🦁 winRAR, the lion
winRAR is the lion who lives in a tiny retro window called winRAR.exe, docked right next to the chat send button. He is patient in the way only a lion can be: he will wait forever for you to earn your next level, and he will never, ever nag you about it. Well. Almost never.
Name origin
The name is a wink at WinRAR, the famous file-compression program with the world's most patient free trial: it politely asks you to buy a license, forever, and keeps working anyway. This lion tips his mane to that legacy with one important difference. He must actually be paid for. RAR.
Life stages
| Stage | Arrives at level |
|---|---|
| Cub | 1 |
| Bigger cub | 2 |
| Scruffy cub | 4 |
| Teen roar | 7 |
| Young lion | 11 |
| First mane | 16 |
| Full mane | 22 |
| King of the yard | 27 |
How to bring them home
winRAR costs 300 points in the buddy store inside the pet window, paid with the points you earn in class. The price includes his savanna yard, so you are buying a lion and the land he is king of in one purchase. There is no trial period. He finds the concept distasteful.
Their yard
A savanna yard: hot pale sky, orange horizon, and tall dry grass in eight tufts, each swaying on its own little clock so nothing moves in lockstep. Very dignified. Very lion.
Field notes
- His window title bar reads winRAR.exe, one of the few buddies whose file name is also a licensing dispute.
- Levels come from your participation score, never from clicks. Tapping him just makes him do a little dance and bumps a heart counter that means nothing, and that is the point.
- He keeps his own level bucket and his own dance count, so switching to another buddy and back never loses a whisker of progress.
- The source code introduces him with the line "you can use him free forever, but you really should pay." You cannot, actually. Pay the lion.