I yawn as I stretch my limbs out, one after the other, and toss a token glance of appreciation to the busker. He doesn’t seem to notice, though. He’s playing the guitar, rapt by the movement of his metallic fingers over the worn frets. Musical notes he’d long forgotten are spilling out into the nighttime air, and nobody knows how to react. Some pause momentarily, awkwardly pulling their puffer jackets about their shoulders that much tighter. It’s a useless, practiced habit, like how others reach beneath their hats to scratch at nonexistent itches.

Unbothered, I leap up onto the awning above the busker’s head. That air conditioning unit opposite looks particularly inviting, its thin rattle promising a cozy nap spot. Another nap sounds good right about now. Why rush? I’m just a cat. I have all the time in the world.

Land after time 

Stray was 2022’s viral hit. The 3D platformer where you play a small cat wearing a backpack, exploring a world of grimy side streets, market stalls, and robots drew in cooing millennials who remember the Can I Haz Cheezburger days with a strange mix of fondness and cringe. Even Gen Z kids fell in love with the ginger tabby cat, the feline version of the everyman that even our favorite four-legged friends can enjoy. 

But beneath the soft fur, the dedicated meow button, and some ethically-questionable combat sequences, Stray’s world is a sobering picture of what the future might look like if we aren’t too careful with our present.

In Stray, humanity is a distant memory, and the machines we’ve built have outlived us. The cat is both a passive bystander and unwilling catalyst, mildly observing this artificial world that humanity built but couldn’t maintain. In many ways, Stray’s walled city itself is the real main character.

Stray’s claustrophobic landscape is based on a very real place: Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, a virtually lawless city within a city that ignored the rules of the world around it and operated on its own terms. Unlicensed dentists ran practices out of tiny rooms, built into the back of restaurants, and clothes factories would be squashed in between homes and schools. The Walled City was a world unto its own.

In Stray, the walled city is humanity’s last-ditch effort to survive an unexplained plague or epidemic that wiped out the world. Humans cemented themselves and their robot companions into this bunker, shutting out the rest of civilization in the hopes that by doing so they might preserve what they had left.

As you explore the nooks and crannies of the Stray’s slums, you can see just how little there was to protect in the first place. Robots parade the streets in loud 90s garb, from bucket hats to hi-top sneakers. They lounge in pubs where the glasses remain empty, but that doesn’t stop a diligent bartender bot from dutifully dusting each one. Language has evolved, too, with graffiti in neither Cantonese nor English found in forgotten spots of this once-crammed haven that now feels like a graveyard. With no humans left to create and progress the world further, Stray shows us how those we leave behind might mourn our passing by simply replaying our greatest hits.

Redemption arc

There is a pervasive push and pull between the organic and synthetic in Stray. Amid the smattering of monitor-headed robots and strobing neon lights beats a very real heart, one belonging to our purring protagonist – who would probably, let’s face it, much rather be asleep on that air conditioner.

But as the cat prowls the streets searching for a way home, it takes him to one surprisingly verdant oasis: a junkyard. Zbaltazar’s junkyard is the only place in Stray where we interact with actual, growing life other than our little cat friend and some potted, supposedly plastic plants. Trees twist around a shanty town built on the detritus of humans, a stark sign of life in a world otherwise bereft of it. The irony of this land of plenty springing forth from a place humans clearly used as a dumping ground is not to be overlooked. Stray suggests that there is hope for our redemption yet, that something can still come of our past even in this dystopic rendition of our future. How trees can grow without sunlight is beyond me, but it shows that the robots have adopted a sense of nurturing that we might not expect from beings made of metal and machinery. 

When we’re all gone, what or who will be left to remember us, and will our legacy even be worth remembering? Love, loss, and life will carry on even after the final humans breathes their last. As the cement skies creak open and usher in the sunlight, this ambivalent ginger tabby cat is a credit, at least, to that.

• Love a good open-world adventure? Here are the best RPGs ever to try out.

Stray launched on PC alongside PlayStation consoles just a couple of weeks ago. This means there are already countless mods out there waiting for you to install them. To help narrow down your options, we've rounded up some of our favorites for you.

Of course, first things first: you need to know how to install Stray mods. Happily, it's a fairly straightforward process. Once you've got to grips with that, the world of Stray mods is your oyster. Or something more cat appropriate, like a juicy dead mouse. 

There are tons to peruse, from putting your own cat in the game, or swapping it out for Spyro, to playing splitscreen multiplayer. Some Stray mods are verging on outright creepy, so of course, we've included those.

Before you start tinkering, you might want to double-check where to find the Stray save file location on your PC. Once you've readied yourself, dive into the list of mods below and enjoy the benefits of playing Stray on PC. 

If you're on PS4 or PS5, you may be missing out on mods, but there's a PS Plus trick that'll let you play Stray for free that you should take advantage of if you can.

Stray mods: best community mods

First-person POV

This Stray first-person POV mod by Jessica Natalia does exactly what it says on the tin. And it even gets a whole trailer to give you a taster before you download it. It'll make the game more immersive, that's for sure. 

Of course, it might be a bit jarring, operating at cat-level and the switch up in POV. Especially when it comes to platforming gameplay. But as Stray developer BlueTwelve revealed, "all the jumps are going to work and you cannot fall in the game." Otherwise, where's the fun in playing as a cat?    

CJ from GTA: San Andreas

Yep, you read that right. You can turn the cat from Stray into CJ from GTA: San Andreas. Why you'd want to do that are your reasons and your reasons alone. I don't think we need – or want – to dig any deeper. But it's possible, thanks to Sirgalahad172 over on Nexus Mods.

The Stray CJ mod page does state that this is "intended as a joke as CJ needs to be modded into any game that exists." And we applaud someone taking on that responsibility, regardless of how creepy the outcome. We're still waiting on that Stray Thomas the Tank Engine mod...

Pick of the Litter

There are a bunch of mods that let you swap out Stray's ginger protagonist for a cat of a different color or breed. Pick of the litter is one of them, and currently includes hand-painted alternative textures for black, white, brindle, grey, ghost tabby, and tuxedo cats, as well as a brown point Siamese.

Of course, you can browse pages of mods for individual traits, but creator SpaceD0lphin's says their all-encompassing mod is for your convenience. The page says they'll be adding more variants in the future, and people in the comments are taking the opportunity to make specific requests based on their own cats. So if you're struggling to find one that perfectly captures your feline friend's likeness, you can always ask as well.   

Garfield

Stray's cat is transformed into the lasagna-loving, sarcasm-spewing Garfield courtesy of Chris Rubino on Nexus Mods.

This iteration of the mod is dubbed the 'cartoon edition'. Chris says they're working on a high-res 'movie edition', but it'll be very GPU-intensive. While we wait for that, Garfield fans will be ecstatic to discover that the character's "adult voice-over" has been added; but it comes with a warning to avoid it if you have young kids. 

What could be so egregious – aside from his attitude and nonstop pithy comments? Chris lists "funny adult talks" and fart sounds, to name a few. His signature "lazy meow" is another optional extra you can opt to try out if you want to commit to the bit.

Happy Puppy

Like cats, but you're more of a dog person? Chris Rubino is swooping to the rescue with yet another mod, just for you. Dubbed 'happy puppy', the mod swaps out Stray's cat for (what I'm almost certain is) a French bulldog. And I have to say, it looks incredibly adorable with its little backpack on.

A pinned post suggests Chris hasn't gotten around to switching out the meows for barks. But they're probably too busy mediating the comments section, which has devolved into cat people and dog people going to war. Because this is the internet, after all.

If French bulldogs aren't your cup of tea, there's a Disney's Bolt mod that turns the cat into the titular Bolt. It's not been slapped with a cease and desist yet, so enjoy that one while you can.

Decipher Stray's Language

Some people out there might like the idea of decoding Stray's android language now that the code has largely been cracked. But others would rather skip the fuss and have the translations appear in-game, as if by magic. And that's just what this Latin alphabet mod claims to do.

"This mod replaces the seemingly unreadable characters in the game with Latin characters," reads the description. One poster doesn't seem to have had success, while the other appears to have had a smooth enough experience. 

Obviously, the mod will only swap out the font in chapter titles and the like. But you can translate in-game assets like graffiti etc using the original font file, as mod creator awberry points out. 

