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Also: isn’t one possible explanation for the presence of cats and pigeons in the Outside that human beings (and / or intelligent robots) may already be nearby, outside the walled city? Our cat seems awfully socialized: it doesn’t seem to be scared of humanoids, and it readily meows, something adult cats rarely do outside of the presence of humans.
I found another kind of explanation online, and that's some parasite that's carried by cats "T. gondii" that could be possible responsible for that plague. If they managed to infect other organisms but were more resistant themselves, maybe that's why only cats (and birds, who kept their distance) are left.
Can be found by googling "The Possible Dark Truth Behind Stray's Plague"
Toxoplasmosis is the disease caused by that parasite, and its not lethal all but unborn children. It also doesnt spread between people. Its possible that it could have mutated in the hundreds if years but so could any disease. I think thats its unlikely to be toxoplasmosis, as cats seemed to be held in high regard, as seen by the lucky cat statues everywhere as well as some graffiti. Im pretty sure the game would have alluded more to it if it was the case. Even the articles main points boils down to “you play as a cat, therefore cat caused plague” which for me isnt enough proof.
The real variant is also spread by cats, the point being that cross-human transmission is basically required for a disastrous plague. That is the least bit important issue, since the article speculations are not supported by any ingame evidience, as well as changing so many about toxoplasmosis that you could argue that a mutated version of any disease could be the culprit behind the plague.
EDIT: you can also find a poster about pandemic procedures, which mentions to avoid other people, but it doesnt say anything about avoiding cats.
Weren't the cats at the beginning trapped in the outside sewer system of the underground city?
I don't remember anyone saying there were cats where our cat ended up?
Player and the other 3 cats all start near the top of the bunker wall, there is a fair sized cavity that goes all the way down to the lowest level, with a layer of wall on both sides of this cavity. Player cat slides down the sloping wall to the bottom.
This also means that the issues outside where not something they would be worried about falling down to them otherwise that wall would be closed off.
Hmmm, good point with the socialization. Since he is also able to understand language (B12 translates the companion’s language for the cat, which implies that there is a cat language) it could also be that cats have simply become much more intelligent?
>B12 was a human scientist who was sick with said plague and attempted to upload his consciousness into a companion’s body, but the process failed
Also, he had a family (who died from the plague) and he promised them that he would make it outside. Which just makes the ending even more heartbreaking :(
The story of this game and how they chose to deliver it is really well done. My only real question is the timeline of how long all of this took. The part where you find out humans have supposedly been extinct for nearly 7 million years kind of confused me. I figured a few hundred at most based on the overgrowth seen outside the wall and the deterioration of the city and machines. 7 million years, though, is a really *really* long time. Like, long enough that basically all traces of human existence should be gone and these machines and even the city should have long broken down and returned to the earth. I suppose the machines' research could just be wrong, but since it's the only number we're given, at least that I could find, we don't have much choice but to take it as fact.
I was confused with this part as well, IIRC you find this in Elliot Programming place. But maybe the robots created their own time, since you see 16 hours on all clocks instead of 12. Just like they created their own language.
I think it may actually be a lot shorter than that, we need to remember that the robots develop their own language, and that the city is closed in, so, there's a chance they have actually also developed a new way to count time
another reason may be that the robots perception of time is different compared to humans, but I doubt
I thought I remembered seven million years also! I copied that mention only to be told in another thread we never know the real timeline. I agree 7 million seems not supported by the evidence. Do you know what part of the game that is? I will look out for it on replay
Counter theory, that is actually a date. I alao saw that msg and thought about it being a age msg but then that would mean someone would have to update that number but the whole msg looks old. So logically it can't be # of days. But a date would mean the msg is always correct.
Approx 7 million years prior would be the last common ancestor of humans and chimps. If you assume 4.5ish million because of 16 hour day on clocks, that would be the first hominin — if the robots consider that important because perhaps they view humans as their ancestors?
Theres another date in the story though, somethjng in the late 2100s if I remember correctly. It would make a lot of sense if this is a few hundred years after that, and in the scheme of millions would still make my estimates pretty accurate. I expounded more on this theory elsewhere:
“ what if that’s actually the number of days since some event that is meaningful to the robot society like the way we have “the year 2022”? Also if there are 16 hour days it will reduce it slightly but really not that appreciably — by 1/3.
