Hit-Point’s Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector may have launched back in 2014 but for cat lovers who have yet to check this relaxing casual game out, it is not too late to jump in on the cat collection craze. With a total of 44 regular cats and 22 rare cats to attract and take pictures of, you will certainly have a lot of fun and excitement as you wonder which of these adorable and unique felines will come and visit your yard next.
Like every addictive casual mobile game, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector banks on an over simplistic gameplay mechanics, ensuring that it can be picked up and enjoyed by just about anyone. The basic idea is to leave some snacks in your yard as well as some playthings and random cats will come to visit. Collecting cats in Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector does not mean having them stay with you for good. The idea is that cats will come and go but as long as there is still some snack around in your yard, you will have an opportunity to take photos of them for you to collect and keep.
As many as the cats are in Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, there are even more playthings or goodies for you to purchase and collect. With an expandable and customizable yard where you have the liberty as to which set or mix of goodies to put in, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector is as much of a decorator game as it is a cat collector game. Different combinations and mixtures of snacks and playthings can affect the variety of cats you attract to your yard. While some goodies can be attractive to some or most of your feline visitors, there are unique ones that are sure to attract pickiest of the furry bunch.
Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector’s introductory tutorial is quicker and simpler than most in-game tutorials you encounter. Appropriately enough, it covers all the basics every player needs to know and understand to start filling up their cat books and cat albums. If you have just started diving into the fun and fuzzy world of this game, we got your back as our Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector Guide covers every tip and strategy you need to earn fish faster and collect everything!
1. Keep Food Bowls Filled Up
As simple as this concept sounds, this is actually a challenging feat to sustain, especially if you aim to see and take photos of some rare cats. Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector makes it very easy for players by giving an unlimited supply of Thrifty Bitz. From the name itself, you know that it is the cheapest cat food there is as it is free. While Thrifty Bitz is enough to lure in almost every regular cat, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector provides 5 more snack brands that can attract cats faster or even attract rare ones. Thrifty Bitz can last for 8 hours.
If you are aiming to earn as many fish and gold fish in Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, it is very important to ensure that there are always available snacks in your yard. While different goodies and playthings do attract different cats, what makes them all stay is the food. If you run out of feline treats, then every cat is bound to leave your yard regardless of how many or how expensive the playthings in there are.
Cats give you fish and gold fish with every visit and the longer each one stays, the more they leave behind for you. In this sense, ensuring that there is always food around is not just a gesture of love for your furry friends but an investment as well to earn more fish and purchase more goodies for them.
Frisky Bitz is the only feline snack you can purchase with fish. Each serving costs 30 fish. Although it may sound a bit expensive for complete beginners, you will naturally be able to continuously afford this especially if you visit your virtual yard regularly enough. Frisky Bitz can definitely attract more cats than Thrifty Bitz and will last for 6 hours.
The cheapest premium feline snack is the Ritzy Bitz, costing 3 gold bananas per serving and lasts for 3 hours. It is described to make cats appear out of thin air and it can certainly attract more cats over the 2 previous snacks. Both the Bonito Bitz and Deluxe Tuna Bitz are also premium canned treats that cats love almost proportionately with their price tags. Bonito Bitz costs 7 gold fish per serving while Deluxe Tuna Bitz costs 12 gold bananas per serving. Like Ritzy Bitz as well, both will last for 3 hours.
Finally, there is Sashimi that you can also purchase for 5 gold fish per serving. It is said that it is not for everyone and are only for cats with expensive tastes. It is also described as being loved by certain rare cats although we only know Tubbs as being one who loves Sashimi. Like all other premium feline snacks, Sashimi will last for 3 hours.
Having an idea of each available type of snack along with their given effects and respective costs is just half of what you need to know about them. Since we have laid out the duration each snack lasts, the recommended action to take is to note these time spans and make sure to visit your cat yard before the food bowls are completely empty. If you happen to come by and see a food bowl half full or at any time before all the snacks are gone, you can always readily fill it up. However, replenishing snacks go by serving, which means that even if it is almost full you will still consume a full amount of serving in replenishing it.
Relative to premium cat snacks that cost gold fish, we also recommend purchasing them in bulks. This will save you a lot of gold fish and knowing that gold fish is a premium currency that is much more difficult to earn than regular fish, every bit of it you have is precious. As an example, purchasing a serving of Bonito Bitz costs 7 gold fish, which means that getting 3 of these will cost you 21 gold fish. If you purchase by bulk, which is a 3-pack, it will only cost you 17 gold fish.