PC gamers are spoiled for choice when it comes to Stray mods, but there are a couple we haven't included that are worth highlighting. This Jason mod replaces meows with Heavy Rain's infamous "Jason!". A Sean mod has yet to appear, but it's only a matter of time. 

The Minecraft pig mod gets an honorable mention. And if you'd prefer your cat to be au naturel, the invisible backpack and drone mod strips away all accouterments. They're still there, they're just toggled off. 

Stray's cat is also popping up outside of its own game. This Stray Doom mod turns Doomguy into a butt-kicking cat, for example.  

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Spyro has come to the dingy neon streets of Stray in a new mod that turns the feline adventure into a serpent’s sojourn.

While Stray’s silent cat has leaped into Doom, a significantly scalier creature has come to replace it. The pithily named Spyro the Dragon mod swaps Stray’s furry hero with the classic purple mascot.

The mod lets you play as Spyro and replaces every other cat you encounter in the game with another dragon of a different color or pattern. Using the Spyro character model from 2018’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy, the dragon’s hi-res textures make it fit right in with Stray's stranger-than-fiction city.

While it may seem unfair that only PC players get the craziest content thanks to a community churning out Stray mods, PS5 or PS4 owners have their own benefits. Right now, they can play Stray for free with this neat trick.

Swooping in

Spyro fits the role surprisingly well. Despite being a fire-breathing dragon, he’s a similar size to Stray’s tabby, letting him slot right into the cyberpunk world without too much discrepancy. It also helps that he’s a pretty friendly fella, and rivals even the most cuddly cat for cuteness.

With no official Spyro game announced to be in development, fans of the 3D platformer might have to make do with this mod for the time being. Stray’s single-button jumping can’t rival the fluid aerial platforming of the original series, although it's arguably at its best when you're doing nothing at all. Even Insomniac, the original dev studio behind Spyro, is on board, tweeting support for the mod.

Creator CelticDragon85 says they’re also keen to see Stray’s cat replaced with Pokémon’s Eevee or Mew, so look out for more fury imposters making their way to the game. If only someone could combine these skins with the Stray splitscreen multiplayer mod, we’d be all set. 

As for how to insert Spyro in your own game, learn how to install Stray mods with our handy guide. You’ll be splicing dragons into BlueTwelve’s adventure game in no time.

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When video game makers and virtual worldbuilders consider this moment in history, the era’s defining slogan might realistically be: “see the world through the eyes of a cat”. But what is it about Stray and the notion of controlling its feline star that has proved so captivating?

The internet was, of course, essentially invented for cat photos and videos and it seems only fitting that a tsunami of Stray memes, mods and associated content for the game, ultimately, bring about its downfall. But there’s something special, strangely other, and notably uncanny about navigating this unnamed ginger tabby through the latest dystopic cyberpunk landscape – part Kowloon Walled City, part Blade Runner – to appear on consoles.

Stray was seven years in the making and created by a team based in Montpellier, France. Producer, Swann Martin-Raget, says that by far the biggest obstacle during this time came in delivering a believable, tangible version of a cat to screens.

“It's so important and a choice we made extremely early in the project to move away from the classic platforming challenge,” says Martin-Raget. “In platform games, when you have to measure the size and depth of a jump, you always have misses and close calls. This is definitely not the fantasy we have of how a cat moves around.”

Paws for thought

Cats, as we all know, are very precise. “Obviously, there are tons of videos of them failing but in general they are such subtle and agile animals,” says Martin-Raget. “We really wanted to have this feeling of freedom – but precision too, and agility – to make it super smooth and enjoyable to play. We came up with this compromise where all the jumps are going to work and you cannot fall in the game, while still having the entire freedom of feeling like a cat. That was a very early intention of the project and it was challenging to make but we think the fantasy of the cat is respected.” 

The compact team at BlueTwelve Studio seem to live and breathe cats. Martin-Raget estimates that 80% of the people working on Stray have them as pets and there are two – Oscar and Jun – inhabiting their workplace virtually 24/7. Observing the style and nuances of cat behavior has been fundamental to the game’s credibility and authenticity. 

“We say jokingly that cats are fluid and that's very close to the reality,” says Martin-Raget. “It really looks like they don't have a skeleton and there is so much flexibility. All the details are important: the subtle movement of the tail, the ears, the whiskers, the eyes. Everything plays a part.”

As cat owners, the Stray team are acutely aware of what feels ‘right’. “We do develop an eye to instantly catch any animation that is off or a sound that’s a bit weird because we are living among cats and have them in the office,” says Martin-Raget. “Being really immersed in the lives of those animals was extremely important while trying to make a normal cat. It doesn't have any superpowers. There's no double jump. Trying to aim for that in the most precise manner was incredibly challenging.”

Like Robert DeNiro prepping for Raging Bull or Jeremy Strong for Succession, Stray’s cat animator Miko took it upon himself to get under the fur of his creation. “He collected tons of references,” says Martin-Raget. “At one point, Miko said he was probably the most knowledgeable person around when it came to YouTube cat videos. He got really deep into the character.”

Feline fiction

Martin-Raget is keen to emphasize that no motion capture technology was used in the process of making Stray. Instead, Miko relied entirely on more traditional keyframe techniques. While this allowed complete freedom to imagine how the animal would act – and also sidestepped the surely impossible task of using a clapperboard to direct a cat – it presented additional problems to solve. “We have very specific situations in the game that obviously no cat would ever do,” says Martin-Raget, “and had to extrapolate sometimes on our knowledge based on their behavior in certain [other] situations.”

Playing as a cat that so convincingly replicates its real-world counterpart is hypnotic and compelling – but it’s not immediately obvious why. What is it about the idea of becoming another species that fascinates us? 

The last century of wider culture is populated by comparable examples, where the opportunity to experience life through very different eyes has been depicted. Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, Roald Dahl’s The Witches, and Will Self’s Great Apes are books that find humans becoming insects, mice, and monkeys respectively. In cinema, the horror genre has been a notable exponent of some grotesque, blackly humorous transformations – as in The Fly, and American Werewolf In London. Meanwhile, animated films such as Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, and Pixar’s recent Turning Red highlight the otherworldly, often perturbing consequences that accompany such a change. 

But video games present something none of these can offer: the agency to control rather than observe what happens when we transform from man to beast. While Konami’s 1981 Frogger rather lacked the elasticated thrill suggested by its premise, within a decade the human obsession with dolphins had inspired Ecco the Dolphin, a hit series on the Sega Mega Drive. More recently, games like Shelter, Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game have offered vehicles for audiences to take a more – or less – serious approach to the experience of inhabiting an animal body.

Untapped potential

In a recent edition of her newsletter, Pushing Buttons, gaming writer Keza MacDonald sought to frame what these opportunities bring to virtual spaces. “Animals have long been used as symbolism in literature and cinema, often representing the wild and untamed, the paradoxical innocence and danger of nature,” she wrote. “There’s untapped potential here in games, where animals are more often antagonists to be killed or trophies to be hunted.”

MacDonald suggested that “playing a game from the perspective of an animal is a totally different way to interact with game worlds”. And they can be utterly different from each other: take an irascible, honking and hilarious goose, compared to BlueTwelve’s questing, sometimes languorous and lazy cat. These distinct personalities lend themselves to brand new kinds of mechanics. 

“The project started long ago and at that time we basically had no references to work with in terms of gameplay,” says Martin-Raget. “In some ways, it was like a R&D project. We had to explore, especially with the controls, how it felt to play a cat and how the animation worked.”

Nailing down the basic movements took months in itself. “It was definitely the hardest feature to add to the game and we’ve been tweaking endlessly subtle animations and jumps,” says Martin-Raget, “trying to have a good compromise between animations that look real and are believable but also are smooth and enjoyable.”

The adoring public response has been “surreal” and “unbelievable”. The studio has quickly become accustomed not only to the legions of actual cats mesmerized by Stray in action, but also owners developing mods to put their own pets in the game. 

“It's really positive, especially seeing real cats and real animals reacting to the game,” says Martin-Raget. “That is a very strange feeling. It happened in the studio with the office cats during development as we started to add sounds or specific animations. It was a very important moment because it confirmed we were going in the right direction.”

In one of the final chapters of Stray, Clementine requires a surprising amount of legwork to track down. Thankfully, despite the police quartering off her apartment, she's left you a trail leading to a specific Midtown hangout: the nightclub.