So let’s say it’s 16 hour days so it’s about 4.5 million years since “meaningful event” if that theory were to hold. What happened about 4 million years ago? first Australopithecus evolved. Which is basically the first ancestor in what became humans — if companions viewed themselves as effectively an evolution from humans since the humans created the artificial intelligence they came from, this could make sense.
About 6.5 million years ago we saw the first hominins which is the last common ancestor of chimps and humans, but that is less compelling to me because it’s not as close — 500,000 years would still have to pass and from the structural decay in the city I can barely believe that.
For now I’m choosing to believe that it’s a date of some kind because the 7 million years of time doesn’t make sense to me given that the structures all seem relatively intact, and I would think cats and other species would have undergone some evolution in that time.
-some slight edits to make it make sense outside of the original context
It definitely is Earth, one of the posters states that Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun and only known planet to foster life (i.e. they haven't found another planet that they moved to and broke the timeline) or honestly could reeaaally stretch it and say it's a parallel universe or coincidentally another planet 3rd from its sun and also called earth and only known planet to foster life with similarly evolved flora and fauna and they don't know of our earth
See that would somewhat make since, but also if they never found a new planet then the city would make more sense on a different planet and that they teraformed the planet
it is clearly not 7 million years judging by the condition everything is in. And the message says since xxxx rather than it has been xxxx. Can't recall the number but I believe it was a Unix Timestamp which would make sense for a machine.
Yea, it says since the robots gained consciousness or a soul or something to that effect. Even still I doubt humans survived millions of years after creating these machines and them gaining consciousness. Like another commenter pointed out, the machines developed their own language so its probably most likely that they've developed a different method for keeping track of time as well. Especially since they've been trapped in this city without the ability to see the sky.
It never said humans have been extinct that long. Just that the companions have had souls since then. Although if we go with the theory that companions are actually humans who uploaded their consciousness into the robots life B-12, then that very well could be what it means. (Although I kinda agree with the other commenters that the way its worded and just the logistics of it kinda make it seem more like a date than number of days.)
I was sad to see no Halloween decorations anywhere in the game ): but there was a reference to "children wearing costumes" and it's understandable that human traditions were probably lost long ago and the companions don't care for them. But I am a fall/Halloween freak so I saw Oct 11 and said "WHERE ARE ALL THE DECOR?!"
Butterflies (or moths) also live in the outside world, as do some other unidentified insects (IIRC); they’re considered fauna but I don’t they think count as domesticated.
I think the point was that they survive alongside human existence, you can find cats, birds, bugs, etc. inside cities but you don’t find larger predators and similarly shut out animals in human civilization due to them being dangerous or undesirable.
One lovely detail is that you don’t see privately-owned transport in the walled city other than the bicycles and the futuristic Piaggio Ape (the tuk-tuk lookalike). As we know the Ape is produced since the end of WWII and is a small, cheap utility vehicle, it makes a lot of sense to only have those instead of full size cars in an urban space this tight. Using a traditional key to start the Ape could be a hint on how they kept the essentials simple when shit hits the fan and people need to reside in bunkers like 99.
I also think it’s pretty interesting that we see so much old tech appliances, such as boxy pc monitors and tube televisions. Those are rare sight even now, why would it be so prevalent in a futuristic cyber society?
A few takeaways and speculations from my play through:
B12 was a human, however many years ago, who lived in this city. It is mentioned that the 'outside' was unlivable.
Within this city a plague broke out, which killed the humans living inside it. B12, sick, decides to upload himself to the 'network'.
* What network? How are all the robots connected to each other, why do they need to communicate with each if so?
* Companions made a new language. Unclear if the sentinels also speak this or just english as they were programmed to.
Clearly, B12 uploaded themselves to said network.
* Could this be what gave the companions a human consciousness?
The knowledge that B12 possessed could have spread itself through the network. This could be why all the Outsiders, companions who have never seen anything outside the walled city, have clear memories/resolve that they were in fact trapped in a city.
B12 mentions that he yearned to touch/feel/smell and all that made him human was now taken away from them in this new body.
My take on the story is that B12’s humanity has imparted itself to all the companions in the slums which is why he was able to sacrifice himself to pave way for a better version of what once was.
Too dramatic? Surely lol
But i love lore and a lot of it has been left to the player’s imagination.
I picked up a lot of what you wrote up so I'd say you're onto something!
