Cat Companions+

Description

Cat Companions+ gives Minecraft cats a much larger role after taming them.

Instead of existing primarily as decorative pets, tamed cats can be outfitted for adventure with custom cat armor and weapons, allowing them to accompany and help defend their owner during exploration and combat.

The goal is to expand cats in a way that still feels natural within Minecraft. Cats retain their familiar tameable behavior, ownership, sitting and wandering mechanics, while gaining a lightweight equipment and combat system built specifically for them.
Features
Cat Companion Inventory

Owned cats have their own equipment interface for managing companion gear.

Cat Inventory GUI is accessed by holding Shift and Right-Clicking your cat.

The inventory provides dedicated places for equipment such as:

Cat armor
Weapons

This menu also details your cats name (if given a tametag), Current/Max Health, Damage Reduction Percentage, and Damage

The companion inventory is separate from normal vanilla cat interaction so normal sit/stand behavior remains available.
Custom Cat Armor

Cats can wear specially modeled armor designed specifically around the Minecraft cat body.

Current armor tiers include:

Iron Cat Armor
Gold Cat Armor
Diamond Cat Armor
Netherite Cat Armor

Armor is visibly rendered on the cat rather than simply existing as an invisible stat bonus.

The armor follows the cat’s body while it:

stands
walks
runs
sits
turns its head
fights

Each material uses the same fitted armor design with its own appropriate material appearance.

Crafting costs:
Armor Cost
Iron 6 iron ingots + 1 leather
Gold 6 gold ingots + 1 leather
Diamond 6 diamonds + 1 iron cat armor
Netherite Smithing: diamond cat armor + netherite upgrade template + netherite ingot
Visible Weapons

Cat Companions can carry weapons visibly in their mouth.

Rather than simply increasing damage invisibly, the equipped weapon becomes part of the companion’s appearance and combat progression.

Weapon tier determines the cat’s attack strength.

Current intended damage progression is:
Equipment Damage
No weapon 2
Wooden 3
Stone 4
Copper 4
Iron 5
Gold 6
Diamond 7
Netherite 8

This keeps an unarmed companion relatively weak while allowing a properly equipped cat to become increasingly useful during progression.
Combat Companions

Equipped cats can help their owner in combat.

The system is designed around cats being support companions, rather than replacing the player’s own combat ability.

Better equipment provides:

increased survivability
improved attack damage
visible progression
another reason to bring a favorite cat while adventuring

Vanilla-Friendly Cat Behavior

Cat Companions+ builds on Minecraft’s existing cat system rather than replacing it with an entirely different pet system.

Cats retain familiar mechanics such as:

taming
ownership
sitting and standing
normal movement
following their existing vanilla behavior where appropriate

The additional companion features are layered on top of those mechanics.
Persistent Equipment

A cat’s companion equipment is intended to remain associated with that cat across normal world saves and reloads.

Armor and weapons aren’t merely temporary visual effects—they are part of the individual companion.
Minecraft-Style Design

The armor, equipment and interface are designed to remain visually compatible with Minecraft rather than turning cats into heavily over-designed RPG characters.

The focus is on:

recognizable vanilla cats
lightweight equipment progression
practical combat utility
visible gear
straightforward controls

Supported Versions

Cat Companions+ is being developed for Fabric.

Supported project versions are:

Minecraft Fabric 1.20.1
Minecraft Fabric 1.21.1
Minecraft Fabric 26.2

Each Minecraft version uses its own separate mod file. Players should install the file specifically made for their Minecraft version.

Cat Companions+ does not support Forge or NeoForge unless separate versions are created in the future.

Required Dependencies:

Fabric Loader
Fabric API

Optional:

None currently

Client/server:

Needed on both client and server.
Server controls cat equipment, combat, health, damage reduction, weapon damage, and persistence.
Client is needed for the cat inventory screen, armor rendering, and visible mouth-held weapons.