In order to find the all-important robot Clementine, you’ll need to make your way into the nightclub. This can be tricky enough as an android - let alone as a small ginger cat, as you may have learned if you tried to enter the club earlier on in the story. 

While Stray’s fluffy protagonist does spend a great deal of time getting into places where cats shouldn’t be. Whether it's finding energy drinks or safe codes, this time there's going to be a bit more of a challenge. The bouncer outside will not help you, proving just as intractable as Stray's cryptic language. 

This means it’s up to you to use every ounce of your feline wit to find your way into the club - and we’re here to help you not to waste your nine lives doing so.

Stray Clementine: how to track her down

Stray Clementine: how to get into the nightclub

You'll need to ignore the front door to get into the club. 

First, you'll need to interact with all the Robots outside to gain vital information. 

You'll need to talk to every Robot since the interactions cause another robot, Latekila, to make his way to the roof. 

Next, follow the narrow alleyway next to the club, near the front entrance, where you meet the Bouncer. 

Head down the alleyway. Keep your eyes peeled and look towards the roof. You should see a Robot on the roof swinging his legs. Make your way up to him by taking advantage of the nearby pipes to jump towards this robot. 

You'll bump into Alex, who will be near an open window on the way. He'll then invite you inside, where you can jump through the window and enter the nightclub. 

Stray Clementine: how to find her

Once you get inside the club, it won't be immediately apparent where Clementine is. To reach her, you'll have to find your way to the VIP section in the upper portion of the nightclub. 

To do this, you'll need to use one of the hologram projectors showing robo-dancers as a lift to get to the upper floor. 

First off, speak to the Bartender. He'll confirm that someone called Blazer reserved the VIP section. 

Next, pinch the Strange Drink found on the left–hand corner of the bar. You'll need it later.  

Head off in search of the stage. 

You'll run into some robots along the wall next to the stage. Chat to Fripp, pictured above, and he'll offer to trade you a lever for one of the hologram projectors in exchange for a drink. 

This is when the Strange Drink comes in. 

Offer it to Fripp, and he'll give you a Lever Handle. 

Then, head back to the stage and find two contraptions on either side of the DJs. One of them is missing a Lever Handle and needs a replacement. 

Install the Lever Handle, hop on it to lower the projector, and then jump on top before the DJ comes back to undo your work. 

This will take you to the top of the nightclub. 

From here, you'll be able to access three buttons, each of which changes the position of parts of the overhead lighting. 

You can try to figure this out on your own, but if you'd like the solution, hit the button on the far right and then the button on the far left. 

Once you've done this, the lights should be rearranged in such a way as to allow you to cross to the VIP area. Follow the fixtures around to the left, and you'll see Blazer. Follow him inside, and you'll shortly reach Clementine.  

Now that the cat's out of the bag, you should have no trouble making your way into Stray's Midtown nightclub and finding Clementine. 

You'll be a whisker away from her hiding place in no time. In the meantime, why not try one of Stray's best features, a cat nap, as a reward? 

• Want to get the most out of Stray? Here's our guide to getting every trophy.

Are you struggling to get your paws on Stray plants for a certain plant-collecting robot?

While you'll spend quite a bit of time locating weird, forgotten, or misplaced things in Stray (or maybe just trying to grab every Stray trophy you can), some of them are a bit harder to run down than others. I got stuck on a couple of the Stray energy drinks that evaded my feline wiles, though I eventually found them with a little bit of help. And don't even ask me how long it took to figure out how to get past the paint-slinging robots to get my Stray poncho and keep my whiskers exploring new areas.

Thankfully, I found there were lots of tips to help meow-t when I needed them most while progressing through the streets of the cyberpunk future. If you find yourself wasting one of your nine lives trying to find everything you need, try to shake off the sleepiness from your well-deserved cat nap and get looking for those rare plants before they grow out of reach.

Stray plants

Stray plants: Where to find Malo

Wandering the streets of Stray will introduce you to a variety of characters – many of them robots – and among them is a rare plant-collecting robot named Malo. Located in Antvillage, you'll have to find Zbaltazar first and have a chat with him in order to progress your story. He's looking all zen with a bunch of screens around, so he shouldn't be too difficult to pick out. He'll stop you before you get too far past him anyways.

Once you've spoken with him you'll be able to find Malo on the level above Zbaltazar, right near the top of the structure. All the plants they have around will be a dead giveaway. It doesn't make any difference if you talk to Malo first, or get the plants first, so feel free to chase whatever yarn you'd prefer.

Stray plants: Where to find the flowers

Thankfully you won't have to to jump through too many hoops for the rare plants Malo needs. Here's where you'll have to explore and climb to grab all of them:

Where to find the Yellow Plant

• You can find the yellow plant nearby to Malo herself. Climb a little until you find a little open bar. Slink past the customer, who hates the food, and onto a pipe that will lead you to the plant.

Where to find the Purple Plant

• With the purple plant you'll need to go find Alexander, and check out the tree right next to him. Climb up onto its branches and you'll see the flowering plant there for the taking.

Where to find the Red Plant

• To get the red plant go find two robots – Noam and Marie – playing dominoes together and jump into the bucket to get down. At the base of the tree, you can leap across the barrels near two robots rooting around and find the red plant on a tree.

And that's it, you've done it! Trade your hard earned flowers to Malo and earn yourself a badge. 

• Want to change up Stray a bit? Check out our guide to Stray mods.

Doomguy goes feral thanks to a new Stray Doom mod that turns the ass-kicking space marine into a ginger cat.  

Stray has turned out to be a runaway hit, due in large part to humanity's feline obsession. While cats were once a staple of scrawlings in ancient Egypt, the internet is the new medium where we can worship everything from their toe beans to their prickly personalities. We love cats so much, there are even Stray mods that let you put your own cat in the game. 

But now we're at the point where Stray is spilling over into other titles. And Doom modder Edy Pagaza has the purrr-fect one lined up for us. "I know 'Can it run Doom?' is a thing, but I also think 'Can you put it in Doom?'", they tweeted, before teasing the upcoming Stray Doom mod with a trailer.    

Ultimate space meow-rine

As well as causing the requisite amount of carnage, Stray's cat has retained some of his original moves. In the trailer, we can see him having an impromptu cleaning, as well as taking a load off after his killing spree with a nice lie down. Not unlike actual cats nonchalantly taking in the aftermath of their barbarous, real life antics.

He's also armed and kills anything that moves. The accuracies of this mod are endless, it seems. Murder mittens are dangerous enough for your housecat. Just be grateful it hasn't developed opposable thumbs and found the gun safe, because this is a glimpse of that future.

The Stray Doom mod is going live today, July 27, according to the YouTube video's description. Pagaza hasn't specified where it's going to be when it rolls out, but you'll likely find it over on his page on Mod DB. Keep an eye on his mods page and Twitter account if you can't wait to get your paws on it.

Over in the world of Stray mods, you can crank things up a notch by playing splitscreen multiplayer. PS4 and PS5 gamers may not have mods, but they can try Stray for free along with a bunch of other games. You just need to sign up for a free PS Plus trial.    

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The Stray poncho is essential to your progress in the cyberpunk future. Unlike some items in the game, this is a story-based trinket you'll need in order to continue your journey. 

Stray is currently the talk of the town with it getting accolades left, right, and center. It’s not just impressing humans either, as Stray has proven very popular with cats themselves. 

It’s a game littered with collectibles that you'll need to get your paws on to fill out your Stray trophies. With Stray energy drinks that help you get all of the memories or music pages, to all of the badges you can collect, there’s a lot to explore and do in Stray. 

That being said, while you can get the Poncho early in Stray, it’s not really a collectible as, without it, you won’t be able to progress past chapter 6. That’s why it’s imperative you know how to get it, what you need for it, and what to do with it once you have it. Don’t sweat it though, because that’s what we're here for. Here’s everything you need to do and know about the Stray poncho.

Stray poncho

Stray poncho: how to get the poncho

Getting the Stray poncho is a bit involved, but besides a little bit of exploration, it’s not too difficult to get your hands on. You're going to need the electric cable that Azooz, the trader sells, but first you need to find Super Spirit Detergent. To begin, you need to get to Super Spirit Laundry. From the Guardian, just turn around, and it should be directly across from him, a little to the right. Eventually, you will need to get inside but for now, the way is closed. 

