Pet Roach

Pet Roach is a character which appears at the Sanatorium era of the spin-off universe. An important factor to note is that Pet Roach doesn't refer to a certain roach in particular, but any roaches which are obtained from the Sanatorium location at any given point by any given character.

Appearance
Pet Roaches appear as any regular cockroach, with their brown exoskeleton, antennae and six legs. Their size is variable, but nothing else is notable about this type of character.

Personality
Pet Roaches are docile omnivorous creatures, which do not attack and only wander around in either groups or alone to scavenge for food. They are willing to be adopted as a pet by any character as long as they are fed from time to time.

Their scavenger behaviour also explains the locations they frequent, as roaches hotspots include bathrooms, kitchens and pantries within the poorly sterilzed sanatorium.

Other Roaches
Pet Roaches will acknowledge other roaches only for the reasons of seeking food in packs or reproduction, but other than those reasons, they have no reason to interact within the sanatorium.

Human Characters
Any human character can interact with a roach and adopt it and have it as their pet roach, either to keep as a pet or to consume as an emergency food source.

Story Events
They play a minor role in the storyline, as they exist within the sanatorium only due to the outdoor being barren and hostile. Keeping a pet roach can help characters to cope if their sanity is low beyond a certain threshold, but if their sanity is not below the threshold, pet roaches will deplete their sanity faster, which makes them a better late game ally for less sane runs. Consuming a roach lowers sanity and health, but increases hunger, which is good as an emergency food item but it will trigger a cooldown in which roaches will hide away from the character in fear of being eaten.

Due to their usefulness within a desperate and barren environment, roaches can be held or offered for alliances, friendship or aiding someone in dire need of food, making them a worthwhile item to obtain mid-to-late game.