The Perks of Being A Raccoon | The Procyonid Tier List

In my posts about Outside so far, I’ve never gotten the chance to talk about my own main. So today I’m going to analyze the raccoon build and the advantages that led me to maining it, as well as the disadvantages that have held me and other raccoon mains back. But instead of discussing just the one build, I thought I’d also briefly rank the rest of the procyonid guild. I won’t be giving away any guild secrets, but I’ll try to do the best explanation I can while only talking about the info publicly available.

Compared to most of the guilds I’ve discussed in previous posts, procyonids are a relatively recent addition to Outside’s meta, only having been added to the game in the Miocene expansion around 20 million years ago. The first procyonid builds were created by a group of tropical mustelid players who didn’t like the stress and difficulty of playing a hunter, so they decided to switch to a more generalist playstyle. Since they no longer needed the blade-like carnassial teeth which mustelids and other carnivorans use to shear flesh, they took points out of this trait and reallocated them towards unlocking stronger climbing abilities, including the ability to rotate their ankles more than 180 degrees in order to climb down trees headfirst. Climbing abilities are great for small generalists because many of the game’s most valuable loot types, like bird eggs, fruits, and nuts, are most readily accessible in the treetops. Trees also provide procyonids with a vital refuge against many of their biggest threats. A number of the game’s deadliest predators, like crocodiles, canids and constrictors, either can’t climb trees at all or can’t do so well enough to hunt mobile prey in the arboreal zones. Felids and birds of prey are still threats to watch out for, though. Most procyonids have also specced into a nocturnal playstyle, which has been a common strategy for small generalist mammals ever since they first debuted way back in the Mesozoic. In earlier expansions, some procyonid mains specced into massive omnivorous tank builds similar to a bear, but nowadays they stick to playing smaller, stealthier generalist builds more akin to a rat or fox.

There are a few types of procyonids. Most of this post will be talking about raccoons, since they’re the most popular type as well as my main, but first I’d like to do a quick rundown on the other builds in the guild.

In F tier, we have nothing. There are no procyonid builds I would consider bottom tier because all of them stick too closely to the solid base design. There are no procyonid builds that completely waste the guild’s advantages, nor do any of them have crippling drawbacks rendering them useless in the meta. All of them are at least somewhat viable within their servers.

That said, some procyonids are still better than others. In D tier, we have the worst procyonid build in the current game, the pygmy raccoon. Pygmy raccoon players diverged from the main raccoon build after their home island, Cozumel, split off from the mainland of South America. Although they retain most of the common raccoon’s traits, they’ve specced into a much smaller build since the absence of native predators means they have less need for the benefits of larger size. They also aren’t as adaptable as raccoons due to their more restrictive diet. Even though pygmy raccoons can eat many of the same things regular raccoons eat, they rely mostly on hunting crabs and avoid playing in areas without a sizable crab playerbase. While pygmy raccoons are among the dominant predators of the northwest coast of Cozumel Island, the fact that they’re restricted to this tiny area puts them in a precarious position which prevents them from rising above their low-tier placement.

In C tier, we have the olingo. This is the only strictly arboreal procyonid and mostly eats fruit. It’s a pretty average build in most regards, but it does have the ability to spray noxious scents from its anus when threatened. The smallest procyonid build in the game, the olinguito, is a subclass of olingo. Beyond that, there’s not much noteworthy about them.

In B tier, we have the kinkajou. This build is pretty similar to the olingo, with much the same stats, but trades away the scent glands in exchange for larger size, a prehensile tail like a monkey, and a five-inch long extendable tongue for licking nectar from flowers. I consider the kinkajou to be an overall upgrade to the olingo, as demonstrated by its larger playerbase, wider range, and the fact that even juvenile kinkajous tend to easily dominate over full-grown olingos in areas where the two compete. Both of these classes are somewhat limited in versatility due to their dependence on tropical forests, which keeps them out of the top tiers.

Also in B tier we have the crab-eating raccoon. As the name suggests, this is the best procyonid for hunting crabs and other shellfish. Crab-eating raccoons are a bit smaller than actual raccoons, and have spent their evolution points on larger cheek teeth with broader, rounded cusps to help break through crab shells. This build is highly effective when playing in areas surrounding a river or lake, but its dependence on being near large bodies of freshwater prevents it from being as adaptable as the true raccoon build.