In order to get inside, you're going to need to cause some mischief. Climb up the rooftops directly above the store and you will see two robots throwing paint cans at each other. You need to walk up to the lower one and interact with them. Then, right before they throw the can, you need to meow to distract them, causing the paint can to fall in front of the laundry store.

This will cause the owner to come running out in a fit of rage, leaving the door open. 

Climb back down to the ground floor and sneak into the laundry store, and on your immediate left, you will see the Super Spirit Detergent. 

Now that you have this, head back towards the Guardian and then head right, down the stairs to find Azooz. Interact with the Electric Cable and trade the detergent for it.

Once you have this, you have to go find Grandma. If you turn around from Azooz, take the alley, make a right, and then follow the path, you'll find Grandma on her own way in the back. Talk to her and then hand over the electric cable. She will then knit a Poncho out of it just for you!

Don’t get too excited though…

Stray Poncho: what to do with the Poncho

I’ve got some bad news. Despite Grandma making that Poncho for you, you sadly don't get to dress up your cat in a cute little outfit. Unfortunately, you need it to progress the story. 

You can do this part in Chapter 4, but it only becomes mandatory in Chapter 6. Elliot from Elliot Programming needs it. To get there, it’s right back down the way you came from Grandma. There is a sign on the door that asks you to knock to enter. In cat terms, that means you need to scratch on the door. 

After you do that, a robot will open it and you can slink inside, where you need to take the stairs up. Head up and find Elliot, a shivering programmer who is a little too cold. Give him the poncho and he will be able to wrap up and stay warm. This will make him able to work whenever you need him to.

Chapter 6 is when you're going to need his services as you'll have a broken Tracker which needs to be fixed in order for you to progress. Once you have that, take it to Elliot, and he will fix it right quick. 

That’s all you need to know about the poncho and what to use it for. Again, this is something you’ll need to do in order to complete the game, so hopefully, you’ve found this handy along the way. 

While you are in the area, there is a chance to get one of the eight music pages, which in turn give you a badge, so you might as well get that too. You'll just need the Stray safe codes to crack it open and retrieve your music page.

• Enjoying Stray but want more to play? Here's our list of the best PS5 games.

Stray wastes no time in laying on the charm. It’s there when your furry friend first lets out a squeaky meow, daring you not to put your life immediately on the line for them. It comes pouring out of the controller as our feline hero kneads rugs, like Paul Hollywood’s tabby cousin. And who among us can’t say they melted inside when the robot made a little heart face as you nuzzled up against it? 

These instances of arresting cuteness aren’t the reason I’m so fond of this irresistible indie, however. No, the best moments of Stray – which you can play for free on PS4 and PS5 – are its most contemplative ones. Early on in the game, I pad across the rooftops of the Slums, an area where the only light comes from humming neon signs. Spotting a robot gazing up at the sky, their legs dangling, clearly lost in thought, I head over to take in the scene and discover I can curl up near them.

As the cat starts to slumber – a soul-warming purr coming through my DualSense PS5 controller – the camera slowly zooms out to give me a dioramic of the city, letting me meditatively drift as if floating away from the game itself. In that moment, all I can think about is the time I used to spend with my own cat, and that’s the magic Stray captures when you nestle down for a nap. The real joy of owning a pet is captured in these fleeting little snoozes.

One paw-fect moment 

As many pet owners will know, there are times when just sitting near your best bud and doing nothing is restorative. Throughout Covid lockdown, I’d sometimes see that my cat, Mitzi, was just chilling on the bed – and so I would lie down near her and enjoy the company. Maybe it would be to listen to music while she stretched over my legs. Sometimes it would be to talk at her, which I’m sure was much to her annoyance. At others, it was just to look at something infinitely cuter than the walls I’d been staring at all day. I’m not quite sure how I would have coped without these little breaks in my day.

These are the moments that came flooding back to me the first time I wandered into a sleeping spot in Stray. Approaching a bot for a snooze was a reminder of the time I spent with Mitzi, and struck me in a way that no mashing of the meow button could ever do.

Slowing down the action in this way isn’t unique to Stray. Other games have used breaks in the action to great effect, such as Life is Strange – in which you’re able to sit on a bench and listen to one of the series’ stars reflect on the events that are happening to them. Likewise, The Last of Us – which is getting a ground-up remake for PS5 and PC – takes time out of its harrowing journey to have Ellie and Joel stroke a roaming group of giraffes. These intervals give you a greater connection to the stories and, in that sense, Stray is using a neat piece of gaming vocabulary to ground you in your environment – so that you take in more of the world that your cat needs to navigate.

A hero’s tail

But that’s not what makes these times in Stray so special, especially when compared to the games above. Because while I can never relate to looking out over Arcadia Bay or stroking a giraffe in an abandoned city, I can remember the time Mitzi plonked herself on my lap and started to doze away after I finished drunkenly watching Trainspotting at 2am. If those games want you to take in their worlds, Stray feels like it wants you to fold in your own experiences. 

There’s a reason so many people are putting their own cats into the game – it’s hard not to see your own pet when taking on this adventure. OK, yes, the illusion is trickier to maintain when you’re a bit cack-handed at the stealth sections, but I don’t imagine most cats having the abilities of Solid Snake either. It’s a testament to BlueTwelve’s mastery of cat mannerisms that Stray sails over the uncanny valley and lands on its feet, instantly making us think of our own furry friends.

That’s also why I think Stray’s real beauty comes from the cat napping. Because it’s the first time since Mitzi passed away that something has reminded me of what it’s like to have a cat. As good as the meowing, clawing, or biscuit-making are, they’re just sweet little flourishes. The true joy of a furry pal is in the respite – where you can just lie side-by-side and let the world drift away, if only for a second.

The language of the Droids in Stray has been translated and it's a lot simpler than you may have thought.

Or not, unless you believe someone over at BlueTwelve Studio created an entirely new language from scratch. Instead, it's a simple cipher that fleshes out the overnight hit's world-building. And with it, you can finally read in-game newspapers, buzzing neon signs, and anything else you happen across that's sporting Stray's glyphs.

Half-Glass Gaming's Josh Wirtanen cracked the code and has even provided readers with the cipher key. Using the chapter titles as a jumping off point, he's managed to figure it out, but does highlight a few inconsistencies. There's some minor variations in a couple of the symbols, and translations themselves sometimes err on the side of gibberish. But it works perfectly for the most part.     

(Meow) Mix those letters up

Discrepancies noted by Wirtanen include two different variants of the letters P and E, while some signage has been rotated, providing an extra layer of challenge in decoding. Meanwhile some translations of the in-game content have resulted in mild gobbledygook that's a little harder to parse.    

On top of that, Stray seems to have a number of different written languages. Wirtanen has only translated the one from the chapter title screens, but adds that "a lot of the hand-painted words are just the same word used over and over again." So he gave up on the endeavor of trying to translate everything, saying that these other text samples don't "seem like they actually mean anything."

That being said, the fruits of his successful attempts are a fun mix. Here, we have a bag labeled "best bag."  What's inside? Who cares! It's the best bag. All other details are unimportant at this time. 

Elsewhere, it seems like Stray is home to Droid vampires who like to include their Dracula accent in their copy. See this 'vanted' sign as evidence. They probably vanted to suck up his delicious Droid oil. Ah-ah-ah!   

Now you have the key, the world of Stray is your oyster. And don't forget, you can pick it up for free on PS4 and PS5 with PS Plus right now. Steam players might not be getting a freebie, but on the plus side, there's a ton of mods you can incorporate into the game.

PC players are able to put their own cats into Stray, as well as play splitscreen multiplayer. There's a ton of mods out there already, and we even have a handy guide on how to install Stray mods. So have a peruse if you fancy spicing up the vanilla game. 

• PSVR 2 is getting a game-changing new feature

There are two Stray safe codes to track down as you make your way through this lovable post-apocalyptic cat sim. They are found in Midtown and the Slums, with each safe containing some valuable items to enhance your collection.

With a wide range of Stray trophies and achievements to find, completionists in search of goodies will need to pick through Stray’s winding city streets and sombre interiors with a fine–toothed comb.

Two of these collectibles are confined in this pair of safes - and that's where we come in, since tracking the safes down and cracking the codes can be tricky. You'll have to chat to many cyborgs, exchange some energy drink cans for tradeable goods, and more, so it's best to know what you're in for before leaping out onto that air conditioning unit.

