If you’ve spent dozens of hours building out your perfect Enshrouded base, filling it with crafting stations, decorative touches, and storage for all your looted resources, you’ve probably wished for a little extra personality to make the space feel like home. That’s where learning how to get a cat in Enshrouded comes in, it’s one of the most beloved hidden features in the game, and it’s far easier to unlock than most players assume. I spent three afternoons chasing wrong map markers and glitched quest triggers before I figured out the exact, working path to adopt a cat, so this guide skips all the guesswork to get your new furry friend settled in fast.
Prerequisite Quests You Need to Complete First to Get a Cat in Enshrouded
You won’t be able to trigger the cat adoption quest right at the start of the game, there are a few small mid-game boxes you need to tick first. None of them require beating tough bosses or grinding for rare loot, so you can knock them out in a couple of hours if you’re focused on unlocking your cat.
First, you need to unlocked the Glide Feather from the first Ancient Spire you activate in the starting biome. This lets you reach the high plateau where the stray cat spawns, since there’s no walking path up the steep cliffs surrounding the area. Second, you need to completed the "Missing Farmer" side quest that you get from the Carpenter NPC after you build your first three storage chests at your base. The quest requires you to clear a small level 10 Shroud camp north of the starting spire to free the Farmer, who then moves into your base and sets up a farming station. Third, you need to have at least 10 pieces of raw meat in your inventory when you head out to find the cat, as the skittish stray won’t approach you without a food offering.
One common mistake to avoid: Don’t try to find the cat before the Farmer is settled in your base. The quest trigger won’t activate even if you find the exact spawn spot, and you’ll just waste time wandering the area. You also don’t need any specific class or high gear score to complete this quest, as long as you can avoid the level 15 Shroud roamers on the path to the cat’s village, you’ll be fine.
Exact Location of the Stray Cat in Enshrouded
A lot of older early access guides list the wrong spawn point for the cat, so don’t waste time searching the eastern side of Revelwood like I did on my first attempt. The current live version of the game has the cat spawning in a half-burned abandoned village west of the Revelwood Ancient Spire.
Follow these exact steps to find the cat without getting lost:
- Fast travel to the Revelwood Ancient Spire, then glide due west for 400 meters until you spot the cluster of charred wooden huts on the hill above the river
- Head to the northmost hut in the village, and look for the broken wooden crate stacked next to the rotting front door
- Crouch when you get within 10 meters of the crate, so you don’t scare the cat hiding inside, and wait 5 to 10 seconds for it to emerge
If the cat doesn’t pop out after 10 seconds of waiting, leave the area and come back after 2 in-game days. The spawn occasionally glitches if you visited the village before completing the Missing Farmer quest, so a quick reset almost always fixes the issue. You’ll know you did it right when a small orange tabby walks out and rubs against your character’s leg, and a pop-up quest called “A Furry Friend” appears on the right side of your screen.
Steps to Complete the Cat Adoption Quest Successfully
Once the “A Furry Friend” quest pops up, the game will prompt you to give the stray cat the 10 pieces of raw meat you brought with you. Don’t use cooked meat for this step, it won’t count towards the quest requirement, and you’ll have to go hunt more boars or deer to get raw cuts before you can proceed.
After you hand over the meat, the cat will start following you automatically, and your next objective is to lead it safely back to your base. This is the step where most players mess up: You can’t fast travel while the cat is following you, or it will get lost, and you’ll have to go all the way back to the village to restart the quest. The cat only has 50 HP, too, so if a Shroud Stalker or zombie hits it once, it will run away and despawn back to the village, forcing you to start over.
So plan your route back to base ahead of time. I usually take the long, clear path along the river instead of cutting through the Shroud zone, it adds 10 minutes of travel time but saves me the headache of redoing the entire quest. If you’re playing co-op, only the player who initiated the quest can lead the cat back, but once it’s settled in the base, all players on the server get the perks of having it around, so it’s a fun group activity to do together.
Once you walk through the front gate of your base with the cat following you, you’ll get a notification that the quest is complete, and the cat will officially become a permanent resident of your space.
Perks of Having a Cat in Your Enshrouded Base
At first glance, the cat seems like just a fun cosmetic addition, but it actually comes with small but meaningful gameplay perks that make the short quest well worth your time. The most obvious perk is the personality it adds to your base: It will wander around your crafting stations, nap on your storage chests, and curl up next to you when you’re sitting down to eat a meal. You can also rename it when you interact with it, a little-known feature that lets you give it whatever name you want up to 12 characters.
Cats will scare away small rodent pests that used to eat 5% of your stored grain every in-game week, so you’ll save a ton of farming resources over time once you have one. That might not sound like a lot, but if you’re growing a lot of grain to make bread for healing, it adds up fast, and I found I only had to plant half as much grain after I adopted my cat.
You also get a useful buff when you sleep near the cat: If you rest in a bed within 10 meters of where the cat is napping, you’ll get a 10% stamina boost for 1 hour of real play time. That’s incredibly useful for long mining runs or exploration trips into high-level Shroud zones, and the extra stamina has saved me from falling to my death or getting caught by Shroud creatures at least half a dozen times. The only small downside is that the cat will occasionally knock small items like potions or crafting materials off your shelves, but it’s a tiny annoyance compared to the benefits.
At the end of the day, learning how to get a cat in Enshrouded is a fun, low-effort side activity that adds a ton of personality to your base and gives you small but meaningful gameplay perks. You don’t need to grind for hours or beat any tough bosses to unlock it, just follow the steps we laid out, take your time on the trip back to base, and you’ll have a new furry companion in no time. If you run into any spawn glitches, try reloading your save and waiting a couple of in-game days before heading back to the village, that fixes 90% of common issues players run into.