How this guide is built: Stray is a short, mostly linear adventure — you play a cat, and the main path is genuinely hard to get lost on. So a blow-by-blow “turn left, jump twice” transcript would be both spammy and beside the point. What actually trips people up is different: the systems the game never explains (how to be a cat, what B-12 does, Zurks versus Sentinels, the Defluxor), the missable collectibles packed into a few hub chapters that seal off once you board a certain boat, and the handful of fixed codes. This guide covers those properly — a systems primer, a chapter-by-chapter flow that solves every real puzzle without narrating every footstep, a complete collectibles-and-codes reference, and a spoiler-walled ending. Facts are cross-checked against the official Steam page (app 1332010), IGN’s wiki, two Game Rant guides, a full GameActuality walkthrough and six community Steam guides.
What is Stray?
Stray is a $29.99 third-person adventure by BlueTwelve Studio, a small team based in southern France, published by Annapurna Interactive and released on 19 July 2022 (PS5, PS4 and PC, with Xbox and Nintendo Switch ports following later). You play an ordinary ginger cat who falls into a sealed, decaying underground city populated entirely by robots — the Companions — long after the humans are gone. Lost and alone, the cat teams up with a small drone called B-12 and sets out to climb back to the surface.
It is a compact game — a focused playthrough runs roughly five to seven hours, less if you rush — built around atmosphere, light environmental puzzles, a few tense chase and stealth sequences, and the simple, irresistible joy of being a cat: knocking things off shelves, scratching the furniture, curling up for a nap and meowing at strangers. There is very little combat. Danger is something you mostly run from, hide from, or zap with a borrowed tool, not something you fight head-on.
How to be a cat: the controls the game barely explains
The single most important thing to understand about Stray’s movement is that jumping is contextual, not free-form. You can’t leap off a cliff to your death; the cat will only jump when the game highlights a valid target and shows the jump prompt. That changes how you play platforming sections entirely: when you’re stuck, you’re not failing a timing test, you’re failing to spot the next surface the game will let you jump to. Pan the camera, look for the prompt, and the route reveals itself.
Beyond moving, the cat has a kit of feline actions, some useful and some pure delight:
- Meow — on its own button. It draws attention, charms robots into petting and feeding you, and is occasionally the key to a puzzle (startling someone, or getting noticed).
- Scratch surfaces — carpets, doors, sofas, vinyl records. This is both flavour and the basis of the Territory achievement (a scratching spot in every chapter).
- Sleep / curl up in beds, baskets and cushions — cosy, and the way you nap next to the musician to loop his song.
- Knock objects off ledges and shelves — sometimes just for fun (paint cans, bottles), sometimes to reveal a hidden code panel or drop an item.
- Interact with the world and, once you have him, deploy B-12 to translate, hack, store memories and light dark spaces.
Nine lives, no game over screen to fear: the cat is fragile in the danger zones, but checkpoints are frequent and forgiving. Death just rewinds you a few seconds. Experiment freely.
B-12, your companion drone
You meet B-12 in Chapter 3 (The Flat), after the four-battery power puzzle opens a hidden room. From then on the little drone rides on your back and becomes your interface with a world built for hands and language that a cat doesn’t have. B-12:
- Translates robot speech and signage, so you can follow quests and read hints.
- Hacks locked doors, windows and computer terminals (often together with the cat scratching at wires).
- Lights dark areas with a built-in flashlight you can aim.
- Stores Memories — the 27 collectible flashbacks that slowly reveal who B-12 is and what happened to the city.
B-12 is more than a tool; the memories you gather are the emotional spine of the story, so it’s worth grabbing them as you go. Note that the drone gets damaged in the Sewers and captured in the Jail — both times you have to get him back before continuing.
The two threats: Zurks, Sentinels & the Defluxor
Almost all of Stray’s tension comes from two enemies, and knowing how each works removes most of the frustration:
- Zurks are small, fast, biting creatures that pour out of nests and swarm you. In the early chapters you have no weapon: the answer is to keep running toward the next neon marker, and if one latches on, mash the shake-off button to fling it before three or four pile on and overwhelm you. Bright light hurts them — you’ll lure them into UV lamps and roll explosive barrels into them in scripted spots.
- Sentinels (the flying drones with a single red eye, which some guides just call “drones”) appear later, in Midtown and the Jail. These are stealth enemies: they patrol fixed routes and pin you with lasers if spotted. You beat them by hiding in boxes, breaking line of sight, and timing your dashes between cover.
The game-changer is the Defluxor, a UV-light weapon you get from Doc in Chapter 7 (Dead End). It vaporises Zurks in a beam — but it overheats, so you fire in bursts and let it cool, especially in the Sewers gauntlet where nests come thick and fast. Aim, sweep, pause, repeat.
Collectibles that matter — and the point of no return
Here is the genuinely useful part of any Stray guide. Most collectibles are concentrated in the Slums-area chapters, and a single playthrough seals the Slums when you board Momo’s boat at the start of Chapter 8 (The Sewers). So finish the Slums to-do list before you leave. (Reassuringly, you can replay any completed chapter from the menu afterwards, so nothing is permanently lost — but it’s far less hassle to mop up before the boat.)