Between finding energy drinks, tracking down sheet music, and solving the game’s central mystery, you may not have a lot of time to constantly keep an eye out for these two safes. Take a look at this guide as you go through Slums and Midtown, and you’ll be able to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Stray safe codes

Stray safe codes: The Slums

Once you've arrived in the slums, you'll likely stumble upon a safe near Morousque, everyone's favorite robot guitarist. Nearby, you'll find a safe with a cryptic note attached to it. Annoyingly, most robots you show it to will be unable to translate it. 

Fortunately, there's a way around this. You'll need to take the code to Elliot at 'Elliot Programming' to decipher. You can find that by heading to Granny, heading right, and scratching the door beside two sitting–down robots. Show Elliot the note and he'll translate it, giving you a rendezvous point in the Dufer Bar. 

Mosey on over to Dufer, jump up on the bar and look over to the left–hand side. Then, you'll see a painting which you can knock down. Behind the painting, you'll find the code to the safe: 1283. Scurry back to the safe, punch in the code and sit back as that door swings open. For your trouble, you'll be rewarded with Sheet Music 8/8.

Stray safe codes: the safe in Midtown

Upon arriving in Midtown, you'll run into a robot called Paoudre on your right. He'll complain about being sold a faulty battery by the nearby merchant. Jump over the counter and make your way to the high shelves in the back–room of the shop. At the very back of the store, you'll find the safe.

Next, head back down the shelves and look around the shop for a white poster. B12 can translate this for you, and says it means "2458 :edoC". Reverse the translation, and you get "Code: 8542", the code to the safe at the back of the store.  

Hop back up to the safe, punch in that code, and you'll be treated to a nifty little Cat Badge to spruce up your jacket.

There you have it; armed with this knowledge Stray's safes will be no match for your burglary skills. Get out there and claim your precious collectibles.  

While you're out there, you could even augment your experience by installing mods for Stray. Or, if you want a hand finding collectibles with a friend, a multiplayer Stray mod has even surfaced. Check it out. 

• Looking to customize your Stray experience? Why not try our mods guide.

Finding the Stray save file location is especially important if you’re playing on PC. With modding becoming increasingly popular, backing up your save has never been more crucial. Thanks to our guide, you’ll be able to safeguard your adventures in everyone’s favorite cat simulator and make sure that you aren’t caught short by a mod–gone–wrong. 

After you've learned how to install Stray mods, you should make sure you still take proper precautions when altering your game. Being an immersive, narrative–driven game with tons of collectibles, the last thing you need is for your hours of scavenging to be erased due to bad luck. Any mod website will tell you that you mod at your own risk, so why endanger your precious save file? 

As the feel–good game of the summer, Stray has mesmerized cats as much as humans. The modding community has released a plethora of mods, ranging from letting you put your own cats into Stray to adding splitscreen multiplayer to Stray. There are a lot of great addons to choose from out there, which is why it’s all the more important that you keep your save file backed up, just in case. Here’s our handy guide to doing just that.     

Stray save file location 

Stray save file location: how to back up your save

First off, you'll need to find the file.

• Go to 'C:/'
• Click 'Users'
• Then click on the folder with the same title as your Windows username 
• Open 'AppData' 
• Go to 'Local' 
• Then 'Hk_prokect' 
• Click on 'Saved' 
• Then, finally, click 'SaveGames'. You'll find your Stray save files within. 

If you can't see the 'AppData' folder, don't worry. This just means that you need to tell Windows to display hidden files and folders. To do this, find the View menu in your file browser. Give it a click, find 'show' and then select 'hidden items'. Alternatively, you can tick a checkbox on the toolbar entitled 'Hidden Items'. We've marked the checkbox in green on the screenshot below.   

Once you've found your file, we recommend copying it, and creating a folder for your backup saves on your Desktop. We do this at TechRadar and it's a great way to make sure that you always have a clean save ready in case something gets corrupted. 

Congratulations, you now know everything you need to know in order to protect your precious cat save from corruption or modding accidents. Time to get back out there and enjoy more of Stray's wistful cyberpunk adventure. 

• Want to get the most out of Stray? Here's our guide to getting every trophy.

Getting every Stray trophy will test everything you’ve learned over the course of the game. Some task you with solving puzzles, while others will have you scouring every nook and cranny for hidden collectibles - and others literally require you to do nothing but sleep for a few hours.

Stray is at its best when you're doing nothing, its world is teeming with secrets waiting to be uncovered by simply existing and observing the colourful world you've found yourself in. You’ll unlock more trophies the more that you prod at the environment, though it’s certainly easy to miss some of the hidden achievements on your first playthrough. Because of this, you may need a little bit of help tracking down every trophy and achievement in Stray on PS4, PS5 and PC.

Luckily, you’ll find plenty of info on how to unlock all of the trophies in Stray right here in this guide. That means every Stray Energy Drink, and even some help with the hidden achievements from the list. Whether you're weaving around Zurks to reach hidden areas or uncovering secret dialogue options, read on to ensure you track down all Stray has to offer - all the while keeping all nine of your lives.

Stray trophy guide

Stray trophy guide: all trophies

Here's a breakdown of every trophy (or achievement, if you're playing on PC) that you can find strolling down Stray's alleys. There are a total of 25 (or 24 on PC) to find, with 11 of them being secret trophies. 

Here are the normal trophies first:

• All Done (Platinum) – Receive all other trophies (PS4/PS5 only).
• A Little Chatty (Silver) – Meow 100 times.
• Cat-a-Pult (Silver) – Jump 500 times.
• Productive Day (Silver) – Sleep for more than an hour.
• Boom Chat Kalaka (Bronze) – Dunk the basketball.
• No More Lives (Bronze) – Die nine times.
• I am Speed (Gold) – Complete the game in under two hours.
• Meowlody (Silver) – Bring all the music sheets to Morusque.
• Curiosity Killed the Cat (Bronze) – Wear the paper bag.
• Cat-a-strophe (Bronze) – Try to play mahjong with the robots.
• Cat's best friend (Silver) – Nuzzle up against five robots.
• Tele a chat (Bronze) – Browse all the TV channels.
• Badges (Gold) – Collect all badges.
• Territory (Silver) – Scratch in every chapter.

Hidden trophies

Here are the secret trophies (and Achievements on PC) in Stray:

• Can't Cat-ch Me (Gold) – Complete the first Zurk pursuit without being caught.
• Sneakitty (Silver) – Get through Midtown without being detected by the Sentinels.
• Scratch (Bronze) – Scratch the vinyl in the club.
• Pacifist (Gold) – Complete the Sewers without killing any Zurks.
• Missed Jump (Bronze) – Fall inside the city.
• Meet B-12 (Silver) – Have B-12 translate a robot.
• Cat Got Your Tongue (Bronze) –
• Catwalk (Gold) – Reach Midtown.
• Al-Cat-Raz (Silver) – Go to jail.
• Eye Opener (Gold) – Complete the game and open the city.
• I Remember! (Gold) – Gather all B-12 memories.

Now that you've got every one of Stray's trophies on your shelves, there's only one thing left to do, and we both know what that is: knock them all off, one by one, while making innocent eye contact.

• All finished with Stray? If you're looking towards the next game now, check out what's coming in 2022.

A new splitscreen multiplayer mod for recently released adventure game Stray lets you buddy up with a feline friend.

After working out how to swap Stray's silent protagonist for their own pets, modders have found yet another way of adding even more cats to the game. Modder KangieDanie has released a splitscreen mod for the hit platformer, letting you and your buddies play simultaneously as your own tabbies. 

Being a mod, it only works on PC. But we encourage you to shake things up with the tons of Stray mods available. If you're playing Stray on PS5 or PS4, you unfortunately won’t be able to play with a cat chum. But on the plus side, console gamers can play Stray for free, so that's something. 

The mod only supports local co-op for now, but KangieDanie says they know another modder is looking into creating an online co-op mod down the line.   

Room for more

You can play using the same keyboard, or can plug in another controller to waltz down the city streets side by side. Just how many co-op players can be added using the mod isn't clear, however, and even KangieDanie isn't sure, as they ran out of controllers to test with. Current screenshots show up to three players in the game together.

