Ratchet and Clank is a game series well known for its weapons, but another aspect that often gets tons of praise is the different planets you get to explore and discover throughout your journey. Fortunately, nothing has changed on that end in Rift Apart, which has many incredible locations to dig into and enjoy.
There are nine total planets in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, all serving a vastly different purpose than one another and varying in size. Some maps are gigantic and have many story-heavy missions, causing them to spend a lot of time in them and even revisit them later.
In comparison, other planets are tiny and are there for one specific thing, which can be interesting in its own right. However, no matter the planet's size, there is a hefty variety present in Rift Apart and its nine planets.
9 Scarstu Debris Field - A Scrappy Spot
While the Scarstu Debris Field isn't necessarily a bad planet, it lacks what every other planet has in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, depth and mystery.
The Scarstu Debris Field is home to the Zurkie Bar and a fighting arena and doesn't offer much past that. It's cool to see all the different alien races gather in one spot, but the planet itself is small and one-note.
8 Carson V - A Hollow Giant
Carson V is the first planet players get to explore in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and is appropriately called "Nefarious City," fit with a giant, golden Nefarious statue erected in the middle of the city.
While Nefarious City is an incredibly dense location, what makes it fall behind others is how minuscule it feels in the grand scheme of things, which it shouldn't due to the game's plot. You will come to Carson V once and then never again unless you choose to do some Collectible hunting, which is a bummer considering how much potential this city has.
7 Blizar Prime - Collectible Central
The planet of Blizar Prime is one of the more unique ones in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and has a fascinating mechanic that allows the player to switch between a mine being desolate and restored/operational.
Blizar Prime is one of the better planets in Rift Apart but lacks any sort of staying power in terms of what you do in the mines or its story. There is also no real reason to revisit the planet besides going for every Collectible or maybe a side-quest.
6 Cordelion - Unique Implications
In a similar vein to Blizar Prime, Cordelion also houses a unique mechanic but does it better in many ways when compared. Cordelion is where things start to ramp up in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and takes stuff from being crazy to pure chaos.
In Cordelion, players will switch from a fully functional Station to one that is abandoned and snow-covered. However, the further player's progress, the more they discover things aren't quite as they seem. The Kedaro Station flips Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart on its head in a fun-horror type of way. We dare not go into more details to avoid spoilers, but this planet has one of the best sequences in the game.
5 Sargasso - Like The Sea?
Sargasso, at first, seems like a very straightforward swamp planet with a few fun systems at play to take advantage of the dirty, often poisonous, waters. However, Sargasso shines bright when the player revisits it towards the end of the game.
Home to one of the main protagonists of the game, Rivet, Sargasso is a planet that naturally gets a lot of focus with many story beats that range from emotional to adrenaline-pumping action. Additionally, the swamps don't tell the entire story, and Sargasso is quite beautiful, especially at the later points in the game.
4 Savali - Great For The Story
Savali serves one of the best experiences in the early and late-game of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. With its roaming, huge crab-like archives to its spooky underground section, Savali offers a breadth of variety.
Savali is an essential planet in Rift Apart and undoubtedly amongst the most fun to play on. While not the prettiest planest by any stretch, what Savali offers in its story moments and gameplay make it amongst the best in the game.
3 Torren IV - Nonstop Absurdity
Housing a big gulch, with an even more enormous robot that repairs broken things, is the planet of Torren IV. Each moment spent on this planet is crazier than the last, and it seemingly never ends, but in the best way possible.
Typically, a map of this scale with only one story mission will be towards the bottom of the list, but the action and story moments on Torren IV are out of control and keep escalating. If it already isn't ridiculous that a towering robot would spend its days repairing items, flying robot pirates invade the planet, battling Rivet on floating islands. It is absurd, but the good kind of absurd, the kind that Ratchet and Clank's foundation was built on.
2 Viceron - The Boss Level™
Viceron is the final planet in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and delivers everything a final stage should be in a game. Viceron holds an enormous prison, isolated above water, where Nefarious keeps anyone who dared to speak out against him prisoner.
The planet of Viceron, despite taking place in a prison, is stunning to look at with its gorgeous reddish-pink skies and illuminating lights contrasting it. The events that transpire on this planet are unreal and will leave the player ecstatic. Viceron is an incredible planet, with even more astonishing story moments, encounters, and sequences.
1 Ardolis - Beautiful And Action-packed
Ardolis is the home planet of the Pirates mentioned earlier and is the best in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Since Ardolis is the second to last planet you discover, you just know you're going to be in for a treat, and it delivers on everything.
Ardolis' atmosphere, story sequences, and boss encounters are all masterclass. There is not a single dull moment on the planet of Ardolis, and it looks incredible to go along with it. There are also pirate riddles to solve and, perhaps, a familiar face that shows up. All of it is incredible and makes Ardolis the best planet in Rift Apart.