1. 😹 late catching

now the first 3 people to catch within 5 seconds of the original catcher will also get the cat, although without any boosts! "first-wins-all" was one of the most popular complaints on that one survey i did back in 2024.

here is a helpful table of what works and what doesnt when you are late:

• ✅ Progress of catnip bounties, cattlepass quests and /tutorial all trigger within 5s, even outside of 3 people limit

• ❌ Achievements; activations of catnip perks, prisms, blessings, etc (up to 3 late people will only get +1 unboosted cat)

2. 🎁 bonus cats

there is a small chance (around 6.5% on average, chance is higher for rarer cats) that a cat is a bonus cat. such a cat will have a minigame after its caught, in which you can get +3 more of it if you succeed. only people who caught the cat can play this minigame (this includes the initial catcher + late catchers, so max of 4 people).

each of 22 cats has a unique minigame associated with it.

there is also a new catnip perk which makes these bonus cats more likely (only activates for initial catchers)

both of the updates above can be rolled back via "Legacy Catching" toggle in /settings

3. ☔ rain

heres how these mechanics work during rain:

• the late catching window is reduced to 1 second

• bonus cats give +1 cat to everyone eligible instead of a minigame

• both are reflected in rain summaries

these changes were made to not slow down rains. like, i pinky promise they arent slower
unrelated, cat rains were also increased from ~21.818 to a nice round 22 cats per minute. this results in all rains having atleast +1 more cat, and then approx. +1 more for every 5 minute of length.