Steam · Windows, macOS, Linux · phones to follow
A fast action roguelike about a cat, a bow, and a horde that never stops. Twenty-minute runs, two bosses each, loot to carry home.
Closed playtest build 0.1.0-alpha · $4.99 at launch, more after Early Access
The theme
You are a cat. Everything that ever chased one is here, in order of how much it wants you.
Toadstools that burst into spore trips, pixies that dart through you, bog toads with a tongue that reels you in, thorn boars, treants whose roots grab your feet, owls out of the canopy. Pretty. Poisonous. Home to the Bramblehorn and Queen Thistlewing.
The real enemies of cats: sand vipers that burrow and erupt under you, wasps, scorpions with a stunning tail slam, jackal packs that circle and howl, a monitor lizard, a coyote alpha rallying the pack. Sun, sand, and the Scarab Sovereign.
What cats fear most: household horrors. Robo-vacs that beep and ram, dust bunnies, a cucumber that only moves while you aren’t looking, spray bottles, a sprinkler golem, the haunted vacuum that eats your loot, and Schrödinger’s kitten. Ends on a vampire jester or a many-eyed thing with lasers.
The run
The clock never changes. You do. Every run starts at the campfire and ends with a boss dead or a cat dead. A dead cat keeps its levels, its loot and half its coins.
Quests
Hidden until you walk into them. Every one pays in cards, coins and loot, and every one you fail costs you ten percent of your damage for the rest of the run.
Four zones per map. Stand in one and packs come in formations (a wedge of ghouls, a ring of vipers, a pincer) led by elites, the last one biggest. Leave for three seconds and it’s lost.
Five waves of forty from every side, then the Siege Lord: twice the size, a ground slam, a charge and a war horn that rallies the survivors.
A lost survivor walks to the campfire as long as you stay close. Everything a monster throws hits it too.
A palisade across a real cut in the rock, a shrine behind it, forty seconds of walkers. Eight breaches and it falls.
Five totems around an altar that summons something every two seconds. Break them before the fuse or a Ritual Horror is born.
A WANTED elite that runs a random path through the map the moment it sees you. Sixty seconds.
Also on the map: shrines (eight blessings, thirty seconds each), keys and hidden vaults, runestones that wake when you touch them, exp tornados, bat swarms, and the master zone that rises when all four zones are secured: three waves for a guaranteed legendary.
Cats
Each with three skill trees that feed each other like Diablo II synergies, and a hotbar you grow from two slots to six.
Sharpshot · Wildcraft · Stormcall
Multi-nock volleys, a hunting falcon that circles you, snares and caltrops, arrows that fork lightning. Your first cat.
Fire · Cold · Lightning
Meteors, blizzards, chain lightning, a hydra you leave behind. Fragile, fast, devastating.
Unlocks after 25 runs
Combat · Throwing · Warcries
Whirlwind, leap attacks, thrown axes that come back. Fury builds on kills; physical damage ignores every resistance.
Unlocks with any cat at level 25
Loot
Items are not a per-kill lottery. The clock deals one every minute or so, twice as often while you are still small. Luck barely changes how many; it changes how good. Bosses drop two rares. Vaults hide one behind a key.
Eleven slots: weapon, shield, helm, shoulders, armor, belt, legs, boots, two rings, an amulet. Every base carries a signature stat of its own; the ladder of bases marches with your level, so a Leather Cap retires when the Kabuto shows up.
Item level is your level, give or take three. You cannot wear what is above you; it waits in the bag. Magic and better roll +N to a skill of your class; legendaries always do.
One unique per skill. A Pyre Wand is strong on its own; with Fire Bolt at rank 9 it fires three bolts in a spread. Sunstone makes Fire Ball leave burning ground. The rest empower their skill outright.
Boons
A run level lands every minute or so and deals three cards. Pick one. They stack for twelve minutes and vanish with the run, so the same cat plays a different build every time, and a pro can reach the final boss on a fresh save through cards alone.
+25% fire damage
15% chance to cast skills twice
Heal 2 HP per kill
Odds: magic one in three, rare one in ten, legendary one in a hundred, and luck multiplies everything above common, up to three times over. Second Chance ranks from the shop reroll a hand for free; after that it costs run coins.
Commit. Pyromancy pays more than plain Damage at the same rarity: the game rewards a cat that picks a tree and stays in it. Skill cards raise a skill past its permanent rank for the run.
Twin SoulEvery skill casts twice, but mana costs +40%.
Phoenix HeartOnce this run: death revives you at 60% HP and everything around you burns.
Chronomancer's EyeCooldowns halved, +30% cast speed.
Midas Touch+200% coins, +10 luck.
SoulstormKills heal 3, restore 3 mana and burst for 15% of the victim's max HP.
Titan's Grip+60% attack size, projectiles pierce two more enemies.
Grand Mastery+2 levels to every active skill for this run.
Glass Cannon+75% damage, +25% cast speed, but 40% less max HP.Dying
Catacrawl is a roguelike the way the survivors-likes are: a run is short, the horde always wins eventually, and what you carry out of a death is the point. Nothing about a lost run is wasted.
NormalThe baseline. Beat a stage here to unlock the next one and its Nightmare.
NightmareEvery monster attacks with an element and resists one. Elites everywhere.
HellHalf your armour, your resistances stripped, one monster in ten immune to something.The Fairy Forest: toadstools, pixies, bog toads, thorn boars · The Desert: sand vipers, wasps, scorpions, jackal packs · The Abyss: household horrors: robo-vacs, spray bottles, a haunted vacuum.
Two bosses per stage
Every attack is telegraphed. The second one of each pair is the level.
Public leaderboards
Two boards, straight from the game. Fastest clears per rung: the run clock when the final boss dies. It spawns at 12:30, so nothing under that exists. The ladder: the highest rung you have cleared, ties by your time on it. One row per player and rung; your best stands, your name is yours to change, and nobody has to make an account. A daily seeded run is next.
| # | Player | Cat | Rung | Time | Level | Kills | When |
|---|
Times come from the game itself: a win posts your clear if you turned the leaderboard on (Settings › Privacy). Change your name in the game's Leaderboard screen; your rows follow.
Where this is going
The playtest build is the game as it stands today. The rest is the order it will happen in. Say what should move up.