The five collectible tracks
| Collectible | Total | What it’s for / where |
|---|---|---|
| Memories (I Remember!) | 27 | B-12 flashbacks that tell the story. Spread across nearly every chapter, but clustered in the Slums, Antvillage and Midtown. |
| Sheet Music (Meowlody) | 8 | All in the Slums. Deliver every piece to Morusque the musician for the Music Badge. |
| Badges | 6 | Music, Outsider, Plant, Cat, Police and Neco badges — cosmetic pins earned by helping residents and finishing side-tasks. |
| Energy Drink Cans | 4 | From the four working vending machines in the Slums. Trade cans to the merchant Azooz (e.g. three for the Ancient Relic, which unlocks a Memory; one for a sheet of music). |
| Outsider Notebooks | 4 | Momo’s, Zbaltazar’s, Doc’s and Clementine’s — the main Slums quest (see Chapter 4). |
All 8 sheet music locations (Slums)
Each goes to Morusque, who pins them on the wall beside him so you can track what’s turned in; nap next to him and the completed tune plays. Note that resetting a chapter can wipe sheet-music progress, so deliver them before you leave.
| # | Title | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Petite Valse | Inside Momo’s apartment, in the dark room. |
| 2 | Ballad of the Lonely Robot | On a table near Clementine’s apartment. |
| 3 | Untitled | Inside Elliot Programming, first floor. |
| 4 | The Way You Compute Tonight | Bought from the merchant Azooz for one energy can. |
| 5 | Tomorrows | Upstairs in Dufer Bar, on a table. |
| 6 | Cool Down | Inside Clementine’s apartment. |
| 7 | Mildly Important Information | On the piano inside Doc’s apartment. |
| 8 | Unreadable Sheet Music | In the red safe at the end of Morusque’s street — code 1283 (see below). |
Every code in the game
All of Stray’s codes are fixed — the same for every player — so you can simply enter them. But each is solvable in-game, and half the fun is reading the room, so the “how” is here too.
| Code | Opens | How it’s found |
|---|---|---|
| 3748 | The Flat exit keypad (Ch 3) | Written on a board hidden behind a paint can above a shelf, in the room off the hallway. |
| 1283 | The Slums red safe (Sheet Music 8) | The safe’s note is a binary cipher; programmer Elliot points you to Dufer Bar, where knocking down the painting above the “BAR DUFER” sign reveals 1283. |
| 2511 | Doc’s lab (Ch 6) | Knock the photos off the table in Seamus’ apartment to find the panel and the hint “time will tell”; read the hour hands of the four stopped clocks → 2511. |
| 8542 | Midtown safe (Cat Badge) | Second store on the right; safe is atop the shelves. Ask the robot to translate the wall. Tip: some players read the symbols as 2458, but the working entry is 8542. |
| (key, not a code) | Doc’s secret safe (Slums) | Translate the note on Doc’s bed to find the physical safe key, then open the safe behind the bookshelves for his notebook. |
Chapter by chapter (spoiler-light)
Stray is divided into twelve chapters, replayable from the menu once unlocked. Below is the flow of each and the solution to every puzzle that actually stops people — without narrating every step, so the discovery stays yours. (Chapter names follow IGN’s wiki; a couple of guides use slightly different labels, noted where it helps.)
1. Inside the Wall
The tutorial. As the cat, explore your little group’s den, interact with the other cats, sleep to trigger the cutscene, then follow the group across the pipes. A collapse separates you and you fall into the depths. Just learn the movement — jump prompts, balance on pipes — and head for the lit doorway.
2. The Dead City
Platform through the ruined, overgrown city by following the lit signs. Fan puzzle: drop to the lower level, carry the bucket over and drop it into the big fan to jam the blades, then continue up. Knock a blue paint can through a window to drop into an apartment and meet a dying robot. This triggers your first Zurk chase — sprint along the neon trail to the window and don’t stop (this run is also the tricky Can’t Cat-ch Me achievement; capping your frame rate to 30 makes it far more reliable). At the final fan, cut its power on the side wall to pass.
3. The Flat
Four-battery puzzle: find and slot four power cells into the sockets under the control panel — one on a table, one on a cart you move with a wall lever, one on a bookcase opposite a camera, one up on a shelf reached via the cart. That opens a secret room: take the boxed object, set it on the marked platform, and you gain B-12. The exit keypad needs code 3748 (on a board behind a paint can). Leave by leaping into a bucket over a Zurk nest toward the white “house” neon.
4. The Slums
The first big hub. Alarms blare on arrival; meet the Guardian, show the postcard, and learn about the Outsiders. Find Momo by the orange neon sign — he gives his notebook and asks you to recover the other three Outsider Notebooks:
- Zbaltazar’s — rooftop to the left of Momo’s; pull the energy cell from the vents to drop in, knock down the box piles, grab the notebook, scratch the blind to leave.
- Doc’s — right of Momo’s (blue Outsiders sign). Translate the note on the bed for the safe key, then open the safe behind the bookshelves.
