolt counter is now at the bottom right of the screen instead of the top right. Objectives are also now displayed in below the ammo counter on the right instead of in the center of the screen.
  • For the first time in the series, you can now freely customize your control scheme to better suit your playstyle. Though this was present to some capacity in prior games (particularly in Up Your Arsenal and Deadlocked), Rift Apart is the first game in the series that grants you full customization of the control scheme much like the Devil May Cry series.
  • Skill Points are entirely absent from the game. Their role has been split between Trophies (which are given out for the same things that used to be given out for Skill Points) and Gold Bolts (which are collected to unlock the various character customizations and cheat options that Skill Points originally did).
  • There's no Forced Transformation weapon in this installment. The closest things to it are the Topiary Sprinkler, a deployable turret that temporarily covers enemies in plant growth, and the Cold Snap, which causes Harmless Freezing in a radius. However, neither one permanently transforms the target or causes them to become Action Bombs, which were staples of previous morph weapons.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Just before Ratchet and Clank's big parade, Ratchet wonders why they're getting one, since they haven't done anything heroic in years. In a meta sense, it's been five years since the re-imagining and eight since their preceding adventure, Into the Nexus.
  • The abandoned Rubicon Forge is flooded in water towards the end of the level, meaning Ratchet has to use his O2 mask - which he points out has felt like forever since he last used it.
• Left the Background Music On: When Ratchet and Clank first land on Ardolis, the song "So Happy Together" plays over the spaceship's radio. Ratchet turns it up after he finishes talking with Clank, and even Pierre hears it.
• Lightning Gun: The Lightning Rod/Lightning Strike is a rapid-fire gun that can cause enemies to spasm in place, hitting other nearby enemies with stray electricity.
• Lonely at the Top: "Join Me At The Top" is Emperor Nefarious singing about this trope to Dr Nefarious, only to retract his offer to share power with his counterpart at the end of the chorus on the grounds that Dr Nefarious isn't worthy of joining him at the top.
• Meaningful Echo: The phrase "This is the part where you lose" is uttered by both Ratchet and Rivet towards their perspective Nefariouses (Ratchet says this near the beginning after he, Clank, and Dr. Nefarious wind up in the alternate dimension, and Rivet says this just before she delivers the final blow against Emperor Nefarious).
• Meet Cute:
  • When Ratchet and Rivet finally meet, Ratchet and Rivet both get a little tongue-tied around each other, with some awkward stammering and blushing. How much of this is genuine attraction versus finally meeting another lombax face-to-face is unclear, but there's definitely something there.
  Ratchet: What's — (sees Rivet) Uhh... uhh, hey.
  Rivet: Hey! Yes, um... hi. Umm... I have Clank. (pulls Clank around off her back, and he waves happily)
  • And not to be ignored is how Clank and Kit interact with each other in that scene.
• Missed Him by That Much: Early on in the game, Ratchet manages to see Rivet run off with Clank, but the latter two don't see him and take off in a spaceship before Ratchet can catch up.
• Model Museum: The Gallery provides animated models of a vast selection of characters and enemies on a turntable, alongside chunks of descriptive text.
• Money for Nothing: Averted, in a rarity for the franchise: the game offers access to new weapons significantly faster than the player is likely to acquire bolts to purchase them until near the very end of the game. There also isn't nearly enough raritanium to fully upgrade all or even most of the weapons in a single playthrough.
• Motive Decay: Shown in-universe. As Dr. Nefarious's hatred of squishies slowly fell by the wayside, he began plotting more general forms of conquest and developed an obsession with annihilating Ratchet and Clank in particular, focusing on them as the main threat to his schemes. Emperor Nefarious, on the other hand, never suffered any such humiliating defeat, and made his galaxy a robot-dominant dictatorship where sentient organic life is either enslaved or targeted for extermination.
• The Multiverse: The theme of the entire game. As soon as Nefarious activates the Dimensionator, the titular heroes are sent across many dimensions without any idea of how they got there, including an alternate version of Sargasso inhabited by dinosaur-esque creatures, what appears to be a city similar to Haven City, a space pirate ship from an alternate Ardolis, and finally the Nefarious-ruled world of Corson V.
• Mundane Utility: One of the things that Doctor Nefarious wants to search through the archives for is lost episodes of his favorite TV shows. Emperor Nefarious, on the other hand, refuses to consider that the archives might hold anything of value other than the specific item he's looking for.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Clank, after the Dimensionator overloads and explodes, ripping the dimensions asunder and blowing off his right arm.
