All About Not-Cats III: Life Stages

An Introduction to Not-Cats

As a not-cat grows, they go through a number of changes, both physically and in their stats and personality! In this article, we'll break down each stage of life and what it involves.

A not-cat's growth from conception to adulthood takes rather quite a while. Not-Cats grow slowly so that you can better appreciate each stage of life. You can watch your cat grow and learn and improve! The following is the general length of each phase.

Conception to Birth (Beanhood): 1 Week
Beanhood to Young Kittenhood: 4 Weeks (Day 0-27)
Young Kittenhood to Kittenhood: 4 Weeks (Day 28-55)
Kittenhood to Adolescence: 4 Weeks (Day 56-83)
Adolescence to Adulthood: 4 Weeks (Day 84-111)

All in all, it takes 16 Weeks for a not-cat to go from birth to adulthood.

Don't fret about the length of time, though. Kittens can be dressed up and have their own special jobs that they can perform, and adolescents will be able to work and go out on adventures. Appreciate your not-cat's happy youth, and give them much love so that they can grow the biggest and strongest they can.


The Babiest Baby Beans

All big, strong not-cats begin life as a humble bean. Just a few pixels in size, these tiny little creatures have a lot of growing to do before they are ready for adventure.

Acquiring your First Beans

Cats will naturally prompt to start friendships, relationships, and families through Daily Scenarios. In order for the "Start a Family of Beans" prompt to appear, two cats need to be partners and of compatible winds (North x South, North x Trade, South x Trade, or Trade x Trade).

If you have specific cats and pairs in mind, you can also use the Love Letter item (which can be crafted through the Scribe) to make two cats partners and then a Catmint Tea item (which can be crafted through the Apothecary) to prompt two partner cats to start a family of beans.

Litter Sizes and Lonely Kittens

When two parent cats decide to start a family, the chances are more often than not that they will have multiple kittens. Although it takes one week before the new bouncing beans are born, you will know how many kittens you are expecting right away as it will immediately subtract from your village catpacity. Litter sizes are, on average:

5% One Bean
60% Two Beans
34% Three Beans
1% Four Beans

With an average of 2.31 beans per litter. In not-cat culture, littermates are a distinct relationship different from just being siblings. Littermates share a close bond that is considered one of the most important a not-cat can have, especially since parent cats will only have maximum one litter per in-game year. That said, not all cats have littermates. Single kittens are called Lonely Kittens as they do not have any littermates. About 1 in 20 cats is born a Lonely Kitten. It is very common for parents of lonely kittens to raise their baby with another family's similarly-aged kittens, creating a pseudo-littermate relationship called an Adoptive Littermate. This way, Lonely Kittens are not quite so lonely. For this reason, adult cats that are friends sometimes choose to start their families at the same time, so that they can raise their beans together if they need to!

If your cats have given birth to a lonely kitten, you will find on that kitten's page an option to assign it adoptive littermates to play and grow with. Beans who reach Young Kittenhood while still Lonely will have a couple of their personality traits permanently altered. Lonely kittens are less brave and less extroverted than kittens that have littermates.

Being a Bean

As a bean, your cat won't have much of interest on their profile to look at. You can't dress them up, but you can change their pose and name! They won't have any personality or stat traits yet, so how they will grow up will be a surprise. While they can't really do much of anything at this point in their life, they are extremely cute, so do be sure to gently pat their little heads and appreciate their illegally tiny size while you can.


Kittenhood!

Young kittens and kittens look the same, but young kittens have lower stats and a more limited number of jobs they can perform. Both can be dressed in clothing! Kittens love to play and grow and learn, which is why they get plenty of time to try new things!

Growing Babies

Once beans grow into kittens, their personalities and archetypes appear in full! They will also begin displaying some sense of their stats. Their stats won't be very good, but they will give you a sneak peek of how they will be later in life.

Not all kittens grow their stats at the same rate. Within each cat's genetic string is a series of hidden genes that influences their growth rate. There are nine different growth patterns. You can reference the chart below to see what percent of their final stat each kitten will be at at various life stages.

On average, young kittens are at 25% of their total stats, kittens are at 50% of their total stats, and adolescents are at 75% of their total stats.

Being a Young Kitten

As a young kitten, baby not-cats will be able to perform a special job, just for them. This job is called Tiny Adventurer. Tiny Adventurers might bring back a stick, a leaf, or maybe even some crickets. They are better at finding trinkets than adult cats, because they have a special eye for toys and fun!

Being a Kitten

Once kittens grow a little and become older kittens, they'll have a variety of jobs to choose from, each with its own special features. These jobs are as follows:

Leaf Collector: This is the kitten equivalent of Gatherer.
Cricket Hunter: This is the kitten equivalent of Bug Catcher.
Garden Helper: This is a combination equivalent of Gardener, Herbalist, and Farmer.
Crafts Assistant: This is a combination equivalent of Clothier, Scribe, and Artist.


Adolescence

When cats reach adolescence, their art will now match the art of an adult not-cat. The only differences between an adult not-cat and an adolescent, are that the adolescent is still learning and has lower stats, and cats cannot have partners and families until they are adults. It is at the adolescent age that not-cats can first leave the village.


Adulthood

Once cats are adults, they can have partners, start families, and are at their full final stats. They can do anything a cat can do! You would think this would be the final cat stage, but in fact, there is one more...


Ascension

So what is it that really makes a not-cat different from a cat. Even if not-cats weren't house cats, there are many species of cat, so surely it is not such a reach to say that they are just a different species of cat, right?

Well, the biggest difference, not mentioned in previous articles, distinguishing not-cats from normal cats is the final life stage, beyond adulthood, called ascension. Rather than 'aging' in a normal sense, not-cats simply grow more and more unstoppably powerful. Once they are at a certain level of power, they are able to make a pact with one of the Guardians, allowing them to ascend to their final form.

Ascended cats get a 1d6 boost to each of their stats, but as a trade-off, ascending is making a commitment. Ascended cats are no longer able to perform their day jobs as they have more important business to do, exploring and defending the forest, communing with the guardians, and so on. Ascended cats are also no longer able to have biological families of beans (though they can still adopt). The best use of an ascended cat is in adventuring. They are excellent at battling monsters, exploring the world, and going out to find their not-cat destinies.

When cats ascend, their appearances change as well. When you ascend a cat, you will get to choose a number of new features to add to your cat, depending on which Guardian they make a pact with.

Features of Cats Ascended to Nestor:
- Choose from a variety of antlers in various sizes and colors
- Choose to optionally add additional eyes to your not-cat
- Choose a halo of gold or silver
- Choose to optionally add one of two styles of wings in a variety of colors