If you are financially capable of purchasing premium cat snacks, it should also mean that you are fairly certain you can visit your virtual yard more often within the time frame those snacks are in place. While having premium snacks in your yard does not absolutely guarantee a visit from one of the rare cats, each one is also capable of attracting more cats than the usual number Thrifty Bitz would attract within the same period of time.
2. More Cats Mean More Gifts
We mentioned in our introduction that you actually do not collect cats by keeping them with your forever. Your yard, while expandable, will naturally have limits as to how many cats it can accommodate simultaneously. Since every cat that comes to visit offers you fish as gifts for their short stay with meals and playthings, you would naturally want your yard to be literally littered with as many of your feline companions as you can squeeze in.
To start off, you will have 5 specified spots within your yard to place goodies of your choice. Although you may not have as many items in your inventory at the early part of your adventure, you will be surprised at just how fast your selection of goodies will expand over time. You can visit the shop through the main menu (paw print) icon at the upper left side of the screen. The shop is where you can get your supply of different cat snacks and holds all sorts of goodies to purchase for your feline pals.
All non-food items in the shop can only be purchased once as these are non-consumables and a copy will suffice for you to use forever. On the photo of each non-consumable item, you will either see an “S” or an “L” indicating the size of the item as being either small or large. You can only place 1 large item at your yard and will only be able to place another one after purchasing the yard expansion. Large goodies will take up 2 spaces in your yard, which means that you will either place 5 small goodies or 1 large item and 3 small ones.
Small objects can only be used by a maximum of 2 cats and some can even accommodate just 1. Large goodies are always usable by at least 2 cats, with some being enough to entertain 6 cats a time. Tubbs, the rare chubby cat, is a bit of an exception in that he will occupy the Giant Cushion on his own, which is supposedly good for 2 cats to share.
There are hundreds of toys and play pens for you to purchase and add to your collection and any cat lover will certainly want to have everything being sold by the shop. With limited funds, though, it will certainly take a long while for you to be able to purchase everything. As such, it is best to consider prioritization in terms of which items to add to your collection first, particularly premium items that cost gold fish.
Considering prioritizations, you should naturally consider being able to acquire a large item and 3 items first. This is to ensure that you can have as many cats to visit your yard and leave gifts that you will reinvest back to purchasing goodies. Wanting to catch a glimpse of any of the rare cats is certainly an exciting part of your experience in Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector, but even when it comes to that, a strategic and prudent approach towards managing your fish is necessary.
If you have enough or a little more than enough toys or playthings in your collection and can consistently fill up your yard, your gold fish should be saved and your first premium purchase should be the yard expansion. The yard expansion costs 180 gold fish, which is certainly a lot, but considering that it will double your yard space to accommodate twice as many kitties should keep you very driven towards pursuing it.
The yard expansion might actually be a little different than anyone would expect as the expansion is arguably not a part of a yard but rather an indoor space. Just the same, its main effect is that it gives you twice as any spaces for toys as well as cat snacks. This means that you can use 2 varieties of cat snacks simultaneously as well as deploy 2 large toys with 1 for each side of the yard. With this set up, provided that you have at least 2 large toys and 6 small ones, you can have as many as 24 different cats at one time.
3. Take Caution In Remodeling And Auto-Setting
Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector offers a wide range of possible events given unique possible combinations of cats and activities they do with the toys you leave in the yard. How you mix up goodies in the yard and the pictures you choose to take and keep make the experience different from one person to another. Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector still offers more items to tinker with, bringing extra layers of experience for avid cat photo collectors and remodeling your yard is one of them.
Under the main menu, be sure to check on the “Other” option, specifically the “Remodel” option. This will take you to the Remodel page where you can see and purchase 6 other styles for your garden. While the original style or the default garden setting is pretty neat, seeing your furry pals in a Zen Style or Modern Style yard, among other things, will surely be an added treat. Each new garden style costs 280 gold fish and like non-consumable goodies will be available for you to switch to any time once you make the purchase.
Remodeling will not have any added impact or benefit to your cat-collecting or fish-earning activities. These are very much exclusively cosmetics aimed towards adding more color to your collecting adventure. Remodeling can be a quick way to give your yard an instant makeover, though, and while you may expect a mere background change when you shift to a different yard style, you would be surprised that all the goodies placed will randomly be altered as well.