- Clementine’s — directly opposite Momo’s; the notebook sits on an old monitor by her computer.
This chapter is where you should do all the Slums collectibles (sheet music, memories, badges, cans). Return the notebooks to Momo; he repairs his transceiver and sends you up to the rooftops. Note Momo’s window also has a B-12 code, but you don’t need its value — B-12 cracks it for you.
5. Rooftops
A Zurk-heavy climb to the antenna tower. Herd Zurks using airlock controls, roll explosive barrels into clusters, and survive a tense elevator ride as Zurks pour in. Place the transceiver on the antenna at the top, then ride a bucket back down to Momo.
6. The Slums (Part 2)
Find Momo at Dufer Bar: you learn Zbaltazar lives, Seamus guards the sewer route, and Doc built an anti-Zurk weapon. Enter Doc’s lab via the clock puzzle (code 2511 from the four clocks’ hour hands). You get a broken tracker, which kicks off a fetch chain: Elliot will fix it but needs a poncho → Grandma knits one but needs an electric cable → the Trader has the cable but wants Super Spirit detergent → at the laundromat, meow from the roof to drop a paint can into the street, luring the manager out, then grab the detergent. Hand the repaired tracker to Seamus.
7. Dead End
Pick through Zurks and toxic green water (hop the beams and barrels). Find Doc and claim the Defluxor UV weapon; slot the fuse into the generator and solve the two-barrel power puzzle. Escort Doc out, clearing Zurks with the Defluxor — mind the overheat gauge — until the metal portal opens. Then meet Momo and board his boat.
8. The Sewers
The Defluxor gauntlet. Open gates for Momo with levers, blast every Zurk nest, and clear two red-screen electric-door locks. B-12 is damaged partway — revive him, then hack the ventilation between two fans to climb out toward Antvillage.
9. Antvillage
A vertical shanty built into a tree-shaft — climb the ladders, pipes and fans. Meet Zbaltazar, who directs you to Midtown to find Clementine. Take the metro to the city center.
10. Midtown
The stealth chapter. Decode Clementine’s address from her photo (the three symbols mean street / floor / door — 3rd floor, door 5). To enter the Neco Corp factory you must disguise Blazer: fetch a helmet (hat shop display) and a worker jacket (clothing store — smash the building’s three security cameras to earn a music tape, play it in the fitting room to lure the manager away, then take the jacket). Inside the factory, dodge the Sentinels and solve the atomic-pile tile puzzle (push two mobile boxes and a barrel onto the three lit tiles) to claim the atomic battery. Back at Clementine’s, gather the four message items; the message sends you to the club, where you’re crated and dropped into jail. The Midtown safe (code 8542) holds the Cat Badge.
11. Jail
Free Clementine (the cell key is in the lit room opposite, reached through the window) and rescue B-12 from the lasers (hit the lever in the bright zone to drop them). Then the drone-trapping puzzles: bait Sentinels into cells and seal them — first one, then all three at once — using the red lock boxes. Escape in the vehicle, then insert the atomic battery into the subway generator and start the train.
12. Control Room
The finale. Breach the control-room door by cooperating with B-12 across two panels and scratching the wires. Inside, jump across every keyboard to turn the central screens blue, then hack the three yellow-screen computers around the room, and finally set B-12 on the main workstation to open the city.
The ending
Spoiler warning: this section reveals how Stray ends. Skip to the video below if you’d rather see it for yourself.
With the central console turned and the yellow terminals hacked, the cat and B-12 work the great mechanism that has kept the city sealed. Along the way B-12 has recovered his own lost memories — the human he once was, and the weight of what became of humanity — and he reveals he always knew the cost: interfacing with the lockdown burns out his failing systems. With a last goodbye, leaving the future to the Companions and the cat, B-12 disengages the seal and falls lifeless to the floor. The cat curls up beside him to mourn, then the enormous shutters grind open and daylight floods in — light that also wipes out the Zurks and Sentinels that hunted you. Alone again but free, the cat steps out of the dead city and walks off toward the green world above, presumably to rejoin its own kind. It is a quiet, melancholy, hopeful close, and it lands all the harder if you’ve gathered the 27 Memories that explain who B-12 was.
Watch a full playthrough
For the chase and stealth sequences where seeing the route helps more than reading it, here is the official launch trailer to set the tone — and any full longplay will match the chapter flow above. Use video as a last resort: peek at the setup, then look away and finish the moment yourself.
Sources & credits
Game facts are from the official Stray Steam page (app 1332010, BlueTwelve Studio / Annapurna Interactive). Chapter structure, puzzle solutions, codes and collectibles were cross-checked against IGN’s Stray wiki, Game Rant’s Complete Guide and Chapter 4: The Slums guide, the GameActuality full walkthrough, and community Steam guides covering the codes & notes, all eight sheet-music locations, the cat’s actions, and the I Am Speed and Can’t Cat-ch Me achievements. The embedded video is the official STRAY | Launch Trailer by Annapurna Interactive. All explanations here are our own paraphrase written to teach the underlying ideas; follow the links above for the original authors’ full write-ups.