  Clank: I cannot help but feel... responsible for all of this.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The character bio for the sheep in the alternate dimension reveals that it is that dimensions version of Drek who was turned into a sheep by Emperor Nefarious, which was the exact fate that Nefarious gave to Drek in the 2016 reimagining.
  • Skidd wears the same outfit he did in the 2016 reimagining, and his character bio mentions the McMarx Sport Shack, the shop that he was overseeing construction of in the same game.
  • Also in relation to Skidd, he was assigned by Qwark as the Q-Force's "black ops specialist" back in Up Your Arsenal. Here his dimensional counterpart Phantom turns out to actually be a black ops specilist, acting as a spy and hacker for the Resistance.
  • Big Al's balloon in the parade has him in his attire from the 2016 game.
  • While certainly a coincidence, this isn't the first time Dr. Nefarious tried using a Interdimensional Travel Device to weaponize other dimensions to his benefit, his Mainframe Studios-counterpart having created his own device — the Portalizer — in Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie in order to open portals into the Multiverse and unleash their horrors onto his universe.
  • In a rare example of a cross-company mythology gag, Fizzie's cameo courtesy of the RYNO 8 noticeably depicts him with "OverDrive" logos taped to the sides of his head covering up the usual OverCharge ones. This hearkens back to a side quest from Sunset Overdrive where the character Floyd asserts that the game's resident MegaCorp should've named their drink "OverDrive" instead of "OverCharge."
• Never Trust a Trailer:
  • Initial trailers and most of the key art depict Clank with both of his arms, when he loses his right one after the first level.
  • Almost the entirety of the announcement trailer does not reflect the final product. Notable points include Ratchet landing on Sargasso and riding a Speetle (he isn't playable on Sargasso and only rides a Speetle on Ardolis), Ratchet and Clank being separated after the explosion on Ardolis (the two are separated after the Dimensionator explodes on Nefarious City), the statue of Emperor Nefarious in Nefarious City instead being a holographic one of Doctor Nefarious, the infamous landing shot of Rivet, and overall the dialogue implies the plot revolved around the Doc taking over the multiverse.
  • The extended gameplay demo begins at a point similar to the opening level, but has some a number of differences:
    • The duo fall out of a portal with Ratchet already having the omniglove implying the dimensional cataclysm had already begun, with dialogue all but stating the two had been thrown out of their dimension.
    • The dialogue between the two is completely different from the conversation they have in the final game, and Ratchet doesn't suggest buying a weapon from Mrs. Zurkon.
    • The entire first boss fight with Nefarious is skipped, instead having Ratchet and Clank being flung into a portal just before reaching him, which then goes back into the dimension jumping sequence from the announcement trailer.
    • In the final game before reaching the first boss fight, Ratchet and Clank have a brief interaction expressing disbelief at Nefarious' return just to try and conquer the universe again. While half of it was retained, the gameplay demo has an extended half that implies Nefarious had bigger plans than what we knew about:
    Clank: Did Dr. Nefarious really resurface after all these years just to "take over the universe" AGAIN?
    Ratchet: Yeah! I kinda wish he was doing a worse job!
    Clank: He must have more planned than he is telling us.
    Ratchet: That's what I'm afraid of.
  • The gameplay trailer shows a different (and friendlier) version of Rivet and Clank's meeting and removes Kit from Ratchet's back during the brief gameplay on Savali.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A three-fer:
  • The duo takes the time to participate in a parade despite the city being under attack, with Clank presenting the Dimensionator to Ratchet in this scenario being what allows Dr. Nefarious to come in and take it.
  • Clank, having repaired the Dimensionator after it was destroyed in Into the Nexus, in order to allow Ratchet a chance to see his people, is what leads to Nefarious's attack on Megalopolis and kick starts the events of the game.
  • In an effort to stop Nefarious from using the Dimensionator, Ratchet fires at it with his Burst Pistol, which immediately leads to the device breaking and causing a dimensional collapse.
• No Conservation of Energy: Much like Clank before her, Kit's warbot mode is about fifty times larger than her regular mode with no explanation of where all that mass comes from or goes, as Ratchet and Rivet can wear her as a backpack in regular mode.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: It's implied that beneath the pageantry and robot armies, Emperor Nefarious is no different than Dr. Nefarious, his successes being more a matter of just being in an "easier" universe than his mainstream counterpart. When we're first introduced to him, Emperor Nefarious had conquered most of the galaxy and the rebels are fighting an uphill battle against him, Captain Quantum placing a bug on him more a matter of luck than anything else. When he tries launching his campaign of conquest into Ratchet and Clank's dimension, he is surprised by how much of a fight the native heroes are able to put up with the rebel's help and loses his cool in the process.