This works very much like the Auto-Set button you can find inside the “Goodies” menu. Clicking on it will instantly keep all toys that are out and replace them with random items you have in your inventory. Both remodeling and auto-set will not touch snack bowls and even some of the current items may be placed again, especially if you do not have a lot of items in your goodies inventory yet.
You need to take some caution when you use either the remodel or the auto-set feature because when you put a toy away, the visiting cat or cats using the toy will leave. They will still give you the time’s worth of playing with those toys in fish but there will be some lost opportunity to lose more, especially if a lot of felines are currently nesting in your yard. Although there is an equal opportunity to attract a new batch of cat visitors with every remodel or auto-set, always be aware of the fish you could lose for making cats leave prematurely.
4. Manage And Update Your Catbook Efficiently
Although having more information on your Catbook has no impact on your earnings whatsoever, collecting details, photos, and mementos from each of your furry visitor is at the core of what makes Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector and exciting and engaging adventure. Within the Cats section of the main menu, you will find your Catbook along with your Album and collection of Mementos. These are what we can consider as priceless collections and separate from the goodies you also collect since the latter can all be bought.
There are 17 pages in your Catbook and has a slot for each of the 66 cats. Cats who have not yet paid you a visit will have an icon of a silhouette with a question mark and have no names as well. If a cat has visited but you have not been around to see them, they will have a lighter silhouette with their name and date of visit. Cats who have visited and have their photos taken will initially have their face on their respective slot but you can change this to any of your favorite photos of them. Note that the last 22 slots are for the rare cats so hopefully, you won’t miss the chance of meeting them in their visits.
You can click on any cat icon to check more details about them. To assign a profile picture to the cats you already have a photo of, simply tap on the album button at the lower right side of the page. Simply tap on your favorite photo of them twice to mark it as the best shot and that photo will be used as the cat’s profile picture.
The top 3 goodies used as well as the number of visits are variable data that will change as you progress in your adventure. The cat’s description like its fur color or attire as well as both its personality and power level will be constant. Some players may have initially believed that a cat’s personality and power level will have an actual, observable impact on how long they will stay in your yard or how they will behave.
However, both are just added details to further promote each cat visitor’s uniqueness. You will not be able to click on the profiles of cats who have not visited your yard. For those who visited and left while you were away, you will still see their description as well as the goodies that they used.
A full list of cats as well as profiles for each with your favorite photo simply will not suffice as you would naturally want more photos of each cast as much as possible. Thankfully, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector provides a specific album for each cat as well as an extra album where you can keep miscellaneous pictures not suitable for any specific cat’s album.
Each cat’s album contains 3 pages and can store up to 18 photos by default. The Free Album, on the other hand, has 12 pages and can hold a total of 72 photos. Just like in real life, if you love to take pictures then you are likely to want to have a clean and organized album for them as well.
Inside the album, you can erase or move a photo by tapping on them and then hitting the corresponding button at the top of the screen. With so many cats to take photos of, you are likely to take loosely similar photos so be sure to take time to remove duplicate photos to have more free spaces for future pictures.
In case you have completely filled up a cat album and still need more space for incoming photos, you can purchase an extra album page that can hold 6 more photos at the cost of 10 gold fish each.
5. Target The Rare Cats One At A Time
Most especially if you visit your virtual yard as often as you can, you will soon fill up the first 44 slots of your Catbook as regular cats can be attracted by several items. Although one of the regular cats, Peaches is deemed by many as the most challenging regular cat to attract to your yard, she does react to a huge list of goodies and likewise gets enticed by just about any type of snack. Again, rare cats can largely be identified by descriptions that are obviously depictive of their uniqueness and will interact uniquely with the special item or items that are attractive to them.
Tubbs is the easiest to attract among the rare cats and is unique in shape being a real chonker. He is also the only cat who can rest in the food bowl spot as he will completely empty a food bowl when he arrives. He will visit if you have Frisky Bitz, Ritzy Bitz, or Sashimi in the food bowl and he can visit as well if you put out the Giant Cushion or its white variant.
