Nostrich — the purple-ostrich mascot
A purple ostrich that lives on the Savanna. It is the Nostr mascot, embedded in the world. It lays the biggest eggs in the game, sheds beautiful purple feathers — and it does not like being hunted.
Status: Nostrich v2 shipped. Wild Nostriches spawn in Savanna, lay eggs, and can be tamed by hand-feeding berries. Tamed Nostriches sit/stand on command, shed feathers passively, lay eggs, and are exempt from the Vow. Riding is already live and needs no saddle — there's no saddle item in the game, and no taming step required either; right-click any Nostrich, wild or tame, to mount and ride it. Taming/berries are for keeping and feeding a bird, not a prerequisite for riding it. The walk-and-follow trail is live (2026-07-11): a tamed, standing Nostrich pads after you across the map.
Finding a Nostrich
Nostriches spawn in Savanna only, in family groups of 2–3. They're rare — about 1 in 19 Savanna passives (horses still dominate). Look for the purple silhouette against the tan grass.
They run faster than you sprint (8 blocks/s vs your ~6 b/s). If they get startled, you won't catch them.
Riding
Right-click a Nostrich — wild or tame, no taming needed first — to mount and ride it instantly. There's no saddle item anywhere in the game; mounting only checks that the mob is a rideable type. Full ride physics apply: speed builds up as you ride, it drifts a little on turns, and it can skim across water. Taming with berries is about keeping a Nostrich (feathers, eggs, following, exemption from the Vow) — it's not a gate on riding.
What they drop
| Item | When | Quantity |
|---|---|---|
| Nostrich Egg | Wild Nostriches drop one every ~20 real-minutes (1 in-game day @ 1× time speed) onto the ground near them | 1 |
| Nostrich Feather | On kill (and from molt in v2) | 1–3 |
| Raw Nostrich Meat | On kill | 0–1 |
The Nostrich Egg is the game's most valuable egg. It's worth 21 chicken eggs by food yield — a deliberate Bitcoin nod (21 million BTC cap). Eating one raw heals 21 hunger; cooking turns it into a much better recipe (see below).
The Nostrich's Vow — don't kill them
The Nostrich is the Nostr mascot. Killing one (or eating Nostrich meat) triggers The Nostrich's Vow — a 20-real-minute curse that:
- Blocks Vendor Block trades — vendors refuse to deal with you ("The Nostriches will not aid your dealings.")
- Zeroes village reputation — villagers turn hostile until the vow lifts
- Pauses sats payouts — on Bitcoin-enabled servers, every payout (Proof-of-Play, quests, vendor sales, plaque tips) is suppressed. Mining still happens; settlement is held.
When the vow triggers, you'll see: "The Nostriches will remember this…"
Lifting the vow
Two ways:
- Wait it out — 20 real-minutes (24,000 ticks @ 20 TPS).
- Build a Memorial — place a 3×3 of OAK_PLANKS in the world. Any player who completes the pattern lifts their own vow instantly. You'll see "The Nostriches' Vow is lifted. Welcome back."
When the dye system ships, the memorial pattern upgrades to purple wool + feathers + an egg in the centre. For now, oak planks works as a placeholder.
Eating Nostrich meat
If you eat raw or cooked Nostrich meat, the vow triggers and you get a different flavour toast: "The meat is sour. The Nostriches notice." The meat only heals 1 hunger — it's tough and sour by design. Don't eat the mascot.
Egg recipes
Nostrich Omelette
NostrichEgg + Flour + Wheat (horizontal, in any row) → 1 Nostrich Omelette.
Heals 12 hunger. The premium breakfast. High trade-value (T4 tier).
Future recipes (Pavlova, Custard)
Royal Pavlova and Nostrich Custard are spec'd but not yet recipe-wired. They land when the dye system + the rest of the high-tier dessert ladder ships.
Feather recipes
Nostrich Arrow
Stick (top) + Flint (middle) + NostrichFeather (bottom) vertical → 6 Nostrich Arrows.
+20% range, +20% damage versus regular arrows. Premium ammunition for the bow.
Purple Banner
Wool (top) + NostrichFeather (bottom) vertical → 1 Purple Banner.
Decorative. Hang one on the side of a Vendor Block to mark "Nostr-friendly" trade. Trade-value 25 (T2 tier).
Taming a Nostrich (v2)
Right-click a Nostrich while holding Mixed Berries in your active hotbar slot. Each feed has a 1-in-3 chance to tame. Failed feeds still consume the berry — like wolf bone-taming, the friction is the cost. Expected ~3-7 berries on average; up to ~21 on the unlucky tail.
You'll see one of these toasts:
| Toast | What |
|---|---|
"The Nostrich eyes you carefully…" |
Berry consumed; tame roll failed. Try again. |
"Tamed! The Nostrich is yours." |
Bonded. The Nostrich flips to Follow mode. |
"This Nostrich is already tame." |
Already tamed (by anyone). No berry consumed. |
Hold onto a stack of ~10 berries before approaching to give yourself a comfortable buffer.
Tamed behaviour
Once tamed:
- Sit / Stand — right-click your tamed Nostrich with an empty hand to toggle. A sitting Nostrich stays put no matter how far you walk; right-click again to stand it up.
- Follow mode — a tamed, standing Nostrich is in Follow mode and physically pads after you: it starts walking when you're more than ~4 blocks away and stops when it catches up (so it won't orbit you). Wander more than ~24 blocks away and it gives up and goes back to wild-style idling until you return.
- Passive feather shed — every ~40 real-minutes (2 in-game days), a tamed Nostrich drops a NostrichFeather where it's standing. Free purple feathers, no killing required.
- Egg-laying — same rate as wild (1 per 20 real-minutes). A tamed bird lays at its home spot rather than wandering off to random Savanna corners. Easy to scoop.
- Vow-immune — if a tamed Nostrich is killed (yours or someone else's), it does NOT trigger the Nostrich's Vow on the killer. Tamed birds are "personal" not "mascot". You still lose the bird though; emotional loss is its own punishment.
Behaviour against attackers
When a wild (untamed) Nostrich is attacked:
- If you're in melee range (~2.5 blocks), it kicks back for 6 damage + flips to Flee state.
- If you're out of range (you shot it with an arrow), it just flees.
Don't underestimate the kick. A tier-1 wood-sword build can be one-shotted by a Nostrich + a single Brigand at night.
HUD vow badge
When you have an active Vow, a purple-feather badge appears in the top-left of your viewport showing the remaining time (minutes + seconds). Disappears when the vow expires or a memorial purifies it.
Coming in v3
- ~~Walk-and-follow trail~~ — shipped 2026-07-11; see Tamed behaviour above
- Tribute path — donate sats on Bitcoin-enabled servers to purify the vow instantly
- Cross-world slayer tag — your kill follows you across worlds via Nostr
- Royal Pavlova + Nostrich Custard recipes — luxury T5 desserts
Why a Nostrich?
The game runs on Nostr — Signet for sign-in, Charter for the parent-permission layer, the relay for cross-server messaging. The Nostrich is the Nostr mascot. Embedding it in the world (with a curse for harming it) is a thematic statement: respect the protocol that powers the playtime.