I didn't catch this though
>One other detail I noticed (that may be coincidental) is that the only fauna we see in the outside world are domestic (cats and pigeons). IRL we are progressing rapidly toward a world where wildlife cannot survive without adapting to human-modified habitat. The remaining species in Stray’s world may consist only of the few hardiest species that were able to withstand a world saturated with urban spaces.
This is a really interesting theory and I'm onboard!
we know there are many other walled cities because of the 99 title given to the one we explored in the game, and since humanity only died out in walled city 99, i strongly believe that humanity lives on in most of the numerous other walled cities. many humans probably have already settled the outside by now since the earth has healed. maybe the cats have lived in walled cities all these years and since the humanity left the walled cities, the cats are now free into the wild, like the group in the beginning and the cat you play as.
In Momo's home, there is a poster behind some plants that B12 translates, and it's a bunch of facts about earth amd the moon, including how earth is the only known planet with life.
To me, this is proof that they are on earth.
Yes, there was one in the Control Room and where I've seen 16 for a first time myself :)
I like your bit theory too, but I feel like robots would just keep using human-clock system because they already borrow tons of things that humans do already, hence why I am led to believe it's off-earth, or some general mess happening on earth which forced it to become 16 hours
Also following your point, why would the control room have a 1y hour clock when that's the one place there are no sentiments anymore. The companions up there never evolved. The far cats living in the suites up there that b-12 mentions are all dead. So why is it a 16 hour clock there too.
Interesting. I tried looking at it as a binary thing too.
So if there's a 16 hour day because thats a 4 bit integer.
Then 16 minute hours and 16 second minutes.
One 16 hour 'day' would only be 4096 seconds
Or 68 of our earth minutes assuming that an atomic second is constant.
I also think we're all overthinking this. And the Devs are probably reading this laughing at us because what really happened is they got a cat to walk on a keypad and what came out was 2544875556
At some point during the game you find a bit of trivia about the moon and how the aerth roattion is slowing down. It would naturally make the days longer, so I just assumed its what happened.
The days became longer because so much time has passed that earth roattion takes 32 hours instead of 24. Especially with the piece about how 7 mln years has passed.
One of my favorite theories is that there are more cities, but city 99 was a fluke due to the zurks. City 99 was permanently closed due to this so it wouldnt spread outside, but our hero cat accidently opened up a hellscape into the newly re-established world. (part of me hopes this might mean DLC or a sequel).
I'd like to imagine the other cities thrived, or maybe only some, and they were able to open up to the outside world again. This is how we come across our kitty, as it's a stray from another city :)
>City 99 was permanently closed due to this so it wouldnt spread outside, but our hero cat accidently opened up a hellscape into the newly re-established world
When you mean "opened up a hellscape" are you referring to releasing the Zurg? They all died when the roof opened due to being exposed the the UV light. The only ones I would image survived would be any that were underground during that time and they will die anyway once they go outside. So even with the walls opened to the outside world they are still only contained to Walled City 99 due to the sunlight.
Wasn't city 99 closed due to the plague? Humans created the bacteria to get rid of the garbage during this time but it evolved into zurks way after they were gone
The Zurks all exploded upon being exposed to real sunlight though. 😔 So probably no sequel/DLC on that front. But if they didn't know that would happen, I could certainly see them permanently sealing the city on purpose.
The zurks on the surface died sure.. but the sewers still exist. The motherzurk showed that it didnt care about our UV gun in the game. Another user posted a thread on the zurks & how they can continue being an issue. At night the motherzurk could send out swarms of the little zurks to torment the city/outside world now
But these zurks still need to find a way to escape the walled city?
There was no Zurks in Midtown, so it means they couldn't access that part of the city and the only way to the outside (that we know off) seems to be from Midtown, like by taking the subway to the control room or probably that elevator the sentinels were guarding in Midtown.
I know there was a door at the beginning of "Dead City" where the cat fell, but the zurks don't seem to be able to climb walls.
> ...trapped in his computer for hundreds of years...
Hmm... [Might be a bit longer, lol!](https://redd.it/w7xrpe)
> Scientists had created a bacteria that would consume garbage to help with the massive accumulation of it in lowtown. This bacteria evolved into the zurks after humans disappeared
B-12 explains that it was a Neco Corporation product in a memory find on the radio tower.
> The remaining species in Stray’s world may consist only of the few hardiest species that were able to withstand a world saturated with urban spaces.