Joe DiMeowgio sports a cool Baseball Player outfit and this gives away what can attract him to pay you a visit. The baseball only costs 90 fish at the shop so it is fairly easy to purchase it and try to lure Joe DiMeowgio into visiting. Unlike all other cats who would play with the baseball, Joe will only stand next to it while holding his baseball bat.
Up next is Señor Don Gato who is dressed a little like the protagonist in Puss in Boots. This can be a little hard to guess but Don Gato will only visit your yard if you have the Mister Mouse toy out in the yard. The Mister Mouse toy costs 140 fish in the store so it is still fairly easy to save up and purchase it for Señor Don Gato.
Xerxes IX will most likely remind you of a Persian king and he is one of those rare cats that will require you to spend some gold fish just to try and attract. Xerxes IX will visit your yard if you have either the Royal Bed or the Zanzibar Cushion. The former costs 43 fold fish while the latter will only require you to cough up 20 gold fish.
Chairman Meow has a pot for a helmet, giving a good clue as to how you can make him visit your yard. One of the items that will attract him is the Earthenware Pot and the other is the Sunken Fireplace. One of his unique features is that he is the only cat who can serve as the fourth visitor using the Sunken Fireplace. The Earthenware Pot costs 20 gold fish while the Sunken Fireplace has a more expensive price tag of 70 gold bananas.
Saint Purrtrick may strike as cute for some while scary for others with his glowing eyes. It may be hard to notice at first but he also has 2 tails and is apparently a Nekomata or a Yokai cat. He will visit your yard if you have either the Silk Crepe Pillow or the Kotatsu out. The former only costs 20 gold fish while the latter has a 60 gold fish price tag.
The fur pattern of Ms. Fortune may not resemble any cat in real life but her pose will certainly be familiar to a lot of people as she is like the lucky cat statues commonly found in Asian stores. I could be a challenge to guess as well but Ms. Fortune will visit your yard if you have the Cardboard Dollhouse out, which costs 40 gold fish.
Bob the Cat is a bobcat that wields a pickaxe and will stand proudly atop either the Cat Metropolis or the Rustic Cat Tower. Both these items cost 50 gold fish and are basically the same cat playpen with different color schemes.
Conductor Whiskers wears a conductor’s hat and also gives players a good enough idea as to what to put out to attract him to visit. If you guessed it right, the first item is the Twisty Rail toy and the second one is the Cardboard Choochoo. The former costs 20 gold fish and the latter costs 60 gold fish.
If the name Mr. Meowgi does not remind you of any fictional character, then you are probably one of the few people who have yet to see The Karate Kid movies. Mr. Meowgi wears a kimoto just like a sensei and he will visit your yard if you have the Sakura Pillow or the Scratching Log. The Sakura Pillow costs 220 fish while the Scratching Log costs 30 gold fish.
Lady Meow-Meow certainly has a star appeal much like Lady Gaga whom she seems to be largely based on. This superstar cat will pay you a visit only if you have purchased the Luxurious Hammock that costs 35 gold fish.
Guy Furry very much appears like chef with a similar sounding name from the Food Network. He will come visit your yard when either the Glass Vase or the Heating Stove is out. The Heating Stove costs 600 fish while the Glass Vase is even more expensive at 750 fish.
Kathmandu seems to take its name from the capital of Nepal and even wears a Daura Suruwal, which is the national outfit of Nepalese men. He will pay your yard a visit if you have either the Temari Ball or the Lacquered Bowl, which both costing 25 gold fish.
Ramses the Great looks very much like a Sphinx and likewise gives you an easy clue as to what would make him pay you a visit. The Tent with the pyramid design is the only item that will make him drop by and it costs 190 fish.
Sassy Fran comes all dressed up like a waitress and even has a serving pan to complete her costume. If you want her to visit, you need to purchase and deploy the Cardboard Café, which costs 50 gold fish.
Billy the Kitten, based on Billy the Kid, has a cowboy hat and a bandana much like a wild western character. If it is not apparent enough, you can make him pay you a visit by setting down the Cowboy Hat in your yard. This will cost you 400 fish.
Frosty is another unique cat even by rare cat standards considering that he is the only one from among them that can be attracted to your yard by a wide variety of goodies provided that it is a snowy day. The Basket Case, Cool Aluminum Pad, Large Cooling Pad, and Sakura Pillow are just some of the many beds he will sit on. On days were there is no snow, however, Frosty will only visit you if you have a Snowy Pillow around and it also only costs 220 fish.
