Butch

Butch is the player's Combat Instructor and one of the most important NPCs for meta-progression, handling both item storage expansion and Class Collar distribution. Present from the tutorial onward, he accepts Retired Cats that have gone on adventures, but his standards escalate with each upgrade tier: he demands cats that have ventured progressively further into the campaign. His 7 storage upgrades grow your inventory grid from the starting 4x4 (16 slots) all the way up to 10x10 (100 slots), with each level also requiring that you have cleared specific areas. The first upgrade costs just 1 cat with no area requirement, while the seventh requires 20 cats that have reached Jurassic or The End, for a cumulative total of 91 cats across all tiers.

Beyond storage, Butch is the gateway to new classes. After beating an area for the first time, talking to Butch awards the corresponding Class Collar: Cleric from the Alley, Thief from the Sewers, Necromancer from the Boneyard, Tinkerer from the Bunker, Butcher from The Core, Druid from The Crater, Psychic from The Moon, Monk from The Lab, and Jester from The Rift. This makes him worth visiting after every major milestone, since missing a collar pickup means you cannot access that class until you return to him. After maxing out his 7 storage tiers, an endless mode continues accepting batches of 10 cats for incremental +1 slot expansions, letting dedicated players push their inventory even further.

Butch should be one of your earliest NPC priorities alongside Frank, since storage space and house capacity are the two biggest bottlenecks on account growth. Any cat that has progressed further into the campaign should be funneled to Butch rather than other NPCs, since his area requirements get stricter with each tier. Lore-wise, Butch formerly owned and trained the cat Guillotina before she disappeared to live on the streets. He is heavily implied to be formerly conjoined twins with Tink, separated by Dr. Beanies: both bear facial scars, share Gemini zodiac signs, and appear fused together as the combined enemy "Butch and Tink" in The Rift. The developers originally planned for the starting inventory to be just 4 slots but increased it to 16 after playtesters reported feeling bottlenecked until upgrades reached the 9-slot range.