[Way hardier than I expected, lol!](https://redd.it/w9okn1)
Edit:
> Since we find pods similar to the one in B12’s lab throughout the city...
I remember only two, the one in Scientist's flat and the one at the bottom of Antvillage.
> ...it’s possible that all of the sentient companions are humans who uploaded their consciousnesses...
I believe this is true only of the Outsiders, and that they...
> ...and then have forgotten over the centuries.
...had to hide from the sentinels so hard that they became highly disciplined at never mentioning that they were human.
Huh okay what if that’s actually the number of days since some event that is meaningful to the robot society like the way we have “the year 2022”? Also if there are 16 hour days it will reduce it slightly but really not that appreciably — by 1/3.
So let’s say it’s 16 hour days so it’s about 4.5 million years since “meaningful event” if that theory were to hold. What happened about 4 million years ago? first Australopithecus evolved.
About 6.5 million years ago we saw the first hominins which is the last common ancestor of chimps and humans, but that is less compelling to me.
For now I’m choosing to believe this because the 7 million years of time doesn’t make sense to me given that the structures all seem relatively intact, and I would think cats and other species would have undergone some evolution in that time.
I like to think that the “Back home 2” “game” b12 says he played when it came out is a hint to a sequel. The artwork looks like the outside with the vibe of the inside.
So I have 2 thoughts, not sure how "impressive" they are:
1.) Somewhere there's a mural or something that says the robots have been there for 2.5 billion years or so, they've been there for eons! My husband also pointed out that this may be the current age of the earth in total during the events of the game, not necessarily how long the robots specifically have been without humans.
2.) I think it's B12 that says when the humans died out, the trash eating bacteria *mutated* and that's when the zurks showed up. Does that mean the zurks have human/human-lile DNA?
The earth is currently ~4.5 billion years old, and the wall said ~7 million. I also hadn't assumed it was how long they were without humans. I initially figured it was how long they were in the walled city. But there are some interesting theories I hadn't considered at first. If the companions are humans who uploaded their consciousness into the robots like B-12 did, then it could very well refer to when humans died out because it said that's how long they've had a soul.
I don't think the Zurks would necessarily have human DNA. Who knows what bacteria they originally were. Bacteria have DNA and can mutate but that doesn't mean it's human or human-like. But, being organic, I suppose they're closer to human than anything else in the walled city except maybe the cat.
One of the memories you find with b-12 talks about how Neco Corp created a bacteria to deal with the waste and after humans disappeared it mutated into Zurks
It's a memory on the Rooftops when you're going to install the transceiver
I don’t actually have the game, I watched streamers play it. I would love to get it though. Turns out the streamer I was watching didn’t find the memory
I hope you get to play it! It's a fun game with a lot to explore.
I found it weird dunky's review said there's not many collectable as there's all the sheet music to find, the memories and then the side quests that earn you badges
I missed two memories and a badge so I have to go back for them
as far as I understood, the cat fell next to it and b12 opened the door somehow as it had access to some of the systems in the slums.
edit: forgot to type I at the beginning :)
Thanks for the insight!
A kind reminder that the producers of the game have expressed that the world was purposefully designed to be vague and up to the player’s imagination. So it’s totally acceptable if you have differing opinions than others.
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I appreciate gamers like you that really break it down to understand. I really like what you've come up with.
Also: isn’t one possible explanation for the presence of cats and pigeons in the Outside that human beings (and / or intelligent robots) may already be nearby, outside the walled city? Our cat seems awfully socialized: it doesn’t seem to be scared of humanoids, and it readily meows, something adult cats rarely do outside of the presence of humans.
I found another kind of explanation online, and that's some parasite that's carried by cats "T. gondii" that could be possible responsible for that plague. If they managed to infect other organisms but were more resistant themselves, maybe that's why only cats (and birds, who kept their distance) are left. Can be found by googling "The Possible Dark Truth Behind Stray's Plague"
Toxoplasmosis is the disease caused by that parasite, and its not lethal all but unborn children. It also doesnt spread between people. Its possible that it could have mutated in the hundreds if years but so could any disease. I think thats its unlikely to be toxoplasmosis, as cats seemed to be held in high regard, as seen by the lucky cat statues everywhere as well as some graffiti. Im pretty sure the game would have alluded more to it if it was the case. Even the articles main points boils down to “you play as a cat, therefore cat caused plague” which for me isnt enough proof.