At the top of B tier, we have the ring-tailed cat. Despite its name and its retractable claws, this build is in fact a procyonid, not a cat. While all procyonids are omnivorous, ring-tailed cats are the closest to being pure carnivores, feeding mainly on small vertebrates during the winter and a mixture of insects and fruit the rest of the year. Much like actual cats, the ringtail can be used as a support by humans to eliminate rodent players who encroach on the human’s territory, but this strategy has fallen out of favour nowadays. When threatened, ringtails emit a noxious odor and make a high-pitched shriek to frighten away predators. In addition to their combat potential, ringtails have excellent dehydration resistance due to being able to survive for long periods on just the moisture from food. Like raccoons, ring-tailed cats are adaptable enough to thrive alongside humans in cities, having become a notorious pest in Austin, Texas.

In A tier, we have the coati. Coatis are one of the largest procyonids, reaching up to 10 kg. With their sharp teeth and claws, coatis can fight fiercely when they need to and may even be able to hunt relatively large animals like monkeys and pygmy deer. Their strong limbs and sharp claws also make them excellent diggers. The most unusual aspect of the coati is its long, flexible snout, similar to that of a pig, which gives it an excellent sense of smell and can be used to push small objects. Out of all the procyonids, coatis are the most cooperative, with coati teams participating in social behaviours such as grooming each other, nursing each other’s young and helping each other to keep watch for predators. That coatis are one of the highest-ranking procyonids is demonstrated by their wide range, which stretches from the southwestern US to Uruguay and includes a wide variety of habitats. The one weakness they have, compared to other procyonids, is that they’ve abandoned the nocturnal playstyle for a diurnal one. Not only can procyonids not see very well in the daytime, but this makes it harder to avoid humans since they don’t have the advantage of being most active when the humans are AFK. However, this seems to be a fairly minor problem as coatis do much better at adapting to human-created cities than any other procyonid besides the raccoon. Their sociality comes in handy here, as urban coatis will often form teams to gang up on unsuspecting humans and steal their loot.

But at the end of the day, there’s really only one build people think about when they talk about the success of procyonids. The raccoon is far and away the most popular, most iconic, most successful and overall best build in the procyonid guild, and for the rest of this post, I’m going to talk about why.

The trait which raccoons are probably best known for is having one of the highest intelligence ratings in the entire game. Raccoons have long been known for their instinctual cunning and curiosity, which grants them remarkable problem-solving abilities. This is reflected in their high neuron density: raccoons have a brain roughly the size of a cat’s, but with as many neurons as a large dog. This density is well above that of most mammals and on par with monkeys. Raccoons are so intelligent that they sometimes “fail” problem-solving tests by coming up with solutions that even the test’s designers couldn’t think of. I’ve talked before about how OP the combination of high intelligence and high dexterity is, so it’s worth noting that raccoons also have one of the best dexterity ratings. Unlike most carnivorans, raccoons have no webbing between their fingers. This lets them bring together their “pinky” and “thumb” across the middle of their palm, giving them an extraordinary ability to grasp and manipulate objects. This is part of why they are one of the most difficult builds for humans to hide loot from, as they can easily unscrew lids, open locks and untie knots to get at food. Raccoons don’t have fully opposable thumbs, so they can’t manipulate objects to quite the same degree as primates, but they come closer than almost any other animal.