The mod is still in early development, and KangieDanie has highlighted a fair few bugs you can expect to run into. At the moment, only Player 1 can see the game’s HUD, it may crash during level transitions, and you might see a handful of visual glitches while playing. All standard teething problems for a new mod.

Playing in co-op actually looks fairly easy, though. Once the mod’s installed, head to the main menu and tap F9 on your keyboard to add a secondary player. It’s currently unclear whether you’re able to remove players after adding them, though, so don’t get carried away.

To install the mod, you’ll need to download its main file and accompanying splitscreen config, as well as the Unreal Engine Mod Loader. Follow these instructions as listed in the mod’s description to get it all up and running:

• Download the main mod and splitscreen config files from the Nexus Mods page
• Drag the SplitScreenRequiredConfig_P.pak file into the ‘Paks’ folder in Stray’s file directory
• Create a new folder called ‘LogicMods’ in the existing ‘Paks’ folder
• Drag the SplitScreenMod.pak file into that new folder
• Download the latest UnrealModLoader and extract the zipped file anywhere on your PC
• Launch UnrealModLoader.exe
• Launch Stray

• Assassin's Creed won't be getting its stealth spin-off for a while yet
  

Stray mods are the perfect way to spice up the detective game where you play a cat in a backpack solving mysteries in a city populated by robots.

Everyone from cat aficionados to meme enthusiasts has been enjoying Stray, the much-beloved cyberpunk feline simulator from BlueTwelve Studio. Even literal cats have been entranced by the distinctive visuals. However, as with any hit game, intrepid modders have already begun to offer their own permutations to Stray’s formula. Thanks to the hard work of the modding community, owners of Stray on PC are free to use add-ons to make their experience with the game truly unique.  

The majority of the Stray mods are simple aesthetic changes to the feline protagonist. However, other modders have been hard at work on tweaks and upgrades to the game’s graphics. Language mods have even started to appear, adding painstaking translations to bring Stray to a wider audience. There’s even a splitscreen mod, if you can believe it. 

Fortunately for all of us feline fans, installing Stray mods is fairly straightforward. Our guide will show you how to use Nexus Mods and where to put those pesky files. Though some mods are more complicated than others, there are some universal tips that'll help you navigate the modding process. You’ll have the customized cat of your dreams in no time at all.    

Stray mods guide

Stray mods: how to install them

Though it can vary from mod to mod, the basic principles behind installing stray mods are relatively simple. First off, you'll need to find your way over to the Stray page on Nexus Mods. Here, you'll be able to see a whole range of different add-ons. Simply find one you like, navigate to the mod's page, and click the 'manual' download button on the left–hand side of the screen.  

In many cases, you'll need to drop some files somewhere inside the Stray folder on your PC. You can find this folder by right–clicking Stray in your Steam library and selecting 'Browse Local Files'. Return to the add-on's Nexus Mod's page, and you'll find instructions outlining exactly where the files you just downloaded need to go. Some mods require you to delete existing files and replace them with mod files, so be sure to read the instructions carefully. 

Most of the time, modding your game will be a simple matter of downloading the mod and placing your new files wherever the instructions tell you. Sometimes this might require several steps, but the basic principle is always the same. 

Stray mods: tips

the absolute key thing to do before modding any game is to back up your save file, so that you don't lose your progress if the mod breaks something in your game. To do that you'll need to know where to find the Stray save file location on your PC.

The majority of the cosmetic mods require you to drag a .pak file into the 'Paks' folder. This folder can be found within the 'Content' folder which, in turn, may be found in the 'Hk_project' folder. If in doubt, Windows File Explorer does have a search function that will allow you to track the folders down if they're not quite where you expect them to be.

More complex mods, however, are likely to have a more complex list of instructions. The Splitscreen mod, for instance, requires you to download the UnrealModLoader and use it to launch the game once the mod is installed. Though there is no hard and fast guide to installing these mods, more complicated add-ons will require more work.

With these tips and tricks at your side, you're well on your way to enjoying the custom Stray experience that you deserve.

• Wondering why Stray is so popular? We figured it out.

Stray players on PC are currently living the dream with mods that let them swap their own cats into the game.

The game's furry protagonist is an orange tabby whose antics have hypnotized cats the world over. He's partly based on Murtaugh, the cat whose human is one of the cofounders of developer Blue Twelve – you can read more about him and the other feline inspiration over on the PlayStation blog. 

The choice to limit players to the nameless ginger stray, rather than opening up the floor to character creation, is a deliberate one, but you can now disregard this completely if you're on PC thanks to a slew of Stray mods. 

There are a bunch of feline variants available that'll let you find the closest match to your own moggy. So you can step into their adorable little beans and whisk (er) them off on an adventure. This Twitter thread has rounded up some of them to give you an idea of what's available:

How to change the color of the cat in Stray 

Modder Sirgalahad1972 is doing a lot of the heavy lifting with these Stray mods. On their mod page alone you'll find a couple of different black-and-white cats, a Siamese cat, a brown cat, and a red cat to name a few. They've even got some accessories if you feel that your Stray needs a statement piece. There are glasses, an eyepatch, and a jaunty newsboy cap to choose from. 

If you're in the market for something a little bit different, there's also a Garfield mod, and this absolutely terrifying GTA: San Andreas CJ mod that words can't adequately describe. 

Once you've found a clone of your cat on the site, follow the instructions on the mods' page to swap it in. We also have a handy guide on how to install Stray mods to walk you through the process. There's even a Stray multiplayer mod out there if you don't mind splitscreen.  

Why doesn't Stray let you change the cat's color 

Speaking to Kotaku, Stray producer Swann Martin-Raget said the conversation around cat customizsation was a "heated debate." But ultimately it came down to what the studio was capable of, and the narrative of the game itself.

"We are a small team, and production-wise, it was quite tricky to have something that really was at the quality level we wanted. But also … the story is quite important for us, and this character – it’s really his story. So we wanted him to be recognizable and unique in the game."

PS4 and PS5 players will be stuck experiencing the game as intended. Although on the plus side, they can play Stray for free. But if you're on PC, feel free to put Mr. Bigglesworth the Second into the game and see if he recognizes himself on the big screen. And don't forget to share the video. It could always use more cat videos.

• You could play Baldur’s Gate 3’s next major update before anyone else

If you’ve not been on the internet for an adult lifetime, you may not realize that cats have always run the place. Back in the early 2000s, one of the preeminent communication methods through email, burgeoning social media platforms and forums was, in fact, cat memes.

Similarly, if you’ve ever used terms like “hecking good boy” or “boop the snoot”, what you may not realize is that the root of your internet speak is in fact Kitty Pidgin, the “I can has?”-laden language born from the Lolcat meme era, some of the earliest traceable pidgin of its kind online.

However, the internet is just a new medium for a preexisting human fascination with felines. Whether in ancient wall paintings or the meme-like photography of Harry Pointer, we’ve inextricably linked ourselves to cats for over 9,000 years. Research has even shown that cats, effectively, domesticate themselves, which makes sense of their sometimes maddeningly indifferent attitude towards us. 

It’s no surprise, then, that while they may not quite have the supreme power they once held over the online space, cats are still a huge cultural mainstay. As proven by the viral sensation that is the third-person cat adventure game, Stray.

Though weeks of hype surrounded the game in the run-up to release, a veritable tsunami of cat content breached our Twitter, TikTok and even Facebook feeds upon release. Reaching 60,000+ concurrent players on Steam, a number that rivals some AAA titles, Stray has clearly captured something otherwise absent from the current gaming scene.

Paws for thought

Some readers may recall a little old site called 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' from back in the day, which posted text memes featuring an array of recurring characters and themes – some of the earliest memes I remember finding on the internet.

Whether it was one of the earliest cat blogs like MyCatHatesYou or the Infinite Cat Project, memes like Ceiling Cat, Long Cat and Cheeseburger Cat or even the Caturday posts of 4Chan, cat culture was strong and sprawling, spreading quickly from imagery to video as sites like YouTube became more accessible.

Rapidly, the universe of cat memes was expanding. Now, we had keyboard cat, “No No No” cat, Grumpy cat and, of course, our pop tart pal Nyan cat. Reporting from Buzzfeed in 2012 even found that, while dogs were more frequently searched for, cat content was much more prone to virality. 

