CritterOS

1. Overview

CritterOS is a small virtual-pet operating system. Care for your critter daily and it will grow through six stages: Booting → Initialized → Tiny → Young → Adult → Evolved. How you care for it shapes its final evolved form.

2. The Home Screen

The home screen is laid out top-to-bottom so the most-used controls sit close to the critter:

1. Critter ID card — name, stage, and age.
2. Habitat panel — current location and animated sprite.
3. Primary actions (under the critter): Interact, Travel, Feed, Play, Clean.
4. Secondary actions: Rest, Heal, Stats.
5. Stat bars — Hunger, Happy, Energy, Clean, Health.
6. Daily Credits bar — your spending budget for care actions.
7. Daily Goals card — today’s bonus-credit goals and your weekly streak.

3. Care Actions & Credit Costs

Every care action spends Daily Credits. The cost is shown on each button.

Costs may be tuned over time; the on-screen value is always authoritative.

4. Daily Credits

Every day you receive a fresh allotment of 50 Daily Credits. Credits refill at the start of your local day, and unspent credits do not roll over.

Bonus credits earned from Daily Goals are stored in a separate Bonus pool and do not interact with the 50-credit daily cap. When you spend, the app draws from Daily Credits first and falls back to Bonus credits automatically.

5. Stats

• Hunger — drops over time; Feed to top it up.
• Happy — drops if ignored; Play to raise it.
• Energy — used by Play; Rest to recover.
• Clean — drops slowly; cleaning also helps Health.
• Health — falls when other stats stay critically low.
• Bond — grows with every positive interaction; high bond unlocks better evolved forms.

6. Daily Goal Rewards

Caring well earns bonus credits the next day. The app tracks your critter’s daily lows and any neglect events. After midnight (local time), achieved goals pay out into your Bonus pool.

The Daily Goals card on the home screen shows live progress; the Journal page lists definitions and a 30-day history of payouts.

7. Growth & Evolution

Your critter advances when it reaches an age threshold and its stats meet that stage’s gate. Transitions are intentionally slow so each new stage feels earned.

• Each evolved transition takes roughly 72–90 hours of healthy care.
• A full journey from Booting to Evolved takes at least 14 days.
• Reaching a new stage triggers a short celebration animation on the home screen.

Evolved form is decided by your overall care pattern:

• Noble — balanced, consistent care.
• Playful — lots of play and high happiness.
• Resilient — recovered from one or more neglect episodes.

8. Interact & Travel

Interact opens a menu of social actions — kind, playful, silly, care, food, or mean. Each produces a different animation, response, and stat effect.

Travel moves your critter to a new location. Some locations are riskier than others and may temporarily lower mood. The map remembers everywhere you have visited.

9. Journal

The Journal logs every care event so you can review your critter’s history. It also lists Daily Goal definitions and the last 30 days of bonus payouts.

10. Settings & Notifications

• Notification mode — Off, Gentle, Normal, High, or Quiet (no push).
• Quiet hours — block notifications during a daily window.
• Timezone — drives quiet hours and time-based pings.
• Enable push on this device — required once per device or browser.
• Install CritterOS — pin to your home screen as a PWA.
• Release critter — permanently removes your current critter so you can start over.

Notifications come in three rarity tiers: common care nudges, uncommon mood pings (about 1 in 4), and rare special moments (about 1 in 20). Throttle and quiet hours always apply.

11. Installing on Your Phone

CritterOS is a Progressive Web App. No app store required.

Android (Chrome / Edge)

1. Open CritterOS in Chrome or Edge on your Android phone.
2. Tap the ⋮ menu in the top-right corner.
3. Tap Install app (or Add to Home screen).
4. Confirm Install.

iPhone & iPad (Safari)

1. Open CritterOS in Safari. Chrome on iOS cannot install PWAs.
2. Tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll down and tap Add to Home Screen.
4. Edit the name if you like, then tap Add.

After installing, open Settings → Enable push on this device to receive notifications. iOS only delivers push notifications to PWAs installed via Add to Home Screen.

12. Offline Mode

You can still view your critter and queue care actions while offline. Everything syncs the moment you are back online.

13. FAQ

Can my critter die?

No. If health hits zero, your critter becomes very unwell and stops growing until you heal it, but it never permanently dies.

How do I get a specific evolved form?

Care pattern matters more than any single action. Consistent balanced care produces Noble; high play and happiness produce Playful; bouncing back from neglect leads to Resilient.

Will I lose progress if I uninstall?

No. Your critter lives on the server, tied to your account. Sign in from any device to pick up where you left off.

Do bonus credits expire?

No. Bonus credits stay in your Bonus pool until you spend them.