I Completely Decoded Stray’s Code Language; Here’s a Guide to Deciphering It

Stray features its own code language, and a good deal of the text in the game uses it. That means you won’t be able to read a lot of this text until you decode this fictional language. Thankfully, I’ve done all the work, and I’ve cracked the game’s code language.

How did I manage to do this? Well, I started with the chapter titles, and I began decoding those. Since those are written in both the code language and English, it was a decent place to start. However, I should point out that those titles don’t always match the English subtitles. For example, the chapter subtitled “The Slums” is actually called “Home: Slums Part One.”

Beyond that, the music sheets are all titled in this language. When you give these music sheets to Morusque, he will tell you the title of the piece. However, there are also some mismatched translations here as well. There’s a piece of music that’s clearly titled “Come On,” but Morusque calls it “Cool Down.”

Even with these inconsistencies, though, I was able to work out each letter of the alphabet. I whipped up a translation guide, though I apologize it looks sloppy. I was taking text from the game, then pasting it into an image file and removing the color to make it somewhat readable. Since these letters come from various sources in the game, they are going to be pretty inconsistent.

Also, there are two variants of P. As people have been pointing out, there’s also a version of E that has the middle stem removed and the top and bottom of the letter even.

And a shoutout to John Small Berries in the comments for discovering the Q symbol, and DewiMorgan for discovering the X.

I have to say, once you can read the in-game text, the world really comes alive. You can then decode the game’s graffiti, neon signs, and posters on your own. Of course, the translations always come out slightly wonky.

For example, what does the TV in the bar say?

EATHER

In a VIP ticket for

If you want to live in clean city just

This newspaper header:

Says “Droids News.”

This bag:

says, “Best Bag,” for whatever reason.

This soda machine:

Raffle prizes

Only this summer

Special price — Blue Twelve

This wanted poster:

VANTED

OIFIUG VTPM

I don’t really know what that text means, but that’s what it says.

Now, are you interested in what the neon sign at the top of this article says? That actually says “SHOP” but it’s rotated 180 degrees for whatever reason. Here’s what it looks like when you rotate it:

Now, I should point out that there are multiple written languages in the game, but the only one I’ve made sense of is the one used in the chapter title screens. I eventually realized that a lot of the hand-painted words are just the same word used over and over again.

For example, this sign says “Grandma’s Clothing:”

But this sign, with the same text, says “The Market Place:”

This one is the same text, only upside-down, and it says “Time will tell:”

What’s even wilder is that Momo’s letter is just this same batch of text, only flipped and rotated a bunch of times:

Once I realized this, I gave up on translating the other bits of text, because it doesn’t seem like they actually mean anything.

But I did decipher (almost) the entire written language that does make sense, so I’ll consider this one a win…