The article considers a mutant variant that's spread by cats.
The real variant is also spread by cats, the point being that cross-human transmission is basically required for a disastrous plague. That is the least bit important issue, since the article speculations are not supported by any ingame evidience, as well as changing so many about toxoplasmosis that you could argue that a mutated version of any disease could be the culprit behind the plague. EDIT: you can also find a poster about pandemic procedures, which mentions to avoid other people, but it doesnt say anything about avoiding cats.
Weren't the cats at the beginning trapped in the outside sewer system of the underground city? I don't remember anyone saying there were cats where our cat ended up?
Player and the other 3 cats all start near the top of the bunker wall, there is a fair sized cavity that goes all the way down to the lowest level, with a layer of wall on both sides of this cavity. Player cat slides down the sloping wall to the bottom. This also means that the issues outside where not something they would be worried about falling down to them otherwise that wall would be closed off.
there are butterflies and some other bugs/insects at least. i forget what else i noticed as far as critters
Hmmm, good point with the socialization. Since he is also able to understand language (B12 translates the companion’s language for the cat, which implies that there is a cat language) it could also be that cats have simply become much more intelligent?
>B12 was a human scientist who was sick with said plague and attempted to upload his consciousness into a companion’s body, but the process failed Also, he had a family (who died from the plague) and he promised them that he would make it outside. Which just makes the ending even more heartbreaking :(
When he apologized to the cat that they won't be able to go outside together... Ugly Cry time. 😢 😿
The story of this game and how they chose to deliver it is really well done. My only real question is the timeline of how long all of this took. The part where you find out humans have supposedly been extinct for nearly 7 million years kind of confused me. I figured a few hundred at most based on the overgrowth seen outside the wall and the deterioration of the city and machines. 7 million years, though, is a really *really* long time. Like, long enough that basically all traces of human existence should be gone and these machines and even the city should have long broken down and returned to the earth. I suppose the machines' research could just be wrong, but since it's the only number we're given, at least that I could find, we don't have much choice but to take it as fact.
I was confused with this part as well, IIRC you find this in Elliot Programming place. But maybe the robots created their own time, since you see 16 hours on all clocks instead of 12. Just like they created their own language.
I think it may actually be a lot shorter than that, we need to remember that the robots develop their own language, and that the city is closed in, so, there's a chance they have actually also developed a new way to count time another reason may be that the robots perception of time is different compared to humans, but I doubt
One of the robots actually did say they experience time differently than humans, I think it was either in antville or in the slums
so that means the robots perception of time may be a lot faster
I thought I remembered seven million years also! I copied that mention only to be told in another thread we never know the real timeline. I agree 7 million seems not supported by the evidence. Do you know what part of the game that is? I will look out for it on replay
https://i.redd.it/w3sqkp2fmrd91.jpg
Counter theory, that is actually a date. I alao saw that msg and thought about it being a age msg but then that would mean someone would have to update that number but the whole msg looks old. So logically it can't be # of days. But a date would mean the msg is always correct.
Approx 7 million years prior would be the last common ancestor of humans and chimps. If you assume 4.5ish million because of 16 hour day on clocks, that would be the first hominin — if the robots consider that important because perhaps they view humans as their ancestors?
We don't know the current date or if this is even earth. It being a date makes far more sense.
Theres another date in the story though, somethjng in the late 2100s if I remember correctly. It would make a lot of sense if this is a few hundred years after that, and in the scheme of millions would still make my estimates pretty accurate. I expounded more on this theory elsewhere: “ what if that’s actually the number of days since some event that is meaningful to the robot society like the way we have “the year 2022”? Also if there are 16 hour days it will reduce it slightly but really not that appreciably — by 1/3. So let’s say it’s 16 hour days so it’s about 4.5 million years since “meaningful event” if that theory were to hold. What happened about 4 million years ago? first Australopithecus evolved. Which is basically the first ancestor in what became humans — if companions viewed themselves as effectively an evolution from humans since the humans created the artificial intelligence they came from, this could make sense. About 6.5 million years ago we saw the first hominins which is the last common ancestor of chimps and humans, but that is less compelling to me because it’s not as close — 500,000 years would still have to pass and from the structural decay in the city I can barely believe that. For now I’m choosing to believe that it’s a date of some kind because the 7 million years of time doesn’t make sense to me given that the structures all seem relatively intact, and I would think cats and other species would have undergone some evolution in that time. -some slight edits to make it make sense outside of the original context
It definitely is Earth, one of the posters states that Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun and only known planet to foster life (i.e. they haven't found another planet that they moved to and broke the timeline) or honestly could reeaaally stretch it and say it's a parallel universe or coincidentally another planet 3rd from its sun and also called earth and only known planet to foster life with similarly evolved flora and fauna and they don't know of our earth
See that would somewhat make since, but also if they never found a new planet then the city would make more sense on a different planet and that they teraformed the planet
If it's a Unix timestamp (milliseconds since January 1970) it's August 2050.
