The CAT controls

The CAT does not ship a famous overlay of custom keybinds. Most players move it like any other Roblox character and then discover that a few prompts — pickpocket, cat attack, Arrest Cat — decide the round. This page is the input card for The Cat Shelter by Ikigai Cybercore Studios. It is not a route guide. Pair it with Getting Started for the first hour and how to escape when the buttons already work and the shelter still does not.

Mobile and console layouts are unverified. If you are on a phone, a tablet, or a gamepad, treat every keyboard sentence below as a PC report, then look at your own on-screen buttons. This wiki will not invent a thumb cluster or a controller map we have not confirmed.

The experience is free-to-play, online, 26 players per server, released 28 April 2026. Inputs are the same on a quiet server and on a 29,998 peak-style crowd. The difference is how little time you have to remember them.

Movement we assume on keyboard

WASD walks. Camera is standard Roblox mouse look. Jump is the usual jump. Those three are assumed, not studio-published in a unique manual. If WASD does nothing, you are in a text box or a broken focus state — click the world, then try again.

Sprint is Shift, according to player comments. That is the most important unverified-but-repeated bind on this page. Test it in a hallway before you need it behind a vet. If Shift does not sprint on your account, check Roblox movement settings and any shift-lock toggle. Do not assume a unique The CAT sprint key until you have ruled those out.

Some geometry can be climbed. Walk into low props, crates, and ledges that look like parkour. Not every lip works. Climbing is a skip for a sightline, not a second escape method. If a ledge fails, you did not find a secret key; you found a wall.

Cat inputs that change the shelter

Pickpocket is a click or spam interact from behind a caretaker. You are stealing a keycard off their kit. Front-facing clicks do not count as a pickpocket tutorial. Get on their spine, click, and be ready to sprint with Shift when the steal lands. Holding the card paints a target. That is a status, not a keybind, and it is why you should not practice pickpocket in the most visible hallway on the map.

Cat attack breaks the toilet. That is the documented way to open the sewer drop without a card. Use attack on the toilet fixture, not on a random sink, and not only on a caretaker’s ankles. If attack does nothing, you may be on the wrong object or the wrong tool slot. Cycle the hotbar once before you decide the route is gone.

Hairball is throwable. Throw it to distract, to bait a turn, or to make a vet look the wrong way for a steal. It is not a taser. Do not spend a life lining up hairballs while a painted card is in your inventory and a door is open.

Gacha or spins can roll a keycard. That is a UI click, not a skill bind. Use it if you are already safe. Do not spin in front of a shotgun.

Angel cat morph jump is a rare morph ability, not a default key you can bind in settings. If the morph is active and a jump-out is available, jump. If you do not have the morph, no amount of rebinding will create it.

Caretaker inputs that finish a job

Taser is the disable. Fire it, then look for Arrest Cat. Arrest Cat is a separate prompt. Jail is a location you walk to, not a key that deletes the cat from across the map. Players who only bind themselves mentally to “shoot” skip arrest and watch the cat stand up.

Baton and shotgun are additional tools on the unpaid kit. They occupy weapon slots. Switching to them is a hotbar change. Switching away from taser at the wrong time is how a pickpocket lands on your back. Elite SWAT, HMG, AWM, and Elite Cat Surgeon change which tool sits in the slot; they do not replace the arrest prompt. The Surgeon tranquilizer is better than the taser and still wants Arrest Cat after the hit.

Rainbow Leash makes arrest faster. That is a pass effect, not a new key. Private Jail changes where you deposit, not how you cuff. Director grants weapons to vets; it is a team spend, not a personal bind sheet.

Safety zone is geography. Cats cannot enter. You do not press a key to activate it. Walk there if you need a reset, then walk out.

Prompts versus keys

Most failures in The CAT are prompt failures, not missing WASD. The steal prompt is positional. The toilet break is object-plus-attack. Arrest Cat is state-plus-prompt after a taser. If you mash one button for every situation, you will feel like the game has no controls. It has context.

Practice each prompt in a low-stakes corner:

• Sprint down an empty hall and release Shift to walk. Confirm the bind.
• Stand behind a distracted vet and click once, then spam if needed. Confirm pickpocket.
• Find the toilet on a scouting life and attack it only when you are ready to commit, because the break is loud.
• As caretaker, tase a cat you can afford to lose, then look for Arrest Cat before you touch shotgun.

If a prompt never appears, you are in the wrong place, on the wrong team, or on a device this page cannot map. Chat can lie. Your HUD cannot.

Mobile, console, and what we will not fake

Touch jump, touch sprint, and context buttons exist in Roblox’s default mobile UI. Which of those The CAT remaps is unverified. Gamepad sprint and interact are unverified. If a creator shows a mobile HUD, believe that recording for that patch, then test yours. Do not copy a bind list from a different cat game. The CAT is not The Cat Alpha, Catch the Cat, or a clone shelter, and those titles do not share this toilet prompt.

There are no promo codes that unlock a control scheme as of September 2026. There is no Discord bind sheet and no Trello of inputs to link. If your sprint is broken, it is almost always Shift-lock, a focused chat bar, or an unverified device — not a missing code.

When the inputs work and you still cannot leave, the problem is the route, not the keyboard. Go back to how to escape and pick a method that matches the lobby. When the route is obvious and your character will not run, stay on this page and test Shift in a hallway until the habit is boring. Boring binds are how you survive a painted keycard.