  Emperor Nefarious: Why will they not just SUBMIT?!
  Dr. Nefarious: SEE?! THIS is why my dimension is hard to take over! It's not because of ME.
  Emperor Nefarious: That remains to be seen.
• Nostalgia Level: Quite a few. Sargasso (Outpost L51), Viceron (Zordoom Prison), and Ardolis (the Pirate Base) return from Tools of Destruction while Torren IV (Molonoth Fields) is back from A Crack in Time. Ardolis in particular retains most of its original layout, thought with the original second half being a side path and a new area being added for the main path, not unlike how Gaspar (and most levels, for that matter) was handled in the 2016 game.
• One-Man Army: Whilst this is true of both Lombaxes, who each prove capable of tearing through Nefarious' entire army individually, special mention goes to Kit, whose 'Giant Kit' warbot mode was described by Emperor Nefarious as his greatest weapon, and lives up to that reputation. This first time she transforms, she's able to single-handily push back the invading armies besieging and on the verge of overrunning the archives with minimal effort, with the only caveat being that she's terrified that her programming will cause her to turn on her allies unthinkingly when she's in 'kill mode', hence her reluctance to use it otherwise. When she transforms in front of Rivet to fight Emperor Nefarious, he recognizes her on sight, and seems intimidated by her attacking him, with the implication being that the only reason he's not immediately thrashed and obliterated there and then was Dr. Nefarious using the Dimensionator to warp Kit away before her attacks could connect. In the final battle, Kit arrives to hold off Emperor Nefarious' attempts to summon his army to fight Rivet with the Dimensionator, blasting the majority of the Mooks away by herself from the endlessly spawning portals he's creating whilst Rivet focuses on taking the Emperor down herself.
• Other Me Annoys Me:
  • Though every other character gets on fairly well with their extra-dimensional counterpart, Emperor Nefarious regards the crazed, failure-prone Dr. Nefarious as a total loser compared to himself. He first treats the Doctor as a "strange fan", then as something of a lackey he can call to heel, and finally stabs him in the back by invading Ratchet's dimension to conquer it himself.
    Emperor Nefarious: [In disbelief, looking at Ratchet and Clank] YOU are the heroes of this dimension?! [Contemptuously, to Dr. Nefarious] That is hilarious.
  • This gets inverted towards the end of the game, with Dr. Nefarious getting upset at his counterpart upstaging him and treating him like a common lackey, not to mention being generally unappreciative of his genuine advice or helpful actions, such as sucking Kit through a portal before she could flatten the Emperor. By the time of the final battle, it's clear that, on some level, he's enjoying seeing his 'better' counterpart struggling to overcome the heroes and getting a taste of the defeat that Nefarious himself has so often endured. He even gives the final blow to Emperor Nefarious in the end, kicking his hold away so he's dragged through a portal by the Kraken's tentacles after giving him an Ironic Echo.
    Dr. Nefarious: What do you know about winning?
• Overheating: This is the mechanic used by Blackhole Storm/Vortex, a minigun; keep firing it for too long and the muzzle will start glowing red and eventually the weapon will stop firing; you'll have to wait for it to cool down. The raritanium upgrades slow down heating-up and speed up cooling-down period.
• Photo Mode: Included with visibility, camera, filters, frames and pose options.
• Planet of Steves: The "Morts" on Sargasso are all named Mort. Rivet can tell which Mort is which, though.
• Point of Divergence: Emperor Nefarious was able to conquer his home dimension because Rivet and Kit didn't team up the way Ratchet and Clank did. Kit was still serving Nefarious when they first met and blasted Rivet’s arm off, prompting a crisis of conscience that Rivet used to escape and led Kit to join the Dimension Monks.
• Point of No Return: A Polite example. Towards the end the game, at Zurkie's, approaching Captain Quantam and talking to him will trigger a warning prompt saying that "this is your last chance to acquire armor and collectibles" and giving you a buttom prompt asking if you're sure you want to start the endgame.
• Prison Level: Zordoom Prison makes a return, this time being the prison where Emperor Nefarious, Dr. Nefarious' Alternate Dimension counterpart, sends his enemies. Rivet must infiltrate it so she can rescue Ratchet, Clank, and Kit. The level climaxes with a Prison Riot, with former enemies, Goons-4-Less goons and robot pirates, break out and assist the heroes from that moment on.
• Production Throwback: In addition to all of the Sunset Overdrive easter eggs, the Negatron Collider functions near-identically to the Charge Beam weapon from that game.
