If you’re playing the newly released Metroidvania, Animal Well, you might have come across this. In the bottom-right biome of Animal Well’s map, you’ll find two rooms that contain a total of five cats locked in cages. You may notice that above each cage is a black box with five lines, and those lines light up if you play the Animal Flute. If you play the right sequence of notes, the cage will unlock and the cat inside can run free. So how, exactly, do you figure out what songs to play?
In truth, if you’ve just encountered the cat cages in Animal Well, don’t worry about hunting down the songs you need to play just yet. Freeing the cats isn’t necessary to complete the game’s first layer. In fact, you’ll need to see the credits in Animal Well before you can organically solve this puzzle on your own. Your reward for freeing the cats is an item that will prove essential once you’re tracking down all 64 hidden eggs, but before that, it won’t necessarily help you out.
Nothing’s stopping you from looking up the songs and freeing the cats right away, mind you. So if that’s what you’re here for, we’ve got you covered. But before we get into that, let’s give you some more tips in case you think you can solve this puzzle on your own.
What you need to figure out the caged cats’ songs on your own
If you want to figure out how to free the cats on your own, you’ll need the following items
1: The Animal Flute (you should have this by now)
2: The Lantern (obtained in the final area of the game’s first layer)
3: The Top (obtained in the egg room after collecting 32 eggs)
I highly recommend getting the UV Lantern, which is tied to exploring the three areas hidden behind the “circular recess” gates. You can check out our full guide about this here. The B. B. Wand can also help you access at least one of the cat songs, though it’s not necessary. This is in a hidden area near where you saw the credit sequence play for the first time at the end of layer one.
From there, you want to explore the bottom-right biome and look for any series of five arrows chiseled into the background. The most obvious example of this is in the room where you first find the Ostrich spinning on the wheel (look at the wall after the Ostrich is gone). Take a screenshot of each sequence or write them down as you find them, and once you’ve collected all five, you’ll have everything you need to free the cats.
If that sounds like too much work for you, then here are the songs you want to play at each location.
Animal Well caged cat songs
NOTE: If you just want the reward for accomplishing this ASAP, you’ll still need the Top item. So assuming you’ve already obtained 32 eggs, here are the songs you need to play.
Cat Room 1:
See the map above if you need to remember where this room is. In this room, play the following songs:
Cat Song 1
- Down-Right
- Left
- Up-Right
- Down-Right
- Right
Cat Song 2
- Right
- Up-Right
- Up
- Up-Left
- Down
Cat Song 3
- Up-Left
- Up-Left
- Down-Left
- Down-Left
- Down
Cat Room 2
Once again, see the map above if you need to remember where this room is located. Here you can play the last two songs.
Cat Song 4
- Down-Right
- Up
- Down-Right
- Down-Right
- Left
Cat Song 5
- Left
- Down
- Down-Left
- Down-Right
- Up
Where do you go after freeing all five cats?
After finding freedom for all five felines, you can get a reward in a secret room you may have missed until now. Technically speaking, this room has two entrances, but the closest one to you can be seen on the map above.
If you look carefully in the background, you’ll see a statue of a lynx. Use the Top underneath the statue to reveal the secret path shown in the screenshot above. Follow the path, and your reward will be just within reach.
If you’ve freed all five cats, the Lynx will recite a 56-note song that will unlock the cage in the middle of the room. Leap down into the cage, open the chest, and you’ll obtain the Wheel item. You can use this to walk on top of spikes and engage certain mechanisms that require… well, a wheel. You’ll need this to access certain areas and collect every egg in the game, so try to remember any spots where an item like this may have come in handy.
Now, if you’re an especially curious player, you may wonder if you could have just played this complex song yourself without freeing the five cats first. Well… maybe you could, and developer Billy Basso may have even anticipated that players would try such a feat. But, then again, that would mean those cats would stay locked in those cages, and that just seems cold. Consider this the good ending to this little diversion, and enjoy your new item!