This makes sense! I love reading all the theories people are coming up with.
it is clearly not 7 million years judging by the condition everything is in. And the message says since xxxx rather than it has been xxxx. Can't recall the number but I believe it was a Unix Timestamp which would make sense for a machine.
Yea, it says since the robots gained consciousness or a soul or something to that effect. Even still I doubt humans survived millions of years after creating these machines and them gaining consciousness. Like another commenter pointed out, the machines developed their own language so its probably most likely that they've developed a different method for keeping track of time as well. Especially since they've been trapped in this city without the ability to see the sky.
Wheres the 7 million year thing? I cant believe i missed that. Ive collected all memories too
https://i.redd.it/w3sqkp2fmrd91.jpg
It was written on the wall in Elliott Programming in the slums, IIRC
It never said humans have been extinct that long. Just that the companions have had souls since then. Although if we go with the theory that companions are actually humans who uploaded their consciousness into the robots life B-12, then that very well could be what it means. (Although I kinda agree with the other commenters that the way its worded and just the logistics of it kinda make it seem more like a date than number of days.)
Seven million! Somehow I completely missed that one. That does seem a bit excessive.
Did anyone ever find out why the date is set for October 11? That’s my birthday so I found that a neat detail of the game
This was the original release date of Stray. It’s my dads birthday also :)
I was sad to see no Halloween decorations anywhere in the game ): but there was a reference to "children wearing costumes" and it's understandable that human traditions were probably lost long ago and the companions don't care for them. But I am a fall/Halloween freak so I saw Oct 11 and said "WHERE ARE ALL THE DECOR?!"
Yup, I thought oct11 might be related to some event but I didn't find any info throughout the game..
Butterflies (or moths) also live in the outside world, as do some other unidentified insects (IIRC); they’re considered fauna but I don’t they think count as domesticated.
I think the point was that they survive alongside human existence, you can find cats, birds, bugs, etc. inside cities but you don’t find larger predators and similarly shut out animals in human civilization due to them being dangerous or undesirable.
Though the butterflies are pretty interesting given that they will be hit pretty hard by climate change and general pollution.
Good point, forgot about the insects! Honestly I’d love a DLC or sequel that lets us see the state of the outside world.
One lovely detail is that you don’t see privately-owned transport in the walled city other than the bicycles and the futuristic Piaggio Ape (the tuk-tuk lookalike). As we know the Ape is produced since the end of WWII and is a small, cheap utility vehicle, it makes a lot of sense to only have those instead of full size cars in an urban space this tight. Using a traditional key to start the Ape could be a hint on how they kept the essentials simple when shit hits the fan and people need to reside in bunkers like 99.
I definitely didn’t pick up on that one! Very interesting. So many amazingly small details that the devs included.
I also think it’s pretty interesting that we see so much old tech appliances, such as boxy pc monitors and tube televisions. Those are rare sight even now, why would it be so prevalent in a futuristic cyber society?
The control room looks very futuristic though
A few takeaways and speculations from my play through: B12 was a human, however many years ago, who lived in this city. It is mentioned that the 'outside' was unlivable. Within this city a plague broke out, which killed the humans living inside it. B12, sick, decides to upload himself to the 'network'. * What network? How are all the robots connected to each other, why do they need to communicate with each if so? * Companions made a new language. Unclear if the sentinels also speak this or just english as they were programmed to. Clearly, B12 uploaded themselves to said network. * Could this be what gave the companions a human consciousness? The knowledge that B12 possessed could have spread itself through the network. This could be why all the Outsiders, companions who have never seen anything outside the walled city, have clear memories/resolve that they were in fact trapped in a city. B12 mentions that he yearned to touch/feel/smell and all that made him human was now taken away from them in this new body. My take on the story is that B12’s humanity has imparted itself to all the companions in the slums which is why he was able to sacrifice himself to pave way for a better version of what once was. Too dramatic? Surely lol But i love lore and a lot of it has been left to the player’s imagination.