• Pun-Based Title: A three-fer on "Ripped Apart", "Drift Apart", and "Ripped a Fart", the last one continuing with the inappropriate Stealth Puns of previous Ratchet & Clank titles.
• Put on a Bus: Lawrence doesn't appear by Doctor Nefarious' side this time because he's said to be on paternity leave, implying that he's become a father and husband since All 4 One. The end credits confirm this, showing Lawrence and a female version of himself holding a small baby bonnet.
• Saw Blades of Death: Buzz Blades and its upgrade Doom Blades.
• Screw Yourself: This trope gets played with concerning Ratchet, Clank, and their respective female counterparts; Rivet and Kit.
  • Ratchet & Rivet: It's complicated. During their first conversation through Clank's communicator, they both simultaneously express their awe over the existence of another lombax. Then when they finally meet in person, their interactions have some shades of Meet Cute as they act nervous around each other. Although, whether there was any sexual attraction between the two is left up to interpretation. Thankfully for some fans, it doesn't culminate to a full-blown Official Couple status by game's end (for now at least) as their relationship is treated mostly as platonic or sibling-like. It's also worth noting that while Ratchet was on Savali, he would talk about how he wishes that his girlfriend Talwyn, who was not present in the game until the end credits, was there with him to appreciate the view of the Urfdah Mesa. This implies that he hasn't forgotten about her and could ​still be in a relationship with her.
  • Clank & Kit: Similar to the above, but to a far lesser extent. They only have several brief moments in the entire game; When they first look at each other, Kit curiously flicks Clank's antenna on his head and they both laugh. Then when Kit becomes Rivet's backpack, akin to Clank with Ratchet, she gives Clank a thumbs up while he fondly smiles at her. Then much later, when Gary asks Kit what she thought about Clank, she says that she's relieved that "[her] counterpart is a good guy". She even agrees with Gary's statements about him being talented, resourceful, and very shiny. Nothing else happens after that. By the end of the game, their "relationship" remains entirelly vague and it can be argued that nothing too serious was going on between them.
• Secret Handshake: Ratchet confuses Phantom installing a mod on his glove that allows him to Phantom Dash for this.
  • After Clank solves the first dimensional anomaly on Sargasso, Rivet and one of the Morts share one.
• Set Bonus: The more pieces you collect of an armor set, the greater the bonus it gives. You get the bonus just for having the set so you're free to mix and match armor pieces as you wish.
• Series Continuity Error:
  • Clank increduously asks where Dr. Nefarious got Ameboids as they begin to appear in the first boss fight, despite the fact that Up Your Arsenal revealed that Nefarious is the one who created the creatures in the first place. (This is also ignoring the fact that the obvious answer is they are from another dimension.)
  • The Captain Starshield armor set doesn't use the color scheme of the actual character from Deadlocked, and in fact better resembles the palette given to the player 1 version of Starshield's co-op skin. Even more egregiously is that none of the alternate palettes for the armor match Starshield exactly, with the closest match being the grey/blue palette (though it still has issues, turning both his grey suit and yellow fin a bright blue).
• Shout-Out: See the franchise's dedicated Shout Out page.
• Sound-Effect Bleep: Out of Clank when Ratchet encounters the undead Grunthor:
  Clank: Holy *beep*!
  Ratchet: You said it, pal!
• Spit Take: Dr. Nefarious spits his entire drink out upon hearing Emperor Nefarious stating he will be starting his dimensional conquest with Nefarious' dimension.
• Starts Stealthily, Ends Loudly: Rivet's traversal through Zordoom prison to free Ratchet, Clank, and Kit, begins with an infiltration to free them, then ends with her freeing all the prisoners locked to an all-out escape.
• Surfer Dude: The Dimension Monks and Goons-4-Less all talk like this, being alternate dimension equivalents of each other.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Mr. Fungi and Ms. Fungal replace the Zurkons as the game's new trash-talking AI drone weapons, since the Zurkon Family in Rivet's dimension is preoccupied with running their Gastropub (Zurkie himself even being an enlightened pacifist).
• Tech-Demo Game: The game is a showcase of the current gaming generation's potential. Every environment is extremely detailed, with ray-traced reflections and numerous light sources. The dimension-hopping gimmick is only possible due to the PS5's extremely fast load times; the game must dump the currently loaded area and load in the next one, all in an instant.
• Technician Versus Performer: Emperor Nefarious and Dr. Nefarious respectively. During their invasion of Sargasso, Dr. Nefarious finds his counterpart's tactics to lack the same "flair" as his more cartoonish brand of evil plans.
• Thanking the Viewer: The credits end on "Thank you for joining us on this interdimensional adventure."
