Cat Skills

Hunting Skill

Like dogs, cats have hunting prowess. However, as you might expect, cats go about this differently from dogs. First of all, cats don’t need to learn anything about hunting from mere Sims! Hah! Cats are born being better hunters than Sims will ever be. Cats simply have to... choose... to hunt.

If a cat chooses to learn hunting, it uses a toy from the Pet Toy Crate object to practice on. While Sims can’t train their cats to hunt, they can provide the Pet Toy Crate object, and encourage their cats to use it.

Of course, as a player, you can direct your cat to use the Practice Hunting interaction on one of the three pet toys in the crate. But it takes a while to learn the Hunting skill, so don’t neglect your cat’s other needs in the process. Also, if you direct your pet to train for too long, training fatigue will set in, and the cat won’t be able to learn more until the fatigue wears off.

The Pet Toy Crate contains three random choices from the five possible cat toys: paper ball, catnip mouse, ball of yarn, foil ball, plastic ball. Any of these toys have the Practice Hunting interaction, which builds the Hunting skill. Cats stalk and attack the toy, roll around with it, and kick at it with their hind legs—in other words, just the cat play behavior you’d expect from a real cat!

While practicing hunting, cats dream of the mighty foes they will someday vanquish.

Once a cat has learned the Hunting skill by practicing on toys, the Hunting skill appears in the Skills panel, with a Hunting Skill Journal to track your cat’s prowess. The cat also now has access to Hunting related interactions, such as Stalk for Prey.

Hunting Skill Journal

Stalk a variety of prey including birds, bugs, reptiles, and more! No matter what the skill level, delicious creatures are just a prowl away. Devour critters on the spot or Present them to favorite Sims to show how much they are loved.

Challenges

Creeping And Crawling - A Creeping And Crawling expert has caught 20 beetles. As a reward, the chance of catching and finding rarer beetles is increased.

Slither Stalker - A Slither Stalker has caught 20 reptiles. As a reward, lizards, snakes, and turtles will always be successfully caught.

Feline Fisher - A Feline Fisher has caught 20 fish. As a reward, the chance of catching rarer fish is increased.

Homing Whiskers

Cats with Homing Whiskers have caught at least 20 rare prey. As a reward, the amount of time it takes to find prey is decreased.

Hunting Skill Progression

Once cats have learned to hunt, they can choose to go out in the world and hunt for prey. Cats may do this autonomously, but to direct them, click on the ground and choose the Stalk for Prey interaction. The cat sniffs around, seeking a nearby critter to stalk and catch. Cats can also use the Catch interaction on any prey creatures they find spawned in the world.

The Stalk for Prey interaction becomes available once a cat has learned at least one level of Hunting skill.

Sometimes cats find snake skins or colorful leaves, but as your cats will assure you, they meant to hunt these! Only the limited minds of lesser beings would consider these failure objects.

Ok, well... nonetheless, as cats get better at hunting, they start getting pretty good at finding reptiles, beetles, birds, lizards, turtles, rodents, snakes, and fish.

Fishing works a little differently than hunting other prey. Cats use the Fish interaction at a likely fishing spot, and their Hunting skill and the rarity of the prey determine the chances of success. The more your cats fish, the better they get at it.

When cats locate a prey creature, they stalk it, crouch down, and charge in. A fight cloud obscures the vicious battle, and finally, your cat emerges victorious. Because cats are always victorious. If they end up without the prey, that’s because they chose to let it go.

The prey is spotted.

Battle ensues.

Victory!

When cats catch prey, they’ll just go ahead and eat it if they’re hungry. Otherwise, the prey goes into the cat’s inventory. At that point, cats have several options. They can choose to Present a captured object to a Sim or another cat. Although Snob and Neat Sims might be disgusted by this behavior, other Sims and cats who have a good relationship with the presenting cat are likely to have a positive reaction. A positive reaction boosts LTR while a negative reaction lowers it. It’s always Fun for the cat.

The Present interaction brings up a picker so the cat can choose which household creature to bestow the trophy on.

Cats can also take a hunted item from their inventory and drop it somewhere with the Drop Somewhere interaction. The Presented or Dropped items stay on the ground unless a Sim or cat picks them up. Otherwise, another pet may come along and eat it!

Cats with Hunting skill higher than level 7 gain access to the Locate Prey ...<Prey Type> interaction. Cats won’t do this unless you direct them to. The types of prey that can be located are birds, snakes, rodents, beetles, fish, lizards, and turtles.

The cat goes outside and sniffs, then Map View pops up with map tags pointing to the chosen prey type. The cat’s Hunting skill determines what’s shown, so prey types outside the cat’s skill level don’t appear.

Hunting Up New Pets

One of the coolest things about hunting cats is that they can actually catch you a new pet! The types of prey that cats hunt—birds, snakes, rodents, beetles, lizards, turtles, and fish—are also the animals you can place in a terrarium and keep as small pets. That means you can send your cat out to hunt you up a new small pet. As cats get better at hunting, they learn to catch rarer versions of each small animal. Cats can find rare creatures that are not available when you use the Stock interaction on the terrarium. So this is a great way to have some very cool small pets that you’d have a hard time obtaining otherwise.

When your cat catches a rare creature and Presents it to you, you have several options. You can turn away in disgust (in fact, if your Sim has the Neat trait, this would be their autonomous response). You can let the cat eat the creature. You can turn it in to the Science Lab for science, earning a nice fee in the process. But the most fun is to take the creature, then buy the appropriate terrarium for it. Different terrarium habitats are available for each type of creature, so make sure you buy the right one. Drag the creature out of your inventory into the habitat and you now have a new pet! And better yet, you’ll have a rare and interesting pet. Wait till your Sim’s friends see the cool new creature you’ve collected!

See the Small Pets chapter for more information on keeping small pets happy.

Cat Hunting Chances by Skill Level

Turtle

Snake

Rodent

Lizard

Small Birds

Fish

World Adventures

Late Night

Inventory

Inventory is where cats store all their hunting trophies! That is, if they’re not presenting them to Sims or feeding them to their kittens.