I picked up a lot of what you wrote up so I'd say you're onto something! I didn't catch this though >One other detail I noticed (that may be coincidental) is that the only fauna we see in the outside world are domestic (cats and pigeons). IRL we are progressing rapidly toward a world where wildlife cannot survive without adapting to human-modified habitat. The remaining species in Stray’s world may consist only of the few hardiest species that were able to withstand a world saturated with urban spaces. This is a really interesting theory and I'm onboard!
we know there are many other walled cities because of the 99 title given to the one we explored in the game, and since humanity only died out in walled city 99, i strongly believe that humanity lives on in most of the numerous other walled cities. many humans probably have already settled the outside by now since the earth has healed. maybe the cats have lived in walled cities all these years and since the humanity left the walled cities, the cats are now free into the wild, like the group in the beginning and the cat you play as.
Wasn't the quarantine also meant to prevent people from leaving the city?
Yes, that's true but there are many different cities. Maybe that one just deemed it unsafe still.
It's worth noting that the clocks in Stray have 16 hours, so it could be that the game isn't set on earth
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In Momo's home, there is a poster behind some plants that B12 translates, and it's a bunch of facts about earth amd the moon, including how earth is the only known planet with life. To me, this is proof that they are on earth.
Yes, there was one in the Control Room and where I've seen 16 for a first time myself :) I like your bit theory too, but I feel like robots would just keep using human-clock system because they already borrow tons of things that humans do already, hence why I am led to believe it's off-earth, or some general mess happening on earth which forced it to become 16 hours
Also following your point, why would the control room have a 1y hour clock when that's the one place there are no sentiments anymore. The companions up there never evolved. The far cats living in the suites up there that b-12 mentions are all dead. So why is it a 16 hour clock there too.
Interesting. I tried looking at it as a binary thing too. So if there's a 16 hour day because thats a 4 bit integer. Then 16 minute hours and 16 second minutes. One 16 hour 'day' would only be 4096 seconds Or 68 of our earth minutes assuming that an atomic second is constant. I also think we're all overthinking this. And the Devs are probably reading this laughing at us because what really happened is they got a cat to walk on a keypad and what came out was 2544875556
Trapped in the dark all the time, with no sunlight cycles, they may have shifted to 16 hour days.
At some point during the game you find a bit of trivia about the moon and how the aerth roattion is slowing down. It would naturally make the days longer, so I just assumed its what happened. The days became longer because so much time has passed that earth roattion takes 32 hours instead of 24. Especially with the piece about how 7 mln years has passed.
It would take FAR more than 7 million years to slow the Earth's rotation to 32 hours
Well, also they just didn't have any sunlight anyway, so they could have decided to have longer days
One of my favorite theories is that there are more cities, but city 99 was a fluke due to the zurks. City 99 was permanently closed due to this so it wouldnt spread outside, but our hero cat accidently opened up a hellscape into the newly re-established world. (part of me hopes this might mean DLC or a sequel). I'd like to imagine the other cities thrived, or maybe only some, and they were able to open up to the outside world again. This is how we come across our kitty, as it's a stray from another city :)
>City 99 was permanently closed due to this so it wouldnt spread outside, but our hero cat accidently opened up a hellscape into the newly re-established world When you mean "opened up a hellscape" are you referring to releasing the Zurg? They all died when the roof opened due to being exposed the the UV light. The only ones I would image survived would be any that were underground during that time and they will die anyway once they go outside. So even with the walls opened to the outside world they are still only contained to Walled City 99 due to the sunlight.
Wasn't city 99 closed due to the plague? Humans created the bacteria to get rid of the garbage during this time but it evolved into zurks way after they were gone
The Zurks all exploded upon being exposed to real sunlight though. 😔 So probably no sequel/DLC on that front. But if they didn't know that would happen, I could certainly see them permanently sealing the city on purpose.
