These are my ideas on how to best route the main quest- if you have ideas/suggestions leave them in the comments! This is by no means a "you must do xyz to succeed", but my personal routing for the game.
Beginning the run
Select the Mountain Domain. This is due to the item pool that can be received as gifts from the NPCs here. Remember to select your difficulty (suggested very easy). Remember to buy the sprint ability.
Important NPCs
These NPCs are extremely important for your runs, and befriending them is imperative. RNG is HUGE here, so you need to make sure you're maximizing your potential. If you manage to hunt/find the item you're befriending the cat to get, however, you no longer need to spend valuable resources on them and can ignore them for the rest of the run.
Arthur - Arthur is one of two of the only cat in the game that can give the player Bluejays. Alternatively Robin can be used for this purpose, however the best gifts for them are more difficult to come by. * The best gifts for Arthur are Black Hare, Rabbit, Turtle Meat, and Catnip.
Luna - Luna can give the player two important items; Cardinals and Banded Darters. * The best gifts for Luna are Goldenseal, Valerian, and Catnip.
Collecting Difficult Items
Catfish - Completing tasks, costs 14 task tokens. Recommended to be the last task board item to get since, if you are lucky, you can find Catfish in the wild. Blue Ladybug - Completing tasks, costs 14 task tokens. Recommended to be the first task board item to get. Winter Blueberries - Completing tasks, costs 2 task tokens. Cardinal - Befriending Luna. Bluejay - Befriending Arthur. Conch - The beach or Savannah's shop, costs 80 mews. Tiger Butterflies - found around the world, but if RNG is bad, can be bought from Ember for 25 mews.
Power Paws
Power Paws can be essential to keeping your run going, but there are a few that should be left alone until the time is right. Power Paws to ignore until it's time (of which is explained in the next section) are:
Walking Trail Weeping root Central Bend You may decide to skip some power paws if they're too out of the way to get, for example the one in Highland East.
Gem Progression
First - Purple (Hallowed Garden)
Due to how the game works this one must be done first. It's recommended to get all the required items before Coco invites you to the temple, or wait to enter until you get them. You need 3 Mice, 2 Squirrels, 1 Black Hare, and 1 Rabbit. The puzzle order goes, from left to right: Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, Purple.
After this, it's recommended not to activate any of the pillars until all are ready to minimize time loss from the cutscenes. However, leading up to this, you need to remember to increase your reputation with the other colonies so they're ready for you.
You can find a full list of how much each item will increase reputation here: https://cattails-game.fandom.com/wiki/Reputation?so=search, but I tend to just give doves. On average, it takes ~18 doves per colony to get to 50% rep, so you need to hunt at least 39 doves in your entire playthrough (including 3 needed for the quest). It will take 6 in game days to deliver 18 doves to each colony, so it's recommended to begin giving the doves at the very beginning of your run. The best place to get doves is the Hallowed Garden, as doves are obscenely common here and Cardinals also have a chance to spawn.
From here, it's time to activate all the pillars and begin the end game gem grind. Make sure you have all power paws you can possibly get besides the ones stated in the above section.
Second - Blue (Graveyard)
Do everything as you would in a normal playthrough. Afterward, head to the Walking Trail and retrieve the power paw to restore your health.
Third - Pink (Canyon Ruins)
Do everything as you would in a normal playthrough.
Fourth - Green (Abandoned Cottage)
Do everything as you would in a normal playthrough. Afterward, head to the Central Bend to retrieve the power paw to restore your health.
Fifth - Orange (Prairie Copse)
Do everything as you would in a normal playthrough.
Sixth - Red (Weepingroot)
Before you head inside, circle the tree to get your final power paw and restore your health. Do everything as you would in a normal playthrough. Head back to the sacred temple to finish your run.
I hope this is found to be useful for someone, and good luck on any runs!