One area where raccoons often get underestimated is in their mobility. In terms of raw speed, raccoons are only mediocre due to their short legs making it difficult for them to run quickly. But what they lack in speed, they make up for in versatility, having access to nearly every movement option available in the game. Like all procyonids, raccoons are excellent climbers. Their climbing skills are easily transferred from trees to man-made structures like buildings, a trait which comes in handy when exploring the city biome. One raccoon main in the Minnesota server even managed to scale a 25-story skyscraper. Raccoons are also good swimmers, and in fact they tend to hunt most effectively when in the water, which is why the areas with the largest raccoon playerbases tend to be near large bodies of water. Because so much of their apparent size comes from their thick fur coat, raccoons are nearly as good as cats at crawling through spaces seemingly smaller than themselves. Their low centre of gravity gives them an astonishing pushing strength for their weight class, letting them easily knock down obstacles many times their own size to access blocked-off areas. The upshot of this is that aside from deep underwater, there is almost nowhere you can hide loot where raccoon players can’t get to it. Their versatility in movement is matched by versatile feeding: the raccoon is one of the most omnivorous builds that the game has ever seen. While all procyonids are omnivores, most of them have a preference for certain loot types and have difficulty surviving in biomes where these types are inaccessible. Not so for raccoons, who are famous for their willingness and ability to eat pretty much anything you put in front of them. Raccoons are equally comfortable subsisting off of fish, insects, shellfish, eggs, fruit, nuts, or even garbage. This is one of many reasons why raccoons can live in just about any biome so long as there are structures they can climb.

Of course being able to get to loot is only useful if you have the skills to locate it. The raccoon’s intelligence is helpful here, but so are its strong senses. Raccoons can’t see very well, but they make up for it in other areas, particularly their sense of touch. Almost ¾  of the sensory area in a raccoon’s brain is devoted to touch, and their paws have nearly five times more sensory neurons than those of most mammals, making them so hyper-sensitive to tactile impulses that they can effectively see in the dark at short distances. Of course touch is somewhat limited in range, so to detect objects from a distance they rely more on their keen senses of smell and hearing.

As I’ve discussed before, small generalist players can often get away with using attack power as a dump stat, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be a significant advantage for those who spec into it. Raccoons are the largest of all current procyonid builds, and consequently the most powerful. Their claws and teeth are strong enough to kill a cat and severely maul a dog. They also have a fairly decent defence stat due to their dense fur, which offers protection against both bites and cold weather. It’s perhaps because of this well-rounded combat capacity that despite coexisting with bears, big cats, alligators, eagles, wolves and/or coyotes depending on the areas they play in, only a very small proportion of raccoon players in most regions get killed by predators.

In many respects, raccoons are one of the most successful mammal builds in the current meta. Originating in North American forests, raccoons have since found ways to thrive in mountains, marshes, and cities throughout North and Central America from Canada to Panama, then successfully invaded most of Europe as well as Japan, Russia, and Uzbekistan. And despite humans heavily hunting them in many areas, and even wiping them out in places like Barbados, the raccoon is one of the few midweight mammals that has actually become more common and widespread as humans have taken over the meta. Yet in spite of all this, a lot of individual raccoon players don’t seem to be benefiting from the build’s strengths. Raccoons have a maximum game time of 16 years, but the average raccoon player only manages to make it about 2 or 3 years. The main causes of these deaths are hunting and car accidents, while natural deaths are mainly due to distemper. Why such poor performance for a build with such a strong set of abilities?

I think the answer can be found by comparing the raccoon to another build which pursues a similar strategy in a way I would consider more effective. Monkeys are one of the most successful build types in the game, and most of the traits which allow them to be so successful are also present in raccoons. Raccoons share monkeys’ intelligence, dexterity, climbing ability and omnivory. Monkeys are faster on the ground and in the trees and have better eyesight than raccoons, but raccoons are better swimmers, better diggers, better fighters (at least by the standards of their weight class), and have a better sense of smell. If you just look at their individual abilities, you might think raccoons would be as good as monkeys if not better, but there’s one extremely important benefit monkeys have that raccoons don’t: heavy investment into social structure. Builds that rely on intelligence, almost by definition, have complex and hard-to-learn styles of gameplay, which is a barrier for new players. As a result, almost all intelligence-based builds rely to some extent on having veteran players teach the newbies the basics of gameplay. Raccoons do this a bit, as new players get to spend some time learning the basics from their mother, but it’s pretty minimal compared to other mammals. Monkeys go much further, living in large and complex social groups, so that when one player finds a useful technique, all the members of their team can benefit from it. Raccoons, being mostly solitary, don’t get this opportunity and are forced to come up with all their tricks themselves. This makes them a much riskier pick with a high skill ceiling but a low skill floor. Despite this limitation, I would still consider raccoons to be at the top of A tier, but if we invested more into sociality, I think we could easily make it to S tier.