Fast forward to the present and we have Stray, which capitalizes on now-decades of cat legacy on the internet. If you’ve been asking yourself quite why this game has won hearts, look no further than its attention to detail when capturing the joy of cats.

Un(cat)nny Valley

Stray puts you in control of an orange cat that has been separated from its group of feline friends and thrust into a post-post-apocalyptic cyberpunk city, walled off from the outside world. The inhabitants of the city are Companions, helper bots abandoned by humanity that, over several centuries, have evolved to mimic the behaviors, beliefs systems, and even aspirations of humans.

Throughout the game, you and your drone pal B-12 explore and investigate the various dwellings within the walled city in hopes of finding a way to return to the outside world, and as a byproduct, freeing the Companions that are trapped within its walls. 

As a premise, I’d be remiss to say it’s totally innovating the post-apocalypse adventure genre, but what really elevates Stray to the next level is seeing it all through the lens of a cat.

Whether you’re scratching up carpets and trees, drinking from puddles of water, or meowing at the push of a button, this game oozes cat charisma. 

The moment I realized this game had more to it than just beautiful graphics and some solid platforming mechanics was the first instance in which a throwaway animation was included for no other purpose than to add depth to the experience of being a cat. 

Early in the game when you meet B-12, the drone dons you with a harness. The interaction that follows had me wheezing – the cat tumbling tantrumously to the ground as though cursed with the most grotesque of burdens. If you’ve ever tried dress-up with a cat that’s not acclimatized to it, you’ll have got a similar response. It’s not an animation that occurs again anywhere else in the game – just a really neat acknowledgment of the mannerisms of cats.

Likewise, there are numerous pianos around the world that you can jump on and walk all over a la keyboard cat; multiple instances where your job as the cat is to destroy things by pushing them off ledges with a timid, curled paw; and even times when walking across a computer keyboard is a crucial part of plot development.

These small but significant interactions add to a greater narrative, a sense of self-awareness that Stray has – and one that, I feel, many larger teams and studios would struggle to capture with such nuance. It’s this raw, unadulterated charm, in my opinion, that has captured the hearts and minds of players the world over.

 The cat’s pajamas

There’s a knowingness to the Companions’ relationship with the eponymous stray, too. Despite many of them not even knowing what a cat is, referring to it as a quadruped, they have a very human desire and appreciation for the creatures.

Rub up against the leg of some Companions and they will emote with a heart. One bot lies on a couch and can be jumped upon, reacting at first with surprise before giving in to the cat’s will, stroking it and returning to sleep. On the less loving side, you can hop onto a table where two bots are playing dominoes, spraying tiles everywhere, and then watch in glee as they meticulously replace the pieces… only for you to do it all over again.

Another favorite interaction of mine occurs upon delivering sheets of music to the audiophile bot, Morusque. The Companion will play the piece on its makeshift guitar – and you have the option to curl up next to it on a pile of cushions and listen to the song. It’s a simple, sweet moment, reminiscent of cozy afternoons spent next to my own feline friend.

Stray captures the essence of cozyness in its nods to those small moments in life that bring you peace and contentment. In Danish, they have the word ’hygge’ to explain this, and I can think of no better descriptor. For me, it’s like pausing for a coffee at Brewster's in Animal Crossing, just to watch the simple animation of a little cup being raised with stubby fingerless hands, sipped, and enjoyed.

We get it, you’re a dog person

Is all of this to say that Stray is for everyone? No, clearly not, judging by some of the reception. Stray’s greatest strength is also its biggest weakness – it depends upon you appreciating the cultural place of cats, or having the experience of owning one, to really shine. 

The other day, I read a piece from Vice that suggests Stray undercuts itself – offering too human a lens on a humanless world. But I have to disagree. There is a fundamental juxtaposition in Stray between the way the robots so desperately emulate humanity, and the survival of cats in this barren, post-human world. In the end, the thing that charmed me the most about this simple game was that an intelligence created in our image will always strive to be human, to be more. Cats? They’ll just keep being cats.

Stray is far from the perfect game; I’d go as far as to say that, gameplay-wise, the second act was a little disappointing due to a lack of verticality when compared to how beautiful and detailed the first act was. However, it’s undoubtedly one of my favorite games of recent years. Appreciation of entertainment and art forms is always subjective, and nothing demonstrates that like the invention of the cat game person. You either are one, or you aren’t.

Stray energy drinks are a currency you'll need early on in the game, once you reach The Slums chapter. These can be exchanged for several goods that will help you fill out your collectible. 

Stray is capturing everyone’s attention right now as the hot new PS5 console exclusive – even real word cats are becoming mesmerized by its magic. There’s plenty to engage with too as it’s full to the brim with collectibles, giving you a reason to explore the forgotten city you’re tasked with navigating. While your ultimate goal is to get out of the sprawling urban landscape, it’s worth taking your time and finding all of the nooks and crannies for little bits of extra story and lore. 

The energy drinks aren’t exactly collectibles themselves that recur throughout the game, however, they are used to get you some key collectibles that will help you fill out your experience. 

If you have recently picked up the game or are playing through a PS Plus Premium free trial, and want to 100% complete Stray, you’re going to need to collect all four of the energy drinks strewn around the Slums and trade them with Azooz, the trader. Here’s where you can find all four if you need a hand.

Stray energy drinks

Stray energy drinks: What are they for and where to find them

The Energy drinks come from vending machines that you will find around the labyrinthian Slums. Don’t worry, once you find them, they're free, so you don’t need money or anything. 

You use energy drinks to trade for goods with Azooz. For three, you can unlock a new memory fragment, whereas you can get one of the eight music pages in the level for just one can.

Energy Drink #1

The first energy drink is not too difficult to find, as it’s right next to where you start in the Slums. Head left of the Guardian and down the stairs. On the left will be a robot with a guitar, and across from him will be a vending machine. All you have to do is interact with it to get an energy drink. 

Energy Drink #2

For the second energy drink, you’re going to want to head back from where you started. Double back on yourself and navigate the winding alleyways until you reach a robot watching a TV. Move immediately up from there. Once you are above where the robot is sitting, you should see a vending machine on a balcony. 

Energy Drink #3

The next can is not too far away from the last. Keep climbing up the buildings until you reach the rooftops. Look for the bright orange sign (which leads to Momo’s apartment. The vending machine is down and left of that sign on a building slightly in front of it. Head over and get your energy drink. 

Energy Drink #4

The last energy drink is relatively easy to get to. From where you start in front of the Guardian, turn around and head the way you came into the Slums. Then take the final right before the dead end. There is a vending machine here next to graffiti that says 'RIP Humans', which is also a memory fragment so pick that up while you are here. 

That’s all you need to know about energy drinks. Once you have them all, you can head back to the trader and hand them in for the sheet music and the memory fragment. Good work, you’re on your way to collecting everything in Stray! And while you're here, why not check out our guide on how to add mods to Stray?

• Want more to play on your PlayStation? Here's our list of the best PS5 games on the market.

The possibility of a Stray Xbox release is not as slim as you might think. The title has captured the hearts and imaginations of even the most curmudgeonly gamers and that could extend to more in time, if the rumors hold true.

Not all have been blessed with access to the much–beloved kitty adventure. As of its release, Stray is exclusive to PS4, PS5, and PC, leaving Xbox and Switch users out in the cold. Things could change in the future however, given the specific terms under which Stray was released.

Exclusivity is nothing new, especially when it comes to PlayStation. First party developers often never release their games on non-Sony consoles, and others don’t even get PC releases. BlueTwelve, the developers behind Stray, have a different relationship with Sony, however. As an indie studio not directly owned by the publisher, BlueTwelve enjoys more autonomy. Though their game is currently exclusive to PlayStation and PC, it's entirely possible that Stray will make its way to Xbox in the near future.

Here’s what we know about that likelihood so far.

Stray Xbox version

Stray Xbox: when can we expect it?

Right now, there is no Stray Xbox version. While a look at social media might have you thinking everyone is playing it, if you are a Nintendo Switch or Xbox user, sadly the cat is still firmly in the bag. 

That said, there might be some hope for you in the future. 

The glimmer of salvation can be found in the 2020 teaser. Pictured below, is the end card for the trailer and it states that Stray will only remain a console exclusive for a "limited time." 

Though there has been no official word on an Xbox or Switch release, this does suggest that BlueTwelve's exclusivity deal with Sony may well have an expiry date.

