Stray players are swapping in their own cats

The heartfelt cat mods are off to a great start

While Stray has a set-in-stone look for its adventurous orange tabby, if you’re playing the game on PC, there are some convincing mods to alter the look of the “purr-tagonist.”

Chris already highlighted a funny Garfield mod, and Eric nudged me to mention a cursed “joke mod” that squishes Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas star CJ into a cat-shaped body. After all the laughs, it’ll be nice to have some realistic alternate coats. It’s early days on Nexus Mods, but Stray fans have already replicated their own cats in the game.

Poking around the site, I found Stray cat mods for a tuxedo, calico, gray tabby, tortie, siamese, and even a sphynx. A creator named Hacktix uploaded some commissioned mods based on other players’ real cats, and their own, Jessy. My heart is melting.

Another good one: Antonio El Gato, from modder Angeloloo — it’s “a texture edit of the main cat but instead it’s my cat Antonio.” And yes, the mod page includes a few real-world shots for comparison. The wholesome levels are off the charts with this game.

Pick of the Litter, a multi-coat mod from SpaceD0lphin, has some lovely hand-painted designs. I’m sure a lot of people will be looking for a classic black cat.

Installing these mods should be as simple as extracting the files and dropping them into the game’s install directory on your PC. (steam\steamapps\common\Stray\Hk_project\Content\Paks, for instance.) I’m excited to see how the scene grows from here.

One of my favorite parts of reviewing Stray on Destructoid was seeing readers share a bunch of heartwarming cat pics — y’all flooded the comments with the best possible show-and-tell. Since then, I’ve seen disappointment that the game lacks customization, and while I’d have a hard time playing through this occasionally tense, perilous, monster-filled game with a cat resembling our own little troublemaker, I do get the appeal.

Mods or no mods, it sure is nice to rally around a game like Stray, isn’t it?