• This Is a Drill: No points for guessing where Tin The Drillhound weapon got its name from.
• Ultimate Forge: In one mission Ratchet and Kit break into an imperial research facility that houses the one auto-forge in the universe capable of rebuilding the Dimensionator, and has an alternate dimensional counterpart that's abandoned and haunted by an invincible stalking monster. After Ratchet accidentally breaks the forge they have to bring the power source to the abandoned version, which turns out to be the monster.
• Understatement: Ratchet shooting the Dimensionator causes a dimensional collapse, with an immediate effect being a Troglosaur falling out of a portal and destroying the bridge in front of them. Clank states that they might have a slight problem.
• Unexplained Recovery: In the ending, Dr. Nefarious is unceremoniously squished by the remains of Emperor Nefarious' mech, but is shown perfectly fine in the credits sequence shutting down Emperor's office and fawning over Lawrence's child. Presumably, being robotic and used to getting the stuffing pummeled out of him by Ratchet and Clank, he can deal with a bit more damage than his 'better' dimensional counterpart. Notably, he's still in one piece when Rivet beats him up during her fight with him, but Emperor Nefarious is showing notable signs of damage towards the tail end of the Final Boss fight with him, showcasing that Dr. Nefarious is better equipped to handle punishment through his multiple past defeats compared to the former's no-loss record.
• Villain Song: The Nefariouses have a duet in the credits where Emperor Nefarious tries convincing his main counterpart to be his partner in crime.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Negatron Collider fires a massive laser beam that pierces through enemies, with upgrades allowing you to extend how long the laser lasts.
• Wham Line:
  • The All-Seeing Cosmic Prophet Gary and Clank have the following discussion during a meta-terminal puzzle, where Gary reveals who his father is. While it doesn't have major ramifications on the game's story specifically, it still manages to be one of these for long-time fans of the series:
  Clank: So what is in that book of yours?
  Gary: Oh, ah, the most up-to-date collection of knowledge in the universe... as catalogued by my father.
  Clank: And who is that?
  Gary: I believe you know him as the Plumber?
  • Another one for longtime fans — If you return to Zordoom after beating the level Rivet will mention that she last broke out of the prison was with Angela Cross, confirming that she is still active after not being mentioned since A Crack in Time.
• Wham Shot: The launch trailer ends with the appearance of a female Lombax as Rivet drops into the last shot. While we've seen one before in Angela Cross ^note who was then Put on a Bus, Rivet is the first one to appear after the Lombaxes being rare became a major plot point for the franchise.
  • In the game proper, late in the story Dr. Nefarious intercepts the Lombax and robot duos at Zurkie's as they're about to rebuild the Dimensionator. Rivet and Kit take on the Doctor in the arena while Ratchet and Clank deal with his Troopers. Rivet defeats him, the crowd cheering her and Kit on...and then Ratchet and Clank are tossed into the arena, clearly beaten. The camera pans over, revealing that the one who thrashed them is none other than Emperor Nefarious, making his grand entry into the plot.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The credits show what happened to the characters after the events of the game:
  • Clank gets a new arm that resembles Rivet's robot arm.
  • Nefarious turns off the lights in Emperor Nefarious's office before greeting Lawrence and his new family.
  • Gary and the Plumber look through a scrapbook together.
  • The Zurkon Family hang around a scrapyard.
  • The Goons-4-Less meditate with the Dimension Monks.
  • The Morts invite Ratchet and company to a picnic.
  • Emperor Nefarious's robot assistant escapes capture by Phantom and Mama Zurkon.
  • Pierre and his crew play with Bubbles, the octopus monster that Pierre was nearly fed to.
  • Ratchet and Clank reunite with Talwyn Apogee and tell her of their latest adventure.
  • The Fixer helps rebuild the Pocket Dimensions.
  • Qwark and Quantum strike poses in front of a statue of Qwark.
  • Rivet and Kit go through the Emperor's music collection.
• With Catlike Tread: Ratchet and Mrs. Zurkon talk about the resistance against Emperor Nefarious, loudly and completely out in the open. Mrs. Zurkon admits she's new to the whole "espionage" thing.
• World-Healing Wave: After defeating Emperor Nefarious and reclaiming the Dimensionator, Clank uses the device to seal all the rampant dimensional rips across the multiverse.
• You Are Not Alone: A simultaneous realization (though still a few sectors apart physically at that exact moment) after Clank makes contact with Ratchet, and he and Rivet end up briefly speaking to each other:
  Ratchet and Rivet: Whoa! Another Lombax!

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