General Overview and Tips

In Cat Mail Co., the first real danger is not a deadline. It is the shelf where three brown boxes sit label-down and the finished parcel looks exactly like the untouched one. Cardboard has stolen everyone’s identity. Fix that early by giving each parcel one clear working state and moving it forward one step at a time.

Your safest beginner rule is simple: finish one parcel before opening another. Read the label, complete every handling step you can identify, and move the parcel into the correct zone. A box left beside the scale for no clear reason is how the cardboard avalanche begins.

The Complete Day-to-Night Postal Loop

The loop works like a wheel rather than a single workday. The Captain visits at dawn and dusk, while customer service continues during both the day and night portions between those visits.

Receive incoming mail. When the Captain arrives, unload the parcels he brings. Sort mail for Cats Island into a pickup area with names, last initials, and useful visual clues facing outward.
Check the Captain’s route and send the boat. Ask which destination or destinations he will visit next. Load only fully prepared parcels for those routes, place heavy parcels low, and keep fragile parcels clear on top. Ring the dock bell after the load is checked.
Call the next customer. Ring the counter bell when you are ready. A sender gives you an outgoing parcel. A collector describes mail that should already be in your pickup storage.
Process outgoing parcels. Read the destination, apply the matching destination stamp, weigh the parcel, and add the required weight stamps. After inspection tools unlock, check for heavy, fragile, cold, damaged, or other special traits before staging the parcel.
Handle customer pickups. Match the request against the recipient name or last initial and any clue about size, shape, ribbon, marking, or parcel type. When several boxes look possible, compare at least two details before handing one over.
Work the old backlog. During a quiet stretch, pull one parcel from the former postman’s piles and sort it completely. Clearing those piles opens blocked parts of the office and introduces more rooms and handling systems, but you do not need to clear everything in one rush.
Reset before the next exchange. Separate pickup mail from outgoing mail, stage completed outgoing parcels by destination, and isolate anything uncertain or damaged. At the next dawn or dusk visit, unload the new arrivals, check the new route list, load matching mail, and ring the dock bell again.
Use night for special checks. The same customer and boat routine continues at night, but moonlight can reveal parcel properties that were hidden during the day. Move newly revealed special mail out of normal outbound storage until its stamp, inspection, or room requirement is complete.

Do not plan around a fixed load or assume every waiting parcel can leave on the next boat. The Captain may skip a destination during a visit, and new arrivals can outnumber the parcels going out. Hold clean overflow in its destination zone instead of turning the deck into feline parcel Tetris.

Parcel-State Checklist

These are practical working states, not menu labels. Give each state a shelf, table section, or clear floor boundary. There is no single optimal layout; the useful part is being able to see what each parcel needs next.

Working state	How to recognize it	Required tool and next action
Unprocessed	A new sender parcel or backlog box that has not been checked	Read the label first. Identify its destination and required processing.
In progress	Processing has started, but weighing, stamps, inspection, or special handling remains	Use the next missing tool. Keep only one in-progress parcel at the main bench.
Completed	Its destination, weight, and known handling requirements are finished	Check its marks, then stage it by destination away from unfinished mail.
Pickup	Incoming Cats Island mail waiting for a local customer	Do not stamp it for shipping. Store it near the counter with identity clues visible.
Outbound	A completed parcel matching the Captain’s current destination list	Carry it to the dock and place it safely on the boat.
Exceptional	Returned, damaged, unexplained, or waiting for a night, scanner, repair, or special-room check	Isolate it and complete the missing check before returning it to the normal flow.

Beginner Priorities That Prevent Pileups

Read before moving. Turn the parcel until you can see its destination, recipient details, and existing marks.
Finish one parcel before opening another. Half-finished boxes become almost impossible to tell apart once the room fills.
Keep the routes separate. Pickup mail travels from the boat to storage to the customer. Outgoing mail travels from the counter through processing and destination storage to the boat.
Move parcels when their state changes. Physical placement is more reliable than remembering which of twelve brown boxes already visited the scale.
Keep one work surface clear. The scale, scanner, and stamp area should be tools, not extra storage.

How to Reset a Cardboard Avalanche

There is no timer or formal penalty for waiting. Time advances when you serve customers, and both customers and the Captain can wait while you reorganize. Shipping mistakes can still cause returns or damage, so a calm check is better than a fast guess.

Put down the parcel in your hands.
Clear one workbench and a path between the counter, storage, and dock.
Move returned, damaged, and unexplained parcels into one exceptional-mail area.
Separate pickup mail from outgoing mail.
Split outgoing mail into unprocessed, in-progress, completed, and current-route outbound groups.
Turn useful labels and stamps toward the aisle.
Finish the oldest in-progress parcel, then ring the counter bell when you are ready.

This reset is not a failed shift. It is part of running the office. New routes, rooms, tools, and awkward parcel shapes will make even a good setup need the occasional sorting break.

Night Work: Mechanics Only, No Story Spoilers

At night, moonlight may reveal a property that was hidden during the day. Change that parcel’s state to exceptional, move it out of normal outbound storage, and complete the newly revealed requirement. If the needed room or tool is not open yet, hold the parcel in a visible night-check area. Never guess a special stamp just to clear a shelf.

Solo, Co-op, Returns, and Damage

In solo play, keep the route narrow: counter, processing station, state shelf, then dock. Finish each trip before starting another. A smaller correct boat load is better than a large doubtful one.

Online co-op supports up to four players. With a full group, useful roles are counter, processing, storage and special rooms, and Captain or boat duty. Avoid having two players grab the same parcel or use the scanner on it at the same time; simultaneous handling has caused item and machine glitches in early co-op play. If something glitches, stop moving it, let the host check it, and reconnect only if the item or machine remains stuck.

A returned parcel means something in its last trip failed. Move it to the exceptional zone, reread the destination, check its destination and weight stamps, inspect its traits, and confirm the next Captain route before restaging it. Keep visibly damaged mail separate until the repair option is available.

Placement matters once special traits appear. Heavy parcels can crush boxes below them, fragile parcels should not have anything stacked above them, and parcels kept in the wrong special-storage room can become damaged. Put heavy mail low, keep fragile mail clear, and move cold, hot, dark, or light-sensitive parcels into the proper unlocked room.

Above all, let the post office breathe. Stop when the shelves become unreadable, restore the state boundaries, and begin again with one box. That is how a mountain of mail becomes your post office rather than the other way around.