Cat Plays in Where Winds Meet turn the game’s cats into small but important exploration objectives. Each kitten you find and pet counts as a Sentient Being, raises your friendship with that cat, and feeds directly into your Area Exploration and Exploration Attribute progress.
The open world doesn’t mark these kittens clearly, and they’re easy to miss even if you clear main quests and side content. The locations cluster around two early regions: Qinghe and Kaifeng.
How Cat Plays work
Cat Plays are interactable cat NPCs scattered across the map. When you approach a Cat Play kitten, a “pet” interaction appears. Using it does three things:
- Improves your friendship with that specific cat.
- Adds the kitten entry to the Sentient Beings Collection in your journal.
- Grants Area Exploration and Exploration Attribute rewards tied to that region.
Cat Play kittens are separate from Meow Meow cats. Meow Meows give puzzles and tasks, while Cat Plays are purely about interaction and exploration, with no extra mini‑quest on top.
All Qinghe Cat Play locations
Qinghe holds the bulk of the early Cat Plays. There are 21 kittens spread across the region’s subareas, from cliffs and farms to docks and town back alleys.
| Kitten | Subregion / Area label | Location description |
|---|---|---|
| Daylily | Bamboo Abode / Northern Bamboo Grove | On a cliff edge near two wooden bridges, southeast of the Northern Bamboo Grove boundary stone. |
| Rainbowback | Battlecrest Slope | Inside a small open shed south of the Oddity Collector. |
| Cloudlump | Battlecrest Slope / Northern Vow Ruins | At an outdoor cooking area west of the Northern Vow Ruins, on the sand and grass. |
| Bighead | General's Shrine | Behind the compound, near the back door on mossy stone slabs. |
| Shadowthief | General's Shrine | Around the back of the same compound as Bighead, also on the rear stone platform. |
| Patchwork | Stonewash Strand | Close to the Stonewash Strand boundary stone, near a campfire and small docks. |
| Petal Cyclone | Heaven's Pier / Moonveil Mountain Wayfarer | Immediately to the right of the Moonveil Mountain Wayfarer’s campfire at Heaven’s Pier. |
| Silent Drum | Heaven's Pier | At the inner corner of one of the docks in Heaven’s Pier. |
| Twin Tufts | Heaven's Pier | Next to the General Shop Merchant in the Heaven’s Pier market area. |
| Top Scholar | Heaven's Pier | Inside the brewery south of Twin Tufts, beside the central pile of golden grains. |
| Stone Pit | Kilnfire Ridge / West Heaven's Pier boundary | Southwest of the West Heaven’s Pier boundary stone, near several large round haybales. |
| Wealthcall | Kilnfire Ridge / Porcelain Kiln | Within the Porcelain Kiln complex, near the NPC Song Jiu. |
| Peach | Blissful Retreat / Still Shore | Inside Evercare Clinic in Still Shore, near the healers. |
| Youngest | Blissful Retreat | West of Blissful Retreat under a cherry blossom tree with wooden scaffolding, close to a river. |
| Virtuous Paw | Blissful Retreat | On the path to the Mahjong playing area, beneath a wooden arch gate. |
| Landball | Blissful Retreat | North of the large cherry blossom tree in Blissful Retreat, near a wooden cart. |
| Snow Maiden | Blissful Retreat / Flower Expanse | North of Blissful Retreat at the back of a house, among bamboo and near NPCs playing chess. |
| Peanut | Harvestfall Village | Inside the village training ground, near two female NPCs. |
| Snowbelly | Crimson Cliff / Palace of Annals river | South of Crimson Cliff, across the river from the Palace of Annals, next to the dock. |
| Plumphen | Crimson Cliff | On the path east of Crimson Cliff, beside the small lake leading toward Stonewash Strand. |
| Dumpling | Peace Bell Tower / Crimson Cliff outskirts | In a wheat field just west of Crimson Cliff, near a small well and bags of feed. |
| Mercy | Mercyheart Town | On the outskirts of Mercyheart Town, slightly away from the clustered houses. |
| Lavish | Buddha Fort (north) | In front of a small wooden shed at the northern edge of Buddha Fort. |
| Belle | Buddha Fort | Inside what appears to be an abandoned lumberjack’s home near Buddha Fort. |
For a visual sweep across Qinghe, regional interactive maps like the official in‑game map and third‑party tools mark “Cat” or “Cat Play” pins once you know what you’re looking for. In practice, those table descriptions are enough to route from nearby boundary stones, named ruins, or major towns.
Kaifeng Cat Play locations
Kaifeng currently includes far fewer Cat Plays than Qinghe. You will still want all of them if you’re pushing Exploration ranks, but expect only three kittens in this region.
| Kitten | Subregion | Location description |
|---|---|---|
| Boneling | Fairgrounds | Inside the Fairgrounds district of Kaifeng. Look for the cat icon around the festival stalls. |
| Meow Cai | Velvet Shade | Within the Velvet Shade quarter. The kitten sits close to the main thoroughfare. |
| Everwealth | Forsaken Quarter | In the Forsaken Quarter, among the more run‑down buildings on the edge of the city. |
Kaifeng’s city layout stacks multiple vertical levels and tight alleys, so scan around building entrances, plazas, and small courtyards whenever you see a cat indicator on the compass or map.
Meow Meow Temple Cat Plays
Beyond Qinghe and Kaifeng proper, Cat Plays also show up in the Meow Meow Temple once you have progressed Meow Meow puzzles far enough. After completing a number of Meow Meow tasks, the game directs you to the Meow Meow Temple in the Path of Void.
At the temple shrine, you can both shop at the Meow Meow Store and pet several “Whimsy” kittens, which count toward your Sentient Beings cat collection:
| Kitten | Temple location |
|---|---|
| Whimsy 8 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
| Whimsy 32 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
| Whimsy 25 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
| Whimsy 17 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
| Whimsy 46 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
| Whimsy 99 | At the shrine in Meow Meow Temple (Path of Void). |
When you first enter the Path of Void area, a kitten appears and leads you toward the temple, making it hard to miss once you’ve unlocked it.
Why Cat Plays matter for progression
Each Cat Play you complete is tagged as a Sentient Being interaction. In raw terms, that means:
- You gain Area Exploration progress for the subregion the kitten sits in.
- Your Exploration Attribute increases, contributing to region‑wide reward thresholds.
- Your Sentient Beings Collection fills out, which ties into some completion and achievement targets.
Because Exploration Points also feed your character level, clearing out Cat Plays early in Qinghe and Kaifeng is an efficient way to squeeze extra progression out of areas you’re already questing through. Many kittens sit directly on natural routes between Boundary Stones, story dungeons, and towns, so you rarely need to detour far.
Petting every Cat Play kitten turns what looks like background flavor into a quiet power move for exploration builds. As you roam between dungeons, boundary stones, and Meow Meow puzzles, keep an eye on cliffs, docks, wheat fields, and temple courtyards — odds are good there is a cat waiting for a quick interaction and a small bump to your stats.
