Friendship and Marriage/Wildwood Story

In Cattails: Wildwood Story, social mechanics allow the player to develop **friendships** with other cats, and eventually, a romance and **marriage** with one of them. Friendships are represented by four stars above the cat's dialogue box - the more stars are filled in, the better the relationship is. After reaching four stars with a cat, the player can give them a Red Rose to begin dating them, with the eventual possibility of marriage. The social menu, accessed from the inventory, can be used to check current relationships with other cats and other useful social info such as liked and loved gifts.

## Friendship

By default, the player's friendship with all cats is 1 star. Talking to a cat with the "let's chat!" option and giving them liked gifts are the easiest ways to raise this relationship, but it can also be affected by other factors (see raising or lowering relationships, below). At two stars, the cat's den can be entered, and they may start giving the player gifts; at three stars, they can join the player in exploring with the Buddy System; and at four stars, the option to give them a Red Rose and start a romantic relationship is available.

On the other hand, giving a cat gifts they dislike can lower a friendship down to zero stars, at which point they will act hostile towards the player. This can also be done with a cat that is dating or marrying the player (zero hearts or zero rings), which may cause the cat to break up with the player if the relationship drops low enough. To forcibly break up with or lower relationship with a cat, the player can gift them a Black Rose.

## Dating & Marriage

If the player begins dating another cat, the cat's name will appear in pink and they will have altered dialogue to reflect the relationship. At this point, the stars system is swapped out for hearts, which function essentially the same way. Dating starts off a relationship at one heart; if four hearts are reached, the cat can be married by giving them a Shiny Trinket.

This prompts a wedding ceremony to occur, officiated by Coco. Cats that the player has befriended (has 2+ stars with) will attend the wedding and can be talked to. The player can choose one of five different venues for their wedding, though these have no gameplay differences. Leaving the wedding concludes the current day.

Once they are married, the player's spouse will then live and sleep in the player's own den. The hearts system is also swapped out for rings, starting at one ring. If four rings are reached, the player's spouse may bring up the possibility of having kittens.

While multiple cats can be dated at once with no consequences, only one cat can be married, and new relationships cannot be started after marriage unless the player breaks up with their current spouse. If the player is dating multiple cats and marries one of them, relationship with all of their partners that they did not marry will drop to zero stars.

## Raising or lowering relationships

In the game's data, relationships are represented as a number from 0 to 1000. The difference between each star, heart, and ring is 200 points; for example, a 1 star relationship is 200-399 points, a 2 star relationship is 400-599 points, etc. Many in-game actions can raise or lower relationships with other cats.

Note that having purple Power Paws, filling the prey stockpile, or playing on lower difficulties slightly increases the effectiveness of some actions. For full numerical details, see here.

* Talking with the "Let's chat!" option raises relations by 30 points.
* Giving a loved gift raises relations by 40 points.
* Giving a liked gift raises relations by 30 points.
* Completing a task raises relations with the cat who assigned it by 30 points.
* Using the Kindly Purr skill raises relations with nearby cats by a small amount (3 to 9 points).
* Dialogue choices in events can raise or lower relations with involved cats by a number from 5 to 30 points. Specific amounts are unique to each event and can be seen in full here.
* When using the Nine Lives skill, one of the summoned spirits may use itself to raise player relations with a nearby cat by 5 points, only once per cat.
* Not talking to a cat for a day lowers relations by 10 points. Relationship cannot drop any lower than 1 star this way.
* Giving a hated gift lowers relations by 50 points.
* Giving a disliked gift lowers relations by 25 points.

## Trivia

* Possible venues for the player's wedding are the Festival Plaza, Beach West, the Temple of the Forest Guardian, a meadow, a beach, or Birch Lake.
* Ember begins selling Red Roses on Summer 5. Red Roses can also be collected at any time in the Old Farm tile at the top-left of the map, where one rose spawns per day.
* Ember begins selling Shiny Trinkets on Autumn 5. Shiny Trinkets can also be crafted at any time by using the mole anvil, for a cost of Gold Ore and 3 Diamonds.
* If the player chooses to marry Coco, the Forest Guardian officiates the wedding in their place.