The Droids language in Stray has been translated and is much simpler than you might think.
Or not, unless you believe that someone at BlueTwelve Studio created an entirely new language from scratch. Instead, it’s a simple cipher that details the world-building of the overnight hit. And with it, you can finally read in-game newspapers, vibrant neon signs, and anything else you can find that’s sporting Stray’s glyphs.
Josh Wirtanen of Half-Glass Gaming (opens in new tab) cracked the code and even provided readers with the encryption key. Using the chapter titles as a starting point, he was able to find out, but highlights some inconsistencies. There are some slight variations in some of the symbols, and the translations themselves sometimes err on the jargon side. But it works perfectly for the most part.
(Meow) Mix those lyrics
Discrepancies noted by Wirtanen include two different variants of the letters P and E, while some flags have been rotated, providing an extra layer of decoding challenge. Meanwhile, some translations of the game’s content have resulted in a slight gobbledygook that’s a little harder to parse.
Also, Stray appears to have several different written languages. Wirtanen only translated the one from the chapter title screens, but adds that “many of the hand-painted words are just the same word used over and over again”. So he gave up the effort of trying to translate everything, saying that these other text samples don’t “seem to really mean anything”.
That said, the fruits of their successful attempts are a fun mix. Here, we have a bag labeled “best bag”. What’s inside? Who cares! It’s the best bag. All other details are unimportant at this point.
Elsewhere, it seems that Stray is home to vampire Droids who like to include their Dracula accent in their copy. See this ‘advantaged’ sign as evidence. They probably wanted to suck your delicious Droid oil. Ah-ah-ah!
Now you have the key, Stray’s world is your oyster. And don’t forget, you can buy it for free on PS4 and PS5 with PS Plus right now. Steam players might not be getting a freebie, but on the bright side, there are a ton of mods you can incorporate into the game.
PC gamers can place their own cats on Stray, as well as play split-screen multiplayer. There are already plenty of mods out there, and we even have a handy guide on how to install Stray mods. So take a look if you like to spice up the vanilla game.