Sapphire and Jeeves are the only rare cats that will always visit you together dressed like an aristocrat lady and her butler, respectively. The Fairytale Parasol, which costs 55 gold fish, undeniably has a classy appeal that matches the duo’s appearance. These couple can also visit you if you have the Tower of Treats, which costs 900 fish.
Bengal Jack appears to be a Bengal dressed as a pirate. Like all other pirates, what comes to mind to have some around is a treasure chest so having the Luxury Treasure-box, which costs 20 gold fish, will eventually reward you a visit from this rare cat. Since Jack will just stand next to the Luxury Treasure-box, he can come visit even if another cat is using it.
On one hand, the cat ninja, Whiteshadow can pay your yard a visit so long as you have snacks other than the Thrifty Bitz. On the other hand, though, what makes him as the toughest rare cat to see is that no items attract him and will appear on random places in your yard not particularly using any of the goodies you have. Since he is also the rare cat that stays for the shortest period of time, it will also be difficult to chance upon being able to take a photo of him.
Last but not the least, Hermeowne is like the cat version of Hermione from the Harry Potter series and will come visit if you have the Nightview version of the Eggbed, which costs 38 gold fish. Hermeowne is the only cat with a memento that can be activated. Using it while your yard is empty will attract a random cat and can be used 4 times, taking 10 days to fully replenish.
Having a solid idea of which goodies are required to entice which cats will help you attract the correct rare cats and given that some of them can be attracted by 2 items, you will be able to set better prioritization as to which ones to purchase from the store first.
Although we consider purchasing some items at the start of your journey to be able to fill up your yard followed by a grind for yard expansion, going for the goodies mentioned above is a good strategy to consider next since these items will not just be attractive to the rare cats you are targeting, but several other regular cats as well.
6. Extra Fish And Advanced Fish
Despite being a simple and straightforward casual game, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector promises to provide long hours of fun and excitement as you ceaselessly collect not just photos of all 66 cats but potentially every purchasable item at the shop as well. With price tags on each item you can purchase accessible even at the start of your adventure, you should have a solid idea of how much time and work will be needed to finally have a complete collection.
While regularly and consistently laying playthings as well as leaving snacks for your feline buddies will earn you a decent amount of both fish as well as gold fish, Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector provides an extra means for you to earn some currencies on a daily basis. To initiate this, you have to access the news through its icon on the main menu. A Daily Password will be shown on the wooden board at the top of the pop-up window.
Take note of the password and access the “Connect” feature inside the “Other” feature under the main menu and type the same after clicking on the “Input Password” inside. After you do, you will instantly receive 15 fish and 1 gold fish as a reward. Additionally, doing this 5 times will earn you a free Ritzy Bitz as well.
While securing the daily password to claim some free fish daily requires an internet connection, you can actually play Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector completely offline. While the game also relies on internet connectivity for season changes based on the weather conditions in Japan, the rest of its features are available to enjoy even without turning on your Wi-Fi or mobile data.
Not requiring an internet connection leads to an old cheat method that works with offline games that have time elements and if you are the type of player who prefers only legit grinding, then feel free to skip this part. Otherwise, be ready to tinker with your device’s date and time settings as it is a key to obtaining fish gifts on an advanced basis in Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector.
What we are talking about here is the time skip or time warp cheat that basically lets you move forward in time in the game. As bizarre as it may sound like, this cheat is basically used to skip waiting times and take you to when you exactly need to be, more specifically a future time where you reap some rewards.
As an example, you can place some snacks in your hard while keeping in mind how long it will last. Exit out of the game and proceed to your device’s date and time settings. Adjust the time close towards the time before the snacks run out and claim gifts left by the cats who visited. This could most likely still leave some cats around if you still have snacks and Tubbs did not drop by before then. You can simply repeat this cycle for as many times as you need until you have enough fish and gold fish.
And that pretty much covers all the tips, tricks, and strategies we have for you on our Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector Guide. We surely hope that all these will prove very useful in helping you amass fish at a rapid pace as well as complete your collection faster and more efficiently. If you happen to uncover some unique and cool tricks in addition to what we discussed above, be sure to drop us a message down below!
Bubbles
Monday 25th of July 2016
I've been playing this game for a few months and I just love it. I have all the rare cats and are now just trying to collect all their mementos. Hang in there and you'll get them all.