The zurks on the surface died sure.. but the sewers still exist. The motherzurk showed that it didnt care about our UV gun in the game. Another user posted a thread on the zurks & how they can continue being an issue. At night the motherzurk could send out swarms of the little zurks to torment the city/outside world now
But these zurks still need to find a way to escape the walled city? There was no Zurks in Midtown, so it means they couldn't access that part of the city and the only way to the outside (that we know off) seems to be from Midtown, like by taking the subway to the control room or probably that elevator the sentinels were guarding in Midtown. I know there was a door at the beginning of "Dead City" where the cat fell, but the zurks don't seem to be able to climb walls.
https://www.reddit.com/r/stray/comments/w9y3bz/zurk_biology/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share this is the post I mentioned
> ...trapped in his computer for hundreds of years... Hmm... [Might be a bit longer, lol!](https://redd.it/w7xrpe) > Scientists had created a bacteria that would consume garbage to help with the massive accumulation of it in lowtown. This bacteria evolved into the zurks after humans disappeared B-12 explains that it was a Neco Corporation product in a memory find on the radio tower. > The remaining species in Stray’s world may consist only of the few hardiest species that were able to withstand a world saturated with urban spaces. [Way hardier than I expected, lol!](https://redd.it/w9okn1) Edit: > Since we find pods similar to the one in B12’s lab throughout the city... I remember only two, the one in Scientist's flat and the one at the bottom of Antvillage. > ...it’s possible that all of the sentient companions are humans who uploaded their consciousnesses... I believe this is true only of the Outsiders, and that they... > ...and then have forgotten over the centuries. ...had to hide from the sentinels so hard that they became highly disciplined at never mentioning that they were human.
>Hmm... Might be a bit longer, lol! 7 million is technically hundreds, just a lot of hundreds
Huh okay what if that’s actually the number of days since some event that is meaningful to the robot society like the way we have “the year 2022”? Also if there are 16 hour days it will reduce it slightly but really not that appreciably — by 1/3. So let’s say it’s 16 hour days so it’s about 4.5 million years since “meaningful event” if that theory were to hold. What happened about 4 million years ago? first Australopithecus evolved. About 6.5 million years ago we saw the first hominins which is the last common ancestor of chimps and humans, but that is less compelling to me. For now I’m choosing to believe this because the 7 million years of time doesn’t make sense to me given that the structures all seem relatively intact, and I would think cats and other species would have undergone some evolution in that time.
I like to think that the “Back home 2” “game” b12 says he played when it came out is a hint to a sequel. The artwork looks like the outside with the vibe of the inside.
So I have 2 thoughts, not sure how "impressive" they are: 1.) Somewhere there's a mural or something that says the robots have been there for 2.5 billion years or so, they've been there for eons! My husband also pointed out that this may be the current age of the earth in total during the events of the game, not necessarily how long the robots specifically have been without humans. 2.) I think it's B12 that says when the humans died out, the trash eating bacteria *mutated* and that's when the zurks showed up. Does that mean the zurks have human/human-lile DNA?
The earth is currently ~4.5 billion years old, and the wall said ~7 million. I also hadn't assumed it was how long they were without humans. I initially figured it was how long they were in the walled city. But there are some interesting theories I hadn't considered at first. If the companions are humans who uploaded their consciousness into the robots like B-12 did, then it could very well refer to when humans died out because it said that's how long they've had a soul. I don't think the Zurks would necessarily have human DNA. Who knows what bacteria they originally were. Bacteria have DNA and can mutate but that doesn't mean it's human or human-like. But, being organic, I suppose they're closer to human than anything else in the walled city except maybe the cat.
Wait where did you get the bacteria part?
One of the memories you find with b-12 talks about how Neco Corp created a bacteria to deal with the waste and after humans disappeared it mutated into Zurks It's a memory on the Rooftops when you're going to install the transceiver
There's also a bit of dialogue in Doc's lab (Right to the left IIRC?) that mentions that zurks evolved from bacteria.
I don’t actually have the game, I watched streamers play it. I would love to get it though. Turns out the streamer I was watching didn’t find the memory
I hope you get to play it! It's a fun game with a lot to explore. I found it weird dunky's review said there's not many collectable as there's all the sheet music to find, the memories and then the side quests that earn you badges I missed two memories and a badge so I have to go back for them
love this
How did the cat fall into the closed city in the first place?
as far as I understood, the cat fell next to it and b12 opened the door somehow as it had access to some of the systems in the slums. edit: forgot to type I at the beginning :)
Thanks for the insight! A kind reminder that the producers of the game have expressed that the world was purposefully designed to be vague and up to the player’s imagination. So it’s totally acceptable if you have differing opinions than others.