Now, it's impossible to say how long this kind of exclusivity will last for the title, or even if it remains a limited-time deal. Generally, this kind of exclusivity lasts for a year, but there have been exceptions to this rule. Some can be half a year, or even as short as a couple of months. 

To be frank, we simply don't know how long this exclusivity will last. It's possible, since the teaser, Sony has sealed up the game indefinitely, but the lack of official word makes that pure speculation. Since we've heard nothing, everything points to this being a limited-time exclusive.

Though Stray's graphical fidelity might make a Switch version a tall order, there are no hardware constraints that would prevent an eventual Stray Xbox Series X|S release. The Nintendo Switch is also no stranger to Cloudpowered versions of games, so we could yet see it there. 

Perhaps, in the coming months, we will hear official word on if other versions of the game are coming. For now, those on other consoles will have to remain patient to hear more. 

• Looking for more Xbox goodness? Try our guide to the best Xbox Series X games.

PlayStation exclusive Stray launched to rave reviews, but it seems that house cats are the game's biggest fans.

Stray is definitely the standout game of the July PS Plus line-up. And the good news is that you can try before you buy on PS4 and PS5 thanks to a seven-day free PS Plus trial. The game places you in the furry paws of a lone cat to wander a dangerous cyberpunk city. There are charming robots to interact with, plenty of environmental storytelling to soak up, and a fair few carpets to scratch as you prance about the place as a cute tabby.

Cat lovers across the internet were unsurprisingly excited about the game, but they’re not the only ones who have fallen for the puzzle platformer. Many of their feline friends are just as captivated by Stray, as videos and pictures across social media show cats engrossed in the game.

Cats just wanna have fun

Over on the r/playstation subreddit, users have been sharing images of their cats appearing completely hypnotized by the game. While Stray’s unnamed feline protagonist waltzes about on screen, many players’ pets look on enraptured. Like this handsome fella who’s transfixed by the tabby’s movements:

another_cat_enjoying_stray from r/playstation

Or this inquisitive devil who wanted a better view:

another_cat_owner_whos_cat_is_losing_their_mind from r/playstation

And this jumpy guy who couldn’t resist peeking at two cats nuzzling:

first_2_seconds_of_the_game_and_monty_is_already from r/playstation

It's not just cats, though. Dogs also seem quite taken by the game:

There are many more besides. A lot more, in fact. Seriously, people love posting pictures of their cats gazing at Stray. It’s become something of a trend of the subreddit in the past 24 hours to show just how enraptured your pet really is. 

But their obsession is hardly surprising. Stray’s protagonist was meticulously modeled and animated to authentically reflect the movements of real-life cats. Everything from the way their shoulders move as they walk, to the way they bound between platforms, to how they indifferently shove objects off the edge of furniture looks familiar.

A PlayStation blog post mentions Stray’s main cat animator spent countless hours searching for video reference material in order to accurately imitate the subtleties of feline movement. Together with the studio’s cat programmer, they worked “countless hours together just on the basic movements of the main character, iterating and fine tweaking every little jump and transition”. 

It seems to have paid off. Stray has successfully tricked real cats into believing one of their own has been sucked into the television screen. That level of fidelity must be every animator’s dream.

• The Wii U and 3DS eShops are closing. Get in before it's too late.

The Warren had long been abandoned by the authorities. It was controlled now by the mafias and cartels who offered a veneer of stability in exchange for the vast profits yielded from the usual flavors of human misery. A lawless citadel of unregulated commerce, overstuffed living quarters, and decay of every sort. Those lucky enough to inhabit the upper levels had access to ludicrous privileges like sunlight and fresh air – regularly interrupted though they were by the monstrous din of transports roaring overhead, all but scraping the roof on their way to the gleaming city next door. Down below, life unfolded in perennial night. And yet, the days were remarkably unremarkable: children skipped to school. Garbage was collected. Food stands served lunch.

This could evoke any number of fictional dystopias, from the doomed planet Taris in Knights of the Old Republic, to the futuristic-back-then Los Angeles of Blade Runner – even the gothic sprawl of Castle Gormenghast. It was, however, the very real Kowloon Walled City; a 6.4 acre block of buildings once home to more than 30,000 people, demolished in the early ‘90s after the British and Chinese governments finally came to the conclusion, after decades of abdicating responsibility to each other, that it was time to knock it all down. A decision that was merciful, or cruel, or sensible, or tragic, depending on who’s asked.

Despite its eventual replacement with a memorial park, complete with tiny bronze model of itself, Kowloon Walled City forever lurks in popular culture, silently informing our idea of what a dank undercity looks like. It’s no coincidence that these places always have Cantonese street signs and slurpy noodle bars, no matter how far out into the galaxy they’re imagined, or by whom. Hong Kong is the archetypal cramped metropolis, and the Walled City is its nadir. A marvel, and monument to the amount of shite that human beings will put up with in order to eke out a living, setting us up nicely for the grim reality of life in space colonies or tunnel cities, depending on how the chips fall over the next few years.

In its day, it was the most densely populated construction on earth. For some, it lives on in memory as a warning from history about the importance of building regs. For others, it represents a culture sadly lost; an enclave of Chinese resilience, unmolested by de facto British rule. A place that many happily called home, exasperatingly misunderstood. Romantic, even, despite the squalor.

Anna-purr-na

Where was I going with this? Right, yes. Stray, the new PS5 pounce-em-up about an impossibly sweet little cat that is cognitively able to solve physics puzzles, is set in a location heavily inspired by Kowloon Walled City. Humans are gone, and the city is home to robots. The cat befriends one, and hijinks ensue. (Incidentally, you can currently play Stray for free thanks to a PS Plus Premium seven-day trial.)

It’s not the first time that KWC has been depicted in a game; famously, Shenmue 2’s middle act takes place there, and every pseud’s favorite Max Payne, Stranglehold, features a level set within – although no sense of it as a residential complex exists in this version, as it’s reduced to a mere dispenser of angry Triads for Chow Yun-fat to gun down. Kowloon’s Gate, a cult supernatural adventure game about the city’s re-emergence from the realm of the dead, appeared in Japan in 1997 and stayed there.

Yet in Stray, the sense of place is palpable. Its interpretation, fictional though it is, appears unusually well-researched from a visual standpoint. Though much of the real Walled City’s interior is lost to time, some film footage of it exists. 

Documentaries – one carefully filmed with hidden cameras so as not to fall foul of the local vice peddlers, another produced as a propaganda piece for the Salvation Army – do exist on YouTube, offering tantalizing glimpses of life in this fascinating location.

Based on what little can be perceived by a westerner who was nine when Kowloon Walled City got knocked down, Stray seems to have nailed its oppressive cramp, its fine haze of dust or god-knows-what, its apparently endless capacity for supporting a population… somehow. The way that its pipes and wires hang like vines in narrow corridors, hastily tacked up by some nameless utility hero in the dim and distant past. It tickles an ancestral memory of dense forest. One wonders if a cat knows or cares about the difference between a tree branch and an aerial.

Sleeping cats

Stray is a phenomenally good video game, in which the city is just one of many hooks (honestly, a wee cat, a wee robot, and a painstakingly detailed next-gen robot dystopia to explore? Greedy, devs. Save some USP for other studios, yeah?). But Kowloon Walled City needs no science-fiction makeovers or ghostly reimaginings to fascinate. What it deserves, perhaps, is re-examination.

Thousands of human stories played out there, some from beginning to end. It entombed countless millions of moments, thoughts, triumphs, tragedies, harsh words, jokes told, a great many within living memory. It feels like a gift of a video game location, no fictional distancing necessary – a map whose details are lost to time, but with a vibe very much intact, ripe for interpretation. An enclosed, finite space, with a built-in excuse to leave the rest of Hong Kong as backdrop. Wallpaper. Skybox, if you ever reach the top.

The genesis of this article was a false memory of plans to make a Sleeping Dogs sequel (this much is true) set within the Walled City (this much is not, not least because it was demolished some 20 years before the first game is set). Since having accidentally imagined it, I can’t stop thinking about it. Taking the GTA clone and funneling it into a tight, dense open world made not of grand vistas, but narrow spaces, and the life that thrives within. Something between a Sleeping Dogs and an Arx Fatalis, but very much grounded in fact.

You ever just desperately want to play a game that doesn’t exist?