CAT manual
Explore: the adventure
You are a small yellow bird blown onto an island town. Explore is a short top-down adventure with conversations, collecting, a quest and sword fights.
Controls#
Explore uses the buttons only.
| Button | In the world | In a conversation or menu |
|---|---|---|
| D-pad | Walk. The last direction you pressed wins. | ▲ ▼ choose a reply or a menu item |
| A | Talk, pick up, open, use a door, or use a workbench, whenever the red A bubble is showing. With nothing in front of you, swing your sword. | Next line, confirm |
| B (hold) | Ping the map: shows door markers, enemies with health bars, and the name of the area. | Close the conversation or go back |
| START | Open the pause overlay | Close the overlay |
The world is frozen while a conversation, notice, menu or the overlay is open.
Starting out: Nowhere#
Open the third tile on the home screen. The first time, before you have found the radio, the story begins in a cave called Nowhere. Four title cards set the scene: the season, the time of day, how warm the air is, and THE WIND CARRIES YOU. The season and time of day come from your CAT's clock.
Walk down to the radio and press A to take it. A notice shows each new item's name and description; dismiss it with A or B. Then walk onto the door at the bottom of the cave and press A to leave.
Once you own the radio, Explore always starts in the Headlands. If you leave Explore and come back without restarting CAT, you continue where you were.
The pause overlay#
Press START anywhere in the world. A clock in the corner shows your local time and date. On the right is a column of icons: move with ▲ ▼ and press A. START or B closes it.
| Icon | What it does |
|---|---|
| Home | Asks Return to the main menu? and goes back to the home screen. |
| Inventory | Opens your bag (highlighted when the overlay opens). |
Inventory#
Six items per page, in two columns, with the highlighted item's name, description and count on the right. Use the D-pad to move between items; pages turn automatically.
- A on an item that can be used shows its actions. Choose one, then confirm with Yes. Only the ID Card and the Radio have actions.
- B backs out of the action list, or asks Exit? to close the inventory.
The ID Card#
You are given an ID Card when your story starts. Choose INSPECT to see it: your device name, the date you started, and your device's serial number. A stamp is added when you earn the breaking licence. Press B to put it away.
The Radio#
| Action | What happens |
|---|---|
| TOGGLE SCAN | Turns scanning on or off (Started scanning / Stopped scanning). While on, radio towers send out expanding rings you can follow. |
| LISTEN NEAR | Near a tower that is transmitting, plays its message. Otherwise No transmissions... |
| LISTEN FAR | Listen for distant transmissions. |
The Headlands#
The island town: paths, terraces, a railway viaduct, a community garden, a radio tower by the sea, and houses you can enter. Hold B to ping the map: white rings mark doors, and the area name appears in the corner.
Places you can visit: Nowhere (the cave), the Headlands, the Community Center, Reed's House, the Long House, the Flower House, Mono's House and Salt and Pepper's House. Some other buildings, like the station and the arcade, are scenery.
Combat, health and dying#
Your health is the small bar over your head (100 points). Your sword does 35 damage, so most enemies take three hits. Health refills only when you respawn.
- Phantoms only appear when you disturb a miasma ball, an ominous orb marked with red diamonds. Press A next to one and two to four phantoms rise around it.
- Each phantom hit costs you 10 health, flashes you, and gives you a second of safety.
- Parry: strike a phantom just as it winds up. Its attack is cancelled, it is knocked back further, and you get a yellow spark.
- When every phantom is gone, press A on the ball to collect a dose of Miasma.
- Hold B during a fight to see each phantom's health.
If your health reaches zero you fade away and see DEATH, then BUT NOT THE END (press A to continue). You come back with full health where you last entered the area. You keep everything you were carrying.
Gathering and crafting#
- Fiber (pale tufts): press A to pick it up.
- Wood (one sword hit) and Stone (four hits) can only be broken once you hold the breaking licence. Until then you get You lack the ability to break this.
- Chests open once. A log in the Long House gives a Key.
Crafting at a workbench#
The Community Center has a workbench. Face it and press A to open a 3×3 crafting grid with an output box on the right and a close box at the top left.
- Move the cursor with the D-pad. ▶ from the right-hand column moves to the output box; ▲ from the top row moves to the close box.
- A on a grid cell opens your inventory to pick an ingredient. Nothing is used up until you craft.
- B on a filled cell clears it; on an empty cell it jumps to the close box. Holding B for 1.5 seconds closes the workbench.
- When the grid matches a recipe, the result appears in the output box. Press A there to craft it.
Recipe: a circle, a square and a triangle, in any arrangement, make a Geometric Talisman.
Saving your progress#
Your items, health and story flags are saved only when CAT saves (see how saving works). If CAT loses power, progress since the last sleep or FORCE SAVE is lost. To start the story over, use Settings → DEVELOPER → CONTROLS → CLEAR GAME SAVE (this restarts CAT straight away).
Spoilers: the quest, characters and items#
The breaking licence (quest walkthrough)
- In Nowhere, talk to the wolf and take the radio. She asks you to find her at the Community Center.
- In the Community Center, the wolf explains that rocks and logs block the Headlands and that you need a breaking licence. She sends you to her brother.
- Her brother, the licensing clerk, wants 5 bundles of fiber and 2 doses of miasma. Ask him "Fiber?" or "Miasma?" for hints.
- Collect 5 Fiber from the tufts around the Headlands. Disturb a miasma ball, defeat the phantoms and take the Miasma. There are two balls.
- Return and choose [Relinquish]. He stamps your ID Card. From now on your sword breaks wood and stone.
The radio tower by Salt and Pepper's house broadcasts a locker code when you use LISTEN NEAR within range of it. You write it down as the Locker Code item.
Characters
- The wolf greets you in Nowhere and later waits in the Community Center. She is curious about where you both came from.
- Her brother, also in the Community Center, handles licensing.
- Reed, in Reed's House, is an inspector who takes notes on you.
- Mono stands outside, west of the town. His shop isn't open yet and he has lost about 200 rocks.
- Cube, Pyramid and Sphere are Mono's siblings: a fussy jeweller, a newcomer worried about rent, and a reader of a suspicious novel.
- Salt ("YO! BIRD!") and her brother Pepper are loud, and asking about couriers and radios.
- Willworm and Justright share the Long House and argue about feathers and coffee.
- Instandhalter, in the Flower House, suspects you broke something.
- The bush bear speaks in capitals and feels a "number-wind" from the east.
- Crabs wander the lower paths. They are harmless.
Items
| Item | Description on screen | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ID Card | Your identification. It is the mark of your belonging here. | Given at the start. INSPECT. |
| Radio | A sturdy radio. Its metal faces are reassuring. | Found in Nowhere. TOGGLE SCAN, LISTEN NEAR, LISTEN FAR. |
| Locker Code | 0314 | From the radio tower. |
| Key | A rather nondescript key. What lock awaits it? | From the log in the Long House. |
| Fiber | A bundle of hardy fibers. | Pale tufts. Licence ingredient. |
| Miasma | It seeks to kill you from within. | From miasma balls after the phantoms. Licence ingredient. |
| Wood | A short length of dense lumber. It makes a beautiful sound when you tap it. | Needs the licence. |
| Stone | A lump of hard grey stone. | Needs the licence. |
| Geometric Talisman | – | Crafted from circle, square and triangle. |